The most powerful force among them was tribal or clan loyalty, and a
corresponding hatred of, and readiness to make war with, opposing clans.
Although at the time of Mohammed's birth, Christianity had made great
headway in different parts of the old world, it had made very little
impress upon the Arabs. They worshipped their tribal gods, and there are
traces of a belief in a supreme God (Allah ta-ala), but they were not as a
race inclined to a deeply religious sentiment.
One and all, whether given to superstitions or denying a belief in Allah,
they dreaded the dark after-life and although the different tribes made
their yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, and faithfully kissed the stone that
had fallen from heaven in the days of Adam, the inspiration of their
ancient prophets had long since died, and a new prophet was expected and
looked for.
The yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, which was at once the center of trade and
the goal of the religious enthusiast, was observed by all the tribes of
Arabia, but it is a question whether the pilgrimage was not more often made
in a holiday spirit than in that of the devotee to the _Kaabeh,_ the most
sacred temple in all Arabia.
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