Context and Trigger

The Persecution of Mahound’s followers in Jahilia begins in the aftermath of a crisis over revelation. Abu Simbel had proposed that Mahound recognize Lat, Uzza, and Manat in return for tolerance of the new faith and a place on Jahilia’s council. Salman the Persian warned that such a concession could make Mahound appear to have tailored revelation for political advantage and undermine the community’s creed. Mahound, however, described his listening as a process in which revelation seemed to meet something within him.

At a gathering in a poetry tent, Mahound recited verses that appeared to affirm the goddesses’ intercession. Abu Simbel and Hind responded by submitting to the new faith, and the audience broke into celebration. Mahound later concluded that the verses had been prompted by the Devil, not the angel, and hurried back to Jahilia to expunge them. The account preserves an unresolved tension: Gibreel Farishta knows that he was the source of both the recitation and its repudiation, even as Mahound understands the first message as a satanic deception.

The Campaign in Jahilia

After the repudiation, Mahound returned home to find his seventy-year-old wife dead beside a stone-latticed window. The narrative presents this as a punishment or vengeance, but leaves its source uncertain. Mahound withdrew into grief and spoke little for weeks.

Abu Simbel then instituted a policy against the followers of Submission. They were forced into Jahilia’s most wretched, hovel-filled quarter, placed under curfew, and barred from employment. Physical assaults and intimidation accompanied these restrictions: women were spat upon in shops, gangs manhandled the faithful, and fires were thrown through windows at night. The persecution was not simply a matter of private hostility; the gangs were secretly controlled by Abu Simbel, linking street violence to the city’s political authority. Yet the community grew as its conditions worsened, a reversal the narrative likens to a crop flourishing in poor soil.

Refuge and Departure

The community’s prospects in Jahilia appeared increasingly constrained. Hamza urged Mahound to leave, arguing that he would not be able to complete his message in the city and that Hind would not stop trying to silence him. An offer from the oasis settlement of Yathrib gave those who submitted a place of shelter if they wished to depart. Bereaved and alone, Mahound consented, and the faithful began making preparations to leave.

Khalid the watercarrier remained behind long enough to tell Mahound that he had doubted him. He interpreted the compromise and its repudiation as a deeper lesson about the Devil’s workings and their defeat. Mahound answered bitterly, refusing the consoling idea that the episode had been a deliberate enrichment of the faith. The exchange leaves the persecution’s aftermath unresolved at the level of belief: the community has a refuge and a path forward, but its leader does not accept the meaning Khalid gives to the crisis.

Narrative Significance

The persecution follows a sequence in which words become political acts: a proposed concession, a recited message, its public reception, and its withdrawal all alter the community’s standing. The disputed verses do not settle whether Mahound has heard divine speech or been deceived; instead, the uncertainty persists alongside the concrete effects of the controversy. Abu Simbel’s restrictions turn that dispute into material pressure, while the faithful’s growing numbers resist the expectation that exclusion will dissolve them. Their departure for Yathrib is therefore both a response to danger and a consequence of the contested revelation that preceded it.