Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/587

Rh MOHAMMED.] MOHAMMEDANISM 559 of Mecca. ites complained to the Prophet, who eagerly seized the pretext for war. In vain did the Meccans send Abu Sofy&n to Medina to renew the truce ; they could not move the Prophet from his purpose. In Ramadan, A.H. 8 The (January 630), he moved against Mecca with an army of war is 10,000 men. With the Emigrants and the Defenders were e mustered the Aslam, Ghifar, Mozaina, Johaina, and Ashja ; the Solaim and the Khoza a joined them on the way. The Bedouins were drawn by the hope of booty ; the Fazarite Oyaina was sorely vexed that he had left his Ghatafan at home, not knowing what was in view, for Mohammed at first kept the aim of his expedition a secret. Some of the Meccan nobles must, however, have known it ; Makhrama b. Naufal, for example, and the Prophet s uncle, Abbas, did not await the capture of their city, but deserted to the enemy while he was still distant. Abu Sofyan, in particular, must have been iu the secret; it appears that at Medina he received the promise that the holy city should be spared if it yielded pacifically, and that he pledged himself to do his best to play into the hands of the Prophet. 1 But before the populace it was necessary to keep up the appearance of a sudden surprise, an inevitable submission to an unforeseen display of force. The same comedy was repeated afterwards at Taif ; the headmen treated with the Prophet without consulting the Thakafites, and then contrived that the result of their policy should appear to be forced by the course of events. The Moslems were on the border of the holy land before the Meccans suspected their approach ; then suddenly one night 10,000 fires were seen rising to heaven to the north west of the holy city. In well-feigned surprise Abu Sofyan Conquest hastened to the hostile camp ; he returned with the news ^-} ia ^ f] ie Moslems were at the gates, that an improvised resistance could effect nothing against their force ; the only wise course was a surrender Mohammed had promised security to those who remained in their houses or threw away their weapons. The terrified Meccans had hardly any other course open to them than to follow this advice. And now the Moslems entered the city from several sides at once, meeting only at one point with an easily quelled resistance. Mohammed insisted that there should be no violence ; he pledged the captains to avoid all bloodshed. Ten persons only were put to the ban, and of these one half were subsequently pardoned. He took all pains to preserve the sanctity of Mecca unimpaired, confirmed the rights and privileges therewith connected, and made it plain that the old cultus should not be less flourishing under Islam. The ceremonies were retained, save only that he abolished all idols, both the domestic gods found in every house and the images in and round the Ka ba. But every sanctuary outsjcte of Mecca was destroyed, except such as had a part in the celebration of the Feast, and so stood in connexion with the Ka ba itself. Thus the Meccan worship gained a new and unique importance. Mohammed s reform did for Mecca what Josiah s did for Jerusalem. 2 The last step towards that identification of the Ka ba with Islam, which made it the religious centre of the Moslem world, was not taken till the following year, when the famous Renunciation (Bara a) of sur. ix. forbade the heathen to share in the Feast, which was henceforth to be a strictly Moslem ordinance, and at the same time abro gated the peace of the holy months. A year later (Dhii 1- Hijja, A.H. 10, March 632) he himself celebrated the Feast for the first time in the orthodox fashion, introducing certain modifications on the traditional practice and 1 The tradition indeed is silent, but Muir (iv. 120) is justified in drawing this inference from the course of events. 2 Snouck-Hurgronje, Het MekJlactnsehe Feest, Leyden, 1880. reducing certain varieties of use to uniform rule. In all this he professed to re-establish the true ancient use, purged of heretical deviations from the example of Abraham. At the same time he remodelled the Calendar, forbidding the occasional interpolation of a month as an arbitrary and human invention, and establishing the true lunar year of twelve lunations. We return to the capture of Mecca. The submission of War the Koraish was followed by that of their nomad brethren with and allies. But the neighbouring Hawazin, to whom tlie. Ha belonged also the Thakafite inhabitants of Taif, assembled wdzi for battle with the Moslems. They camped in Autas between Taif and Mecca. Mohammed advanced against them, and battle was joined in the valley of Honain. The Moslems were broken by the first charge of the foe; for a moment the Prophet himself was in danger, till the Khazraj rallied round him, checked the onset of the Hawazin, and at length turned them to flight. A vast booty rewarded the victors ; for the Hawazin had brought all their herds and non-combatants with them and placed them in the rear, that they might feel what they were fighting for. 3 Mohammed caused the prey to be conveyed to the glen of Ji rana, outside the north-west border of the Haram, a little way off the great valley that descends from Taif ; he him self pressed on to Tdif itself. Here, however, he failed in his object ; in a dream he saw a cock peck a hole in a bowl of cream that was set before him, so that the con tents ran out. After fourteen days he gave up the siege and marched to Ji rana to deal with the booty. He had deferred this task in the hope that the Hawazin would be tempted to embrace Islam in order to recover their families and cattle. But as they still sent no ambassadors, he had to yield to the pressure of the Bedouins and divide the spoil. When it was too late, the messengers of the Hawazin appeared to announce their conversion ; they had now to give up their herds, and content themselves that their wives and children were restored to them, through the mediation of the Prophet with their new masters. The Bedouins received compensation for what they gave up ; the Emigrants and Defenders gave up their captives freely. Altogether the men of Medina fared worst in the distribution of booty, though they had borne the brunt of the conflict ; those who fared best were the nobles of Mecca, who had no share in the fight, but whom Mohammed desired to conciliate by gifts (sur. ix. 60). The fall of Mecca reacted powerfully on the future Aggran- development of Islam. Again the saying came true : dizement victa victores cepit ; the victory of the Moslems over the ?; Koraish shaped itself into a domination of the Koraish over the Moslems. For this the Prophet himself was to blame. In making Mecca the Jerusalem of Islam, he was ostensibly moved by religious motives ; but in reality Mohammed s religion had nothing to do with the heathenish usages at the Ka ba and the Great Feaet. To represent Abraham as the founder of the ritual was merely a pious fraud. What Mohammed actually sought, was to recommend Islam to Arabic prejudices by incorporating this fragment of heathenism, and at the same time he was influenced by his local patriotism. Henceforth these local feelings became quite the mainspring of his conduct ; his attitude to the Koraish was determined entirely by the spirit of clannishness. Hence the extraordinary value he set on the conciliation of their chiefs ; one gains the impression that he cared more for this than for the con version of all the rest of the world. He left to them all that they already had ; he gave them in addition whatever they asked, if only they would be his good friends. Abu Sofyan was a great man already, but Mohammed hastened 3 Among them were relatives of the Prophet s foster-mother, HaKrna.