THE FULFILLED PILGRIMAGE
"O ye to whom the Scriptures have been given! Believe in what
we have sent down confirmatory of the Scriptures which is in your
hands, ere we efface your features and twist your head round backward,
or curse you as we cursed the Sabbath-breakers: and the
command of God was carried into effect."
The end of Dzul-Cada saw Mahomet safe in his own city, but with his
promises of booty and warfare for his followers unfulfilled. He remained
a month at Medina, and then sought means to carry out his pact. He had
now determined upon a pure war of aggression, and for this the outcast
Jews of Kheibar offered themselves as an acceptable sacrifice in his
eyes. In Muharram he prepared an expedition against them, important as
being the first of any size that he had undertaken from the offensive. It
is a greater proof of his renewed security and rapidly growing power than
all the eulogies of his followers and the curses of his enemies. The
white standard was placed in the hands of Ali, and the whole host of 1000
strong went up against the fortresses of Kheibar. The Jews were taken
completely off their guard. Without allies and with no stores of food and
ammunition they could make no prolonged resistance. One by one their
forts fell before the Muslim raiders until only the stronghold of Kamuss
remained. Mahomet was exultant.
"Allah Akbar! truly when I light upon the coasts of any people, woe unto
them in that day."
Then he assembled all his men and put the sacred eagle standard at their
head, the white standard with the black eagle embossed, wrought out of
the cloak of his wife, Ayesha. He bade them lead the assault upon Kamuss
and spare nothing until it should fall to them. In the carnage that
followed Marhab, chief of Kheibar, was slain, and at length the Jews were
beaten back with terrible loss. There was now no hope left: the fortress
Kamuss must fall, and with it the last resistance of the Jews. Their
houses, goods, and women were seized, their lands confiscated. Kinana,
the chief who had dared to try and originate a coalition previously
against Mahomet, was tortured by the burning brand and put to death,
while Safia, his seventeen year old bride, passed tranquilly into the
hands of the conqueror. Mahomet married her and she was content, indeed
rejoiced at this sudden change; for, according to legend, she had dreamed
that such honour should befall her.
But all the women of the Jews were not so complacent, and in Zeinab,
sister of Marhab, burned all the fierceness and lust for revenge of which
the proud Hebrew spirit is capable. She would smite this plunderer of her
nation, though it might be by treacherous means. Had he not betrayed her
kindred far more terribly upon the bloody slaughter ground of the
Koreitza? She prepared for his pleasure a young kid, dressed it with
care, and placed it before him. In the shoulder she put the most
effective poison she knew, and the rest of the meat she polluted also.
When Mahomet came to the partaking he took his favourite morsel, the
shoulder, and set it to his lips. Instantly he realised the tainted
flavour. He cried to his companions:
"This meat telleth me it is poisoned; eat ye not of it."
But it was too late to save two of the Faithful, who had swallowed
mouthfuls of it. They died in tortures a few hours afterwards. Mahomet
himself was not immune from its poison. He had himself bled at once, and
immediate evil was averted. But he felt the effects of it ever after, and
attributed not a little of his later exhaustion to the poisoned meats he
had eaten in Kheibar. The woman was put to death horribly, and the Muslim
army hastened to depart from the ill-omened place.
They returned to Medina after several months absence, and there the spoil
was divided. The land as usual was given out to Muslim followers, or the
Jews were allowed to keep their holdings, provided they paid half the
produce as tribute to Mahomet. Half the conquered territory, however, was
reserved exclusively for the Prophet, constituting a sort of crown
domain, whence he drew revenues and profit. Thus was temporal wealth
continually employed to strengthen his spiritual kingdom and put his
faith upon an unassailable foundation.
The expedition to Kheibar saw the promulgation of several ordinances
dealing with the personal and social life of his followers. The dietary
laws were put into stricter practice; the flesh of carnivorous animals
was forbidden, and a severer embargo was laid upon the drinking of
wine--the result of Mahomet's knowledge of the havoc it made among men in
that fierce country and among those wild and passionate souls.
Henceforward also the most careful count was kept of all the booty taken
in warfare, and those who were discovered in the possession of spoil
fraudulently obtained were subject to extreme penalties. All spoil was
inviolate until the formal division of it, which usually took place upon
the battlefield itself or less frequently within Medina. The Prophet's
share was one-fifth, and the rest was distributed equally among the
warriors and companions. Since Islam derived its temporal wealth chiefly
by spoliation, the destiny of its plunder was an important question and
gave rise to frequent disputes between the Disaffected and the Believers
which are mentioned in the Kuran. By now, however, the malcontents were
for the most part silenced, and we hear little disputation after this as
to the apportionment of wealth.
With the return to Medina came the inaugury of Mahomet's extension of
diplomacy--the dream which had filled his mind since the tide of his
fortunes had turned with the Kureisch failure to capture his city. The
year 628, the first year of embassies, saw his couriers journeying to the
princes and emperors of his immediate world to demand or cajole
acknowledgment of his mission. A great seal was engraved, having for its
sign "Mahomet, the Prophet of God," and this was appended to the strange
and incoherent documents which spread abroad his creed and pretensions.
The first embassy to Heraclius was sent in this year summoning him to
follow the religion of God's Prophet and to acknowledge his supremacy. At
the same time the Prophet sent a like missive to the Ghassanide prince
Harith, ally of Heraclius and a great soldier. The envoys were treated
with the contempt inevitable before so strange a request from an unknown
fanatic, and Heraclius dismissed the whole matter as the idle word of a
barbarian dreamer. But Harith, with the quick resentment harboured by
smaller men, asked permission of the Emperor to chastise the impostor.
Heraclius refused; the embassy was not worthy of his notice, and he was
certainly determined not to lose good fighting men in a useless journey
through the desert. So Mahomet received no message in return from the
Emperor, but the omission made no difference to his determination to
proceed upon his course of diplomacy.
He then sent to Siroes of Persia a similar letter, but here he was
treated more rudely. The envoy was received in audience by the king, who
read the extraordinary letter and in a flash of anger tore it up. He did
not ill-treat the messenger, however, and suffered him to return to his
own land.
"Even so, O Lord, rend Thou his kingdom from him!" cried Mahomet as he
heard the story of his flouting.
His next enterprise was more successful. The governor of Yemen, Badzan,
nominally under the sway of Persia, had separated himself almost entirely
from his overlord during the unstable rule of Siroes, son of the warrior
Chosroes. Now Badzan embraced Islam, and with his conversion the Yemen
population became officially followers of the Prophet. Encouraged by the
success, Mahomet sent a despatch to Egypt, where he was courteously
received and given two slave girls, Mary and Shirin, as presents. Mary he
kept for himself because of her exceeding beauty, but Shirin was bestowed
upon one of the Companions. Although the Egyptian king did not embrace
Islam, he was kindly disposed towards its Prophet.
The next despatch, to Abyssinia, is distinguished by the importance of
its indirect results. Ever since the small body of Islamic converts had
fled thither for refuge before the persecutions of the Kureisch, Mahomet
had desired to convert Abyssinia to his creed. Now he sent an envoy to
its king enjoining him to embrace Islam, and asking for the hand of Omm
Haliba in marriage, daughter of Abu Sofian and widow of Obeidallah, one
of the "Four Inquirers" of an earlier and almost forgotten time. The
despatch was well received by the governor, who allowed Omm Haliba and
all who wished of the original immigrants to return to their native
country. Jafar, Mahomet's cousin, exiled to Abyssinia in the old
troublous times, was the most famous of these disciples. He was a great
warrior, and found his glory fighting at the head of the armies of the
Prophet at Muta, where he was slain, and entered forthwith upon the
Paradise of joy which awaits the martyrs for Islam. Not long after his
return from Kheibar the Refugees arrived, and Mahomet took Omm Haliba to
wife.
During the remainder of 628 the Prophet held his state in Medina, only
sending out some of his lesser leaders at intervals upon small defensive
expeditions. His position was now secure, but only just as long as his
right arm never wavered and his hands never rested from slaughter. By the
edge of the sword his conquests had been made, by the edge of the sword
alone they would be kept. But it was now necessary only for him to show
his power. The frightened Arab tribes crept away, cowed before his
vigilance, but if the whip were once put out of sight they would spring
again to the attack.
He now receives the title of Prince of Hadaz, how and by whom bestowed
upon him we have no record. Most probably he wrested it himself by force
from the tribes inhabiting that country, and compelled them to
acknowledge him by that sign of overlordship. The year before the
stipulated time for Mahomet to repair once more to Mecca was spent in
consolidating his position by every means in his power. He was resolved
that no weakness on his part should give the Kureisch the chance to
refuse him again the entry into their city. His position was to be such
that any question of ignoring the treaty would be made impossible, and by
the time of Dzul Cada, 629, he had carried out his designs with that
thoroughness of which only he in all Arabia seemed at that period
capable.
Two thousand men gathered round him to participate in the important
ceremony which was for them the visible sign of their kinship with the
sacred city, and its ultimate religious absorption in their own
all-conquering creed. They were clad in the dress of pilgrims, and
carried with them only the sheathed sword of their compact for defence.
But a body of men brought up the rear, themselves in armour, driving
before them pack-camels, whereon rested arms and munitions of all kinds.
Sixty camels were taken for sacrifice, and Mahomet, son of Maslama, with
one hundred horse formed the vanguard, so as to prove a defence should
the passions of the Kureisch overcome their discretion and nullify their
plighted words. Abdallah, the impetuous, would fain have shouted some
defiant words as the cavalcade neared the portals of the city, but Omar
restrained him and Mahomet gave the command.
"Speak ye only these words, 'There is no God but God; it is He that hath
upholden His servant. Alone hath He put to flight the hosts of the
Confederates.'"
So any tumult was prevented and the truce carried out.
Then began one of the most wonderful episodes ever written upon the pages
of history--nothing less than the peaceable emigration for three days of
a whole city before the hosts of one who but a little time since had fled
thence from the persecution of his fellows. All the Meccan armed
population retired to the hills and left their city free for the
completion of Mahomet's religious rites. With the sublimest faith in his
integrity they left their city defenceless at his feet. Truly the
Prophet's magnetism had won him many an adherent and secured him great
triumphs in warfare, but never had his power shone with such lustre as at
the time of his Fulfilled Pilgrimage. The city was left weaponless before
his soldiery, and the dwellers within its walls were content to
trust to the power of a written agreement, which in the hands of an
unscrupulous man would be as effective as a reed against a whirlwind.
Mahomet entered the city, and for three days pitched his tent of leather
beneath the shadow of the Kaaba. He made the sevenfold circuit thereof
and kissed the Black Stone. Thence he journeyed with all his followers to
Safa and Marwa, where he performed the necessary rites, and at which
latter place he sacrificed his victims, drawing them up in line between
himself and the city. Then returning there he asked for and obtained
the hand of Meimuna, sister-in-law of his uncle Abbas, a bold and
characteristic stroke which did much to pave the way for the later
conversion of his uncle and the final enrolment of the chief men of Mecca
upon his side.
This was the last marriage he contracted, and it shows, as so many other
alliances, his keen political foresight and the exercise of his favourite
method of attempting to win over hostile states. He was still the
political leader and schemer, though the ecstasy of religion, symbolised
for him just now in the rites of the Lesser Pilgrimage, had caught him
for the moment in its sweep. Public prayer was offered upon the third day
from the Kaaba itself, and with that the Pilgrimage came to an end.
Mahomet tried earnestly to win over and conciliate the Meccans during
this meagre three days' sojourn, but his task was beyond the power even
of his magnificent energy.
At the end of the third day the Meccans returned.
"Thy time is outrun: depart thou out of our city."
Mahomet answered: "What can it matter if ye allow me to celebrate my
marriage here and make a feast as is the custom?"
But they replied with anger, "We need not thy feasts; depart thou hence."
And Mahomet was reluctantly forced to comply. He had been not without
hope that the Kureisch would be won over to his cause in such great
numbers that he might be suffered to remain as head of a converted Mecca,
and he was loth to see such an unrivalled opportunity slip by without
trying his utmost to gain some kind of permanent foothold in the city of
his desires. But his faith weighed not so well with the Kureisch, and,
having within himself the strength which knows when to desist from
importunity, he quitted the city and retired to Sarif, eight miles away,
where he rested together with his host of believers, now content and
reverent towards the master who had made their dreams incarnate, their
ideals tangible.
At Sarif Mahomet received what was perhaps the best fortune that had come
to him outside his own powerful volition. Khalid, the skilful leader at
Ohod and the greatest warrior the Kureisch possessed, together with Amru,
poet and scholar as well as future warrior and conqueror of Egypt, were
won over to the faith they had so obstinately opposed. They joined
Mahomet at Sarif, and were forthwith appointed among the Companions, the
equals of Ali, Othman and Omar. Following their adherence to the winning
cause came the allegiance to Mahomet of Othman ibn Talha, custodian of
the Kaaba. With these men of weight and influence ranged upon his side,
the chief in war, the supreme in song, and the representative of Meccan
ritualistic life, Mahomet had indeed justification for rejoicing. They
were the first of the famous men and rulers in Mecca to range themselves
with him, and they marked the turn of the tide, which came to its full
flowing with the occupation of the sacred city and the conversion of Abu
Sofian and Abbas.
Slowly, with pain and striving, Mahomet was overcoming the measureless
opposition to things new. Six years of ceaseless effort, warfare and
exhortation, compulsion and rewards were needed to secure for him the
undisputed exercise of his religion in the place that was its sanctuary.
Faith, backed by the strength and wealth of his armies, now gathered in
the choicest of his opponents. The time was come when he was beginning to
taste the wine of success. He had scarcely penetrated the borderland of
that delectable garden, but the first meagre fruit thereof was sweet. It
spurred him on to the perpetual renewal of alertness that he might keep
what he had won and pursue his way to the innermost far-off enclosure,
around the portal of which was written, as a mandate for all the world:
"Bear witness, there is no God but God, and Mahomet is His Prophet."
The Fulfilled Pilgrimage, however, was but the preliminary to his
master-stroke of policy strengthened by force of arms: months of hard
fighting and diplomacy were needed before he could direct the blow that
made his triumph possible. For the time he had simply made clear to
Arabia that Mecca was his holy city, the queen of his would-be dominion,
and by scrupulous performance of the old religious rites he had
identified Islam both to his followers and to the Meccans themselves with
the ancient fadeless traditions of their earlier faith, purified and made
permanent by their homage to one God, "the Compassionate, the Merciful,
the Mighty, the Wise."