[Sidenote: The succession, how far provided for by Mahomet; and the precedent now established.] With Mahomet ceased the theocratic power which, as a prophet, he had exercised; but the kingly functions, as ruler over all Islam, descended to his successor. According to Arabian notions, such a ruler was, like the Chieftain of a tribe, the head and representative of the people, and his nomination was incomplete till confirmed by their homage. Omar, we are told, in after days declared that the irregular election of Abu Bekr (referring apparently to the scene enacted in the hall) should not be drawn into a precedent. It was, he said, an event the happiest in its consequences for Islam, but justified only by the urgency of the moment. What might have been the issue if any son of Mahomet had survived, it is useless to speculate. But certainly the hereditary descent of kingly power was foreign to the sentiment of Arabia. As matters stood, Mahomet seems to have shrunk from anticipating the contingency of his death, and made no preparation for what should follow. But in so far as we may suppose him to have felt his illness mortal and his death impending, the nomination of Abu Bekr to conduct the public prayers (the acknowledged mark of chief or delegated authority) may be held the natural indication of his wish that he should succeed.[11] Apart from the counter-claim of the men of Medîna, there was, in point of fact, neither doubt nor hesitancy in the election, and the counter-claim died away almost as soon as made. The notion of divine right, or even of preferential claim, resting in the Prophet’s family, was the growth of a later age. CHAPTER II. EXPEDITION OF OSÂMA TO THE SYRIAN BORDER. A.H. XI. A.D. 632. [Sidenote: Osâma ordered by Mahomet to lead an expedition against the Syrian border, A.H. XI. May, A.D. 632.] Abu Bekr soon had the opportunity of showing that he was resolved to carry out the commands of Mahomet to the very letter. A few weeks previously an expedition had been ordered to avenge by a raid on the Syrian border the disaster which, three years before, had tarnished the Moslem arms. In that reverse Zeid, the Prophet’s bosom friend, who led the army, was with many others slain at Mûta; and the more distinctly now to mark the object of the campaign, his son Osâma, though still a youth, was nominated by Mahomet to the command, and bidden to avenge his father’s death. The camp was formed at Jorf, a little way on the Syrian road; but during the Prophet’s sickness the force remained inactive, uncertain of the issue. When the fatal event took place, Osâma broke up the camp, and carrying back the banner which he had received at the hands of Mahomet, planted it in the court of the Great Mosque, close by the door of Ayesha’s apartment. [Sidenote: Abu Bekr deaf to reclamations against its dispatch.]