THE TYRANNY OF WAR
"And we have sent down Iron. Dire evil resideth in it, as well as
advantage to mankind."--_The Kuran._
After the battle of Ohod, two months passed quietly for Mahomet. He was
unable to undertake any aggressive expeditions, and both the Jews at
Medina and the exterior desert tribes were lulled into tranquillity by
the knowledge that his power was for the time considerably weakened. But
the Prophet knew that this security could not continue for long, and for
the character of his future wars he was fully prepared--sufficient proof,
if one were still necessary, of his skill as soldier and leader.
He knew the Kureisch had instituted a policy of alliance with the
surrounding tribes, and that now their plan would be to crush him by a
ceaseless pressure from the east, united to the inevitable disaffection
within the city as its inhabitants witnessed the decline of their
leader's power. Watchfulness and severity were the only means of holding
his position, and these two qualities he used with a tenacity which alone
secured his ultimate success.
The first threatenings came from the Beni Asad, a powerful tribe
inhabiting the country directly east of Medina. Under their chief
Tuleiha, they planned a raid against Mahomet. But his excellent system of
espionage stood him, now as always, in good stead, so that he heard of
their scheme before it was ripe, and despatched 150 men to frustrate it.
The Beni Asad were wise enough to give up the attempt after Mahomet's men
had found and plundered their camp. They dispersed for the time being,
and the danger of an attack was averted. But scarcely had the expedition
returned when news came of another gathering at Orna, between Mecca and
Taif. Again Mahomet lost no time, but sent a force large enough to
disperse them in a skirmish, in which the chief of the Lahyan tribe was
killed.
In the next month Mahomet sent six of his followers to Mecca, probably as
spies, but they were not allowed to reach their goal in safety. At Raja
they fell in with a party of the Beni Lahyan proceeding the same way. The
men were armed, and Mahomet's followers were glad to accompany them,
because of the additional security. At the oasis the party encamped for
the night, and the Muslim prepared unsuspectingly for sleep. At dead of
night they were surrounded by their professed friends, who were resolved
on revenge for the murder of their chief. Four were killed, and two, Zeid
and Khubeib, taken bound to Mecca, whose citizens gloated over their
prey. Legends in plenty group themselves around these two figures--the
first real martyrs for Islam, and one of the most profound testimonies to
the love which Mahomet inspired in his followers is given traditionally
in a few significant sentences dealing with the episode.
The prisoners were kept a month before being led to the inevitable
torture. Abu Sofian, the scoffer, came to Zeid as he was preparing to
face his death.
"Wouldst thou not, O Zeid," he asked, "that thou wert once more with thy
family, and that Mahomet suffered in thy place?"
"By Allah! I would not that Mahomet should suffer the smallest prick from
a thorn; no, not even if by that means I could be safe once more among my
kindred."
Then the enemy of Islam marvelled at his words and said: "Never have I
seen among men such love as Mahomet's followers bear towards him."
And after that Zeid was put to death. Mahomet was powerless to retaliate,
and was obliged to suffer from afar the murder of his fellow-believers.
The fate of these six Muslim gave courage to Mahomet's enemies
everywhere, and prompted even his friends to treachery. The Beni Aamir,
a branch of the great Hawazin tribe dwelling between the Beni Asad and
the Beni Lahyan, were friendly towards Medina, and sent Mahomet gifts as
a guarantee. These Mahomet refused to receive unless the tribe became
converts to Islam. He knew the danger of compromise--his Meccan
experiences had not faded from his mind; moreover, he recognised that in
his present weakened position firmness was essential. He could not open
the gates of his fortress even a chink without letting in a flood before
which it must topple into ruin.
But their chief would not be so coerced, neither would he give up his
ancestral faith without due examination of that offered in its stead. He
demanded that a party of Muslim should accompany him back to his own
people and strive by reasoning and eloquence to convert them to Islam.
After much deliberation, for he was chary of sending any of his chosen to
what would be swift death in the event of treachery, Mahomet consented,
and gave orders for a party of men skilled in their faith to accompany
Abu Bera back to his people. The men were received in all honour, and
were escorted as befitted their position as far as Bir Mauna, where they
halted, and a Muslim messenger was sent with a letter to the chief of
another branch of the same tribe. This leader, Aamir ibn Sofail,
immediately put the messenger to death, and called upon his allies to
exterminate the followers of the blasphemous Prophet. But the tribe
refused to break Abu Bera's pledge, so Aamir, determined to root them
out, appealed to the Beni Suleim, Mahomet's avowed enemies, and with
their aid proceeded to Bir Mauna. There they fell upon the band of Muslim
and slaughtered them to a man, then returned to their desert fastnesses,
proudly confident in their ability to elude pursuit. The news was carried
to Mahomet, and at first he was convinced that Abu Bera had betrayed him.
His followers, who had brought the news, had fallen upon and killed some
luckless members of the Beni Aamir in reprisal, and Mahomet acclaimed
their action. When, however, he heard from Abu Bera that he and his tribe
had been faithful to their pledge, he paid blood money for the murdered
men; then calling his people together he solemnly cursed each tribe by
name who had dared to attack the Faithful by treachery.
But the incident did not end here. Mahomet could not compass the
destruction of the Beni Aamir; they were too powerful and dwelt too far
off for his vengeance to assail them, but the Beni Nadhir, the second
Jewish tribe within the Prophet's territory, were near, and they were
confederate with the treacherous people. Mahomet's action was swift and
effective. Force was his only temporal weapon; compulsion his only
policy.
The command went forth through the lips of Mosleima:
"Thus saith the Prophet of the Lord: Ye shall go forth out of my land
within a space of ten days; whosoever that remaineth behind shall be
put to death."
The Beni Nadhir were aghast and trembling. They urged their former
treaties with Mahomet, and the antiquity of their settlements. It was
impossible that they should break up their homesteads thus suddenly and
depart forlorn into an unknown land. But Mahomet was obdurate, with that
same fixity of purpose which was everywhere the keynote of his dominance.
"Hearts are changed now," was the only reply to their prayers, their
entreaties, and their throats. Abdallah, leader of the Beni Aus and
Khazraj, sought desperately for a reconciliation, but to no purpose; the
die was cast. Then the Jews, brought to bay and careless with the despair
of impotence, refused to obey the command, and prepared to encounter the
wrath of Allah and the vengeance of his emissary.
"Behold the Jews prepare to fight: great is the Lord!" the Prophet
declared when the news was brought to him.
He was sure of his victim, and ruthless in destruction. All things were
made ready for the undertaking. The army was assembled and the march
begun. Ali carried the great green banner of the Prophet towards the
stronghold of his enemies. The Beni Nadhir were invested in their own
quarters, the date trees lying outside their fort were burned, their
fields were laid waste. For three weeks the siege endured, each day
bringing the miserable garrison nearer to the inevitable privations and
final surrender. At last the Jews recognised the hopelessness of their
lot and came to reluctant terms, submitting to exile and agreeing to
depart immediately.
Then followed the terrible breaking up of homes, and the wandering forth
of a whole tribe, as of old, to seek other dwelling-places. Some went to
Kheibar, where they were to suffer later on still more severely at
Mahomet's hands; some went to Jericho and the highlands south of Syria,
but all vanished from their ancient abiding places as suddenly as if a
plague had reduced their land to silence. It was an important conquest
for Mahomet, and has found fitting notice in the Kuran. The number of his
enemies within the city was considerably reduced. He was gradually
proving his power by breaking up the Jewish federations, and thereby
advancing far towards his goal, his unassailable, almost royal dominance
of Medina. Moreover, he bound the refugees closer to him by dividing the
despoiled country amongst them. It was an event worthy of incorporation
into the record of divine favours, for by it the sacred cause of Islam
had been rendered more triumphant.
"God is the mighty, the wise! He it is who caused the unbelievers among
the people of the Book to quit their homes. And were it not that God had
decreed their exile, surely in this world would he have chastised them:
but in the world to come the chastisement of the fire awaiteth them. This
because they set them against God and His Apostle, and whoso setteth him
against God--! God truly is vehement in punishing."
The sura ends in a mood of fierce exultation unrivalled by any ecstatic
utterances of his early visions. It is the measure of his relief at his
first great success since the humiliation of Ohod. His fervour beats
through it like the clamour of waters, in whose triumphant gladness no
pauses are heard.
"He is God, beside whom there is no God: He is the King, the Holy, the
Peaceful, the Faithful, the Guardian, the Mighty, the Strong, the Most
High! Far be the glory of God from that which they unite with Him! He is
God, the Producer, the Maker, the Fashioner! To Him are ascribed excellent
titles. What ever is in the Heavens and in the Earth praiseth Him. He is
the Mighty, the Wise!"
The expulsion of the Beni Nadhir was a brutal, but necessary act. The
choice lay between their security and his future dominion, and he
uprooted their dwellings as ruthlessly as any conqueror sets aside the
obstacles in his path. Half measures were impossible, even dangerous, and
Mahomet was not afraid to use terrible means to achieve his all-absorbing
end. He had avowedly accepted the behests of the sword, and did not
repudiate his master. The hated Jews were enemies of his God, whose
vicegerent he now ranked himself; their ruin was in the divinely
appointed order of the world.
The time was soon at hand when, by arrangement, the Medinan army was to
repair to Bedr to meet the Kureisch. The Meccans sent a messenger in
Schaban (Nov. 625) to Mahomet, saying that they were prepared to advance
against him with 2000 foot and 50 horse. This large army did in reality
set out, but was soon forced to return, owing to lack of supplies and
scarcity of food.
The message was sent mainly in the hope of intimidating the Muslim, but
Mahomet was probably as well informed of the Kureisch movements as they
were themselves, and knew that no real attack was possible. He therefore
determined to show both friends and enemies that he was ready to meet
his foes. The Muslim were not very agreeable, knowing what fate had
decreed at their last encounter with the Meccans, but Mahomet's stern
determination prevailed. He declared that he would go to Bedr even if he
went alone, and so collected by sheer force of will 1500 men. He marched
to Bedr, held camp there for eight days, during which, of course, no
demonstration was made, and the whole expedition was turned into a
peaceable mercantile undertaking. When all their goods had been
profitably sold or exchanged, Mahomet broke up the camp and returned in
triumph to Medina. His prestige had certainly been much increased by this
unmolested sortie. It was therefore in a glad and confident mood that he
returned to his native city and prepared to enjoy his success.
He took thereupon two wives, Zeinab and Omm Salma, of whom very little is
known, except that Zeinab was the widow of Mahomet's cousin killed at
Bedr. The incident of his marriage with Zeinab finds allusion in the
Kuran in the briefest of passages. She was probably taken as much out of
a desire to protect as a desire to possess, and she quickly became one of
the many with whom Mahomet was content to pass a few days and nights.
There are also signs in the Kuran at this time of disagreements between
the different members of his household, and of their extravagant demands
upon Mahomet.
It was evidently not so easy to rule his wives as to acquire them.
Moreover, he was beginning to feel the sting of jealousy towards every
other man of the Muslim.
Here really begins the insistence upon restrictive regulations for women
which has been ever since the bane of Islam. Mahomet could not allow his
wives to go abroad freely, decked in the ornaments he himself had
bestowed, to become a mark for every envious gazer. They were not as
other women, and his imperious nature regarded them as peculiarly
inviolate, so that he fenced in their actions and secluded their lives.
As early as his marriage with Zeinab he imposed restrictions upon women's
dress abroad. They are not to traverse the streets in jewels or beautiful
robes, but are to cover themselves closely with a long sober garment.
Whereas his former sura regarding women had been confined to codifying
and rendering fairer divorce and property laws, now the personal note
sounds strongly, and continues throughout the whole of his later
pronouncements, regarding Muslim women. The next few months were to see
dangers and disturbances in his domestic life which were to fix the
position of women in Islam throughout the coming centuries, but before he
had long completed his latest marriage he was called away upon another
necessary expedition. Thus casually, almost from purely personal
considerations, was the law regarding the status of women established in
Islam. His ordinances have the savour of their impetuous creator, who
found in the subject sex no opposition against the writing down, in their
most sacred book, of those decrees which rendered their inferior position
permanent and authorised. It was Allah speaking through the lips of His
Prophet, and they submitted with willing hearts with no shadow of the
knowledge of all it was to mean to their descendants darkening their
minds.
In Muharram of 626 the Beni Ghatafan, always formidable on account
of their size and their desert hinterland, assembled in force at
Dzat-al-Rica. Mahomet determinedly marched against them, and once more at
the news of his approach their courage failed them, and they fled to the
mountains. Mahomet came unexpectedly upon their habitations, carried off
some of their women as slaves, and returned to Medina after fifteen days,
having effectively crushed the incipient rising against him. The event is
chiefly important as being the occasion which led Mahomet to institute
the Service of Danger described in the Kuran, whereby half the army
prayed or slept while the other watched. A body of men was therefore kept
constantly under arms while the army was in the field, and public prayers
were repeated twice.
"And when ye go forth to war in the land, it shall be no crime in you to
cut short your prayers.... And when thou, O Apostle, shalt be among
them and shalt pray with them, then let a party of them rise up with
thee, but let them take their arms; and when they shall have made their
prostrations, let them retire to your rear: then let another party that
hath not prayed come forward, and let them pray with you; but let them
take their precautions and their arms."
The military organisation is being gradually perfected, so that the
Mahometan sword may finally be in the perpetual ascendant. This was the
chief significance of a campaign which at best was only an interlude in
the daily life of prayer, civil and domestic cares and regulations which
took up Mahomet's life in the breathing space before the great Meccan
attack.
Mahomet was absent from Medina but fifteen days, and he returned home
resolved to take advantage of the respite from war. Not long after his
return he happened to visit the house of Zeid, his adopted son, and
chanced not on Zeid, but on his wife at her tiring. Mahomet was filled
with her beauty, for her loveliness was past praise, and he coveted her.
Zeinab herself was proud of the honour vouchsafed her, and was willing,
indeed anxious, to become divorced for so mighty a ruler. Zeid, her
husband, with that measureless devotion which the Prophet inspired in his
followers, offered to divorce her for him. Mahomet at first refused,
declaring it was not meet that such a thing should be, but after a time
his desire proved too strong for him, and he consented. So Zeinab was
divorced, and passed into the harem of the Prophet. And he justified the
proceedings in Sura 33:
"And when Zeid had settled concerning her
to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it
might not be a crime in the Faithful to marry
the wives of their adopted sons, when they have
settled the affair concerning them.... No
blame attacheth to the Prophet when God hath
given him a permission."
There follows the sum of Mahomet's restrictions upon the dress and
demeanour of women. They are to veil their faces when abroad, and suffer
no man but their intimate kinsmen to look upon them. The Faithful are
forbidden to go near the dwelling-places of the Prophet's wives without
his permission, nor are they even to desire to marry them after the
Prophet is dead. By such casual means, by decrees born out of the
circumstances of his age and personal temperament, did Mahomet institute
the customs which are more vital to the position and fate of Muslim women
than all his utterances as to their just treatment and his injunctions
against their oppression.
Power was already taking its insidious hold upon him, and his feet were
set upon the path that led to the despotism of the Chalifate and the
horrors of Muslim conquests. Allah is still omnipotent, but He is making
continual and indispensable use of temporal means to achieve His ends,
and His servant does likewise.
After the interlude of peace, Mahomet was called upon in July, 626,
to undertake a punitive expedition to Jumat-al-Gandal, an oasis
midway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Persia. The expedition was
successful, and the marauders dispersed. He had now reached the confines
of Syria, and, with the extension of his expeditionary activities, his
political horizon widened. He began to conceive himself as the predatory
chief of Arabia, one who was regarded with awe and fear by the
surrounding tribes, with the one exception of the stiff-necked city,
Mecca, whose inhabitants he longed in vain to subdue. The success
fostered his love of plunder, and inclined him more than ever to hold out
this reward of valour to his followers. His stern and wary policy was
justified by its success, for by it he had recovered from the severe blow
at Ohod, but it threatened to become his master and set its perpetual
seal upon his life.
In December, 626, he heard of the defection of the Beni Mustalik, a
branch of the Khozaa tribe. They joined the Kureisch for mixed motives,
chiefly political, for they hoped to make themselves and their religion
secure by alliance with Mahomet's enemies. Mahomet learnt of their
desertion through his efficient spies, and determined to anticipate any
disturbance. With Ayesha and Omm Salma to accompany him, and an adequate
army to support him, he set out for the quarters of the Beni Mustalik,
and before long reached Moraisi, where he encamped. The Beni Mustalik
were deserted by their allies, and in the skirmish that followed Mahomet
was easily successful. Their camp was plundered, their women and some of
their men taken prisoner. The expedition was, however, provocative of two
consequences which take up considerable attention in contemporary
records, the quarrel between the Citizens and the Refugees, and the
scandal regarding Ayesha.
The punishment of the Beni Mustalik had been effected, and nought
remained but the division of the spoil. The captives had mostly been
ransomed, but one, a girl, Juweira, remained sorrowfully with the Muslim,
for her ransom was fixed so high that payment was impossible. Mahomet
listened to her tale, and the loveliness of her face and figure did not
escape him.
"Wilt thou hearken to what may be better?" he asked her, "even that I
should pay thy ransom and take thee myself?"
Juweira was thankful for her safety, and rejoiced at her good fortune.
Mahomet married her straightway, and for her bridal gift gave her the
lives of her fellow tribesmen.
"Wherefore," says Ayesha, "Juweira was the best benefactress to her
people in that she restored the captives to their kinsfolk."
But the Citizens and Refugees were by no means so contented. Their
quarrel arose nominally out of the distribution of spoil, but really it
was a long smouldering discontent that finally burst into flame. Mahomet
was faced with what threatened to be a serious revolt, and only his
orders for an immediate march prevented the outbreak of desperate
passions--greed and envy.
Abdallah, their ubiquitous leader, is chidden in the Kuran, where the
whole affair brings down the strength of Mahomet's scorn upon his
offending people.
The camp broke up immediately, and through its hasty departure Ayesha was
faced with what might have been the tragedy of her life. Her litter was
carried away without her by an oversight on the part of the bearers, and
she was left alone in the desert's velvet dusk with no alternative but to
await its return. The dark deepened, adding its mysterious vastness and
silence to trouble her already tremulous mind. In the first hours of the
night Safwan, one of Mahomet's rear, came towards her as she sat forlorn,
and was amazed to find the Prophet's wife in such a position. He brought
his mule near her, then turned his face away as she mounted, so as to
keep her inviolate from his gaze. Closely veiled, and trembling as to her
meeting with Mahomet, Ayesha rode with Safwan at her bridle until the
next day they came up with the main column.
Now murmurs against her broke out on all sides. Mahomet refused to
believe her story, and remained estranged from her until she asked
permission to return to her father as her word was thus doubted. Ali was
consulted by the Prophet, and he, with that antagonism towards Ayesha
which germinated later into open hatred, was inclined to believe her
defamers. At last the outcry became so great that Mahomet called upon
Allah. Entering his chamber in Medina, he received the signs of divine
inspiration. When the trance was over, he declared that Ayesha was
innocent, and revealed the passage dealing with divorce in Sura 24:
"They who defame virtuous women and bring not four witnesses, scourge
them with fourscore stripes, and receive ye not their testimony forever,
for these are perverse persons.... And they who shall accuse their wives,
and have no witnesses but themselves, the testimony of each of them shall
be a testimony by God four times repeated, that He is indeed of them that
speak the truth."
The revelation ends with a repetition of the restrictions imposed upon
women and an injunction to the Muslim not to enter each other's houses
until they have asked leave. This was a necessary ordinance in that
primitive community, where bolts were little used and there was virtually
no privacy, and was designed, in common with most of his present
utterances, to encourage the leading of decent, well-regulated lives by
the followers of so magnificent a faith. Ayesha's defamers were publicly
scourged, and the matter dismissed from the Muslim mind, save that
regulations had once more been framed upon personal feelings and specific
events, and were to constitute the whole future law regarding an
important and difficult question.
Mahomet was justly content with the position of affairs after the
dispersion of the Beni Mustalik. He had shown his strength to the
surrounding desert tribes; by systematically crushing each rebellion as
it arose, he had demonstrated to them the impossibility of alliance
against him. He knew they were each prone to self-seeking and distrustful
of each other, and he played unhesitatingly upon their jealousies and
passions. Thus he kept them disunited and fearful, afraid even to ally
with his powerful enemy the Kureisch. For after all, the Meccans were his
chief obstacle; their opposition was spirited and urged on by the memory
of past humiliations and triumphs. They alone were really worthy of his
steel, and he knew that, as far as the intermediary wars were concerned,
they were but the prelude to another encounter in the year-long warfare
with his native city.
The drama closes in now upon the protagonists; save for the expulsion of
the last Jewish tribe in the neighbourhood of Medina, there is little to
compare with that central causal hatred. The final hour was not yet, but
the struggle grew in intensity with the passage of time--the struggle
wherein one fought for revenge and future freedom from molestation, but
the other for the establishment of a faith in its rightful environment,
the manifestation before men of that Faith's determined achievement, the
symbol of its destined conquests and divinely appointed power.