Mohammed

love

Contents

Introduction

Further Reading

Life of Mahomet

Author’s Preface

Chapter 1: Preliminary notice of Arabia and the Arabs

Chapter 2: Birth and parentage of Mahomet – his infancy and childhood

Chapter 3: Traditions concerning Mecca and the Caaba

Chapter 4: First journey of Mahomet with the caravan to Syria

Chapter 5: Commercial occupations of Mahomet – his marriage with Cadijah

Chapter 6: Conduct of Mahomet after his marriage – becomes anxious for religious reform – his habits of solitary abstraction – the vision of the cave – his annunciation as a prophet

Chapter 7: Mahomet inculcates his doctrines secretly and slowly – receives further revelations and commands – announces it to his kindred – manner in which it was received – enthusiastic devotion of Ali – Christian portents

Chapter 8: Outlines of the Mahometan faith

Chapter 9: Ridicule cast on Mahomet and his doctrines – demand for miracles – conduct of Abu Taleb – violence of the Koreishites – Mahomet’s daughter Rokaia, with her uncle Othman, and a number of disciples, take refuge in Abyssinia – Mahomet in the house of Orkham – hostility of Abu Jahl; his punishment

Chapter 10: Omar Ibn al Khattâb, nephew of Abu Jahl, undertakes to revenge his uncle by slaying Mahomet – his wonderful conversion to the faith – Mahomet takes refuge in a castle of Abu Taleb – Abu Sofian, at the head of the rival branch of Koreishites, persecutes Mahomet and his followers – obtains a decree of non-intercourse with them – Mahomet leaves his retreat and makes converts during the month of pilgrimage – legend of the conversion of Habib the Wise

Chapter 11: The ban of non-intercourse mysteriously destroyed – Mahomet enabled to return to Mecca – death of Abu Taleb; of Cadijah – Mahomet betrothes himself to Ayesha – marries Sawda – the Koreishites renew their persecution – Mahomet seeks an asylum in Tayef – his expulsion thence – visited by genii in the desert of Naklah

Chapter 12: Night journey of the prophet from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to the seventh heaven

Chapter 13: Mahomet makes converts of pilgrims from Medina – determines to fly to that city – a plot to slay him – his miraculous escape – his Hegira, or flight – his reception at Medina

Chapter 14: Moslems in Medina, Mohadjerins and Ansarians – the party of Abdallah Ibn Obba and the Hypocrites – Mahomet builds a mosque; preaches; makes converts among the Christians – the Jews slow to believe – brotherhood established between fugitives and allies

Chapter 15: Marriage of Mahomet with Ayesha – of his daughter Fatima with Ali – their household arrangements

Chapter 16: The sword announced as the instrument of faith – first foray against the Koreishites – surprisal of a caravan

Chapter 17: The battle of Beder

Chapter 18: Death of the prophet’s daughter Rokaia – restoration of his daughter Zeinab – effect of the prophet’s malediction on Abu Lahab and his family – frantic rage of Henda, the wife of Abu Sofian – Mahomet narrowly escapes assassination – embassy of the Koreishites – the king of Abyssinia

Chapter 19: Growing power of Mahomet – his resentment against the Jews – insult to an Arab damsel by the Jewish tribe of Kainoka – a tumult – the Beni Kainoka take refuge in the Ircastle – sub­dued and punished by confiscation and banishment – marriage of Othman to the prophet’s daughter Omm Kolthum, and of the prophet to Hafza

Chapter 20: Henda incites Abu Sofian and the Koreishites to revenge the death of her relations slain in the battle of Beder – the Koreishites sally forth, followed by Henda and her female companions – battle of Ohod – ferocious triumph of Henda – Mahomet consoles himself by marrying Hend, the daughter of Omeya

Chapter 21: Treachery of certain Jewish tribes; their punishment – devotion of the prophet’s freedman Zeid; divorces his beautiful wife Zeinab, that she may become the wife of the prophet

Chapter 22: Expedition of Mahomet against the Beni Mostalek – he espouses Barra, a captive – treachery of Abdallah Ibn Obba – Ayesha slandered – her vindication – her innocence proved by a revelation

Chapter 23: The battle of the moat – bravery of Saad Ibn Moad – defeat of the Koreishites – capture of the Jewish castle of Koraida – Saad decides as to the punishment of the Jews – Mahomet espouses Rehana, a Jewish captive – his life endangered by sorcery; saved by a revelation of the angel Gabriel

Chapter 24: Mahomet undertakes a pilgrimage to Mecca – evades Khaled and a troop of horse sent against him – encamps near Mecca – negotiates with the Koreishites for permission to enter and complete his pilgrimage – treaty for ten years, by which he is permitted to make a yearly visit of three days – he returns to Medina

Chapter 25: Expedition against the city of Khaïbar; siege – exploits of Mahomet’s captains – battle of Ali and Marhab – storming of the citadel – Ali makes a buckler of the gate – capture of the place – Mahomet poisoned; he marries Safiya, a captive; also Omm Habiba, a widow

Chapter 26: Missions to various princes; to Heraclius; to Khosru II; to the prefect of Egypt – their result

Chapter 27: Mahomet’s pilgrimage to Mecca; his marriage with Maimuna – Khaled Ibn al Waled and Amru Ibn al Aass become proselytes

Chapter 28: A Moslem envoy slain in Syria – expedition to avenge his death – Battle of Muta – its results

Chapter 29: Designs upon Mecca – mission of Abu Sofian – its result

Chapter 30: Surprise and capture of Mecca

Chapter 31: Hostilities in the mountains – enemy’s camp in the valley of Autas – battle at the pass of Honein – capture of the enemy’s camp – interview of Mahomet with the nurse of his childhood – division of spoil – Mahomet at his mother’s grave

Chapter 32: Death of the prophet’s daughter Zeinab – birth of his son Ibrahim – deputations from distant tribes – poetical contest in presence of the prophet – his susceptibility to the charms of poetry – reduction of the city of Tayef; destruction of its idols – negotiation with Amir Ibn Tafiel, a proud Bedouin chief; independent spirit of the latter – interview of Adi, another chief, with Mahomet

Chapter 33: Preparations for an expedition against Syria – intrigues of Abdallah Ibn Obba – contributions of the faithful – march of the army – the accursed region of Hajar – encampment at Tabuc – subjugation of the neigh­bouring provinces – Khaled surprises Okaider and his castle – return of the army to Medina

Chapter 34: Triumphal entry into Medina – punishment of those who had refused to join the campaign – effects of excommunication – death of Abdallah Ibn Obba – dissensions in the prophet’s harem

Chapter 35: Abu Beker conducts the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca – mission of Ali to announce a revelation

Chapter 36: Mahomet sends his captains on distant enterprises – appoints lieutenants to govern in Arabia Felix – sends Ali to suppress an insurrection in that province – death of the prophet’s only son Ibrahim – his conduct at the death-bed and the grave – his growing infirmities – his valedictory pilgrimage to Mecca, and his conduct and preaching while there

Chapter 37: Of the two false prophets Al Aswad and Moseïlma

Chapter 38: An army prepared to march against Syria – command given to Osama – the prophet’s farewell address to the troops – his last illness – his sermons in the mosque – his death and the attending circumstances

Chapter 39: Person and character of Mahomet, and speculations on his prophetic career

Appendix:

Of the Islam faith

Religious practice

Notes to Washington Irving’s Life of Mahomet

Introduction

As he writes in his preface, Washington Irving first sketched out a life of the prophet Mohammed as an introduction to a sequence of books that he planned to write about the long Arab presence in Spain. This period in Spanish history, which lasted nearly eight centuries, was a source of fascination to Irving, who submitted willingly to the romance of orientalism. During a prolonged stay in the Andalusian city of Granada, he was lucky enough (contemporaries would have called it foolish) to live in the crumbling and neglected Moorish palace of the Alhambra, a gloomy place avoided by most locals. Not very long before, only tramps and criminal gangs had lived there; by the time Irving arrived, a resident garrison of veterans had cleared the palace of its most undesirable elements. Today, of course, as a highly profitable tourist attraction, the Alhambra is a source of great pride to the Spanish. But before Irving made its name known to the world the place was part of the detritus of history: a visible, if thickly overgrown, reminder of a vanished Muslim power that had lost its last foothold in Spain when the Moors were expelled in 1492.

Romantic love for an ancient race of desert conquerors did not extend to sharing their religion, and Irving offered not the slightest allegiance to Islam. His Life of Mahomet is a book by a non-Muslim written for non-Muslims. This was a much more straightforward task than a life of Jesus would be for a non-Christian. Quite simply, the known facts about the life of the prophet Mohammed are fairly plentiful. For the early years the material is patchy, and from the relatively short time of his recognition as a leader there are some events and motives that are the subject of dispute or controversy. But this happens in all biography. What is remarkable about Mo­hammed, considering when he lived, is not how little we know but how much. Contrast this with Jesus, whose life is an almost total blank until the last three years or so before his death; even then the only reports we have are of his sayings (which could have been altered or embellished) and his miracles (which could be inventions).

There are miracles in the story of Mohammed – though he never claimed any for himself. There are meetings with angels. There is a night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, where he ascends to the seventh heaven, is welcomed by Abraham and Moses and finds himself in the presence of Allah. We may find ourselves, as Irving did, inclined to be sceptical of such accounts, and suspicious too that a number of the divine revelations announced by Mohammed seem to have arrived at precisely the right moment to extricate him from some personal difficulty. But if we do as Irving did and set these to one side, we are still left with a gripping and astonishing story. Here is a man who declares war on the idolatrous religions of his home city, proclaiming instead the pure message of the earlier prophets, that there is only one true God. And war means war. His followers ride out on their horses and camels, with swords and bows and spears, to do battle in the mountains and the desert. The life of Mohammed, as told by Irving, is as much about blood and vengeance as it is about spiritual teaching. For us today, the con-sequences are still unfolding: reason to reflect on the momentous actions of one individual who joined conviction, resoluteness, courage and self-mastery in the pursuit of a religious vision.

Though it was begun in 1826, this life of Mohammed was put aside and tinkered with again and again before it reached the public. It finally appeared in 1850 as the first part of Mahomet and His Successors, a large volume in which the successors were allotted much more space than the prophet himself. However stirring their stories may be, after a while the relentless sequence of battles and intrigues induces in most readers a kind of desert fatigue. For all but the most dedicated Islamist, only the part that deals with Mohammed himself is of enduring interest, and it is that portion of the original publication that is presented here.

The western spread of Islam

The new religion spread with extraordinary speed through the Arab world and beyond. European history is dotted with landmarks of conflict between Christians and Muslims: the Crusades, the battle of Kosovo in 1389, the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the two sieges of Vienna, the subjection of Greece and its eventual independence in 1832. What is usually forgotten is the inconvenient fact that less than 80 years after the prophet’s death in 632, Muslim invaders from north Africa crossed over into Spain and in the space of only seven years conquered almost the entire peninsular. By 718 a few small districts in the north and north-west were all that remained under Visigothic control. The following year the Muslim army pressed into France, where its northward progress was eventually halted at the battle of Poitiers in 732. By going so far they had overreached themselves. But safely ensconced south of the Pyrenees, they imposed themselves for over 200 years on the indigenous population with little serious opposition. Four-fifths of the land was parcelled out to Muslims, while the remaining one-fifth was held by the state and allotted to Christians in return for a high proportion of the produce. In 929 the emirate of Cordoba, which nominally was still part of the caliphate of Damascus, declared itself an independent caliphate; it was to last for just over a hundred years. This period saw the fullest flowering of Islamic culture in Spain.

The echoes from that ancient time have hardly stopped resoun­ding ever since. To traditional Spanish Catholics, the capture in 1492 of Granada, last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain, was the most glorious achievement of the Christian monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella – even more significant than their dispatching of Columbus the same year to discover a western route to India (or whatever else might lie in his path). Shortly before the Spanish civil war that began in 1936, the poet Federico García Lorca, himself a native of Granada, was asked in an interview for his opinion on what had happened to his city all that time ago.

It was a disastrous event, even though they say the opposite in the schools. An admirable civilisation, and a poetry, architecture and delicacy unique in the world – all were lost, to give way to an impoverished, cowed town, a wasteland populated by the worst bourgeoisie in Spain today.

This was not tactful. By the worst bourgeoisie he meant those who sided with the landowners and the Church, for whom Ferdinand and Isabella were the great saviours of Spain. It was a comment still fresh in the minds of that same bourgeoisie when they seized Granada later in 1936 and embarked on a merciless slaughter of their opponents, the liberals, intellectuals and comm­un­ists. Lorca was one of their first victims.

To the pro-Franco nationalists the true Spain was a Christian land and the Muslim invasion had been a defilement. Lorca and his friends were vermin: unpatriotic and dissolute, they needed to be exterminated. At times like this, simple minds take charge and adopt simple solutions.

Such a future could never have been imagined in the mind of Washington Irving as he travelled through southern Spain in the spring and summer of 1829. Even if the circumstances had not been utterly different, Irving was not the man to contemplate the vilest depths of evil without blinking. For him, everything he saw on his travels held a rosy charm. Tales of robbers and bandits on the road only added to the colour. But like Lorca, he felt the presence of those who were there before him, and like Lorca he was attracted towards a culture that was strict in its religion yet reluctant to believe that the pleasures of the flesh were especially sinful.

It is impossible to travel about Andalusia and not imbibe a kind feeling for those Moors. They deserved this beautiful country. They won it bravely; they enjoyed it generously and kindly. No lover ever delighted more to cherish and adorn a mistress, to heighten and illustrate her charms, and to vindicate and defend her against all the world than did the Moors to embellish, enrich, elevate, and defend their beloved Spain.

Irving in the Alhambra

When Irving went to Spain in 1826 he was America’s most famous writer. The invitation to attach himself to the Legation in Madrid had come at his own prompting, at one of those recurring periods when he was uncertain which direction his writing ought to take next. Once there, he immersed himself in a wealth of freshly published material about Columbus, and in two years succeeded in producing a work that advanced his reputation still further, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Col-umbus. But when the work appeared in the summer of 1828 he was already absorbed in something new, in a style that was perfectly adapted to his temperament. This was the The Conquest of Granada, ‘something of an experiment’, as he described it, using old histories ‘embellished, as I am able, by the imagination, and adapted to the romantic taste of the day’. The result was halfway between a history and a romance. Fields are strewn with corpses and fountains run red with blood, but there is little to suggest any serious consequences in the form of pain and suffering.

To help him recreate these medieval legends of chivalry and daring, Irving travelled south, first to Seville and then Granada. The provincial governor was honoured to meet the great Amer­ican and offered him the use of his own official apartments in the Alhambra, explaining that he never used them himself as the centre of town was more convenient for doing business. Irving gratefully accepted, and was immediately in love with the palace and its accumulated memories. The governor’s lodgings were modern and lacking in ghostly atmosphere, so Irving was delighted to discover on one of his rambles some deserted old apartments that had once been used by Isabella Farnese, Philip V’s queen. To the alarm of his house­keeper he insisted on moving in. There he lived in blissful solitude.

He finished his Conquest of Granada, and then began a personal memoir of his stay, The Alhambra. For relaxation, he loved to sit at his window, watching the movements in the town down below, listening to the sounds that drifted up from the distant houses of its inhabitants. Immersed in the delights of a picturesque present, he gave himself up to dreams of the past. The dreams were soft-edged and blurred with sentiment, bright with gorgeous apparel and rich ornaments. The romantic spirit of Walter Scott became sensualised in the languorous heat of the south.

The more I contemplate these places, the more my admiration is awakened for the elegant habits and delicate taste of the Moorish monarchs. The delicately ornamented walls; the aromatic groves, mingling with the freshness and the enlivening sounds of foun­tains and rivers of water; the retired baths, bespeaking purity and refine­ment; the balconies and galleries, open to the fresh moun­tain breeze, and overlooking the loveliest scenery of the valley of the Darro and the magnificent expanse of the vega – it is impossible to contemplate this delicious abode and not feel an admiration of the genius and the poetical spirit of those who first devised this earthly paradise.

Irving’s picture of Mohammed

As far as one can tell, Irving knew very little about the Islam of his own time and had no contact with any Muslims. Nor is there any reason to suppose that they would have been of special interest to him. What drew Irving to write about Mohammed was not a religion of the present but a culture of the past. Nevertheless, he could not entirely escape the duty of any biographer to offer the reader some kind of conclusion about his subject. It was not Irving’s way to stir up a hornet’s nest; indeed he was generally careful not to express a view if he suspected it might cause offence. Yet to write a life of Mohammed without coming down on one side or the other of a religious divide is not possible. If he really was God’s prophet, as he said, and the Koran was given to him by God, as he said, we must profess the faith of Islam. If he was not and the Koran was his own creation, there are serious accusations to be made. It may be going too far to call him an impostor, which was the traditional Christian standpoint. But on the most lenient interpretation, he was guilty of self-deception and a certain degree of special pleading on his own behalf.

One benefit of the long delay between starting and finishing his Mohammed project was that it gave Irving time to learn some­thing about the study of religion on historical principles. This approach, which raised hopes of achieving at least a modicum of scientific objectivity, was still new at that time. An important work for Irving’s purpose was Gustav Weil’s Mohammed der Prophet, sein Leben und sein Lehre, which came out in 1843. To find his subject treated in such a scholarly and dispassionate way was a valuable example. He was certainly not going to leave out any fanciful claim of a healing miracle if it made a good story, but he was careful to stress that such tales were part of an unreliable tradition.