_ CHAPTER XXXI. THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ISLAMISM
Captain Ringgold permitted the day, which was only the second of the voyage, to pass away until half past three o'clock in the afternoon without again calling the conference together. The passengers appeared to be well occupied; for the boys had brought shuffle-board and the potato game on the planks, and everybody was enjoying these plays, either by taking part or looking on. The commander had taught them these amusements early in their sea experience, and they always became very hilarious over them.
Besides, he was prudent and judicious in the conduct of the study department; for the adults were not in training as students, and he was somewhat afraid of overworking them, and creating a dislike for the conferences. As he expressed it, he desired to make them hungry for lectures. The schoolroom, which had been made of the after cabin, and contained the extensive library of the ship, had been deserted for several weeks so far as its regular use was concerned.
Miss Blanche, Louis, Morris, and Scott formed a class, or rather several of them, and pursued their studies systematically under the professor; but they had been interrupted by the visit to Egypt and the trip to Cyprus, and their work was not resumed till the ship sailed from Suez. The recitations and the study were not confined to the classroom, but some of them were given on deck and in the cabin to individuals as the convenience of both permitted; and some of the hours of the first two days had been used in this manner.
"Now you can see Yembo," said the commander at half-past three in the afternoon, as he pointed out a town on the shore of Arabia. "The name is spelled in so many different ways it is hard to find it in the books. Sometimes it is Yembo, Yanba, and Yembu, and again it is Zembo, Zambu, and Zanba. It is Yembo on my charts, and for that reason I use it. It is of not much importance except as the port of Medina, the later home of Mohammed, where the professor will take you at the next conference this afternoon.
"But it is one hundred and thirty miles from its principal, and there are no railroads or stages here, and it must be a journey of four or five days by camel over the desert. A pilgrimage to Medina is recommended to the faithful; but it is not required, as it is at least once in a lifetime to Mecca. Mohammed was buried there, and it stands next to Mecca as the holiest city of the world to the followers of Islam. But I will not purloin the professor's thunder. On the other side of the Red Sea is Berenice, the seat of the Egyptian trade with India in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus; but there is not much besides ruins there at the present time."
The conference met at four o'clock, and the map of Arabia still hung on the frame. The professor took his place, and pointed out Yembo on it, adding that Medina was two hundred and seventy miles north of Mecca.
"When I suspended my remarks this morning, Mohammed had failed to improve his fortunes by emigration, had returned to Mecca, and had married again," the professor began. "At his death he left nine wives, and how many more he may have had I am not informed."
"The wretch!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom.
"The Prophet did not live in Von Blonk Park," suggested the instructor.
"If he had, he would have been driven out of town by a mob," added the lady rather spitefully for her.
"On this subject, if I should refer you to some of the patriarchs of the Bible, you would be able to see how much Christianity has improved the world in this respect. Among the wives of the Prophet was Ayeshah, the daughter of Abu Bekr, one of Mohammed's most enthusiastic disciples, a man of great influence in Mecca, belonging to the Koreish tribe, the religious aristocracy of the city.
"Everything except matrimony, though he had not married all these wives at this time, was in a bad way with Mohammed; for he had lost his property, and had excited a violent opposition to himself among the people, though some of his proselytes remained faithful to him. The pilgrimages to the Kaaba brought many people to Mecca from all quarters, including Medina. Among those from the latter he succeeded in converting several; for he still preached, and still had remarkable visions.
"At the next pilgrimage he obtained twelve more converts, and the one following seventy. All these new disciples sowed the seed of his teachings; and Medina, from which all of them came, appeared to contain the richest soil for the growth of his doctrines. Cast out and persecuted in his own city, the Prophet decided to emigrate to Medina; for he was in close alliance with the converts from that place. In 622 he started on his flight from the city of his birth. This was the Hegira, which means 'the going away;' and from it the Mohammedans reckon their dates, as we do from the birth of Christ.
"The Prophet was attended by Abu Bekr, and followed by about a hundred families of his Meccan adherents; and his going away was not without danger, for his enemies were many and vindictive. But with his multitude he made his way over the desert, and reached his destination in safety. He was received for all he claimed to be by his converts there, and the current of his fortunes as a religious leader was suddenly and entirely changed. He was no longer a madman and an impostor. He had come out of his former obscurity, and now all the details of his daily life became matters of record.
"His modesty did not seem to stand in his way; and he now assumed the functions of the most powerful judge, lawgiver, and ruler of the two most influential Arabic tribes. He devoted his time and study to the organization of the worship of God according to Mohammed, his sole prophet. He was gathering in converts all the time, and his new home was entirely favorable to this work.
"There were many Jews there to whom he turned his attention, preaching to them, and proclaiming that he was the Messiah whose coming they awaited; but they ridiculed his pretensions, and he became furious against them, remaining their enemy till the last day of his life. Whatever good precepts Mohammed promulgated, there appears to have been but little of the 'meek and lowly' spirit of Him 'who spake as never man spake;' for in the first year of the Hegira he gave it out that it was the will of God, expressed by his chosen prophet, that the faithful should make war on the enemies of Islam; which was a sort of manifesto directed against the Meccans who had practically cast him out.
"But he had not the means to carry on war at his command at first in the open field: he assailed the caravans through his agents on their way to and from Syria, and succeeded in seriously disturbing the current of trade. His employment of the sons of the desert enabled him to form alliances with them, and thus obtain the semblance of an army. His first battle was fought between 314 Moslems and about 600 Meccans, and the inspiration of his fanaticism gave him the victory in spite of his inferior force.
"This event gave him a degree of prestige, and many adventurers flocked to his standard. With an increased force he continued to send out expeditions against both of his old enemies, the Meccans and the Jews, exiling the latter. He was generally successful; and after one battle he caused 700 prisoners to be beheaded, and their women and children to be sold into slavery. But in 625 the Meccans defeated him; and he was dangerously wounded in the face by a javelin, some of his teeth having been knocked out. The enemy then besieged Medina; but Mohammed defeated them with the aid of earthworks and a ditch. In the sixth year of the Hegira, he proclaimed a pilgrimage to Mecca; and though the Meccans prevented it from being carried out, it led to a treaty of peace with them for ten years.
"This event enabled him to send out missionaries all over Arabia; and the next year he conducted a pilgrimage to Mecca with 2,000 followers, remaining there undisturbed for three days. After this he carried on war vigorously against more potent powers, whose rulers he summoned to become converts. Some yielded, and others scorned him, one of them beheading the Prophet's messengers. This brought on battles of greater magnitude, and in one he was badly beaten.
"He accused the Meccans of taking part against him, and marched against their city at the head of 10,000 men. It surrendered, and Mohammed was publicly recognized as ruler, and prophet of God. I will read one of his sayings, that you may better understand the man and his religion: 'The sword is the key of heaven and hell: a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, or a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer. Whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven him, and at the day of judgment the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of cherubim.'
"In one of his expeditions against the Jews, a Jewess who had lost a relative in a fight against him placed a piece of poisoned roast meat before him. He barely tasted it, but he carried the effects of the poison to his grave.
"His religion seemed to be firmly established, not only in Arabia, but it had been carried to foreign lands by the sword or by missionaries. He had it in his mind to conquer Syria; but the want of a sufficient army deterred him, and he was forced to content himself with the homage of a few inferior princes. In the tenth year of the new calendar he made his last solemn pilgrimage to Mecca, and then fixed for all future time the ordinance of the pilgrimage with its ceremonial, which is still observed in all Moslem countries.
"On his return from this visit he busied himself again with the project of conquering Syria; for some great scheme seemed to be necessary to keep his followers in alliance, and extend his religion. While so engaged he was taken dangerously sick. He selected the abode of Ayeshah as his home. The house was close to the mosque, and afterwards became a part of it. He continued to attend the public prayers as long as he was able. When he felt that his end was near, he preached once more to the people, recommending Abu Bekr and Osama as the generals of the army whom he had chosen. In the last wanderings of his mind he spoke of angels and heaven only, and died in the arms of Ayeshah. He was buried in the night in the house of his faithful wife, which was for that reason taken into the mosque.
"His death produced great distress and an immense excitement among his followers. Even before he was dead the struggle began, and an influential official had prevented him from naming his successor by preventing him from obtaining the use of writing materials; but Abu Bekr was preferred, and received the homage of the chief men of Medina. Undoubtedly Mohammed was a man of great ability, and the possessor of some extraordinary gifts. There was much that was good in the person and his religion; much that Christianity preaches as the true faith to-day. He believed in the one God, however much he failed to comprehend his attributes.
"He claimed to be the Prophet of God, and preached piety and righteousness, and recommended chiefly that his followers should protect the weak, the poor, and the women, and to abstain from usury. In his private character he was an amiable man, faithful to his friends, and tender in his family. In spite of the power he finally obtained, he never appeared in any state, with pomp and parade; for he lived in the utmost simplicity, and when at the height of his power he dwelt like the Arabs in general in a miserable hut. He mended his own clothes, and freed his slaves when he had them.
"He was a man of strong passions, of a nervous temperament, and his ecstatic visions were perhaps the result of his inherited malady. He is not to be judged by our standard any more than King Solomon is; but there was a great deal of good in him, with a vast deal that was emphatically bad; for he was cunning and deceitful when it suited his purpose, extremely revengeful, as shown in his dealings with the Meccans and the Jews, and a wholesale murderer in the spirit of retaliation.
"He had read the Christian Bible, and not a little of his religion was borrowed from that. Glancing over the world, we cannot help seeing that Christian nations have been the most progressive, while those of the Mohammedan faith have been far behind them, and have borrowed their principal improvements from those whose emblem is the Cross. To the end of time the Crescent will be overshadowed by the Cross."
The passengers had been much interested in the story of the Prophet, and the professor was warmly applauded as he gathered up his papers and retired from the stand.
"Unless we slow down I am afraid you will see nothing of Jiddah, which is the port of Mecca, and our nearest point to it," said the commander. "Though thousands of pilgrims are landed there every year on their way to obey the injunction of Mohammed, there is nothing there to see; and it is not a case of sour grapes."
"I wanted to ask the professor about the coffin of the Prophet being suspended in the air," interposed Mrs. Belgrave.
"That is pure fiction, madam," replied the professor. "The body of Mohammed is believed to rest within the mausoleum in the mosque; and there is no reason to doubt that it is on the spot occupied by Ayeshah's house, added to the sacred building. His body is supposed to lie undecayed at full length, on the right side, the right hand supporting the head, with the face directed towards Mecca."
The professor had to answer many other questions of no great importance. _