Isaiah
journeyed to Edom but then went north to Syria. Thus, Isaiah’s old terminology still held true in Muhammad’s day: caravans returning from Bostra passed along the borders of ancient Bozrah, Edom, then passed through Medina, and then entered Mecca from the north. speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. This is the same man of God foretold in Isa. 59:16, whose “own arm saved him, and his righteousness upheld him.” He speaks the righteousness of God that was promised for the establishment of the people of Hagar (Isa. 54:14, 17). He speaks the words of the Quran. And though he marches in “the greatness of his strength,” his intention is to use his might “to save.” In mid-winter (January) of 630 CE (8 AH), after two decades of struggle, including six years of open warfare, the Prophet Muhammad entered Mecca unopposed. His show of strength took place the hour before, north of the city, where he arrayed his troops in all their splendor and rode in their midst. According to Lings, the troops were a mass of black, green and gleaming steel. The Prophet wore red. Muhammad knew the route all the way from Edom, even from Syria, for he had traveled it as a youth and as a caravan leader. Along many dimensions he came from Edom. His calling was from Jerusalem, which lay behind the mountains of Edom. For over a decade, he and his followers faced Jerusalem in prayer and, thus, by actual line of sight, looked to Edom. Jerusalem previously birthed seven (Jer. 15:9), but the Arabs were not then among her children, even though Hagar is the symbolic mother of them all (see Gal. 4 entry). Esau, the foundational figure of Edom, had married Mahalath, a daughter of Ismael and sister of Nebaioth (Gen. 28:9). Connections and exchanges between Edom and Arabia, starting with ties of kinship and culminating in Nabatean Edom, shaped the history of both regions— and likely shaped the female ancestry of Muhammad. Edom long represented the chief religious sibling and spiritual extension of Israel. Job and the Book of Job are representative of Edom. The call to the watchman of Dumah (son of Ismael) came from Edom (see Isa. 21). All of Arabia’s relevant connections were literally through Edom—by calling, by geography, by blood, by trade, by marriage, by bordering and blending, and by transmitted proclamation of the God of Jacob and Esau, the God of Isaac and Ismael. 97