How did Muslims conquer Arabia Part1

 

muhammad was more than just the founder

of islam

born around 570 a.d in mecca

muhammad came from the quraish tribe and

his family

was actively involved in politics and

trade

mecca as a whole was a center for trade

and religion

and boasted a variety of temples where

the many nomadic tribes throughout the

region would

worship their gods allah was believed to

be the greatest of these gods

but many tribes were actually

polytheistic

muhammad's parental grandfather abdul

al-muttalib was a leader within his own

tribe

as the chieftain of the hashem clan

abdul al-muttalib was a beloved leader

and when muhammad was brought into his

care around the age of six

the chieftain taught his grandson the

fundamentals of his

duties in politics and statecraft

sadly muhammad's grandfather passed away

in 578

putting muhammad into the care of his

parental

uncle abu talib who was a simple

merchant

when he reached his teens muhammad began

to work for his uncle as a shepherd and

accompanied him alongside his caravan

to places even as far as north syria

over time through his travels and work

muhammad earned himself the nickname

of al-amin which means essentially

the one you can trust unsettled by the

religious life amongst the surrounding

meccan tribes

muhammad would often leave for long

periods of time

to go into a mountain cave away from the

town

to fast and pray as it is said in 610

during one of these retreats while

meditating in a cave on

mount jabal al-nur muhammad was visited

by the archangel gabriel who muhammad

believes

recited to him the words of god

[Applause]

it is debated between historians whether

muhammad first kept these words and this

events to himself

or if he immediately felt compelled to

speak about the situation to other

potential believers

muhammad initially told his wife who

believed him

and then his close friend abu bakr who

also believed

soon muhammad began to tell more people

and grew a small following

of believers due to the fact that his

message was

strongly monotheistic condemning the

worship of other gods

the polytheistic tribes of mecca were

angry at muhammad

and his growing audience the issue with

this message was not only one of

religious beliefs

but it also posed an economic problem

muhammad spoke out against idol worship

which impacted the merchants who served

the

thousands of pilgrims coming to mecca

every year for worship

some of these merchants were even from

muhammad's own quraish tribe

and they quickly began to try and

convince him to give up his preaching

the quraish tribe also attempted to

uphold a trade ban against muhammad and

his followers almost subjecting them to

a famine and an assassination attempt on

muhammad was even tried

when muhammad still refused to abandon

his preaching

he and his people a few hundred by this

point were eventually forced to emigrate

to yathrib

in 622 the leaders of this town had

invited muhammad in hopes that he could

bring their bloody civil war to an end

and the name of the city was eventually

changed to medina

meaning the city of the prophet here

muhammad continued to grow his audience

and build his first

muslim community over the next six years

during the span of 624

and the tribes from mecca became

violently displeased with muhammad's

increasing success

and resorted to military action three

skirmishes were fought between the

meccan tribes and the muslims

the battle of the badur which the

muslims won the battle of ahud

leaving the meccans victorious and the

battle of the trench and siege of medina

which gave final triumph to the muslims

has led to the signing of a new peace

treaty between the warring sides

the fighting began when the head of the

umayyad clan of the quraish tribe

abu sufyan was escorting a wealthy

merchant caravan that muhammad himself

wished to raid he organized a group of

300 men

a mixture of both his meccan and

medina's supporters and led them

into battle himself this decision came

after new revelations led muhammad to

sanction

aggression against the quraish tribe of

mecca in response to their brutality and

persecution of the muslims

muhammad's first technique was to draw

out abu sufyan

and his forces was to fill the wells

along the caravan's route with soil

forcing the meccans to end up at badur

where the battle

began first in a traditional manner

three men

from each side were chosen to engage in

the opening struggle

and then the remainder of the armies

charged towards each other

muhammad leading his side picked up a

handful of dust

and threw it at his opponents filling

their eyes and noses

and giving his men the upper hand from

the very start

in a stunning victory that led the

muslims to believe even more in their

recent divine sanction

muhammad's 300 men defeated the roughly

one

thousand men led by abu sufyan

the second contest the battle of ahud

was fought

the following year in 625 at a valley

near mount hood

the meccans led by abu sufyan wished to

avenge the previous embarrassing loss

they had suffered at the hands of the

muslims

once more abu sufyan and his troops

vastly outnumbered muhammad and the

muslims with the former

having roughly three thousand men and

the latter fighting alongside

less than a single thousand still the

muslims fairly quickly received the

upper hand and began to rout

the meccan forces they likely would have

even won the battle if a disastrous

mistake had not been made by muhammad's

archers

ignoring their commander's orders the

archers left their posts

this allowed abu sufyan's cavalrymen

spearheaded by khalid ibn al-walid

an experienced veteran of the meccan

troops to ambush the muslim forces and

wreak havoc throughout muhammad's side

the meccans slew a vital amount of the

muslim soldiers and severely injured

muhammad himself

the muslims were forced to retreat up

the mountain and the meccans took that

as a signal of their ultimate victory

they deemed themselves triumphant and

left leaving muhammad and his troops to

pick up the pieces

from this calamitous and unexpected

defeat

the final battle between the muslim and

meccan sides

was the battle of the trench and siege

of medina

despite their recent victories the

meccans decided that their men alone

would not be enough for the next

conflict in 627

racking their troop numbers up to ten

thousand men

by convincing a large sum of tribes to

join their fight

the meccans finally began their march to

medina

unwilling to lose again muhammad opted

for a new tactic this time

instead of marching to meet his

adversaries for a direct face-off

muhammad held his men back

and ordered a ditch to be dug around the

town

after the idea was suggested by salman a

persian

convert this was completely unheard of

by the meccans or the other arab

tribesmen

and totally caught them off guard as the

chaos began to spread throughout the

meccan tribe

the portion of the army eventually

crumbled and left only the meccans

themselves to insist on pushing

forward with the siege muhammad and his

forces through their use of surprise

strategy

ultimately won and the meccans fled

after their siege

failed muhammad took advantage of this

win

and the fact that the meccans were

growing weary of the ongoing war and its

economic effect on their own city

following a dream that led him to do so

the muslim leader began a new march

towards mecca to perform a pilgrimage

with about 1

400 of his followers still not recovered

from their second troubling loss to the

muslims the meccans refused to allow

muhammad to enter the city

before he could attempt entry they sent

a delegation to meet the muslims and

negotiate

a deal this deal resulted in a peace

treaty that solidified the meccan

recognition of muhammad and his

followers as equal religious and

political entities

the pact called for 10 years of peace

between the opponents and the guarantee

that

if he halted his current pilgrimage

muhammad and his followers could return

the following year

during a three-day span where the entire

city of mecca would be cleared for the

muslims to perform

their religious duties by the start of

630 allies of the meccans had already

breached the new treaty and muhammad

was not interested in upholding his end

of the bargain

in january of that year the muslims

marched again

to mecca and gained the support of more

and more tribes

along the way by the time they reached

the city the meccans were fully aware of

the fact that they

no longer had an advantage of power and

allowed muhammad to take their city with

little to no resistance

many of mecca's citizens even began to

convert to islam

as the muslims had become the dominant

community in arabia

during only a short amount of time over

the next two years

muhammad returned to medina where he

remained a resident

although he continued to work towards

uniting the entirety of the arabian

peninsula

under islam finding great success in his

endeavors he returns to mount arafat in

mecca to give his last sermon

during the spring of 632 tens of

thousands of supporters joined him on

his final pilgrimage before he went home

one last time muhammad fell ill shortly

after arriving in medina

and succumbs to his sickness on june 8

632

with the death of muhammad came a new

era

of islam the prophet's teachings were

spread across both

asia and europe and the time of muslim

empires and conquerors

was only just beginning

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