Some advised that Mahomet
should be banished the city; but it was objected that he might gain
other tribes to his interest, or perhaps the people of Medina, and
return at their head to take his revenge. Others proposed to wall him up
in a dungeon, and supply him with food until he died; but it was
surmised that his friends might effect his escape. All these objections
were raised by a violent and pragmatical old man, a stranger from the
province of Nedja, who, say the Moslem writers, was no other than the
devil in disguise, breathing his malignant spirit into those present.
At length it was declared by Abu-Jahl that the only effectual check on
the growing evil was to put Mahomet to death. To this all agreed, and as
a means of sharing the odium of the deed, and withstanding the vengeance
it might awaken among the relatives of the victim, it was arranged that
a member of each family should plunge his sword into the body of
Mahomet.
It is to this conspiracy that allusion is made in the eighth chapter of
the _Koran_:
"And call to mind how the unbelievers plotted against thee, that they
might either detain thee in bonds, or put thee to death, or expel thee
the city; but God laid a plot against them; and God is the best layer of
plots.
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