CHAPTER Nl!'\F.Medina, Life, and War
The Prophet and his Companions who had come from f..{ecca were grad -
ually settling down in r>.'lcdina, and they were beginning to find th eir m ark s
in this ne\v environment. For the first seven months, M uhammad stayed
:1.[ Abu Ayyu b's; he was his guest until the mosq ue and the two ad joinin g
dwellings wefe built. The Prophet eventually m oved into h is own quarters
and was joined by his wife Sawdah and then, a few months later, by Aishah,
whose wedding was celebrated in Medina. Muhammad's daughters also
arrived during th e following weeks.
1\ society was being constituted under particularl), difficult circum-
Stances. Intertribal and power conflicts often complicated the relationships
between MusLims and members o f dfferent dans, in spite of the cove-
nants and alliances. Sometimes among the faithful themselves old reflexes
acquired in pagan times would resurface and cause tensions between imli-
viduals. The Companions' religious and spiritual ed ucation nevertheless
went on, and the Prophet was ahvays :lvailablc to remind them of the prin-
ciples to which believers must henceforth re main faithful.
In :rvlecca, resentment was high, ar:d the success of the emigration was
perceived nOl only as a humiliation but also as a threat to the balance of
pOwer in the Arabian Peninsula as a whole. For decades, the Quraysh had
been naturally acknowledged as the unchallenged leaders o n account not
only of their past but also of d1e fact that they were in charge of the city
of Mecca, the id ols' sanctuary and tre site where all the tribes converged
Once a year to trade. The news of b b hammad's secession and settlement
in Medina had spread all over the area, and this significantly affected the
Quraysh's re putation and actual power. i\fuhammaJ and his Companions