    3

    fo

    streetcorners and declaimed the new truths that the angel Gabriel had

    communicated to him, his fellow Meccans were certain that this

    formerly upstanding, middle-class man had gone mad.  They mocked

    Mohammed or ignored him.  One put a slimy camel foetus down his

    neck as he was praying.  Another tried to strangle him.  Only a few

    believed him.  Among the believers were a handful of close relatives,

    one good friend, and a disconcerting number of slaves.

    The citizens of Mecca were none too happy with the havoc

    Mohammed's new notions wreaked on their households.  Slaves who'd

    abandoned the tried and true religions stopped their household chores

    and ran off to pray and wash themselves at all kinds of strange hours.

    But Mohammed would not keep his visions to himself.   When a plot

    was hatched to murder him, Mohammed fled.  He sought refuge in a

    community where his views might be a bit more welcome, over 200

    miles away in Medina, another town isolated in the desert along the

    caravan route.  In Medina, Mohammed found more willing listeners.

    During the course of a few years, he was able to build a following large

    enough to dominate his adopted city's politics.

    The fledgling prophet was no man of peace.  He consolidated his

    hold over Medina by ordering opponents assassinated.4  Then he

    masterminded a series of assaults on passing Meccan caravans and the

    armed escorts sent to protect them.  When Meccans, fearful of

    Mohammed's new power, attacked the outskirts of Medina, the

    "blessed one" led his faithful against the intruders and won.  The holy

    man's military success impressed some of the fierce tribes that

    wandered in the hills outside of town.  They signed up with the new,

    battle-tested religion.  A few years later, the prophet marched his

    troops 200 miles to the Jewish town of Khaibar and conquered it.  He

    killed all of Khaibar's 900 men and carried off the women and children

    as slaves.

    At last Mohammed was ready to take revenge for the indignities

    his former neighbors in Mecca had heaped on him.  In 630 AD, eight

    years after he had fled, the prophet led an army of 10,000 followers

      und the diagnosis believable.  When Mohammed planted himself on

    <<  <  GO  >  >>