Mohammed

This series has fourteen easy 5 minute installments. This first installment: Hiding in Mecca.

Introduction
Mohammed founded one of the great religions of the world (in terms of number of adherents). He had lived a normal life until he proclaimed himself a prophet and began his religion. We pick up the story when he fled his native city of Mecca on June 20, 622. Washington Irving picks up the story here/

The selections are from:

• Mohamet and His Successors by Washington Irving published in 1849.
• The History of the Saracens by Simon Ockley published in 1718.

For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages. There’s 3.5 installments by Washington Irving and 10.5 installments by Simon Ockley.

We begin with Washington Irving (1783-1859). He is known for him fictional works but he wrote histories, too.

Time: 622
Place: Mecca

The fortunes of Mohammed were becoming darker and darker in his native place. Kadijah, his original benefactress, the devoted companion of his solitude and seclusion, the zealous believer in his doctrines, was in her grave; so also was Abu-Taleb, once his faithful and efficient protector. Deprived of the sheltering influence of the latter, Mohammed had become, in a manner, an outlaw in Mecca; obliged to conceal himself and remain a burden on the hospitality of those whom his own doctrines had involved in persecution. If worldly advantage had been his object, how had it been attained? Upward of ten years had elapsed since first he announced his prophetic mission; ten long years of enmity, trouble and misfortune. Still he persevered and now, at a period of life when men seek to enjoy in repose the fruition of the past, rather than risk all in new schemes for the future, we find him, after having sacrificed ease, fortune and friends, prepared to give up home and country also, rather than his religious creed.

As soon as the privileged time of pilgrimage arrived, he emerged once more from his concealment and mingled with the multitude assembled from all parts of Arabia. His earnest desire was to find some powerful tribe, or the inhabitants of some important city, capable and willing to receive him as a guest and protect him in the enjoyment and propagation of his faith.

His quest was for a time unsuccessful. Those who had come to worship at the Kaaba * drew back from a man stigmatized as an apostate; and the worldly-minded were unwilling to befriend one proscribed by the powerful of his native place.

[* This famous structure (in the Arabic, Kef’bah — a square building) for over twelve hundred years has been the cynosure of the Moslem peoples. It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, being mentioned by Diodorus the historian in the latter part of the first century, at which time its sanctity was acknowledged and its idols venerated by the Arabians and kindred tribes who paid yearly visits to the shrine to offer their devotions. According to the Arabian legend Adam, after his expulsion from the Garden, worshipped Allah on this spot. A tent was then sent down from heaven but Seth substituted a hut for the tent. After the Flood, Abraham and Ishmael rebuilt the Kaaba. At present it is a cube-shaped, flat-roofed building of stone in the Great Mosque at Mecca. In its southeast corner next to the silver door is the famous black stone “hajar al aswud,” dropped from paradise. It was said to have been originally a white stone (by other accounts a ruby) but the tears — or more probably the kisses — of pilgrims have turned it quite black.]

At length, as he was one day preaching on the hill Al Akaba, a little to the north of Mecca, he drew the attention of certain pilgrims from the city of Yathreb. This city, since called Medina, was about two hundred and seventy miles north of Mecca. Many of its inhabitants were Jews and heretical Christians. The pilgrims in question were pure Arabs of the ancient and powerful tribe of Khazradites and in habits of friendly intercourse with the Keneedites and Naderites, two Jewish tribes inhabiting Mecca, who claimed to be of the sacerdotal line of Aaron. The pilgrims had often heard their Jewish friends explain the mysteries of their faith and talk of an expected messiah. They were moved by the eloquence of Mohammed and struck with the resemblance of his doctrines to those of the Jewish law; insomuch that when they heard him proclaim himself a prophet, sent by heaven to restore the ancient faith, they said, one to another, “Surely this must be the promised messiah of which we have been told.” The more they listened, the stronger became their persuasion of the fact, until in the end they avowed their conviction and made a final profession of their faith.

As the Khazradites belonged to one of the most powerful tribes of Yathreb, Mohammed sought to secure their protection and proposed to accompany them on their return; but they informed him that they were at deadly feud with the Awsites, another powerful tribe of that city and advised him to defer his coming until they should be at peace. He consented; but on the return home of the pilgrims, he sent with them Musab Ibn Omeir, one of the most learned and able of his disciples, with instructions to strengthen them in the faith and to preach it to their townsmen.

Thus were the seeds of Islamism first sown in the city of Medina. For a time they thrived but slowly. Musab was opposed by the idolaters and his life threatened; but he persisted in his exertions and gradually made converts among the principal inhabitants. Among these were Saad Ibn Maads, a prince or chief of the Awsites and Osaid Ibn Hodheir, a man of great authority in the city. Numbers of the Moslems of Mecca also, driven away by persecution, took refuge in Medina and aided in propagating the new faith among its inhabitants, until it found its way into almost every household.

Feeling now assured of being able to give Mohammed an asylum in the city, upward of seventy of the converts of Medina, led by Musab Ibn Omeir, repaired to Mecca with the pilgrims in the holy month of the thirteenth year of “the mission,” to invite him to take up his abode in their city. Mohammed gave them a midnight meeting on the hill Al Akaba. His uncle Al Abbas, who, like the deceased Abu-Taleb, took an affectionate interest in his welfare, though no convert to his doctrines, accompanied him to this secret conference, which he feared might lead him into danger. He entreated the pilgrims from Medina not to entice his nephew to their city until more able to protect him; warning them that their open adoption of the new faith would bring all Arabia in arms against them.

Simon Ockley begins here.

More information here and here and below.

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