Presently, however, came information that forty men, one from each tribe, had sworn together to take his life; and forthwith Mohammed with Abu Bekr, his devoted friend, departed one dark night and shook off the dust of Mecca from his feet. Danger was so near that they dared not take the path to Medina, but made their way to a mountain, on whose rocky summit they found a small cave into which they crept at dawn of day. Knowing what the end of the pursuit would mean, Abu began to lose nerve, and asked, "What if our pursuers should find our cave? We are but two." "We are three," was the calm reply: "Allah is with us!" Legend says that the pursuers actually approached the mouth of the cave and were about to investigate it. But in the early hours of the day Allah had caused a tree to grow up before it, a spider to weave its web across it, and a wild pigeon, most timid of birds, to lay {25} eggs in a nest made in the branches; and the searchers, seeing these things, declared it impossible that any one could be within. A faithful friend provided them in secret with food and milk, and on the third night they began the journey to Medina. "He is come! He is come!" cried the Faithful in Medina, flocking to meet the wayworn travellers as they entered the city. And thus a new chapter was opened in the history of Islam. {26} CHAPTER II Mohammed as Conqueror _He is come to ope The purple testament of bleeding war._ SHAKESPEARE: _Richard II._ The year which marked Mohammed's triumphant entry into Medina is known in the Mohammedan world as the _Hegira_, and counts as the Year One in their calendar--the year from which all others are reckoned. For the first time the faith of Islam was preached openly, and the claim of Mohammed to be merely _one_ of the "prophets" gave place to a demand for acknowledgment as the chief of all, a demand calculated to arouse the antagonism of all other existing forms of religion. The other important development of his teaching at this time was that all faithful Moslems--the followers of the Prophet--must entirely abstain from the use of intoxicating drink. Moreover, though at first Mohammed (possibly to please the Jews in Medina) had commanded that at the hour of prayer every Moslem should turn his face towards Jerusalem, in course of time, when he began to see the impossibility of uniting the Jewish believers with those of Islam, he suddenly, after the usual prostration, turned towards the Temple at Mecca. From that moment down to the present day the Moslem, wherever {27} he is, follows this example at the fivefold hour of prayer.