E SET ALL THINGS in such order here as he had done at Agra and retired back to Medina with a numerous retinue of volunteers who came of their own accord to attend and guard the prophet. They disciplined themselves there every day, and what time could be spared from their sallah and their military exercises was employed in working upon some trade, the prophet teaching them that that food was most pleasant, nourishing, and blessed which every man gained by his particular industry and labor and that God delighted in those alms to be given which a man had gained himself. Mahomet received Ali with as much honor as became the gravity of the Apostle of God, and Ali prostrated himself before him with such reverence that he seemed really to believe what he usually professed—that the shadow of the prophet was as the shadow of God.At the same time, there arrived news from the kingdom of the Abyssines, how Giafar, the son of Abutaleb and brother of Ali, had converted the Aluajash or Negush, called Aitshama, emperor of that kingdom, together with his subjects to Islamism. This Giafar, with other adherents of Mahomet at Mecca being <92> persecuted by the Coreischites, desires Mahomet’s permission to retire, which obtained, he withdrew into Ethiopia for protection. This Hegira or flight was some time before the pilgrimage of Mahomet to Medina.1 Now Giafar, residing in the court of Aitshama, did instruct him in the rise and doctrine of Mahomet. The Abyssines had always used circumcision not upon any religious but civil account and are said to have been converted to Christianity by Queen Candace’s eunuch,2 and that Matthew and some others of the apostles preached there.3 Undoubtedly they were at first of the number of the Judaizing Christians and afterwards, as did the Arabians, they turned Jacobites.4 This affinity in religion, in circumcision, and in rejecting the Melkites (not to mention that the Abyssines had not long before reigned in Yemen for seventy years or more),5 and the general ignorance of the Christians whereby they did not understand the notions they had of the Trinity, did facilitate the conversion of the Negush who was soon convinced that it was impossible there should be three persons in the deity and that God should have a son. And hearing that Mahomet did not only style Isa prophet, but superlatively honored him as the word and spirit of God, he embraced Islamism.
Upon this intelligence, Mahomet commands Ibn Omar to prepare for an embassy to Ethiopia in the sixth year of the Hegira. The retinue had much of splendor and Ibn Omar carried a letter from the prophet which began thus: “In the Name of God, merciful and gracious, from Mahomet the Apostle of God to Negush Aitshama, King of the Abyssines, et cetera.”6 His reception there was no less solemn than magnificent. Aitshama descends from his throne to receive the letter. He laid it presently on his eyes, and sitting on the ground, read the contents and returned a submissive answer which began with the bismillah or form with which the strict Mahometans usually begin their discourses and letters and is the proem of every chapter in the Alcoran, viz: “In the Name of God, merciful and gracious. To the Apostle of God of glorious memory, from Aluajash Aitshama Ben Ahahar. <93> Health, O Apostle of God, who are sent of God, et cetera.”
This letter was carried by Giafar Aritha, the son of the Negush, and sixty of the princes of Abyssinia, who accompanied Giafar Ibn Omar and Aritha. The arrival of the Abyssines at Medina was attended with all the solemnity and splendor which became the prophet. There were in Medina several Christians. Mahomet commanded them, their presbyters and monks, to be present at the reception, and, after the first ceremonies were past, the prophet, having caused the people to be ranked with their faces towards Mecca and the Caaba, he commanded Giafar to read to them somewhat out of the Alcoran. He fixed upon the surat of Mary (or Isa), and when they heard it they wept and publicly declared themselves Muslemin.7
It is easy to apprehend what effects this embassy had upon all Arabia. Those of Yemen could not but call to mind their late subjection to the Abyssines and feared again a second conquest; those of Mecca were terribly affrighted and suspected the Islamism of Abyssines as a trick of state and rather feigned than real. They remembered the attempt which Abrahah Alashram had made upon the Caaba, which before related, which happened in the forty-second year of Chosroes or Anusherwan at which time Mahomet was born, and from which the Arabians made a new epoch, and to which there is a surat in the Alcoran relating. The adherents and confederates for Mahomet were very much strengthened hereupon and more assured in the truth and success of his apostleship.
It became the Coreischites now to look to themselves and to prosecute him by a vigorous war. Mahomet, to amuse them the more and the better to discipline his few followers, had not embodied any such numbers nor made such show as might terrify the rest of the Arabians, the petty princes whereof might be thereby induced to hasten into a close league and confederacy to his destruction. In the end of the first year in which he came to Medina, he sent out his uncle Hamza (with white flag hallowed by himself), accompanied with thirty men. But this small troop produced no change anywhere, nor attempted anything memorable by reason of their small force, or that Mahomet would make no show of invading others till he was in a condition to defend himself.8
SECOND YEAR OF THE HEGIRA9
In <94> the second year, his parties being better formed and more numerous, he resolved to distress Mecca and thereby render the people mutinous against their leaders. He sent out of Medina 319 to intercept a rich caravan belonging chiefly to the Coreischites and was going into Syria under the conduct of Abusofian and other principal captains of the Coreischites, guarded with 900 or 1,000 soldiers.10 Abusofian, the son of Hareth, finding himself in danger to be attacked, and knowing the discipline and valor of the Muslemin and the difficulty of protecting a large caravan and at the same time fight the enemy, designed to retreat. But in Beder, or Bader, the Mahometans reduced him to a necessity of fighting.11 Neither the number, valor, nor policy of the Coreischites could resist the fortune and prowess of the Muslemin. Seventy of the stoutest and bravest of the Coreischites fell that day, most of them commanders and as many more were taken prisoners, with the loss only of fourteen Muslemin who were declared martyrs. The fame of the victory and the spoil added much to the renown of the prophet. All of the riches were brought into the public treasury for the general benefit. For Mahomet had so principled his followers that they regarded nothing beyond a mere subsistence and the propagation of Islamism.
Mahomet was resolved to take Mecca and the Caaba by surrender and therefore would no further prosecute his victories. Besides, he did not think it prudence to grasp at more than he could securely manage. He knew that young converts are not so fixed to their profession and party, but easily become factious and mutinous or revolt again, and that a nearer approach to Mecca might render the Coreischites desperate and so alarm their neighbors that they might join in their defense. He knew that in the territories he had already acquired, as also in Yemen and the neighboring provinces of Persia, were a multitude of Jews who were not so obliged by the protection given them but that they would upon any opportunity advance the interest of their own nation and endeavor to resettle themselves in their old monarchy at Jerusalem as they had lately attempted under Chosroes and formerly upon diverse occasions. Nor was he ignorant that the Jews did hate him for magnifying Isa and advancing him (above Moses) to the dignity of a prophet whom they had put to death as a seditious person and esteemed the son of a whore. Whereupon he resolved to secure them before they should make any head and, by subduing them, increase the number of his victories, it being certain that the Coreischites would be glad to see him <95> otherwise employed than in distressing them and would wait the issue of these new troubles.
I know not what open cause of jealousy the Jews gave to the prophet. But he dispatched Abubacr to them to demand that they should embrace Islamism, repeat the sallah or Mahometan prayers, pay the tenth of their estates, and lend to God a considerable sum of money. No man was so fit for this employment as Abubacr, for, besides his great courage, he was exceeding passionate. No Jew could be a greater bigot in his way than Abubacr was in Islamism. They could not believe so little concerning Mahomet, but on the contrary he believed as much. He believed all that Mahomet said and all that was said of him. When the prophet reported that he had been carried in one night from Mecca to Jerusalem, the Coreischites laughed at it as a bold figment and imposture and asked Abubacr if he believed it. He readily answered that he did not only give credit to that but would believe and justify matters more incredible than these. He came to the Jews and pressed them to receive the commands of the prophet, urging them with the miracles of Mahomet, that being the most prevalent argument with that nation. But they were not moved thereby. How confidently so ever he reported them, they said they expected a Messiah of their own, the son of David, whose dominion should extend far and near, and, as to the lending any sum of money to God, Phinhas the son of Azura demanded if their God were so poor that he needed to take up money at interest.12
The insolence of this question did so enrage Abubacr that he gave him a box on the ear protesting with all that he would have slain him but that the prophet had given them a cartel of security. He departed and acquainted Mahomet with their refusal, but mentioned not the words of Phinhas, protesting he durst not repeat their blasphemies. Mahomet was not displeased with the ill success of the negotiation, but presently curses the Jews in a particular surat, declares that they are enemies to the Muslemin and aim at a distinct monarchy of their own, that they had always persecuted the prophets of their own nation, and were so arrogant as to imagine that God could not raise a prophet but from among them.
In the third year therefore, he sets out against them, and in fifteen days destroys their castles, plunders them of their riches, and reduceth them to his mercy, killing Caabas the son of Alaszasi who was his most bitter enemy.14 It was well for him that he distressed the Jews in so short a time. For the Coreischites, thinking to find him so busied against the Jews that he would not be able to defend <96> Medina against their powerful forces, sent Abusofian with three thousand foot and two hundred horse and three thousand camels (the milk whereof was their victuals) to attack the town. Mahomet draws forth his army to fight them. A bloody battle ensued thereupon in which the Muslemin were at first victors, but were at last overcome with the loss of Hamza, Mahomet’s uncle, and seventy others of their party. Mahomet acted all the parts of a good commander and a valiant soldier and, since he despaired of conquest, determined to make good his retreat to Medina, the neighborhood whereof preserved from any great damage that day. The Coreischites, discovering him rallying his men and bravely fighting in the rear of his flying forces, bent all their power to destroy him, and Ochas, the son of Abumugid, wounded him in the lip with a javelin and shook out some of his fore teeth.15 Abdalla, the son of Sidhab, hurt him in the forehead. He was also wounded in the jaws. Notwithstanding all which, he escaped safe into Medina, and Abusofian, being distressed for want of water and necessaries, was obliged to withdraw his army to Mecca.16
A man of less courage than Mahomet would hardly have subsisted after the ignominy of this discomfiture. But the prophet was undaunted, and casting the blame upon the Jews who had so unhappily diverted the Muslemin to flesh his vanquished troops with their slaughter, he fell upon the sons of Nadir, a tribe of Judaizing Arabians, routs them and pursues them into Syria, showing the country far and near his victorious troops when they thought him in a manner ruined. This happened in the fourth year of his stay at Medina.
All Arabia was alarmed at this last success, and the Jews and several other nations combined with the Coreischites against Mahomet and drew out ten thousand choice men to fight him. The prophet musters what forces he could from Medina, Agra, and Sarak, and determines not to be enclosed in any town, nor engage too near Medina lest the vicinity of a refuge might take of the courage of his soldiers. He marches forward to encounter them, but finding a consternation in his army, he declined the engagement and put in practice a stratagem which was new in Arabia. He caused his men to encamp and drew a strong line of circumvallation betwixt the Coreischites and the Jews, and gaining over one Naimus of the tribe of Gatfan, a potent man in the army of his enemies. By his means, those of Mecca and the Jews so quarreled that they broke up their army and departed without doing anything.17 Six of the Muslemin were slain in this expedition, and three of the infidels, two of which were <97> slain by Ali in duel in the view of both camps, to the great encouragement of the Mahometans and terror of their enemies, one of them being a very valiant captain and as it were the soul of their army.
Great was the renown of Mahomet, who had, without any loss or hazard, caused so powerful an army thus to dislodge and dissolve. He pursued a brigade of them, besieged them five and twenty days, reduces them, cuts off the heads of 670 of the men, and distributes the women and children among the Muslemin for slaves. This happened in the fifth year of his stay at Medina.
In his sixth year he resolved to carry the war into the country of the Coreischites, gains several considerable victories as he goes, and marches to Hadibia, a place near Mecca.19 The Muslemin had their courages inflamed by this succession of victories and by the sight of the Caaba. The inhabitants of Mecca were disconsolate to see the danger so near them, and that so many expeditions against Mahomet had proved fruitless, and, being divided and distracted among themselves, knew not what to do. But the generous prophet, continuing in his resolution of taking Mecca rather by surrender than fight, comes to a treaty with the Coreischites which ended in a cessation of hostility for ten years to come. One cause of this truce was that if Mahomet or any of his followers had a pious intention to visit the Caaba, they might come without arms and perform their devotions.20
Hereby the prophet gained many advantages. The inhabitants of Mecca were convinced of his strength and of his generosity to them and devotion to the Caaba. He had the opportunity of sending in emissaries under pretence of devotion and the glory of having faced and brought to composition the capital city of Arabia. His army hereupon inaugurates him solemnly of their own accord (without any solicitation of his) to be their xeriff or prince.
He retires from Hadibia and marches against several little territories that had been in arms against him who, being excluded the cessation and deserted by the Coreischites, were easily subdued and forced to pay him an annual tribute of half their dates and to hold their lands at the pleasure of the conqueror. His armies now seemed invincible throughout Arabia, and the Jews, as well as others, were subjected upon the same terms. In this expedition Ali signalized himself at the battle of Chaibar where he seized on the gates of the town and managed them on his arm like a target.21 This was the event of the seventh year.
In the eighth the Coreischites, finding the prejudice of this truce and that whilst they stood neuters their allies were destroyed, renounced the cessation and drew upon them the forces of Mahomet. He marcheth thitherward by <98> easy journeys, and many of the great men, being no less sensible than the inhabitants of their weakness, turned, some really, and some out of fear, to Islamism. His uncle Abbas and Abusofian were of that number: the first withdrew out of the town to Mahomet, the other remained behind to render the prophet more important service by his stay. Mahomet entered Mecca without any opposition, having first proclaimed that all who retired to the house of Abusofian, all who shut their doors and offered no injury to the Muslemin, and all who fled for refuge to the Caaba should be secure. His entry seemed rather a procession to the Caaba than a triumph. Aljanabus tells us that upon his approach to the temple all the idols (even the great Hobal) did prostrate themselves unto him.23
In the Caaba he broke in pieces the wooden pigeon which was there and cast it away, Ali being busied (as were the rest) in demolishing those idols. And, not being able to reach one that stood aloft, the prophet suffered him to stand upon his shoulders till it was done.24 The inhabitants immediately became Muslemin, but the rulers and chiefs who had been his enemies, and either scorned to believe him or despaired of mercy though they should do it, he put all to death, it being inconsistent with the absoluteness of the monarchy which he designed to permit a hereditary nobility. The people, thinking themselves happy in their own safety, did the less mourn for those which were slaughtered, and, whilst their minds were set upon a peaceable enjoyment of their own, they forgot revenge, nor did they think of remote consequences, and that whilst every one singly courted their prophet and emir, they did introduce an universal servitude.
Now we see Mahomet possessed of the metropolis of Arabia the Desert. Yet doth not all this power and series of prosperous attempts infuse into him new pride or outward grandeur: whatsoever fortune hath put into his hands doth only enable him to do more good, to bestow more alms and more to advance the glory of God. His Muslemin seem to be all animated with the same spirit, nor do the inhabitants of Mecca find themselves governed by an emperor and an army but by a prophet. It is not arbitrary power but the ostentation and abuse of it that makes it odious and tyrannical.
Whether it were the consummate wisdom of Mahomet that continued him in this equable temper, or the source of the mutability of human affairs in a man who had tried such vicissitudes, or whether the custom of dissembling was become natural to him, or that old <99> age had secured him from those sallies which indiscreet youth is subject to, I know not. But it was very advantageous for him that this prosperous revolution did make no change for the worse in his demeanor. For there happened an insurrection within a few months after the destruction of the idols in the Caaba, which reduced his new religion and government into jeopardy and would have dethroned any but the prophet. Those who would not stir in behalf of Mecca and the Coreischites: whether it be that vulgar heads will not believe things till they fall out or out jealousy that they should run into a certain inconvenience of being subject to the Coreischites to avoid the uncertain apprehensions of Mahomet.25
When they were ascertained that the idols were destroyed and the substance of the Arabian religion changed, some shadows and circumstances only remaining, the Thakifii and Hawazine Arabians take arms under one Melic, the son of Aufus. Their number was not formidable, being but four thousand in all, but they were Arabians and animated with zeal and revenge.26 Mahomet was determined to act securely and not obscure the last actions of his life by rashness or want of foresight. He drew forth an army of twelve thousand men, whereof ten thousand were veterans and the rest captives of the Hawazines and people of Taiph, and prepared to encounter them in the valley of Horam.27 Whether it were that fortune is seldom constant to her greatest darlings or that the Muslemin acted too securely presuming upon their numbers, tried valor, and discipline, so it happened that the idolaters totally routed them and pursued them to the gates of Mecca, where the gallant prophet, accompanied only by Abbas and Abusofian, made a stand and, leaning on his javelin, persuaded some of the Muslemin to rally and by the appearance of a new charge to put an end to the furious chase of the idolaters. The prophet must be owned to have showed the highest courage and prudence who could retain his judgment and valor amidst so universal a consternation, disorder, and flight.
The idolaters withdrew their forces, either not having strength enough to besiege the town (which is as big as Amsterdam),28 or that few know how to improve advantages when they transcend expectation, or that an undisciplined army is not fit to prosecute a tedious siege, or that they were forced to it by the sterility of the country and want of water (whereof there is little good and potable thereabouts), Melic retreated and gave Mahomet respite to infuse fresh resolution into his dismayed troops.29 The angel <100> Gabriel presently brings him a surat that no enemy could be safely despised, nor any human strength presumed upon; that albeit infidelity and idolatry were things odious to God, yet pride and presumption were also abominable to Him; that the Muslemin were puffed up with a conceit of their own strength; and that God had defeated them now to convince them of the necessity of His aid and blessing in all designs; that, if they would abandon the opinion of their own worth and puissance, He would repair their loss by sending an invisible legion of angels who should fight in their behalf.30
This oracle gave new life and vigor to the Muslemin and made them more punctual in their obedience to their emir and prophet. He determines to fight Melic before the noise of this rout should run through Arabia, knowing that new conquests are always unsettled and that the minds of men, quickly reduced to obedience, are as soon lost and that since prosperity was the foundation of his apostleship, adversity would overthrow it. His success was such in the second engagement that with the loss only of four Musilmen and the slaughter of ninety infidels, he gained a complete victory and made himself master of all their riches: six thousand head of cattle, twenty-four thousand goats, forty thousand sheep and four thousand ounces of silver, and their wives and children taken prisoners. The infidels yielded themselves tributaries and vassals on condition to have their wives restored, and Melic rendered himself to the prophet and became a Musulman whereupon Mahomet restored to him all his possessions.31
In the ninth year of the Hegira he had no great difficulties to contest with: the remaining wars did rather exercise than endanger his forces. His followers became more fixed and endeared to him, and they who had embraced his religion out of fear persisted in it out of affection and conscience. They no longer resented the destruction of their idols, seeing that success attended on the followers of the great God. Many that had been his obstinate enemies became converts, and the princes of Dauma and Eila became his tributaries.33 He disarmed those which he suspected, leaving his forces in excellent discipline under good and faithful commanders, and placed a confidant of his governor of Mecca. He went to visit his old friends and assistants at Medina.
In the tenth year of Hegira he received no tidings but such as confirmed the daily growth and progress of Islamism. He received continual <101> addresses and submissions from the new converts, and all Arabia seemed at his devotion. But that in Yemen there arose one Mosalleina who pretended to be his associate and partner in the apostleship and found many followers.34 But the sage Mahomet despised this new imposture, either because he thought the same cheat was not to be acted twice with success in so short a time, or that he fancied the renown of his valor and conduct was enough to retain all men in his obedience, or that he despised the luxury and effeminacy of the inhabitants of Yemen and imagined that such who had much to lose would not hazard their estates nor endure the hardships of war for a new religion, or whether he did suppose that petty insurrections contribute to the establishment of an absolute sovereignty. It is certain he despised Mosalleina.
