Part 11

Besides the contemporary documents enumerated above (Koranic texts, rescripts and authentic traditions) many of the events were celebrated by poets, whose verses were ostensibly incorporated in the standard biography of Ibn Ishaq; in the abridgment of that biography which we possess many of these are obelized as spurious, and, indeed, what we know of the procedure of those who professed to collect early poetry gives us little confidence in the genuineness of such odes. A few, however, seem to stand criticism, and the _diwan_ (or collection of poems) attributed to Hassan b. Thabit is ordinarily regarded as his. Though they rarely give detailed descriptions of events, their attestation is at times of value, e.g. for the story that the bodies of the slain at Badr were cast by the Prophet into a pit. Besides this, the narratives of eyewitnesses of important events, or of those who had actually taken part in them, were eagerly sought by the second generation, and some of these were committed to writing well before the end of the 1st century. The practice instituted by the second Caliph, of assigning pensions proportioned to the length of time in which the recipient had been a member of the Islamic community, led to the compilation of certain rolls, and to the accurate preservation of the main sequence of events from the commencement of the mission, and for the detailed sequence after the Flight, which presently became an era (beginning with the first month of the year in which the Flight took place). The procedure whereby the original dates of the events (so far as they were remembered) were translated into the Moslem calendar--for something of this sort must have been done--is unknown, and is unlikely to have been scientific.

Mahomet's conduct being made the standard of right and wrong, there was little temptation to "whitewash" him, although the original biography by Ibn Ishaq appears to have contained details which the author of the abridgment omitted as scandalous. The preservation of so much that was historical left little room for the introduction of miraculous narrations; these therefore either belong to the obscure period of his life or can be easily eliminated; thus the narratives of the Meccan council at which the assassination of Mahomet was decided, of the battles of Badr, Uhud and Honain, and the death of Sad`b. Mu `adh, would lose nothing by the omission of the angels and the devil, though a certain part is assigned the one or the other on all these occasions. We should have expected biographies which were published when the `Abbasids were reigning to have falsified history for the purpose of glorifying `Abbas, their progenitor; the very small extent to which this expectation is justified is a remarkable testimony to their general trustworthiness.

RELATIVES OF THE PROHET[1]

1. _Family of `Abd al-Mottalib_, Mahomet's maternal grandfather:--*`Abbas (d. A.H. 32 or 34), *Hamza (d. A.H. 3), `Abdallah, father of the Prophet, *Abu Talib (said to be named `Abd Manaf), ? *Zubair, Harith, Hajal, Moqawwam, Dirar, *Abu Lahab (said to be named `Abd al-`Uzza, d. A.H. 2), *_Safiyyah_ (d. A.H. 20), _Umm Hakim_, _al-Baida_, _`Atikah_, _Umaimah_, _Arwa_, _Barrah_.

2. _Family of Abu Talib_:--*`Aqil (d. after A.H. 40), *Ja`far (d. A.H. 8), Talib, Tulaiq, `Ali, the caliph, _Umm Hani'_, _Jumanah_, _Raitah_.

3. _Family of Mahomet. Wives_:--*_Khadija_ (Children:--Qasim; ? `Abd Manaf (Tahir, Tayyib); *_Zainab_ m. Abu'l-`As b. Rabi', d. A.H. 7; *_Ruqayyah_, m. `Othman b. `Affan, d. A.H. 2; *_Umm Kulthum_ m. `Othman b. `Affan, d. A.H. 9; *_Fatimah_, m. `Ali, d. A.H. 11): *_Saudah bint Zam`ah_,? d. A.H. 54, *_`A'ishah (Ayesha) bint Abi Bekr_ (d. A.H. 56), *_Hafsa bint `Omar_ (d. A.H. 45 or 47), *_Zainab bint Khuzaimah_, d. before A.H. 11, *_Zainab bint Jahsh_, d. A.H. 20, *_Umm Salimah_, d. A.H. 59, *_Maimunah_, d. A.H. 38, *_Juwairiyah_, d. A.H. 56, *_Umm Habibah Ramlah bint Abi Sofian_, d. A.H. 44.

_Concubines_:--*_Safiyyah bint Huyyay_, d. A.H. 36, *_Raihanah bint Zaid_, *_Mariyah the Copt_, d. A.H. 15 or 16, mother of Ibrahim. (Other names given by Ibn Sa`d, vol. viii.)

_Chronological Table of Chief Events in the Life of Mahomet._[2]

? 570 Birth. ? 595 Marriage with Khadija. ? 610 Commencement of call. ? 613 Public appearance. 616 Persian conquest of the nearer East. ? 617 Flight of his followers to Abyssinia. ? 618-619 Siege in Mecca. Retractation and subsequent repudiation. Death of Abu Talib and Khadija. ? 620 Flight to Taif. 622 July 16. Beginning of the Moslem era. Sept. 20. Arrival at Kuba after the Flight. 632 Jan. 27. Death of his son Ibrahim. 632 June 7. Death of Mahomet.

The following dates are given by the Arabic historians according to their own calendar. For the reasons which have been seen it is impossible to obtain certain synchronisms.

A.H.

2. Rajab 1. Raid of `Abdallah b. Jahsh to Nakhlah. Ramadan 19. Battle of Badr. Shawwal 15. Attack on the Banu Qainuqa.

3. Rabia I. 14. Assassination of Ka`b b. al-Ashraf. Shawwal 7. Battle of Uhud.

4. Saphar. Massacre of Mahomet's 70 missionaries at Bi'r Ma`unah. Rabia I. Attack on the Banu Nadir. Dhu'l-Qa`da. Abortive raid called "the lesser Badr."

5. Shaaban 2. Attack on the Banu'l-Mustaliq (according to Waqidi). Dhu'l-Qa`da. Battle of the Trench. Massacre of the Banu Quraizah.

6. Jomada i. Capture of a caravan by Zaid b. Harithah. Futile attempt to assassinate Abu Sofian. Dhu'l-Qa`da. Affair of Hodaibiyah.

7. Jomada i. Taking of Khaibar. Mission extended to the world. Dhu'l-Qa`da. Pilgrimage to Mecca (called _'umrat al-qadiyyah_)

8. Jomada i. Expedition to Mutah. Ramadan 20. Taking of Mecca. Shawwal. Battle of Honain. Attack on Ta`if.

9. Muharram. Tax-gatherers sent over Arabia. Rajab. Expedition to Tabuk. Rival Mosque built at Kuba, destroyed on Mahomet's return to Medina. Dhu'l-Hijja. Pilgrimage conducted by Abu Bekr. Abolition of idolatry in Arabia.

10. Ramadan. Expedition of `Ali to Yemen. Dhu'l-Qa`da. "Farewell Pilgrimage."

11. Saphar. Expedition ordered against the Byzantines.

_Companions of the Prophet._

The _sahabah_, as they are called, are the subject of a vast literature, and the biographical dictionaries devoted to them, of which the best known are the _Usd ul-ghaba_ of the historian Ibn Athir and the _Isabah_ of Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani, enumerate many thousands. The following two lists are of special groups.

(a) _Naqibs_, i.e. leaders selected by Mahomet from the Medinese tribes: i. _Khazrajites_:--As`ad b. Zurarah, Sa`d b. al-Rabi`, `Abdallah b. Rawahah, al-Bara' b. Ma`rur, `Abdallah b. `Amr b. Haram, `Ubadah b. al-Samit, Sa`d b. `Ubadah, al-Mondhir b. 'Amr; ii. _Ausites_: Usaid b. Hudair, Sa`d b. Khaithamah, Rifa`ah b. `Abd al-Mondhir.

(b) _Commanders of Expeditions_: names occurring in (a) are not repeated: `Abdallah b. Jahsh, `Abd ar-Rahman b. `Auf, Abu Bekr, Abu Qatadah, Abu `Ubaidah b. al-Jarrah, `Ali, `Alqamah b. Mujazziz, `Amr b. al-`As (ibn el-Ass), Bashir b. Sa`d, Dahhak b. Sofian, Ghalib b. `Abdallah, Ibn Abi'l-Auja, Ka`b b. `Umair, Khalid b. al-Walid, Kurz b. Jabir, Marthad b. Abi Marthad, Muhammad b. Maslamah, Qutbah b. `Amir, Sa`d b. Abi Waqqas, Sa`d d. Zaid, Salama b. `Abd al-Asad, Shuja` b. Wahb, `Ubaidah b. al-Harith, `Ukkashah b. Mihsan, `Umar b. al-Khattab, Usamah b. Zaid, `Uyainah b. Hisn, Zaid b. Harithah.

AUTHORITIES.--The biography of Ibn Ishaq was before the world long before the two chief causes for the falsification of tradition had begun to have serious effects; these were the need for legal precedents, and the concept of saintliness, combining those of asceticism and thaumaturgy. These gave rise to the classical works on the _Evidences of Mohammed's Mission_ by Abu Nu`aim (d. A.D. 1012-1013) and Baihaqi (d. A.D. 1066).

_Lives of the Prophet_ ([+] indicates that the work is lost); [+]`Urwah b. Zubair (d. 712-713); [+]Musa b. `Ukbah (d. 758-759); [+]Mohammed b. Ishaq (d. 768); Mohammed b. Hisham (d. 828-829), ed. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1860); reprinted in Egypt by Zubair Pasha, a series of excerpts from the last; Mohammed b. Omar al-Waqidi (d. 823), portion published by Kremer (Calcutta, 1855), abridged trans. of a fuller copy by Wellhausen, _Muhammad in Medina_ (Berlin, 1882); Mohammed b. Sa`d (d. 844-845), an encyclopaedic work on the history of Mahomet and his followers, called _Tabaqat_, ed. Sachau and others (Berlin, foll.); Mohammed b. Jarir al-Tabari (see TABARI). Many more writers on this subject are enumerated in the _Fihrist_, cf. Sprenger's _Leben Muhammads_, iii. 54-76.

Among the most popular compilers of later times are: Ibn al-Athir (q.v.) al Jazari, the historian (d. 1233); Ahmad b. Ali al Kastalani (d. A.D. 1517), whose _al-Mawahib al-Laduniyyah_ was published with commentary (Cairo, 1278); Hosain b. Mohammed al Diyarbakri (d. 1574) whose work _Ta'rikh al-Khamis_ was published in Cairo, A.H. 1382; `Ali b. Burhan al-din al-Halabi (d. A.D. 1634), whose biography called _Insan al-`uyun_ was published in Cairo, A.H. 1292. To these must be added all the collections of Tradition.

_Modern Authorities._--The critical study of the Life of Mahomet begins in Europe with the publication by Th. Gagnier in 1723 of the Life by Abulfeda (q.v.). Presently there appeared an apologetic biography by Henri Cmte. de Boulainvilliers (2nd ed., Amsterdam, 1731), to which Gagnier replied in 1732 (_La Vie de Mahomet, traduite_, &c. ibid.). The next considerable advance in the treatment of the subject is marked by the biography of G. Weil (_Muhammed der Prophet_, Stuttgart, 1843), which is wholly without religious bias; the popular life by Washington Irving (London, 1849) is based on this. That by J. L. Merrick (the _Life and Religion of Mohammed_, Boston, U.S.A., 1850) rests on Shi`ite sources. The search for MSS. in India conducted by A. Sprenger led to the discovery of fresh material, which was utilized by Sprenger himself in his unfinished _Life of Mohammad_ (Pt. 1, Allahabad, 1851), and his more elaborate _Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad_ (Berlin, 1861-1865), and by Sir William Muir in his _Life of Mahomet_, (London, 1858-1861) 4 vols.: afterwards abridged in one volume and reprinted. These are still the standard treatises on the subject; the pro-Christian bias of Muir is very marked, while Sprenger has hazarded numerous conjectures on subjects with which he had little familiarity. The biography by S. W. Koelle, _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_ (London, 1889), is pro-Christian, the popular work of Syed Ameer Ali _The Spirit of Islam_, (London, 1896) an apology for Mahommedanism. Later treatises, resting on original authorities, are those by H. Grimme _Mohamed_, (Münster, 1892, and Munich, 1904), F. Buhl, _Mohameds Liv_ (Copenhagen, 1903--Danish: since translated into German), D. S. Margoliouth _Mohammed and the Rise of Islam_ (N.Y., 1905, &c.), and Prince Caetani _Annali del Islam_, i. ii. (Milan, 1905-1907). For the direction of public opinion in Mahomet's favour the Lecture on _The Hero as Prophet_ in Carlyle's _Heroes and Hero-worship_ (London, 1846) was singularly effective; his views were enforced by R. Bosworth Smith _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_, (London, 1873, &c.). A somewhat similar line was taken in France by J. Barthélémy Saint-Hilaire, _Mahomet et le Coran_, (Paris, 1865), while the _Vie de Mahomet d'après la Tradition_ of E. Lamairesse and G. Dujarric (Paris, 1897) is written entirely from the Moslem standpoint.

See further CALIPHATE, _ad init._; MAHOMMEDAN INSTITUTIONS; MAHOMMEDAN LAW; MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION. (D. S. M.*)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] * is prefixed to names which figure on occasions which seem to be historical. Female names are in italics.

[2] Dates are given A.D.

MAHOMMED AHMED IBN SEYYID ABDULLAH (1848-1885), Sudanese tyrant, known as "the Mahdi," was born in Dongola. His family, known as excellent boat-builders, claimed to be _Ashraf_ (or _Sherifs_), i.e. descendants of Mahomet. His father was a _fiki_ or religious teacher, and Mahommed Ahmed devoted himself early to religious studies. When about twenty years old he went to live on Abba Island on the White Nile about 150 m. above Khartum. He first acquired fame by a quarrel with the head of the brotherhood which he had joined, Mahommed asserting that his master condoned transgression of the divine law. After this incident many dervishes (religious mendicants) gathered round the young sheikh, whose reputation for sanctity speedily grew. He travelled secretly through Kordofan, where (with ample justification) he denounced to the villagers the extortion of the tax-gatherer and told of the coming of the mahdi who should deliver them from the oppressor. He also wrote a pamphlet summoning true believers to purify their religion from the defilements of the "Turks" i.e. the Egyptian officials and all non-native inhabitants of the Sudan. The influence he gained at length aroused the anxiety of the authorities, and in May 1881 a certain Abu Saud, a notorious scoundrel, was sent to Abba Island to bring the sheikh to Khartum. Abu Saud's mission failed, and Mahommed Ahmed no longer hesitated to call himself al-Mahdi al Montasir, "The Expected Guide." In August he defeated another force sent to Abba Island to arrest him, but thereafter deemed it prudent to retire to Jebel Gedir, in the Nuba country south of Kordofan, where he was soon at the head of a powerful force; and 6000 Egyptian troops under Yusef Pasha, advancing from Fashoda, were nearly annihilated in June 1882. By the end of 1882 the whole of the Sudan south of Khartum was in rebellion, with the exception of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Equatorial Provinces. In January 1883 El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, was captured. In the November following Hicks Pasha's force of 10,000 men was destroyed at Kashgil, and in the same year the mahdi's lieutenant, Osman Digna, raised the tribes in the eastern Sudan, and besieged Sinkat and Tokar, near Suakin, routing General Valentine Baker's force of 2500 men at El Teb in February 1884. The operations undertaken by Great Britain in face of this state of affairs are narrated under EGYPT: _Military Operations_. It need only be added that General Gordon (q.v.) was besieged at Khartum by the mahdi and was killed there when the town was captured by the mahdists on the 25th-26th of January 1885. The mahdi himself died at Omdurman a few months later (June 22, 1885), and was succeeded in power by his khalifa Abdullah.

When he announced his divine mission Mahommed Ahmed adopted the Shi`ite traditions concerning the mahdi, and thus put himself in opposition to the sultan of Turkey as the only true commander of the faithful. To emphasize his position the mahdi struck coins in his own name and set himself to suppress all customs introduced by the "Turks." His social and religious reforms are contained in various proclamations, one of which is drawn up in the form of ten commandments. They concern, chiefly, such matters as ritual, prayers, soberness in food and raiment, the cost of marriage and the behaviour of women. How far the mahdi was the controller of the movement which he started cannot be known, but from the outset of his public career his right-hand man was a Baggara tribesman named Abdullah (the khalifa), who became his successor, and after his flight to Jebel Gedir the mahdi was largely dependent for his support on Baggara sheikhs, who gratified one of his leading tastes by giving him numbers of their young women. In the few months between the fall of Khartum and his death the mahdi, relieved from the incessant strain of toil, copied in his private life all the vices of Oriental despots while maintaining in public the austerity he demanded of his followers. His death is variously attributed to disease and to poisoning by a woman of his harem. On the occupation of Omdurman by the British (Sept. 1898) the mahdi's tomb was destroyed, his body burnt and the ashes thrown into the Nile (see SUDAN: _Anglo-Egyptian_).

See _Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan_ by F. R. Wingate (1891); _Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp_ (1882-1892) from the MS. of Father Joseph Ohrwalder by F. R. Wingate (1892) and _Fire and Sword in the Sudan_ (1879-1895) by Slatin Pasha (trans. F. R. Wingate, 1896). Both Ohrwalder and Slatin were personally acquainted with the mahdi, and their narratives contain much first-hand information. Wingate prints many translations of the proclamations and correspondence of the mahdi.

MAHOMMEDAN INSTITUTIONS.

The Caliphate.

Of all the institutions of Islam the caliphate is the oldest, the most fundamental, and in essence the most enduring. For its history see CALIPHATE; the present subject is its origin and nature. Mahomet enjoyed absolute rule over his people as a divinely inspired and guided prophet. He led the public prayers; he acted as judge; he ruled. If he consulted with others or paid attention to public feeling or local usage, it was as a matter of policy; the ultimate decision lay with himself. He was the state. On his death a leader was put in his place of similar authority, though without the divine prophetic guidance. He was called the "successor" (_khalifa_, caliph) of the Prophet, later also the _amir-al-mu'minin_, commander of the faithful, and was elected by the Moslems, just as the Arab tribes had always elected their chiefs. He was thus an absolute ruler, but was democratically elected; and such is the essence of the caliphate among Sunnite Moslems to this day. For them it has been a matter of agreement (see MAHOMMEDAN LAW) from the earliest times that the Moslem community must appoint such a leader (see IMAM). The Shi`ites, on the other hand, hold that the appointment lies with God, and that God always has appointed, though his appointment may not always have been known and accepted. Their position may be called a legitimist one. Some few heretical sects have held that the necessity of a leader was based on reason, not on the agreement of the community. But, for all, the rule of the leader thus appointed is absolute, and all authority is delegated from him and, in theory, can be resumed by him at any time. Just as God can require unreasoning obedience from his creatures (his "slaves" in Arabic), so can the caliph, his representative on earth.

But Abu Bekr, the first caliph, nominated his successor, Omar, and that nomination was accepted and confirmed by the people. So a second precedent was fixed, which was again carried a step farther, when Moawiya I., the first Omayyad caliph, nominated his son, Yazid I., as his successor, and caused an oath of allegiance to be taken to him. The hereditary principle was thus introduced, though some relics of the form of election persisted and still persist. The true election possible in the early days of the small community at Medina became first a formal acceptance by the populace of the capital; then an assertion, by the palace guard, of their power; and now, in the investiture of the sultans of the Ottoman Turks, who claim the caliphate, a formal ceremony by the `ulema (q.v.) of Constantinople. The Ottoman claim is based on an asserted nomination by the last Abbasid, who died in exile in Egypt in 1538, of the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Great, as his successor. Such a nomination in itself was a perfectly legal act, but in this case had a fatal flaw. It is an absolute condition, laid down in tradition, that the caliph must be of the tribe of Koreish (Quraish), that of the Prophet.

The duties of this democratically elected autocrat are, in theory, generally stated as follows. He shall enforce legal decisions and maintain the divinely revealed restrictive ordinances; guard the frontiers and equip armies; receive the alms; put down robberies, thieving, highwaymen; maintain the Friday services and the festivals; decide disputes and receive evidence bearing on legal claims; marry minors, male and female, who have no guardians; divide booty. He must be a free, male, adult Moslem; must have administrative ability; must be an effective governor and do justice to the wronged. So long as he fulfils these conditions he is to be absolutely obeyed; private immorality or even tyranny are not grounds for deposing him. This is a position reached by Islam practically. But a caliph who openly denied the faith would be as impossible as an unbelieving pope. The caliph, therefore, is the highest executive officer of a system assumed to be definite and fixed. He, in a word, administers Islam; and the content of Islam is determined by the agreement of the Moslem people, expressed immediately through the `ulema, and ultimately, if indirectly and half-consciously, by the people. To depose him a _fatwa_ (see MUFTI) would be required--in Turkey from the Sheikh-ul-Islam--that he had violated some essential of the Moslem faith, and no longer fulfilled the conditions of a caliph.

The Diwans.

But it was impossible for the caliph personally to administer the affairs of the empire, and by degrees the supreme office was gradually put into commission, until the caliph himself became a mere figure-head, and vanished into the sacred seclusion of his palace. The history of the creation of government bureaus (_diwans_; see DIVAN) must therefore now be sketched. The first need which appeared was that of a means of regulating and administering the system of taxation and the revenues of the state. Immense sums flowed into Medina from the Arab conquests; the surplus, after the requirements of the state were met, was distributed among the believers. All Moslems had a right to a certain share of this, which was regarded as booty. Omar, the second caliph, regulated this distribution and also the system of taxation, and the result was the first divan and the constitution of Omar, looked back to now by all Sunnite Moslems as an ideal. The sources of revenue were (i) the poor-rate (_zakat_), a tithe paid by every Moslem; (ii) the fifth of all booty; (iii) the poll-tax (_jizya_) on non-Moslems; and (iv) the land-tax (_kharaj_) also on non-Moslems. Thus the constitution determined the position of all non-Moslems in a Moslem state. The ideal was that the Moslems should be kept apart as a superior, fighting caste, and that the non-Moslems should support them (cf. CALIPHATE, B. § 8, on the reign of Omar II.). The Moslems, therefore, were forbidden to acquire land in conquered countries. The non-Moslems must retain their lands, cultivate them and pay the land-tax (the Arabic word is also used of revenue from the work of a slave) and the poll-tax (the Arabic word means also "ransom"), and give contributions in kind to support the local Moslem garrisons which were massed in great camp-cities at strategic points. If a non-Moslem embraced Islam he entered the ruling caste; his land was distributed among his non-Moslem fellows, and he no longer paid the land-tax but rather received support from the public funds. The amount of these pensions varied with the standing of the pensioner from 10,000 dirhems (a dirhem equalled about a franc) to the widows and relations of the Prophet down to 300. This bureau had, therefore, not only to keep the books of the state, but also to maintain a list of all Moslems, classified genealogically and socially. Its registers were kept by Greeks, Copts and Persians; the Arabs, it may be said in general, adopted the method of administration which they found in the captured countries and drew upon the trained services of their inhabitants.