Here it is on the rise of Islam in Mecca; this is in no way comprehensive or nuanced, neither it is perfect. It is merely an overview of the rise of Islam.
Mecca was an important center of trades and frequent stop over for merchants from far off lands. Mecca was also the major transit point for trade-caravan between the Indian Ocean (including East Africa) and the mediterranean. Through Mecca transported large quantities of merchandise to and from the Egypt, Syrian, Roman, Byzantine, Persona and Indian centers of trade. The people living there was Quraysh and their most important Temple was the Ka’ba, enabling them to perform their religious symbols of devotees while in Mecca. These were ancient idols from various lands and faiths and formed circles of 369 monoliths figures in the sanctuary of Kaaba. 450 CE Qusayy bin Kilab, a prominent member of the Qurarysh in alliance with tribes supported by the Byzantine Emperor, deposed the reigning Khuza tribe and established the Quraysh leadership in Mecca. He instituted ordinance for the governance of Mecca and for he administration of the sacred Temple of Kaa’ba. Amongst the Phoenicians the most revered God was Baal, the God of fertility, with a crescent moon and the bull as the mound, symbolizing fertility. The God Hubal, probably derived from Baal, or Allah , the chief Deity, in Pagan Arab tradition. He rebuilt the Ka’ba —the sacred House of God, long neglected by earlier administration — on a grander scale and instituted in it the goddess of the Nabataeans, known as Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Al-Manat.
The Prophet of Islam was born in about 570 CE (c 567-72) in the Arabian Desert city of Mecca in a family of the Quraysh, the chief tribe of Mecca. His father Abdullah died when his mother Amina was six month pregnant. His mother gave him to a Bedouin woman Halima as the foster mother. Halima took Muhammed away to raise him but when he was five he was brought back to his mother by Main with the story that happened to Muhammed, whereby “two men in white raiment came to Muhammed and throw him down and opened up his belly and searched something therein.” This event was later described by Allah as the consecration of Muhammed by wiping out his sins (Quran 94: 1-2). To corroborate this claim, Muhammed allegedly returned with a new mark between his should blades: this mark was later explained as his sela of prophethood (Sahih Bukhari 4:714, Tirmidhi 1524). Amina took Muhammed 210 miles north of Mecca, about town to twelve days journey to the Khazraj tribe, related to his great grandmother’s side.The mother died on her way back and when Muhammed was 6 years old and the orphan Muhammed was then raised first by his loving grandfather Abd al-Mutallib, after whose death by his uncle Abu Talib. However, he faced hard times: he took up the career of shepherd at a tender gage and used to spend lonely times grazing cattle. Muhammed made a business trip oversees with his uncle, Abu Taleb where he met Khuzaima, who spotted Muhammed’s business talent, an accompanied his uncle’s caravan. Khuzaima later introduced Muhammed to Khadija, a wealthy 40 year old widow. Khadija opposed marriage and they were married when Muhammed was 25 years old and this dramatically changed his social standing and wealth. Khadija had an aging cousin, names Waraqa bin Naufal, who changed his faith first to Judaism then Christianity and used to say read the Gospels in Arabic (Bukhari, 4:605). This monotheism influenced Muhammed, and he started spending time in Mount Hira near Mecca for meditation. This was a common practice among the Hanafi tribes of a monotheistic tribe of Mecca. At age 40 610 CE claimed he heard voices and his wife and Waraqa told him that through Gabriel Allah, the chief deity of Arabia was speaking to him.
619 CE: Taif Near Mecca: At Taif, he asked the people to leave their ancestral religion and join his creed. More importantly he sought to incite a rivalry among the Taifites against the Quryash with whom they had good trade relations. 622 CE: Muhammed named his monotheistic God Allah, and he preached his religion to the people of Mecca. Faced with resistance in 622 Muhammed left for Medina, this is the Hijra.
The First Oath of Akaba: During the next year twelve men including those he met the previous year concerted met secretly at a place, called Akaba. They pledged allegiance to his faith, which became known as the First Oath of Akaba. After 13 years of preaching in Mecca he had about 100 to 150 converts. The Second Oath of Akaba: In 622 there were 75 converts in Medina. Prophet Muhammed’s uncle Al Abbas who accompanied him to the secret rendezvous announced Muhammed’s desire to relocate in Medina. Al Bara (a Medina convert) took his hand and said, “We pledge to be ansars or helpers in your cause.”
According to Ibn Ishaq, within the first year of his relocation to Medina, Muhammed had signed a treaty with the tribes of the city, which famously became known as the Constitution of Medina. There were two clauses:
• 1. No believer shall be put to death for the blood of an infidel neither shall any infidel be supported against Muslims.
• 2. The Polytheists (of Medina) shall not take the property or person of the Quraysh under his protection , nor shall intervene against Muslims.
January 624: Prophet sent forth a band of eight raiders under the command of Abdullah ibn Jahash for attacking a Meccan caravan at a place, called Nakhla which was 9 days journey from Medina caravan at a place called Nakhla. It was the time of Orma (i.e. the lesser pilgrimage to the Kaaba). Not to alarm the approaching caravan, one of the Muslim raiders shaved his head to give an impression that they were returning from the pilgrimage and therefore could not be hostile. Once the caravan came with their reach, they fell upon it: one attendant of the caravan was killed; two were captured while another escaped. They returned to Medina with the rich caravan and the two prisoners. It was the month of Rajab, one of the four months of the year, when fighting and bloodbath was prohibited in the Arabian tradition. This breach of the age-old sacred custom created great dissatisfaction and outcry among the citizens of Median, including some disciplines of Muhammed. This landed the Prophet in an awkward situation and a verse came to the rescue:
“Fighting therein is a grave (offense); but graver is it in the sight of Allah to prevent access to the path of Allah, to deny Him, to prevent access to the sacred Mosque, and drive out its members.” (Quran, 2:217).
In March 624 the Prophet planned to attack and plunder a rich caravan of the Quraysh, which was returning from Syria under the case of Abu Sufiyan, the leader of Mecca. On the initiation of this raid, notes Ibn Ishaq, “when the apostle heard about Abu Sufiya returning from Syria, he summoned the Muslims and said, “This is the Quraysh caravan containing their property. Go out to attack it perhaps God will give it a prey.” Abu Sufiyan got the message and took a different route along the Red sea. A rescue mission had already left Mecca to save the caravan as well as to teach Muhammed’s plundering brigands a lesson. Muhammed had planned to ambush the caravan near a water filled oasis, called Badr. Taking position there, he despoiled the water =wells by filling them with sands keeping only one usable next to his camp for the supply of water to his own army. He was unaware that Abu Sufiyan had escaped with the caravan, as he heard of the approach of the Meccan army, he thought it was the caravan itself. When the Meccan army arrived at Badr on the seventeenth day of Ramadan after days of difficult journey through the hot sandy desert, they were tired and badly thirsty. But all the water-wells had been despoiled by Muhammed, preventing them from quenching thirst. On the Meccan side, there were about 700 (some say 1000) fighters, while Muhammed had only about 350 raiders. In the bloody confrontation that ensued the next morning, the thirsty Meccan army quickly succumbed and retreated with heavy loses despite their numerical advantage. They lost about 50 men and a similar number were taken prisoners, while Muhammed’s party lost only fifteen fighters. Some of the captives were slaughtered at the battlefield by Muhammed (Ibn Ishaq).
March 23, 625 Some 3000 Meccan fighters, under the command of Abu Sufiyan, engaged about 700 Muslim fighters, commanded by Muhammed, at a place, called Ohud, near Medina. The Muslim suffered heavy casualties. Muhammed himself suffered loss, was hit by a stone and lost a teeth. As Muhammed has promised that twenty Muslim Fighters aided by angel, will vanquish 200 opponents before this disastrous battle, this severe loss of life created a great deal of suspicion, including amongst his disciples about the veracity of is prophetic claim and even a sense of hostility against him. All came to rescue and countered this hostility and suspicion about his prophethood by revealing a long series of verses (Quran 3; 120:-200). Regarding the complaint about His earlier assurance of angels help to Muslims in vanquishing the opponents Allah put the blame on Muhammed’s disciples for their lacking in firmness and patience, revealing: “Remember though said to the angles (special) sent down? Yea, if ye remains firm, and act aright, even if the enemy should rush here on you in hot haste, your Lord would help you with five thousand angels Making a terrific onslaught” (Quran 3:224-25).
April 627: The resumption of raids on Meccan caravans sent a clear message that Muhammed threat to the Quraysh was far from over. Aby Sufiyan, therefore made preparations in April 627 to launch another counter-attack for putting an end to Muhammed’s threat. He appealed to neighboring tribes to join hands and many of them including Banu Ghatadan, Abu Suleim and Banu Asad who had already suffered from Muhammed’s attacks –responded to his call. A huge confederate force of 10,0000 men (some say 7000) assembled behind Aby Sufyian. Muhammed had a capacity to assemble at best 3000 men on his die at this time and the situation looked grave for his community. One Persian convert, the famous Salman the Persian, who gave Muhammed the idea of digging a trench around his abode in Medina. This was a common strategy for fending off enemy attacks in Persian but unknown amongst Arabs. Muhammad instantly grabbed the idea and ordered digging a deep trench around the perimeter of his community. The outer walls of the houses were fortified by stones, entrenching Muslims inside. The Quraysh laid a siege on the city. But unfamiliar with this technique of war they failed to overcome the trench. Ater a long siege, extending beyond 20 days (some say nearly one month), the Mecca army withdrew. There was not much fighting during the siege. Muhammed side lost only five men, while the Meccan side lost three, Salman a Christian convert, from Zoroastrianism before converting to Islam ,w whose advice saved the day, was duly appreciated by Muhammed expressing gratitude to him and his community for their depth of knowledge. As soon as the Quraysh withdrew from the siege, Muhammed accused Banu Qurayza 000the last Jewish tribe in Medina– of assisting the Quraysh and attacked them. When the Jews surrendered, he slaughtered the men and enslaved the women and children,
April 628 CE: About one year after the battle of the Ditch and six years after his relocation from Mecca, Prophet Muhammed invited the army and the surrounding tribes to join his campaign to March and attach mecca. He gathered some 1300 to 1525 armed Muslims during the lesser pilgrimage (Mara). The Quraysh learned of this and decided not to allow him into Mecca. Muhammed stopped at a place called Hudaybiya and sent a message that he was on a pilgrimage. The Meccan decided to negotiate, knowing Prophet Muhammed’s army would attack. Othman, Muhammed’s son in law and the third caliph of Islam went to Mecca camp for negotiation. When Othman did not return Muhammed quickly assembled his armed comrades under an acacia tree and bounded them one by one by a pledge to stand by “Othman to the death”. This is the famous Pledge of the Tree. When Othman returned from Mecca a treaty was made truce was singed which talked about the cessation of hostility from both sides for a ten years period. Abu Bashir, a convert from Mecca, soon killed a Quraysh violating the treaty. Also, he attacked a Quraysh caravan with 70 men. Two years later, Muhammed’s army became strong, and he threw away the treaty and attacked Mecca with 10000 army. On returning to Mecca, Abu Sufiyan explained to his people about the futility of opposing Muhammed’s advance into their city and asked them not to fight a losing battle, Instead, he famously said, “Aslim Taslam”, which means become Muslims if you want to be safe.” He advised those, who sought to persist in their Pagan religion, to stay indoors or take refuge in his own house. The next morning, Muhammed’s army marched into Mecca. One recalcitrant group of Meccans, who had fallen on the way of Khalid ibn Walid’s army, showed a meek resistance. Khalid slaughtered those who fell within his reach, and pursued others, who ran to save their lives up the hill. Upon capturing Meccan Muhammed ordered the destruction of all idols of the Ka’ba., shouting out, “Truth has (now arrived) and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish” which Allah later copied as a revealed verse and included in the Quran, (Quran, 17;81). Muhammad stood in the middle of the Kaa’ba, and as he pointed to the idols, passionately worshipped by the devout Meccans for centuries , with a stick one by one, they were smashed into pieces. Muhammed himself destroyed a wooden dove, a deity of the Quraysh. After the capture of Mecca and pillage of the Kaaba, Muhammad sent Khalid bin Walid to destroy the idol of al-Uzzha at Nakhla, two days, journey from Mecca. A discipline, named Amr , broke the idol-image, called Suwa, adored by the Hedeil tribe. The temple at the famous Goddess Al, Manat, worshipped at Kodeid was destroyed by a band of Medina Muslims 00 former devotees to the goddess. Many of the Pagan accepted Islam on the day Muhammed captured Mecca.” “Make ready for them all thou canst of (armed) force and of horses tethered, that thereby ye may dismay the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them whom ye know not. Allah knoweth them. Whatsoever ye spend in the way of Allah it will be repaid to you in full and ye will not be wronged (Quran, 8:60). “And what cause have ye why ye should not spend in the cause of Allah? Who is he that will Laon to Allah a beautiful loan? For (Allah) will increase it manifold to his credit, and he will have (besides) a liberal Reward? (Quran, 57: 10-11). “So, you did not slay them, but it was Allah Who slew them, and you did not smite when you smote (the enemy), but it was Alah, who smote, and that He might confer upon the believers a good gift from Himself; surely Allah is Hearing, knowing (Quran, 8:17). “Behold, ye are those invited to spend in the Way of Allah: But among you are some that are niggardly. But any who are niggardly are so at the expenses of their own soul… (Quran 47: 38).
• Ibn Ishaq. The Life of Muhammad. Translated A Guillaume. https://archive.org/details/GuillaumeATheLifeOfMuhammad
