CHAPTER XII.

The Jews the special objects of Mohammed's Enmity-Several Tribes of them reduced to Subjection-Undertakes a Pilgrimage to MeccaThe Meccans conclude a Truce with him of ten years-His Power and Authority greatly increased-Has a Pulpit constructed for his Mosque-Goes against Chaibar, a City of the Arab Jews-Besieges and takes the City, but is poisoned at an Entertainment by a young Woman-Is still able to prosecute his Victories.

WHATEVER might have been the prophet's early reverence for the city of Jerusalem, and his friendship towards the Jews, who, together with the sons of Ishmael, claimed in Abraham a common father, their obstinacy converted his favour into implacable hatred; and to the last moment of his life he pursued that unfortunate people with a rigour of persecution unparalleled in his treatment of other nations. The Jewish tribes of Kainoka, Koraidha, and the Nadhirites, lying in the vicinity of Medina, were singled out as the next objects of his warlike attempts; and as they fell an easy prey to the power of his arms, spoliation, banishment, and death were the several punishments to which he adjudged them, according to the grade of their crime in rejecting a prophet or opposing a conqueror.

Our intended limits will not permit us to enumerate the various battles fought by Mohammed during the five succeeding years. Suffice it to

say, that, according to the computation of some of his biographers, no less than twenty-seven expeditions were undertaken, in which he commanded personally, and in which nine pitched battles were fought. The heart sickens in following a professed messenger and apostle of God from one scene of blood and carnage to another, making the pretences of religion a cloak to cover the most unbounded ambition and the vilest sensuality. A mind untrained to a deep sense of the purity and peaceableness of the religion of Jesus may be dazzled by the glare of a tide of victories, and lose its detestation of the impostor in admiring the success of the conqueror. But to one who feels the force of Christian principles, no relief is afforded by the view of arduous battles won, of sieges undertaken, or of cities sacked or subjected, by the prowess of a leader whose career is stained like that of the founder of Islam.

One or two subsequent expeditions, however, are too important in the prophet's history to be passed over without notice. In the sixth year of the Hejira, with fourteen hundred men, he undertook what he declared to be a peaceful pilgrimage to the holy temple of Mecca. The inhabitants were jealous of his intentions; and while he halted. several days at Hodeibiya, from whence he despatched an emissary to announce his intention, they came to a determination to refuse him admittance, and sent him word, that if he entered the city, it must be by forcing his way at the point of the sword. Upon this intelligence, the warlike

pilgrim called his men together, and it was resolved to attack the city. The Meccans, in the mean time, having more accurately measured their strength, or estimated their policy, and having been, besides, somewhat wrought upon by an unexpected act of clemency on the part of Mohammed, in pardoning and dismissing eighty prisoners of their fellow-citizens, who had fallen into his hands, altered their purpose of resistance, and sent an ambassador to his camp to confer upon terms of peace. Some umbrage was given to the Moslems by the facility with which their leader waived the title of Apostle of God,* but the result was the concluding of a truce of ten years, in which it was stipulated, that the prophet and his followers should have free access to the city and temple whenever they pleased, during the period of the truce, provided they came unarmed as befitted pilgrims, and remained not above three days at a time. In the 48th chapter of the Koran, entitled "The Victory," the prophet thus alludes to the events of this ex pedition; "If the unbelieving Meccans had fought against you, verily they had turned their backs; and they would not have found a patron or protector; according to the ordinance of God, which hath been put in execution heretofore against the

* "In wording the treaty, when the prophet ordered All to begin with the form, In the name of the most merciful God, they (the Meccans) objected to it, and insisted that he should begin with this, In thy name, O God; which Mohammed submitted to, and proceeded to dictate: These are the conditions on which Mohammed, the apostle of God, has made peace with those of Mecca. To this Sohail again objected, saying, If we had acknowledged thee to be the apostle of God, we had not given thee any opposition. Whereupon Mohammed ordered Ali to write as Sohail desired, These are the conditions which Mohammed, the son of Abdal, lah," &c.-Sale's Koran, vol. 2 p. 384, note.

opposers of the prophets. It was he who restrained their hands from you, and your hands from them, in the valley of Mecca." The entrance into Mecca on this occasion is vaunted of by the apostle as the fulfilment of a prophetic dream. "Now hath God in truth verified unto his apostle the vision, wherein he said, Ye shall surely enter the holy temple of Mecca, if God please, in full security."

This event tended greatly to confirm the power of Mohammed; and not long after, he was solemnly inaugurated and invested with the authority of a king by his principal men. With the royal dignity he associated that of supreme pontiff of his religion, and thus became at once the king and priest of his Moslem followers, whose numbers had by this time swelled to a large amount. So intense had their devotion to their leader now become, that even a hair that had dropped from his head, and the water in which he washed himself, were carefully collected and preserved, as partaking of superhuman virtue. A deputy, sent from another city of Arabia to Medina to treat with the prophet, beheld with astonishment the blind and unbounded veneration of his votaries. "I have seen," said he, "the Chosroes of Persia, and the Cæsar of Rome, but never did I behold a king among his subjects like Mohammed among his companions."

With this new addition to his nominal authority, he began to assume more of the pomp and parade due to his rank. After the erection of the mosque at Medina, in which the prophet himself officiated

as leader of worship, he had for a long time no other convenience in the way of stand, desk, or pulpit, than the trunk of a palm-tree fixed perpendicularly in the ground, on the top of which he was accustomed to lean while preaching. This was now become too mean an accommodation, and by the advice of one of his wives he caused a pulpit to be constructed, with a seat and two steps attached to it, which he henceforth made use of instead of thebeam." The beam, however, was loath to be deprived of its honour, and the dealers in the marvellous among his followers say, that it gave an audible groan of regret when the prophet left it. Othman Ebn Affan, when he became Caliph, hung this pulpit with tapestry, and Moawiyah, another Caliph, raised it to a greater height by adding six steps more, in imitation, doubtless, of the ivory throne of Solomon, and in this form it is said to be preserved and shown at the present day, as a holy relic, in the mosque of Medina.

This year he led his army against Chaibar, a city inhabited by Arab Jews, who offering him a manly resistance, he laid siege to the place and carried it by storm. A great miracle is here said to have been performed by Ali, surnamed "The Lion of God." A ponderous gate, which eight men afterward tried in vain to lift from the ground, was torn by him from its hinges, and used as a buckler during the assault! Mohammed, on entering

*"Abu Rafe, the servant of Mohammed, is said to have affirmed that he was an eye-witness of the fact; but who will be witness for Abu Rafe?"-Gibbon.