Its use by the founder of Islam bears witness at once to his knowledge of the earlier faith and traditions and his reverence for them, as well as his keen insight, which placed the rite of pilgrimage in the forefront of his religious system.  He knew the value of ritual and the force of age-long association.  The Farewell Pilgrimage is the last great public act he performed.  He felt that it strengthened Islam’s connection with the beliefs and ceremonies of his ancestors, legendarily free from idolatry under the governance of Abraham and Ishmael.  He realised, too, that it rounded off the ceremonial side of his faith, giving his followers an example and a material union with himself and his God.  It was the knowledge that this union would always be a living fact to his descendants, so long as the sacred ceremony was performed, that caused him to assert its necessity and to place it among the few unalterable injunctions to all the Faithful.

Meanwhile a phenomenon had arisen inseparable from the activities of great men.  Wherever there are strong souls, from whose spirit flows any inspiring energy, there will always be found their imitators, when the battle has been won.  Whether hypocrites, or genuinely led by a sheep-like instinct into the same path as their models, they follow the steps of their forerunners, and usually achieve some slight fame before the dark closes around them.

Early in the year Badzan, Governor of Marab, Nazran, and Hamadan, died.  His territory was seized by Mahomet, in defiance of the claims of his son Shehr, and divided among different governors.  His success in the temporal world, and especially this peaceful annexation of land, wrought so vividly upon the imaginations of his countrymen that three false Prophets arose and three separate bands of devoted fanatics appeared to uphold them.  Of these three men the most effective was Tuleiha of the Beri Asad, who gathered together an army and was only repelled and crushed by Khalid himself.  But Tuleiha still persisted in spite of defeat, and was content to bide his time until, under Abu Bekr, his faction rose again to importance and constituted a serious disturbance to the rule of the first Caliph.

Moseilama, of whom not so much is known, also attempted to usurp the Prophet’s power at the close of his life.  Mahomet demanded his submission; Moseilama refused, but before adequate punishment could be meted out the Prophet was stricken down with illness, so that the task of chastisement devolved upon Abu Bekr.  Aswad, “the veiled Prophet of Yemen,” might have proved the most formidable of the three, had not rashness of conduct and lack of governance caused his undoing.  He cast off the Muslim yoke while the Prophet was still alive, and proclaimed himself the magician prince who would liberate his followers from the tyrant’s yoke.  Najran rose in his favour, and he marched confidently upon Sana, the great capital city of Yemen, slew the puppet