Umar At Fatimah’s House

Posted on March 24, 2021 by Ruth

The first crisis of the post-Muhammad Islamic State came quickly. Ali and Fatimah had retired to their own house to complete their mourning for her father. But outside the house, Abu Bakr was seizing power as rapidly as he could. Nobody wanted to see the city fall into fitna, which means trouble or specifically the trouble of civil war. When Ubadah had recovered, he swore loyalty to Abu Bakr, and so did others. Then there were the outside tribes, and envoys from other cities. The best way to keep things on track was to have the news of Muhammad’s death arrive simultaneously with the news of Abu Bakr’s leadership, so that condolences and loyalty oaths could happen at once.

Ali didn’t come out of his house. Sunni sources pass over this period with as little said as possible. But Shi’ite sources say that days went by, perhaps weeks, and Ali, if asked, just sent word that he was still in mourning. While the small fry among Muslims may not have noticed, the leaders wondered if Ali was planning a challenge. Some tribal envoys may have hesitated to swear loyalty to Abu Bakr when it wasn’t clear what the Prophet’s son-in-law was going to do. Abu Bakr and the other leaders decided that it couldn’t go on, though we don’t know how much time had passed.

Umar went to the house of Ali and Fatimah, where the wooden door was closed and barred. His message was that it was time to swear loyalty, but as always, Umar found the most violent way to say it. When the house was silent to his knocking, he raised his voice and called to them: “If you don’t come out, I will burn down your house over your heads.” While Ali and his family were alone, Umar of course had men with him. Ali later said that if only he had had even 40 men at his back, he could have done something. But he just stayed quiet indoors, resisting passively.

Umar, waiting outside, may have set part of the house on fire, or set a fire near the house; accounts vary. He didn’t burn it down over their heads, which had been a foolish threat he couldn’t really carry out. But he lost his patience and he, or one of the larger, stronger men with him, decided to break down the door. You know what this looks like in old movies, where they get a running start and turn a shoulder to the door. That’s what he did. The door wasn’t that strong, and it gave way. What this looks like from the inside is that the door flies into the room with speed and force, carried by the momentum of a large man’s shoulder.

Fatimah was the unlucky person standing or crossing nearby, and she got hit by the door and man. She fell, of course. She was pregnant again, and the baby was injured in the fall. Umar wanted to make a grand entrance, but he didn’t have this in mind; he was dismayed to see that he had actually hurt her. He and his band left. A few weeks later, Fatimah went into labor but her baby boy was stillborn. She never really recovered from these stresses.

Fatimah had one more shock in store. She went to Abu Bakr and asked him to give her the share of the Khaybar date harvest that had belonged to her father, and thus should be hers. Most of the spoils he had received were clearly not his personal property, but apparently this was. Abu Bakr, though, told her that it was actually all property of the Islamic State. She was not going to have any inheritance at all.

Why did Abu Bakr do this? It was probably part of the ostracism that he was imposing on Ali’s family as long as Ali did not swear allegiance. Men stood away from Ali in the mosque. But there may have been years of other grudges leading up to it. As A’isha’s father, he cared about what she considered had been snubs that Fatimah gave her, and he must also have still resented Ali’s advice to Muhammad to divorce A’isha. He may also have been aware of carrying on Muhammad’s practice of disrupting the old sunnah and founding a new one. “In the new sunnah, all believers were equally Muhammad’s children! His widows were the mothers of all believers, so A’isha was Fatimah’s mother and any Bedouin tribesman was just as much his heir.” Did he think these things? I’m speculating, but it seems likely.

He also provided generous pensions for the widows, who were still officially known as the Mothers of the Believers. He may have rationalized that giving to widows is a sort of alms, whereas Fatimah was not a widow.

Fatimah died about three months after her father, making her the first one to follow him to Paradise, as he had predicted. Her bitterness and alienation were clear in her last instructions to Ali. She told him to bury her secretly, as he had buried Muhammad. Again, she did not want Abu Bakr to have the public honor of leading prayers over her shroud. We don’t know where Ali buried her, though it’s certainly inside the current mosque in Medina. They lived nearby, so if he buried her inside the house, the modern mosque is so large that it’s now inside. He may have dug a grave in the courtyard, but this seems harder to keep secret.

After Fatimah had died, Ali swore allegiance to Abu Bakr. His bitterness can only be imagined.

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Caliph Abu Bakr: the Day of Muhammad’s Death

Posted on March 24, 2021 by Ruth

Muhammad died around noon. We know the room was crowded with relatives, and either A’isha or Ali held him in his last hour before he stopped breathing. Many believers were standing or sitting in the mosque just outside the house, and quickly the word passed that the Prophet had died. It was unexpected for many who were not close to him, since he had come outside to the prayers just that morning, although he had needed help and kept silent. They may have assumed he was recovering.

The immediate task of laying out the body for burial belonged to his closest male relatives Abbas and Ali, and two cousins. They would wash him, rub him with herbs, and wrap the shroud, while they prayed over him. The others left the room; A’isha probably went to Hafsah’s room for a much-needed nap.

Abu Bakr and Umar went outside to the mosque, where they saw commotion: wailing and crying, tearing clothes. Umar went through an episode of shock and denial, crying out to everyone that the Prophet couldn’t be dead, and where was their faith? But Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s first convert outside his family and oldest friend, calmed both Umar and the crowd. “If you worshipped Muhammad, Muhammad is dead. For those who worshipped Allah, He is alive. Messengers have passed away before this. Why, if God’s messenger dies, should you turn back on your heels?”

There was another response to the news of the Prophet’s death among the leading men of Medina. Ubadah ibn al-Samit, the chief of the Khazraj tribe, called for a shura, a traditional conclave between the Khazraj and Aws tribes of Medina. By mid-afternoon, they were meeting in some undisclosed house to discuss post-Muhammad leadership. They viewed Muhammad’s Banu Hashim clan as Medinans, since one of the founders had grown up in Medina. But during the decade of sharing their oasis with a growing contingent from Mecca, they had never quite adopted those other men as Medinans.

And recently, it had grown worse, with the wholesale conversion of Mecca and sudden importation of some of its leading men as new-minted Muslims promoted into important positions. When those vast flocks of camels and sheep were seized from the Thabit tribe, Muhammad had gifted most of them to Meccans. Now the Medinans were very afraid that one of these bossy foreigners would take over and instead of being the core of a city-state, they would become a conquered people ruled from Mecca. It would be far better to move quickly and swear allegiance to one of their own, either Ali or a chief like Ubadah. Ubadah had been an early believer who fought in the Battle of Badr (very few Medinans could say this). He knew Muslim law every bit as much as the Meccans did (there are about 180 hadiths from Ubadah).

What would have happened had they quickly settled on either Ubadah or Ali? But they didn’t. As the hours passed, some of the Meccans heard about the meeting. By early evening, they had joined it in force. Now the room was crowded and probably split by halves, those already there moving away from the door as newcomers filled in the space. Sunni sources say little about the meeting, telling us only that there was some discussion. They quote the Prophet that when the Muslim community agrees, it cannot be in error. They cut to the outcome: everyone swore allegiance to Abu Bakr.

But Shi’ite sources say that the Meccans, led by Umar and Abu Bakr, escalated the “discussions” to loud arguments. Just as they loved poetry, they loved rhetoric and long speeches. One after one, and probably often two at once, they built towers of words in the air, lashing emotions into a storm. The meeting went on for more than 24 hours, lasting into the next evening; some men probably left and came back, while a few die-hards didn’t budge. Some Medinans suggested splitting the Muslim polity into two, with a Medinan ruler and a Meccan one. But the Meccans insisted that Muslims must remain under one rule as Muhammad wanted, and that the leader must be from Mecca, where it had all begun. Not just a veteran of Badr, but a convert from the earliest years.

One of the political problems that Muhammad had inadvertently created was that Islam was rigidly egalitarian, and yet it also expected and required authoritarian rule. There was not much of a governing structure, no layers of judges or governors to draw from. Muhammad himself had led prayers until he became sick. He had been everything, and nobody could take his place. Someone had to be elevated over the others, but the Quran was also insistent on the equality of all believers. Muhammad had tried to weaken and nullify the old clan aristocracies.

Why didn’t Muhammad set up a solution in advance? It seems most likely that he wasn’t sure what to do and waited for certainty, for a revelation, since most major decisions had been made that way. In that case, Allah had let him die before telling him what to do. There were two possibilities then. Either Allah wanted them to somehow settle it themselves and had kept some other solution from happening, or Allah had, in fact, already settled it by making Ali the personal and spiritual heir. Right there we have one of the major divisions in the world, essentially the same issue today but in very changed circumstances.

If the shurah had worked out a way to vote for the next leader, it would have been an early step toward democracy, fitting with the egalitarian ideals of the Quran. But it would also have been a step away from believing they were ruled directly by Allah’s decrees. So instead, the argument became about merit: who had the greatest right to be the leader? Whose merit earned him this role?

Muhammad had many companions who had been with him for years, but the Meccans had a top rank of three men: Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. As the meeting wore itself out, Abu Bakr proposed that Umar should be the successor, and Umar proposed Uthman. Uthman was from the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh, the same one with Hind the liver-eater. Tempers flared on the Medinan side of the room now, since bringing in that family was the last thing they wanted.

Ubadah made a speech that accused the Meccans of collusion and partisan dealing. Someone shoved or grabbed Ubadah and fists flew. A small group of Meccans (probably led by Umar, the perpetual speaker of violent solutions) beat Ubadah unconscious. We have to remember that Ubadah and Abu Bakr had been in the same little cluster around Muhammad for ten years! These men had been friends who fought and traveled together. Muhammad’s funeral had not taken place, and already there was blood on the floor and a question of murder. (Ubadah did recover.)

In the shock that followed Ubadah’s body being removed, Umar suddenly knelt to Abu Bakr and swore allegiance to him. Uthman did the same. The other Meccans followed. And then one Medinan, then another. The meeting broke up and Abu Bakr had been chosen as Muhammad’s successor.

Where was Ali? He was still with the body, in A’isha’s room. Abbas and Ali must have been told about the meeting, but Ali in particular was very, very principled about doing what was right. He would mourn for the prescribed three days, no matter what. Abbas, a more pragmatic man, might have been persuaded to go, but Ali would not move. The little room, beginning to smell of decomposition, would have received the excited news of Abu Bakr’s elevation. Ali didn’t even want to talk about. But he and Abbas did one unusual thing.

Muhammad had said that prophets should be buried where they died, but we don’t know if he meant that in the literal sense that they applied it. His little son Ibrahim was buried in a new cemetery, with the daughters and wives who had already died. But Abbas and Ali began digging a hole in A’isha’s room. A’isha’s bed was a stone slab, not a very comfortable bed in my eyes, but apparently it was standard then. I suppose it would stay cool in the long hot summers. When the shallow grave was large enough for the Prophet’s body, they slid it in. After they replaced the dirt, they put the stone slab over the whole thing, now the cover to a grave. It was all done before the community outside knew it. In a society with big public funerals, they had only family present at a secret burial.

Why? One reason is certainly that Muhammad had said prophets should be buried where they died. But although they were still in grief and shock and could not think much about what the others had just done, they knew they could not face a public funeral. Who would lead prayers over the body? Who would lead the procession? Abu Bakr the successor, of course. Abbas and Ali would not be given the rights of close kin, but would be pushed aside, again. It would be the grand opening of Abu Bakr’s rule, with thousands seeing him in the Prophet’s place. And so Abbas and Ali did the one thing they could see to do: they denied Abu Bakr this honor.

A’isha did not sleep in her room again. The house became part of the mosque and the place of the Prophet’s grave. The widows were all given houses and apartments in the city, with pensions.

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The Prophet’s Death, 632

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Ruth

For about three months after returning from Mecca, Muhammad lived a normal life. He taught and led prayers, dealt with envoys from other parts of Arabia, and planned another military expedition to Syria. He may have begun to feel unwell but just pushed ahead, as people do. And then one day he came down with severe pain in his head. Still he led prayers and tried to act normal. He preached that there was a “servant” among God’s servants who had been offered everything in this life, or the things of God in the next, and that servant had chosen the things of God. His closest companions realized he was speaking of himself and predicting his death.

Muhammad lived on a schedule within his house; each wife had a room, and he went to each room in its turn. The first night he got sick, he was at Maymunah’s room; she was one of his most recent (and older) wives, a Qurayshi cousin. A’isha said that before he went to Maymunah’s room, he stopped to tell her he was very sick. For the first few days, he kept to his schedule, but as he grew feverish and in more pain, he began asking, “Where will I be tomorrow?” and they realized he was asking if it was A’isha’s turn yet. The wives decided to let the sick man be taken to A’isha’s room to stay.

The Syrian expedition lingered in Medina, instead of leaving. Muhammad had appointed Zaid’s son Usamah as commander, but Usamah was relatively young and at first the men didn’t want to follow him. Muhammad needed to make a personal appearance to address the problem, so he asked his wives to give him a special ritual washing before he went out. They had to bring seven buckets of water from seven wells. With this done, he appeared with assistance in the mosque (which was his courtyard, so quite nearby). With his direct affirmation of the appointment, the expedition set out. After this, Abu Bakr led the prayers.

Traditional Muslim narrative is that Muhammad’s illness was caused by a long-lasting effect from some poison fed to him by a Jewish woman at Khaybar. To me at least, this doesn’t make good sense because it had been about two years since then. His symptoms sound to me roughly like meningitis (severe headache and fever), so I wonder about amebic meningitis, caused by tainted water. It’s just speculation, of course. What we know is that he got sicker and sicker, for about ten days. Sound and light were painful.

His closest companions and immediate family came to sit with him. A sick room then, and certainly the sick room of an important leader, was not an isolated, quiet place. We know that Abu Bakr and Umar (whose daughters were his wives A’isha and Hafsah) and Uthman (who had married two of his daughters) were with him a lot; they were both friends and family. A team of scribes was in and out, and they included Mu’awiya, son of the powerful Abu Sufyan and Hind (the liver-eater). As we’ve seen with other famous men, “I was there at his sick bed” is a claim that many people want to make later. But to be sure, probably at least a hundred different people, kin and disciples, could make that claim.

Muhammad also had his blood kin, like Uncle Abbas and many cousins. Closest of all, Fatimah and Ali with their four children (two boys, two girls), also visited. A’isha tells that she would withdraw to give them privacy when they came. On one occasion, she saw from the doorway that Muhammad whispered something to Fatimah and she burst into tears. Then he whispered to her again, and she smiled. Later, A’isha asked Fatimah what that was about. Fatimah said that first he told her he was going to die of this illness, but then he told her that she would join him in Paradise next, so she smiled.

Near the end, Muhammad had mostly stopped speaking, but he struggled one day, sat up to drink some water, and asked for them to bring paper and pen (and, presumably, a scribe to use them). This particular story is not told by either Martin Lings or Mohiuddin’s fairly comprehensive book, so I’m indebted to Lesley Hazelton’s After the Prophet, which relates some Shi’ite stories. Hazelton tells that those around Muhammad stirred uneasily and began discussing what to do. Although they had always obeyed Muhammad without questions, now they hesitated. Maybe each thought another should go run the errand, while some argued that it was too taxing for the sick man at all. The way it worked out, they argued until the Prophet signaled that the noise was painful. He didn’t speak about it again.

The next day, when he died, he made a request to be specially washed and taken out to the mosque prayers. Abbas and Ali half carried him out, and then back in after prayers (led by Abu Bakr). A’isha says that Muhammad died while leaning on her, in her arms. Shi’ites report that Ali was the one holding the Prophet, his foster father, when he died. There’s no way for us to know which actually happened, and even at the time probably various hearsay versions passed quickly around the community.

It mattered so much because SO MANY people were closely related to the Prophet, and they needed to look for clues about who was preferred. For some, there was no open question: the successor was Ali, whether Muhammad died in his arms or not. Muhammad had climbed onto a dais of saddles three months before and said to everyone “If I am your guardian, then Ali is your guardian.” But Muhammad’s spiritual force of will had held the people together for 20 years, and with him gone, they were about to lapse into more typical human disunity and conflict faster than anyone imagined.

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Speech at the Deceptive Pond

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Ruth

Thousands had accompanied Muhammad to Mecca, and for the first day on the return trip, many or most of them were still there. Before the crowd broke up to go separate ways, Muhammad gave another short speech. They had stopped for the night around a very small oasis spring called Ghadir Khumm. This oasis had a pool, but its water was generally too salty to drink; its name meant “Deceiver Pond.” The place was significant because it was a visible intersection of three main roads leading to Egypt, Iraq, and back to Medina.

Muhammad had some men pile camel saddles up to form a platform, with palm branches reaching up to make a little shade on top. He sat on this dais. The Prophet’s short speech is not disputed in Islamic sources. He called Ali up to him, and he asked the crowd whether he (Muhammad) was not closer to the believers than they were themselves? This was a point made in the Quran, so they called back “Yes!” In that case, he said, “Anyone who has me as his mawla, has Ali as his mawla.”

What did “mawla” mean? There isn’t a straightforward answer. It was the word that referred to a client, like a newly converted person under the protection of a believer, or like tribes that paid deference or taxes to another tribe. But its root meaning also refers to closeness, and to having power over someone, so it can be used to mean the opposite: to be the guardian in a client relationship. It can also mean a helper. Sometimes a source quotes Muhammad using a related word, wali, which has a similar range: guardian, friend, helper.

Whether the Prophet meant chiefly “friend” or “boss,” in any case, he made the point that he and Ali were the same. If you listen to one, listen to the other. Why was he making this speech at this time? That’s where it gets contentious.

The Shi’a believe that it was part of Muhammad’s series of farewell speeches. He had told friends that Allah gave him a choice of long life or a sooner return to God, and he chose God. He made this pilgrimage so that he could leave clear instructions, and he made a plainly valedictory speech on the hilltop. Ali had joined the pilgrimage party after the main events were over, because he had been in Yemen. He took a party of several hundred men a few months earlier; they were to instruct the people in proper Muslim prayers and law, but if there were any tribes that needed to be conquered, they had weapons along too. So when the Prophet gave his hilltop speech, Ali was not with him yet.

In the Shi’ite narrative, this first stop at the tiny oasis was the last farewell to the crowd of believers and Muhammad wanted to make his successor clear. He stood on the dais and brought Ali up, and raising Ali’s arm, he said “If I am your master, then Ali is your master.” They all shouted “Yes!” in response.

But the Sunnis downplay the importance of the speech. As you’ll see in later parts of the story, the other Companions strenuously opposed Ali’s leadership. Even in their telling, Umar congratulated Ali on getting the nod of succession—-at this event. But later, Umar too opposed actually giving Ali any power. Perhaps in order to justify the way things worked out, they have a back story to explain Muhammad’s speech.

In the Sunni story, Ali came back from Yemen with 300 men who were wearing the same clothes they wore out from Medina. The clothes were dirty and sweaty. When they heard that Muhammad was in Mecca, they decided to ride back to join him, but as they grew closer to the city, they realized that everyone there would be very clean and in best clothes (or pilgrim garb?). Some of the booty/tribute they had in the camel train was a lot of freshly woven linen, which Ali intended to present to the Muslim treasury as a grand gift. But when Ali rode out faster to meet Muhammad first, the men left behind agreed to share out the clean linen for themselves. When Ali saw this, maybe the next day, he was angry and told them to take it off. They had to put on their sweaty clothes, and this made them angry. They grumbled at Ali for several days, and they complained to Muhammad.

In this narrative, Muhammad’s speech about Ali was a way of telling them to shut up. Would they complain if he told them to put on dirty clothes? No? Well then don’t complain if Ali says it. It’s the same message, but restricted to a situation right there at hand. If the context is about dirty laundry, there’s no reason to think it was a succession investiture.

Shi’ites celebrate the day when Ali was declared the successor as Eid al-Ghadir. It’s a very important feast, considered by some as the greatest feast of all. And yet the biography of Muhammad by Martin Lings, a Sunni scholar, detailed the dirty linen story while not even mentioning the way this speech might have been a succession ceremony. It shows outsiders how deep the divisions can run.

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The Last Hajj of Muhammad

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Ruth

Muhammad’s health appeared to be good for his age. We’re uncertain of all numbers, but he was somewhere in his early 60s, which in the 7th century could be very old and aged. In his case, the stories say that his hair was only a bit gray and he still worked and rode without tiring. There was every reason to think he would live another ten or twenty years, but he himself sensed that he would not.

When the time came for the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj, Muhammad decided to lead the expedition. It was the first time since Mecca’s pilgrimage was founded that it would be entirely Muslim, with no idolatry. All of Arabia was now monotheistic. So when the word of mouth got out that the Prophet himself was going, thousands of Bedouin and people in Arabian towns decided to go, too. They gathered around Medina so that they could accompany the Prophet on each step.

It was like one of his major war expeditions, reported to number as much as 30,000. The procession would have been even larger than we imagine, since Muhammad brought 100 camels to sacrifice, and many others probably did as well. They were all wearing the pilgrim’s style, which consisted of two pieces of cloth with no stitching, only held on by a belt or over the shoulder: in other words, a primitive covering.

The Prophet brought all of his wives, each in a howdah on a camel. Abu Bakr had recently married the widow of Jafar (who died leading the Syrian expedition), and she was pregnant. At the first day’s halt, she went into labor and gave birth to a son, who was named Muhammad. (It’s interesting that the name was not really very common up to this point.) Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr comes into later stories.

Muhammad’s actions on this last Hajj set the norms for what pilgrims do when they go to Mecca. He began by going around the Ka’aba seven times, then prayed at the “Station of Abraham,” a smaller stone that is now encased in a gold-plated metal housing. He went from the hill of Safa to the hill of Marwa seven times also. Every prayer that he spoke at one of these points was noted in their memory so they could do the same the following year. (In the modern Hajj ritual, there is an underground passage between Safa and Marwa so that people can pass back and forth without stopping surface traffic.) Muhammad entered the Ka’aba, but A’isha reports that when he visited her in the evening, he said he regretted doing so. Not everyone would be able to do it, in fact maybe at times in the future nobody could go in, and the commandment was really just to go around it.

His expedition stayed in tents outside the city, although many relatives and new converts begged him to be a guest. Muhammad seems to have been very conscious of everything he did as setting a precedent. Indeed, modern Hajjis stay in tents in the same valley. On the second day, he rode to the valley of Arafah, to a hill called the Mount of Mercy, where he prayed. This was significant because it was part of the ancient pilgrimage ritual, but his Quraysh tribe had given it up. He told them it was first done by Abraham, so it was back on the program. On the same day, he also sent out a crier on horseback to ride through all of the vast encampment and remind them all that it was the holy month and nobody should shed any blood. He must have been acutely aware that thousands of hot-tempered Bedouin were crowded into a small space.

Muhammad sat on his camel, on the hilltop, and preached a sermon to all who could hear it. Of course, it was not recorded, so we know what he said only by comparing the hadiths of it. Ibn Ishaq, an early biographer, reported that Muhammad did not shout the sermon himself. A certain amount of it was done in call-and-response method, so that the key phrases were shouted by the people themselves. A man with a loud voice stood next to him:

The man who used to repeat the Messenger of God’s words loudly to the people was when he was on ‘Arafah was Rabī‘ah b. Umayyah b. Khalaf. The Messenger of God would say to him. “Say: O people, the Messenger of God says, do you know what month this is?” and they would say, “The sacred month.” 

The sermon reminded them of basic Islamic principles and forbade blood feuds and money-lending at interest. This declaration specifically canceled (by name) money debts owed to his Uncle Abbas, and the blood-debt owed to his cousin (whose baby son was being fostered by a Bedouin tribe that got into a battle; the child was killed by cross-fire). It also discussed the rights of wives and property rights. He concluded by reminding the listeners to repeat his word to everyone who was not there, commenting wryly that maybe some who heard it second-hand would understand it better than the ones sitting here. Then Muhammad asked them, “O people, have I faithfully delivered my message?” They shouted back, “O God (Allahumma) yes!” He replied, pointing upward, “O God, bear witness!”

After prayers, the company rode out and spent the night near where, the next day, they would throw pebbles at the pillars representing Satan. After the dawn prayer, they carried out the stoning, then sacrificed the camels and shaved their heads. (At least in Sunni telling, a lock of the Prophet’s hair was saved by Khalid, one of the warriors from Mecca who was already a top general. A recent convert, he had commanded the forces against Muhammad at Uhud.) For the last stage, the pilgrims returned to Mecca and repeated the first steps: circumambulating the Ka’aba and going between the hills of Safa and Marwa.

So here, in the tenth year after the move to Medina (Hijrah), is when the Muslim Hajj took its final shape. The idea of pilgrimage to Mecca had been around for a long time. At first we outsiders may wonder why it took so long to formalize the requirements. But when they lived in Mecca, there was no “pilgrimage” to get there. And when they left Mecca, they were in a state of war until all but the last years. Muhammad could have done this the previous year, but instead he had sent Abu Bakr to lead a pilgrim group, and then he sent Ali to catch up with them and deliver in person the latest Quranic revelation. He may have felt it was too much to lead the pilgrimage on the heels of Mecca’s conquest, so he waited a little for things to settle down.

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Respite and Growth of the Islamic State

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Ruth

The Arabian tribes who were not already allied with or tributaries of Muhammad were impressed and maybe shocked at how large the army for Tabuk had been. Arabia had never been united. Its largest cities, like Saba, employed much smaller forces to dominate their local regions. Most towns and tribes had followed the strategy of using alliances to call up reserve forces at need. 30,000 men, many of them mounted, was a clear implied threat to Arabian towns that had not yet joined.

So for about a year, Muhammad stayed peacefully in Medina and received delegations from tribes and cities who now wanted some kind of alliance. Some of them converted to Islam, though the towns that were already majority Christian usually did not. Each one negotiated a settlement of some kind with Muhammad, providing for political peace.

An important settlement was with the town of Ta’if, where the Muslims had given up on a siege. The tribe ruling there wanted special provisions: submission, but without the usual prayer regimen, and 3 years’ grace period before the idol of al-Lat had to go down. Muhammad played hardball. The momentum was on his side, and Ta’if knew it; soon they would be politically isolated. Eventually they just surrendered the idol for destruction.

I suppose this is probably the period when a story told by A’isha fits in. One of these petty kings or chiefs must have suggested that his sister or daughter would make a fine addition to the Prophet’s household. When the bride arrived, A’isha was given the task of getting her ready. As she dressed the other girl, she gave her sage advice. Muhammad, she said, was really turned on by negativity. He liked it when a girl said no. If the girl wanted to give her new husband a really good time, she would not only say no, but she would say “I take refuge in Allah from you!” Well, this happened to be a divorce formula, but A’isha didn’t say this. The confused bride followed her sister wife’s friendly tips, but her new husband suddenly left the room and didn’t come back. The next morning, the girl learned that she was now divorced.

There are two other family notes for this period. Fatimah gave birth to her third child, a girl named Zaynab. But the little boy Ibrahim, child of the Coptic slave Maria, died. And still none of the other wives conceived. It’s a point of mystery to Muslim historians. In the end, they have to chalk it up to God’s will, though the Shi’ites find this easier. Their belief is that the prophetic office was passed only through Fatimah and her children. Sunnis believe that Muhammad had one other grandchild, the girl Umamah, daughter of oldest girl Zaynab, but Shi’ites do not believe Zaynab was genetically his child. In the Arabian system of foster children, adopted children, and step children, it’s easy to lose track. Muhammad had several step children from the two wives Umm Salamah and Umm Habibah, but they are certainly not counted. Shi’ites point out that Khadijah may have taken in some children who were later counted as Muhammad’s.

One of the delegations, from a Christian ruler in Yemen, prompted a special demonstration of the place of Ali’s and Fatimah’s family. The Christian ruler had a belief that a prophet of God must have descendants, but he had heard that Muhammad had none or few. When his delegation came, Muhammad met them with Ali, Fatimah (probably still pregnant), Hassan and Hussein. He spread his cloak out over their heads to show that this was his core family. Muhammad’s family was generally called the People of the House, or Ahl al-Bayt. But this subset, the four genetic relatives, became known as the People of the Cloak (Ahl al-Kisa). The demonstration of the cloak is an important sign for Shi’ites that the genetic kin of Muhammad were intended to be his successors, and not just politically, but in passing on a genetic prophetic ability.

As this period drew to a close, most of Arabia was under Muhammad’s rule in one way or another. In some cases, there was conversion and direct rule, while in others, there was an alliance with some kind of tribute. Some of the high inner desert, the Najd, had to be conquered militarily. While Muhammad stayed home, some of his generals went out on these expeditions. As Islam had matured, it had created a new Arab nationalism based on their shared language, the language of the poets and of the Quran. When Islam’s sovereignty had been extended to the three coasts, the only place to continue was north toward the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms, those Christian Arab buffer states for Rome and Persia.

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Challenge to the Roman Empire

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Ruth

During these same years when Mecca and Medina had a truce, then Mecca surrendered and the idols were smashed, a larger imperial story was playing out to the north. In the end, the battles and personal ups and downs came to mean so little that only specialists even try to learn the names and events. We know in hindsight that the Byzantine and Persian empires were merely exhausting themselves in time for the Muslims to break out of Arabia. But it really didn’t look that way at the time.

The Arabians called the Byzantine Empire simply “Rome,” and at that time, Constantinople still thought of itself that way, too. It was New Rome, but it still nominally ruled from Spain and North Africa to Egypt, to the old Greek colonies on the Black Sea. But the plain reality was that the western regions were not in its control, while its eastern regions still seemed possible. There were two major threats: the chronically invading Turks and Avars from Asia, and the Persians who ruled in Mesopotamia and were always looking to expand into Palestine and Egypt.

During Muhammad’s earlier adult life, the Persian war theater was in Armenia and Georgia, but this war had been settled after the Romans backed the Persian king Khosrau II’s claim to the throne. Now, during the Mecca and Medina years of Islam’s rise, Rome had gone through a coup by an army commander, then a counter-coup by a royal relative whose power base was in Libya. This new Emperor Heraclius set out to retake a lot of territory that the Persians had won, including Jerusalem. Between 602 and 628, many of the cities in Syria and Mesopotamia suffered through sieges that smashed their walls and wrecked their agriculture. As the Roman Emperor campaigned in Mesopotamia, the Avars and Slavs plundered Byzantine holdings in the Balkans (such as modern Bulgaria, now a Slavic nation with a Turkic name).

Heraclius’ war to retake Egypt, Palestine and Syria cost a great deal. He had to melt down gold and silver owned by the Church, devalue the currency and cut back on much state spending, which let infrastructure fall apart. By 628, he had won back much territory, and he stayed several years in Persian territory, where he formed alliances with a Turkic chieftain and a rebellious Persian general. The war ended when the king’s son executed his father and took the throne in a coup, and there were several dynastic marriages among Heraclius, the new Persian king, and the Turks. The Persians returned the fragment of the True Cross that they had taken from Jerusalem. It really looked like the war was over. (The new Persian throne proved to be much less stable than it appeared, but that’s for another story.)

Heraclius again ruled a Palestine that now had small garrisons of about 100-200 men at most, and some of them needed to be rebuilt. City walls all over the region had to be rebuilt, too, but there wasn’t much money. The Christian Arab buffer state, the Ghassanids of southern Syria, was also weakened because the Roman state used to pay them foreign aid but had stopped as a cost-cutting measure. Beefing up the Ghassanids didn’t seem as important when there was peace with Persia.

The Roman armies were physically tired; the men had been away from their homes in the Byzantine heartland of modern Turkey for years. The capital city was exhausted and dispirited, so Heraclius’s first priority was to rebuild some monuments around Constantinople and hold some prestigious and fun events, including the dynastic marriages of his children (expensive!). He also made a processional visit to Palestine to see the returned relic in Jerusalem and visit his Ghassanid Arabic client-king in the Golan Mountains. That year was 629, right about the same time as the surrender of Mecca to Muhammad.

Somewhere in that mix of news and events from the north, the Muslims in Medina received a rumor that Heraclius was actually coming south to crush them. Hindsight and a larger scope shows us that was the last thing on Heraclius’s mind, but they didn’t know it. Normally the Ghassanid rulers would have called in help when they were attacked, as the Muslims had done. Therefore, it made sense to them that maybe the Romans really were coming, in response to Arab raids. So now Muhammad and his advisors—a growing circle that now included prominent Meccans—had to decide what to do about this warning that a huge Roman army was on its way.

In the fall of 630, Muhammad and his advisors decided to raise the largest army Arabia had ever seen and go to challenge Rome. Mecca, Medina, and the many other towns that were now tributaries of Muhammad built a large fighting force. There may have been units from Yemen or Oman, which had given provisional loyalty to Muhammad in recent years. Then the wealthiest Muslims spent much of their money in buying provisions and horses, while Muhammad sent gifts to the Bedouin tribes to persuade them to join. The army that set out from Medina may have numbered as much as 30,000, with the largest herd of horses they had mustered yet, perhaps 10,000. But it was not a popular campaign; if the Roman army was there, it would be a bloodbath, and it was harvest time.

They traveled north to Tabuk, now a city near Saudi Arabia’s border with Jordan. The way battles worked then was that one side would choose a fighting venue and wait there. If the other army let them dominate the region without challenge, they won by default. Armies could play chicken with each other, choosing different fighting plains or valleys and waiting to see who chose to come to them. In this case, the Muslim army camped and waited for about three weeks. Scouts went out to search, and in the end, they concluded that the Romans were not coming. They went home and disbanded. But if Emperor Heraclius had not actually been paying attention, Arabia paid close attention.

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Destroying the Idols of Arabia

Posted on March 6, 2021 by Ruth

Muhammad had a first priority when he felt secure in Mecca. This first task was to destroy the idols that crowded the space around and inside the Ka’abah. Since Mecca’s business model was to hold an all-Arabia pilgrimage, the city had collected literally every idol that anyone had ever heard of. Mecca’s own home god, Hubal, of course had a large statue, but there were over one hundred other statues and images.

During the morning, Muhammad’s troops had moved on Mecca, then filed in through its four gates. In the afternoon, the idols were smashed and burned, with special attention to Hubal. When they opened the Ka’abah, they found a number of images on the walls inside. Among them, Muhammad set aside an icon showing Mary and Jesus and a painting of an old man that he identified as Abraham. The rest were burned immediately. It’s surprising to a Christian, at first, to hear that Mary and Jesus were included in the idolatrous display, but why not, from a pagan point of view? I think that in the end, he had these two images destroyed too, since they had obviously been serving as idols. From this time, the Ka’abah would include no images at all.

During these hours, prominent Meccans who had opposed Muhammad bitterly were coming, sometimes in disguise, to pledge their loyalty to the new order. In no way would the standard Arabian culture permit them to be pardoned. Hind, who had ordered the killing of Muhammad’s close relative and childhood playmate—-and then mutilated his body and ate his liver? Not a chance. She came in disguise, hoping to say the Shahada before he figured out who she was. But to the surprise of all of them, none were condemned. Muhammad’s attitude was that Mecca’s surrender, and the destruction of its idols, made this such a blessed day that he would grant any request and forgive all. In this way, the whole city was pledged to his leadership rapidly, mostly in that first day.

Of course, there was also a general order that all newly Muslim households—and some not yet ready to convert, but under Muslim rule—were to smash any idols they had at home. We’re not told how this was enforced. I suspect the city was in such shock over the sudden surrender that most people wanted to be seen to be complying. And on the other hand, not all of the Meccans gave up idols on that day. They were given a grace period to study Islam and make their choices.

There were two nearby towns that carried on a similar, though smaller, pilgrimage business. One honored Al-Lat (goddess of the moon?) and the other Al-Uzzah. With Mecca’s muscle now on his side, Muhammad could consider those towns doomed. He sent a detachment of fighters to the nearest town, where they destroyed the idol of al-Uzzah. The keeper of the shrine hung a sword on the statue and exhorted the goddess to defend herself, but of course, nothing. There’s a strange detail to this story, for the destruction party were sent out twice in the same afternoon. When Muhammad heard that the idol had been easily put down, he told them to go back. This time, they saw a giant naked woman with black skin and long black hair. The leader cut her down with this sword.

The other town, Ta’if, was a bit farther away and much stronger. The Hawazin tribe that own the shrine of al-Lat decided to defend the town, so they called their allies and mustered an army of 10,000 over two weeks. Muhammad raised an army from Mecca and rode out to meet the men of Thaqif. It’s interesting that the story notes that some of the Meccans involved with this march were not yet Muslims, but they had sworn secular allegiance. This distinction continued in Muslim history: those who have submitted (Muslim) and those who have believed (Mu’amin). Since we use the word “Muslim” for both types, we don’t really think about the difference. It may not have mattered as much later.

The two armies joined battle in a valley called Hunayn. The Hawazin tribe had stationed a large wing of cavalry in a ravine, where the approaching Muslim army could not see them. The space in the valley seemed open, but as the Muslims filed into it, the Hawazin leader gave a signal to spring the ambush. The first reaction of the Muslim vanguard was to turn and run, but since the valley was narrow and the rest of the large army was still entering through a pass, there was a chaotic stampede of horses and camels.

Muhammad, who was riding not at the front but not far behind, stood with his numerous Meccan relatives around him at the side of the road. He needed to turn the retreating stampede, so he asked his Uncle Abbas to shout in his loudest voice, “O Companions of the Tree!” This was a call to the 3000 Muslims who had gone on the pilgrimage to Mecca that ended in the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. They had come by ones and twos to a tree where the Prophet was seated to give their solemn oath to support him to the death. Now, invoking this oath succeeded in turning the tide. Instead of retreating, men began to form up around Muhammad. Then he threw a handful of pebbles at the enemy, while praying.

From this point, the battle turned. It was the largest battle the Muslims had yet been in. During the ambush, the Meccan clan that was in front lost many men. After the tide turned, the losses were mostly among the Hawazin fighters. Battles in that time seem to have been like this: the side that perceived itself as winning began to chase the losers, and most of the casualties were on the losing side. The clan of Thaqif escaped back to the walled town of Ta’if, but the other Hawazin clans were hunted down as they fled. They had women, children, and livestock behind their lines, and these were all taken captive. One of the old women captives claimed to be the Prophet’s sister, so they brought her in. It turned out she was a daughter of the Bedouin family that had fostered baby Muhammad, and that clan was among the captives. Muhammad gave her gifts, but she waited among her captive clan to see if relatives would come to ransom them.

Meanwhile, a siege began at Ta’if. But the city had a year’s worth of provisions, siege engines to fling rocks back at the besiegers, and a will to keep the gates closed as long as necessary. After about two weeks, Muhammad gave the command to fall back. He prayed for the Thaqif clan to come to Islam on their own, and they went away. The captives numbered 6000 women and children; Martin Lings reports that there were about 24,000 camels and at least 40,000 goats and sheep. Two weeks had passed already, and some clans’ relatives had come to ransom the captives. The main dividing of spoils had to wait until they were sure all negotiations had ended.

But Muhammad took his one-fifth share and began to distribute it. A recent revelation had given them a new category of people who needed alms: those recently humbled by defeat. This included all of the leadership of Mecca, including some who had not yet entered Islam. When they were given gifts of 100 camels, or in one case, a ravine pasture full of sheep and goats, they converted. For the long-time Muslims who had been hoping for a windfall, the news got worse. They had been feeding 6000 women and children who were by rights their captives to redeem or sell, but then the delegation from the Hawazin tribe showed up. They were led by another foster-brother of Muhammad, and some of them had converted to Islam. They claimed that as foster-kinsmen of the Prophet, their entire tribe should be treated as relatives, not enemies. They asked for all of their captives to be given back, free.

All of the Muslims returned captives when the Prophet asked. They did it willingly, but at the same time, they noted the loss to their own families’ wealth. When the general spoils distribution happened, the typical Medinan (“Ansar” or Helper) Muslim got four camels. Now they were angry about the way the spoils had been handled. Some of them were very poor and received nothing. Why were the pagan chiefs given such gifts, wasn’t that the old Sunnah in which the rich got richer? Muhammad heard their complaints, but he reminded them that God’s mercy was more than anything. They received his rebuke humbly, and they wept in public to show sorrow for their greed.

But we see here a basic problem lurking in the background: the men of Medina felt that the original Muslims from Mecca (“Emigrants”) were always favored over them. Here, even worse, unbelieving and recent-enemy Meccans had been favored over them. Their resentment could be allayed while the Prophet spoke to them personally. They may have already been aware of wondering what would happen when the Prophet died? Would they, his Helpers in Medina, have any honor or influence, or would it all go to Meccans?

Muhammad had a strategy when he did all of these things. The news of the Hawazin captives going home for free reached the walled town of Ta’if. He made a point of keeping the Thaqif captives back, especially the family of their war leader. He let it be known that if this leader, Malik, entered Islam, he’d be treated just the same as the other Hawazin (in spite of the ambush and the siege). It worked. At night, Malik rode to Muhammad’s camp and said the Shahada, receiving back his family. The tribe of Thaqif in walled Ta’if was still on a war footing, but its leader was now the leader of the Muslim Hawazin clans, with a prime directive to break the siege and destroy Al-Lat.

My first reaction when I read about Muhammad’s gift strategy is to feel that these men’s faith was purchased. I’m sure I’m not the only one, and probably many of the Muslims felt that way too. But Martin Lings, my main source, points out that the gifts were above all a demonstration of the new sunnah of Allah’s mercy. The purpose was to reconcile their hearts, to make them feel that the new religion was indeed morally superior to the old. The gifts themselves were not large enough to actually buy the conversion of a man who was already rich; where 100 camels would have meant a lot to a poor man, they were a token to a rich one. But they were a way of demonstrating that Allah should be seen as the new tribal chief giving gifts and demanding loyalty. Allah was willing to forgive and would then overlook all clan divisions or prior actions. Apparently, it worked. Mecca and the tribes around it were won for Islam without much fighting.

After Muhammad returned to Medina, he continued to send out expeditions to destroy idols. Ali led at least some of them. He destroyed the idol al-Manat, the third goddess-sister with al-Lat and al-Uzzah, at the coastal town of Qudayd. He went northeast to the Bani Tayy, who were keepers of an idol called al-Qullus. Mohiuddin says that sixteen expeditions went out from Medina, each to confront some unconverted, hostile tribe and destroy the idols. They had such momentum on their side, and so many allied tribes, that these expeditions were on the order of raids. And one by one, the pagan tribes were subdued and converted, at least to submit to Muslim rule, if not to real belief in their hearts. Muhammad was quite aware of surface conversions and knew that most of them didn’t get it. Perhaps the slogan “fake it till you make it” was his attitude to them: learn the prayers, follow the rules, and gradually you’ll get it.

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Mecca’s Downfall, 630

Posted on February 20, 2021 by Ruth

In a truce, the parties agreeing to the terms are held responsible for making sure everyone on their side complies. As long as the central power is strong enough, it can keep people intimidated from disobeying. But when that power weakens, factions and even individuals will start testing how far they can break the truce conditions. That’s what happened to Mecca in the months after the Truce of Hudaybiyah. Medina’s power was rising—-seriously, they just sent some letters to Yemen and Oman, and got submission and tribute? wait, what?—-and Mecca could not see a way to get back its upper hand. Some leading citizens were leaving. Some joined the Muslims at Medina, while others were afraid that the Muslims would eventually conquer and take vengeance on them.

With its leadership afraid and shrinking, it was harder for Mecca to control its peripheral members. The day would come when someone broke the truce terms…and then that day came. Not long after the Muslims’ failed Syria mission returned to Medina, they received a message from an allied tribe. One of the tribes allied to Mecca had attacked them at night (a way of covering up who was in the attacking party). Some Quraysh had helped and even joined under cover. The fact that the attackers went at night suggests that they knew the Meccan leadership would have stopped them, had they known, and that they wanted to make it harder to hold individuals accountable. In other words, they knew it was breaking the truce.

Abu Sufyan, the elder statesman of Mecca (and husband of the liver-eater Hind), rushed to Medina to try to smooth things over. Muhammad could have chosen to accept some kind of recompense, but the treaty hadn’t stipulated to anything like that. He had the right to refuse, to just enforce the treaty as it stood: the truce is over. Everyone in Medina knew that his mind was made up: it was time to challenge Mecca. Abu Sufyan went to his daughter Umm Habiba, a recent addition to Muhammad’s wives (she had been living in Abyssinia). She gave him a cold reception. He tried Abu Bakr, then he tried Ali and Fatimah, asking if their little boy Hassan would grant him protection. “Children can’t do that,” they replied, and told him to go home and make the best of it. But nobody told him directly “it’s over, we’re attacking,” and Muhammad kept his thoughts to himself.

Muhammad gathered a large army from around Medina, but he would not tell anyone where they were going. They were all marching during Ramadan when they were to fast, but Muhammad commanded them to eat sometimes. Halfway to Mecca, they began meeting small parties of relatives going to Medina. Uncle Abbas had finally decided it was time to go Muslim, and then they met some of the Prophet’s cousins. All these men made a profession of faith and turned around, joining the Muslims.

They got all the way to Mecca without him telling anyone the target: after all, maybe they would pass Mecca and go toward Yemen? But around Mecca, the Prophet ordered them to light more campfires than needed, and the night was lit up by the appearance of an enormous army (even larger than the 10,000 they really were).

The leaders of Mecca sent an embassy by night: Abu Sufyan, and Khadijah’s nephew Hakim, and a leader of the Khuza’ah tribe that had been attacked. Uncle Abbas met them as he walked toward Mecca, and he took them to Muhammad’s tent. The Prophet made it clear to them that he was intent on victory over the city, and he advised them to enter Islam immediately. The younger two did, but Abu Sufyan hesitated over the part that said “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” They stayed overnight, but at dawn, they woke up to the call to the prayer. Abu Sufyan was dumbfounded when he saw the entire camp praying in unison. He observed the complete obedience the Muslims had toward Muhammad, and then he was convinced. He went to give his profession of faith.

There was one obvious course of action for Mecca: surrender. Muhammad told Abu Sufyan to go back to the city with a message. His army was going to invade the city, but surrender would be indicated by where each person was. There were three safe zones: the mosque area around the Ka’abah, Abu Sufyan’s house, and each person’s own house with his door locked. Abu Sufyan was given the message and the honor of being a sort of super-safe zone because already, the major task had begun. They needed to conquer Mecca, but they needed it to keep functioning cheerfully under its new ownership. They needed to win, as Americans often say, “hearts and minds.” And in this case, egos.

There was one more step to win Abu Sufyan’s ego. If he had been the sort of man who would back losing causes out of conviction, he might have converted before. But now that he had chosen Islam, he wanted to see that he had joined the winning side. Was that respectable to the pious? Not really. But the strategy right now was to accept everyone where he was and use it for the pacification project.

The entrance into Mecca was staged carefully. Muhammad had brought along a number of flags and pennants that were now unveiled. When the camp was packed and ready to move, the men were organized into companies. They marched past Abu Sufyan, saluting him with a cry of “Allahu Akbar!” In many cases, the flags were carried by men he knew had been enemies of Islam until recently. There was only one leader who worried Abu Sufyan, a man he knew to have a very hot temper. What if that standard-bearer led a charge toward innocent people and caused a slaughter? Abu Sufyan begged the Prophet to choose another, so Muhammad sent for the flag to be given to the hot-tempered man’s son, who was much more patient.

Abu Sufyan then raced back to Mecca and poured out his message. “Muhammad is here with a large army! Save yourselves!” His ferocious wife Hind tried to drag him into the house, ashamed of his message, but he fought back and kept shouting, “You are safe in my house! You will also be safe in your own houses with the doors locked, or at the Ka’abah!”

The Muslim army was divided into four parts, and each was directed to enter the city at one of its four gates. One part of the army was ambushed by a small but determined troop of Quraysh, but the smaller troop was quickly decimated. Two leaders rode away from Mecca, but one just ran home and locked his door. The Muslim army continued to pour into the city, moving toward where an advance guard had pitched Muhammad’s red leather tent in the Ka’abah’s courtyard. From this time, the Ka’abah is just referred to as the Mosque. Its courtyard, the masjid, became the pattern for all houses of worship in Islam. “Mosque” is a Western form of Arabic masjid.

There was no fighting. Doors remained locked, the city streets deserted. Muslim stories of this stage emphasize people who were given mercy against their own expectations, including Abu Sufyan’s ferocious wife Hind. Anyone who spoke the Shahada to enter Islam was pardoned.

The Prophet’s main concern was to formally take over the Ka’abah. After doing his ritual washing, he rode into the masjid and touched the Black Stone with his staff. His camel was led to circle the building seven times, as the Muslims cried “Allahu Akbar!” This cry was significant at that moment, since the building and the courtyard were both filled with idols. They were literally shouting that Allah, the invisible Creator God, was the greatest over all of these visible things.

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Muhammad and Syria

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Ruth

During the Prophet’s life, the region that is now Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria was generally referred to as Syria (Arabic “Shams”). Its main cities had changed hands rapidly during the long war between Byzantines and Persians. In 627, Emperor Heraclius had won a significant victory that handed him back control of Damascus and Jerusalem. For the Byzantines, the cities of Antioch and Jerusalem had special religious meaning; their church leaders were part of the traditional decision-making structure. A fragment of the True Cross was returned as part of the peace treaty, and all rejoiced. But the plain fact was also that city walls had been wrecked and it was a harder region to defend.

In the southern area of the old Roman province of Palestine, the large tribe of Ghassan, former Southern Arabs had settled. Many of the Ghassanid Arabs had become Christians. Caravan travel from Arabia proper was managed by Ghassanids in cities like Bosra and their capital, Jabiyah, in the Golan Heights. Jabiyah has completely disappeared, leaving behind only a hill, Tell al-Jabiyah, in a region that has been hotly contested in the Syrian Civil War. But in its time, it was a city with wealth and culture. The Arab mania for poetry was strong in Jabiyah; there were famous poets supported by the Ghassanid king. The purpose of the Ghassanid kingdom was to be the Roman/Byzantine hand that dealt with all things Arab, including the raiders of the desert, the caravan merchants, and the neighboring Arabic kingdom of the Lakhmids in Southern Iraq.

Muhammad’s letter to the Byzantine governor at Bosra had gone unanswered, so eventually he sent two groups north. A messenger took a second letter, while about 15 men went north to meet with Bedouin Arabs were allied to the Ghassanids and offer to instruct them in Islamic prayer. But both embassies were met with hostility; only one man escaped back to tell Muhammad that the others had been killed. A Ghassanid chief’s decision to kill the lone official ambassador was taken even more seriously, since the Arabs operated under a general regional understanding of not ever killing ambassadors.

Muhammad responded aggressively to this challenge. He called up an army of 3000 fighting men to approach the Syrian border and punish the Ghassanids for these deaths. He put his adopted-son Zayd in charge, with Ali’s brother Ja’far as second in command. The army went to a place called Mu’tah, where they found a larger Byzantine army waiting. In these times, armies had to find each other, often choosing a wide plain to fight in, and just waiting until the other side showed up. The leaders decided to go ahead and fight, saying, “We have a choice of two good things: victory or martyrdom!”

The Battle of Mu’tah is a bit strange, first in that out of thousands, only a handful were killed—and mainly the leaders. Second, that the main reporting on the battle comes from Muhammad’s vision of the action. He saw Zayd carrying the white battle flag until he died of his wounds, whereupon Ja’far took the flag until he too died, and then the 3rd in command did the same. A Medinan seized the flag, then handed it to Khalid, a Meccan, who used its rallying power to draw the Muslims into a retreat. Was this mainly a charge led by the generals, the same way the Battles of Badr and Uhud had begun with single-combat challenges? If the Byzantine force was many times larger (some say it numbered 100,000), why did they not pursue the Muslims and take prisoners?

In any case, when the men came home, Medina had already been mourning the leaders’ deaths, since Muhammad had told the families what he saw in his vision. He also had a vision of the top three leaders in Paradise. Strategically, it was a great defeat, but numerically, it was not important. A small force rode north soon afterwards and attacked just one of the border tribes. This success placed a strategic foothold on the Syrian border. Muhammad was probably aware that Roman defenses of Syria had crumbled; there was no better time to press an advantage there.

The other interesting thing about the second raid is that it was led by a Meccan who had until recently been one of Muhammad’s chief foes. The peace treaty with Medina had left Mecca demoralized; peace is better news for the rising power than for the falling one. As other tribes—and even the southern city of Sana’a—entered Islam, it was clear to Mecca that the tide was running in Muhammad’s favor. A few of his greatest adversaries left Mecca after the Prophet’s very public pilgrimage. Khalid, who led the retreat at Mu’tah, was one who chose to just go to Medina and enter Islam.

But the one who led this last raid was Amr, who had been the chief spokesman for the Meccans who tried to get Abyssinia to reject the Muslim refugees twelve years before. When he left Mecca to steer clear of the coming Muslim conquest, he tried going to Abyssinia. But the Negus (king) of Abyssinia told him to submit to Allah. He finally gave in, entered Islam, and came to Medina not long before the Syrian raids. He would continue to be a military commander and provincial governor for the Islamic State as it expanded. A minor character to this point, he became a major player after Muhammad’s death, as did some of the other Meccan enemies of Islam.

After Amr’s raid, they took no further action on Syria. But the book was still open; Syria’s time would just need to wait. Because in the meantime, something even bigger happened.

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