and seek aid from strangers.[310] Having vainly appealed to the inhabitants of Ṭá’if, he turned to Medína, where, among a population largely composed of Jews, the revolutionary ideas of Islam might more readily take root and flourish than in the Holy City of Arabian heathendom. This time he was not disappointed. A strong party in Medína hailed him as the true Prophet, eagerly embraced his creed, and swore to defend him at all hazards. In the spring of the year 622 A.D. the Moslems of Mecca quietly left their homes and journeyed northward. A few months later (September, 622) Muḥammad himself, eluding the vigilance of the Quraysh, entered Medína in triumph amidst the crowds and acclamations due to a conqueror. [Sidenote: The _Hijra_ or Migration to Medina (622 A.D.).] This is the celebrated Migration or Hegira (properly _Hijra_) which marks the end of the Barbaric Age (_al-Jáhiliyya_) and the beginning of the Muḥammadan Era. It also marks a new epoch in the Prophet's history; but before attempting to indicate the nature of the change it will be convenient, in order that we may form a juster conception of his character, to give some account of his early teaching and preaching as set forth in that portion of the Koran which was revealed at Mecca. [Sidenote: The Koran.] [Sidenote: Was Muḥammad poet?] Koran (Qur’án) is derived from the Arabic root _qara’a_, 'to read,' and means 'reading aloud' or 'chanting.' This term may be applied either to a single Revelation or to several recited together or, in its usual acceptation, to the whole body of Revelations which are thought by Moslems to be, actually and literally, the Word of God; so that in quoting from the Koran they say _qála ’lláhu_, _i.e._, 'God said.' Each Revelation forms a separate _Súra_ (chapter)[311] composed of verses of varying length which have no metre but are generally rhymed. Thus, as regards its external features, the style of the Koran is modelled upon the _Saj‘_,[312] or rhymed prose, of the pagan soothsayers, but with such freedom that it may fairly be described as original. Since it was not in Muḥammad's power to create a form that should be absolutely new, his choice lay between _Saj‘_ and poetry, the only forms of elevated style then known to the Arabs. He himself declared that he was no poet,[313] and this is true in the sense that he may have lacked the technical accomplishment of verse-making. It must, however, be borne in mind that his disavowal does not refer primarily to the poetic art, but rather to the person and character of the poets themselves. He, the divinely inspired Prophet, could have nothing to do with men who owed their inspiration to demons and gloried in the ideals of paganism which he was striving to overthrow. "_And the poets do those follow who go astray! Dost thou not see that they wander distraught in every vale? and that they say that which they do not?_" (Kor. xxvi, 224-226). Muḥammad