Chapter VI: The Sword of Islam

'The sword of Mohammed and the Korân are the most stubborn opponents of civilization, liberty, and truth the world has ever known.'--SIR WILLIAM MUIR.

[Sidenote: Civil War.]

It is a small step from 'robbery under arms' to civil war. The logical consequence of a small expedition, if it is successful, is a larger one. Mohammed soon had a chance, which it was not in him to refuse. He heard that the large caravan which had eluded him in the autumn was returning in the spring, crawling down the sea route on its way to Mecca, heavily laden with goods, to the value of 500,000 francs. Its leader was Abu Sufyan, the chief of the Koreish, and, as usual, every Meccan who could afford it had a stake in the venture. Mohammed appealed to the men of Medina, 'Here is a caravan of the Koreish in which they have embarked much wealth. Come! {80} perchance the Lord will enrich you with the same.' The appeal was not in vain. With an army of 305 men and 70 camels he marched to meet it at Badr, still a halting-place on the pilgrim road from Syria to Mecca. Meanwhile, through spies or traitors, the news reached Abu Sufyan, who sent to Mecca for help. The men of Mecca, not without misgivings at making war upon their relatives, turned out for battle nearly a thousand strong. This was more than Mohammed had reckoned on, but he was not dismayed. He could count on the fiery courage of his followers, the fanaticism of his 'refugees' had destroyed all their remembrance of the ties of kindred; he reckoned, too, no doubt, on hesitation and divided councils among his foes. He was cheered in the night with visions of success, and with stern confidence he ordered the battle himself.

[Sidenote: Battle of Badr.]

The field of battle was a valley between the two most western spurs of a range of mountains which here drop into the plain which protects them from the sea. A rivulet, rising in the inland mountains, runs through the valley, and in its course a number of cisterns had been dug for the {81} use of travellers. Mohammed ordered all of these to be filled up, except the one nearest to the enemy, and this one he made his base of operations. He was quite aware that 'the general should not risk his life,' and, accordingly, a temporary hut was built for the Prophet beside the well, and fleet camels were picketed ready for his flight in case of sudden need.

The battle began, like many another in those parts, by single contests of the champions of either army. In these the Moslems won all along the line. It was an ominous beginning for the Koreish, and their spirits sank. It was a wild, stormy, winter day, and the rain poured in the face of the Meccan archers, as upon the hapless French at Agincourt. To Mohammed the fierce blasts that swept the valley were a legion of angels under Gabriel and Michael fighting for the believers--as the 'Great Twin Brethren' had fought for Rome at Lake Regillus. The Moslems fought, it seems, in a sort of threefold phalanx formation, and at first stood on the defensive. The Koreish were without commander, without order, or {82} discipline, or any concerted plan, though they were three to one.

The battle raged fiercely: at last the fiery valour of the Moslems prevailed. As the foe wavered Mohammed stooped, threw a handful of pebbles towards them, and cried: 'Confusion seize their faces.' Wavering turned into defeat, defeat into rout. The Koreish cast away their arms and fled, abandoning their camp and baggage and beasts of burden. Eagerly the Moslems followed them, slaying and taking captive all who came within reach. Forty-nine were killed, and about the same number taken prisoners. Mohammed lost only fourteen, of whom six were refugees from Medina. Many of the principal men of the Koreish were slain, among them one of Mohammed's bitterest opponents, Abu Jahl. As he lay wounded on the field Mohammed's servant ran upon him and cut off his head and carried it to his master.

'The head of the enemy of God,' exclaimed Mohammed.

'God, there is none other but He,' responded the servant, as he cast the gory head at the Prophet's feet.

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'It is more acceptable to me than the choicest camel in Arabia.'

Six of the prisoners were executed as avowed enemies of Mohammed's creed. The remainder were treated with kindness, and most embraced the faith. A trench was dug upon the field into which the bodies of the slain were cast, and before it was filled in, Mohammed himself addressed them in the presence of his followers: 'Have you not found the promise of your Lord to come true? Woe to you who rejected me your Prophet. Verily, my Lord's promise to me hath been made good.' The spoil was very rich; it was thrown into one great heap, of which Mohammed retained a fifth, and divided the rest among his followers. Two camels fell to the lot of every man in the army.

The battle of Badr was to Moslem history all, and more than all, that Hastings means in the history of England. To Mohammed, and to every man who fought under him, it was the seal of the Almighty upon the Cause. Obviously for purposes of war one Moslem was worth ten unbelievers! A course of plundering so favoured by God Himself was not to be desisted {84} from--each fresh marauding expedition added to the wealth of Medina and the reputation of the Prophet.

[Sidenote: Siege of Medina.]

Once, twice, indeed, the life of Mohammed and the cause of Islam yet hung in the balance. The Koreish, as we might guess, had not taken the defeat of Badr easily, and were resolved on revenge. A year later, with an army of 3,000 men, they marched on Medina, and so narrowly was Islam saved that we are told Mohammed was himself struck down during a panic of his followers. Two years later, summoning all their allies, the Koreish marched upon Medina and besieged it with an army 10,000 strong. But finding earthworks and trenches barring their way, and plot and stratagem met by counter-plot, their provisions ran out and they were forced to beat an ignominious retreat. Even temporary set-backs hurt little the reputation of the Prophet. He was the unquestioned master of Medina now, and each succeeding month brought fresh tribes within his suzerainty; his reputation extended wherever Arab orators contended for eloquence. But as yet he was only a local notability. Arabia still looked to {85} Mecca as the pivot of the country; the men of Arabia still returned to Mecca and the Kaaba for their yearly pilgrimage. Clearly, if Mohammed would rule Arabia, he must rule from Mecca. Under truce he visited his old haunts, the home of his youth and the sacred 'cube,' but he was only there on sufferance. The visit intensified the burning desire, and the urgent necessity for the Prophet of God to be Master of Mecca.

[Sidenote: Conquest of Mecca.]

So, passing over several years studded with incident and adventure, we must follow our hero with his organized and disciplined army of 10,000 men as he marches upon Mecca. Such an army Araby has never known and the Koreish make but small show of resistance. A few fanatics keep up a running and ineffectual fight, and Mohammed stands lord of the city from which eight years before he had fled a hunted fugitive. It is still full of enemies. But the greatness of his triumph has softened his heart, and by his moderation he wins theirs. The men of Mecca give in their adhesion, and become 'believers' in a body.

The first act of the Conqueror was one {86} of clemency. What was the second? Remounting his old favourite Al Caswa he rode to the Kaaba--the pictures had been removed, and Mohammed now ordered the idols to be hewn down. Uzza and Lât fell with a terrible crash, and with them crashed down the whole fabric of Arab idolatry, which has never been restored.

Mohammed was an old man now, and as he contemplated the work of destruction, he must have felt that the labour of twenty years had not been in vain.

[Sidenote: Mecca the Centre of Islam.]

To him, however, the destruction of the idols was not so much the end of the old as the beginning of the new. The Kaaba itself was left untouched, and was consecrated to be the new centre of the new faith, and from its roof Bilâl sounded the call to prayer. The keys were returned to their old keeper, and the right of attending the pilgrims was entrusted again to Mohammed's uncle Abbas.

Mecca should still be the pivot of Arabia, its sacred shrine the centre of its religion, the Koreish its guardians, but not henceforth, as in the 'days of ignorance,' a house of helpless idols, but the centre of the new religion--'God and His Prophet.'

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It was the stroke of a master statesman, as well as of a religious enthusiast. It silenced the scruples of the Koreish lest Mecca should lose its position and they their chance of livelihood. It was the crowning act of Mohammed's achievement. Verily the hand of God must be with the Prophet when he could conquer Mecca and defy with impunity the ancient deities of Arabia!

[Sidenote: The Subduing of Arabia.]

So the fire of Islam was kindled in Arabia. A few more fierce stubborn contests yet remained, a guerilla fight with the powerful and bellicose Arab clan, the Beni Hawazin, the blockade of Taif, a powerful hostile city, and the subjugation of the Jews, and all Arabia was aflame. From Yaman and Hadramaut and Oman, from the borders of Syria and Persia, envoys poured in, bringing the allegiance of the tribes, flocking to the white standard of the Prophet. Within a year Mohammed, at the head of such an army as no Arab had ever dreamt of, consisting of 10,000 horse and 20,000 foot-men, marched northwards to the borders of Syria, and subduing the Christian and semi-Christian tribes of the north, carried the fire of Islam beyond the borders.

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[Sidenote: Religious and Social Life.]

Busy and occupied with fighting as those last years of Mohammed's life were, his work as religious prophet was not neglected. He poured forth fresh suras as each new occasion demanded. True, they seem to have lost their old rugged earnestness now, and much of their sense of God, but he declares them still to be the revelation of the Almighty, and to have existed in heaven from the beginning of eternity. Many suras are concerned with the most trivial and unimportant matters treated in the most commonplace way. Some show his unrivalled skill in getting out of difficult personal or political situations. Some are to give 'divine authority' for his own violations of his own law, or for those actions of his which outraged even the primitive conscience of Arabia. One instance of this should be given. Within a year of his reaching Medina the Prophet greatly admired Zainab, the wife of his foster-son Zaid, and coveted her for his wife. Marriage to one who was reckoned a daughter-in-law was utterly abhorrent to the conscience of the Arabs, but he justified this by obtaining a divine commission--a divine blessing forsooth--for the act. We {89} have more than once seen how the Prophet fell into the very convenient habit of retracting or 'abrogating' any previous suras which he found it convenient to alter. One would have thought this would have shaken the faith of the 'believers' in the revelations, but Mohammed waved their scruples aside with a high hand, and they soon grew accustomed to such vagaries.

Interspersed among these very minor matters was much advice as to the conduct of the faith, the obligations of Moslem brotherhood, the relation of the faithful to unbelievers, to women and to slaves. Many Arabian customs were commended for adoption. There were disquisitions on criminal and civil law and punishments, on political economy and tax-collecting, and florid descriptions of the believers' Paradise and the fires of the unbelievers' Hell.

[Sidenote: Mohammed's Death, 632 A.D.]

A man's age is not reckoned by his years, but by the life he has lived. The last twenty-three years of Mohammed's life had been enough to shatter the strongest of constitutions. Privation, persecution, struggle, anxiety, fear, and still more, the lust, excitement, and excesses of victory, {90} and, as he said, 'the toil of inspiration and the striking' had streaked his hair with grey, and made him old when he was sixty-three. But he was game to the end, and fought his fever inch by inch. When it was sore upon him he struggled to the mosque to lead the Friday service. Throughout Sunday he was unconscious. On the Monday he rallied so far as to be able to walk feebly into the mosque next door, where Abu Bakr led the prayers at his request. He returned exhausted by the effort, and quietly sank to rest in Ayesha's loving arms, muttering a few broken prayers for forgiveness 'for the former and the latter sins,' and exclaiming 'The blessed companionship on high!' Around him were gathered his wives and those who had been his closest friends and comrades through good report and ill--Abu Bakr, Omar, and Zaid.

We may, in fancy, stand with that little company and gaze deep into that quiet face, for thereon is written not only a life that is past, but a forecast of a history that is yet to be. Yes, Mohammed, the story of thy life is there, a story unique in glory and in shame; in glory because, rising {91} above thy fellows and realizing God, thou didst preach Him to men; in shame, because, being greater than thy fellows, thou didst think thyself almost a god. And in the pages of world-history thy life is written large across the nations, for, as is the prophet so are the people, and where the shepherd leads the sheep follow. And so thy life, its glory and its shame, its moral earnestness, its sordid ambitions; its rugged sincerity, its obvious self-deception; its high moral teaching, its gross sensual sins; its gentleness, its cruelty; its faithfulness, its broken oaths; its daring, its cowardice; its saintliness and its brigandage; will live again in the lives of thy followers wherever men call themselves Mohammedans.

[Sidenote: Mohammed claimed a final Revelation.]

With the passing of the Prophet, Moslem revelation is for ever closed, the last word has been said, no more is possible. At his death there can be no successor to his office as mediator and Prophet. The two assets upon which the huge and complex structure of Islam have been built are the historical records of _the Prophet's life_ and _the Korân_, and it is important that we grasp the meaning of this fact. Zwemer {92} has described the magic of the Prophet's influence.

'He is at once the sealer and abrogator of all former prophets and revelations. They have not only been succeeded, but also supplanted by Mohammed. No Moslem prays to him, but every Moslem daily prays for him in endless repetition. He is the only powerful intercessor in the Day of Judgment. Every detail of his early life is attributed to divine permission or command, and so the very faults of his character are his endless glory and his sign of superiority. God favoured him above all creatures. He dwells in the highest heaven, and is several degrees above Jesus in honour and station. His name is never uttered or written without the addition of a prayer. "Ya Mohammed" is the open sesame to every door of difficulty--temporal or spiritual. One hears that name in the bazaar and in the street, in the mosque and from the minaret. Sailors sing it while hoisting their sails; hammals groan it to raise a burden; the beggar howls it to obtain alms; it is the Bedouin's cry in attacking a caravan; it hushes babes to sleep, as a cradle-song; it is the pillow of the sick, and the last word of the dying; it is written on the door posts and in their hearts, as well as, since eternity, on the throne of God; it is to the devout Moslem the name above every name; grammarians can tell you how its four letters are representative of all the sciences and mysteries by their wonderful combination. The name of Mohammed is the best to give a child, {93} and the best to swear by for an end of all dispute in a close bargain.... Mohammed holds the keys of heaven and hell. No Moslem, however bad his character, will perish finally; no unbeliever, however good his life, can be saved except through Mohammed.'[1]

[Sidenote: The Korân.]

Then there was the book, the Korân. At the time of Mohammed's death the suras had never been gathered together, and no book of them existed. Many had been written down by those who heard them, some the faithful knew by heart. Soon after the Prophet's death Abu Bakr gave orders that all these should be gathered together. Zaid therefore collected all that could be found on parchment, leather, palm leaves, shoulder-blades of mutton, stones, and other materials, and with those suras which could be repeated from memory he completed the collection of Mohammed's suras in the Korân. Every word within the covers of that book was, and always has been, regarded by all Moslems as the veritable word of God, 'eternal and uncreate,' brought down from heaven by Gabriel and delivered to Mohammed. 'The whole of the contents of the Korân, from {94} the sublimest doctrine down to the most trivial command abrogated perhaps a week or two after it was revealed; from the passage describing the ineffableness of God down to the passage authorizing Mohammed's marriage with the divorced wife of his adopted son--all is equally, in kind and in degree, inspired, eternal, and divine.' The word of God to man was, in fact, a book,--this book. This book was the word of God.

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI

1. What led to the battle of Badr? Why was it so important?

2. How came it that the Meccans failed to take Medina?

3. How was Mecca conquered? How did Mohammed manage to destroy all idols there without rousing much opposition?

4. What should you think is the effect now of keeping Mecca as the centre of Islam?

5. How was Arabia subdued?

6. How far was Mohammed's death a sequel to his life? What was his real claim as the founder of a religion?

[1] Zwemer, _A Challenge to Faith_, pp. 46-48.

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