support of the large company of Jews who lived there, but finding them unwilling to yield to his designs he punished them with severe slaughter. From Medina, too, he won some successful engagements against his Meccan opponents, gradually increased his power, and consolidated his position. Mohammed was only a prophet in Mecca; hut in Medina he became a prophet-king.
And as prophet-king his message also changes. The revelations are longer y less spiritual in tone, more filled with legal directions for the control of his growing community. There are fewer impassioned sermons, and a growing indication that he is called of God to political as well as to religious leadership of the Arabian people, for the purpose of welding them into one nation.
As the head of the nation Mohammed felt divinely led to bring all the Arabian tribes under his rule. Having already discovered the power of the sword to make himself secure in Medina, he set out to wage war with his armies of the "church militant." Finally in the year A.D. 629 he entered the holy city of Mecca in triumph, and from that date became the virtual master of the whole of Arabia. He entered the sacred precincts of the Kaaba and destroyed all its idols, with the exception of the famous Black Stone, which is still an object of veneration to Moslems. Islam had triumphed, Mohammed was supreme.
After securing control of Mecca, Mohammed retired again to Medina. He busied himself in building
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