The City of the Prophet 51ney through the barren wilderness. The few possessions they brought
with them have become communal property and will not last.
The problem is that the Companions—now more properly
termed the Emigrants, or Muhajirun (literally, “those who have made
the Hijra”)—are primarily traders and merchants, but Yathrib is not a
city built on trade; Yathrib is not a city at all. It is a loose federation of
villages inhabited by farmers and orchardists, tillers of the earth. It is
nothing like the bustling, prosperous city the Emigrants left behind.
Even if they could transform themselves from traders to farmers, all
the best agricultural lands in Yathrib are already occupied.
How are they to survive here except on the charity and goodwill
of the Ansar, or “Helpers,” that handful of Yathrib’s villagers who have
also accepted Muhammad’s message and converted to his movement?
And what is to happen to them now that they have abandoned the
protection of the Quraysh? Will the most powerful tribe in Arabia
simply allow them to leave Mecca without consequences? Have they
really chosen to cast off their homes, their families, their very identi-
ties, all at the command of an extraordinary but untested prophet who
is now nowhere to be found?
Just before the sun vanishes, two smoldering silhouettes are spot-
ted in the desert, lurching toward Yathrib. A cry spreads among the
Emigrants: “The Messenger is here! The Messenger has come!” The
men jump up and run out to meet Muhammad and Abu Bakr as they
cross into the oasis. The women join hands and dance in circles
around the two men, their ululations rolling from house to house,
announcing the Prophet’s arrival.
Muhammad, parched and blistered from the journey, sits back in
his saddle and lets the reins of his camel hang loose. A crowd gathers,
offering food and water. A few of the Ansar struggle to grab hold of
the camel’s reins and steer it toward their villages. They shout,
“Come, O Messenger of God, to a settlement which has many
defenders and is well-provisioned and impregnable.”
But Muhammad, not wishing to ally himself with any particular
clan in Yathrib, refuses their offers. “Let go her reins,” he commands.
The crowd backs off, and Muhammad’s camel staggers forward a
few more steps. It circles an abandoned burial ground now used for