The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

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[Footnote 120: The triple inauguration of Mahomet is described by
Abulfeda (p. 30, 33, 40, 86) and Gagnier, (tom. i. p. 342, &c.,
349, &c., tom. ii. p. 223 &c.)]

From his establishment at Medina, Mahomet assumed the
exercise of the regal and sacerdotal office; and it was impious
to appeal from a judge whose decrees were inspired by the divine
wisdom. A small portion of ground, the patrimony of two orphans,
was acquired by gift or purchase; ^121 on that chosen spot he
built a house and a mosch, more venerable in their rude
simplicity than the palaces and temples of the Assyrian caliphs.
His seal of gold, or silver, was inscribed with the apostolic
title; when he prayed and preached in the weekly assembly, he
leaned against the trunk of a palm-tree; and it was long before
he indulged himself in the use of a chair or pulpit of rough
timber. ^122 After a reign of six years, fifteen hundred Moslems,
in arms and in the field, renewed their oath of allegiance; and
their chief repeated the assurance of protection till the death
of the last member, or the final dissolution of the party. It
was in the same camp that the deputy of Mecca was astonished by
the attention of the faithful to the words and looks of the
prophet, by the eagerness with which they collected his spittle,
a hair that dropped on the ground, the refuse water of his
lustrations, as if they participated in some degree of the
prophetic virtue. "I have seen," said he, "the Chosroes of
Persia and the Caesar of Rome, but never did I behold a king
among his subjects like Mahomet among his companions." The devout
fervor of enthusiasm acts with more energy and truth than the
cold and formal servility of courts.

[Footnote 121: Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 44) reviles the
wickedness of the impostor, who despoiled two poor orphans, the
sons of a carpenter; a reproach which he drew from the Disputatio
contra Saracenos, composed in Arabic before the year 1130; but
the honest Gagnier (ad Abulfed. p. 53) has shown that they were
deceived by the word Al Nagjar, which signifies, in this place,
not an obscure trade, but a noble tribe of Arabs. The desolate
state of the ground is described by Abulfeda; and his worthy
interpreter has proved, from Al Bochari, the offer of a price;
from Al Jannabi, the fair purchase; and from Ahmeq Ben Joseph,
the payment of the money by the generous Abubeker On these
grounds the prophet must be honorably acquitted.]

[Footnote 122: Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 246, 324)
describes the seal and pulpit, as two venerable relics of the
apostle of God; and the portrait of his court is taken from
Abulfeda, (c. 44, p. 85.)]

In the state of nature, every man has a right to defend, by
force of arms, his person and his possessions; to repel, or even
to prevent, the violence of his enemies, and to extend his
hostilities to a reasonable measure of satisfaction and
retaliation. In the free society of the Arabs, the duties of
subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint; and Mahomet, in
the exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had been
despoiled and banished by the injustice of his countrymen. The
choice of an independent people had exalted the fugitive of Mecca
to the rank of a sovereign; and he was invested with the just
prerogative of forming alliances, and of waging offensive or
defensive war. The imperfection of human rights was supplied and
armed by the plenitude of divine power: the prophet of Medina
assumed, in his new revelations, a fiercer and more sanguinary
tone, which proves that his former moderation was the effect of
weakness: ^123 the means of persuasion had been tried, the season
of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagate
his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry,
and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue
the unbelieving nations of the earth. The same bloody precepts,
so repeatedly inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by the author
to the Pentateuch and the Gospel. But the mild tenor of the
evangelic style may explain an ambiguous text, that Jesus did not
bring peace on the earth, but a sword: his patient and humble
virtues should not be confounded with the intolerant zeal of
princes and bishops, who have disgraced the name of his
disciples. In the prosecution of religious war, Mahomet might
appeal with more propriety to the example of Moses, of the
Judges, and the kings of Israel. The military laws of the
Hebrews are still more rigid than those of the Arabian
legislator. ^124 The Lord of hosts marched in person before the
Jews: if a city resisted their summons, the males, without
distinction, were put to the sword: the seven nations of Canaan
were devoted to destruction; and neither repentance nor
conversion, could shield them from the inevitable doom, that no
creature within their precincts should be left alive. ^* The fair
option of friendship, or submission, or battle, was proposed to
the enemies of Mahomet. If they professed the creed of Islam,
they were admitted to all the temporal and spiritual benefits of
his primitive disciples, and marched under the same banner to
extend the religion which they had embraced. The clemency of the
prophet was decided by his interest: yet he seldom trampled on a
prostrate enemy; and he seems to promise, that on the payment of
a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be
indulged in their worship, or at least in their imperfect faith.
In the first months of his reign he practised the lessons of holy
warfare, and displayed his white banner before the gates of
Medina: the martial apostle fought in person at nine battles or
sieges; ^125 and fifty enterprises of war were achieved in ten
years by himself or his lieutenants. The Arab continued to unite
the professions of a merchant and a robber; and his petty
excursions for the defence or the attack of a caravan insensibly
prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia. The distribution
of the spoil was regulated by a divine law: ^126 the whole was
faithfully collected in one common mass: a fifth of the gold and
silver, the prisoners and cattle, the movables and immovables,
was reserved by the prophet for pious and charitable uses; the
remainder was shared in adequate portions by the soldiers who had
obtained the victory or guarded the camp: the rewards of the
slain devolved to their widows and orphans; and the increase of
cavalry was encouraged by the allotment of a double share to the
horse and to the man. From all sides the roving Arabs were
allured to the standard of religion and plunder: the apostle
sanctified the license of embracing the female captives as their
wives or concubines, and the enjoyment of wealth and beauty was a
feeble type of the joys of paradise prepared for the valiant
martyrs of the faith. "The sword," says Mahomet, "is the key of
heaven and of hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a
night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting
or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven: at
the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion,
and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be
supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim." The intrepid souls
of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm: the picture of the
invisible world was strongly painted on their imagination; and
the death which they had always despised became an object of hope
and desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense,
the tenets of fate and predestination, which would extinguish
both industry and virtue, if the actions of man were governed by
his speculative belief. Yet their influence in every age has
exalted the courage of the Saracens and Turks. The first
companions of Mahomet advanced to battle with a fearless
confidence: there is no danger where there is no chance: they
were ordained to perish in their beds; or they were safe and
invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy. ^127

[Footnote 123: The viiith and ixth chapters of the Koran are the
loudest and most vehement; and Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. p. 59
- 64) has inveighed with more justice than discretion against the
double dealing of the impostor.]

[Footnote 124: The xth and xxth chapters of Deuteronomy, with the
practical comments of Joshua, David, &c., are read with more awe
than satisfaction by the pious Christians of the present age.
But the bishops, as well as the rabbis of former times, have beat
the drum-ecclesiastic with pleasure and success. (Sale's
Preliminary Discourse, p. 142, 143.)]

[Footnote *: The editor's opinions on this subject may be read in
the History of the Jews vol. i. p. 137. - M]

[Footnote 125: Abulfeda, in Vit. Moham. p. 156. The private
arsenal of the apostle consisted of nine swords, three lances,
seven pikes or half-pikes, a quiver and three bows, seven
cuirasses, three shields, and two helmets, (Gagnier, tom. iii. p.
328 - 334,) with a large white standard, a black banner, (p.
335,) twenty horses, (p. 322, &c.) Two of his martial sayings are
recorded by tradition, (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 88, 334.)]

[Footnote 126: The whole subject de jure belli Mohammedanorum is
exhausted in a separate dissertation by the learned Reland,
(Dissertationes Miscellaneae, tom. iii. Dissertat. x. p. 3 -
53.)]

[Footnote 127: The doctrine of absolute predestination, on which
few religions can reproach each other, is sternly exposed in the
Koran, (c. 3, p. 52, 53, c. 4, p. 70, &c., with the notes of
Sale, and c. 17, p. 413, with those of Maracci.) Reland (de
Relig. Moham. p. 61 - 64) and Sale (Prelim. Discourse, p. 103)
represent the opinions of the doctors, and our modern travellers
the confidence, the fading confidence, of the Turks]

Perhaps the Koreish would have been content with the dight
of Mahomet, had they not been provoked and alarmed by the
vengeance of an enemy, who could intercept their Syrian trade as
it passed and repassed through the territory of Medina. Abu
Sophian himself, with only thirty or forty followers, conducted a
wealthy caravan of a thousand camels; the fortune or dexterity of
his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but the chief of the
Koreish was informed that the holy robbers were placed in ambush
to await his return. He despatched a messenger to his brethren
of Mecca, and they were roused, by the fear of losing their
merchandise and their provisions, unless they hastened to his
relief with the military force of the city. The sacred band of
Mahomet was formed of three hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom
seventy-seven were fugitives, and the rest auxiliaries; they
mounted by turns a train of seventy camels, (the camels of
Yathreb were formidable in war;) but such was the poverty of his
first disciples, that only two could appear on horseback in the
field. ^128 In the fertile and famous vale of Beder, ^129 three
stations from Medina, he was informed by his scouts of the
caravan that approached on one side; of the Koreish, one hundred
horse, eight hundred and fifty foot, who advanced on the other.
After a short debate, he sacrificed the prospect of wealth to the
pursuit of glory and revenge, and a slight intrenchment was
formed, to cover his troops, and a stream of fresh water, that
glided through the valley. "O God," he exclaimed, as the numbers
of the Koreish descended from the hills, "O God, if these are
destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on the earth? -
Courage, my children; close your ranks; discharge your arrows,
and the day is your own." At these words he placed himself, with
Abubeker, on a throne or pulpit, ^130 and instantly demanded the
succor of Gabriel and three thousand angels. His eye was fixed
on the field of battle: the Mussulmans fainted and were pressed:
in that decisive moment the prophet started from his throne,
mounted his horse, and cast a handful of sand into the air: "Let
their faces be covered with confusion." Both armies heard the
thunder of his voice: their fancy beheld the angelic warriors:
^131 the Koreish trembled and fled: seventy of the bravest were
slain; and seventy captives adorned the first victory of the
faithful. The dead bodies of the Koreish were despoiled and
insulted: two of the most obnoxious prisoners were punished with
death; and the ransom of the others, four thousand drams of
silver, compensated in some degree the escape of the caravan.
But it was in vain that the camels of Abu Sophian explored a new
road through the desert and along the Euphrates: they were
overtaken by the diligence of the Mussulmans; and wealthy must
have been the prize, if twenty thousand drams could be set apart
for the fifth of the apostle. The resentment of the public and
private loss stimulated Abu Sophian to collect a body of three
thousand men, seven hundred of whom were armed with cuirasses,
and two hundred were mounted on horseback; three thousand camels
attended his march; and his wife Henda, with fifteen matrons of
Mecca, incessantly sounded their timbrels to animate the troops,
and to magnify the greatness of Hobal, the most popular deity of
the Caaba. The standard of God and Mahomet was upheld by nine
hundred and fifty believers: the disproportion of numbers was not
more alarming than in the field of Beder; and their presumption
of victory prevailed against the divine and human sense of the
apostle. The second battle was fought on Mount Ohud, six miles
to the north of Medina; ^132 the Koreish advanced in the form of
a crescent; and the right wing of cavalry was led by Caled, the
fiercest and most successful of the Arabian warriors. The troops
of Mahomet were skilfully posted on the declivity of the hill;
and their rear was guarded by a detachment of fifty archers. The
weight of their charge impelled and broke the centre of the
idolaters: but in the pursuit they lost the advantage of their
ground: the archers deserted their station: the Mussulmans were
tempted by the spoil, disobeyed their general, and disordered
their ranks. The intrepid Caled, wheeling his cavalry on their
flank and rear, exclaimed, with a loud voice, that Mahomet was
slain. He was indeed wounded in the face with a javelin: two of
his teeth were shattered with a stone; yet, in the midst of
tumult and dismay, he reproached the infidels with the murder of
a prophet; and blessed the friendly hand that stanched his blood,
and conveyed him to a place of safety Seventy martyrs died for
the sins of the people; they fell, said the apostle, in pairs,
each brother embracing his lifeless companion; ^133 their bodies
were mangled by the inhuman females of Mecca; and the wife of Abu
Sophian tasted the entrails of Hamza, the uncle of Mahomet. They
might applaud their superstition, and satiate their fury; but the
Mussulmans soon rallied in the field, and the Koreish wanted
strength or courage to undertake the siege of Medina. It was
attacked the ensuing year by an army of ten thousand enemies; and
this third expedition is variously named from the nations, which
marched under the banner of Abu Sophian, from the ditch which was
drawn before the city, and a camp of three thousand Mussulmans.
The prudence of Mahomet declined a general engagement: the valor
of Ali was signalized in single combat; and the war was
protracted twenty days, till the final separation of the
confederates. A tempest of wind, rain, and hail, overturned
their tents: their private quarrels were fomented by an insidious
adversary; and the Koreish, deserted by their allies, no longer
hoped to subvert the throne, or to check the conquests, of their
invincible exile. ^134

[Footnote 128: Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 9) allows
him seventy or eighty horse; and on two other occasions, prior to
the battle of Ohud, he enlists a body of thirty (p. 10) and of
500 (p. 66) troopers. Yet the Mussulmans, in the field of Ohud,
had no more than two horses, according to the better sense of
Abulfeda, (in Vit. Moham. c. xxxi. p. 65.) In the Stony province,
the camels were numerous; but the horse appears to have been less
numerous than in the Happy or the Desert Arabia.]

[Footnote 129: Bedder Houneene, twenty miles from Medina, and
forty from Mecca, is on the high road of the caravan of Egypt;
and the pilgrims annually commemorate the prophet's victory by
illuminations, rockets, &c. Shaw's Travels, p. 477.]

[Footnote 130: The place to which Mahomet retired during the
action is styled by Gagnier (in Abulfeda, c. 27, p. 58. Vie de
Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 30, 33) Umbraculum, une loge de bois avec
une porte. The same Arabic word is rendered by Reiske (Annales
Moslemici Abulfedae, p. 23) by Solium, Suggestus editior; and the
difference is of the utmost moment for the honor both of the
interpreter and of the hero. I am sorry to observe the pride and
acrimony with which Reiske chastises his fellow-laborer. Saepi
sic vertit, ut integrae paginae nequeant nisi una litura corrigi
Arabice non satis callebat, et carebat judicio critico. J. J.
Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalisae Tabulas, p. 228, ad
calcero Abulfedae Syriae Tabulae; Lipsiae, 1766, in 4to.]

[Footnote 131: The loose expressions of the Koran (c. 3, p. 124,
125, c. 8, p. 9) allow the commentators to fluctuate between the
numbers of 1000, 3000, or 9000 angels; and the smallest of these
might suffice for the slaughter of seventy of the Koreish,
(Maracci, Alcoran, tom. ii. p. 131.) Yet the same scholiasts
confess that this angelic band was not visible to any mortal eye,
(Maracci, p. 297.) They refine on the words (c. 8, 16) "not thou,
but God," &c. (D'Herbelot. Bibliot. Orientale p. 600, 601.)]

[Footnote 132: Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 47.]

[Footnote 133: In the iiid chapter of the Koran, (p. 50 - 53,
with Sale's notes, the prophet alleges some poor excuses for the
defeat of Ohud.

Note: Dr. Weil has added some curious circumstances, which
he gives as on good traditional authority, on the rescue of
Mahomet. The prophet was attacked by Ubeijj Ibn Challaf, whom he
struck on the neck with a mortal wound. This was the only time,
it is added, that Mahomet personally engaged in battle. (p.
128.) - M. 1845.]

[Footnote 134: For the detail of the three Koreish wars, of
Beder, of Ohud, and of the ditch, peruse Abulfeda, (p. 56 - 61,
64 - 69, 73 - 77,) Gagnier (tom. i. p. 23 - 45, 70 - 96, 120 -
139,) with the proper articles of D'Herbelot, and the abridgments
of Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 6, 7) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast.
p. 102.)]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.

Part VI.

The choice of Jerusalem for the first kebla of prayer
discovers the early propensity of Mahomet in favor of the Jews;
and happy would it have been for their temporal interest, had
they recognized, in the Arabian prophet, the hope of Israel and
the promised Messiah. Their obstinacy converted his friendship
into implacable hatred, with which he pursued that unfortunate
people to the last moment of his life; and in the double
character of an apostle and a conqueror, his persecution was
extended to both worlds. ^135 The Kainoka dwelt at Medina under
the protection of the city; he seized the occasion of an
accidental tumult, and summoned them to embrace his religion, or
contend with him in battle. "Alas!" replied the trembling Jews,
"we are ignorant of the use of arms, but we persevere in the
faith and worship of our fathers; why wilt thou reduce us to the
necessity of a just defence?" The unequal conflict was terminated
in fifteen days; and it was with extreme reluctance that Mahomet
yielded to the importunity of his allies, and consented to spare
the lives of the captives. But their riches were confiscated,
their arms became more effectual in the hands of the Mussulmans;
and a wretched colony of seven hundred exiles was driven, with
their wives and children, to implore a refuge on the confines of
Syria. The Nadhirites were more guilty, since they conspired, in
a friendly interview, to assassinate the prophet. He besieged
their castle, three miles from Medina; but their resolute defence
obtained an honorable capitulation; and the garrison, sounding
their trumpets and beating their drums, was permitted to depart
with the honors of war. The Jews had excited and joined the war
of the Koreish: no sooner had the nations retired from the ditch,
than Mahomet, without laying aside his armor, marched on the same
day to extirpate the hostile race of the children of Koraidha.
After a resistance of twenty-five days, they surrendered at
discretion. They trusted to the intercession of their old allies
of Medina; they could not be ignorant that fanaticism obliterates
the feelings of humanity. A venerable elder, to whose judgment
they appealed, pronounced the sentence of their death; seven
hundred Jews were dragged in chains to the market-place of the
city; they descended alive into the grave prepared for their
execution and burial; and the apostle beheld with an inflexible
eye the slaughter of his helpless enemies. Their sheep and
camels were inherited by the Mussulmans: three hundred cuirasses,
five hundred piles, a thousand lances, composed the most useful
portion of the spoil. Six days' journey to the north-east of
Medina, the ancient and wealthy town of Chaibar was the seat of
the Jewish power in Arabia: the territory, a fertile spot in the
desert, was covered with plantations and cattle, and protected by
eight castles, some of which were esteemed of impregnable
strength. The forces of Mahomet consisted of two hundred horse
and fourteen hundred foot: in the succession of eight regular and
painful sieges they were exposed to danger, and fatigue, and
hunger; and the most undaunted chiefs despaired of the event.
The apostle revived their faith and courage by the example of
Ali, on whom he bestowed the surname of the Lion of God: perhaps
we may believe that a Hebrew champion of gigantic stature was
cloven to the chest by his irresistible cimeter; but we cannot
praise the modesty of romance, which represents him as tearing
from its hinges the gate of a fortress and wielding the ponderous
buckler in his left hand. ^136 After the reduction of the
castles, the town of Chaibar submitted to the yoke. The chief of
the tribe was tortured, in the presence of Mahomet, to force a
confession of his hidden treasure: the industry of the shepherds
and husbandmen was rewarded with a precarious toleration: they
were permitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, to
improve their patrimony, in equal shares, for his emolument and
their own. Under the reign of Omar, the Jews of Chaibar were
transported to Syria; and the caliph alleged the injunction of
his dying master; that one and the true religion should be
professed in his native land of Arabia. ^137

[Footnote 135: The wars of Mahomet against the Jewish tribes of
Kainoka, the Nadhirites, Koraidha, and Chaibar, are related by
Abulfeda (p. 61, 71, 77, 87, &c.) and Gagnier, (tom. ii. p. 61 -
65, 107 - 112, 139 - 148, 268 - 294.)]

[Footnote 136: Abu Rafe, the servant of Mahomet, is said to
affirm that he himself, and seven other men, afterwards tried,
without success, to move the same gate from the ground,
(Abulfeda, p. 90.) Abu Rafe was an eye- witness, but who will be
witness for Abu Rafe?]

[Footnote 137: The banishment of the Jews is attested by Elmacin
(Hist. Saracen, p. 9) and the great Al Zabari, (Gagnier, tom. ii.
p. 285.) Yet Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, (p. 324) believes
that the Jewish religion, and Karaite sect, are still professed
by the tribe of Chaibar; and that, in the plunder of the
caravans, the disciples of Moses are the confederates of those of
Mahomet.]

Five times each day the eyes of Mahomet were turned towards
Mecca, ^138 and he was urged by the most sacred and powerful
motives to revisit, as a conqueror, the city and the temple from
whence he had been driven as an exile. The Caaba was present to
his waking and sleeping fancy: an idle dream was translated into
vision and prophecy; he unfurled the holy banner; and a rash
promise of success too hastily dropped from the lips of the
apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca displayed the peaceful
and solemn pomp of a pilgrimage: seventy camels, chosen and
bedecked for sacrifice, preceded the van; the sacred territory
was respected; and the captives were dismissed without ransom to
proclaim his clemency and devotion. But no sooner did Mahomet
descend into the plain, within a day's journey of the city, than
he exclaimed, "They have clothed themselves with the skins of
tigers: " the numbers and resolution of the Koreish opposed his
progress; and the roving Arabs of the desert might desert or
betray a leader whom they had followed for the hopes of spoil.
The intrepid fanatic sunk into a cool and cautious politician: he
waived in the treaty his title of apostle of God; concluded with
the Koreish and their allies a truce of ten years; engaged to
restore the fugitives of Mecca who should embrace his religion;
and stipulated only, for the ensuing year, the humble privilege
of entering the city as a friend, and of remaining three days to
accomplish the rites of the pilgrimage. A cloud of shame and
sorrow hung on the retreat of the Mussulmans, and their
disappointment might justly accuse the failure of a prophet who
had so often appealed to the evidence of success. The faith and
hope of the pilgrims were rekindled by the prospect of Mecca:
their swords were sheathed; ^* seven times in the footsteps of
the apostle they encompassed the Caaba: the Koreish had retired
to the hills, and Mahomet, after the customary sacrifice,
evacuated the city on the fourth day. The people was edified by
his devotion; the hostile chiefs were awed, or divided, or
seduced; and both Kaled and Amrou, the future conquerors of Syria
and Egypt, most seasonably deserted the sinking cause of
idolatry. The power of Mahomet was increased by the submission of
the Arabian tribes; ten thousand soldiers were assembled for the
conquest of Mecca; and the idolaters, the weaker party, were
easily convicted of violating the truce. Enthusiasm and
discipline impelled the march, and preserved the secret till the
blaze of ten thousand fires proclaimed to the astonished Koreish
the design, the approach, and the irresistible force of the
enemy. The haughty Abu Sophian presented the keys of the city,
admired the variety of arms and ensigns that passed before him in
review; observed that the son of Abdallah had acquired a mighty
kingdom, and confessed, under the cimeter of Omar, that he was
the apostle of the true God. The return of Marius and Scylla was
stained with the blood of the Romans: the revenge of Mahomet was
stimulated by religious zeal, and his injured followers were
eager to execute or to prevent the order of a massacre. Instead
of indulging their passions and his own, ^139 the victorious
exile forgave the guilt, and united the factions, of Mecca. His
troops, in three divisions, marched into the city:
eight-and-twenty of the inhabitants were slain by the sword of
Caled; eleven men and six women were proscribed by the sentence
of Mahomet; but he blamed the cruelty of his lieutenant; and
several of the most obnoxious victims were indebted for their
lives to his clemency or contempt. The chiefs of the Koreish
were prostrate at his feet. "What mercy can you expect from the
man whom you have wronged?" "We confide in the generosity of our
kinsman." "And you shall not confide in vain: begone! you are
safe, you are free" The people of Mecca deserved their pardon by
the profession of Islam; and after an exile of seven years, the
fugitive missionary was enthroned as the prince and prophet of
his native country. ^140 But the three hundred and sixty idols of
the Caaba were ignominiously broken: the house of God was
purified and adorned: as an example to future times, the apostle
again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim; and a perpetual law was
enacted that no unbeliever should dare to set his foot on the
territory of the holy city. ^141