This was then held under no higher tenure
than the sufferance and caprice of the Arab tribes. To perpetuate
this lordship by assuming an hereditary and inviolable pontificate
was Mahomet's first idea, and at a banquet given to the whole of his
kinsmen he revealed his scheme. They, however, rejected his appeal,
and he then proclaimed himself as an apostle to all, and setting
aside existing forms and traditions proceeded to a higher flight of
ambition. For election by blood, he substituted election of God;
and assuming a direct revelation from on high, he, by force of an
ardent and ambitious will, carried out his project even at Mecca
itself, where, to all who visited his shrine, he preached without
distinction. From the powerful opposition brought against him, Mahomet
was at last obliged to fly; but before doing so, and casting off the
high position he held among his own tribe and kinsmen, he assembled
his followers together on a mountain near Mecca, and there, without
distinction of blood or calling, he enrolled them as equal followers
in one community, and entered with them into a solemn and binding
agreement.
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