THE BATTLE OF BEDR (624 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [624 A.D.]]

In order to rescue a large caravan from danger and distress, the Koreish

marched into the field a thousand strong, with seven hundred camels and

one hundred horses. The train of merchandise escaped the ambush by the

clever management of Abu Sufyan, but nevertheless Abu Jahl persisted in

the conflict. At Bedr, a camping ground and market, noted even at the

present day for its plentiful supply of water, the Meccans encountered

the hostile bands, who were not half so strong, and made ready for

battle. Three Meccans, kinsmen of those who had fallen at Nakhla, came

forward and challenged three of the opposite party to single combat.

Hamza, Ali, and Obaida opposed themselves to them and slew them,

whereupon the fight became general. Mohammed, who was watching the

encounter from a leafy hut on a rising ground and praying to God with

great ardour and excitement that he would not allow his faithful few to

be destroyed, suddenly declared that victory had been promised him in a

vision, and flinging a handful of dust after the Koreish, he called out,

“Shame on their faces!”

Soon confusion seized the enemy and the battle ended with a complete

defeat of the Koreish. Seventy heads of distinguished houses were slain

during the battle or on the flight. Amongst the fallen were Otba and

Shaiba, and, above all Abu Jahl (called the enemy of God), Mohammed’s

bitterest opponent; amongst the prisoners were his uncle Abbas and

Abul-Aas, the husband of his eldest daughter Zainab. Both were ransomed

and returned to Mecca. Abbas probably henceforth served his nephew as

a spy and Abul-Aas had to send his wife back to her father. Two other

prisoners, Al-Nadr and Okba, who had belonged to Mohammed’s most eager

adversaries in Mecca, were executed. But the prophet, always inclined

to mildness, deplored the rash act when he heard the touching lament of

the former’s daughter, a lament which is still preserved to us. For the

rest, the battle of Bedr was of the greatest importance for the victory

of Islam, and in consequence all the combatants whose names were entered

in the lists henceforth formed the highest nobility of the Moslems. The

spoil and the ransoms were equally divided, but soon after a saying of

the _Koran_ commanded that in future the fifth part of all spoil should

go to the prophet, for himself, his kinsmen, for the poor, orphans, and

wanderers.

BATTLE OF OHOD (MARCH, 625 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [625 A.D.]]

The battle of Bedr was the first step of Islam to dominion. Whilst the

inhabitants of Medina and the Bedouin tribes of the neighbourhood drew

from the prophet’s success a belief in his divine mission and gathered

round him with enthusiasm, in Mecca there was great despair. Abu Lahab,

Mohammed’s uncle and enemy, died seven days later of a disease resembling

smallpox, full of affliction and anger at the success of his nephew; and

Okba’s daughter Hind, the passionate wife of Abu Sufyan, cried day and

night in ungoverned fury for revenge for her fallen kinsmen. Her lord

actually went against Medina with two hundred Koreish; but their belief

in their own cause was shaken, and when Mohammed marched against them

they fled home in such haste that they left their stock of meal behind.

In the months after this “meal-campaign,” certain Jews in Medina, having

made a mock of Mohammed in their verses, were put to death, and their

co-religionists who had refused to go over to Islam, in particular

the Beni Kainoka, the most skilful of the wealthy goldsmiths in the

country, were driven into banishment in Syria. Abu Sufyan now marched

a second time to the fight, on this occasion with a force of three

thousand Koreish, at whose head stood three brave men, Akrama a son of

Abu Jahl, Khalid, and Amru, afterwards the most distinguished heroes of

the faithful. In the rearguard was the terrible Hind, with fifteen other

women and certain poets who roused the spirit of vengeance in the army by

laments over those slain at Bedr.

Mohammed wished to await the enemy in the city, but the young men, in

their eagerness for war, demanded a pitched battle. The prophet yielded

to their demand with inward misgivings. On the mount Ohod, whose solitary

granite mass, bare of tree or bush, rises about a league to the north

of Medina, he ranged his warriors, who did not exceed seven hundred, as

he had disdained the help of the Jews and thus so deeply offended their

patron, the Khazrayite Abdallah ben Obayyah, who apart from this was a

secret envier and opponent of Mohammed, that he too had withdrawn with

his army. Mohammed himself fought in the front rank; wearing a red fillet

round his head and waving “the sword of God and his envoy,” he encouraged

his men with axioms of the new faith. Here, too, victory seemed first to

incline to the Moslems; strenuously as Hind and her women, “the daughters

of the stars, with cloudy hair and pearl-ornamented necks,” might

encourage the combatants, promising loving embraces to the victors, and

threatening the flying with shame and death, the ranks of the Meccans

nevertheless gave way. Seven members of the family of Abd ad-Dar, who

each in turn performed the hereditary office of standard-bearer, rolled

in the dust. Then the bowmen, fearing to be too late for the spoil,

left the secure position which Mohammed had assigned them behind the

mountain, and thus gave Khalid an opportunity to fall with his cavalry on

the Moslem rear. The battle now suddenly took a new turn; the superior

numbers of the Koreish carried the day, Mohammed was wounded and fell,

face downwards, into a trench. His standard-bearer Mussab, fell, and as

he resembled Mohammed in appearance the rumour, “Mohammed is dead,” was

quickly disseminated and proved as encouraging to the infidels as it

was destructive to the Moslem. The defeated were already hurrying away

towards Medina, when the poet Kaab, the son of Malik, recognised the

prophet amongst the wounded, in his helmet and coat of mail.

[Illustration: ARAB WARRIOR, TIME OF MOHAMMED]

Encouraged by the joyful tidings that Mohammed was still alive, ten or

twelve of his trusty followers, including Abu Bekr and Omar, collected

round him and carved themselves a way with the sword towards a rocky

height, where they defended themselves bravely until the enemy, who,

supposing the prophet to be dead, had paid no special heed to this little

band, had begun their homeward march after insulting and mutilating the

dead. Hind and her companions took the severed noses and ears of the

enemy, strung them together like pearls, and wore them as necklaces and

bracelets. The former even carried her rage so far that she tried to tear

the heart out of the corpse of Hamza whom the Abyssinian slave Washi had

slain in the midst of the fight, and to rend it in pieces.[31] The fall

of the faithful Hamza touched Mohammed nearly; he frequently bewailed

him, and the women of Medina raised a general lament over the fallen

hero, whose name was henceforth mentioned in every death-song.

[Sidenote: [625-627 A.D.]]

After the retreat of the Koreish, Mohammed returned with his men to

Medina. Hard as the blow had been it could not shake his belief and

confidence in a successful issue. Whilst he consoled the relatives of the

slain with the thought of the happy life hereafter, he prohibited the

customary mourning usages, the striking of the visage, the shaving of the

hair, the rending of the garments, only permitting weeping because “tears

give relief to the afflicted heart”; at the same time he took judicious

measures for defence, in case the Koreish, hearing that the prophet

was still alive, should come back. But they did not venture to expose

their weakened army to fresh dangers; they contented themselves with the

victory they had won, and hoped that in time they might get the better of

religious innovations if they preserved the sacred city with the Kaaba

from all pollution, slew all Moslems who fell into their hands, and all

the readers of the _Koran_ who should proclaim Islam to the inhabitants

of the hill country, and if they permitted no Mohammedan to enter the

Kaaba. For years the followers of the prophet might not take part in the

pilgrimage to Mecca, which in the sacred months the rest of the Arabs

made for the sake of prayer and festival joys. But the time drew slowly

near when in Mecca also the consideration of the old heathen gods was to

sink in the dust, and even the Koreish would bow the knee before the name

of him against whom they now nourished so deadly a hatred and whom they

now persecuted in so bloody a fashion.

EXPEDITION AGAINST THE JEWS (626 A.D.)

Mohammed, from the very character of his religion, could not let the

sword rust in its sheath so long as Islam had not attained supremacy.

Consequently he continued to lead his followers on warlike expeditions

against both Jew and heathen. The fact that he himself took part in all

the fights was a great spur to the spirit and courage of his troops; more

than once his life was in danger, but a higher power protected God’s

envoy; the sword fell from a hostile leader who waved it above his head.

Since the battle of Ohod most of the attacks had been directed against

the Jews, who showed themselves more and more hostile to the new

religion. They found a protector in Abdallah ben Obayyah, the chief

of the Khazraj, who, jealous of Mohammed’s growing power amongst his

followers, toiled against the prophet. The Beni Nadir were driven from

their strong castles, after their date palms had been cut down, in

defiance of the usages of Arabian warfare; and they owed their lives

solely to the powerful intercession of Abdallah, but were nevertheless

compelled to quit the Arabian country like the Beni Kainoka before them.

But the “hypocrites” continued to work against Mohammed’s power after

a victorious campaign against the powerful tribe of the Beni Mustalik;

Abdallah excited a quarrel between the “helpers” and the immigrant

believers, which was only adjusted by the skill and prompt decision of

the prophet. A saying of the Koran gave warning against hypocrites,

but this time also Abdallah escaped punishment. Even the evil reports

concerning Aisha’s virtue and marital fidelity, which he and others put

into circulation about that time because she was left behind on a night

march and entered the camp on the second day in the company of a man,

were overlooked. Mohammed, in accordance with a revelation, declared the

rumours to be slanders, punished the calumniators who, like the poet

Hassan, maintained her guilt, and cherished Aisha with fresh tenderness;

but Abdallah remained unpunished. Mohammed dreaded the revenge of the

Khazraj.

SIEGE OF MEDINA, EXTERMINATION OF THE JEWS (627-628 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [627-628 A.D.]]

Soon after the Koreish and other Arab tribes made alliance with the

Jewish Beni Koraiza against the Moslems, and marched on Medina with a

force of ten thousand men. Mohammed did not venture to meet the superior

strength of the enemy in the open field for fear lest he should be

overtaken by a fate such as he had suffered at Ohod. He had recourse to a

method of defence hitherto unknown in Arabia. He drew a trench round the

city. By means of this defence he kept off the enemy by small skirmishes

for a time, until by crafty negotiations he succeeded in sowing mistrust

and division among the allies. The consequence was that the Arabs, who

besides this had been disheartened by the wintry weather and cold showers

of rain, retreated after an ineffectual blockade of five weeks; thus

abandoning their Jewish allies to Mohammed’s vengeance. Besieged in their

strong castles the Beni Koraiza had to surrender at discretion. Thereupon

in spite of the intercession of their ancient allies the Aus, according

to the harsh decision of the chief Zaid ben Muadh, who had been selected

as arbitrator, all the men of the tribe, seven hundred in number, were

executed on the market-place of Medina, the women and children were led

into slavery, and their flocks, lands, and goods were divided among the

victors.

“God drove the keepers of the Scriptures (the Jews) from their strong

places and put fear in their hearts. One half of them has he slain, the

other taken prisoners; he has given you their lands, their dwellings,

their goods, for an inheritance. God is almighty.”

In these words a saying of the _Koran_ announced this horrible event, the

darkest deed of Mohammed’s life. Zaid died soon after the cruel sentence.

Irritated by the continual perfidy and the hostile temper of the Jews,

Mohammed had allowed himself to be drawn into a course in which the

messenger of God gave way to the passionate Arab, in which not the temper

of a prophet but the revenge of the passionate Arab and the cruelty of an

oriental despot were manifested, in which “earthly mire choked the sacred

flame of prophecy.” And in order finally to destroy the power of the Jews

in Medina and the neighbourhood, Mohammed in the following year (628)

marched with fourteen hundred believers against their chief fortress of

Khaibar.

“We pray to thee, oh Almighty! against the goods of these places and

all that they contain,” cried the prophet with a loud voice, when they

entered the territory of their strong citadels, “and we implore thee to

preserve us from the evil of these places and their inhabitants.”

Mohammed’s prayer was heard. By the bravery of the Moslems, especially of

Ali, to whom before the battle the prophet had given his own sword--“Ali,

the man who loves God and his envoy, the man who knows no fear and never

yet turned his back on the enemy”--the castles were broken into, their

treasures and goods carried off, the inhabitants, when they escaped the

sword, made tributary so that they had to hold their rich estates and

date plantations as hereditary tenants and pay the half of the produce to

the new owners. The Mohammedans were roused to these warlike enterprises

no less by the greed of spoil than by religious fanaticism. The Jewish

chief Kinana was stretched on the rack to make him betray hidden

treasures, and when he remained dumb he was beheaded. Mohammed himself

not only appropriated the fifth share of the spoil, but also landed

property, and he increased the number of his wives by two beautiful

Jewish prisoners, Safiya and Zainab. The first was converted to Islam and

became a tender wife to the prophet, who celebrated the bridal with her

in his tent; on the other hand the second, whose nearest relatives had

met their death in the battle, meditated a dark act of vengeance. She

placed a poisoned meal before Mohammed. It is true that he ate little

of it (in consequence of a miraculous warning, as the legend recounts),

but still it was enough to undermine his health for the remainder of his

life. Even in his dying hour he is reported to have said that he felt the

poison of Khaibar[32] in his veins.

MOHAMMED’S PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA (629 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [629 A.D.]]

Even before this war Mohammed had made a pilgrimage to Mecca with a

considerable following, to try whether under shelter of the sacred month

he could approach the Kaaba, acting under the just conviction that it

would be of great advantage to the spread of his doctrines if he could

associate himself with the ancient sanctuary of his people. This time

indeed he failed to attain his object; the gates of Mecca remained

closed to the Mohammedans; nevertheless by the Peace of Hodaibiya he

won a ten years’ truce from the Koreish and the concession that he and

his believers should perform their prayers in the Kaaba for three days

annually. The zealous Omar was indignant at this agreement. “Art thou not

the messenger of the Lord? Are the Meccans not infidels and we believers?

Wherefore should we permit our faith to endure such an insult?”

But Mohammed preferred the lesser advantage to the uncertain issue of an

armed conflict, convinced that greater successes would soon follow from

small beginnings. He was not mistaken. In consequence of this treaty and

shortly after the fall of Khaibar, he undertook (March, 629) a pilgrimage

to Mecca, together with a party of his faithful followers, and great

was the joy of the exiles when for the first time they again trod their

native soil. Mohammed, mounted on his camel, accomplished the usual seven

circuits of the Kaaba and the pacing to and fro between the hills Safa

and Merwa and the rest followed him.

On this occasion Mohammed was united to Maimuna, a widow of fifty-one

years. As his former marriages since the death of Khadija were decided by

his sensuality and fondness for women and had at times been so scandalous

that, as in the case of Zainab, the divorced wife of his adopted son

Zaid, the indignation of the faithful at a hitherto unheard of and

forbidden alliance had to be quieted by a new command in the _Koran_

concerning relationship; so on the contrary this last marriage was like

his first, an act of wisdom, policy, and practical consideration. By this

marriage Maimuna’s kinsmen, Khalid and Amru, two distinguished warriors,

were won over to the cause of Islam--a victory of greater importance than

many a victorious battle.

[Illustration: AN ARAB WARRIOR]

The converts soon had an opportunity of increasing on a wider

battle-field the warlike renown which they had acquired in petty

quarrels. Mohammed had already turned his eyes to the frontiers of

Arabia. Encouraged by the growing numbers and enthusiasm of his devotees,

he believed that the time was not far off when Islam would acquire

the dominion of the world. The Jews had been compelled to pay dearly

for refusing to recognise him as their messiah; but, since they lived

scattered and held in contempt amongst other nations he could well

dispense with their homage if he succeeded in bringing the two most

powerful religious associations of the time, namely the Christians and

the fire-worshippers of Iran, to acknowledge his prophetic mission. With

this object he addressed documents to various foreign rulers, calling

on them to worship the one true God who had revealed himself through

Mohammed. Amongst the Christians especially he might have expected a

great welcome, since he not only owned Jesus to be a prophet but also

recognised the latter’s mother as a spotless virgin. In one of the

finest passages of the _Koran_ it is related how Mary, after the angel

of God had informed her that she should bear a “pure son,” had brought a

child into the world under a palm tree; how this child had spoken even

in the cradle and revealed himself as the “servant of God,” destined

to exercise every virtue of life and bring peace to men. According to

the Moslems, the ordinances of Mohammed’s religion found a favourable

reception amongst Christian princes. The king of Abyssinia, who had

always shown himself favourable to the adherents of the new prophet,

and the Christian general at Yemen are said to have gone over to Islam;

the prefect of Egypt requested time for consideration, but sent costly

gifts, among them two fair Coptic slaves for the voluptuous prophet. The

messengers of Mohammed invited the princes and nations of the earth to

join in the recognition of Islam, and one of them was even received by

the emperor Heraclius in a gracious and friendly manner. On the other

hand Chosroes II, then at the height of his power, tore the documents

unread and at the same time the ruler of Bosrah slew an Arabian envoy

who had endeavoured to win new converts for Islam. Against the former,

Mohammed launched a prophecy of evil, against the latter sent an army

under his former slave Zaid, whom on account of his faithfulness and

submission he had taken in the place of a son.

At Muta in Syria the Arabian hosts under the sacred standard had their

first encounter with the Græco-Roman legions. Zaid fell like a warrior

in the foremost ranks; in his place the brave and handsome Jafar, Ali’s

brother, seized Mohammed’s banner. Soon after he lost his right hand;

then he waved the standard in his left, and when this too was severed

from his body he held the sacred ensign in his bleeding arms till he

received the deathstroke. Abdallah ben Rawaha, the poet, now took the

standard from the dying hero, crying, “Forward! Either victory or

paradise is ours!” And when he too sank under the enemy’s lances Khalid,

the new convert of Mecca, grasped the banner and guided the battle to

a finish. It was not a decisive victory; but Khalid had given such

brilliant proofs of valour that in the nocturnal council of war held in

the camp he was chosen commander-in-chief and henceforth bore the famous

surname of “Sword of God.” Mournfully, though laden with glory and spoil,

the warrior host returned to Medina with the cherished corpses. Mohammed

extolled the lot of the fallen martyrs, but with Zaid’s young daughter he

mourned in secret for the beloved dead. “These are friendship’s tears at

the loss of a friend,” he said in excuse when someone coming in expressed

his astonishment that he should weep for him who had secured paradise by

his death.

SUBJECTION OF MECCA (630 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [630 A.D.]]

All therefore that Mohammed could hope was that his teaching might

obtain general recognition throughout Arabia, if he could once get the

sacred city of Mecca into his power. When he first led his armed host of

pilgrims into its neighbourhood he had assured his companions that God

had lent him the victory. Yet they had been compelled to withdraw, after

concluding an inglorious peace without marching round the Kaaba. Nor was

the chagrin of the believers relieved in the next year by their having

to approach the sanctuary during three days as suppliants; the disgrace

could only be wiped out by a brilliant victory. The Koreish themselves

played into Mohammed’s hands. They violated the treaty of peace by taking

part in a hostile attack on a tribe which had made a defensive alliance

with Mohammed. Then when they heard that an expedition for reprisals was

being prepared at Medina they were alarmed and sent Abu Sufyan, the proud

chief of the race, to the angry prophet, to excuse what had passed and

implore his forgiveness.

But Mohammed dismissed the suppliant without an answer and secretly

pushed on the preparations for war with great zeal. Suddenly ten

thousand watchfires on the neighbouring mountain betrayed the arrival

of a powerful enemy to the astonished Meccans. Abu Sufyan hastened out

to reconnoitre; Abbas brought him as a prisoner into the camp, where

Mohammed protected him from Omar’s anger as soon as he had declared

himself ready to honour the son of Abdallah as the messenger of God and

to pass to the ranks of Islam. He noted with admiration the excellent

discipline and bearing of the Mohammedan army, the multiplicity of

weapons and banners, the “helpers” and “refugees” enveloped in iron,

the enthusiastic veneration of the holy commander. “None can withstand

this man!” Sufyan said to Mohammed’s uncle, Abbas, who was conducting

him through the ranks, “by God, the kingdom of thy nephew is grown

great!” And he hastened back to his people to persuade them to peaceful

submission. In this he was successful. The most part shut themselves

up in their houses, as Mohammed had commanded, so that the Moslem army

was able to take possession of the city almost without resistance. Only

Khalid had to carve a way for himself into the lower city through a host

of unbelievers whom Akrama, the son of Abu Jahl, had collected under his

banner.

When Mohammed saw the chiefs of the Koreish in the dust at his feet, his

pride was satisfied and the nobler feelings of mildness and magnanimity

reigned in his breast. The people declared themselves ready to abjure

their gods, to honour Mohammed as God’s messenger and obey his behests,

whereupon the victor, now throned in his native city as prince and

prophet after eight years of banishment, proclaimed a general amnesty.

Even of the twelve men and six women whom, after his entry into the city,

Mohammed had condemned because in former years they had excited his anger

by apostasy, treachery, or mocking ballads, the majority were pardoned.

Amongst them was Akrama, the son of Abu Jahl, who had fought so bravely

at Ohod and had offered resistance to Khalid’s entrance; his uncle the

satirical poet Harith; Safwan, son of Omayyah and Hind, the passionate

wife of Abu Sufyan; the poet Kaab; Abdallah, Mohammed’s scribe, who was

accused of having defaced the sacred fly-leaves of the _Koran_ and in

order to escape punishment had fled as an apostate to Mecca; and many

others. They all went over to Islam, and Akrama soon exhibited the same

heroism in battle for the new faith which he had formerly displayed

against Mohammed. For Abdallah, his kinsman Othman made intercession;

Mohammed hesitated for some time over the pardon, in the hope that one of

his adherents would kill the traitor; then unwillingly let him go.

When order had been restored in the city Mohammed presented himself at

the temple. He went round the Kaaba seven times on his camel, each time

touching the sacred stone with his staff, and then broke in pieces the

idols, 360 in number, which were placed round the sanctuary. After this

he had the doors of the temple thrown open, cleansed the house of the

Lord from all images, and commanded Bilal to proclaim to the multitude

the call to prayer from the summit.

From the time of the prophet’s entry into Mecca the victory of Islam in

Arabia was only a question of time. But no religious organisation is

destroyed without some of its adherents contending for it with their

hearts’ blood. The old Arabian gods too had their steadfast worshippers,

who did not shrink from a martyr’s death for the religion of their

youth. When Mohammed’s hosts under fanatical leaders penetrated to

the surrounding tribes, the idols were thrown down and the ancient

sanctuaries destroyed, and then the infuriated pagans put themselves

on the defensive and many a sacrifice bled to the religious frenzy.

On one such expedition into the district of Teyma, the zealous Khalid

proceeded with such harshness and cruelty that Mohammed shuddered at it,

and lifting his hands to heaven cried out, “I have no share in these

deeds.” He then endeavoured to appease the sufferers through the medium

of Ali’s mildness and magnanimity, offered expiation for those slain, and

announced that Mecca and all the country should be as inviolable in the

future as in the past.

THE VICTORY OF HONAIN AND AUTAS

[Illustration: AN ARAB WARRIOR]

The religious frenzy of the Moslems roused the heathen tribes of the

mountain districts southeast of Mecca to take arms for the defence of

their belief, their life, and their property against the new religious

society. The Takifites, who had once driven away the ambassador of the

Lord with stones, and the Hawazin tribes headed the alliance of the

heathen faith. To animate their courage they took wives, children, and

all their possessions into the field with them. At this news Mohammed

started with his hosts to subdue his last obstinate enemy. But as they

marched through the valley of Honain without taking the necessary

precautions, they suddenly beheld the height occupied with bowmen. In

a short time the ranks of the Moslems gave way; flight and disorder

spread through them; the prophet’s cry, “I am Mohammed, the prophet of

God, the proclaimer of the truth; stand fast ye faithful!” was unheeded;

the Koreish who had followed the army were already giving vent to their

malicious joy in mocking words. At this moment Abbas, Mohammed’s uncle,

with his loud voice brought the flying and wavering to their senses. At

the cry of need the bravest and most spirited again collected round the

holy prince and won a complete victory.

In the valleys of Honain and Autas the power of the infidels was forever

broken. Seventy were slain, amongst them the old hero Duraid, and the

rest took to flight. Women, children, and spoil fell into the hands of

the victors. But Mohammed’s endeavour to conquer the strong city of Taif

was thwarted by the bravery of the inhabitants and the strength of the

walls; it was in vain that, contrary to his own command, he caused the

fruit trees to be felled and the vineyards to be dug up; in vain had the

soldiers marched to the storming of the town; after a siege of twenty

days’ duration he had to withdraw, having effected nothing. An enormous

booty rewarded and consoled the Moslems, but at Mohammed’s instance the

prisoners were restored to the newly converted tribes. Of his own fifth

he presented the greater part to those among the Koreish who had shown

themselves steadfast and faithful, and by this means he won over many

influential men to his cause. Abu Sufyan and his two sons each received

a hundred camels and forty ounces of silver. The Ansars, who murmured

at the favour thus shown to their adversaries, were appeased by an

affectionate appeal:

“Be not angry if I seek to win the hearts of a few waverers with

perishable goods. Your faith and submission have another reward. The

messenger of God intrusts you with his own life and fortune; in your

midst he returns to Medina; and as ye were the companions of my exile

and believed in me in my abasement, so shall ye be the companions of my

royalty and shall share in paradise with me.” They cried out weeping, “We

are content with our lot!”

The rest of the idolatrous tribes now no longer withstood a religion

which Mohammed’s envoys offered them, the _Koran_ in one hand and a sword

in the other. Even the Takifites soon after bought peace and security by

the sacrifice of their ancient gods, and opened the gates of their city

of their own free will.

The Takifites sent ambassadors to inform the prophet that they would go

over to Islam if he would exempt them from prayer and would leave them

their idol Lat but for three years more.

“Three years of idolatry is too long; and what is the worship of God

without prayers?” said Mohammed. The ambassadors then abated their

demands and finally an agreement was arrived at by which the Takifites

were to pay no taxes and were to keep their idol Lat for another year.

Thereupon he began to dictate the record with the words:

“In the name of God the merciful and long-suffering! By this document an

agreement is concluded between Mohammed, the messenger of God and the

Takifites, that the latter shall neither pay taxes nor take part in the

holy war.” But shame and the reproach of conscience arrested his tongue.

“Nor throw themselves on their faces in praying,” added the ambassador;

and as Mohammed persisted in his silence the Takifites repeated, as he

turned to the scribe:

“Write this; it is agreed upon.”

The scribe looked at Mohammed, waiting for his orders. At this moment the

fiery Omar, who had hitherto been a dumb witness of this scene, rose, and

drawing his sword, cried out:

“Thou hast defiled the heart of the prophet, and may God fill yours with

fire.”

“We speak not to thee, but to Mohammed,” answered the ambassador with

composure.

“Good,” said the prophet at this; “I will not hear of such a treaty. Ye

have your choice between an unconditional acceptance of Islam and war.”

“At least grant us,” said the thunderstruck Takifites, “the worship of

Lat for six months longer!”

“No!”

“Then for but one month!”

“Not for an hour!”

On which the ambassadors went back to their city in the company of

Mohammedan soldiers, who broke Lat to pieces amid the lamentations of the

women.

THE LAST YEARS OF MOHAMMED’S LIFE (630-632 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [630-632 A.D.]]

Mohammed returned to Medina like a victorious king; from all sides came

ambassadors and believing followers, to offer their homage and worship,

whilst far to the south his envoys on the seacoast won fresh devotees for

Islam.

“We are the helpers of God and the soldiers of his messenger,” said the

poet Thabit in a rhetorical contest; “we make war on all men until they

believe; only he who believes in God and his messenger saves his goods

and his blood; we are at feud with all infidels and our victory is always

easy.”

The Arab writers linger affectionately over the different scenes of

homage which the chiefs of the desert tribes, as well as the inhabitants

of the cities, paid to the prophet, the prince of the faithful, in these

first years of youthful enthusiasm. Yet adversities and misfortune

troubled the end of his life. A hostile party under the leadership of

Abdallah still subsisted in Medina. This was especially prominent when

the prophet was arranging a fresh expedition against the Greeks in Syria

in an oppressive heat, just when the Arabs were busied with the date

harvest. Consequently many evaded the order and Abdallah turned back with

his men soon after the start. A severe verse of the _Koran_ rebuked the

delay.

“Ye say, ‘go not out during the heat’; but God says by Mohammed, ‘the

fire of hell is more scorching.’ Your laughter is but of short duration

and ye shall one day weep long for your behaviour. Ye shall go forth no

more with me and fight no more by my side.”

At Tabuk, between Medina and Damascus, the army came to a halt, that

they might recover in that fertile neighbourhood from the toilsome,

painful march. Here Mohammed received the submission of the chiefs of

some of the Syrian border towns and the homage of a Christian prince.

They purchased peace at the price of an annual tribute. Nevertheless

Mohammed did not deem it advisable to advance further into the enemy’s

country with his small following; he set out on the return march, and

through many hardships and perils arrived at Medina after an absence of

twenty days. For a time the disobedient were excluded from the circle

of the believers; but when with penitence and contrition they sued

for forgiveness they were received back into favour. Soon after this,

death freed the prophet from his most dangerous adversary, Abdallah ben

Obayyah. This event, as well as the homage of more and more Arab tribes,

restored his spirits, which had been deeply affected by the death of his

two daughters, Zainab and Umm Kolthum. The ninth Sura of the _Koran_,

the symbol of the religion of the sword which he imparted to a host

of pilgrims in a reading at the site of the holy temple at Mecca, may

be taken as the outpouring of this exalted state of mind. In this he

renounced peace with all unbelievers, heathen, Jews, and Christians,

forbade them ever to set foot in the sanctuary, and declared perpetual

war against them to be a sacred duty. In it he also reiterated the

threats and curses against the hypocrites and loiterers who delayed to

march to the holy war. Ali’s delivery of this declaration before all

the people had the desired effect. The ambassadors, who in the name of

the princes and tribes declared the latter’s accession to Islam, were

as numerous “as the dates which fall from the palm tree in the time

of ripeness.” From the frontier of Syria to the southern end of the

peninsula and to the mountains bordering on the Indian Ocean and the

Persian Gulf, tribes of all tongues and religions hastened to find the

key of paradise in the faith in the “One God who has no fellow.” When in

the tenth year of the Hegira, Mohammed, with his nine wives, proceeded

on his last pilgrimage to Mecca, which was to serve the Moslems for all

future times as a pattern and example, 40,000 (or according to some

accounts as many as 114,000) of the faithful accompanied him.

On this pilgrimage the suffering condition of the prophet first became

manifest. With great effort he passed seven times round the Kaaba, and

as he did so he prayed: “O Lord, prosper us in this life and the next,

and preserve us from the pains of hell.” The unnatural agitations and

paroxysms of his soul, the great physical exertions, the insidious poison

of Khaibar, and finally his grief at the loss of his young son Ibrahim,

whom, to his extreme joy, the Egyptian slave Maria had borne to him in

the previous year and on whom he had set all his hopes--all these things

undermined his health and hastened his end. The laments into which he

broke out at sight of the child’s corpse already contained a foreboding

of his own approaching end.

“I am grieved at thy loss,” he said, “mine eye weeps and my heart is sad,

yet will I utter no lament which may anger the Lord; were I not convinced

that I should follow thee, my grief would be inconsolable, but we are

God’s and shall return to him.”

[Sidenote: [632 A.D.]]

Three months after his return Mohammed was overtaken in the house of his

spouse, Aisha, by an illness which lasted from eight to fourteen days.

Often a fierce fever would rob him of consciousness, but often again

he had hours of lucidity which he spent in converse with Aisha, his

favourite daughter Fatima, the only one of his children who survived her

father, and with the friends and relatives who visited him. Besides this,

although already extremely ill, he would still go into the neighbouring

mosque and speak words of admonition and farewell to the assembled

people. As his weakness increased he allowed the prayers to be spoken

by Abu Bekr, but was still always present. On the last day he seemed

better, so that all save Aisha left him. But soon his illness returned

with renewed severity. Before he lost consciousness he gave his slaves

their freedom, caused the six or seven dinars[33] which he had in his

house to be given to the poor, and then prayed, “God support me in the

death struggle.” Aisha had sent for her father and his other followers,

but before they arrived he expired in the arms of his favourite wife. His

last words were: “To the glorious comrades in paradise.”

He died in the eleventh year of the Hegira in the three-and-sixtieth year

of his life, “the prophet, poet, priest, and king of Arabia.” On the news

of his departure a great wailing was raised in Aisha’s dwelling, and

the people thronged round the door in wild excitement, which was still

further increased by Omar’s assurances that the messenger of God was not

dead, but would shortly return to his people. Finally the judicious words

of Abu Bekr succeeded in calming the crowd:

“O ye people,” he said, “let him amongst you who served Mohammed know

that Mohammed is dead; but let him who served God continue in his

service, for Mohammed’s God lives and never dies.” Then he read them a

verse of the _Koran_: “Mohammed is only a messenger, many messengers are

already gone before him; whether he died a natural death or was slain,

shall ye turn on your heels? He who does this (forsakes his faith), can

do no harm to God, but the grateful shall be rewarded.” Despair now

passed into quiet grief; Omar himself was so moved that he fell to the

earth and acknowledged that Mohammed was really dead.

Three days later Mohammed was lowered into the earth at the spot where he

had died. His tomb at Medina was subsequently included within the bounds

of the sanctuary by the enlargement of the mosque, which stood next to

the house, and like the Kaaba of Mecca it has remained up to the present

time to be a place of pilgrimage much resorted to by pious Moslems.

Osama, the youthful son of that Zaid who had fallen at Muta, was absent

on a new campaign against Syria at the moment when he received tidings of

the prophet’s death. He at once led his soldiers back to Medina, and full

of sadness set up his banner before the house.[f]

The personal traits of Mohammed are preserved to us in wonderfully minute

details and illustrated by numberless anecdotes, many of which are of

course apocryphal. We may quote a brief and vivid picture from the

_Sirat_ or _Biography of Mohammed_, written by Ibn Saad,[g] the secretary

of the Arab historian Wakidi. The translation is from unpublished

manuscript notes by Sir William Muir,[e] the modern biographer of

Mohammed.[a]

“He was fair of complexion with a measure of redness; eyes intensely

black; his hair not crisp but depending; beard bushy and thick; cheeks

not fat; his neck shone like a vessel of silver; he had a line of hair

from his breast to his navel like a branch, but besides this he had no

hair on his belly or chest. His hands and feet were not hollow, but

filled up. When he walked it was as though he walked from a higher to a

lower place; and when he walked it was as though he pulled (or wrenched)

his feet from the stones; when he turned he turned round entirely. The

perspiration on his face was like pearls, and the smell thereof was

pleasanter than musk of pure quality. He was neither long nor short; he

was neither weakly nor vile; the like of him I never saw before or after.

“Mohammed had a large head, large eyes, large eyelashes; his colour

bright and shining; large joints of his limbs; a long narrow line of hair

from his chest to his belly. He was not very tall, but above the middle

height. When he approached with his people he appeared to cover them

(shutting them out of view). His hair was neither crisp nor frizzled;

curly nor quite smooth and plain. It was like that of a curly-haired man

combed out. His face was neither very fat nor very lean; it was round; he

had large joints and a broad chest. His body was free from hair. Who ever

saw him for the first time would be awe stricken at his appearance, but

on close intimacy this would give way to love. His pupil was intensely

black; his back large.”[g]

GIBBON’S ESTIMATE OF MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM

[Sidenote: [622-632 A.D.]]

At the conclusion of the life of Mohammed, it may perhaps be expected

that I should balance his faults and virtues, that I should decide

whether the title of enthusiast or impostor more properly belongs to

that extraordinary man. Had I been intimately conversant with the son of

Abdallah, the task would still be difficult, and the success uncertain:

at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly contemplate his shade

through a cloud of religious incense; and could I truly delineate the

portrait of an hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally apply

to the solitary of Mount Hira, to the preacher of Mecca, and to the

conqueror of Arabia. The author of a mighty revolution appears to have

been endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition; so soon as

marriage had raised him above the pressure of want, he avoided the

paths of ambition and avarice; and till the age of forty, he lived with

innocence, and would have died without a name. The unity of God is an

idea most congenial to nature and reason; and a slight conversation

with the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and detest the

idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart the

doctrine of salvation, to rescue his country from the dominion of sin and

error. The energy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object, would

convert a general obligation into a particular call; the warm suggestions

of the understanding or the fancy would be felt as the inspirations of

heaven; the labour of thought would expire in rapture and vision; and the

inward sensation, the invisible monitor, would be described with the form

and attributes of an angel of God.

From enthusiasm to imposture the step is perilous and slippery; the

demon of Socrates affords a memorable instance how a wise man may

deceive himself, how a good man may deceive others, how the conscience

may slumber in a mixed middle state between self-illusion and voluntary

fraud. Charity may believe that the original motives of Mohammed were

those of pure and genuine benevolence; but a human missionary is

incapable of cherishing the obstinate unbelievers who reject his claims,

despise his arguments, and persecute his life; he might forgive his

personal adversaries, he may lawfully hate the enemies of God; the stern

passions of pride and revenge were kindled in the bosom of Mohammed,

and he sighed, like the prophet of Nineveh, for the destruction of the

rebels whom he had condemned. The injustice of Mecca and the choice of

Medina transformed the citizen into a prince, the humble preacher into

the leader of armies; but his sword was consecrated by the example of

the saints; and the same God who afflicts a sinful world with pestilence

and earthquakes might inspire for their conversion or chastisement the

valour of his servants. In the exercise of political government he was

compelled to abate the stern rigour of fanaticism, to comply, in some

measure, with the prejudices and passions of his followers, and to employ

even the vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation. The use

of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often subservient

to the propagation of the faith; and Mohammed commanded or approved the

assassination of the Jews and idolaters who had escaped from the field of

battle.

By the repetition of such acts, the character of Mohammed must have been

gradually stained; and the influence of such pernicious habits would be

poorly compensated by the practice of the personal and social virtues,

which are necessary to maintain the reputation of a prophet among his

sectaries and friends. Of his last years, ambition was the ruling

passion; and a politician will suspect that he secretly smiled (the

victorious impostor!) at the enthusiasm of his youth and the credulity of

his proselytes. A philosopher would observe that their credulity and his

success would tend more strongly to fortify the assurance of his divine

mission, that his interest and religion were inseparably connected, and

that his conscience would be soothed by the persuasion that he alone was

absolved by the Deity from the obligation of positive and moral laws. If

he retained any vestige of his native innocence, the sins of Mohammed

may be allowed as the evidence of his sincerity. In the support of truth,

the arts of fraud and fiction may be deemed less criminal; and he would

have started at the foulness of the means, had he not been satisfied of

the importance and justice of the end. The decree of Mohammed that, in

the sale of captives, the mothers should never be separated from their

children, may suspend or moderate the censure of the historian.

The good sense of Mohammed despised the pomp of royalty; the apostle

of God submitted to the menial offices of the family; he kindled the

fire, swept the floor, milked the ewes, and mended with his own hands

his shoes and his woollen garment. Disdaining the penance and merit of

a hermit, he observed, without effort or vanity, the abstemious diet of

an Arab and a soldier. On solemn occasions he feasted his companions

with rustic and hospitable plenty; but in his domestic life many weeks

would elapse without a fire being kindled on the hearth of the prophet.

The interdiction of wine was confirmed by his example; his hunger was

appeased with a sparing allowance of barley-bread; he delighted in the

taste of milk and honey, but his ordinary food consisted of dates and

water. Perfumes and women were the two sensual enjoyments which his

nature required and his religion did not forbid; and Mohammed affirmed

that the fervour of his devotion was increased by these innocent

pleasures. The heat of the climate inflames the blood of the Arabs; and

their libidinous complexion has been noticed by the writers of antiquity.

Their incontinence was regulated by the civil and religious laws of the

_Koran_; their incestuous alliances were blamed; the boundless license

of polygamy was reduced to four legitimate wives or concubines; their

rights both of bed and of dowry were equitably determined; the freedom of

divorce was discouraged; adultery was condemned as a capital offence; and

fornication, in either sex, was punished with a hundred stripes.

Such were the calm and rational precepts of the legislator; but in his

private conduct Mohammed indulged the appetites of a man and abused the

claims of a prophet. A special revelation dispensed him from the laws

which he had imposed on his nation; the female sex, without reserve,

was abandoned to his desires; and this singular prerogative excited the

envy rather than the scandal, the veneration rather than the envy of

the devout Mussulmans. If we remember the seven hundred wives and three

hundred concubines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud the modesty

of the Arabian, who espoused no more than seventeen or fifteen wives;

eleven are enumerated, who occupied at Medina their separate apartments

round the house of the apostle, and enjoyed in their turns the favour

of his conjugal society. What is singular enough, they were all widows,

excepting only Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bekr. She was doubtless a

virgin, since Mohammed consummated his nuptials (such is the premature

ripeness of the climate) when she was only nine years of age. The

youth, the beauty, the spirit of Aisha, gave her a superior ascendant:

she was beloved and trusted by the prophet; and after his death the

daughter of Abu Bekr was long revered as the mother of the faithful. Her

behaviour had been ambiguous and indiscreet; in a nocturnal march she was

accidentally left behind, and in the morning Aisha returned to the camp

with a man.

The temper of Mohammed was inclined to jealousy; but a divine revelation

assured him of her innocence; he chastised her accusers, and published

a law of domestic peace, that no woman should be condemned unless four

male witnesses had seen her in the act of adultery. In his adventures

with Zainab, the wife of Zaid, and with Maria, an Egyptian captive,

the amorous prophet forgot the interest of his reputation. At the house

of Zaid, his freedman and adopted son, he beheld in a loose undress the

beauty of Zainab, and burst forth into an ejaculation of devotion and

desire. The servile, or grateful, freedman understood the hint, and

yielded without hesitation to the love of his benefactor. But as the

filial relation had excited some doubt and scandal, the angel Gabriel

descended from heaven to ratify the deed, to annul the adoption, and

gently to reprove the apostle for distrusting the indulgence of his God.

One of his wives, Hafsa, the daughter of Omar, surprised him on her own

bed in the embraces of his Egyptian captive; she promised secrecy and

forgiveness, he swore that he would renounce the possession of Maria.

Both parties forgot their engagements, and Gabriel again descended with

a chapter of the _Koran_, to absolve him from his oath and to exhort him

freely to enjoy his captives and concubines, without listening to the

clamours of his wives. In a solitary retreat of thirty days, he laboured,

alone with Maria, to fulfil the commands of the angel. When his love and

revenge were satiated, he summoned to his presence his eleven wives,

reproached their disobedience and indiscretion, and threatened them

with a sentence of divorce, both in this world and the next--a dreadful

sentence, since those who had ascended the bed of the prophet were

forever excluded from the hope of a second marriage.

[Illustration: A SARACENIC CANDLESTICK]

Perhaps the incontinence of Mohammed may be palliated by the tradition of

his natural or preternatural gifts; he united the manly virtue of thirty

of the children of Adam, and the apostle might rival the thirteenth

labour of the Grecian Hercules. A more serious and decent excuse may be

drawn from his fidelity to Khadija. During the twenty-four years of their

marriage her youthful husband abstained from the right of polygamy, and

the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was never insulted by

the society of a rival. After her death he placed her in the rank of the

four perfect women, with the sister of Moses, the mother of Jesus, and

Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. “Was she not old?” said Aisha,

with the insolence of a blooming beauty, “has not God given you a better

in her place?” “No, by God,” said Mohammed, with an effusion of honest

gratitude, “there never can be a better! she believed in me when men

despised me; she relieved my wants when I was poor and persecuted by the

world.”

In the largest indulgence of polygamy, the founder of a religion and

empire might aspire to multiply the chances of a numerous posterity and a

lineal succession. The hopes of Mohammed were fatally disappointed. The

virgin Aisha, and his ten widows of mature age and approved fertility,

were barren in his potent embraces. The four sons of Khadija died in

their infancy. Maria, his Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by the

birth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the prophet wept over his

grave; but he sustained with firmness the raillery of his enemies, and

checked the adulation or credulity of the Moslems, by the assurance that

an eclipse of the sun was not occasioned by the death of the infant.

Khadija had likewise given him four daughters, who were married to the

most faithful of his disciples; the three eldest died before their

father; but Fatima, who possessed his confidence and love, became the

wife of her cousin Ali, and the mother of an illustrious progeny.

From his earliest youth, Mohammed was addicted to religious

contemplation; each year, during the month of Ramadhan, he withdrew

from the world and from the arms of Khadija; in the cave of Hira, three

miles from Mecca, he consulted the spirit of fraud or enthusiasm, whose

abode is not in the heavens but in the mind of the prophet. The faith

which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, is

compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction--that there is

only one God, and that Mohammed is the apostle of God.

The Christians of the seventh century had insensibly relapsed into a

semblance of paganism; their public and private vows were addressed to

the relics and images that disgraced the temples of the East; the throne

of the Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and

angels, the objects of popular veneration; and the Collyridian heretics,

who flourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary

with the name and honours of a goddess. The creed of Mohammed is free

from suspicion or ambiguity; and the _Koran_ is a glorious testimony

to the unity of God. The prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of

idols and men, of stars and planets, on the rational principle that

whatever rises must set, that whatever is born must die, that whatever

is corruptible must decay and perish. In the author of the universe,

his rational enthusiasm confessed and adored an infinite and eternal

being, without form or place, without issue or similitude, present to

our most secret thoughts, existing by the necessity of his own nature,

and deriving from himself all moral and intellectual perfection. These

sublime truths, thus announced in the language of the prophet, are firmly

held by his disciples, and defined with metaphysical precision by the

interpreters of the _Koran_. The first principle of reason and revelation

was confirmed by the voice of Mohammed; his proselytes, from India to

Morocco, are distinguished by the name of Unitarians; and the danger of

idolatry has been prevented by the interdiction of images. The doctrine

of eternal decrees and absolute predestination is strictly embraced by

the Mohammedans; and they struggle with the common difficulties, how to

reconcile the prescience of God with the freedom and responsibility of

man; how to explain the permission of evil under the reign of infinite

power and infinite goodness.

The liberality of Mohammed allowed to his predecessors the same credit

which he claimed for himself; and the chain of inspiration was prolonged

from the fall of Adam to the promulgation of the _Koran_. During that

period, some rays of prophetic light had been imparted to 124,000 of

the elect, discriminated by their respective measure of virtue and

grace; 313 apostles were sent with a special commission to recall their

country from idolatry and vice; 104 volumes had been dictated by the holy

spirit; and six legislators of transcendent brightness have announced

to mankind the six successive revelations of various rites, but of one

immutable religion. The authority and station of Adam, Noah, Abraham,

Moses, Christ, and Mohammed rise in just gradation above each other;

but whosoever hates or rejects any one of the prophets is numbered with

the infidels. The writings of the patriarchs were extant only in the

apocryphal copies of the Greeks and Syrians; the conduct of Adam had

not entitled him to the gratitude or respect of his children; the seven

precepts of Noah were observed by an inferior and imperfect class of the

proselytes of the synagogue, and the memory of Abraham was obscurely

revered by the Sabians in his native land of Chaldea; of the myriads of

prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived and reigned; and the remnant of

the inspired writings was comprised in the books of the Old and the New

Testament. The miraculous story of Moses is consecrated and embellished

in the _Koran_; and the captive Jews enjoy the secret revenge of imposing

their belief on the nations whose recent creeds they deride. For the

author of Christianity, the Mohammedans are taught by the prophet to

entertain a high and mysterious reverence. “Verily, Christ Jesus, the

son of Mary, is the Apostle of God, and His word, which He conveyed unto

Mary, and a spirit proceeding from him are honourable in this world,

and in the world to come; and He is one of those who approach near to

the presence of God.” The piety of Moses and of Christ rejoiced in the

assurance of a future prophet, more illustrious than themselves; the

evangelic promise of the Paraclete, or Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the

name, and accomplished in the person, of Mohammed, the greatest and the

last of the apostles of God.

The inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, of the apostles and evangelists

of Christ, might not be incompatible with the exercise of their reason

and memory; and the diversity of their genius is strongly marked in the

style and composition of the books of the Old and New Testament. But

Mohammed was content with a character, more humble yet more sublime, of

a simple editor; the substance of the _Koran_, according to himself or

his disciples, is uncreated and eternal; subsisting in the essence of the

Deity, and inscribed with a pen of light on the table of his everlasting

decrees. A paper copy, in a volume of silk and gems, was brought down to

the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel, who, under the Jewish economy,

had indeed been despatched on the most important errands; and this trusty

messenger successively revealed the chapters and verses to the Arabian

prophet. Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will,

the fragments of the _Koran_ were produced at the discretion of Mohammed;

each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion;

and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim that any text of

Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage. The word of

God, and of the apostle, was diligently recorded by his disciples on palm

leaves and the shoulder bones of mutton; and the pages, without order or

connection, were cast into a domestic chest in the custody of one of his

wives.

Two years after the death of Mohammed the sacred volume was collected

and published by his friend and successor Abu Bekr. The work was revised

by the caliph Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira; and the

various editions of the _Koran_ assert the same miraculous privilege of a

uniform and incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity,

the prophet rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book,

audaciously challenges both men and angels to imitate the beauties of a

single page, and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate this

incomparable performance. This argument is most powerfully addressed to

a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture, whose ear

is delighted by the music of sounds, and whose ignorance is incapable of

comparing the productions of human genius. The harmony and copiousness

of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel; he will

peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and

precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea,

which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds.

The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian missionary; but his

loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job,

composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the same language.

If the composition of the _Koran_ exceed the faculties of a man, to what

superior intelligence should we ascribe the _Iliad_ of Homer or the

_Philippics_ of Demosthenes?

In all religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of his

written revelation; the sayings of Mohammed were so many lessons of

truth, his actions so many examples of virtue; and the public and private

memorials were preserved by his wives and companions. At the end of two

hundred years the _sunna_, or oral law, was fixed and consecrated by the

labours of Al-Buchari, who discriminated 7,275 traditions, from a mass of

300,000 reports of a more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the

pious author prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions

with the water of Zemzem; the pages were successively deposited on the

pulpit and the sepulchre of the apostle; and the work has been approved

by the four orthodox sects of the Sunnites.

The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses, and of Jesus, had been

confirmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mohammed was repeatedly urged

by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina to produce a similar evidence of

his divine legation; to call down from heaven the angel or the volume

of his revelation, to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a

conflagration in the unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by the

demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of

vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and

shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those signs and

wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith and aggravate the guilt

of infidelity. But the modest or angry tone of his apologies betrays his

weakness and vexation; and these passages of scandal establish, beyond

suspicion, the integrity of the _Koran_.

The votaries of Mohammed are more assured than himself of his miraculous

gifts, and their confidence and credulity increase as they are further

removed from the time and place of his spiritual exploits. They believe

or affirm that trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted by

stones; that water gushed from his fingers; that he fed the hungry,

cured the sick, and raised the dead; that a beam groaned to him; that a

camel complained to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of its

being poisoned; and that both animate and inanimate nature were equally

subject to the apostle of God. His dream of a nocturnal journey is

seriously described as a real and corporeal transaction. A mysterious

animal, the borak, conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to that of

Jerusalem; with his companion Gabriel he successively ascended the seven

heavens, and received and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the

prophets, and the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the

seventh heaven, Mohammed alone was permitted to proceed; he passed the

veil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt

a cold that pierced him to the heart when his shoulder was touched by

the hand of God. After this familiar, though important conversation, he

again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the borak, returned to Mecca,

and performed in the tenth part of a night the journey of many thousand

years. According to another legend, the apostle confounded in a national

assembly the malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless word

split asunder the orb of the moon; the obedient planet stooped from her

station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions round the Kaaba,

saluted Mohammed in the Arabian tongue, and suddenly contracting her

dimensions entered at the collar, and issued forth through the sleeve of

his shirt. The vulgar are amused with these marvellous tales; but the

gravest of the Mussulman doctors imitate the modesty of their master,

and indulge a latitude of faith or interpretation. They might speciously

allege that, in preaching the religion, it was needless to violate the

harmony of nature; that a creed unclouded with mystery may be excused

from miracles; and that the sword of Mohammed was not less potent than

the rod of Moses.

[Illustration: AN ARAB CHIEF]

The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of

superstition; a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwoven

with the essence of the Mosaic law, and the spirit of the Gospel had

evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca was

tempted, by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the rites

of the Arabians and the custom of visiting the holy stone of the Kaaba.

But the precepts of Mohammed himself inculcate a more simple and rational

piety; prayer, fasting, and alms are the religious duties of a Mussulman;

and he is encouraged to hope that prayer will carry him half-way to God,

fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms will gain him

admittance.

(1) According to the tradition of the nocturnal journey, the apostle,

in his personal conference with the Deity, was commanded to impose on

his disciples the daily obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice

of Moses, he applied for an alleviation of this intolerable burden;

the number was gradually reduced to five; without any dispensation of

business or pleasure, or time or place, the devotion of the faithful

is repeated at daybreak, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening, and

at the first watch of the night; and in the present decay of religious

fervour our travellers are edified by the profound humility and

attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is the key of prayer;

the frequent lustration of the hands, the face, and the body, which was

practised of old by the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the _Koran_;

and a permission is formally granted to supply with sand the scarcity

of water. The words and attitudes of supplication, as it is performed

either sitting, or standing, or prostrate on the ground, are prescribed

by custom or authority, but the prayer is poured forth in short and

fervent ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not exhausted by a tedious

liturgy; and each Mussulman, for his own person, is invested with the

character of a priest. Among the theists, who reject the use of images,

it has been found necessary to restrain the wanderings of the fancy by

directing the eye and the thought towards a _kibla_, or visible point of

the horizon. The prophet was at first inclined to gratify the Jews by the

choice of Jerusalem, but he soon returned to a more natural partiality;

and five times every day the eyes of the nations at Astrakhan, at Fez,

at Delhi are devoutly turned to the holy temple of Mecca. Yet every spot

for the service of God is equally pure; the Mohammedans indifferently

pray in their chamber or in the street. As a distinction from the Jews

and Christians, the Friday in each week is set apart for the useful

institution of public worship; the people are assembled in the mosque;

and the imam, some respectable elder, ascends the pulpit, to begin the

prayer and pronounce the sermon. But the Mohammedan religion is destitute

of priesthood or sacrifice; and the independent spirit of fanaticism

looks down with contempt on the ministers and the slaves of superstition.

(2) The voluntary penance of the ascetics, the torment and glory of their

lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in his companions a rash vow

of abstaining from flesh, and women, and sleep; and firmly declared that

he would suffer no monks in his religion. Yet he instituted, in each

year, a fast of thirty days; and strenuously recommended the observance,

as a discipline which purifies the soul and subdues the body, as a

salutary exercise of obedience to the will of God and his apostle. During

the month of Ramadhan, from the rising to the setting of the sun, the

Mussulman abstains from eating, and drinking, and women, and baths, and

perfumes; from all nourishment that can restore his strength, from all

pleasure that can gratify his senses. In the revolution of the lunar

year, the Ramadhan coincides by turns with the winter cold and the

summer heat; and the patient martyr, without assuaging his thirst with

a drop of water, must expect the close of a tedious and sultry day. The

interdiction of wine, peculiar to some orders of priests or hermits,

is converted by Mohammed alone into a positive and general law; and a

considerable portion of the globe has abjured, at his command, the use

of that salutary though dangerous liquor. These painful restraints are,

doubtless, infringed by the libertine and eluded by the hypocrite; but

the legislator by whom they are enacted cannot surely be accused of

alluring his proselytes by the indulgence of their sensual appetites.

(3) The charity of the Mohammedans descends to the animal creation; and

the _Koran_ repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit but as a strict and

indispensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. Mohammed,

perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the precise measure of

charity; the standard may vary with the degree and nature of property, as

it consists either in money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or merchandise;

but the Mussulman does not accomplish the law unless he bestows a

tenth of his revenue; and if his conscience accuses him of fraud or

extortion, the tenth, under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a

fifth. Benevolence is the foundation of justice, since we are forbidden

to injure those whom we are bound to assist. A prophet may reveal the

secrets of heaven and of futurity; but in his moral precepts he can only

repeat the lessons of our own hearts.

The two articles of belief and the four practical duties of Islam are

guarded by rewards and punishments; and the faith of the Mussulman is

devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and the last day. The prophet

has not presumed to determine the moment of that awful catastrophe,

though he darkly announces the signs, both in heaven and earth, which

will precede the universal dissolution, when life shall be destroyed and

the order of creation shall be confounded in the primitive chaos. At the

blast of the trumpet, new worlds will start into being; angels, genii,

and men will arise from the dead, and the human soul will again be united

to the body. The doctrine of the resurrection was first entertained by

the Egyptians; and their mummies were embalmed, their pyramids were

constructed, to preserve the ancient mansion of the soul during a period

of three thousand years. But the attempt is partial and unavailing;

and it is with a more philosophic spirit that Mohammed relies on the

omnipotence of the Creator, whose word can reanimate the breathless clay,

and collect the innumerable atoms that no longer retain their form or

substance. The intermediate state of the soul it is hard to decide; and

those who most firmly believe in her immaterial nature, are at a loss to

understand how she can think or act without the agency of the organs of

sense.

The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the final judgment

of mankind; and in his copy of the magian picture the prophet has too

faithfully represented the forms of proceeding, and even the slow

and successive operations of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerant

adversaries he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hope

of salvation; for asserting the blackest heresy--that every man who

believes in God and accomplishes good works may expect in the last day

a favourable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to the

character of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger from heaven

should depreciate the value and necessity of his own revelation. In the

idiom of the _Koran_, the belief of God is inseparable from that of

Mohammed; the good works are those which he has enjoined; and the two

qualifications imply the profession of Islam, to which all nations and

all sects are equally invited. Their spiritual blindness, though excused

by ignorance and crowned with virtue, will be scourged with everlasting

torments; and the tears which Mohammed shed over the tomb of his mother,

for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of

humanity and enthusiasm.

The doom of the infidels is common; the measure of their guilt and

punishment is determined by the degree of evidence which they have

rejected, by the magnitude of the errors which they have entertained; the

eternal mansions of the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, the Magians,

and the idolaters are sunk below each other in the abyss; and the lowest

hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumed the mask

of religion. After the greater part of mankind has been condemned for

their opinions, the true believers only will be judged by their actions.

The good and evil of each Mussulman will be accurately weighed in a

real or allegorical balance, and a singular mode of compensation will

be allowed for the payment of injuries; the aggressor will refund an

equivalent of his own good actions for the benefit of the person whom

he has wronged; and if he should be destitute of any moral property,

the weight of his sins will be loaded with an adequate share of the

demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or virtue

shall preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without

distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the abyss;

but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mohammed, will gloriously

enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty will fall into the first

and mildest of the seven hells. The term of expiation will vary from nine

hundred to seven thousand years; but the prophet has judiciously promised

that all his disciples, whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by

their own faith and his intercession, from eternal damnation.

It is not surprising that superstition should act most powerfully on

the fears of her votaries, since the human fancy can paint with more

energy the misery than the bliss of a future life. With the two simple

elements of darkness and fire we create a sensation of pain, which may be

aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea of endless duration. But the

same idea operates with an opposite effect on the continuity of pleasure;

and too much of our present enjoyment is obtained from the relief, or

the comparison of evil. It is natural enough that an Arabian prophet

should dwell with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and the rivers of

paradise; but instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants with a liberal

taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship, he idly

celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble,

dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and

the whole train of sensual and costly luxury which becomes insipid to the

owner, even in the short period of this mortal life. Seventy-two houris,

or black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming youth, virgin

purity, and exquisite sensibility will be created for the use of the

meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand

years, and his faculties will be increased a hundredfold, to render him

worthy of his felicity.

Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be open to

both sexes; but Mohammed has not specified the male companions of the

female elect, lest he should either alarm the jealousy of their former

husbands, or disturb their felicity by the suspicion of an everlasting

marriage. This image of a carnal paradise has provoked the indignation,

perhaps the envy, of the monks; they declaim against the impure religion

of Mohammed; and his modest apologists are driven to the poor excuse

of figures and allegories. But the sounder and more consistent party

adheres, without shame, to the literal interpretation of the _Koran_;

useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were restored to

the possession and exercise of its worthiest faculties; and the union of

sensual and intellectual enjoyment is requisite to complete the happiness

of the double animal, the perfect man. Yet the joys of the Mohammedan

paradise will not be confined to the indulgence of luxury and appetite;

and the prophet has expressly declared that all meaner happiness will be

forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be admitted

to the beatitude of the divine vision.

The talents of Mohammed are entitled to our applause; but his success

has perhaps too strongly attracted our admiration. Are we surprised that

a multitude of proselytes should embrace the doctrine and the passions

of an eloquent fanatic? In the heresies of the church the same seduction

has been tried and repeated from the time of the apostles to that of

the reformers. Does it seem incredible that a private citizen should

grasp the sword and the sceptre, subdue his native country, and erect a

monarchy by his victorious arms? In the moving picture of the dynasties

of the East, a hundred fortunate usurpers have arisen from a baser

origin, surmounted more formidable obstacles, and filled a larger scope

of empire and conquest.

Mohammed was alike instructed to preach and to fight, and the union of

these opposite qualities, while it enhanced his merit, contributed to his

success; the operation of force and persuasion, of enthusiasm and fear,

continually acted on each other, till every barrier yielded to their

irresistible power. His voice invited the Arabs to freedom and victory,

to arms and rapine, to the indulgence of their darling passions in this

world and the other; the restraints which he imposed were requisite to

establish the credit of the prophet and to exercise the obedience of the

people; and the only objection to his success was his rational creed of

the unity and perfections of God.

It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that

deserves our wonder; the same pure and perfect impression which he

engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved after the revolutions of twelve

centuries by the Indian, the African, and the Turkish proselytes of the

_Koran_. If the Christian apostles, St. Peter or St. Paul, could return

to the Vatican, they might possibly inquire the name of the deity who

is worshipped with such mysterious rites in that magnificent temple; at

Oxford or Geneva, they would experience less surprise, but it might still

be incumbent on them to peruse the catechism of the church and to study

the orthodox commentators on their own writings and the words of their

master. But the Turkish dome of St. Sophia, with an increase of splendour

and size, represents the humble tabernacle erected at Medina by the hands

of Mohammed. The Mohammedans have uniformly withstood the temptation

of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to a level with the

senses and imagination of man. “I believe in one God, and Mohammed the

apostle of God,” is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The

intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible

idol; the honours of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of

human virtue; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of

his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion. The votaries of

Ali have indeed consecrated the memory of their hero, his wife, and his

children, and some of the Persian doctors pretend that the divine essence

was incarnate in the person of the imams; but their superstition is

universally condemned by the Sunnites, and their impiety has afforded a

seasonable warning against the worship of saints and martyrs.

The metaphysical questions on the attributes of God and the liberty of

man have been agitated in the schools of the Mohammedans, as well as in

those of the Christians; but among the former they have never engaged

the passions of the people or disturbed the tranquillity of the state.

The cause of this important difference may be found in the separation

or union of the regal and sacerdotal characters. It was the interest

of the caliphs, the successors of the prophet and commanders of the

faithful, to repress and discourage all religious innovations; the

order, the discipline, the temporal and spiritual ambition of the clergy

are unknown to the Moslems, and the sages of the law are the guides of

their conscience and the oracles of their faith. From the Atlantic to

the Ganges the _Koran_ is acknowledged as the fundamental code, not

only of theology but of civil and criminal jurisprudence; and the laws

which regulate the actions and the property of mankind are guarded by

the infallible and immutable sanction of the will of God. This religious

servitude is attended with some practical disadvantage; the illiterate

legislator had been often misled by his own prejudices and those of his

country; and the institutions of the Arabian desert may be ill adapted to

the wealth and numbers of Ispahan and Constantinople. On these occasions,

the kadi respectfully places on his head the holy volume, and substitutes

a dexterous interpretation more apposite to the principles of equity and

the manners and policy of the times.

His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happiness is the

last consideration in the character of Mohammed. The most bitter or most

bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will surely allow that he assumed

a false commission to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less perfect only

than their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of his religion, the

truth and sanctity of their prior revelations, the virtues and miracles

of their founders. The idols of Arabia were broken before the throne of

God; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer, and fasting, and

alms, the laudable or innocent arts of devotion; and his rewards and

punishments of a future life were painted by the images most congenial

to an ignorant and carnal generation. Mohammed was, perhaps, incapable

of dictating a moral and political system for the use of his countrymen;

but he breathed among the faithful a spirit of charity and friendship,

recommended the practice of the social virtues, and checked, by his laws

and precepts, the thirst of revenge and the oppression of widow and

orphans. The hostile tribes were united in faith and obedience, and the

valour which had been idly spent in domestic quarrels was vigorously

directed against a foreign enemy. Had the impulse been less powerful,

Arabia, free at home and formidable abroad, might have flourished under a

succession of her native monarchs. Her sovereignty was lost by the extent

and rapidity of conquest. The colonies of the nation were scattered over

the East and West, and their blood was mingled with the blood of their

converts and captives. After the reign of three caliphs, the throne was

transported from Medina to the valley of Damascus and the banks of the

Tigris; the holy cities were violated by impious war; Arabia was ruled

by the rod of a subject, perhaps of a stranger; and the Bedouins of the

desert, awakening from their dream of dominion, resumed their old and

solitary independence.[d]

FOOTNOTES

[31] [Muir[e] and other accounts say that Hamza’s liver was cut out and

brought to Hind; this because he had slain her father at Bedr.]

[32] [The fortress.]

[33] [Dinar--a gold coin. Its original weight was 65.4 grains troy.]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V. THE SPREAD OF ISLAM

ABU BEKR, FIRST CALIPH AFTER MOHAMMED

[Sidenote: [632-661 A.D.]]

Mohammed, the founder of the Saracenic empire, died at Medina, on Monday

the 8th of June, 632 A.D., being the twenty-second year of the reign of

Heraclius the Grecian emperor. After he was dead, the next care was to

appoint a successor; and it was indeed very necessary that one should be

provided as soon as possible. Their government and religion being both in

their infancy, and a great many of Mohammed’s followers no great bigots,

not having yet forgotten their ancient rights and customs, but rather

forced to leave them for fear, than upon any conviction, affairs were in

such a posture as could by no means admit of an interregnum. Wherefore

the same day that he expired the Mussulmans met together in order to

elect a caliph or successor. In that assembly there had like to have

been such a fray, as might, in all probability, have greatly endangered,

if not utterly ruined, this new religion and polity, had not Omar and

Abu Bekr timely interposed. For the prophet having left no positive

directions concerning a successor, or at least none that were known to

any but his wives, who in all probability might conceal them out of their

partiality in favour of Omar, a hot dispute arose between the inhabitants

of Mecca and Medina.

At last Omar being wearied out, and seeing no likelihood of deciding the

matter, was willing to give over, and bade Abu Bekr give him his hand,

which he had no sooner done than Omar promised him fealty. The rest

followed his example, and by the consent of both parties Abu Bekr was

at last saluted caliph, and being acknowledged the rightful successor

of their prophet Mohammed, became the absolute judge of all causes both

sacred and civil. Thus, after much ado, that difference was at last

composed, which had like to have proved fatal to Mohammedanism. And

certainly it was a very great oversight in Mohammed, in all the time of

his sickness, never to have named a successor positively and publicly.

If he had done so, without question, his authority would have determined

the business, and prevented that disturbance which had like to have

endangered the religion he had planted with so much difficulty and

hazard.

Now though the government was actually settled upon Abu Bekr, all parties

were not equally satisfied, for a great many were of opinion that the

right of succession belonged to Ali, the son of Abu Talib. Upon which

account the Mohammedans have ever since been divided; some maintaining

that Abu Bekr, and Omar, and Othman, that came after him, were the

rightful and lawful successors of the prophet; and others disclaiming

them altogether as usurpers, and constantly asserting the right of

Ali. Of the former opinion are the Turks at this day; of the latter,

the Persians. And such consequently is the difference between those

two nations, that notwithstanding their agreement in all other points

of their superstition, yet upon this account they treat one another

as most damnable heretics. Ali had this to recommend him, that he was

Mohammed’s cousin-german, and was the first that embraced his religion,

except his wife Khadija, and his slave Zaid, and was besides Mohammed’s

son-in-law, having married his daughter Fatima. Abu Bekr was Mohammed’s

father-in-law, by whom he was so much respected that he received from him

the surname of As-Siddik (which signifies in Arabic, “a great speaker of

truth”), because he resolutely asserted the truth of that story which

Mohammed told of his going one night to heaven.

Ali was not present at this election, and when he heard the news was not

well pleased, having hoped that the choice would have fallen on himself.

Abu Bekr sent Omar to Fatima’s house, where Ali and some of his friends

were, with orders to compel them by force to come in and do fealty to

him, if they would not be persuaded by fair means. Omar was just going to

fire the house, when Fatima asked him what he meant. He told her that he

would certainly burn the house down unless they would be content to do as

the rest of the people had done. Upon which Ali came forth and went to

Abu Bekr, and acknowledged his sovereignty.

Abu Bekr being thus settled in his new government, had work enough to

maintain it; for the Mohammedan religion had not as yet taken such

deep root in the hearts of men but that they would very willingly have

shaken it off had they known how. Accordingly the Arabians, a people of

a restless and turbulent disposition, did not neglect the opportunity

of rebelling, which they thought was fairly offered them by the death

of Mohammed. Immediately taking up arms, they refused to pay the usual

tribute, tithes, and alms, and no longer observed the rites and customs

which had been imposed upon them by Mohammed.

[Sidenote: [632-633 A.D.]]

Abu Bekr sent Khalid ben Walid, with an army of forty-five hundred men,

who, having routed them in a set battle, brought off a great deal of

plunder, and made slaves of their children.

Khalid was the best general of his age, and it was chiefly to his courage

and conduct that the Saracens owed the subduing of the rebels, the

conquest of Syria, and the establishment of their religion and polity.

His love and tenderness towards his own soldiers were only equalled

by his hatred and aversion to the enemies of the Mohammedan religion.

Of both he has given the most signal instances. To those who, having

embraced the Mohammedan religion, afterwards apostatised, he was an

irreconcilable and implacable foe; nor would he spare them, though they

evinced the greatest signs of unfeigned repentance. For his great valour,

the Arabs called him “the Sword of God”; which surname of his was known

also to his enemies, and is mentioned as well by Greek as Arab authors.

About this time several persons, perceiving the success and prosperity

of Mohammed and his followers, set up also for prophets too, in hope

of meeting the like good fortune, and making themselves eminent in the

world. Such were Aswad al-Ansi and Tulaihah ben Khuwailid, with several

others, whose attempts however quickly came to nothing. But the most

considerable of these impostors was Musailima, who had been the rival of

Mohammed even in his life-time, and trumped up a book in imitation of the

_Koran_. He had now gathered together a very considerable body of men

in Yemen, a province of Arabia, and began to be so formidable that the

Mussulmans began to feel alarmed at his growing greatness.

It is strange and surprising to consider from how mean and contemptible

beginnings the greatest things have been raised in a short time. Of this

the Saracenic empire is a remarkable instance. For if we look back but

eleven years, we shall see how Mohammed, unable to support his cause,

routed and oppressed by the powerful party of the Koreishites at Mecca,

fled with a few desponding followers to Medina to preserve his life no

less than his imposture. And now, within so short a period, we find the

undertakings of his successor prospering beyond expectation, and making

him the terror of all his neighbours; and the Saracens in a capacity not

only to keep possession of their own peninsula of Arabia, but to extend

their arms over larger territories than ever were subject to the Romans

themselves. Whilst they were thus employed in Arabia, they were little

regarded by the Grecian emperor, who awoke too late to a sense of their

formidable power, when he saw them pouring in upon them like a torrent,

and driving all before them. The proud Persian, too, who so very lately

had been domineering in Syria, and sacked Jerusalem and Damascus, must be

forced not only to part with his own dominions, but also to submit his

neck to the Saracenic yoke. It may be reasonably supposed that, had the

Grecian empire been in the flourishing condition it formerly was, the

Saracens might have been checked at least, if not entirely extinguished.

But besides that the western part of the empire had been rent from it by

the barbarous Goths, the eastern also had received so many shocks from

the Huns on the one side, and the Persians on the other, that it was not

in a situation to stem the fury of this powerful invasion. Heraclius,

indeed, was a prince of admirable courage and conduct, and did all

that was possible to restore the discipline of the army, and was very

successful against the Persians, not only driving them out of his own

dominions, but even wresting from them a part of their own territories.

But the empire seemed to labour under an incurable disease, and to be

wounded in its very vitals. No time could have been more fatally adverse

to its maintenance, nor more favourable to the enterprises of the

Saracens.

Abu Bekr had now set affairs at home in pretty good order. The apostates

who upon the death of Mohammed had revolted to the idolatry in which

they were born and bred, were again reduced to subjection. The forces of

Musailima, the false prophet, being dispersed and himself killed, there

was now little or nothing left to be done in Arabia. For though there

were a great many Christian Arabs, as particularly the tribe of Ghassan,

yet they were generally employed in the service of the Greek emperor.

The next business, therefore, that the caliph had to do, pursuant to

the tenor of his religion, was to make war upon his neighbours, for

the propagation of the truth (for so they call their superstition),

and compel them either to become Mohammedans or tributaries. For their

prophet Mohammed had given them a commission of a very large, nay,

unlimited extent, to fight, _viz._, till all the people were of his

religion. The wars which are entered upon in obedience to this command,

they call holy wars, with no greater absurdity than we ourselves give the

same title to that which was once undertaken against them by Europeans.

With this religious object, Abu Bekr sent at this time a force under

Khalid into Irak or Babylonia; but his greatest longing was after Syria,

which delicious, pleasant, and fruitful country being near to Arabia,

seemed to lie very conveniently for him.

[Sidenote: [633-634 A.D.]]

The news of his preparation quickly came to the ears of the emperor

Heraclius, who despatched a force with all possible speed to check the

advance of the Saracens, but with ill success; for the general, with

twelve hundred of his men, was killed upon the field of the battle, and

the rest routed, the Arabs losing only 120 men. A number of skirmishes

followed, in most of which the Christians came off the worst.[b]

Damascus was besieged for months, and all sorties of the inhabitants

crushed with heavy slaughter. Heraclius, at Antioch, sent a great army

under Werdan to its relief. Khalid, raising the siege, went to meet it.[a]

[Illustration: DAMASCUS]

The two armies presently came within sight of each other, and the

confidence of the Saracens was somewhat checked, when they perceived

the strength of the emperor’s forces, which amounted to no less than

seventy thousand. Those who had been in Persia, and seen the vast armies

of Chosroes, confessed that they had never beheld an enemy equal to the

present, either in number or military preparation. On the second morning

they moved forward, and engaged in all parts with all imaginable vigour.

The fight, or rather the slaughter, continued till evening. The Christian

army was entirely routed and defeated. The Saracens killed that day fifty

thousand men. Those that escaped fled, some of them to Cæsarea, others to

Damascus, and some to Antioch. The Saracens took plunder of inestimable

value, and a great many banners, and crosses made of gold and silver,

precious stones, silver and gold chains, rich clothes, and arms without

number; which Khalid said he would not divide until Damascus was taken.

The Saracens, returning to Damascus, continued vigorously to press the

siege, and reduced the inhabitants to very great straits, who every day

made a worse defence. For a while, at last, they begged of Khalid to

stay the assault, that they might have a little time to deliberate. But

he turned a deaf ear to them, for he had rather take the town by force,

and put the inhabitants to the sword, and let his Saracens have the

plunder, than that they should surrender, and have security for their

lives and their property. At length, through treachery, Khalid entered at

the east gate with his Saracens, putting all to the sword, and Christian

blood streamed down the streets of Damascus.

Abu Bekr the caliph died the same day that Damascus was taken,[34] which

was on Friday, the 23rd of August, 634 A.D. There are various reports

concerning his death; some say that he was poisoned by the Jews, eating

rice with Harith ben Kaldah, and that they both died of it within a

twelvemonth after. But Aisha says, that he bathed himself upon a cold

day, which threw him into a fever[35] of which he died within fifteen

days.[b]

Abu Bekr particularly lamented the number of the prophet’s companions

that fell in these campaigns, and fearing that the revelations of

Mohammed might be dispersed and lost, he gave orders that they should be

collected into the _Koran_. We shall later have occasion to notice the

slovenly manner in which the persons employed performed their task; the

compilation was subsequently revised in the reign of the caliph Othman,

and it is probable that there are many passages far different from those

which Mohammed wrote.

When all things were ready, the caliph reviewed the troops and issued

that celebrated code of regulations for the conduct of the army; it

was addressed to the general Abu Sufyan, and contained the following

directions: “Take care to treat your men with tenderness and lenity.

Consult with your officers upon all pressing occasions, and encourage

them to face the enemy with bravery and resolution. If you are

victorious, spare all the aged, the women, and the children. Neither

cut down palm trees nor burn any fields of corn. Spare all fruit trees;

slay no cattle but such as are required for your own use. Adhere to your

engagements inviolably; spare the inhabitants of monasteries; desecrate

no houses of religious worship. Cleave the skulls of those members of the

synagogue of Satan, who shave their crowns, give them no quarter, unless

they embrace Islamism, or pay tribute.”

The character of the first caliph had a beneficial effect on the

Mohammedan religion; for though the partisans of Ali accuse him of

ambition, and of uniting with his daughter Aisha to suppress the

prophet’s declarations in favour of Ali, yet they do not deny him the

praise of disinterestedness, justice, and benevolence. Before his

accession, he had bestowed the greater part of his estate to feed the

poor, and had been publicly named by the prophet the most charitable of

men. When placed at the head of affairs, he only took from the treasury

the sum absolutely necessary for his daily support; before entering on

the sovereignty, he ordered an exact account to be taken of his personal

estate, and at his death it was found to be considerably diminished.

In fact the absolute ruler of the richest countries of the world left

behind him but a single camel and an Ethiopian slave, and even these

he bequeathed to his successor. He dictated his will to Othman in the

following terms: “_In the Name of the Most Merciful God._--This is

the last will and testament of Abu Bekr ben Abi Kohafa, when he was

in the last hour of this world, and the first of the next; an hour in

which the infidel must believe, the wicked be convinced of their evil

ways, and liars speak the truth. I nominate Omar ben al-Khattab my

successor; therefore, hearken to him, and obey him. If he acts right, he

will confirm my expectations; if otherwise, he must render an account

of his own actions. My intentions are good, but I cannot foresee the

future results. However, those who do ill shall render a severe account

hereafter. Fare-ye-well. May ye be ever attended by the divine favour and

blessing.” When Abu Bekr had concluded this dictation, he fainted; on his

recovery, he desired Othman to read the document, soon after which he

expired. When information of the event was brought to Omar, he exclaimed,

“The life of Abu Bekr has been such, that it will be impossible for those

who come after, to imitate his sublime example.” Two proverbs attributed

to him, deserve to be quoted: “Good actions are a sure protection against

the blows of adversity.”--“Death is the most difficult of all things

before it comes, and the easiest when it is past.”

THE CALIPH OMAR

[Sidenote: [634-644 A.D.]]

Omar was, like his predecessor, a native of Mecca; he had been originally

a camel-herd, and never became quite free from the coarseness and

rusticity incident to his humble origin. At first a zealous idolater,

he proposed to extirpate all the followers of Mohammed; when he became

afterwards a Mussulman, he was just as eager to massacre all who would

not believe in the prophet. Violent on every occasion, he breathed

nothing but slaughter; and countless anecdotes are related of his

unrelenting temper. One of these must suffice. A Mussulman having a suit

against a Jew, was condemned by Mohammed, and in consequence, carried

his appeal before the tribunal of Omar; scarcely had he stated his case,

when Omar, springing from his seat, struck the appellant dead with one

blow of his sabre, exclaiming, “So perish all who will not submit to the

decision of God’s chosen prophet.” Rigorous justice, as interpreted by

the Mohammedan laws, and extreme severity, rendered his character more

respected than beloved. Mohammed said of him, “Truth speaks by the mouth

of Omar.” He added, that “if God had to send another prophet on the

earth, Omar would be the object of his choice.”

When Abu Bekr informed Omar that he had chosen him as his successor,

Omar, with mingled pride and humility, answered, “I have no need of

the caliphate.” Abu Bekr replied, “But the caliphate has need of you,”

and thus removed all further scruple. On his accession, he called

himself the “Caliph of the Caliph of God’s apostle,” but finding the

title inconveniently long, he changed it into that of “Commander of the

Faithful”; and this became, subsequently, the favourite designation of

his successors. When first he addressed his subjects, he stood a step

lower on the pulpit than Abu Bekr had been accustomed to do; he informed

his hearers that he would not have undertaken the arduous task of

government, only that he reposed perfect confidence in their intention to

observe the law, and adhere to the pure faith; he concluded with these

remarkable words, “O Mussulmans, I take God to witness, that none of you

shall be too strong for me to sacrifice the rights of the weak, nor too

weak for me to neglect the rights of the strong.”

No sooner was Omar placed at the head of affairs than the armies of

the Mohammedans seemed to have acquired tenfold vigour; and this was

not diminished by the severe treatment which the gallant Khalid, for a

trivial offence, received from the jealous caliph. The greater part of

Syria and Mesopotamia had been subdued during the life of Abu Bekr, the

conquest of these countries was now completed; the ancient empire of the

Persians was overthrown at the battle of Kadisiya; Palestine, Phœnicia,

and Egypt submitted to the Saracen yoke almost without a struggle; and

the standard of the prophet floated in triumph from the sands of the

Cyrenian desert to the banks of the Indus. “During the reign of Omar,”

says Khondemir, “the Saracens conquered thirty-six thousand cities,

towns, and castles, destroyed four thousand Christian, Magian, and pagan

temples, and erected fourteen hundred mosques.”

The annals of the world present no parallel to this recital; the Arabs

were animated by an enthusiasm which made them despise the most fearful

odds; they had ever in their mouths the magnificent orientalism,

traditionally ascribed to Mohammed, “in the shades of the scymitars is

paradise prefigured”; they sought battle as a feast, and counted danger

a sport. A fiercer spirit of course displayed itself in the Mohammedan

creed; the sanguinary precepts of propagandism, to which the prophet had

given utterance after his power was established at Medina, quite obscured

the milder doctrine taught at Mecca; and even these were surpassed in

ferocity by traditions which some of the sterner enthusiasts declared

that they had derived from the prophet himself. Abu Horeira declared

that he heard from Mohammed, “He who shall die without having fought for

God, or who never proposed that duty to himself, verily consigns himself

to destruction by his hypocrisy,” and also the singular declaration,

“He who shall bestow a horse upon one who would enlist himself under

the banner of the Most High, and be one who has faith in God and in his

promises, surely, both the food of that horse and the sustenance of his

rider, with the ordure of the former, shall be placed in the scales for

his advantage on the day of judgment.” We shall add one more, preserved

on the authority of Ibn Abbas: “There are two descriptions of eyes which

the fire of hell shall not destroy; the eyes that weep in contemplating

the indignation of God, and the eyes which are closed when in the act of

combat for the cause of God.”[f]

THE CONQUEST OF PERSIA

From the rapid conquests of the Saracens a presumption will naturally

arise, that the first caliphs commanded in person the armies of the

faithful, and sought the crown of martyrdom in the foremost ranks of the

battle. The courage of Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman had indeed been tried

in the persecution and wars of the prophet; and the personal assurance of

paradise must have taught them to despise the pleasures and dangers of

the present world. But they ascended the throne in a venerable or mature

age, and esteemed the domestic cares of religion and justice the most

important duties of a sovereign. Except the presence of Omar at the siege

of Jerusalem, their longest expeditions were the frequent pilgrimage from

Medina to Mecca; and they calmly received the tidings of victory as they

prayed or preached before the sepulchre of the prophet.

In the sloth and vanity of the palace of Damascus, the succeeding princes

of the house of Omayyah were alike destitute of the qualifications

of statesmen and of saints. Yet the spoils of unknown nations were

continually laid at the foot of their throne, and the uniform ascent of

the Arabian greatness must be ascribed to the spirit of the nation rather

than the abilities of their chiefs. A large deduction must be allowed

for the weakness of their enemies. The birth of Mohammed was fortunately

placed in the most degenerate and disorderly period of the Persians, the

Romans, and the barbarians of Europe; the empires of Trajan, or even of

Constantine or Charlemagne, would have repelled the assault of the naked

Saracens, and the torrent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in

the sands of Arabia.

In the victorious days of the Roman republic, it had been the aim

of the senate to confine their consuls and legions to a single war,

and completely to suppress a first enemy before they provoked the

hostilities of a second. These timid maxims of policy were disdained

by the magnanimity or enthusiasm of the Arabian caliphs. With the same

vigour and success they invaded the successors of Augustus, and those

of Artaxerxes; and the rival monarchies at the same instant became the

prey of an enemy whom they had been so long accustomed to despise. One

hundred years after Mohammed’s flight from Mecca, the arms and the reign

of his successors extended from India to the Atlantic Ocean, over the

various and distant provinces which may be comprised under the names of,

(1) Persia; (2) Syria; (3) Egypt; (4) Africa; and (5) Spain. Under this

general division we may proceed to unfold these memorable transactions;

despatching with brevity the remote and less interesting conquests of

the East, and reserving a fuller narrative for those domestic countries,

which had been included within the pale of the Roman Empire.

[Illustration: PERSIAN WARRIOR OF THE MIDDLE AGES]

[Sidenote: [634-637 A.D.]]

In the first year of the first caliph, his lieutenant Khalid, the sword

of God, and the scourge of the infidels, advanced to the banks of the

Euphrates, and reduced the cities of Anbar and Hira. Westward of the

ruins of Babylon a tribe of sedentary Arabs had fixed themselves on the

verge of the desert; and Hira was the seat of a race of kings who had

embraced the Christian religion, and reigned above six hundred years

under the shadow of the throne of Persia. The last of the Mondars was

defeated and slain by Khalid; his son was sent a captive to Medina; his

nobles bowed before the successor of the prophet; the people were tempted

by the example and success of their countrymen; and the caliph accepted

as the first-fruits of foreign conquest, an annual tribute of seventy

thousand pieces of gold. The conquerors, and even their historians, were

astonished by the dawn of their future greatness.

The indignation and fears of the Persians suspended for a moment

their intestine divisions. By the unanimous sentence of the priests

and nobles, Queen Azarmidokht was deposed--the sixth of the transient

usurpers who had arisen and vanished in three or four years, since the

death of Chosroes and the retreat of Heraclius. Her tiara was placed

on the head of Yezdegerd, the grandson of Chosroes; and the same era,

which coincides with an astronomical period, has recorded the fall of

the Sassanian dynasty and the religion of Zoroaster. The youth and

inexperience of the prince--he was only fifteen years of age--declined a

perilous encounter; the royal standard was delivered into the hands of

his general Rustem; and a remnant of thirty thousand regular troops was

swelled in truth, or in opinion, to 120,000 subjects, or allies, of the

great king. The Moslems, whose numbers were reinforced from twelve to

thirty thousand, had pitched their camp in the plains of Kadesiya; and

their line, though it consisted of fewer men, could produce more soldiers

than the unwieldy host of the infidels. The periods of the battle of

Kadesiya were distinguished by their peculiar appellations. The first,

from the well-timed appearance of six thousand of the Syrian brethren,

was denominated the day of succour. The day of concussion might express

the disorder of one, or perhaps of both, of the contending armies. The

third, a nocturnal tumult, received the whimsical name of the night

of barking, from the discordant clamours, which were compared to the

inarticulate sounds of the fiercest animals.

The morning of the succeeding day determined the fate of Persia; and

a seasonable whirlwind drove a cloud of dust against the faces of the

unbelievers. The clangour of arms was re-echoed to the tent of Rustem,

who, far unlike the ancient hero of his name, was gently reclining in a

cool and tranquil shade, amidst the baggage of his camp, and the train

of mules that was laden with gold and silver. On the sound of danger he

started from his couch; but his flight was overtaken by a valiant Arab,

who caught him by the foot, struck off his head, hoisted it on a lance,

and instantly returning to the field of battle, carried slaughter and

dismay among the thickest ranks of the Persians. The Saracens confess a

loss of 7,500 men; and the battle of Kadesiya is justly described by the

epithets of obstinate and atrocious. The standard of the monarchy was

overthrown and captured in the field--a leathern apron of a blacksmith,

who, in ancient times, had arisen the deliverer of Persia; but this

badge of heroic poverty was disguised, and almost concealed, by a

profusion of precious gems. After this victory, the wealthy province of

Irak or Assyria submitted to the caliph, and his conquests were firmly

established by the speedy foundation of Bassora, a place which ever

commands the trade and navigation of the Persians.

[Sidenote: [637-651 A.D.]]

After the defeat of Kadesiya, a country intersected by rivers and canals

might have opposed an insuperable barrier to the victorious cavalry; and

the walls of Ctesiphon or Madain, which had resisted the battering-rams

of the Romans, would not have yielded to the darts of the Saracens. But

the flying Persians were overcome by the belief that the last day of

their religion and empire was at hand; the strongest posts were abandoned

by treachery or cowardice; and the king, with a part of his family and

treasures, escaped to Holwan at the foot of the Median hills. In the

third month after the battle, Said, the lieutenant of Omar, passed the

Tigris without opposition; the capital was taken by assault; and the

disorderly resistance of the people gave a keener edge to the sabres of

the Moslems, who shouted with religious transport, “This is the white

palace of Chosroes, this is the promise of the apostle of God!” The

naked robbers of the desert were suddenly enriched beyond the measure of

their hope or knowledge. Each chamber revealed a new treasure secreted

with art, or ostentatiously displayed; the gold and silver, the various

wardrobes and precious furniture, surpassed (says Abulfeda) the estimate

of fancy or numbers; and another historian defines the untold and

almost infinite mass by the fabulous computation of three thousands

of thousands of thousands of pieces of gold. The sack of Ctesiphon was

followed by its desertion and gradual decay. The Saracens disliked the

air and situation of the place, and Omar was advised by his general to

remove the seat of government to the western side of the Euphrates.

In every age the foundation and ruin of the Assyrian cities has been easy

and rapid; the country is destitute of stone and timber, and the most

solid structures are composed of bricks baked in the sun, and joined by

a cement of the native bitumen. After the loss of the battle of Jalula,

Yezdegerd fled from Holwan, and concealed his shame and despair in the

mountains of Farsistan, from whence Cyrus had descended with his equal

and valiant companions. The courage of the nation survived that of the

monarch; among the hills to the south of Ecbatana or Hamadan, 150,000

Persians made a third and final stand for their religion and country; and

the decisive battle of Nehavend was styled by the Arabs the “victory of

victories” (641).

The geography of Persia is darkly delineated by the Greeks and Latins;

but the most illustrious of her cities appear to be more ancient than

the invasion of the Arabs. By the reduction of Hamadan and Ispahan, of

Caswin, Tabriz, and Rei, they gradually approached the shores of the

Caspian Sea; and the orators of Mecca might applaud the success and

spirit of the faithful, who had already lost sight of the Northern Bear,

and had almost transcended the bounds of the habitable world. Again

turning towards the west and the Roman Empire, they repassed the Tigris

over the bridge of Mosul, and, in the captive provinces of Armenia and

Mesopotamia, embraced their victorious brethren of the Syrian army.

From the palace of Madain their eastern progress was not less rapid

or extensive. They advanced along the Tigris and the gulf; penetrated

through the passes of the mountains into the valley of Estachar or

Persepolis; and profaned the last sanctuary of the Magian empire. The

grandson of Chosroes was nearly surprised among the falling columns

and mutilated figures; a sad emblem of the past and present fortune

of Persia; he fled with accelerated haste over the desert of Kirman,

implored the aid of the warlike Segestans, and sought an humble refuge

on the verge of the Turkish and Chinese power. But a victorious army is

insensible of fatigue; the Arabs divided their forces in the pursuit of a

timorous enemy; and the caliph Othman promised the government of Khorasan

to the first general who should enter that large and populous country,

the kingdom of the ancient Bactrians. The condition was accepted; the

prize was deserved; the standard of Mohammed was planted on the walls

of Herat, Merou, and Balkh; and the successful leader neither halted

nor reposed till his foaming cavalry had tasted the waters of the Oxus.

In the public anarchy, the independent governors of the cities and

castles obtained their separate capitulations; the terms were granted or

imposed by the esteem, the prudence, or the compassion of the victors;

and a simple profession of faith established the distinction between a

brother and a slave. The administration of Persia was regulated by an

actual survey of the people, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth; and

this monument, which attests the vigilance of the caliphs, might have

instructed the philosophers of every age.

The flight of Yezdegerd had carried him beyond the Oxus, and as far as

the Jaxartes, two rivers of ancient and modern renown, which descend

from the mountains of India towards the Caspian Sea. He was hospitably

entertained by Tarkhan, prince of Fergana, a fertile province on the

Jaxartes; the king of Samarcand, with the Turkish tribes of Sogdiana

and Scythia, were moved by the lamentations and promises of the fallen

monarch; and he solicited by a suppliant embassy, the more solid and

powerful friendship of the emperor of China. The virtuous Taitsong,

the first of the dynasty of the Tang, may be justly compared with the

Antonines of Rome. His people enjoyed the blessings of prosperity

and peace, and his dominion was acknowledged by forty-four hordes of

the barbarians of Tartary. His last garrisons of Cashgar and Khoten

maintained a frequent intercourse with their neighbours of the Jaxartes

and Oxus; a recent colony of Persians had introduced into China the

astronomy of the magi; and Taitsong might be alarmed by the rapid

progress and dangerous vicinity of the Arabs. The influence and perhaps

the supplies of China revived the hopes of Yezdegerd and the zeal of

the worshippers of the fire; and he returned with an army of Turks to

conquer the inheritance of his fathers. The fortunate Moslems, without

unsheathing their swords, were the spectators of his ruin and death.

The grandson of Chosroes was betrayed by his servant, insulted by the

seditious inhabitants of Merou, and oppressed, defeated, and pursued by

his barbarian allies. He reached the banks of a river, and offered his

rings and bracelets for an instant passage in a miller’s boat. Ignorant

or insensible of royal distress, the rustic replied, that four drachms of

silver were the daily profit of his mill, and that he would not suspend

his work unless the loss were repaid. In this moment of hesitation and

delay, the last of the Sassanian kings was overtaken and slaughtered by

the Turkish cavalry in the nineteenth year of his unhappy reign. His son

Firuz, an humble client of the Chinese emperor, accepted the station of

captain of his guards; and the magian worship was long preserved by a

colony of loyal exiles in the province of Bokhara. His grandson inherited

the regal name; but after a faint and fruitless enterprise, he returned

to China and ended his days in the palace of Sigan. The male line of the

Sassanids was extinct; but the female captives, the daughters of Persia,

were given to the conquerors in servitude, or marriage; and the race of

the caliphs and imams was ennobled by the blood of their royal mothers.

After the fall of the Persian kingdom, the river Oxus divided the

territories of the Saracens and of the Turks. This narrow boundary was

soon overleaped by the spirit of the Arabs; the governors of Khorasan

extended their successive inroads; and one of their triumphs was

adorned with the buskin of a Turkish queen, which she dropped in her

precipitate flight beyond the hills of Bokhara. But the final conquest

of Transoxiana, as well as of Spain, was reserved for the glorious

reign of the inactive Walid; and the name of Katiba, the camel driver,

declares the origin and merit of his successful lieutenant. While one

of his colleagues displayed the first Mohammedan banner on the banks

of the Indus, the spacious regions between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and

the Caspian Sea, were reduced by the arms of Katiba to the obedience of

the prophet, and of the caliph. A tribute of two millions of pieces of

gold was imposed on the infidels; their idols were burned or broken; the

Mussulman chief pronounced a sermon in the new mosque of Khwarizm; after

several battles, the Turkish hordes were driven back to the desert; and

the emperors of China solicited the friendship of the victorious Arabs.

Before the invasion of the Saracens, Khwarizm, Bokhara and Samarcand

were rich and populous under the yoke of the shepherds of the north. The

mutual wants of India and Europe were supplied by the diligence of the

Sogdian merchants; and the inestimable art of transforming linen into

paper, has been transferred from the manufacture of Samarcand over the

western world.

THE SYRIAN CONQUEST COMPLETED

[Sidenote: [636-637 A.D.]]

From the conquest of Damascus the Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and

Emesa. In the prosecution of the war, their policy was not less effectual

than their sword. By short and separate truces they dissolved the union

of the enemy; accustomed the Syrians to compare their friendship with

their enmity; familiarised the idea of their language, religion, and

manners; and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines and

arsenals of the cities which they returned to besiege. They aggravated

the ransom of the more wealthy or the more obstinate; and Chalcis

alone was taxed at five thousand ounces of gold, five thousand ounces

of silver, two thousand robes of silk, and as many figs and olives as

would load five thousand asses. But the terms of truce or capitulation

were faithfully observed; and the lieutenant of the caliph, who had

promised not to enter the walls of the captive Baalbec, remained tranquil

and immovable in his tent till the jarring factions solicited the

interposition of a foreign master. The conquest of the plain and valley

of Syria was achieved in less than two years. Yet the commander of the

faithful reproved the slowness of their progress, and the Saracens,

bewailing their fault with tears of rage and repentance, called aloud on

their chiefs to lead them forth to fight the battles of the Lord.

[Illustration: SARACENIC GLAZED JUG AND LAMP]

It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of their valour

and enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who was taught by

repeated losses, that the rovers of the desert had undertaken, and would

speedily achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From the provinces

of Europe and Asia, fourscore thousand soldiers were transported by sea

and land to Antioch and Cæsarea; the light troops of the army consisted

of sixty thousand Christian Arabs of the tribes of Ghassan. In the

neighbourhood of Bosra, the springs of Mount Hermon descend in a torrent

to the plain of Decapolis, or ten cities; and the Hieromax, a name which

has been corrupted to Yermuk, is lost after a short course in the lake

of Tiberias. The banks of this obscure stream were illustrated by a long

and bloody encounter. On this momentous occasion, the public voice, and

the modesty of Abu Obaidah, restored the command to the most deserving of

the Moslems. Khalid assumed his station in the front, his colleague was

posted in the rear, that the disorder of the fugitives might be checked

by his venerable aspect and the sight of the yellow banner which Mohammed

had displayed before the walls of Khaibar.

The last line was occupied by the sister of Derar, with the Arabian women

who had enlisted in this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the bow

and the lance, and who in a moment of captivity had defended, against the

uncircumcised ravishers, their chastity and religion. The exhortation

of the generals was brief and forcible: “Paradise is before you, the

devil and hell-fire in your rear.” Yet such was the weight of the Roman

cavalry, that the right wing of the Arabs was broken and separated from

the main body. Thrice did they retreat in disorder, and thrice were they

driven back to the charge by the reproaches and blows of the women. Four

thousand and thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field of battle;

and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled seven hundred to boast that

they had lost an eye in that meritorious service. The veterans of the

Syrian war acknowledged that it was the hardest and most doubtful of the

days which they had seen. But it was likewise the most decisive; many

thousands of the Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs; many

were slaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods and mountains; many, by

mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yermuk; and however

the loss may be magnified, the Christian writers confess and bewail the

bloody punishment of their sins.

After the battle of Yermuk, the Roman army no longer appeared in the

field; and the Saracens might securely choose, among the fortified towns

of Syria, the first object of their attack. They consulted the caliph

whether they should march to Cæsarea or Jerusalem; and the advice of Ali

determined the immediate siege of the latter. To a profane eye, Jerusalem

was the first or second capital of Palestine; but after Mecca and Medina,

it was revered and visited by the devout Moslems, as the temple of the

Holy Land, which had been sanctified by the revelation of Moses, of

Jesus, and of Mohammed himself.

The siege of Jerusalem lasted four months; not a day was lost without

some action of sally or assault; the military engines incessantly

played from the ramparts; and the inclemency of the winter was still

more painful and destructive to the Arabs. The Christians yielded at

length to the perseverance of the besiegers. The patriarch Sophronius

appeared on the walls, and by the voice of an interpreter demanded a

conference. After a vain attempt to dissuade the lieutenant of the caliph

from his impious enterprise, he proposed, in the name of the people, a

fair capitulation, with this extraordinary clause, that the articles

of security should be ratified by the authority and presence of Omar

himself. The question was debated in the council of Medina; the sanctity

of the place, and the advice of Ali, persuaded the caliph to gratify the

wishes of his soldiers and enemies, and the simplicity of Omar’s journey

is more illustrious than the royal pageants of vanity and oppression. The

conqueror of Persia and Syria was mounted on a red camel, which carried,

besides his person, a bag of corn, a bag of dates, a wooden dish, and

a leathern bottle of water. By his command the ground of the temple

of Solomon was prepared for the foundation of a mosque; and, during a

residence of ten days, he regulated the present and future state of his

Syrian conquests. Medina might be jealous, lest the caliph should be

detained by the sanctity of Jerusalem or the beauty of Damascus; her

apprehensions were dispelled by his prompt and voluntary return to the

tomb of the apostle.