Honein was the last of a series of victories that laid the Koreishite
ghost forever; the Prophet was now virtually the ruler of the entire
Arabian peninsula; and, having made a triumphant entrance into
Medina, he proceeded to execute a project that had long been dear
to his heart. As early as the year 627, he had sent out feelers to
a branch of the empire of Byzantium on the subject of conversion to
Islam; his envoy on that occasion, though courteously welcomed and
given a special dress of honor, had accomplished little. But now,
while embassies from numerous Arabian tribes made haste to present
themselves to him, hoping to make a good bargain by trading their
recreant idols for the all-conquering Allah, Mohammed’s apparently
chimerical fancy to extend Islam in, and even beyond, the bounds
of the Roman Empire was again aroused. The lonely visionary of
Mount Hira, the Meccan outcast, risen to the imperial position of
temporal and spiritual dictator of all Arabia, vibrated with the
insatiable desire to make Islam dominant over the world. _He_ might
not live to see that glorious fulfilment; yet perhaps his notorious
gift of prophecy enabled him to pierce the veil that shadowed the
future: the advance of Islam under successive Caliphates until
its haughty realm extended from India to the western limits of
Spain--the stemming of the onrushing Saracen tide by Charles Martel
at Tours--the wayfaring Crusaders bent upon rescuing the Holy Land
from Mohammedan dominion--the revival of interest in classic lore
which was the direct result of the Crusades--the concomitant
Renaissance of learning and of Christianity until Christian warriors,
with a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other, supplanted the
imperial Crescent with the even more imperial Cross--the Cross that
has itself become associated with imperialism. Thus, by a grotesque
chain of closely linked events, Mohammed might--had his prophetic
eye been gifted with sufficient range--have envisaged himself in
the odd position of being the chief instrument in the world-wide
promulgation of classicism and of Christianity. For, had the Middle
Age Crusaders not been inspired with unremitting zeal to wrest the
Holy Grail from Islam, there might well have been no Renaissance, no
stimulation of mental and spiritual activities, and, consequently,
no such Christian imperialism as now holds so much of the world
under its righteous sway.
Had Mohammed foreseen all this, however, he might possibly have
had less interest in those embassies to and from his house in the
Mosque, where, sprawling on his mat and cooling his face with a
palm-leaf fan, he issued his endless commands and listened to
endless requests from suppliants. Indeed, his office work had
become so voluminous that he now made use of an amanuensis, Zeid
the son of Thabit, who was specially skilled in the Hebrew and
Syriac languages. Though quick-witted and agile of tongue, Zeid
was inclined to be so forgetful and generally scatter-brained that
the Prophet was obliged to tell him to thrust his pen behind his
ear, “for this will bring to remembrance that which the distracted
mind is seeking after.”
If tradition may be trusted, Mohammed was not always over-successful
in his dealings with prospective converts. The Christian tribe
of Nejran, in central Arabia, came to him after an ostentatious
exhibition of prayer in the Mosque, and loudly declared that they
were Moslems; but the Prophet, observing that they wore silk-lined
clothes--which he particularly detested, though it is true that
he ordered such hapless Moslems as became afflicted with the itch
or “louse-disease” to wear silken shirts--rightly doubted their
sincerity and merely turned up his nose at them; they therefore
departed and shortly returned in monastic garb. Their leader,
doubtless inspired with the hope that a display of knowledge on his
part would gain them better terms, offered to debate with Mohammed
concerning the mystical nature of Christ, but he wisely declined
to comply and stated that he would prefer to engage in a cursing
contest; and in fact, while one of his most uncritical admirers
affirmed that the worst oath he ever used was “May his forehead be
darkened with mud!” the Koran, among other authentic documents,
furnishes considerable evidence to the contrary. Realizing that
they would be no match for him in such an ordeal, the Nejranites
capitulated to the extent of agreeing to pay tribute, though they
refused to acknowledge his divine mission; the Prophet acceded
to this compromise, but soothed his ruffled dignity by declaring
that they were one of the two worst tribes in all Arabia, and
by announcing that Christians, as well as Jews, were to act as
substitutes for Moslems in Hell-fire. Moreover, believing that
Christianity and Judaism were both on their last legs, he devised the
humane stipulation that, provided Christians and Hebrews submitted
to the earthly rule of Islam and paid “tribute with their hands,”
they would be permitted to profess whatever faith they chose. Yet
he would presumably have been better pleased had all Arabians
manifested the delicate concern shown by a fellow named Al-Jarud. “O
Prophet,” said he, “I have hitherto followed the Christian faith,
and I am now called on to change it. Wilt thou be _Surety_ for me
in the matter of my religion?” “Yea, I am thy surety that God hath
guided thee to a better faith than it,” Mohammed gladly answered.
Two dispatches were probably sent to Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium,
who had just completed a victorious struggle with Persia. The first
one, which requested him to cease the idolatrous worship of Jesus
and His Mother, to reverence the one true God, and to recognize
the mission of Mohammed, was apparently disregarded; a second
message, couched in like terms, prompted a vassal of Heraclius to
request permission to punish the insolent pretender who sent it, but
Heraclius forbade any needless expedition against the contemptible
person who had audaciously signed himself “Mohammed the Apostle of
God.” The King of Persia, on receiving a similar note, merely tore
it up; and the Prophet, on hearing of this outrage, prayed aloud:
“Even thus, O Lord! rend thou his kingdom from him!” It may be
presumed that neither Heraclius nor the Persian King even suspected
that, within a decade or two, their mighty empires would be paying
tribute to Islam. A letter that Mohammed sent to Ruayyah, of Suhaim,
was treated more respectfully than the one that had been dispatched
to the Persian monarch; for Ruayyah used it to mend a hole in his
water-skin. Another powerful chief, having listened to Mohammed’s
delegate, instructed him to carry back this message: “How excellent
is that Revelation to which thou invitest me, and how beautiful!
Know that I am the Poet of my tribe, and an Orator. The Arabs revere
my dignity. Grant unto me, therefore, a share in the rule, and I
will follow thee.” The Prophet, on being informed of this, snarled:
“Had this man asked of me but an unripe date, as his share in the
land, I would not have given it. Let him perish, and his vainglory
with him!”--and it is confidently stated that the presumptuous snob
did, in fact, die within a year. The Roman Governor of Egypt, too,
refused to endorse Mohammed’s claims--“I am aware,” he said, “that
a prophet is yet to arise; but I am of opinion that he will appear
in Syria”--yet he atoned for his stubbornness of heart by sending
Mohammed a double present in the form of a white mule and a black
concubine.
Mohammed, meanwhile, was showing his interest in his recent converts
by altering their Pagan names to titles that better suited his almost
feminine fondness for daintily euphemistic words. For example,
“Zeid of the Stud” right gladly abandoned his plebeian appellation
when he was rechristened “Zeid of the Good”; “the Wolf, son of the
Cub,” was similarly glorified by becoming “Allah’s Servant”; and an
“Oppressor” suffered a welcome sea-change into a “Well-doer.” But
when a tribe called the “Sons of Bastardy” were politely accosted
as the “Sons of Chastity,” they announced their steadfast desire
to remain true to their ancient heritage.
Nor did Mohammed’s reforms stop here. The Koran had already
prohibited the use of wine; for, years earlier, the Prophet, while
attempting to chide his uncle, Hamza, who was riotously drunk, had
received the tipsy response, “Are you not my father’s slave?” Liquor,
therefore, had been proscribed as a foe to Islam and the dignity
of the prophetic office; this rule was so rigorously enforced, in
truth, that even a hero of Bedr had been beaten again and again for
perennial intoxication, and on one occasion Mohammed himself hurled
clods of dirt at another offender. Gambling, too--the casting of
lots and the “arrow-game,” in which camels were the prizes--had been
divinely banned as abominations “from amongst the works of Satan.”
Mohammed’s acutely sensitive nature now led him to proscribe anything
that savored of torture inflicted on animals: living birds might
not be used as targets in shooting contests; camels were not to be
tied up and left to die on their owners’ graves; cattle were not to
be blinded to avert the evil eye; droughts were not to be broken
by the common process of affixing flaming torches to the tails of
cattle; horses were not to lose their manes and tails, and asses
were no longer to be branded or hit in the face. So scrupulously
fastidious was the Prophet that he once ordered some Moslems to
stop burning an ant-hill, and he also strongly disapproved the
ubiquitous practice of cursing camels and cocks.
His humanity and foresight were also manifested in more important
matters. Blood-feuds--the time-honored and almost ineradicable
system of tribal revenge for homicide--he endeavored, with partial
success, to wipe out by emphasizing the brotherhood of Islam, and
by advocating the acceptance of money as a partial compensation:
ethical and legislative essays that gradually led to a saner and
more peaceful system of government. Whatever may be thought of
his general attitude toward women, he certainly benefited them
incalculably by setting up laws that enabled them to inherit and
hold property; and the luridly overemphasized harem system, Pagan
though it may be, has some virtues that are perhaps absent from the
Occidental system of prostitution. His advocacy of the custom by
which the wives of captives automatically became the concubines of
Moslem conquerors has especially irritated certain modern moralists,
who apparently have not reflected very deeply on certain canons
of contemporary conduct, in which wealth and social distinction
play the rôle of the victorious Islamites. He accepted slavery as
a matter of course--and, indeed, Islam has never indulged in any
foolish civil strife over the question of bondage--but he insisted
that slaves must be treated with the utmost kindness. Men who
beat their slaves were placed by him among the lowest of the low;
he stated that manumission was a pious act, and he sometimes let
offenders off from any punishment when they agreed to free their
serfs--in short, the present industrial system has little to boast
of in comparison with Mohammed’s attitude toward serfdom. One other
inhuman custom--the ancient practice of female infanticide--was
summarily abolished by him; and a tale survives that well illustrates
the horror he felt concerning such deeds. Two men, about to yield
themselves to the claims of Islam, chanced to question the Prophet
about his views on child-murder. “Our mother Muleika was full of
good deeds and charity; but she buried a little daughter alive. What
is her condition now?” they inquired. “The burier and the buried
both in hell,” replied Mohammed, upon which his guests became very
angry and started to leave. “Come back,” he requested, “mine own
mother, too, is there with yours.” But even this inducement failed
to convince them, and so they returned into the outer darkness.