Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/388

 866 THE DECLINE AND FALL Submission of Mecca. A.D. [630] [Treaty of Hndsiblya. AD. 628, March] 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 husband- men was rewarded with a precarious toleration ; they were per- mitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, to improve their patrimony, in equal shares, for Ms emolument and their own. Under the reign of Omar, the Jews of Chaibar were transplanted 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 Avere 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 I'ash promise of success too hastily dropped from the lips of the apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca displayed the peace- ful and solemn pomp of a pilgrimage : seventy camels, chosen and bedecked for sacrifice, preceded the van ; the sacred ten-itory was respected, and the captives were dismissed without ransom to proclaim his clemency and devotion. But no sooner did Ma- homet 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 op- posed 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 Musulmans, and ^^ The banishment of the Jews is attested by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 9) and the great Al Tabari (Gagnier, torn. ii. p. 285). Yet Niebuhr (Description de I'Arabie, p. 324) beheves that the Jewish religion, and Kareite sect, are still pro- fessed by the tribe of Chaibar ; and that in the plunder of the caravans the disciples of Moses are the confederates of those of Mahomet. i*'' The successive steps of the reduction of Mecca are related by Abulfeda (p. 84-87, 97-100, 102-111), and Gagnier (torn. ii. p. 209-245, 309-322, torn. iii. p. 1-58), Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 8, 9, 10), Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 103). 1*8 [For a translation of the treaty see Appendix 19.]