Chapter 161 Add some BUFF (Total 6,000 Words Including Yesterday)

After passing the Kurdish region, Selim the Great had already arrived in Mesopotamia with his army.

The governor here was Kuchuk Pasha, who had left Constantiniya and was sent here to restore the environment and organize production. He was also a tyrannical person in the eyes of the locals.

His tyranny included but was not limited to asking Shiite believers to build roads, plant trees, collect their food, and provide logistics transportation for the army.

You said that the Sultan asked him to do it, which is simply empty slander. This is the subjective initiative of the officials below. What does the Sultan have to do with it? The Sultan tolerates all lost lambs.

In February 1790, Selim the Great stopped in Baghdad with his army and did not leave.

As time went on, soldiers recruited from the Kurdish region also rushed to Baghdad and began to repair the environment and water conservancy facilities and cultivate land.

While Selim was stationed in Baghdad with his troops, Muhammad Ali Pasha in Syria and Ishak Pasha in Egypt also sent troops to start fighting against the Drayei Emirate.

The commander of the army under Ishak Pasha was Hussein Pasha. Before fighting against the Emirate of Dirayei, he went to Mecca for pilgrimage with Ishak Pasha.

In the eyes of Emperor Sai, the effect of this kind of thing is probably similar to the writing on the backs of soldiers when Xu Shouhui rebelled at the end of the Yuan Dynasty: if you die, it means you are not sincere, and if you don’t die, it means God’s protection.

However, these soldiers trained by peasants are probably more willing to believe the latter, because for Muslims, Mecca and Medina are really holy cities.

They are not the group of Crusaders who said that they must not lose Jerusalem and punish pagans, but they turned around and did a pitiful thing, almost making the prayer say goodbye.

According to the Quran, the history of Mecca can be traced back to the time of Ibrahim (Abraham, I can’t remember what the Jewish name is), who built the Kaaba with his son Ismael (Ishmael) about 2000 AD.

It is said that the local residents deviated from the monotheistic belief under the influence of the Amalekites.

Historians believe that the Kaaba was later decorated with 360 idols and tribal idols from all the nomadic tribes of Arabia.

By the seventh century, the most important deity in Mecca was Hubal, whose idol was placed there by the Quraysh.

Mecca is known in Ptolemy's writings as "Maqraba". In the fifth century, the Quraysh took control of Mecca and became prominent merchants. In the sixth century, they also joined the lucrative spice trade, as wars in parts of the world shifted trade routes from dangerous seas to relatively safe land routes.

The Byzantine Empire originally controlled the Red Sea, but pirates became increasingly rampant. Another older route was from the Persian Gulf through the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but merchants passing through were exploited by the Sassanid Empire, blocked by the Lakhmites and Ghassanids, and disturbed by wars between Rome and the Sassanids.

Mecca's prominent commercial status made it surpass Petra and Palmyra, which was one of the reasons why Muhammad later chose this place.

In the middle of the sixth century, there were three main communities in northern Arabia, connected to the southwest coast of the Red Sea, which was a habitable area between the Red Sea and the great desert in the east.

This area is the famous Hijaz region. All three communities are close to oases and have no problem with water sources.

In the middle of Hijaz is Yashrib, which was later renamed Medina.

Four hundred kilometers south of Yashrib is Taif, a mountain city, and northwest of Taif is Mecca.

Although Mecca is surrounded by barren land, it is still the richest and most important of the three communities.

The reason is that Mecca has abundant water sources because of the Zamzam Well.

The location of the Zamzam Well is the Kaaba, the most sacred holy place in Arabia, and it is also the gathering route for major camel caravans.

In fact, the water source of the Zamzam Well is not enough for the locals, and the Kaaba is just one of the many polytheistic temples on the peninsula.

Moreover, for camel caravans, the one-way route from Mecca to Syria and not back and forth made Mecca the final stop for trade.

The harsh environment of the Arabian Peninsula often led to conflicts between tribes, but each year they would stop fighting for a period of time and go to Mecca for the Hajj.

The journey had its religious reasons, namely to pay homage to the Kaaba and drink the water of the Zamzam spring. However, it was also an annual time for arbitration of disputes, debts to be settled, and people to trade in the Mecca market.

The common beliefs of the tribes due to these annual events made Mecca extremely important in the peninsula.

Muhammad's great-grandfather was the first to install camel mounts for caravans, and this became part of the local economy.

The tribal alliances traded with merchants, and the local nomadic tribes brought leather, livestock and metals mined in the local mountains.

Thus camel caravans were able to return to Mecca with full loads and go to the cities of Syria and Iraq to trade.

Islamic tradition claims that goods from all continents also flowed to Mecca.

North Africa and the Far East should have traded spices, leather, medicine, clothing and slaves to Syria, while Mecca would have made a fortune and bought weapons, grain and wine to be distributed throughout Arabia. The Meccans signed a contract with the Byzantines and Bedouins to coordinate safe routes for caravans, which also included the rights to water and pasture.

These additional services strengthened Mecca's political and economic power and led to it becoming the leader of a loose alliance of trading tribes, including the Bannu Tamim. Other powers such as the Abyssinians, Ghassans, and Lachemites had declined, but Mecca was the primary political and economic hub in Arabia in the late sixth century.

When Muhammad was born in 570 AD, the gears of fate began to turn, and Islam has inevitably had a relationship with Mecca.

Muhammad was born into the Hashemite family, a small branch of the ruling Quraish tribe. After the sealed prophet accepted the revelation in 610 and began to preach monotheism, he became incompatible with Mecca.

After enduring 13 years of persecution, Muhammad migrated to Medina with his followers in 622.

However, the conflict between the Quraysh and the Muslims still existed: the two armies broke out at the Battle of Badr, and the Muslims defeated the Quraysh outside Medina; but the Mecca army defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud.

Unfortunately, I don’t know why. It seems that monotheism had become the mainstream at that time. In the Battle of the Trench in 627, the Muslims had gained an absolute advantage and defeated the pagans in one fell swoop. Muhammad returned to Mecca.

However, the Quraish tribe rebelled again. Unfortunately, they were just clowns in front of God.

Afterwards, Muhammad announced an amnesty for the Meccans and gave special gifts to the ruling class. The Kaaba in Mecca was cleared of all its idols and ritual murals.

Muhammad immediately declared Mecca to be the holiest place in Islam, making it the center of Muslim pilgrimage, and the holy city was thus established.

The place where Hassan Pasha came to Mecca to worship was the Kaaba, the Forbidden Temple.

Seen from a distance, the Kaaba is a cubic stone building made of granite from the mountains near Mecca and built on a marble platform. The four corners of the building face the four directions of southeast, northwest and northwest. The southeastern corner is called the "Black Stone Corner" and is inlaid with a black meteorite, generally called the "Black Stone". It was the only one that was retained after Muhammad cleared away the idols. The remaining three corners are called "Iraq Corner" (northeast), "Sham Corner" (northwest, Sharm means Levant/Syria) and "Yemen Corner" (southwest).

The Kaaba Temple is covered with black silk cloth and embroidered with gold Quranic verses.

This cloth is called "kiswa" in Arabic and must be replaced every year before the Hajj (this cloth was supplied by Egypt starting from the Fatimid Dynasty).

The northeast wall of the Kaaba Forbidden Temple is equipped with a gate 2 meters high from the ground, which is the front of the Kaaba.

Access to this gate is via wooden stairs on wheels.

The floors and interior walls of the Kaaba are paved with marble, and the roof is supported by three pillars. The marble paving height of the interior wall is only close to half of the roof, and the upper half of the interior wall is covered with green cloth and embroidered with gold Quranic verses.

There are no windows in the Kaaba, and the gate is the only access.

There is a semicircular marble stone structure on the northwest side of the outside of the Kaaba, called "Hatim" in Arabic), but it is not directly connected to the Kaaba.

This ring of buildings was once part of the Kaaba, so Muslims do not enter its ring space when visiting the Kaaba.

Today, it was Ishak Pasha who found members of the Hashemite family and the lord of Mecca and organized the army's pilgrimage.

Thousands of Muslim soldiers gathered in the center of Mecca from all directions. They wore neat red and black uniforms, shouldered their faith and mission, and marched in unison toward the same goal. They come from different nationalities, tribes and regions and become one, showing great unity across cultures and regions.

The red crescent flag flew: in the ranks of the army, each brigade, company and group was equipped with its own flag. These flags are printed with crescent moons and words of admiration for God. The flags flutter in the wind, symbolizing faith and glory.

With solemn steps and a pious attitude, Muslim soldiers marched through the streets and squares of Mecca towards the Kaaba, following in the footsteps of their predecessors.

As the army marched, the soldiers' clear and powerful slogans, chants and cries of hadith reverberated throughout the city of Mecca, forming an exciting chorus.

"Praise be to Allah, the Almighty One, who causes His servants to travel from the Sacred Mosque to the Far Mosque in one night. We have blessed the surroundings of the Far Mosque, so that We may show Him some of My signs. Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing. , is indeed all-clear.

Then We restored to you superiority over them, We supported you with wealth and descendants, and We enriched you.

(If you repent), perhaps your Lord will have mercy on you. If you disobey me again, I will punish you again. I made the Fire a prison for the disbelievers.

This Quran will guide people to the right path and predict that believers who do good deeds will enjoy the greatest rewards.

(Also predicted) For those who disbelieve in the Hereafter, We have prepared a painful punishment for them. "

The soldiers shouted feverishly the mantras left by the prophet. Ishak Pasha looked at the crowd with a smile and couldn't help but sigh.

“Allah always gives us blessings.”

The Lord of Mecca said next to him.

“This is a necessary position, they are His Majesty’s army and they are the beloved of God.

And those heretics who show off their ferocity will be punished by God. "