Assessment • 41converts during that pilgrimage in 629. The next year, claiming that some
clans had breached the terms of the Hudaybiya truce, he marshalled 10,000
troops and marched on Mecca. The Meccan leaders, overawed, quickly gave
in, letting the Muslims occupy the city peacefully. Soon almost everyone in
Mecca became Muslim.
Bolstered by Meccan troops, the Muslims defeated a large coalition of
Arab tribes from around Taif. The Hijaz was now united under Islam. From
then on, other tribes and clans, recognizing Muhammad's power, began
sending delegations to Medina, which remained the capital of the new state.
As a condition for his support, Muhammad required the tribes to accept
Islam and even to pay taxes, a condition that the Quraysh tribe had never
been able to impose. Traditional accounts maintain that by 632 nearly all
the Arab tribes were Muslim. Notwithstanding these accounts, it is likely
that only some clans, factions, or persons within each tribe embraced Islam.
More on this later.
Muhammad's Death
The Prophet's final years were clouded by worries about would-be rivals in
Arabia, heavy political responsibilities, marital problems, the death of his
infant son and several daughters, and failing health. He did manage to lead
a final pilgrimage to Mecca in March 632. Thus he finished incorporating
into Islam the rituals of the hajj, which he had cleansed of its pagan fea¬
tures. In his final sermon he exhorted his followers: "O ye men, listen to
my words and take them to heart: Every Muslim is a brother to every other
Muslim and you are now one brotherhood."
Soon after his return to Medina, Muhammad retired to Aisha's room.
He appointed her father, Abu-Bakr, to lead public worship in his place.
Then, on 8 June 632, he died.
ASSESSMENTHow can we evaluate Muhammad and what he did? For Muslims he has
always been the exemplar of Muslim virtues, such as piety, patience, hu¬
mor, kindness, generosity, and sobriety. Non-Muslim Westerners, recalling
Christian battles and disputations with Islam, have often judged him
harshly. He has been called a renegade bishop thwarted in his ambition to
become pope, a businessman turned brigand, an impostor who sum¬
moned mountains to come to him, an epileptic, and even a madman. Such
attacks are unfounded. Yet these different assessments may remind us that