A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihad' Part 5

4. Fezara.[54]

5. Suleim.[55]

6. Ozra.

7. Bali.

8. Juzam.[56]

9. Salaba.[57]

10. Abdul Kays.[58]

11. Bani Tamim.[59]

12. Bani Asad.[60]

[Footnote 51: The Bani Ash-ar inhabited Jedda. They were of the Kahlanite stock, the descendants of Al-Azd.]

[Footnote 52: The Bani Khushain were a clan of Kozaa, of Himiarite stock.]

[Footnote 53: The Bani Dous belong to the Azdite tribe of the stock of Kahtan. They lived at some distance south of Mecca. They had joined Mohammad at Khyber.]

[Footnote 54: These were the sub-tribes of Ghatafan of the Meccan stock.

The chief families of Ghatafan were the Bani Ashja, Zobian, and the Bani Abs. Murra and Fezara were the branches of Zobian. They all inhabited Najd. Uyenia, the chief of the Bani Fezara, had committed an inroad upon Medina in A.H. 6. In the same year the Bani Fezara had waylaid a Medina caravan and plundered it.]

[Footnote 55: The Bani Suleim, a branch of the Bani Khasafa and a sister tribe to Hawazin, who lived near Mecca, and in whose charge, Mohammad, when but an infant, was placed, were also a tribe of the Meccan stock descended through Khasafa from Mozar and Moadd. Bani Suleim, like Bani Murra and Fezara, branches of Ghatafan, had long continued to threaten Mohammad with attacks. The Bani Suleim having joined Aamir bin Tofeil, chief of Bani Aamir, a branch of the tribe of Hawazin with their clans Usseya, Ril, and Zakawan, had cut to pieces a party of Moslem missionaries at Bir Mauna, invited by Abu Bera Amr ibn Malik, a chief of the Bani Aamir, who had pledged for their security. The Bani Suleim had joined also the Koreish army at the siege of Medina. In the seventh year, they had slain another body of Moslem missionaries sent to them.]

[Footnote 56: The Bani Ozra were a tribe of Kozaa, like Joheina. They, together with the Bani Bali and Juzam, inhabited the north of Arabia in the part of the territory belonging to Gha.s.san. The family of Himyar, descendants from Kahtan in Yemen, had flourished through the line of Kozaa, the Bani Ozza, Joheina and other important tribes to the north of the Peninsula on the border of Syria. It has been quoted by Sir W. Muir from Katib Wakidi that the chief of the Bani Juzam carried back to them a letter from Mohammad to this tenor: "Whoever accepteth the call of Islam, he is among the confederates of the Lord; whoever refuseth the same, a truce of two months is allowed for him for consideration."

(Muir's Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, p. 107, _foot-note_). The words "for consideration" are not in the original Arabic.--_Vide_ Ibn Hisham, p.

963. It is not clear what was meant by the two months' truce he was advised to give them, to make terms before he could commence hostilities, if the tradition for which there is no authority be true.

This has nothing to do with their compulsory conversions.]

[Footnote 57: Salaba was a branch of the Zobian.]

[Footnote 58: The Bani Abd-ul-Kays are a Moaddite tribe, the descendants of Rabia. They inhabited Bahrein on the Persian Gulf.]

[Footnote 59: The Bani Tamim were branch of Tabikha, a tribe of the Moaddite stock of Mecca and a sister tribe of Mozeina. They are famous in the history of Najd, a province north-east of Medina, from the confines of Syria to Yemen. Some of these branches were with Mohammad at the expeditions to Mecca and Honain. All the branches of the tribes that had not yet embraced Islam were now converted.]

[Footnote 60: The Bani Asad ibn Khozeima were a powerful tribe residing near the hill of Katan in Najd. They were of the Moaddite tribe of the Meccan stock. Tuleiba, their chief, had a.s.sembled a force of cavalry and rapid camel-drivers to make a raid upon Medina in A.H. 4. They were dispersed by the Moslems. In the next year they joined the Koreish in the siege of Medina.]

[Sidenote: Surrender of Mecca. A.H., 8.]

27. The position of Islam at Mecca was greatly strengthened since the truce in A.H. 6, by increase in the number of Moslems, influential and leading, as well as of persons of minor note and importance there, consequently the advocates of Islam, peace and compromise were growing in number and confidence. Among the idolatrous Koreish there were no chiefs of marked ability or commanding influence left at Mecca; almost all of them had gone over to the cause of Islam. In the meantime the infraction of the terms of the truce by the Bani Bakr and Koreish caused the surrender of Mecca without bloodshed.

[Sidenote: The Meccans not compelled to believe.]

28. Though Mecca had surrendered, all its inhabitants had not already become converts to Islam. Mohammad did not take any compulsory means to convert the people: "Although the city had cheerfully accepted his supremacy," writes Sir W. Muir, "all its inhabitants had not yet embraced the new religion, or formally acknowledged his prophetical claim. Perhaps he intended to follow the course he had pursued at Medina and leave the conversion of the people to be gradually accomplished without compulsion."[61]

[Footnote 61: The Life of Mahomet, by Sir W. Muir, Vol. IV, page 136.

Those who had newly joined the Moslem Camp at Mecca to repel the threatening gathering of Hawazin, and those of them who preferred submission to the authority of Mohammad, are called by Sir W. Muir "his new converts." (IV., 149). But in fact they were not called believers.

They are called simply _Muallafa Qolubohum_ in the Koran (IX., 60) which means whose hearts are to be won over.]

[Sidenote: The wholesale conversion of the remaining tribes in A.H., 9 & 10.]

29. Now it was more than twenty years that the Koran had been constantly preached to the surrounding tribes of Arabs at Mecca at the time of fairs[62] and at the annual pilgrimage gatherings,[63] by Mohammad, and by special missionaries of Islam from Medina, and through the reports of the travellers and merchants coming and going from Mecca and Medina to all parts of Arabia. The numbers of different distant tribes, clans and branches had spread the tidings of Islam. There were individual converts in most of the tribes. Those tribes already not brought over to Islam were ready to embrace it under the foregoing circ.u.mstances. Idolatry, simple and loathsome, had no power against the attacks of reason displayed in the doctrines of the Koran. But the idolatrous Koreish opposed and attacked Islam with persecution and the sword, and strengthened idolatry with earthly weapons. The distant pagan tribes on the side of the Koreish, geographically or genealogically, were prevented by them from embracing the new faith. As soon as the hostilities of the Koreish were suspended at the truce of Hodeibia, the Arabs commenced to embrace Islam as already described, and no sooner they surrendered and Kaaba[64] stripped of its idols--and the struggle of spiritual supremacy between idolatry and Islam was practically decided--all the remaining tribes on the south and east who had not hitherto adhered to Islam hastened to embrace it hosts after hosts during the 9th and 10th year of the Hegira.

[Footnote 62: Okaz between Tayif and Nakhla. Mujanna in the vicinity of Marr-al Zahran, and Zul-Majaz behind Arafat, both near Mecca.]

[Footnote 63: "From time immemorial, tradition represents Mecca as the scene of a yearly pilgrimage from _all_ quarters of Arabia:--from Yemen, Hadhramaut and the sh.o.r.es of the Persian Gulph, from the deserts of Syria, and from the distant environs of Hira and Mesopotamia."--Muir, I, ccxi.]

[Footnote 64: Sir W. Muir thinks: "The possession of Mecca now imparted a colour of right to his pretensions; for Mecca was the spiritual centre of the country, to which the tribes from every quarter yielded a reverential homage. The conduct of the annual pilgrimage, the custody of the holy house, the intercalation of the year, the commutation at will of the sacred months,--inst.i.tutions which affected all Arabia,--belonged by ancient privilege to the Coreish and were now in the hands of Mahomet.... Moreover, it had been the special care of Mahomet artfully to interweave with the reformed faith all essential parts of the ancient ceremonial. The one was made an inseparable portion of the other."--The Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, p. 169. But the remaining tribes who had not hitherto embraced Islam, and the chiefs of the Southern and Eastern Arabia, did not adopt Islam, because Mohammad possessed Mecca, a position of no political supremacy. No paramount authority throughout the Peninsula had ever been vested in the chief who possessed Mecca.

Mohammad on the surrender of Mecca had abolished all the idolatrous inst.i.tutions which might have served as political or social inducements to the Pagan Arabs to embrace Islam. The intercalation of the year and commutation of the sacred months were cancelled for ever in the plain words of the Koran: "Verily, twelve months is the number of months with G.o.d, according to G.o.d's book, _since_ the day when He created the Heavens and the earth, of these, four are sacred; this is the right usage." ... "To carry over _a sacred month to another_ is an increase of unbelief only. They who do not believe are led into error by it. They allow it one year and forbid it another, that they may make good the number of _months_ which G.o.d hath hallowed, and they allow that which G.o.d hath prohibited. The evil of their deeds hath been prepared for them _by Satan_; for G.o.d guideth not the people who do not believe."--Sura IX, verses 36, 37. The custody of the house was no more an office of honour or privilege. The ancient ceremonial of pilgrimage was not interwoven with the reformed faith. The rites of Kaaba were stripped of every idolatrous tendency. And the remaining and essential part of the pilgrimage was depreciated. "By no means can their flesh reach unto G.o.d, neither their blood; but piety on your part reacheth Him."--Sura XXII, verse 38. And after all the idolaters were not allowed to enter it. "It is not for the votaries of other G.o.ds with G.o.d, witnesses against themselves of infidelity, to visit the temples of G.o.d."--Sura IX, verse 28. Sir W. Muir himself says regarding Mohammad: "The rites of Kaaba were retained, but stripped by him of every idolatrous tendency; and they still hang, a strange unmeaning shroud, around the living theism of Islam."--Vol. I, Intro., p. ccxviii.]

[Sidenote: The various deputations and emba.s.sies in the 9th and 10th year of the Hegira.]

30. During these two years deputations of conversion to Islam were received by Mohammad at Medina from the most distant parts of the Peninsula, from Yemen and Hazaramaut from Mahra Oman and Bahrein in the south, and from the borders of Syria and the outskirts of Persia. Many of the chiefs and princes of Yemen and Mahra, of Oman, Bahrein and Yemama--christians and pagans--intimated by letter or by emba.s.sy their conversion to Islam. The Prophet used to send teachers with deputations and emba.s.sies, where they were not already sent, to instruct the newly converted people the duties of Islam and to see that every remnant of idolatry was obliterated.

[Sidenote: List of the deputations of conversion received by Mohammad at Medina during A.H. 9 and 10.]

31. Here is a list of the important deputations and emba.s.sies as well as the conversion of notable personages during these two years arranged in alphabetical order with geographical and genealogical notes.[65] Sir W.

Muir thinks it "tedious and unprofitable" to enumerate them all,[66]

while he takes notice of every apocryphal tradition and devours with eagerness all fictions unfavourable to the cause of Islam.

Bani Aamir.[67]

Bani Abd-ul-Kays.[68]

Bani Ahmas.[69]

Bani Anaza.[70]

Bani Asad.[71]

Bani Azd (Shanovah).[72]

Bani Azd (Oman).[73]

Bani Bahila.[74]

Bani Bahra.[75]

Bani Bajila.[76]

Bani Baka.[77]

Bani Bakr bin Wail.[78]

Bani Bali.[79]

Bani Bariq.[80]

Bani Daree.[81]

Farwa.[82]

Bani Fezara.[83]

Bani Ghafiq.[84]

Bani Ghanim.[85]

Bani Gha.s.san.[86]

Bani Hamadan.[87]

Bani Hanifa.[88]

Bani Haris of Najran.[89]

Bani Hilal bin Aamir bin Saasaa.[90]

Bani Himyar.[91]

Bani Jaad.[92]

Bani Jaafir bin Kelab bin Rabia.[93]

Jeifer bin al Jalandi.[94]