40 • 3 THE PROPHET OF MECCAThe one-day fast of Yom Kippur ceased to be obligatory, and Muslims
started fasting instead during the daylight hours of Ramadan, the month
in which Muhammad's first revelation had come. Sabbath observance was
replaced by Friday congregational worship with a sermon. Dietary laws
were eased. Islam was becoming not only more distinct but also more
Arabian.
After winning at Badr, Muhammad expelled one of the Jewish tribes for
conspiring with his Meccan foes but let its members keep their property.
The Muslims expelled another Jewish tribe after their defeat at Uhud, seiz¬
ing its groves of date palms. According to traditional accounts, the last of
the three tribes suffered the worst fate: The men were killed, and the
women and children were sold into slavery. Muhammad believed that this
tribe, despite an outward show of loyalty, had backed the Meccans in 627
during their siege of Medina's trench. He sought the advice of an associate
who seemed neutral but who in fact coveted the Jews' property. His advice
led to a slaughter that enriched some Muslims and raised Muhammad's
prestige among the Arab tribes, for it showed that he had no fear of blood
reprisals. We should understand the situation as people then saw it. The
Jews were not defenseless. The Muslims could have lost their grip on Med¬
ina and fallen prey to the Meccans and their tribal allies. Neutralizing their
enemies was essential to their security, if not to their survival. Partly be¬
cause of these confrontations, the Quran contains some harsh words about
the Jews. These events did not poison later Muslim-Jewish relations, nor
did Muhammad's policies cause what we now call the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Winning of Mecca
It is a historical irony that Mecca's pagans, who persecuted Muhammad,
later gave in to him and then prospered under the new order, whereas the
Jews of Arabia, whose beliefs were closer to his, rejected him as a prophet
and then suffered severely. The story of Mecca's final capitulation seems al¬
most anticlimactic. The emigrants in Medina missed their homes, their
families (many were the sons and daughters of leading Meccan merchants),
and the Ka'ba, so Muhammad, in 628, led a band of would-be pilgrims to¬
ward Mecca. They encountered Meccan troops at Hudaybiya, slightly north
of the city, and the two sides worked out a truce that ended their state of
war. The Muslims had to return to Medina then but would be admitted
into Mecca the next year as pilgrims. In effect, the Meccans accepted the
Muslims as equals. Three months after the Hudaybiya truce, two of the best
Arab fighters, Khalid and Amr, embraced Islam. They eventually went on to
greater glory as warriors for the umma. Muhammad made some more key