Hijra

“ All sorts of religious ideas and practices, which could not possibly be deduced from Mohammed's message, entered the Moslim world by the permission of Ijmâʿ. Here we need think only of mysticism and of the cult of saints.
Some passages of the Qorân may perhaps be interpreted in such a way that we hear the subtler strings of religious emotion vibrating in them. The chief impression that Mohammed’s Allah makes before the Hijrah is that of awful majesty, at which men tremble from afar; they fear His punishment, dare hardly be sure of His reward, and hope much from His mercy. ”

“ At the end of the first year of the Hijrah, the Prophet, in order to attach both these bodies more closely to his interests, and also to prevent rivalry as to priority of belief, and consequent consideration, between them, established a fraternity among them, the principal maxim of which society was that they should not only treat one another like brethren, but also most cordially love and cherish one another to the utmost of their power. ”

“ The second class, Hijras or natural eunuchs as they are termed, are not so, strictly speaking, but are said to be impotent. While some are naturally so from birth, others are impressed with a belief in childhood, and are dressed up in women's clothes, taught to ape their speech and manners, whilst a few adopt it as a profession in after-life. They are chiefly Mussalmans. The hair of the head is put up as in women, well oiled, combed, and thrown back, tied into a knot, and shelved to the left side, sometimes plaited, ornamented, and allowed to hang down the back. ”

“ The thousandth year of the Hijrah commenced on the first of Moharrem—which is also the Sabbath-day (Saturday) —and is the three hundred and fifty-fourth thousand four hundred and ninety-ninth day of the Prophet’s flight. ”

“ They say that in the first century of the Hijrah they occupied the G͟hūr country to the east of Herāt, and that K͟hālid b. Walīd came to them there with the tidings of Islam and invited them to join the standard of the Prophet ”

“ Every day, after the morning prayer, we go to the Hira, a burning plain, covered with scattered black pebbles and which stretches out south-west of the town. There, our hands shading our eyes from the dazzling sun, we gaze as far as our sight permits, hoping to catch sight of Allah's Apostle. We turn not back in the direction of our dwellings until high noon, doubly defeated by the blaze of the perpendicular rays of the sun and their reverberation on white sand and calcined stones. ”

“ The seat of Islám was transferred from Mekka to Yethrib, henceforward to be known as Medina,—Medeenet-en-Nebee, ‘the City of the Prophet.’
This is the Hijreh, or Flight of the Prophet, from which the Muslims date their history. Their first year began on the 16th day of June of the Year of Grace 622.
A great change now comes over the Prophet’s life. It is still the same man, but the surroundings are totally different; the work to be done is on a wider, rougher stage. ”

“ Truth compels me to state that the women of the Hijazi Badawin are by no means comely. Although the Benu Amur boast of some pretty girls, yet they are far inferior to the high-bosomed beauties of Nijd. And I warn all men that if they run to Al-Hijaz in search of the charming face which appears in my sketch-book as a Badawi girl, they will be bitterly disappointed: the dress was Arab, but it was worn by a fairy of the West. The Hijazi womans eyes are fierce, her features harsh, and her face haggard; like all people of the South, she soon fades, and in old age her appearance is truly witch-like. ”

“ Ascha was concerned in several quarrels between the Arab tribes, and was once taken prisoner and confined in the castle of Ablak, but he contrived to make his escape. [23]
The mondar who succeeded Amru ben Hind, Noman abu Kabus, who reigned at Hirah from the year 589 to 611, [24] is said to have embraced Christianity. [25] The progress, even the existence, of Christianity in the kingdom of Hirah, seems to have been always uncertain and inconstant, as it was dependent on the character and policy of the king, or rather on that of his master, the Khosroës of Persia. ”

“ The artist, Hiram, was a half-Jew, his father being a Syrian and his mother a Naphtalite. The Holy of Holies was to face the west, contrary to the custom of the Gentiles, whose temples faced the rising sun; the gates were of olive wood, adorned with gilded cherubim as well as with palms and flower-cups. The folding doors of the sanctuary, made of cypress wood, were ornamented in a like manner, and the floor was of cypress wood inlaid with gold. In the Holy of Holies nothing was visible but the cherubim, intended to enshrine the ark of the covenant, in which the tablets of the law were kept. ”

“ As Herod extended his rule over all Palestine, he brought into close relations the Jews scattered throughout its territory and so strengthened the bonds of race and religion. In building the temples he also emphasized the ceremonial side of their religious life and centralized it so that even the Jews of the dispersion henceforth paid their yearly temple tax, made frequent pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and regarded themselves as a part of the nation. Furthermore, Herod brought peace and prosperity to his people and gave the Jews an honorable place in the rôle of nations. ”

“ The city of Sora seems to have been destroyed at this period. Firuz, whose system of persecution puts one in mind of Hadrian, invented a new means of torture, which had not occurred to that emperor, which was to remove the young from under the influence of Judaism, and to bring them up by force in the Persian religion. For this reason he was branded by the Jews of after times, like Hadrian, with the name of "the wicked" (Piruz Reshia) . The immediate result of this persecution was the emigration of Jewish colonists, who settled in the south as far as Arabia, and in the east as far as India. ”

“ The men were Beni-Harb of the great Hijazi tribe, which has kept its blood pure for the last thirteen centuries,-how much more we know not,-but they had been corrupted by intercourse with pilgrims, retaining none of their ancestral qualities but greed of gain, revengefulness, pugnacity, and a frantic kind of bravery, displayed on rare occasions. ”

“ At any rate the Jews were free to worship their God and to study his law: their religion was recognized by the state and indeed established.
This development of Judaism was eminently to the mind of the rulers; and Herod did much to encourage it. More and more it became identified with the synagogue, in which the Law was expounded: more and more it became a matter for the individual and his private life. This was so even in Palestine—the land which the Jews hoped to possess—and in Jerusalem itself, the holy city, in which the Temple stood. ”

“ Wherefore I desire thee to send some of thy subjects with mine to Mount Lebanon, to cut down timber; for the Sidonians are more skillful than our people in cutting of wood. As for wages to the hewers of wood, I will pay whatsoever thou shalt determine.”
When Hiram had read this epistle he was pleased with it, and wrote back this answer:56—
HIRAM TO KING SOLOMON.
“It is fit to bless God that he hath committed thy father’s government to thee, who art a wise man and endowed with all virtues. ”

“ The stable population of Mecca were sacrificed to this struggle for mastery; the blessings of peace were an unknown luxury to them.
When the Hijaz was still actually governed from the political centre of Islam, Medina was the appointed capital. For an independent local principality, such as the Shereefate, Mecca had the advantage of not being so accessible to the military forces of powers that might trouble themselves about the Hijaz. ”

“ Christian bishops, however, were stationed there, at Hirah and at Kufa. Christianity is said to have been first carried into this part of Arabia by a monk, about the year 363. [26] A king of Hirah is mentioned as having been converted in the beginning of the sixth century, and as having built several churches in various parts of his dominions. [27] Noman abu Kabus is said to have been led to embrace the religion of Jesus by his admiration of the constancy and punctuality of a Syrian Christian, whom he had designed to put to death. ”

“ Many if not all of the professed rabbis had travelled outside Palestine: some were even members of the dispersion, like Hillel the Babylonian, who with Shammai forms the second of the pairs. Through them the experience of the dispersion was brought to bear upon the Palestinian Jews. Herod’s nominees were not the men to extend the prestige of the high-priesthood at the expense of these rabbis: even in Jerusalem the synagogue became of more importance than the Temple. Hillel also inculcated the duty of making converts to Judaism. ”

“ But it appears most probable that the chief cause of their hostilities was a quarrel about water, the most valuable article to a wandering Arab. Some of the tribe of Taglab, it seems, running short of water, applied for relief to the tribe of Beer, and on being refused, took arms, and obtained by force what had been denied to their entreaties. [10] After having exhausted each other by their mutual and continual struggles, they at length called in the mediation of Amru ben Hind, the king of Hirah, who reigned from about the sixty-third to the seventy-ninth years of the sixth century. ”

“ In Mecca yearly two or three hundred thousand Moslims from all parts of the world come together to celebrate the hajj, that curious set of ceremonies of pagan Arabian origin which Mohammed has incorporated into his religion, a durable survival that in Islâm makes an impression as singular as that of jumping processions in Christianity. ”

“ As a poor Babylonian youth, he went over to Jerusalem to study under the great rabbis of the church. He soon became very distinguished, and through him Jewish life and religion were reformed. He is often called the founder of Judaism as taught in the Talmud. Herod made him president of the great Sanhedrin, with the title of prince, and the honor descended in his family. His aphorisms, his maxims, his wise sayings were known to every Jew in Palestine, and affected all Jewish life. One of his sayings was: "Do not unto others what thou wouldst not have done unto thyself. ”

“ Through him Jāwar the First set up Uthras in the Jordan, resplendent vines of life. By him Hibil set up in the Jordan the living souls, worthy of the great place of light, and the shining abode. Through him they were erected and set up in the house of the mighty May these souls, who go down to the Jordan and receive baptism, ascend and behold the great place of light and the shining abode. And life is victorious. ”

“ Herod was an Idumean, which nation had, for nearly two centuries, been proselytes to Judaism, and so incorporated and mingled with the Jews, as to be regarded as one people. Judea bowed to the Roman power, yet Herod exercised the regal [7] authority, and was universally acknowledged as the sovereign of Jewry, when Jesus, the prince of peace, the king of Israel, appeared a babe at Bethlehem but no sooner was the Shiloh come, than the sceptre departed from Judah. ”

“ A dynasty of kings named Hiram, or rather Ahiram, was at the head of this movement. The island was covered with constructions imitated from Egypt. ... Hiram is the close ally of the king of Israel; it is he who provides Solomon with the artists who were lacking at Jerusalem; the precious materials for the buildings in Zion; seamen for the fleet of Eziongeber. The region of the upper Jordan, conquered by David, appears to have remained tributary to Solomon. What has been related as to a much larger extension of the kingdom of Solomon is greatly exaggerated. ”

“ Hiram undertook to supply materials for the work. Solomon had written to him that he should command “that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt say: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians.” Hiram was delighted to carry out the wishes of his royal friend with regard to the cedar and cypress woods.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph. ”

“ The Jew could not help shouting at the top of his voice, "O you 'Arabs! Here is your great man whom you have been waiting for!" So all the Muslims rushed to their arms and received Allah's Apostle on the summit of Harra. The Prophet turned with them to the right and alighted at the quarters of Bani 'Amr bin 'Auf, and this was on Monday in the month of Rabi-ul-Awal. Abu Bakr stood up, receiving the people while Allah's Apostle sat down and kept silent. ”

“ The Arabians of the Kailan race (Aus and Chazraj) hated the rule of the Jews, and seized the opportunity of rebelling when the Jews could not rely on assistance from Himyara. An Arabian chief of the Ghassanid race, Harith Ibn Abu Shammir, who was closely related to the Kailan race, was invited to lead his troops towards Yathrib. This brave and adventurous prince of Arabia, who was attached to the Byzantine court, accepted the invitation. In order not to arouse the suspicions of the Jews, Ibn Abu Shammir gave out that he intended going to Himyara. ”

“ Seen thus, the two looked less like human beings than gnomes, or survivors of some primaeval race which worshipped other gods. And so, in a sense, they were. Though the Yuruks profess Islam, Allah has not the best of their private allegiance; and under his name they revere, without ritual or articulate creed, some private tribal god, with whom they feel the possibility of more intimate communion. The All-Father of the Arabs has no more chased the petty gods of place and tribe out of the Nearer East than He of the Hebrews. ”