fact the narratives of Wackidi and Tabari afford the only intelligible clue. At the same time it is by no means necessary that we should literally adopt the exculpatory version of Mahometan tradition; or seek, in a supernatural interposition, the explanation of actions to be equally accounted for by the natural workings of the Prophet's mind."[1]
The second compromise was a more important one, since it involved the retention of that most ancient and strange edifice the Kaaba—as the ὀμφαλός γἠς of Islam. In this case the rationalisations wherewith to justify the sanctity of the Kaaba were more successful than those required to retain as sacred the three "exalted females". Although Jerusalem had been the first “Kebleh", Mohammed, shortly after his flight to Medina, exchanged it for Mecca, thus linking Islam with the ancient pagan cult of his fathers instead of with Judaism.
It was not difficult to justify the retention of a building which was after all a divine institution. Was it not a temple built by Adam at the command of God in the likeness of a house he had seen in paradise before the Fall? Had it not been rebuilt after the Flood by the patriarchs Abraham and Ishmael and re-consecrated to the service of the true God from which high state it had fallen in the course of time through ignorance? Did not the appointed compassing of it symbolise the circling course of the heavenly bodies and the obedience of all creation to the Deity? Was not pious devotion nurtured by kissing the sacred corner stone? The slaying of sacrifices in commemoration of Abraham's readiness to offer up his son, signified a like submission.
Thus it came about that this strange cube of masonry, forty feet square, has remained to the present day, so that, in spite of a total lack of beauty or majesty, it continues to inspire many Muslims with such awe that on the day of the Hag many fear to look upwards near the Kaaba, so literally do they interpret the expression "house of God". Later on we shall have occasion to refer to one more striking instance of this "compromise-formation", as Abraham calls it, in the attitude adopted by Mohammed towards the "authority" of rulers and parents.
In spite, therefore, of the intense desire experienced by both Amenhotep and Mohammed to replace the father and grandfather respectively, by himself, it was impossible to dispense with a power
- ↑ Muir: Life of Mahomet, p. 87.
