/lit/ - Literature

>>14651214
>they kicked him out
After years of making it illegal for him and his followers to buy or sell or trade or work there, they tried to kill him and he escaped

>he went to Medina, a Jewish city
There were Jewish tribes there, they were not the majority. Medina invited him to be arbitrator as described above. He later ran into trouble with all of the Jewish tribes eventually, yes

>he started to attack caravans
Meccan caravans, yes. This is a completely legitimate practice for wartime. He didn’t massacre the merchants though, I don’t know where he gets that from.

>people started to join his religion
This was more of a product of his extremely good reputation that preceded him to Medina and his exemplary and honest exercise of power there. Raiding caravans didn’t do it, that was a common practice between feuding tribes on the daily, neither did he indiscriminately raid caravans, just Meccan ones.

>killed/enslaved all the Jews there
There was trouble with all three of the tribes, yes, two ended up exiled and one killed/enslaved: in one incident a member of the Banu Qaynuqa secretely placed a pin in a Muslim woman’s clothes from behind while she was sitting in his jewelry story; when she stood up, it caused her leg to be exposed, much to her shame and his cackling amusement. A Muslim man did what any good Muslim man would do, he beat the Jew to death. In retaliation, the Jews beat the Muslim man to death. Muhammad ﷺ then declared war on this tribe. Ultimately they were defeated, but they weren’t killed or enslaved, just kicked out. As for the Banu Qurayza, had all their adult males put to death for treachery, siding with an enemy invasion in direct violation of the pact, the Constitution of Medina. Many Jews today talk about the Prophet ﷺ as having committed some sort of genocide on the Jews, but Muhammad ﷺ actually protected Jews when they upheld their agreements, he only came down very hard on usury and unfair business dealings like hoarding, gouging and false advertising, but to this day many Jews refer to this as if it were genocide, in fact he just regulated the economy.

>he returned to Mecca and conquered it and forced everyone to convert
Everyone except Chrstians or Jews, yes. He actually issued a decree, signed with an imprint of his hand (he couldn’t write), that any Muslim who mistreated Christians is to be regarded as an apostate. This decree is known as the Ashtiname. He gave it to the monks of St. Catherine’s monastery, on Mount Sinai, for safekeeping, and it is still there for all to see.

It's kind of funny that works like the Iliad are considered fundamental to western culture but today Homer and even Shakespeare would be closer to non western culture

>A Cambridge colleague of mine gives an annual lecture on Shakespeare to trainee imams. He remarks on how immediately they relate to Shakespeare’s values. Principles of honour, fate, gender essences, the extended family, duty to parents, the power of heaven, even the reality of magic – all these make Shakespeare readily accessible to conservative Muslims, where his non-Muslim students, inhabiting a globalised and very secular culture, often strain to catch his meaning, almost as though they are trying to receive a radio signal beamed from a far distant planet.

http://www.britishfuture.org/articles/15300/

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/why-i-became-muslim