246 



MOHAMMED 



which at first consisted merely of brief, rhymed 

 sentence* in the manner of the ancient Arabic 

 soothsayers. The Meccans did not object to Ids 

 doing-; they coniiiilered him a common ' poet ' or 

 'soothsayer.' who. moreover, was not in his right 

 M-II-,-. c.i was -imply ;i li:ir. t Iradually. however, 

 as the niimlxT of his converts increased, they liegan 

 to pay more and more attention to his proceedings ; 

 and finally, fearing mostly for the sacredness of 

 Mecca, which the new doctrine might abolish, they 

 rose in fierce opposition against the new prophet 

 and his adherents who dared ' to call their ancient 

 gods idols, and their ancestors fools. ' The Knreish 

 now demanded that Aim Talih should silence or 

 surrender his nephew. Abu Talib refnsed. Mmiy 

 of the converte<l slaves and freedmen had to under- 

 go terrible punishments ; and others suffered so 

 much at the hands of their own relatives that 

 they were fain to revoke their creed. A hundred 

 believers, on the prophet's own advice, emigrated 

 to Abyssinia. Mohammed himself, although pro- 

 tected by the stronjj arm of Abu Talib, was yet at 

 that time so low-spirited and fearful that, before 

 an assembly of the Koreish, he raised three of the 

 idols to mediatorial beings between God and man 

 a dictum, however, which he next day revoked 

 as an inspiration of Satan, thereby increasing the 

 hatred of his adversaries. All the Hashimi family 

 were now excommunicated, and all except Aim 

 Lahab retired to Abu Talib's ravine in the moun- 

 tains east of Mecca. After two years they were 

 restored when on the brink of starvation. 



A great grief befell Mohammed at this time his 

 faithful wife Khadija died, and, shortly afterwards, 

 liis uncle Abu Talib ; and, to add to his miser)-, the 

 vicissitudes of his career had reduced him by this 

 time to poverty. An emigration to Taif proved a 

 failure ; it was with great dilliculty that he escaped 

 with his life. Shortly after his return from Tail he 

 married Sauda, and he afterwards so increased the 

 number of his wives that at his death he still left 

 nine, of whom Ayeshah, the daughter of Abu lickr, 

 and Hafsa, the daughter of Omar, are best known. 

 In the midst of his vain endeavours to find a hear- 

 ing in his own city, lie succeeded, during a pilgrim- 

 age, in converting several men from Medina, whose 

 inhabitants had long been accustomed to hear from 

 the numerous Jews there the words Revelation, 

 Prophecy, (Jod's Word, Messiah. The seed sown 

 in the minds of these men Ixire a fruitful harvest. 

 While he waited for the next pilgrimage he had in 

 \i-ion his night journey to heaven, the relation of 

 which caused even his staunchest adherents to smile 

 at his hallucination. The next pilgrimage brought 

 twelve, and the third more than seventy adherents 

 to the new faith from Medina, and with these he 

 entered into a close alliance. Mohammed now 

 conceived the plan to seek refuge in the friendly 

 city of Medina, and almut June 622 A.D. he fled 

 thither. Alioul one hundred families of his faith- 

 ful flock hod preceded him some time liefore, 

 accompanied by Abu liekr, and reached, not with 

 out danger, the town, called thence Medinat An- 

 nabi ( ' City of the I'rophet ' ), or Medina ('City'), 

 by way of eminence; and Mom this Might dales 

 the Mohammedan Kra, the Hegira (i|.v. ). 



Now e\ cry I hing was changed to the advantage of 

 the prophet and his religion ; and if formerly the 

 incident* of his life are shrouded in comparative 

 obscurity, they are from this date known often 

 to their most insignificant details. Formerly a 

 despised 'mailman or impostor,' he now assumed 

 at once the position of highest judge, lawgiver, and 

 ruler of the city and two most powerful Arabic 

 trilx's. His tint care was directed towards the 

 consolidation of the new worship, and the inner 

 arrangements in the congregation of his flock; his 

 next chief endeavour was to proselytise the numer- 



ous Jews who inhabited the city, to whom he made 

 many ini|tortant concessions also in the outer ob- 

 servances of Islam, but he was sorely disa|i|>intcd 

 in his hopes to convert them. They ridiculed his 



1>retension to be the Messiah, and so enraged him 

 iy their constant taunts that he soon abrogated his 

 concessions and l>ecame their bitterest adversary up 

 to the hour of his death. The most ini|>ortant act 

 in the first year of the Ilegiia was liis permission 

 to go to war with the enemies of Islam in the name 

 of God a kind of manifesto ehielly directed against 

 the Meccans. Not l>eing able at first to tight his 

 enemies in open Held, he endeavoured to weaken 

 their imwer by attacking the caravans of the 

 Koreish on their way to Syria. Being successful 

 enough to disturb their tiadc ami to conclude 

 alliances with the adjoining Itedouin tiil.es. he at 

 last dared to break even the peace of the sacred 

 month of Iladjab, ami with this the signal to open 

 warfare was given. A battle, the first, between 

 314 Moslems and about GOO Meccans was fought 

 at Badr, in the second year of the Hegira, Decem- 

 ber 623; the former gained the victory and made 

 many prisoners. A great nmnlx>r of adventurers 

 now flocked to Mohammed, and lie successfully 

 continued his expeditions against the Koreish and 

 the Jewish tribes, ehielly the licni Keinuka, of a 

 suburb near Medina, whom he sent destitute into 

 exile; and the Iteni Kureidhah of another suburb, 

 700 of whom he In-headed after the victory, while 

 the women and children were. sold. In January 

 t ;-'"> the Meccans defeated him at Ohod, where he 

 was dangerously wounded. The siege of Medina 

 by the Meccans in 627 was frustrated by Moham- 

 med's ditch and earthworks. In 6 A.H. he pro- 

 claimed a public pilgrimage to Mecca. Although 

 the Meccans did not allow this to be carried out, 

 he gained the still greater advantage that they 

 concluded a term of peace with him at Hildaihiyeh 

 for ten years. He was now allowed to scud his 

 missionaries all over Arabia, ami even licyond the 

 frontiers, without any hindrance; and in t he follow- 

 ing year he had the satisfaction of celebrating the 

 pilgrimage with 2000 followers for three days un- 

 distuilx'd at Mecca. Shortly afterwards, during 

 his expeditions against the Jews of Chailiar and 

 Fadak, Mohammed very nearly lost his life : a 

 Jewess, /ainali by name, a relative of whom had 

 fallen in the light against him. placed a |>oisoned 

 piece of roast meat U'fore him. and although he 

 merely tasted it he vet up to his death suffered 

 from "the effect* of the poison. His missionaries 

 at this time legan to carry his doctrines abroad. 

 He wrote letters demanding the conversion of 

 ( 'hosroes II., of Ileraclius, of the king of Abyssinia, 

 the Viceroy of F.gypt, and the chiefs of se\eial 

 Arabic provinces. Some received the new gospel, 

 but ('hosroes II., the king of Persia, ami Aiuru the 

 < .h.i-ssanide rejected his proposals with scorn, and 

 the latter hat) the messenger executed in Moab. 

 This was tlic cause of the tiist war lietween the 

 Christians and the Moslems, in which the latter 

 were beaten with great loss by Amru. Some 

 Meccans having taken part in a war between 

 tribe in their alliance and another in Mohammed's 

 alliance, he marched at the head of 10,000 men 

 against Mecca before its inhabitants had had time 

 to prepare for the siege. It surrendered, and Moham- 

 med was publicly recognised as chief and prophet. 

 With this the victory of the new religion was 

 secured in Arabia. While employed in destroying 



all traces of idolatry in the' captured city Mohami 1 



heard of new armies which several warlike Arabic 

 tril.es had concentrated near Talf (630). _ There 

 again he was victorious, and now his dominion and 

 creed extended farther and farther every day. From 

 all r^art* Hocked the deputations to do homage 

 to him in the name of the various tribes, either as 



