ICONOCLASM
"Oh Prophet, contend against the Infidels and the hypocrites,
and be rigorous with them. Hell shall be their dwelling-place!
Wretched the journey thither."--_The Kuran._
The clouds upon the Syrian border gathered so rapidly that they
threatened any moment to burst during the autumn of 680. When Mahomet
heard that the feudatories were massed under the bidding of Heraclius at
Hims, he realised there was no time to be lost. Eagerly he summoned his
army, and expected from it the same enthusiasm for the campaign as he
himself displayed.
But there was no generous response to his call. Syria was far away, the
Believers could not be convinced of the importance of the attack. They
were weary of the incessant warfare and it was, moreover, the season of
the heats, when no man willingly embarked upon arduous tasks. The
Companions rallied at once to the side of their leader, and many true
Believers also supported their lord, but the Citizens and the Bedouins
murmured against his exactions, and for the most part refused to accompany
him.
Only Mahomet's indefatigable energy summoned together a sufficient army.
But the Believers were generous, and gave not only themselves but their
gold, and after some delay the expedition was organised.
Mahomet himself led the troop, leaving Abu Bekr in Medina to conduct the
daily prayer and have charge of the religious life of the city, while to
Molleima were given the administrative duties. The expedition reached the
valley of Heja, where Mahomet called a halt, and there, about half-way
from his goal, rested the greater part of two days. The next days saw him
continually advancing over the scanty desert ways, urging on his soldiers
with prayers and exhortations, so that they might not grow weary with the
long heat and the silence. Finally he sighted Tebuk, where the rebel army
was reported to be.
But by this time the border tribes had dispersed, frightened into
inactivity by the strength of Mahomet's army, and incapacitated further
by lack of definite leadership. There seemed no fighting to be done, but
Mahomet was determined to make sure of his peaceful triumph. The main
force stayed at Tebuk, while Khalid was despatched to Dumah, there to
intimidate both Jews and Bedouins by the size of his force and their
fighting prowess. The manoeuvre was entirely successful, and before
long Mahomet had received the submission of the tribes dwelling along the
shores of the Elanitic Gulf.
Meanwhile, he had recourse to diplomacy as well as the sword. He sent a
letter to John, Christian prince of Eyla, and received from him a most
favourable hearing. John accompanied the messenger back to the Prophet,
where he accorded him meet reverence and regard as the leader of a mighty
faith. Between the two princes a treaty was drawn up, the text of which
is extant, and very probably authentic. It is characteristic of the whole
series of treaties entered into at this time by Mahomet with the desert
tribes, and as such is interesting enough to reproduce. These treaties
are given at full length in Wakidi; they differ from each other by only
small details, and that drawn up for John of Eyla may be taken as fairly
representative. It is little more than a guarantee of safe conduct upon
either side, and is noticeably free from any religious requirements or
commissions:
"In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. A compact of peace from
God and from Mahomet, the Prophet and Apostle of God, granted unto
Yuhanna, son of Rubah, and unto the people of Eyla. For them who remain
at home and for those that travel by sea or by land, there is the
guarantee of God and of Mahomet, the Apostle of God, and for all that are
with them, whether of Syria or of Yeman, or of the Sea Coast. Whoso
contraveneth this treaty, his wealth shall not save him--it shall be the
fair prize of him that taketh it. Now it shall not be lawful to hinder
the men of Eyla from any springs which they have been in the habit of
frequenting, nor from any journey they desire to make, whether by sea or
by land. The writing of Juheim and Sharrabil, by command of the Apostle
of God."
When this scanty document had been completed John of Eyla betook himself
again to his own country, leaving Mahomet free to enter into further
compacts with the Jews of Mauna, Adzuh, and Jaaba. When these had been
ratified and Mahomet had received tribute from the surrounding people, he
set out again for Medina, having first made sure of Khalid's success in
Dumah, and receiving the conversion of the chief of that tribe with much
gladness.
Now, departing to Medina confident in his success, it was with no good
will that he entered its walls. Many of his erstwhile followers,
especially the tribes of Bedouins, had refused him their help upon this
adventure, and, immediate danger being past, he returned to rend them in
the fury of his eloquence. His success had given him the right to
chastise; even the Ansar were not exempt from his wrath. Three who
remained behind were proscribed, and compelled to fulfil fifty days of
penance.
"Had there been a near advantage and a short journey, they would
certainly have followed thee; but the way seemed long to them. Yet they
will swear by God, 'Had we been able we had surely gone forth with you;
they are self-destroyers! And God knoweth that they are surely liars!'"
Before he had entered the city his anger was further provoked by the Beni
Ganim, who had erected a mosque, ostensibly out of piety, really to spite
the Beni Amru ibn Auf and to make them jealous for their own mosque at
Kuba, whose stones he had laid with his own hands. He fell upon the
Ganim, "some who have built a mosque for mischief," and demolished the
building. Then he drew attention to their perfidy in the Kuran, and took
care that there should be no more mosques built in the spirit of rivalry
and envy.
Very little time after his return to Medina, Abdallah, leader of the
Disaffected, his opponent and critic for so many years, died suddenly.
His death meant a great change in the position of his party. There was no
strong man to succeed Abdallah, and they found themselves without leader
or policy. They had for long been nominally allies of Mahomet, but had
not scrupled under Abdallah's leadership to question his authority by
opposition and sometimes in open acts of war. Abdallah's death crushed
for ever any attempts at revolt in Medina, and fused the Disaffected into
the common stock of Believers.
Abdallah occupies rather a peculiar position in Mahomet's entourage; he
was often the Prophet's opponent, sometimes his open defier, and yet
Mahomet's dealings with him were uniformly gentle and forbearing. He may
have had some personal regard for him. Abdallah was a stern and upright
man, whose uncompromising nature would speedily win Mahomet's respect.
Possibly the Prophet felt he might be too powerful an enemy, and
determined to ignore his insurrections. He paid him that respect which
his generosity of mind allowed him to offer towards any he knew and
liked. The Mahomet whose ruthlessness towards his opponents fell like an
awe upon all Arabia, could know and do homage to an enemy who had shown
himself worthy of his steel. All things seemed to be working towards
Mahomet's final prevailing. Now at last after many years the city of
Medina was unfeignedly his, the Jews were extirpated, the Disaffected
united under his banner.
Meanwhile, the city of Taif still held out in spite of Malik's incessant
warfare against it. But its defences were steadily growing weaker, and at
last the inhabitants knew they could no longer continue the hopeless
struggle. The chief citizens sent an embassy to Mahomet, promising to
destroy their idol within three years if the Prophet would release them
from their harassment. But Mahomet refused unconditionally. The uprooting
of idolatry was ever the price of his mercy. The message was sent back
that instant demolition of the accursed thing must be made or the siege
would continue. Then the people of Taif, hoping once more for clemency,
asked to be released from the obligation of daily prayer. This request
Mahomet also refused, but in deference to their ancestral worship, and no
doubt in some pity for their plight, he allowed their idol to be
destroyed by other hands than their own. Abu Sofian and Molleima were
despatched with a covering force to destroy the great image Lat, which
had stood for time immemorial in the centre of Taif and was the shrine
for all the prayers and devotions of that fair and ancient city.
Taif was the last stronghold of the idolaters. When that had fallen
beneath the sway of the Prophet and his remote, austerely majestic
God-head, indivisible and personless, the doom of the old gods was at
hand. They were dethroned from their high places at the bidding of a man;
but they had not bowed their heads before his proclaimed message, but
before the strength of his armies, the onward sweep of his ceaseless and
victorious warfare. To Mahomet, indeed, Allah had never shown himself
more gracious than at the fall of idolatrous Taif. He resolved thereupon
that the crowning act of homage should be fulfilled. He would make a
solemn journey to the holy city, and accomplish the Greater Pilgrimage
with purified rites freed from the curse of the worship of many gods.
But when he came to the setting forth, and the sacred month of Dzul Higg
was upon him, he found that many idolatrous practices still remained as
part of the great ceremonial. He could not contaminate himself by
undertaking the pilgrimage while these remained, but he could send Abu
Bekr to ensure that none should remain after this year's cleansing. He
was now strong enough to insist that the rooting out of idolatry was his
chief policy, and to make the breaking up of the ancestral gods incumbent
upon the whole country. Abu Bekr was commissioned to set forth upon his
task with 300 men, and to spare neither himself nor them until the
mission was accomplished and every idolatrous practice blotted out.
And now follows one of the most characteristic acts Mahomet ever
performed, wherein obligation is made to bow to expediency and the bonds
of treaties snap and break before the wind of the Prophet's will. Abu
Bekr had started but one day's journey upon the Meccan road when Ali was
sent after him with a document bearing the Prophet's seal. This he was to
read to the Faithful, and receive their pledge that they would act upon
its contents. Mahomet also published abroad a like proclamation in the
city itself. The document drawn up and despatched with such haste was
nothing less than a Release for the Prophet and his followers from all
obligations to the Infidels after a term of four months.
"A Release by God and the Apostle in respect of the Heathen with whom ye
have entered into treaty. Go to and fro in the earth securely in the four
months to come. And know ye cannot hinder God, and that verily God will
bring disgrace upon the Unbelievers. And an announcement from God and his
Apostle unto the People on the day of Pilgrimage that God is discharged
from (liability to) the Heathen and his Prophet likewise.... Fulfil unto
these their engagements until the expiration of their terms; for God
loveth the pious. And when the forbidden months are over then fight
gainst the heathen, wheresoever ye find them, ... but if they repent and
establish Prayer and give the Tithes, leave them in peace.... O ye that
believe, verily the Unbelievers are unclean. Wherefore let them not
approach the Holy Temple after this year."
No one reading this writing, which bears upon it all the stamps of
authenticity, can fail to see the motive behind its words. Its
unscrupulousness has received in all good faith the sanction of the Most
High. Mahomet knew that the time was ripe for an uncompromising
insistence upon the acceptance of his faith. He was strong enough to
compel. It was Allah who had strengthened his armies and given him
dominion, therefore in Allah's name he repudiated his agreements with
heathen peoples, and by virtue of his power he purposed to bestow upon
his Lord a greater glory. An act wrought in such defiance of honour at
the inspiration of God savours unquestionably of hypocrisy, but none who
estimates aright the age and environment in which Mahomet dwelt can
accuse him of anything more than a keenness of political cunning which
led him to value accurately his own power and the waning reputation of
idolatry.
The evil example he had set in this first Release extended with his
conquests until it was accounted of universal application, and no Muslim
considered himself dishonoured if he broke his pledge with any
Unbeliever. From this time a more dogmatic and terrible note enters into
his message. He openly asserts that idolatry is to be extirpated from
Arabia by the sword, and that Judaism and Christianity are to be reduced
to subordinate positions. Judaism he had never forgiven for its rejection
of him as Prophet and head of a federal state; Christianity he hated and
despised, because to him in these later years monotheism had become a
fanatic belief, and the whole conception of Christ's divinity was
abhorrent to his worship of Allah. He was not strong enough to proclaim a
destructive war against either faith, but he allowed them to exist in his
dominions upon a precarious footing, always liable to abuse, attack, and
profanation.
From the spring of 631 until the end of his life, Mahomet's campaigns
consist in defensive and punitive expeditions. The realm of Arabia was
virtually his, and the constant succession of embassies promising
obedience and expressing homage continued until the end. But he was not
allowed to enjoy his power in peace. The continuous series of small
insurrections, speedily suppressed, which had accompanied his rise to
power in later years, was by no means ended with his comparative
security. But they never grew sufficiently in volume to threaten his
dominion; they were wiped out at once by the alertness and political
genius of his rule, until his death gave all the smaller chieftains
fresh hope and became the signal for a desperate and almost successful
attempt to throw off the shackles.
The first important conversion after his return from Taif was that of
Jeyfar, King of Oman, followed closely by the districts of Mahra and
Yemen, which localities had been hovering for some time between Islam and
idolatry. The tribes of Najran were inclined to Christianity, and Mahomet
was now anxious to gain them over to himself. The severity he had
practised against a certain Christian church of Hanifa, however, weighed
with them against any allegiance until he promised that theirs should be
more favourably treated. A treaty was then made with these tribes by
which each was to respect the religion of the other.
Mahomet remained in Medina throughout the year 631 and the beginning of
632, keeping his state like unto that of a king, surrounded by his
Companions and Believers, receiving and sending forth embassies,
receiving also tribute from those lands he had conquered, the beginning
of that wealth which was to create the magnificence of Bagdad, the
treasures of Cordova. The tribes of the Beni Asad, the Beni Kunda, and
many from the territory of Hadramaut made their submission; tax-gatherers
were also sent out to all the tributary peoples, and returned in safety
with their toll. Almost it seemed as if peace had settled for good upon
the land. The only threatenings came from the Beni Harith of the country
bordering Najran, and the Beni Nakhla, with a few minor tribes near
Yemen. Khalid was sent to call the Beni Harith to conversion at the point
of the sword, and Ali subdued without effort the enfeebled resistance of
the Beni Nakhla. Continual embassies poured into Medina. The country was
quiet at last. After years of tumult Arabia had settled for the
moment peaceably under the yoke of a religious enthusiast, who
nevertheless possessed sufficient political and military genius to found
his kingdom well and strongly.
Mahomet had attained his aims, and whether he could keep what he had now
rested with himself alone. After this period of calm there is a
diminution in his energy and fiery zeal. The effort of that continual
warfare had kept him in perpetual fever of action; when its strain was
removed he felt the weight of his kingdom and the religion he had so
fearlessly reared. Until the end of his life he kept his hold upon his
subjects, and every branch of justice, law, administration, and military
policy felt his detailed guiding, but with the attainment of peace for
Arabia under his sway, his aggressive strivings vanished. Virtually he
had accomplished his destiny, and with the keen prescience of those who
have lived and worked for one object, he knew that the outermost
stronghold of those which Islam was destined to subdue had yielded to his
passionate insistence. His successors would carry his work to higher
attainments, but his personal part was done, and it was with a sense of
finality that almost brought peace to his perpetually striving nature
that he prepared for his last witness to the glory and unity of Allah,
the performance of the Greater and Farewell Pilgrimage.