A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Chapter 1/4

[Sidenote: 4. Historical summary of the persecutions.]

About 615 of the Christian era, the Koreish of Mecca began to persecute the faith of Islam. Those who had no protection among the early Moslems were hard pressed, as related above. A body of eleven men, some with their families, fled the country, and found refuge, notwithstanding their pursuit by the Koreish, across the Red Sea at the Court of Abyssinia. This was the first Hegira, or flight of the persecuted Moslems. After some time, the persecution being resumed by the Koreish more hotly than ever, a larger number of Moslems, more than hundred, emigrated to Abyssinia. This was the second flight of the Moslems. The Koreish had sent an embassy to the Court of Abyssinia to fetch back the refugees. The king denied their surrender. About two years later the Koreish formed a hostile confederacy, by which all intercourse with the Moslems and their supporters was suspended. The Koreish forced upon the Moslems, by their threats and menaces, to retire from the city. For about three years, they, together with the Prophet and the Hashimites and their families, had to shut themselves up in the Sheb of Abu Tálib. They remained there, cut off from communication with the outer world. The ban of separation was put rigorously in force. The terms of the social and civil ban put upon them were, that they would neither intermarry with the proscribed, nor sell to or buy from them anything, and that they would entirely cease from all intercourse with them. Mohammad, in the interval of the holy months, used to go forth and mingle with the pilgrims to Mecca, and preached to them the abhorrence of idolatry and the worship of the One True God. The Sheb, or quarter of Abu Tálib, lies under the rocks of Abu Cobeis. A low gateway cut them off from the outer world, and within they had to suffer all privations of a beleaguered garrison. No one would venture forth except in the sacred months, when all hostile feelings and acts had to be laid aside. The citizens could hear the voices of the half-famished children inside the Sheb and this state of endurance on the one side, and persecution on the other, went on for some three years. Five of the chief supporters of the adverse faction detached from the league and broke up the confederacy and released the imprisoned religionists. This was in the tenth year of Mohammad's ministry. Soon after Mohammad and the early Moslems suffered a great loss in the death of his venerable uncle and protector Abu Tálib. Thus, Mohammad and his followers became again exposed to the unchecked insults and persecutions incited by Abú Sofian, Abu Jahl, and others; and being a handful in the hostile city, were unable to cope with its rich and powerful chiefs. At this critical period, either because he found it unsafe to remain at Mecca, or because he trusted his message would find more acceptance elsewhere, Mohammad set off to Tayef of the Bani Thakif,&mdash;the town was one of the great strongholds of idolatry. There was a stone image, called Al-Lât, adorned with costly vestments and precious stones, was an object of worship, and esteemed to be one of the daughters of God. Here Mohammad preached to unwilling ears, and met with nothing but opposition and scorn from the chief men, which soon spread to the populace. He was driven out of the town, maltreated, and wounded. He could not return to and enter Mecca unless protected by Mut-im, a chief of the blood of Abd Shams.

At the yearly pilgrimage, a little group of worshippers from Medina was attracted and won over by the preaching of Islam; and the following year it increased to twelve. They met Mohammad and took an oath of allegiance. A teacher was deputed by Mohammad to Medina, and the new faith spread there with a marvellous rapidity. Again the time of pilgrimage arrived, and more than seventy disciples from Medina pledged themselves to receive and defend him at the risk of their lives and property. This was all done in secret; but the Koreish, having got notice of it, renewed such severities and persecutions, including, in some cases, imprisonment, as hastened the departure of the Moslems to Medina, their city of refuge.