Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy outcasts of Mecca.
Medina, or the _city_, known under the name of Yathreb, before it was
sanctified by the throne of the prophet, was divided between the tribes
of the Charegites and the Awsites, whose hereditary feud was rekindled
by the slightest provocations: two colonies of Jews, who boasted a
sacerdotal race, were their humble allies, and without converting
the Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and religion, which
distinguished Medina as the city of the Book. Some of her noblest
citizens, in a pilgrimage to the Caaba, were converted by the preaching
of Mahomet; on their return, they diffused the belief of God and his
prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by their deputies in two
secret and nocturnal interviews on a hill in the suburbs of Mecca. In
the first, ten Charegites and two Awsites united in faith and love,
protested, in the name of their wives, their children, and their absent
brethren, that they would forever profess the creed, and observe the
precepts, of the Koran. The second was a political association, the
first vital spark of the empire of the Saracens. Seventy-three men and
two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, his kinsman,
and his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other by a mutual oath
of fidelity. They promised, in the name of the city, that if he should
be banished, they would receive him as a confederate, obey him as a
leader, and defend him to the last extremity, like their wives and
children. "But if you are recalled by your country," they asked with
a flattering anxiety, "will you not abandon your new allies?" "All
things," replied Mahomet with a smile, "are now common between us your
blood is as my blood, your ruin as my ruin. We are bound to each other
by the ties of honor and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy of
your foes." "But if we are killed in your service, what," exclaimed
the deputies of Medina, "will be our reward?" "Paradise," replied the
prophet. "Stretch forth thy hand." He stretched it forth, and they
reiterated the oath of allegiance and fidelity. Their treaty was
ratified by the people, who unanimously embraced the profession of
Islam; they rejoiced in the exile of the apostle, but they trembled for
his safety, and impatiently expected his arrival. After a perilous and
rapid journey along the sea-coast, he halted at Koba, two miles from
the city, and made his public entry into Medina, sixteen days after his
flight from Mecca. Five hundred of the citizens advanced to meet him;
he was hailed with acclamations of loyalty and devotion; Mahomet was
mounted on a she-camel, an umbrella shaded his head, and a turban was
unfurled before him to supply the deficiency of a standard. His bravest
disciples, who had been scattered by the storm, assembled round
his person; and the equal, though various, merit of the Moslems was
distinguished by the names of _Mohagerians_ and _Ansars_, the fugitives
of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. To eradicate the seeds of
jealousy, Mahomet judiciously coupled his principal followers with the
rights and obligations of brethren; and when Ali found himself without
a peer, the prophet tenderly declared, that _he_ would be the companion
and brother of the noble youth. The expedient was crowned with success;
the holy fraternity was respected in peace and war, and the two parties
vied with each other in a generous emulation of courage and fidelity.
Once only the concord was slightly ruffled by an accidental quarrel: a
patriot of Medina arraigned the insolence of the strangers, but the
hint of their expulsion was heard with abhorrence; and his own son most
eagerly offered to lay at the apostle's feet the head of his father.
From his establishment at Medina, Mahomet assumed the exercise of the
regal and sacerdotal office; and it was impious to appeal from a judge
whose decrees were inspired by the divine wisdom. A small portion of
ground, the patrimony of two orphans, was acquired by gift or purchase;
on that chosen spot he built a house and a mosch, more venerable in
their rude simplicity than the palaces and temples of the Assyrian
caliphs. His seal of gold, or silver, was inscribed with the apostolic
title; when he prayed and preached in the weekly assembly, he leaned
against the trunk of a palm-tree; and it was long before he indulged
himself in the use of a chair or pulpit of rough timber. After a reign
of six years, fifteen hundred Moslems, in arms and in the field, renewed
their oath of allegiance; and their chief repeated the assurance of
protection till the death of the last member, or the final dissolution
of the party. It was in the same camp that the deputy of Mecca was
astonished by the attention of the faithful to the words and looks of
the prophet, by the eagerness with which they collected his spittle, a
hair that dropped on the ground, the refuse water of his lustrations,
as if they participated in some degree of the prophetic virtue. "I have
seen," said he, "the Chosroes of Persia and the CÊsar of Rome, but
never did I behold a king among his subjects like Mahomet among his
companions." The devout fervor of enthusiasm acts with more energy and
truth than the cold and formal servility of courts.
In the state of nature, every man has a right to defend, by force of
arms, his person and his possessions; to repel, or even to prevent, the
violence of his enemies, and to extend his hostilities to a reasonable
measure of satisfaction and retaliation. In the free society of the
Arabs, the duties of subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint; and
Mahomet, in the exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had been
despoiled and banished by the injustice of his countrymen. The choice of
an independent people had exalted the fugitive of Mecca to the rank of
a sovereign; and he was invested with the just prerogative of forming
alliances, and of waging offensive or defensive war. The imperfection
of human rights was supplied and armed by the plenitude of divine power:
the prophet of Medina assumed, in his new revelations, a fiercer and
more sanguinary tone, which proves that his former moderation was the
effect of weakness: the means of persuasion had been tried, the season
of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagate
his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry,
and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue
the unbelieving nations of the earth. The same bloody precepts, so
repeatedly inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by the author to the
Pentateuch and the Gospel. But the mild tenor of the evangelic style may
explain an ambiguous text, that Jesus did not bring peace on the earth,
but a sword: his patient and humble virtues should not be confounded
with the intolerant zeal of princes and bishops, who have disgraced
the name of his disciples. In the prosecution of religious war, Mahomet
might appeal with more propriety to the example of Moses, of the Judges,
and the kings of Israel. The military laws of the Hebrews are still more
rigid than those of the Arabian legislator. The Lord of hosts marched
in person before the Jews: if a city resisted their summons, the males,
without distinction, were put to the sword: the seven nations of Canaan
were devoted to destruction; and neither repentance nor conversion,
could shield them from the inevitable doom, that no creature within
their precincts should be left alive. The fair option of friendship,
or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet.
If they professed the creed of Islam, they were admitted to all the
temporal and spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched
under the same banner to extend the religion which they had embraced.
The clemency of the prophet was decided by his interest: yet he seldom
trampled on a prostrate enemy; and he seems to promise, that on the
payment of a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects might
be indulged in their worship, or at least in their imperfect faith. In
the first months of his reign he practised the lessons of holy warfare,
and displayed his white banner before the gates of Medina: the
martial apostle fought in person at nine battles or sieges; and
fifty enterprises of war were achieved in ten years by himself or his
lieutenants. The Arab continued to unite the professions of a merchant
and a robber; and his petty excursions for the defence or the attack of
a caravan insensibly prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia. The
distribution of the spoil was regulated by a divine law: the whole was
faithfully collected in one common mass: a fifth of the gold and silver,
the prisoners and cattle, the movables and immovables, was reserved by
the prophet for pious and charitable uses; the remainder was shared
in adequate portions by the soldiers who had obtained the victory or
guarded the camp: the rewards of the slain devolved to their widows and
orphans; and the increase of cavalry was encouraged by the allotment of
a double share to the horse and to the man. From all sides the roving
Arabs were allured to the standard of religion and plunder: the apostle
sanctified the license of embracing the female captives as their wives
or concubines, and the enjoyment of wealth and beauty was a feeble type
of the joys of paradise prepared for the valiant martyrs of the faith.
"The sword," says Mahomet, "is the key of heaven and of hell; a drop of
blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail
than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle,
his sins are forgiven: at the day of judgment his wounds shall be
resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of
his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim." The
intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm: the picture of
the invisible world was strongly painted on their imagination; and
the death which they had always despised became an object of hope and
desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense, the tenets
of fate and predestination, which would extinguish both industry and
virtue, if the actions of man were governed by his speculative belief.
Yet their influence in every age has exalted the courage of the Saracens
and Turks. The first companions of Mahomet advanced to battle with a
fearless confidence: there is no danger where there is no chance:
they were ordained to perish in their beds; or they were safe and
invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy.
Perhaps the Koreish would have been content with the flight of Mahomet,
had they not been provoked and alarmed by the vengeance of an enemy, who
could intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed through
the territory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, with only thirty or forty
followers, conducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand camels; the fortune
or dexterity of his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but the
chief of the Koreish was informed that the holy robbers were placed in
ambush to await his return. He despatched a messenger to his brethren of
Mecca, and they were roused, by the fear of losing their merchandise and
their provisions, unless they hastened to his relief with the military
force of the city. The sacred band of Mahomet was formed of three
hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom seventy-seven were fugitives, and
the rest auxiliaries; they mounted by turns a train of seventy camels,
(the camels of Yathreb were formidable in war;) but such was the poverty
of his first disciples, that only two could appear on horseback in the
field. In the fertile and famous vale of Beder, three stations from
Medina, he was informed by his scouts of the caravan that approached
on one side; of the Koreish, one hundred horse, eight hundred and fifty
foot, who advanced on the other. After a short debate, he sacrificed
the prospect of wealth to the pursuit of glory and revenge, and a slight
intrenchment was formed, to cover his troops, and a stream of fresh
water, that glided through the valley. "O God," he exclaimed, as the
numbers of the Koreish descended from the hills, "O God, if these are
destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on the earth?--Courage, my
children; close your ranks; discharge your arrows, and the day is your
own." At these words he placed himself, with Abubeker, on a throne or
pulpit, and instantly demanded the succor of Gabriel and three thousand
angels. His eye was fixed on the field of battle: the Mussulmans fainted
and were pressed: in that decisive moment the prophet started from his
throne, mounted his horse, and cast a handful of sand into the air: "Let
their faces be covered with confusion." Both armies heard the thunder of
his voice: their fancy beheld the angelic warriors: the Koreish trembled
and fled: seventy of the bravest were slain; and seventy captives
adorned the first victory of the faithful. The dead bodies of the
Koreish were despoiled and insulted: two of the most obnoxious prisoners
were punished with death; and the ransom of the others, four thousand
drams of silver, compensated in some degree the escape of the caravan.
But it was in vain that the camels of Abu Sophian explored a new road
through the desert and along the Euphrates: they were overtaken by the
diligence of the Mussulmans; and wealthy must have been the prize, if
twenty thousand drams could be set apart for the fifth of the apostle.
The resentment of the public and private loss stimulated Abu Sophian to
collect a body of three thousand men, seven hundred of whom were
armed with cuirasses, and two hundred were mounted on horseback; three
thousand camels attended his march; and his wife Henda, with fifteen
matrons of Mecca, incessantly sounded their timbrels to animate the
troops, and to magnify the greatness of Hobal, the most popular deity
of the Caaba. The standard of ven and Mahomet was upheld by nine hundred
and fifty believers: the disproportion of numbers was not more alarming
than in the field of Beder; and their presumption of victory prevailed
against the divine and human sense of the apostle. The second battle
was fought on Mount Ohud, six miles to the north of Medina; the Koreish
advanced in the form of a crescent; and the right wing of cavalry was
led by Caled, the fiercest and most successful of the Arabian warriors.
The troops of Mahomet were skilfully posted on the declivity of the
hill; and their rear was guarded by a detachment of fifty archers. The
weight of their charge impelled and broke the centre of the idolaters:
but in the pursuit they lost the advantage of their ground: the archers
deserted their station: the Mussulmans were tempted by the spoil,
disobeyed their general, and disordered their ranks. The intrepid Caled,
wheeling his cavalry on their flank and rear, exclaimed, with a loud
voice, that Mahomet was slain. He was indeed wounded in the face with a
javelin: two of his teeth were shattered with a stone; yet, in the midst
of tumult and dismay, he reproached the infidels with the murder of
a prophet; and blessed the friendly hand that stanched his blood, and
conveyed him to a place of safety Seventy martyrs died for the sins
of the people; they fell, said the apostle, in pairs, each brother
embracing his lifeless companion; their bodies were mangled by the
inhuman females of Mecca; and the wife of Abu Sophian tasted the
entrails of Hamza, the uncle of Mahomet. They might applaud their
superstition, and satiate their fury; but the Mussulmans soon rallied in
the field, and the Koreish wanted strength or courage to undertake the
siege of Medina. It was attacked the ensuing year by an army of ten
thousand enemies; and this third expedition is variously named from
the _nations_, which marched under the banner of Abu Sophian, from the
_ditch_ which was drawn before the city, and a camp of three thousand
Mussulmans. The prudence of Mahomet declined a general engagement: the
valor of Ali was signalized in single combat; and the war was protracted
twenty days, till the final separation of the confederates. A tempest
of wind, rain, and hail, overturned their tents: their private quarrels
were fomented by an insidious adversary; and the Koreish, deserted by
their allies, no longer hoped to subvert the throne, or to check the
conquests, of their invincible exile.
Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.--Part VI.
The choice of Jerusalem for the first kebla of prayer discovers the
early propensity of Mahomet in favor of the Jews; and happy would it
have been for their temporal interest, had they recognized, in the
Arabian prophet, the hope of Israel and the promised Messiah. Their
obstinacy converted his friendship into implacable hatred, with which he
pursued that unfortunate people to the last moment of his life; and in
the double character of an apostle and a conqueror, his persecution
was extended to both worlds. The Kainoka dwelt at Medina under the
protection of the city; he seized the occasion of an accidental tumult,
and summoned them to embrace his religion, or contend with him in
battle. "Alas!" replied the trembling Jews, "we are ignorant of the use
of arms, but we persevere in the faith and worship of our fathers; why
wilt thou reduce us to the necessity of a just defence?" The unequal
conflict was terminated in fifteen days; and it was with extreme
reluctance that Mahomet yielded to the importunity of his allies, and
consented to spare the lives of the captives. But their riches were
confiscated, their arms became more effectual in the hands of the
Mussulmans; and a wretched colony of seven hundred exiles was driven,
with their wives and children, to implore a refuge on the confines
of Syria. The Nadhirites were more guilty, since they conspired, in
a friendly interview, to assassinate the prophet. He besieged their
castle, three miles from Medina; but their resolute defence obtained an
honorable capitulation; and the garrison, sounding their trumpets and
beating their drums, was permitted to depart with the honors of war. The
Jews had excited and joined the war of the Koreish: no sooner had the
_nations_ retired from the _ditch_, than Mahomet, without laying aside
his armor, marched on the same day to extirpate the hostile race of
the children of Koraidha. After a resistance of twenty-five days, they
surrendered at discretion. They trusted to the intercession of their old
allies of Medina; they could not be ignorant that fanaticism obliterates
the feelings of humanity. A venerable elder, to whose judgment they
appealed, pronounced the sentence of their death; seven hundred Jews
were dragged in chains to the market-place of the city; they descended
alive into the grave prepared for their execution and burial; and the
apostle beheld with an inflexible eye the slaughter of his helpless
enemies. Their sheep and camels were inherited by the Mussulmans: three
hundred cuirasses, five hundred piles, a thousand lances, composed the
most useful portion of the spoil. Six days' journey to the north-east
of Medina, the ancient and wealthy town of Chaibar was the seat of the
Jewish power in Arabia: the territory, a fertile spot in the desert,
was covered with plantations and cattle, and protected by eight castles,
some of which were esteemed of impregnable strength. The forces of
Mahomet consisted of two hundred horse and fourteen hundred foot: in
the succession of eight regular and painful sieges they were exposed to
danger, and fatigue, and hunger; and the most undaunted chiefs despaired
of the event. The apostle revived their faith and courage by the example
of Ali, on whom he bestowed the surname of the Lion of God: perhaps we
may believe that a Hebrew champion of gigantic stature was cloven to the
chest by his irresistible cimeter; but we cannot praise the modesty of
romance, which represents him as tearing from its hinges the gate of a
fortress and wielding the ponderous buckler in his left hand. After the
reduction of the castles, the town of Chaibar submitted to the yoke. The
chief of the tribe was tortured, in the presence of Mahomet, to force
a confession of his hidden treasure: the industry of the shepherds
and husbandmen was rewarded with a precarious toleration: they were
permitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, to improve their
patrimony, in equal shares, for _his_ emolument and their own. Under the
reign of Omar, the Jews of Chaibar were transported to Syria; and the
caliph alleged the injunction of his dying master; that one and the true
religion should be professed in his native land of Arabia.
Five times each day the eyes of Mahomet were turned towards Mecca, and
he was urged by the most sacred and powerful motives to revisit, as a
conqueror, the city and the temple from whence he had been driven as an
exile. The Caaba was present to his waking and sleeping fancy: an idle
dream was translated into vision and prophecy; he unfurled the holy
banner; and a rash promise of success too hastily dropped from the lips
of the apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca displayed the peaceful
and solemn pomp of a pilgrimage: seventy camels, chosen and bedecked for
sacrifice, preceded the van; the sacred territory was respected; and
the captives were dismissed without ransom to proclaim his clemency and
devotion. But no sooner did Mahomet descend into the plain, within
a day's journey of the city, than he exclaimed, "They have clothed
themselves with the skins of tigers:" the numbers and resolution of the
Koreish opposed his progress; and the roving Arabs of the desert might
desert or betray a leader whom they had followed for the hopes of spoil.
The intrepid fanatic sunk into a cool and cautious politician: he waived
in the treaty his title of apostle of God; concluded with the Koreish
and their allies a truce of ten years; engaged to restore the fugitives
of Mecca who should embrace his religion; and stipulated only, for the
ensuing year, the humble privilege of entering the city as a friend,
and of remaining three days to accomplish the rites of the pilgrimage.
A cloud of shame and sorrow hung on the retreat of the Mussulmans, and
their disappointment might justly accuse the failure of a prophet who
had so often appealed to the evidence of success. The faith and hope of
the pilgrims were rekindled by the prospect of Mecca: their swords were
sheathed; seven times in the footsteps of the apostle they encompassed
the Caaba: the Koreish had retired to the hills, and Mahomet, after the
customary sacrifice, evacuated the city on the fourth day. The people
was edified by his devotion; the hostile chiefs were awed, or divided,
or seduced; and both Kaled and Amrou, the future conquerors of Syria and
Egypt, most seasonably deserted the sinking cause of idolatry. The power
of Mahomet was increased by the submission of the Arabian tribes; ten
thousand soldiers were assembled for the conquest of Mecca; and the
idolaters, the weaker party, were easily convicted of violating the
truce. Enthusiasm and discipline impelled the march, and preserved the
secret till the blaze of ten thousand fires proclaimed to the astonished
Koreish the design, the approach, and the irresistible force of the
enemy. The haughty Abu Sophian presented the keys of the city, admired
the variety of arms and ensigns that passed before him in review;
observed that the son of Abdallah had acquired a mighty kingdom, and
confessed, under the cimeter of Omar, that he was the apostle of the
true God. The return of Marius and Scylla was stained with the blood of
the Romans: the revenge of Mahomet was stimulated by religious zeal, and
his injured followers were eager to execute or to prevent the order of
a massacre. Instead of indulging their passions and his own, the
victorious exile forgave the guilt, and united the factions, of Mecca.
His troops, in three divisions, marched into the city: eight-and-twenty
of the inhabitants were slain by the sword of Caled; eleven men and
six women were proscribed by the sentence of Mahomet; but he blamed the
cruelty of his lieutenant; and several of the most obnoxious victims
were indebted for their lives to his clemency or contempt. The chiefs of
the Koreish were prostrate at his feet. "What mercy can you expect from
the man whom you have wronged?" "We confide in the generosity of our
kinsman." "And you shall not confide in vain: begone! you are safe, you
are free." The people of Mecca deserved their pardon by the profession
of Islam; and after an exile of seven years, the fugitive missionary was
enthroned as the prince and prophet of his native country. But the three
hundred and sixty idols of the Caaba were ignominiously broken: the
house of God was purified and adorned: as an example to future times,
the apostle again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim; and a perpetual
law was enacted that no unbeliever should dare to set his foot on the
territory of the holy city.