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was offered to him in marriage. When Khawlah, who had taken care of
th e Pro phet's needs since Khadi jah's death , advised him [Q remarry and
suggested twO names-Sawdah, a widow in her thirties who had very
recently come back from Abyssinia, and Aishah, Abu Bakr's daughter-
I\'fuhammad saw in this strange coincidence a sign of the truthfulness o f
his d reams, and he asked Khawlah to do what was necessary to find o ut
whet.her the two unions were possible. Polygamy was the norm in Arabia
then, and the Prophet's situation was the exception, s ince he had remained
monogamous fo r twenty-five rears. The union with Sawdah was particu-
larly easy to concretize: Sawdah immediately, and most favorably,
answered the proposal made to her, and they married a few months later.
Aishah had already, in keeping with Arabian cu sto ms, been promised by
Abu Bah to J\'lutim's son, and her father had to negotiate with Mutim in
order to break the engagement. ,\ishah then officially became
Muhammad's second wife, th ough the union would not be consummated
for several years.
A year later, pilgrims and tradcrs were again flocking to Mecca for the
celebrations of 621. A second meeting was o rganized at al-Aqabah
between the Prophet and the Yathrib delegation that had come to report
on th e evolution of the situation in their city. Twelve people from Yathrib,
two o f whom belonged to the Aws clan, took part in the meeting. they
pledged allegiance to the Prophet, stipulating that they would worship only
the One God, no others, and that they would hono r the duties and inter-
dictio ns of Islam. They were therefore to constitute the first Muslim com-
munity in Yathrib. j\o[uhammad sent back with them a Companion, Musab
ibn Umayr, who had just returned from Abyssinia and who was known for
his calm, his wisdom, and tile beamy of his recitation of the Quran.
Back in Yathrib, the delegation kept sp reading the message and l ... lusab
taught islam, recited the Quran, and an swered ques tions. In spite of age-
old and still very sharp divisions between the Aws and Khazraj, members
of both tribes converted to the new religion and realized that their former
rivalries had become pointless: Islam's message of brotherhood united
them. Clan chiefs nevertheless remained very reluctant to embrace Islam.
Musab never reacted to their attacks no r to their aggressive attitude;
rather, he invariably answered: " Sit down and listen to the message: if you
like it, accepl it, if you do not, leave it.,,18 As a result, the number o f con-
'-ersions was high, even amo ng leaders.