The safe arrival of Mahomet at his destination marks the turning-point
in his career, which now became one of almost unbroken success; his
intellectual superiority over both friends and enemies enabling him to
profit by defeat little less than by victory. His policy appears to have
been to bind his followers to himself and them to each other by every
possible tie; he instituted brotherhoods between the Refugees and
Helpers, which were to count as relationships for legal purposes, and
having himself no sons, he contracted numerous marriages partly with the
same end in view; e.g. with the infant daughter of Abu Bekr, Ayesha
('A'ishah), whose ability he appears to have discerned; and the
unamiable Hafsa, daughter of Omar. Of his own daughters three were given
to faithful allies, the one by whom his line is supposed to have been
continued to our time, Fatima, was reserved for his cousin Ali. Owing to
his efforts the alliance between the Refugees and Helpers resisted
numerous attempts on the part of enemies to break it up, and only
towards the end of the Prophet's life, when he appeared to favour
Meccans unduly, do we hear of any bitterness between the two
communities.
The Medina Community.
The population of Yathrib, or, as it may now be called, Medina, soon
divided into three groups: Mahomet's united followers; the Jews; and a
party known as the "Hypocrites," i.e. professing Moslems, who were
lukewarm, or disaffected, among whom the most prominent is `Abdallah b.
Ubayy, a Khazrajite chieftain, who is said to have himself aspired to be
despot of Yathrib, and who till nearly the end of Mahomet's career
figures somewhat as a leader of the opposition; of his importance there
is no question, but the reason for it and the mode whereby he made it
felt are often obscure. It would seem that the pagans remaining in
Yathrib speedily adopted Islam after the Prophet's arrival, whence we
hear little of serious opposition on their part. Coming in the capacity
of prophet of the Israelitish God, Mahomet at first seems to have
courted alliance with the Jews, and to have been ready to adopt their
system with very slight modifications--similar to those which, according
to his opinion, Jesus had come to introduce. The Jews met these advances
by submitting him to examination in the intricacies of the _Torah_, and,
finding him very poorly equipped, proceeded to denounce him as an
imposter; one of his examiners is said to have even translated the
_Torah_ into Arabic with a view of convicting him of ignorance and
imposture. They are' further charged with exercising their magical arts
on the Prophet and his followers, and to have succeeded thereby in
producing barrenness among the Moslem women. Their conduct must not of
course be judged by the statement of their enemies; it is however clear
that Mahomet soon found that there was no possibility of compromising
with them on religious questions, or of obtaining their loyal support;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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