Mecca inhabitants shrewd apostles
Medina increased conquered crusades
Mohammed idolatry zealous hermit
About six hundred years after the birth of Christ, a child named Mohammed
was born in the city of Mecca in Arabia. The father of Mohammed died when
the child was still a babe, and his mother was very poor. During his
boyhood he earned a scanty living by tending the flocks of his neighbors,
and much of his time was spent in the desert.
Even when young, Mohammed seemed to be religious. He often went to a cave
a few miles from Mecca, and stayed there alone for days at a time. He
claimed that he had visions in which the angel Gabriel came down to him,
and told him many things which he should tell the people of Arabia. When
he was forty years old, he went forth to preach, saying that he was the
prophet of God.
At the end of three years he had forty followers. The people of Mecca,
however, did not believe him to be a prophet. They were for the most part
idolaters, and as Mohammed preached against idolatry, they finally drove
him from the city.
He and his followers then went to the city of Medina. The inhabitants of
that city received them kindly, and Mohammed was able to raise an army
with which to overcome his enemies.
Mohammed was a very shrewd man, and among other things he was careful to
teach his followers that the hour of each man’s death was fixed. Hence
one was as safe in battle as at home. This belief, of course, helped his
soldiers to fight bravely.
The number of Mohammed’s followers now increased very fast; and ten
years after his flight to Medina, he returned to Mecca at the head of
forty thousand pilgrims. Soon all Arabia was converted to his faith, and
idolatry was no longer known in Mecca.
After Mohammed’s death, his followers formed the plan of converting the
whole world by means of the sword. In course of time their armies overran
Persia, Egypt, and northern Africa. They also entered Spain, and having
established themselves there, they hoped to conquer the whole of Europe.
Soon the Moslems, as the followers of Mohammed were called, took
possession of Palestine and of Jerusalem, where was the sacred tomb of our
Saviour.
After the earliest churches had been established by the apostles of
Christ, it had been the custom of Christians to make pilgrimages to
Jerusalem to see the tomb of our Saviour. Each pilgrim carried a palm
branch and wore a cockleshell in his hat. The branch was the token of
victory; the shell a sign that the sea had been crossed. After the Moslems
had gained possession of the Holy Land, as Palestine is often called,
the pilgrims often suffered much from persecution. Then, too, they were
required to pay a large sum for permission to visit the tomb and other
sacred places.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER
(Present Day)]
It was to free the pilgrims, who came from Europe, from this persecution
that the crusades, or holy wars, were undertaken. These crusades were
begun through the efforts of one zealous man, a priest commonly known as
“Peter the Hermit.”