- Karen Armstrong
The hijrah marks the start of the Muslim era, because it
was at this point that Muhammad was able to implement the
Quranic ideal fully and that Islam became a factor in history.
It was a revolutionary step. The hijrah was no mere change of
address. In pre-Islamic Arabia the tribe was a sacred value. To
turn your back on your blood-group and join another was un-
heard of; it was essentially blasphemous, and the Quraysh
could not condone this defection. They vowed to exterminate
the ummah in Yathrib. Muhammad had become the head of a
collection of tribal groups that were not bound together by
blood but by a shared ideology, an astonishing innovation in
Arabian society. Nobody was forced to convert to the religion
of the Quran, but Muslims, pagans and Jews all belonged to
one ummah, could not attack one another, and vowed to give
one another protection. News of this extraordinary new "su¬
pertribe" spread, and though at the outset nobody thought
that it had a chance of survival, it proved to be an inspiration
that would bring peace to Arabia before the death of the
Prophet in 632, just ten years after the hijrah.
Yathrib would become known as al-Medinah (the City),
because it became the pattern of the perfect Muslim society.
When Muhammad arrived in Medina one of his first actions
was to build a simple mosque ( masjid : literally, place of pros-
tration). It was a rough building, which expressed the auster-
ity of the early Islamic ideal. Tree trunks supported the roof,
a stone marked the qiblah (the direction of prayer) and the
Prophet stood on a tree trunk to preach. All future mosques
would, as far as possible, be built according to this model.
There was also a courtyard, where Muslims met to discuss all
the concerns of the ummah — social, political and military as
well as religious. Muhammad and his wives lived in small huts
around the edge of the courtyard. Unlike a Christian church,
which is separated from mundane activities and devoted only
to worship, no activity was excluded from the mosque. In the