Zu al-Faqar

Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that ye hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that ye love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knoweth, ye know not. Koran, Surah II, 216 It is believed that Muhammad was born in the year A.D. 571 in Mecca. The name given to him by his mother has been lost to history, but not the name given to him by his peers—Muhammad. His father, Abdullah, died before his birth, and his mother, Aminah, a member of Medina's Yathrib tribe, lived only until he was six. The honor of raising Muhammad fell to his grandfather, Abd-al-Muttalib, and when he died, it fell to his uncle, Abu-Talib. Legend has it that when Muhammad was twelve years old, he accompanied his uncle on a caravan journey to Syria, where he met a Christian monk named Bahira. He may have learned some Christian beliefs from this encounter. Little else is known about Muhammad's youth, except that he went into the service of a wealthy Meccan widow named Kadijah some years after the journey. She married her young agent because he was so trustworthy and pleasant. Despite the fact that she was fifteen years older than him, the marriage was a happy one. Throughout their twenty-six-year marriage remained devoted to her. Even after her death, when he had taken many wives, he continued to speak of her with the greatest love and reverence. This marriage, however, was pivotal in Muhammad’s rise to power. It gave him wealth, position, and status within the ranks of notables of Mecca. These men gave him the title Al-Amin, the “trustworthy” a tribute to his honesty and ability. Having gained a position of wealth, Muhammad had leisure, and in that leisure time, he pursued his own inclinations. He took to secluding himself and meditating in a small cave on the hill outside of Mecca called “Hira.” While meditating in this cave Muhammad heard a voice commanding, “Read!” He responded, “I cannot read.” Again the voice commanded him to read and he responded he could not. A third time, and more terribly, the voice commanded, “Read!” Muhammad said, “What can I read?” The voice responded, “Read thou in the name of thy Lord, who created man from a clot and it is thy Lord the Most Bountiful who teacheth by the pen, teacheth man that which he knew not.”1 When his trance broke, Muham- mad stepped out of the cave and heard a voice say, “Oh Muhammad! Thou art Allah’s messenger and I am Gabriel.” Before he stood, in the likeness of a man, an angel. This was the first of many revelations; Mu- hammad had received the call of Allah. Highly distressed and filled with emotion, he rushed home in alarm. Kadijah convinced him that Allah would not send a harmful spirit to him. Inspired, Muhammad became as prophetic as any of the Hebrew no tables of the Old Testament, preaching initially only to his family and closest circle. At first, his message was God is one. He is all-powerful. He is the creator of the universe. There will be a day of judgment. Splendid rewards await in paradise for those who follow God’s commandments. Those who do not, face terrible punishment in hell. As his convictions grew stronger, Muhammad went out among his fellow Meccans with his revelation, initially to be met with derision and scorn. His message changed to one of the dire warnings, and he became a prophet of doom, alternating between stories of the pleasures of paradise and the torments of hell. Muhammad’s wife and her cousin Waraqh ibn-Nawfl were among the first of his followers. However, the aristocratic and influential Ymayyad branch of Quraysh2 stood against him. They believed his heresy would damage their commercial interests because it attacked the pantheon of deities that stood at the center of the pan-Arabian pilgrimage upon which their commerce rested. This was the KaÛbah, the holy place to which all Arabia made pilgrimages, and Mecca was the node of this sacred place. Despite this resistance, over a period of about four years, Muhammad slowly gathered recruits from the slave and lower classes drawn to the promise of relief from their earthly sufferings. Alarmed, the Meccan authorities began to actively persecute Muhammad’s followers and forced the migration of eleven families to Abyssinia. In 615, a further eighty- three families followed. They found sanctuary in the domain of the Chris- tian Negus, who refused to deliver them into the hands of their oppressors. Muhammad did not flee to Abyssinia but remained shut up in his family’s stronghold. At first, the defenders of the status quo tried to bring Muhammad to a compromise in his preaching against polytheism. They offered him a throne as king if he would give up his preaching. When negotiations failed to work, they turned to ostracizing him. His entire clan was shunned by the powers of Mecca. Undaunted by the persecution of his fellows, Muhammad continued to preach and convert. He continued to have revelations. The people of Mecca, tiring of the ban against the new prophet’s clan, brought out the documents prepared to establish the ban against communication with Mu- hammad, only to discover that white ants had destroyed all of the writing, except the words “In thy name, Oh Allah.” When the elders saw this “marvel” they had the ban removed and Muhammad was again free to go about Mecca. Despite his restored freedom, resistance to Muhammad’s preaching had become hardened. He turned his attention to the city of Taif, where he failed utterly. Undiscouraged by this setback, he continued to preach and soon found a receptive and useful audience. In A.D. 620, as the pilgrimage season arrived, he encountered a small group of men from Yathrib, a city more than 200 miles from Mecca, who heard him gladly. These men had heard Jewish rabbis speak of a prophet who would arise among the pagan Arabs, and with whose leadership the Jews would destroy the pagans. The men of Yathrib—or Medina as it is now universally known—took Muhammad for this man, and on their return home they related what they had seen and heard. During this meeting, the Yathribs swore allegiance to him in the pact of Al-ÛAqabah. The oath they swore to Muhammad is the same oath that was later extracted from female converts, with no mention of fighting as existed in the original. This would become important later—and it would change for the men of Yathrib. When they returned to their homes, they took one of Muham- mad’s converts with them. This teacher spread the word in Yathrib and soon every house in the city knew of Muhammad. Two years later, during the pilgrimage season, a deputation of seventy-five men was sent from Yathrib with the purpose of meeting Muhammad. They invited Muhammad to return with them and make Yathrib (al-Madinah or Medina) his home in the hopes that he might reconcile the hostile Aws and Khazraj tribes. Seeing the value of this idea, he authorized 200 of his followers to slip quietly to Yathrib and then followed them, arriving on September 24, 622. This was the famous “hegira”  (Hijrah).  Some question if this was truly a “flight” or a scheme of migration that he had carefully considered for about two years. His followers had quietly sold their property and then quickly disappeared into the desert. Some say that the Meccans realized what was happening and planned Muhammad’s murder, fearing what might happen if he were to establish himself in rival Medina. It is possible that Muhammad had a timely revelation that warned him of the plot. He was ordered to make war upon his persecutors “until persecution is no more and religion is for Allah only.3 But he would flee, realizing that the time was not right. Muhammad and two faithful followers, Ali and Abu Bakr remained in Mecca until Muhammad received God’s command to flee. God’s command came the night ordained for his murder. When the would-be assassins were before his house, Muhammad gave Ali his cloak and bade him lie down so that it would be thought that Muhammad lay there. He was sure that when they saw it was Ali, they would not harm him. A “blindness” fell upon the assassins as Muhammad slipped out of the house, and joined Abu Bakr. Together they slipped into the desert and hid in a cave until it was safe to travel to his new haven. Because of the significance of Muhammad’s move to Yathrib, Caliph Umar,4 decreed that the lunar year, beginning on July 16, become the official starting point of the Muslim era. The move to Yathrib, or Medina, proved a turning point in Muham- mad’s life. He was despised in his birthplace of Mecca, but well-received in the home of his mother. Thirteen years of humiliation, persecution, and unfulfilled prophecy had ended. For Muhammad, the change was even greater, as he now rose from the role of scorned prophet to the ruler of a state, albeit a small one. And yet, from this tiny state in ten short years would grow the Arabian Empire. In the first year of his reign in Medina, Muhammad made a solemn treaty with the Hebrew tribes. This treaty secured for them equal rights of citizenship and religious liberty in return for their support of his hold on power. The Hebrew idea of a prophet was more of one that would lead them to power and dominion rather than one who made them the equals of another non-Hebrew tribe. It is apparent to western readers that these were not the first Hebrews to have trouble with a prophet! It is believed that they attempted to manipulate him to their ends, and this struggle appears in the Medina surahs in the frequent negative references to the Hebrews and hypocrites. Prior to this time, the Qiblah, or the place toward which the Muslims faced when in prayer, was Jerusalem. The Hebrews had interpreted this as an indication of leaning toward Judaism and that Muhammad required their instruction in religious matters. However, probably because of the looming conflict, Muhammad received a new commandment from God to change the Qiblah from Jerusalem to the KaÛbah at Mecca. As ruler of a state, Muhammad immediately turned his attention to establishing the proper method of public worship and laid down the foundation of the state. He did not, however, forget his enemies in Mecca nor that he had been commanded by God to fight against them until they abandoned their persecution of Islam. To this end, he began making military preparations. The Meccan followers of Muhammad had been, for thirteen years, pacifists, and it is clear that many of them had a strong hatred for warfare, even if fighting in self-defense. If Muhammad was to overcome his enemies in Mecca he must also overcome this strain of pacifism. Surah II was revealed to him at this time, and the notable passage II, 216 (see the top of the first page of this chapter) is the most relevant passage in this surah to what was about to come. Some cynics believe that Muhammad had a convenient revelation to suit his purposes, while true-believing Muslims consider it divine revelation. The commandment to warfare having been received, Muhammad began the process of training his new army. Small expeditions led by him or by other, closely trusted fugitives from Mecca went out. These armed bands, however, consisted solely of Meccans and no Medina men. These reconnaissance missions served both to explore the region and to meet and persuade surrounding tribes not to side with the Meccans. Though military operations, these excursions do not appear to have resulted in any major battles, though in one instance blood was shed and the booty was taken. This was apparently against Muhammad’s orders; these were intended more as training exercises designed to build up morale and inject some fighting spirit into Muhammad’s followers. Still, the call to loot would be a powerful and natural inclination to the soldiers of the day. In later years as Muslim armies occupied the rich Persian and Byzantine holdings to the north, loot and fervor would be powerful twin pillars of Muslim success. In the second year of the Hijrah, now that his hold on power was firm and his army exercised, Muhammad sought to take advantage of the periods of “holy truce” which served pilgrims to the Kaaba. He used this truce as a screen to attack a wealthy summer caravan as it returned from Syria to Mecca. This was not just a looting foray, but a strike at the vital commercial interests of the Meccans. The caravan leader had learned that the attack was coming and sent to Mecca for reinforcements. It is debatable if the caravan could have been saved or if the relief force sent from Mecca—more than 1,000 men,— was actually a defensive measure, or a punitive expedition designed to punish Muhammad. In either event, it was a disaster. Muhammad had apparently deliberately let a word escape of his intention to attack the caravan in order to draw out the Meccan army, his real target. Commanded by God to attack his persecutors, he had carefully lured the Meccan army out where he could engage it. The engagement occurred at Badr, eighty- five miles southwest of Medina, during Ramadan, A.D. 624. Before the fight occurred, Muhammad gave the Ansar (supporters), as the natives of Medina were called, leave to return to their homes, as their oath did not include the requirement to fight in the field. Unwilling to abandon their ruler, they refused to leave and went into battle. With these brave men and his original band of Meccan followers, the Prophet’s forces were unstoppable. Muhammad’s inspirational leadership brought his 300 men victory over a force of more than 1,000 Meccans. During the engagement, the Meccan chief, Abu Jahl, one of Muhammad’s greatest enemies, was killed. This engagement is also described as the first jihad, or holy war, because it was an aggression by infidels who were intent on the destruction of Islam and the Muslims. The battle was hugely significant to the establishment of Muhammad’s temporal power. The victory was interpreted as divine sanction of the new faith that he was spreading. Accordingly, we must examine this in terms of what had been revealed to Muhammad in the surah, prior to this engagement. There are two relevant passages: Surah IV, 74. Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward. Surah IV, 104. Relent not in pursuit of the enemy. If ye are suffering lo! They suffer even as ye suffer and ye hope from Allah that for which they cannot hope. Allah is ever Knower, Wise. Surah IV, 74, is a passage that we will frequently discuss. It promises paradise to those who die fighting for Allah. Imagine if you will the in- fluence this would have on a man who believed it to be the revealed word of God, spoken to him by God’s own prophet. Surah IV, 104, is far more practical. It rightly points out to those who might be fainthearted that their enemies are suffering as much they are, and if it is bad for them, it is equally bad for the enemy. In fact, militarily speaking, an army’s position is always far worse when pursued than when pursuing. In fact this surah foreshadows the famous pursuits of Napoleon, and even the blitzkriegs of World War II. It is difficult to say if the Prophet perceived this specifically, but his words certainly provoked his men to push harder. If they were pursuing a broken enemy, the necessity to pursue that enemy and complete his destruction was critical if Muhammad was to break their power. The victory at Badr manifested the Muslim’s spirit of discipline and contempt for death. These two factors would become the hallmark of Muslim warfare for the next 1,500 years. It is interesting that Muhammad at first refused the service of his Medina Ansar. This may be an indication that he had formulated the requirement that none might fight as his allies unless they were Muslims. This idea would be important in the years following, as many tribes flocked to his banner. It was very much the tradition of that country—and many more since—that people followed a winner and deserted a loser. The Prophet’s idea may have been to use this as one more tool to persuade conversion. This idea is supported by Surah IV, 89. They that long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them until they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) [abandon Islam] then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them. This is a clear indication that the decision to join Islam was irrevocable. Defection would not be tolerated by the armies of Muhammad. The Battle of Badr also seems to have been followed quickly by the revelation of Surah VIII. Militarily, this surah is extremely interesting. Within it are the following passages: 12. When my Lord inspired the Angels, (saying) I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite their finger of them. 13. That is because they opposed Allah and his messenger. Whoso opposeth Allah and His messenger, (for him) lo! Allah is severe in punishment, 14. That (is the award), so taste it, and (know) that for disbelievers it is the torment of Fire. 15. O ye who believe! When ye meet those who disbelieve in battle, turn not your backs on them. 16. Whoso on that day turneth his back on them unless maneuvering for battle or intent to join a company, he truly hath incurred wrath from Allah, and his habitation will be hell, a hapless journey’s end. Surah VIII, 12–14, implies that Allah will smite nonbelievers through his soldiers. This is the carrot to the faithful. Surah VIII, 15–16, is the stick. The Koran clearly says that running away from the enemy will condemn the Muslim warrior to hell. It is fascinating to see that the phrasing of these passages does allow for soldiers to maneuver at appropriate times. This was completely within the tradition of the hit-and-run style of warfare practiced by the nomadic desert tribesmen. One can consider these passages in the context of Muhammad’s next battle, Mt. Uhud. Unfortunately for Muhammad, his victory at Badr was not decisive. The very next year the Meccans, under Abu Sufyan, would avenge their defeat at the Battle of Mt. Uhud in A.D. 625. Muhammad was heavily outnumbered, but, nevertheless, came near victory. The Muslim army numbered about 700 men, and the Meccan forces, under Abu Sufyan, were around four times their strength. However, Muhammad, victorious in the initial engagement, was betrayed by a force of fifty archers that had been ordered to block a pass and prevent the Meccan cavalry from passing through. While Muhammad’s men looted and pillaged the spoils of their victory, these fifty archers abandoned their post to join the pillage. As fate would have it, the Meccan cavalry arrived and moved through the now unguarded pass to strike the disorganized Muslims in the midst of plundering. Muhammad was wounded and initially thought slain. His uncle, Hazrat Hamza, was killed. When Muhammad was found only wounded, his band circled around him and fought their way clear of the field, escaping into the desert. The Meccan victory at Uhud was short-lived, though, and the initiative returned to Muhammad. The following day, Muhammad again went out with his army to show himself and to deter the possibility of a Meccan attack on Medina. He encountered and conversed with a friendly Bedawi tribesman. This Bedawi then met the Meccan forces, where he was questioned by abu- Sufyan, the enemy leader. On hearing that Muhammad was alive, in the field, and thirsting for revenge, abu-Sufyan decided to withdraw and returned to Mecca. This drawn battle was not positive in its immediate effect. As some will always wish to support the winning side, many Arab tribes and the Hebrews, who had a treaty with Muhammad, saw the defeat at Uhud as meaning that the Muslims were losing. They shifted their allegiance to ward Mecca. Perceiving the Muslims as weakened, these groups attacked and murdered them when they could be found in small parties. One of Muhammad’s close followers, Khubeyb, was captured and sold to the Meccans, who publicly tortured him to death in Mecca. The Hebrews became openly hostile and frankly stated that the pagan religion of the Meccans was superior to Islam. Again, this was not the first time that Hebrews underestimated a prophet. In A.D. 627 a force known as the “Confederates”  (al-ahzab) that con- sisted of Meccans with Bedouin and Abyssinian mercenaries had begun to take military action against Medina. In a gathering to discuss strategy, a Persian follower of Muhammad, named Hazrat Salaman Farsi, suggested to Muhammad that he dig a trench around Medina. This was done by 3,000 Muslims, apparently in a day. When the confederates arrived before Medina the moat defense prevented them from attacking, so they camped and contented themselves for several days with showering arrows on the city. As the Muslims waited for the assault, word came that the Banu- Qurayzah tribe of Hebrews had abandoned their loyalty to Muhammad and had gone over to the Confederates, combining their fighting men. It is possible to say that this news signified the absolute nadir of Muslim fortunes in all of what had passed, and all that was to come. In 1,500 years of Muslim history, at no point does the entire fate of the Prophet’s people rest on a small, dispirited, besieged garrison such as that at Medina in 627. But Muhammad was neither discouraged nor helpless. Matters would quickly change. These combined enemy forces sat before Medina and contemplated their next action. While they discussed their options, agents from Medina spread dissent between the Confederates and their new Hebrew allies. As distrust brewed, a storm came in from the sea so strong that the besiegers’ tents blew over and no fires could be lit either to cook or keep warm. The leader of the Confederates, having had enough, quietly slipped away in the night. His mercenaries and adventurers followed. When the Banu- Qurayzah awoke in the morning, they found they’d been abandoned and also quickly decamped. The Battle of the Ditches, or Battle of Ahzab, as the blockade of Medina was called, ended with both sides losing about twenty men. Muhammad felt obliged to take action. The Bani Nadir Hebrew tribe of Medina had actually been expelled a full year before the Confederates attacked Medina. But now the Banu-Qurayzah tribe was singled out for destruction. Muhammad caught the Banu-Qurayzah in their stronghold and began a month-long siege. When it ended, they surrendered unconditionally, except that they begged judgment by a member of the Arab tribe to which they were adherents. This was granted them, but the judg- ment rendered was brutal. The 600 able-bodied men were condemned to death and slaughtered. Their women and children were sold into s*****y. The s*******r of the men and the enslavement of women and children of a defeated tribe or city would become a common practice as the Islamic Empire expanded. Muhammad now distributed the spoils, such as the Banu-Qurayzah tribe’s ownerless date groves, to his followers. The process of expelling Hebrew tribes continued, and in A.D. 629 the Hebrews of Khaybar were expelled from their oasis north of Medina. Thus the religious purification of the pilgrimage sites began. In A.D. 628 Muhammad had a vision5 of himself entering the holy place in Mecca determined to attempt the pilgrimage. His recent victories had encouraged those tribes whose loyalties belonged to the strongest to swing to his support again. He called upon them to support him, and many came, but not all. He drew together a band of 1,400 men and dressed them as pilgrims to the KaÛbah. Again, word of Muhammad’s advance leaked into Mecca and Meccans prepared for war. Muhammad heard of their preparations and stopped his advance, choos- ing to send a messenger ahead to request that he be admitted as a pilgrim. The messenger was abused and returned without delivering the message. Further messengers were sent and finally the Meccans sent out proper envoys. The Truce of Al-Hudeybiyah was signed, agreeing to no hostilities between the two parties for ten years. Muhammad was not permitted to visit the KaÛbah, but after a year of no hostilities, he and his comrades were to be allowed to do so. Meccan deserters were to be returned, but deserters from the Muslims were not. The truce was opened to any of the other Arab tribes that might wish to sign it, as allies of Mecca. It might appear as if Muhammad had received the poor end of the bargain, but in fact, he gained the ability to openly penetrate into Mecca and spread his message and his religion. He co-opted the city from within using a fifth column of propagandists that undermined the religious power base of the pagans. That same year, the Meccans violated the Truce of Al-Hudeybiyah and slaughtered a tribe allied with Muhammad. Fearful of the consequences of their act, they sent emissaries to Muhammad asking for a renewal of the truce, hoping they would arrive before Muhammad learned of the m******e. They did not. Muhammad summoned all the Muslims capable of bearing arms and amassed a force of 10,000 fighting men. This, coupled with spreading internal dissent was too much. The Meccans were overawed by the Mus- lim numbers and fled the field without shedding any blood. Muhammad proclaimed a general amnesty but held the enemy leaders accountable. The relief and surprise caused the city to swear allegiance to Muhammad. Having unrestricted access to Mecca, Muhammad entered the sacred temples of the idolaters and smashed the idols, said to have numbered 360. He proceeded to declare the area around the KaÛbah as sacred to Islam and issued Surah IX, 28, which forbade non-Muslims from approaching it. This was probably intended to break the back of the poly-theists and their annual pilgrimage to the KaÛbah and may not have been intended to be a permanent exclusion, but it has become one, and to this day no non-Muslim is permitted there. Apparently, however, in at least fifteen recorded instances Christians penetrated the two Holy Cities and escaped alive. The first was Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna in 1503. Angry at the destruction of their idols, the remaining pagan tribes sought to regain control of the KaÛbah. They gathered 12,000 troops and at Huneyn in a deep ravine ambushed Muhammad and his bodyguard. The fight was horrible. Although outnumbered and in a tactically awkward spot, the Muslims were victorious. The booty was tremendous, as many of these nomadic tribesmen had brought all their wealth with them. Having crushed his enemies, Muhammad sent out emissaries to continue the destruction of pagan idols. Only the Taif appear to have made any considerable effort to resist Muhammad, so he laid siege to their city. This appears to be Muhammad’s first use of siege artillery and its first use by. any Arabs. Muhammad had become the major power in the region and could now increase his power without engaging in battle. In 632 he stationed a garrison in Tabuk and signed peace treaties with the Christian chief of Aylah and the Hebrew tribes in the oases of Maqna, Adhruh, and al-Jarba to the south. These non-Muslims taken under the protection of the Muslims were obliged to pay a tribute or tax known as the  jizyah.  This tax would be imposed, as the empire grew, on all non-Muslims who became part of the empire. It was the penalty for not converting and would become a lever for subtly forcing conversion. That same year, Muhammad heard that the Byzantine emperor was gathering a force in Syria with the goal of destroying him. The Byzantine force is reported to have 100,000 men. Though such figures are notoriously unreliable, it is probable that the force gathered was considerably larger than what the Muslims would deploy against it. Sources agree Muhammad sent 3,000 men into Syria under the command of Zeyd (or Zaid). Some claim that this campaign was unsuccessful, but the reckless valor of the Muslims so impressed the Byzantines that they decided to leave this hornet’s nest alone. The most reasonable source claims that the shattered remnant of Muhammad’s forces retreated to Medina after losing three commanders. When sources conflict on such issues, we must attempt to evaluate the possible motives that might result in such divergent opinions. The great problem is that ancient history is not the complete record that we would like. Journalism did not exist, official records were either not kept or did not survive, and what has come down to us must be examined for self-serving intent. Simply put, we can conjecture, but not know.