Upon the conquest of Mecca, many of the tribes of the Arabs came and submitted to Mahomet; but the Hawazanites, the Thakishites, and part of the Saadites, assembled to the number of four thousand effective men, besides women and children, to oppose him. He went against them at the head of twelve thousand fighting men. At the first onset the Mussulmans, being received with a thick shower of arrows, were put to flight; but Mahomet, with great courage, rallied his men, and finally obtained the victory. The next considerable action was the siege of Taif, a town sixty miles east from Mecca. The Mussulmans set down before it and, having made several breaches with their engines, marched resolutely up to them, but were vigorously repulsed by the besieged. Mahomet, having by a herald proclaimed liberty to all the slaves who should come over to him, twenty-three deserted, to each of whom he assigned a Mussulman for a comrade. So inconsiderable a defection did not in the least abate the courage of the besieged; so that the prophet began to despair of reducing the place, and, after a dream, which Abu-Bekr interpreted unfavorably to the attempt, determined to raise the siege. His men, however, on being ordered to prepare for a retreat, began to murmur; whereupon he commanded them to be ready for an assault the next day. The assault being made the assailants were beaten back with great loss. To console them in their retreat, the prophet smiled, and said, "We will come here again, if it please God." When the army reached Jesana, where all the booty taken from the Hawazanites had been left, a deputation arrived from that tribe to beg it might be restored. The prophet having given them their option between the captives or their goods, they chose to have their wives and children again. Their goods being divided among the Mussulmans, Mahomet, in order to indemnify those who had been obliged to give up their slaves, gave up his own share of the plunder and divided it among them. To Malec, however, son of Awf, the general of the Hawazanites, he intimated that if he would embrace Islamism he should have all his goods as well as his family, and a present of one hundred camels besides. By this promise Malec was brought over to be so good a Mussulman that he had the command given him of all his countrymen who should at any time be converts, and was very serviceable against the Thakishites.
The prophet, after this, made a holy visit to Mecca, where he appointed Otab, son of Osaid, governor, though not quite twenty years of age; Maad, son of Jabal, imam, or chief priest, to teach the people Islamism, and direct them in solemnizing the pilgrimage. Upon his return to Medina his concubine, Mary, brought him a son, whom he named Ibrahim, celebrating his birth with a great feast. The child, however, lived but fifteen months.
In the ninth year of the Hegira envoys from all parts of Arabia came to Mahomet at Medina, to declare the readiness of their several tribes to profess his religion.
The same year Mahomet, with an army of thirty thousand men, marched toward Syria, to a place called Tobuc, against the Romans and Syrians, who were making preparation against him, but, upon his approach, retreated. The Mussulmans, in their march back toward Medina, took several forts of the Christian Arabs, and made them tributaries. Upon his return to Medina the Thakishites, having been blockaded in the Taif by the Mussulman tribes, sent deputies offering to embrace Islamism, upon condition of being allowed to retain a little longer an idol to which their people were bigotedly attached. When Mahomet insisted upon its being immediately demolished, they desired to be at least excused from using the Mussulmans' prayers, but to this he answered very justly, "That a religion without prayers was good for nothing." At last they submitted absolutely.
During the same year Mahomet sent Abu-Bekr to Mecca, to perform the pilgrimage, and sacrifice in his behalf twenty camels. Presently afterward he sent Ali to publish the ninth chapter of the Koran, which, though so placed in the present confused copy, is generally supposed to have been the last that was revealed. It is called "Barat," or Immunity; the purport of it is that the associators with whom Mahomet had made a treaty must, after four months' liberty of conscience, either embrace Islamism or pay tribute. The command runs thus: "When those holy months are expired, kill the idolaters wherever ye shall find them." Afterward come these words, "If they repent, and observe the times of prayer and give alms, they are to be looked upon as your brethren in religion." The same chapter also orders, "That nobody should, not having on the sacred habit, perform the holy circuits round the Kaaba; and that no idolater should make the pilgrimage to Mecca." In consequence, no person except a Mahometan may approach the Kaaba, on pain of death.
The following account of Mahomet's farewell pilgrimage is from Jaber, son of Abdallah, who was one of the company: "The apostle of God had not made the pilgrimage for nine years (for when he conquered Mecca he only made a visitation). In the tenth year of the Hegira, he publicly proclaimed his intention to perform the pilgrimage, whereupon a prodigious multitude of people (some make the number near one hundred thousand) flocked from all parts to Medina. Our chief desire was to follow the apostle of God, and imitate him. When we came to Dhul Holaifa, the apostle of God prayed in the mosque there; then mounting his camel he rode hastily to the plain Baida, where he began to praise God in the form that professes his unity, saying, 'Here I am, O God, ready to obey thee; thou hast no partner,' etc. When he came to the Kaaba, he kissed the corner of the black stone, went seven times round—three times in a trot, four times walking—then went to the station of Abraham, and coming again to the black stone, reverently kissed it. Afterward he went through the gate of the sons of Madhumi to the hill Safa, and went up it till he could see the Kaaba; when, turning toward the Kebla, he professed again the unity of God, saying, 'There is no God but one, his is the kingdom, to him be praises, he is powerful above everything,' etc. After this profession he went down toward the hill Merwan, I following him all the way through the valley; he then ascended the hill slowly till he came to the top of Merwan; from thence he ascended Mount Arafa. It being toward the going down of the sun, he preached here till sunset; then going to Mosdalefa, between Arafa and the valley of Mena, he made the evening and the late prayers, with two calls to prayer, and two risings up. Then he lay down till the dawn, and, having made the morning prayer, went to the enclosure of the Kaaba, where he remained standing till it grew very light. Hence he proceeded hastily, before the sun was up, to the valley of Mena; where, throwing up seven stones, he repeated at each throw, 'God is great,' etc. Leaving now the valley, he went to the place of sacrifice. Having made free sixty-three slaves, he slew sixty-three victims[63] with his own hand, being then sixty-three years old, and then ordered Ali to sacrifice as many more victims as would make up the number to one hundred. The next thing the apostle did was to shave his head, beginning on the right side of it, and finishing it on the left. His hair, as he cut it off, he cast upon a tree, that the wind might scatter it among the people. Kaled was fortunate enough to catch a part of the fore-lock, which he fixed upon his turban; the virtue whereof he experienced in every battle he afterward fought. The limbs of the victims being now boiled, the apostle sat down with no other companion but Ali to eat some of the flesh and drink some of the broth. The repast being over, he mounted his camel again and rode to the Kaaba; where he made the noon-tide prayer, and drank seven large draughts of the well Zem-zem, made seven circuits round the Kaaba, and concluded his career between the hills Safa and Merwan.
"The ninth day of the feast he went to perform his devotions on Mount Arafa. This hill, situated about a mile from Mecca, is held in great veneration by the Mussulmans as a place very proper for penitence. Its fitness in this respect is accounted for by a tradition that Adam and Eve, on being banished out of paradise, in order to do penance for their transgression were parted from each other, and after a separation of sixscore years met again upon this mountain."
At the conclusion of this farewell pilgrimage, as it was called, being the last he ever made, Mahomet reformed the calendar in two points: In the first place, he appointed the year to be exactly lunar, consisting of twelve lunar months; whereas before, in order to reduce the lunar to the solar year, they used to make every third year consist of thirteen months. And secondly, whereas the ancient Arabians held four months sacred, wherein it was unlawful to commit any act of hostility, he took away that prohibition, by this command, "Attack the idolaters in all the months of the year, as they attack you in all." (Koran, ix.)
In the eleventh year of the Hegira there arrived an embassy from Arabia Felix, consisting of about one hundred who had embraced Islamism. The same year Mahomet ordered Osama to go to the place where Zaid his father was slain at the battle of Muta, to revenge his death. This was the last expedition he ever ordered, for, being taken ill two days after, he died within thirteen days. The beginning of his sickness was a slow fever, which made him delirious. In his frenzy he called for pen, ink, and paper, and said he "would write a book that should keep them from erring after his death." But Omar opposed it, saying the Koran is sufficient, and that the prophet, through the greatness of his malady, knew not what he said. Others, however, expressing a desire that he would write, a contention arose, which so disturbed Mahomet that he bade them all begone. During his illness he complained of the poisoned meat he had swallowed at Khaibar. Some say, when he was dying, Gabriel told him the angel of death, who never before had been, nor would ever again be, so ceremonious toward anybody, was waiting for his permission to come in. As soon as Mahomet had answered, "I give him leave," the angel of death entered and complimented the prophet, telling him God was very desirous to have him, but had commanded he should take his soul or leave it, just as he himself should please to order. Mahomet replied, "Take it, then." [According to the testimony of all the Eastern authors Mahomet died on Monday the 12th Reby 1st, in the year 11 of the Hegira, which answers in reality to the 8th of June, A.D. 632.]
His grave was dug under the bed whereon he lay, in the chamber of Ayesha. The Arabian writers are very particular to tell us everything about the washing and embalming his body; who dug his grave, who put him in, etc.[64]