THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ISLAMISM
Captain Ringgold permitted the day, which was only the second of the
voyage, to pass away until half past three o'clock in the afternoon
without again calling the conference together. The passengers appeared
to be well occupied; for the boys had brought shuffle-board and the
potato game on the planks, and everybody was enjoying these plays,
either by taking part or looking on. The commander had taught them these
amusements early in their sea experience, and they always became very
hilarious over them.
Besides, he was prudent and judicious in the conduct of the study
department; for the adults were not in training as students, and he was
somewhat afraid of overworking them, and creating a dislike for the
conferences. As he expressed it, he desired to make them hungry for
lectures. The schoolroom, which had been made of the after cabin, and
contained the extensive library of the ship, had been deserted for
several weeks so far as its regular use was concerned.
Miss Blanche, Louis, Morris, and Scott formed a class, or rather several
of them, and pursued their studies systematically under the professor;
but they had been interrupted by the visit to Egypt and the trip to
Cyprus, and their work was not resumed till the ship sailed from Suez.
The recitations and the study were not confined to the classroom, but
some of them were given on deck and in the cabin to individuals as the
convenience of both permitted; and some of the hours of the first two
days had been used in this manner.
"Now you can see Yembo," said the commander at half-past three in the
afternoon, as he pointed out a town on the shore of Arabia. "The name is
spelled in so many different ways it is hard to find it in the books.
Sometimes it is Yembo, Yanba, and Yembu, and again it is Zembo, Zambu,
and Zanba. It is Yembo on my charts, and for that reason I use it. It is
of not much importance except as the port of Medina, the later home of
Mohammed, where the professor will take you at the next conference this
afternoon.
"But it is one hundred and thirty miles from its principal, and there
are no railroads or stages here, and it must be a journey of four or
five days by camel over the desert. A pilgrimage to Medina is
recommended to the faithful; but it is not required, as it is at least
once in a lifetime to Mecca. Mohammed was buried there, and it stands
next to Mecca as the holiest city of the world to the followers of
Islam. But I will not purloin the professor's thunder. On the other side
of the Red Sea is Berenice, the seat of the Egyptian trade with India
in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus; but there is not much besides
ruins there at the present time."
The conference met at four o'clock, and the map of Arabia still hung on
the frame. The professor took his place, and pointed out Yembo on it,
adding that Medina was two hundred and seventy miles north of Mecca.
"When I suspended my remarks this morning, Mohammed had failed to
improve his fortunes by emigration, had returned to Mecca, and had
married again," the professor began. "At his death he left nine wives,
and how many more he may have had I am not informed."
"The wretch!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom.
"The Prophet did not live in Von Blonk Park," suggested the instructor.
"If he had, he would have been driven out of town by a mob," added the
lady rather spitefully for her.
"On this subject, if I should refer you to some of the patriarchs of the
Bible, you would be able to see how much Christianity has improved the
world in this respect. Among the wives of the Prophet was Ayeshah, the
daughter of Abu Bekr, one of Mohammed's most enthusiastic disciples, a
man of great influence in Mecca, belonging to the Koreish tribe, the
religious aristocracy of the city.
"Everything except matrimony, though he had not married all these wives
at this time, was in a bad way with Mohammed; for he had lost his
property, and had excited a violent opposition to himself among the
people, though some of his proselytes remained faithful to him. The
pilgrimages to the Kaaba brought many people to Mecca from all quarters,
including Medina. Among those from the latter he succeeded in converting
several; for he still preached, and still had remarkable visions.
"At the next pilgrimage he obtained twelve more converts, and the one
following seventy. All these new disciples sowed the seed of his
teachings; and Medina, from which all of them came, appeared to contain
the richest soil for the growth of his doctrines. Cast out and
persecuted in his own city, the Prophet decided to emigrate to Medina;
for he was in close alliance with the converts from that place. In 622
he started on his flight from the city of his birth. This was the
Hegira, which means 'the going away;' and from it the Mohammedans reckon
their dates, as we do from the birth of Christ.
"The Prophet was attended by Abu Bekr, and followed by about a hundred
families of his Meccan adherents; and his going away was not without
danger, for his enemies were many and vindictive. But with his multitude
he made his way over the desert, and reached his destination in safety.
He was received for all he claimed to be by his converts there, and the
current of his fortunes as a religious leader was suddenly and entirely
changed. He was no longer a madman and an impostor. He had come out of
his former obscurity, and now all the details of his daily life became
matters of record.
"His modesty did not seem to stand in his way; and he now assumed the
functions of the most powerful judge, lawgiver, and ruler of the two
most influential Arabic tribes. He devoted his time and study to the
organization of the worship of God according to Mohammed, his sole
prophet. He was gathering in converts all the time, and his new home was
entirely favorable to this work.
"There were many Jews there to whom he turned his attention, preaching
to them, and proclaiming that he was the Messiah whose coming they
awaited; but they ridiculed his pretensions, and he became furious
against them, remaining their enemy till the last day of his life.
Whatever good precepts Mohammed promulgated, there appears to have been
but little of the 'meek and lowly' spirit of Him 'who spake as never man
spake;' for in the first year of the Hegira he gave it out that it was
the will of God, expressed by his chosen prophet, that the faithful
should make war on the enemies of Islam; which was a sort of manifesto
directed against the Meccans who had practically cast him out.
"But he had not the means to carry on war at his command at first in the
open field: he assailed the caravans through his agents on their way to
and from Syria, and succeeded in seriously disturbing the current of
trade. His employment of the sons of the desert enabled him to form
alliances with them, and thus obtain the semblance of an army. His first
battle was fought between 314 Moslems and about 600 Meccans, and the
inspiration of his fanaticism gave him the victory in spite of his
inferior force.
"This event gave him a degree of prestige, and many adventurers flocked
to his standard. With an increased force he continued to send out
expeditions against both of his old enemies, the Meccans and the Jews,
exiling the latter. He was generally successful; and after one battle he
caused 700 prisoners to be beheaded, and their women and children to be
sold into slavery. But in 625 the Meccans defeated him; and he was
dangerously wounded in the face by a javelin, some of his teeth having
been knocked out. The enemy then besieged Medina; but Mohammed defeated
them with the aid of earthworks and a ditch. In the sixth year of the
Hegira, he proclaimed a pilgrimage to Mecca; and though the Meccans
prevented it from being carried out, it led to a treaty of peace with
them for ten years.
"This event enabled him to send out missionaries all over Arabia; and
the next year he conducted a pilgrimage to Mecca with 2,000 followers,
remaining there undisturbed for three days. After this he carried on war
vigorously against more potent powers, whose rulers he summoned to
become converts. Some yielded, and others scorned him, one of them
beheading the Prophet's messengers. This brought on battles of greater
magnitude, and in one he was badly beaten.
"He accused the Meccans of taking part against him, and marched against
their city at the head of 10,000 men. It surrendered, and Mohammed was
publicly recognized as ruler, and prophet of God. I will read one of his
sayings, that you may better understand the man and his religion: 'The
sword is the key of heaven and hell: a drop of blood shed in the cause
of God, or a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of
fasting and prayer. Whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven him,
and at the day of judgment the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by
the wings of cherubim.'
"In one of his expeditions against the Jews, a Jewess who had lost a
relative in a fight against him placed a piece of poisoned roast meat
before him. He barely tasted it, but he carried the effects of the
poison to his grave.
"His religion seemed to be firmly established, not only in Arabia, but
it had been carried to foreign lands by the sword or by missionaries. He
had it in his mind to conquer Syria; but the want of a sufficient army
deterred him, and he was forced to content himself with the homage of a
few inferior princes. In the tenth year of the new calendar he made his
last solemn pilgrimage to Mecca, and then fixed for all future time the
ordinance of the pilgrimage with its ceremonial, which is still observed
in all Moslem countries.
"On his return from this visit he busied himself again with the project
of conquering Syria; for some great scheme seemed to be necessary to
keep his followers in alliance, and extend his religion. While so
engaged he was taken dangerously sick. He selected the abode of Ayeshah
as his home. The house was close to the mosque, and afterwards became a
part of it. He continued to attend the public prayers as long as he was
able. When he felt that his end was near, he preached once more to the
people, recommending Abu Bekr and Osama as the generals of the army whom
he had chosen. In the last wanderings of his mind he spoke of angels and
heaven only, and died in the arms of Ayeshah. He was buried in the night
in the house of his faithful wife, which was for that reason taken into
the mosque.
"His death produced great distress and an immense excitement among his
followers. Even before he was dead the struggle began, and an
influential official had prevented him from naming his successor by
preventing him from obtaining the use of writing materials; but Abu Bekr
was preferred, and received the homage of the chief men of Medina.
Undoubtedly Mohammed was a man of great ability, and the possessor of
some extraordinary gifts. There was much that was good in the person and
his religion; much that Christianity preaches as the true faith to-day.
He believed in the one God, however much he failed to comprehend his
attributes.
"He claimed to be the Prophet of God, and preached piety and
righteousness, and recommended chiefly that his followers should protect
the weak, the poor, and the women, and to abstain from usury. In his
private character he was an amiable man, faithful to his friends, and
tender in his family. In spite of the power he finally obtained, he
never appeared in any state, with pomp and parade; for he lived in the
utmost simplicity, and when at the height of his power he dwelt like the
Arabs in general in a miserable hut. He mended his own clothes, and
freed his slaves when he had them.
"He was a man of strong passions, of a nervous temperament, and his
ecstatic visions were perhaps the result of his inherited malady. He is
not to be judged by our standard any more than King Solomon is; but
there was a great deal of good in him, with a vast deal that was
emphatically bad; for he was cunning and deceitful when it suited his
purpose, extremely revengeful, as shown in his dealings with the Meccans
and the Jews, and a wholesale murderer in the spirit of retaliation.
"He had read the Christian Bible, and not a little of his religion was
borrowed from that. Glancing over the world, we cannot help seeing that
Christian nations have been the most progressive, while those of the
Mohammedan faith have been far behind them, and have borrowed their
principal improvements from those whose emblem is the Cross. To the end
of time the Crescent will be overshadowed by the Cross."
The passengers had been much interested in the story of the Prophet, and
the professor was warmly applauded as he gathered up his papers and
retired from the stand.
"Unless we slow down I am afraid you will see nothing of Jiddah, which
is the port of Mecca, and our nearest point to it," said the commander.
"Though thousands of pilgrims are landed there every year on their way
to obey the injunction of Mohammed, there is nothing there to see; and
it is not a case of sour grapes."
"I wanted to ask the professor about the coffin of the Prophet being
suspended in the air," interposed Mrs. Belgrave.
"That is pure fiction, madam," replied the professor. "The body of
Mohammed is believed to rest within the mausoleum in the mosque; and
there is no reason to doubt that it is on the spot occupied by Ayeshah's
house, added to the sacred building. His body is supposed to lie
undecayed at full length, on the right side, the right hand supporting
the head, with the face directed towards Mecca."
The professor had to answer many other questions of no great
importance.