The same year Mahomet, with an army of thirty thousand men, marched toward Syria, to a place called Tobuc, against the Romans and Syrians, who were making preparation against him, but, upon his approach, retreated.  The Mussulmans, in their march back toward Medina, took several forts of the Christian Arabs, and made them tributaries.  Upon his return to Medina the Thakishites, having been blockaded in the Taif by the Mussulman tribes, sent deputies offering to embrace Islamism, upon condition of being allowed to retain a little longer an idol to which their people were bigotedly attached.  When Mahomet insisted upon its being immediately demolished, they desired to be at least excused from using the Mussulmans’ prayers, but to this he answered very justly, “That a religion without prayers was good for nothing.”  At last they submitted absolutely.

During the same year Mahomet sent Abu-Bekr to Mecca, to perform the pilgrimage, and sacrifice in his behalf twenty camels.  Presently afterward he sent Ali to publish the ninth chapter of the Koran, which, though so placed in the present confused copy, is generally supposed to have been the last that was revealed.  It is called “Barat,” or Immunity; the purport of it is that the associators with whom Mahomet had made a treaty must, after four months’ liberty of conscience, either embrace Islamism or pay tribute.  The command runs thus:  “When those holy months are expired, kill the idolaters wherever ye shall find them.”  Afterward come these words, “If they repent, and observe the times of prayer and give alms, they are to be looked upon as your brethren in religion.”  The same chapter also orders, “That nobody should, not having on the sacred habit, perform the holy circuits round the Kaaba; and that no idolater should make the pilgrimage to Mecca.”  In consequence, no person except a Mahometan may approach the Kaaba, on pain of death.

The following account of Mahomet’s farewell pilgrimage is from Jaber, son of Abdallah, who was one of the company:  “The apostle of God had not made the pilgrimage for nine years (for when he conquered Mecca he only made a visitation).  In the tenth year of the Hegira, he publicly proclaimed his intention to perform the pilgrimage, whereupon a prodigious multitude of people (some make the number near one hundred thousand) flocked from all parts to Medina.  Our chief desire was to follow the apostle of God, and imitate him.  When we came to Dhul Holaifa, the apostle of God prayed in the mosque there; then mounting his camel he rode hastily to the plain Baida, where he began to praise God in the form that professes his unity, saying, ’Here I am, O God, ready to obey thee; thou hast no partner,’ etc.  When he came to the Kaaba, he kissed the corner of the black stone, went seven times round—­three times in a trot, four times walking—­then went to the station of Abraham, and coming again to the black stone, reverently kissed it.  Afterward