This work does not profess to be a life of Muhammad. It is a history of the development of the Quran, showing how its gradual formation was determined by the events of the Prophet's life. Treated in this way, the Quran reveals his change of position towards the various classes of persons with whom he was brought into contact, and by the aptness of its injunctions, its apol ogies, its denunciations, we are enabled to see how admirably this 'piecemeal' revelation was fitted to meet the requirements of Islam as they arose.