*
He next expressed himself to Abu Beer, a man amongst the first of the
Koreish in wealth and influence. The interest and example of Abu Beer
drew in five other principal persons in Mecca, whose solicitations
prevailed upon five more of the same rank. This was the work of three
years; during which time everything was transacted in secret. Upon the
strength of these allies, and under the powerful protection of his
family, who, however some of them might disapprove his enterprise, or
deride his pretensions, would not suffer the orphan of their house, the
relict of their favourite brother, to be insulted, Mahomet now commenced
his public preaching. And the advance which he made during the nine or
ten remaining years of his peaceable ministry was by no means greater
than what, with these advantages, and with the additional and singular
circumstance of there being no established religion at Mecca at that
time to contend with, might reasonably have been expected. How soon his
primitive adherents were let into the secret of his views of empire, or
in what stage of his undertaking these views first opened themselves to
his own mind, it is not now easy to determine.
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