Muhammad and The Jews — Page 112
but unable to expand. Mecca and Khaybar with their tribal alliances and alignments stood firm in their opposition to Islam. They had failed to destroy Islam; the Apostle was also probably conscious of his inability to win them over. The two actions which he took soon after the Battle of the A/:iziib seem to indicate a change in his strategy. He would try to neutralize them and now, being an established power in Medina, would seek a modus vivendi with Mecca and Khaybar. In 628 (6 A. H. ) while the exhausted Byzantine and Sassanian empires were negotiating peace after twenty-six years of war the Apostle also took a step towards peace; he announced that he was going to Mecca for the "-Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage). The pilgrimage by its very nature was to be peaceful. He invited other Muslims to accompany him. They took animals for sacrifice and were armed only with the traveller's weapon-the sheathed sword. Sixteen hundred Muslims, including four women, went with him. Some ten miles northwest of Mecca the Apostle camped and the Quraysh took a position between the Muslims and the city to prevent their entry. The Apostle was not allowed to perform the "-Umrah, but got a nonaggression pact instead. The terms of the pact were as follows: 1. The Muslims and the Quraysh will lay aside war for ten years during which men can be safe and refrain from hosti- lities; 2. If one of the Quraysh should go over to the Muslims without the permission of his guardian, they would hand him over to Meccans, but if any Muslim goes to the Meccans, the latter would not return him to Muhammad; 3. The parties to the pact will not show enmity to each other and there shall be no secret reservations or bad faith; 4. Those who wish to enter into alliance with the Muslims or with the Quraysh ·will be at liberty to do so; 5. The Muslims shall retire this year without performing the "-Umrah; 6. Next year Muslims may come with swords in sheaths, but nothing more; and can stay in Mecca for three nights. 1 These terms were humiliating. "''"Umar jumped up and went to Abii Bakr saying, 'Is he not God's Apostle, and are we not Muslims, and are they not polytheists?' to which Ab ii Bakr agreed, and he 1 Ibn Hisbam, pp. 747-8.