4 ISLAM AT WAR
invited Muhammad to return with them and make Yathrib (al-Madinah or
Medina) his home in the hopes that he might reconcile the hostile Aws
and Khazraj tribes.
Seeing the value of this idea, he authorized 200 of his followers to slip
quietly to Yathrib and then followed them, arriving on September 24, 622.
This was the famous “hegira”(Hijrah).Some question if this was truly a
“flight” or a scheme of migration that he had carefully considered for
about two years. His followers had quietly sold their property and then
quickly disappeared into the desert. Some say that the Meccans realized
what was happening and planned Muhammad’s murder, fearing what
might happen if he were to establish himself in rival Medina.
It is possible that Muhammad had a timely revelation that warned him
of the plot. He was ordered to make war upon his persecutors “until per-
secution is no more and religion is for Allah only.^3 But he would flee,
realizing that the time was not right. Muhammad and two faithful follow-
ers, Ali and Abu Bakr, remained in Mecca until Muhammad received
God’s command to flee. God’s command came the night ordained for his
murder. When the would-be assassins were before his house, Muhammad
gave Ali his cloak and bade him lie down so that it would be thought that
Muhammad lay there. He was sure that when they saw it was Ali, they
would not harm him. A “blindness” fell upon the assassins as Muhammad
slipped out of the house, and he joined Abu Bakr. Together they slipped
into the desert and hid in a cave until it was safe to travel to his new
haven. Because of the significance of Muhammad’s move to Yathrib, Cal-
iph Umar,^4 decreed that the lunar year, beginning on July 16, become the
official starting point of the Muslim era.
The move to Yathrib, or Medina, proved a turning point in Muham-
mad’s life. He was despised in his birthplace of Mecca, but well received
in the home of his mother. Thirteen years of humiliation, persecution, and
unfulfilled prophecy had ended. For Muhammad the change was even
greater, as he now rose from the role of scorned prophet to ruler of a state,
albeit a small one. And yet, from this tiny state in ten short years would
grow the Arabian Empire.
In the first year of his reign in Medina, Muhammad made a solemn
treaty with the Hebrew tribes. This treaty secured for them equal rights
of citizenship and religious liberty in return for their support of his hold
on power. The Hebrew idea of a prophet was more of one that would lead
them to power and dominion rather than one who made them the equals
of another non-Hebrew tribe. It is apparent to western readers that these
were not the first Hebrews to have trouble with a prophet! It is believed
that they attempted to manipulate him to their ends, and this struggle