hell, and in the early years of Islam the Muslims recited the names of both in the obligatory daily prayers (the salat). The place of Michael, and some of the other archangels, is not clearly identified in the major sources, and among ordinary Muslims knowledge of them is drawn from non-Islamic sources, notably Jewish. Later traditions Judaism According to rabbinic tradition, Michael acted as the advocate of Israel, and sometimes had to fight with the princes of the other nations (Daniel 10:13) and particularly with the angel Samael, Israel's accuser. Michael's enmity against Samael dates from the time when the latter was thrown down from heaven. Samael took hold of the wings of Michael, whom he wished to bring down with him in his fall; but Michael was saved by God. The idea that Michael was the advocate of the Jews became so prevalent that in spite of the rabbinical prohibition against appealing to angels as intermediaries between God and his people, Michael came to occupy a certain place in the Jewish liturgy: "When a man is in need he must pray directly to God, and neither to Michael nor to Gabriel." Two prayers were written beseeching him as the prince of mercy to intercede in favor of Israel: one composed by Byzantine Jew Eliezer ha-Kalir (c. 570 – c. 640), and the other by Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (1150 – 22 February 1217), a leader of the Ashkenazi Hasidim in Bavaria. But appeal to Michael seems to have been more common in ancient times. Jeremiah addresses a prayer to him. The rabbis declare that Michael entered into his role of defender at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob said that Michael rescued Abraham from the furnace into which he had been thrown by Nimrod (Midrash Genesis Rabbah xliv. 16). It is claimed that it was Michael, the "one that had escaped" (Genesis 14:13), who told Abraham that Lot had been taken captive (Midrash Pirke R. El.), and who protected Sarah from being defiled by Abimelech. It is also said that Michael prevented Isaac from being sacrificed by his father by substituting a ram in his place. He saved Jacob, while yet in his mother's womb, from being killed by Samael. Later Michael prevented Laban from harming Jacob.(Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, xxxvi). The midrash Exodus Rabbah holds that Michael exercised his function of advocate of Israel