Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/212

I 7 6 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE the ground that the merchants were idolaters and unbe- Spread of lievers. They won great prestige by what seemed Islam before to contemporaries their miraculous victory in a med's death series of single combats over the members of (622-632) a i ar g er band of Meccans who tried to check their pillaging. In Medina, too, Mohammed strengthened his authority and provided funds for his followers by exiling the hostile Jewish clans and confiscating their property. Other obnoxious individuals were assassinated, and once some six hundred Jews who would not accept Islam were executed in cold blood and their women and children were sold into slavery. Thus the new religion began early to take on the ruthless and sordid features of conquest and tribute, and the persecuted prophet rapidly transformed himself into a religious despot and national legislator. Mecca continued to oppose Mohammed with increasing forces, but he weath- ered her attacks and gradually won the Bedouins of the desert to his side. Finally, in 630, he entered Mecca prac- tically unopposed and in triumph. He pardoned almost every one, and, while he destroyed idols, images, and pic- tures throughout the city, he preserved the famous "Cube " and left the much venerated black stone embedded in its wall to be kissed by future generations of Moslems from all parts of the globe. For he made the annual pilgrimage to Mecca a feature of his own religion. Mohammed defeated a hostile coalition of Bedouin tribes, and had begun raids upon the Byzantine Empire before his death in 632, but it is doubtful if all Arabia had by that time been converted to Islam. Mam was, at any rate, supreme by that time in the vicin- ity of Mecca and Medina, and within a very few years the £om q B^an- astonishin g 1 y successful expeditions of the Mos- t Imh iad ^ms against Syria and Babylonia drew the other Arab tribes out of their deserts into a career of conquest and booty, and also into the bosom of Islam. The Moslem leader, Khalid, proved a very able general and won a remarkable succession of victories. Persia and Constanti- nople had just concluded peace in 628, after having fought