The Life of Mohammad Part 21

Ali went towards the fortress, planting in the ground, close to the ramparts, the white flag on which stood out in bold relief, embroidered in black letters, the Islamic profession of faith. He then got ready to storm the breach.... Al-Harith, at the head of a few Jews, tried to bar the way and drive back the Mussulman hero, but the leader of the children of Israel succ.u.mbed, struck down by Ali; and the soldiers who had followed all ran away.

The brother of Al-Harith, Marhab, famous and feared, came now to the front, eager for revenge. He produced an effect of terror by his gigantic stature, double armour, a pair of swords, a three-headed spear, a double turban; and his helmet on which sparkled a jewel as big as an egg. His eyes, too, glistened like two carbuncles. Puffed up by pride, he strode to the breach. 'The whole of the land of Khaibar, from end to end, knoweth my valour! When war rageth, sometimes I pierce with my lance; and sometimes I slice with my sword! Doth there exist in all the world a champion who dare stand up against me?'

Without being moved by this bragging bombast, Ali showed himself to take up the challenge: 'I'll be that man! Verily I, called by my mother Haydra, the lion cub, in memory of my father, known as the Lion. With my sabre I'll give thee good measure!'

Hearing this reply, Marhab became purple with rage. Brandishing his scimitar, he rushed at Ali. The formidable blade hissed through the air and it seemed as if the champion of Islam had just been annihilated. But the sword of the terrible Jew was stopped by Ali's shield in which it penetrated deeply and stuck therein. Without giving his adversary time to drag it away, Ali loosened his hold of the buckler, now useless and in his way, and replied to the attack by a wonderful cut that split the helmet, turban and skull of his enemy, scattering the brains in every direction. The steel was only stopped by the Jew's teeth, forming barrier. The giant fell in a huddled heap, like a tower ruined by an earthquake, in a cloud of dust, with a noise as of thunder....

Seized with affright, the Jewish soldiers fled, pursued by Ali's men.

He tore from its hinges the heavy door of the ramparts and it served him as a shield in place of the one broken in the fight. Resistance was cut short and Al-Qamus, the impregnable, was captured by the warriors of Islam.

When the fall of the famous fort became known, the Jews of Fadak and of Wadi'l-Qura, two places a few days' march towards the north, sent in their submission. In concordance with their co-religionists of Khaibar, they supplicated the Prophet to let them live as farmers on their estates which they alone knew how to cultivate properly; and to allow them to take half of the crops as remuneration for their labour.

Mohammad consented, on condition that the Believers would have the right to alter this decision, should they deem it necessary.

Khaibar was the most fertile land of all the Hijaz; the spoils were therefore considerable. One half was set apart to defray the expenses of the pilgrimage to take place during the current year; the rest was distributed among the warriors. The land, with the exception of the portion due to the Prophet and to orphans, was divided in such a way that each man received one share, and each charger two shares; making three shares for each horseman. This was done with the aim of encouraging the breed of horses. A supplementary gift fell to the lot of any soldier being the owner of a pure-blooded courser.

[Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF HORSE-BREEDING ACCORDING TO THE PROPHET]

These measures show the importance attributed by the Prophet to the equine race in the life of the Arabs.

Up till then, horses were very rare in Arabia, being looked upon as articles of luxury, as it were. Led by the bridle by the side of the camels ridden by the warriors, the steeds were only called upon when charging or pursuing the enemy. The Prophet completed these arrangements by founding race-meetings destined to develop emulation among breeders and hors.e.m.e.n. In the Qur'an, so as to inspire Believers with the fear, of the Day of Retribution, horses galloping breathless are called to witness: "_By the panting chargers! * And those that dash off sparks of fire * And those that scour to the attack at morn!

* And stir therein the dust aloft! * And cleave therein their midway through a host! * Truly, Man is to his Lord ungrateful! * And of this he verily is himself a witness * And truly he is vehement in the Love of this world's good. * Knoweth he not, then, that when that which is in the graves shall be torn forth * And that which is in men's b.r.e.a.s.t.s shall be brought out * Verity their Lord shall on that day be well informed concerning them?_" (THE QUR'AN, C, 1-11.)

Unfortunately, tame translation is powerless to give an idea of the dizzy, whirling rhythm and the panting, galloping, neighing--if one may venture so to write--a.s.sonance of the first verses of this surah.

One of the most celebrated hors.e.m.e.n of that epoch, Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh, afterwards governor of Egypt and who inflicted cruel defeats on the Romans, by land and sea, was such an enthusiastic admirer of this surah that it was always on his lips, and he recited it even on his deathbed.

Thanks to the vigorous impulsion given by the Prophet to horse-breeding, the race of pure-blooded barbs unrivalled in the world, was soon formed, to be kept up ever afterwards.

[Sidenote: THE POISONED LAMB]

After sunset, when the Prophet had said the prayer of "Magrib," he went back to the camp. Near his tent, he saw seated the Jewess Zainab, daughter of Al-Harith, and wife of Sallam ibn Mishkam. She awaited Mohammad's coming to give him the present she had brought: a lamb spitted on a spear, and which had been roasted at a fire fed with aromatic wood from the desert. He thanked the woman, and when she had taken her leave, he invited his companions to sit down and partake of the roast. Its crisp, golden outer skin looked very tempting.

The Prophet was the first to fall to, twisting off a shoulder, into which he bit and began to chew a morsel. Following his example, Bishr ibn U'l-Bara took a mouthful of meat; masticating and swallowing it.

The other guests had already reached out their hands in like fashion, when the Prophet spat out the piece he was chewing and stopped them abruptly, shouting: 'Hold your hands! This shoulder hath just told me that it is poisoned!'--'By Him who is Generosity incarnate!' exclaimed Bishr, 'I thought that my mouthful had a peculiar flavour and guessed what it meant; but seeing thee chew thine, I could not spit it out, saving your reverence. If this poison should destroy thy life, what liking can remain to me for mine?'

Scarcely had Bishr uttered these words than his face, overspread by a blackish hue, became distorted, and he writhed on the ground, a prey to unbearable suffering.

The Prophet sent at once for the Jewess and said to her: 'Thou hast poisoned this lamb?'--'Who told thee so?'--'This!' and he showed her the fragment of shoulder he held.--'It is true,' she confessed.--'Why didst thou do this thing?'--'My father, my uncle, my husband and many of my people have suffered the sad fate thou knowest of, by thy fault.

And I did think: if Mohammad is naught but a mighty monarch, I end his days and glut their vengeance and mine. If, on the contrary, he is truly a Prophet, he is in no danger, because his Allah will warn him of my purpose.'

This clever answer calmed the Prophet and he was perchance on the point of pardoning the guilty woman for her abominable crime, when Bishr expired at that moment. Mohammad delivered the Jewess into the hands of the dead man's relatives who came clamouring to be avenged.

Zainab was crucified and the remains of the fatal lamb were burnt.

Although the Prophet spat out the perfidious piece of meat almost as soon as it pa.s.sed his lips, the poison filtered through his body as far as his entrails, and he never fully recovered from its pernicious effects. Three years later, when fatally ill, Bishr's sister coming into his house to ask after his health, he told her: 'The vein of my heart was torn by the food I ate with thy brother, at Khaibar.'

[Sidenote: AMRATU'L-QADA OR THE PIOUS VISITATION (_Year VII of the Hegira, A.D. 629_)]

At the same time as the expeditionary forces, laden with spoils, came back from Khaibar, the last emigrants arrived from Abyssinia. Among them was Jafar, son of Abu Talib and brother to Ali. Their return made Mohammad very joyful. With sincere effusion, he kissed Jafar between the eyes and declared: 'I know not which causeth me the greatest joy: the taking of Khaibar, or the return of Jafar.'

Among those returning was also Umm Habiba, daughter of Abu Sufyan, the Prophet's mortal enemy. She had emigrated with her husband, Ubaydu'llah ibn Jahsh, but he was a convert to Christianity and had died in Abyssinia, while she remained steadfast to Islam. As a reward for such fidelity, as well as hoping to disarm by alliance one of his most fierce adversaries, the Prophet had sent Amr ibn Umayya to the Negus, asking to be married by proxy to Umm Habiba and to have her sent back afterwards with the other emigrants. This being done, Umm Habiba, on arriving at Al-Madinah, was received in the dwelling of her ill.u.s.trious husband.

As for the emigrants, Mohammad proposed that they should be allowed a share of the Khaibar booty. This arrangement being ratified by unanimous consent, they were thus compensated for having sacrificed their property and left their country in order to remain true to their faith.

The date on which the treaty of Al-Hudaibiyah gave the Prophet the right to come to Makkah with his disciples to visit the Holy Places having arrived, he was now on the point of being able to fulfil one of his most ardent aspirations and also see his native land.

Followed by the same number of pilgrims, and driving before him the same number of camels, destined to be sacrificed, as in the expedition of Al-Hudaibiyah, he made his partisans disarm and left in the valley of Batn Ya'jiju, a great quant.i.ty of weapons, brought as a precautionary measure, in the care of a guard, two hundred strong, commanded by Aws ibn Khawli. 'We only penetrate into the Holy Land,'

declared the Prophet, 'carrying the arms of the traveller: our swords in their scabbards, according to the terms of our oath, but if we detect in the glances of the idolatrous Quraish the slightest sign of treachery, our other weapons will be found handy.'

He then pushed on. Self-communing, he climbed the Kuda hill, in order to descend into the valley near the cemetery of Al-Hajun where rested his beloved Khadijah (May Allah welcome her in His Grace!) When he cast eyes on the first houses of Makkah, unspeakable emotion overpowered him by reason of the remembrances and hopes they evoked.

Fearing lest treachery, on the part of the Infidels, should force him to order reprisals, causing the blood of his fellow-countrymen to sully the streets of the city where he was born, he cried out: 'O Allah, spare us all misfortune in the Holy City!' He never ceased repeating this request until he left the precincts of Makkah.

On the approach of the Believers, the leading citizens, exasperated at the triumphant return of the men they had banished, went out of the town and hid their impotent rage in tents pitched in the neighbouring ravines. As for the ma.s.s of the inhabitants, like all mobs, they were dominated by a feeling of curiosity and cl.u.s.tered either on the heights of the Jabal Qu'ayqu'an, or on the terrace-roof of the "Dar-un-Nadwa", House of Council, from which they were able to look down into the interior of the Temple. From the gossip of the crowd could be gathered the general hope: that the Prophet and his partisans would arrive in a state of complete exhaustion, their blood and bodies impoverished by the torrid summer heat and pernicious fevers of Al-Madinah.

Forewarned by divine inspiration, Mohammad cautioned his companions.

'Allah will be merciful to those,' said he, 'who this day display their bodily vigour.'

With the exception of the common people mustering on the roof of the "Dar-un-Nadwa," the city was quite empty. The Prophet could have captured it without striking a blow; but his soul, incapable of such treachery, was entirely engrossed by pious thoughts. Riding his she-camel, Qaswa, its bridle held by Abdullah ibn Rawaha, and surrounded and followed by his disciples, he pa.s.sed through the outlying districts, under the eyes of enemies, without even honouring them by a single glance. He alighted on the Temple threshold, wrapping himself up in the folds of his mantle, by throwing one end over his left shoulder, leaving his right arm and shoulder at liberty. Followed and imitated by all the Faithful, he kissed the Black Stone and performed the "Tawaf," the seven ritual circuits round the Ka'bah. The three first were made with swift, measured strides (called "Ramal," or "Harwala"), with a view of proving the fine state of health of the Believers to the Infidels looking on. They shook their heads gloomily, saying to each other: 'So these are the men described to us as enfeebled by the heat and fevers of Al-Madinah!' At the bottom of their hearts, the Unbelievers were forced to confess that such men as these, their mental well-being surpa.s.sing even their bodily health, were unconquerable. The four remaining circuits were made with slow dignity, as Mohammad had no desire to demand useless efforts from his partisans; and ever since that day, this manner of performing the "Tawaf" is religiously copied by pilgrims.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _"Among all trees, one is blessed like the Mussulman, 'tis the palm," said the Prophet._ 2 views]

The Prophet then ordered Bilal to call the Faithful to prayer. When the idolaters heard the resounding accents of the black freed slave, reverberating in the echoes of the valley, they were so deeply annoyed that they envied the fate of their ill.u.s.trious dead, Abu Jabal and Abu Lahab, prevented from hearing this call by the weight of the earth piled on their graves. After the prayer, Mohammad again bestrode his she-camel, to perform the "Sa'y" which is the run between the two hills of Safa and Marwa. His example swept away the Believers'

scruples; for until then, they had hesitated about going through this ceremony, being embarra.s.sed by the presence of the idols Isaf and Na'ila, set up at that spot.

By the performance of these rites, inst.i.tuted by Abraham and perpetuated by the Arabs, the Prophet had in view a nationalist and political goal, which he wished to combine with his religious aims. If he kissed the Black Stone, it was not by reason of a feeling of superst.i.tious worship which would have contradicted all the principles of the Qur'an much too flagrantly, but solely through a feeling of reverence for this relic of his glorious ancestor.

Quoth Ibn Abi Shayba, following Isa ibn Talha: "Addressing the Black Stone, the Prophet declared: Verily, I know that thou art nothing more than a stone, powerless to do harm, or be of any use. Then he kissed it.... In this conjuncture, Abu Bakr, followed by Umar, one after the other, came and kissed it, declaring: By Allah! I know that thou art nothing more than a stone, powerless to do harm or be of any use, and if I had not seen the Prophet kiss thee, I should not have kissed thee!"

In like fashion, by the "Sa'y" and the ablutions at the well of Zamzam, Mohammad kept alive the touching remembrance of the Arab's ancestor Ishmael and of his mother Hajar (Hagar). "Being too weak to carry any farther her wretched child succ.u.mbing athirst in a horrible desert, Hajar placed her offspring on the ground in the shade of a shrub and ascended a hill, hoping to see from afar a well or spring; but all in vain. Then, fearing that the soul of Ishmael might have escaped from his body, she came back, panting, to his side, and climbed another hill for the same purpose, but with no more success than before. So she went down again, tortured by the same anguish.

"Seven times did she run in despair between the two hills until, maddened, she thought she would only find a corpse, when she caught sight of her beloved son quenching his thirst at a spring which, by order of the Compa.s.sionate, had gushed forth under the heel of the poor child. And to this miraculous well was given the name of Zamzam."

In imitation of Hajar, pilgrims pa.s.s seven times along the path of agony which she trod between the two hills known as Safa and Marwa, and it is their duty to drink and perform their ablutions at the Zamzam spring.

On the following day, in commemoration of the sacrifice of Abraham, the victims were immolated in the valley of Mina. Their flesh was shared among the pilgrims who, having shaved their heads, were once again in the state of "halal," ordinary life, which they had relinquished since Zu'l-Holifah.

While still in the state of "ihram," Mohammad, thanks to the special privilege derived from his position as Allah's Messenger, married a woman of Makkah, named Maimunah. She was fifty years of age and extremely poor; but this matrimonial alliance was bound to bring notable recruits to Islam. In the first place, her brother-in-law, Al-Abbas, was Mohammad's uncle. He was her "wakil," or guardian, and decreed her union with the Prophet. But the marriage was only consummated at the first halt on the return journey to Al-Madinah.

Despite the rage of the idolatrous Quraish, who could not bear to look upon the sight of their enemy's pilgrimage, the Prophet had gained his end: to inform the Arabs of the whole of the Peninsula that he had no intention of abolishing their secular traditions; but on the contrary, would devote all his efforts to consolidate them, by restoring their primitive purity.

The "Amratu'l-Qada" was thus the cause of great reaction; bringing about immediate conversions; among others, those of three great personages: Uthman ibn Talha, Amr ibnu'l-As and Khalid ibn Walid, besides preparing the minds of the majority of the Arabs to follow their example.

[Sidenote: THE PROPHET SENDS AMBa.s.sADORS TO THE PRINc.i.p.aL MONARCHS OF THE WORLD]

The definitive defeat of the Jews rallied a great part of Arabia to the Prophet; and the rest of the Peninsula was fatally bound, in course of time, to come under the sway of Islam.

It was then that Mohammad turned towards neighbouring empires. Allah's presence filled the universe and Islam, which counted already in its ranks disciples of many different origins, was not destined to be merely confined to the land of the Arabs. It spread over the whole world. As it is written in the Qur'an: "_We have not sent thee otherwise than to mankind at large._" (x.x.xIV, 27).

To the most powerful monarchs of Europe, therefore, Mohammad despatched envoys carrying letters inviting those potentates to embrace the religion of Allah, the Only One; and the missives bore a seal on which the Prophet had caused to be engraved these words, set out in three lines: "From Allah--the Prophet--Mohammad."

On receipt of the message, Al-Mundhir, King of Bahrayn, and Badhan, Persian Satrap of Yaman, became converts to Islam. Al-Muqawqas, Viceroy of Egypt, sent rich presents, among which, as well as Duldul, a white mule, and Ya'fur, an a.s.s, was a young slave, Mary the Copt.