Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman

Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman

W. Montgomery Watt

Oxford University Press

Under the blazing sun of a summer day in Syria towards the year 600 a caravan of Arab merchants with loaded camels was moving slowly southwards. They had come from Mecca, some forty days’ march to the south, with Arabian frankincense, Indian spices and silks, and other luxury goods. They had sold or bartered these in the markets of Syria, presumably in Damascus ; and now, laden with other wares, they were setting out for home.
Near Bostra on the flank of the Jebel-ed-Druze they passed the cell of a Christian hermit, the monk Bahira. Most of the men in the caravan had frequently passed the cell, but the monk had paid no attention to them. This day, however, he invited them to a feast. They left the youngest member of the party to keep an eye on the camels and the loads, and went to be the monk’s guests. The monk was not content, however ...

Contents

List of Maps / ix

I The Gifted Orphan / 1
The rivalry of the great powers / 3
Life in a commercial centre / 7

II The Call to Prophethood / 13
Rise and warn / 13
The earliest message of the Qur’an / 21
The first Muslims / 33
The influence of Judaism and Christianity / 38
The social relevance of the new religious ideas / 45

III Opposition and Rejection / 55
In the house of al-Arqam / 56
The incident of the Satanic verses / 59
The migration to Abyssinia / 64
The intellectual argument / 69
The boycott of the clan of Hashim / 73
The betrayal by Abu-Lahab / 78

IV The Emigration to Medina / 82
The appeal from the Medinans / 82
The troubles of Medina / 83
The Hijrah / 89
The first months in Medina / 93

V The Provocation of the Meccans / 102
The first expeditions or razzias / 102
The first bloodshed / 109
The break with the Jews / 112
The battle of Badr / 119
The significance of Badr / 124

VI The Failure of the Meccan Riposte / 127
Consolidation af Medina; the expulsion of Qaynuqa / 127
The expeditions of / 624 after Badr; Meccan preparations / 132
The battle of Uhud / 135
The aftermath of Uhud / 144
The second expulsion of Jews / 148
Reforms of marriage and inheritance / 151
The expeditions of 626 / 160
The siege of Medina / 166
The execution of the Jews of Qurayzah / 171

VII The Winning of the Meccans / 176
New horizons / 176
The expedition and treaty of al-Hudaybiyah / 182
The conquest of Khaybar / 188
Increasing strength / 194
Mecca in decline / 197
The submission of Mecca / 203
The battle of Hunayn / 207
The consolidation of victory / 209

VIII Ruler in Arabia / 212
The position after Ilunayn / 212
The eclipse of Persia and its consequences / 215
The drive to the north / 218
The extent of Muhammad’s power / 222
The last months / 226

IX Assessment / 229
Appearance and manner / 229
The alleged moral failures / 231
The foundations of greatness / 236
Was Muhammad a prophet? / 237

Note on The Sources / 241

Note on Bibliography / 242

Index / 246

List of Maps

Pre-Islamic Arabia (showing trade routes) / 11
The Oasis of Medina / 86

PREFACE

As stated in the Note on Sources, this book is essentially an abridgement of the account of Muhammad in my volumes Muhammad at Mecca and Muhammad at Medina. Apart from the omission of a mass of detail, the chief difference is that chronological order is more closely followed. I hope this change will enable readers to gain a clearer picture of the man and his achievement.
The system of transliteration is one of the usual ones except that, to avoid unsightly ligatures, an apostrophe is placed between two consonants in certain cases to indicate that they are to be pronounced separately, e.g. Is’haq. Where there is no apostrophe, the pairs dh, gh, kh, sh, th each represent a single sound. Between two vowels or between a vowel and a consonant the apostrophe still represents the glottal stop reckoned a consonant in Arabic.

I am indebted to Miss Shona Reid for the compilation of the index.

W. Montgomery Watt
The University, Edinburgh,
August, 1960

The Gifted Orphan

Under the blazing sun of a summer day in Syria towards the year 600 a caravan of Arab merchants with loaded camels was moving slowly southwards. They had come from Mecca, some forty days’ march to the south, with Arabian frankincense, Indian spices and silks, and other luxury goods. They had sold or bartered these in the markets of Syria, presumably in Damascus ; and now, laden with other wares, they were setting out for home.

Near Bostra on the flank of the Jebel-ed-Druze they passed the cell of a Christian hermit, the monk Bahira. Most of the men in the caravan had frequently passed the cell, but the monk had paid no attention to them. This day, however, he invited them to a feast. They left the youngest member of the party to keep an eye on the camels and the loads, and went to be the monk’s guests. The monk was not content, however. He wanted the whole party without exception. There was in his cell a book of ancient lore, handed down to him by previous hermits who had lived there. Aided by the knowledgc^hejiad gained-from-this book he hSdTbecomesupernaturally aware that there was a personage bF^eafTmpoftance in this caravan. He had seen a cloud and aTtree~protecting him from the glaring sun ; and he wanted to know whether this person had also the other signs mentioned in his book which would mark him out as a great prophet.

'At the monk’s insistence the Arabs agreed that the boy left with the camels should also come to the feast. The monk wanted to know all about him. He questioned the uncle in whose charge the boy was, and then he had a long talk with 1 the boy himself. He looked at the boy’s back and saw a I mark between his shoulders which he recognized as the seal …

W. Montgomery Watt

Muhammad
Prophet and Statesman

Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press, Amen House
Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman
By W. Montgomery Watt

Oxford University Press 1961

Oxford University Press, Amen House, London, E.C.4

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© Oxford University Press, 1961

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