In the first, ten Charegites and two Awsites united in faith and love, protested, in the name of their wives, their children, and their absent brethren, that they would forever profess the creed, and observe the precepts, of the Koran.

The second was a political association, the first vital spark of the empire of the Saracens.

[120] Seventy-three men and two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, his kinsman, and his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other by a mutual oath of fidelity.

They promised, in the name of the city, that if he should be banished, they would receive him as a confederate, obey him as a leader, and defend him to the last extremity, like their wives and children.

"But if you are recalled by your country," they asked with a flattering anxiety, "will you not abandon your new allies ?" "All things," replied Mahomet with a smile, "are now common between us your blood is as my blood, your ruin as my ruin.