Mediaeval and modern history . .—Religion, which had had nothing to do with the fateful move-ment among the German barbarians, was the inciting cause ofthe great Arabian revolution. Before the reforms of Mohammed the Arabs were holy city was Mecca. Here was the ancient and mostrevered shrine of the Kaaba,^ where was preserved a sacred black 1 The student should make a careful study of the maps after pp. 8 and 52. 2 So named from its having the shape of a cube. 46 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ARABIA 47 stone that was believed to have been given by an angel toAbraham. To this Mecca
Mediaeval and modern history . .—Religion, which had had nothing to do with the fateful move-ment among the German barbarians, was the inciting cause ofthe great Arabian revolution. Before the reforms of Mohammed the Arabs were holy city was Mecca. Here was the ancient and mostrevered shrine of the Kaaba,^ where was preserved a sacred black 1 The student should make a careful study of the maps after pp. 8 and 52. 2 So named from its having the shape of a cube. 46 THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ARABIA 47 stone that was believed to have been given by an angel toAbraham. To this Meccan shrine pilgrimages were made fromthe most remote parts of Arabia. But though polytheism was the prevailing religion of Arabia,still there were in the land many followers of other faiths. TheJews especially were to be found in some parts of the peninsulain great numbers, having been driven from Palestine by theRoman persecutions. From them the Arab teachers had beenmade acquainted with the doctrine of one sole God. From the. Fig. 10. — The Kaaba at Mecca numerous Christian converts dwelling among them they hadlearned something of the doctrines of Christianity. In view ofthese antecedents of the religion which Mohammed gave hispeople, his creed appears to some scholars to be essentially Judaism as adapted to Arabia, while to others it presents itselfas an heretical or modified form of Christianity. About the time to which we have now come there was muchreligious unrest in Arabia. As it was in Judea at the time of theappearance of Christ, so was it now in this southern land. Therewere here many seekers after God,—men who, dissatisfied withthe old idolatry, were ready to embrace a higher faith. 48 THE RISE OF ISLAM Such was the religious condition of the tribes of Arabia aboutthe beginning of the seventh century of our era when thereappeared among them a Prophet under whose teachings the fol-lowers of all the idolatrous worships were led to give assent to asingle and simple
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