Mekka soon recognised his mission, and after a fierce struggle with many vicissitudes the whole of Arabia accepted Islām.[77]
At the time of Mohammed’s death, which took place in the 16th year of his Hijra, or A.D. 632, the creed which he had formulated was still a religious rather than a worldly power. But it had profoundly stirred the impetuous, highly strung Arab temperament, which was vaguely conscious of possessing immense hidden force, and of a boundless sphere for its exercise in the worn-out empires which bounded their peninsula. A leader alone was wanted to focus and direct the aspirations engendered by the dead Prophet’s teachings, and one was found in the person of Abū Bekr, Mohammed’s father-in-law and earliest convert. He was proclaimed as the Khalīfa,[78] or successor of the Prophet, and was the first of that long line of sovereigns who, like the Tsars of our own age, wielded unquestioned spiritual and temporal power, and, like them, became prominent factors in the history of the Eastern world.
The new-born creed soon showed its strongly militant character. Led by Khālid, a pillar of Islām who won by his prowess the title of the Sword of God, the Arabs defeated a Roman army with heavy loss, and took Damascus. In six years the whole of Syria and Palestine passed under their sway. Persia was the next object of attack. The Zoroastrians struggled long and desperately for their independence, but in 639 they suffered a crushing defeat at Nahāvend, a battle which must rank high amongst those which have influenced the current of the world’s history. Yezdijerd, the last of the Sāsānian dynasty, fled through Sīstān and Khorāsān to Merv. Here he found no safe asylum, for the governor sent news of his arrival to the Turks, and the Khākān advanced in person to seize so rich a prize. The fugitive became aware of the intended treachery, and concealed himself in a mill near the city. The owner received him with apparent kindness, but was tempted by the splendour of the king’s accoutrements to kill him while he slept. He severed Yezdijerd’s head from his body, which he cast into the mill stream.[79]
[Illustration: THE RAHLA, OR READING-DESK
OUTSIDE THE MOSQUE OF BĪBĪ KHĀNŪM, SAMARKAND]