Chapter IX

ENROLMENT OF THE BEDOUIN TRIBES FOR WAR BEYOND ARABIA.

[Sidenote: Opposition beaten down in Arabia.]

With the campaign in Hadhramaut, opposition in Arabia was at an end. A brief review may be of use before we pass on to the wars without.

[Sidenote: Review of the military operations which crushed the apostasy.]

North, east, south, and west throughout the peninsula, the circle of victory was now complete. It began, we might say, with the avenging expedition of Osâma, directed by the Prophet against the Syrian border. This was followed up, more leisurely, by the arms of Amru, who restored the prestige of Islam amongst the Codhâa and other tribes on the Roman frontier. During Osâma’s absence the brave Caliph, with but a scanty following, beat back the rebel tribes which, hovering around Medîna, threatened the heart of Islam. Then followed Khâlid’s brilliant achievements, which, beginning with the Beni Tay on the north-east, and reclaiming the apostate tribes as he moved south, ended with the bloody and decisive field of Yemâma in the centre of Arabia. The flower of the Moslem troops was engaged in this great struggle, which decided the fate of Islam, then trembling in the balance; and while it was in progress, operations languished elsewhere. Subsequently, the campaign throughout the peninsula was carried on vigorously, but in many quarters with limited resources and varying fortune; till Ikrima, sweeping down the eastern coast, joined Mohâjir in the south, and stamped out the last embers of apostasy.

The rebellion was totally suppressed, but the people remained still backward and sullen. [Sidenote: Arabia sullen, till roused by the war-cry from without.]The wild and turbulent tribes were brought back unwillingly. They chafed at the demand of tithe and obedience to Medîna. It was simply force and fear that as yet attached them to the Caliph. The question occurs, what would have been the fortune of Islam had no grand impulse arisen from without? It may be difficult to say, but the prospect certainly was not encouraging. Convictions so shallow and aspirations so low as those of the Bedouin would soon have disappeared; and force and fear could not long have availed to hold together the repellent atoms which go to form the Arab nation. The South was jealous of the North; the Bedouins of the desert scorned the population settled in towns and villages; every tribe had some cause of rivalry with its neighbour; new feuds were ever arising out of the law of blood. Even in Medîna, the cradle of the faith, the Beni Aus were impatient of the Beni Khazraj, and both were jealous of the Refugees from Mecca. The only authority recognised by a Bedouin is the authority of his tribal chief, and even that sits lightly. To him freedom is life; and dependence on a central power most hateful. The yoke of Islam (had nothing external supervened) would soon have been shaken off, and Arabia returned again to its former state. But fortunately for Islam (sadly for the interests of humanity) a new idea electrified the nation. No sooner was apostasy put down than, first in Chaldæa and then in Syria, collision with the Christian tribes kindled the fire of foreign war; and forthwith the Arabs, both town and Bedouin, were riveted to Islam by a common bond--the love of rapine and the lust of spoil.

[Sidenote: The Moslems crusade due to circumstances rather than design.]

That the heritage of Islam is the world was an afterthought. The idea (spite of much proleptic tradition) had presented itself but dimly, if at all, to Mahomet himself. His world was Arabia; and for it Islam was sent. From first to last the call was made primarily to Arabs and to them alone. It is true that, some years before his death, Mahomet had summoned certain kings and princes to confess the catholic faith of Abraham; but the step had not in any way been followed up. Nor was it otherwise with the command to fight against idolators, Jews, and Christians: that command was announced to the Arab tribes assembled in pilgrimage at Minâ;[90] it had reference only to them, and had no immediate bearing whatever on warfare beyond the bounds of the peninsula. The Prophet’s dying legacy was to the same effect:--‘See,’ said he, ‘that there be but one faith throughout Arabia.’ The seed of a universal claim, indeed, had been sown; but that it ever germinated was due to circumstances rather than design. Even Omar, after his _rôle_ of splendid victories, manifested a continual dread lest his armies should proceed too far; and, separated by some gulf or mountain range, should be cut off from succour and exposed to danger. Therefore he set barriers (as we shall see) to the ambition of his people, beyond which they should not pass.

[Sidenote: The Arabs issue forth as the conquerors of the world.]

Nevertheless, universal empire was altogether in accord with the spirit of the faith. ‘When a people leaveth off to fight in the ways of the Lord,’ said Abu Bekr in his inaugural address (and, in saying it, struck the key-note of Islam), ‘the Lord casteth off that people.’ And so, when the Rubicon, the border land of Arabia, was once crossed, the horizon enlarged in ever-widening circles, till it embraced the world. Now indeed the marauding spirit of the Bedouin was in unison with the militant spirit of Islam. The cry of plunder and of conquest reverberated throughout the land, and was answered eagerly. The movement began naturally with the tribes in the north which had been first reclaimed from their apostasy, and whose restless spirit led them over the frontier. Later on, in the second year of the Caliphate, the exodus spread to the people of the south. At first the Caliph forbade that help should be taken from such as had backslidden. The privilege of fighting for the faith was reserved for those who had remained firm in its profession. But, step by step, as new spheres opened out, and the cry ran through the land for fresh levies to fill up the ‘martyr’ gaps, the ban was put aside, and all were welcome. Warrior after warrior, column after column, whole tribes in endless succession, with their women and children, issued forth to battle. And ever, at the marvellous tale of cities conquered, of booty rich beyond compute, of fair captives distributed on the field--‘to every man a damsel or two,’ and, above all, at the sight of the royal Fifth of spoil and slaves sent to Medîna--fresh tribes arose and went. Onward and still onward, like swarms from the hive, one after another they poured forth, pressed first to the north, and spread thence in great masses to the east and west.

[Sidenote: Discredit still attaching to apostasy.]

It must not, however, be overlooked that though apostasy was thus condoned, and in the blaze of victory almost forgotten, a certain discredit still clung to the backslider. His guilt was not like that of others who had committed sins, however black, ignorantly before conversion. The apostate, having been once enlightened, cast by his fall a deliberate slur upon Islam. And therefore no chief who had joined the great apostasy was ever promoted to a chief command. He might fight, and was welcome, in the ranks, and was even allowed to head small parties of fifty or a hundred; but to the last the post of leader was denied him.

[Sidenote: Slaves of Arab blood set free.]

The Arab race, thus emerging from its desert-home, became the aristocracy of Islam. Conquered nations, even if they embraced the faith, fell into a lower class. The Arabs were the dominant caste wheresoever they might go, and it was only as ‘clients’ of the noble race that people of other lands could share their privileges--crumbs, as it were, which fell from off their table. Yet great numbers of the Arabs themselves were slaves, taken prisoner during the apostasy or in previous intertribal warfare, and held in captivity by their fellow-countrymen. Omar felt the inconsistency. It was not fit that any of the noble race should remain in bondage. When, therefore, he succeeded to the Caliphate, he decreed their freedom. ‘The Lord,’ he said, ‘hath given to us of Arab blood the victory, and great conquests without. It is not meet that any one of us, taken captive in the days of ignorance,[91] or in the wars against the apostate tribes, should be holden in slavery.’ All slaves of Arab descent were accordingly ransomed, excepting only such bondmaids as had borne their masters children. Men who had lost wives or children now set out in search, if haply they might find and claim them. Strange tales are told of some of these disconsolate journeys. Ashâth recovered two of his wives taken captive in Nojeir. But some of the women who had been carried prisoners to Medîna preferred remaining with their captors.[92]

[Sidenote: Death of Fâtima, the Prophet’s daughter.]

Before passing on to more stirring scenes, it may be proper here to notice some domestic events occurring in the first year of Abu Bekr’s Caliphate. In it Fâtima, the Prophet’s daughter and wife of Aly, died. She had claimed a share in her father’s property. Repairing, in company with her husband, to the Caliph, she said: ‘Give me the inheritance that falleth to me.’ Abu Bekr inquired whether it was her portion of the household goods that she desired. ‘Fadak and Kheibar,’ she answered, ‘and the tithe lands of Medîna--my portion therein, even as thy daughters will inherit of thee when thou diest.’ The Caliph answered: ‘Truly thy father was better than I, and thou art better than my daughters. But the Prophet hath said, _No one shall be my heir; that which I leave shall be for alms._ Now, therefore, the family of Mahomet shall not eat of these lands; for, by the Lord! I will not alter a tittle of that which he hath ordained. But,’ added he, ‘if thou art certain that thy father gave thee this property, I will accept thy word, and fulfil his promise.’ She answered that she had no evidence excepting that of Omm Ayman, the Prophet’s aged nurse, who had said that her father had given her Fadak.[93] So Abu Bekr maintained his decision. Fâtima felt aggrieved, and was much displeased. She survived but a few months,[94] leaving two sons, Hasan and Hosein, through whom alone the issue of Mahomet was perpetuated. Aly, who, during her lifetime, had held aloof, began after her decease, like the rest of the chief Companions, to frequent the Caliph’s court.

[Sidenote: Death of Abu Bekr’s son.]

In this year Abu Bekr lost his son Abdallah, who died from the effects of a wound received at the siege of Tâyif.

[Sidenote: Omar Chief Justice.]

As supreme judge in civil causes, the Caliph nominated Omar; but warlike operations so occupied men’s minds, that for the time the office was a sinecure.

[Sidenote: The first Pilgrimage under the Caliphate. Dzul Hijj. A.H. XI. March, A.D. 633.]

The presidency at the annual Pilgrimage is always carefully recorded by the annalists of Islam. The Caliph was too much engrossed with the commotion throughout Arabia to proceed himself to Mecca on the first Pilgrimage of his reign, and he therefore commissioned Attâb, governor of the holy city, to preside in his stead.[95]

So ended the first year of the Caliphate.