Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/578

Rh 550 MOHAMMEDANISM [MOHAMMED. away. But the Meccans, from the way in which he had at first given out a verse as God s word and afterwards withdrawn it as a suggestion of Satan, did not hesitate to draw the inference that the whole of his boasted revelation was nothing but a manifest imposture. To their cold and unfeeling logic the Prophet had nothing to oppose save passionate assurances. Hamza Fortunately for the Moslems, precisely at this juncture, and when matters were assuming so gloomy an aspect for their Omar. j- t ^ e c^pan^ two conversions took place, which were well fitted to revive their courage. Mohammed s uncle, Hamza b. Abdalmottalib, felt his family pride wounded by the injurious treatment which the former had received from Abu Jahl, head of the great and wealthy family of the Banu Makhziim, and in order to become publicly his champion, he adopted Islam. Of much more importance still was the conversion in the same year (the sixth of the Call) of Omar b. al-Khattab. Omar was then only twenty- six years of age, and neither rich nor noble ; but his im posing figure and his unbending strength of will gave him a personal influence, which immediately made itself felt in a very marked manner in favour of Islam. Until now its religious gatherings had taken place privately, especially in the house of Arkam ; but Omar offered his prayers at the Ka ba as publicly as possible, and his example was followed by the other Moslems. Their religious exercises were no longer gone about in secret, but ostentatiously and before the eyes of all. So far as can be gathered, it was at this time that the opposition between Mohammed and his townsmen reached its highest pitch. The feeling that he had somewhat committed himself embittered him ; he was determined to atone for his previous concessions to polytheism by un compromising polemic against it. A personal element, which had lurked from the first in the war of principles, became by degrees increasingly dominant. The idols were less displeasing to Allah than the idolaters ; his own wor ship was a matter of less concern to him than the recogni tion of his messenger. With ever-increasing distinctness the prophetic utterances came to be mere words of threaten ing and rebuke against the Meccans ; it was impossible not to recognize in Noah and Moses or Abraham the pro phet himself. The coming judgment upon Mecca, and the hour of it, were either in plain words or veiled allusion the continual theme of the &quot; admonisher ; &quot; but the oftener and the more urgently it was repeated, the less was the impression it produced. The Meccans did not, on the whole, suffer themselves to be much disturbed by the pro spect of the terrible overthrow which was portrayed before them in vivid colours. They were even profane enough to express a desire to see the long-threatened catastrophe arrive at last, and their audacity went so far as to complain of the revelations with which Mohammed sought to stir their feelings as being tedious. 1 They did not in the least believe that the Biblical narratives, which he related with special pride, were known to him by revelation ; on the contrary, they pretended to know perfectly well the human source from which he had derived them (sur. xvi. 105 ; xxv. 5; xliv. 13). It is very interesting to find Mohammed in presence of their unbelief referring to the recognition and approval with which he met among the children of Israel (sur. vi. 114; x. 94; xiii. 36 sqq. ; xvii. 108; xxviii. 52 sq. ; xxxiv. 6), and particularly to find him appealing to the testimony of a certain Jew, whom he does not name (sur. xlvi. 9 sqq.) Manifestly he had relations with Jews at this period, and was under their influence ; and from them, of course, it was that the material of his Old Testa ment and Haggadistic narratives was derived. At the Ibn Hisham, pp. 191, 235 sq. same time it is clear that he himself must have believed these to have come directly to him in a second revelation from above, otherwise he would hardly have taken his stand in the presence of his opponents upon the testimony of the Jews. Such a self-deception seems indeed hardly credible to us, but it is impossible to impute to the Arab prophet too complete an absence of the critical faculty. The Koraish at last lost all patience. Their heads The in- entered into a solemn compact to break off all intercourse terdict. with the Hashimids, as they declined to separate them selves from Mohammed. The Hashimids submitted to the interdict for the sake of their relative, although for the most part they were not believers on him. Along with the Banu 1-Mottalib they withdrew into the separate quarter of their chief, into the so-called Shi b Abi Talib ; one only of their number, Abii Lahab, separated himself from them, and made common cause with the Meccans. All buying and selling with the excommunicated persons being forbidden, these found themselves reduced occasion ally to outward distress, as well as excluded from all fellowship. This treatment, although apparently never carried out with absolute strictness, did not fail of its effect. The Prophet s more remotely attached adherents fell away from him, and his efforts for the spread of Islam were crippled. All he could do was to encourage those who remained faithful, and to set himself to seek the con version of his relations. This state of matters, after continuing for from two to three years, at last became intolerable to the Meccans themselves, who had a variety of relations with the ex communicated family. In the tenth year of the Call (A.D. 619-620) five of the leading citizens paid a visit to the Shi b Abi Tdlib and induced the Banu Hashim and al- Mottalib to come out of their retirement and again appear among their fellow-citizens. The rest of the Koraish were taken by surprise, and did not venture, by setting them selves against the fait accompli, to run the risk of what might have become a dangerous breach. The story goes that a lucky accident released them from the solemn oath under which they had laid themselves with reference to the Banu Hashim the mice had destroyed the document, hung up in the Ka ba, on which it was recorded. Mohammed was now free once more ; but he no longer The Pro thought of carrying on his polemic against the Meccans or of seeking to influence them at all. In his relations to them three stadia can be distinguished, although it is easier to determine their character than their chronology. In the first instance, his endeavour was to propitiate them and win them over to his side ; when other methods failed, he even went so far as to make complimentary mention of their goddesses in one of his revelations, and thus to set up a compromise with heathenism. When this compromise failed, he forthwith commenced an embittered assault upon the idolaters, which ended in the outlawry of himself and of his family. And now, the ban having been removed, he gave the Meccans up, abandoning them to their hard ness of heart. It had become clear to him that in his native town Islam was to make no progress, and that his position was untenable. His feeling of separation was in creased all the more with the death of his faithful Khadija about this time, followed soon afterwards by that of Abu Talib, his noble protector. He accordingly came to the determination to take his chance in the neighbouring Taif, Visit to and set out thither alone. On his arrival he asked the T 1 &quot; - heads of the town whether they would be willing to receive him and protect the free proclamation of his doctrines. He was answered in the negative ; the mob drove him out of the town, and pursued him until he found refuge in a vineyard, the property of two noble Meccans. In the deepest despondency he again took the homeward road.