the chief place in the coming conflict of Arabia against the
Roman and Persian oppressors.

Next came the religious factor. The times were ripe for re-
ligious leadership and Mecca was already the centre of a new
movement. The Hanifs had rejected the old idolatry and en-
tertained the hope that a prophet would arise from among
them. ¹ There was material of all sorts at hand to furnish the
platform of a new faith; it only required the builder's eye to
call cosmos out of chaos. To succeed in doing this it would be
necessary to reject material also; a comprehensive religion and
a compromising religion, so as to suit Jew and Christian and
idolater alike.

Then there was the family factor, or, in other words, the
aristocratic standing of Mohammed. He was not a mere
"camel-driver." The Koreish were the ruling clan of Mecca;
Mecca was even then the centre for all Arabia; and Moham-
med's grandfather, Abd el Muttalib, was the most influential
and powerful man of that aristocratic city. The pet-child of
Abd el Muttalib was the orphan boy Mohammed. Until his
eighth year he was under the shelter and favor of this chief
man of the Koreish. He learned what it was to be lordly and
to exercise power, and never forgot it. The man, his wife and
his training were the determinative factors in the character of
Mohammed. The ruling factor was the mind and genius of
the man himself. Of attractive personal qualities, beautiful
countenance, and accomplished in business, he first won the
attention and then the heart of a very wealthy widow, Khadi-
jah. Koelle tells us that she was "evidently an Arab lady of
a strong mind and mature experience who maintained a de-
cided ascendency over her husband, and managed him with
great wisdom and firmness. This appears from nothing more
strikingly, than from the very remarkable fact that she suc-
ceeded in keeping him from marrying any other wife as long
as she lived, though at her death, when he had long ceased to

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