A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihad' Part 4

21. When the Moslems were obliged to emigrate from Mecca under the severe Koreis.h.i.te persecutions, all the followers of the Prophet with the exception of those detained in confinement or unable to escape from slavery had emigrated with their families to Medina. But there were many new converts at Mecca since the expulsion of the Moslems. Those unable to fly from Mecca in the teeth of the oppressions of the wrathful Koreish (Sura IV., 77, 79, 100) were increasing. They appealed for deliverance and aid, while the Moslem pilgrims were near Mecca at Hodeibia, six years after the Hegira, and an allusion is made to the great number of the Meccan converts, living at Mecca during that time in Sura XLVIII, 25.

[Sidenote: Disturbed state of the public peace among the tribes surrounding Medina. Internecine wars an obstacle to the propagation of Islam.]

22. Irrespective of the wars prosecuted by the Koreish from the South against Mohammad at Medina, and the constant danger of inroad and attack upon Medina from the neighbouring tribes--a great obstacle in the propagation of Islam which could only be successfully accomplished in a state of peace and tranquility of both parties,--the most important and great tribes in the North and Centre of Arabia were at war against each other during the life of Mohammad, either before his mission from 570 to 610 A.D. or during his public mission from 610 to 632 A.D. The disastrous internecine wars were kept up for scores of years and the evils necessarily inflicted in their progress were not confined to the belligerents only. It required years to remove the evils of war and to efface the traces of misery and sorrow the wars had brought.[44]

[Footnote 44: The same remarks apply to the wars fought during Mohammad's lifetime but before his public mission.]

23. Here I will give a brief sketch of the internecine wars which took place among the various Arab tribes during the time of Mohammad.

*Wars during Mohammad's Lifetime, between the Arabian Tribes in the North and Centre of Arabia.*

_Before his mission_, 570-610, A.D.

(1.) The battle of Rahrahan between Bani Aamir bin Saasaa and Bani Tamim in Najd, 578, A.D.

(2.) The Bani Abs on the side of Bani Aamir and Bani Zobian on the side of Tamim, 579, A.D., at _Sheb Jabala_.

(3.) Sacrilegious war at Tayif called Harb fi-jar, 580-590, A.D.

(4.) Several battles between Bani Bakr and Tamim in 604, A.D. and the following years.

_During his mission._

(A)--_While at Mecca, 610-622, A.D._

(1.) The war of Dahis between Bani Abs and Zobian, the branches of Ghatafan in Central Arabia; lasted forty years, 568 to 609, A.D.

(2.) The battle of Zu-kar between the Bani Bakr and the Persians in the Kingdom of Hira, 611, A.D.

(3.) The Bani Kinda and Bani Haris attacked Bath Tamim when they had retired to Kulab in the confines of Yemen and repulsed them.

(4.) The Bani Aws and Khazraj of Medina were at war. The battle of Boas was fought in 615, A.D. The Bani Aws were a.s.sisted by two tribes of Gha.s.san, by Mozeima and the Jewish tribes Nazeer and Koreiza. The Bani Khazraj were supported by Joheina, Ashja and the Jews of Kainuka.

(B)--_While at Medina_, 622 to 632, _A.D._

(1.) The standing warfare between the Bani Hawazin and the Bani Abs, Zobian, and Ashja of Ghatafan was kept up by a.s.sa.s.sinations and petty engagements till they become converts to Islam.

(2.) The Koreish fought two battles of Badr and Ohad against the Moslems at Medina in 624 and 625, A.D., respectively.

(3.) Several clans of the great Ghatafan family (the Bani Murra, Ashja and Fezara) the Bani Suleim and Sad, a branch of Hawazin, and Bani Asad from Najd Bedouin tribes, and Bani Koreiza the Jews, had besieged Medina in 627, A.D., in confederation with the Koreish.

(4.) Bani Tamim and Bani Bakr renewed their hostilities, and from 615 to 630, A.D., several battles occurred between them. The last battle was that of Shaitain in 630, A.D.

In this year, after the battle, both the tribes were converted to Islam.

(5.) The Bani Ghaus and Jadila branches of Bani Tay in the north of Medina warred against each other. The war of Fasad continued twenty-five years till they embraced Islam in 632, A.D.

[Sidenote: Spread of Islam in the surrounding tribes at Medina after the Hegira I-VI.]

24. During the six eventful years of Mohammad's sojourn at Medina, from the Hegira to the truce of Hodeibia, where he was every year attacked or threatened by other hostile Arab tribes, acting always in self-defence, he had converted several members or almost entire tribes residing round Medina.

Among them were the following:--

1. The Bani Aslam.[45]

2. Joheina.[46]

3. Mozeina.[47]

4. Ghifar.[48]

5. Saad-bin-Bakr.[49]

6. Bani Ashja.[50]

We never find a single instance even in the _Maghazis_ (accounts of the campaigns of Mohammad, however untrustworthy they be) of Mohammad's converting any person, families, or branches of tribes by the scimitar in one hand and the Koran in the other.

[Footnote 45: The Bani Aslam tribe settled north of Medina in the valley of Wady-al-Koraa. They were a branch of the Kozaaite tribes descended from Himyar.]

[Footnote 46: Joheina were a branch of Kozaa, the descendants of Himyar.

This tribe inhabited in the vicinity of Yenbo, north of Medina.]

[Footnote 47: Mozeina were a tribe of the Moaddite stock of Mecca. They inhabited in Najd, north-east of Medina.]

[Footnote 48: Ghifar were sons of Moleil-bin-Zamra, the descendants of Kinana, one of the Moaddite tribes.]

[Footnote 49: Saad-bin-Bakr were a branch of Hawazin. Mohammad had been nursed among them.]

[Footnote 50: The Bani Ashja were a branch of the Ghatafan of the Meccan stock of the Moaddites. The Bani Ashja appear all to have been hostile to Mohammad. They fought against the Prophet at the siege of Medina with four hundred warriors in their contingent. Sir W. Muir says, "The Bani Ashja, who had joined in the siege of Medina, gave in their adhesion shortly after the ma.s.sacre of the Coreitza; they told Mahomet that they were so pressed by his warring against them, that they could stand out no longer.--K. Wackidi, page 60." Muir's Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, 107, _footnote_. This story is altogether false. We never hear of Mohammad warring against Bani Ashja; on the contrary, they had themselves invaded Medina.]

[Sidenote: Mecca a barrier against the conversion of the southern tribes.]

25. Up to this time, notwithstanding the persecutions, exiles and wars against Islam, it had spread by the mere force of persuasion among the Meccans, some of whom had emigrated to Abyssinia and most to Medina, the whole of the influential tribes of Aws and Khazraj at Medina, as well as among the Jews there, and among some of the tribes in the north, and east of Medina and the centre of Arabia. But as Mecca in the south had declared war against Islam, most of the Arab tribes connected somehow with the Meccans, and those inhabiting the southern and south-eastern parts of Arabia, to whom Mecca served geographically as a barrier, watched the proceedings of the war and the fate of Islam, and had no opportunity of coming to Medina to embrace Islam, nor of having friendly intercourse with the Moslems, nor of receiving Mohammadan missionaries in the face of the wars waged by the Koreish who were looked upon as the guardians of the Kaaba, the spiritual or religious centre of the idolatrous Arabs. At the end of the last or the fifth year many Bedouin tribes, among whom might be counted the Bani Ashja, Murra, Fezara, Suleim, Sad-bin-Bakr and Bani Asad, had furnished several thousand Arabs to the Koreish for the siege of Medina. Only when the aggressions of the Koreish against the Moslems were suspended that the warring tribes and those of the Central, Southern and Eastern Arabia could think of what they had heard of the reasonable preaching of Islam against their idolatry and superst.i.tions.

[Sidenote: Tribal conversions in the sixth year.]

26. Since the truce of Hodeibia at the end of the sixth year after the Hegira Mecca was opened for intercourse, where there were some more and fresh conversions. The Bani Khozaa, descendants of Azd, were converted to Islam at the truce of Hodeibia. At the pilgrimage in the following year some influential men of Mecca adopted Islam. The movement was not confined to these leading men, but was wide and general. In the seventh year the following tribes were converted to Islam and their deputations joined Mohammad at Khyber:

1. Bani Ashar.[51]

2. Khushain.[52]

3. Dous.[53]

[Sidenote: Conversions among several other tribes of the North and North-east in A.H., 8.]

During the same year Mohammad converted several other tribes in the north and north-east of Arabia. Among them were--

1. Bani Abs.

2. Zobian.

3. Murra.