philip hitti capital cities of arab islam 1973

7/28/2019 Philip Hitti Capital Cities of Arab Islam 1973

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Capital Cities of Arab Islam


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Foundation to the general program of theUniversity of M innesota Press, of which thepublication of this book is a part, isgratefully acknowledged

he contribution of the McKnightT


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ofByPhilipK.Hitti

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESSMinneapolis

Capital CitiesofArab Islam


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Copyright 1973 by the University of Minnesota.All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of Americaat Jones Press, MinneapolisPublished in the United Kingdomand India by the Oxford UniversityPress, London and Delhi, and in Canadaby the Copp Clark Publishing Co. Limited, TorontoLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-92335

ISBN 0-8166-0663-3

The maps on pages 5 and 113 are reprinted from History ofthe Arabs, 1937, by permission of Macmillan, London, andSt. Martin's Press, New York. The maps on pages 20-21,50-51, 77, 129, and 137 are reprinted from Makers of ArabHistory, 1968 by Philip K. Hitti, by permission of Mac-millan, London; St. Martin's Press, New York; and Mr.Joseph Ascherl. The poems on pages 144 and 158 are re-printed from A Literary History of the Arabs by Reynold

A. Nicholson, 1966, by permission ofCambridge University Press.


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T is is an attempt to view thehighlights of Arab history through the windowsof the cities where those events were enacted.The study therefore is more historical thangeographical, and is addressed to the studentand cultured layman rather than to thespecialist. In its compilation the author drewupon some of the research material he hadprepared for his earlier works, particularly hisHistory of the Arabs and History of SyriaIncluding Lebanon and Palestine. The sixcities treated were more than capitals; they lefttheir indelible imprint not only on thesubsequent history of the Arabs and Moslemsbut on the development of civilization atlarge. The s tudy hopes to arouse the interestof the reader, but does not claim to satisfy it.

Several cities studied in this book wererevisited by the author while enjoying with hiswife th e hospitality of his sister andbrother-in-law Nabihah and Najib Jabbur intheir Shimlan summer home, Lebanon, inthe 1960s.

P. K. H.Princeton, N.J.

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Preface


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Cour tesy Aramco World Magazine

Pilgrim at the Kaabah, Mecca


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Table

1 Mecca: The Religious C apital 32. Medina: The Caliphal Capital 333 Damascus: The Imperial Capital 614 Baghdad: The Intellectual Capital 855* Ca iro: The Dissident C apital 1106 Cordova: The European Cap ital 135Bibliography 167

Index 169

ofContents


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Capital cities of* Arab Islam


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\(/Mccc^r< * J I

Owr Lor^ / have made some of my seed dwell in avalley with no sown land by Thy Holy House [theKaabah] so that, O Lord, they may performprayers. Make then some hearts of men turn tothem and make provision of fruit fo r them, haplythey may be thankful.

Abraham in the Koran

t all began with a well. The well lay in anuncultivated valley and the valley in a barren land. Zamzam was thewell's name, Hijaz the land's name. The Zamzam water w as briny butin the scorched throat of a Bedouin, no sweet water could have tastedsweeter.

To the tribe which in remote antiquity settled around the Zamzam,the water which first supplied a vital need became in due course en-dowed with some mysterious, magical power. So it did in the experi-ence of earlier Semitic and non-Semitic tribes. In many primitivecultures, East and West, water figured in magico-religious cults. Itoccupied a prominent place in the H ebrew ceremonial system. Priestswere washed at their consecration (Ex.29:4); they washed their handsand feet before offering sacrifices (Ex.30:18-21) and on certain occa-sions special ablutions were required (Lev. 16:4, 24). Washing was usedfor remov ing ceremonial defilemen t (Lev. 11:32; 15:5seq.), but in con-nection with leprosy and other forms of uncleanliness running waterwas required (Lev. 14:5-6, 50-52). Christians continued th e tradition

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MECCAby the use of water for purification from sin, as in baptism, and Mos-lems by its employment fo r cleanliness from defilement, as in ablution,a prerequisite of legal prayer. Allah enhanced the importance of thisliquid by declaring in the Ko ran (21:31): "And of water have W e madeeverything living."A member of that Arabian tribe which settled near the Zamzam hit inthe neighborhood upon a stone conspicuous by its difference. It wasblack. Other stones nearby were not. Strangeness inspired awe. Aweled to veneration. Veneration ended in endowing the object withsomething unique, some supernatural power. At first the black stonewas sheltered perhaps in a tent. In course of t ime a house was buil t fo rthe sacred object. The structure was cube-like in form, whence itsArabic name Ka'bah (Kaabah). Though enlarged and modified in thecourse of centuries the structure maintained its form and its name.There was nothing unique in this Arabian tribal experience. Otherprimitive men in Europe and Asia were inclined to treat similar find-ings in a similar mann er and ultimately to incorporate them into theirmagico-religious cults. They were right in the sense that such stones,being meteoritic, descended from heaven.When Jacob had his nocturnal encounter with Jehovah he set upthe stone on which he had laid his head for a pillar, poured oil on it,and called it Beth-El (house of God, Gen. 28:18-19; the Kaabah wasalso so called). In several other cases stones w ere consecrated as memo-rials to the H ebrew deity and as altars (1 Sam. 7:12; cf. Is. 19:19; Judg.6:20; 13:19). Not only were certain stones and rocks considered sacredbut they were worshiped as idols. At times so widespread was the prac-tice tha t Jeho vah foun d it necessary to admonish his people vehemen t-ly aga inst it: "Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neitherrear you up a standin g image, neither shall ye set up any image ofstone in your land, to bow down unto it" (Lev. 26:1; cf. Deut. 29:17;2 Kings 19:18; Is. 57:6).

IThe first recorded mention of Mecca takes the form of Macoraba andoccurs in the geography of the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy, writ-ten in Alexandria about the mid-second Christian century. The formis South Arabic (Sabaean) and indicates pre-Christian beginnings when

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Ptolemy's map of Arabia

Arabians from Yaman controlled th e trade routes. The Yamanis wereth e Phoenicians of the Arabian Sea. Their country was one of the fewareas in the Peninsula favored with enough ra infall to warrant culti-vation. It and its neighbor H adram aw t produced spices, incense, andother tropical products in great demand in lands to the north. In daysbefore refrigeration condiments were used not only fo r flavoring, sea-soning, and giving zest to food but for preserving it . Macoraba wasone of the stations on the spice-incense route. A town grew around thesanctuary. The sanctuary became a center of a cult and an object ofpilgrimage. The area around the sanctuary became a forbidden andinviolable asylum providing refuge and immunity. The name Macor-aba meant "house of the Lord." Mecca (Makkah) then had a long his-tory as a sanctuary and a trade center before Islam.

Surprisingly, the Koran makes no mention by that name of the citythat became th e chief center of its faith. The form it gives the name is

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M E C C ABakkah (the m and b in South Arabic are interchangeable), and thatis mentioned only once in surah (chapter) 3:90: "Verily the first houseestablished for the people was that at Bakkah, a house blessed and aguidance to all the world." The following verse says: "Therein areclear evidences the station of Abraham and the security for him whoenters it," a clear reference to the Kaabah. This rendered the areaaround th e sanctuary haram (forbidden, sacred), corresponding to theLevitical city of refuge in the Old Testament. Another koranic refer-ence (6:92; 42:5) to Mecca makes it Umm al-Qura (mother of all settle-ments).

The Koran further ascribes the building of the Kaabah to Abraham(Ibrahim) in collaboration with his son Ishmael (Isma'il, 2:118-119). Itmakes the religion of Abraham the precursor of the religion of Muham-mad and the K aa ba h its palladium . More poetical traditionists ascribethe first building to the angels and the second to Adam. As for Zam-zam, now one hundred and forty feet deep and crowned with an ele-gant dome, it was dug by Angel Gabriel to save the lives of Hagar(Hajar) and her son Ishmael (cf. Gen. 21:19) as they were lost in thewaterless desert. The Black Stone, Gabriel's gift to Abraham, is nowlodged in the east corner of the Kaabah five feet above the ground. Itis twelve inches in diameter and its surface is worn smooth by kissing.In the Arabian Peninsula the southern part, favored with rain andrich in spices, aromatic herbs, and frankincense, was the first to stepon the threshold of history. It s people differed from North Arabians inlanguage and religion. For centuries before Christ they had flourishedunder governments of the monarchic type, and monopolized trade intheir own products as well as those of Abyssinia, India, and the FarEast. Exotic products found their way by land and sea into the Yamanand Hadramawt markets . For a time the shrewd Arabian merchantswere able to keep the foreign sources secret, leaving the impressionthat all were native.

The Roman conquest of Arabia's northern neighbors in the firstcentury B . C . gave South Arabian trade a fresh impetus. It expanded itsmarket to the entire Mediterranean basin. The new customers becamethe greatest consumers of Arabian offerings. The Romans, like theNear Easterners before them, employed condiments to mask disagree-able odors and to camouflage the taste of foods partially decomposed.

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The Religious CapitalOnce a luxury, the "spices of Araby" became a necessity when peoplegrew accustomed to them.

Of all this Mecca was a beneficiary. Its location at the crossing ofthe Yaman-Syria and the Yaman-I raq routes gave it a special advan-tage. To the Y a m a n depots, H a d r a m a w t offered f rankincense in de-mand for emba lming the dead in Egypt and for perfuming templesand Chris t ian churches. Southeastern Arabia furn ished pe r fum e andaromatic gums, while the Persian Gul f furnished its pearls. Chinasupplied silk and India fabrics, condiments , and swords. Aby ssiniaserved as a source for slaves, gold, ivory, and other luxury products.In the Peninsula the one-humped, long-suffering, und em anding camelwas, of course, th e main means of t ranspor ta t ion. It could carry fivehundred pounds, cover twenty-five miles a day, and survive for dayson a minimal supply of food and water.

The camel was an indispensable member of the Arabian caravan.As the caravan moved nor thward it picked up animal skins fromBedouin Hijaz and rais ins from Ta'if, Mecca's summer resort. Theships of the desert connected with the ships of the sea at the ports ofPalestine and Lebanon, whence other ports in the Mediterraneanbasin were reached. On the way back the caravan carried glass andmetalware, cotton goods, olive oil, wine, and dried fruits. To theMeccans, whose barren city was hemmed in by a double range of steepand uncultivable hills , the caravan business w as indeed a godsend. Anearly snapshot of an Arabian caravan has been preserved in Genesis37:25, relating to Joseph's sale of his brethren to Ishmaelites with"camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh." Start ing as service sta-tion men, Meccans developed into retailers, dealers, and by the t imeof Muhammad in to f inanciers and caravaneers. They additionallyserved as mid dlem en excha ngin g comm odities w ith local Bedouins.

Caravan trade was a more complicated business than appears on thesurface. Besides finances, t raining, and experience, it involved knowl-edge of geography and of facilities for supp lying w ater and relayingmounts. Guides and guards were necessary, so were alliances at leastforms of understanding with tribes whose territories lay en route.Passage often entailed payment of tolls, taxes, or bribes. Escorts werereinforced on passing through a hostile territory. A caravan might con-sist of hundreds of camels and scores of merchants . Its departure and

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M E C C Ait s return must have provided special occasions for the gathering ofcurious spectators , Bed ouin and urb anite. The K oran (106:2) refers totwo Meccan caravans, one in summ er and o ne in w inter. Merchantscounted on up to a hundred per cent profit to meet expenses and en-sure the proper yield on their inves tme nt.

IIMecca entered upon its first era of peace and prosperity when theQuraysh tr ibe later ennobled by the bir th of the Prophet M u h a m -mad in it occupied it around th e mid-fifth century of the Christianera. Tradi t ion credits the feat to a semilegendary ancestor namedQusayy. Qusayy was said to have united the scattered clans fictitiousor genuine of the Quraysh under his chieftainship, installed themby a coup de main in the center of Mecca, and gained possession of itssanctuary. He, in the words of an I talian orientalis t , was for Meccawhat Ro mu lus was for Rome. Not only did he expand the Kaab ah buthe organized its rite and developed certain functions related to it andto its city. Chief among these were the guardianship and holding thekeys of the Kaabah (hijabah), providing drinking water, particularlyduring the pilgrimage, with special reference to the Zamzam (siqayah),and supp lying those of the pilgrims who needed it with food (rifadah).The pilgrim in Islam was styled Allah's guest ( d a y f Allah), and if helingered fo r some time he was called Allah's neighbor (mujaiuir). Forhim the Kaabah cus todians felt special responsibility.To this early hero of the Quraysh is also ascribed the building of apublic hall (dar al-nadwah] by the Kaabah in which members of theQuraysh above forty years of age would meet to discuss municipal orreligious problems of common concern. In this council chamber tribalmarriages were arranged and the flag (liwa') was bestowed by the chiefon the military leader. The council w as probably more deliberativethan executive. Final decisions and executions were in the chieftain'shands and were passed after him to his descendants. There was enoughsanctity in the Kaabah to impart sanctity not only on the surroundingarea but also on its custodians.

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On the eve of Muhammad's birth Mecca must have evolved into amerchant republic, a precursor of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa. TheQuraysh were its merchant princes. Yaman's conquest by Abyssinia,approximately half a century before Muhammad's birth, contributedto that end. It opened before Meccans fresh avenues for exercisingtheir commercial and financial talents. They then began to organizeand finance their own caravans and establish their own trading stationsfrom Najran in northern Yaman to the land of the Nabataeans insouthern Palestine. Originally of South Arabian stock, the Abyssinianshad by this time been Christianized. The Abyssianian governor Abraha(Abraham) built a cathedral in the Yamani capital San'a', representedby Arab authors as an incomparable piece of architecture, intended asa rival to the Kaabah . These historians go on to say that th e Abys-sinian attack on Mecca in 5 70 had as its aim the destruction of thatsanctuary. The rivalry was probably more economic than religious.What the Abyssinians desired to destroy w as probably the Meccans'position as middlemen in the south-to-north international trade. Theinvaders used an elephant, which was as much of a horrifying innova-tion to the enemy as the use of the tank in the First World War orthe nuclear weapon in the Second. The elephant (Ar. fil) gave its nameto a short surah in the Koran:

Hast thou not seen how thy Lord did with the ownersof th e elephant?Did He not make their scheme go astray?He loosed upon them birds in flocks,

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The Religious CapitalQuraysh

Qusayy fl. ca. A . D . 460'Abd-Manaf

'Abd-ShamsU m a y y a h

Hashim'Abd-al-Muttal ib

'AbdullahM U H A M M A D b. 570

Al-Muttalib


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M E C C AWhich pelted them with stones of baked clay,Which left them like dev oured green blades.

105:1-5The episode is rem inis cen t of the Assyrian atta ck on Jerusalem in701 B.C., wh en according to the Hebrew version the Lord sent H isangel to smite the enemy and save the city (2 Chron. 32:21-22). It wasprobably smallpox that saved th e Kaabah; th e bubonic plague savedthe Temple.

IllThe birth of Muhammad (570) in Mecca was the first fact that dis-tinguished it above its contemporaries and made of it a city of destiny.The "descent" of the first surahs of revelation in it forty years laterwas the second most pregnant fact in its history. The descent raisedMecca to a un iq ue po sition of greatness. The two facts combine togive th e barren city of Hijaz a niche in the hall of immortals .

The precise circumstances under which th e Arabian Prophet re -ceived his call are not clear. Ko ranic com mentators generally agreetha t su rah 96 was the first to descend :

Read in the name of thy Lord who created,created man from a clot of blood.Read, for thy Lord is the most bounteouswho teacheth by the pen,Teacheth m an what he did not know.96:1-5

Muhammad's biographer ibn-Hisham, the leading classical historianal-Tabari, and others agree that th e scene was a cave in a mount out-side M ecca called H ira', which had provided th e distraught, agitatedcandidate with a retreat fo r contemplation. It was there that he hearda voice, later identified as that of Gabriel. One may guess that forsome time M uh am m ad m ust have been pondering the problem ofreading sacred books, which Jews and Christians were able to do buthe was not. Hence the first command: "Read." And as if the startledaddressee asked how he could read when he had had no schooling, th ecommand was repeated with some explanation. Hira' has since beenstyled the Mount of Light, and the nigh t of revelation has been fixed

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The Religious Capitalas one of the last ones of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar year(2:181). The night is characterized in the Koran (97) as the Night ofPower.

Two further developments enhanced the prestige of Mecca and havekept its name alive on the tongues and in the hearts of believers theworld over: prayer and pilgrimage. The Prophet chose it as the direc-tion (qiblah, kiblah) to which Moslems should turn while recitingtheir five daily prescribed prayers. "Turn your face toward the HolyMosque [in Mecca], and wherever ye are turn your faces in its direc-tion" (2:139). This injunction was revealed to Muhammad short lyafter his arrival at Medina, before which Jerusalem had been used byhim as the kiblah. Thus, for a Moslem to render his prayer acceptable,he should be oriented Mecca-ward.

Pilgrimage to Mecca is also prescribed in the Koran. It gives Meccaa place among other centers of pilgrimage, such as Jerusalem, Rome,and Benares, but its place remains unique. Pilgrimaging to it is con-sidered an act of worship incumbent on every believer who can affordit once in a lifetime. It occurs at a stated time and collectively. In noother center is pilgrimage so ritualized and institutionalized as in theIslamic center. Its ma ndatory character is revealed in the Koran:

Fulfill the major and the minor pilgrimages unto Allah.But if ye are prevented,then make such as may be feasible.And shave not your headstill the offering reaches its destination.If any of you is sick or injured in the head,then a compensation by fasting, almsgiving, orother pious observation.2:192

Even today the holy pilgrimage is considered a central aim in a piouslife, and its achievement a culminating point in religiosity. ManyMoslems who observe neither the daily prayer nor the fast of Ramadanparticipate in this act of worship. Any hardships or privations en-dured are but a small price to pay. He who undertakes it can there-after proudly a f f i x the honorific title of hajj before his name. The in-creased facilities of communications have in recent years swelled thenumber of annual pilgrims to a million.

The ann ual pilgrimage at a stated m onth, dhu-al-Hijjah (the twelfth11


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MECCAmonth in the lunar calendar Moslems use), is the major one cited inthe koranic quotation. The minor one ('umrah) may be undertakenindividually at any time of the year. While the goal in both cases isMecca, many visitors collectively or individually take advantageof the opportuni ty to visit its sister Medina . There, they pray brieflyand not so ceremoniously at the Prophet's Mosque, the one Muham-mad built. The minor pilgrimage is not a mandatory but a meritori-ous act of worship (2:153). In both major and minor pilgrimages, thevisitor should be in a state of consecration (ihram). Ritual purity re-quires, besides an ablution involving the whole body, abstinence fromsex relations and shedding blood. It also requires shaving or tr immingthe beard, cutt ing th e nails, and perfuming the body. A w hite seamlessgarment is worn and only sandals are allowed. The head remains un-covered.

The ann ua l v isitations give Mecca th e opportunity fo r self-renewal.As the season approaches, the city scrubs its face, dons its holiday at-tire, and spreads the red carpet to welcome its guests the guests ofAllah. For few days as Arabs, Persians and Turks, Pakistanis, Afghan isand Ind ians , Chinese, Ma laya ns and Indone sians, Sudanese, Senegaleseand other Africans flock to it; it presents a microcosm of the Islamicworld.

Neither orientation in prayer nor visitation of sacred places orig-inated in Islam. Daniel in his land of exile turned his face towardJerusalem as he prayed (Dan. 6:10). The early Christian churches wereoriented eastward. The entire institution of pilgrimage in Arabia waspre-Islamic in o rigin. Almost all the cerem onies connected with it werepracticed by heathen Arabians. Only the prayers were introduced andthe interpretation changed. The system was Is lamized. Mu hamm adcould not divorce himself entirely from his background no matter howhard he tried. Besides, there were his conservative fellow countrymen,whom he wanted to attract. In adopting th e Kaabah and the pilgrim-age he made his greatest concession to paganism and alienated hismonotheism from its two sisters.Tradition added its quota to the exaltation of the Prophet's birth-place and the scene of his revelation. Books and books have beenauthored through the ages on the excellences (fada'il) of Mecca. Theyleave no doubt that its people are endowed with special virtues; oneday in it is worth an age elsewhere; prayer therein is more meritorious

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The Religious Capitalthan anywhere else; and death in Mecca is preferable to death in anyother city. That a city w ith oppressive climate, saline wa ter, unco mfort-ably lodged in a barren valley, and with a population that dishonor-ably repudiated the son who gave it its claim to greatness should beentitled al-Mukarramah (the highly honored) is one of the ironies ofhistory.There was no reason why Mecca should take note of a boy born in itin 570 to an impoverished clan of the Quraysh, a boy bereaved of onepare nt before his birth and of the other before he was six. The ladwas brought up by an uncle, abu-Talib, and there was nothing to in-dicate that he would grow to differ from any of his contemporaries.H is marriage at the age of twenty-five to a wealthy widow of his tribe,Khadijah, gave him the first taste of economic sufficiency. Khadijahwas in the carav an business and he was first her employee.The Rubicon was not crossed till 610 when the forty-year-old cara-vaneer proclaimed himself a prophet of Allah. There was nothingstartling in that. Polytheism by its nature is more tolerant of prophetsand can accommodate more deities than monotheism. Besides, Allahwas an honored god of the Kaabah. Muhammad's father bore hisname, 'Abdullah (the slave of Allah). What was startling was the im-plications of the message as it began to unfold itself. The Allah (Ar.al-Ilah, the god) whom Muhammad preached was the only true god;all others were false. He was the creator, self-sustainer, omnipotent,omnipresent, omniscient. This Allah had chosen Muhammad to beH is last and greatest prophet. H e had thus addressed him:

Say: He is God alone,God, the eternal,H e begetteth not,Nor is He begotten,And none is comparable unto Him.112

To him who obeys Allah's commands, as communicated to His mes-senger, attrac tive rewards are offered in Paradise; but to him who dis-obeys, nothing but fire in Hell is prepared. The day of judgment wasimminent. Full submission (islam, whence the name of the new reli-gion) was a prerequisite. The oneness of God thus became the corner-

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MECCAstone of Islam; the teachings that there is no god whatever but Allah(la ilaha illa-l-Lah) and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah (Mu-hammadun rasulu-l-Lah) became and remained the motto of the newreligion.Clearly, in all this novel teaching, Judaeo-Christ ian ideas are re-flected. Mecca had no Christian colony but had Christian slaves andvisitors. South of Hijaz la y Najran, which had been Christian fo r cen-turies. Christianiz ed Ara bian tribes (Ghassan) flourished on the easternborder of Syria, and others on the southern border of Iraq. Before andafter his call the Prophet was personally exposed to Christian influ-ences. H is harem included a Christian woman and his household aChristian Syrian slave. Mariya the Copt was the concubine who gavehim his only son, who died in infancy; and Zayd ibn-Harithah, theslave, was freed and adopted by M uha m m ad. Ano ther slave, Bilal, wasa Christian Abyssinian who became the first muezzin (mu'adhdhin) inIslam.Besides the religion, the new gospel had social and economic im plica-tions that posed a threat to the established order. It would alienatethe conservative tribal Arabians from their heathen ancestors and allythem with alien Christians and Jews. Tribal solidarity was then thechief cohesive force in society. The new doctrine would, additionally,undermine the usefulness of the Kaabah as an object of pilgrimageand, next to the caravan, a main source of income. The Kaabah's cus-tody was then in the hands of the Umayyad clan headed by abu-Suf-yan, a successor of Qusayy. Abu-Sufyan, grandson of Umayyah, was theleading merchant and caravaneer of Mecca. He became personally in-volved in more than one sense when his dau ghter marr ied a convert an unkind cut indeed.

Moreover the new preacher seemed to insist not only on generosity,which was high on the scale of Arabian values, but on the sharing ofwealth, as if the needy had a claim on it. In character iz ing the piousthe Koran included: "Those in whose wealth there is a recognizedright for the beggar and the deprived" (70:24-25). Giving alms (zakah)to the needy was made obligatory in the Koran on a level with prayer.Once a poor orphan himself, Muhammad maintained a soft spot inhis heart for the needy.

The formerly poor and now rich prophet seems to have been sensi-14


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The Religious Capital

The motto of Islam in modern decorative script

tized to the malaise of his community, a community in transit fromnomadism to urbanism. H e deeply felt the gap between the haves andthe have nots. As the mercantile class, the Quraysh of Mecca, waxedrich; the rest felt or seemed poor. Not only did the new Prophet per-ceive the moving society in which he lived but he definitely relatedhimself to it; he not only saw what was wrong with the society as itwas but he presented a plan for changing it to w h a t he thought itought to be. Not content with the diagnosis, he felt called upon byAllah, who opened to him the secrets of heaven, to provide the remedy.The remedy tasted no more agreeable in the second decade of theseventh century than in any decade of the twentieth. That wealth wasa trust to be used for the common good was a novel concept that hasnot yet been fully realized. M uha m m ad started with the idea of chang-ing the course of an economic development in his community , heended by changing the course of history.On the social side the most daring attempt was that of restructuringthe Arabian society on a novel basis, that of religion rather than blood.From time immemorial blood kinship factual or fictitious was con-

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MECCAsidered the bond of union between members of a family, of a clan, orof a tribe. To replace that generally accepted social cement with fai thwas indeed a radical innovation; it seemed inconceivable. The formu-lation of the new doctrine in the Koran took this expression: "Verilythe believers are nought but brothers" (49:10). This made of Islam afraternal order set against the rest of the world.Other than the dangerous religious and socioeconomic implications ofthe rising fraternity, there were political ones. These implications theMeccan oligarchy was not slow to discern. Should the upstart succeedin undermin ing the religio-socioeconomic order of the Meccan society,he would become automatically its political leader. The powers thatbe, the Um ayy ads, escalated thei r op position as Muhammad at tractedmore followers, mostly of low social standing. Predictably, the aristo-crats and well-to-do foun d little to at tract them. All kinds of brickbatswere hurle d at him . He w as called a liar, a sorcerer and soothsay er, apossessed man. But the e f f e c t was the opposite of wha t was expected.The zeal of the dedicated, consecrated missionary was by no meansdampened. H is vision was not dimmed and his pur su i t of the idealdid not slacken. The war of words then gave way to one of activepersecution sending eighty-three of the believing families into volun-tary exile in Abyssinia. This was in 615, five years after the Prophet'scall. H e himself, however, remained in Mecca under the protection ofhis uncle abu-Talib, who, though an unbeliever, was bound by theclan's honor not to deliver his charge.

The Quraysh then resorted to another stratagem, boycotting th e dis-sident member and his clan, th e Hashimid. For about three years nosocial dealings or business transactions were allowed. The clan waspractically quarantined in its quarters. The situation was aggravatedby the death of Muhammad's patron-uncle and of his wife, Khadijah,his first and only wife while she lived.

Although a few prominent Qurayshis, like abu-Bakr, 'Umar ibn-al-Khat tab , and 'Ali ibn-abi-Talib, later M uha mm ad's ma in supporters ,were recruited to the new cause about this time, Muhammad musthave felt after nine years of opposition and humiliation that he wasfighting in Mecca for a hopeless cause. A change of venue seemednecessary. The choice fell on Ta'if.

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The Religious CapitalThe two cities, closely associated in certain respects and in Muham-

mad 's min d, were considerably unlike. Ta'if perched on a mount 75miles southeast of Mecca and 5,800 feet above the sea (4,800 aboveMecca). It s soil was fertile, its water abund ant , and its climate relative-ly salubrious. It counted among its products fruits, leather, and wine.To many modern travelers it looks like a village of Lebanon.trans-planted into the desert. And just as today oil-rich shaykhs of Arabiaconsider it the height of luxury to own a summer villa in Lebanon sothe caravan-rich Meccans looked upon own ing a home at Ta'if. TodayTa'if is the summer capital of the Su'udi (Saudi) government. TheKoran makes no mention of the city by name but the reference to the"two towns" in surah 43:30 is usually considered to be to Mecca andTa'if. How long the Prophet sojourned in this city of exile we are notcertain, but of his lack of success we are. The people of Ta'if had forpatroness al-'Uzza, the most powerful (as the name indicates) of a fe-male trinity styled by Meccans the daughters of Allah. The first con-frontation between the newcomer and the leaders of the community,one of whom had a Qurayshi wife, turned out to be the last. "I wouldtear to pieces the curtain of the Kaabah," shouted one, "if Allah wereto send a one like you." Another asked, "Could not Allah have foundanyone else to send but you?" A third remarked, "By Allah, I shallnever talk to you. For if you are a messenger from Allah as youclaim to be you are too important for me to discourse with, and ifyou are lying against Allah, then I should not discourse with youeither."1Words were followed by action. An infuriated mob chased the vis-itor and pelted him with stones. There was nothing else he could do.He wiped the Ta'if dust off his feet and turned his face Mecca-ward.As he went, the disappointed but not discouraged prophet recited apsalm, Dav idian in its beau ty , preserved for us by his biographer ibn-Hisham. It began with:

O Lord, unto Thee do I complain of my helplessness,paucity of resourcefulness, and insignificance vis-a-visother men. O most merciful of the merciful. Thou artthe lord of the helpless and Thou are my lord.

1. I bn - H i s h a m , Sirah, ed., Ferdinand Wiistenfeld (Gottingen, 1858-1860), p. 280;fo r a more literal translation see Alfred Guillaume, tr., The Life of Muhammad(London, 1955), p. 192.17


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M E C C AIt ended with:

M ay i t never be that I should incur Thy anger or failto satisfy Thee. For there is no resource or powersave in Thee.2Before dar ing to make a publ ic appearance in Mecca, the re turn ingson hid in the Hira' cave for a few days. The protector or sponsor hesought was not forthcoming. M any were approached and none re-sponded. A new kind of audience w as felt necessary, and the disap-pointed p ersistent preacher thoug ht he could find it among tribesmenand Bedouins f reque nt ing the fairs. H e then, to borrow the words ofhis biographer, went from one fair to another "offering himself" as themessenger of Allah. Fairs (Ar. sing, suq}, in those days of undevelopedmeans of communicat ion and l imi ted opportuni t ies for exchange ofcommodities, loomed high in economic and social importance. Theywere held in one of the four months of holy truce, during which am orator ium on ra ids and wars was enforced. They attracted not onlymerchants from cities and Bedouins from deserts, but poets who re-ci ted their latest productions in a sort of contest , horsemen who en-gaged in tournaments , and others w ho exhibi ted thei r feats. Mecca, incommon with other cities, had its fairs.

It was on one of these fair visits t h a t M u h a m m a d in 620 met tribes-men from Yathr ib (250 miles n orth of Mecca) who seemed interestedenough to listen. Their city w as known to Muhammad th rough someconnection which his mother had. The city had Jewish colonies andth e Jews' expectancy of a prophet or Messiah m ay have favorably pre-disposed their fellow citizens to,th e acceptance of an Arabian prophet.The first meet ing prepared the way to a later one in which a formalagreement was reached with a delegation of some seventy Yathribis.The Ya thribis declared their acceptance of Islam and promised pro-tection in their town to its Prophet and followers a breakthroughafter twelve years of unreward ing effort on the Prophet 's part. Them igration to Yathrib was carried out w ith complete secrecy to avertthe interference of the Quraysh. The bulk of the old believers, abouttwo hundred, closed their homes and silently stole away. The leader,accompanied by his father-in-law abu-Bakr and his cousin 'AH, fol-lowed, arriving safely at their de st ination on September 24, 622. This

2. Ibid.18


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The Religious Capitalmigrat ion (hijrah, hegira) was chosen later by a successor (khalifah,cal iph) of M uh am m ad as the s tart in g point in the new M oslem calen-dar. It marks the end of the pre-Islamic period. The hijrah spl i t his toryinto two ju st as the bir th of Ch ris t had done.

IVWith the Prophet 's departure the spotlight that w as shining on Meccashifted its focus. Ya thr ib became al-Madinah (in full, M a d i n a t al-Nabi,the C ity of the Prophet, Medina). Mecca did not yield easily. An eight-year struggle for supremacy ended with victory for the northern r ival .After Mecca's surrender to the Prophet (630), Medina was chosen forhis residence and the seat of government. His four successors, the Or-thodox caliphs (632-661), generally followed his example.

Mecca's surrender meant i ts acceptance of Is lam. The Quraysh,its bit terest foes, now became its s taunchest supporters . One after theother of them moved on to the new capi ta l to share in the promotionof the new fai th and to embark on new careers. The highest positionsin the government and the army were open to them. Many Qurayshistook part in the campaigns tha t in the Orthodox period, part icularlyunder ' U m a r ibn-a l -Khat tab (634-644), resulted in the conquest of theFertile Crescent, Persia, and Egypt. Later some served as governors ofprovinces in the newly acquired domain. Life in Mecca then developedalong two opposite l ines, one of revelry and the other of piety.

In the w ake of the conquests, booty, tribu te, and taxes fo un d the irway in abundance in to the city; they became its new source of income.This more than compensated for the loss of caravan trade. Pilgrimage,of course, continued; in fact it increased. To the city many of i ts oldsons, now retired generals, governors, and other high officials, wouldretu rn to spend their new ly acquired fortu nes in ease and comfort , asif in a state of reaction against their past strenuous days. Their sonsbegan where the fathers ended. Once a center of commerce, Meccanow became a center of pleasure. Its nouveaux riches brought alongharem, dancers, and singers, male and female, as well as new conceptsof what const i tutes the good life. They lived in baronial style in villasand surroundings the like of which Mecca had never seen before.

The life of pleasure was personified in a Meccan poet, a Qurayshinamed 'Umar ibn-abi-Rabi 'ah. 'Umar proved tha t the widely known

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M E C C A

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The Religious Capital

The Arabian Peninsula at the t ime of M u h a m m a d , ca. 600

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MECCAsaying that the Quraysh excel in everything but poetry was not with-out an exception. Son of a rich merchant who had served as a governorin Yaman , the charming, lazy beau inherited enough money to enablehim to spend his t ime indulging in drinking, chasing after women, andsinging the beauty of fair damsels especially from among visitors. Thepilgrim period was his high season. Perfumed, colorfully dressed, andriding a bedecked camel the debonair poet would take his stand wherehe could view the unveiled ladies includ ing princesses from the ca-liphal family in Medina or in Damascus c i rcumambula t ing th eKaabah . In ref ined and tender verse he would describe not only theirdresses, movements, and faces but venture into the realm of emotion.'Umar spent money lavishly to establish contacts with a desired lady.Once he gave a hundred dinars to one who t ipped him about the ad-vent of an especial ly at tract ive subject . H e also used his money forbuying slaves and training them to sing and serve his purposes. Set tomusic his composit ions achieved immediate populari ty in and beyondthe Peninsula; they established his reputat ion as the one who madeArabic erot ic poetry an indepen dent ar t .In the me ant ime M ecca was becoming a rendezvous for pious research-ers from all parts of the Moslem world. They sought mementos of thelife of the Master, collected tradit ions about him and his early com-panions, and compiled data which served as the raw mater ia l for hisbiography and for the early history of Islam. Caliphs expressed theirpiety by lavish expenditure on buildings and endowments, adding tothe paras i t ic t rend among the popula t ion . The holy sanctuary, al-Masj id a l -Haram, was na tu ra l ly the chief beneficiary. Its history isin terwoven with that of the city. Origina l ly it consisted of the Kaabah ,Zamzam, and the traditional place where Abraham stood (rnaqam,station) as he bui l t the Kaabah . When Muhammad in 630 made hist r iumphal en t ry in to the city, he m a d e of this t r iple compound amosque of which the Kaabah remained its holy of holies. Not longafter his death the place became inadequate for the needs of worship-ers and was enlarged by his second successor 'Umar at the expense ofadjacent houses. As the edifice was enlarged it was embellished. Theth i rd 'Abbasid cal iph al-Mahdi (d. 785) added the colonnades. His sonH a r u n al-Rashid (786-809) made nine visits to Mecca in which hespent money profusely. On one occasion his wife Zubaydah, we are

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The holy Kaabah bearing th e cover with Koranic inscriptions holds th e blackstone in its corner. The dome to the right marks th e site of ZamzamCour te sy M i ni s t r y of In fo rma t ion , R iyad

told, expended three million dinars, part of which was used fo r sup-plying the city with water from a spring twelve miles away . The sourceis sti l l known by her name. The Pa lestin ian geographer al-M aqdisi,who visited Mecca in the mid-tenth century, saw both shutters of theKaabah's door plated with silver coated with gold. The last caliph tomake the sanctuary an object of his interest was the Ottoman sul tanSalim II (d. 1574), to whom it owes it s present form.On the political side Mecca achieved no distinction of which it couldbe proud. Its history is punc tua ted wi th unsuccessful uprisings againstthe established order. The most dangerous and frequent of these wereled by descendants of the fourth caliph, 'Ali ibn-abi-Talib (656-661),son-in-law of the Prophet and fa ther of al-Hasan and al-Husayn. 'Alilost the cal iphate to Mu 'awiyah (661-680), founder of the DamascusUmayyad dynas ty , a dynas ty of usurpers in 'Alid eyes. Eq ually illegiti-mate to the 'Alids wa s the 'Abbasid cal iphate in Baghdad. The decline

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MECCAof the 'Abbasids, however, beginning in the mid-ninth century, threwthe out lying parts of the domain into an anarchy and encouraged dis-sident uprisings. A subv ersive heterodo xy nam ed Qar mat i (after itsfounder Qarmat , fl. 890, an I raqi peasant) established a state in thePersian Gulf area and carried ruthless raids into neighboring lands. Itdid not spare pilgrims to the Holy Cities. Its atrocities culminated in930, w he n 1,500 followers pillaged Mecca and carried off the B lackStone, an un he ard -of act of heresy. The sacred relic was kept tw en tyyears in capt iv i ty and was re turned upon payment of a heavy ransom.Only once before had the Highly Honored city been so dishonored.That was in 683 when a Syrian army was sent by Mu'awiyah 's sonYazid against the cal iphal claimant 'Abdullah ibn-al-Zubayr. The rebelsoug ht san ctu ary on the in viola ble soil of the sanc tuar y, but was never-theless at tacked and the Kaabah caught fire. The Black Stone was splitin three pieces. The house of Allah, in the words of the great historianal-Tabari , "looked l ike the torn bosom of a mourning woman."

Mecca experienced other periods of trouble brought about by na-tu re . The steril i ty of i ts soil and its high temp erature , ran gin g from115F. to 135F., have been the main troublemakers . Rain is rare andshowers are far between, causing periods of drought . With droughtwent famine . Occasionally, however, heavy ra infa l l s or violent cloud-bursts over the adj oinin g hills would b ring abo ut floods tha t convertedstreets into streams and threatened the Kaabah. Chroniclers devotechapters to the floods of Mecca, in whose wake epidemics often spread.

The weakening of the central authori ty in Baghdad and the mush-rooming of petty states gave the city and its 'Alids their chance. In960 a descendant of al-Hasan (hence his title sharif, nobleman) suc-ceeded in establishing an independent rule over the city and its im-mediate environs. The Hasanid sharifate, with many changes of for-tune, endured till well into the twentieth century. For the first threecenturies i t was virtu al ly independent. The last sharif w as Hus a y n ibn-'Ali, who in 1916 declared himself king of the Arabs and later whenMustafa Kemal destroyed th e Ottoman cal iphate caliph of the Mos-lems. In 1924-1925 'Abd-al-'Aziz ibn-Su'ud, leader of the Wahhabis ofNajd, destroyed th e sharifate and added Hijaz to his rising kingdom.Husayn's tw o sons founded the two kingdoms of Iraq (destroyed in1958) and that of Jordan.

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The Religious CapitalV

Throughout the vicissitudes of time Mecca's hold on the affections ofbelievers has remained secure. The treatment of the city by geogra-phers, historians, and travelers has invariably been more romanticthan objective. Following is a sample from Yaqut al-Rumi (d. 1229),considered the outstanding East Moslem geographer and author of thestandard geographical dictionary of Islam:Thus did the Prophet address Mecca: "By Allah, you are the best ofall places on Allah's land and the dearest to me. Had I not been forcedout, I would never have left you." . . . He further said, "He who en-dures patiently Mecca's heat will keep away from him a hundred yearsof Hell fire, and will draw closer to him two hundred years of Para-dise." On a stone found in Mecca an inscription read: "Verily, I thelord of Bakkah the Holy have created it on the day I created the sunand the moon. . . ." As for a description of Mecca: The city lies in avalley, surrounded by mountains on all sides. It is built around theKaabah with polished black and white stones topped by dried bricks.Several structures have wings of teak wood. Many-storied and white-painted, the houses look attractive. True, the city is hot in summer butits nights are agreeable. Thus did Allah spare its people the burdenand the expense of building fires to keep warm in winters. . . . TheKaabah lies in the center of the Mosque. Mecca has no runnin g water;all its water falls from heaven. Nor does it have wells with drinkingwater. Only the Zam zam water is drinkable and even that cannot beused all the time. In all Mecca there are no fruit trees; the only treesare those of the desert.3

The celebrated Spanish-Arab geographer and traveler ibn-Jubayrvisited Mecca in August 1183 and devoted a chapter to the exclusivefavors and blessings Allah bestowed on it.The blessed city and its people have ever been the beneficiaries of theprayers of Abraham, Allah's friend blessing and peace be on him as revealed by Allah, mighty and majestic is He: "Our Lord, I havemade some of my seed dwell in a valley with no sown land by ThyHoly H ouse [Kaaba h] so that, O Lord, they may perform prayer. Makethen some hearts of men turn to them and m ake provision of foodfor them, haply they may be thankful."4

3. Yaqut, Kitab Mu'jam al-Buldan, ed . Ferdinand Wiistenfeld (Leipzig, 1869; re -print Teheran, 1965), vol. IV, pp. 619, 625-626.4. Sur. 14:40.

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MECCAAllah has further declared: "Have We not established for them asafe sanctuary to which all kinds of frui t are brought?" 3 The effectthereof is manifest in the city and shall so continue to the day of

resurrection. Indeed men's hearts have not ceased to turn toward thecity from distant lands and remote regions. The road to it has beenthe meeting place of those coming and going from among the recipi-ents of the noble message [of Islam]. Fruits from all lands are broughtthere too, making it the most favored territory in fruits, utilities, rev-enue, and trade.Even if Mecca had no source of income other than th e pilgrim sea-son, it would s u f f i c e . For in it congregate peoples from th e East andth e West. Indeed only one day 's sale (to say nothing about other days)of precious treasures such as pearls, sapphires, and other stones; ofperfumes such as m usk , camphor, am ber, and aloes; of drugs andother imports of India and Abyssinia; of varied products of Iraq andYaman; of var ied comm odit ies from K h u r a s a n ; of goods from al-Magh-rib [Morocco] and so on to wh at cannot be enumerated or limited, wasspread over the enti re co un try , it could render brisk all its m ark ets andits benefit would accrue to all of them.Ibn-Jubayr goes on to discuss the variety of fruits, vegetables, meats,and other foods found at the pilgrim season in Mecca, all of which areth e choicest of their kind. H e closes th e chapter with the following:There is som ething marvelous about the blessed water of Z am zam . Ifdrunk from the pit it tastes warm like milk from a camel's udder. Inthis is evidence of the special care of Allah, extolled is He, whose bless-ings are too well known to be described. . . . A common experiencerelates to this blessed water. Whenever one feels worn out with tiredmuscles either as a result of c i r cumambu la t ing th e Kaabah , per-forming th e minor pilgrimage on foot, or because of any one of theother activities that overtax the, body and pours this water on hisbody, lie ins tant ly feels relief and vigor and gets rid of what hadafflicted him.6

On one of his visits to Medina between 1325 and 1354 the Moroccanworld traveler ibn-Battutah made friends with several sojourningscholars.One of them was the righteous and meritorious Shaykh abu-al-'AbbasAhmad ibn-Muhammad ibn-Marzuq [from Tilimsan], a man given todevotional exercises, fasting and prayer in the Mosque of Allah's Mes-

5. Sur. 28:57.6. Ibn-Jubayr, Rihlah (Beirut, 1964), pp. 96-101; for a m ore li teral tran slation seeR. J. C. Broadhurst , The Travels o/ Ibn Jubayr (London, 1952), pp. 116-128.

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The Religious Capitalsenger (Allah's blessing and peace be upon him in abundance) . Theshaykh accepted with resignation all troubles of life in expectation ofheavenly reward. He often sojourned in Mecca the venerated, whereI met him in the year 28 [728, A . D . 1328-1329]. I found him most as-siduous in c i rcumambula t ing the K aab ah . I marveled at his persistencein doing it despite the excessive heat on the black s tone-pavementwhich under the sun felt l ike red-hot plates. I h ave seen w ater-carrierspour water on i t , but no sooner did the water f low beyond the pointtouched than that spot turned again aglow. Most circumambulators onsuch days wore sandals, but not abu-al- 'Abbas i bn-Marzuq . H e wouldgo barefoot.One day I saw him circui t ing, and i t occurred to me to accompanyhim. But no sooner had I reached the pavement and made to the BlackStone for the kiss than I felt th e blaze of the stones and resolved toreturn after the kiss. With great effort, however, I reached the Stoneand turned back without complet ing the circui t . As I walked back Ikept spreading m y mant le on the ground and s tepping on it t i l l Ireached the colonnade.7

VIMedieval Europeans knew something about South Arabia, the land ofspices and incense, from classical sources which early modern Europe-ans forgot. Europeans of neither period knew much about Hijaz. Themain reason was the koranic curtain lowered in a revelat ion that read:"O ye who believe, the polytheists only are unclean. Let them not thenafter this year come near the Sacred Mosque. And if ye fear poverty[by loss of income from visitors] Allah shall reward you from H isbounty ii He willeth. Lo! Allah is the knower the wise" (9:28). Theprecise meaning of the verse is not clear, but i ts interpretation by thetheologians left no doubt about the meaning. No non-Moslem is al-lowed to step on the inviolable soil of Mecca at any time, and theblood of him w ho ven ture s is legitimate game. Somehow the forbid densign over Mecca's door was magnified to include not only Medina buta considerable portion of Hijaz. But while it deterred many, the mys-tery beh ind it attracted a few. The curiosity aroused was scientific aswell as adventurous . No fewer than twenty-five Italian, Spanish, Swiss,English, and other Christian-born 'Europeans penetrated the curtain

7. C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti, Voyages d'lbn Batoutah, Arabic text (Paris,1893), vol. I, pp. 280-281. For a more literal t ranslat ion see H. A. R. Gibb , TheTravels of Ibn Battuta (Cambridge, 1958), vol. I, pp. 175-176.27


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MECCAand lived to make a record. As for those who did not survive, theirn u m b e r canno t be asce rtained . Success was condit ioned by proficiencyin a complicated r i tual , famil iar i ty with th e minu t i ae of a system ofet iquet te, and w h a t was most difficult mastery over a languagerich in g ut tur a l s and laryngeals. A slip anywhere along the line, unlessbacked by presence of mind and cool courage, might cost an adven-t u re r his life.The first to venture into the lion's den of Islam was a Bolognesenamed Ludovico di Varthema. In Dam ascus, where he made his startto learn the "Moorish language," Varthema adopted Islam, assumedthe name Yunis (Jonah), and managed through bribery to enroll him-self in the M a m l u k garrison. The M a m l u k captain was himself aChris t ian renegade. This was in 1503 when the Mamluk dynasty ruledover Egypt and Syria. W hen the pilgrimage t ime came Yun is was givena post in the caravan as an escort. The caravan, which he claimedcomprised 40,000 (!) men, arr ived at Mecca May 22. After goingthrough the pilgrimage rites with his fellow caravaneers, he lingeredin the city t i ll Jun e 12. H is general impression was not favorable.The city he saw was unwalled. It housed 6,000 families but its beg-gars numbered in the tens of thousands. In the streets flocked 15,000to 20,000 doves, which were said to come from the stock of that dovewhich spoke to Muhammad in the form of the Holy Spiri t . He notedthat God must have cursed rather than blessed the city, for its landproduced neither grass nor trees nor anything else.

Clearly Varthema 's desire for knowledge lacked the element of ac-curacy. But considering that he had no predecessors and no knowl-edge of the literature on the subject, the credibility gap is not sur-prising. Nevertheless, his brief Itinerary, published in Italian at Romein 1510, was an instant success and passed through a number of edi-tions in the original as well as in its translated versions. It gave it sreaders the first glimpse of the cradle of Islam and served as a sourcefo r later explorers.

More learned than the Italian Varthema was the Spanish Badia yLeblich, a student of medicine, astronomy, botany, and geology aswell as a master of Arabic. Badia spent several years in Morocco andEgypt on unknown missions and spent money lavishly from equallyunknown sources. Claiming descent from the caliphal 'Abbasid familyin Baghdad, he adopted the name 'Ali Bey al-'Abbasi. If he was a Jew,

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J o h n L . B u r c k h a r d t , Travels in Arabia ( L o n d o n , 1829)

Plan of Mecca, 1814 (Ha r a m Mosque is 61)

as claimed by some, his knowledge of Hebrew must have helped inArabic pronunciation. With a retinue of servants and an ornamentedrug-furnished tent, the princely pilgrim joined the Egyptian caravanarriving in Mecca January 23, 1807. So complete was his disguise that

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MECCAnone ever suspected his nationality. Even the sharif of the city be-friended 'Ali Bey and on o ne occasion sought his assistance in wash ingthe Kaabah's marble floor a privilege accorded no other Christian-born Westerner.Badia reports in his Voyages that he f ound no physicians "properlyso called" at Mecca and no venders of drugs or medicines. When aninhabi tant was sick, his barber bled him, gave him a dose of gingerwater, and administered to him some of the Zamzam miraculouswater. In describing the different animals he reports lengthily on thebold mice which danced and leapt upon him every night as he slepton the floor. One flower only he saw in all Mecca, but his servant wasforbidden to cut it for him for that was sinful. One scientific contribu-t ion Badia m ade was the determin ation by astronomical instrumentsof th e exact position of the city. Badia's plan of the H a r a m Mosque,the first of its kind, is remarkably accurate.

It w as not the Spaniard's book though that laid the basis of modernexact knowledge of the Holy City but that of a Swiss who followed.John Lewis Burckhard t prepared himself for the perilous task atAleppo, where he acquired proficiency not only in Arabic but in thesciences of the Koran. Unl ike his predecessors he joined no caravan.In mid-July 1814 he entered J iddah disguised as a beggar in rags. H isname w as Shaykh Ibrahim ibn- 'Abdullah. The following three monthshe spent in the area, visiting Mecca twice and carrying on researchestha t gave the minutest details about all ceremonies connected with thepilgrimage. H is description of the Mosque remains a classic. To himthe city looked like a handsome, albeit decadent town, 3,500 paces inlength , wi th unpaved but broad streets to facilitate pilgrim move-ments. It is the only place in the world where the believer can turnduring his prayers to any point of the compass. The houses were lofty,each with a terrace for the harem. Refuse from the windows accumu-lated in the streets. Streets were totally dark at nig ht, but the Mosquewas i l lumined by t housands of lamps. The city, a paradise for beg-gars, was inhabi ted most ly by people of foreign origin who came aspilgrims and remained. Its entire populat ion numbered 25,000 to30,000.England has produced the largest number of world-renowned travelersin Arab i a , beg inn ing with Richa rd F. B ur ton and coming down to St.

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Snouk H u r g r o n j e , Mekka Bilder-Atlas (The Hague, 1889)

View of Mecca w i t h Haram Mosque in foreground, 1885

John Philby. Certa in accounts of theirs, like Arabia Deserta by CharlesDoughty and Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence, haveachieved the rank of classics in English l i terature. Burton started thes tudy of Arabic in Oxford wi thout the benefit of a master and con-t i nued i t in India, where he served for several years in the East IndiaCompany. In 1853 the Roy al Geographical Society app rove d his tripto Africa to explore that "huge whi te blot" on the map of Arabia.Assuming the name of Shaykh 'Abdullah he posed as a Pathan (Af-ghani ) Indian Moslem to explain his foreign Arabic accent. Burton,the best known among these explorers , did not add much by way ofgeographic or scientific knowledge to w h a t his forerunners, part icularlyBadia and Burckhard t , had contributed. But his pungent s tyle, vividcharacter ization, and the in ject ion of the personal element renderedhis works more readable. In his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage toel-Medinah and Meccah (3 vols., Lo ndo n, 1855-1856) he threw new

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MECCAl ight on varied aspects of A r a b i a n life. As an author, however, Burtonowes his fame more to his t rans la t ion of the Arabian Nights.

Birthplace of the Prophet and the scene of his first revela-tion, cradle of Islam and the point toward which its adher-ents turn their faces daily in prayer and direct their feetannually in pilgrimage, Ma kkah al-Mukarram ah is the holi-est place in Islam and one of th e holiest in the world.

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1{/VleNvi :

O Lord, Thou hast taken me out of a place dearest unto me;take me now to a place dearest unto Thee.

Muhammad in a t rad i t ion

uthArab ians named it Yathr ib . Pre-Islam-ic North Arabians had no other name for it. Ptolemy's geography,written in the mid-second Christian century, makes the name lathrip-pa. Stephen of Byzant ium (flourished first half of sixth century) usesthe same form in his geographical dict ionary. Yathrib had no history.It had to wait until its name was changed to Madinat al-Nabi (theCity of the Prophet , shortened to al -Madinah, anglicized Medina) more specifically unt i l that day of September 24, 622, when Muham-mad set foot on its soil . Aramaic has the same term for city as theArabic, and the Aram aic-speakin g Jews in the neighborhood m ay haveused it for Yathrib.

Medina sharply differed from Mecca. It was an oasis, 2,095 feetabove the sea, nucleated on fresh-water wells. The Tropic of Cancer,passing between it and Mecca, consigns it to the temperate zone. Thecity was then and is still today noted for its produce of dates, cereals,and vegetables. Like Mecca, Medina had experienced the tensions anddislocations concomitant on trans i t ion from a nomadic to a settledway of life agricul tural ra ther than mercant i le but unlike Meccait, at the t ime of the hijrah, lacked cohesion in its population anduni ty in its leadership. Its current malaise stemmed from chronic con-flict between its two leading tribes, the Aws and the Khazra j both of

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M E D I N AWith his posi t ion seemingly consol idated in his city of migration,

M u h a m m a d t u rned his a t t en t ion to the city of his na tiv i ty. Mecca hada myst ique of its own. It was a center of worship before it became acenter of t rade. Its t radi t ion was one of holiness. Its Quraysh werepeerless as cus tod ians of a national shrine, control lers of i n t e rna t iona ltrade, and co nsu m m ate pol i tic ians. No, not M edina bu t Mecca was tobe the radiant center of Islam and its religious capital.

So long as Muhammad was in Mecca, he was on the defensive. Hisa t t i tude was con ciliato ry ; his approach basically religious. Bu t now thesituation radically changed. His atti tude became hostile and his ap-proach p oli t ico-mil i tary. "Subdu e and conv ert" was the new mo tto, ofwhich a better version would read: subdue and conversion will follow.

The first armed conflict had for aim the in ter rupt ion of the Meccancaravan on its way back from Syria. Such a blow, if effective, wouldnot only impai r the life l ine of the enemy city but would, wi th theacquired booty, bolster the tottering economy of the host city. Forbattlefield, Badr, a watering place on the caravan route southwest ofM edina was chosen. The date w as mid-M arch 624. W ith some threehund red m en Muha m m a d infl icted a humil ia t ing defea t on a hos tmore than three times its number led by abu-Sufyan, shaykh ofQuraysh. There was no do ubt abo ut i t : the victory was a vind icat ionof the fai th . More concrete evidence w as provided by the fact t ha tthousands of angels participated in the fight as reported in the K ora n8:9-12, 17; 3:120. The fact that twelve months later the Meccans,again under abu-Sufyan, won a batt le at Uhud, a short distance northof Medina, and even inflicted .two or three wounds on the Prophet'sface and leg did not dim the luster of the preceding encounter. AtBadr, Islam the religion took on a new dimens ion, a mili tary one. Itembarked on a career that did not end u n t i l its flag wa v ed t r i um pha n t -ly over a large part of the civilized world.

Another at tempt was necessary to convince th e Quraysh of the futili-ty of their effort. In 627 a host of 10,000 Meccans, Bedouins, Jews,and Aby ss inians (many of them mercenaries) marched against therival city and laid siege to it. The combinat ion was styled the "con-federates" (ahzab) in the Koran (sur. 33). Muhammad could musteronly 3,000. In vain did the besiegers' cavalry try to cross th e trenchesextemporaneously dug around the city. The wi thdrawa l after a month

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Cour t e s y M i n i s t r y of In fo rmat i on , R i y ad

Arcade of Prophet 's Mosque, M edina

was complete. Never again was Meccan hea theni sm to measure swordswith Medinese Islam.

The Jewish contingent w as manned by recruits from Khaybar , anoasis a hundred miles north of Medina, and by Medinese Jews ex-pelled by Muhammad subsequent to the batt le of Uhud. That was thesecond expulsion, the first having taken place after Badr. All Jewishproperty in Medina was on both occasions confiscated an Allahsendto the needy com m unity of Islam. Khaybar ' s turn came now. The Jew-is h tribe of Khaybar , as intransigent as their coreligionists in Medina,had made of their oasis a stronghold considered impregnable against

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M E D I N Ahumble citizen could perform . As com man der in chief of the armedforces, M uh am m ad 's successor included, among his duties , protectionand promot ion of the fai th and enforc ing the divine law.The four Orthodox (rashidun, rightly guided) caliphs abu-Bakr,'U m a r , ' U t h m a n and 'Ali were so called b ecause supposedly theyconducted their offices under the inspirat ion of the Prophet's precept,example, and personal i ty , so closely related were they to him not onlyby blood kins hip but by fai th and labor. All four were Qurayshis; allwere early believers, friends, and collaborators. Their capital w asMedina and their era extended from 632 to 661. Their rule w as patri-archal and t r ibal , rather than monarchic or imperial , and their do-mestic lives almost throughout were s imple and unostentat ious. Pietyfeatured their dai ly conduct .

The principal events enacted in Medina under the Orthodox cali-phate can be summed up under four headings: the Islamization of thePeninsula, the canoniza t ion of the Koran , the conquest of the FertileCrescent, Persia, and Egypt, and the civil war. Islamization and con-ques t wen t to a cer ta in extent hand in hand now and later. In the caseof the bulk of Arabia both were the proud achievement of the firstcal iph abu-Bakr (632-634), father-in-law of the Prophet and a formermerchant . At the death of Muhammad several t r ibes and communit ieswi thheld the payment of zakah, implying secession from Islam. Thelaw in such cases is clear: Once a Moslem always a Moslem. Apostasyis punishable by death (sur. 16:108). But this was more than apostasy.It had political aspects including resentment against Medina 's sud-den hegemony as well as economic aspects, involving pay m ent of tax.This was the first crisis confronting the nascent state. As they seceded,tribes declared for false prophets. The sixty-year-old caliph was un-relenting in his determinat ion to crush all uprisings and to returndissidents into the fold, and having done that , he proceeded to accom-plish the conquest of the rest of the Peninsula. Unless the Peninsulaconquered and Islamized itself, how could it conquer and Islamize theoutside world?

That al l Arabia had in Muhammad's l i fet ime embraced Islam asArab chroniclers assert is difficult to believe in view of the shorttime involved and the primitive means of communication. Even Meccadid not submit unt i l two years before the Prophet's death. Writing a

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The Caliphal Capitalhundred years or more after the events the chroniclers viewed themfrom the wrong perspective. Not the Prophet but his first successorconsolidated the power of the faith south as far as Hadramawt and'Uman, and east to the Persian Gulf. For the first time in its historythe Peninsula was seemingly united under one scepter and subjectedto one prophet. One of the generals who contributed to that end wasa brilliant Qurayshi, Khalid ibn-al-Walid. Khalid had started his mili-tary career on the battlefields of Badr and U h u d against Muhammad;he was to end it on the battlefields of northern Syria and to earn theunique title of "the sword of Allah."As the Book of Allah, the Koran, complete and ready, existed frometernity, but w as dictated piecemeal to M uh am m ad in the course oftwenty-two years beginning 610. Revelations were occasioned by par-ticular conditions confronting th e Prophet partly in Mecca, mostly inMedina. During his lifetime Muhammad does not seem to have at-tempted a system atic collection of his revelations and their fixing bycommittal to writing. Certain undetermined fragments were no doubtrecorded by him through his scribe, Zayd ibn-Thabit, who also car-ried out the correspondence with Jews and others. At the Prophet'sdeath the door of revelation was forever locked.

Tradition credits 'Umar, undoubtedly the best mind among theOrthodox caliphs, with having suggested to his predecessor the com-pilation and establishment of the koranic text. The suggestion wasprompted by the fact of the decimation, by domestic and foreign wars,of those early specialists in koranic study called readers (qurra') andmemorizers ( h u f f a z ) . After consulting w ith Za yd, abu-Bakr hesitated.H ow could he undertake what the Prophet had not? But other devel-opments forced his hands. Varying readings and versions were alreadyin currency, disputes about the identification of material were rising,and divisions in the ranks of believers threatened. Precisely what wasthe character of the first caliph's performance modern research has notbeen able to ascertain. The honor of fixing the Holy Book in its finalform was left to his second successor 'U thman ibn-'Affan (644-656).This must have been about 650.'U thman entrusted the delicate task to a committee of Qurayshischaired by Zayd. The committee collected the material from writtenrecords, some of which came from palm leaves, stones, and animal

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M E D I N Athe twelfth surah on the ground that such an amorous a f f a i r as that ofJoseph and the Egyptian woman could not have been a proper subjectfor revelat ions. The Shi'ah allege suppression of certain verses favor-able to 'Ali and to 'Ali's family, but the bulk of the Moslem commu-nity accepts the authentici ty of the koranic text in its present form,and modern scholars agree.

The canon of the K ora n con tributed ines timably not only to thereligious and l inguistic but to the political unification of the emergingcommunity of Islam. It provided believers of all variet ies with a com-mon ground on which to stand. To abu-Bakr's attempt to unify Mos-lem Arabia ns by the sword w as now added 'Uthman's attempt to unifyall Moslems by the w rit ten word.Muhammad laid the background fo r Moslem-Arabian expansion andprovided th e necessary conditions, but he could hardly be said to haveinit iated i t outside the Peninsula. True, before his death he did sendhis l ieutenants on several expeditions northward, reaching Mu'tahnear the southern tip of the Dead Sea, but evidently the objective wasensuring control over the P enin sula r trade ro ute and establishing con-tact with Arabian tribes domiciled in that area. It was under his firstsuccessor that the aggressive expan sionist m ovem ent was launched.The launc hing was due less to deliberate p lann ing and consultativedesign than to a socio-economic-religious complex over which thecaliph had no full control. The war machine generated by abu-Bakr'sgenerals on the battlefield of the Peninsula acquired momentum thatcould not be checked. Raids (Ar. ghazu, whence razzia) for booty wasa t ime-honored intertribal institution that gave chance to the havenots to share with the haves and could not be totally obliterated by afiat from a religious fraternity. It sought new channels for its expres-sion. Islam substituted for it the holy war (jihad): military actionaimed at the expansion of the faith as well as its defense. Theoreticallyit is the only form of war authorized, leaving no room for such thingas secular war (2:186-190). J ihad sets the community of Islam againstthe world, paralleling the view of modern communism. As for himwho dies in the j ihad, he dies in the path of Allah; he stays alive(2:149) and his share in Paradise is immediately assured. Early Arabchroniclers used the same term ghazu for the Moslem battles, and theword fath (opening, opening the way ul t imately fo r Islam) fo r con-

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The Caliphal Capitalquest . Their in te rpre ta t ion of the phenomenal success did not differfrom tha t of the Hebrews eighteen centuries earl ier: providential .Political leaders proclaimed and theologians agreed that the ul t imateobjective was making the world safe for the religion of Islam. To thehardened sons of the desert the sedentary people of the north mus thave seemed like effete snobs.

On the other side of the fence internecine wars for over tw o cen-turies between the Persians and the Eastern Romans or Byzantines,the two giant powers of the area and era, had come close to destroyingtheir mil i tary potential . The Byzant ine Empire dominated the Medi-terranean basin and sought eastward expansion. The Persian Empiredominated the eas tern hinter land and directed its thrus t westward.The border s tates of Syria and Mesopotamia became the batt leground.Additionally, both empires were suffering from dynastic troubles. Thetw o incumbents of the thrones had assumed their posi t ions by the useof force against their predecessors. Between 613 and 616 K husra u IIoccupied Syria (including Palestine) and Egypt, and the followingyear added Asia M inor, reaching Ch alcedon opposite Co nstantinople.In 628-629 Heraclius brought to a successful conclusion his campaignsfor th e restoration of the lost territory, recovered th e Holy Crossplundered by the Persians, and amidst great jubilat ion reinstated i t inJerusalem. O ne factor played into the hands of the Arabians. Both theeastern borders of Syria and the western borders of Persia were heldby Arabian tribes domiciled there for centuries and by now Chris t ian-ized. They nevertheless felt closer in blood and language to the new-comers. Even in religion they did not feel far removed from ArabianMoslems. In fact one could say tha t th e bulk of the Christian Semiticpopulat ion of the area had been al ienated from their By zan tine mas-ters by taxation and by disabilities under which they labored. BeingJacob ites and Nesto rians they were regarded as heretics in theirChristology by the Orthodox Church of Constantinople. To the na-tives it was simply a matter of exchange of masters in the hope of anew deal.

The wave of conquest beyond Arabia, set in mo tion und er ab u-Bakr,was accelerated by 'Umar (634-644), climaxed under him, and termi-nated under his successor 'Uthman (644-656). In the rapidity and easewi th which i t was executed and in the phen om enal success which w as

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M E D I N Aachieved, th is conques t r anks among the most spectacular in mi l i t a r yannals.

Syria, from Sinai to the Taurus , was the first to yield. In all, theopera tion took abo ut seven years, betw een 633 and 640. The hero w asKhal id ibn-al-Walid. His f irst major victory was over the Byzantinecapi ta l Damascus . The city opened its gates to the besiegers in Sep-tember 635 after a siege shortened to six months by negotiated agree-m e n t on the par t of its nat iv e b ishop and its s ta te t reasurer, the fa therof St. John Damascene , the last great hymnologis t and theologian ofthe Eastern Syr ian Church. The second victory worthy of note w asalso scored by K ha l id . It took place eleven months later at the Yar mu k ,an eastern tr ib ut ar y of the Jorda n River . Here Moslem troops of some25,000 decisively routed a Byz ant ine army of almost twice that numbercomprising Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, and other mercenaries, andaccompanied by priests carrying icons and chant ing prayers . The bat-tle cry of Allahu akbar (God is greatest) proved more effective. Theway w as open for the s u b j u g a t i o n of the en t i re coun t ry . One Syr iancity after the other fell as if domino pieces in a row. In the north evensuch cities as Antioch (An tak iyah) and Laodicea (al-Ladhiqiyah) , w ithGreek names and Greek origins, offered no m arked resistance. "Thepeople of Shayzar [near Harnah] , " in the words of an early historianof the conquests, "went out to meet the conqueror accompanied byplayers on the t ambour ine and singers and bowed down before him."3In the south the only city which w as stubborn in its defense w as Hel-lenized Caesarea (Qaysariyah). Its position on the sea gave it the ad-vantage of receiving supplies from the Byzant ine navy, for which theArabians had no counterpart . The city finally succumbed (October640) under an a t t ack led by Mu'awiyah, son of abu-Sufyan, and facili-tated by a Jewish leader inside the walls. With the conquest of Syriathe first foreign province w as added to the emerging cal iphal state .

Of special interest are the te rms of the treaty signed by Khalid onthe eve of his entry into Damascus, modeled on the terms offered byM u h a m m a d to the Chris t ians of Naj r an . They in turn served as amodel for later treaties:In the name of Allah, the mercifu l , the compassionate. This is whatKhalid ibn-al-Walid would grant the people of Damascus if he enters

3. Philip K. Hitti, Origins of the Islamic State (translation of al-Baladhuri, Futuhal-Buldan) (New Yo rk, 1916; re pr in t B ei ru t, 1966), pp. 201-202.46


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The Caliphal Capitali t : He shall give them security for their lives, property, and churches.Their city wa lls shall not be demolished and no Moslems shall bequartered in their dwellings. Thereunto we give them the pact ofAllah together with the protection of H is Prophet (Allah's blessingand peace be upon him), of the caliphs and of all believers. So long asthey pay poll-tax, nothing but good shall befall them.4The tu rn of Egypt came next. The invasion was undertaken on thein i t ia t ive of an officer in the Syrian army, 'Am r ibn-al-'As, and with thehalf-hearted consent of the caliph 'Umar. For credentials 'Amr offeredhis knowledge of the terra in having been a caravaneer on the Hijaz-Egypt road and his m ili tary experience in Syria having taken par tin the siege of Damascus and the batt le of the Ya rm uk . Like Khal id,he was a Quraysh i who had part icipated in the batt les against theProphet and did not embrace Islam until shortly before the fall ofMecca in 630.

Start ing with 4,000 horsemen 'Amr in December 639 crossed th eSyro-Egyptian frontier, crushed all resistance in his way , and bid hist ime awaiting reinforcement before tackling the strongly fortifiedci tadel Babalyun . Strategically si tu ated on a point at the Nile whereUpper and Lower Egypt meet (later site of Cairo), Babalyun had agarrison of 5,000 men, and by the time recruits from Medina hadaugmented th e invading troops to 10,000, th e Byzantine army of de-fense had reached 20,000. Cyrus the governor, who was also the patri-arch, offhandedly spurned th e offer of Islam or surrender . H e chosethe only al ternative left: the sword. In April 641 the besieged fortresssurrendered and the way wa s open to the capital Alexandria. Themarch w as more l ike a promenade. The Copts of Egypt followed theChristology of the Syrian C hur ch an d had been as badly treated, bothpolitically and religiously, by their By zan tine masters. Alexandriawas th e next target . Capital of the province, base for the fleet, the cityof Alexandria was protected by walls and towers, manned by a garri-son of 50,000, and ranked in might and affluence next to the cityfounded by Constantine. By contrast, the Arabian challengers, with nosiege equipment, not a single ship, and far from base, must havelooked like a sad lot on that sum me r day in 6 42 wh en they campedoutside the high walls. But the will to conquer was on their side andthey pressed the assault undismayed. By September 642 the city was

4. Ibid., p. 187.47


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M E D I N Aready to capitulate. The victorious march continued westward to addCyrenaica, a Berber territory which, for the time being, constitutedthe farthest l imit of the w estward thrust .

The commander in chief now began to funct ion as governor general.For capi ta l 'Amr chose the site where he had pitched his camp outs ideBabalyun to become known as Fustat (from Gr., meaning camp). Oneof the first buildings was expectedly the mosque, sti l l standing in whatis today Old Cairo. 'Amr uti l ized the exis t ing Byzantine machinery,adminis t ra t ive and f inancial , with cer ta in adapta t ions . H e proved tobe as bri l l iant and dashing a soldier as Khal id who was humi l i a t edand downgraded by 'U m a r for act ing too independent ly but morewily and more capable in adminis trat ion. When the new cal iph 'Uth-m an wanted to send from Medina a fiscal agent for the new province,'Amr objected on the ground tha t tha t amounted to one man holdingthe cow's horns and another milking it.In the m ea n t i m e not al l was quie t on the eastern front . The columnthat had s tar ted from Medina in 632 encountered prel iminary d i f f i -culties u n t i l its command w as ent rus ted to Sa'd ibn-abi-Waqqas, awor thy peer of Khal id and 'Amr. Member of a Meccan family and anearly believer, Sa'd had so dis t inguished himself on the battlefields ofBadr and Uhud tha t he was included by the Prophet among the eliteassured of reservat ions in Paradise. At Qadisiyah to the southwes t ofHirah Sa'd at the head of 10,000 had the first chance to measure on alarge scale Arabian against Persian swords. Not only did the foe haveth e advantage in num ber s being almost six t imes as m a n y but itincluded in its equ i pm en t w ar elephants , a novel ty in Arabian combat.This wa s late in the s prin g of 637. On the ad vic e of a Persian prisoner,the anim al enemy was successfully deal t with, the commanding generalRus tam fell in battle, and the army dissolved in panic. The victorysealed the fate of Mesopotamia, where th e Aramaic-speaking popula-t ion w as no mo re eager to defend the homeland than their corel igion-ists in Syria and Egypt. Ctesiphon (Ar. Mada' in) , once capi tal of thePar th ian k ingdom and now of the Sasanid empire , lay across theTigris, helpless and hopeless. Deserted by its garrison, its young , in-experienced monarch Yazclajird III fled wi t h his jewels and treasures.But enough w as left to dazzle the big black eyes of desert Arabians asthey fell upon them, and to over tax the Arabic vocabulary of histori-

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The Caliphal Capitalans t rying to describe the booty. According to one reporter, who hadno benefit of a computer , the value reached nine hund red m ill ionsilver pieces. Th e m ue zz in's voice raised in A rabic for the first timeatop th e palace of the Khusraus has not ceased ever since to reverberateover Persian soil.

Practically all the coun t ry now lay at the invader's mercy. OnlyNihawan d nor theast of the capital offered some resistance which w ascrushed in 641 by a l i eu tenant of Sa'd. As for the ill-starred Yazdaj ird,he continued his flight from one hid ing place to another t i l l 651 whenhe wa s m urdered at a m iller's hut near Marw by one of his peoplecoveting the crown jewels. Thus came to an ignoble end an empirethat had lasted, with some vicissitudes, for twelve hundred years andthat w as not to rise again for some eight hu nd red more.

Ill

'Umar, the strongest and most energetic in the Orthodox series, w assucceeded by ' U t h m a n , th e weakest. ' U t h m a n ' s reign from 644 to 656witnessed not only the end of the wave of conquest but the beginningof civil disturba nces that did not cease un ti l M edina yielded to Damas-cus as the mistress of the world of Islam.

U nlik e his predecessors the new caliph, a late believer, belonged tothe Uma y y a d aristocracy, lived in relat ive luxury, favored his relativeswith lucrative posts, and thereby aroused the discontent not only ofpietists and poli t icians but of t r ibesmen in Syria, Egypt, and SouthArabia, restless unde r M edina's m ou ntin g central izat ion of power.The political aspect w as complicated by the fact that 'Ali, for long acaliphal aspirant , had by now a sizable following. Disaffection brokeinto open rebellion, leading to the assassination of the aged caliph inhis residence while reading the copy of the Koran he had authorized.H is was the first calipha l blood shed by a Moslem. 'Ali was proclaimedas his successor.

Everything seemed to augur wel l for the new caliph. He was Mu-hammad's first cousin and husband of his favorite daughter Fatimah;he was first or second male believer and a com rade at arm s throu gho utthe Medinese period. His sword was dubbed dhu-al-Faqar, breaker ofvertebrae. But there was a fly in the oin tment : the possibility of com-plicity in 'Uthman's murder involving the legitimacy of his rule. The

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philip hitti capital cities of arab islam 1973

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