Mohammed’s Conquest of Mecca

Upon the conquest of Mecca, many of the tribes of the Arabs came and submitted to Mohammed.

Continuing Mohammed,
our selection from The History of the Saracens by Simon Ockley published in1718. The selection is presented in 10.5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Mohammed.

Time: 630
Place: Mecca

After this, Mohammed, standing at the door of the Kaaba, made a harangue to the following effect: “There is no other god but God, who has fulfilled his promise to his servant and who alone has put to flight his enemies and put under my feet everything that is visible, men, animals, goods, riches, except only the government of the Kaaba and the keeping of the cup for the pilgrims to drink out of. As for you, O ye Koreishites, God hath taken from you the pride of paganism, which caused you to worship as deities our fathers Abraham and Ishmael, though they were men descended from Adam, who was created out of the earth.” Having a mind to bestow on one of his own friends the prefecture of the Kaaba, he took the keys of it from Othman the son of Telha and was about to give them to Al Abbas, who had asked for them, when a direction came to him from heaven, in these words, “Give the charge to whom it belongs.” Whereupon he returned the keys by Ali to Othman, who, being agreeably surprised, thanked Mohammed and made a new profession of his faith. The pilgrim’s cup, however, he consigned to the care of Al Abbas, in whose family it became hereditary.

The people of Mecca were next summoned to the hill Al Safa, to witness Mohammed’s inauguration. The prophet having first taken an oath to them, the men first and then the women, bound themselves by oath to be faithful and obedient to whatsoever he should command them. After this he summoned an extraordinary assembly, in which it was decreed that Mecca should be henceforward an asylum or inviolable sanctuary, within which it should be unlawful to shed the blood of man, or even to fell a tree.

After telling the Meccans they were his slaves by conquest, he pardoned and declared them free, with the exception of eleven men and six women, whom, as his most inveterate enemies, he proscribed, ordering his followers to kill them wherever they should find them. Most of them obtained their pardon by embracing Islamism and were ever after the most zealous of Muslims. One of these, Abdallah, who had greatly offended Mohammed, was brought to him by Othman, upon whose intercession Mohammed pardoned him. Before he granted his pardon, he maintained a long silence, in expectation, as he afterward owned, that some of those about him would fall upon Abdallah and kill him. Of the women, three embraced Islamism and were pardoned, the rest were put to death, one being crucified.

Mohammed now sent out Kaled and others to destroy the idols which were still retained by some of the tribes and to invite them to Islamism. Kaled executed his commission with great brutality. The Jodhamites had formerly robbed and murdered Kaled’s uncle as he journeyed from Arabia Felix. Kaled having proposed Islamism to them, they cried out, “they professed Sabæism.” This was what he wanted. He immediately fell upon them, killing some and making others prisoners: of these, he distributed some among his men and reserved others for himself. As for the latter, having tied their hands behind them, he put them all to the sword. On hearing of this slaughter Mohammed lifted up his eyes and protested his innocence of this murder and immediately sent Ali with a sum of money to make satisfaction for the bloodshed and to restore the plunder. Ali paid to the surviving Jodhamites as much as they demanded and generously divided the overplus among them. This action Mohammed applauded and afterward reproved Kaled for his cruelty.

Upon the conquest of Mecca, many of the tribes of the Arabs came and submitted to Mohammed; but the Hawazanites, the Thakishites and part of the Saadites, assembled to the number of four thousand effective men, besides women and children, to oppose him. He went against them at the head of twelve thousand fighting men. At the first onset the Muslims, being received with a thick shower of arrows, were put to flight; but Mohammed, with great courage, rallied his men and finally obtained the victory. The next considerable action was the siege of Taif, a town sixty miles east from Mecca. The Muslims set down before it and, having made several breaches with their engines, marched resolutely up to them but were vigorously repulsed by the besieged. Mohammed, having by a herald proclaimed liberty to all the slaves who should come over to him, twenty-three deserted, to each of whom he assigned a Muslim for a comrade. So inconsiderable a defection did not in the least abate the courage of the besieged; so that the prophet began to despair of reducing the place and, after a dream, which Abu-Bekr interpreted unfavorably to the attempt, determined to raise the siege. His men, however, on being ordered to prepare for a retreat, began to murmur; whereupon he commanded them to be ready for an assault the next day. The assault being made the assailants were beaten back with great loss. To console them in their retreat, the prophet smiled and said, “We will come here again, if it please God.” When the army reached Jesana, where all the booty taken from the Hawazanites had been left, a deputation arrived from that tribe to beg it might be restored. The prophet having given them their option between the captives or their goods, they chose to have their wives and children again. Their goods being divided among the Muslims, Mohammed, in order to indemnify those who had been obliged to give up their slaves, gave up his own share of the plunder and divided it among them. To Malec, however, son of Awf, the general of the Hawazanites, he intimated that if he would embrace Islamism he should have all his goods as well as his family and a present of one hundred camels besides. By this promise Malec was brought over to be so good a Muslim that he had the command given him of all his countrymen who should at any time be converts and was very serviceable against the Thakishites.

Washington Irving begins here. Simon Ockley begins here.

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