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THE
CHAPTER X
MAHOMET AND
ISLAM
OUR knowledge of Mahomet, his
life and his teaching, is derived entirely
from documents which have been handed down by Muslims; no contemporary
non-Muslim account is extant, and the testimony of later non-Muslim writers has
as little claim to consideration as the statements
in the Talmud concerning Christ. Among our authorities the Koran, for obvious reasons, occupies the
foremost place. The pieces of which it is composed are
acknowledged, alike by those who assert
and by those who deny its supernatural character, to have been promulgated as divine revelations by the Founder
of the religion himself, nor is
there any ground for the supposition that the text underwent substantial change in later times.
But although the authenticity
of the Koran admits of no dispute its interpretation is involved in peculiar difficulties. It was not put
together till about two years
after Mahomet's death, and the arrangement of the chapters is
wholly arbitrary, without regard to subject-matter or chronological sequence. Even a single chapter, as is recognized
not only by modern European
critics but also by all Muslim theologians of repute, sometimes consists of
earlier and later fragments which were combined either by accident or
through some mistake as to their import. Such
mistakes were all the more likely to occur in consequence of the peculiarly
allusive style in which the Koran is written; when it refers to
contemporary persons or events, which is often the case, it seldom mentions them in explicit terms, but
employs various circumlocutions. Hence it is impossible to explain the book
without continually calling in the aid of Muslim tradition, as
embodied in the works of theologians
and historians, the earliest of whom lived some generations after the time of the Prophet. This literature is
of enormous extent, but it contains many unintentional
misrepresentations and many deliberate falsehoods. To separate the historical
from the unhistorical elements is often difficult and sometimes impossible.
Arabia before Islam
The condition of Arabia in
pre-Muslim times is, from the nature of the case, very imperfectly known to us. The great majority of the
inhabitants consisted of small nomadic tribes who recognized no authority but
that of their own chiefs. The nomads, being wholly ignorant of the art of
writing, could leave behind them no permanent records, and as tribes were
frequently broken up, in consequence of famine,
internal dissensions, and other calamities, their oral traditions had little chance of surviving. It was only in a
few districts that a settled and
comparatively civilized population existed. Wherever such a centre of
civilization was formed, the nomads in the immediate vicinity had a tendency to fall under the influence of
their more cultured neighbors, and
sometimes tribal confederacies, dignified with the name of "kingdoms,"
came into being. In early times, by far the most important of these civilized regions was to be found in
south-western Arabia, the land
of the Sabaeans, or, as it is now called, Yaman (i.e. the South). The power and prosperity of the Sabaeans, to which
innumerable ruins and inscriptions still bear witness, began to
decline about the time of Christ and were utterly overthrown, near the
beginning of the sixth century, by the
inroads of the half-savage Abyssinians. Meanwhile other Arabian kingdoms had
arisen in the north, in particular that of the clan called the Ghassän, on the eastern
frontier of Palestine, and that
of the Lakhm on the Euphrates; the former kingdom was
politically subject to the
Byzantine Emperors, the latter to the Persians. But about the time when Mahomet
came forward as a prophet both of these
vassal kingdoms ceased to exist, and for a while there was nowhere within the borders of Arabia any political
organization which deserved to be called a State.
In religious, as in political
matters, Arabia presented no appearance of
unity. The paganism of the Arabs was in general of a remarkably crude and inartistic kind, with no ritual pomp,
no elaborate mythology, and, it hardly needs to be said, no tinge
of philosophical speculation. The
religion of the ancient Sabaeans probably bore a greater resemblance to
that of the more advanced nations, but in the time of Mahomet this Sabaean religion was almost wholly forgotten, and
the paganism which still
survived consisted mainly of certain very primitive rites performed at
particular sanctuaries. An Arabian sanctuary was, in some cases, a rudely constructed edifice containing images of
the gods or other objects of worship, but often it was nothing more than an
open space marked by a sacred
tree or a few blocks of stone. Some sanctuaries were frequented only by members of a particular tribe, while
others were annually visited by various tribes from far and near. The settled
Arabs, as a rule, paid more attention than the nomads to religion,
but even in the settled districts there seems to have been a singular lack of
religious fervor. The traditional rites were kept up from mere conservatism and
with hardly any definite belief as to
their meaning. Hence wherever the Arabs
came into close contact with a foreign religion, they readily adopted it,
at least in name. Arabian communities professing some sort of Christianity were to be found not only on the
northern frontier but also at
Najran in the south. Judaised communities were
especially numerous in the
north-west of the Arabian peninsula, and Zoroastrian communities in
the neighborhood of the Persian Gulf.
Mecca [c. 570
Among the centres of Arabian
paganism, none occupied a more distinguished place than Mecca (in Arabic Makka, or
sometimes Bakka) which,
thirteen centuries ago, was a small town situated in a barren valley, about 50 miles from the Red Sea coast. In
an open space near the middle of the town stood the local
sanctuary, a kind of rectangular hut, known as the Kaba (i.e. Cube),
which contained an image of the Meccan
god Hubal and various other sacred objects. A large proportion of the Arabian
tribes regarded Mecca with exceptional veneration; all the surrounding district was a sacred
territory, within which no blood might
be shed. Some miles from the town a yearly festival took place and
was attended by crowds of pilgrims from all quarters. Recent investigations have proved that this institution,
called in Arabic the Hajj,
i.e. "festival" or
"pilgrimage," originally had no connection with Mecca itself, and may
possibly have been established before Mecca and the Kaba had come
into existence. However this may be, it is certain that in historical times the
pilgrims who attended the festival usually visited the Kaba and were treated by the Meccans as their guests; hence
the annual Pilgrimage came to be intimately associated with the holy city.
In the sixth century after Christ most of the
inhabitants of Mecca belonged to a
tribe which bore the name of Kuraish. It was well
known, however, that the Kuraish were recent immigrants. Both the town and the sanctuary had formerly been in the possession
of other tribes, but as to the
origin of Mecca no credible tradition survived. The Kuraish were subdivided into a number of clans, each of
which claimed the right of
managing its own affairs. On important occasions the chief men of the various
clans met to deliberate; but there was no central authority. The sterility of the soil rendered agriculture
almost impossible, and the Meccans
had long subsisted by trading with distant countries. Every year
great caravans were despatched to Syria and returned
laden with wares, which the Meccans sold at a large profit to the
neighboring Bedouins. The mercantile
population of the town was naturally far superior, in general intelligence and knowledge of the outer world,
to the mass of the Arabs. A considerable proportion of the Meccans
had learnt the art of writing, but they
used it for practical purposes only. Book-learning, as we
understand it, was quite unknown to them.
At Mecca, about A.D. 570,
Mahomet (properly Muhammad) was born. The clan to which he belonged, the Banu Hashim, is commonly represented by Muslim writers as one of the most distinguished branches of the Kuraish, but the evidence which we possess
tends to prove that in pre-Muslim times it occupied quite a
subordinate place. Of Mahomet's father,
Abdallah, son of Abd-al-Muttalib, we know scarcely anything except that he died shortly before the Prophet's
birth. Amina, the mother of Mahomet, died a very few years later,
and the orphan boy afterwards lived for
a while in the charge of his grandfather, Abd-al-Muttalib, who had a numerous family. On the death of Abd-alMuttalib, one of his sons, Abu Talib, undertook the care
of Mahomet, who seems to have
been treated kindly but to have endured many hardships, since none of
his near relatives were wealthy. When he was about 24 years of age he entered the service of an opulent woman,
considerably older than
himself, named Khadija. The antecedents and social position of Khadija are shrouded in some mystery, but it is
certain that she had been twice married and that at the time when she made the
acquaintance of Mahomet she was living at Mecca with several of her
children, who were still quite young.
Mahomet appears to have succeeded at once in gaining her
confidence. She entrusted him with the management of her property, and about the year 594 sent him to
Syria on a commercial expedition, which he directed with
conspicuous success. On his return he
became her husband. For a few years he led the life of a prosperous tradesman; several daughters were born to him
and two sons, both of whom died in infancy.
The process whereby Mahomet was led to occupy himself
with religious questions and finally to
believe in his divine mission is altogether obscure. That the doctrines which
he afterwards preached did not arise spontaneously in his mind but were mainly
derived from older religions seems obvious. It appears certain,
however, that he was wholly unacquainted with
religious literature. Whether he ever learnt the Arabic alphabet is a question which has been
fiercely debated, both among
Muslims and Christians; at all events we know that, in his later
years, whenever he wished to record anything in writing he employed a secretary. But the question whether he
could read is of little practical importance, since no religious
books seem to have existed in Arabic at
that period, and that he could read any foreign language is utterly
incredible. We are therefore obliged to conclude that his information was derived entirely from oral
sources; who his informants were
we can only conjecture. At Mecca itself there was apparently no permanent
colony of Christians, Jews, or Zoroastrians, but isolated adherents of the
principal foreign religions doubtless visited the town from time to time. It
has often been suggested that Mahomet acquired
some knowledge of Christianity during one of his commercial journeys in Syria. This is possible; but it should
be remembered that an Arab
trader, ignorant both of Aramaic and of Greek, would have great difficulty in
obtaining information on religious subjects from Syrian Christians, since those
of them who spoke Arabic usually belonged to the most illiterate
class. Moreover another and a very important
fact has to be taken into consideration. According to Muslim tradition there were about this time, at
Mecca and a few other places in western Arabia, certain individuals
who had become dissatisfied with the
popular paganism, devoted themselves to religious meditation, and
professed a monotheistic belief. These persons were called Hanifs, a term of which the origin and
precise meaning are obscure. The
Hanifs did not form a sect, for they had no organization and, it
would seem, little communication with one another. Our information about them
is naturally very meagre, being derived, for the most part, from scraps of poetry which they are said to have
composed; but the authenticity of these pieces is often doubtful.
One of the most celebrated Hanifs was the Meccan Zaid ibn Amr, who appears to
have died during Mahomet's boyhood. Another was Waraka ibn Maufal,
a cousin of Khadija. This man died, at a very advanced age, some years after Mahomet's marriage. The relation in which he
stood to the Prophet renders him
an object of peculiar interest: it is therefore all the more to be
regretted that so little can be ascertained concerning him. According to one tradition, he ended by adopting
Christianity, which is possibly true; he is also said to have
translated part of the Christian Scriptures
into Arabic, which is highly improbable. But vague as is our knowledge of the Hanifs in general and of Waraka
in particular, we are justified in believing that before Mahomet's
birth a movement in the direction of
spiritual monotheism had already begun among the Arabs. How far this movement was originally due to
Christian and other foreign influences we can scarcely hope to
determine. Our acquaintance with Oriental
Christianity in the sixth century is almost entirely confined to the great official Churches; the smaller
Christian communities, and especially the half-Christian sects,
with whom the Arabs were likely to come
in contact, have, with rare exceptions, left no literary records.
With regard to the beginning
of Mahomet's prophetic career, and the
circumstances under which he received his earliest revelations, we possess many
legends but very little genuine tradition. All accounts agree as to the fact that at this period he spent
much time in fastings and solitary vigils, a practice which was probably
suggested to him by the example
of Christian ascetics. He appears to have been naturally of a
nervous temperament, with a tendency to hysteria; whether he suffered from epilepsy, as several European
writers have believed, may be
doubted. In any case he was subject to paroxysms which presented the appearance of a violent fever; these seizures
were regarded, both by himself and by his followers, as symptoms of
divine inspiration. It is therefore
evident that we are here dealing with a psychological problem which
no information would enable us to solve.
The Koran admits that Mahomet
forgot some of the communications made
to him by God, and it is possible that even the oldest passages now extant were
produced some time after he had become conscious
of his divine vocation. One point seems quite clear, namely that during the
first few years of his mission he did not come forward as a public preacher but carried on a secret
propaganda within the circle of his more intimate companions. Among
the earliest converts were his wife
Khadija, his cousin Ali (properly Ali), son of Abu Pith, and
Abu Bakr, who did not belong to the Prophet's clan but remained to
the last his most trusted friend. The
passages of the Koran which can with any probability be assigned to this more private period are few in
number and invariably very short. Those which belong to the earlier
part of his public career are much more numerous. They deal mainly with three
subjects, (1) the unity and attributes of God, (2) the moral duties
of mankind, and (3) the coming
retribution. Mahomet's monotheism, like that of the later Hebrew prophets, necessarily involves the
condemnation of idolatry, but it
is to be noted that he nowhere describes the religion of his pagan
fellow-countrymen as something wholly false. Though he identifies the one true God with the God of the
Jews and the Christians, he at
the same time assumes that the heathen have some knowledge of God and even that God is, in
some special sense, the God of Mecca. In a very early passage of
the Koran the Kuraish are exhorted to worship "the Lord of this
house," that is, of the Kaba. Hence it is evident that Mahomet considered himself rather as a reformer
than as a preacher of an altogether new religion. Similarly in dealing with ethical questions he often implies
that the pagan notions of
justice, honour, and propriety are to some extent
valid. Thus, for instance, his repeated denunciations of avarice
are quite in the spirit of the ancient Arabs, to whom the "miser" was
an object of special abhorrence.
Doctrine of the Koran
But in contradistinction to
the ethical code of the heathen, which was mainly based
upon tribal patriotism (asabiya), Mahomet emphasizes the universal obligations of morality,
and above all the duty of
forgiving injuries instead of avenging them. It is in his doctrine of the Judgment and the life to come that he departs
most widely from the ordinary
beliefs of the time. The heathen Arabs, like other primitive
peoples, were familiar with the notion of a ghost, or wraith, which haunts, at least for a while, the
resting-place of the dead body; but the idea of a future
retribution was quite foreign to their habits of thought. The doctrine of the
Resurrection, as it appears in the Koran, seems to be mainly derived from
Christianity; that some details were borrowed
from Judaism or Zoroastrianism is possible but can scarcely be proved. Mahomet, as we might have expected,
conceives the Resurrection after the most crudely materialistic fashion;
to him the reconstruction of the physical
organism was an essential postulate of the future recompense. The descriptions of the Judgment itself
and of the torments of the damned
do not differ substantially from those which are found in popular Christian writings of medieval and
modern times. On the other hand
the delights of Paradise are often painted in colors to which neither Christianity nor Judaism affords any
parallel. But what especially characterizes the older portions of
the Koran is the constant emphasis laid on the nearness of the Resurrection and
the Day of Judgment. Although Mahomet
nowhere specifies any definite time, and when questioned on this
point by his opponents always professed ignorance,
it is clear that he lived in daily expectation of the great events which formed the main subject of his
preaching. Nor is this at all inconsistent with the fact that some
passages of the Koran seem to announce a special calamity which was to befall
the Meccans for their unbelief, rather than a world-wide catastrophe.
Similarly, it will be remembered, among
the early Christians the expectation of the judgment of the world and the expectation of the overthrow
of Jerusalem were sometimes so
closely connected as to become indistinguishable.
A great part of the Koran
consists of narratives, inserted for purposes
of edification. Scarcely any of these can be described as historical; on the
other hand, scarcely any is a pure invention of Mahomet's. In almost every case
he utilizes some legend that he has heard, in order to enforce his doctrines.
Thus he repeatedly introduces persons
mentioned in the Old Testament and puts into their mouths discourses in favor of monotheism, moral precepts,
etc. The opposition which they encountered and the chastisements
which overtook their adversaries are
likewise described at great length. The allusions to Christ and the
early Christian Church present some very curious and hitherto unexplained features. That Christ, or any
other being, can be a "son of God" is emphatically
denied; at the same time the belief that Christ
was born of a virgin is fully accepted, and among the prophets of past
ages He occupies a specially prominent place. But of the facts of Christ's life Mahomet appears to have known next to
nothing. In one of the later chapters of the Koran the Jews are
condemned for asserting that Christ was
put to death and the crucifixion is represented as a deceptive appearance. The fact that Christians believed
in the Crucifixion is totally ignored, and we may therefore conclude that on this very important point
Mahomet's Christian informants held opinions resembling those which
are ascribed to the ancient Docetists.
The disciples of the Prophet called themselves Muslims, but
were usually known by the name of "Sabians" (Sabiun). Their organization and rules of life were
at first of a very simple kind. They bound themselves to abstain from idolatry and from certain immoral
practices, especially fornication and infanticide. The cult
consisted mainly of prayers, according
to the formulae prescribed by the Prophet; meetings for this purpose were held at stated times, but
always in strict privacy. In
order to indicate that the God whom he proclaimed was identical with the God of the Jews, Mahomet commanded his
followers to adopt the Jewish
practice of praying towards Jerusalem. At this time he appears to
have had scarcely any notion of the difference between Judaism and Christianity; consequently he was able
to regard both Jews and Christians as his brethren in religion.
Opposition of the Meccans
For several years Mahomet
continued to preach with little apparent success. His converts were, with rare exceptions, persons of a low class or
even foreign slaves, such as Bila the Abyssinian. Some members of his own family, in particular his uncle Abd-al-Uzza, nicknamed Abu Lahab, bitterly opposed him; even his protector Abu Talib remained to the last an unbeliever. It would be a mistake to suppose that the enemies of the new faith were actuated by religious fanaticism. They were,
for the most part, simply men of the world who, proud of their social position,
objected to recognizing the claims of an upstart and dreaded any sweeping
change as likely to endanger the material advantages which they derived from the traditional cult. To the majority of the citizens Mahomet appeared a
madman; some called him a "poet," an accusation which gave him great
pain, for, as the Koran shows, he
regarded the poets with peculiar aversion. That he had to endure many affronts was quite natural, but
actual violence could not have been employed against him without
risk of a blood-feud, which the Meccans
were always most anxious to avoid. Those of his disciples, however, who had no relatives to protect them
were occasionally treated with
cruelty. At length the majority of the converts, finding their position intolerable, fled for refuge to Abyssinia,
with the full consent, if not at
the express command, of the Prophet. He himself remained at Mecca
with a mere handful of followers.
When it became known that the emigrants had been
kindly received by the Christian king
of Abyssinia, considerable alarm prevailed among the chiefs of the Kuraish, lest the Abyssinians, whose devastating invasions were still vividly remembered, should
be tempted to intervene on behalf
of the persecuted Muslims. Accordingly a deputation was sent from Mecca for the purpose of persuading the
king to hand over the fugitives
as prisoners; the king, however, refused, whereupon the indignation
of Mahomet's enemies was still further excited. The Prophet, reduced to
extremities, fell into the error of attempting to overcome opposition by means
of a compromise. He went so far as to publish
a revelation in which the three principal goddesses of Mecca were recognized as "highly exalted beings
whose intercession may be hoped for." For a while the polytheists
appeared to be satisfied, and a report
that the persecution was at an end caused some of the emigrants to come back from Abyssinia. In the meanwhile the
Prophet repented of the concession he had made, and declared that
the verse in question had been put
into his mouth by Satan. The feud thereupon broke out afresh. To
the heathen Meccans Mahomet's conduct on this occasion naturally seemed to convict him of imposture;
since, however, he had long been accustomed to regard all his
impulses as due to some supernatural cause, it is by no means certain that he
did not sincerely believe himself to be
acting by divine command both when he made the concession and when
he withdrew it.
Mahomet reduced to straits
It was probably about this
time that an important conversion took place, that of Omar (Umar) ibn al-Khattab, a young man of
no high social position but endowed with extraordinary ability
and perseverance. He had at first been
vehemently opposed to the new religion, so that his sudden
conversion, of which there are several conflicting accounts, attracted all the more notice and doubtless inspired
the Muslims with fresh courage. It is said that he set the example of praying
publicly, in the neighborhood of the Kaba; at all events from this time onwards
the movement assumed a more open character. The chiefs of the Kuraish finally
determined to adopt the only method of coercion known to them, short of positive violence; they offered to
Mahomet's kinsmen, the Banu Hashim, the choice of declaring him an
outlaw or of being themselves excluded
from intercourse with the other Meccan clans. Most of the Banu Hashim were still unbelievers, but such was
the sanctity attached to ties of blood that they all, with one or
two exceptions, preferred to incur the penalty of social excommunication rather
than deliver over Mahomet to his
enemies. How long this breach lasted and by what means it was healed is uncertain; probably the
manifold inconveniences which it caused to all parties soon brought
about a change of public opinion.
Very soon after intercourse
had been re-established between the Banu Hashim and their fellow-townsmen, two serious calamities befell Mahomet, the death of his wife Khadija and that of his protector Abu
Talib. There can be little doubt that this double bereavement rendered the Prophet's position at Mecca more
precarious; henceforth he began
to consider the possibility of finding a home elsewhere. His first attempt was made at a neighboring town,
called Taif, but he met with so
unfavorable a reception that he speedily returned to Mecca, where
he succeeded in obtaining a promise of protection from an influential heathen, Mutim ibn Adi. For two or three years the Prophet remained in his native city, making, it would seem,
scarcely any effort to gain fresh converts among the resident
population. His attention was turned chiefly to the pilgrims who visited Mecca
or the immediate neighborhood on the occasion of the yearly festivals. To these motley crowds he used to preach his
doctrines, generally encountering indifference or ridicule. There were,
however, some exceptions. In A.D. 620
he fell in with some pilgrims from Yathrib and, finding them well-disposed, entered into a series of
negotiations which finally brought about a complete change not only
in his own fortunes but in the history of the world.
The Converts from Medina [616-620
Yathrib, known in subsequent
times as Medina, was a scattered group
of villages rather than a city, situated in a fertile plain about 200 miles to the north of Mecca. Unlike the Meccans, who subsisted by commerce, the people of Medina had, from time immemorial, devoted themselves to agriculture, in particular to the cultivation of the date-palm. Long before the birth of Mahomet, Jewish colonists established
themselves at Medina and propagated their religion with such success that by the
beginning of the sixth century most of the inhabitants professed Judaism and were regarded as Jews, though they
must have been mainly of Arab descent. These Judaised Arabs were divided into several clans, each occupying its own territory. In civilization, especially in
mechanical arts such as
metal-working, they were greatly superior to their heathen neighbors, and for a while they dominated the whole
district. But in the course of the sixth century, owing to
circumstances with which we are
imperfectly acquainted, the power of the Jews declined. Much of their territory passed into the hands of two
heathen tribes (the Aus and the Khazraj), who in the time of Mahomet formed the bulk of the population. Between these tribes there
raged a long and bitter feud. About the year 616 the Aus, with the
help of the Jews, inflicted a severe defeat upon the Khazraj;
this battle is known in Arabian
tradition as the Day of Buath. But the Khazraj, though humbled, were by no means crushed, and during the next few years everyone went about in fear of his life. To the
more intelligent of the people
of Medina the situation must have seemed intolerable; peace was urgently required, yet no authority capable of
restoring peace appeared to exist.
Such was the state of affairs when certain influential
citizens of Medina became acquainted
with Mahomet. Some of them who through intercourse with Jews had
already imbibed monotheistic ideas, were doubtless
attracted by his religious teaching; others perhaps, who were
indifferent to religion, felt that a stranger claiming to speak with divine
authority might be able to effect what they themselves had attempted in vain. In any case, a period of about
two years elapsed between their
first interview with the Prophet and their final decision to offer him a home in their midst. Meanwhile he had
sent to Medina one of his Meccan
disciples, Musab ibn Umair, to act as his representative and keep
him informed of all that passed.
The
Emigration
In the year 622, on the
occasion of the annual pilgrimage, about seventy
of the converts from Medina arranged to hold a meeting with Mahomet at midnight a few miles from Mecca. The
Prophet went thither in the
company of his uncle Abbas, who was still an unbeliever, but from the heathen public in general the matter
was carefully concealed. Mahomet demanded of the Medinese a solemn promise that if he betook himself to their country they would protect
him from attack as they would protect their own families. This they all swore
to do. As soon as he had secured a place of refuge, the Prophet ordered his
Meccan disciples to emigrate to
Medina. Attempts were made by the chiefs of the Kuraish to
prevent the departure of the Muslims, but nearly all succeeded in escaping and
reached Medina a few weeks later in small parties. The Prophet himself, with
Abu Bakr and Ali, remained behind for a short time, apparently awaiting news as to the manner in which the
Emigrants had been received. It
is related, on somewhat doubtful authority, that his departure was hastened by a plot to
assassinate him in his bed. In any case he left Mecca secretly,
accompanied by Abu Bakr, in the summer
or early autumn of 622. For a few days they remained hidden in a
cave near Mecca, and then proceeded, as rapidly as possible, to Medina. Thus
was accomplished the great event known as the Emigration (hijra, distorted
by Europeans into hegira), which forms the starting-point of
the Muslim era.
On his arrival at Medina the
Prophet was welcomed with enthusiasm by a
large proportion of the natives; but he did not at once claim the position of a ruler. Those who acknowledged his
divine mission could merely promise personal obedience. The people
as a whole had not submitted to his
authority; they were only his "Helpers" (Ansar), pledged to defend him, for, according to Arabian
notions, a guarantee of protection given by one member of a clan binds all the
rest. It was by the gradual extension of his personal influence,
not in virtue of any formal agreement, that he succeeded in making himself
master of the place. The Meccan
"Emigrants " (Muhajiran) were,
of course, entirely devoted to him from the first, and formed, so
to speak, his bodyguard. Many of the Medinese, especially those of the younger generation,
were no less zealous in his cause; their principal duty, during the
first few months after the Emigration, consisted in housing and feeding
the Emigrants. But not a few, even of
those who called themselves Muslims, were either hostile or indifferent; the Koran frequently refers to
them as the
"Hypocrites". The most celebrated of these was a certain Abdallah ibn
Ubayy, a chief of the Khazraj, who before
the arrival of Mahomet had played a very prominent
part. The opposition of such persons is to be ascribed mainly to personal jealousy or other worldly
motives. More consistent, and
hence more formidable, was the enmity of the Jews. It is clear
that at first Mahomet confidently reckoned on their support, but he soon
discovered his mistake. With rare exceptions they absolutely refused to acknowledge him as a prophet, and thus
forced him to become their
adversary. Henceforth the antagonism between Islam and Judaism began to show
itself even in externals. This was seen most clearly when, in the
second year after the Emigration, Mahomet ordered his disciples to pray towards Mecca instead of praying
towards Jerusalem.
The historian
Ibn Ishak has preserved for us the text of an important document
which seems to have been drawn up, under the Prophet's direction, at about this time. It may be described
as an attempt to settle, at
least provisionally, the relations between the various classes into
which the people of Medina were divided. All the inhabitants, believers and unbelievers alike, are declared to
be a single community (umma);
the clans remain distinct for certain purposes but are debarred from making war on one another. Should any dispute
arise, the matter is to be
brought before "God and Mahomet." All are bound to unite for
the defence of Medina in case it should be attacked.
No one is to conclude an agreement with the Kuraish (i.e. the heathen Meccans) or with any ally of the Kuraish.
Legislation of the Koran
The establishing of public
security at Medina was necessarily the first object
which the Prophet had in view; but in addition to this he found himself compelled to supply his own followers with
the rudiments of a legal code. At Mecca his teaching had been almost
entirely confined to the sphere of faith
and personal morality; of external regulations he had seldom had
occasion to speak. But as soon as Islam became the religion of a political society, the need of positive enactments made
itself felt. Hence those parts of the Koran which were produced after the Emigration—amounting to rather more than
one-third of the whole book —
consist largely of prescriptions as to the details of practice both in religious and secular matters. Systematic
legislation was, of course, a
thing of which Mahomet could form no idea; he provided for each case as it occurred, not striving after
theoretical consistency but freely modifying previous commands in
order to suit altered circumstances. That
all these contradictory directions were given out as the word of God caused scarcely any embarrassment at the
time, for it was assumed that the Deity, like any other despot, may
revoke His orders whenever He chooses;
but it is needless to say that later generations, who had no trustworthy
information as to the dates of the various passages, sometimes found it hard to decide which commands were
revoked and which were still in force. In a few cases we are informed
by early Muslim authorities that
passages of the Koran were not only "revoked" but actually
suppressed.
The institutions which assumed a definite form during
the years subsequent to the Emigration
may be classed under the following heads : — (1) Religious ceremonial, (2) Fiscal and military
regulations, (3) Civil and criminal laws.
To the first class
belong the five obligatory daily prayers, the public service held every Friday, the duty of fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan, and the annual Pilgrimage (of which more will be said later). To these may be added the rules of
ceremonial purity, the distinctions between lawful and
unlawful food (which were largely borrowed from Judaism), and the prohibition
of wine-drinking. The rite of circumcision—performed on boys, not, as among the
Jews, on infants —prevailed everywhere
in heathen Arabia and was retained by the followers of Mahomet; but
it is never mentioned in the Koran and does not properly form part of the
religion of Islam.
The second class
includes the payment of "alms," that is, a kind of income-tax levied on all Muslims, originally for the relief of the
poor, but in later times for the
maintenance of the State. Moreover all Muslims capable of bearing arms might, under certain circumstances, be
required to serve as soldiers.
The civil and criminal laws
laid down in the Koran are partly based on old
Arabian usages and are partly of foreign origin. Slavery and polygamy having
existed in Arabia from time immemorial, we may assume, as a matter of course, that Mahomet never thought of
abolishing either the one or the
other, but he introduced certain restrictions whereby the condition
both of slaves and of women was somewhat improved.
In particular, he condemned the practice of "inheriting women against their will," that is, of
treating widows as chattels to be appropriated
by the dead man's heir. He also made every effort to secure the rights of orphans and in general to
protect the weak against the strong. The ancient rule of
blood-revenge he recognized in principle, but confined it within narrow limits. A startling innovation, from
the point of view of the Arabs, was the punishment of fornication
by scourging. It may be mentioned that,
according to tradition, the Koran
once contained a passage which ordered that fornicators should be
put to death by stoning; and Omar, when he was Caliph, is said to have
maintained that this law was still in force.
In describing the Prophet's
sojourn at Medina, it is necessary to say something of his domestic history, to
which several passages of the Koran explicitly refer. Before he left Mecca, he had already taken to
himself a second wife, named Sauda, and during the years which
followed the number of his wives
steadily increased. The most celebrated of them was Aisha (daughter
of Abu Bakr), whose marriage to Mahomet took place a few months after his
arrival at Medina; she was then only about nine years old, but in spite of her tender age she rapidly acquired
great influence. When, some five years later, she was accused of
misconduct, a passage of the Koran was
specially revealed for the purpose of clearing her character. The
ascendancy which she gained during the Prophet's lifetime continued long after
his death and enabled her to play a prominent
but by no means an honorable part in the politics of that
period. In the books of Muslim tradition Aisha is one of the
authorities most frequently cited.
For more than a year after the
Emigration Mahomet and his Meccan
disciples were in a condition of great economic distress. The attempts which they made to relieve their necessities by means of
pillage did not at first prove successful. In these earliest
raids the natives of Medina took no part, for the general principle that it is
the duty of Muslims to engage in
aggressive warfare against unbelievers had not yet been announced. Moreover it is to be noticed that
Mahomet did not at once venture
to shock the feelings of his countrymen by violating the sanctity
of the four sacred months during which, according to ancient custom, no raids were permitted. At length, towards
the end of the year 623, he
sanctioned an attack, in the sacred month of Rajab, upon a caravan belonging to the Kuraish,
at Nakhla near Mecca. The caravan was taken by surprise and the
raiders came back with a considerable amount of booty to Medina. But so
strongly was this expedition condemned
by public opinion that the Prophet found it necessary to give out
that his orders had been misunderstood.
624] Battle
of Badr
Two months later his followers
achieved their first victory. A large
caravan, laden with rich merchandise, was returning from Syria to Mecca
under the leadership of Abu Sufyan, the chief of the Banft Umayya, one of the proudest
families among the Kuraish. Mahomet determined to waylay it at Badr, a place south-west
of Medina, a few miles from the Red Sea coast, and himself set out
thither with rather more than 300
armed men, of whom about 80 were Emigrants and the rest Medinese. Abu Sufyan, however, received news of the
intended attack, changed his route and despatched a messenger to Mecca asking for help. The Kuraish hastily fitted out an expedition consisting of about 900 men, among
whom were most of the Meccan aristocracy. While they were on their way northward they learnt that the caravan had succeeded in reaching a point where it was
out of danger; some of them therefore returned to Mecca, but the
great majority, confident in their
superior numbers and equipment, determined to advance, rather, it would
seem, with the intention of overawing than of crushing their adversary. The two
armies reached Badr almost at the same moment. Mahomet, ignorant of what had happened, was still expecting the caravan; on discovering his mistake he probably saw
that a retreat would be extremely perilous, if not impossible, and
accordingly resolved to fight. The Meccans, on this occasion, displayed an
extraordinary slackness and absence of
forethought. They allowed Mahomet to take possession of a well situated in their immediate neighborhood and thereby to deprive them of their water-supply.
Next morning, when they
approached the well they found the bulk of Mahomet's army drawn up around it. But even then no general attack
was made. One by one, or in
small groups, a number of Meccan chieftains came forward and were
killed in hand-to-hand combat by champions of the opposite side. Among the
slain was one of the most formidable of the Prophet's enemies, Abu-l-Hakam, son of Hisharn,
usually known by the nickname Abu
Jahl. Mahomet himself did not take part in the fighting but remained in a small hut which had been erected for
him, praying with passionate fervor and trembling violently. At
length, about noon, the Meccans, realizing that nothing was to be gained by
further bloodshed, began to retire.
Being much better mounted than their opponents, they were able to escape with a loss of only 70
slain and 70 captured. Of the Muslims 14 had fallen.
Battle of Uhud [625
Insignificant as this battle may appear from a
military point of view, the importance of its results can scarcely
be exaggerated. Hitherto the enemies of
the Prophet had continually taunted him with his inability to
perform miracles; now at length it seemed as if a miracle had been wrought. The
victory gained at Badr over a greatly superior force is ascribed in the Koran to the intervention of
angels, an explanation which, it is needless to say, was
unhesitatingly accepted by all Muslims. On
his return to Medina, Mahomet ventured on a series of high-handed measures which struck terror into all his
opponents. Several persons who had offended him were assassinated
by his order. At the same time the Banu Kainuka, one
of the Jewish clans resident at Medina, were banished from the place; their houses and valuables became the
property of the Muslims.
Meanwhile the Meccans,
irritated by their defeat and fearing for the safety of their caravans, on which they were dependent for the means
of subsistence, had determined to
make an attack in force. Early in the year
625 an army of about 3000 men, commanded by Abu Sufyan, marched from Mecca and
encamped near a hill called Uhud, a few miles to the north of Medina. A considerable proportion of the Medinese, in particular Abdallah ibn Ubayy, wished to
remain on the defensive; but Mahomet, with less than his usual
prudence, rejected their advice. Although
the force at his disposal scarcely numbered 1000 men, he resolved to make a sortie and assail the Meccans in
the rear. At first this bold plan appeared likely to prove
successful. He was able to take up a
strong position on the slopes of Uhud, whence the Muslims charged the
enemy and drove them back with some loss. But the Meccan horsemen, led by
Khalid ibn al-Walid, succeeded in outflanking the Muslims, who were at once thrown into confusion. Some fled to Medina,
while others fought their way back to the hill. Among these latter was Mahomet himself, who for a while
remained hidden in a ravine.
Meanwhile a rumor that he was slain had spread in the ranks of the Meccans, and for this reason, it would
appear, they did not take advantage of their victory. Supposing
that they had sufficiently avenged the
bloodshed at Badr, they made no attempt to attack Medina but prepared to march
homewards. Of the Muslims only about 70 men were left dead on the battle-field; one of these was Hamza, the
Prophet's uncle, a valiant
warrior, it is true, but not by any means a model of piety. Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan and mother of
the Caliph Meawiya, had, together with a
number of other women, accompanied the
Meccan army; remembering that Hamza had slain some of her nearest relatives at Badr, she took vengeance on
his corpse by tearing his liver with her teeth. Such barbarity was
quite unusual among the Arabs of that
period, and it is therefore not to be wondered at that the act of
Hind was long afterwards a topic on which the enemies of her posterity loved to
dwell.
625-627] Punishment of the Banu-n-Nadir
When the Meccans began to
retreat, Mahomet, realizing that Medina was no longer in danger, endeavored to efface the shame of his defeat by a
great show of activity. Although he had himself received some slight wounds he marched a few miles in the track
of his victorious foes, obviously
not with the intention of attacking them but in order to reassure his own
followers. This plan attained its object, and there is no reason to suppose
that after the battle his influence at Medina was in any way
diminished.
A few months later he made a second attack upon the
Jews. The Banu-n-Nadir, a Jewish clan who owned some of the most valuable
palm-gardens in the neighborhood of Medina, were suspected, rightly or wrongly, of plotting to murder him. He
accordingly declared war against
them, and after a siege which lasted about three weeks forced them to emigrate to Khaibar,
an oasis inhabited chiefly by Jews, about 100 miles north of Medina. The lands
of the Banu-n-Nadir were partly appropriated by Mahomet and partly divided
among the Emigrants, who thus ceased to depend on the charity of
the Helpers.
That Mahomet's conduct should
have been bitterly resented by the
Jewish population of Arabia is quite natural; but on this, as on other occasions, the Jews showed themselves wholly incapable of combining in order to resist him by force. The utmost that they
attempted was to stimulate the enmity of the heathen Meccans
and of the neighboring nomadic tribes.
By this time the chiefs of the Kuraish had perceived the fruitlessness of their victory
at Uhud and they therefore listened readily to the Jewish emissaries
who urged them to make another and a
more serious effort. Accordingly, in the year 627, an alliance against Mahomet was formed between the Kuraish and a number of Bedouin tribes, of whom
the most important were the Fazara, the Sulaim and the Asad.
The combined forces of the Kuraish and their allies proceeded to march towards Medina.
They are said to have numbered 10,000 men, which is perhaps an
exaggerated estimate, but in any case
it is certain that they formed an army much larger than that which had fought at Uhud two years earlier.
Meanwhile the Khuzda, a tribe who dwelt in the immediate neighbourhood of Mecca, had sent to Mahomet
full information as to the impending attack; their conduct was probably due much more to jealousy of the Kuraish than to
any special sympathy with Islam. By the time the assailants reached Medina the town was well prepared to stand a siege.
In most places nothing more was
necessary than to erect a few barricades between the houses; but on one side there was a large open
space, across which Mahomet
caused a trench to be dug. This device, which appears to us so
obvious, struck the Arabs with astonishment; by Mahomet's enemies it was denounced as a dishonorable
stratagem. Hence this siege is
usually called "the Campaign of the Trench." The idea, we are
told, was suggested to the Prophet by an emancipated slave of unknown origin, who is celebrated in Muslim
tradition under the name of Salman the Persian; at all events the
word applied to the trench (khandak) is
derived from the Persian language. In digging the trench Mahomet himself took an active part. The implements
required for the purpose were mostly supplied by the Kuraiza, the only Jewish clan who still remained at Medina. It is difficult to believe that the Kuraiza regarded
Mahomet with friendly feelings, but it would appear that, in spite of the manner in which he had treated
their coreligionists, they still considered themselves as bound by
their agreement with him; moreover they
probably realised that if Medina were taken by storm
the hordes of Bedouins would plunder all parties indiscriminately. During the siege the vigilance and discipline of
the Muslims contrasted strangely with the disorder which prevailed
on the opposite side. The besiegers, in
spite of their vastly superior numbers, seem never to have contemplated
a real assault. Small troops of cavalry now and then endeavored to cross the trench but were easily
repulsed by a shower of arrows
and stones; on the one occasion when some of them succeeded in
forcing an entrance they soon found it necessary to retreat. In explanation of these facts it must be remembered
that an extreme dread of
attacking fortifications, however rudely constructed, has been characteristic
of the Arabs, and in particular of the Bedouins, down to the present day.
Though the loss of life on
either side was quite insignificant, both the besiegers and the besieged were soon reduced to great straits.
The cold and stormy weather
severely tried the defenders of the trench, while the Bedouins without suffered greatly from lack of provisions. Accordingly both parties strove hard to bring the siege to an end by means
of negotiation. Mahomet's
principal object was to detach the Bedouins from
their alliance with the Kuraish; the besiegers, on
the other hand, sent secret messages to the Kuraiza urging them to violate their agreement with
Mahomet. The chief of this Jewish clan, Kab ibn
Asad, at first indignantly refused to listen to these suggestions,
but finally he yielded, and the Kuraiza forthwith assumed so menacing an attitude that the Muslims became seriously alarmed. The
Jews, however, did not venture to
make an attack; they remained, as usual, shut up in their
fortresses, until the Kuraish and their allies, weary
of waiting, suddenly raised the siege,
which had lasted only a fortnight, and returned to their homes. Thus ended the
last attempt, on the part of the Meccan aristocracy, to crush the
new religion.
As soon as the besiegers had departed the vengeance of
Mahomet naturally fell on the Kuraiza. He did not
content himself with pillaging them but, having compelled them to surrender
after a brief siege, offered them the choice of conversion to Islam or death.
The heroism which they displayed on this
occasion seems hard to reconcile with their former timidity; rather than commit apostasy they preferred
to be slain one by one in the
market-place of the town. The number of these martyrs amounted to
over six hundred; the women and children were sold as slaves.
628] Expansion of Islam
Henceforth the population of
Medina was, at least in name, almost exclusively
Muslim; the "Hypocrites" who remained were a small minority, and
though they sometimes angered the Prophet by their murmurs and intrigues he had no reason to fear them. Accordingly his policy, which he had at first represented as
one of self-defence, now became avowedly aggressive. Medina was no longer
the refuge of a persecuted sect
— it was the seat of a religious despotism which in a few years
subjugated the whole of Arabia. To ordinary Europeans this development of Islam naturally appears as a mere
misuse of religion for purposes
of political aggrandizement; it is, however, necessary to remember, in judging of Mahomet's conduct, that the
communities which he attacked
were not organized States but societies which recognized no permanent bond save that of blood. With
the exception of the Kuraish, who inhabited a sacred territory, almost every
Arabian tribe was engaged in
perpetual feuds with its neighbors. In founding a community united
solely by religion Mahomet necessarily placed himself in a position of antagonism to the tribal system, which
required every man to take the part of his fellow-tribesmen against
the members of all other tribes. But
Mahomet was very far from being a cosmopolite of the modern type. Though
his doctrines logically involved the equality of all races, it probably never
occurred to him that it was his duty to
ignore national and tribal distinctions. The authority of the tribal chiefs was not to be overthrown but it was
to be subordinated to a higher
authority, which could be none other than that of the Prophet himself.
Moreover Mahomet's belief in the peculiar sanctity of Mecca rather increased than diminished during his long
exile. Until the House of God had
been purged of idols the main object of the Prophet's mission was still unattained. To win over Mecca to
the true faith seemed therefore a matter of supreme importance.
The first expedition made for
this purpose took place in the year 628. Shortly
before the time of the annual Pilgrimage Mahomet marched towards Mecca
accompanied by several hundreds of his disciples and taking with him a large
number of camels which were marked with badges, according to ancient Arabian
custom, to denote that they were victims intended for sacrifice. If his aim was
to force his way into the city, he
carefully concealed the design, giving out that he and his followers were coming simply as pilgrims, to do
honor to the Meccan sanctuary.
He hoped to convince the Kuraish that Islam would not
in any way interfere with the
privileges which they had hitherto enjoyed, and he persuaded himself that they might thereby be induced
to recognize his claims. But the memory of the bloodshed at his
command and especially of the occasion
on which he had violated the truce of the sacred months was vividly present to the minds of the Meccans, and they
determined on no account to admit him. When he reached Hudaibiya, a place within a few hours' march of Mecca, he found his way blocked by an armed force consisting partly
of Meccans and partly of their
Bedouin allies. A series of negotiations ensued, in the course of which Othman (properly Uthman) ibn
Ann went as Mahomet's agent to Mecca; the selection of this man was
doubtless due to his being a relative of Abu Sufyan and other influential
citizens. During Othman's absence a
rumor that he had been murdered spread through the camp of the Muslims, whereupon Mahomet, fearing, or pretending
to fear, an attack on the part of the Kuraish,
assembled his followers under a tree and required from each of them
a promise that he would on no account
flee, if a conflict took place. To this scene the Koran alludes' as one specially pleasing to God; hence in Muslim tradition it
is called "the Homage of
good pleasure." Almost immediately afterwards Othman returned to Hudaibiya,
bringing, it would seem, proofs that his mission to Mecca had not
been fruitless. The negotiations were accordingly resumed in the Prophet's
camp, whither the Kuraish sent a certain Suhail ibn
Amr as their representative. After prolonged discussion a compromise was agreed upon, whereby Mahomet consented to withdraw for that year, while the Kuraish, on their part, promised that the year following he and his disciples
should be allowed to enter Mecca, without weapons, and remain there
for three days. Furthermore both parties were to refrain from hostilities for
ten years; during that time no member of
the Kuraish who was still a minor might join the
Muslim community without the permission of his parents or guardians, whereas
the sons of Muslims might freely go over to the Kuraish.
The terms of this treaty
appeared at first so unfavorable to Islam that
the more zealous followers of the Prophet, in particular Omar, vehemently protested. Mahomet, however, perceived
that the conditions, humiliating as they might seem, would in the end
turn to his advantage, and he
accordingly adhered to them in spite of the opposition of his too eager disciples. Never was his influence
put to so severe a test and never did he achieve a more signal
triumph. From the moment when the
treaty of Hudaibiya was concluded the number of
conversions to Islam became larger than ever.
According to the ordinary
Muslim tradition, the Prophet about this time took a step which showed that he contemplated the conversion not only of Arabia but of the world—he despatched messengers to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, to the
Persian king, and to various other
foreign potentates, summoning them to recognize his divine mission. But the
evidence for this story is by no means satisfactory, and the details present so many suspicious features that it
may be doubted whether the
narrative rests on any real basis.
629] Battle
of Muta
Soon after his return to
Medina, Mahomet set out on an expedition against Khaibar, where the banished Banu-n-Nadir
had taken refuge. The
Jews, as usual, shrank from a conflict in the open plain and shut themselves
up in their fortresses, which fell one by one into the hands of the Muslims. The vanquished were compelled to
surrender all their wealth,
which was very considerable, but they were permitted to remain at Khaibar as cultivators
of the soil, on condition that half of the produce should be annually made over to the Muslim authorities.
This is the first instance of an
arrangement which was afterwards adopted in most parts of the Muslim Empire where the population consisted of non-Muslims.
Early in the year 629 Mahomet,
with about 2000 followers, carried out his project of visiting Mecca as a pilgrim, in accordance with the treaty
of Hudaibiya. For the stipulated three days he was allowed
to occupy the sacred city and to
perform the traditional ceremonies in the sanctuary. The scene must have been a
curious one, never to be repeated—the great preacher of monotheism publicly doing homage at a shrine filled with idols.
The sight of Mahomet's power deeply impressed the Meccan aristocracy, and two of the most eminent among them, Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-As, took the opportunity of going over to Islam.
Both of these men afterwards played a prominent part in the building
up of the Muslim Empire.
A few months later Islam for
the first time came into conflict with the great Christian power against which it was destined to struggle, with scarcely any intermission, for a period of eight
centuries. In the autumn of the year 629
Mahomet despatched a force of 3000 men, commanded by his adopted son Zaid ibn Haritha, to
the north-western frontier of
Arabia. The reason which most of the historians assign for this expedition is
that a messenger sent by the Prophet had been assassinated, a year earlier, by an Arab
chieftain named Shurahbil, who owned allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor. But
since Ibn Ishak, the oldest
writer who records the expedition, does not allege any pretext for it, the correctness of the aforesaid explanation is
at least doubtful. In any case it is difficult to believe that Mahomet
contemplated an attack on the
Byzantine Empire, for ignorant as he was of foreign countries he must have been aware that an army of 3000 men would
be wholly inadequate for such a
purpose. When the Muslim force reached the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, they found themselves, to their great surprise,
confronted by a much larger army composed partly of Byzantines and partly of
Arabs subject to the Emperor. After some hesitation Zaid ibn Haritha determined to fight. The battle
took place at Muta, a village to the east of the Dead Sea. The
Muslims fought bravely but were totally defeated; among the slain was their
leader Zaid and Jafar, a first cousin of
the Prophet. The recently converted Khalid ibn al-Walid, who had
accompanied the expedition, finally assumed the command and succeeded in
bringing back the greater part of the army safely to Medina.
Capture of Mecca [630
This reverse was quickly
followed by a great success in another quarter. The truce of ten years, established by the treaty of Hudaibiya, might perhaps have been observed faithfully if the matter had
depended solely on the two contracting parties, Mahomet and the Kuraish. But each party was in alliance with certain
Bedouin tribes, and, as anyone might have foreseen, a feud among
the allies was likely to produce a
general rupture. In fact the truce had lasted only a year and a half when Mahomet's allies the Khuzaa were attacked by a small tribe, the Bakr
ibn Abd-Manat, who likewise dwelt in the neighborhood of Mecca and happened to be in alliance with the Kuraish.
Some members of the Kuraish were accused,
rightly or wrongly, of assisting the
Bakr ibn Abd-Manat, whereupon the Khuzaa naturally
complained to Mahomet that the
terms of the treaty had been violated. The Kuraish, on their part, sent Abu Sufyan to Medina, in the hope that hostilities
might be averted. What passed between Abu Sufyan and Mahomet on this occasion
it is, of course, impossible to know with certainty, but it appears highly probable that, as several modern historians have suggested, the ambassador of the Kuraish, realizing the superiority of the
Muslim forces, agreed to facilitate the surrender of Mecca, while the Prophet promised to avoid all
unnecessary bloodshed. No sooner had Abu Sufyan returned to his native city
than Mahomet collected an army
of about 10,000 men, chiefly Bedouins, and marched southwards. But
he abstained from declaring war against the Kuraish and endeavoured to
conceal the real object of his expedition. On the way he was met by his uncle Abbas, who at length
professed himself a convert to
Islam and joined the Prophet's army. About the end of January 630 the Muslims were encamped within sight
of Mecca. No one could now doubt what was Mahomet's aim, but very
few of the Meccans showed any
inclination to risk their lives in defence of the
city. With the exception of a small band who perished in a
fruitless skirmish, the citizens,
following the advice of Abu Sufyan, threw away their arms, retired into their
houses and suffered the conqueror to enter unopposed. Mahomet, on taking possession of the city, at once
proclaimed a general amnesty,
from which only ten persons were by name excluded; even of these the majority soon obtained pardon. He
then proceeded to destroy the
idols with which the city abounded; it was even thought necessary to efface some of the paintings which
adorned the interior of the
Kaba. A curious legend relates that while this process of purification was being carried out one of the Meccan
goddesses, called Naila, suddenly appeared in the form of a black woman
and fled away shrieking — an
example of the belief, familiar to us from early Christian literature, that
the pagan deities are devils. But while many of the ancient gods vanished forever, one at least remained and in
fact has continued to the present
day. A certain black stone, which formed part of the wall of the Kaba, was regarded by the heathen Arabs with
extraordinary veneration; the
practice of kissing this object and of stroking it with the hand was not only tolerated but expressly
sanctioned by the Prophet. That
such fetish-worship disgusted some of his own followers appears evident from a saying ascribed to the Caliph Omar.
How far Mahomet's policy in
these matters was due to genuine superstition and how far to the desire of conciliating the heathen cannot be
determined; but it is certain
that a large part of the ancient cult was adopted into Islam with little change. For this it was necessary to
devise some historical justification; accordingly the Prophet gave
out, perhaps in good faith, that the
Meccan sanctuary had been originally founded by Abraham and that the ceremonial practiced in it was a
divine institution though it
had been partially corrupted through the perversity of men. The Meccans, it is
needless to say, gladly accepted the theory which tended, on the whole, to enhance the prestige of their
city. Henceforth the Kuraish, who had so
long opposed the new religion, were among its firmest adherents, if
not from conviction at least from self-interest.
The news of the capture of
Mecca spread a panic among some of the
neighboring tribes of Bedouins. It is not probable that they were much influenced by religious feeling, but they
dreaded the loss of their independence. An army was quickly brought
together, consisting of several tribes
who bore the collective appellation of Hawazin; the most prominent members of the coalition were the Thala
a tribe to which the inhabitants of the town of Taif belonged. Mahomet at
once marched from Mecca with a much larger force and encountered
the Hawazin in the valley of Hunain. The Muslims, in spite of their numerical
superiority, were at first thrown into confusion by the onslaught of the enemy,
and the Prophet himself was in great peril; the troops from Medina, however, succeeded in turning the tide of
battle. At length the Hawazin
were not only routed but were forced to abandon their women and children, together with a vast
quantity of flocks and herds
which, after the fashion of the Bedouins, they had brought into the battlefield. Immediately after the victory
Mahomet proceeded to besiege
Taif, but the inhabitants of the town defended it with unusual vigour and the Muslims were soon obliged to retreat.
This discomfiture, however, does not
seem to have injured the Prophet's cause, for a few days later the majority of the Hawazin announced
their intention of adopting
Islam. The new converts received back their wives and children, but
the rest of the booty taken at Hunain was distributed among the victors. Nor did the people of Taif long remain faithful to their old religion; after an
interval of about half a year they entered into negotiations with
the Prophet and finally submitted to his authority.
Expedition to Tabuk [630-632
In the autumn of this year
(630) a report reached Medina that a great Byzantine army was advancing into Arabia from the northwest.
The report was certainly false; whether Mahomet believed it or merely utilized it as a pretext for a raid it is
impossible to say. In any case he collected all his forces and
marched with them as far as Tabuk, which
is about 300 miles to the north-west of Medina. As no Byzantines appeared to oppose him, the only result of
his expedition was the subjugation
of some small Jewish and Christian settlements in the north of Arabia. Both Jews and Christians were allowed to
retain their property and the
right to profess their religion, on condition that they paid a
yearly tribute, the amount of which was fixed in each case by a special treaty.
On the occasion of the next
annual Pilgrimage, in the spring of 631, Mahomet
issued a solemn proclamation, now contained in chap. IX of the Koran, whereby heathens were thenceforth
excluded from participation in the
Pilgrimage and the cult of the Kaba. The following year the Prophet
himself performed the Pilgrimage and finally settled the details of the ceremonies to be observed in
connection with it. During all subsequent ages this institution,
notwithstanding its purely heathen origin, continued to be the great bond
whereby Muslims of all parties were
held together. Such a result could not have been attained by the
Koran alone or by any abstract creed however carefully formulated.
Another matter which he
undertook to regulate at about the same time
was the sacred Calendar. Till then the Arabs, so far as can be ascertained, had
reckoned by solar years but by lunar months, that is to say, they followed the
practice, which appears to have been common among the Semitic nations, of inserting an intercalary month from time to time so as to adjust the year to the
seasons. But as their notions
of astronomy were of the crudest sort, much confusion naturally arose. This the Prophet, who was equally ignorant,
endeavored to remedy by
announcing, in the name of God, that thenceforth the year was
always to consist of twelve lunar months. Accordingly the Muslim year was
altogether dissociated from the natural seasons, for which reason the more civilized Muslim nations are
obliged to have a civil
Calendar, consisting of Persian, Syrian or Coptic months, as the case
may be, in addition to the sacred Calendar.
Soon after his return to Medina, Mahomet made
preparations for another campaign
against the Byzantines, but before the expedition had started he was seized
with fever and expired, in the arms of Aisha, on Monday, 7 June
632. Of his last utterances there are various accounts, many of which are
obvious fabrications designed to support the claims of rival candidates for the Caliphate. That he
ever appointed a successor is highly improbable.
It would be vain to attempt an enumeration of the
conflicting judgments which have been passed on his character and his work,
not only by fanatical devotees and
opponents but even by scientific historians. The immense majority of the
attacks published in Europe may be safely ignored, since they were made at a time when the most trustworthy sources of information had not yet come to light.
During the last two or three
generations more favorable estimates have been formed, but it would be a grave mistake to suppose that even at
the present day there is anything like a consensus of opinion on
this subject among those who are most qualified to judge. One of the greatest
Orientalists that ever lived has
recently stated that having, in his younger days, planned a work on
the history of the early Muslim Empire he was finally deterred from carrying
out the scheme by his inability to offer any satisfactory account of the
Prophet's character. This example should suffice to inspire diffidence.
In discussing the subject there are two opposite
dangers which we must constantly strive
to avoid. On the one hand, we should beware of assuming that Mahomet's doctrine and policy were
determined solely by his own personal qualities. Much that strikes
us as peculiar in his preaching may in
reality be due to his Jewish or Christian informants. It is
likewise clear that the spread of his religion was largely governed by factors over which he had no control. All the
evidence tends to show that
during the first few years of his propaganda he never dreamt of acquiring political power. He strove, it is
true, to convert Mecca as a
whole,' and not merely a few individuals, to the true faith; but this was not in view of an earthly kingdom—it was in
view of the impending Day of
Judgment. Even when at length circumstances placed him in the
position of a ruler his authority rested much more on the voluntary
co-operation of his followers than on any material resources that were at his command. It has often been suggested in recent
times that the religious movement of which Mahomet was the head
coincided with a great national
movement on the part of the Arabs who, it is said, had already developed, independently of Islam, a sense
of their superiority to other
races and were eager to overrun the neighboring countries. On this
question it is difficult to pronounce a definite opinion, since nearly all our information about the Arabs of that
period comes through Muslim channels. But in any case there can be
no doubt that in the diffusion of Islam the national feelings of the Arabs
played a very important part.
On the other hand, we must not fall into the error of
ignoring the extraordinary influence exerted by the Prophet over his disciples,
an influence which was apparently due
quite as much to his moral as to his intellectual qualities. The confidence
which he inspired may seem to us undeserved, but it is only just to acknowledge
that he used his immense power
much oftener for the purpose of restraining than for the purpose of
stimulating fanaticism.
CHAPTER XITHE EXPANSION OF THE SARACENS - THE EAST |
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