THE LIFE OF

MUHAMMAD

*A TRANSLATION OF ISHAQ’S
SIRAT RASVL ALLAH

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

A. GUILLAUME

Karachi

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the debt that I owe to the friends whom
I have consulted in the many and various difficulties which beset a trans¬
lator of such a long text as the Sira on which there is no commentary
worthy of the name. My thanks are especially due to my old friend Pro¬
fessor A. A. Affifi of Alexandria, Professor A. Kh. Kinani of Damascus,
Dr. Abdullah al-Tayib of Khartoum, Dr. M. A. Azzam of Cairo, and
Professor A. K. S. Lambton of London. Particularly I would thank Dr.
W. Arafat for his self-sacrificing labour in reading the whole of my transla¬
tion in manuscript, and for bringing its shortcomings to my notice. If,
with reference to this book of mine, I am ever able to solace myself with
the words kafa'l-mar’a fadlan an tuadda ma'ayibuh, it will be in great
measure due to his ready help and eagle eye.

Last, but not least, I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the School
of Oriental and African Studies in meeting the'eost of production. Without
this help it would have been impossible to publish the book. I hope that
in the years to come it will stand as a modest tribute to the School’s great
interest in Oriental studies and also help to further co-operation and
friendliness between my country and the Islamic world.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

INTRODUCTION xiii

The Author xiii

The Sira xiv

The Editor Ibn Hisham xli

A Fragment of the Lost Book of Mus 5 b. 'Uqba xliii

Part I

THE GENEALOGY OF MUHAMMAD; TRADITIONS
FROM THE PRE-ISLAMIC ERA; MUHAMMAD’S
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD

Genealogy 3

The soothsayers Shiqq and Safib 4

Abu Karib’s expedition to Yathrib 6

His sons Hassan and 'Amr 12

LakhnI'a Dhu Shanatir 13

Dhu Nuwas 14

Christianity in Nafran 14

'Abdullah b. al-Thamir and the Christian martyrs 16

Abyssinian domination of the Yaman 18

Abraha’s abortive attack on Mecca 21

Persian domination of the Yaman 30

The descendants of Nizar b. Ma'add 34

Origin of idolatry among the Arabs 35

Arab taboos 40

The descendants of Mu^lar 40

The digging of Zamzam 45, 62

Kinana and Khuza'a expel Jurhum and occupy the Ka'ba 46

The fra]] in the J&hiliya 49

Quraysh predominate in Mecca 52

Internal dissensions 56

The wells of Mecca 65

'Abdu’l-Muttalib vows to sacrifice his son 66

'Abdullah father of the prophet 68

Amina mother of the prophet 69

His birth and fostermother 69

His mother’s death 73

Death of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib and elegies thereon 73

AbO T^lib becomes Muhammad’s guardian 79

The monk Batura 79

viii Contents

The sacrilegious war 82

Muhammad marries Khadija 82

Rebuilding of the Ka'ba 84

The Hums 87

Jews, Christians, and Arabs predict Muhammad’s mission 90

Salman the Persian 95

Early monotheists 98

The Gospel prophecy of the sending of ‘the Comforter’ 103

Part II

MUHAMMAD’S CALL AND PREACHING IN MECCA 109

His call and the beginning of the Quran ill

Khadija accepts Islam 111

Prayer prescribed 112

'All the first male Muslim, then Abu Bakr and his converts 114

Muhammad preaches and Quraysh reject him 117

Abu Talib protects him from Quraysh 118

Persecution of Muhammad 130

Hamza accepts Islam 131

'Utba attempts a compromise 132

Conference with Quraysh leaders. The chapter of The Cave 133

'Abdullah b. Mas'ud recites the Quran publicly 141

Meccans persecute Muhammad’s followers 143

The first emigrants to Abyssinia 146

Quraysh try to get them sent back 150

How the Negus gained his throne 153

‘Umar accepts Islam 155

The document proclaiming a boycott 159

Active opposition to Muhammad 161

His temporary concession to polytheism 165

The return of the first emigrants 167

'Uthman b. Ma?'un and Abu Bakr renounce their protectors 169

Annulling of the boycott 172

'J'ufayl b. 'Amr accepts Islam 175

Abu Jahl’s dishonesty 177

Rukana wrestles with Muhammad 178

Some Christians accept Islam 179

Suras 108 and 6 180

The night journey and the ascent to heaven 181

Allah punishes the mockers 187

The story of Abu Uzayhir 187

Death of Abu Talib and Khadija 191

Muhammad preaches in al-'J'a’if 192

Contents

ix

Muhammad preaches to the Beduin 194

Iyas accepts Islam 197

Beginning of Islam among the Helpers 197

The first pledge at al-‘Aqaba jyg

Institution of Friday prayers in Medina 199

The second pledge at al-'Aqaba 201

Names of the twelve leaders 204

'Amr’s idol 207

Conditions of the pledge and names of those present 208

Allah orders Muhammad to fight 212

The Emigrants to Medina 213

Those with whom they lodged 218

MUHAMMAD’S MIGRATION TO MEDINA, HIS WARS,

TRIUMPH, AND DEATH 219

Muhammad’s hijra 221

He builds a mosque and houses in Medina 228

Covenant with the Jews and men of Medina 231

Brotherhood between the Emigrants and the Helpers 234

The Call to Prayer 235

Abu Qays 236

Jewish opponents 239

'Abdullah b. Salam accepts Islam 240

Jews joined by hypocrites among the Helpers 242

Disaffected rabbis 246

The chapter of The Cow and Jewdsh opposition 247

Deputation from the Christians of Najran 270

The disaffected 277

Fever in Medina 279

Date of the hijra 281

The first raid: on Waddan 281

Hamza’s raid to the coast 283

Raid on Buwa{ 285

Raid on al-'Ushayra 285

Raid on al-Kharrar 286

Raid on Safaw’an 286

Fighting in the sacred month 286

The change of the Qibla 289

Battle of Badr 289

Zaynab sets out for Medina 314

Abu’l-'A§ accepts Islam 316

'Umayr b. Wahb accepts Islam 318

The chapter of The Spoils 321

X

Contents

Contents

xi

Names of the Emigrants who fought at Badr 3 2 7

Names of the Helpers who fought at Badr 33 °

Names of the Quraysh prisoners 33 §

Verses on the battle 34 °

Raid on B. Sulaym 360

Raid called al-SawIq 361

Raid on Dhu Amarr 3^2

Raid on al-Furu' 362

Attack on B. Qaynuqa' 3^3

Raid on al-Qarada 364

Killing of Ka'b b. al-Ashraf . 364

Muhayyi$a and ^fuwayyi?a 369

Battle of Uliud 37 °

The Quran on Uhud 39 *

Names of the Muslims slain at Uhud 4 °i

Names of the polytheists slain at Uhud 4°3

Verses on Uhud 4°4

The day of al-Rajl' 4 2 ^

Poems thereon 4 2 9

Treachery at Bi’r Ma'una 433

B. al-Na^ir exiled 437

Poetry thereon 439

Raid of Dhatu’l-Riqa' 445

Last expedition to Badr 447

Raid on Dumatu’l-Jandal 449

Battle of the Ditch 456

Attack on B. Qurayza 461

Poetry thereon 47 °

Killing of Sallam 482

'Amr b. al-'A? and Khalid b. al-Walld accept Islam 484

Attack on B. Lihyan 4§5

Attack on Dhu Qarad 486

Attack on B. al-Mu$taliq 490

Scandal about 'A’is ha 493

The affair of al-Hudaybiya 499

The willing homage 5°3

The armistice 5°4

Those left helpless 5°7

Women who migrated after the armistice 5°9

Expedition to Khaybar 5 1 ®

al-Aswad the shepherd 5*9

Division of the spoils of Khaybar 5 21

Affair of Fadak 5 2 3

Names of the Dariydn 5 2 3

Return of the second batch of emigrants 526

The fulfilled pilgrimage 530

Raid on Mu’ta S 3 1

The occupation of Mecca 540

Khalid followed by 'All go forth as missionaries 561

Khalid destroys al-'Uzza 565

Battle of Hunayn 566

Verses thereon 57 2

Capture of al-Ta’if 587

Division of the spoils of Hawazin 592

Ka'b b. Zuhayr 597

His ode 59 $

Raid on Tabuk 602

The opposition mosque 609

Those who hung back from the raid on Tabuk 610

Destruction of al-Lat 615

Abu Bakr leads the pilgrimage 617

yassan’s odes on the campaigns 624

The Year of the Deputations 627

The B. Tamlm 628

'Amir b. al-Tufayl and Arbad b. Qays 631

Deputation from B. Sa'd 634

Deputation from 'Abdu’l-Qays 635

Deputation from B. I^anlfa 636

Deputation from T a yy^’ 637

'Adly b. I^atim 637

Deputation of Farwa 639

Deputation from B. Zubayd 640

Deputation from Kinda 641

Deputation from al-Azd 642

Deputation from I^imyar 642

Farwa b. 'Amr accepts Islam 644

B. IRirith accept Islam 645

The false prophets Musaylima and al-Aswad 648

The farewell pilgrimage 649

Usama’s expedition to Palestine 652

Muhammad’s missions to foreign rulers 652

A summary of Muhammad’s raids and expeditions 659

GhSlib’s raid on B. al-Mulawwab 660

Zayd’s raid on Judham 662

Zayd’s raid on B. Fazara 664

'Abdullah b. Rawaha’s raid to kill al-Yusayr 665

'Abdullah b. Unays’s raid to kill Khalid b. Sufyan 666

'Uyayna’s raid on B. al-'Anbar 667

Gha lib’s raid on B. Murra 667

'Amr b. al-'A$’s raid on Dhatu’l-Salasil 668

Contents

xii

Ibn Abu Idadrad’s raid on I^am

669

His raid on al-Ghaba

671

'Abdu’l-Rahman’s raid on Dumatu’l-Jandal

672

Abu 'Ubayda’s raid to the coast

673

Salim b. f Umayr’s raid to kill Abu 'Afak

675

'Umayr b. 'Adly’s raid to kill f Asma’

67s

Capture of Thumama b. Athal

676

'Alqama’s raid

677

Kurz’s raid on the Bajllls

677

'Ali’s raid on the Yaman

678

Beginning of Muhammad’s illness

678

His death

68 z

The meeting in the hall of B. Sa'ida

683

Preparations for burial

687

Id as s an’s panegyric

689

IBN HISHAM’S NOTES

69 X

ADDENDA

799

INDEXES

Proper Names

801

Isnad

810

Books cited

814

Subjects

815

INTRODUCTION

THE AUTHOR

Muhammad, son of Ishaq, son of Yasar, was bom in Medina about
a.h. 85 and died in Baghdad in 151. 1 His grandfather Yasar fell into the
hands of Khalid b. al-Walid when he captured 'Aynu’l-Tamr in a.h. 12 ,
having been held there as a prisoner by the Persian king. Khalid sent him
with a number of prisoners to Abu Bakr at Medina. There he was handed
over to Qays b. Makhrama b. ai-Muttalib b. 'Abdu Manaf as a slave, and
was manumitted when he accepted Islam. His family adopted the family
name of their patrons. His son Ishaq was born about the year 50, his
mother being the daughter of another freedman. He and his brother
Musa were well-known traditionists, so that our author’s path in life was
prepared before he reached manhood. 2

He associated with the second generation of traditionists, notably
al-Zuhri, 'Asim b. Umar b. Qatada, and ‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr. He must
have devoted himself to the study of apostolic tradition from his youth, for
at the age of thirty he went to Egypt to attend the lectures of Yazid b.
Abu Habib. 3 There he was regarded as an authority, for this same Yazid
afterwards related traditions on Ibn Ishaq’s authority. 4 On his return to
Medina he went on with’the collection and arrangement of the material
he had collected. Al-Zuhri, who was in Medina in 123, is reported to have
said that Medina would never lack 'ilm as long as Ibn Ishaq was there, and
he eagerly gathered from him the details of the prophet’s wars. Unfortu¬
nately Ibn Ishaq excited the enmity of Malik b. Anas, for whose work he
showed his contempt, and it was not long before his own writings and his
orthodoxy were called in question. Probably it was our author’s lost book
of Sunan s which excited Malik’s ire, for it would have been in the field
of law based on the practice of the prophet that differences would be most
keenly felt. He was accused of being a Qadari and a Shi'L Another man
attacked his veracity: he often quoted Fatima, the wife of Hisham b.
Urwa, as the authority for some of his traditions. The husband was
annoyed and denied that he had ever met his wife; but as she was nearly
forty years Ibn Ishaq’s senior it is easily credible that they often met
without occasioning gossip. It is not known whether Ibn Ishaq was com¬
pelled to leave Medina or whether he went away voluntarily. Obviously
he could not have the same standing in a place that housed his chief

1 I.S. vn. ii. p. 67.

• On Musa and Ishaq see J. Fflck, Muhammad ibn Isfidq, Frankfurt a. M. 1925, p. 28.

3 See Biographien von Gewahrsmimntm des Ibn Ishaq . . ., ed. Fischer, Leiden, 1890.
With all those whose death-rates ranged from a.h. 27 to 152 he was in contact personally
or at second hand.

4 Wtistenfeld, 11. vii, from I. al-Najjar and Flick, 30.

5 Hajji Khalifa, ii. 1008.

XIV

The Life of Muhammad

informants as he would hold elsewhere, and so he left for the east, stopping
in Kufa, al-jazlra on the Tigris, and Ray, finally settling in Baghdad. While
Mansur was at Hashimlya he attached himself to his following and presented
him with a copy of his work doubtless in the hope of a grant from the caliph.
Thence he moved to Ray and then to the new capital of the empire. He
died in 150 (or perhaps 151) and was buried in the cemetery of Ilayzuran.

THE SIRA

Its precursors

It is certain that Ibn Ishaq’s biography of the prophet had no serious
rival; but it was preceded by several maghazi books. We do not know w r hen
they were first written, though we have the names of several first-century
worthies who had written notes and passed on their knowledge to the rising
generation. The first of these was Aban the son of the caliph 'Uthman. 1
He was born in c. 20 and took part in the campaign of Talha and Zubayr
against his father’s slayers. He died about 100. The language used by
al-Waqidl in reference to Ibn al-Mughlra, ‘he had nothing written down
about hadith except the prophet’s maghdzls which he had acquired from
Aban’, certainly implies, though it does not demand, that Ibn al-Mughlra
wrote down what Aban told him. It is strange that neither Ibn Ishaq nor
al-Waqidi should have cited this man who must have had inside knowledge
of many matters that were not known to the public; possibly as a follower
of Ali he preferred to ignore the son of the man the Alids regarded as a
usurper. However, his name often appears in the isnads of the canonical
collections of hadith. (The man named in Tab. 2340 and I.S. iv. 29 is
Aban b. 'Uthman al-Bajall who seems to have written a book on maghazi. )

A man of much greater importance was ‘Urwa b. al-Zubayr b. al-
'Awwam (23-94), a cousin of the prophet. ‘Urwa’s mother was Abu
Bakr’s daughter Asma’. He and his brother 'Abdullah were in close con¬
tact with the prophet’s widow 'A’isha. He was a recognized authority on
the early history of Islam, and the Umayyad caliph 'Abdui-Malik applied
to him when he needed information on that subject. Again, it is uncertain
whether he wrote a book, but the many traditions that are handed down in
his name by I.I. and other writers justify the assertion that he was the
founder of Islamic history. 3 - Though he is the earliest writer whose notes
have come down to us, I have not translated the passages from Jab. which
reproduce them because they do not seem to add anything of importance
to the Sira. They form part of a letter which 'Unva wrote to 'Abdu
l-Malik who wanted to have accurate knowledge about the prophets
career. 4 Much of his material rests on the statements of his aunt 'A’isha.

1 E. Sachau, I.S. in. xxiti. f.

2 Flick, 8, n. 27; and see J. Horovitz in Islamic Culture , i 9 2 7 > 53 °*

3 I. S., Tab., and Bu. are heavily indebted to him. „ .....

4 See T. i. n 8 o, 1224, 1234, 1284. 634. l6s4 ’ l67 ° l77 °’ m ' 24s8 * C *' 754 ‘

Introduction xv

Like I.I. he was given to inserting poetry in his traditions and justified the
habit by the example of ‘A’isha who uttered verses on every subject that
presented itself. 1 He was a friend of the erotic poet ‘Umar b. Rabl'a, but
thought very little of the prophet’s poet Hassan b. Thabit. 2

Of Shurahbil b. Sa‘d, a freedman, presumably of South Arabian origin,
little is known beyond the fact that he wrote a maghazi book. I.I. would
have none of him, and he is seldom quoted by other writers. He died in
123, and as he is said to have known Ali he must have died a centenarian.
He reported traditions from some of the prophet’s companions, and
Musa b. ‘Uqba 3 records that he wrote lists of the names of the emigrants
and the combatants at Badr and Uhud. In his old age he was discredited
because he blackmailed his visitors: if they did not give him anything he
would say that their fathers were not present at Badr! Poverty and extreme
age made him cantankerous. The victims of his spleen doubted his veracity,
though those best qualified to judge regarded him as an authority.

Another important Tabi‘ was Wahb b. Munabbih (34-110), a Yamanite
of Persian origin. His father probably was a Jew. He is notorious for his
interest in, and knowledge of, Jewish and Christian scriptures and tradi¬
tions ; and though much that was invented later was fathered on him, his
K. al-Mubtadd lies behind the Muslim version of the lives of the prophets
and other biblical stories. With his books on the legendary history of the
Yaman, on aphorisms, on free will, and other matters preserved in part in
I.H.’s K. al-Tijdn we are not concerned; but the statement of Hajji
Khalifa that he collected the maghazi is now confirmed by the discovery of a
fragment of the lost work on papyri written in 228. Unfortunately this
fragment tells us little that is new; nevertheless, its importance is great
because it proves that at the end of the first century, or some years before
a.h. 100, the main facts about the prophet’s life were written down much
as we have them in the later works. Further it shows that, like the other
early traditionists, he had little or no use for isnads. Miss Gertrud Melamede 4
has compared the account of the meeting at ‘Aqaba (cf. i. H. 288, 293, 299)
with the literature on the subject and her criticism, literary-and historical,
leads her to some important conclusions which do not concern us here. An
interesting detail is that Muhammad speaking to ‘Abbas calls Aus and
Khazraj ‘my and your maternal uncles’. ‘Abbas throughout runs with the
hare and hunts with the hounds.

A little later comes ‘Asim b. ‘Umar b. Qatada al-Ansarl (d. c. 120). He
lectured in Damascus on the campaigns of the prophet and the exploits
of his companions and seems to have committed his lectures to writing.
He too is quite inconsistent in naming his authorities: sometimes he gives
an isnad, more often he does not. He returned to Medina to continue his
work, and I.I. attended his lectures there. Occasionally he inserted verses
in his narrative, and sometimes gave his own opinion.

1 Fischer, Asdnid, 46. 1 Horovitz, op. cit. 251.

i I. Bajar, Tahdhib, x. 361. 4 Le Monde Orientate, xxviii. 1934, 17-58.

XVI

The Life of Muhammad

Muhammad b. Muslim .., b. Shihab al-Zuhri (51-124) was a member of
a distinguished Meccan family. He attached himself to 'Abdu’l-Malik,
Hisham, and Yazld, and wrote down some traditions for his princely
pupils. He was the forerunner of the later traditionists in that he took
extraordinary pains to interrogate people, young and old of both sexes, who
might possess knowledge of the past. He left a history of his own family
and a book of maghazi. Most of his traditional lore survived in the notes
of his lectures that his pupils wrote down quoting his authority for the
traditions they record. He spent some years in Medina as a young man.

1.1. met him when he came south on pilgrimage and he is often named as an
authority in the Sira. He was the most important traditionist of his
generation, and his influence is to be seen in all collections of canonical
hadith. (See further J. Horovitz, Islamic Culture , ii. 33 ff.)

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm (d. 130 or 135)
was one of I.I.’s most important informants. His father had been ordered
by 'Umar b. 'Abdu’l-'Aziz to write a collection of prophetic hadith,
especially what 'Amra d. 'Abdu’l-Rahman said. This latter was a friend
of 'A’isha and she was the aunt of this Abu Bakr. Already in the time of his
son 'Abdullah these writings had been lost. Though we have no record of
a book by 'Abdullah, its substance probably once existed in the maghazi of
his nephew 'Abdu’l-Malik. As one would expect, the isnad is a matter of
indifference to 'Abdullah: he stood too near the events among many who
knew of them to need to cite his authorities. Tab. (i. 1837) contains an
interesting note on how I.I. got his information. 'Abdullah told his wife
Fatima to tell him what he knew on 'Amra’s authority.

Abu’l-Aswad Muhammad b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Naufal (d. 131 or
137) left a maghazi book which sticks closely to 'Urwa’s tradition. 1

Contemporary with our author in the third generation was Musa b.
Uqba (c. 55-141), a freedman of the family of al-Zubayr. A fragment of
his work has survived and was published by Sachau in 1904. 2 As it once
rivalled I.I.’s work and is one of our earliest witnesses to the Sira I have
given a translation of the extant traditions. 3 Although Malik b. Anas,
al-Shafi'I, and Ahmad b. Hanbal—an impressive trio—asserted that his
book was the most important and trustworthy of all, posterity evidently
did not share their opinion or more of his work would have survived. 4

1.1. never mentions him. One cannot escape the conviction that petty
professional jealousy was as rife in those days as now, and that scholars
deliberately refrained from giving their predecessors credit for their
achievements. Musa leaned heavily on al-Zuhri. He seems to have carried
farther the process of idealizing the prophet. 5 He is freely quoted by
al-Waqidl, I. Sa'd, al-Baladhurl, Tabari, and I. Sayyidu’l-Nas. He gave

1 See Ftick, u. 2 S.B.B.A. xi.

3 v.i. where some doubts about the authenticity of some of them are raised.

4 Goldziher, M.S. ii. 207, shows that it was in circulation as late as the end of the 9th

century A.H. 5 Fiick, 12.

Introduction

XVII

lists of those who went to Abyssinia and fought at Badr. The latter
Malik regarded as authoritative. He generally gives an isnad , though it is
not always clear whether he is relying on a written or an oral source. Once
at least he refers to a mass of records left by Ibn 'Abbas (I.S. v. 216).
Occasionally he quotes poems.

Apart from the fragment of Wahb b. Munabbih’s maghazi the Berlin
MS., if it is authentic, is the oldest piece of historical literature in Arabic in
existence, and if only for that reason deserves more than a passing notice
here. It is of importance also because it carries back some of the traditions
in Bukhari (d. 256) more than a century.

Other maghazi works were produced in Iraq, Syria, and the Yaman
during the second century, but none of them is likely to have influenced

I.I. and they can safely be disregarded. 1 What is of significance is the
great interest in the life of the prophet that was shown everywhere during
this century. But no book known to the Arabs or to us can compare in
comprehensiveness, arrangement, or systematic treatment, with I.I.’s work
which will now be discussed.

The Sira

The titles The Book of Campaigns or The Book of Campaigns and (the
prophet s) Biography or The Book of the Biography and the Beginning and the
Campaigns- are all to be met with in the citations of Arabic authors.
AI-Bakka’i, a pupil of I.I., made two copies of the whole book, one of which
must have reached I.H. (d, 218) whose text, abbreviated, annotated, and
sometimes altered, is the main source of our knowledge of the original
work. A good deal more of it can be recovered from other sources. 3 The
principles underlying I.H.’s revision are set out in his Introduction
Sachau 4 suggests that the copy used by T. was made when I.I. was in Ray
by Salama b. FadI al-Abrash al-Ansarl, because T. quotes I.I. according to
I. FadI s nwaya . A third copy was made by Yunus b. Bukayr in Ray
This was used by I. al-Athlr in his Vsdu'l-Ghdba. A copy of part of this
recension exists in the Qarawlyln mosque at Fez. The text, which contains
some important additions to the received text, I hope to publish shortly
A fourth copy was that of the Syrian Harun b. Abu'Isa. These last two

copies were used by I. Sa'd. 5 Lastly the Fihrist mentions the edition of
al-Nufayll (d.‘ 234).

It must not be supposed that the book ever existed in three separate
parts: ancient legends, Muhammad’s early life and mission, and his wars
These are simply sections of the book which contained I.I.’s lectures.

For the Mubtada ’ (.Mabda ’) we must go to T’s Tafsir and History . The
first quotation from it in the latter 6 runs thus: T. Hamid said, Salama
b. al-Fadl.told us that I.I. said: “The first thing that God created was light

3 2 See Noldeke, Gesch. Qor. 129, 221.

s _ T 1. 4 I.S. III. xxv.

m. 11. 51, lines 17-19. 6 q %9

T ' V

B 4080

b

xv iii The Life of Muhammad

and darkness. Then He separated them and made the darkness night,
black exceeding dark; and He made the light day, bright and luminous.
From this it is clear that ‘Genesis’ is the meaning of the title of the first
section of the book. I.H. skipped all the intervening pages and began with
Abraham, the presumed ancestor of Muhammad. Al-Azraqi quotes some
passages from the missing section in his Akhbar Mecca and a few extracts

are given by al-Mutahhar b. Tahir. 1

The Mubtada in so far as it lies outside I.H.’s recension is not our
concern, though it is to be hoped that one day a scholar will collect and
publish a text of it from the sources that survive so that I.I.’s work can be
read in its entirety as its importance warrants. In this section 1 . 1 . relied on
Jewish and Christian informants and on the book of Abu ‘Abdullah Wahb
b. Munabbih (34-no or 114) known as K. al-Mubtada and also al-Isra-
illy at of which the original title was Qisasu'LAnbiya. To him he owed
the history of the past from Adam to Jesus 2 and also the South Arabian
legends, some of which I.H. has retained. This man also wrote a maghazl
book, and a fragment of it has survived. 3 I.I. cites him by name only once.

It is natural that a book about Muhammad, ‘the seal of the prophets ,
should give an account of the history of the early prophets, but the
history, or legends, of South Arabia demand another explanation. As
Goldziher showed long ago, 5 it was in the second half of the first century
that the antagonism of north and south, i.e. Quraysh and the Ansar of
Medina first showed itself in literature. The Ansar, proud of their southern
origin and of their support of the prophet when the Quraysh rejected him,
smarted under the injustice of their rulers and the northerner’s claim to
superiority. One of the ways in which their resentment manifested itselt
was in the glorification of Himyar’s great past. I.I. as a loyal son 0
Medina shared the feelings of his patrons and recounted the achievements
of their forefathers, and I.H., himself of southern descent, retained in the
Sira as much of the original work as he thought desirable. To this accident
that I.H. was a Himyarl we owe the extracts from stories of the old South
Arabian kings. I.H. devoted a separate book to the subject, the K. al-
Tijan li-md rifati niuluki l-zaman (fi akhbdri Oahtan). h

The second section of the book which is often called al-Mab ath begins
with the birth of the prophet and ends when the first fighting from is ase
in Medina takes place. The impression one gets from this section is o
hazy memories; the stories have lost their freshness and have nothing ol
that vivid and sometimes dramatic detail which make the maghazi stories
especially in al-Waqidl—so full of interest and excitement. Thus while the
Medinan period is well documented, and events there are chronologi¬
cally arranged, no such accuracy, indeed no such attempt at it, can be

1 ed. and tr. Cl. Huart, Publ. de Vicole des long. or. viv., s. iv, vol. xvi, i-vi, Pam, 1899“
1919.

2 A summary of the contents is given in F •

3 See E.I.

5 M.S. i. 89-98.

4 p. 20.

6 Haydarabad, I 34 2 -

Introduction

XIX

claimed for the Meccan period. We do not know Muhammad’s age when
he first came forth publicly as a religious reformer: some say he "was forty,
others say forty-five; we do not know his precise relation to the Banu
Najjar; the poverty of his childhood ill fits the assertion that he belonged
to the principal family in Mecca. The story of those years is filled out with
legends and stories of miraculous events which inevitably undermine the
modern reader’s confidence in the history of this period as a whole. In
this section particularly, though not exclusively, I.I. writes historical
introductions to his paragraphs. A good example is his foreword to the
account of the persecution the prophet endured at the hands of the
Meccans: ‘When the Quraysh became distressed by the trouble caused by
the enmity between them and the apostle and those of their people who
accepted his teaching, they stirred up against him foolish fellows who called
him a liar, insulted him, and accused him of being a poet, a sorcerer, a
diviner, and of being possessed. However the apostle continued to pro¬
claim what God had ordered him to proclaim, concealing nothing, and
exciting their dislike by contemning their religion, forsaking their idols,
and leaving them to their unbelief’. 1 This is not a statement resting on
tradition, but a concise summary of the circumstances that are plainly
indicated by certain passages of the Quran which deal with this period.

Of the Maghazl history little need be said. For the most part the stories
rest on the account of eyewitnesses and have every right to be regarded as
trustworthy.

Characteristics

The opinions of Muslim critics on I.I.’s trustworthiness deserve a special
paragraph; but here something may be said of the author’s caution and his
fairness. A word that very frequently precedes a statement is za’atna or
zdamu, ‘he (they) alleged’. It carries with it more than a hint that the
statement may not be true, though on the other hand it may be sound.
Thus there are fourteen or more occurrences of the caveat from p. 87 to
148 alone, besides a frequent note that only God knows whether a parti¬
cular statement is true or not. Another indication of reserve if not scepti¬
cism underlies the expression fl md dhukira li, as in the story of the jinn
who listened to Muhammad as he prayed; Muhammad’s order to ‘Umar
to kill Suwayd; one of Gabriel’s visits to Muhammad; the reward of two
martyrs to the man killed by a woman. 2 An expression of similar import is
fi md balaghani , 3

Very seldom does I.I. make any comment of his own on the traditions
he records apart from the mental reservation implied in these terms.
Therefore when he does express an opinion it is the more significant.
In his account of the night journey to Jerusalem and the ascent into heaven

1 p. 183; see also 187, 230 et passim. 1 pp. 281, 356, 357, 308.

3 pp. 232, 235 et passim. Extreme caution introduces the legends of the light at the
prophet’s birth, 102.

XX

The Life of Muhammad

he allows us to see the working of his mind. The story is everywhere
hedged with reservations and terms suggesting caution to the reader. He
begins with a tale which he says has reached him {balagham) from several
narrators and he has pieced them together from the stories these people
heard (dhukira). The whole subject is a searching test of men s faith m
which those endowed with intelligence are specially concerned, it was
certainly an act of God, but exactly what happened we do not know. This
opinion of his is most delicately and skilfully expressed in the words
hayfa shd'a, ‘how God wished to show him’. I. Mas ud s words ar
prefaced by ft md balagham 'anhu. There is nothing in the story to indicate
that it is a vision. Al-Hasan’s version is much more definite, for he asserts
that when Muhammad returned to Mecca he told the Quraysh that he ha
been to Jerusalem and back during the night and that this so strained the
credulity of some of the Muslims that they gave up their faith in his revela¬
tions although he was able to give an accurate description of Jerusalem.

It is therefore most surprising that al-Hasan should end his story by
quoting Sura 11. 62 ‘We made the vision which we showed thee only tor a
test to men’ in this context. The whole point of al-Hasan’s story is thereby
undermined, for if the experience was visionary, then there was nothing
at all incredible about it. Then follows 'A’isha’s statement, reported by
one of her father’s family, that it was only the apostle s spirit that was
transported; his body remained where it was in Mecca. Anot er ra 1-
tion by Mu'awiya b. Abu Sufyan bears the same meaning. The fac
had been asked whether it was a physical or a dream journey shows that the
subject was debated before I.I.’s day. Here I.I. makes a profound observa¬
tion which in effect means that it was immaterial whether the experience
was real or visionary because it came from God; and just as Abra am ma e
every preparation to slay his son Isaac in consequence of what he had seen
in a dream 1 because he recognized no difference between a divine comman
given at night during sleep and an order given by day when he was awake
fo the apostle’s vision was just as real as if it had been an actual physical
experience. Only God knows what happened, but the apostle did see what
he said he saw and whether he was awake or asleep the result is the same.

The descriptibn of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus which purports to quote
Muhammad’s words is prefaced by zdamdl-Zuhri, not, as often, by e
ordinary term haddathanl. Now as al-Zuhri and I I knew each other
well and must have met quite often, we must undoubtedly infer from t
fact that I.I. deliberately substituted the verb of suspicion for the ordinary
term used in traditional matters that he means us to take this tradition wit

3 § It is a pity that the excellent impression that one gets of the author s
intelligence and religious perception should be marred by the concluding
paragraph 2 on this subject of the ascent into heaven which incidentally
has had far-reaching results on European literature .through the Divine
1 manam. P" 2 ^’

Introduction

xxi

Comedy. 3 It rules out absolutely any but a physical experience and ought
to have been recorded with its cautionary note before I.I. made his own
observations. Possibly the reason for its being out of place is that it is an
excerpt from his lecture notes; but whatever the explanation, it mars the
effect of-his statement of the evidence. 2

The phrase ‘God knows best’ speaks for itself and needs no comment.
It is sometimes used when the author records two conflicting traditions
and is unable to say which is correct. Another indication of the author’s
scrupulousness is the phrase ‘God preserve me from attributing to the
apostle words which he did not use’. His report of Muhammad’s first public
address at Medina and his order to each of his companions to adopt another
as a brother are prefixed by these words and hedged by ft md balagham. 3

The author does not often give us rival versions of traditions from
Medina and Mecca; thus the account of ‘Umar’s conversion is interesting. 4
It illustrates the thoroughness of our author in his search for information
about the early days of the prophet’s ministry. The first account he says is
based on what the traditionists of Medina said: ‘Umar was brutal to his
sister and brother-in-law who had accepted Islam, but feeling some
remorse when he saw blood on her face from the violent blow he had dealt
her, and impressed by her constancy, he demanded the leaf of the Quran
that* she was reading. Having read it he at once accepted it as inspired and
went to the prophet to proclaim his allegiance.

The Meccan, 'Abdullah b. Abu Najih, on the authority of two named
companions or an anonymous narrator, gives another version in ‘Umar’s
own words to the effect that his conversion was due to his hearing the
prophet recite the Quran while praying at the Ka'ba one night. In both
narratives it was the Quran which caused his conversion. In the first
version 'Umar was affected by the bearing of his sister and secured a part of
the Quran to read himself; in the second he was affected by the private
devotions of the prophet. The first story is prefixed by fi md balagham , but
this is cancelled as it were by the express statement that it was the current
belief of the people of Medina. I.I. concludes by saying that only God
knows what really happened.

A rather difficult problem in literary and historical criticism is posed by
the rival traditions 5 collected by the indefatigable T. from two of I.I.’s
pupils, Yunus b. Bukayr and Salama b. al-Fadl, the latter supported by
another pupil of I.I.’s named Ali b. Mujahid. The first had attended his
lectures in Kufa; the other two his lectures at Ray. All three claim that
they transmit what I.I. told them on the authority of a certain 'Aflf. I do
not know of a parallel in I.I.'s work to a contradiction resting on the authority
of the same original narrator. Different traditions from different rdwis
from different sources are to be expected in any history; but here the same

r Sec M. Asin, La escatalogia musulmatta.

2 Can it be that I.H. has tampered with the text here?

3 PP- 34 ° and 344. 4 pp. 224-9,

5 T- i- 1162. 8-1163. 2.

xxii The Life of Muhammad

man is introduced as the authority for conflicting traditions such as are to
be found in the later collections of hadith.

The first tradition is suspect because it requires us to believe that from
the earliest days of his ministry before he had any following apart from a
wife and a young nephew Muhammad prophesied the Arab conquest of the
Byzantine and Persian empires in the Near East. Nothing in his life gives
the slightest support to this claim, though it was to be made good soon after
his death.

The second contains no reference to later conquests and may be trust¬
worthy. It definitely fixes the scene at Mina, which is about three miles
distant from Mecca. The first account suggests, though it does not assert,
that the prophet was in Mecca, as he turned to face the Ka'ba when he
prayed. Would he have done this had he been in Mina? Would he not
rather have turned in the direction of Jerusalem, his first qibla ? LI.
expressly affirms elsewhere 1 that while he was in Mecca Muhammad when
praying turned his face towards Syria. The second account says nothing
about the direction of his prayer. On the whole, then, the second tradition
as transmitted by Salama must be given the preference.

It is quite easy to see why I.H. a century later omitted both traditions;
they were offensive to the ruling house of 'Abbas as they drew attention
to an unhappy past which the rulers, now champions of orthodoxy, would
fain have forgotten. But why did I.I. report them both, if in fact he did?
On the whole it seems most reasonable to suppose that he first dictated the
tradition which Yunus heard in Kufa, notorious for its attachment to the
Alid party, and that he afterwards dropped it and substituted the second
version which Salama heard in Ray some years later before he went on to
Baghdad. T. with his usual thoroughness reported both traditions. The
only alternative is to suppose that the reference to the conquests is an
interpolation.

There is a subtle difference between these two variants which ought not
to be overlooked. At first sight it would seem to be a mere detail that in the
first tradition 'Afif wished that he had been the third to pray the Muslim
prayer. Now there were already three—Muhammad, Khadija, and Ali. In
the second tradition he wished that he had been the fourth. If this latter
is the original form of the tradition it means simply that he wished that he
had been the first man outside the prophet’s family circle to accept Islam.
But the first tradition means more than this: by eliminating, as it were,
Muhammad himself from the trio it means that Ali was the second human
being and the first male to accept Islam and to stand with Khadija at the
head of all Muslims in the order of priority. This has always been the
claims of the Shi'a and to this day the priority of Ali in this respect is
hotly disputed. 2

1 p. 190.

2 X* devotes a long section to the traditional claims of Ali, Abu Bakr, and Zayd b.

IJSritha, 1159-68. Cf. I.H. 159.

Introduction xx {jf

Intrinsically as we have argued, the second tradition has the better
claim to authenticity. If that is admitted it follows that either I.I. or his
rawi adapted it in the interest of the Alid cause. In view of the accusation
of partiality towards the Shi'a which was levelled against I.I. 1 it seems
probable that he himself gave a subtle twist to the tradition that had come
down to him from 'Afif, and afterwards played for safety.

As one would expect of a book which was written in the eighth century
about a great religious reformer, miracles are accepted as a matter of
course. It does not matter if a person’s alleged power to work miracles
makes his early sufferings and failures unintelligible, nor does it matter if
the person concerned expressly disclaimed all such powers apart from the
recitation of the Quran itself. 2 The Near East has produced an enormous
number of books on the miracles of saints and holy men and it would be
strange indeed if Islam had not followed in the footsteps of its predecessors
m glorifying the achievements of its great leader at the expense of his human
greatness. Here we are concerned simply with the literary form of such
stories, the authorities that are quoted for them, and the way in which our
author deals with them. To mention a few: 3 the prophet summoned a
tree to him and it stood before him. He told it to go back again and back it
went It is interesting to -otice that the person for whose benefit this
miracle was wrought regarded it as sorcery. The author’s father Ishaq b
Yasar, is responsible for the tale. Another tradition from 'Amr b. 'Ubayd
who claimed to have had it from Jabir b. 'Abdullah via al-Hasan, is merely
zrmdrash composed to explain Sura 5. 14 where it is said that God kept
the hands of Muhammad’s enemies from doing him violence. The story
of the throne of God shaking when the doors of heaven were opened to
5 S ve t S *' d shows how these dories grew in the telling. Mu'adh b.
Kira a al-Zuraql reported on the authority of ‘anyone you like among my
clan that when Sa'd died Gabriel visited the prophet and asked him who it
was that had caused such commotion in heaven, whereupon Muhammad
knowing that it must be Sa'd, hurried off at once to find that he had died!
However, more was said on the subject: 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr from
Amra d. Abdu’l-Rahman reported that 'A’isha met Sa'd’s cousin outside
Mecca and asked him why he did not show more grief for one whose
arrival had shaken the very throne of God. An anonymous informant
claimed to have heard from al-Hasan al-Basri that the pallbearers found
the corpse of this fat, heavy man unexpectedly light, and the prophet told
them that there were other unseen bearers taking the weight with them-
and again it is repeated that the throne shook. Suhayll has a fairly long
passage on the tradition which goes to show that serious minded men did
not like this story at all. Some scholars tried to whittle away the meaning
by suggesting that the shaking of the throne was a metaphor for the joy

3 - ,, * S . ur * *7; 95 'Am I anything but a human messenger’ and cf 20 40

cuwed thek’oSntnd ^ , V * * 914 ’ pp ' 41 - 53 . has collected and dis¬

cussed their origin and antecedents in the hagiology of the East.

XXIV

Introduction

xxv

The Life of Muhammad

in heaven at Sa'd’s arrival; others claimed that the angelic bearers of the
throne were meant. But Suhayli will have none of this. The throne is a
treated object and so it can move. Therefore none has the right to depart
from the plain meaning of the w'ords. Moreover, the tradition is authentic
w T hile traditions like that of al-Barra’ to the effect that it was Sa'd’s bed
that shook are rightly ignored by the learned. He goes on to point out that
al-Bukhari accepted the tradition not only on the authority of Jabir but
also on the report of a number of other companions of the prophet—a
further indication of the snowball growth of the legend. S. finds it most
surprising that Malik rejected the hadith and he adds naively from the
point of view of later generations that Malik would not have it mentioned
despite the soundness of its transmission and the multitude of narrators,
and he adds that it may be that Malik did not regard the tradition as sound!
The passage is instructive in that it shows how far 1. 1 . could go in the
face of one of the most learned of his contemporaries in Medina. Posterity
has sided with 1 . 1 . on this matter, but Malik clearly had many on his side
at the time, men who would not take at its face value a story which they
could not reject out of hand, as he did, with the weight of contemporary
opinion behind it.

Another feature that stands out clearly from time to time is the insertion
of popular stories on the Goldilocks model. For the sake of the reader
I have rendered these stories in accord with modern usage, as the repetition
of the same words and the same answer again and again is intolerable to
the modern adult. Such stories are the stock-in-trade of the Arabian
gdss and the storyteller all the w r orld over and invariably lead up to the
climax which it is the speaker’s intention to withhold until he has his
audience on tiptoe. A good example of such stories is the narrative of
Muhammad’s arrival in Medina and the invitation of one clan after another,
always declined with the same words. 1

After giving due weight to the pressure of hagiology on the writer and his
leaning towards the Shi‘a one must, I think, affirm that the life of Muham¬
mad is recorded with honesty and truthfulness and, too, an impartiality
which is rare in such writings. Who can read the story of al-Zabir, 2 who
was given his life, family, and belongings but did not want to live when the
best men of his people had been slain, without admitting that here we have
a true account of what actually happened? Similarly who but an impartial
historian would have included verses in which the noble generous character
of the Jews of the Hijaz was lauded and lamented? The scepticism of
earlier writers seems to me excessive and unjustified. We have only to
compare later Lives of Muhammad to see the difference between the
historical and the ideal Muhammad. 3

1 335 f 2 P 6yi.

3 Noldeke, Islam, v, 1914, has drawn attention to many incidents and characteristics of
the Sira which could not have been invented and which show intimate knowledge of the
facts.

The Poetry

Doubts and misgivings about the authenticity of the poems in the Sira
are expressed so often by I.H. that no reference to them need be given
here. Nevertheless, one should be on one’s guard against the tendency to
condemn all the poetry out of hand. What I.H. says about the poetry of
those who took part in the battle of Badr, whether or not it includes the
verses of Hassan b. Thabit, namely ‘These verses (of Abu Usama) are the
most authentic of those (attributed to) the men of Badr’ (p. 534), casts
grave doubt on the authenticity of a large section of the poetry of the
Sira. Nevertheless 1 . 1 . is not to be blamed for the inclusion of much that
is undoubtedly spurious without a thorough investigation which has not
yet been undertaken. The poems he cites on pp. 284 and 728 he got from
*Asim b. Qatada, while those on pp. 590,789, and 793 come from ‘Abdullah
b. Abu Bakr. 1 We know, too, that Musa b. ‘Uqba cited verses. 2

An early critic of poetry, al-Jumahi 3 (d. 231), though perhaps rather
one-sided and ill balanced in his judgement on 1.1., makes some observa¬
tions which cannot fail to carry conviction. He says: ‘Muhammad b.
Ishaq was one of those who did harm to poetry and corrupted it and passed
on all sorts of rubbish. He was one of those learned in the biography of the
prophet and people quoted poems on his authority. He used to excuse
himself by saying that he knew nothing about poetry and that he merely
passed on what was communicated to him. But that was no excuse, for he
wrote down in the Sira poems ascribed to men who had never uttered a
line of verse and of women too. He even went to the length of including
poems of ‘Ad and Thamud! Could he not have asked himself who had
handed on these verses for thousands of years when God said: “He
destroyed the first ‘Ad and Thamud and left none remaining” 4 while of
‘Ad he said “Can you see anything remaining of them?” 5 and “Only God
knows ‘Ad and Thamud and those who came after them.” ’ 6 Some of these
poems are quoted by T. 7

I. al-Nadim 8 goes farther by suggesting that 1 . 1 . was party to the fraud:
the verses were composed for him, and when he was asked to include them
in his book he did so and brought himself into ill repute with the rhapso-
dists. Occasionally 1 . 1 . says who the authority for the poetry was. 9

Obviously at this date criticism of the poetry of the Sira can be based
only on historical and perhaps in a lesser degree on literary and stylistic
grounds. Some of the poetry dealing with raids and skirmishes, tribal
boasting, and elegies seems to come from contemporary sources, and no
reasonable person would deny that poetic contests between Meccan and
Medinan poets really took place: everything we know of ancient Arab

1 Also pp. 950-r. Cf. the corresponding passages in T 1732, J 735 *

3 Cf. I.S. iii. 241.

1 Tabaqdt al-Shuard ed. J. Hell, Leiden, 1916, p. 4.

4 SGrs 53. 51. 5 Sura 69. 8. 6 Sura 14. 9.

7 Horovitz, op. cit., cites 1 . 236, 237, 241, 242.

8 Al-Fihrist, Cairo, 136. 9 p. 108.

xxvi The Life of Muhammad

society would require us to look for such effusions. As Horovitz pointed
out, in pre-Islamic poetry these poetical contests are frequent, and it
might be added that in early Hebrew history verses are frequently inserted
in the narratives and often put into the mouths of the heroes of the hour.
Thus, apart from those poems which undoubtedly were called forth by the
events they commemorated, poetry was an integral part of a racial conven¬
tion which no writer of history could afford to ignore. Probably if all the
poetry which 1 . 1 . included in the Sira had reached that standard of excel¬
lence which his readers were accustomed to expect, none of these charges
would have been levelled against him. But when he included verses which
were palpably banal, and were at the same time untrue to circumstance,
uninspired and trivial, as many undoubtedly are, the developed aesthetic
sense of the Arabs which is most delicate where poetry is concerned rejected
what he wrote. As aLJumahl said, he brought poetry itself into disrepute
by the balderdash he admitted into his otherwise excellent work. And it did
not improve matters that much that was good was mingled with more that
was bad. It is more than likely that 1 . 1 . himself was conscious that all was
not well with this poetry, for the general practice of writers is to put the
verse into the narrative at the crucial moment (as 1.1. at times does),
whereas after the prose account of Badr and Uhud he lumps together a
whole collection of verse by various ‘poets’. It is as though he were
silently saying ‘This is what has been handed on to me. I know nothing
about poetry and you must make your own anthology.’ 1 Even so, whatever
his shortcomings were, it is only fair to bear in mind that I.H. often inserts
a note to the effect that the text before him contains lines or words which
have not I.I.’s authority.

The subject is one that calls for detailed and careful literary criticism.
The history of the cliches, similes, and metaphors needs investigation by a
scholar thoroughly grounded in the poetry of the pre-Islamic and Umay-
yad eras. Until this preliminary work has been successfully accomplished
it would be premature to pass judgement on the poetry of the Sira as a
whole. Ancient poetry has suffered greatly at the hands of forgers,
plagiarists, and philologists, and the diwans of later poets have not escaped
the dishonest rawt. Hassan. b. Thabit, the prophet’s own poet, has many
poems to his name which he would be astounded to hear, and there are
comparatively few poets of whom it could be said that the diwans bearing
their names contained nothing for which they were not responsible. 2

1 And this was precisely his attitude if al-Jumatu is to be believed.

2 I should hardly care to go so far as to assert that the fifth-century poet 'Amr b, Qaml'a
has exercised a direct influence on the poetry of the Stra; but the fact remains that there is
a great similarity. It is inevitable that the themes of Arab verse should recur constantly.
Beduin life varied little from generation to generation. Their horizon was bounded by
deserts, and consequently camels and horses, war and its weapons, hospitality and tribal
pride were constantly mentioned in song. To trace these themes back to their first singers
would b 4 a task that would leave little leisure for more profitable studies; but nevertheless
it is worth noting that the following themes recur in 'Amr and the Sira: the generous man
who slaughters camels for the hungry guest in winter when famine deprives even the rich of

Introduction xxvii

Since these words were written two theses have been written in the
University of London: the first by Dr. M. A. ‘Azzam deals with the style,
language, and authenticity of the poetry contained in the Sira ; the second
by Dr. W. 'Arafat with the Diwan of Hassan b. Thabit. A brief summary of
their findings will not be out of place here.

Between the period covered by the Sira and the editing of the book
itself loom the two tragedies of Karbala’, when al-Husayn and his followers
were slain in 61, and the sack of Medina in a.h. 63 when some ten thousand
of the Ansar including no less than eighty of the prophet’s companions
are said to have been put to death. Much of the poetry of the Sira was
meant to be read against the background of those tragedies. Its aim is to
set forth the claims of the Ansar to prominence in Islam not only as men
who supported the prophet when the Quraysh opposed him, but as men
descended from kings. The prophet was the grandson of 'Abdu’I-Mut-
talib, who was the son of Hashim and a woman of the B. al-Najjar, and so
of Yamani stock. ‘Your mother was of the pure stock of Khuza'a. ... To
the heroes of Saba’ her line goes back’, says the poet in his elegy on 'Abdu’l-
Muftalib, 1

Apart from their great service to the prophet in giving him a home when
Quraysh cast him out, the Ansar long before had been partners with
Quraysh, for was it not Rizah, the half-brother of Qusayy, who came to the
aid of the ancestors of Quraysh from the Yaman? Had it not been for the
Ansar there would have been no Islam: had it not been for their ancestors,
the poet implies, Quraysh would not have been established in Mecca.

On p. 18 there is thinly disguised Ansarl-Shl'a propaganda: ‘The one
you killed was the best of us. The one who lived is lord over us and all of
you are lords’ would be recognized by many as a reference to the killing of
al-Husayn and the ‘lords’ would be the Umayyads. The account of the
Tubba's march against Mecca and his great respect for its sanctity stands
in clear contrast with the treatment it received from the Umayyads when
al-Hajjaj bombarded it.

wealth, when even kinsmen refuse their help; the man who entertains when the camels’
udders are dry; the cauldron full of the hump and fat of the camel; those who devote the
game of maysir to hospitality, distributing the charge among themselves as the arrows dic¬
tate; the milk of war; war a milch camel; war drawing blood like buckets from a well; a
morning draught of the same; the sword blade polished by the armourer; journeys in noon¬
day heat when even the locust rests 1 , the horse that can outrun the wild ass; the flash of the
sun on the helmets of the warriors; the chain armour shining like a rippling pool. However
interesting this comparison might prove to be, the presence of these cliches and themes in
other poets makes it hazardous to assert that 'Amr had a predominating influence. More¬
over, what we seek is a pseudo-poet of Umayyad times; and here a hint thrown out by a
former colleague, Dr. Abdullah al-Tayyib, to the effect that the poetry of the Sira and that
in Waq'at $iffiti is very similar, if followed up would probably lead to some interesting dis¬
coveries. I.H.’s notes would be found interesting in this connexion. On p. 790 he points
out that the words ‘We have fought you about its interpretation as we fought you about its
divine origin’ were spoken by ‘AmmSr b. Yisir in reference to another battle [§iff!n] and
could not have been uttered by 'Abdullah b. RawJtfia at the conquest of Mecca, because the
Meccans, being pagans, did not believe in the Quran, so that there was no question of a
rival interpretation. 1 p. 113.

Introduction

xxviii The Life of Muham?nad

After a careful study of the language and style of this verse Dr. 'Azzam
comes to the conclusion that comparatively little of it dates from the time
of the prophet.

Dr. 'Arafat comes to much the same conclusion with regard to the
verse attributed to Hassan, A few of the outstanding arguments will be
given here. He finds that the eulogy on the Ansar (p. 893) which is attri¬
buted to Ka'b b. Zuhayr is in the same rhyme and metre as the poem of
al-Akhtal 1 which was written at the instigation of Yazid. There we find
the words ‘Baseness is under the turbans of the Ansar’. A careful com¬
parison of the relevant passages in the two poems shows that the one in the
Sira is the answer to the one in the Aghani.

Abdullah b. Abu Bakr is reported to have said; ‘The Ansar were
respected and feared until the battle of Harra; afterwards people were
emboldened to attack them and they occupied a lowly place.’ It is in these
circumstances, not those of the prophet’s companions daily increasing in
power and prestige, that we must look for the background of ‘You will find
that none ill uses or abuses us but a base fellow who has gone astray’ (p. 626).

On p. 474 a poem which I.H. attributes to Hassan’s son, 'Abdu’l-Rah-
man, obviously dates from a later generation: ‘My people are those who
sheltered the prophet and believed in him when the people of the land were
unbelievers except for choice souls who were forerunners of righteous men
and who were helpers with the helpers.’ What can this mean but that some¬
one is speaking of the past services of his people to the prophet ? Further,
it is strange language to impute to Hassan. It was he who called the new¬
comers vagrants jalabib and regarded them as an unmitigated nuisance.
He did not house any of the muhdjirin, nor was he a ‘brother* to one of
them. A still clearer reference to a former generation is to be found on
p. 927 (again I.H. attributed it to Abdu’I-Rahman) which says; ‘Those
people were the prophet’s helpers and they are my people; to them I come
when I relate my descent.’

Dr. 'Arafat notes that in the Sira there are seventy-eight poems attri¬
buted to Hassan; the authenticity of fifteen of them is questioned or denied
outright. The text of the poem on p. 738 in its rival forms illustrates the
way in which verses attributed to Hassan were interpolated and additional
verses fabricated. Here T. gives only the first five verses; the Diwan
interpolates two verses after the first line and adds two at the end. On
the other hand, the last three verses in the Sira are not to be found in
either of the other authorities. In the Aghani 2 the pofcm is still longer and
according to the riwaya of Mus'ab but without al-Zuhri’s authority. The
facts which emerge from a study of the circumstances which surround this
poem are:

1. Hassan resented the growing numbers and influence of the Muslim
   refugees.

1 Agh. xiii. 148, xiv. 122.

2 Cairo, 1931, iv. 159. Cf. 157, where the shorter version of X- is given.

xxix

1. After the attack on B. al-Mustaliq a quarrel arose between the
   Meccans and Medinans about the use of a well. 'Abdullah b. Ubayy
   said: ‘They rival our numbers kathara y he called them jalabib and
   threatened that when they got back to Medina the stronger a azz
   would drive out the weaker. The words italicized are the very words
   used by Hassan in this poem. From this it is clear that Hassan is
   expressing not only his own opinion about the Muslims but that of
   'Abdullah b. Ubayy and his party.

2. It was during this journey that the scandal about 'A’isha arose.

3. Safwan struck Hassan with his sword. According to the introduction
   to the poem in the Diwan Safwan attacked Hassan because he had
   accused him of spending the night with 'A’isha. But in the Aghani
   Safwan wounded Hassan at the instigation of the prophet because
   his house was the centre of disaffection against the Muslims. The
   other explanation of the attack on Hassan is added in al-Aghani as an
   afterthought. However, there is no reason why both versions should
   not be correct. Hassan’s most dangerous offence was his complaint
   against the Muslim intruders; but when he slandered 'A’isha he
   provided the prophet with an admirable reason for punishing him
   severely for an offence which would not engage the sympathies of the
   AnsarTs. Whether loyal or disaffected, they could hardly support
   their comrade in such a matter.

With the further ramifications of the story we are not concerned;
sufficient has been said to show that the poem so far as verse 5 is genuine
and is directed solely against the Muslim refugees whose presence had
become a nuisance to Hassan. In this poem he says nothing at all about
Safwan. The last three lines have doubtless been added to whitewash
Hassan. As poetry they will not bear comparison with the genuine verses
and T. was thoroughly justified in discarding them.

Another specimen of the spurious poetry fathered on Hassan is to be,
found on p. 936 which belongs to a later generation. Here it is not the
prophet who is praised but his ‘house’: ‘How noble are the people ( qaum )
whose party ( shi'a ) is the prophet! . . . They are the best of all living
creatures.’ When we remember the resentment with which the Ansar in
general and Hassan in particular felt when they got no share in the booty
of Hunayn, the line ‘Take from them what comes when they are angry and
set not your hearts on what they withhold’ is singularly inept.

Another point which militates against the authenticity of poems attri¬
buted to Hassan is the prominence which is often given to the Aus. It
cannot be supposed that a Khazrajite Would ignore the achievements of his
own tribe or put them in the second place as on p. 455 when we remember
that the hostility between the two tribes persisted long after Islam was
established. A plain example of a later Ansari’s work is given on p. 711,
where the poem begins: ‘O my people is there any defence against fate and

xxx The Life of Muhammad

can the good old days return ?’ an impossible attitude for a Muslim to take
during the prophet’s lifetime.

Again, when Hassan is reported to have said ‘The best of the believers
have followed one another to death’ (p. 799), it is sufficient to remember
that practically all the prophet’s principal companions survived Uhud.
But when this careless forger wrote all the best Muslims had long been
dead. However, we have not got to his main point which is to glorify the
house of Hashim: 'They are God’s near ones. He sent down His wisdom
upon them and among them is the purified bringer of the book.’ Here the
Alids are the ‘friends’ or ‘saints’ of God and Muhammad is little more than
a member of their family. Divine wisdom is given to them.

These two studies lay bare the wretched language in which many of
these poems are written and incidentally bring out the difficulties which a
translator has to cope with when the rules of Arabic syntax and the mor¬
phology of the language are treated with scant respect. In fine it may be
said that their well-documented conclusions made it abundantly clear
that the judgement of the ancient critics—particularly al-Jumahi—is justi¬
fied up to the hilt. 1

The partial restoration of the lost original

Once the original text of 1.1. existed in at least fifteen riwayas: z

1. Ibrahim b. Sa'd, 110-84 Medina

2. Ziyad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka’I, d. 183 Kufa

3. 'Abdullah b. Idris al-Audl, 115-92 ,,

4. Yunus'b. Bukayr, d. 199 „

5. 'Abda b. Sulayman, d. 187/8 ,,

6. 'Abdullah b. Numayr, 115-99 ,,

7. Yahya b. Sa'Id al-Umawi, 114-94 Baghdad

8. Jarir b. Hazim, 85-170 Basra

9. Harun b. Abu'Isa Basra ?

10. Salama b. al-Fadl al-Abrash, d. 191 Ray

11. Ali b. Mujahid, d. c. 180 ,,

12. Ibrahim b. al-Mukhtar ,,

13. Sa'Id b. BazI'

14. 'Uthman b. Saj

15. Muhammad b. Salama al-Harranl, d. 191

It has been my aim to restore so far as is now possible the text of 1 . 1 .
as it left his pen or as he dictated it to his hearers, from excerpts in later
texts, disregarding the Mabda' section as I.H. did and for at least one of

1 Sec further A. Guillaume, ‘The Biography of the Prophet in Recent Research’, Islamic
Quarterly Review, 1954.

1 I have adopted the list given by Fiick in his admirable monograph, p. 44, where full
biographical details are to be found. The towns are those at which the individuals named
heard I.I.'s lectures.

Introduction xxxi

his reasons. At first I was tempted to think that a great deal of the original
had been lost—and it may well be that it has been lost—for it is clear that
the scurrilous attacks on the prophet "which I.H. mentions in his Introduc¬
tion are not to be found anywhere. But on the whole I think it is likely
that we have the greater part of what 1.1, wrote. Doubtless more was said

Ali and against Abbas, but it is unlikely that such material would add
much to our knowledge of the history of the period. Possibly to us the
most interesting excisions would be paragraphs containing information
which I.I. gathered from Jews and Christians; but in all probability the
Mabda contained most of such passages. Still, it is unlikely that those
passages which have been allowed to remain would have excited the
annoyance that some of his early critics express on this score. Ibnu’l-
Kalbl’s K. al-Asnam gives a warning against exaggerated hopes. Yaqut
had made copious extracts from it in his Geographical Dictionary, so
interesting and so important for our knowledge of the old Arabian heathen¬
ism that the great Noldeke expressed the hope that he would live to see the
text of the lost original discovered. He did; but a collation of the original
work with the excerpts made by Yaqut shows that practically everything
of value had been used and nothing of real significance was to be learned
from the discovery of the mother text. However, in a text of the nature of
the Sira it is just possible that a twist may be given to the narrative by an
editor such as I.H.

The writers from whom some of the original can be recovered are:

1. Muhammad b. 'Umar al-Waqidl, d. 207

2. Abu’l-Walld Muhammad b. Abdullah al-Azraql from his grand¬

father (d. c. 220)

1. Muhammad b. Sa'd, d. 230

2. Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad b. Muslim b. Qutayba, d. 270 or 276

3. Ahmad b. Yahya al-Baladhuri, d. 279

4. Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, d. 310

5. Abu Sa'Id al-Hasan b. 'Abdullah al-Slrafi, d. 368.

6. Abu’l-Hasan 'All b. Muhammad b. Habib al-Mawardl, d. 450

7. Abu’l-Hasan 'All b. al-Athlr, d. 630

8. Yusuf b. Yahya al-Tadali known as I. al-Zayyat, d. 627

9. Isma'il b. 'Umar b. Kathlr, d. 774

10. Abu 1 -Fadl Ahmad b. Ali . . . b. Hajar al-'Asqalanl, d. 852/1449.

For our purpose none of these has the importance of T. whose text
rests on the riwdya of Salama and Yunus b. Bukayr. Besides the important
textual variants which will be found in the translation from time to time,
he it is who reports from I.I. the prophet’s temporary concession to poly¬
theism at Mecca (1190 f.) and the capture of 'Abbas at Badr (1441).

1. al-Waqidl. Only the Maghazi has survived from the very large
   number of his writings. A third of it was published by von Kremer in
   1856 from a poor manuscript, and until the work has been edited its value

xxx ii The Life of Muhammad

cannot be accurately assessed. 1 The abridged translation by Wellhausen 2
gives the reader all the salient facts, but his method of epitomizing enabled
him to avoid difficulties in the text which call for explanation. Waqidi
makes no mention of I.I. among his authorities. The reason for this
doubtless is that he did not want to refer to a man who already enjoyed a
great reputation as an authority on maghdzi and so let it seem that his own
book was a mere amplification of his predecessor’s. It is by no means
certain that he made use of 1.1/s book, or traditional lore, for he quoted
his authorities, e.g. al-Zuhri, Ma'mar, and others, directly. On the other
hand, he did not belittle I.I. of whom he spoke warmly as a chronicler,
genealogist, and traditionist, who transmitted poetry and was an indefati¬
gable searcher of tradition, a man to be trusted.

It follows that strictly Waqidi is not a writer from whom in the present
state of our knowledge we can reconstruct the original of the Sira ; but as
his narrative often runs parallel with I.I/s work, sometimes abridging,
sometimes expanding, his stories it is a valuable if uncontrolled supporter
thereof. Not until his Maghdzi has been published and studied as it
deserves to be can a satisfactory comparison of the two books be made.
One thing is abundantly clear, namely that Waqidi often includes stories
which obviously come from eyewitnesses and often throw valuable light
on events which are obscure in I.I. Indeed it ought to be said that t e

Sira is incomplete without Waqidi. 4 .

1. Al-Azraqi’s Akhbdr Makka is of great value in matters archaeological.

His authority is 'Uthman b. Saj. , .

1. I. S.a'd’s Akkbaru'l-Nabi is more or less as he communicated it to

his pupils. This was afterwards combined with his Tabaqat in 300 y
I. Ma'ruf. Volumes la, b and I la, b in the Berlin edition deal with the
former prophets, Muhammad’s childhood, his mission, the hijra, an is
campaigns, ending with his death, burial, and elegies thereon. I.S. has
much more to say on some matters than 1.1., e.g. letters and embassies, and
the prophet’s last illness, while he shows no interest in pre-Islamic Arabia.
For the Maghdzi Waqidi is his main authority. The Tabaqat deals with t e
prophet’s companions and the transmittors of tradition, including the

tabVuriA .

4 I. Qutayba’s K. al-Ma'drif contain a few short and inexact citations.

5! Al-Baladhuri’s Futuhu'l-Bulddn adds very little to our knowledge.
De Goeje’s index gives twelve references. The first two 6 which De
Goeje, followed by Noldeke, 7 notes as not being in the Sira would never

1 An edition from two MSS. in the B.M. is being prepared by my colleague Mr. J. M. B.

Jones. _ . _

2 Muhammad in Medina, Berlin, 1882. v 1U * ‘ .

♦ Reluctantly in these difficult days I have given up my original intention to publish a
translation of the two works side by side. I have every hope that it will be carried to a
successful conclusion by the scholar mentioned above. , . .

5 See further Horovitz, op. cit., and Otto Loth, Das Classenbuch des Jbn ba d, Leipzig,
1869. For a list of quotations from I.I. see Noldeke, G.Q. ii. 135.

6 p. 10 .

7 G.Q. ii. 139.

Introduction

xxxii i

have found a place there as they obviously belong to I.I/s lost book on
fiqh. They deal with the question of how much water a man may retain
on his land before he lets it flow down to his neighbour’s ground. The
last five citations belong to the age of the caliphs and need not concern us.
The remainder have a slight value for textual criticism. Sometimes they
lend support to T.’s version, and once at least a citation proves that the
tradition was not preserved orally because the variant readings could only
have come about through a transfer of a dot from the first to the second
letter with the consequent misreading of the third. The citations are brief
and concise: they tell all the truth that the writer needed for his purpose
but not the whole truth, which would have been irrelevant.

1. Tabari. A list of the additions to I.H.’s recension has been given by
   Noldeke 1 and enough has been said about his value as a witness to the
   original text of the Sira. No attempt has been made to recover the lost
   part of the Mabda’ from his Tafsir. Where his variants are merely stylistic
   and do not affect the sense of the passage I have ignored them. Practically
   all of them will be found in the footnotes to the Leyden edition. He was
   familiar with four of the recensions, numbers 4, 7, 9, and 10 on the list
   given above, much the most frequently cited being Yunus b. Bukayr. On
   one occasion (1074. 12) he remarks that I.I/s account is ‘more satisfactory
   than that of Hisham b. Muhammad’ [al-Kalbl d. 204 or 206]. I.H. he
   ignores altogether and he omits a good deal of the poetry now in the Sira.
   Whether his selection was governed by taste, whether he thought some of it
   irrelevant, or whether he regarded it as spurious I can find no indication.
   He often gives the isttdd which is lacking in I.I. (cf. 1794. 12). On one
   occasion at least (cf. W. 422 with T. 1271) it looks as if the narrative has
   been deliberately recast. T. frequently omits the tasliya and tardiya as
   ancient writers did. 2 I.H. omits Ka'b’s poem and the mention of its pro¬
   voking a killing, cf. 651 with T. 1445.

2. Al-SirafI contributes an interesting addition to W. 882.

3. Al-MawardI has nothing of importance to add.

4. I. al-Athir in his Kamil is prone to throw his authorities together
   and produce a smooth running account from the sum of what they all
   said, dropping all subordinate details. However, he quotes I.I. ten times. 3

5. I. al-Zayyat, see on p. 640 (W.).

6. I. Kathir sometimes agrees with I.H. verbatim. Sometimes he
   quotes Ibn Bukayr where he offers what is in effect the same stories in
   different words. I propose to devote a special study to this rizvaya.

7. Ibn Hajar. Again little of importance. 4

1 G.Q. ii. 139 f.

2 Cf. the autograph MS. of al-Shafi'i’s secretary. The occurrence of the tasliya written

out in full ten times or more on a single page of a modem edition smacks of servility "rather
than reverence, and is an innovation; a useful criterion for dating a MS., but a sore trial to
the reader of a modem printed text. 3 G.Q. ii. 143.

4 Professor Krenkow said in a letter that the Mustadrak of al-I^akim ai-Naysaburi con¬
tains extracts from I.I. via Yunus b. Bukayr, but as this enormous work is not indexed I

B 4080

C

XXXIV

The Life of Muhammad

Ihn Ishaq's reputation ,

Unfortunately for our purpose which is to record the opinion of our
author’s co-religionists on his trustworthiness as a historian, their judge¬
ment is affected by his other writings, one of which called Sunan is men¬
tioned by Hajji Khalifa. 1 This was freely quoted by Abu Yusuf (d. 182), 2
but failed to hold its own and went out of circulation comparatively early.
If we knew more about the contents of this book, which by reason of its
early date presumably would have had a considerable influence on the
daily life of Muslims had it been allowed to continue to challenge other
reporters of the apostle’s deeds and words, we should be the better able to
assess the value and relevance of early Muslim criticism on 1 . 1 , when it
was most definitely hostile. It is not always his book the Sira which is
attacked but the man himself, and if his sunna work ran counter to the
schools of law that were in process of development the author could not
hope to escape strong condemnation. It is most important that this fact
should not be overlooked. In the passage Wustenfeld quoted 3 from
AbuTFath M. b. M. b. Sayyidu’I-Nas al-Ya'mari al-Andalusi (d. 734/
1334) the distinction between traditions of a general nature and traditions
about the prophet’s sunna is clear and unmistakable. Ahmad b. Hanbal’s
son stated that his father included I.I.’s hadith in his Musnad, but refused
to regard him as an authority on sunan. While it is true that there are a
few stories in the Sira which report the prophet’s practice in certain
matters and so provide an authoritative guide for the future behaviour of
the faithful in similar circumstances, and while it is also true that in one or
two instances the principle underlying these actions is in conflict with the
findings of later lawyers, they form an insignificant part of the Sira , and it
may safely be concluded that I. Hanbal’s objection to I.I.’s authority
applies almost exclusively to his lost work, the Sunan.

Apostolic tradition in Islam, as Goldziher showed long ago, is the
battlefield of warring sects striving for the mastery of men’s minds and the
control of their behaviour with all the weight that Muhammad’s presumed
or fabricated example could bring to bear. The earlier the tradition, or
collection of traditions, the less this tendency is in evidence; but we have
already seen that I.I. occasionally succumbed to the temptation to glorify
Ali at the expense of 'Abbas. This would seem to be supremely unneces¬
sary when one can read exactly what 'Abbas’s position was: at first hostile;
secondly neutral; and lastly, when the issue was no longer in doubt, a
professed Muslim. Obviously since no attempt is made to conceal or
diminish the affectionate loyalty of Abu Bakr or the staunch championship
of 'Umar, our author was no unbalanced fanatical supporter of the claims
of Ali. Ali appears as the great warrior when rival champions fought

have not been able to collate the passages with the text of the Sira. See also what has been
said about excerpts in Suhayll’s al-Raudul-Unuf under I.H.

1 Istanbul, 1945, ii. 1008.

2 See Fiick, 18.

3 it. xviii.

Introduction

XXXV

;; trsx r; ir

position in spite of his amt u ■ I.I. takes a minor

^ ^ ~ 1=55 “

Muhammadk words k w" ' ,!^ P T hem "«• If he "P««d

StZSlZ*? 7 re e ™ ked "« e -“>'y P 77: la c71“ t : n nce h s! Thus'

IS supported by another isnad. Muslim who classified™ A V tradmon

.hat by the middle of the third of ahTThTattTd'

than its substance, and provided that the Z 7 * mattered more
exceptionable anything could be included ° f gUarantors was un ‘

tha. is

shama'ili wa'l-siyar. He collected all the ref ’ ' UnUm mi’l-

could find, both favourabt td ‘T !“

attacks that had been made on him Th* 1 ’ d then anawered the

w.' with a translation iTcermT' The folYT ba found »

this account: * following is a short summary of

Tl fTzuh'-'V' 1 ' YT ‘ The best informed man abo “‘ ‘he

I I Uveld Knowledge will remain in Medina as along as

Sh o U f hk me'm 6 o°ry TrUthfUl “ traditi ° n ’ the amIr ° f ^aditionists because

Ah V -H- ity “ * » his qadarite heresy ^ *° h ‘ S

I a U l M?7 a tradl , tions are “P^d down (by others).

I. al-Madini: Apostolic tradition originally lay with 6 • th

. * 5 “ tbe property of l 2 , of whom I.I. is o« “

Wsimh ‘ti TT"? ‘° StUdy tbe ma S hazi ^ ee P‘v must consult 11
ii. L^ mar Qat5da: Kn0Wkdge WiIi ™ a “ong men as long as

1 II. x-xxiii.

As I.I. died in 150 this was impossible.

xxxvi

The Life of Muhammad

Abu Mu'awiya: A great memory: others confided their traditions to
his memory for safe keeping.

al- Bukhari: Al-Zuhri used to get his knowledge of the maghdzi from 1 . 1 .

'Abdullah b. Idris al-Audi: was amazed at his learning and often cited
him.

Mus'ab; He was attacked for reasons which had nothing to do with
tradition.

Yazid b. Harun: Were there a supreme relator of tradition it would be 1 . 1 .

Ali b. al-Madlni: His ahadith are sound. He had a great reputation in
Medina. Hisham b. 'Urwa’s objection to him is no argument against
him. He may indeed have talked to the latter’s wife when he was a
young man. His veracity in hadith is self-evident. I know only of
two that are rejected as unsupported 1 which no other writer reported.

al-'Ijli: Trustworthy.

Yahya b. Ma'in: Firm in tradition.

Ahmad b. Hanbal: Excellent in tradition.

(i b ) The writer then goes on to state all that has been said against 1 . 1 .
Omitting details of little significance we are left with the following charges
which I. Sayyidu’l-Nas goes on to discuss and refute. Muhammad b.
'Abdullah b. Numayr said that when LI. reported what he had heard from
well-known persons his traditions were good and true, but he sometimes
reported worthless sayings from unknown people. Yahya b. al-Qattan
would never quote him. Ahmad b. Hanbal quoted him with approval, and
when it was remarked how excellent the stories (qisas) were he smiled in
surprise. His son admitted that Ahmad incorporated many of I.I.’s
traditions in his Musnad y but he never paid heed to them. When he was
asked if his father regarded him as an authority on what a Muslim must
or must not do he replied that he did not. He himself would not accept a
tradition which only I.I. reported. He used to relate a tradition which he
gathered from a number of people without indicating who had contributed
its separate parts. I. al-Madini saicT that at times he was ‘fairly good’.
Al-Maymuni reported that I. Ma'in 156-233 said he was ‘weak’, but others
denied that he said so. Al-Duri said he was trustworthy but not to be used
as an authority in fiqh f like Malik and others. Al-Nasa’I said that he was not
strong. Al-Daraqutnl said that a tradition from I.I. on the authority of his
father was no legal proof: it could be used only to confirm what was already
held to be binding. Yahya b. Sa'id said that though he knew I.I. in Kufa
he abandoned him intentionally and never wrote down traditions on his
authority. Abu Da’ud al-Tayalisi (131-203) reported that Hammad b.
Salima said that unless necessity demanded it he would not hand on a
tradition from I.I. When Malik b. Anas mentioned him he said, ‘he is one
of the antichrists*. When Hisham b. 'Urwa was told that I.I. reported
something from Fatima he said, ‘the rascal lies; when did he see my wife?’

1 These probably belong to the Sunan.

Introduction xxxvii

When AMuUah b. Ahmad told his father of this he said that this was not to
be held against I.I ; he thought that he might well have received permission
interview her, but he did not know. He added that Milik was a liar.
• Idris said that he talked to Malik about the Maghazi and how I.I had
said that he was their surgeon and he said, ‘We drove him from Medina'
Makki b^ Ibrahim said that he attended lectures of his; he used to dye his
, . * , en be mentl °ned traditions about the divine attributes he left

f 11 , n ? Ver W j nt , back ’ 0n occasion he said that when he left

nim he had attended twelve lectures of his in Ray.

Al-Mufaddal b. Ghassan said that he was present when Yazid b. Harun
was re ating traditions in al-Baqi' when a number of Medinans were
listening. When he mentioned I.I. they withdrew saying; ‘Don’t tell us
anything that he said. We know better than he.’ Yazid went among them,
but they would not listen and so he withdrew.

Abu Da’ud said that he heard Ahmad b. Hanbal say that I.I. was a man
with a love of tradition, so that he took other men’s writings and incorporated
them m his own Abu 'Abdullah said that he preferred I.I. to Musa b.
Ubaydaal-Rabadhi. Ahmad said that he used to relate traditions as though
trom a companion without intermediaries, while in Ibrahim b. Sa'd’s book

s^id ei? A slid’ 1 ' 3 traditi ° n ^ S3id <A t<>ld ^ WhCn that WaS n0t 80 he

Abu Abdullah said ;that I.I. came to Baghdad and paid no attention to
those who related hadith from al-Kalbi and others saying that he was no
authority Al-Fallas (d. 249) said that after being with Wahb b. Jarir
reading before him the maghdzi book which his father 1 had got from LI.
wemet Yahya b. Qat*an who said that we had brought a pack of lies from

A^mad b. Hanbal said that in maghdzi and such matters what I.I. said
could be written down; but in legal matters further confirmation was
necessary In spite of the large number of traditions without a proper
tstiad he thought highly of him as long as he said ‘A told us’, informed
me, and I hea ^_* I. Ma'in did not like to use him as a n authority in

said that he was weak in tradition yet preferable
, ™ ,,Vf J and hlS tradltlons could be written down. Sulavman

• aymi called him a liar and Yahya al-Qattan said that he could only
  abandon his hadith to God; he was a liar. When Yahya asked Wuhayb b
  lOialid what made him think that I.I. was a liar he said that Malik swore
  that he was and he gave as his reason Hisham b. 'Urwa’s oath to that effect

au-S 1 ! 3 T Tr° n W * S that he re P° rted traditions from his wife Fatima.'
Abu Bakr al-Khatlb said that some authorities accepted his traditions
as providing proof for legal precedent while others did not. Among the
reasons for rejecting his authority was that he was a Shi'i, that he was said
to hold the view that man had free will, and that his isndds were defective
As lor hi3 truthfulness, it could not be denied.

1 See No. 8.

xxxviii The Life of Muhammad

Al-Bukhari quoted him as an authority and Muslim cited him often.
Abu’l-Hasan b. al-Qatfan relegated him to the class ‘good’ ( hasan ) because
people disputed about him. As to the tradition from Fatima, al-Khatib
gave us an isnad running back through 1 . 1 . and Fatima to Asma’d. Abu
Bakr: ‘I heard a woman questioning the prophet and saying, “I have a
rival wife and I pretend to be satisfied with what my husband has not in fact
given me in order to anger her”. He answered, “He who affects to be
satisfied with what he has not been given is like one who dons two false
garments ”.’ 1 Abu’l-Hasan said that this was the tradition from Fatima
which injured I.I/s reputation, so that her husband Hisham called him a
liar. Malik followed him and others imitated them. However, there are
other traditions on her authority.

One cannot but admire the way in which I. Sayyidu’l-Nas discusses
these attacks on.the credibility of our author. He goes at once to the root of
the matter and shows what little substance there is in them. Though, like
the speakers he criticizes, he tacitly assumes that early writers ought to
have furnished their traditions with isnads which would have met the
rigorous demands of later generations who were familiar with a whole sea
of spurious traditions fathered on the prophet and his companions, his
common sense and fairness would not let him acquiesce in the charge of
tadlis which, by omitting a link in the chain or by citing the original
narrator without further ado, automatically invalidated a hadith in later
days. Thus he said in effect that though I.I.’s traditions at times lack
complete documentation there is no question of his truthfulness in the
subject-matter he reports; and as to the charge of shl'ism and qadarite
leanings, they are valid in another field altogether and have nothing to do
with the Sira. Again, what if Makki b. Ibrahim did abandon his lectures
when he heard him relate traditions about the divine attributes ? Many of
the ancients failed to go the whole way when such problems were discussed,
so what he says is of little significance.

Yazld’s story that the Madinans would not listen to traditions on I.I.’s
authority does not amount to much because he does not tell us why, and so
we can resort only to conjecture; and we have no right to impugn a true
tradition because of what we think is a defect. We have already explained
why Yahya al-Qa$tan would have none of him and called him liar on the
authority of Wuhayb from Malik, and it is not improbable that he was the
cause of the Medinans’ attitude in the foregoing account.. Ahmad b.
Hanbal and I. al-Madlnl have adequately replied to Hisham’s accusation.

As to Numayr’9 accusation that he related false hadith on the authority
of unknown persons, even if his trustworthiness and honesty were not a
matter of tradition, suspicion would be divided between him and his
informants; but as we know that he is trustworthy the charge lies against
the persons unknown, not against him. Similar attacks have been made
upon SufySn al-Thauri and others whose hadith differ greatly in this way
1 This again has nothing to do with the Sira.

Introduction xxxix

and what they base on unknown informants is to be rejected while that
coming from known people is accepted. Sufyan b. 'Uyayna gave up Jarir
al-ju c fl after he had heard more than a thousand traditions from him, and
yet he narrated traditions on his authority. Shu'ba related many traditions
from him and others who were stigmatized as ‘weak’.

As to Ahmad’s complaint that he recorded composite traditions without
assigning the matter of them to the several contributors, their words
agreed however many they were; and even if they did not yet the meaning
was identical. There is a tradition that Wathila b. al-Asqa' said: ‘If I give
you the meaning of a tradition (not in the precise words that were used)
that is sufficient for you.’ Moreover, Muhammad b. Sirin said that he
used to hear traditions from ten different people in ten different words with
the same meaning. Ahmad’s complaint that I.I. took othef Men’s writings
and incorporated them in his own account cannot be regarded as serious
until it can be proved that he had no licence to repeat them. One must look
at the method of transmission: if the words do not plainly necessitate an
oral communication, then the accusation of tadlis 1 lies. But we ought not to
accept such a charge unless the words plainly imply that. If he expressly
says that he heard people say something when in fact he did not, that is a
downright lie and pure invention. It is quite wrong to say such a thing of
I.I. unless the words leave no other choice. 2 When Ahmad’s son quoted
his father as saying that I.I. was not to be regarded as an authority in
legal matters though he saw how tolerant he was to non-legal matters which
make up the greater part of the Maghdzi and the prophetic biography, he
applied this adverse judgement on sunan to other matters. Such an exten¬
sion is excluded by his truthful reputation.

As to Yahya’s saying that he was trustworthy but not authoritative in
ega matters, it is sufficient for us that he is pronounced trustworthy.

If only men like al-'Umari and Malik wore acceptable there would be
precious few acceptable authorities! Yahya b. Sa'ld probably blindly
followed Malik because he heard from him wffiat Hisham had said about
I.I. His refusal to accept him as an authority in legal matters has already
been dealt with under Ahmad. Yahya made no distinction between them
and other traditions in the way of complete acceptance or dowmright
rejection. &

Other attacks on his reputation rest on points that are not explained and
,J he part the a S ents are unfair - Even ^ legal matters Abu 'Isa
a 'I) rmid , hl and Ab0 b - Hibban (d. 3 54) accepted him as an authority.

. e re u ^ a ^ lon his opponents would not have been undertaken were
it not for the favourable verdict and praise that the learned gave him.
But for that a few of the charges would have sufficed to undermine his

unterschieben is not strictly correct. . 3 mSCh£ Nam * n

om Jed e h d ere C , US3i0n ° f 1,1/8 ° f al “ Kalbi ’ s tradltions is “"important and is therefore

xl The Life of Muhammad

stories, since but a few attacks on a man’s good faith, explicit or not, are
enough to destroy the reputation of one whose former circumstances are
not known when an impartial critic has not done him justice.

In his book about trustworthy narrators Abu Hatim said that the two
men who attacked 1 . 1 . were Hisham and Malik. The former denied that
he had heard traditions from Fatima. But what he said does not impugn
men’s veracity in hadith, for 'followers’ like al-Aswad and Alqama heard
*A’isha’s voice without seeing her. Similarly 1 . 1 . used to hear Fatima
when the curtain was let down between them. As for Malik, what he said
was momentary and afterwards he did him justice. Nobody in the Hijaz
knew more about genealogies and wars than 1.1., and he used to say that
Malik was a freed slave of Dhu Asbah while Malik alleged that he was a
full member of the tribe so that there was bad feeling between them; and
when M5lik compiled the Muwatta' 1 . 1 . said, ‘Bring it to me for I am its
veterinary surgeon.’ Hearing of this IMalik said; He is an antichrist, he
reports traditions on the authority of the Jews. The quarrel lasted until
I.L decided to go to Iraq. Then they were reconciled and Malik gave him
50 dinars and half his date crop as a parting gift. Malik did not intend to
bring him into ill favour as a traditionist: all that he disliked was his
following the Jews who had become Muslims and learning the story of
Khaybar and Qurayza and al-Nadir and similar (otherwise) unattested
happenings from their fathers. In his Maghazi 1 . 1 . used to learn from
them but without necessarily asserting that their report was the truth.
Malik himself only relied on trustworthy truthful men.

The author ends by remarking that I.I. was not the originator of the
challenge to Malik’s Arab ancestry because al-Zuhri and others had said the
same thing. 1

The Translation

I have endeavoured to follow the text as closely as possible without
sacrificing English idiom. In rendering poetry I have tried to give the sense
without making any attempt at versifying, the only exceptions being
doggerel and saj In these cases it seemed that it was fair to reproduce
doggerel by doggerel and to try to put poor rhymes into rhymes that could
not be worse. Inevitably some exactness is lost, but the general sense and
tone are more faithfully reproduced in that way.

The book is very long and I have made a few cuts where no loss can
result; e.g. I.H.’s recurring formula ‘This verse occurs in an ode of his’
I have excluded because it is obvious that the line, which is generally
one of his shawdhid, cannot have stood by itself. Again I have shortened
dialogues in oratio recta into indirect speech in accordance with English
practice unless the ipsissima verba of the speaker seemed called for naturally,

1 For further discussion and exhaustive references to these and later writers see FUck,
ch. 2.

Introduction xli

or are in themselves important. Lastly I have omitted genealogical formulae
after the first mention of the people concerned.

My predecessors in translating the Sira have made many mistakes and
I cannot hope to have escaped all the pitfalls. Of Weil’s translation, now
nearly a century old be it remembered, Noldeke wrote 1 : ‘Die Obersetzung
von G. Weil, Stuttgart, 1864 ist steif und unbeholfen, and auch philologisch
nich mehr genugend. Die grosse Wichtigkeit des Werkes wiirde eine
neue Gbertragung rechtfertigen’; while Wellhausen’s translation of al-
Waqidi evades the difficulties of the text by silence. The poetry of the
Sira, as Noldeke said long ago of the poetry on Badr, ‘is not easy to trans¬
late because of its many synonyms; the superficial commentary of Abu
Dharr is no help at all’. 2

The Text

I have followed the pagination of the excellent textus receptus of Wiisten-
feld’s edition 1858-60; but the text I have actually used is the Cairo edition
of 1355/1937 produced in four parts by Mustafa al-Saqqa, Ibrahim
al-Abyari, and ‘Abdu’l-Haflz Shalabi which prints at the, bottom of the
page most of the notes from Abu Dhar*. and Suhayll that W. relegated to
the second volume of his altogether admirable edition. For this reason it is
much easier to use and its fine bold type is kind to one’s eyes. When I have
had occasion to refer to differences between the texts they are marked C.
and W.

THE EDITOR IBN HISHAM

‘Abdu’l-Malik b. Hisham was born in Basra and died at Fustat in Egypt
in 218 or 213. Krenkow, however, thinks that he must have died some years
later. 3 Besides editing the present work he made use of I.I.’s learning in his
K. al-Tijan which derives from Wahb b. Munabbih. The principles which
guided him in his impertinent meddling with his predecessor’s work he has
outlined in his Introduction, and they need not be repeated here. He was
a philologist of some repute, and he was able to air his knowledge in the
shawdhid he produces to illustrate the meaning of unusual words. These
lines, divorced as they are from their context, form some of the most
difficult of all the difficulties of the Sira and are of course for the most part
unnecessary now that the Arabs have produced lexicons of their language.
Occasionally he is helpful with his genealogical notes; more rarely he has
something useful to say about the interpretation of a line in I.I.’s work.

Suhayll gives some traditions which I.H. omitted or knew nothing of,
e.g. W. 183 — Suhayli 183; W. 327 = S. ii. 2 f. He also (ii. 278 = W.
824) draws attention to a mistake in one of I.H.’s notes saying that the
fault is either his or al-Bakka’i’s because Yunus has the right reading.

1 G.Q. 130, 2 Z.A. xxvii. 161. 3 Is. Cult. ii. 231.

Introduction

xlii The Life of Muhammad

Probably the fault lay with I.H., for he was in touch with Yunus as he says
fi ma akhharani Yunus on p. 387.

Another error of his is the statement that 1 . 1 . said nothing about the
mission of 'Amr b. Umayya whom the prophet sent to kill Abu Sufyan
b. fdarb and how he took down the corpse of Khubayb from the cross to
which he was tied (p. 993). T. records I.Ids version of this story which is
far superior to the garbled version of I.H., who is obviously composing a
story from more than one source, passing clumsily from the first to the
third person. According to him ‘Amr threw the cross (presumably with the
body on it) into a ravine. The cross ( khashaba , a sturdy trunk of a tree
capable of bearing a man’s body) could hardly have been moved by one
man more than a few yards with guards standing by, and I.Ids own
account is much more convincing. ‘Amr released the body from the tree,
carried it some forty paces—a graphic detail—heard the guards coming
after him, dropped the body with a thud, and made off as fast as he could.

There is an interesting note in S. ii. 363 which shows that I.H. s error
was perceived in early days. He adds that there is a pleasing addition to
the story in the Musnad of I. Abu Shayba to the effect that when they
untied him from the cross the earth swallowed him up. One might well
suppose that I.Hds story lies midway between the actual facts and this
incredible fiction. The unfortunate man’s body which 'Amr had made a
gallant but unavailing attempt to retrieve was dumped unceremoniously on
the ground; the next step was to give it the semblance of burial ima natural
hole in the wall of the wadi; the last step was to provide for proper burial
by a miracle. 1

What remains to be explained is why I.H. should assert that 1 . 1 . had
said nothing about the abortive attempt to assassinate Abu Sufyan and the
equally Unsuccessful effort to recover Khubayb’s body. If 1 . 1 . said nothing
at all about either matter, how came it that I.H. dealt with them? Since we
know that I.I. reported what had happened from traditions that were
transmitted by ‘Amr’s own family and that they existed in oral and written
form for centuries afterwards, we cannot but suspect that I.H. has tampered
with the evidence.

Perhaps his greatest service is his critical observations on the authenti¬
city of the poetry of the Sira , not only when he records that all, or some,
authorities reject certain poems altogether but also when he corrects 1.1.,
and assigns verses to their true author. 2 SuyutI thought highly of him.
He reported that Abu Dharr had said that I.H. produced one of the four
compendia which were better than their sources. 3

Suhayll 4 states that I.H. wrote a book explaining the difficult words in

1 However, it is possible that the words ghayyo.hu lldhu anhum imply, though they do not
demand, a supernatural act.

2 e.g. 613, where he is right in saying that Hubayra was not the author of one verse but

Janiib; cf. D. d. Hudhailiten, 243. 3 al-Muzhir, Cairo (n.d. recent), p. 87.

4 i. s> He is followed by Hajji Khalifa 1012 and I. Khallikan. There is nothing said in
G.A.L. about this work.

xliii

the poetry of the Sira. Suhayli’s words indicate that he had not himself
seen the book. Were it ever found it might well tell us what I.H.’s generation
really thought about these poems.

A FRAGMENT OF THE LOST BOOK OF
Mt}SA B. 'UQBA

This fragment consists of twenty extracts complete with their isnads,
some being the sayings of the prophet on a given occasion, others being
stories from his life. The collector expressly asserts that the original work
existed in ten parts, so that the inference that the book once contained a
complete account of the Sira seems fairly safe. The last item is spurious. 1
There is an ijaza reaching from Musa (141) to the epitomizer Abu
Hurayra b. Muhammad b. al-Naqqash (782).

1. I. Shihab from Salim b. 'Abdullah from ‘Abdullah b. 'Umar: I heard
   the apostle say, ‘While I was asleep I dreamt that I was going round the
   Ka‘ba when lo a man with lank hair between the two men, his head dripping
   with water. When I asked who it was they said 'Isa b. Maryam. Then
   I turned away when lo a red man, heavy, with curly hair, one eyed; it
   seemed as though his eye was a grape swimming (in water). When I asked
   who it was they said The Antichrist. The man most like him is Ibn
   Qajan al-Khuza'I.’

This tradition is similarly reported in Bukhari ii. 368. 19-369. 4. It
should be compared with I.I. 269, also from al-Zuhri, where the prophet
is said to have seen Tsa during his mi'raj, with moles or freckles on his
face appearing like drops of water. The reference here to the ‘two men’
presumably refers to the two thieves on the cross.

1. Ibn Shihab: The first to hold Friday prayers for the Muslims in
   Medina before the apostle was Mus'ab b. 'Umayr. I. Shihab told us
   another tradition from Suraqa contradicting this.

The first statement agrees with I.S. in. i. 83. 25; the second apparently
with I.I. 290. 5 and I.S. in. i. 84.

1. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Malik b. Ju'shum al-Mudlijl from his father
   Malik from his brother Suraqa b. Ju'shum: When the apostle went out
   from Mecca migrating to Medina Quraysh offered a reward of 100 camels
   to anyone who would bring him back, &c., down to ‘my alms to the apostle’.

This passage is in all essential respects the same as I.I. 331-2, though
there are many verbal differences. Obviously the version in I.I. has been
touched up and Musa gives the tradition in its simplest form. Cf. Bukhari
iii. 39, 41 and WaqidI (Wellh. 374).

1 See Sachau, 461 f.

xliv The Life of Muhammad

1. I. Shihab alleged that 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr said that al-Zubayr met
   the apostle with a caravan of Muslims who were returning to Mecca from
   a trading journey to Syria. They bartered some goods with the apostle
   and al-Zubayr gave him and Abu Bakr some white garments.

So Bukh. iii. 40. Different names in I.S. in. i. 153. 19*

1. Naff' from 'Abdullah b. 'Umar: Some of the apostle’s companions
   said to him, 'Are you speaking to dead men ?’ He answered, You cannot
   hear what I say better than they.’

So Bukh. iii. 70. 17, 18, and cf. IX, pp. 453 where the words of
'A’isha are quoted to refute the statement that the dead hear, they know

but they do not hear.

1. I. Shihab from Anas b. Malik: Some Ansar asked the apostle’s
   permission to remit to their sister’s son 'Abbas his ransom, and he replied,
   ‘No, by Allah, you shall not let him off a single farthing!’

So Bukh. iii. 69. 1,2 and cf. T. 1341, I* Qut. Ma arif 77. Sachau in
finding strange the claim to relationship between 'Abbas and the Ansar
seems to have forgotten that the grandmother of 'Abbas was Salma d.
’Amr al-Khazrajl. Cf. Bukh. ii. 388. 18 f. for the same claim.

1. I. Shihab from 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Ka'b b. Malik al-Sulaml and other
   traditionists: 'Amir b. Malik b. Ja'far, who was called ‘the player with the
   spears’, came to the apostle when he was a polytheist and the apostle
   explained Islam to him and he refused to accept it. He gave the apostle
   a present, but he refused it saying that he would not accept a present from
   a polytheist. 'Amir said: ‘O apostle, send with me those of your messengers
   you wish and I will be surety for them.’ So the apostle sent a number
   among whom were al-Mundhir b. 'Amr al-Sa'idi, of whom it was said he
   hastened to his death’, 1 as a spy among the Najd folk. When 'Amir b.
   Tufayl heard about them he tried to call out B. ^Amir against them, but
   they refused to obey him in violating the promise of security given y
   'Amir b. Malik. Then he appealed to B. Sulaym and they joined him and
   killed them in Bi’r Ma'una except 'Amr b. Umayya al-pamri whom
   'Amir b. al-Tufayl cSptured and afterwards released. When he came to the
   apostle the latter said to him, ‘Are you the sole survivor?’

This is a much briefer, account than that given in I.H. 648 f. U. 1 .
1443 f.; Waq. (Well) 337 f.

1. Isma'Il b. Ibrahim b. 'Uqba from Salim b. 'Abdullah from 'Abdullah
   b 'Umar: Some men contested the leadership of Usama, and the apostle
   rose and said: ‘If you contest the leadership of Usama you used to contest
   the leadership of his father before him. By Allah he was worthy to be
   leader. He was one of the dearest of all men to me, and this man (his son)

1 As I I. has al-Muniq liyamut I think that Sachau’s a'niq htamut, following the MS.,
must be read a'ttaqa liyamut. Cf. I. al-Athir’s Nihdya (quoted by Sachau).

Introduction xlv

is one of the dearest of men to me after him; so treat him well when I am
no more, for he is one of the best of you.’

Cf. Bukh. ii. 440, iii. 133, 192, and I.H. 999. 14; 1006. 20 f.

1. Salim b. 'Abdullah from 'Abdullah b. 'Umar: The apostle used not
   to make an exception for Fatima.

Sachau explains this from Bukh. ii. 441 and iii. 145 where Muhammad
says that if Fatima were to steal he would cut her hand off.

1. 'Abdullah b. Fadl from Anas b. Malik: I grieved over my people
   who were killed in the harra. Then Zayd b. Arqam (d. 68) wrote to me
   when he heard of my great grief to say that he had heard the apostle say
   ‘O God forgive the Ansar and their sons and we implore Thy grace on
   their grandsons’.

Similarly I.H. 886. 12 and Waq. (W.) 380.

1. 'Abdullah b. al-Fadl: Some men who were with him (Anas) asked
   him about Zayd b. Arqam and he said, ‘It is he of whom the apostle said,
   “This is he on whom Allah has bestowed much through his ear”.’

He had been an informer, cf. I.H. 726. In place of aufa'llahu lahu
bi-udhnihi I.H. 727. 17 has aufa nlilldhi bi-udhnihi. It seems much more
likely that the variant is due to misreading than to oral tradition. Waq.
(B.M. MS. 1617, f. 95«) has wafat udhnuka . . . zva-saddaqd lldhu hadithak.

1. I. Shihab from Sa'id b. al-Musayyib from 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b.
   Malik: The apostle said that day to Bilal, ‘Get up and announce that only a
   believer will enter paradise, and that God will not support His religion by
   an evil man.’ This happened when the man whom the apostle said was one
   of the inhabitants of hell was mentioned.

2. From Nafi' b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar: After the conquest of Khaybar
   the Jews asked the apostle to let them stay there on condition that they
   worked the land for half the date crop. He said: ‘We will allow you to do so
   on that condition so long as we wish, and they remained there thus until
   'Umar expelled them. [Here six or seven words are missing] saying ‘The
   apostle laid down three things in his last disposition, viz. that the Rahawl-
   yun, Dariyun, Saba’Iyun, and Ash'ariyun should have land which pro¬
   duced a hundred loads; that the mission of Usama b. Zayd should be
   carried through; and that two different religions should not be allowed to
   remain in the peninsula of the Arabs.’

Practically the same words are used in I.H. 776 except that the Saba’Iyun
are not mentioned.

1. Isnad as above: 'Umar used not to let Jews, Christians, and Magians
   remain more than three days in Medina to do their business, and he used
   to say ‘Two religions cannot subsist together’ and he exiled Jews and
   Christians from the peninsula of the Arabs.

2. I. Shihab from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from Marwan b. al-Hakam and

xlvi The Life of Muhammad

al-Miswar b. Makhrama: When the apostle gave men permission to free the
Hawazin captives he said, ‘I do not know who has or has not given you
permission, so go back until your leaders bring us a report of your affairs.’
So the men returned and their leaders instructed them and they returned
to the apostle and told him that the men (Muhammad’s companions) had
treated them kindly and given them permission (to recover their captive
people).

For the context see I.H. 877.

16 . I. Shihab from Sa'id b. al-Musayyib and 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr: The
captives of Hawazin whom the apostle returned were 6,ooo men, women,
and children. He gave some women who had fallen to some men of
Quraysh—among whom were 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf and Safwan b.
Umayya who had appropriated two women as concubines—the choice
(of returning or remaining) and they elected to go back to their own people.

Cf. Waq. (W.) 37S .

1. Isma'Il b. Ibrahim b. 'Uqba from his uncle Musa b. 'Uqba from I.
   Shihab: The apostle made the pilgrimage of completion in a.h. 10. He
   showed the men the rites and addressed them in 'Arafa sitting on his camel
   al-Jad'a.

Cf. I.H. 968 and Waq. 430.

1. I. Shihab from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from al-Miswar b. Makhrama
   from 'Amr b. 'Auf, an ally of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy who had been at Badr
   with the apostle: The apostle sent Abu'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah to bring the
   poll tax. He had made peace with the people of al-Bahrayn and set over
   them al-'Ala’ b. al-Hadraml. When Abu'Ubayda came from al-Bahrayn
   with the money the Ansar heard of his coming which coincided with the
   apostle’s morning prayer. When they saw him they stood in his way.
   Seeing them he smiled and said: ‘I think you have heard of the coming of
   Abu 'Ubayda and that he has brought something.’ When they agreed he
   added: ‘Rejoice and hope for what will gladden you. By Allah it is not
   poverty that I fear on your account. I fear that you will become too
   comfortable and will be led astray like those before you.’

So Bukh. iii. 68. 18 f.

1. Sa‘d b. Ibrahim from Ibrahim b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf: 'Abdu’
   1 -Rahman b. 'Auf was with 'Umar one day and he (the former) broke
   al-Zubayr’s sword. But God knows best who broke it. Then Abu Bakr
   got up and addressed the people excusing himself and saying, ‘Never for a
   moment was I eager for authority ( imdra ) nor did I v/ant it or pray to
   God for it secretly or publicly. But I was afraid of disorder. I take no
   pleasure in authority. I have been invested with a grave matter for which
   I have not the strength and can only cope with it if God gives me the
   strength. I would that he who has the most strength for it were in my
   place.’ The emigrants accepted his excuse and Ali and al-Zubayr b.

Introduction xl v ;{

al- A warn said :‘We were angry only because we were not admitted to the
council and we think that Abu Bakr is the most worthy of supreme
authority now that the apostle is dead. He was the one with the apostle in
the cave and we recognize his dignity and seniority; and the apostle put
him in charge of the prayers while he was still with us.’

A few comments on this brief anthology will not be out of place here.
No. 12 clearly deals with the vexed question of the future state of the
wicked Muslim, while No. 18 is a post eventum prophecy. Inevitably they
arouse doubt in the mind of the reader.

From this selection as a whole we can see where the sympathies of the
collector lay. Thus, al-Zubayr’s generosity to Muhammad and Abu
Bakr are recorded in No. 4. The claims of the Alides to special considera¬
tion are brushed aside in No. 9; while No. 19 states that 'All explicitly
accepted Abu Bakr as Muhammad’s successor. No. 6 shows that al-'Abbas
had to pay his ransom in full even when the Ansar pleaded for his exemp¬
tion. No. 10 mourns the victims of the Umayyads at al-Harra and records
that the prophet implored God’s blessing on them and their grandchildren.

Clearly Musa’s sympathies lay with the family of al-Zubayr and the
Ansar. They alone emerge with credit. The Alids, on the other hand,
are no better than anyone else; the Umayyads are implicitly condemned
for the slaughter at al-Harra; and al- Abbas is shown to have been a rebel
against the prophet who was forced to pay for his opposition to him to the
uttermost farthing.

Musa b. 'Uqba has said pretty much the same on the subject of the
Ansar and al-'Abbas as I.I. said before his editor I.H. pruned his work,
though he took a different view of the Alides. 1

1

PART I

THE GENEALOGY OF MUHAMMAD
TRADITIONS FROM THE PRE-ISLAMIC ERA

muhammad’s childhood and

EARLY MANHOOD

B 4080

B

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE
THE MERCIFUL

PRAISE BELONGS TO GOD THE LORD OF THE
WORLDS AND MAY HIS BLESSING BE UPON
OUR LORD MUHAMMAD AND HIS FAMILY,

ALL OF THEM 1

MUHAMMAD’S PURE DESCENT
FROM ADAM

Abu Muhammad 'Abdu’l-Malik ibn Hisham the Grammarian said:

This is the book of the biography of the apostle of God.

Muhammad was the son of 'Abdullah, b. 'Abdu’l-Mu^talib (whose name
was Shayba), b. Hashim (whose name was Amr), b. 'Abdu Manaf (whose
name was al-Mughlra), b. Qusayy (whose name was Zayd), b. Kilab, b.
Murra, b. Ka'b, b. Lu’ayy, b. Ghalib, b. Fihr, b. Malik, b. al-Nadr, b.
Kinana, b. Khuzayma, b. Mudrika (whose name was 'Amir), b. IlySs,
b. Mudar, b. Nizar, b. Ma'add, b. 'Adnan, b. Udd (or Udad), b.Muqaw-
wam, b. Nahur, b. Tayrah, b. Ya'rub, b. Yashjub, b. Nabit, b. Isma'il,
b. Ibrahim, the friend of the Compassionate, b. Tarih (who is Azar),
b. Nahur, b. Sarugh, b. Ra'u, b. Falikh, h. ' Aybar r b. Shalikh, b. Arfakh-
shadh, b. Sam, b. Nuh, b. Lamk, b. Mattushalakh, b. Akhnukh, who is the
prophet Idris according to what they allege, 2 but God knows best (he was
the first of the sons of Adam to whom prophecy and writing with a pen were
given), b. Yard, b. Mahlil, b. Qaynan, b. Yanish, b. Shith, b. Adam (io).

THE LINE OF ISMA'lL

Isma'il b. Ibrahim begat twelve sons: Nabit the eldest, Qaydhar, Adhbul,
Mabsha, Misma', Mashi, Dimma, Adhr, Tayma, Yatur, Nabish, Qayd-
huma. Their mother was Ra'la d. Mudad b. r Amr al-Jurhumi (n).
Jurhum was the son of Yaqtan b. 'Aybar b. Shalikh, and [Yaqtan was] 3
Qahtan b. 'Aybar b. Shalikh. According to report Isma'il lived 130 years,

1 The formula of blessing which follows every mention of the prophet is omitted here¬
after. Capital B, stands for ‘Sons of*; b. for ‘son of’; d. for ‘daughter of’.

2 The phrase employed indicates that the writer doubts the statement. There is a saying
in Arabic: ‘There is a euphemism for everything and the polite way of saying “It’s a lie” is
“they allege” (za 'amu)'.

3 These words are added by C, as the context demands.

I.H.’s additions to the text are numbered 10 and onwards.¶

4 The Life of Muhammad

5 and when he died he was buried in the sacred precincts 1 of the Ka'ba
beside his mother Hagar (12).

Muhammad b. Muslim b. 'Ubaydullah b. Shihab al-Zuhrl told me
that 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik al-Ansari, also called
al-Sulami, told him that the apostle of God said: ‘When you conquer
Egypt treat its people well, for they can claim our protection and kinship.

I asked al-Zuhri what the apostle meant by making them our kin and he
replied that Hagar, the mother of Ismail, was of their stock (13).

*Ad b. 'Au? b. Iram b. Sam b. Nuh and Thamud and Jadls the two sons
of 'Abirb. Iram b. Sam b. Nuh, andTasm and Tmlaq and Umaym the sons
of Lawidh b. Sam b. Nuh are all Arabs. Nabit b. Ismail begat Yashjub

and the line runs: Ya'rub-Tayrah-Nahur-Muqawwam-Udad-‘Adnan (14).

From 'Adnan the tribes descended from Isma'Il split off. 'Adnan had
6, 7 two sons, Ma'add and 'Akk (14). Ma'add had four sons: Nizar, Quda'a
(he being his first born he was called Abu Quda a), Qunus, and^ Iy 3 .
Quda'a went to the Yaman to Himyar b. Saba whose name was 'Abdu
Shams ■, the reason why he was called Saba’ was that he was the first among
the Arabs to take captives. He was the son of Yashjub b. Ya rub b.
Qahtan (15). Of Qunus b. Ma'add according to the genealogists of
Ma'add, none has survived. Al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir king of al-IIIra
belonged to their tribe. Al-Zuhri told me that this Nu'mSn belonged to the
Qunus b. Ma'add (16).

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughlra b. al-Akhnas told me that a shaykh of the
Ansar of B. Zurayq told him that 'Umar b. al-Khattab, when he was given
the’ sword of al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir, sent for Jubayr b. Maf im b.
'Adly b. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Qusayy (he being the best genealogist
of the Qunaysh and indeed of all the Arabs and claimed to have been
taught by Abu Bakr who was the greatest genealogist of the Arabs) and
girded it on him. When he asked who al-Nu'man was, Jubayr replied that
he was a survivor of the tribe of Qunus b. Ma add. However, the rest of the
Arabs assert that he belonged to the Lakhm of the Rabi'a b. Nasr. Only
God knows the truth (17).

9 OF RABi'A B. NASR KING OF THE YAMAN AND THE

STORY OF SHIQQ AND SAJIIJ THE TWO SOOTHSAYERS

Rabi'a b. Nasr, king of the Yaman, was of the true stock of the Tubba'
kings. He had a vision which terrified him and continued to cause him
10 much anxiety. So he summoned every soothsayer, sorcerer, omenmonger,
and astrologer in his kingdom and said: ‘I have had a vision which terrifies
me and is a source of anxiety. Tell me what it was and what it means.
They replied: ‘Tell us the vision and we will tell you its meaning.’ ‘If
I tell you it,’ said he, ‘I can have no confidence in your interpretation; for

1 The hijr is the semicircular space between the hafim (wall) and the Ka ba.

The Life of Muhammad 5

the only man who knows its meaning is he who knows about the vision
without my telling him.’ Thereupon one of them recommended him to
send for Shiqq and Satlh, for they knew more than others and would be
able to answer his questions. Satih’s name was Rabl' b. Rabi'a b. Mas'ud b.
Mazin, b. Dhi’b b. 'Adly b. Mazin Ghassan. Shiqq w T as the son of Sa'b,
b. Yashkur b. Ruhm b. Afrak, b. Qasr b. 'Abqar b. Anmar b. Nizar, and
Anmar was the father of Bajlla and Khath 'am (18).

So he sent for them and Satlh arrived first. The king then repeated his
words, ending, ‘If you know the vision you will know what it means.’
Salih replied [in saf ]:

A fire you did see
Come forth from the sea.

It fell on the low country
And devoured all that be.

The king agreed that this was exactly what he had seen, and what was
the meaning of it all ? He answered:

By the serpent of the lava plains I swear
The Ethiopians on your land shall bear
Ruling from Abyan to Jurash everywhere.

The king exclaimed that this was distressing news, but when would these
things come to pass—in his time or after him? He replied: [again in
rhyme] that more than sixty or seventy years must first pass. Would the
new-comers’ kingdom last? No, an end would be put to it after seventy
years or more; then they would be slain or driven out as fugitives. Who
would do this? Iram b. Dhu Yazan, who would come against them from
Aden and not leave one of them in the Yemen. Further questions drew
the information that their kingdom would not last, but a pure prophet to
whom revelation came from on high would bring it to an end; he would be
a man of the sons of Ghalib b. Fihr b. Malik, b. al-Nadr. His dominion
would last to the end of time. Has time an end? asked the king. Yes,
replied Salih, the day on which the first and the last shall be assembled,
the righteous for happiness, the evildoers for misery. Are you telling me
the truth? the king asked.

Yes, by the dark and the twilight
And the dawn that follows the night
Verily what I have told you is right.

Later Shiqq arrived and the king acquainted him with the facts but
did not tell him what Satlh had said, so that he might see whether they
agreed or differed. His words were:

A fire you did see
Come forth from the sea.

It fell between rock and tree
Devouring all that did breathe.

6 The Life of Muhammad

Perceiving that they agreed one with the other and that the difference
was a mere choice of words, the king asked Shiqq for his interpretation:

By the men of the plains I swear
The blacks on your land shall bear
Pluck your little ones from your care
Ruling from Abyan to Najran everywhere.

The king put the same questions to him and learned that after his time:
There shall deliver you from them one mighty, great of name
And put them to the utmost shame.

He would be:

A young man neither remiss nor base

Coming forth from Dhu Yazan’s house, his place,

Not one of them shall leave on Yaman’s face.

He continued in answer to the questions already put to his predecessor.
His kingdom shall be ended by an apostle who will bring truth and justice
among men of religion and virtue. Dominion will rest among his people
until the Day of Separation, the day on which those near God will be
rewarded, on which demands from heaven will be made which the quick
and dead will hear, men will be gathered at the appointed place, the God-
12 fearing to receive salvation and blessing. By the Lord of heaven and earth,
and what lies between them high or low I have told you but the truth in
which no doubt ( ami ) lies (19).

What these tw T o men said made a deep impression on RabI a b. Nasr and
he dispatched his sons and family to Iraq with all that they might need,
giving them a letter to the Persian king Sabur b. Khurrazadh who let them
settle in al-Hlra.

Al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir was a descendant of this king; in the genealo¬
gies and traditions of the Yaman in his line is: al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir b.
al-Nu'man b. Mundhir b. 'Amr b. r Adiy b. Rabi'a b. Nasr (20).

HOW ABti KARIB TIBAN AS'AD TOOK POSSESSION OF THE
KINGDOM OF THE YAMAN AND HIS EXPEDITION
TO YATHRIB

When Rabi r a b. Nasr died the whole kingdom of the Yaman fell into the
hands of Hassan b. Tiban As'ad Abu Karib. (Tiban As'ad was the last
Tubba', the son of Kuli Karib b. Zayd, Zayd being the first Tubba' son
of 'Amr Dhu-l-Adh 'ar b. Abraha Dhu-l-Manar b. al-Rish (21) b. 'Adiy b.
Sayflb. Saba’ al-Asgharb. Ka'b—Kahf al-Zulm—b. Zayd b. Sahl b. Amr
b. Qays b. Mu'awiya b. Jusham b. 'Abdu Shams b. Wa il b. al-Ghauth b.
Qajan b. 'Arib b. Zuhayr b. Ayman b. al-Hamaisa' b. al-'Aranjaj, the
latter is IJimyar b. Saba’al-Akbar b. Ya'rub b. Yashjub b. Qahfan (22).)

The Life of Muhammad 7

It was Tiban As'ad Abu Karib who w ent to Medina and took away to the
Yaman two Jewish rabbis from thence. He adorned 1 the sacred temple and
covered it with cloth. His reign was before that of Rabi'a b. Nasr (23). 13

When he came from the east he had passed by Medina without harming
its people; but he left behind there one of his sons wLo w r as treacherously
slain. Thereupon he returned with the intention of destroying the
town and exterminating its people and cutting down its palms. So this
tribe of the Ansar gathered together under the leadership of 'Amr b.
Talla the brother of B. al-Najjar and one of B. 'Amr b. Mabdhul. Mab-
dhul’s name was 'Amir b. Malik b. al-Najjar; and al-Najjar’s name was
Taym Allah b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. al-Khazraj b. Haritha b. Tha'laba b.
'Amr b. 'Amir (24).

Now a man of B. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar called Ahmar had fallen upon one
of the followers of Tubba' when he brought them to Medina and killed
him, 2 because he caught him among his palms cutting the date clusters;
he struck him with his sickle and killed him, saying ‘The fruit belongs to
the man who cultivates it.’ This enraged the Tubba' against them and
fighting broke out. Indeed the Ansar assert that they used to fight them by
day and treat them as guests by night. Tubba' was amazed at this and used
to say: ‘By God our people are generous!’

While Tubba' was occupied in this fighting there came two Jewish
rabbis from B. Qurayza—Qurayza, and al~Nadir and al-Najjam and 'Amr
nicknamed Hanging-lip w r ere sons of al-Khazraj b. al-Sarih b. al-Tau’aman
b. al-Sibt b. al-Yasa' b. Sa'd b. Law! b. Khayr b. al-Najjam b. Tanhum b.
'Azar b. Tzra b. Harun b. 'Imran b. Yashar b. Qahat 3 b. Lawl b. Ya'qub
otherwise called Isra’ll b. Ishaq b. Ibrahim the friend of al-Rahman—
learned men well grounded in tradition. They had heard about the king’s
intention to destroy the town and its people and they said to him: ‘O
King, do not do it, for if you persist in your intention something will
happen to prevent your carrying it out and we fear that you will incur
speedy retribution.’ When the king asked the reason for this they told
him that Yathrib was the place to which a prophet of the Quraysh w r ould
migrate in time to come, and it would be his home and resting-place. 14
Seeing that these men had hidden knowledge the king took their words in
good part and gave up his design, departed from Medina and embraced
the rabbis’ religion. 4

Khalid b. 'Abd al-'Uzza b. Ghazlya b. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Ghunm b.
Malik b. al-Najjar boasting of 'Amr b. Talla said:

Has he given up youthful folly or ceased to remember it ?

Or has he had his fill of pleasure ?

1 *ammara perhaps means ‘restored’. Tab. omits this sentence.

2 adds: ‘and threw him into a well called Dhat Tuman’.

3 Variant Qahath.

• Tab. traces back this story through Ibn Ishaq-Yazid b. ‘Amr-Aban b. Abu 'Ayyash-
  Anas b, Malik to certain shaykhs of Medina who lived in pre-Islamic times.

8 The Life of Muhamvtad

Or have you remembered youth ?

And what a memory of youth and its times you have!

It was a young man’s war
Such as gives him experience.

So ask ‘Imran or Asad,

When headlong 1 with the morning star came
Abu Karib with his great squadrons
Clad in long mail, of pungent smell.

They said, Whom shall we make for,

The Banu Auf or the Najjar ?

Surely the Banu-l-Najjar,

For we seek revenge for our dead.

Then our swordsmen 2 went to meet them,

Their number as the drops of widely falling rain,

Among them 'Amr b. Talla

(God prolong his life for the welfare of his people).

A chief who is on a level with kings but whoso
Would vie with him does not know his eminence.

This tribe of the An?ar claim that the Tubba* was enraged only against
this tribe of the Jews who were living among them and that it was only
his intention to destroy them, but they protected them until he went his
way. Therefore in his verse he said:

In rage against two Jewish tribes who live in Yathrib
Who richly deserve the punishment of a fateful day (25). 3

Now the Tubba' and his people were idolaters. He set out for Mecca
which was on his way to the Yaman, and when he was between ‘Usfan and
15 Amaj 4 some men of the Hudhayl b. Mudrika b. Ilyas b. Mudar b. Nizar b.
Ma'add came to him saying, ‘O King, may we not lead you to an ancient
treasury which former kings have overlooked ? It contains pearls, topaz,
rubies, gold, and silver.’ Certainly, said he, and they added that it was a
temple in Mecca which its people worshipped and where they prayed. But
the real intention of the Hudhaylls was to encompass his destruction, for
they knew that any king that treated it with disrespect was sure to die.
Having agreed to their proposal he sent to the two rabbis and asked their
opinion. They told him that the sole object of the tribe was to destroy
him and his army. ‘We know of no other temple in the land which God
has chosen for Himself, said they, and if you do what they suggest you and
all your men will perish.’ The king asked them what he should do when
he got there, and they told him to do what the people of Mecca did: to

• Variant ghaduian ‘at early dawn'. 1 Reading musdyifatun.

• W.’a text is preceded by another verse. T*b. haB preserved the full text which 1 have
  inserted at the end of this section in the context assigned to it by Tab.

• Authorities differ as to the site of the ‘Utffin. Amaj is the name of a town within reach
  of -Medina and also of a wadi running from the Ibarra of the Banu Sulaym to the sea.

The Life of Muhammad 9

circumambulate the temple, to venerate and honour it, to shave his head,
and to behave with all humility until he had left its precincts.

The king asked why they too should not do likewise. They replied that
it was indeed the temple of their father Abraham, but the idols wliich the
inhabitants had set up round it, and the blood which they shed there,
presented an insuperable obstacle. They are unclean polytheists, said they
—or words to that effect.

Recognizing the soundness and truth of their words the king summoned
the men from the Hudhayl and cut off their hands and feet, and continued
his journey to Mecca. He went round the Ka'ba, sacrificed, and shaved
his head, staying there six days (so they say) sacrificing animals which he
distributed to the people and giving them honey to drink.

It was revealed to him in a dream that he should cover the temple, so
he covered it with woven palm branches; a later vision showed him that he
must do better so he covered it with YamanI cloth; a third vision induced
him to clothe it with fine striped Yaman cloth. People say that the Tubba'
was the first man to cover the temple in this way. He ordered its JurhumI
guardians to keep it clean and not to allow blood, dead bodies, or men-
struous cloths to come near it, and he made a door and a key for it.

Subay'a d. al-Ahabb b. Zablna b. Jadhlma b. 'Auf b. Nasr b. Mu'awiya
b. Bakr b. Hawazin b. Mansur b. 'Ikrima b. Khasafa b. Qays b. ‘Aylan
was the wife of 'Abdu Manaf b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Taym b. Murra b. Ka'b
b. Lu’ay b. Ghalib b. Fihr b. Malik b. Nadr b. Kinana. She had by him
a son called Khalid; and in impressing on him the sanctity of Mecca and
forbidding him to commit grievous sin there, she reminded him of Tubba*
and his humility towards it and his work there, in the following lines:

O my son, oppress neither the mean nor the great in Mecca.

Preserve its sanctity and be not led away. 1

He who does evil in Mecca will meet the worst misfortune.

His face will be smitten and his cheeks will burn with fire.

I know from certain knowledge that the evildoer there will perish.

God has made it inviolate though no castles are built in its court.

God has made its birds inviolate and the wild goats on Thabir 2 are safe.

Tubba' came against it, but covered its building with embroidered
cloth.

God humbled his sovereignty there so he fulfilled his vows,

Walking barefoot to it with two thousand camels in its courtyard.

Its people he fed with the flesh of Mahri camels.

Gave them to drink strained honey and pure barley-water.

(God) destroyed the army of the elephant,

They were pelted with great stones, 3

1 A reminiscence of Sura 31.33 and 35.5.

a A mountain above Mecca. 'U?m could mean ‘wild birds’.

• Either the poem has suffered interpolation or it is the product of a later age because the
  atory of the Elephant belongs to the expedition of Abraham the Abyssinian mentioned on

10

The Life of Muhammad

And (God destroyed) their kingdom in the farthest lands
Both in Persia and Khazar.

Hearken therefore when you are told the story
And understand the end of such things (26).

*7 Afterwards he set forth for the Yaman with his army and the two rabbis,
and when he reached his own country he invited his people to adopt his
new religion, but they refused until the matter could be tested by the
ordeal of fire which was there.

Abu Malik b. Tha'laba b. Abu Malik al-Qurazi told me that he heard
Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. Talha b. 'Ubaydallah narrate that when Tubba*
drew near to the Yaman the Himyarites blocked his path, refusing to
let him pass because he had abandoned their religion. When he invited
them to accept his religion on the ground that it was better than theirs,
they proposed that the matter should be subject to the ordeal by fire.
The Yamanites say that a fire used to settle matters in dispute among them
by consuming the guilty and letting the innocent go scatheless. 1 So his
people went forth with their idols and sacred objects, and the two rabbis
went forth with their sacred books 2 hanging like necklaces from their
necks until they halted at the place whence the fire used to blaze out. On
this occasion when it came out the Yamanites withdrew in terror, but their
followers encouraged them and urged them to stand fast, so they held their
ground until the fire covered them and consumed their idols and sacred
objects and the men w r ho bore them. But the two rabbis came out with
their sacred books, sweating profusely but otherwise unharmed. There¬
upon the Himyarites accepted the king’s religion. Such was the origin of
Judaism in the Yaman.

Another informant told me that the two parties only went up to the
fire to drive it back, for it was held that the one who succeeded in driving
it back was most worthy of credence. When the Himyarites with their
idols came near to drive the fire back, the fire came out against them and they
withdrew unable to withstand it. Afterwards, when the two rabbis came
reciting the Torah, the fire receded so that they drove it back to the place
from which it had emerged. Thereupon the Himyarites accepted their
religion. But God knows which report is correct.

18 Now Ri’am was one of the temples which they venerated and where
they offered sacrifices and received oracles when they were polytheists.
The two rabbis told Tubba* that it was merely a shaytan which deceived
them in this way and they asked to be allowed to deal with it. When the
king agreed they commanded a black dog to come out of it and killed it—

pp. 29 f. W.’s reading ‘They shot great stones into it’ probably refers to the siege when
al-I^ajjaj bombarded Mecca, The contrast between his violence and the humility of Tubba'
is hinted at in the last line.

1 For an account of a modern ordeal of a similar though simpler character among the
Arabs of Sinai see Austin Kennett, Bedouin Justice, Cambridge, 1925, pp. 107-14.

1 Perhaps ‘phylacteries’ are meant.

The Life of Muhammad j 1

at least this is what the Yamanites say. Then they destroyed the temple and

1 am told that its rums to this day show’ traces of the blood that was poured
over it. r

(T. Tubba* composed the following lines about his expedition, what he T 006
had intended to do with Medina and the Ka'ba, what he actually did to the
men of Hudhayl, and how he adorned and purified the temple and what
the two rabbis told him about the apostle of God:

Why, O soul, is thy sleep disturbed like one whose eyes pain him ?

Why dost thou suffer from perpetual insomnia,

Enraged against two Jewish tribes who live in Yathrib,

Who richly deserve the punishment of a fateful day ?

When I sojourned in Medina
Calm and refreshing was my sleep.

I made my dwelling on a hill
Between al-'Aqlq and BaqI' ul-Gharqad.

We left its rocks and plateau

And its bare salty plain

And came down to Yathrib, and my breast

Seethed with anger at the killing of my son.

I had sworn a steadfast vow,

An oath full strong and binding.

If I reach Yathrib I will leave it
Stripped of palms both striplings and fruitful’

When lo from Qurayza came
A rabbi wise, among the Jews respected.

‘Stand back from a city preserved;’ said he,

For Mecca’s prophet of Quraysh true-guided.’

So I forgave them without reproach

I left them to the judgement of the last day

To God whose pardon I hope for

On the day of reckoning that I escape the flames of hell.

Some of our people I left there for him,

Men of reputation and valour,

Men who carry plans to victory’s end.

I hope thereby for a reward from Muhammad’s Lord.

I knew not that there was a pure temple
Devoted to God in Mecca’s vale,

Till slaves from Hudhayl came to me
In al-Duff of Jumdan above al-Masnad.

‘A house of ancient wealth in Mecca
Treasures of pearls and jewels!’ they said.

I wanted to seize them but my Lord said nay.

For God prevents destruction of his sanctuary.

I gave up my purpose there

The Life of Muhammad

And left those men an example to the discerning.
Dhu’l-Qarnayn before me was a Muslim
Conquered kings thronged his court,

East and west he ruled, yet he sought
Knowledge true from a learned sage.

He saw where the sun sinks from view
In a pool of mud and fetid slime.

Before him Bilqls my father’s sister
Ruled them until the hoopoe came to her.) 1

THE REIGN OF HIS SON HASSAN IBN TIBAN AND HOW
'AMR killed his brother

When his son Hassan b. Tiban As’ad Abu Karib came to the throne he
set out with the Yamanites to subdue the land of the Arabs an ersia " s .
However when they reached a place in Iraq (27) the H.myante and
Yamanite tribes were unwilling to go farther and wanted to return to then
S soTeylpproached one of his brothers called 'tor who was w. h
“’the aA^d said that if he would kill hrs brother-they wouW
make him king so that he might lead them home agam He said that he
would do so, and they all agreed to join in the plot except Dhu Ru ayr1 the
Himyarite. He forbade him to do this, but he would not heed, so Dhu
Ru'ayn wrote the following verses:

Oh who would buy sleeplessness for sleep ?

Happy is he who passes the night in peace;

Though ITimyar have been treacherous,

God will hold Dhu Ru'ayn blameless.

He sealed the document and brought it to paying:'Keep this with
vou for me’ and he did so. Then 'Amr killed his brother Hassan ana
returned to’the Yaman with his men. 2 One of the Himyar.tes was moved

to say:

In former generations

What eyes have seen

The like of Ifass&n who has been slain I

The princes slew him lest they should be kept at war.

On the morrow they said ‘It is naught!’

Your dead was the best of us and your living one
Is lord over us while all of you are lords.

• The poem is spurious; it is not difficult t0 se * At thiapofnt 1 Tab^intro-

duceTa iotfg 8 passage fromTl^A much^ongerTory via ‘Uthmin b. Saj is given by Azr. i. 79 .
2 T- 9*5' Hassan vainly appeals to his brother thus.

Do not hasten my death, O 'Amr.

Take the kingdom without using force.

The Life of Muhammad 13

The words ‘lababi lababi’ mean ‘no matter’ in the Himyarl language (28).

When Amr b. Tiban returned to the Yaman he could not sleep and J 9
insomnia took a firm hold of him. Being much concerned at this, he asked
the physicians and those of the soothsayers and diviners who were seers
about his trouble. One of them said: ‘No man has ever killed his brother or
kinsman treacherously as you killed your brother without losing his sleep
and becoming a prey to insomnia.’ At this he began to kill all the nobles
who had urged him to murder his brother Hassan, till finally he came to
Dhu Ru'ayn who claimed that 'Amr held the proof of his innocence,
namely the paper which he had given him. He had it brought to him and
when he had read the two verses he let him go, recognizing that he had
given him good counsel. 1 When 'Amr died the Himyarite kingdom fell
into disorder and the people split up into parties.

HOW lakhni'a dhu shanatir seized the throne of

THE YAMAN

A Himyarl who had no connexion with the royal house called Lakhni'a
Yanuf Dhu Shanatir 2 arose and killed off their leading men and put the
royal family to open shame. Of this man a certain Himyarl recited:

Himyar was slaying its sons and exiling its princes,

Working its shame with its own hands,

Destroying its worldly prosperity with frivolous thoughts.

Even greater was the loss of their religion.

So did earlier generations bring their doom
By acts of injustice and profligacy.

Lakhni'a was a most evil man—a sodomite. He used to summon a
young man of the royal family and assault him in a room which he had
constructed for this very purpose, so that he could not reign after him.
Then he used to go from this upper chamber of his to his guards and
soldiers, (who were below) having put a toothpick in his mouth to let them
know that he had accomplished his purpose. (T. Then he would release
him and he would appear before the guards and the people utterly dis¬
graced.) One day he sent for Zur'a Dhu Nuwas son of Tiban As'ad
brother of Hassan. He was a little boy when Hassan was murdered and had
become a fine handsome young man of character and intelligence. When
the messenger came he perceived what was intended and took a fine sharp
knife and hid it under the sole of his foot and went to Lakhni'a. As soon 20
as they were alone he attacked him and Dhu Nuwas rushed upon him and
stabbed him to death. He then cut off his head and put it in the window

1 Tab, 916 f. contains a long poem ascribed to 'Amr.

1 N 61 d., Gtsch, d. Perser u. Araber, 173, notes that the name Lakhl'atha occurs in inscrip¬
tions and that shanatir means 'fingers’.

I4 The Life of Muhammad

which overlooked the men below. He stuck the toothpick in his mouth
aud went out to the guards, who in coarse language inquired what had
happened. 1 'Ask that head,’ he replied. They looked at fhe wrndow and
there was Lakhni'a’s head cut off. So they went in pursuit of Dhu Nuwas
and said: ‘You must be our king and no one else, seeing that you ave n
us of this disgusting fellow.’ (29).

THE REIGN OF DHU NUWAS

They made him king and all the tribes of Himyar joined him. He was the
last of the Yamani kings and the man who had the ditch made. He w
called Toseph and reigned for some considerable time. , T _ ,

In Najran there were some people 1 who held the religion 0 i? ’
Maryam, a virtuous and upright people who followed the Gospel. Their
head^was named ‘Abdullah b. al-Thamir. The place where that^ eligton
took root was in Najran, at that time the centre of the Arabs cou t y,
people, and indeed the rest of the Arabs, were idola e 4 hi

the name of Faymiyun had settled there and converted the people to his

religion.

THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIANITY IN NAJRAN

Al-Mughlra b. Abu Labld, a freedman of al-Akhnas, on the authority of
Wahb b. Munabbih the Yamani told me that the origin of Christianity m
Najrto was due to a man named Faymiyun who was a righteous, earnest
ascetic man whose prayers were answered. He used to wander between
towns- as soon as he became known in one town he moved to another,
eating only what he earned, for he was a builder by trade using
h' JLd to keep Sunday as a day of rest and would do no work then He
used To go into a desert place and pray there until the evening Whik he
Ts following his trade in a Syrian village withdrawing himself from men
one of the people there called Salih perceived what manner of man
was and felt a violent affection for him, so that unperceived by Faymiyun
Re used to follow him from place to place, until one Sunday he went as
his wont was out into the desert followed by Salih. Salih chose a hidmg-
niacl and sat down where he could see him, not wanting him to know where
he was. As Faymiyun stood to pray a tmnin, a seven-horned snake, ca

. The Arabic te« is in son,, disorder here
Cairo edition makes it possible to restore the true reading. A

avoided for obvious reasons. f h» Hi'trh T has ‘ ‘he adopted Judaism

• See below, p. .7- 1" Pl»« °‘ *« ” f ‘ h ' u ldLoi detailed and one may

and yimyar followed him . T. s version olthis Pj Prof G Ryekmans in 1952 dis-
auspect that I.H. has omitted phrases her..and' f s ,£,„„ d , te _ A . D . 5,8.

-rs r,- ,h,s “ me “ upholder! of

an uncorrupted Christianity; but this is not necessarily the meam g.

The Life of Muhammad 15

towards him and when Faymiyun saw it he cursed it and it died. Seeing
the snake but not knowing what had happened to it and fearing for
Faymiyun’s safety, Salih could not contain himself and cried out: ‘Faymi¬
yun, a tinnln is upon you!’ He took no notice and went on with his prayers
until he had ended them. Night had come and he departed. He knew
that he had been recognized and Salih knew that he had seen him. So he
said to him: ‘Faymiyun, you know that I have never loved anything as
I love you; I want to be always with you and go wherever you go.’ He
replied: ‘As you will. You know how I live and if you feel that you can
bear the life well and good.’ So Salih remained with him, and the people
of the village were on the point of discovering his secret. For when a man
suffering from a disease came in his way by chance he prayed for him and he
was cured; but if he was summoned to a sick man he would not go. Now
one of the villagers had a son who was blind 1 and he asked about Faymiyun
and was told that he never came when he was sent for, but that he was a
man who built houses for people for a wage. Thereupon the man took his
son and put him in his room and threw a garment over him and went to
Faymiyun saying that he wanted him to do some work for him in his house
and would he come and look at it, and they would agree on a price.
Arrived at the house Faymiyun asked what he wanted done, and after
giving details the man suddenly whisked off the covering from the boy
and said: ‘O Faymiyun, one of God’s creatures is in the state you see. 22
So pray for him.’ Faymiyun did so 2 and the boy got up entirely healed.
Knowing that he had been recognized, he left the village followed by
Salih, and while they were walking through Syria they passed by a great
tree and a man called fro hi it saying, ‘I’ve been expecting you and saying,
“When is he coming?” until I heard your voice and knew it y was you.
Don’t go until you have prayed over my grave for I am about to die.’ He
did die and he prayed over him until they buried him. Then he left
followed by Salih until they reached the land of the Arabs who attacked
them, and a caravan carried them off and sold them in Najran. At this time
the people of Najran followed the religion of the Arabs worshipping a great
palm-tree there. Every year they had a festival when they hung on the
tree any fine garment they could find and women’s jewels. Then they
sallied out and devoted the day to it. 3 Faymiyun was sold to one noble and
Salih to another. Now it happened that when Faymiyun was praying
earnestly at night in a house which his master had assigned to him the
whole house was filled with light so that it shone as it were without a lamp.

His master was amazed at the sight, and asked him about his religion.
Faymiyun told him and said that they were in error; as for the palm-tree
it could neither help nor hurt; and if he were to curse the tree in the name

1 Or ‘sick’.

2 T- gives the words of Faymiyun’s prayer: 'O God, thy enemy has attacked the health of
one of thy servants to ruin it. Restore him to health and protect him from him.’

3 Or, perhaps, ‘processed round it’.

j5 The Life of Muhammad

of God He would destroy it, for He was God Alone without companion.
‘Then do so,’ said his master, ‘for if you do that we shall embrace your
religion, and abandon our present faith.’ After purifying himself an
performing two rak'as, he invoked God against the tree and God sent a
wind against it which tore it from its roots and cast it on the ground. 1 hen
the people of Najran adopted his religion and he instructed them m the
law of 'Isa b. Maryam. Afterwards they sulfered the misfortunes which
befell their co-religionists in every land. This was the origin of Christianity
in Najran in the land of the Arabs. Such is the report of Wahb b. Munab-
bih on the authority of the people of Najran.

'ABDULLAH IBN AL-THAMIR AND THOSE WHO
PERISHED IN THE TRENCH

Yazid b. Ziyad told me on the authority of Muhammad b. Ka'b al-Qurazi,
and a man of Najran also told me, that according to his people they used to
worship idols. Najran is the largest town in which the people of the neigh¬
bouring district congregated, and in a village hard by there was a sorcerer
who used to instruct the young men of Najran in his art. When Faymiyun
came there—they did not call him by the name that Wahb b. Munabbih
gives him but simply said a man came there—he put up a tent between
Najran and the place where the sorcerer was. Now the people of Najran
used to send their young men to that sorcerer to be taught sorcery and
al-Thamir sent his son 'Abdullah along with them. When he passed by the
man in the tent he was immensely struck by his prayers and devotion and
began to sit with him and listen to him until he became a Muslim 2 and
acknowledged the unity of God and worshipped Him. He asked questions
about the law's of Islam until when he became fully instructed therein he
asked the man what was the Great Name of God. Although he knew it he
kept it from him, saying: ‘My dear young man, 3 you will not be able to
bear it; I fear that you are not strong enough.! Now al-Thamir had no
idea that his son 'Abdullah was not visiting the sorcerer along with the
other young men. 'Abdullah seeing that his master had kept the knowledge
from him and was afraid of his weakness, collected a number of sticks and
whenever he taught him a name of God he wrote that name on a stick.
When he had got them all he lit a fire and began to throw them in one by one
until when he reached the stick w r ith the Great Name inscribed on it he
threw it in, and it immediately sprang out untouched by the fire. There¬
upon he took it and went and told his master that he knew the Great
Name which he had concealed from him. The latter questioned him
and when he learned how he had found out the secret he said, O my young

1 Or ‘innovations* (ahddth), so Nold., op. cit., 182, v.s.

2 The Quran teaches that pure Christianity was Islam, cf. Sura 3. 45 et passim.

3 Lit. ‘Son of my brother’.

The Life of Muhammad 17

friend, 1 you have got it, but keep it to yourself, though I do not think you
will.* 24

Thereafter whenever 'Abdullah b. al-Thamir entered Najran and met
any sick person he would say to him, ‘O servant of God, will you acknow¬
ledge the unity of God and adopt my religion so that I may pray to God
that he may heal you of your affliction?’ The man would agree, acknowledge
the unity of God, and become a Muslim, and he would pray for him and he
would be healed, until in the end there was not a single sick person in
Najran but had adopted his religion and become whole from his sickness.
When the news reached the king he sent for him and said: ‘You have
corrupted the people of my town so that they are against me and have
opposed my religion and the religion of my fathers. I will make a terrible
example of you!’ He replied: ‘You have not the power to do that.’ The
king had him taken to a high mountain and thrown down headlong, but he
reached the ground unhurt. Then he had him thrown into deep water in
Najran from which no one had ever emerged alive, but he came out safely.

Having thus got the better of him 'Abdullah told him that he would not
be able to kill him until he acknowledged the unity of God and believed
in his religion; but that if he did that he would be given power to kill him.
The king then acknowledged the unity of God and pronounced the creed
of 'Abdullah, and hitting him a moderate blow with a stick which he had in
his hand he killed him and died himself on the spot. The people of Najran
accepted the religion of 'Abdullah b. al-Thamir according to the Gospel
and the law which 'Isa b. Maryam brought. Afterwards they were over¬
taken by the misfortunes 2 which befell their co-religionists. Such is the
origin of Christianity in Najran. But God knows best (what the facts are).

Such is the report of Muhammad b. Ka' b. al-Qurazi and one of the
men of Najran about 'Abdullah b. al-Thamir, but God knows best what
happened.

Dhu Nuwas came against them with his armies and invited them to
accept Judaism, giving them the choice between that or death: they chose
death. So he dug trenches for them; burnt some in fire, slew some with
the sword, and mutilated them until he had killed nearly twenty thousand
of them. 3 Concerning Dhu Nuwas and that army of his God revealed to
his apostle

On the trenchmakers be eternal ire
For their fuel-fed fire
Watching sis the flames grew higher
The sufferings of the faithful, dire!

They only tormented them because they believed in

God the; Mighty, the Worthy to be Praised (30). 4

1 Lit. ‘Son of my brother’.

2 ahddth, v.s.

3 r f. ‘Then Dhu Nuwas returned to San'a with his troops.*

4 Sura 85. 4.,

B 4080 C

18 The Life of Muhammad

It is said that among those put to death by Dhu Nuwas was 'Abdullah b.
al-Thamir, their leader and imam. 1

I was told by 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm
that he was told that in the days of 'Umar b. al-Khattab a man of Najran
dug up one of the ruins of Najran intending to make use of the land, when
they came upon 'Abdullah b. al-Thamir under a grave; he was in a sitting
posture with his hand covering a wound in his head and holding firmly to
it. When his hand was removed the blood began to flow; w r hen they let go
of his hand it returned to its place and the flow of blood ceased. On his
finger was a ring inscribed ‘Allah is my Lord’. A report was sent to 'Umar
and he replied: ‘Leave him alone and cover in the grave’ and his orders were
duly carried out.

of daus dhu tha'labAn and the beginning of the

ABYSSINIAN DOMINATION AND THE HISTORY OF
ARYAT WHO BECAME VICEROY OF THE YAMAN

A man of Saba* called Daus Dhu Tha'laban escaped on a horse, and taking
to the desert eluded them. 2 He pressed on until he reached the Byzantine
court, when he asked the emperor to aid him against Dhu Nuwas and his
26 troops, telling him what had happened. The latter replied that his country
was too distant for him to be able to help by sending troops, but that he
would write to the Abyssinian king who was a Christian and whose
territory was near the Yaman. Accordingly he did write ordering him to
help Daus and seek revenge.

Daus went to the Negus with the emperor’s letter, and he sent w r ith him
seventy thousand Abyssinians, putting over them a man called Aryat.
(T. He ordered him to kill a third of the men, lay waste a third of the
country, and seize a third of the women and children if he conquered.)
With the army there was a man called Abraha ‘Split-face’. Aryat crossed
the sea with Daus Dhu Tha'laban and landed in the Yaman. Dhu Nuwas
with the Himyarites and such of the Yaman! tribes as were under his com¬
mand came out against him, and after an engagement Dhu Nuwas and his
force was put to flight. 3 * Seeing that his cause was lost Dhu Nuwas turned
his horse seawards beating it until it entered the waves and carried him
through the shallows out into the deep water. This was the last that was
seen of him. Ary 5 $ entered the Yaman and took possession of it. (T. He

1 Another tradition in T* “Y 8 that 'Abdullah was killed by an earlier king. Axr. i. 8:
gives a somewhat different version from the rividya of Ibn Saj. For an account of these
martyrs from Christian sources see The Book of the Himyarites, ed. Axel Moberg, Lund,
1924.

2 T«b. 925* 9 says that there was a Yamaru report that a man of Najran called Jabbar
b. Fayd also escaped.

3 T®h. 927. 15 contains an account of the disordered state of the Yamani army and their

feeble opposition.

The Life of Muhammad x

sinians th^mTdV"‘"“S how had brought theAbys-

No. like Daus and not like the things he carried in his saddle bag.
And rhis saying has become proverbial in the Yaman until th; c A

unique in their splendour) recited : ' ’ Bay " Un - “ d Ghumd *»

Gently! Tears cannot recall what is sped.

Fret not thyself for those who are dead.

After Baynun no stones nor trace remain
And after Silhin shall men build such houses again?

Jtne n iiSClSed. mdta “ “ "*■ which *** destroyed
He continued:

Peace’ confound you! You can’t turn me from my purpose
Thy scolding dries my spittle! J purp °se

To the music of singers in times past ’twas fine
When we drank our fill of purest noblest wine,
rmking freely of wine brings me no shame
my behaviour no boon-companion would blame
hor death no man can hold back
Though he drink the perfumed potions of the quack
Nor monk in his secluded cell on high
Where the vulture round his nest doth fly.

Aou have heard of Ghumdan’s towers:

From the mountain top it lowers
Well carpentered, with stones for stay
Plastered with clean, damp, slippery clay;

Uil lamps within it show
At even like the lightning’s glow.

Beside its wall the palm-trees fine
With ripening fruit in clusters shine.

This once-new castle is ashes today,

The flames have eaten its beauty away.

Dhu Nuwas humbled gave up his castle great
And warned his people of their coming fate.

With reference to that, Ibn al-Dhi'ba al-Thaqafi said ( 3 r):

By thy hfe there's no escape for a man when death and old age seize

By thy life a man has nowhere to flee—1,0 asylum

20

The Life of Muhammad

Could there be after Himyar’s tribes were destroyed one mom by
A thousand thousand with spearmen (glittering) like the sky before

Their cry deafened the chargers and they put to flight the warriors

with their pungent smell. . .

Witches as the sand in number the very sap of trees dried at their

approach.

'Amr b Ma'dI Karib al-Zubaydl said concerning a dispute which he had
JXys" MitahOb al-MurSdl when he heard .ha, he had threatened
him, and bringing to memory the lost glory of Himyar.

Do you threaten me as though you were Dhu Ru ayn
Or Dhu Nuwas in the days of their prime ?

Many a man before you was prosperous
With a kingdom firmly rooted among men.

Ancient as the days of Ad
Exceeding fierce, overcoming tyrants,

Yet his people perished

And he became a wanderer among men (32).

25 HOW ABRAHA SEIZED POWER IN THE YAMAN AND

killed aryAt 1

Arvat held sway in the Yaman for some years and then Abraha the
Abyssinian (T. who was in his army) disputed his authority, and

Abyssinians split into two parties each claiming supporters When war

was about to begin, Abraha sent to Aryat asking him to avert the dang
internecine war and inviting him to settle the dispute by P^{^naUomb}
the winner to be the sole commander of the army. Arya agreed ^idAbmha
went forth to meet him. He was a short fat man holding the Christian
faith; and Aryat advanced against him spear in hand; he was a big, tall,

, a * AK r aha had a young man called Atawda at his back to

defend'hhn against attack from the rear. ArySf raised his spear striking
at Abraha’s skull and hit him on the forehead splitting h's eyebrow^nos
eve and mouth. It was for this reason that he was called al-Ashram
39 (spit-face). Thereupon 'Atawda coming out from behind Abraha attacked
A?vSt and killed him, and ArySt’s army joined Abraha, and the Abyssinians

£2 Yaman accepted himaltheir chief. (T-Then 'Atawda cried: "Atawda

you see, of an evil company; parentless in nobility', meaning that Abraha
slave had killed ArySJ. Al-Ashram asked what he wanted, for thoug

had killed him blood-money must be paid. He asked and obtame rom 1m

1 A slightly longer account is given in Azr. i. 86,

21

The Life of Muhammad

the right of primae noctis in Yaman.) Abraha paid blood-money for killing
Aryat. (T. All this happened without the knowledge of the Negus.)

When the news of this affair reached the Negus he was filled with rage
and said: ‘Has he attacked my amir and killed him without any order from
me ?* Then he swore an oath that he would not leave Abraha alone until
he had trodden his land and cut off his forelock. So Abraha shaved his
head and filled a leather bag with the earth of the Yaman and sent it to the
Negus with the following letter: ‘O King, Aryat was only thy slave and I
too am thy slave. We disputed about your orders; everyone must obey
you; but I was stronger, firmer, and more skilful in managing the affairs of
the Abyssinians. Now when I was told of the king’s oath I shaved the
whole of my head and I send it to you with a bag of the dust of my land that
you may put it beneath your feet and thus keep your oath concerning me.’

When this message reached the Negus he was reconciled to him and wrote
to him that he was to stay in the Yaman until further orders; so Abraha
remained in the Yaman. (T. When Abraha perceived that the Negus was T. 933
reconciled and had made him viceregent of the Yaman, he sent to Abu
Murra b. Dhu Yazan and took away from him his wife Rayhana d.
'Alqama b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan. Abu Murra who is Dhu Jadan had
a son by her—Ma'dI Karib. Afterwards she bore to Abraha a son Masruq
and a daughter Basbasa. Abu Murra took to flight. His slave 'Atawda
went on exercising his right in Yaman until a man of Himyar of Khath'am
attacked and killed him; and when the news reached Abraha, who was
a lenient noble character, a Christian of temperate habits, he told the
people that it was high time that they had an official with due self-control
and that had he known that 'Atawda would have chosen such a reward for
his services he would not have allowed him to choose his reward. Further no
bloodwit would be exacted and he would not take any action against them
for killing 'Atawda.)

THE HISTORY OF THE ELEPHANT AND THE STORY OF
THE INTERCALATORS

Then Abraha built the cathedral 1 in San'a’, such a church as could not be
seen elsewhere in any part of the world at that time. He wrote to the
Negus saying: ‘I have built a church for you, 0 King, such as has not been
built for any king before you. I shall not rest until I have diverted the
Arabs’ pilgrimage to it.’ When the Arabs were talking about this letter of
his, one of the calendar intercalators was enraged. He was of the B.
Fuqaym b. 'Adly b. 'Amir b. Tha'laba b. al-Harith b. Malik b. Kinana b.
Khuzayma b. Mudrika b. Ilyas b. Mudar. The intercalators are those
who used to adjust the months for the Arabs in the time of ignorance. They

1 al-Qullays. The Arab commentators derive this word from an Arabic root, but it is
simply the Greek ekklesia.

22

The Life of Muhammad

would make one of the holy months profane, and make one of the profane

30 months holy to balance the calendar. It was about this that God sent
down: ‘Postponement (of a sacred month) is but added infidelity by which
those who disbelieve are misled. They make it (the month) profahe one
year and make it sacred the next year, that they may make up the number of
the months which God has made sacred (33).’ 1

The first to impose this system of intercalation on the Arabs was
al-Qalkmmas who was Hudhayfa b. 'Abd b. Fuqaym b. 'Adly b. ‘Amir
b. Tha'laba b. al-Harith b. Malik b. Kinana b. Khuzayma; his son 'Abbad
followed him; then his descendants Qala', Umayya, 'Auf, and Abu
ThumSma Junada b. 'Auf who was the last of them, for he was overtaken
by Islam. When the Arabs had finished pilgrimage, it used to be their
practice to gather round him and he would declare the four sacred months
Rajab, Dhu’l-Qa'da, Dhu’l-Hijja, and al-Muharram. If he wanted to free
a period he would free al-Muharram and they would declare it free and ban
§afar in its place so as to make up the number of the four sacred months.
When they wanted to return from Mecca, 2 he got up and said: ‘O God,
I have made one of the Safars free for them, the first Safar,' and I have
postponed the other till next year.’

About this 'Umayr b. Qays Jadhlu’l-Ti'an, one of the B. Firas b.
Ghanm b. Tha’laba b. Malik b. Kinana, boasting of this determining of
the months, improvised:

Ma'add knows that my people are the most honourable of men and
have noble ancestors.

31 Who has escaped us when we seek vengeance and whom have we not

made to champ the bit ?

Are we not Ma'add’s calendar-makers, making profane months sacred ?
(34)*

The Kinanite went forth until he came to the cathedral and defiled
it (35). Then he returned to his own country. Hearing of the matter Abraha
made inquiries and learned that the outrage had been committed by an
Arab who came from the temple in Mecca where the Arabs went on
pilgrimage, and that he had done this in anger at his threat to divert the
Arabs’ pilgrimage to the cathedral, showing thereby that it was unworthy
of reverence.

Abraha was enraged and swore that he would go to this temple and
T. 934 destroy it. (T* With Abraha there were some Arabs who had come to seek
his bounty, among them Muhammad b. Khuz&'i b. KhuzSba al-Dhak-
winl, al-Sulami, with a number of his tribesmen including a brother of his
called Qays. While they were with him a feast of Abraha occurred and
he sent to invite them to the feast. Now he used to eat an animal’s testicles,

1 SOra 9. j*7.

1 If by tKu time a sacred month was due, raiding and blood-revenge would be taboo;
hence the need to declare the month profane.

The Life of Muhammad 23

so when the invitation was brought they said, ‘By God, if we eat this the
Arabs will hold it against us as long as we live.’ Thereupon Muhammad got
up and went to Abraha and said, ‘O King, this is a festival of ours in which
we eat only the loins and shoulders.’ Abraha replied that he would send
them what they liked, because his sole purpose in inviting them was to
show that he honoured them. Then he crowned Muhammad and made
him amir of Mudar and ordered him to go among the people to invite
them to pilgrimage at his cathedral which he had built. When Muhammad
got as far as the land of Kinana the people of the lowland knowing what
he had come for sent a man of Hudhayl called 'Urwa b. Hayyad al-MilasT
who shot him with an arrow, killing him. His brother Qays who was with
him fled to Abraha and told him the news, which increased his rage and
fury and he swore to raid the B. Kinana and destroy the temple.) So he
commanded the Abyssmians to prepare and make ready, and sallied forth
with the elephant. News of this plunged the Arabs into alarm and anxiety
and they decided that it was incumbent on them to fight against him when
they heard that he meant to destroy the Ka'ba, God’s holy house.

A member one of the ruling families in the Yaman, Dhu Nafr by
name summoned his people and such of the Arabs as would follow him to
fight Abraha and stop him from attacking and destroying God’s holy
house A certain number supported him, but after a battle Dhu Nafr and
his followers were put to flight and he himself was taken prisoner and

br0Ugbt 1 ° Abraha * When he was ab °ut to put him to death Dhu Nafr
pleaded for his life on the ground that he would be more useful to him
a ive than dead. Abraha then gave him his life but kept him in fetters He
was a merciful man.

Abraha continued on his road to Mecca until in the country of Khath'am
he was opposed by Nufayl b. Habib a!-Khath'ami with their two tribes
ohahran and Nahis and such of the Arab tribes as followed him. After an
engagement he was defeated and taken prisoner. When Abraha thought
of kllhng him, Nufayl said: ‘Don't kill me, O King, for I will be your
guide '" 'he Arab country. Here are my two hands as surety that the two

tribes of Khath am, Shahrto and Nahis, will obey you.’ So Abraha let
him go.

. m •°.? t kT e A«-,o h u h 'S' “S a guide until they reach «* Ta'if When Mas'ud
b. Mu attibl b. Malik b. Ka b b. 'Amr b. Sa'd b. ‘Auf b. Thaqif came out to

iJr m " e f' ei> ° f Thaq ‘ f ’ Thaqif’s name was Qasiy b. al-Nabit b
Munabbih b. Mansur b. Yaqdum b. AfsS b. Du‘mi b. Iyad b. NiziSr b.'
Ma add b. Adnan. Umayya b. Abu Salt al-Thaqafr said:

My people are IySd, would that they were near

Orwould that they had stayed (here) though their camels might be

J Ca ™ ,s are thin b ««u3e they are always overmilked to supply the wants of
Schulthess, Umayya, 15, reads fatujaara, ‘might be slaughtered’. * of guests.

24

The Life of Muhammad

When on the march Iraq’s wide plain
Is theirs—moreover they read and write (36).

He also said:

If you ask me who I am, Lubayna, and of my line
I will tell you the certain truth.

We belong to al-Nablt the father of Qasly
To Mansur son of Yaqdum (our) forefathers (37).

They said to him: O King, we are thy servants attentive and obedient
to you. We have no quarrel with you and our temple—meaning that of
al-Lat—is not the one you seek. You want only the temple in Mecca, and
we will send with you a man to guide you there. He therefore passed on
leaving them unmolested.

As to al-L§t it was a temple of theirs in al-Ta’if which they used to
venerate as the Ka'ba is venerated (38). So they sent with him Abu
Righal to guide him on the way to Mecca, and when he had brought
him as far as al-Mughammis 1 Abu Righal died there and the Arabs
stoned his grave. This is the grave which people in al-Mughammis. still
stone. 2

Arrived here, Abraha sent an Abyssinian called al-Aswad b. Mafsud 3
with some cavalry as far as Mecca and the latter sent off to him the plunder
of the people of Tihama, the Quraysh and others, among it two hundred
camels belonging to 'Abdu’l-Muftalib b. Hashim, who at that time was
the leading shaykh of Quraysh. At first Quraysh, Kinana, and Hudhayl
and others who were in the holy place meditated battle, but seeing that
they had not the power to offer resistance they gave up the idea.

Abraha sent Huna^a the Himyarite to Mecca instructing him to inquire
who was the chief notable of the country and to tell him that the king’s
message was that he had not come to fight them, but only to destroy the
temple. If they offered no resistance there was no cause for bloodshed,
and if he wished to avoid war he should return with him. On reaching
Mecca Hunafca was told that 'Abdu’l-Muttalib b. Hashim b. 'Abd Manaf
b. Qu§ayy was the leading notable, so he went to him and delivered Abraha’s
message. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib replied: ‘God knows that we do not wish to
fight him for we have not the power to do so. This is Allah’s sanctuary
and the temple of His friend Abraham—or words to that effect—If He
defends it against him it is His temple and His sanctuary; and if he
lets him have it by God we cannot defend it!’ Hunata replied that he
must come with him to Abraha, for he was ordered to bring him back
with him.

So accompanied by one of his sons' , Abdu’I-Mu$$alib came to the camp

1 Also written al-Mughammas, a place ‘two thirds of a parasang’ (roughly two miles)
from Mecca.

• The practice survives to this day.

• Other authorities write Maq?ud. Maf$ud means ‘slash-faced’.

The Life of Muhammad 25

and inquired for Dhu Nafr, for he was a friend of his. He went in to see
him as he was in confinement and asked him if he could do anything to
help them in their trouble. Dhu Nafr replied: ‘What use is a man held a
prisoner in the hands of a king, expecting to be killed at any moment?

I can do nothing to help you except that Unays the keeper of the elephant
eing a friend of mine, I will send to him and commend your case to him
as strongly as possible asking him to try to get you permission to see the
lung, bo speak as you think fit, and he will intercede for you with the king
if he is able to do so.’ So Dhu Nafr sent to Unays saying, ‘The king has
taken two hundred camels belonging to 'Abdu’l-Muttalib, lord of Quravsh
and master of the Meccan 1 well who feeds men in the plain and wild

creatures on the top of the mountains, and is now here. So ask permission 3*

or him to see the king and help him as far as you can.’ He said he would
do so and repeated these words to the king, adding that 'Abdu’l-Muttalib
wished to see him and talk to him about a pressing matter. Abraha agreed
to see him. Now Abdu’l-Muftalib was a most impressive, handsome, and
dignified man, and when Abraha saw him he treated him with the greatest
respect so that he would not let him sit beneath him. He could not let the
Abyssmians see him sitting beside him on his royal throne, so he got off
his throne and sat upon his carpet and made 'Abdu’l-Muftalib sit beside
him there. Then he told his interpreter to inquire what he wanted, and the
reply was that he wanted the king to return two hundred camels of his
which he had taken. Abraha replied through the interpreter, ‘You pleased
me much when I saw you; then I was much displeased with you when I
heard what you said. Do you wish to talk to me about two hundred camels
oi yours which I have taken, and say nothing about your religion and the
religion of your forefathers which I have come to destroy?’ 'Abdu’I-Mut-
taJib replied, ‘ I am the owner of the camels and the temple has an owner who
will defend it- When the king replied that he could not defend it against
him he said, That remains to be seen,’ ('Give me back my camels.') T oto
Some learned people allege that when ’Abdu’l-Mut t alib went to Abraha
when he sent Hunafa to him, there accompanied him Ya'mur b. Nufatha
b Adty b. al-Du il b. Bakr b. ’Abd Manat b. Kinana, at that time chief
ot B. Bakr, and Khuwaylid b. Wathila, then chief of Hudhayl They
offered to give Abraha a third of the cattle of the lowland on condition
that he would withdraw from them and not destroy the temple, but he
refused their request; but God knows whether this was so or not At

any rate Abraha restored to 'Abdu’l-Mut t alib the camels which he’had
taken,

. Whe J the y left Wm, 'Abdu’l-Muttalib went back to Quraysh and having
given them the news ordered them to withdraw from Mecca and take up
defensive positions on the peaks and in the passes of the mountains for
fear of the excesses of the soldiers. 'AbduTMutfalib took hold of the
metal knocker of the Ka'ba, and a number of Quraysh stood with him praying

1 C. has 'tr, ‘caravan’.

26

The Life of Muhammad

27

The Life of Muhammad

to God and imploring his help against Abraha and his army. As he was
holding the knocker of the temple door, 'Abdu’l-Muttalib said:

35 O God, a man protects his dwelling so protect Thy dwellings. 1

Let not their cross and their craft tomorrow overcome Thy craft (39). 2

‘Ikrima b. 'Amir b. Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf b. 'Abd al-Dar b. Qusayy
said:

O God, humiliate al-Aswad b. Mafsud

Who took a hundred camels wearing their collars;

Between Hira’ and Thabir and the deserts,

He shut them in when they should be pasturing freely,

And delivered them to the black barbarians,

Withdraw from him thine aid, O Lord, for Thou art worthy to be
praised (40).

*AbduTMut$alib then let go the knocker of the door of the Ka'ba and
went off with his Quraysh companions to the mountain tops where they
took up defensive positions waiting to see what Abraha would do when he
occupied Mecca. In the morning Abraha prepared to enter the town and
made his elephant ready for battle and drew up his troops. His intention
was to destroy the temple and then return to the Yaman. When they made
the elephant (its name was Mahmud) face Mecca, Nufayl b. Habib came
up to its flank and taking hold of its ear said: ‘Kneel, Mahmud, or go
straight back whence you came, for you are in God’s holy land!’ He let go
of its ear and the elephant knelt, and Nufayl made off at tog speed for the
top of the mountain. The troops beat the elephant to make it get up but it
would not; they beat its head with iron bars; they stuck hooks into its
underbelly and scarified it; but it would not get up. Then they made it
face the Yaman and immediately it got up and started off. When they set
it towards the north and the east it did likewise, but as soon as they directed
it towards Mecca it knelt dow r n.

Then God sent upon them birds from the sea like swallows and

36 starlings; each bird carried three stones, like peas and lentils, one in its
beak and two between its claws. Everyone who was hit died but not all
were hit. They withdrew in flight by the way they came, crying out for
Nufayl b. Habib to guide them on the way to the Yaman. When he saw
the punishment which God had brought down on them Nufayl said:

Where can one flee when God pursueth ?

Al-Ashram is the conquered not the conqueror (41).

1 Ifilal, the plural of billa, means a collection of houses and also the people who live
therein. For. rafilahu al-Shahrastani, Milal, has hillahu ‘his neighbour’, and for ghadtvart
‘tomorrow’ * adman , which could be rendered ‘hostile’ here. For qiblatand he has Kabatand.

1 rmhdl here is said by C. and Abu Dharr to mean strength and power; but it really means
‘guile’, ‘strategy accompanied by force’. ‘Craft’, cf. Kraft, appears to be the best rendering.
The passage is a reminiscence of Sura 13. 14, and the idea may be found in the Quranic
saying of God: Khayru l-makirm, 3. 47. T- has preserved four lines of no poetic merit which
I.H. preferred to excise.

Nufayl also said:

Our greetings, Rudayna!

You rejoice our eyes this morning!

[Your fuel-seeker came to us last night, r p. 94a

But we had naught to give him.]

If you had seen, but you will not see, Rudayna,

What we saw on al-Muhassab’s side 1
You would have forgiven me and praised my action
And not have been vexed at what has passed and gone. 2
I praised God when I saw the birds,

And I feared the stones that might fall upon us.

Everyone was asking for Nufayl
As though I owed the Abyssinians a debt.

As they withdrew they were continually falling by the wayside dying
miserably by every waterhole. Abraha was smitten in his body, and as they
took him away his fingers fell off one by one. Where the finger had been,
there arose an evil sore exuding pus and blood, so that when they brought
him to Sana* he was like a young fledgeling. They allege that as he died
his heart burst from his body. (A. Deserters from the army, labourers,
and campfollowers remained in Mecca and became workers and shepherds ‘ 9 *
for the population.)

Ya'qub b. r Utba told me that he was informed that that year was the
first time that measles and smallpox had been seen in Arabia; and, too,
that it was the first time that bitter herbs like rue, colocynth, and Ascleptas
gigantea were seen.

When God sent Muhammad he specially recounted to the Quraysh
his goodness and favour in turning back the Abyssinians in order to
preserve their state and permanence. ‘Did you not see how your Lord
dealt with the owners of the elephant ? Did He not reduce their guile to
sheer terror? And sent upon them flocks of birds, throwing hard clay
stones upon them, making them as blades of corn that have been devoured.

And again: ‘For the uniting of Quraysh, their uniting the caravans to 37
ply summer and winter. Then let them worship the Lord of this temple,
who has fed them so that they hunger not, and made them safe from fear’/

• A place between Mecca and Mini in the valley of Mecca. See Yaqut.

1 Possibly- bayna is a poetical form of baynand , ‘between us’. The line is based on SOra
57- 23 -

3 Sura 105.

4 j° 6 ' * 8 °° d discu88ion of this difficult passage will be found in Lane’s Lexicon,
p. 796 and c. There are three rival readings: Udf (adopted by our author), ildf, and ilf.

ccoraing to all three the meaning is said to be ‘for their keeping to the journey etc/ Other
authorities aay that the first reading means ‘for the preparing and fitting out’. Others say
ffiat accordmg to the third reading the meaning is ‘the protecting’. According to Ibn al-
bi the point of this is that the four sons of 'Abdu ManSf were given freedom to travel
ju . yzantin * a ’ P^i 80 - Abyssinians, and Himyaris respectively and so were able to go
and bring com from neighbouring territories. There may be a sound historical kernel to

28

The Life of Muhammad

i.e. so that their status should remain unaltered because of God’s good
purpose towards them if they would receive it (42).

38 ‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr via 'Amra daughter of 'Abdu’l-Rahman b.
Sa'd b. Zurara told me that 'A’isha said: ‘I saw the leader of the elephant
and its groom walking about Mecca blind and crippled begging for food.’ 1

REFERENCES IN POETRY TO THE STORY OF THE
ELEPHANT

When God turned back the Abyssinians from Mecca and executed His
vengeance upon them, the Arabs held the Quraysh in great honour, saying,
‘They are the people of God: God fought for them and thwarted the
attack of their enemies.’ On this theme they composed many poems.
Thus 'Abdullah b. al-Zibra'ra b. 'Adly b. Qays b. 'Adiy b. Sa'd b. Sahm b.
*Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr said:

Withdraw from the vale of Mecca for

From of old its sanctuary has not been violated.

When it was sanctified, Sirius had not been created.

No mighty man has ever attacked it.

39 Ask the commander of the Abyssinians 2 what he saw.

He who knows what happened will tell the ignorant.

Sixty thousand men returned not home,

Nor did their sick recover after their return.

'Ad and Jurhum were (in Mecca) before them.

God has set it above all creatures.

The words ‘nor did their sick recover after their return’ refer to Abraha
whom they carried with them when he was smitten, until he died in San'a’.
Abu Qays b. al-Aslat al-Ansar! aUKhafmi, Sayfl by name (43) said:

His work it was on the day of the Abyssinian elephant.
Whenever they urged it forward it held its ground,

(They drove) their hooks beneath its flanks,

They split its nose and it was torn.

They used a knife as a whip.

When they applied it to its back it made a wound.

It turned and faced the way it had come.

Those there bore the burden of their injustice.

this tradition. The four brothers gave this protection (tlaf) to those journeying to the
several countries. Thus for lldf the meanings of covenant, protection, and responsibility for
safety are illustrated.

1 A*r. i. 92 reports from 1 . 1 . that envoys from the tribes went to congratulate Sayf b.
DhO Yazan on his restoration to kingship. He singled out Quraysh for special treatment.
1 I prefer the reading hubthi (W.) to the jayshi of C,

29

The Life of Muhammad

God sent a wind bringing pebbles from above them
And they huddled together like lambs. 1
Their priests urged them to endure,

But they bleated like sheep (44).

Abu Qays b. al-Aslat also said:

Rise and pray to your Lord and stroke
The comers of this temple between the mountains. 2
He gave you a convincing test
On the day of Abu Yaksum leader of the squadrons.

His cavalry was in the plain, his infantry
Upon the passes of the distant hills.

When the help of the Lord of the Throne reached you,

His armies repulsed them, 3 pelting them and covering them with
dust.

Quickly they turned tail in flight, and none

But a few returned to his people from the army (4s). 4

Talib b. Abu Talib b. 'Abdu 1 -Mut^alib said:

Know you not what happened in the war of Dahis 5
And Abu Yaksum’s army when it filled the pass?

But for the help of God the Sole Existent One
You would have been unable to save your lives (4b). 6

Abu al-Salt b. Abu Rabl'a al-Thaqaf! referring to the elephant and to the
Hanaf! religion being that of Abraham said (47):

The signs of our Lord are illuminating. 7
None but infidels doubt them.

Night and Day were created and all
Is abundantly plain, its reckoning is fixed.

Then the merciful Lord revealed the day
By the sun whose rays are seen everywhere.

He held the elephant fast in al-Mughammas until
It sank to the ground as though it were hamstrung. 8

1 With some hesitation I read this line: falaffuhum . . . al-qaram. W. reads yaluffuhum;
C. inserts no vowels to the form I have read as indicated. Both W. and C. read al-quxum
which means ‘small bodies 1 . Abu Dharr (Bronnle, 21) read al-qaram, which he explained
by sighdru l-ghanam. The line that follows seems to require a reference to sheep here.

2 The term akhdshib refers to the mountains of Mecca.

• i.e. the angels.

• Or, ‘from the Abyssinians’. See n. 2, p. 28. These lines occur again in W., p. 180.

• Dahis is the name of a horse. Foul play during a race led to a long and bloody feud
  between the tribes of 'Abs and Dhubyan. See Nicholson, L.H.A . 61-62.

4 Or, ‘property’,

7 Reading thaqibdtun with C.

8 laziman , Jafcki?, Hayawan, Cairo, 1945./I3&4, vii, 198, reads ivadi'an, but the received
text is better. I owe this explanation of halqa to my colleague Dr. el- r {ayeb. Commentators
and translators have missed the point.

3 o The Life of Muhammad

Its trunk curled ring-wise; it lay motionless as;

A boulder flung down from Kabkab’s rocks.

Round it Kinda’s kings, warriors,

Mighty hawks in war.

They abandoned it and departed headlong

All of them; the shank of each one of them was broken.

In God’s sight at the Resurrection every religion
But that of the hanlf is doomed to perdition (48).

41 When Abraha died his son Yaksum became king of the Abyssinians.
T« 945 (T. Himyar and the tribes of Yaman were humiliated under the heel of the
Abyssinians. They took their women and killed their men and seized their
young men to act as interpreters.) When Yaksum b. Abraha died his brother
Masruq b. Abraha reigned over the Abyssinians in the ^ aman.

THE JOURNEY OF SAYF B. DHU YAZAN AND THE RULE OF
WAHRIZ IN THE YAMAN

When the people of the Yaman had long endured oppression, Sayf b.
Dhu Yazan the Himyarite, who was known as Abu Murra, went to the
Byzantine emperor and complained to him of his troubles, asking him to
drive out the Abyssinians and take over the country. He asked him
to send what forces he pleased and promised him the kingdom of the

Yaman. . t . XT < -

42 The emperor paid no attention to his request, so he went to al-Mu man

b. al-Mundhir, who was Chosroes 1 governor at al-Hira and the surrounding
country of Iraq. When he complained of the Abyssinians, al-Nu man b.
al-Mundhir told him that he paid a formal visit every year to Chosroes
and he asked him to stay with him until then. Accordingly he took him
with him and introduced him to Chosroes. Now he used to sit in his
audience chamber which contained his crown. According to reports, his
crown was like a huge grain-measure with rubies, pearls, and topazes set
in gold and silver, suspended by a golden chain from the top of the dome
in his hall of audience. Such was the weight of the crown that his neck
could not bear it. He was hidden behind a robe until he sat on his throne;
then his head was inserted into the crown, and when he was settled com¬
fortably on his throne the-robes were taken from him. Everyone who saw
him for the first time fell to his knees in awe. When Sayf b. Dhu Yazan

entered his presence he fell to his knees ( 49 )* ,

He said: ‘O King, ravens 1 have taken possession of our country.
Chosroes asked, ‘What ravens, Abyssinians or Sindians?’ ‘Abyssinians,’ he
replied, ‘and I have come to you for help and that you may assume the

1 i.e. ‘blacks’.

The Life of Muhammad 31

kingship of my country.’ He answered, ‘Your country is far distant and
has little to attract me; I cannot endanger a Persian army in Arabia and
there is no reason why I should do so.’ Then he made him a present of
10,000 drachmae sterling and invested him in a fine robe. Sayf went out
with the silver and began to scatter it among the people; (T. Boys and T- 947
slaves of both sexes scrambled for the coins). When the king was told of
this he thought it very extraordinary and sent for him and said, ‘You mean
to throw away a royal gift!’ He answered: ‘What use is silver to me? The
mountains of my country from which I come are nothing but gold and
silver.’ This he said to excite his cupidity. Chosroes thereupon gathered
his advisers together and asked their opinion about the man and his project.

One of them reminded the king that in his prisons there were men who
were condemned to death. If he were to send them with him and they
were killed, that would merely be the fate that he had determined for them; 43
on the other hand, if they conquered the country he would have added to
his empire. Thereupon Chosroes sent those who were confined in his
prisons to the number of eight hundred men.

He put in command of them a man called Wahriz who was of mature
age and of excellent family and lineage. They set out in eight ships, two
of which foundered, so that only six reached the shores of Aden. Sayf
brought all the people that he could tQ Wahriz saying, ‘My foot is with
your foot, we die or conquer together.’ ‘Right,’ said Wahriz. Masruq b.

Abraha the king of Yaman came out against him with his army, and
Wahriz sent one of his sons to fight them so as to get experience in their
way of fighting. His son was killed and he was filled with rage against
them. When the men were drawn up in their ranks Wahriz said, ‘Show me
their king.’ They said, ‘Do you see a man on an elephant with a crown on
his head and a red ruby on his forehead ? That is their king.’ ‘Let him be,’
he said, and they waited a long time and then he said, ‘What is he riding
now?’ They said: ‘He is now bestride a horse’; again they waited. He
asked the same question and they said he was bestride a mule. Said
Wahriz: ‘An ass’s filly 1 A weak creature, and so is his kingdom. I will
shoot him. If you see that his followers have not moved, then stand fast
until I give you permission to advance, for I shall have missed the fellow.

But if you see the people flocking round him I shall have hit him, so fall
upon them.’ He then bent his bow (the story goes that it was so tough
that no one but he could bend it) and ordered that his eyebrows be fastened
back, 1 then he shot Masruq and split the ruby in his forehead and the
arrow pierced his head and came out at the back of his neck. He fell off his
mount and the Abyssinians gathered round him. When the Persians fell
upon them, they fled and were killed as they bolted in all directions.

Wahriz advanced to enter into San'a’, and when he reached its gate he said
that his standard should never be lowered and he ordered them to destroy
the gate and went in with his flag flying.

1 His eyes were half closed from age.

32 The Life of Muhammad

Sayf b. Dhu Yazan al-Himyari said:

44 Men thought the two kings had made peace

And those who heard of their reconciliation found the matter was
very grave.

We slew t^e prince Masruq and reddened the sands with blood.

The new prince, the people’s prince,

Wahriz swore an oath that

He would drink no wine until he had captured prisoners and spoil (5°)-

Abu al-Salt b. Abu Rabi'a al-Thaqafi (51) said:

Let those seek vengeance who are like Ibn Dhu Yazan
Who spent long years at sea because of his enemies,

When the time for his journey came he went to Caesar
But did not attain what he sought.

Then he turned to Chosroes after ten years,

Counting his life and money cheap,

Until he came bringing the Persians with him.

By my life you were swift in action,

What a noble band came out:

Never were their like seen among men!

Nobles, princes, mighty men, archers,

Lions who train their cubs in the jungle!

From curved bows they shot arrows
Stout as the poles of the howdah
Bringing the victim a speedy death.

You sent lions against black dogs,

Their fugitives are scattered all over the earth.

So drink your fill, wearing your crown,

On Ghumdan’s top reclining in a house you have chosen.

Drink your fill, for they are dead,

And walk proudly today in your flowing robes.

Such are noble deeds! not two pails of milk mingled with water
Which afterwards become urine (53).

45 'Adly b. Zayd al-HIri, one of B. Tamim, said:

What is there after San'a’ in which once lived
Rulers of a kingdom whose gifts were lavish?

Its builder raised it to the flying clouds,

Its lofty chambers gave forth musk.

Protected by mountains against the attacks of enemies, 1
Its lofty heights unscalable.

1 Ka'id here I take to mean a resourceful foe. The Cairo editors prefer to find a reference
to God.

33

The Life of Muhammad

Pleasant was the voice of the night owl there,

Answered at even by a flute player.

Fate brought to it the Persian army
With their knights in their train;

They travelled on mules laden with death,

While the asses’ foals ran beside them
Until the princes saw from the top of the fortress
Their squadrons shining with steel,

The day that they called to the barbarians and al-Yaksum
‘Cursed be he who runs away!’

’Twas a day of which the story remains,

But a people of long established 1 dignity came to an end.

Persians 2 replaced the native born,

The days were dark 3 and mysterious.

After noble sons of Tubba',

Persian generals were firmly settled there (54).

(T. When Wahriz had conquered the Yaman and driven out the Abyssi- T- 949
nians he wrote to Chosroes telling him of what had been done and sending
him captured treasure. In his reply the king told him to appoint Sayf king
of the Yaman. He also gave Sayf instructions to collect taxes every year
and to remit them to him. He summoned Wahriz to his presence and Sayf
became king, he being the son of Dhu Yazan of the Kings of the Yaman.

This is what Ibn Humayd told me from Salama on the authority of Ibn
Ishaq.) 4

(When Wahriz had gone to Chosroes and made Sayf king of the Yaman, T- 957
the latter began to attack the Abyssinians, killing them and slaying the
women with child until he exterminated all but an insignificant number of
miserable creatures whom he employed as slaves and runners to go before
him with their lances. Before very long he was out with these armed slaves
when suddenly they surrounded him and stabbed him to death. One of
them established himself as leader.and they went through the Yaman slay¬
ing and laying waste the country. When the Persian king heard of this he
sent Wahriz with 4,000 Persians and ordered him to kill every Abyssinian
or child of an Abyssinian and an Arab woman, great or small, and not leave
alive a single man with crisp curly hair. Wahriz arrived and in due course
carried out these instructions and wrote to tell the king that he had done
so. The king then gave him viceregal authority and he ruled under Chos¬
roes until his death.)

1 Reading umma for C.’s imma.

1 Fayj, the reading of C. (against W.’s fayh) is a Persian word for a crowd of men. I.K.
has hayj.

3 A variant is khiin, ‘treacherous’.

4 In this chapter 'p.'s version is much more vivid and detailed and reads much more like
the lively style of Ibn Ishaq. No doubt Ibn Hisham cut down this to him unimportant
chapter as much as he could.

B 4080

D

34

The Life of Muhammad

46 THE END OF THE PERSIAN AUTHORITY IN THE

YAMAN

Wahriz and the Persians dwelt in the Yaman, and the Abna’ who are in the
Yaman today are descended from the survivors of that Persian army. The
period of Abyssinian domination from the entry of Aryat to the death of
Masruq ibn Abraha at the hands of the Persians and the expulsion of the
Abyssinians was seventy-two years. The successive princes were four,
Aryat, Abraha, Yaksum, and Masruq (55).

47 It is said that on a rock in the Yaman there was an inscription dating
from olden times:

To whom belongs the kingdom of Dhimar?

To Himyar the righteous.

To whom belongs the kingdom of Dhimar?

To the evil Abyssinians.

To whom belongs the kingdom of Dhimar?

To the free Persians.

To whom belongs the kingdom of Dhimar?

To Quraysh the merchants (56).

Dhimar means the Yaman or San'a’.

Al- A'sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba said when the words of Satlh and his
companion were fulfilled:

‘No woman has ever seen, as she saw, the truth like the truth of al-Dhi’bi
when he prophesied.’ 1 The Arabs called him al-Dhi’bi because he was the
son of Rabfa b. Mas'ud b. Mazin b. Dhi’b (57).

49 THE DESCENDANTS OF NIZAR B. MA'ADD

Nizar b. Ma'add begat three sons: Mudar, Rabfa, and Anmar (58).

Anmar was the father of Khath'am and Bajila. Jarir b. ‘Abdullah al-
Bajali who was chief of the Bajila (of whom someone said: ‘But for Jarir,
Bajila would have perished. A fine man and a poor tribe’) said when he
was appealing against al-Furafisa al-Kalbl to al-Aqra‘ b. Habis al-Tamlml
b. 'Iqai b. Mujashi' b. Darim b. Malik b. Hanzala b. Malik b. Zayd Manat:

5° O Aqra‘ b. Habis, O Aqra‘,

If thy brother is overthrown thou wilt be overthrown.

and said:

Ye two sons of Nizar help your brother.

My father I wot is your father.

A brother who is your ally will not be worsted this day.

1 Legend says that the woman in question was able to see people a three days’ journey
distant.

35

The Life of Muhammad

They went to the Yaman and remained there (59).

Mudar b. Nizar begat two sons: Ilyas and 'Aylan (60). Ilyas begat three
sons: Mudrika, Tabikha, and Qam'a. Their mother was Khindif, a Yama-
nite woman (61). 1 The name of Mudrika was 'Amir and the name of
Tabikha was 'Amr. There is a story that when they were pasturing their
camels they hunted some game and sat down to cook it, when some raiders
swooped upon their camels. ‘Amir said to 'Amr: ‘Will you go after the
camels or will you cook this game ?’ 'Amr replied that he would go on
cooking, so 'Amir went after the camels and brought them back. When
they returned and told their father he said to ‘Amir: ‘You are Mudrika’
(the one who overtakes), and to 'Amr he said ‘You are Tabikha’ (the cook).
When their mother heard the news she came hurriedly from her tent and
he said: ‘You are trotting!’ ( khandafa) 2 and so she was called Khindif.

As to Qam'a the genealogists of Mudar assert that Khuza'a was one of
the sons of ‘Amr b. Luhayy b. Qam'a b. Ilyas.

THE STORY OF ‘AMR B. LUHAYY AND AN ACCOUNT OF
THE IDOLS OF THE ARABS

‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm on the authority
of his father told me as follows: I was told that the apostle of God said:

‘I saw 'Amr b. Luhayy dragging his intestines in hell, and when I asked
him about those who had lived between his time and mine he said that they
had perished.’

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Tamlmi told me that Abu Salih 51
al-Samman told him that he heard Abu Hurayra (62) say: I heard the
apostle of God saying to Aktham b. al-Jaun al-Khuza'i, ‘O Aktham I saw
'Amr b. Luhayy b. Qam'a b. Khindif dragging his intestines in hell, and
never did I see two men so much alike as you and he!’ ‘Will this resem¬
blance injure me?’ asked Aktham. ‘No,’ said the apostle, ‘for you are a
believer and he is an infidel. He was-the first to change the religion of
Ishmael, to set up idols, and institute the custom of the bahlra, sa’iba,
wasila, and harm (63 ).^

They say that the beginning of stone worship among the sons of Ishmael
was when Mecca became too small for them and they wanted more room in
the country. Everyone who left the town took with him a stone from the
sacred area to do honour to it. Wherever they settled they set it up and
walked round it as they went round the Ka'ba. This led them to worship
what stones they pleased and those which made an impression on them.
Thus as generations passed they forgot their primitive faith and adopted

1 But see Tabari.

• This word is explained in the Mufaddaliyat, 763, by harzvala , a quick, ambling, half¬
  running gait. The story there is told at greater length.

3 A story similar to these two will be found in Ibn al-Kalbi’s K. al-Afnam, cd. Ahmad
Zakiy Pasha, Cairo, 1924, p. 58. These terms are explained in the next chapter.

36 The Life of Muhammad

another religion for that of Abraham and Ishmael. They worshipped idols
and adopted the same errors as the peoples before them. Yet they retained
and held fast practices going back to the time of Abraham, such as honour-
53 ing the temple and going round it, the great and little pilgrimage,, and the
standing on 'Arafa and Muzdalifa, sacrificing the victims, and the pilgrim
cry at the great and little pilgrimage, while introducing elements which
had no place in the religion of Abraham. Thus, Kinana and Quraysh used
the pilgrim cry: ‘At Thy service, O God, at Thy service! At Thy service,
Thou without an associate but the associate Thou hast. Thou ownest him
and what he owns.* They used to acknowledge his unity in their cry and
then include their idols with God, putting the ownership of them in His
hand. God said to Muhammad: 1 ‘Most of them do not believe in God
without associating others with Him,’ i.e. they do not acknowledge My
oneness with knowledge of My reality, but they associate with Me one of
My creatures. 2

The people of Noah had images to which they were devoted. God told
His apostle about them when He said: ‘And they said, “Forsake not your
gods; forsake not Wudd and Suwa' and Yaghuth and Ya'uq and Nasr.”
And they had led many astray.’ 3

Among those who had chosen those idols and used their names as com¬
pounds 4 when they forsook the religion of Ishmael—both Ishmaelites and
others—was Hudhayl b. Mudrika b. Ilyas b. Mudar. They adopted Suwa'
and they had him in Ruhat; 5 and Kalb b. Wabra of Quda'a who adopted
Wudd in Dumatu’l-Jandal.

Ka'b b. Malik al-Ansari said:

We forsook al-Lat and al-'Uzza and Wudd.

We stripped off their necklaces and earrings (64).

Anum of Tayyi* and the people of Jurash of Madhhij adopted Yaghuth
in Jurash. 6 (65).

Khaywan, 7 a clan of Hamdan, adopted Ya'uq in the land of Hamdan in
the Yaman (66).

Dhu’l-Kala' of Himyar adopted Nasr in the Himyar country.

53 Khaulan had an idol called 'Ammanas 8 in the Khaulan country. Accord-

1 Sura 12. 106.

2 While the whole of this section is worth comparing with I. al-Kalbi’s K. al~A}ndm, this
passage is important for the light it throws on I.I.’s sources. Where he writes yaz'umun
I.K. says ‘I was told by my father and others’. It seems clear that 1 . 1 , has borrowed from
I.K.’s statements. Where I.K. tvrites ‘their gods’ 1 . 1 . says ‘their idols’, and his language
tends to follow that of the Quran.

3 Sura 71. 23. 4 e.g. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza,

• A place near Yanbu*. 6 Jurash is a province in the Yaman.

7 Khaywan was a town two nights’ journey from San'a’ on the way to Mecca. I.K. goes

out of his way to say that he has never heard of any Arab using the name of Ya'uq or any

poetry about him. He thinks the reason is the influence of Judaism on Hamdan. I.H.’s
citation should not be taken at its face value,

• C. 'Ammianas. *Amm is a divine name met with all over Arabia. G. Ryckmans, Les
  Religions arabes prtisUimiques, Louvain, 1951, p. 43, writes: ‘Le dieu lunaire qatabanitc

The Life of Muhammad 37

ing to their own account they used to divide their crops and cattle between
it and Allah. If any of Allah’s portion which they had earmarked for him
came into 'Ammanas’s portion they left it to him; but if any of 'Ammanas’s
portion was in Allah’s portion they returned it to him. They are a clan of
Khaulan called al-Adim. Some say that it was concerning them that God
revealed: ‘They assign to Allah of the crotm and cattle he has created a
portion, and they say this is Allah’s—in their assertion—and this is for
our partners. Thus what is for their partners does not reach Allah and
what is for Allah goes to their partners—Evil is their judgment! (67) 1
The B. Milkan b. Kinana b. Khuzayma b. Mudrika b. Ilyas b. Mudar had
an image called Sa‘d, a lofty rock in a desert plain in their country. 2 They
have a story that one of their tribesmen took some of his stock camels to
the rock to stand by it so as to acquire its virtue. 3 When the camels, which
were grazing-camels that were not ridden, saw the rock and smelt the blood
which had been shed on it they shied from it and fled in all directions. This
so angered the Milkanite that he seized a stone and threw' it at the idol
saying, God curse you. You have scared away my camels!’ He went in
search of them, and when he had collected them together once more he

We came to Sa'd to improve our fortunes

But Sa d dissipated them. 4 We have nothing to do with Sa'd.

Sa d is nothing but a rock on a bare height.

It cannot put one right or send one wrong,

Daus had an idol belonging to 'Amr b. Humama al-DausI (68). 54

Quraysh had an idol by a well in the middle of the Ka'ba called Hubal
(69) And they adopted Isaf (or Asaf) and Na’ila by the place of Zamzam,
sacrificing beside them. They were a man and a woman of Jurhum—Isaf
K Baghy and Nahla d. Dlk—who were guilty of sexual relations in the
Ka ba and so God transformed them into two stones.

Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm on the authority

t^s 'Sl'W’ r C7 eI J a .T‘ LeS ? ens de « qualifiaient volon-

t fi de Amm , tribus de Amm . On connait 1 ’^pithte “Amm ra'yan wasahirum

*A m a" crolssant et gyrant . I owe the following references to the personal name
Ammu Anas to Prof S. Sm.th: ‘In Ma'in: R.E.S., Nos. 2820, 2953, 2971^ cf No 2901

Saba'TzS Nof ra S CCUrrCnCe sud-arabes’, No 60 (Ryckmans).

aba. CIS. Nos, 13 308, 414, 510, 511, 515. Cantineau in Rev. d'Assyr. xxiv, pp. 135-46

There is an obviously parallel name, No. 158!. Safa: Dussaud et Macler, Mission dam
les rigtons deserttques de la Syne moyenne, 1903, No. 183.’ If the reading of C. and I K is

theThe a ne Cl T Cn “ Pr .° P ° Sal (ReSte ’ 2 3 ) to tba < effect is hardly sound, because it would
f a h M,er b 1 S °r\u 0t 8 dlVm , e ’ n / mC ° f the form <Arnrr| iriadab, the name borne by Aaron’s
R h */ n ’ a ^‘ F i Urt D e o examples from old Hebrew can be found in anv lexicon. See further

% h * n ? D S - *«<>■» w J Arab, W Wto

ndon 1924, pp. 16 f. The best known example of the name 'Amm is in the compound
Ammurabi (disguised under the forms Hammurabi and Khammurahi in most European
works). Anas (ams ?) I take to be a synonym of rahrm. . SQ ra 6 t-iT

, I 7 r P ! ai " 7 s by 7 sh "' ^ V 5 q. iii. OT. » Li,, ‘blessing’ drill'.

Engl Zh " P y WOTdS 'S 2,hen "8' 'dispersing' which is difficuli to render in

38 The Life of Muhammad

of 'Amra d. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Sa'd b. Zurara that she said, ‘I heard
'A’isha say, “We always heard that Isaf and Na’ila were a man and a
woman of Jurham who copulated in the Ka'ba so God transformed them
into two stones.” But God alone knows if this is the truth.’

Abu Talib said:

Where the pilgrims make their camels kneel
Where the waters flow from Isa’f and Na’ila. 1

Every household had an idol in their house which they used to worship.
When a man was about to set out on a journey he would rub himself
against it as he was about to ride off: indeed that was the last thing he used
to do before his journey; and when he returned from his journey the first
thing he did was to rub himself against it before he went in to his family.
When God sent Muhammad with the message of monotheism Quraysh
said: ‘Would he make the gods into one God? That is indeed a strange
proceeding!’

Now along wdth the Ka'ba the Arabs had adopted Tawaghlt, which were
temples which they venerated as they venerated the Ka'ba. They had their
guardians and overseers and they used to make offerings to-them as they
55 did to the Ka'ba and to circumambulate them and sacrifice at them. Yet
they recognized the superiority of the Ka'ba because it was the temple and
mosque of Abraham the friend (of God).

Quraysh and the B. Kinana had al-'Uzza in Nakhla, its guardians and
overseers were the B. Shayban of Sulaym, allies of the B. Hashim (7°).

An Arab poet said:

Asma’ was given as a dowry the head of a little red cow
Which a man of the Banu Ghanm had sacrificed.

He saw a blemish in her eye when he led her away

To al-'Uzza’s slaughter-place 2 and divided her into goodly portions.

Their practice when they sacrificed was to divide the victim among the
worshippers present. Ghabghab was the slaughter-place where the blood
was poured out (71).

[Azr. i. 74: 'Amr b. Lu’ayy put al-'Uzza in Nakhla, and when they had
finished their hajj and the circumambulation of the Ka'ba they continued
to be under taboo until they came to al-'Uzza and had gone round it; there
they abandoned the pilgrim taboo and stayed a day beside it. It belonged
to Khuza'a. All Quraysh and B. Kinana used to venerate al-'Uzza along
with Khuza'a, and all Mudar. Her sadins who used to guard ( hajab ) her
were B. Shayban of B. Sulaym, allies of B. Hashim. Cf. I.H. 839.]

Al-Lat belonged to Thaqif in Ta’if, her overseers and guardians being
B. Mu'attib 3 of Thaqif.

Manat was worshipped by al-Aus and al-Khazraj and such of the people

1 The poem in which this line occurs is to be found in W. 17 j v.i.

1 Ghabghab. 3 Al-Kalbi says the B. *Itab b. Malik.

The Life of Muhammad 39

°im' "Tm f followed 'heir religion by the sea-shore in the direction of
al-Mushallal in Qudayd (72). 1

[Azr.1 73. Amr b. Lu’ayy set up Manat on the sea-shore near Qudayd
Azd and Ghassan went on pilgrimage to it and revered it. When they had
made the compass of the Ka'ba and hastened from 'Arafat and completed
the rites at Mina they did not shave their hair until they got to Manat to
whom they would cry Labbayki. Those who did so did not go roiind
between al-Safa and al-Marwa to the place of the two idols Nahlk Mujawid
al-Rih and Mut im al-Jayr. This clan of the Ansar used to begin the
ceremony by hailing Manat, and when they went on the great or little
pilgrimage they would not go under the shelter of a roof until they had
completed it. When a man was under taboo as a pilgrim (ahrama) he would
not enter his house; if he needed something in it he would climb the wall
behind his house so that the door should not cover his head. When God
brought Islam and destroyed the doings of paganism He sent down con¬
cerning that: Piety does not consist in entering your houses from the rear

^, fear ! ng p°. d (*• i8 5 )’ Manat belonged to al-Aus and al-Khazraj
and Ghassan of al-Azd and such of the population of Yathrib and Syria
who followed their religion. Manat was on the sea-shore in the neighbour¬
hood of al-Mushallal in Qudayd.] 6

Dhu’l-Khalasa belonged to Daus, Khath'am, and Bajlla and the Arabs in 56
eir area in Tabala (73). [Azr. 1. 73: 'Amr b. Lu’ayy set up al-Khalasa in
the lower part of Mecca They used to put necklaces on it, and bring gifts
of barley and wheat. They poured milk on it, sacrificed to it, and hung
ostrich eggs on it. Amr set up an image on al-Safa called Nahlk Mujawid
al-Kih, and one on al-Marwa called Mut'im al-Tayr ]

Fab belonged to Jayyi' and those hard by in the two mountains of
layyi, Salma and Aja (74).

Ijhmyar and the Yamanites had a temple in San'a’ called Ri’am hz)

Ruda was a temple of B. Rabl'a b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Zayd Manat b.
Tarnim. Al-Mustaughir b. Rabi'a b. Ka'b b. Sa'd when he destroyed it in
tne time of Islam said:

I smashed Ruda’ so completely that
I left it a black ruin in a hollow (76).

Dhu’l-Ka'abat belonged to Bakr and Taghlib the two sons of Wa’il and 57
Iyad in Sindad. 3 Of it A'sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba said:

Between al-Khawarnaq 4 and al-Sadlr and Bariq
And the temple Dhu’l-Ka'abat 5 of Sindad (77).

“ ,he pil - m —

About seven nights’ journey from Mecca.

3 The lower district of the sawad of Kufa north of Najran.

■ o! l " ra is s,id '° have bui " fot ^

40

The Life of Muhammad

THE BAHlRA, SA’lBA, WASlLA, AND HAMl

The Bahlra is the filly of the Sa’iba: the Sa’iba is the she camel which gives
birth to ten fillies without an intervening colt. She is set free, is never
ridden, her hair is not shorn, and only a guest is allowed to drink her milk.
If she gives birth to a filly after that its ear is split and it is allowed to go its
way with its mother, not ridden, hair unshorn, and only a guest may drink
her milk as in the case of her mother. Such is the Bahira, the filly of the
Sa’iba. The Waslla is an ewe which has ten twin ewes in successive births
without a male lamb intervening. She is made a Waslla. They use the
expression zvasalat. Any ewes which she gives birth to after that belong to
the males, except that if one of them dies all share in eating it, both males
and females (78).

The Harm is a stallion who is the sire of ten successive fillies without an
intervening colt. His back is taboo and he is not ridden; his hair is not
shorn and he is left to run among the camels to mount them. Beyond that
no use is made of him (79).

58 When God sent his apostle Muhammad he revealed to him: ‘God has
not made Bahira, or Sa’iba or Waslla or Hami, but those who disbelieve
invent a lie against God, though most of them do not know it.’ 1 And again:
‘They say, What is in the wombs of these sheep is reserved for our males
and prohibited to our wives; but if it is (born) dead they share in it. He
will repay them for such division, verily He is knowing and wise.’ 2 Again:
‘Say, have you considered what provision God has sent down to you and
you have made some of it taboo and some of it permitted ? Say, has God
given you permission or do you invent lies against God?’ 3 And again: ‘Of
the sheep two and of the goats two. Say, has He prohibited the tvyo males
or the two females, or what the wombs of the two females contain ? Inform
me with knowledge if you speak the truth. And of the camels two and of
the cattle two. Say, has He prohibited to you the two males or the two
females, or that which the wombs of the two females contain, or were you
witnesses when God enjoined this upon you? Who is more sinful than
those who invent a lie against God to make men err without knowledge?
Verily God will not guide the wrong-doing people’ (80). 4

5g CONTINUATION OF THE GENEALOGIES 5

Khuza'a say: We are the sons of 'Amr b. 'Amir from the Yaman (81).

60 Mudrika b. al-Ya’s had two sons, Khuzayma and Hudhayl, their mother
being a woman of Quda'a. Khuzayma had four sons: Kinana, Asad, Asada,
and al-Hun. Kinana’s mother was 'Uwana d. Sa'd b. Qays b. 'Avian b.
Mudar (82).

• Sura 5. 102.

• Sura 6. 144. 5.

1 Sura 6. 140. 3 Sura 10. 60.

5 Carrying on from p. 50 of W.’s text.

The Life of Muhammad ^

Kinana had four sons; al-Nadr, Malik, 'Abdu Manat, and Milkan
Nadr s mother was Barra d. Murr b. Udd b. Tabikha b. al-Ya’s b Mudar-
the other sons were by another woman (83). ' ’

It is said that Quraysh got their name from their gathering together after 6.
taqarrul ^ Separated ’ for S atherin S together may be expressed by

Al-Nadr b. Kinana had two sons, Malik and Yakhlud. Malik's mother
was At.ka d.Adwan b 'Amr b. Qays b. 'Aylan, but I do not know whether
she was Lakhlud s mother or not (84).

r-vIk ^ e ? at u Fih : b - his ™ther being Jandala d.

anth b. Mudad al-Jurhumi (85). (T. There was war between Fihr T. 1102
and Hassan b. Abdu Kalal b. Mathub DhQ Hurath al-Himyari who had
come from the Yaman with the tribesmen meaning to take back to Yaman
the stones of the Ka'ba so as to divert the pilgrimage to the Yaman. He
got as far as Nakhla, raided cattle, and closed the roads, but he was afraid
to enter Mecca. When Quraysh, Kinana, Khuzayma, Asad, and Judham
and other unknown elements of Mudar perceived this they marched against
t em under the leadership of Fihr b. Malik. A sharp engagement followed
in which Himyar were defeated and Hassan was taken prisoner by Fihr’s
* Among those killed in battle was his grandson Qays b
Ohahb b. Fihr. Hassan remained a prisoner for two years until he paid his
ransom. He was then released and died on the way to the Yaman )

Fihr begat four sons: Ghalib, Muharib, al-Iiarith r and Asad, their
mother being Layla d. Sa'd b. Hudhayl b. Mudrika (86)

Ghalib b Fihr had two sons, Lu’ayy and Taym, their mother being 6z
balma d. Amr al-khuza'i. Taym were called the Banu’l-Adram (87).

Lu ayy b. Ghalib had four sons: Ka'b, 'Amir, Sama, and 'Auf- the
mother of the first three was Mawiya d. Ka'b b. al-Qayn b. Jasr of Quda'a
( 88 ). ' '

THE STORY OF SAMA *

03

_ama b. Lu ayy went forth to 'Uman and remained there. It is said that
nur b. Lu ayy drove him out because there was a quarrel between them
and Sama knocked out 'Amir’s eye. In fear of 'Amir he went to 'Uman.

1 he story goes that while Sama was riding on his she-camel she lowered

vJ Th K IT is at / ault somewhere. I.I.’s comment follows naturally on what has cone

c a nt rC> ^ ha T°S m / t 0 i° W,th What he ' S last re P° rte d as having written. The signifi¬
cant words are al-Nadr is Quraysh’; but these are attributed to I.H.and neither W nor C

i ava T mreadingqdiaimuhhdq - wecanat ^ be that W h«

I.L had m tell us about the ongtn of ‘Quraysh’ is.not to be found in the Sira as it stands
though 1 ab. makes another attempt in his quotation from the lost passages of I [ They
were named after Quraysh b. Badr b. Yakhlud b. al-ldarith b. Yakhlud b. al-Nadr b Kinana

the Ar a abs Ca sIid ^ThY sham^fn ' pUt , t0 . shame the 13 ' ai ' Nadr ' Whenever they appeared
n Arabs said The shame of Quraysh has come.’ T. goes on (1.04) to give the right

ss:'!:taArXr“" s sh,rk ' >“»*- --»>■«k.

42 The Life of Muhammad

her head to graze and a snake seized her by the lip and forced her down¬
wards until she fell on her side. Then the snake bit Sama so that he died.
The story goes that when Sama felt death upon him he said :

Eye, weep for Sama b. Lu’ayy.

The clinging snake has clung to Sama’s leg. 1
Never have I seen such a victim of a camel
As Sama b. Lu’ayy when they came upon him.

Send word to 'Amir and Ka'b,

That my soul yearneth for them.

Though my home be in 'Uman

I am a GhalibI, I came forth not driven by poverty.

Many a cup hast thou spilt, O b. Lu’ayy,

For fear of death, which otherwise would not have been spilt.

Thou didst wish to avoid death, O b. Lu’ayy,

But none has power to avoid death.

Many a camel silent on night journeys didst thou leave prostrate 2
After its prodigious exertion (89).

THE MIGRATION OF *AUF B. LU’AYY

It is alleged that 'Auf b. Lu’ayy went out with a caravan of Quraysh as far
as the district of Ghatafan b. Sa'd b. Qays b. 'Aylan when he was left
behind and his tribesmen w r ent on without him. Tha'laba b. Sa'd (he
64 being his brother according to the kindred reckoning of B. Dhubyan,
Tha'laba b. Sa'd b. Dhubyan b. Baghid b. Rayth b. Ghatafan and 'Auf b.
Sa'd b. Dhubyan b. Baghid b. Rayth b. Ghatafan) came to him, bound him
to himself, gave him a wife, and took him into his tribe as a blood-brother.
His relationship became well known among B. Dhubyan. It was Tha'laba,
they say, who said to 'Auf when he lagged behind and his tribe abandoned
him:

Tether your camel by me, O Ibn Lu’ayy.

Your tribe has left you and you have no home. 3

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr, or it may have been Muhammad b.
'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Abdullah b. Husayn, told me that 'Umar b. al-Khattab
said: ‘If I were to claim to belong to any tribe of the Arabs or to want to
attach them to us I would claim to belong to B. Murra b. 'Auf. We know
that among them there are men like ourselves. We know, too, w r here that
man went,’ meaning 'Auf b. Lu’ayy. In the genealogy of Ghatafan he is

1 So C. following al-Aghani.

2 The dour, plodding beast that treads on through the night without uttering a sound.

3 Reading manzil with Tab. and MS. D in W.’s numeration. This is the best MS. used
by W., and it is strange that he should have abandoned it for the reading matrak ‘ought not
to be left’ of the majority of inferior texts. However, the latter is supported by Mufadtf,

p. 101.

The Life of Mohammad 43

Nurra b. 'Auf b. Sa'd b. Dhubyan b. Baghid b. Rayth b. Ghatafan. If this
genealogy is mentioned to them they themselves say, ‘We do not deny or
contest it; it is our most prized genealogy.’

Al-Harith b. Zalim b. Jadhlma b. Yarbu'—one of B. Murra b. 'Auf—
when he fled from al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir and clave to Quraysh said:

My tribe is not Tha'laba b. Sa'd
Nor Fazara the long-haired.

My tribe if you must ask is the Banu Lu’ayy.

In Mecca they taught Mudar to fight.

We were foolish in following the Banu Baghid
And leaving our next-of-kin and family.

’Tw'as the folly of the water-seeker who, his fill drunk,

Throw's away the water and goes after a mirage.

’Od’s life if I had my way I should be with them
And not be found seeking pasture from place to place.

Rawaha the Qurayshite mounted me on his camel
And sought no reward for it (90).

Al-Husayn b. al-Humam al-Murri, one of B. Sahm b. Murra, said, 65
refuting al-Harith b. Zalim and claiming to belong to Ghatafan:

Lo, you are not of us and we have nought to do with you.

We repudiate relationship with Lu’ayy b. Ghalib.

We dwell on the proud heights of al-Hijaz while you
Are in the verdant 1 plain between the two mountains,

meaning Quraysh. Afterwards al-Husayn repented of what he had said
and recognized the truth of the words of al-Harith b. Zalim. He claimed
to belong to Quraysh and, accusing himself of falsehood, he said:

I repent of what I said before:

I realize that it was the speech of a liar.

Would that my tongue were in tw r o,

Half of it dumb and the other half singing your praise. 2
Our father a KinanI, in Mecca is his grave,

In the verdant 1 plain of al-Batha’ between the mountains.

We own a fourth of the sanctuary as an inheritance
And a fourth of the plains by the house of Ibn Hatib,

meaning that the B. Lu’ayy w T ere four: Ka'b, 'Amir, Sama, and 'Auf.

A person whom I cannot suspect told me that 'Umar b. al-Khattab said
to men of B. Murra: ‘If you wish to return to your kindred do so.’ 3
The tribe were nobles among Ghatafan; they were their chiefs and

1 Or ‘contested’. 2 Lit. 'in the course of the stars’.

3 The importance of the genealogical tables is bound up with the control of pay and
pensions. It was 'Umar who ordered that registers should be compiled. See Sprenger,

Das Leben d. Mohammad, III, exx fF.

44 The Life of Muhammad

leaders. Of them were Harim b. Sinan b. Abu Haritha b. Murra b. Nush-
ba; Kharija b. Sinan b. Abu Haritha; al-Harith b. 'Auf; al-Husayn b. al-
Humam; and Hashim b. Harmala of whom someone has said:

Hashim b. Harmala revived his father 1
On the day of al-Haba’at and the day of al-Ya'mala 2
You could see the kings slain beside him
As he slew the guilty and the innocent (91). 3

They were a people of a lively reputation among Ghatafan and Qays,
and they retained their relationship with them. Among them the practice
of Basl obtained. 4

66 According to reports Basl is the name given to eight months of the year
which the Arabs unreservedly regard as sacred. During those months they
may go wherever they like without fear of violence. Zuhayr b. Abu Sulma
said with reference to B. Murra (92):

Think! If they are not in al-Marurat in their dwellings
Then they will be in NakhI, 5
A place where I have enjoyed their fellowship.

If they are in neither then they will be at large during the Basl.

He means that they will be travelling during the holy period.

al-A'sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba said: 6

Is your woman guest to be taboo to us

While our woman guest and her husband are open to you?

67 Ka'b b. Lu’ayy had three sons: Murra, 'Adiy, and Husays, their mother
being Wahshlya d. Shayban b. Muharib b. Fihr b. Malik b. Nadr.

Murra b. Ka'b had three sons: Kilab, Taym, and Yaqaza. Kilab’s
mother was Hind d. Surayr b. Tha'laba b. al-Harith b. Fihr b. Malik b.
al-Nadr b. Kinana b. Khuzayma; Yaqaza’s mother was al-Bariqiya, a
woman of Bariq of the Asd of Yaman. Some say she was the mother of
Taym; others say Tayrn’s mother was Hind d. Surayr the mother of
Kilab (93).

Kilab b. Murra had two sons: Qusayy and Zuhra, their mother being
Fatima d. Sa'd b. Sayal one of B. Jadara of Ju'thuma of al-Azd of Yaman
allies of B. Dil b. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana (94).

68 Of Sa'd b. Sayal the poet says:

Never among men whom we know have we seen
A man like Sa'd b. Sayal.

1 He brought him to life as it were by taking revenge on his slayers.

2 Two famous battles. 3 i.e. he was not afraid of incurring a blood feud.

4 I have removed the chapter heading ‘The Basl ’ because it is a mere paragraph interpo¬
lated in the genealogy which has no heading to indicate where it is resumed.

s Either a place in Nejd, belonging to Ghatafan, or a place two nights’ journey from
Medina. Shark Diu'dn Zuhayr , Cairo, 1944, 100.

6 ed. Geyer, p. 123, 1 . 14.

The Life of Muhammad 45

Weapon in either hand full of vigour he rode
Dismounting to fight the dismounted on foot;

Charging he carried the enemy’s horsemen with him

As the swooping hawk carries the partridge in its claws '(95).

Qusayy b. Kilab had four sons and two daughters: 'Abdu Manaf,
'Abdu’l-Dar, 'Abdu’I-'Uzza, and 'Abdu Qusayy; and Takhmur and Barra.
Their mother was Hubba d. Hulayl b. Habashlya b. Salul b. Ka'b b.
'Amr al-Khuza'i (96).

'Abdu Manaf whose name was al-Mughira b. Qusayy had four sons:
Hashim, 'Abdu Shams, al-Muttalib, their mother being 'Atika d. Murra b.
Hilal b. Falij b. Dhakwan b. Tha'laba b. Buhtha b. Sulaym b. Mansur b.
'Ikrima; and Naufal, whose mother was Waqida d. 'Amr al-Mazinlya, i.e.
Mazin b. Mansur b. 'Ikrima (97).

THE DIGGING OF THE WELL ZAMZAM

While 'Abdu’I-Muttalib was sleeping in the sacred enclosure he had a
vision in which he was ordered to dig Zamzam which is a depression
between the two idols of Quraysh, Isaf and Na’ila, at the slaughter-place of
Quraysh. Jurhum had filled it in at the time they left Mecca. It is the
well of Ishmael the son of Abraham where God gave him water when he
was thirsty as a little child. His mother went to seek water for him and
could not find it, so she went up to al-Safa praying to God and imploring
aid for Ishmael; then she went to al-Marwa and did the same. God sent
Gabriel, who hollowed out a place in the earth with his heel where water
appeared. His mother heard the cries of wild beasts which terrified her on
his account, and she came hurrying towards him and found him scrabbling
with his hand at the water beneath his cheek the while he drank, and she
made him a small hole. 1

JURHUM AND THE FILLING IN OF THE WELL ZAMZAM

The story of Jurhum, of their filling in Zamzam, of their leaving Mecca,
and of those who ruled Mecca after them until 'Abdu’I-Muttalib dug Zam-
zarp, according to what Ziyad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka’i told me on the
authority of Muhammed b. Ishaq al-Muttalibi, is that when Ishmael the
son of Abraham died, his son Nabit was in charge of the temple as long as
God willed, then it was in charge of Mudad b. 'Amr al-Jurhumi (98). The
sons of Ishmael and the sons of Nabit were with their grandfather Mudad
b, ‘Amr and their maternal uncles of Jurhum—Jurhum and Qatura* who
were cousins being at that time the people of Mecca. They had come forth
from the Yaman and travelled together and Mudad was over Jurhum and

1 The narrative is continued on p. 91.

46 The Life of Muhammad

Samayda', one of their men, over Qatura’. When they left the Y aman, they
refused to go unless they had a king to order their affairs. A hen they came

72 to Mecca they saw a town blessed with water and trees and, delighted with
it, they settled there. Mudad b. 'Amr with the men of Jurhum settled in
the upper part of Mecca in Qu'ayqi'an and went no farther. Samayda'
with Qatura’ settled in the lower part of Mecca in Ajyad the lower part of
Mecca, and went no farther. Mudad used to take a tithe from those who
entered Mecca from above, while Samayda' did the same to those who
entered from below. Each 'kept to his own people, neither entering the
other’s territory.

Then Jurhum and Qatura’ quarrelled and contended for the supremacy
in Mecca; at that time Mudad had with him the sons of Ishmael and Nabit,
and he had the oversight of the temple as against Samayda'. They went out
to fight each other, Mudad from Qu ayqi an with his horsemen making for
Samayda' equipped with spears, leather shields, swords and quivers,
rattling as they charged. It is said that Qu'ayqi'an was so named for that
reason. Samayda' went out from Ajyad with horse and foot, and it is said
Ajyad got its name from the fine horses ( jiyad ) that formed Samayda s
cavalry'. 1 The two parties met in Fadih, and after a severe battle Samayda*
was killed and Qatura’ humiliated. It is said that the name Fadih was gi\en
for this reason. Then the people clamoured for peace and went on until
they reached al-Matabikh, a ravine above Mecca; there they made peace
and surrendered authority to Mudad. W hen he was in power and held
sovereignty he slaughtered beasts for the people and gave them as food.
The people cooked and ate, and that is why the place is called Matabikli.
Some learned people allege that the name was given because d ubba had
slaughtered there and given the food away and it was his base. The dispute
between Mudad and Samayda' w'as the first open wrong committed in
Mecca, at least so some allege.

Then God multiplied the offspring of Ishmael in Mecca and their uncles
from Jurhum were rulers of the temple and judges in Mecca. The sons of
Ishmael did not dispute their authority because of their ties of kindred and
their respect for the sanctuary lest there should be quarrelling or fighting
therein. When Mecca became too confined for the sons of Ishmael they
spread abroad in the land, and whenever they had to fight a people, God
gave them the victory through their religion and they subdued them.

73 THE TRIBES OF KINANA AND KIIUZA A (JET POSSESSION

OF THE TEMPLE AND EXPEL JURHUM

Afterwards Jurhum behaved high-handedly in Mecca and made lawfful
that which w-as taboo. Those who entered the town who were not of their
tribe they treated badly and they appropriated gifts which had been made

1 The Cairo editors rightly reject this etymology: ajyad is the plural of }td, neck.

The Life of Muhammad 47

to the Ka ba so that their authority weakened. When B. Bakr b ' 4 bdu
Manat b. Kinana and Ghubshan of Khuzaa perceived that, the™
together to do battle and drive them out of Mecca. War was declared and
in the fighting B. Bakr and Ghubshan got the upper hand and expelled
them from Mecca. Now in the time of paganism Mecca did not tolerate
injustice and wrong within its borders and if anyone did wrong therein it
expelled him; therefore it was called 'the Scorcher’, 1 and any king who
came to profane its sanctity died on the spot. It is said that it was called
Bakka because it used to break 2 the necks of tyrants when they introduced
innovations therein (99).

Amr b. al-Harith b. Mudad al-Jurhaml brought out the two gazelles of
the Ka ba and the corner-stone and buried them in the well Zamzam
going away with the men of Jurhum to the Yaman. They were bitterly
grieved at losing the kingship of Mecca, and the above-named 'Amr said:

Many a woman crying bitterly,

Her eyes swollen with weeping, said

’Tis as though between al-Hajun 3 and al-Safa there was

No friend and none to beguile the night’s long hours jn Mecca.

I said to her, while my heart within me palpitated
As though a bird fluttered between my ribs:

Of a surety we were its people,

And grievous misfortunes have brought us to nought;

We were the lords of the temple after Nabit,

We used to go round the temple
Our prosperity plain to see.

We were in charge of the temple after Nabit in glory 7

And the man of plenty did not count with us.

We reigned in power, how great was our rule!

No other tribe there could boast.

Did you not marry a daughter to the best man I know? 4
His sons are ours, we being brothers by marriage.’

If the world turned against us

The world ever brings painful changes.

God 5 drove us out by force; thus, O men,

Does destiny pursue its way.

I say when the carefree sleep, and I do not sleep,

‘Lord of the throne, let not Suhayl and 'Amir perish!’

I was forced to look upon faces I do not like:

The tribes of Himyar and Yuhabir.

We became a legend after having been in prosperity.

That is what the passing years did to us.

1 al-Nassa.

3 A mountain above Mecca.

5 al-malik presumably refers to the divine King.

2 From the verb bakka, he broke.
4 i-c. Ishmael.

48

The Life of Muhammad

The tears flow, weeping for a town
Wherein is a sure sanctuary and the sacred places.

Weeping for a temple whose doves unharmed,

Dwell safely there, with flocks of sparrows.

Wild creatures there are tame, unharried,

But leaving its sanctuary are hunted freely (ioo).

'Amr b. al-Harith, remembering Bakr and Ghubshan and the townsmen
of Mecca whom they had left behind there, said also:

Journey forth, O men; the time will come
When one day you will not be able to leave.

Hasten your beasts and loosen their reins,

Before death comes; and do what you must do.

We were men like you; fate changed us
And you will be as we once were (ioi).

THE DESPOTISM OF KHUZa'a IN THEIR CUSTODY OF
THE TEMPLE

Then Ghubshan of Khuza'a controlled the temple instead of B. Bakr b.
'Abd Manat, the man who was controlling it being 'Amr b. al-Harith al-
GhubshanT. Quraysh at that time were in scattered settlements, and tents
dispersed among their people, B. Kinana. So Khuza'a possessed the temple,
passing it on from son to son until the last of them, Hulayl b. Habashtya b.
Salul b. Ka'b b. 'Amr al-Khuza I (102).

THE MARRIAGE OF QUSAYY B. KILAB WITH HUBBA
daughter OF HULAYL

Ousavv b. Kilab asked Hulayl b. Hubshiya for his daughter Hubba. Hulayl
agreed and gave her to him and she bare him 'Abd al-Dar, Abd Manaf,
Abdu’l-'Uzza, and 'Abd. By the time that the children of Qusayy had
spread abroad and increased in wealth and reputation Hulayl died. Nov/
Qusayy thought that he had a better claim than Khuza'a and B. Bakr to
control the ka'ba and Mecca, and that Quraysh were the noblest off¬
spring of Ishmael b. Abraham and the purest descendants of his sons.
He spoke to Quraysh and B. Kinana asking them to drive out Khuza a
and B. Bakr from Mecca and they agreed to do so.

Now Rabi'a b. Haram of 'Udhra b. Sa'd b. Zayd had come to Mecca
after the death of Kilab and had married Fatima d. Sa'd b. Sayal. (Zuhra

1 Or "houses’.

The Life of Muhammad 49

at that time was a grown man and stayed behind, while Qu?ayy had just
been weaned.) Rabi'a took Fatima away to his land and she carried Qusayy
with her, and subsequently gave birth to Rizah. When Qu?ayy reached
man’s estate he came to Mecca and dwelt there.

Thus it was that when his people asked him to join them in the war he
wrote to his brother Rizah, who shared the same mother, asking him to
come and support him. Thereupon Rizah set out accompanied by his half-
brothers Hunn, Mahmud, and Julhuma, all sons of Rabi'a but not by
Fatima, together with a number of Quda'a among the Arab pilgrims, having 76
agreed to support Qusayy.

Khuza'a allege that Hulayl b. Hubshiya had enjoined this on Qusayy
when he saw how his daughter’s children had multiplied, saying: ‘You
have a better right to the Ka'ba and to rule in Mecca than Khuza'a’, so that
this was the reason why Qusayy acted as he did. But this is a story which
we have not heard from any other source, and only God knows the truth.

(f. When the people had assembled in Mecca and gone to the mauqif
completed the hajj and come down to Mina, Qusayy assembled his posses¬
sions and his followers from his own tribe of Quraysh, the B. Kinana, and
such of the Quda'a as were with him, there only remained the ceremony of
dismissal.) 1

AL-GHAUTH’S AUTHORITY OVER MEN ON PILGRIMAGE

Al-Ghauth b. Murr b. Udd b. al-Ya’s b. Mudar used to give permission 2
to men on pilgrimage to leave 'Arafa, and this function descended to his
children after him. He and his sons used to be called Sufa. 3 Al-Ghauth
used to exercise this function because his mother was a woman of Jurhum
who had been barren and vowed to Allah that if she bore a son she would
give him to the Ka'ba as a slave to serve it and to look after it. In course of
time she gave birth to al-Ghauth and he used to look after the Ka'ba in
early times with his Jurhum uncles and presided over the order of departure
from 'Arafa because of the office which he held in the Ka'ba. His sons
carried on the practice until they were cut off.

1 T, 1095. 12-15. The narrative goes on with the words: ‘$ufa used to send the people
away’—W. 76. 17.

2 ‘It seems possible that the Ijaza or “permission”, i.e, the word of command that termi¬

nates the viociif, was originally the permission to fall upon the slaughtered victims. In the
Meccan pilgrimage the Ijaza which terminated the tvocuf at 'Arafa was the signal for a hot
race to the neighbouring sanctuary of Mozdalifa, where the sacred fire of the god Cozalj
burned; it was, in fact, not so much the permission to leave 'Arafa as to draw near to Cozafc.
The race itself is called Ifaja, which may mean “dispersion” or “distribution”. It cannot well
mean the former, for ‘Arafa is not holy ground, but merely the point of assemblage just
outside the at which the ceremonies began, and the station at 'Arafa is only the

preparation for the vigil at Mozdalifa. On the other hand, if the meaning is “distribution”
the Ifatja answers to the rush of Nilus’s Saracens to partake of the sacrifice.' W.R.S., R.S.
341 f. Cf. Wellh. 82; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 260.

s The meaning of this name is obscure.

B 4080

E

The Life of Muhammad

Murr b. Udd, referring to the fulfilment of the mother’s oath, said:

O Lord, I have made one of my sons
A devotee in Mecca the exalted.

So bless me for the vow fulfilled,

And make him the best of creatures to my credit.

Al-Ghauth, so they allege, used to say when he sent the people away:

O God I am following the example of others.

If that is wrong the fault is Quda a s.

Yahva b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father 'Abbad said:
Sufa used to send the people away from 'Arafa and give them permission
to depart when they left Mina. When the day of departure arrived they
used to come to throw pebbles, and a man of Sufa used to throw or e
men, none throwing until he had thrown. Those who had urgent usmess
77 used to come and say to him: ‘Get up and throw so that we may throw with
you,’ and he would say, ‘No, by God, not until the sun goes down ; and
those who wanted to leave quickly used to throw stones at him to hurry
him, saying, ‘Confound you, get up and throw.’ But he refused until the
sun went down and then he would get up and throw while the men threw

stones with him. _ G _ f ,i»

When they had finished the stoning and wanted to leave Mina, Sufa
both sides of the hill and kept the men back. They said: ‘Chve th e order to
depart, Sufa.’ No one left until they had gone first When Sufa left an
had passed on, men were left to go their own way and followed them.. 1 his
was the practice until they were cut off. After them the next o _ n in¬
herited. They were of B. Sa'd in the family of Safwan b. al-Harith b.
Shiina (103). It was Safwan who gave permission to the pilgrims to depart
from ‘Arafa, and this right was maintained by them up to Islam, the as

being Karib b. Safwan.

Aus b. Tamlm b. Maghra’ al-Sa'dl said:

The pilgrims do not quit their halting-place at Arafa^

Until it is said, ‘Give permission O family of Safwan.

'adwan and the departure ceremony at

MUZDALIFA

Hurthan b. 'Amr the ‘Adwanite who was called Dhu’l-Isba' because he
had a finger missing said:

Bring an excuse for the tribe of 'Adwan. 1
They were the serpents of the earth. 2

• i.e. ‘for whit they have done the one to the other’. They were rent by civil Mr. See
  Causa in de Perceval, Essai sur Vhistoire des Arabet, ii. 262.
  a i.e. ‘cunning and treacherous .

The Life of Muhammad 51

Some acted unlawfully against others
And some spared not others.

Some of them were princes

Who faithfully met their obligations.

Some used to give men the parting signal
By custom and divine command.

Of them was a judge who gave decisions
And his verdict was never annulled.

Since the permission to depart from Muzdalifa was with ‘Adwan, as 78
Ziyad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka’i told me on the authority of Muhammad b.
Ishaq, they used to pass it on from father to son until the last of them when
Islam came, Abu Sayyara 'Umayla b. al-A'zal, about whom a certain poet
said:

We have defended Abu Sayyara
And his clients the Banu Fazara
Until he made his ass pass through safely
As he faced Mecca praying to its Guardian,

Abu Sayyara used to send away the people while sitting upon a she ass of
his; that is why he says ‘making his ass pass safely’. 1

‘Amir b. zarib b. ‘amr b.'iyadh b. yashkur b. 'adwan

His words ‘a judge who gave decisions’ refers to the above-named. The
Arabs used to refer every serious and difficult case to him for decision and
would accept his verdict. Once it happened that a case in dispute in
reference to a hermaphrodite was brought to him. They said, ‘Are we to
treat it as a man or a woman ?’ They had never brought him such a difficult
matter before, so he said, ‘Wait awhile until I have looked into the matter,
for by Allah you have never brought me a question like this before.’ So
they agreed to wait, and he passed a sleepless night turning the matter over
and looking at it from all sides without any result. Now he had a slave-girl
Sukhayla who used to pasture his flock. It was his habit to tease her when
she went out in the morning by saying sarcastically, ‘You’re early this
morning, Sukhayla’; and when she returned at night he would say, ‘You’re
late to-night, Sukhayla,’ because she had gone out late in the morning and
come back late in the evening after the others. Now when this girl saw that
he could not sleep and tossed about on his bed she asked what his trouble
was. ‘Get out and leave me alone, for it is none of your business,’ he
retorted. However, she was so persistent that he said to himself that it
might be that she would provide him with some solution of his problem, so
he said: ‘Well then, I was asked to adjudicate on the inheritance of a

1 In this section the work of 1 . 1 . and I.H. are not clearly distinguished. Probably the
first poem comes from the former and the comments from the latter.

52 The Life of Muhammad

79 hermaphrodite. Am I to make him a man or a woman By God I do not

know what to do and I can see no way out. She said, Good God, merely
follow the course of the urinatory process. 1 ‘Be as late as you please h
forth, Sukhayla; you have solved my problem, 1 said he. Then in the '
ing he went out to the people and gave his decision in the way s

indicated.

HOW QUSAYY B. KILAB GAINED POWER IN MECCA;

HOW HE UNITED QURAYSH AND THE HELP WHICH
QUDA'A GAVE HIM

In that year Sufa behaved as they were accustomed. The Arabs had borne
them patiently since they felt it a duty in the time of Jurhum and Khuza a
when tfiey were in authority. Qusayy came to them with his tribesmen
from Quraysh and Kin^na and Quda'a at al-'Aqaba saying, We have a
better right to this authority than you.’ (T* They disputed one with
another Sid they tried to kill him.) Severe fighting followed resulting in
the defeat of Sufa, and Qusayy assumed their authority. .

Thereupon Khuza'a and B. Bakr withdrew from Qusajj knowing
he would impose the same restrictions on them as Sufa had done and that
he would come between them and the Ka'ba and the rule of Mecca. e
they had withdrawn, Qusayy showed his hostility and gathered his forces to

fight them. (T. His brother Rizah b. Rabi a with his men from Qu.
stood with him.) Khuza'a and B. Bakr came out against him and a severe
battle took place in the valley of Mecca and both parties suffered heavily
Thereupon they agreed to make peace and that one of the Ara ss
arbitrate between them. They appointed as umpire Tamar b Auf b.
Ka 'b b. 'Amir b. Layth b. Bakr b. ‘Abdu Manat b. Kinana. His verdict
was that Qu§ayy had a better claim to the Ka'ba and to rule Mecca than
Khuza'a and that all blood shed by Qusayy was to be cancelled andcom-
80 pensation disregarded, but Khuza'a and B. Bakr must pay bloodwit: for the
men of Quraysh, Kinana, and Quda a whom they had killed and that
Qusayy should be given a free hand with the Ka'ba and Mecca. Ya mar b.
<Auf was immediately called al-Shaddakh because he had cancelled the

claim to bloodwit and remitted it (104). . v t

Thus Qusayy gained authority over the temple and Mecca and brought
inlu peop™ their dwellings to Mecca. He behaved as a king over
his tribe and the people of Mecca, and so they made him king; but he
had guaranteed to the Arabs their customary rights because he te t
that iTwas a duty upon himself which he had not the right to alter,
he confirmed the family of Safwan and 'Adwan and the intercalates and
Murra b. 'Auf in their customary rights which obtained until t e c ° mm S

of Islam when God put an end thereby to them all. Qusayy was the rs o

1 The point was important because a male received double as much as a female.

The Life of Muhammad 53

B. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy to assume kingship and to be obeyed by his people as
king. He held the keys of the temple, the right to "water the pilgrims from
the well of Zamzam, to feed the pilgrims, to preside at assemblies, and to
hand out the war banners. In his hands lay all the dignities of Mecca; he
divided the town into quarters among his people and he settled all the
Quraysh into their houses in Mecca which they held.

People assert that the Quraysh were afraid to cut down the trees of the
sanctuary in their quarters, but Qusayy cut them down with his own hand
or through his assistants. Quraysh called him the ‘uniter’ because he had
brought them together and they drew a happy omen from his rule. So far
as Quraysh wtre concerned no woman was given in marriage, no man
married, no discussion about public affairs was held, and no banner
of war was entrusted to anyone except in his house, where one of his sons
would hand it over. When a girl reached marriageable age she had to come
to his house to put on her shift. The shift was split over her head in his
house, then she put it on and was taken away to her people. 1 His authority
among the Quraysh during his life and after his death was like a religious
law which could not be infringed. He chose for himself the house of meet¬
ing and made a door which led to the mosque of the Ka'ba; in it the
Quraysh used to settle their affairs (105).

'Abdu’l-Malik b. Rashid told me that his father said that he heard al-
Sa’ib b. Khabbab, author of al-Maqsura, reporting that he heard a man 8i
telling 'Umar b. al-Khattab when he was caliph the story of Qusayy, how
he united Quraysh and expelled Khuza'a and B. Bakr from Mecca, and
how he gained control of the temple and the affairs of Mecca. Umar made
no attempt to gainsay him. (T. Qusayy’s authority in Mecca, where he
enjoyed great esteem, remained uncontested. He left the pilgrimage un¬
changed because he deemed it a religious taboo. The Sufa continued,
until they were cut off, in the family of Safwan b. al-Harith b. Shijna by
right of inheritance, 'Adwan, the Nas’a of B. Malik b. Kinana, and Murra
b. 'Auf continued as before until Islam came and God destroyed all these
offices.)

When Qusayy’s war was over his brother Rizah b. Rabl'a went away to
his own land with his countrymen. Concerning his response to Qusayy he
composed the following poem:

When a messenger came from Qusayy
And said ‘Respond to your friend’s request,’

We sprang to his aid leading our horses,

Casting from us the half-hearted and slow-moving.

We rode all night until the dawn

Hiding ourselves by day lest we should be attacked.

Our steeds were swift as grouse hurrying to water
Bringing our answer to the call of Qusayy.

1 The dtr’ was a large piece of cloth. Normally a woman cuts an opening through which
•he can put her head. She then adds sleeves and sews up the two sides.

54

The Life of Muhammad

We collected tribesmen from Sirr and the two Ashmadhs 1
From every tribe a clan.

What a fine force of cavalry that night,

More than a thousand, swift, smooth-paced!

When they passed by al-'Asjad
And took the easy road from Mustanakh
And passed by the edge of Wariqan
And passed by al-'Arj, a tribe encamped there,

They passed by the thornbushes without cropping them, 2
Running hard the livelong night from Marr.

We brought the colts near their mothers
That their neighing might he gentle,

And when we came to Mecca we
Subdued the men tribe by tribe.

We smote them there with the edge of the sword
And with every stroke we deprived them of their wits.

We trod them down with our horses’ hooves
As the strong tread down the weak and helpless.

We killed Khuza'a in their homeland
And Bakr we killed group by group.

We drove them from God’s land,

We would not let them possess a fertile country.

We kept them bound in iron fetters. 3
On every tribe we quenched our vengeance.

82 Tha'laba b. 'Abdullah b. Dhubyan b. al-Harith b. Sa'd Hudhaym al-
Quda'I said concerning Qusayy’s invitation and their response:

We urged on our slender high-stepping horses
From the sandhills, the sandhills of al-Jinab
To the lowlands of Tihama, and we met our foe
In a barren depression of a desert.

As for Sufa the effeminate,

They forsook their dwellings in fear of the sword.

But the sons of 'All when they saw us

Leaped to their swords like camels that yearn for home.

Qusayy b. Kilab said:

I am the son of the protectors, the B. Lu’ayy,

In Mecca is my home where I grew up.

1 It is disputed whether these are two tribes or two mountains between Medina and
K hay bar.

1 The reading is uncertain; ‘they passed by water without tasting it’, as some MSS. pro¬
pose, is improbable.

• It seema improbable that such a rare and valuable metal would be used for such a pur¬
  pose at thia date.

55

The Life of Muhammad

Mine is 1 the valley as Ma'add knows,

Its Marwa I delight in.

I should not have conquered had not
The sons of Qaydhar and Nablt settled there.

Rizah was my helper and through him I am great,

I fear no injustice as long as I live.

When Rizah was established in his country God increased him and
Hunn in numbers. (They are the two tribes of 'Udhra today.) Now when
he came to his country there had been a matter in dispute between Rizah
on the one hand and Nahd b. Zayd and Hautaka b. Aslum on the other,
they being two clans of Quda'a. He put them in fear so that they clave to
the Yaman and left the Quda'a country' and remain in the Yaman to this
day. Now Qusayy was well disposed to Quda'a and wanted them to in¬
crease and be united in their land because of his kinship with Rizah and
because of their goodwill to him when they responded to his appeal for
help. He disliked what Rizah had done to them and said:

Who will tell Rizah from me
That I blame him on two accounts,

I blame you for the Banu Nahd b. Zayd
Because you drove a wedge between them and me,

And for Hautaka b. Aslum; of a truth

He who treats them badly has badly treated me (106). 83

When Qusayy grew old and feeble, he spoke to 'Abdu’l-Dar. He was
hisYirst born but (T. they say he was weak) 'Abdu Manaf had become
famous during his father’s lifetime and done all that had to be done along
with 'Abdu’l-'Uzza and 'Abd. He said; ‘By God, my son I will put you on a
par with the others; though they have a greater reputation than yours; none
of them shall enter the Ka'ba until you open it for them; none shall give
the Quraysh the war banner but you with your own hand; none shall drink
in Mecca except you allow it; and no pilgrim shall eat food unless you
provide it; and Quraysh shall not decide any matter except in your house.’

He gave him his house, it being the only place where Quraysh could settle
their affairs, and he gave him the formal rights mentioned above.

The Rifada was a tax which Quraysh used to pay from their property to
Qusayy at every festival. With it he used to provide food for the pilgrims
who were unable to afford their own provisions. Qusayy had laid this as a
duty upon Quraysh, saying: ‘You are God’s neighbours, the people of his
temple and sanctuary. The pilgrims are God’s guests and the visitors to
His temple and have the highest claim on your generosity; so provide food
and drink for them during the pilgrimage until they depart out of your
territory.’ Accordingly they used to pay him every year a tax on their
flocks and he used to provide food for the people therefrom, while thev

1 Reading wa-li with Azr. i. 60 for ild in 1 . 1 .

56 The Life of Muhammad

were at Mina, and his people carried out this order of his during the time
of ignorance until Islam came. To this very day it is the food which the
sultan provides every year in Mina until the pilgrimage is over.

My father Ishaq b. Yasar from al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. 'All b. Abu
'J’alib told me about this affair of Qusayy’s and what he said to 'Abdu’l-Dar
concerning the transfer of his power to him in these words, T heard him
saying this to a man of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar called Nubaih b. Wahb b. 'Amir b.

84 Tkrima b. 'Amir b. Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf b. 'Abdu’l-Dar b. Qusayy.’
al-IJasan said: ‘Qusayy gave him all the authority that he had over his
people. Qusayy was never contradicted nor was any measure of his over¬
thrown.’

THE RIFT IN QURAYSH AFTER QUSAYY AND THE
CONFEDERACY OF THE SCENTED ONES

After the death of Qusayy his sons assumed his authority over the people
and marked out Mecca in quarters, after he had allotted space there for his
own tribe. They allotted quarters among their people and among other
allies, and sold them. Quraysh took part in this with them without any
discord or dispute. Then the sons of 'Abdu Manaf—'Abdu Shams and
Hashim and al-Muttalib and Naufal—agreed to seize the rights that the
sons of 'Abdu’l-Dar possessed which Qusayy had given to ‘Abdu’l-Dar
himself, namely those mentioned above. They considered that they had a
better right to them because of their superiority and their position among
their people. This caused dissension among Quraysh, one section siding
with B. 'Abdu Manaf, and the other with B. 'Abdu’l-Dar. The former
held that the new claimants had a better right; the latter that rights which
Qusayy had given to one branch should not be taken away from them.

The leader of B. 'Abdu Manaf was 'Abdu Shams, because he was the
eldest son of his father; and the leader of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar was 'Amir b.
H&shim b. 'Abdu Manaf b. 'Abdu’l-Dar. The B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b.
Qusayy and B. Zuhra b. Kilab and B. Taym b. Murra b. Ka'b and B. al-
H&rith b. Fihr b. Malik b. al-Nadr were with B. 'Abdu Manaf, while with
B. 'Abdu’l-D5r were B. Makhzum b. Yaqaza b. Murra, and B. Sahm b.
'Amr b. Husay? b. Ka'b and B. Jumah b. 'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b and
B. 'Adiyy b. Ka'b. The men who remained neutral were 'Amir b. Lu’ayy
and MuhSrib. b. Fihr.

85 They all made a firm agreement that they would not abandon one
another and would not betray one another as long as the sea wetted sea¬
weed. The B. 'Abdu Man&f brought out a bowl full of scent (they assert
that some of the women of the tribe brought it out to them) and they put
it for their allies in the mosque 1 beside the Ka'ba; then they dipped their
hands into it and they and their allies took a solemn oath. Then they

1 This it not an anachronism. See E.I., art. ‘Masdjid’.

The Life of Muhammad 57

rubbed their hands on the Ka'ba strengthening the solemnity of the oath.
For this reason they were called the Scented Ones.

The other side took a similar oath at the Ka'ba and they were called the
Confederates. Then the tribes formed groups and linked up one with
another. The B. 'Abdu Manaf were ranged against B. Sahm; B. Asad
against B. 'Abdu’l-Dar; Zuhra against B. Jumah; B. Taym against B.
Makhzum; and B. al-Harith against 'Adiyy b. Ka'b. They ordered that
each tribe should exterminate the opposing units.

When the people had thus decided on war, suddenly they demanded
peace on the condition that B. 'Abdu Manaf should be given the rights of
watering the pilgrims and collecting the tax; and that access to the Ka'ba,
the standard of war, and the assembly house, should belong to the 'Abdu’l-
Dar as before. The arrangement commended itself to both sides and was
carried out, and so war was prevented. This was the state of affairs until
God brought Islam, when the apostle of God said, ‘Whatever alliance there
was in the days of ignorance Islam strengthens it.’

THE CONFEDERACY OF THE FUDUL 1

Ziyad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka’I related to me the following as from I bn
Ishaq: The tribes of Quraysh decided to make a covenant and assembled
for that purpose in the house of 'Abdullah b. Jud'an b. 'Amr b. Ka'b b.
Sa'd b. Taym b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy because of his seniority and the
high reputation he enjoyed. Those party to the agreement with him were
B. Hashim, B. ’ 1 -Muftalib, Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza, Zuhra b. Kilab, and
Taym b. Murra. They bound themselves by a solemn agreement that if
they found that anyone, either a native of Mecca or an outsider, had 86
been wronged they would take his part against the aggressor and see that
the stolen property was restored to him. Quraysh called that confederacy
‘The Confederacy of the Fudul’.

Muhammad b. Zayd b. al-Muhajir b. Qunfudh al-Tayml told me that he
heard Talha b. 'Abdullah b. 'Auf al-Zuhrl say: The apostle of God said,

‘I witnessed in the house of 'Abdullah b. Jud'an a covenant which I would
not exchange for any number of fine camels: if I were invited to take part
in it during Islam I should do so.’

Yazid b. 'Abdullah b. Usama b. al-Hadi al-Laythl told me that Muham¬
mad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Tayml told him that there was a dispute
between al-Husayn b. 'All b. Abu Talib and al-Walld b. 'Utba b. Abu
Sufyan about some property they held in Dhu’l-Marwa. At that time al-
Walid was governor of Medina, his uncle, Mu'awiya b. Abu SufySn having
given him the appointment. Al-Walld had defrauded al-Husayn of his

1 Fulfil is explained as meaning that the confederates did not allow wrongdoers to retain
any stolen property. Fudul sometimes means ‘remains of spoil’. Another and somewhat
far-fetched explanation is that this covenant was modelled on an older covenant of the same
character in which three men each with the name of Fadt took part.

58 The Life of Muhammad

rights, for as governor he had the power to do so. Husayn said to him: ‘By
God you shall do me justice or I will take my sword and stand in the
apostle’s mosque and invoke the confederacy of the Fudul!’ 'Abdullah b.
al-Zubayr who was with al-Walid at the time said: ‘And I swear by God
that if he invokes it I will take my sword and stand with him until he gets
justice, or we will die together.’ When the news reached al-Miswar b.
Makhrama b. Naufal al-Zuhri and 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Uthman b. 'Ubay-
dullah al-Tayml they said the same. As soon as he realized what was hap¬
pening al-Walid gave al-Husayn satisfaction.

This same Yazld, on the same authority, told me that Muhammad b.
Jubayr b. Mut'im b. 'Adiyy b. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf, who was the most
learned of the Quraysh, met 'Abdu’I-Malik b. Marwan b. al-Hakam when
he had killed Ibn al-Zubayr and the people had gathered against 'Abdu’l-
87 Malik. When he went in to see him he said: ‘O Abu Sa'id, were not we and
you—meaning B. 'Abdu Shams b. Abdu Manaf and B. Naufal b. 'Abdu
Manaf—partners in the confederacy of the Fudul?’ ‘You should know r
best,’ he replied. 'Abdu’I-Malik said, ‘No, you tell me, Abu Sa'id, the
truth of the matter.’ He answered: ‘No, by God, you and we kept out of
that!’ ‘You’re right,’ said 'Abdu’I-Malik.

Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf superintended the feeding 1 and watering of the
pilgrims because 'Abdu Shams was a great traveller who was seldom to be
found in Mecca; moreover he was a poor man with a large family, while
Hashim was a well-to-do man. It is alleged that when the pilgrims were
there he got up and addressed Quraysh thus: ‘You are God’s neighbours
and the people of His temple. At this feast there come to you God’s visitors
and pilgrims to His temple. They are God’s guests, and His guests have
the best claim on your generosity; so get together w r hat food they will need
for the time they have to stay here. If my own means were sufficient I
would not lay this burden upon you.’ Thereupon they taxed themselves
each man according to his capacity and used to provide food for the pil¬
grims until they left Mecca.

It is alleged that Hashim was the first to institute the two caravan jour¬
neys of Quraysh, summer and winter, and the first to provide tharXd (broth
in which bread is broken up) in Mecca. Actually his name was 'Amr, but
he was called Hashim because he broke up bread in this way for his people
in Mecca. A Quraysh poet, or one of the Arabs, composed this poem:

'Amr who made, bread-and-broth for his people,

A people in Mecca who suffered lean years.

He it was who started the two journeys,

The winter’s caravan and the summer’s train (107).

Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf died in Ghazza in the land of Syria while

1 The rifada, feeding by means of a levy on Quraysh, has been explained above (p. 55)
and there the author of the system is said to be Qu?ayy, Probably for this reason Ibn Ishaq
discredits their tradition here by the words ‘it is alleged’.

The Life of Muhammad 59

travelling with his merchandise, and al-Muttalib b. ‘Abdu Manaf assumed
the right of feeding and watering the pilgrims. He w r as younger than 'Abdu
Shams and Hashim. He was held in high esteem among his people, who 88
called him al-Fayd on account of his liberality and high character.

Hashim had gone to Medina and married Salma d. 'Amr, one of B.
'Adiyy b. al-Najjar. Before that she had been married to Uhayha b. al-
Julah b. al-Harish b. Jahjaba b. Kulfa b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik b.
al-Aus and bore him a son called 'Amr. On account of the high position
she held among her people she would only marry on condition that she
should retain control of her own affairs. If she disliked a man she left him.

To Hashim she bore 'Abdu’l-Muttalib and called his name Shayba.
Hashim left him with her while he was a little boy. Then his uncle al-
Muttalib came to take him away and bring him up among his people in his
town. But Salma declined to let him go with him. His uncle argued that
his nephew was now old enough to travel and was as an exile away from
his own tribe who were the people of the temple, of great local reputation,
holding much of the government in their hands. Therefore it was better
for the boy that he should be among his own family, and therefore he
refused to go without him. It is popularly asserted that Shayba refused to
leave his mother without her consent; and this she ultimately gave. So his
uncle took him aw r ay to Mecca, riding behind him on his camel, and the
people cried: ‘It’s al-Muttalib’s slave whom he has bought’ and that is how
he got the name of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib. His uncle called out: ‘Rubbish!
This is my nephew whom I have brought from Medina.’

Subsequently al-Muttalib died in Radman in the Yaman, and an Arab
mourned him in the following lines:

Thirsty are the pilgrims now al-Muttalib is gone.

No more bowls w r ith overflowing brims.

Now r that he is gone would that Quraysh were in torment!

Mafrud b. Ka'b al-Khuza'i wrote this elegy over al-Muttalib and all the
sons of 'Abdu Manaf when the news came that Naufal the last of them was
dead:

O night! most miserable night,

Disturbing all other nights,

With thoughts of what I suffer
From sorrow and the blows of fate.

When I remember my brother Naufal, 89

He reminds me of days gone by,

He reminds me of the red waist-sashes,

The fine new yellow robes.

There were four of them, everyone a prince,

Sons and grandsons of princes.

One dead in Radman, one in Salman,

A third lies near Ghazza,

60 The Life of Muhammad

A fourth lies in a grave by the Ka'ba
To the east of the sacred buildings.

'Abdu Manaf brought them up virtuously
Safe from the reproof of all men.

Yea there are none like Mughira’s children
Among the living or the dead.

'Abdu Manaf’s name was al-Mughlra. Hashim was the first of his sons to
die at Ghazza in Syria, followed by 'Abdu Shams in Mecca, then al-Mutta-
lib in Radman in the Yaman, and lastly Naufal in Salman in Iraq.

It was said to Matrud—at least they assert so—‘Your lines are very good,
but if you had done more justice to the theme they would have been still
better.’ ‘Give me a night or two,’ he replied, and after a few days he
produced the following:

O eye, weep copiously, pour down thy tears,

Weep over Mughira’s sons, that noble breed of Ka'b,

O eye, cease not to weep thy gathering tears,

Bewail my heartfelt sorrow in life’s misfortunes.

Weep over all those generous trustworthy men,

Lavish in gifts, munificent, bounteous,

Pure in soul, of high intent,

Firm in disposition, resolute in grave affairs,

Strong in emergency, no churls, not relying on others,

Quick to decide, lavish in generosity.

If Ka'b’s line is reckoned, a hawk,

The very heart and summit of their glory,

Weep for generosity and Muttalib the generous,

Release the fountain of thy tears,

Gone from us in Radman today as a foreigner,

My heart grieves for him among the dead.

Woe to you, weep if you can weep,

For 'Abdu Shams on the east of the Ka'ba,

For Hashim in the grave in the midst of the desert
Where the wind of Ghazza blows o’er his bones.

Above all for my friend Naufal
Who found in Salman a desert grave.

Never have I known their like, Arab or foreigner,

When their white camels bore them along.

Now their camps know them no more
Who used to be the glory of our troops.

Has time annihilated them or were their swords blunt,

Or is every living thing food for the Fates?

Since their death I have come to be satisfied
With mere smiles and friendly greetings.

Weep for the father of the women with dishevelled hair

The Life of Muhammad 61

Who weep for him with faces unveiled as camels doomed to die.’
They mourn the noblest man who ever walked,

Bewailing him with floods of tears.

They mourn a man generous and liberal,

Rejecting injustice, who settled the greatest matters.

They weep for 'Amr al-'Ula 2 when his time came,

Benign was his nature as he smiled at the night’s guests.

They weep prostrated by sorrow,

How long was the lamentation and woe!

They mourned him when time exiled them from him,

Their faces pale like camels denied water.

With their loins girded because of fate’s hard blows.

I passed the night in pain watching the stars
I wept and my little daughters wept to share my grief.

No prince is their equal or peer,

Among those left behind none are like their offspring.

Their sons are the best of sons,

And they are the best of men in the face of disaster.

How many a smooth running fast horse have they given,

How many a captive mare have they bestowed,

How many a fine mettled Indian sword,

How many a lance as long as a well rope,

How many slaves did they give for the asking,

Lavishing their gifts far and wide.

Were I to count and others count with me
I could not exhaust their generous acts;

They are the foremost in pure descent
Wherever men boast of their forbears,

The ornament of the houses which they left
So that they have become solitary and forsaken,

I say while my eye ceases not to weep,

May God spare the unfortunate (family)! (108)

By the ‘father of the women with dishevelled hair’ the poet means
Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf.

Following his uncle al-Muttalib, 'Abdu’l-Muttalib b. Hashim took over
the duties of watering and feeding the pilgrims and carried on the practices
of his forefathers with his people. He attained such eminence as none of
his forefathers enjoyed; his people loved him and his reputation was great
among them,

1 The words ‘camels doomed to die’ refer to the she-camel which used to be tethered by
the grave of her dead master until she died of hunger and thirst. The heathen Arabs believed
he would ride her in the next world.

• ‘The lofty one,*

62 The Life of Muhammad

THE DIGGING OF ZAMZAM

While Abdu’l-Muttalib was sleeping in the hijr , 1 he was ordered in a vision
to dig Zamzam. Yazld b, Abu Habib al-Misri from Marthad b. 'Abdullah
al-Yazanl from 'Abdullah b. Zurayr al-Ghafiql told me that he heard 'All
b. Abu Talib telling the story of Zamzam. He said that 'Abdu’l-Muttalib
said: ‘I was sleeping in the hijr when a supernatural visitant came and said,
“Dig Tiba”. I said “And what is Tiba?” ; then he left me. I went to bed
again the next day and slept, and he came to me and said “Dig Barra”;
when I asked what Barra was he left me. The next day he came and said
“Dig al-Madnuna”; when I asked what that was he went away again. The
next day he came while I was sleeping and said “Dig Zamzam”. I said,
“What is Zamzam?”; he said:

’Twill never fail or ever run dry,

’Twill water the pilgrim company.

It lies ’twixt the dung and the flesh bloody, 2
By the nest where the white-winged ravens fly,

By the nest where the ants to and fro do ply.’

When the exact spot had been indicated to him and he knew that it corre¬
sponded with the facts, he took a pick-axe and went with his son al-Harith
—for the had no other son at that time—and began to dig. When the top
of the well appeared he cried 'Allah akbar!’ Thus Quraysh knew that he
had obtained his object and they came to him and said, ‘This is the well of
our father Ishmael, and we have a right to it, so give us a share in it.’ ‘I
will not,’ he answered, ‘I was specially told of it and not you, and I was the
one to be given it.’ They said: ‘Do us justice, for we shall not leave you
until we have got a judicial decision in the matter.’ He said: ‘Appoint
anyone you like as umpire between us.’ He agreed to accept a woman
diviner of B. Sa'd Hudhaym, who dwelt in the uplands of Syria, So

1 The frijr is the semicircular spot between the wall called Hatim and the Ka'ba, which
is said to contain the graves of Hagar and Ishmael, Cf. Az^aqi, 282 f,

1 The language is characteristic of Arabian oracles composed in doggerel known as Saj .
The words ‘between the dung and the blood’ occur in the Quran, Sura 16, verse 68. ‘We
give you to drink of what is in their bellies between the faeces and the blood, pure milk easily
swallowed by the drinkers.* But this throws no light on the meaning of the passage here,
which plainly has a local significance. Abu Dharr passed it by without comment. Al-
Suhayli, p. 98, sees that the term must go with the two following terms, and serve to show
exactly where Zamzam was to be found. He therefore repeats a story to the effect that
'Abdu’l-Muttalib saw the ants’ nest and the ravens’ nest when he went to dig the well, but
saw neither dung nor blood. At that moment a cow escaped her would-be butcher and
entered the fiaram. There she was slaughtered, and where the dung and blood flowed,
'Abdu’l-Muttalib proceeded to dig. This gallant attempt to explain the ancient oracle
cannot be accepted for the reason that it gives no point to the precise reference that the
well was to be found between the dung and the blood, which in this story obviously must
have occupied pretty much the same space, and indeed would render the following indica¬
tions superfluous by giving the exact site. Most probably, therefore, we should assume that
the sacrificial victims were tethered at a certain spot and there they would void ordure
before they were led to the foot of the image at which they were slaughtered. A point
betweed these two spots is more closely defined by the ants’ and the ravens’ nest.

The Life of Muhammad 63

'Abdu’l-Muttalib, accompanied by some of his relations and a representa¬
tive from all the tribes of Quraysh, rode away. They went on through
desolate country between the Hijaz and Syria until 'Abdu’l-Muttalib’s
company ran out of water and they feared that they would die of thirst.
They asked the Quraysh tribes to give them water, but they refused, on
the ground that if they gave them their water they too would die of thirst.

In his desperation 'Abdu’l-Muttalib consulted his companions as to what
should be done, but all they could do was to say that they would follow his
instructions: so he said, ‘I think that every man should dig a hole for him¬
self with the strength that he has left so that whenever a man dies his com¬
panions can thrust him into the hole and bury him until the last man, for
it is better that one man should lie unburied than a whole company.’ They
accepted his advice and every man began to dig a hole for himself. Then
they sat down until they should die of thirst. After a time 'Abdu’l-Muttalib
said to his companions, ‘By God, to abandon ourselves to death in this
way and not to scour the country in search of water is sheer incompetence;
perhaps God will give us water somewhere. To your saddles!’ So they
got their beasts ready while the Quraysh watefred them at work. 'Abdu’l-
Muttalib went to his beast and mounted her and when she got up from her 93
knees a flow of fresh water broke out from beneath her feet. 'Abdu’l-
Muttalib and his companions, crying ‘Allah akbar!’, dismounted and drank
and filled their water-skins. Then they invited the Quraysh to come to the
water which God had given them and to drink freely. After they had done
so and filled their water-skins they said: ‘By God, the judgement has been
given in your favour 'Abdu’l-Muttalib. We will never dispute your claim
to Zamzam. He who has given you water in this wilderness is He who has
given you Zamzam. Return to your office of watering the pilgrims in
peace.’ So they all went back without going to the diviner.

This is the story which I heard as from All b. Abu Talib about Zamzam
and I have heard one report on ‘Abdu’l-Muttalib’s authority that when he
was ordered to dig Zamzam it was said to him:

Then pray for much water as crystal clear
To water God’s pilgrims at the sites they revere
As long as it lasts you’ve nothing to fear.

On hearing these words he went to the Quraysh and said, ‘You know that
I have been ordered to dig Zamzam for you,’ and they asked, ‘But have
you been told where it is?’ When he replied that he had not, they told him
to go back to his bed where he had the vision and if it really came from
God it would be made plain to him; but if it had come from a demon, he
would not return to him. So 'Abdu’l-Muttalib went back to his bed and
slept and received the following message:

Dig Zamzam, ’twill not to your hopes give lie,

’Tis yours from your father eternally.

6 4

The Life of Muhammad

’Twill never fail or ever run dry,

’Twill water the pilgrim company
Like an ostrich flock a fraternity,

Their voice God hears most graciously.

A pact most sure from days gone by
Nought like it canst thou descry,

It lies ’twixt the dung and the flesh bloody (109). 1

94 It is alleged that when this was said to him and he inquired where Zamzam
was, he was told that it was by the ants’ nest where the raven will peck
tomorrow, but God knows how true this is. The next day 'Abdu’l Mu^a-
lib with his son al-Harith, who at that time was his only son, went and
found the ants’ nest and the raven pecking beside it between the two idols
Isaf and Na’ila at which Quraysh used to slaughter their sacrifices. He
brought a pick-axe and began to dig where he had been commanded.
Quraysh seeing him at work came up and refused to allow him to dig
between their two idols where they sacrificed. 'Abdu’l-Mut$alib then told
his son to stand by and protect him while he dug, for he was determined
to carry out what he had been commanded to do. When they saw that he
was not going to stop work they left him severely alone. He had not dug
deeply before the stone top of the well appeared and he gave thanks to
God knowing that he had been rightly informed. As digging went further,
he found the two gazelles of gold which Jurhum had buried there when
they left Mecca. He also found some swords and coats of mail from Qal'a. 2
Quraysh claimed that they had a right to share in this find. 'Abdu’l-
Muftalib denied this, but was willing to submit the matter to the sacred
lot. He said that he would make two arrows for the Ka’ba, two for them,
and two for himself. The two arrows which came out from the quiver
would determine to whom the property belonged. This was agreed, and
accordingly he made two yellow arrows for the Ka'ba, two black ones for
himself, and two white ones for Quraysh. They were then given to the
priest in charge of the divinatory arrows, which were thrown beside Hubal.
(Hubal was an image in the middle of the Ka'ba, indeed the greatest of
their images. It is that referred to by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb at the battle of
Uhud when he cried ‘Arise Hubal’, i.e. Make your religion victorious!)
'Abdu’l-Muttalib began to pray to God, and when the priest threw the
arrows the two yellow ones for the gazelles came out in favour of the Ka'ba.
The two black ones allotted the swords and coats of mail to ‘Abdu’l-
Muttalib, and the two arrows of Quraysh remained behind. 'Abdu’l-
Muttalib made the swords into a door for the Ka'ba and overlaid the door
with the gold of the gazelles. This was the first golden, ornament of the
Ka'ba, at any rate so they allege. Then 'Abdu’l-Muttalib took charge of
the supply of Zamzam water to the pilgrims.

1 As these lines are in part identical with those mentioned above, clearly this is a rival
account of the vision.

2 A mountain in Syria, though other sites have been suggested. See Yaqut.

The Life of Muhammad

65

WELLS BELONGING TO THE CLANS OF QURAYSH IN

MECCA

Before the digging of Zamzam Quraysh had already dug wells in Mecca 0 ,
according to what Ziyad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka'I told me from Muhammad
■ s. aq. He said that Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Manaf dug al-Tawly which

° f Me “ a nCar a ‘- Baydr ' tHe h0U “° f Muham-

Hashim b. Abdu Manaf dug Badhdhar which is near al-Mustandhar a
spur of Mount al-Khandama at the mouth of the pass of Abu Talib They
allege that when he had dug it he said: ‘I will make it a means of subsis-
tence for the people’ (no).

h ^AhH Ug i^ ail -r hi u h t iS 2 WeH beIon 8 in g t0 al-Mut'im b. 'Adiy b. Naufal

al Muthm h Idna bt Hhl f h 15 f 11 ! f ed t0day - The NaufaI aIle S e
al-Mut im bought it from Asad b. Hashim, while B. Hashim allege that

^rtLVotheTwdk ZamZam ^ UnC ° Vered Pe ° pl€ h3d n ° further

b - l Abd w U ShamS dug aI -W afr for himself. The B. Asad b.
a tt " U A Z L a - ? g Suqayya2 which belongs to them. The B. 'Abdu’l-Dar

b^ahTb^n’ B a aI ' S unbula which belongs to Khalaf

b. Wahb. The B. Sahm dug al-Ghamr which belongs to them

h T^l 0l , d T WellS r°uts ide Mecca da ^g from the time of Murra

b. Ka b and Kilab b. Murra from which the first princes of Quraysh used
to draw water, namely Rumm and Khumm. Rumm was dug by Murra
b. Ka b b. Lu ayy, and Khumm by B. Kilab b. Murra, and so was al-Hafr.*
ere is an old poem of Hudhayfa b. Ghanim, brother of B. 'Adiy b Ka'b
b. Lu ayy (hi), which runs:

In the good old days we were long satisfied
To get our water from Khumm or al-Hafr.

,n?tT m Utterly ec ! i P sed , the other wells from which the pilgrims used ,6
to get their water, and people went to it because it was in the sacred enclo-
sure and because its water was superior to any other; and, too because it
was the? well of Ismail b. Ibrahim. Because of it B. 'Abdu Manaf behaved
boastfully towards Quraysh and alt other Arabs
Here are some lines of Musafir b. Abu 'Amr b. Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams
b. Abdu Manaf boasting over Quraysh that they held the right of watering
and feeding the pilgrims, and that they discovered Zamzam, and that B

,h i s q " n °“ ,y 25 not d ‘ 8

w«p» fi;: lmS: ^ t ' B,fr • ■ •

sistency, as it seems that there were two wells, Hafr and Jafr] i^Mere™' 1 '" °' ' h ^ lnC °""

F

B 4080

66 The Life of Muhammad

*Abdu Manaf were one family in which the honour and merit of one
belonged to all:

Glory came to us from our fathers.

We have carried it to greater heights.

Do not we give the pilgrims water
And sacrifice the fat milch camels ?

When death is at hand we are found
Brave and generous.

Though we perish (for none can live for ever)

A stranger shall not rule our kin.

Zamzam belongs to our tribe.

We will pluck out the eyes of those who look enviously at us.
Hudhayfa b. Ghanim [mentioned above] said:

(Weep for him) who watered the pilgrims, son of him who broke
bread 1

And 'Abdu Manaf that Fihri lord.

He laid bare Zamzam by the Maqam,

His control of the,water w r as a prouder boast than any man s (i 12).

1076 ‘abdu’l-mutt alib>s vow to sacrifice his son

97

It is alleged, and God only knows the truth, that when ‘Abdu’l-Muttalib
encountered the opposition of Quraysh when he was digging Zamzam,
he vowed that if he should have ten sons to grow up and protect him, he
would sacrifice one of them to God at the Ka*ba. Afterwards when he had
ten sons who could protect him he gathered them together and told them
about his vow and called on them to keep faith with God. They agreed to
obey him and asked what they were to do. He said that each one of them
must get an arrow, write his name on it, and bring it to him: this they did,
and he took them before Hubal in the middle of the Ka ba. (The statue of)
Hubal 2 stood by a well there. It was that well in which gifts made to the
Ka'ba were stored.

Now beside Hubal there were seven arrows, each of the^n containing
some words. One was marked ‘bloodwit’. When they disputed about who
should pay the bloodwit they cast lots with the seven arrows and he on
whom the lot fell had to pay the money. Another was marked ‘yes’, and
another ‘no’, and they acted accordingly on the matter on which the oracle
had been invoked. Another w ? as marked ‘of you ; another mulsaqf another
‘not of you’; and the last was marked ‘water’. If they wanted to dig for
water, they cast lots containing this arrow and wherever it came forth they

1 I read khubz with most MSS. .... c r u

1 Cf. p. 103. T adds ‘Hubal being the greatest (or, most revered) of the idols of Quraysh
in Mecca’. J Not a mem ber of the tribe.

The Life of Muhammad 67

set to work. If they wanted to circumcise a boy, or make a marriage, or
bury a body, or doubted someone’s genealogy, they took him to Hubal with
a hundred dirhams and a slaughter camel and gave them to the man who cast
the lots; then they brought near the man with whom they were concerned
saying, ‘O our god this is A the son of B with W'hom we intend to do so and
so; so show the right course concerning him.’ Then they would say to the
man who cast the arrows ‘Cast!’ and if there came out ‘of you’ then he was
a true member of their tribe; and if there came out ‘not of you’ he was an 98
ally; and if there came out mulsaq he had no blood relation to them and
was not an ally. Where ‘yes’ came out in other matters, they acted accord¬
ingly; and if the answer was ‘no’ they deferred the matter for a year until
they could bring it up again. They used to conduct their affairs according
to the decision of the arrows.

'Abdu’l-Muttalib said to the man with the arrows, ‘Cast the lots for my
sons with these arrows’, and he told him of the vow which he had made.
Each man gave him the arrow on which his name was written. Now 'Ab¬
dullah was his father’s youngest son, he and al-Zubayr and Abu Talib
were born to Fatima d. 'Amr b. 'A’idh b. 'Abd b. 'Imran b. Makhzum b.
Yaqaza b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr (113). It is alleged that
'Abdullah was 'Abdu’l-Muttalib’s favourite son, and his father thought that
if the arrow missed him he would be spared. (He was the father of the
apostle of God.) When the man took the arrows to cast lots with them,
'Abdu’l-Muttalib stood by Hubal praying to Allah. Then the man cast lots
and 'Abdullah’s arrow came out. His father led him by the hand and took
a large knife; then he brought him up to Isaf and Na’ila (T. two idols of
Quraysh at which they slaughtered their sacrifices) to sacrifice him; but
Quraysh came out of their assemblies and asked what he was intending to
do. When he said that he was going to sacrifice him, they and his sons
said ‘By God! you shall never sacrifice him until you offer the greatest
expiatory sacrifice for him. If you do a thing like this there will be no
stopping men from coming to sacrifice their sons, and w ? hat will become
of the people then?’ Then said al-Mughira b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b.
Makhzum b. Yaqaza, 'Abdullah’s mother being from his tribe, ‘By God,
you shall never sacrifice him until you offer the greatest expiatory sacrifice
for him. Though his ransom be all our property we will redeem him.’
Quraysh and his sons said that he must not do it, but take him to the Hijaz 1
for there there was a sorceress who had a familiar spirit, and he must con¬
sult her. Then he would have liberty of action. If she told him to sacrifice
him, he would be no worse off; and if she gave him a favourable response,
he could accept it. So they went off as far as Medina and found that she 99
was in Khaybar, so they allege. So they rode on until they got to her, and
when 'Abdu’l-Muttalib acquainted her with the facts she told them to go
away until her familiar spirit visited her and she could ask him. When they
had leftdier 'Abdu’l-Muttalib prayed to Allah, and when they visited her

1 The region of which Medina was the centre. See Lammens, V Arabic Occidental, 300 f.

68 The Life of Muhammad

the next day she said, ‘Word has come to me. How much is the blood
money among you ?’ They told her that it was ten camels, as indeed it was.
She told them to go back to their country and take the young man and ten
camels. Then cast lots for them and for him; if the lot falls against your
man, add more camels, until your lord is satisfied. If the lot falls against
the camels then sacrifice them in his stead, for your lord will be satisfied
and your client escape death. So they returned to Mecca, and when they
had agreed to carry out their instructions, 'Abdu’l-Muttalib was praying
to Allah. Then they brought near 'Abdullah and ten camels while Abdu’l-
Muttalib stood by Hubal praying to Allah. Then they cast lots and the
arrow fell against Abdullah. They added ten more camels and the lot fell
against Abdullah, and so they went on adding ten at a time, until there
100 were one hundred camels, when finally the lot fell against them. Quraysh
and those who were present said, ‘At last your lord is satisfied 'Abdu’l-
Muttalib.’ ‘No, by God,’ he answered (so they say), ‘not until I cast lots
three times.’ This they did and each time the arrow fell against the camels.
They were duly slaughtered and left there and no man was kept back or
hindered (from eating them) (114).

OF THE WOMAN WHO OFFERED HERSELF IN MARRIAGE
TO 'ABDULLAH B. 'ABDU’L-MUTTALIB

Taking 'Abdullah by the hand Abdu’l-Muttalib went away and they passed
—so it is alleged—a woman of B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy b.
Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr who was the sister of
Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza, who was at the Ka'ba. When
she looked at him she asked, ‘Where are you going Abdullah?’ He replied,
‘With my father.’ She said, ‘If you will take me you can have as many
camels as were sacrificed in your stead.’ ‘I am with my father and I cannot
act against his wishes and leave him’, he replied.

'Abdu’l-Muttalib brought him to Wahb b. ‘Abdu Manaf b. Zuhra b.
Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr who was the leading
man of B. Zuhra in birth and honour, and he married him to his daughter
Amina, she being the most excellent woman among the Quraysh in birth
and position at that time. Her mother was Barra d. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b.
'Uthman b. 'Abdu’l-Dar b. Qusayy b. Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy
iqi b. Ghalib b. Fihr. Barra’s mother was Umm Habib d. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-
'Uzza b. Qusayy by Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr.
Umm Habib’s mother was Barra d. 'Auf b. 'Ubayd b. 'Uwayj b. 'Adly b.
Ka'b b.’ Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr.

It is alleged that 'Abdullah consummated his marriage immediately and
his wife conceived the apostle of God. 1 Then he left her presence and met
the woman who had proposed to him. He asked her why she did not

1 X- ‘Muhammad.’

The Life of Muhammad 69

make the proposal that she made to him the day before; to which she
replied that the light that was with him the day before had left him, and
she no longer had need of him. She had heard from her brother Waraqa
b. Naufal, who had been a Christian and studied the scriptures, that a
prophet would arise among this people.

My father Ishaq b. Yasar told me that he was told that 'Abdullah went
in to a woman that he had beside Amina d. Wahb when he had been work¬
ing in clay and the marks of the clay were on him. She put him off when
he made a suggestion to her because of the dirt that was on him. He then
left her and washed and bathed himself, and as he made his way to Amina
he passed her and she invited him to come to her. He refused and went to
Amina who conceived Muhammad. When he passed the woman again ne
asked her if she wanted anything and she said ‘No! When you passed me
there was a white blaze between your eyes and when I invited you you
refused me and went in to Amina, and she has taken it away.’

It is alleged that that woman of his used to say that when he passed by
her between his eyes there was a blaze like the blaze of a horse. She said:

I invited him hoping that that would be in me, but he refused me and
went to Amina and she conceived the apostle of God.’ So the apostle of
God was the noblest of his people in birth and the greatest in honour both
on his father s and his mother’s side. God bless and preserve him!

WHAT WAS SAID TO AMINA WHEN SHE HAD CONCEIVED
THE APOSTLE

It is alleged in popular stories (and only God knows the truth) that Amina
d* Wahb, the mother of God s apostle, used to say when she was pregnant
with God’s apostle that a voice said to her, ‘You are pregnant with the lord
of this people and when he is born say, “I put him in the care of the One
from the evil of every envier; then call him Muhammad.’” As she was
pregnant with him she saw a light come forth from her by which she could
see the castles of Busra in Syria. Shortly afterwards 'Abdullah the apostle’s
father died while his mother was still pregnant.

THE BIRTH OF THE APOSTLE AND HIS SUCKLING

The apostle was born on Monday, 12th Rabl'u’I-awwal, in the year of the
elephant. AI-Muttalib b. 'Abdullah who had it from his grandfather Qays
b. Makhrama said, ‘I and the apostle were born at the same time in the year
of the elephant.’ (T. It is said that he was born in the house known as J.
I. Yusuf’s; and it is said that the apostle gave it to 'Aqil b. Abu Talib who
kept it until he died. His son sold it to Muhammad b. Yusuf, the brother

70 The Life of Muhammad

of al-Hajjaj, and he incorporated it in the house he built. Later Khayzuran
separated it therefrom and made it into a mosque.) 1

Salih b. Ibrahim b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf b. Yahya b. 'Abdullah b.
'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Sa'd b. Zurara al-Ansari said that his tribesmen said
that Hassan b. Thabit said: ‘I was a well-grown boy of seven or eight,
understanding all that I heard, when I heard a Jew calling out at the top of
his voice from the top of a fort in Yathrib “O company of Jews” until they
all came together and called out “Confound you, what is the matter?” He
answered: “Tonight has risen a star under which Ahmad is to be born.” ’
103 I asked Sa'Id b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Hassan b. Thabit how old Hassan
was when the apostle came to Medina and he said he was 60 when the
apostle came, he being 53, So Hassan heard this when he was seven years
old.

After his birth his mother sent to tell his grandfather 'Abdu’l-Muttalib
that she had given birth to a boy and asked him to come and look at him.
When he came she told him what she had seen when she conceived him
and what was said to her and what she was ordered to call him. It is alleged
999 that 'Abdu’l-Muttalib took him (T. before Hubal) in the (T. middle of
the) Ka'ba, where he stood and prayed to Allah thanking him for this gift.
Then he brought him out and delivered him to his mother, and he tried to
find foster-mothers for him (115).

Hallma d. Abu Dhu’ayb of B. Sa'd b. Bakr was asked to suckle him.
Abu Dhu’ayb was 'Abdullah b. al-Harith b. Shijna b. Jabir b. Rizam b.
Nasira b. Qusayya b. Nasr b. Sa'd b. Bakr b. Hawazin b. Mansur
b. 'Ikrima b. Khasafa b. Qays b. 'Aylan.

The prophet’s foster-father was al-Harith b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Rifa'a b.
Malian b. Nasira b. Qusayya b. Nasr b. Sa'd b. Bakr b. Hawazin (116).

His foster-brother was 'Abdullah b. al-Harith; Unaysa and Hudhafa 2
were his foster-sisters. The latter was called al-Shayma’, her people not
using her proper name. These were the children of Hallma d. 'Abdullah
b. al-Harith. It is reported that al-Shayma’ used to carry him in her arms
to help her mother.

Jahm b. Abu Jahm the client of al-Harith b. Hatib al-Jumahl on the
authority of 'Abdullah b. Ja'far b. Abu Talib or from one who told him it
as from him, informed me that Hallma the apostle’s foster-mother used to
say that she went forth from her country with her husband and little son
whom she was nursing, among the women of her tribe, in search of other
X04 babies to nurse. This was a year of famine when they were destitute. She
was riding a dusky she-donkey of hers with an old she-camel which did not
yield a drop of milk. They could not sleep the whole night because of the
weeping of her hungry child. She had no milk to give him, nor could their

1 Khayzuran was the wife of the caliph al-Mahdi (158-69), and as he did not give her her
freedom until after his accession and 1 . 1 . died a few years before in the reign of Man$ur, it
would seem unlikely that 1.1. should have recorded this tradition.

• Tn W. Judhama. I have followed C. which has the authority of I. IHIajar. The name is
  uncertain.

The Life of Muhammad 71

she-camel provide a morning draught, but we were hoping for rain and
relief. ‘I rode upon my donkey which had kept back the other riders
through its weakness and emaciation so that it was a nuisance to them.
When we reached Mecca, we looked out for foster children, and the apostle
of God was offered to everyone of us, and each woman refused him when
she was told he was an orphan, because we hoped to get payment from the
child’s father. We said, “An orphan! and what will his mother and grand¬
father do?”, and so we spurned him because of that. Every woman who
came with me got a suckling except me, and when we decided to depart I
said to my husband: “By God, I do not like the idea of returning with my
friends without a suckling; I will go and take that orphan.” Her eplied,
“Do as you please; perhaps God will bless us on his account.” So I went
and took him for the sole reason that I could not find anyone else. I took
him back to my baggage, and as soon as I put him in my bosom, my breasts
overflowed with milk which he drank until he was satisfied, as also did his
foster-brother. Then both of them slept, whereas before this we could not
sleep with him. My husband got up and went to the old she-camel and lo,
her udders were full; he milked it and he and I drank of her milk until we
were completely satisfied, and we passed a happy night. In the morning
my husband said: “Do you know, Hallma, you have taken a blessed crea¬
ture?” I said, “By God, I hope so.” Then we set out and I was riding my
she-ass and carrying him with me, and she went at such a pace that the
other donkeys could not keep up so that my companions said to me, “Con¬
found you! stop and wait for us. Isn’t this the donkey on which you
started?” “Certainly it is,” I said. They replied, “By God, something
extraordinary has happened.” Then we came to our dwellings in the Banu
Sa'd country and I do not know a country more barren than that.

When we had him with us my flock used to yield milk in abundance. We
milked them and drank while other people had not a drop, nor could they
find anything in their animals’ udders, so that our people were saying to
their shepherds, “Woe to you! send your flock to graze where the daughter
of Abu Dhuayb’s shepherd goes.” Even so, their flocks came back hungry
not yielding a drop of milk, w r hile mine had milk in abundance. We ceased
not to recognize this bounty as coming from God for a period of two years,
when I weaned him. He was growing up as none of the other children
grew and by the time he was two he was a well-made child. We brought
him to his mother, though we were most anxious to keep him with us
because of the blessing which he brought us. I said to her: 1 “I should like
you to leave my little boy with me until he becomes a big boy, for I am
afraid on his account of the pest in Mecca.” We persisted until she sent
him back with us.

Some months after our return he and his brother were with our lambs
behind the tents when his brother came running and said to us, “Two men

1 T here inserts Yd Zi’ru 'O nurse!’ implying that Amina was not his mother. A strange
reading.

72 The Life of Muhammad

clothed in white have seized that Quraysh! brother of mine and thrown
him down and opened up his belly, and are stirring it up.” We ran towards
him and found him standing up with a livid face. We took hold of him and
asked him what was the matter. He said, ‘‘Two men in white raiment came
and threw me down and opened up my belly and searched therein for I
know not what.” 1 So we took him back to our tent.

His father said to me, “I am afraid that this child has had a stroke, so
take him back to his family before the result appears.” So we picked him
up and took him to his mother who asked why we had brought him when
I had been anxious for his welfare and desirous of keeping him with me.
I said to her, “God has let my son live so far and I have done my duty. I am
afraid that ill will befall him, so I have brought him back to you as you
wished.” She asked me what happened and gave me no peace until I told
her. When she asked if I feared a demon possessed him, I replied that I
106 did. She answered that no demon had any power over her son who had a
great future before him, and then she told how when she w'as pregnant with
him a light went out from her which illumined the castles of Busra in
Syria, and that she had borne him with the least difficulty imaginable.
When she bore him he put his hands on the ground lifting his head towards
the heavens. “Leave him then and go in peace,” she said/

Thaur b. Yazid from a learned person who I think was Khalid b.
Ma'dan al Kala'I told me that some of the apostle’s companions asked him
to tell them about himself. He said: ‘I am what Abraham my father prayed
for and the good news of (T. my brother) Jesus. When my mother was
carrying me she saw a light proceeding from her which showed her the
castles of Syria. I was suckled among the B. Sa'd b. Bakr, and while I was
with a brother of mine behind our tents shepherding the Iambs, two men
in white raiment came to me with a gold basin full of snow Then they
seized me and opened up my belly, extracted my heart and split it; then
they extracted a black drop from it and threw it away; then they washed my
heart and my belly with that snow until they had thoroughly cleaned them.
Then one said to the other, weigh him against ten of his people; they did so
and I outweighed them. Then they weighed me against a hundred and
then a thousand, and I outweighed them. He said, “Leave him alone, for
by God, if you weighed him against all his people he would outweigh
them.” ’

The apostle of God used to say, There is no prophet but has shepherded
a flock. When they said, ‘You, too, apostle of God he said ‘Yes/

The apostle of God used to say to his companions, ‘I am the most Arab
of you all. I am of Quraysh, and I was suckled among the B. Sa'd b. Bakr.
It is alleged by some, but God knows the truth, that when his foster-mother
brought him to Mecca he escaped her among the crowd while she was
taking him to his people. She sought him and could not find him, so she
went to 'Abdu’l-Mutfalib and said: ‘I brought Muhammad tonight and

1 Cf. Sura 94. i.

The Life of Muhammad 73

when I was in the upper part of Mecca he escaped me and I don’t know
where he is/ So 'Abdu’l-Muttalib went to the Ka'ba praying to God to
restore him. They assert that Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad and another man 107
of Quraysh found him and brought him to 'Abdu’l-Mu$talib saying, ‘We
have found this son of yours in the upper part of Mecca.’ 'Abdu’l-Muttalib
took him and put him on his shoulder as he went round the Ka'ba confiding
him to God’s protection and praying for him; then he sent him to his
mother Amina.

A learned person told me that what urged his foster-mother to return
him to his mother, apart from what she told his mother, was that a number
of Abyssinian Christians saw him with her when she brought him back
after he had been weaned. They looked at him, asked questions about him,
and studied him carefully, then they said to her, ‘Let us take this boy, and
bring him to our king and our country; for he will have a great future.

We know all about him.’ The person who told me this alleged that she
could hardly get him aw 7 ay from them.

Amina dies and the apostle lives with his

GRANDFATHER

The apostle lived with his mother Amina d. Wahb and his grandfather
'Abdu’l-Muttalib in God’s care and keeping like a fine plant, God wishing
to honour him. When he w 7 as six years old his mother Amina died.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm told me that the
apostle’s mother died in Abwa’ between Mecca and Medina on her return
from a visit with him to his maternal uncles of B. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar when
he was six years old (117). Thus the apostle was left to his grandfather for
whom they made a bed in the shade of the Ka'ba. His sons used to sit
round the bed until he came out to it, but none of them sat upon it out of
respect for him. The apostle, still a little boy, used to come and sit on it 108
and his uncles would drive him away. When 'Abdu’l-Muttalib saw this
he said: ‘Let my son alone, for by Allah he has a great future.’ Then he
would make him sit beside him on his bed and would stroke his back with
his hand. It used to please him to see what he did.

THE DEATH OF 'ABDU’L-MUTTALIB AND THE ELEGIES

THEREON

When the apostle was eight years of age, eight years after the ‘year of the
elephant’, his grandfather died. This date was given me by al-'Abbas b.
'Abdullah b. Ma'bad b. al-'Abbas from one of his family.

Muhammad b. Sa'Id b. al-Musayyib told me that when 'Abdu’l-Mu^a-
lib knew that death was at hand he summoned his six daughters Safiya,
Barra, 'Atika, Umm Hakim al-Bayda’, Umayma, and Arwa, and said to

74 The Life of Muhammad

them, ‘Compose elegies over me so that I may hear what you are going to
say before I die.’ (118)

Safiya d. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib said in mourning her father:

I could not sleep for the voices of the keening women,

Bewailing a man on the crown of life’s road,

It caused the tears to flow

Down my cheeks like falling pearls

For a noble man, no wretched weakling,

Whose virtue was plain to all.

The generous Shayba, full of merits,

Thy good father inheritor of all virtue,

Truthful at home, no weakling,

Standing firm and self-reliant.

Powerful, fear-inspiring, massive,

Praised and obeyed by his people,

Of lofty lineage, smiling, virtuous,

A very rain when camels had no milk.

109 Noble was his grandfather without spot of shame,

Surpassing all men, bond or free,

Exceeding mild, of noble stock,

Who were generous, strong as lions,

Could men be immortal through ancient glory,

(Alas immortality is unobtainable!)

He would make his last night endure for ever
Through his surpassing glory and long descent.

His daughter Barra said:

Be generous, O eyes, with your pearly tears,

For the generous nature w 7 ho never repelled a beggar.

Of glorious race, successful in undertaking,

Of handsome face, of great nobility.

Shayba, the laudable, the noble,

The glorious, the mighty, the renowned,

The clement, decisive in misfortunes,

Full of generosity, lavish in gifts,

Excelling his people in glory,

A light shining like the moon in its splendour.

Death came to him and spared him not,

Change and fortune and fate overtook him.

His daughter 'Atika said:

Be generous, O eyes, and not niggardly
With your tears when others sleep,

Weep copiously, O eyes, with your tears,

While you beat your faces in w'eeping.

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The Life of Muhammad

Weep, O eyes, long and freely
For one, no dotard weakling,

The strong, generous in time of need,

Noble in purpose, faithful to his word.

Shayba the laudable, successful in undertaking,

The reliable and the steady,

A sharp sword in war
Destroying his enemies in battle,

Easy natured, open handed,

Loyal, stout, pure, good.

His house proudly rooted in high honour
Mounted to glory unobtainable by others.

His daughter Umm Hakim al-Bayda’ said: no

Weep, O eye, generously, hide not thy tears,

Weep for the liberal and generous one,

Fie upon thee O eye, help me
With fast falling tears!

Weep for the best man who ever rode a beast,

Thy good father, a fountain of sweet water.

Shayba the generous, the virtuous,

Liberal in nature, praised for his gifts,

Lavish to his family, handsome,

Welcome as rain in years of drought.

A lion when the spears engage,

His womenfolk look on him proudly.

Chief of Kinana on whom their hopes rest,

When evil days brought calamity,

Their refuge when war broke out,

In trouble and dire distress.

Weep for him, refrain not from grief,

Make women weep for him as long as you live.

His daughter Umayma said:

Alas, has the shepherd of his people, the generous one, perished,

Who gave the pilgrims their water, the defender of our fame,

Who used to gather the wandering guest into his tents,

When the heavens begrudged their rain.

You have the noblest sons a man could have
And have never ceased to grow in fame, O Shayba!

Abu’l Harith, the bountiful, has left his place,

Go not far for every living thing must go far.

I shall weep for him and suffer as long as I live.

His memory deserves that I suffer.

May the Lord of men water thy grave with rain!

7 6

The Life of Muhammad

I shall weep for him though he lies in the grave.

He was the pride of all his people,

And was praised wherever praise was due.

His daughter Arwa said:

My eye wept and well it did
For the generous modest father,
hi The pleasant natured man of Mecca’s vale,

Noble in mind, lofty in aim,

The bountiful Shayba full of virtues,

Thy good father who has no peer,

Long armed, elegant, tall,

'Twas as though his forehead shone with light,

Lean waisted, handsome, full of virtues,

Glory, rank, and dignity were his,

Resenting wrong, smiling, able,

His ancestral fame could not be hid,

The refuge of Malik, the spring of Fihr,

When judgement was sought he spoke the last word.

He w r as a hero, generous, liberal,

And bold when blood was to be shed,

When armed men w r ere afraid of death
So that the hearts of most of them w 7 ere as air, 1
Forward he went wfith gleaming sword,

The cynosure of all eyes.

Muhammad b. Sa'id b. al-Musayyib told me 2 that 'Abdu’l-Muftalib
made a sign to the effect that he was satisfied with the elegies, for he could
not speak (119).

Hudhayfa b. Ghanim, brother of B. ‘Adly b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy, mentioned
his superiority and that of Qusayy and his sons over the Quraysh, because
he had been seized for a debt of 4,000 dirhams in Mecca and Abu Lahab
Abdu’I-'Uzza b. Abdu’l-Muttalib passed by and redeemed him:

O eyes, let the generous tears flow r down the breast,

Weary not, may you be washed with falling rain,

Be generous with your tears, every morn
Weeping for a man whom fate did not spare.

Weep floods of tears while life does last,

Over Quraysh’s modest hero who concealed his good deeds,

A powerful zealous defender of his dignity,

Handsome of face, no weakling, and no braggart,

The famous prince, generous and liberal,

Spring rain of Lu’ayy in drought and dearth,
iia Best of all the sons of Ma'add,

1 Cf Sura 14. 44 'and their hearts were air’.

2 Za'ama It.

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The Life of Muhammad

Noble in action, in nature and in race,

Their best in root and branch and ancestry.

Most famous in nobility and reputation,

First in glory, kindness and sagacity,

And in virtue when the lean years exact their toll.

Weep over Shayba the praiseworthy, whose face
Illumined the darkest night, like the moon at the full,

Who watered the pilgrims, son of him who broke bread, 1
And *Abdu Manaf that Fihrl lord,

Who uncovered Zamzam by the Sanctuary,

Whose control of the w'ater was a prouder boast than any man’s.

Let every captive in his misery weep for him
And the family of Qusayy, poor and rich alike.

Noble are his sons, both young and old,

They have sprung from the eggs of a hawk,

Qusayy who opposed Kinana all of them,

And guarded the temple in weal and woe.

Though fate and its changes bore him away,

He lived happy in successful achievement,

He left behind well armed men
Bold in attack, like very spears.

Abu 'Utba who gave me his gift,

White blood camels of the purest white,

Hamza like the moon at the full rejoicing to give,

Chaste and free from treachery,

And r Abdu Manaf the glorious, defender of his honour,

Kind to his kindred, gentle to his relatives.

Their men are the best of men,

Their young men like the offspring of kings who neither perish nor
diminish.

Whenever you meet one of their scions

You will find him going in the path of his forefathers.

They filled the vale with fame and glory

When rivalry and good works had long been practised, 2

Among them are great builders and buildings,

c Abdu Manaf their grandfather being the repairer of their fortunes,

When he married 'Auf to his daughter to give us protection

From our enemies when the Banu Fihr betrayed us,

We went through the land high and low under his protection,

Until our camels could plunge into the sea. 113

They lived as townsmen while some were nomads

1 Cf, p. 66. Or, 'then for the good Hashim (lilkhayr for Ulkhubs).

1 Cf. Sura 2, 143 ‘Vie with one another in good works’, and cf. 5. 53 for this use of the
verb istabaqa.

78

The Life of Muhammad.

None but the sheikhs of Banu 'Amr 1 were there,

They built many houses and dug wells
Whose waters flowed as though from the great sea
That pilgrims and others might drink of them,

When they hastened to them on the morrow of the sacrifice,

Three days their camels lay
Quietly between the mountains and the hijr.

Of old we had lived in plenty,

Drawing our water from Khumm or al-Hafr.

They forgot wrongs normally avenged,

And overlooked foolish slander,

They collected all the allied tribesmen,

And turned from us the evil of the Banu Bakr.

O Kharija, 2 when I die cease not to thank them
Until you are laid in the grave,

And forget not Ibn Lubna’s kindness,

A kindness that merits thy gratitude.

And thou Ibn Lubna art from Qusayy when genealogies are sought
Where man’s highest hope is attained,

Thyself has gained the height of glory
And joined it to its root in valour.

Surpassing and exceeding thy people in generosity
As a boy thou wast superior to every liberal chief.

Thy mother will be a pure pearl of Khuza'a,

When experienced genealogists one day compile a roll.

To the heroes of Sheba she can be traced and belongs.

How noble her ancestry in the summit of splendour!

Abu Shamir is of them and 'Amr b. Malik
And Dhu Jadan and Abu’l-Jabr are of her people, and
As'ad who led the people for twenty years
Assuring victory in those lands (120).

Matrud b. Ka'b the Khuza'ite bewailing 'Abdu’l-Muttalib and the sons of
'Abdu Manaf said:

O wanderer ever changing thy direction,

Why hast thou not asked of the family of 'Abdu Manaf?

Good God, if you had lived in their homeland

They would have saved you from injury and unworthy marriages;

Their rich mingle with their poor

So that their poor are as their wealthy.

Munificent when times were bad,

Who travel with the caravans of Quraysh
Who feed men when the winds are stormy
Until the sun sinks into the sea.

1 The sons of Hashim are meant: his name was 'Amr. So Cairo editors.

1 i.e. Kharija b. Hudhafa.

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The Life of Muhammad

Since you have perished, O man of great deeds,

Never has the necklace of a woman drooped over your like 1
Save your father alone, that generous man, and
The bountiful Muttalib, father of his guests.

When 'Abdu’l-Muttalib died his son al-'Abbas took charge of Zamzam
and the watering of the pilgrims, although he was the youngest of his
father’s sons. When Islam came it was still in his hands and the apostle'
confirmed his right to it and so it remains with the family of al-'Abbas to
this day.

ABU TALIB BECOMES GUARDIAN OF THE APOSTLE
After the death of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib the apostle lived with his uncle Abu
Talib, for (so they allege) the former had confided him to his care because
he and 'Abdullah, the apostle’s father, were brothers by the same mother,
Fatima d. Amr b. 'A’idh b. 'Abd b. 'Imran b. Makhzum (121). It was
Abu Talib who used to look after the apostle after the death of his grand¬
father and he became one of his family.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr told me that his father told
him that there was a man of Lihb (122) w T ho was a seer. Whenever he came
to Mecca the Quraysh used to bring their boys to him so that he could look
at them and tell their fortunes. So Abu Talib brought him along with the 1
others while he was still a boy. The seer looked at him and then something
claimed his attention. That disposed of he cried, ‘Bring me that boy.’
When Abu Talib saw his eagerness he hid him and the seer began to say,
‘Woe to you, bring me that boy I saw just now, for by Allah he has a great
future.’ But Abu Talib went away.

THE STORY OF BAHlRA

Abu Talib had planned to go in a merchant caravan to Syria, and when all
preparations had been made for the journey, the apostle of God, so they
allege, attached himself closely to him so that he took pity on him and said
that he would take him with him, and that the two of them should never
part; or words to that effect. When the caravan reached Busra in Syria,
there was a monk there in his cell by the name of Bahlra, who was well
versed in the knowledge of Christians. A monk had always occupied that
cell. There he gained his knowledge from a book that was in the cell, so
they allege, handed on from generation to generation. They had often

1 i.e. ‘never has your equal been bom’. The figure is that of a woman nursing a baby
while her necklace falls over the child at her breast. The correct reading would seem to be
iqd not 'oqd ; dhdt nit&f means ‘possessor of pendant earrings’, i.e. a woman. Dr. Arafat
suggests that 'aqd ‘girdle’ should be read and the line would then run: ‘Never has the knot
of a woman’s girdle run over your like’. The general sense would be the same, but the
particular reference would be to a pregnant woman.

8o

The Life of Muhammad

passed by him in the past and he never spoke to them or took any notice
of them until this year, and when they stopped near his cell he made a
great feast for them. It is alleged that that was because of something he
saw while in his cell. They allege that while he was in his cell he saw the
apostle of God in the caravan when they approached, with a cloud over¬
shadowing him among the people. Then they came and stopped m the
shadow of a tree near the monk. He looked at the cloud when it over¬
shadowed the tree, and its branches were bending and drooping over the
apostle of God until he was in the shadow beneath it. When Bahira saw
that, he came out of his cell and sent word to them, T have prepared food
for you, O men of Quraysh, ami I should like you all to come both great
and small, bond and freed One of them said to him, By God, Bahira.
something extraordinary has happened today, you used not to treat us so,
and we have often passed by you. What has befallen you today,
answered, ‘You are right in what you say, but you are guests and I wish to
n6 honour you and give you food so that you may eat. So t ey gat ere
together with him, leaving the apostle of God behind with the aggag
under the tree, on account of his extreme youth. When Bahira looked at
the people he did not see the mark which he knew and found m his books, ^
so he said, ‘Do not let one of you remain behind and not come to my feast.
They told him that no one who ought to come had remained be in excep
a boy who was the youngest of them and had stayed with their baggage.
Thereupon he told them to invite him to come to the meal with them. One
of the men of Quraysh said, ‘By al-Lat and al-'Uzza, we are to blame for
leaving behind (he son of 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib.’ Then he got up
and embraced him and made him sit with the people. When a.ira saw
him he stared at him closely, looking at his body and finding traces of 1 1
description (in the Christian books). When the people had finished eating
and gone away,t Bahira got up and said to him ‘Boy, I ask you by al-L
and al-'Uzza to answer my question.’ Now Bahira said this only bt
he had heard his people swearing by these gods. They allege _ a
apostle of God said to him, ‘Do not ask me by al-Lat and al- Lzza, for y
Allah nothing is more hateful tp me than these two. Bahira answere,
‘Then by Allah, tell me what I ask’; he replied, ‘Ask me what you like , s t
he began to ask him about what happened in his (T. waking and in his
sleep, and his habits, 2 and his affairs generally, and what the apostle of Go
told him coincided with what Bahira knew of his description. cn
looked at his back and saw the seal of propliethood between his shoulders
tin the very place described in his book (i2 3 ).f When he had limshcd
went to his uncle Abu Talib and asked him what relation this boy was to
him, and when he told him he was his son, he said that he was not, for i
could not be that the father of this boy was alive. ‘He is my nephew, he

• Lit. ‘with him’. 2 toy'*’ P crh , a n P^ , b0dy ’-

• X. ‘sent word to invite them all' and o.n.ts passage ending people .

f . . . t T- om -

The Life of Muhammad 81

said, and when he asked what had become of his father he told him that he
had died before the child was born. ‘You have told the truth,’ said Bahira.
‘Take your nephew back to his country and guard him carefully against the
Jews, for by Allah! if they see him and know about him what I know, they
will do him evil; a great future lies before this nephew of yours, so take him 117
home quickly.’

So his uncle took him off quickly and brought him back to Mecca when
he had finished his trading in Syria. People allege that Zurayr and Tam-
mam and Daris, who were people of the scriptures, had noticed in the
apostle of God what Bahira had seen during that journey which he took
with his uncle, and they tried to get at him, but Bahira kept them away and
reminded them of God and the mention of the description of him which
they would find in the sacred books, and that if they tried to get at him
they would not succeed. He gave them no peace until they recognized the
truth of what he said and left him and went away. The apostle of God grew
up, God protecting him and keeping him from the vileness of heathenism
because he wished to honour him with apostleship, until he grew up to be
the finest of his people in manliness, the best in character, most noble in
lineage, the best neighbour, the most kind, truthful, reliable, the furthest
removed from filthiness and corrupt morals, through loftiness and nobility,
so that he was known among his people as ‘The trustworthy’ because of the
good qualities which God had implanted in him. The apostle, so I was
told, used to tell how God protected him in his childhood during the
period of heathenism, saying, ‘I found myself among the boys of Quraysh
carrying stones such as boys play with; we had all uncovered ourselves,
each taking his shirt 1 and putting it round his neck as he carried the stones.

I was going to and fro in the same way, when an unseen figure slapped me
most painfully saying, “Put your shirt on”; so I took it and fastened it on
me and then began to carry the stones upon my neck wearing my shirt
alone among my fellows.’ 2

1 Properly a wrapper which covered the lower part of the body.

2 Suhayli, 120, after pointing out that a somewhat similar story is told of the prophet’s
modesty and its preservation by supernatural means, at the time that the rebuilding of the
Ka'ba was undertaken when Muhammad was a grown man, says significantly that if the
account here is correct divine intervention must have occurred twice. It may well be that
he was led to make this comment by the fact that X. omits the story altogether and in its
place (T. 1126. 10) writes: ‘I. hlamld said that Salama told him that I.I. related from
Muhammad b. 'Abdullah b. Qays b. Makhrama from al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. 'Alt b.

Abu Talib from his father Muhammad b. 'Ali from his grandfather 'Ali b. Abu '{’alib: I
heard the apostle say, “I never gave a thought to what the people of the pagan era used to*
do but twice, because God came between me and my desires. Afterwards J never thought
of evil when God honoured me with apostleship. Once I said to a young Qurayshi who was
shepherding with me on the high ground of Mecca, ‘I should like you to look after my
beasts for me while I go and spend the night in Mecca as young men do.’ He agreed and
I went off with that intent, and when I came to the first house in Mecca I heard the sound
of tambourines and flutes and was told that a marriage had just taken place. I sat down to
look at them when God smote my ear and I fell asleep until I was woken by the sun. I
came to my friend and in reply to his questions told him what had happened. Exactly the
same thing occurred on another occasion. Afterwards I never thought of evil until God
honoured me with his apostleship.”’

B 4080

G

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The Life of Muhammad

1 *9 THE SACRILEGIOUS WAR ( 124 )

This war broke out when the apostle was twenty years of age. It was so
called because these two tribes, Kinana and Qays 'Aylan, fought in the
sacred month. The chief of Quraysh and Kinana was Harb b. Umayya b.
'Abdu Shams. At the beginning of the day Qays got the upper hand but
by midday victory went to Kinana ( 125 ).

THE APOSTLE OF GOD MARRIES KIIADljA ( I 26 )

Khadlja was a merchant woman of dignity and wealth. She used to hire
men to carry merchandise outside the country on a profit-sharing basis, for
Quraysh were a people given to commerce. Now when she heard about
the prophet’s truthfulness, trustworthiness, and honourable character, she
sent for him and proposed that he should take her goods to Syria and trade
with them, while she would pay him more than she paid others. He was to
take a lad of hers called Maysara. The apostle of God accepted the propo¬
sal, and the two set forth until they came to Syria.

The apostle stopped in the shade of a tree near a monk’s cell, when the
monk came up to Maysara and asked who the man was who was resting
120 beneath the tree. He told him that he was of Quraysh, the people who held
the sanctuary; and the monk exclaimed: ‘None but a prophet ever sat
beneath this tree.’

Then the prophet sold the goods he had brought and bought what he
wanted to buy and began the return journey to Mecca. The story goes
that at the height of noon when the heat was intense as he rode his beast
Maysara saw two angels shading the apostle from the sun’s rays. When he
brought Khadija her property she sold it and it amounted to double or
thereabouts. Maysara for his part told her about the two angels who
shaded him and of the monk’s -words. Now Khadija was a determined,
noble, and intelligent woman possessing the properties with which God
willed to honour her. So when Maysara told her these things she sent to
the apostle of God and—so the story goes—said: ‘O son of my uncle I like
you because of our relationship and your high reputation among your
people, your trustworthiness and good character and truthfulness.’ Then
she proposed marriage. Now Khadija at that time was the best born
woman in Quraysh, of the greatest dignity and, too, the richest. All her
people were eager to get possession of her wealth if it were possible.

Khadija was the daughter of Khuwaylid b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b.
Qusayy b. Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr. Her
mother was Fatima d. Za’ida b. al-Asamm b. Rawaha b. Hajar b. 'Abd b.
Ma'is b. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy b..Ghalib b. Fihr. Her mother was Hala d.
'Abdu Manaf b. al-Harith b. 'Amr b. Munqidh b. 'Amr b. Ma'is b. 'Amir
b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr. Hala’s mother was Qilaba d. Su'ayd b. Sa'd b.
Sahm b. 'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr.

The Life of Muhammad g^

Halt b°'A C bdu?M UnCkS f Khadija ’ S pr °P° Sa1 ' and uncle

’ ,j, At ? du : M uttahb went with him to Khuwaylid b Asad and
asked for her hand and he married her (127). ' d

She was the mother of all the aoostle’s , T l -

al-Qasim (whereby he was known as Abu'l-Qa^7S”S? I2 '

Za I? a n- Ruqa H a ’ Umm Kulth °m, and Fatima (128). ‘ ’ * 57 ’

Qasim al-Fayyib, and al-Tahir died in paganism. All his damrEt^

"jihadr ^ Tt and migrated wi<h h ™ to Medina (129)

Khadija had told Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza who was

her cousin and a Christian who had studied the scrVtures anl lH

how F l! ?' her S . ave Maysara had told her tha t the monk had said and
how he had seen the two angels shading him. He said, ‘If this is t“e

monl U t’ Tw Muhammad is the prophet of this people. I knew that a
fothat lff f t t h,S „f cople was *° be ^peered. His time has come,' or words

to say«H^ io™ 1 ?' ° f ' v " tin 8 wearisome and used

y g. t_ome lines of his on the theme are:

I persevered and was persistent in remembering
An anxiety which often evoked tears. And
Confirmatory evidence kept coming from Khadija
Fong have I had to wait, O Khadija,

In the vale of Mecca in spite of my hope
That I might see the outcome of thy words.

I could not bear that the words of the monk
lou told me of should prove false:

That Muhammad should rule over us
Overcoming those who would oppose him.

And that a glorious light should appear in the land
1 o preserve men from disorders.

His enemies shall meet disaster
And his friends shall be victorious.

Would that I might be there then to see

For I should be the first of his supporters, ”*

Joining in that which Quraysh hate
However loud they shout in that Mecca of theirs,
hope to ascend through him whom they all dislike

} ° of the Throne though they are cast down

Is it folly not to disbelieve in Him

Who chose him Who raised the starry heights?

If they and I live, things will be done
Which will throw the unbelievers into confusion
And if I die, ’tis but the fate of mortals
* To suffer death and dissolution.

^srrrrs ,hese are not nam ' s ^ ^

g 4 The Life of Muhammad

THE REBUILDING OF THE KA'BA WHEN THE APOSTLE
ACTED AS UMPIRE

Quraysh decided to rebuild the Ka'ba when the apostle was thirty-five
years of age (T. fifteen years after the sacrilegious war). They were plan¬
ning to roof it and feared to demolish it, for it was made of loose stones
above a man’s height, and they wanted to raise it and roof it because men
had stolen part of the treasure of the Ka ba which used to be in a well in
the middle of it. The treasure was found with Duwayk a freedman of
B. Mulayh b. 'Amr of Khuza'a (130). Quraysh cut his hand off; they say
that the people who stole the treasure deposited it with Duwayk.

T 11 35 (T. Among those suspected were al-Harith b. Amir b. Naufal, and Abu

Ihab b. 'Aziz b. Qays b. Suwayd al-Tamlmi who shared the same mother,
and Abu Lahab b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib. Quraysh alleged that it was they
who took the Ka'ba’s treasure and deposited it with Duwayk, a freedman
of B. Mulayh, and when Quraysh suspected them they informed against
Duwayk and so his hand was cut off. It was said that they had left it with
him, and people say that when Quraysh felt certain that the treasure had
been with al-Harith they took him to an Arab sorceress and in her rhymed
utterances she decreed that he should not enter Mecca for ten years be¬
cause he had profaned the sanctity of the Ka'ba. They allege that he was
driven out and lived in the surrounding country for ten years.)

Now' a ship belonging to a Greek merchant had been cast ashore at
Judda and became a total wreck. They took its timbers and got them ready
to roof the Ka'ba. It happened that in Mecca there was a Copt who was a
carpenter, so everything they needed was ready to hand. Now a snake
used to come out of the well in which the sacred offerings were thrown and
sun itself every day on the wall of the Ka ba. It was an object of terror
because whenever anyone came near it it raised its head and made a rustling
noise and opened its mouth, so that they were terrified of it. While it was
thus sunning itself one day, God sent a bird which seized it and flew off
with it. Thereupon Quraysh said, ‘Now we may hope that God is pleased
123 with what we propose to do. We have a friendly craftsman, we have got
the wood and God has rid us of the snake.’ When they had decided to pull
it down and rebuild it Abu Wahb b. 'Amr b. 'A’idh b. 'Abd b. 'Imran b
Makhzum (131) got up and took a stone from the Ka'ba and it leapt out of
his hand so that it returned to its place. He said, ‘O Quraysh, do not
bring into this building ill-gotten gains, the hire of a harlot, nor money
taken in usury, nor anything resulting from wrong and violence^ People
ascribe this saying to al-Walld b. al-Mughlra b. Abdullah b. Umar b.
Makhzum.

'Abdullah b. Abu Najih al-Makki told me that he was told on the
authority of 'Abdullah b. Safwan b. Umayya b. Khalaf b. Wahb b. Hudhafa
b. Jumah b. 'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy that he saw a son of Ja'da
b. Hubayra b. Abu Wahb b. 'Amr circumambulating the temple, and when

The Life of Muhammad 85

he inquired about him he was told who he was. 'Abdullah b. Safwan said,

‘It was the grandfather of this man (meaning Abu Wahb), who took the
stone from the Ka'ba when Quraysh decided to demolish it and it sprang
from his hand and returned to its place, and it was he who said the words
which have just been quoted.’

Abu Wahb was the maternal uncle of the apostle’s father. He was a
noble of whom an Arab poet said:

If I made my camel kneel at Abu Wahb’s door,

It would start the morrow’s journey with well filled saddle-bags;

He was the noblest of the two branches of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib,

When noble lineage is reckoned.

Refusing to accept injustice, delighting in giving,

His ancestors were of the noblest stock.

A great pile of ashes lie beneath his cooking-pot,

He fills his dishes with bread topped by luscious meat. 1

Then Quraysh divided the work among them; the section near the door
was assigned to B. 'Abdu Manaf and Zuhra. The space between the black 124
stone and the southern corner, to B. Makhzum and the Qurayshite tribes
which were attached to them. The back of the Ka'ba to B. Jumah and
Sahm, the two sons of 'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy. The side of the
hijr to B. 'Abdu’l-Dar b, Qusayy and to B. Asad b. al-'Uzza b. Qusayy,
and to B. 'Adly b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy which is the Hatlm.

The people were afraid to demolish the temple, and withdrew in awe
from it. Al-Walld b. al-Mughlra said, ‘I will begin the demolition.’ So he
took a pick-axe, went up to it saying the while, ‘O God, do not be afraid 2
( 1 3 2 )> O God, we intend only what is best.’ Then he demolished the part
at the two corners. 3 That night the people watched, saying, ‘We will look
out; if he is smitten we won’t destroy any more of it and will restore it as it
was; but if nothing happens to him then God is pleased with what we are
doing and we will demolish it.’ In the morning al-Walid returned to the
work of demolition and the people worked with him, until they got down
to the foundation of Abraham. They came on green stones like camel’s
humps joined one to another.

A certain traditionist told me that a man of Quraysh inserted a crowbar
between two stones in order to get one of them out, and when he moved the
stone the whole of Mecca shuddered so they left the foundation alone.

(T. so they had reached the foundation.)

I was told that Quraysh found in the corner a writing in Syriac. They
could not understand it until a Jew read it for them. It was as follows: ‘I
am Allah the Lord of Bakka, I created it on the day that I created heaven

1 Professor Afhfi reminds me that the second half of this verse is reminiscent of Imru’u’l-
Qays (1. 12) where the fine fat flesh of the camel is compared with white silk finely woven.

• The feminine form indicates that the Ka'ba itself is addressed.

3 Or 'two sacred stones’.

• ... * Not in T.

86 The Life of Muhammad

and earth and formed the sun and moon, and I surrounded it with seven
pious angels. It will stand while its two mountains stand, a blessing to its
people with milk and w r ater,’ and I was told that they found in the maqdm
a writing, ‘Mecca is God’s holy house, its sustenance comes to it from three
directions; let its people not be the first to profane it.’

Layth b. Abu Sulaym alleged that they found a stone in the Ka'ba forty
years before the prophet’s mission, if w r hat they say is true, containing the

125 inscription ‘He that sow’eth good shall reap joy; he that soweth evil shall
reap sorrow; can you do evil and be rewarded with good? Nay, as grapes
cannot be gathered from thorns.’ 1

The tribes of Quraysh gathered stones for the building, each tribe
collecting them and building by itself until the building was finished up to
the black stone, where controversy arose, each tribe wanting to lift it to its
place, until they went their several ways, formed alliances, and got ready
for battle. The B. 'Abdu’l-Dar brought a bowl full of blood; then they
and the B. 'Adiy b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy pledged themselves unto death and
thrust their hands into the blood. For this reason they were called the
blood-lickers. Such was the state of affairs for four or five nights, and then
Quraysh gathered in the mosque and took counsel and were equally
divided on the question.

A traditionist alleged that Abu Umayya b. al-Mughlra b. 'Abdullah b.
'Umar b. Makhzum who was at that time the oldest man of Quraysh, urged
them to make the first man to enter the gate of the mosque umpire in the
matter in dispute. They did so and the first to come in was the apostle of
God. When they saw r him they said, ‘This is the trustworthy one. We are
satisfied. This is Muhammad.’ When he came to them and they informed
him of the matter he said, ‘Give me a cloak,’ and when it was brought to
him he took the black stone and put it inside it and said that each tribe
should take hold of an end of the cloak and they should lift it together.
They did this so that when they got it into position he placed it with his
own hand, and then building went on above it.

Quraysh used to call the apostle of God before revelation came to him,
‘the trustworthy one’; and w'hen they had finished the building, according
to their desire, al-Zubayr the son of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib said about the snake
which made the Quraysh dread rebuilding the Ka'ba:

I w r as amazed that the eagle went straight
To the snake when it was excited.

It used to rustle ominously
And sometimes it would dart forth.

126 When we planned to rebuild the Ka'ba
It terrified us for it w T as fearsome.

When we feared its attack, down came the eagle,

Deadly straight in its swoop,

The Life of Muhammad 87

It bore it away, thus leaving us free
To work without further hindrance.

We attacked the building together,

We had its foundations 1 and the earth.

On the morrow we raised the foundation,

None of our workers wore clothes.

Through it did God honour the sons of Lu’ayy,

Its foundation was ever associated with them,

Banu 'Adiy and Murra had gathered there,

Kilab having preceded them.

For this the King settled us there in power,

For reward is to be sought from God (133).

THE HUMS

I do not know whether it was before or after the year of the elephant that
Quraysh invented the idea of Hums and put it into practice. They said,

\ e are the sons of Abraham, the people of the holy territory, the guardians
of the temple and the citizens of Mecca. No other Arabs have rights like
ours or a position like ours. The Arabs recognize none as they recognize
us, so do not attach the same importance to the outside country as you do
to the sanctuary, for if you do the Arabs will despise your taboo and will
say, “They have given the same importance to the outside land as to the
sacred territory.’” So they gave up the halt at 'Arafa and the departure
from it, while they recognized that these were institutions of the pilgrimage
and the religion of Abraham. They considered that other Arabs should
halt there and depart from the place; but they said, ‘We are the people of ,27
the sanctuary, so it is not fitting that we should go out from the sacred
territory and honour other places as we, the Hums, honour that; for the
Hums are the people of the sanctuary.’ They then proceeded to deal in the
same way with Arabs who w'ere born within and without the sacred terri¬
tory. Kinana and Khuza'a joined with them in this (134).

The Hums went on to introduce innovations for which they had no 128
warrant. They thought it wrong that they should eat cheese made of sour
milk or clarify butter while they were in a state of taboo. They would not
enter tents of camel-hair or seek shelter from the sun except in leather tents
while they were in this state. They went further and refused to allow
those outside the haram to bring food in with them when they came on the
great or little pilgrimage. Nor could they circumambulate the house except
in the garments of the Hums. If they had no such garments they had to go
round naked. If any man or woman felt scruples when they had no hums
garments, then they could go round in their ordinary clothes; but they had

1 A strange place in which to find a quotation from the Gospel; cf. Mt. 7. 16.

Qawaid perhaps = 'uprights’.

88 The Life of.Muhammad

to throw them away afterwards so that neither they nor anyone else could

make use of them. 1 . .. ,

The Arabs called these clothes ‘the cast-off . They imposed all these

restrictions on the Arabs, who accepted them and halted at 'Arafat, hastened
from it and circumambulated the house naked. The men at least went
naked while the women laid aside all their clothes except a shift wide open
back or front. An Arab woman who was going round the house thus said:

Today some or all of it can be seen,

But what can be seen I do not make common property!

Those who went round in the clothes in which they came from outside
threw them away so that neither they nor anyone else could make use ot
129 them. An Arab mentioning some, clothes which he had discarded an
could not get again and yet wanted, said:

It’s grief enough that I should return to her

As though she were a tabooed cast-off in front of the pilgrims.

i.e. she could not be touched.

This state of affairs lasted until God sent Muhammad and revealed to
him when He gave him the laws of His religion and the customs of t e
pilgrimage: ‘Then hasten onward from the place whence men hasten
onwards; and ask pardon of God, for God is forgiving merciful. The
words are addressed to Quraysh and ‘men’ refer to the Arabs So in the
rule of the hajj he hastened them up to ‘Arafat and ordered them to ha
there and to hasten thence.

In reference to their prohibition of food and clothes at the temple su
as had been brought from outside the sacred territory God revealed to him:
‘O Sons of Adam, wear your clothes at every mosqiie and eat and drink an
be not prodigal, for He loves not the prodigal. Say, Who has forbidden the
clothes which God has brought forth for His servants and the good things
Which He has provided ? Say, They on the day of resurrection will be on y
-for those who in this life believed. Thus do we explain the signs for people
who have knowledge.” Thus God set aside the restrictions of the Hums
and the innovations of Quraysh against men’s interests when He sent His

apostle with Islam. ,

‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. Amr b. Hazm from bthm
b. Abu Sulayman b. Jubayr b. Mut'im from his uncle Nafi' b. Jubayr from
his father Jubayr b. Mut'im said: ‘I saw God’s apostle before revelation
came to him and lo he was halting on his beast in 'Arafat with men in the
midst of his tribe until he quitted it with them—a special grace from God

to him.’

• The survival of the idea of contagious 'holiness’ which on the one hand prohibited the
  introduction of profane food into the sanctuary, and when it could not^prevent the m r^ ^
  t-inn of nrofane clothes, forbade their use for common purposes after they
  r«c. “boo would .O indicate an antiquity far greater than that ..cnbed .0

these practices here.

2 Sura 2. 195.

3 Sura 7, 29.

The Life of Muhammad 89

['Uthman b. Saj from Muhammad b. Ishaq from al-Kalbi from Abu Azr. i.
Salih, freedman of Umm Hani from Ibn 'Abbas: The Hums were Quraysh, JI 5
Kinana, Khuza'a, al-Aus and al-Khazraj, Jut ham, B. Rabl'a b. ‘Amir
b. Sa'sa'a. Azd Shanu’a, Judham, Zubayd, B. Dhakwan of B.

Salim, 'Amr al-Lat, Thaqlf, Ghatafan, Ghauth, ‘Adwan, 'Allaf, and
Quda'a. When Quraysh let an Arab marry one of their women they
stipulated that the offspring should be an AhmasI following their religion.
Al-Adram Taym b. Ghalib b. Fihr b. Malik b. al-Nadr b. Kinana married
his son Majd to the daughter of Taym Rabi'a b. ‘Amir b. Sa'sa'a stipulat¬
ing that his children from her should follow the sunna of Quraysh. It is in
reference to her that Labid b. Rabl'a b. Ja'far al-Kilabi said:

My people watered the sons of Majd and I

Water Numayr and the tribes of Hilal.

Mansur b. 'Ikrima b. Khasafa b. Qays b. 'Aylan married Salma d. Dubay'a
b. 'Ali b. Ya'sur b. Sa'd b. Qays b. 'Aylan and she bore to him Hawazin.

When he fell seriously ill she vowed that if he recovered she would make
him a Hums, and when he recovered she fulfilled her vow. . . . The Hums
strictly observed the sacred months and never wronged their proteges
therein nor wronged anyone therein. Tffey went round the Ka'ba wearing
their clothes. If one of them before and at the beginning of Islam was in a
state of taboo if he happened to be one of the housedwellers, i.e. living in
houses or villages, he would dig a hole at the back of his house and go in
and out by it and not enter by the door. The Hums used to say, ‘Do not
respect anything profane and do not go outside the sacred area during the
hajjf so they cut short the rites of the pilgrimage and the halt at 'Arafa, it
being in the profane area, and would not halt at it or go forth from it.

They made their stopping-place at the extreme end of the sacred territory
at Namira at the open space of al-Ma’ziman, stopping there the night of
‘Arafa and sheltering by day in the trees of Namira and starting from it to
al-Muzdalifa. When the sun turbaned the tops of the mountains they set
forth. They were called Hums because of their strictness in their religion.

. . . The year of Hudaybiya the prophet entered his house. One of the
Ansar was with him and he stopped at the door, explaining that he was an
AhmasI. The apostle said, ‘I am an AhmasI too. My religion and yours
are the same’, so the Ansar! went into the house by the door as he saw the
apostle do.

Outsiders used to circumambulate the temple naked, both men and
women. The B. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a and ‘Akk were among those w r ho did thus.

When a woman went round naked she would put one hand behind her and
the other in front.] 1

r A great deal more follows in the name of I. 'Abbas. It is doubtful whether it comes
from I.I., because though there is new matter in it, some statements which occur in the
foregoing are repeated, so that it is probable that they reached Azraqi from another source.

In the foregoing I have translated only passages which provide additional information.

go

The Life of Muhammad

REPORTS OF ARAB SOOTHSAYERS, JEWISH RABBIS, AND
CHRISTIAN MONKS

130 Jewish rabbis, Christian monks, and Arab soothsayers had spoken about
the apostle of God before his mission when his time drew near. As to the
rabbis and monks, it was about his description and the description of his
time which they found in their scriptures and what their prophets had
enjoined upon them. As to the Arab soothsayers they had been visited by 7
satans from the jinn with reports which they had secretly overheard before
they were prevented from hearing by being pelted with stars. Male and
female soothsayers continued to let fall mention of some of these matters
to which the Arabs paid no attention until God sent him and these things
which had been mentioned happened and they recognized them. When
the prophet’s mission came the satans were prevented from listening and
they could not occupy the seats in which they used to sit and steal the
heavenly tidings for they were pelted with stars, and the jinn knew that
that w r as due to an order which God had commanded concerning mankind.
God said to His prophet Muhammad when He sent him as he was telling
him about the jinn when they were prevented from listening and knew
what they knew and did not deny what they 7 saw; ‘Say 7 , It has been revealed
to me that a number of the jinn listened and said \ e have heard a wonder¬
ful Quran which guides to the right path, and we believe in it and we will
not associate anyone with our Lord and that He (exalted be the glory of
our Lord) hath not chosen a wife or a son. A foolish one among us used to
speak lies against God, and we had thought men and jinn would not speak
a lie against God and that when men took reluge with the jinn, they
increased them in revolt,” ending with the words: We used to sit on places
therein to listen; he who listens now finds a flame waiting for him. We do
not know whether evil is intended against those that are on eaith or whether
their lord wishes to guide them in the right path . 1 When the jinn heard
the Quran they knew 7 that they had been prevented from listening before
that so that revelation should not be mingled with news from heaven so
that men would be confused with the tidings which came from God about
it when the proof came and doubt was removed; so they believed and
acknowledged the truth. Then ‘They returned to their people warning
them, saying, O our people we have heard a book which was levealed after
Moses confirming what went before it, guiding to the truth and to the
upright path.’ 2

In reference to the saying of the jinn, ‘that men took refuge with them
and they increased them in revolt’, Arabs of the Quraysh and others when
they were journeying and stopped at the bottom of a vale to pass a night
131 therein used to say, ‘I take refuge in the lord of this valley of the jinn to¬
night from the evil that is therein’ (135).

1 Sura 72. 1 ff.

1 Sura 46. 28.

The Life of Muhammad 91

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughlra b. al-Akhnas told me that he was in¬
formed that the first Arabs to be afraid of falling stars when they were
pelted with them were this clan of Thaqlf, and that they came to one of
their tribesmen called 'Amr b. Umayya, one of B. TIaj who was a most
astute and shrewd man, and asked him if he had noticed this pelting
with stars. He said: ‘Yes, but w r ait, for if they are the well-known stars
which guide travellers by land and sea, by which the seasons of summer
and winter are known to help men in their daily life, which are being
thrown, then by God! it means the end of the w'orld and the destruc¬
tion of all that is in it. But if they remain constant and other stars are
being thrown, then it is for some purpose which God intends towards
mankind.’

Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhrl on the authority of 'All b.
al-Husayn b. 'All b. Abu T’alib from 'Abdullah b. al-'Abbas from a number
of the Ansar mentioned that the apostle of God said to them, ‘What were
you saying about this shooting star?’ They replied, ‘We were saying, a
king is dead, a king has been appointed, a child is bom, a child has died.’

He replied, ‘It is not so, but when God has decreed something concerning 132
His creation the bearers of the throne hear it and praise Him, and those
below them praise Him, and those lower still praise Him because they
have praised, and this goes on until the praise descends to the lowest
heaven where they praise. Then they ask each other why, and are told
that it is because those above them have done so and they say, “Why
don’t you ask those above you the reason?”, and so it goes on until
they reach the bearers of the throne who say that God has decreed so-
and-so concerning His creation and the news descends from heaven to
heaven to the low r est heaven where they discuss it, and the satans steal it
by listening, mingling it with conjecture and false intelligence. Then they
convey it to the soothsayers and tell them of it, sometimes being wrong
and sometimes right, and so the soothsayers are sometimes right and
sometimes wrong. Then God shut off the satans by these stars w r ith
which they were pelted, so soothsaying has been cut off today and no
longer exists.’

'Amr b. Abu Ja'far from Muhammad b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Abu Lablba
from 'All b. al-Husayn b. 'All told me the same tradition as that of Ibn
Shihab.

A learned person told me that a woman of B. Sahm called al-Ghaytala
who was a soothsayer in the time of ignorance was visited by her familiar
spirit one night. He chirped beneath her, 1 then he said,

I know what I know,

The day of wounding and slaughter.

1 The reading here varies; the word anqada means the shriek of birds or the creaking
noise of a door, and can be applied to a man’s voice. If we read inqadda, it means the fall
or the swoop of a bird. In view of the chirping and muttering of soothsayers all the world
over, the first reading seems preferable.

9 2 The Life of Muhammad

When the Quraysh heard of this they asked what he meant. The spirit
came to her another night and chirped beneath her saying,

Death, what is death?

In it bones are thrown here and there. 1

When Quraysh heard of this they could not understand it and decided to
wait until the future should reveal its meaning. When the battle of Badr
and Uhud took place in a glen, they knew that this was the meaning of the

spirit’s message (136). .

133 'All b. Nafi' al-Jurashl told me that Janb, a tribe from the Yaman, had a
soothsayer in the time of ignorance, and when the news of the apostle of
God was blazed abroad among the Arabs, they said to him, ‘Look into the
matter of this man for us’, and they gathered at the bottom of the mountain
where he lived. He came down to them when the sun rose and stood lean¬
ing on his bow. He raised his head toward heaven for a long time and
began to leap about and say:

O men, God has honoured and chosen Muhammad,

Purified his heart and bowels.

His stay among you, O men, will be short.

Then he turned and climbed up the mountain whence he had come.

A person beyond suspicion told me on the authority of 'Abdullah b.
Ka'b a freedman of 'Uthman b. ‘AfTan that he was told that when Umar b.
al-Khattab was sitting with the people in the apostle s mosque, an Arab
came in to visit him. When 'Umar saw him he said, ‘This fellow is still a
polytheist, he has not given up his old religion yet, (or, he said), he was a
soothsayer in the time of ignorance.’ The man greeted him and sat down
and 'Umar asked him if he was a Muslim; he said that he was. He said,
‘But were you a soothsayer in the time of ignorance?’ The man replied,
‘Good God, commander of the faithful, you have thought ill of me and have
greeted me in a way that I never heard you speak to anyone of your sub¬
jects since you came into power.’ Umar said, I ask God s pardon. In the

1 This ominous oracle can vie with any oracle from Delphi in obscurity. We can render,
‘Glens what are glens?’, and this, as the sequel shows, is the way Ibn Ishaq understood the
enigma when the battles of Badr and Uhud took place in glens. But such a translation ig¬
nores the fact that the antecedent jihi (not/i 7 i«) must be a singular, and no form shu uo is
known in the singular. This translation carries with it the necessity of rendering the follow¬
ing line thus, ‘Wherein Ka'b is lying prostrate’, and commentators are unanimous that
'Ka'b' refers to the tribe of Ka'b b. Lu’ayy, who provided most of the slain in the batt es
of Badr and Uhud and so were found ‘Thrown on their sides’. (I can find no authority or
translating ka'b by ‘heels’— -Ferseti —-as do Weil and G. Ildlscher, Die Profeten, Leipzig,
1914, p. 88. ‘Ankle’ in the singular is the meaning, and this can hardly be right.) In view
of the proof text cited by Lane, 26166, where sha'b (people) and Ka b (the tribe) and kt db
(bones used as dice like our knuckle bones) are all found in a single couplet, I am inclined to
think that the oracle is still further complicated and that a possible translation is that given
above. This, at any rate, has the merit of correct syntax since it requires us to read sha ub.
The selection of a word susceptible of so many meanings which contains the name of a
well-known tribe provides an excellent example of oracular prophecy.

The Life of Muhammad 93

time of ignorance we did worse than this; w r e worshipped idols and images
until God honoured us with his apostle and with Islam.’ The man
replied, ‘Yes, by God, I was a soothsayer.’ 'Umar said, ‘Then tell me what
(T. was the most amazing thing) your familiar spirit communicated to
you.’ He said, ‘He came to me a month or so before Islam and said:

Have you considered the jinn and their confusion,

Their religion a despair and a delusion,

Clinging to their camels’ saddle cloths in profusion?’ (137). 134

‘Abdullah b. Ka'b said, Thereupon 'Umar said, ‘I was standing by an
idol with a number of the Quraysh in the time of ignorance when an Arab
sacrificed a calf. We were standing by expecting to get a part of it, when I
heard a voice more penetrating than I have ever heard coming out of the
belly of the calf (this was a month or so before Islam), saying:

O blood red one,

The deed is done,

A man will cry
Beside God none.’ (138)

Such is what I have been told about soothsayers among the Arabs. 1

THE JEWISH WARNING ABOUT THE APOSTLE OF GOD

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that some of his tribesmen said: ‘What
induced us to accept Islam, apart from God’s mercy and guidance, was
what we used to hear the Jews say. We were polytheists worshipping
idols, while they were people of the scriptures with knowledge which we
did not possess. There was continual enmity between us, and "when we got
the better of them and excited their hate, they said, “The time of a prophet
who is to be sent has now come. We w r ill kill you with his aid as 'Ad and
Iram perished.’’ 2 We often used to hear them say this. When God sent
His apostle we accepted him when he called us to God and we realized
what their threat meant and joined him before them. We believed in him
but they denied him. Concerning us and them, God revealed the verse in
the chapter of the Cow: “And when a book from God came to them con¬
firming what they already had (and they were formerly asking for victory
over the unbelievers), when what they knew came to them, they disbelieved
it. The curse of God is on the unbelievers.” ’ (139) 3

Salih b. Ibrahim b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf from Mahmud b. Labld,
brother of B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal, from Salama b. Salama b. Waqsh (Salama 135
was present at Badr) said: ‘We had a Jewish neighbour among B. ‘Abdu’l-
Ashhal, who came out to us one day from his house. (At that time I was the

1 A much longer account is given by S. 135-40.

2 If this report is true it indicates that the Messianic hope was still alive among the

Arabian Jews. 3 Sura 2. 83.

• ... * Not in Tf 1145.

94 The Life of Muhammad

youngest person in my house, wearing a small robe and lying m the court¬
yard ) He spoke of the resurrection, the reckoning, the scales, paradise,
and hell. When he spoke of these things to the polytheists who thought
that there could be no rising after death, they said to him, “Good gracious
man! Do you think that such things could be that men can be raised from
the dead to a place where there is a garden and a fire in which they wil e
recompensed for their deeds?” “Yes,” he said, “and by Him whom men
swear by, he would wish that he might be in the largest oven in his house
rather than in that fire: that they would heat it and thrust him into it an ^
plaster it over if he could get out from that fire on the following day.
When they asked for a sign that this would be, he said pointing wi ms
hand to Mecca and the Yaman, “A prophet will be sent from the direction
of this land.” When they asked when he would appear, he looked at me
the youngest person, and said: “This boy, if he lives his natural term, will
see him,” and by God, a night and a day did not pass before God sent
Muhammad his apostle and he was living among us. We believed in him
but he denied him in his wickedness and envy. When we asked, Aren t
you the man who said these things ?” he said, “Certainly, but this is no

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada on the authority of a shaykh of the B. Qurayza
said to me, ‘Do you know how Tha'laba b. Sa'ya and Asld b. ba ya an
Asad b. 'Ubayd of B. Hadl, brothers of B. Qurayza, became Muslims.
They were with them during the days of ignorance; then they ecame t leir
masters in Islam.’ When I said that I did not know he told me that a Jew
from Syria, Ibnu’l-Hayyaban, came to us some years before Islam and dw e t
136 among us. ‘I have never seen a better man than he who was not a Muslim.
When we were living in the time of drought we asked him to come with us
and pray for rain. He declined to do so unless we paid him something,
and when we asked how much he wanted, he said, “A bushel of dates or
two bushels of barley.” When we had duly paid up he went outside our
harra and prayed for rain for us; and by God, hardly had he left.h.s place
when clouds passed over us and it rained. Not once "or tw.ee d d he do
this Later when he know that he was about to die lie said, O Jews,« hat
do you think made me leave a land of bread and wine to come to a land of
hardship and hunger ?” When we said that we could not think why, he said
that he P had come to this country expecting to see the emergence o
prophet whose time was at hand. This was the town where he would
migrate and he was hoping that he would be sent so that he could follow
him. “His time has come,” he said, "and don't let anyone get to him before
you O Jews; for he will be sent to shed blood and to take captive
women and children of those who oppose him. Let not that keep you back

fr °Whoithe apostle of God was sent and besieged 11 . Qurayza, those young
men who were growing youths said, 'This is the prophet of whom Ibnuj-
Hayyaban testified to you.' They said that he was not, but the others

The Life of Muhammad 95

asserted that he had been accurately described, so they went and became
Muslims and saved their lives, their property, and their families. Such is
what I have been told about the Jewish reports. 1

HOW SALMAN BECAME A MUSLIM

*Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada al-Ansari told me on the authority of Mahmud
b. Labid from 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas as follows: Salman said while I listened
to his words: ‘I am a Persian from Ispahan from a village called Jayy. My 137
father was the principal landowner in his village and I was dearer to him
than the whole world. His love for me went to such lengths that he shut
me in his house as though I were a slave girl. I was such a zealous Magian
that I became keeper of the sacred fire, replenishing it and not letting it go
out for a moment. Now my father owned a large farm, and one day when
he could not attend to his farm he told me to go to it and learn about it,
giving me certain instructions. “Do not let yourself be detained,” he said,
“because you are more important to me than my farm and worrying about
you will prevent me going about my business.” So I started out for the
farm, and when I passed by a Christian church I heard the voices of the
men praying. I knew nothing about them because my father kept me shut
up in his house. When I heard their voices I went to see what they were
doing; their prayers pleased me and I felt drawn to their worship and
thought that it was better than our religion, and I decided that I would not
leave them until sunset. So I did not go to the farm. When I asked them
where their religion originated, they said “Syria”, I returned to my father
who had sent after me because anxiety on my account had interrupted all
his work. He asked me where I had been and reproached me for not obey¬
ing his instructions. I told him that I had passed by some men who were
praying in their church and was so pleased with what I saw of their religion
that I stayed with them until sunset. He said, “My son, there is no good in
that religion; the religion of your fathers is better than that.” “No,” I said,

“It is better than our religion.” My father was afraid of what I would do, so
he bound me in fetters and imprisoned me in his house.

‘I sent to the Christians and asked them if they would tell me when a
caravan of Christian merchants came from Syria. They told me, and I said
to them: “When they have finished their business and want to go back to
their own country, ask them if they will take me.” They did so and I cast
off the fetters from my feet and went with them to Syria. Arrived there I 138
asked for the most learned person in their religion and they directed me to
the bishop. I went to him and told him that I liked his religion and should
like to be with him and serve him in his church, to learn from him and to
pray with him. He invited me to come in and I did so. Now he was a
bad man who used to command people to give alms and induced them to

1 So C., but the beginning of the story suggests that we should read ahbar ‘from the
Jewish rabbis’.

9 6 The Life of Muhammad

do so and when they brought him money he put it in his own coffers and
did not give it to the poor, until he had collected seven jars of gold and
silver I conceived a violent hatred for the man when I saw what he was
doing. Sometime later when he died and the Christians came together to
bury him I told them that he was a bad man who exhorted them and per¬
suaded them to give alms, and when they brought money put it m his
coffers and gave nothing to the poor. They asked how I could possi ly
know this, so I led them to his treasure and when I showed them the p ace
they brought out seven jars full of gold and silver. As soon as they saw
them they said, “By God, we will never bury the fellow,’’ so they crucified
him and stoned him and appointed another in his place.

‘I have never seen any non-Muslim whom I consider more virtuous
more ascetic, more devoted to the next life, and more consistent night and
day than he. I loved him as I had never loved anyone before. I stayed
with him a long time until when he was about to die I told him how I loved
him and asked him to whom he would confide me and what orders he
would give me now that he was about to die. He said, My dear son, I do
not know anyone who is as I am. Men have died and have either altered or
abandoned most of their true religion, except a man in Mausil; he follows
my faith, so join yourself to him. So when he died and was buried, 1
attached myself to the bishop of Mausil telling him that so-and-so had
confided me to him when he died and told me that he followed the same
139 path. I stayed with him and found him just as he had been described, but
it W as not long before he died and I asked him to do for me what his pre¬
decessor had done. He replied that he knew of only one man, in Najibin,
who followed the same path and he recommended me to go to him.

‘I stayed with this good man in Naslbin for some time and when he died
he recommended me to go to a colleague in 'Ammuriya. I stayed with him
for some time and laboured until I possessed some cows and a small hock
of sheep; then when he was about to die I asked him to recommend me to
someone else. He told me that he knew of no one who followed his way of
life but that a prophet was about to arise who. would be sent with the
religion of Abraham; he would come forth in Arabia and would migrate to
a country between two lava belts, between which were palms. He has un¬
mistakable marks. He will eat what is given to him but not things given
*s alms. Between his shoulders is the seal of prophecy. “If you are able to
go to that country, do so.” Then he died and was buried and I stayed m
140 'Ammuriya as long as God willed. Then a party of Kalbite merchants
passed by and I asked them to take me to Arabia and I would give them
those cows and sheep of mine. They accepted the offer and took me with
them until we reached Wadi’l-Qura, "when they sold me to a Jew as a s ave.

1 I have abbreviated the repetitive style of the narrative which is that of popular stones
all the world over. The same words, and the same details, occur m each paragrap w
change of names: Muu?il, Na§ibin, 'Ammuriya, leading up to the obvious climax, Muham¬
mad,

The Life of Muhammad 97

I saw the palm-trees and I hoped that this would be the town which my
master had described to me, for I w'as not certain. Then a cousin of his
from B. Qurayza of Medina came and bought me and carried me away to
Medina, and, by God, as soon as I saw it I recognized it from my master’s
description. I dwelt there and the apostle of God w r as sent and lived in
Mecca; but I did not hear him mentioned because I w r as fully occupied as a
slave. Then he migrated to Medina and as I was in the top of a palm-tree
belonging to my master, carrying out my work while my master sat below,
suddenly a cousin of his came up to him and said: “God smite the B.
Qayla! They are gathering at this moment in Quba’ round a man who has
come to them from Mecca today asserting that he is a prophet.” (140)

‘When I heard this I was seized with trembling (141), so that I thought
I should fall on my master; so I came down from the palm and began to
say to his cousin, “What did you say? What did you say?” My master
was angered and gave me a smart blow, saying, “What do you mean by
this? Get back to your w'ork.” I said, “Never mind, I only wanted to find
out the truth of his report.” Now I had a little food which I had gathered, 141
and I took it that evening to the apostle of God who was in Quba’ and said,

“I have heard that you are an honest man and that your companions are
strangers in want; here is something for alms, for I think that you have
more right to it than others.” So I gave it to him. The apostle said to his
companions, “Eat!” but he did not hold out his own hand and did not eat.

I said to myself, “That is one;” then I left him and collected some food
and the apostle went to Medina. Then I brought it to him and said, “I see
that you do not eat food given as alms, here is a present which I freely give
you.” The apostle ate it and gave his companions some. I said, “That’s
two;” then I came to the apostle when he was in Baqi'u-’l-Gharqad 1 where
he had followed the bier of one of his companions. Now I had two cloaks,
and as he was sitting with his companions, I saluted him and went round
to look at his back so that I could see whether the seal which my master
had described to me was there. When the apostle saw me looking at his
back he knew that I was trying to find out the truth of what had been
described to me, so he threw off his cloak laying bare his back and I looked
at the seal and recognized it. Then I bent over him 2 kissing him 2 and w’eep-
ing. The apostle said, “Come here;” so I came and sat before him and
told him my story as I have told you, O b. 'Abbas. The apostle w T anted
his companions to hear my story.’ Then servitude occupied Salman so
that he could not be at Badr and Uhud w T ith the apostle.

Salman continued: 'Then the apostle said to me, “Write an agreement;”
so I wrote to my master agreeing to plant three hundred palm-trees for him,
digging out the base, and to pay forty okes of gold. The apostle called on
his companions to help me, which they did; one with thirty little palms,
another with twenty, another with fifteen, and another with ten, each help¬
ing as much as he could until the three hundred were complete. The

1 The cemetery of Medina which lies outside the town. 2 Or ‘it’.

B 4080 H

98 The Life of Muhammad

apostle told me to go and dig the holes for them, saying that when I had
14a done so he would put them in with his own hand. Helped by my com¬
panions I dug the holes and came and told him; so we all went out together,
and as we brought him the palm shoots he planted them with his own hand;
and by God, not one of them died. Thus I had delivered the palm-trees,
but the money was still owing. Now the apostle had been given a piece of
gold as large as a hen’s egg from one of the mines 1 and he summoned me
and told me to take it and pay my debt with it. “How far will this relieve
me of my debt, O Apostle of God?” I said. “Take it,” he replied, “for
God will pay your debt with it.” So I took it and weighed it out to them,
and by God, it weighed forty okes, and so I paid my debt with it and Sal¬
man was free. I took part with the Apostle in the battle of the Ditch as a
free man and thereafter I was at every other battle.’

Yazid b. Abu Habib from a man of 'Abdu’I-Qays from Salman told me
that the latter said: ‘When I said, “How far will this relieve me of my
debt?” the apostle took it and turned it over upon his tongue, then he said,
“Take it and pay them in full”; so I paid them in full, forty okes.’ 2

'A$im b. 'Umar b. Qatada on the authority of a trustworthy informant
from 'Umar b. 'Abdu’l-'^Aziz b. Marwan said that he was told that Salman
the Persian told the apostle that his master in 'Ammuriya told him to go to
a certain place in Syria where there was a man who lived between two
thickets. Every year as he used to go from one to the other, the sick used
to stand in his way and everyone he prayed for was healed. He said, ‘Ask
him about this religion which you seek, for he can tell you of it.’ So I went
on until I came to the place I had been told of, and I found that people
had gathered there with their sick until he came out to them that night
passing from one thicket to the other. The people came to him with their
sick and everyone he prayed for was healed. They prevented me from
getting to him so that I could not approach him until he entered the
143 thicket he was making for, but I took hold of his shoulder. He asked me
who I was as he turned to me and I said, ‘God have mercy on you, tell me
about the Haniflya, the religion of Abraham.’ He replied, ‘You are asking
about something men do not inquire of today; the tune has come near
when a prophet will be sent with this religion from the people of the
haram. Go to him, for he will bring you to it.’ Then he went into the
thicket. The apostle said to Salman, ‘If you have told me^the truth, you
met Jesus the son of Mary.’

FOUR MEN WHO BROKE WITH POLYTHEISM

One day when the Quraysh had assembled on a feast day to venerate and
circumambulate the idol to which they offered sacrifices, this being a feast

1 For in interesting account of the reopening of an ancient mine in the Wajh-Yanbu* area
of the Hijaz see K. S. Twitchell, Saudi Arabia, Princeton, 1947, pp. 159 f- Kufic inscrip¬
tions, said to date from a.d. 750, were found there, and this may well have been one of‘King
Solomon's mines'. 1 The oke being roughly an ounce, a miracle is implied.

The Life of Muhammad 99

which they held annually, four men drew apart secretly and agreed to keep
their counsel in the bonds of friendship. They were (i) Waraqa b. Naufal
b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy b. Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy;

(ii) 'Ubaydullah b. Jahsh b. Ri’ab b. Ya'mar b. Sabra b. Murra b. Kablr
b. Ghanm b. Dudan b. Asad b. Khuzayma, whose mother was Umayma
d. 'Abdu’l-Muftalib; (iii) 'Uthman b. al-Huwayrith b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-
'Uzza b. Qusayy; and (iv) Zayd b. 'Amr b. Nufayl b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b.
'Abdullah b. Qur$ b. Riyah 1 b. Razah b. *Adiyy b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy. They
were of the opinion that their people had corrupted the religion of their
father Abraham, and that the stone they went round was of no account; it
could neither hear, nor see, nor hurt, nor help. ‘Find for yourselves a
religion,’ they said; ‘for by God you have none.’ So they went their
several ways in the lands, seeking the Haniflya, the religion of Abraham.

Waraqa attached himself to Christianity and studied its scriptures until
he had thoroughly mastered them. 'Ubaydullah went on searching until
Islam came; then he migrated with the Muslims to Abyssinia taking with 144
him his wife who was a Muslim, Umm Habiba, d. Abu Sufyan. When he
arrived there he adopted Christianity, parted from Islam, and died a
Christian in Abyssinia.

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me that when he had become a
Christian 'Ubaydullah as he passed the prophet’s companions who were there
used to say: ‘We see clearly, but your eyes are only half open,’ i.e. ‘We
see, but you are only trying to see and cannot see yet.* He used the word
sa’sa ’ because when a puppy tries to open its eyes to see, it only half sees.

The other word faqqaha means to open the eyes. After his death the
apostle married his widow Umm Habiba. Muhammad b. 'All b. Husayn
told me that the apostle sent 'Amr b. Umayya al-Pamrl to the Negus to ask
forh er and he married him to her. He gave her as a dowry, on the apostle’s
behalf, four hundred dinars. Muhammad b. 'All said, ‘We think that
'Abdu’l-Malik b. Marwan fixed the maximum dowry of women at four
hundred dinars because of this precedent.’ The man who handed her over
to the prophet was Khalid b. Sa'Id b. al-'As.

'Uthman b. al-Huwayrith went to the Byzantine emperor and became
a Christian. He was given high office there (142).

Zayd b. 'Amr stayed as he was; he accepted neither Judaism nor Chris¬
tianity. He abandoned the religion of his people and abstained from idols,
animals that had died, blood, and things offered to idols. 2 He forbade the
killing of infant daughters, saying that he worshipped the God of Abraham,
and he publicly rebuked his people for their practices.

Hisham b. 'Urwa from his father on the authority of his mother Asma’
d. Abu Bakr said that she saw Zayd as a very old man leaning his back on
the Ka'ba and saying, ‘0 Quraysh, By Him in whose hand is the soul of

1 So C.

• The influence of the Jewish formula, taken over by early Christianity (Acts 15. 29) is
  clear.

100

The Life of Muhammad
Zayd, not one of you follows

hands * , , ■ a -A u 7 qvH and 'Umar b. al-Khattab, who

I was told that his son, Sa id b. Zayd, , r i» _ arrfon f or

Tydt wfllbo W rais°cdfrom the dead as the

^Zaydb/A'b. Nuf^l con^posrf the following poem about leaving his
people and the treatment he received from them:

Am I to worship one lord or a thousand?

If there are as many as you claim,

I renounce al-Lat and al-'Uzza both of them
As any strong-minded person would.

I will not worship al-'Uzza and her two daughters,

Nor will I visit the two images of the Banu Amr.

I will not worship HubaU though he was our lord
In the days when I had little sense..

I wondered (for in the night much is strange
Which in daylight is plain to the discerning).

That God had annihilated many men

Whose deeds were thoroughly evil

And spared others through the piety of a peop e

So that a little child could grow to manhood.

A man may languish for a time and then recover
As the branch of a tree revives after ram.

I serve my Lord the compassionate

That the forgiving Lord may pardon my sin,

So keep to the fear of God your Lord;

While you hold to that you will not perish.

You will see the pious living in gardens,

While for the infidels hell fire is burning.

Shamed in life, when they die
Their breasts will contract in anguis .

Zayd also said; (143)

To God I give my praise and thanksgiving,

A sure word that will not fail as long as time as s.

To the heavenly King— there is no God beyond Him
And no lord can draw near to Him.

Beware, O men, of what follows death!

You can hide nothing from God.

X This is the reading of al-Kalbi, but all MSS. have Ghanm. a deity unknown. Cf. also
Yaq. iii. 665. 8.

101

The Life of Muhammad

Beware of putting another beside God,

For the upright way has become clear.

Mercy I implore, others trust in the jinn,

But thou, my God, art our Lord and our hope.

I am satisfied with thee, O God, as a Lord,

And will not worship another God beside thee.

Thou of thy goodness and mercy
Didst send a messenger to Moses as a herald.

Thou saidst to him, Go thou and Aaron,

And summon Pharaoh the tyrant to turn to God
And say to him, ‘Did you spread out this (earth) without a support,
Until it stood fast as it does ?’

Say to him ‘Did you raise this (heaven) without support?

What a fine builder then you were!’

Say to him, ‘Did you set the moon in the middle thereof
As a light to guide when night covered it V
Say to him, ‘Who sent forth the sun by day
So that the earth it touched reflected its splendour?’

Say to him, ‘Who planted seeds in the dust
That herbage might grow' and wax great ?

And brought forth its seeds in the head of the plant ?*

Therein are signs for the understanding.

Thou in thy kindness did deliver Jonah
Who spent nights in the belly of the fish.

Though I glorify thy name, I often repeat
‘O Lord forgive my sins.’ 1

O Lord of creatures, bestow thy gifts and mercy upon me
And bless my sons and property.

Zayd b. 'Amr in reproaching his wife Safiya, d. al-Hadrami (144)
said: 2

Now Zayd had determined to leave Mecca to travel about in search of 147
the Hanifiya, the religion of Abraham, and whenever Safiya saw that he
had got ready to travel she told al-Khatfab b. Nufayl, who was his uncle
and his brother by the same mother . 3 He used to reproach him for
forsaking the religion of his people. He had instructed Safiya to tell him
if she saw him getting ready to depart; and then Zayd said:

Don’t keep me back in humiliation,

0 Safiya. It is not my way at all.

1 Or ‘I should add to my sins unless thou forgavest me’.

• What he said is reserved till the circumstances which gave rise to the poem have been
  described.

1 This was because his mother was first married to Nufayl and gave birth to aI-Kha?tab;
then she married her stepson 'Amr and gave birth to Zayd: thus the double relationship
came into being.

102

The Life of Muhammad

When I fear humiliation
I am a brave man whose steed is submissive.

A man who persistently frequents the gates of kings
Whose camel crosses the desert;

One who severs ties with others ,

Whose difficulties can be overcome without (the aid of) inends.

A donkey only accepts humiliation
When its coat is worn out.

It says, ‘I will never give in
Because the load chafes my sides. 2
My brother, (my mother’s son and then my uncle),

Uses words which do not please me.

When he reproaches me I say,

‘I have no answer for him.’

Yet if I wished I could say things
Of which I hold the keys and door.

I was told by one of the family of Zayd b.'Amr b Nufayl that when
Zayd faced the Ka'ba inside the mosque he used to say, Labbayka in truth,
in worship and in service 3

I take refuge in what Abraham took refuge
When he stood and faced the qibla’

Then he said:

A humble prisoner, O God, my face in the dust,

Whatever thy commandment do I must.

148 Pride I seek not, but piety’s boon.

The traveller at midday is not as he who sleeps at noon (145).

And Zayd said:

I submit myself to him to whom

The earth which bears mighty rocks is subject.

He spread it out and when He saw it was settled
Upon the waters, He fixed the mountains on it.

I submit myself to Him to whom clouds which bear
Sweet water are subject.

When they are borne along to a land
They obediently pour copious rain upon it.

Now al-Khattab had ho harassed Zayd that he forced him to withdraw
to the upper part of Mecca, and he stopped in the mountain of Hira facing
the town Al-Kha t tab gave instructions to the young irresponsible men of
Quraysh that they should not let him enter Mecca and he was able to do so

1 So A.Dh. Perhaps mushayya means ‘quick to take leave .
a So A.Dh., but one would expect fildbuh to mean hts tough ones .

3 i.e. ‘Here I am as a sincere worshipper’.

The Life of Muhammad 103

in secret only. When they got to know of that they told al-Kha$tab and
drbve him out and harassed him because of their fear that he would show
their religion in its true colours and that some would join him in seceding
from it. He said, making much of its sanctity against those of his people
who treated it as ordinary:

O God, I am of the holy land, no outsider,

My house is in the centre of the place
Hard by al-Safa.

It is no home of error. 1

Then he went forth seeking the religion of Abraham, questioning monks
and Rabbis until he had traversed al-Mausil and the whole of Mesopo¬
tamia ; then he went through the whole of Syria until he came to a monk in
the high ground of Balqa. 2 This man, it is alleged, was well instructed in
Christianity. He asked him about the Hanlflya, the religion of Abraham,
and the monk replied, ‘You are seeking a religion to which no one today
can guide you, but the time of a prophet who will come forth from your 149
own country which you have just left has drawn near. He will be sent with
the Hanlflya, the religion of Abraham, so stick to it, for he is about to be
sent now and this is his time.’ Now Zayd had sampled Judaism and Chris¬
tianity and was not satisfied with either of them; so at these words he went
away at once making for Mecca; but when he was well inside the country
of Lakhm he was attacked and killed.

Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad composed this elegy over him:

You were altogether on the right path Ibn 'Amr,

You have escaped hell’s burning oven
By serving the one and only God
And abandoning vain idols.

And by attaining the religion which you sought
Not being unmindful of the unity of your Lord
You have reached a noble dwelling
Wherein you will rejoice in ygur generous treatment.

You will meet there the friend of God, 3
Since you were not a tyrant ripe for hell,

For the mercy of God reaches men,

Though they be seventy valleys deep below the earth (146).

THE WORD APPLIED TO THE APOSTLE OF GOD IN THE

GOSPEL

Among the things which have reached me about what Jesus the Son of
Mary stated in the Gospel which he received from God for the followers
of the Gospel, in applying a term to describe the apostle of God, is the

1 One would expect mi?alla for matfalla in view of what has been said about the Hums.

1 The district of which ‘Amman was the capital. 3 i.e. Abraham.

104 The Life of Muhammad

following. It is extracted from what John the Apostle set down for them
when he wrote the Gospel for them from the Testament of Jesus Son of
Mary: ‘He that hateth me hath hated the Lord. And if I had not done in
their presence works which none other before me did, they had not.had sin:

150 but from now they are puffed up with pride and think that they will over¬
come me and also the Lord. But the word that is in the law must be ful¬
filled, “They hated me without a cause” (i.e. without reason). But when
the Comforter has come whom God will send to you from the Lord’s
presence, and the spirit of truth which will have gone forth from the Lord’s
presence he (shall bear) witness of me and ye also, because ye have been
with me from the beginning. I have spoken unto you about this that ye
should not be in doubt.’ 1

The Munahhemana (God bless and preserve him!) in Syriac is Muham¬
mad; in Greek he is the paraclete.

THE PROPHET’S MISSION

When Muhammad the apostle of God reached the age of forty God sent
him in compassion to mankind, ‘as an evangelist to all men’. 2 Now God
had made a covenant with every prophet Whom he had sent before him
that he should believe in him, testify to his truth and help him against his
adversaries, and he required of them that they should transmit that to
everyone who believed in them, and they carried out their obligations in
that respect. God said to Muhammad, ‘When God made a covenant with
the prophets (He said) this is the scripture and wisdom which I have given
you, afterwards an apostle will come confirming what you know that you
may believe in him and help him.’ He said, ‘Do you accept this and take up
my burden?’ i.e. the burden of my agreement which I have laid upon you.
They said, ‘We accept it.’ He answered, ‘Then bear witness and I am a
witness with you.’ 3 Thus God made a covenant with all the prophets that
they should testify to his truth and help him against his adversaries and

1 The passage quoted js John 15. 23 ff. It is interesting to note that the citation comes
from the Palestinian Syriac Lectionary and not from the ordinary Bible of the Syriac-speak¬
ing Churches. The text is corrupt in one or two places; e.g. the phrase ‘puffed up with
pride and think that they will overcome me'. Bafiru is an obvious corruption of nayaru,
which agrees with the Syriac and underlying Greek. Wazannu seems to be another attempt
to make sense of the passage. The next word I am unable to explain. The most interesting
word is that rendered ‘Comforter’ which we find in the Palestinian Lectionary, but all other
Syriac versions render ‘paraclete’, following the Greek. This word was well established in
the Hebrew- and Aramaic-speaking world. The menahhemana in Syriac means the life-
giver and especially one who raises from the dead. Obviously such a meaning is out of place
here and what is meant is one who consoles and comforts people for the loss of one dear to
them. This is the meaning in the Talmud and Targum. It ought to be pointed out that by
the omission of the words ‘that is written’ before ‘in the law’ quite another meaning is given
to the prophecy. The natural rendering would be 'the word that concerns the Namus must
be fulfilled’. To Muslims the N&mus was the angel Gabriel. Furthermore, the last words
are translated as the ordinary Arab reader would understand tashukku ; but in Syrian Arabic
it could bear the meaning of the Gospel text ‘stumble’. See further my article in Al-Anda-
lus, xv, fasc, 2 (1950), 289-96. 2 Sura 34. 27. 3 Sura 3. 75.

The Life of Muhammad 105

they transmitted that obligation to those who believed in them among the
two monotheistic religions.

(T. One whom I do not suspect told me from Sa'id b. Abu 'Aruba from T> 1142
Qatada b. Di'ama al-SadusI from Abu’l-Jald: ‘The Furqan came down on
the 14th night of Ramadan. Others say, No, but on the 17th; and in sup¬
port of this they appeal to God’s word: ‘And what we sent down to our
servant on the day of al-Furqan, the day the two companies met’ 1 which
was the meeting of the apostle and the polytheists at Badr, and that took
place on the morning of Ramadan 17th.)

Al-Zuhrl related from 'Urwa b. Zubayr that 'A’isha told him that when 151
Allah desired to honour Muhammad and have mercy on His servants by
means of him, the first sign of prophethood vouchsafed to the apostle was
true visions, resembling the brightness of daybreak, which were shown to
him in his sleep. And Allah, she said, made him love solitude so that he
liked nothing better than to be alone.

'Abdu’l-Malik b. 'Ubaydullah b. Abu Sufyan b. al-'Ala’ b. Jariya the
Thaqafite who had a retentive memory related to me from a certain scholar
that the apostle at the time when Allah willed to bestow His grace upon
him and endow him with prophethood would go forth for his affair and
journey far afield until he reached the glens of Mecca and the beds of its
valleys where no house was in sight; and not a stone or tree that he passed
by but would say, ‘Peace unto thee, O apostle of Allah.’ And the apostle
would turn to his right and left and look behind him and he would see.
naught but trees and stones. Thus he stayed seeing and hearing so long as
it pleased Allah that he should stay. Then Gabriel came to him with the
gift of God’s grace whilst he was on Hira’ in the month of Ramadan.

Wahb b. Kaisan a client of the family of al-Zubayr told me: I heard
'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr say to 'Ubayd b. 'Umayr b. Qatada the Laythite,

‘O 'Ubayd tell us how began the prophethood which was first bestowed
on the apostle when Gabriel came to him.’ And 'Ubayd in my presence
related to 'Abdullah and those with him as follows: The apostle would pray 152
in seclusion on Hira’ every year for a month to practise tahannuth as was
the custom of Quraysh in heathen days. Tahannuth is religious devotion.

Abu Talib said:

By Thaur and him who made Thabir firm in its place

And by those going up to ascend Hira’ and coming down (147). 2

Wahb b. Kaisan told me that 'Ubayd said to him: Every year during
that month the apostle would pray in seclusion and give food to the poor
that came to him. And when he completed the month and returned from
his seclusion, first of all before entering his house he would go to the Ka'ba
and walk round it seven times or as often as it pleased God; then he would
go back to his house until in the year when God sent him, in the month of

1 Sura 5. 42.

3 Thaur and Thabir are mountains near Mecca. The poem is given on p. 173; cf. Y&q.
i. 938 .

106 The Life of Muhammad

Ramadan in which God willed concerning him what He willed of His grace,
the apostle set forth to Hira’ as was his wont, and his family with him.
When it was the night on which God honoured him with his mission and
showed mercy on His servants thereby, Gabriel brought him the command
of God. ‘He came to me,’ said the apostle of God, ‘while I was asleep, with
a coverlet of brocade whereon was some writing, and said, “Read!” I said,
“What shall I read ?” He pressed me with it so tightly that I thought it
was death; then he let me go and said, “Read!” I said, “What shall I
read?” He pressed me with it again so that I thought it was death; then he
let me go and said “Read!” I said, “What shall I read?” He pressed me
with it the third time so that I thought it was death and said “Read!” I
153 said, “What then shall I read?”—and this I said only to deliver myself
from him, lest he should do the same to me again. He said:

“Read in the name of thy Lord who created,

Who created man of blood coagulated.

Read! Thy Lord is the most beneficent,

Who taught by the pen,

Taught that which they knew not unto men.” 1

T. 1150 So I read it, and he departed from me. And I awoke from my sleep, and it
was as though these words were written on my heart. (T. Now none of
God’s creatures was more hateful to me than an (ecstatic) poet or a man
possessed: I could not even look at them. I thought, Woe is me poet or
possessed—Never shall Quraysh say this of me! I will go to the top of the
mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest. So
I went forth to do so and then) when I was midway on the mountain, I
heard a voice from heaven saying, “O Muhammad! thou art the apostle of
God and I am Gabriel.” I raised my head towards heaven to see (who was
speaking), and lo, Gabriel in the form of a man with feet astride the horizon,
saying, “O Muhammad! thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel.”

I stood gazing at him, (T. and that turned me from my purpose) moving
neither forward nor backward; then I began to turn my face aw r ay from
him, but towards whatever region of the sky I looked, I saw him as before.
And I continued standing there, neither advancing nor turning back, until
Khadija sent her messengers in search of me and they gained the high
ground above Mecca and returned to her while I.was standing in the same
place; then he parted from me and I from him, returning to my family.
And I came to Khadija and sat by her thigh and drew close to her. She
said, “O Abu’l-Qasim, 2 where hast thou been ? By God, I sent my messen¬
gers in search of thee, and they reached the high ground above Mecca and
returned to me.” (T. I said to her, “Woe is me poet or possessed.” She
said, “I take refuge in God from that O Abu’l-Qasim. God would not treat
you thus since he knows your truthfulness, your great trustworthiness,
your fine character, and your kindness. This cannot be, my dear. Perhaps

1 Sura 96. 1-5. 2 The kunya or ‘name of honour’ of Muhammad.

The Life of Muhammad 107

you did see something.” “Yes, I did,” I said.) Then I told her of what I
had seen; and she said, “Rejoice, O son of my uncle, and be of good heart.
Verily, by Him in whose hand is Khadija’s soul, I have hope that thou wilt
be the prophet of this people.” * Then she rose and gathered her garments
about her and set forth to her cousin Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad b. ‘Abdu’l-
Uzza b. Qusayy, who had become a Christian and read the scriptures and
learned from those that follow the Torah and the Gospel. And when she
related to him what the apostle of God told her he had seen and heard,
Waraqa cried, ‘Holy! Holy! Verily by Him in whose hand is Waraqa’s
soul, if thou hast spoken to me the truth, O Khadija, there hath come unto
him the greatest Namus (T. meaning Gabriel) who came to Moses afore¬
time, and lo, he is the prophet of this people. Bid him be of good heart.’

So Khadija returned to the apostle of God and told him what Waraqa had
said. (T. and that calmed his fears somewhat.) And when the apostle of
God had finished his period of seclusion and returned (to Mecca), in the
first place he performed the circumambulation of the Ka'ba, as was his
wont. While he was doing it, Waraqa met him and said, ‘O son of my 154
brother, tell me what thou hast seen and heard.’ The apostle told him, and
Waraqa said, Surely, by Him in whose hand is Waraqa’s soul, thou art the
prophet of this people. There hath come unto thee the greatest Namus,
who came unto Moses. Thou wilt be called a liar, and they will use thee
despitefullyand cast thee out and fight against thee. Verily, if I live to see that
day, I will help God in such wise as He knoweth.’ Then he brought his head
near to him and kissed his forehead; and the apostle went to his own house.

(T. Waraqa’s words added to his confidence and lightened his anxiety.)

Isma'il b. Abu Hakim, a freedman of the family of al-Zubayr, told me on
Khadija’s authority that she said to the apostle of God, ‘O son of my
uncle, are you able to tell me about your visitant, when he comes to you ?’

He replied that he could, and she asked him to tell her when he came. So
when Gabriel came to him, as he was wont, the apostle said to Khadija,

‘This is Gabriel who has just come to me.’ ‘Get up, O son of my uncle,’
she said, and sit by my left thigh’. The apostle did so, and she said, ‘Can
you see him? Yes, he said. She said, ‘Then turn round and sit on my
right thigh.’ He did so, and she said, ‘Can you see him?’ When he said
that he could she asked him to move and sit in her lap. When he had done
this she again asked if he could see him, and when he said yes, she dis¬
closed her form and cast aside her veil while the apostle was sitting in her
lap. Then she said, ‘Can you see him?’ And he replied, ‘No.’ She said,

‘O son of my uncle, rejoice and be of good heart, by God he is an angel and
not a satan.’

I told Abdullah b. Hasan this story and he said, ‘I heard my mother
Fatima, daughter of Husayn, talking about this tradition from Khadija,
but as I heard it she made the apostle of God come inside her shift, and
thereupon Gabriel departed, and she said to the apostle of God, “This
verily is an angel and not a satan.”’

PART II

Muhammad’s call and

PREACHING IN MECCA

THE BEGINNING OF THE SENDING DOWN OF THE 155

QURAN

The apostle began to receive revelations in the month of Ramadan. In the
words of God, ‘The month of Ramadan in which the Quran was brought
down as a guidance to men, and proofs of guidance and a decisive criterion.’ 1
And again, ‘Verily we have sent it down on the night of destiny, and what
has shown you what the night of destiny is ? The night of destiny is better
than a thousand months. In it the angels and the spirit descend by their
Lord’s permission with every matter. It is peace until the rise of dawn.’ 2
Again, ‘H.M. by the perspicuous book, verily we have sent it down in a
blessed night. Verily, we were warning. In it every wise matter is decided
as a command from us. Verily we sent it down.’ 3 And again, ‘Had you
believed in God and what we sent down to Our servant on the day of
decision, the day on which the two parties met’, 4 i.e. the meeting of the
apostle with the polytheists in Badr. Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. ‘All b.
al-Husayn told me that the apostle of God met the polytheists in Badr on
the morning of Friday, the 17th of Ramadan.

Then revelation came fully to the apostle while he was believing in Him
and in the truth of His message. He received it .willingly, and took upon
himself what it entailed whether of man’s goodwill or anger. Prophecy is
a troublesome burden—only strong, resolute messengers can bear it by
God’s help and grace, because of the opposition which they meet from
men in conveying God’s message. The apostle carried out God’s orders in
spite of the opposition and ill treatment which he met with.

KHADIJA, DAUGHTER OF KHUWAYLID, ACCEPTS ISLAM

Khadija believed in him and accepted as true what he brought from God,
and helped him in his work. She was the first to believe in God and His
apostle, and in the truth of his message. By her God lightened the burden
of His prophet. He never met with contradiction and charges of falsehood,
which saddened him, but God comforted him by her when he went home.

She strengthened him, lightened his burden, proclaimed his truth, and
belittled men’s opposition. May God Almighty have mercy upon her! 156
Hisham b. 'Urwa told me on the authority of his father 'Urwa b. al-
Zubayr from 'Abdullah b. Ja'far b. Abu Talib that the apostle said, ‘I was
commanded to give Khadija the good news of a house of qa$ab wherein
would be no clamour and no toil’ (148).

Then revelations stopped for a time so that the apostle of God was dis¬
tressed and grieved. Then Gabriel brought him the Sura of the Morning,
in which his Lord, who had so honoured him, swore that He had not for-

1 Sura 2. 181. 3 Sura 97.

3 Sura 44. 1-4. 4 Sura 8. 42.

112

The Life of Muhammad

saken him, and did not hate him. God said, ‘By the morning and the night
when it is still, thy Lord hath not forsaken nor hated thee,’ 1 meaning that
He has not left you and forsaken you, nor hated you after having loved
you. ‘And verily, the latter end is better for you than the beginning,’ 2 i.e.
What I have for you when you return to Me is better than the honour
which I have given you in the world. ‘And your Lord will give you and
will satisfy you,’ i.e. of victory in this world and reward in the next. ‘Did
he not find you an orphan and give you refuge, going astray and guided
you, found you poof and made you rich ?’ God thus told him of how He
had begun to honour him in his earthly life, and of His kindness to him as
an orphan poor and wandering astray, and of His delivering him from all
that by His compassion (149).

X S 7 ‘Do not oppress the orphan and do not repel the beggar.’ That is, do not
be a tyrant or proud or harsh or mean towards the weakest of God’s
creatures.

‘Speak of the kindness of thy Lord,’ i.e. tell about the kindness of God
in giving you prophecy, mention it and call men to it.

So the apostle began to mention secretly God’s kindness to him and to
his servants in the matter of prophecy to everyone among his people whom
he could trust.

THE PRESCRIPTION OF PRAYER

The apostle was ordered to pray and so he prayed. Salih b. Kaisan from
'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from *A’isha told me that she said, ‘When prayer was
first laid on the apostle it was with two prostrations for every prayer: then
God raised it to four prostrations at home while on a journey the former
ordinance of two prostrations held.’

158 A learned person told me that when prayer was laid on the apostle
Gabriel came to him while he was on the heights of Mecca and dug a hole
for him with his heel in the side of the valley from which a fountain gushed
forth, and Gabriel performed the ritual ablution as the apostle watched
him. This was in order to show him how to purify himself before prayer.
Then the apostle performed the ritual ablution as he had seen Gabriel do
it. Then Gabriel said a prayer with him while the apostle prayed with his
prayer. Then Gabriel left him. The apostle came to Khadlja and per¬
formed the ritual for her as Gabriel had done for him, and she copied him.
Then he prayed with her as Gabriel had prayed with him, and she prayed
his prayer.

*Utba b. Muslim freedman of B. Taym from Nafi' b. Jubayr b, Muj'im
(who was prolific in relating tradition) from I. 'Abbas told me: ‘When
prayer was laid upon the apostle Gabriel came to him and prayed the noon
prayer when the sun declined. Then he prayed the evening prayer when

1 Sura 93.

2 Sura 93.

The Life of Muhammad 1x3

his shadow equalled his own length. Then he prayed the sunset prayer
When the sun set. Then he prayed the last night prayer when the twilight
had disappeared. Then he prayed with him the morning prayer when the
dawn rose. Then he came to him and prayed the noon prayer on the
morrow when his shadow equalled his height. Then he prayed the evening
prayer when his shadow equalled the height of both of them. Then he
prayed the sunset prayer when the sun set at the time it had the day
before. Then he prayed with him the last night prayer when the first third
ot the night had passed. Then he prayed the dawn prayer when it was clear
but the sun was not shining. Then he said, “O Muhammad, prayer is i n
what is between your prayer today and your prayer yesterday.”’ 1 (T. T. 1161
Yunus b. Bukayr said that Muhammad b. Ishaq told him that Yahya b.'
,. b “: Ash ath al ' Klndi of the people of Kufa said that Isma'Il b. Iyas b
Afif from his father from his grandfather said, ‘When I was a merchant
I came to al- Abbas during the days of pilgrimage; and while we were
together a man came out to pray and stood facing the Ka'ba; then a
woman came out and stood praying with him; then a young man came out
and stood praying with him. I said to 'Abbas, “What is their religion ? It
is some thing new to me.” He said, “This is Muhammad b. Abdullah who
alleges that God has sent him with it and that the treasures of Chosrhoes
and Caesar will be opened to him. The woman is his wife Khadlja who
believes m him, and this young man is his nephew 'All who believes in him.”
said> W° uld tbat 1 could have believed that day and been a third!” ’ 2
(1. Ibn Hamid said that Salama b. al-Fadl and 'All b. Mujahid told T- 1162
h!m. Salama said, Muhammad b. Ishaq told me from Yahya b. Abu’l-
1 a u l r an. s aid, ‘It is in another place in my book from Yahya b

! ‘A tf°n ISm f 5 b - Iy5S b - ' Af if al - KindI > ' Afif being the brother of
-Ash ath b Qays al-Kindi by the same mother and the son of his uncle—
from his father, from his grandfather 'Afiif: ‘Al-Abbas b. 'Abdu’l-Mutfa-
lib was a friend of mine who used to go often to the Yaman to buy aroma¬
tics and sell them during the fairs. While I was with him in Mina there
came a man in the prime of life and performed the full rites of ablution
and then stood up and prayed. Then a woman came out and did her
ablutions and stood up and prayed. Then out came a youth just approach-

wL ma r nh t 0 ^ Muu abI ^ tl0ns ’ then stood U P a nd prayed by his side.

en I ask j d al “ t ^bbas what was going on, he said that it was his nephew
Muhammad b. Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib who alleged that Allah
has sent him as an apostle; the other is my brother’s son 'All b. Abu Talib
who has followed him in his religion; the third is his wife Khadlja d.

that l U i ay t h tak K es . the author to task for saying what he should not. Traditionists are agreed

support of the'AMs' °It fao 7 , Whi ‘ h U - *“ USed ° f droduc ‘"8 recording in

» A U° a. sl-'AbbSs. y ° P “ » “““•»• S " introduction, pp. xii f.

B 4080

I

114 The Life of Muhammad

Khuwaylid who also follows him in his religion/ Af if said after he had
become a Muslim and Islam was firmly established in his heart, “Would
that I had been a fourth 1’* ’ l

*alI b. abO tAlib the first male TO ACCEPT ISLAM

'All was the first male to believe in the apostle of God, to pray with him

159 and to believe in his divine message, when he was a boy of ten. God
favoured him in that he was brought up in the care of the apostle before
Islam began.

‘Abdullah b. Abu Najlh on the authority of Mujahid b. Jabr Abu’l-
Hajjaj told me that God showed His favour and goodwill towards him
when a grievous famine overtook Quraysh. Now Abu Talib had a large
family, and the prophet approached his uncle, A 1 -'Abbas, who was one of
the richest of B. Hashim, suggesting that in view of his large family and the
famine which affected everyone, they should go together and offer to relieve
him of the burden of some of his family. AI-'Abbas agreed, and so they
went to Abu Talib offering to relieve him from his responsibility of two
boys until conditions improved. Abu Talib said, Do what you like so
long as you leave me ‘Aqil’ (15°)* So the a P os tl e took All and kept him
with him and Al-‘Abbas took Ja'far. ‘All continued to be with the apostle
until God sent him forth as a prophet. ‘All followed him, believed him,
and declared his truth, while Ja'far remained with A 1 -'Abbas until he
became a Mpslim and was independent of him.

A traditionist mentioned that when the time of prayer came the apostle
used to go out to the glens of Mecca accompanied by 'All, who went un¬
beknown to his father, and his uncles and the rest of his people. There
they used to pray the ritual prayers, and return at nightfall. This went on
as long as God intended that it should, until one day Abu Talib came upon
them while they were praying, and said to the apostle, ‘O nephew, what is
this religion which I see you practising?’ He replied, ‘O uncle, this is the
religion of God, His angels, His apostles, and the religion of our father

160 Abraham.’ Or, as he said, ‘God has sent me as an apostle to mankind, and
you, my uncle, most deserve that I should teach you the truth and call you
to guidance, and you are the most worthy to respond and help me,’ or
words to that effect. His uncle replied, ‘I cannot give up the religion of
my fathers which, they followed, but by God you shall never meet with
anything to distress you so long as I live.’ They mention that he said to
‘All, *My boy, what is this religion of yours?’ He answered, ‘I believe in
God and in the apostle of God, and I declare that what he has brought is
true, and I pray to God with him and follow him.’ They allege that he
said, ‘He would not call you to anything but what is good so stick to him.’

Zayd the fftedman of the apostle was the first male to accept Islam after

The Life of Muhammad 115

‘All (151). Then Abu Bakr b. Abu Quhafa whose name was ‘Atiq became
a Muslim, His father’s name was 'Uthman b. 'Amir b, 'Amr b. Ka'b b.
Sa'd b. Taym b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr. When he
became a Muslim, he showed his faith openly and called others to God and
his apostle. He was a man whose society was desired, well liked and of
easy manners. He knew more about the genealogy of Quraysh than anyone
else and of their faults and merits. He was a merchant of high character
and kindliness. His people used to come to him to discuss many matters
with him because of his wide knowledge, his experience in commerce, and
his sociable nature. He began to call to God and to Islam all whom he
trusted of those who came to him and sat with him (152).

[I.K. iii, 24. The following day 'All b. Abu Talib came as the two of
them were praying and asked, ‘What is this, Muhammad?’ He replied, ‘It
is God’s religion which He has chosen for Himself and sent His apostles
with it. I call you to God, the One without an associate, to worship Him
and to disavow al-Lat and al-'Uzza.’ 'All said, ‘This is something that I
have never heard of before today. I cannot decide a matter until I have
talked about it with Abu Talib.’ Now the apostle did not want his secret
to be divulged before he applied himself to the publication of his message,
so he said, ‘If you do not accept Islam, then conceal the matter.’ 'All
tarried that night until God put Islam into his heart. Early next morning
he went to the apostle and asked him what his orders w r ere. He said, ‘Bear
witness that there is no god but Allah alone without associate, and disavow'
al-Lat and al-'Uzza, and renounce rivals.’ ‘All did so and became a Mus¬
lim. He refrained from coming to him out of fear of Abu Talib and con¬
cealed his Islam and did not let it be seen.

Zayd b. Haritha became a Muslim and the tw f o of them tarried nearly a
month. (Then) 'All kept coming to the apostle. It w r as a special favour to
‘AH from God that he was in the closest association with the apostle before
Islam.]

THE COMPANIONS WHO ACCEPTED ISLAM AT THE
INVITATION OF ABU BAKR

Those who accepted Islam at his invitation according to what I heard
were:

‘Uthman b. 'Affan b. Abu’l-'As b. Umayya b. *Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu
Manaf b. Qusayy . . . l b. Lu’ayy; al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam b. Khuwaylid
b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy . . . b. Lu’ayy; ‘Abdu I-Rahman b.
'Auf b. ‘Abdu 'Auf b. ‘Abd b. al-Harith b. Zuhra . . . b. Lu’ayy; Sa'd b,
Abu Waqqas, (The latter was Malik b. Uhayb b. 'Abdu Manaf . . . b.
Lu’ayy); Talha b. ‘Ubaydullah b. 'Uthman b. ‘Amr b. Ka'b b. Sa'd . . .
b. Lu’ayy.

1 I have omitted the intervening names in genealogies which have been given already.

1 See Introduction, pp. xxii f.

n6 The Life of Muhammad

He brought them to the apostle when they had accepted his invitation
and they accepted Islam and prayed. 1 have heard that the apostle of God
used to say: ‘ I have never invited anyone to accept Islam but he has shown
signs of reluctance, suspicion, and hesitation, except Abu Bakr. When I
told him of it he did not hold back or hesitate’ (153).

These were the first eight men to accept Islam and prayed and believed
in the divine inspiration of the apostle.

After them came:

Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah whose name was 'Amir b. 'Abdullah b. al-
Jarrah b. HUal b. Uhayb b. Dabba b. al-Harith b. Fihr. Abu Salama
whose name was 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Asad . . . b. Lu’ayy. Al-Arqam b.
Abu’l-Arqam. (The latter’s name was 'Abdu Manaf b. Asad—and Asad

163 bore the honorific of Abu Jundub—b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr .. . b. Lu’ayy.)
'Uthman b. Maz'un b. Habib b. Wahb b. Hudhafa ... b. Lu’ayy. His two
brothers Qudama and 'Abdullah, sons of Maz'un. 'Ubayda b. al-Harith
b. al-Muttalib b. 'Abdu Manaf. . . b. Lu’ayy. Sa'Id b. Zayd b. 'Amr b.
Nufayl b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. 'Abdullah b. Qurf . . . b. Lu’ayy, and his wife
Fatima d. al Khattab b. Nufayl just mentioned, she being the sister of
'Umar b. al-Khattab. Asma’d. Abu Bakr, together with his little daughter
'A’isha. Khabbab b. al-Aratt ally of the B. Zuhra (154). 'Umayr b. Abu
Waqqas, brother of Sa'd. Abdullah b. Mas'ud b. al-Harith b. Shamkh b.
Makhzum b. Sahila b. Kahil b. al-Harith b. Tamim b. Sa'd b, Hudhayl, ally
of the B. Zuhra. Mas'ud b. al-Qari who was the son of Rabl'a b. 'Amr b.
Sa'd b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Hamala b. Ghalib b. Muhallim b. 'A’idha b.
Subay' b. al-Hun b. Khuzayma from al-Qara (155). Sall$ b. 'Amr b.
'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Wudd b. Nasr . . . b. Lu’ayy. 'Ayyash b. Abu
Rabl'a b. al-Mughira b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr . . . b. Lu’ayy, and his wife

164 Asma’ d. Salama b. Mukharriba the Tamimite. Khunays b. Hudhafa b.
Qays b. 'Adly b. Sa'd b. Sahm b. Amr . . . b. Lu’ayy. 'Amir b. Rabl'a of
'Anz b. Wa’il, ally of the family of al-Khattab b. Nufayl b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza
(156). 'Abdullah b. Jahsh b. Ri’ab b. Ya'mar b. Sabira b. Murra b. Kablr
b. Ghanm b. Dudan b. Asad b. Khuzayma, and his brother Abu Ahmad,
both allies of the B. Umayya. Ja'far b. Abu Talib and his wife Asma’d.
'Umays b. Nu'man b. Ka'b b. Malik b. Quhafa of Khath'am. Hatib b.
al-Harith b. Ma'mar b. Habib b. Wahb b. Hudhafa . . . b. Lu’ayy, and his
wife Fatima d. al-Mujallil b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Qays b. 'Abdu Wudd b.
Nasr b. Malik ... b. Lu’ayy. And his brother Haftab 11 b. al-Harith and his
wife Fukayha d. Yasar. Ma'mar b. al-Harith above. Al-Sa’ib b. 'Uthman
b. Maz'un above. Al-Mutfalib b. Azhar b. 'Abdu 'Auf b. 'Abd b. al-
Harith . . . b. Lu’ayy, and his wife Ramla d. Abu *Auf b. Subayra b.
Su'ayd ... b. Lu’ayy. Al-Nahham whose name was Nu'aym b. 'Abdullah
b. Asld . . . b. Lu’ayy (157). 'Amir b. Fuhayra, freedman of Abu Bakr
(158). Khalid b. Sa'Id b. al'As b. Umayya . . . b. Lu’ayy and his wife

1 See C. # . . . * Not in T-

The Life of Muhammad 117

Umayna (159) d. Khalaf b. As'ad b. 'Amir b. Bayada b. Subay' . . . from 165
Khuza'a; Hatib b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu Shams . . . b. Lu’ayy; Abu Hudhayfa

(160) ; Waqid b. 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu Manaf b. ‘Arm b. Tha'laba b. Yarbu'
b. Hanzala b. Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim an ally of B. 'Adly b. Ka'b

(161) ; Khalid, 'Amir, 'Aqil, Iyas, the sons of al-Bukayr b. 'Abdu Yalil b.
Nashib b. Ghiyara b. Sa'd b. Layth b. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana,
allies of B. 'Adly; 'Ammar b. Yasir, ally of B. Makhzum b. Yaqaza (162);
Suhayb b. Sinan one of the Namir b. Qasit, an ally of B. Taym b. Murra

(163).

THE APOSTLE’S PUBLIC PREACHING AND THE RESPONSE 166

People began to accept Islam, both men and women, in large numbers
until the fame of it was spread throughout Mecca, and it began to be talked
about. Then God commanded His apostle to declare the truth of what he
had received and to make known His commands to men and to call them
to Him. Three years elapsed from the time that the apostle concealed his
state until God commanded him to publish his religion, according to
information which has reached me. Then God said, 'Proclaim what you
have been ordered and turn aside from the polytheists.’ 1 And again, ‘Warn
% family, thy nearest relations, and lower thy wing to the followers who
follow thee.’ 2 And ‘Sav, I am the one who warns plainly* (164). 3

(T. Ibn Hamid from Salama from Ibn Ishaq from 'Abdullah b. al- T- 1171
Ghaffar b. al-Qasim from al-Minhal b. 'Amr from 'Abdullah b. al-Harith
b. Naufal b. al-Harith b. 'Abdu’I-Muttalib from 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas from
'All b. Abu Talib said: When these words ‘Warn thy family, thy nearest
relations’ came down to the apostle he called me and said, ‘God has
ordered me to warn my family, my nearest relations and the task is beyond
my strength. I know that when I made this message known to them I
should meet with great unpleasantness so I kept silence until Gabriel came
to me and told me that if I did not do as I was ordered my Lord would punish
me. So get some food ready with a leg of mutton and fill a cup with milk and
then get together the sons of 'Abdu’I-Muttalib so that I can address them
and tell them what I have been ordered to say.’ I did what he ordered and
summoned them. There were at that time forty men more or less including
his uncles Abu Talib, Hamza, al- Abbas, and Abu Lahab. When they were
assembled he told me to bring in the food which I had prepared for them,
and when I produced it the apostle took a bit of the meat and split it in
his teeth and threw it into the dish. Then he said, ‘Take it in the name of
God.’ The men ate till they could eat no more, and all I could see (in the
dish) was the place where their hands had been. And as sure as I live if
there had been only one man he could have eaten what I put before the
lot of them. Then he said, ‘Give the people to drink’, so I brought them

3 Sura is. 94. 2 Sura 2I j e> < deal gent i y w j th > #

3 Sura 15. 8, 9.

118 The Life of Muhammad

the'cup and they drank until they were all satisfied, and as sure as I live if
there had been, only one man he could have drunk that amount. When the
apostle wanted to address them Abu Lahab got in first and said, ‘Your
host has bewitched you’; so they dispersed before the apostle could
address them. On the morrow he said to me, ‘This man spoke before I
could, and the people dispersed before I could address them, so do exactly
as you did yesterday.' Everything went as before and then the apostle said,
‘O Sons of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib, I know of no Arab who has come to his
people with a nobler message than mine. I have brought you the best of
this world and the next. God has ordered me to call you to Him. So
which of you will co-operate with me in this matter, my brother, my
executor, and my successor being among you?’ The men remained silent
and I, though the youngest, most rheumy-eyed, fattest in body and thinnest
in legs, said: ‘0 prophet of God, I will be your helper in this matter.’ He
laid his hand on the back of my neck and said, ‘This is my brother, my
executor, and my successor among you. Hearken to him and obey him.’
The men got up laughing and saying to Abu Talib, ‘He has ordered you to
listen to your son and obey him!’)

(T- 1173. Ibn Hamid from Salama from Ibn Ishaq from 'Amrb. 'Ubayd
from al-Hasan b. Abu’l-Hasan said: When this verse came down to the
apostle, he stood in the vale and said, ‘O Sons of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib; O Sons
of 'Abdu Manaf; O Sons of Qusayy.’—Then he named Quraysh tribe by
tribe until he came to the end of them—‘I call you to God and I w'arn you
of his punishment.’)

When the apostle’s companions prayed they went to the glens so that
their people could not see them praying, and while Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas
was with a number of the prophet’s companions in one of the glens of
Mecca, a band of polytheists came upon them while they were praying and
rudely interrupted them. They blamed them for what they were doing
until they came to blows, and it was on that occasion that Sa'd smote a
polytheist w'ith the jawbone of a camel and w r oundcd him. This was the
first blood to be shed in Islam.

When the apostle openly displayed Islam as God ordered him his people
did not withdraw or turn against him, so far as I have heard, until he spoke
67 disparagingly of their gods. When he did that they took great offence and
resolved unanimously to treat him as an enemy, except those whom God
had protected by Islam from such evil, but they were a despised minority,
Abu Talib his uncle treated the apostle kindly and protected him, the
latter continuing to obey God’s commands, nothing turning him back.
When Quraysh saw that he would not yield to them and withdrew from
them and insulted their gods and that his uncle treated him kindly and
stood up in his defence and would not give him up to them, some of their
leading men went to Abu Talib, namely 'Utba and Shayba, both sons of
Rabl'a b. 'Abdu Shams . . . and Abu Sufyan (165) b. Harb . . . and Abu’l--
Bakhtari whose name was al-'As b. Ilisham b. al-Harith b. Asad . . . and

The Life of Muhammad 119

al-Aswad b, al-Muttalib b. Asad . . . and Abu Jahl (whose name was
'Amr, his title being Abu’i-Hakam) b. Hisham b. al Mughlra . . . and
al-Walid b. al-Mughlra , . . and Nubayh and Munabbih two sons of
al-Hajjaj b. 'Amir b. Hudhayfa ... and al-'As b. Wa’il (166). They said,

‘O Abu Talib, your nephew has cursed our gods, insulted our religion,
mocked our way of life 1 and accused our forefathers of error; either you
must stop him or you must let us get at him, for you yourself are in the 168
same position as we are in opposition to him and we will rid you of him.’

He gave them a conciliatory reply and a soft answer and they went away.

The apostle continued on his way, publishing God’s religion and calling
men thereto. In consequence his relations with Quraysh deteriorated and
men withdrew from him in enmity. They were always talking about him
and inciting one another against him. Then they went to Abu Talib a
second time and said, \ou have a high and lofty position among us, and
we have asked you to put a stop to your nephew’s activities but you have
not done so. By God, we cannot endure that our fathers should be reviled,
our customs mocked and our gods insulted. Until you rid us of him we
will fight the pair of you until one side perishes,’ or w'ords to that effect.

Thus saying, they went off. Abu Talib was deeply distressed at the
breach with his people and their enmity but he could not desert the apostle
and give him up to them.

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughira b. al-Akhnas told me that he was told
that after hearing these words from the Quraysh Abu Talib sent for his
nephew and told him what his people had said. ‘Spare me and yourself,’
he said. ‘Do not put on me a burden greater than I can bear.’ The apostle
thought that his uncle had the idea of abandoning and betraying him, and
that he was going to lose his help and support. He answered, ‘O my uncle,
by God, if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on
condition that I abandoned this course, until God has made it victorious,
or I perish therein, I would not abandon it.’ Then the apostle broke into
tears, and got up. As he turned away his uncle called him and said, ‘Come
back, my nephew,’ and when he came back, he said, ‘Go and say what you
please, for by God I will never give you up on any account.’

When the Quraysh perceived that Abu Talib had refused to give up the
apostle, and that he was resolved to part company with them, they went to 169
him with Umara b. al-Walid b, al-Mughlra and said, according to my
information, ‘O Abu Talib, this is 'Umara, the strongest and most hand¬
some young man among Quraysh, so take him and you will have the benefit
of his intelligence and support; adopt him as a son and give up to us this
nephew' of yours, who has opposed your religion and the religion of your
fathers, severed the unity of your people, and mocked our w r ay of life, so
that we may kill him. This will be man for man.’ He answered, ‘By God,
this is an evil thing that you w r ould put upon me, w r ould you give me your

. 1 a blam means the civilization and virtues of the pre-Islamic Arabs. See the excellent
discussion of jahl and hilm in Goldziher’s Muhammedanische Studien , i. 220 f.

120

The Life of Muhammad

son that I should feed him for you, and should I give you my son that you
should kill him? By God, this shall never be.’ Al-Mut'im b. 'Adiy said,
‘Your people have treated you fairly and have taken pains to avoid what
you dislike. I do not think that you are willing to accept anything from
them.’ Abu Talib replied, ‘They have not treated me fairly, by God, but
you have agreed to betray me and help the people against me, so do what
you like,’ or words to that effect. So the situation worsened, the quarrel
became heated and people were sharply divided, and openly showed their
animosity to their opponents. Abu Talib wrote the following verses,
indirectly attacking Mut'im, and including those who had abandoned him
from the 'Abdu Manaf, and his enemies among the tribes of Quraysh. He
mentions therein what they had asked of him and his estrangement from
them.

Say to 'Amr and al-Walld and Mut'im

Rather than your protection give me a young camel,

Weak, grumbling and murmuring,

Sprinkling its flanks with its urine
Lagging behind the herd, and not keeping up.

When it goes up the desert ridges, you would call it a weasel.

I see our two brothers, sons of our mother and father,

When they are asked for help, say ‘It is not our business.’

Nay, it is their affair, but they have fallen away,

As a rock falls from the top of Dhu 'Alaq. 1
I mean especially 'Abdu Shams and Naufal,

W’ho have flung us aside like a burning coal.

They have slandered their brothers among the people;

Their hands are emptied of them.

They shared their fame with men of low birth,

With men whose fathers were whispered about;

170 And Taym, and Makhzum, and Zuhra, are of them

Who-Ijad been friends of ours when help was sought;

By God, there will always be enmity between us
As long as one of our descendants lives.

Their minds and thoughts were foolish,

They were entirely without judgement (167). 2

Then the Quraysh incited people against the companions of the apostle
who had become Muslims. Every tribe fell upon the Muslims among them,
beating them and seducing them from their religion. God protected His
apostle from them through his uncle, who, when he saw what Quraysh
were doing, called upon B. Hashim and B. al-Muttalib to stand with him in
protecting the apostle. This they agreed to do, with the exception of Abu
Lahab, the accursed enemy of God.

1 A mountain in the Banu Asad country.

3 To say that a man’s well is demolished is to accuse him of losing all common sense.

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The Life of Muhammad

Abu Talib was delighted at the response of his tribe and their kindness,
and began to praise them and to bring to men’s memory their past. He
mentioned the superiority of the apostle among them and his position so
that he might strengthen their resolve and that they might extend their
kindness to him. He said:

If one day Quraysh gathered together to boast,

'Abdu Manaf would be their heart and soul;

And if the nobles of 'Abdu Manaf were reckoned,

Amongst Hashim would be their noblest and chief;

If they boast one day, then Muhammad
Would be the chosen noble and honourable one.

Quraysh summoned everyone against us;

They were not successful and they were beside themselves.

Of old we have never tolerated injustice;

When people turned away their faces in pride we made them face us.
We protected their sanctuary whenever danger threatened
And drove the assailant from its buildings.

Through us the dry wood becomes green,

Under our protection its roots expand and grow.

AL-WALID B. AL-MUGH IRA 17 *

When the fair 1 was due, a number of the Quraysh came to al-Walid b. al-
Mughlra, who was a man of some standing, and he addressed them in
these words: ‘The time of the fair has come round again and representa¬
tives of the Arabs will come to you and they will have heard about this
fellow of yours, so agree upon one opinion without dispute so that none
will give the lie to the other.’ They replied, ‘You give us your opinion
about him.’ He said, ‘No, you speak and I will listen.’ They said, ‘He is
a kdhin .’ He said, ‘By God, he is not that, for he has not the unintelligent
murmuring and rhymed speech of the kahin .’ ‘Then he is possessed,’ they
said. ‘No, he is not that,’ he said, ‘we have seen possessed ones, and here
is no choking, spasmodic movements and whispering.’ ‘Then he is a poet,’
they said. ‘No, he is no poet, for we know poetry in all its forms and
metres.’ ‘Then he is a sorcerer.’ ‘No, we have seen sorcerers and their
sorcery, and here is no spitting and no knots.’ 1 ‘Then what are we to say,

0 Abu 'Abdu Shams?’ they asked. He replied, ‘By God, his speech is
sweet, his root is a palm-tree whose branches are fruitful (168), and every¬
thing you have said would be known to be false. The nearest thing to the
truth is your saying that he is a sorcerer, w r ho has brought a message by
which he separates a man from his father, or from his brother, or from his
wife, or from his family,’

1 Cf. Sura 113. 4. Spitting, or perhaps ‘blowing.’

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The Life of Muhammad

At this point they left him, and began to sit on the paths which men take
when they come to the fair. They warned everyone who passed them
about Muhammad’s doings. God revealed concerning al-Walld:

Leave to Me him I made,

Giving him wealth and trade,

While sons before him played,

The road for him I laid,

Then he coveted more of My aid,

Ay, Our signs hath he gainsaid (169). 1

172 ‘I shall impose on him a grievous burden; he thought and planned; may
he perish how he planned, may he perish how he planned. Then he looked,
then he frowned, and showed anger’ (170).

‘Then he turned his back in pride and said, “This is nothing but ancient
sorcery, this is nothing but the speech of a mortal’’.’

Then God revealed concerning the men who were with him, composing
a term to describe the apostle and the revelation he brought from God, ‘As
we sent down upon the dividers who had split the Quran into parts, by thy
Lord we will ask them all about what they used to do’ (171). 2

So these men began to spread this report about the apostle with every¬
one they met so that the Arabs went away from that fair knowing about
the apostle, and he was talked about in the whole of Arabia. W T hen Abu
Talib feared that the multitude would overwhelm him with his family he
composed the following ode, in which he claimed protection in the sanc¬
tuary of Mecca and by his position therein. He showed his affection for
the nobles of his people while, nevertheless, he told them and others in his
poetry that he was not going to give up the apostle or surrender him on any
account whatever, but he would die in his defence.

When I saw the people had no love for us
And had severed every tie and relationship,

173 And shown us enmity and ill-will,

Obeying the orders of persecuting enemies,

And had allied themselves with treacherous people against us,

Biting their fingers in rage at our backs,

I stood firm against them with my pliant spear,

And my shining sword, heirloom of princes.

Round the temple I gathered my clan and my brothers,

And laid hold of the striped red cloth 3 that covered it,

Standing together, facing its gates,

Where everyone who takes an oath completes his vow,

1 Sura 74. 11-25. It is strange that after al-Walid has made the point that Muhammad

cannot be a kdhin because he does not deliver messages in saj‘ the next quotation from the
Quran should be an example (to which I fear I have not done justice) of that very form.

3 Sura 15. 90.

1 This is the meaning which A. Dh. gives to veafail.

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The Life of Muhammad

Where the pilgrims make their camels kneel,

Where the blood flows between Isaf and Na’ila,

Camels marked on the shoulders or neck,

Tamed ones, between six and nine years old;

You see amulets on them, and alabaster ornaments
Bound on their necks like date-bearing branches.

I take refuge with the Lord of men from every adversary
And every lying assailant;

From the hater with his hurtful slander,

And from him who adds to religion what we have not tried.

By Thaur and Him who fixed Thabir in his place.

And by him who goes up and down Hira’ ;*

By the true temple of the valley of Mecca;

By God who is never unmindful;

By the black stone, when they stroke it
When they go round it morning and evening;

By Abraham’s footprint in the rock still fresh,

With both feet bare, without sandals;

By the running between Marwa and Safa,

And by the statues and images therein;

By every pilgrim riding to the house of God,

And everyone with a vow and everyone on foot;

By Ilal, the furthest sacred spot 2 to which they go
Where the streamlets open out;

By their halt at even above the mountains
When they help the camels by their hands to rise ; 3
By the night of the meeting, by the stations of Mina,

Are any holy places and stations superior ?

By the crowd, when the home-going horses pass by quickly
As though escaping from a storm of rain;

By the great stone heap, 4 when they make for it 174

Aiming at its top with stones;

By Kinda, when they are at al-Hisab at even,

When the pilgrims of Bakr b. Wa’il pass by them
Two allies who strengthened the tie between them,

And directed to it all means of unity;

1 Hira, Thaur, and Thabir were all mountains round Mecca.

2 Ilal in the Lisan is said to be a strip of sand where the people halt, but the lines in
Nfibigha 17. 22 and 19. 14 show that it was the name of a sanctuary (and possibly, as Well-
hausen, p. 83, says, ‘of the God of 'Arafa').

J The words suggest the way in which men get a reluctant camel to its feet. One man
pushes up the camel’s chest while the other pulls its head up by the reins. Here perhaps the
latter action alone is meant as the ‘poet’ is speaking of a halt; even so, ‘they raise the breasts
of the camels with their hands’ is an unnatural way to speak of pulling on the reins.

4 The largest of the three heaps of stones at Mina, presumably that known as Jamratu
’ 1 -'Aqaba. Cf. Hassan b. Thabit’s lament where the pilgrims throw seven stones. The rite
is not mentioned in the Quran, but we shall meet it again in the Sira on pp. 534 and 970 of
the Arabic text. See further Djamar in E.I.

124 The Life of Muhammad

By their breaking the acacias and shrubs of al-Sifah, 1
And its bushes too, as they galloped like flying ostriches.

Is there any better refuge for one who seeks it ?

Is there a righteous god-fearing man who will grant it ?

Our aggressors get their way with us, and wish
That the gates of Turk and Kabul 2 were blocked with our bodies.
You lie, by God’s house, we will not leave Mecca, and go forth.
Until your affairs are in confusion.

You lie, by God’s house, Muhammad shall not be maltreated ; 3
Before we shoot and thrust in his defence,

We will not give him up till we lie dead around him,

And be unmindful of our wives and children;

Until a people in arms rise and fight you,

As camels carrying water rise under empty water-skins, 4
Until you see the enemy falling face down in his blood
From the spear thrust weighed down and tottering.

By God, if what I see should become serious
Our swords will mingle with the best of them
In the hands of a young warrior, like a flame,

Trustworthy, defender of the truth, hero,

For days, months, a whole year,

And after next year, yet another.

What people, confound you, would abandon a chief,

Who protects his dependants ? No foul-mouthed weakling,

A noble man, for whose sake the clouds drop rain,

The support of orphans, the defence of widows,

Hashim’s family, ready to perish, resort to him,

There they find pity and kindness.

Asid and his firstborn made us hated
And cut us up for others to devour ; 5
Neither 'Uthman nor Qunfudh sympathized with us
But obeyed the command of those tribes.

1 This line is very difficult, as C.’s notes show. Unfortunately the note of Abu Dharr to
the effect that \(ifah is a place-name is omitted. This seems to me to provide the key to the meaning of the line. Yaqut says that al-\)ifah lies between Uunayn and the pillars of the
Uaram on the left of a man entering Mecca from Mushash. As the latter place lies on the
hills of 'Arafat the rendering given above seems to suit the context. On the site of Uunayn
see Yaqut sub voce. Weil evades the difficulty, and so, strangely enough, does Suhayli. If

is the plural of $afh, the side of a mountain, I cannot see how the passage can be
construed.

2 The commentators say that Turk and Kabul are two mountains, but I can find no
mention of them in Yaqut, who under ‘Kabul’ quotes a line from al-A'sha which clearly
refers to Turk and Kabul as people. It looks as if the two names point to a later forger.

J I follow the reading of the Lisdn. The text apparently means ‘We will not be forcibly
deprived of M.

4 Or ‘rattling, swishing water-skins’. If the comparison refers to the speed of their
attack, the simile which Abu Dharr favours is correct. If not, the simile rests in the noise
whicl} the armed men make.

5 A figure for ‘malicious slander*.

The Life of Muhammad 125

They obeyed Ubayy and the son of their 'Abdu Yaguth,

And did not observe what others said of us;

So, too, were we treated by Subay' and Naufal,

And everyone who turned away from us, not treating us kindly.

If they throw down their arms, or God give us the better of them,
We will pay them measure for measure.

That fellow Abu 'Amr would do naught but hate us,

To send us away among shepherds and camel-drivers;

He talks about us confidentially night and morning.

Talk on, Abu 'Amr, with your guile!

He swears by God he won’t deceive us,

But we see him openly doing nothing else;

He hates us so much that the hill-tops
Between Mecca’s hills and Syria’s forts
Are too narrow to hold him.

Ask Abu’l-Walid, what have you done to us with your slander
Turning away like a deceitful friend.

You were a man by whose opinion men guided their lives,

And you were kind to us, nor are you a fool.

O 'Utba, do not listen to an enemy’s words against us;

Envious, lying, hating and malicious.

Abu Sufyan averted his face from me as he passed,

Sweeping along as though he were one of the great ones of the earth,
He betook himself to the high ground and its cool waters,

Pretending that he does not forget us.

He tells us that he is sorry for us like a good friend,

But he hides evil designs in his heart.

O, Mut'im! I did not desert you when you called for help,

Nor on the day of battle when mighty deeds were called for,

Nor when they came against you full of enmity,

Opponents whose strength matched yours.

O Mut'im, the people have given you a task to do,

I too when entrusted with a task do not try to evade it.

God requite 'Abdu Shams and Naufal for us
With evil punishment quick and not delayed,

With an exact balance, not a grain too little,

The balance its own witness that it is exact.

Foolish are the minds of people who exchanged us
For Banu Khalaf and the Ghayatil. 1
We are the pure stock from the summit of Hashim
And the family of Qusayy in matters of import.

Sahm and Makhzum stirred up against us
Every scoundrel and low-born churl.

'Abdu Manaf, you are the best of your people,

1 See page 133 of the Arabic text where this line is quoted and explained.

I2 6 The Life of Muhammad

Do not make common cause with every outsider.

You have proved feeble and weak
And done a thing far from right.

You were till lately the sticks under one pot

But now you are the sticks under many pots and vessels.

Let the Banu 'Abdu Manaf get satisfaction from parting from us,
Deserting us and leaving us imprisoned in our quarters!

If we are men we shall take revenge 1 for what you have done
And you will suffer the full effects of war.

The best men among Lu’ayy b. Ghalib,

Every bold chief exiled to us;

The family of Nufayl is the worst that ever trod the earth,

The most contemptible of all the sons of Ma'add.

Tell Qusayy that our cause will be blazed abroad,

And give Qusayy the good news that after us there will be a falling
apart (among our enemies).

Yet if calamity befell Qusayy one night,

We should have been the first to protect them;

If they fought bravely in defence of their houses,

We should show them how to protect the mothers of children.

Yet every friend and nephew on whom we ought to count

We find useless when put to the test

Except for certain men of Kilab b. Murra

Whom we exempt from the stigma of the deserter; 2

1 Or ‘bear a grudge’, according to another reading.

• We came to them by night, they all scattered.

Every liar and fool disappeared from our sight.

Ours was the watering-place among them,

We are the rock-like defence of Ghalib.

The young men of the scented ones and Hashim
Are like sword blades in the hands of the polishers.

They took no revenge, nor shed blood,

Nor do they oppose any but the worst tribes.

In their fighting you see the youths

Like fierce lions quarrelling over lumps of meat;

Sons of a favourite Ethiopian* slave girl,

Sons of Jumab, ‘Ubayd Qays b. 'Aqil;

But we are the noblest stock of lords
Whose heroic deeds were sung in verse.

These seven verses are not in W.’s text, and as he does not mention them in his critical
notes it may be assumed that none of his manuscripts contained them. Further, there is
not a note in Abu Dharr’s commentary, and it is difficult to believe that he would have
passed over the extraordinary word hindikiya without a note, if the line containing it were
before him. I.H. at the end of the poem indicates that he has cut out some verses, possibly
(though I think most improbably) these verses were among them, and even so he says some
authorities reject the greater part. It will at once be apparent that the seven lines interrupt
the sequence of thought which deals with the honourable exceptions to the general defec¬
tion. In v. 4 I conjecture khdlafu for hdlafu.

• Hindikiya. Greek and Syrian writers use the term India for South Arabia and Ethiopia
  and a slave girl from one of those countries is almost certainly indicated here. The suffix «
  is the Bahlavi suffix. See A. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran, Baroda, 1938, pp. 15 f-
  and 18 f.

127

The Life of Muhammad

Undeniably fine is Zuhayr, our nephew,

A sword loosed from belts,

The proudest of the proudest chiefs,

Belonging to the finest stock in glory.

I’faith I am devoted to Ahmad and his brethren,

As a constant lover. 1

For who among men can hope to be like him
When judges assess rival claim to merit,

Clement, rightly guided, just, serious,

The friend of God, ever mindful of Him.

By God! but that I might create a precedent 2
That would be brought against our sheikhs in assemblies,

We would follow him whatever fate might bring,

In deadly earnest, not in idle words.

They know that our son is not held a liar by us,

And is not concerned with foolish falsehood.

Ahmad has struck so deep a root among us
That the attacks of the arrogant fail to affect him.

I shielded and defended him myself by every means (172). 3

The Ghayatil are of B. Sahm b. 'Amr b. Husays; Abu Sufyan is I. I^arb 177
b. Umayya; Mut'im is I. 'Adiy b. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf; Zuhayr is I.

Abu Umayya b. al-Mughlra b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum, his
mother being 'Atika d. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib. Asld and his firstborn, i.e.
*Attab b. Asid b. Abu’l-'Is b. Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Manaf.
'Uthman is I. 'Ubaydullah the brother of Talha b. 'Ubaydullah al-Tayml;
Qunfudh is I. 'Umayr b. Jud'an b. 'Amr b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Taym b.
Murra. Abu’l-Walid is 'Utba b. Rabl'a; and Ubayy is al-Akhnas b. Shariq
al-Thaqafl ally of B. Zuhra b. Kilab (173). 4

Al-Aswad is I. 'Abdu Yaghuth b. Wahb b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Zuhra b.
Kilab; Subay' is I. Khalid brother of B. al-Harith b. Fihr; Naufal is I.
Khuwaylid b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b, Qusayy. He was I. al-'AdawIya,
one of the 'satans' of Quraysh. He it was who roped together Abu Bakr
and Talha b. 'Ubaydullah when they went over to Islam. They got the

1 May he never cease to be an adornment to the people of the world,

An ornament to those whom God has befriended.

Not in W. and undoubtedly an interpolation from a pious reader.

• There is much to be said for the commoner reading, ‘but that I might bring shame’.

3 C. adds:

The Lord of mankind strengthen him with his help,

And display a religion whose truth holds no falsehood!

Noble-men, not swerving from right, whose fathers
Brought them up in the best of ways.

Though Ka'b is near to Lu’ayy

The day must come when they must fall apart.

These verses are lacking in W.’s version.

4 This and the following paragraph stands under the name of I.H., but the context
suggests- that they are in part at least from 1.1.

128

The Life of Muhammad

178 name ‘the two-tied-together-ones’ from this, ‘All killed him at the battle
of Badr. Abu 'Amr is Qurza b. f Abdu 'Amr b. Naufal b. *Abdu Manaf.
The ‘treacherous people’ are B. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana. These
are the Arabs whom Abu Talib enumerated in his verse (174).

When the prophet’s fame began to be blazed abroad throughout the land
he was mentioned in Medina. There was no tribe among the Arabs who
knew more about the apostle when and before he was mentioned than this
tribe of Aus and Khazraj. The reason for this was that they were well
acquainted with the sayings of Jewish rabbis and they lived side by side
with them as allies. When the apostle was talked of in Medina and they
heard of the trouble he had with Quraysh, Abu Qays b. al-Aslat, brother of
B. Waqif, composed the verses given below (175).

Abu Qays was warmly attached to Quraysh since he was related to them
through his wife Arnab d. Asad b. ‘Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy, and he with
his wife used to stay with them for years at a time. He composed an ode in
which he magnified the sanctity of the area, forbade Quraysh to fight there,
urged them to stand by one another, mentioned their merits and virtues,
urged them to protect the apostle, and reminded them of how God had
dealt with them and saved them in the War of the Elephant.

O rider, when you meet Lu’ayy ibn Ghalib
Give him a message from me,

179 The tidings of a man who though far from you

Is distressed at what is between you, sad and worried.

I have become the caravanserai of cares,

Because of them I cannot do what I should.

I learn that you are divided into camps,

One party kindles the fire of war, the other provides the fuel.

I pray God to protect you from your evil act,

Your wicked quarrel and the insidious attack of scorpions,

Defamatory reports and secret plots

Like pricking awls which never fail to pierce.

Remind them of God, first of all things,

And the sin of breaking the taboo on travel-worn gazelles. 1
Say to them, (and God will give His judgement)

If you abandon war it will go far from you.

When you stir it up you raise an evil thing;

’Tis a monster devouring everything near and far,

It severs kinship and destroys people;

It cuts the flesh from the hump and the back.

You will give up the finest clothes of Yaman
For a soldier’s garb and coat of mail,

Musk and camphor for dust-coloured armour
With buttons like the eyes of a locust.

1 The killing of game within the sacred area was taboo, and the poet means that if the
blood of animals there is sacrosanct, a fortiori bloodshed and war are forbidden by God.

The Life of Muhammad 129

Beware of war! Do not let it cling to you;

A stagnant pool has a bitter draught.

War—it first seems fine to men

But afterwards they plainly recognize an old hag.

It scorches unsparingly the weak,

And aims death-dealing blows at the great.

Know you not what happened in the war of Dahis?

Or the war of Hatib? Take a lesson from them!

How many a noble chief it slew,

The generous host whose guest lacked naught,

A huge pile of ashes beneath his pot,

Praised by all, noble in character, his sword
Drawn only in righteous cause;

’Tis as water poured out at random.

As if winds from all quarters scattered the clouds j 1
A truthful, knowledgeable man will tell you of its battles
(For real knowledge is the result of experience).

So sell your spears to those who love war

And remember the account you must render, for God is the best 180
reckoner.

Man’s Lord has chosen a religion,

So let none guard you but the Lord of heaven,

Raise up for us a hanifi religion.

You are our object; one is guided in travel by heights,

You are a light and protection to this people,

You lead the way, not lacking virtues.

If men were valued, you would be a jewel,

The best of the vale is yours in noble pride.

You preserve noble, ancient peoples
Whose genealogy shows no foreign blood;

You see the needy come to your houses
Wave after wave of starving wights.

The people know that your leaders

Are ever the best people of the stations of Mina, 2

Best in counsel, loftiest in custom,

Most truthful amid the assemblies.

1 If the subject of the metaphor is war the reading dalal is right, and indiscriminate
bloodshed is indicated; if the variant ftxlal ‘porous soil’ is adopted, the poet is continuing
his description of the generous warrior whose hospitality extends to the most insatiable
guest.

• See Al-Suhayli, i8z, who says that 1 . 1 . so explains the word. He is quoting from p. 300
  of the text, Al-Barql says it was a well at Mina where the blood of the sacrificial victims was
  collected. It was a spot venerated by the Arabs. The word jubjuba apparently means the
  stomach of a ruminant, and naturally a large number of such skins used for carrying water
  would be available there; therefore it is possible that the term ‘people of the stomach skins’
  simply means Arabs, the people who more than any other used this kind of vessel for carry¬
  ing food and water, and so the meaning of the poet is that the tribe of Lu’ayy is the finest
  tribe in Arabia.

B 4080 K

! jo The Life of Muhammad

Rise and pray to your Lord and rub yourselves
Against the comers of this house between the mountains.

He gave you a convincing test 1

On the day of Abu Yaksum, leader of the squadrons,

His cavalry was in the plains,

His infantry upon the passes of the hills.

When the help of the Lord of the throne reached you
His armies repulsed them, pelting them, and covering them with
dust;

Quickly they turned tail in flight

And none but a few returned to his people from the army.

If you perish, we shall perish, and the fairs by which men live.
These are the words of a truthful man (176).

182 Hakim b. Umayya b.Haritha b. al-Auqas al-Sulami, an ally of B. Umayya
who had become a Muslim, composed the following verses to turn his
people from their determined enmity to the apostle. He was a man of
good birth and authority.

Does one who says what is right stick to it,

And is there one listening who would be angry at the truth ?

Does the chief whose tribe hope to profit from him
Gather friends from near and far ?

I disown all but Him who controls the wind
And I abandon you for ever.

I submit myself utterly to God
Though friends threaten me with terror.

183 HOW THE APOSTLE WAS TREATED BY HIS OWN PEOPLE

When the Quraysh became distressed by the trouble caused by the enmity
between them and the apostle and those of their people who accepted his
teaching, they stirred up against him foolish men who called him a liar,
insulted him, and accused him of being a poet, a sorcerer, a diviner, and of
being possessed. However, the apostle continued to proclaim what God
had ordered him to proclaim, concealing nothing, and exciting their dislike
by contemning their religion, forsaking their idols, and leaving them to
their unbelief.

Yahya b. ‘Urwa b. al-Zubayr on the authority of his father from ‘Abdul¬
lah b.' 'Amr b. al-'As told me that the latter was asked what was the worst
way in which Quraysh showed their enmity to the apostle. He replied: ‘I
was with them one day when the notables had gathered in the Hijr and the
apostle was mentioned. They said that they had never known anything
like the trouble they had endured from this fellow; he had declared their

• For this and the following lines, except the last, see p. 39 of the Arabic text.

The Life of Muhammad 131

mode of life foolish, insulted their forefathers, reviled their religion,
divided the community, and cursed their gods. What they had borne was
past all bearing, or words to that effect.*

While they were thus discussing him the apostle came towards them and
kissed the black stone, then he passed them as he walked round the temple.

As he passed they said some injurious things about him. This I could see
from his expression. He went on and as he passed them the second time
they attacked him similarly. This I could see from his expression. Then
he passed the third time, and they did the same. He stopped and said,
‘Will you listen to me O Quraysh? By him who holds my life in His hand
I bring you slaughter. 1 This word so struck the people that not one of
them but stood silent and still; even one who had hitherto been most
violent spoke to him in the kindest way possible, saying, ‘Depart, O Abu’l-
Qasim, for by God you are not violent. 5 So the apostle went away, and on
the morrow they assembled in the Hijr, I being there too, and they asked
one another if they remembered what had taken place between them and
the apostle so that when he openly said something unpleasant they let him
alone. While they were talking thus the apostle appeared, and they leaped 184
upon him as one man and encircled him, saying, ‘Are you the one who said
so-and-so against our gods and our religion? The apostle said, ‘Yes, I am
the one who said that. And I saw one of them seize his robe. Then Abu
Bakr interposed himself weeping and saying, ‘Would you kill a man for
saying Allah is my Lord ? Then they left him. That is the worst that I
ever saw Quraysh do to him.

One of the family of Umm Kulthum, Abu Bakr’s daughter, told me that
she said, ‘Abu Bakr returned that day with the hair of his head torn. He
was a very hairy man and they had dragged him along by his beard* (177).

HAMZA ACCEPTS ISLAM

A man of Aslum, who had a good memory, told me that Abu Jahl passed
by the apostle at al-Safa, insulted him and bel&ved most offensively, speak¬
ing spitefully of his religion and trying to bring him into disrepute. The
apostle did not speak to him. Now a freedwoman, belonging to ‘Abdullah
b. Jud'an b. ‘Amr b. Ka‘b b. Sa'd b. Taym b. Murra, was in her house
listening to what went on. When he went away he betook himself to the
assembly of Quraysh at the Ka'ba and sat there. Within a little while
Hamza b. ‘Abdu’l-Mujtalib arrived, with his bow hanging from his shoulder,
returning from the chase, for he was fond of hunting and used to go out
shooting. When he came back from a hunt he never went home until he
had circumambulated the Ka'ba, and that done when he passed by an 185
assembly of the Quraysh he stopped and saluted and talked with them. He
was the strongest man of Quraysh, and the most unyielding. The apostle

1 Dhabh.

i; j2 The Life of Muhammad

had gone back to his house when he passed by this woman, who asked him
if he had heard of what Abu’l-Hakam b. Hisham had done just recently to
his nephew, Muhammad; how he had found him sitting quietly there, and
insulted him, and cursed him, and treated him badly, and that Muhammad
had answered not a word. Hamza was filled with rage, for God purposed
to honour him, so he went out at a run and did not stop to greet anyone,
meaning to punish Abu Jahl when he met him. When he got to the mosque
he saw him sitting among the people, and went up to him until he stood
over him, when he lifted up his bow and struck him a violent blow with it,
saying, ‘Will you insult him when I follow his religion, and say what he
says ? Hit me back if you can!’ Some of B. Makhzum got up to go to Abu
Jahl’s help, but he said, ‘Let Abu 'Umara alone for, by God, I insulted
his nephew deeply.’ Hamzas Islam was complete, and he followed the
apostle’s commands. When he became a Muslim the Quraysh recognized
that the apostle had become strong, and had found a protector in Hamza,
and so they abandoned some of their ways of harassing him.

WHAT *UTBA SAID ABOUT THE PROPHET

Yazid b. Ziyad from Muhammad b. Ka'b al-QurazI told me that he was
told that 'Utba b. Rabi'a, who was a chief, said one day while he was
sitting in the Quraysh assembly and the apostle was sitting in the mosque
by himself, ‘Why should I not go to Muhammad and make some proposals
to him which if he accepts in part, we will give him whatever he wants, and
he will leave us in peace?’ This happened when Hamza had accepted Islam
and they saw that the prophet’s followers were increasing and multiplying.
They thought it was a good idea, and 'Utba went and sat by the prophet
186 and said, ‘O my. nephew, you are one of us as you know, of the noblest o
the tribe and hold a worthy position in ancestry. You have come to your
people with an important matter, dividing their community thereby and
ridiculing their customs, and you have insulted their gods and their reli¬
gion, and declared that their forefathers were unbelievers, so listen to me
and I will make some suggestions, and perhaps you will be able to accept
one of them.’ The apostle agreed, and he went on, ‘If what you want is
money, we will gather for you of our property so that you may be the richest
of us; if you want honour, we will make you our chief so that no one can
decide anything apart from you; if you want sovereignty, we will make you
king, and if this ghost which comes to you, which you see, is such that you
cannot get rid of him, we will find a physician for you, and exhaust our
means in getting you cured, for often a familiar spirit gets possession of a
man until he can be cured of it,’ or words to that effect. The apostle
listened patiently, and then said: ‘Now listen to me, “In the name of Go ,
the compassionate and merciful, H.M., a revelation from the compassion¬
ate, the merciful, a book whose verses are expounded as an Arabic Quran
for a -people who understand, as an announcement and warning, thoug

The Life of Muhammad 133

most of them turn aside not listening and say, ‘Our hearts are veiled from
that to which you invite us.”” 1 Then the apostle continued to recite it to
him. When 'Utba heard it from him, he listened attentively, putting his
hands behind his back and leaning on them as he listened. Then the
prophet ended at the prostration 2 and prostrated himself, and said, ‘You
have heard what you have heard, Abu’l-Walid; the rest remains with you.’
When 'Utba returned to his companions they noticed that his expression
had completely altered, and they asked him what had happened. He said
that he had heard words such as he had never heard before, which were
neither poetry, spells, nor witchcraft. ‘Take my advice and do as I do,
leave this man entirely alone for, by God, the words which I have heard 187
will be blazed abroad. If (other) Arabs kill him, others will have rid you
of him; if he gets the better of the Arabs, his sovereignty will be your
sovereignty, his power your power, and you will be prosperous through
him.’ They said, ‘He has bewitched you with his tongue,’ To which he
answered, ‘You have my opinion, you must do what you think fit.’

NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE APOSTLE AND THE

LEADERS OF QURAYSH AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE
SURA OF THE CAVE

Islam began to spread in Mecca among men and women of the tribes of
Quraysh, though Quraysh were imprisoning and seducing as many of the
Muslims as they could. A traditionist told me from Sa'id b. Jubayr and
from Tkrima, freedman of 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, that the leading men of
every clan of Quraysh—'Utba b. Rabi'a, and Shayba his brother, and Abu
Sufyan b. Harb, and al-Nadr b. al-Harith, brother of the Banu Abdu’I-Dar,
and Abu’l-Bakhtari b. Hisham, and al-Aswad b. al-Muftalib b. Asad and
Zama'a b. al-Aswad, and al-Walld b. al-Mughlra, and Abu Jahl b. Hisham,
and 'Abdullah b. Abu Umayya, and al-'As b. Wa’il, and Nubayh and
Munabbih, the sons of al-Hajjaj, both of Sahm, and Umayya b. Khalaf
and possibly others—gathered together after sunset outside the Ka'ba.
They decided to send for Muhammad and to negptiate and argue with him
so that they could not be held to blame on his account in the future. When
they sent for him the apostle came quickly because he thought that what
he had said to them had made an impression, for he was most zealous for
their welfare, and their wicked way of life pained him. When he came and
sat down with them, they explained that they had sent for him in order
that they could talk together. No Arab had ever treated his tribe as
Muhammad had treated them, and they repeated the charges which have 188
been mentioned on several occasions. If it was money he wanted, they
would make him the richest of them all; if it was honour, he should be
their prince; if it was sovereignty, they would make him king; if it was a

Sura 41. I. 1 i.e, verse 37 'Prostrate yourselves to God*.

134 The Life of Muhammad

spirit which had got possession of him (they used to call the familiar spirit
of the jinn rdiy), then they would exhaust their means in finding medicine
to cure him. The apostle replied that he had no such intention. He sought
not money, nor honour, nor sovereignty, but God had sent him as an
apostle, and revealed a book to him, and commanded him to become an
announcer and a wamer. He had brought them the messages of his Lord,
and given them good advice. If they took it then they would have a portion
in this world and the next; if they rejected it, he could only patiently await
the issue until God decided between them, or words to that effect. ‘Well,
Muhammad, 1 they said, ‘if you won’t accept any of our propositions, you
know that no people are more short of land and water, and live a harder life
than we, so ask your Lord, who has sent you, to remove for us these
mountains which shut us in, and to straighten out our country for us, and
to open up in it rivers like those of Syria and Iraq, and to resurrect for us
our forefathers, and let there be among those that are resurrected for us
Qusayy b. Kilab, for he was a true shaikh, so that we may ask them whether
what you say is true or false. If they say you are speaking the truth, and
you do what we have asked you, we will believe in you, and we shall know
what your position with God is, and that He has actually sent you as an
apostle as you say. 1 He replied that he had not been sent to them with such
an object. He had conveyed to them God's message, and they could either
89 accept it with advantage, or reject it and await God’s judgement. They
said that if he would not do that for them, let him do something for himself.
Ask God to send an angel with him to confirm what he said and to contra¬
dict them; to make him gardens and castles, and treasures of gold and
silver to satisfy his obvious wants. He stood in the streets as they did, and
he sought a livelihood as they did. If he could do this, they would recognize
his merit and position with God, if he were an apostle as he claimed to be.
He replied that he would not do it, and would not ask for such things, for
he was not sent to do so, and he repeated what he had said before. They
said, ‘Then let the heavens be dropped on us in pieces, 1 as you assert that
your Lord could do if He wished, for we will not believe you unless you
do so.’ The apostle replied that this was a matter for God; if He wanted to
do it with them, He would do it. They said, ‘Did not your Lord know that
we would sit with you, and ask you these questions, so that He might come
to you and instruct you how to answer us, and tell you what He was going
to do with us, if we did not receive your message ? Information has reached
us that you are taught by this fellow in al-Yamama, called al-Rahm&n, and
by God we will never believe in the Rahman. Our conscience is clear. By
God, we will not leave you and our treatment of you, until either we
destroy you or you destroy us.’ Some said, ‘We worship the angels, who
are the daughters of Allah.’ Others said, ‘We will not believe in you until
you come to us with God and the angels as a surety.’ 1

When they said this the apostle got up and left them. ‘Abdullah b. Abu

1 Cf. Sura 17. 94.

The Life of Muhammad 135

Umayya b. al-Mughira b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum (who was the
son of his aunt ‘Atika d. of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib) got up with him and said to
him, ‘O Muhammad, your people have made you certain propositions,
which you have rejected; first they asked you things for themselves that
they might know that your position with God is what you say it is so that
they might believe in you and follow you, and you did nothing; then they
asked you to take something for yourself, by which they might know your
superiority over them and your standing with God, and you would not do 190
it; then they asked you to hasten some of the punishment with which you
were frightening them, and you did not do it’, or words to that effect, ‘and
by God, I will never believe in you until you get a ladder to the sky, and
mount up it until you come to it, while I am looking on, and until four
angels shall come with you, testifying that you are speaking the truth, and
by God, even if you did that I do not think I should believe you.’ Then he
went away, and the apostle went to his family, sad and grieving, because
his hope that they had called him to accept his preaching was vain, and
because of their estrangement from him. When the apostle had gone Abu
Jahl spoke, making the usual charges against him, and saying, ‘I call God
to witness that I will wait for him tomorrow with a stone which I can
hardly lift,’ or words to that effect, ‘and when he prostrates himself in
prayer I will split his skull with it. Betray me or defend me, let the B.
'Abdu Manaf do what they like after that.’ They said that they would
never betray him on any account, and he could carry on with his project.
When morning came Abu Jahl took a stone and sat in wait for the apostle,
who behaved as usual that morning. While he was in Mecca he faced
Syria in prayer, and when he prayed, he .prayed between the southern
comer and the black stone, putting the Ka'ba between himself and Syria.

The apostle rose to pray while Quraysh sat in their meeting, waiting for
what Abu Jahl was to do. When the apostle prostrated himself, Abu Jahl
took up the stone and went towards him, until when he got near him, he
turned back in flight, pale with terror, and his hand had withered upon the
stone, so that he cast the stone from his hand. The Quraysh asked him
what had happened, and he replied that when he got near him a camel’s
stallion got in his way. ‘By God’, he said, ‘I have never seen anything like 191
his head, shoulders, and teeth on any stallion before, and he made as
though he would eat me.’

I was told that the apostle said, ‘That was Gabriel. If he had come near,
he would have seized him.’

When Abu Jahl said that to them, al-Nadr b. al-Harith b. Kalada b.
'Alqama b. Abdu Man 3 f b. Abdu’l-Dar b. Qusayy (178) got up and said: ‘O
Quraysh, a situation has arisen which you cannot deal with. Muhammad
was a young man most liked among you, most truthful in speech, and most
trustworthy, until, when you saw grey hairs on his temple, and he brought
you his message, you said he was a sorcerer, but he is not, for we have seen
such people and their spitting and their knots; you said, a diviner, but we

136 The Life of Muhammad

have seen such people and their behaviour, and we have heard their
rhymes; and you said a poet, but he is not a poet, for we have heard all
kinds of poetry; you said he was possessed, but he is not, for we have seen
the possessed, and he shows no signs of their gasping and whispering and
delirium. Ye men of Quraysh, look to your affairs, for by God, a serious
thing has befallen you.’ Now al-Nadr b. al-Harith was one of the satans of
Quraysh; he used to insult the apostle and show him enmity. He had been
to al-IJIra and learnt there the tales of the kings of Persia, the tales of
Rustum and Isbandiyar. When the apostle had held a meeting in which
he reminded them of God, and warned his people of what had happened
to bygone generations as a result of God's vengeance, al-Nadr got up when
he sat down, and said, ‘I can tell a better story than he, come to me.’ Then
he began to tell them about the kings of Persia, Rustum and Isbandiyar,
and then he would say, ‘In what respect is Muhammad a better story-teller
19a than I?’ (179).

Ibn ‘Abbas, according to my information, used to say eight verses of the
Quran came down in reference to him, ‘When our verses are read to him,
he says fairy tales of the ancients’ ;* and all those passages in the Quran in
which ‘fairy tales’ are mentioned.

When Al-Nadr said that to them, they sent him and 'Uqba b. Abu
Mu'ayt to the Jewish rabbis in Medina and said to them, ‘Ask them about
Muhammad; describe him to them and tell them what he says, for they
are the first people of the scriptures and have knowledge which we do not
possess about the prophets.’ They carried out their instructions, and said
to the rabbis, ‘You are the people of the Taurat, 2 and we have come to
you so that you can tell us how to deal with this tribesman of ours.’ The
rabbis said, ‘Ask him about three things of which we will instruct you; if
he gives you the right answer then he is an authentic prophet, but if he
does not, then the man is a rogue, so form your own opinion about him.
Ask him what happened to the young men who disappeared in ancient
days, for they have a marvellous story. Ask him about the mighty traveller
who reached the confines of both East and West. Ask him what the spirit
is. If he can give you the answer, then follow him, for he is a prophet. If
he cannot, then he is a forger and treat him as you will.’ The two men
returned to Quraysh at Mecca 3 and told them that they had. a decisive way
of dealing with Muhammad, and they told them about the tnree questions.

They came to the apostle and called upon him to answer these questions.
193 He said to/ihem, ‘I will give you your answer tomorrow,’ but he did not
say, ‘if God will.’ So they went away; and the apostle, so they say, waited
for fifteen days without a revelation from God on the matter, nor did
Gabriel come to him, so that the people of Mecca began to spread evil

1 Sun 68. 15.

1 Properly the Lew of Moses, but often used by Muslim writers of the Old Testament as
a whole.

• Mecca is tome 180 m. from Medina. The ordinary-caravan took 10 or 11 days. The
  fayydra going via al-Khabt did the journey in 5 days.

The Life of Muhammad 137

reports, saying, ‘Muhammad promised us an answer on the morrow, and
today is the fifteenth day we have remained without an answer.’ This
delay caused the apostle great sorrow, until Gabriel brought him the
Chapter of The Cave, in which he reproaches him for his sadness, and
told him the answers of their questions, the youths, the mighty traveller,
and the spirit.

I was told that the apostle said to Gabriel when he came, ‘You have shut
yourself off from me, Gabriel, so that I became apprehensive.’ He
answered, ‘We descend only by God’s command, whose is what lies
before us, behind us, and what lies between, and thy Lord does not
forget.’ 1

He began the Sura with His own praise, and mentioning (Muhammad’s)
prophethood and apostolate and their denial thereof, and He said, ‘Glory
belongs to God, who has revealed the book to His servant,’ 2 meaning
Muhammad.

‘Verily thou art an apostle from Me,’ i.e. confirming what they ask about
thy prophethood. ‘He hath not made therein crookedness, it is straight,’
i.e. it is level, without any difference. ‘To warn of a severe punishment
from Him,’ that is, His immediate judgement in this world. ‘And a painful
judgement in the next,’ that is, from thy Lord, who has sent thee as an
apostle. ‘To give those who believe, who do good works, the good news
that they will have a glorious reward, enjoying it everlastingly,’ i.e. the
eternal abode. ‘They shall not die therein,’ i.e. those who have accepted
your message as true, though others have denied it, and have done the
works that you have ordered them to do. ‘And to warn those who say God
has taken a son.’ He means the Quraysh when they say, ‘We worship the
angels who are the daughters of Allah.’ ‘They have no knowledge about it,
nor had their forefathers’, who take hardly your leaving them and shaming
their religion. ‘Dreadful is the word that proceedeth from their mouth’
when they say the angels are God’s daughters. ‘They say nothing but a 194
lie, and it may be that thou wilt destroy thyself,’ 0 Muhammad. ‘In grief
over their course if they believe not this saying,’ i.e. because of his sorrow
when he was disappointed of his hope of them; i.e. thou shalt not do it
(180). ‘Verily We have made that which is upon the earth an ornament
to it to try them which of them will behave the best,’ i.e. which of them
will follow My commandment and act in obedience to Me. ‘And verily
we will make that which is upon it a barren mound,’ i.e. the earth and what
is upon it will perish and pass away, for all must return to Me that I may
reward them according to their deeds, so do not despair nor let what you
hear and see therein grieve you (181).

Then comes the story of w T hat they asked him about the young men, and
God said: ‘Have you considered that the dwellers in the Cave and al-
Raqim were wonders from our signs ?’ i.e. there were still more wonderful
signs in the proofs I have given to men (182). Then God said: ‘When the 195

1 Sura 19. 65. 1 Sura 18.

138 The Life of Muhammad

young men took refuge in the Cave they said, O Lord, show us kindness
and give us guidance by Your command, so We sealed up their hearing in
the Cave for many years. Then We brought them to life again that We
might know which of the two parties would best calculate the time that
they had been there.’ Then He said: ‘We will tell you the true account of
them; they were young men who believed in their Lord, and We gave them
further guidance, and We strengthened their hearts. Then they stood and
said, Our Lord is the Lord of heaven and earth. We will pray to no other
god but Him. If we were to say otherwise we should speak blasphemy,’
i.e. they did not associate anyone with Me as you have associated with Me
what you know nothing about (183). ‘These people of ours have chosen
gods in addition to Him, though they bring no plain authority for them,’
i.e. a clear proof. ‘Who is more wicked than he who invents a lie against
God ? When you withdraw from them and what they worship instead of
God, then take refuge in the Cave; your Lord will spread for you by His
mercy and prepare a pillow for you in your plight. You might see the
sun when it rises move away from their Cave towards the right, and when
it sets it would go past them to the left, while they were in a cleft of the

196 Cave’ (184). ‘That was one of the signs of God’, i.e. for a proof against
those of the people of the scriptures who knew their story and who ordered
those men to ask you about them concerning the truth of your prophecy in
giving a true account of them. ‘Whom God guides is rightly guided, and
for him whom He leads astray you will find no friend to direct. And
you would think they were awake while they were sleeping, and we would
turn them over to the right and the left, while their dog was lying with its
forepaws on the threshold’ (185). ‘If you observed them closely you would
turn your backs on them fleeing, and be afraid of them’ up to the words
‘those who gained their point said,’ i.e. the people of power and dominion
among them. ‘Let us build a mosque above them; they will say,’ i.e. the
Jewish rabbis who ordered them to ask these questions. ‘Three, their dog
being the fourth of them, and some say five, their sixth being the dog,
guessing in the dark,’ i.e. they know nothing about it, ‘and they say seven
and their dog the eighth. Say: My Lord knows best about their number;
none knows them save a few, so do not contend with them except with an
open contention,’ i.e. do not be proud with them. ‘And do not ask anyone
information about them,’ for they know nothing about it. ‘And do not say
of anything I will do it tomorrow unless you say, If God will. And men¬
tion your Lord if you have forgotten and say, Perhaps my Lord will guide
me to a nearer way of truth than this,’ i.e. do not say about anything which
they ask you what you said about this, viz. I will tell you tomorrow, and
make God’s will the condition, and remember Him when you have for¬
gotten to do so and say, Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is better
than what they ask of me in guidance, for you do not know what I am

197 doing about it. ‘And they remained in their Cave three hundred years
and they added nine,* i.e. they will say this. ‘Say: Your Lord knows best

The Life of Muhammad 139

how long they stayed there. The secrets of heaven and earth are with Him.
How wonderfully He sees and hears. They have no friend but Him, and
He allows none in His dominion as a partner,’ i.e. nothing of what they
ask you is hidden from Him.

And He said about what they asked him in regard to the mighty traveller,
‘And they will ask you about Dhu’l-Qamayn; say, I will recite to you a
remembrance of him. Verily We gave him power in the earth, and We
gave to him every road and he followed it'; so far as the end of his story.

It is said that he attained what no other mortal attained. Roads were
stretched out before him until he traversed the whole earth, east and west.

He was given power over every land he trod on until he reached the farthest
confines of creation.

A man who used to purvey stories of the foreigners, 1 which were handed
down among them, told me that Dhu’l-Qamayn was an Egyptian, whose
name was Marzuban b. Mardhaba, the Greek, descended from Yunan b.
Yafith b. Nuh (186).

Thaur b. Yazld from Khalid b. Ma'dan al-Kala'i, who was a man who
reached Islamic times, told me that the apostle was asked about Dhu’l-
Qamayn, and he said, ‘He is an angel who measured the e^rth beneath by
ropes.’

Khalid said, “Umar heard a man calling someone Dhu’l-Qamayn, and
he said, “God pardon you, are you not satisfied to use the names of
the prophets for your children that you must now name them after the
angels?”’ God knows the truth of the matter, whether the apostle said
that or not. If he said it, then what he said was true.

God said concerning what they asked him about the Spirit, ‘They will
ask you about the Spirit, say, the Spirit is a matter for my Lord, and you
have only a little knowledge about it.’ 2

I was told on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that he said, When the apostle
came to Medina, the Jewish rabbis said, ‘When you said, “And you have
only a little knowledge about it,” did you mean us or your own people?’

He said, ‘Both of you.’ They said, ‘Yet you will read in what you brought 198
that we were given the Taurat in which is an exposition of everything.’ He
replied that in reference to God’s knowledge that was little, but in it there
was enough for them if they carried it out. God revealed concerning what
they asked him about that ‘If all the trees in the world were pens and the
ocean were ink, though the seven seas reinforced it, the words of God
would not be exhausted. Verily God is mighty and wise.’ 3 i.e. The Taurat
compared with God’s knowledge is little. And God revealed to him con¬
cerning what his people asked him for themselves, namely, removing the
mountains, and cutting the earth, and raising their forefathers from the
dead, ‘If there were a QurSn by which mountains could be moved, or
the earth split, or the dead spoken to [it would be this one], but to God
belongs the disposition of all things,’ i.e. I will not do anything of the kind

1 Or 'the Persians’. 1 Sura 17. 87. 3 Sura 31. 26.

140 The Life of Muhammad

unless I choose. And He revealed to him concerning their saying, ‘Take
for yourself’, meaning that He should make for him gardens, and castles,
and treasures, and should send an angel with him to confirm what he said,
and to defend him. ‘And they said, “What is this apostle doing, eating
food, and walking in the markets ? Unless an angel were sent to him to be
a warner with him, or he were given a treasure or a garden from which he
might eat [we would not believe]”; and the evildoers say, “You follow only
a man bewitched”. See how’ they have coined proverbs of thee, and have
gone astray and cannot find the w r ay. Blessed is He, who if He willed,
could make for thee something better than that,’ i.c. than that you should
walk in the marketplaces, seeking a livelihood. ‘Gardens beneath which
run rivers, and make for thee castles.’ 1

And He revealed to him concerning their saying, ‘When We sent messen¬
gers before thee they did eat and walk in the markets, and wc made some
of you a test for others, whether you would be steadfast, and your Lord is
looking on,’ 2 i.e. I made some of you a test for others that you might be
steadfast. Had I wanted to make the world side with my apostles, so that
they w'ould not oppose them, I would have done so.

And he revealed to him concerning what 'Abdullah b. Umayya said,
‘And they said, “We will not believe in thee until fountains burst forth for

199 us from the earth, or you have a garden of dates and grapes and make the
rivers within it burst forth copiously, or make the heavens fall upon us in
fragments as you assert, or bring God and the angels as a surety, or you get
a house of gold, or mount up to heaven, we will not believe in thy ascent
until you bring down to us a book w r hich w r e can read.” Say: exalted be my
Lord, am I aught but a mortal messenger’ (187), 3

200 He revealed to him with reference to their saying ‘We have heard that a
man in al-Yamama called al-Rahman teaches you. We will never believe
in him’. ‘Thus did We send you to a people before whom other peoples
had passed aw r ay that you might read to them that which We have revealed
to thee, w'hile they disbelieved in the Rahman. Say, He is my Lord, there
is no other God but He. In Him I trust and unto Him is the return.’ 4

And He revealed to him concerning what Abu Jahl said and intended:
‘Have you seen him who prohibited a servant when he prayed, have you
seen if he was rightly guided or gave orders in the fear of God, have you
seen if he lied and turned his back; does he not know that Allah sees
everything? If he does not cease we will drag him by the forelock, the
lying sinful forelock; let him call his gang, we will call the guards of hell.
Thou shalt certainly not obey him, prostrate thyself and draw near to
God’ (188).

201 And God revealed concerning wLat they proposed to him in regard to
their money, ‘Say, I ask no rew r ard of you, it is yours; my reward is God’s
concern alone and He witnesses everything.’ 5 When the apostle brought

1 Sura 25. 8.

4 Sura 13. 29.

2 Sura 25. 22.

3 Sura 17. 92.
5 Sura 34. 46,

The Life of Muhammad 141

to them w r hat they knew was the truth so that they recognized his truthful¬
ness and his position as a prophet in bringing them tidings of the unseen
when they asked him about it, envy prevented them from admitting his
truth, and they became insolent against God and openly forsook his com¬
mandments and took refuge in their polytheism. One of them said, ‘Do
not listen to this Quran; treat it as nonsense and probably you will get the
better of it’, i.e. treat it as nonsense and false; and treat him as a mere
raver—you will probably get the better of him, whereas if you argue or
debate with him any time he will get the better of you.

Abu Jahl, when he was mocking the apostle and his message one day,
said: ‘Muhammad pretends that God’s troops who will punish you in hell
and imprison you there, are nineteen only, while you have a large popula¬
tion. Can it be that every hundred of you is unequal to one man of them ?’

In reference to that God revealed, ‘We have made the guardians of hell
angels, and We have made the number of them a trial to those who dis¬
believe’, to the end of the passage. 1 Whereupon when the apostle recited
the Quran loudly as he was praying, they began to disperse and refused to
listen to him. If anyone of them wanted to hear w r hat he was reciting as he 202
prayed, he had to listen stealthily for fear of Quraysh; and if he saw that
they knew that he w r as listening to it, he went away for fear of punishment
and listened no more. If the apostle lowered his voice, then the man who
was listening thought that they would not listen to any part of the reading,
w'hile he himself heard something which they could not hear, by giving all
his attention to the words.

Da’ud b. al-Husayn freedman of ‘Amr b. 'Uthman told me that 'Ikrima
freedman of Ibn ‘Abbas had told them that 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas had told
them that the verse, ‘Don’t speak loudly in thy prayer and don’t be silent;
adopt a middle course,’ 2 was revealed because of those people. He said,
‘Don’t speak loudly in thy prayer’ so that they may go away from you, and
‘Don’t be silent’ so that he who w'ants to hear, of those who listen stealthily,
cannot hear; perhaps he wall give heed to some of it and profit thereby.

THE FIRST ONE WHO PRONOUNCED THE QURAN LOUDLY

Yahya b. 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr told me as from his father that the first man
to speak the Quran loudly in Mecca after the apostle w r as 'Abdullah b.
Mas'ud. The prophet’s companions came together one day and remarked
that Quraysh had never heard the Quran distinctly read to them, and w'ho
w r as there who w r ould make them listen to it? When 'Abdullah said that
he w'ould, they replied that they were afraid on his behalf and they wanted
only a man of good family who w'ould protect him from the populace if
they attacked him. He replied, ‘Let me alone, for God will protect me.’
So in the morning he w r ent to the sanctuary while Quraysh were in their

1 Sura 74. 31.

2 Sura 17. I 10 ,

142 The Life of Muhammad

conferences, and when he arrived at the Maqam, he read, ‘In the name of
God, the compassionate, the merciful,’ 1 raising his voice as he did so, ‘the
compassionate who taught the Quran.’ Then he turned towards them as
he read so that they noticed him, and they said, ‘What on earth is this son
of a slavewoman saying?’ And when they realized that he was reading
some of what Muhammad prayed, they got up and began to hit him in the
face; but he continued to read so far as God willed that he should read.
Then he went to his companions with the marks of their blows on his face.
203 They said, ‘This is just what we feared would happen to you.’ He said,
‘God’s enemies were never more contemptible in my sight than they are
now, and if you like I will go and do the same thing before them tomorrow.’
They said, ‘No, you have done enough, you have made them listen to what
they don’t want to hear.’

THE QURAYSH LISTEN TO THE PROPHET’S READING

Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhri told me that he was told that
Abu Sufyan b. Harb and Abu Jahl b. Hisham and al-Akhnas b. Shariq b.
'Amr b. Wahb al-Thaqafi, an ally of B. Zuhra, had gone out by night to
listen to the apostle as he was praying in his house. Everyone of them
chose a place to sit where he could listen, and none knew where his fellow
was sitting. So they passed the night listening to him, until as the dawn
rose, they dispersed. On the w'ay home they met and reproached one
another, and one said to the other, ‘Don’t do it again, for if one of the
light-minded fools sees you, you will arouse suspicion in his mind.’ Then
they went away, until on the second night everyone of them returned again
to his place, and they passed the night listening. Then at dawn the same
thing happened again, and again on the third night, when on the morrow
they said to one another, ‘We will not go away until we take a solemn
obligation that we will not return.’ This they did and then dispersed. In
the morning al-Akhnas took his stick and went to the house of Abu
Sufyan, and asked him to tell him his opinion ofiwhat he had heard from
Muhammad. He replied, ‘By God, I heard things that I know, and know
what was meant by them, and I heard things whose meaning I don’t
know, nor what was intended by them.’ Al-Akhnas replied, ‘I feel precisely
the same.’ Then he left him and went to Abu Jahl’s house, and asked him
the same question. He answered, ‘What did I hear! We and B. ‘Abdu Manaf
204 have been rivals in honour. They have fed the poor, and so have we;
they have assumed others’ burdens, and so have we; they have been
generous, and so have we, until we have progressed side by side, 2 and we
were like tw'o horses of equal speed. They said,“We have a prophet to
w'hom revelation comes from heaven”, and w'hen shall we attain anything

1 Sura 55. 1.

2 Lit., 'until we have squatted on our knees face to face’, i.e. as complete equals.

The Life of Muhammad 143

like that? By God, w r e will never believe in him and treat him as truthful.’
Then al-Akhnas got up and left him.

When the apostle recited the Quran to them and called them to God,
they said in mockery, ‘Our hearts are veiled, w'e do not understand what
you say. There is a load in our ears so that we cannot hear what you say,
and a curtain divides us from you, so follow' your own path and we will follow
ours, we do not understand anything you say.’ Then God revealed, ‘And
when you read the Quran w'e put between you and those who do not believe
in the last day a hidden veil,’ 1 as far as the words ‘and W'hen you mention
your Lord alone in the Quran they turn their backs in aversion’, that is,
how can they understand thy assertion that thy Lord is one if I have put
veils over their hearts and heaviness in their ears, and between you and
them is a curtain as they allege?’ i.e. that I have not done it. ‘We know
best about w'hat they listen to w'hen they listen to you, and when they take
secret counsel, the wicked say, “You arc only following a man bewitched”,’
i.e. that is the way they order people not to listen to the message I have
given you. ‘See how they have made parables of you, and gone astray,
and cannot find the way,’ i.e. they have made false proverbs about you,
and cannot find the right path, and w'hat they say is not straightforward.
‘And they say, when we are bones and dried morsels shall w r e be raised a new
creation?’ i.e. you have come to tell us that we shall be raised after death
w'hen we are bones and dried fragments, and that is something that cannot
be. ‘Say, Be ye hard stones or iron, or anything that you think in your
minds is harder, they will say, “Who will raise us?” Say, He w'ho created
you in the beginning,’ i.e. He who created you from w'hat you know', for to
create you from dust is no more difficult than that to him.

‘Abdullah b. Abu Najlh from Mujahid from Ibn 'Abbas told me that the
latter said, ‘I asked him what was meant by the word of God “or something
that you think is harder” and he said, “Death.” ’

THE POLYTHEISTS PERSECUTE THE MUSLIMS OP THE 205

LOWER CLASSES

Then the Quraysh showed their enmity to all those who followed the
apostle; every clan which contained Muslims attacked them, imprisoning
them, and beating them, allowing them no food or drink, and exposing
them to the burning heat of Mecca, so as to seduce them from their religion.
Some gave w r ay under pressure of persecution, and others resisted them,
being protected by God.

Bilal, who was afterwards freed by Abu Bakr but at that time belonged
to one of B. Jumah, being slave born, w'as a faithful Muslim, pure of heart.

His father’s name was Ribah and his mother was Hamama. Umayya b.
Khalaf b. Wahb b. Hudbafa b. Jumah used to bring him out at the hottest

1 Sura 17. 47.

The Life of Muhammad

part of the day and throw him on his back in the open valley and have a
great rock put on his chest; then he would say to him, ‘You will stay here
till you die or deny Muhammad and worship Al-Lat and ah Uzza. He
used to say while he was enduring this, One, one!

Hisham b. 'Urwa told me on the authority of his father: Waraqa b.
Naufal was passing him while he was being thus tortured and saying,
‘One, one,’ and he said, ‘One, one, by God, Bilal.’ Then he went to
Umayya and those of B. Jumah who had thus maltreated him, and said,

‘I sw’ear by God that if you kill him in this way I will make his tom. a
shrine.’ One day Abu Bakr passed by while they were thus ill-treating
him, for his house w r as among this clan. He said to Umayya, ‘Have you.
no fear of God that you treat this poor fellow like this? How long is it to
go on?’ He replied, ‘You are the one who corrupted him, so save him from
his plight that you see.’ ‘I will do so,’ said Abu Bakr; ‘I have got a black
slave, tougher and stronger than he, who is a heathen. I will exchange him
for Bilal.’ The transaction was carried out, and Abu Bakr took him and

Before he migrated to Medina he freed six slaves in Islam, Bilal being the
seventh, namely: 'Amir b. Fuhayra, who was present at Badr and Uhud
206 and was killed at the battle of Bi’r Ma'una; and Umm ‘Ubays and Zmnira
(she lost her sight when he freed her and Quraysh said, Al-Lat and a -
'Uzza are the ones that have taken away her sight’; but she said, By the
house of God, you lie. Al-Lat and al-'Uzza can neither harm nor heal,
so God restored her sight).

And he freed al-Nahdiya and her daughter who belonged to a woman ot
B. ‘Abdu’l-Dar; he passed by them when their mistress had sent them
about some flour of hers, and she was saying, ‘By God, I will never free
you ’ Abu Bakr said, ‘Free yourself from your oath.’ She said, It is tree;
you corrupted them so you free them.’ They agreed upon the price, and he
said, ‘I will take them and they are free. Return her flour to her. i ey
said, ‘Oughtn’t we to finish the grinding and then take it back to her'

He said, ‘Yes, if you like.’ „ 1

He passed by a slave girl of B. Mu’ammil, a clan of B. Adiy b. Ka b who
was a Muslim. 'Umar b. a!-Khattab was punishing her to make her give
up Islam. At that time he was a polytheist. He beat her until he was tired
and said, ‘I have only stopped beating you because I am tired. bhe s f ,d »
‘May God treat you in the same way.’ Abu Bakr bought her and freed her.

Muhammad b. 'Abdullah b. Abu ‘Atlq from 'Amir b. 'Abdullah b al-
Zubayr from one of his family told me: Abu Quhafa said to lus son Abu
Bakr, ‘My son, I see that you are freeing weak slaves. If you warn to o
what you are doing, why don’t you free powerful men who could defend
you and protect you ?’ He said, ‘I am only trying to do what I am attempting
for God’s sake.’ It is said that these verses came down in reference to him
and what his father said to him: ‘As to him who gives and fears God and
believes in goodness,’ up to the divine words, ‘none is rewarded by Go.

The Life of Muhammad 145

with favour but for seeking his Lord’s most sublime face and in the end he
will be satisfied .’ 1

The B. Makhzum used to take out 'Ammar b. Yasir with his father and
mother, who were Muslims, in the heat of the day and expose them to the
heat of Mecca, and the Apostle passed by them and said, so I have heard,
‘Patience, O family of Yasir! Your meeting-place will be paradise.’ They
killed his mother, for she refused to abandon Islam.

It was that evil man Abu Jahl who stirred up the Meccans against them.
When he heard that a man had become a Muslim, if he w-as a man of
social importance and had relations to defend him, he reprimanded him and 207
poured scorn on him, saying, ‘You have forsaken the religion of your father
who was better than you. We will declare you a blockhead and brand you
as a fool, and destroy your reputation.’ If he was a merchant he said,

‘We will boycott your goods and reduce you to beggary.’ If he w-as a
person of no social importance, he beat him and incited people against him.

Hakim b. Jubayr from Sa'Id b. Jubayr told me: ‘I said to 'Abdullah b.
'Abbas, “Were the polytheists treating them so badly that apostasy was
excusable?” “Yes, by God, they were,” he said, “they used to beat one of
them, depriving him of food and drink so that he could hardly sit upright
because of the violence they had used on him, so that in the end he would
do whatever they said.” If they said to him, “Are al-Lat and al-'Uzza
your gods and not Allah?” he would say, “Yes” to the point that if a
beetle passed by them they would say to him, “Is this beetle your God and
not Allah ?” he would say yes, in order to escape from the suffering he was
enduring.’

Al-Zubayr b. 'Ukasha b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Ahmad told me that he was
told that some men of B. Makhzum went to Hisham b. al-Walld w r hen his
brother al-Walld b. al-Walld became a Muslim. They had agreed to seize
some young men w-ho had become Muslims, among whom vvere Salma b.
Hisham and 'Ayyash b. Abu Rabl'a. They were afraid of his violent
temper and so they said, ‘We wish to'admonish these men because of this
religion which they have newly introduced; thus we shall be safe in the
case of others.’ ‘All right,’ he said, ‘admonish him, but bew r are that you
do not kill him.’ Then he began to recite:

My brother 'Uyays shall not be killed,

Otherwise there will be war between us for ever. 2

‘Be careful of his life, for I swear by God that if you kill him, I will kill the
noblest of you to the last man.’ They said, ‘God damn the man. After
what he has said who will want to-bring trouble on himself, for, by God,
if this man w-ere killed while in our hands the best of us would be killed to a
man.’ So they left him and withdrew-, and that was how God protected
him from them.

1 Sura 92. 5,

1 Lit., ‘reciprocal cursing’, which was an inseparable accompaniment to war among the
pagan Arabs.

B 4080

L

146

The Life of Muhammad

208 the FIRST MIGRATION TO ABYSSINIA

When the apostle saw the affliction of his companions and that though he
escaped it because of his standing with Allah and his uncle Abu Talib,
he could not protect them, he said to them: ‘If you were to go to Abyssinia
(it would be better for you), for the king will not tolerate injustice and it is a
friendly country, until such time as Allah shall relieve you from your
distress.’ Thereupon his companions went to Abyssinia, being afraid of
apostasy and fleeing to God with their religion. This was the first hijra
in Islam.

The first of the Muslims to go were: B. Umayya: . . .' 'Uthman b.
'Affan . . . with his wife Ruqayya, d. the apostle.

B. 'Abdu’l-Shams: . . . Abu Hudhayfa b. ‘Utba . . . with his wife
Sahla d. Suhayl b. 'Amr one of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy.

B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza: al-Zubayr b. al-Awwam ....

B. ‘AbduTDar: . . . Mus'ab b. 'Umayr.

B., Zuhra b. Kilab: 'Abdu’URahman b. 'Auf ....

B. Makhzum b. Yaqza: . . . Abu Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Asad . . . with his
wife Umm Salama d. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira ....

B. Jumah b. 'Amr b. Husays: . . . 'Uthman b. Maz'un ....

209 B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: 'Amir b. Rabl'a, an ally of the family of al-Khattab
of Anz b. Wa’ii (189), with his wife Layla d. Abu Hathma b. Hudhafa . . .

B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: Abu Sabra b. Abu Ruhm b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b.
Abu Qays . . . b. 'Amir. Others say it was Abu Hatib b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu
Shams of the same descent. It is said that he was the first to arrive in
Abyssinia.

B. al-Harith: Suhayl b. Bayda’. . . . These ten were the first to go to
Abyssinia according to my information (190).

Afterwards Ja'far b. Abu Talib went, and the Muslims followed ooe
another until they gathered in Abyssinia; some took their families, others
went alone.

B. Hashim: Ja'far . . . who took his wife Asma’d. 'Umays b. al-Nu'man
. . . She bare Rim 'Abdullah in Abyssinia.

B. Umayya: ‘Uthman b. 'Affan . . . with his wife Ruqayya; . . . 'Amr b.
Sa'Id b. al-'As . . . with his wife Fatima d. Safwan b. Umayya b. Muhar-
rith b. Khumal b. Shaqq b. Raqaba b. Mukhdij al-Kinanl, and his brother

210 Khalid with his wife Umayna (191) d. Khalaf of Khuza'a. She bare him
his son Sa'Id in Abyssinia, and his daughter Ama who afterwards married
al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam and bare to him 'Amr and Khalid. Of their
allies of B. Asad b. Khuzayma: 'Abdullah b. Jahsh . . . b. Asad and his
brother 'Ubaydullah with his wife Umm Hablba d. Abu Sufyan b. Harb;...
and Qays b. 'Abdullah . . . with his wife Baraka d. Yasar, a freedw r oman of

1 The dots indicate that the genealogies (which in many cases have been given previously)
have been cut short.

The Life of Muhammad H 7

Abu Sufyan; and Mu'ayqib b. AbG Fatima. These belonged to the family
of Sa'Id b. al-'As, seven persons in all (192).

B. 'Abdu Shams: . . . Abu Hudhayfa b. 'Utba; . . . Abu Musa al-Ash ari
whose name was 'Abdullah b. Qays, an ally of the family of Utba. Two
men.

B. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf: 'Utba b. Ghazwan b. Jabir b. Wahb b.
Nasib . . . b. Qays b. 'Aylan, an ally of theirs. One man.

B. Asad: . . . al-Zubayr b. al-'Aw warn; . . . al-Aswad b. Naufal; . . .
Yazid b. Zama'a; . . . 'Amr b. Umayya b. al-Harith. Four men.

B. 'Abd b. Qusayy: Tulayb b. 'Umayr. . . . One man.

B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: Mus'ab b. 'Umayr; . . . Suwaybit b. Sa'd; . . . Jahin b.

Qays . . . with his wife Umm Harmala d. 'Abdu’l-Aswad ... of Khuza a 211
and his two sons ‘Amr and Khuzayma; Abu’l-Rum b. 'Umayr b. Hashim;

. . . Firas b. al-Nadr b. al-Harith. . . . Five persons.

B. Zuhra: ... 'Abdu’t-Rahman b. ‘Auf;. . . 'Amir b. Abu Waqqas; (Abu
Waqqas was Malik b. Uhayb); . . . al-Muttalib b. Azhar . . . with his wife
Ramla d. Abu 'Auf b. Dubayra. . . . She bare his son 'Abdullah in Abys¬
sinia. Their allies: of Hudhayl: 'Abdullah b. Mas'fid . . . and his brother
'Utba. Of Bahra’: al-Miqdad b. 'Amr b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. Rabl'a b.
Thumama b. Matrud b. 'Amr b. Sa'd b. Zuhayr b. Lu’ayy b. Tha'laba
b. Malik b. al-Sharld b. Abu Ahwaz b. Abu Fa’ish b. Duraym b. al-Qayn b.
Ahwad b. Bahra b. 'Amr b. al-Haf b. Quda'a (193). (He used to be called
Miqdad b. al-Aswad b. 'Abdu Yaghuth b. Wahb b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Zuhra
because he had adopted him before Islam and taken him into his tribe.)

Six persons.

B. Taym b. Murra: al-Harith b. Khalid . . . with his wife Rayta d. al-
Harith b. Jabala. ... She bare his son Musa in Abyssinia aiwLhis daughters
'A’isha and Zaynab and Fatima; 'Amr b. Uthman b. Amr. Two men. 212

B. Makhzum b. Yaqaza: ] . . Abu Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Asad ... with his
wife Umm Salama d, Abu FI may y a b. al-Mughira. . . . She bare him a
daughter, Zaynab, in Abyssinia. (11 is name was ‘Abdullah and his wife s
name was Hind.) Shainmas b. Uthman b. al-Sharid; . . . (194)- Uabbar
b. Sufyan b. 'Abdu’l-Asad . . . and his brother Abdullah; Hisham b.

Abu Hudhayfa b. al-Mughira; . . . Salama b. Hisham; . . . ‘AyySsh b. Abu

Rabl'a_Of their allies Mu'attib b. ‘Auf . . . of Khuza'a who was called

'Ayhama. Eight persons (195).

B. Jumah b. 'Amr: . . . 'Uthman b. Maz'un ... and his son al-Sa’ib; his
tw r o brothers Qudama and 'Abdullah; Hatib b. al-Harith . . . with his wife
Fatima d. al-Mujalhl . . . and his tw j o sons Muhammad and al-Harith; and 213
his brother Hattab w'ith his w r ife Fukayha d. Yasar; Sufyan b. Ma mar . . .
with his tW'O sons Jabir and Junada with his wife Hasana who was their
mother; and their brother on their mother’s side Shurahbil b. 'Abdullah
one of the Ghauth (196); 'Uthman b. Rabl'a b. Uhban b. Wahb b.
Hudhafa. Eleven men.

B. Sahm b. 'Amr: . . . Khunays b. Hudhafa: . . . 'Abdullah b. al-Harith

148 The Life of Muhammad

b. Qays b. 'Adly b. Sa'd b. Sahm; Hisham b. al-'As b. Wa’ii b. Sa'd b.
Sahm (197); Qays b. Hudhafa; . . . Abu Qays b. al-Harith; . . . 'Abdullah
b. Hudhafa . . . al-Harith b. al-Harith; . . . Ma'mar b. al-Harith; . . .
Bishr b. al-Harith . . . and a brother of his from a Tamimite mother called
Sa'ld b. 'Amr; Sa'id b. al-Harith;. . . al-Sa’ib b. al-Harith; . . . 'Umayr b.
Ri’ab b. Hudhayfa b. Muhashshim; . . . Mahmiya b. al-Jaza’, an ally of
theirs from B. Zubayd. Fourteen men.

B. 'Adlyy b. Ka'b: Ma'mar b. 'Abdullah;... 'Urwab. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza;.. .
'Adfy b. Nadia b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza... and his son al-Nu'man; 'Amir b.Rabl'a,

214 an ally of the family of al-Khattab from 'Anz b. Wa’ii with his wife Layla.
Five.

B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: Abu Sabra b. Abu Ruhm . . . with his wife Umm
Kulthum d. Suhayl b. 'Amr; . . . 'Abdullah b. Makhrama b. 'Abdu’l-
'Uzza; 'Abdullah b. Suhayl . . . Sallt b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu Shams . . . and his
brother al-Sakran with his wife Sauda d. Zama'a b. Qays b. 'Abdu Shams;
. . . Malik b. Zama'a b. Qays . . . with his wife 'Amra d. al-Sa'dl b.
Waqdan b. 'Abdu Shams;.. . Hatib b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu Shams;. . . Sa'd b.
Khaula an ally of theirs. Eight persons (198).

B. al-Harith b. Fihr: Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah who was 'Amir b.
'Abdullah b. al-Jarrah; . . . Suhayl b. Bayda’ who was Suhayl b. Wahb
b. Rabl'a b. Hilal b. Uhayb b. Dabba . . . (but he was always known by his

215 mother’s name, she being Da'd d, Jahdam b. Umayya b. Zarib b. al-
Harith . . . and was always called Bayda’); 'Amr b. Abu Sarh b. Rabl'a . . .
'Iyad b. Zuhayr b. Abu Shaddad b. Rabl'a b. Hilal b. Uhayb b. Dabba b.
al-Harith; but it is said that this is wrong and that Rabl'a was the son of
Hilal b. Malik b. Dabba; . . . and 'Amr b. al-Harith; . . . 'Uthman b.
'Abdu Ghanm b. Zuhayr; . . . and Sa'd b. 'Abdu Qays b. Laqit . . . and
his brother al-Harith. Eight persons.

The total number of those who migrated to Abyssinia, apart from the
little children whom they took with them or were born to them there, was
eighty-three men if 'Ammar b. Yasir was among them, but that is doubtful.

The following is an extract from the poetry which has been written in
Abyssinia by 'Abdullah b. al-Harith b. Qays b. 'Adly b. Sa'd b. Sahm. They
were safely ensconced there and were grateful for the protection of the
Negus; could serve God without fear; and the Negus had shown them
every hospitality.

O rider, take a message from me

To those who hope for the demonstration of God and religion, 1
To everyone of God’s persecuted servants,

Mistreated and hard tried in Mecca’s vale,

Namely, that we have found God’s country spacious,

Giving security from humiliation, shame and low-repute,

So do not live a life in humiliation

• This seems to be an allusion to the last verse of Sura 14.

H 9

The Life of Muhammad

And shame in death, not safe from blame.

We have followed the apostle of God, and they
Have rejected the words of the prophet, and been deceitful 1
isit thy punishment on the people who transgress

And protect me lest they rise and lead me astray. 3l6

ybduHah h. al-Harith also said when he spoke of the Quraysh expelling
•hem from their country, and reproached some of Ins people: P 8

My heart refuses to fight them

And so do my fingers; I tell you the truth.

How could I fight a people who taught you

The truth that you should not mingle with falsehood ?

Jinn worshippers exiled them from their noble land
bo that they were exceeding sorrowful;

If there were faithfulness in 'Adly b. Sa'd
Springing from piety and kinship ties,

I should have hoped that it would have been among you
By the grace of Him who is not moved by bribes
I got in exchange for the bountiful refuge of poor widows
A whelp, and that mothered by a bitch.

He also said:

Those Quraysh who deny Cod’s truth

Are as 'Ad and Madyan and the people of al-Hijr who denied it
it 1 do not raise a storm let not the earth,

Spacious land or ocean hold me!

In a land wherein is Muhammad, servant of God.

I will explain what is in my heart
When exhaustive search is made.

the^thunderer of threatener). * ^ P ° OT ™

Hudhafa Wh^'wb’ rep ™ achin « Uma »' a b - Khalaf b. Wahb b.
w! “ Jumali who was his cousin, and who used to ill-treat him

use o is belief, made the following verses. Umayva was a leader
among his people at that time. ‘ er

k* ^ mr > 1 wonder at him who came in enmity
When the sea and the broad high land lay between usj ’

• $z?tdM & ,n "' - -

ommentators find this verse difficult Ahn .

or with other vowels it means the sea 1 w hT hr, b ■ , SS ^ S tbat s ^ ar ’»an is a place-name,
kneeling camels, Akta'u meanu/'ali'T, Lit t/' eithe ”nother place-name or a herd of
shannon is the sea and bark is wide hinder n* a T eceded by a J ma u • Suhayli says that
■O Taym b. ’Amr, I wonder ”«“ Win:
means ‘land’. n 8 burned - Suhayh is right. In E:h. barkd

150 The Life of Muhammad

Did you drive me out of Mecca’s vale where I was safe

And make me live in a loathsome white castle. 1

You feather arrows, w'hose feathering will not help you;

You sharpen arrows, whose feathers are all for you;

You fight noble strong people

And destroy those from whom you once sought help.

You will know one day, when misfortune attacks you
And strangers betray you, what you have done.

Taym b. 'Amr, whom 'Uthman addresses, was Jumah. His name was
Taym.

THE QURAYSH SEND TO ABYSSINIA TO GET THE
EMIGRANTS RETURNED

When Quraysh saw that the prophet’s companions were safely ensconced
in Abyssinia and had found security there, they decided among themselves
to send two determined men of their number to the Negus to get them sent
back, so that they could seduce them from their religion and get them out of
the home in which they were living in peace. So they sent 'Abdullah b.
Abu Rabl'a and 'Amr b. al-'As b. Wa ll. They got together some presents
for them to take to the Negus and his generals. When Abu Talib perceived
their design he composed the following verse for the Negus to move him
to treat them kindly and protect them:

Would that I knew' how far-away Ja'far and 'Amr fare,

(The bitterest enemies are oft the nearest in blood).

Does the Negus still treat Ja'far and his companions kindly,

Or has the mischief-maker prevented him ?

Thou art noble and generous, mayst thou escape calamity;

No refugees are unhappy with thee.

Know that God has increased thy happiness
And all prosperity cleaves to thee.

Thou art a river whose banks overflow whth bounty
Which reaches both friend and foe.

Muhammad b. Muslim al-Zuhrl from Abu Bakr b. Abdu 1 -Rahman
b. al-Harith b. Hisham al-Makhzumf from Umm Salama d. Abu Umayya
b. al-Mughira wife of the apostle said, ‘When we reached Abyssinia the
Negus gave us a kind reception. We safely practised our religion, and we
worshipped God, and suffered no w'rong in word or deed. When the
8 Quraysh got to know’ of that, they decided to send two determined men to
the Negus and to give him presents of the choicest w^ares of Mecca.
Leatherwork w r as especially prized there, so they collected a great many

1 Again the reading and the meaning are in question. $arh means ‘castle’ or ‘room’ in

Eth.

The Life of Muhammad 151

skins so that they w’ere able to give some to every one of his generals. They
sent 'Abdullah and 'Amr with instructions to give each general his present
before they spoke to the Negus about the refugees. Then they were to
give their presents to the Negus and ask him to give the men up before he
spoke to them. They carried out these instructions to the letter, and said
to each of the generals, ‘Some foolish fellow’s from our people have taken
refuge in the king’s country. They have forsaken our religion and not
accepted yours, but have brought in an invented religion which neither
we nor you know anything about. Our nobles have sent us to the king to
get him to return them, so w’hen w T e speak to the king about them advise
him to surrender them to us and not to speak to them, for their own people
have the keenest insight and know most about their faults.’ This the
generals agreed to do. They took their gifts to the Negus and when he had
accepted them, they said to him w r hat they had already said to the generals
about the refugees. Now there w : as nothing which 'Abdullah and 'Amr
disliked more than that the Negus should hear what the Muslims had to
say. The generals about his presence said that the men had spoken truly,
and their own people best knew the truth about the refugees, and they
recommended the king to give them up and return them to their own people.

The Negus was enraged and said, ‘No, by God, I will not surrender them. 219
No people who have sought my protection, settled in my country, and
chosen me rather than others shall be betrayed, until I summon them and
ask them about what these tw r o men allege. If they are as they say, I will
give them up to them and send them back to their own people; but if what
they say is false, I will protect them and see that they receive proper
hospitality while under my protection.’

Then he summoned the apostle’s companions, and when his messenger
came they gathered together, saying one to another, ‘What will you say to
the man when you come to him?’ They said, ‘We shall say w’hat we know
and W'hat our prophet commanded us, come what may.’ When they came
into the royal presence they found that the king had summoned his bishops
with their sacred books exposed around him. He asked them what w'as
the religion for which they had forsaken their people, without entering into
his religion or any other. Ja'far b. Abu Talib answered, ‘O King, w r e were
an uncivilized people, worshipping idols, eating corpses, committing
abominations, breaking natural ties, treating guests badly, and our strong
devoured our w r eak. Thus w r e were until God sent us an apostle whose
lineage, truth, trustworthiness, and clemency w'e know'. He summoned us
to acknowledge God’s unity and to worship him and to renounce the
stones and images w'hich w r e and our fathers formerly worshipped. He
commanded us to speak the truth, be faithful to our engagements, mindful
of the ties of kinship and kindly hospitality, and to refrain from crimes and
bloodshed. He forbade us to commit abominations and to speak lies, and to
devour the property of orphans, to vilify chaste women. He commanded
us to worship God alone and not to associate anything with Him, and he

152 The Life of Muhammad

gave us orders about prayer, almsgiving, and fasting (enumerating the
commands of Islam). We confessed his truth and believed in him, and we
followed him in what he had brought from God, and we worshipped God
alone without associating aught with Him. We treated as forbidden what
he forbade, and as lawful what he declared lawful. Thereupon our people
attacked us, treated us harshly and seduced us from our faith to try to make

220 us.go back to the worship of idols instead of the worship of God, and to
regard as lawful the evil deeds we once committed. So when they got the
better of us, treated us unjustly and circumscribed our lives, and came
between us and our religion, we came to your country, having chosen
you above all others. Here we have been happy in your protection, and we
hope that we shall not be treated unjustly while we are with you, O King.’

The Negus asked if they had with them anything which had come from
God. When Ja'far said that he had, the Negus commanded him to read it
to him, so he read him a passage from (Sura) KHY'S. 1 The Negus wept
until his beard was wet and the bishops wept until their scrolls were wet,
when they heard what he read to them. Then the Negus said, ‘Of a truth,
this and what Jesus 2 brought have come from the same niche. You
two may go, for by God, I will never give them up to them and they shall
not be betrayed.’

When the two had gone, 'Amr said, ‘Tomorrow I will tell him something
that will uproot them all.’ Abdullah, who was the more godfearing of them
in his attitude towards us, said, ‘Do not do it, for they are our kindred
though they have gone against us.’ He said, ‘By God, I will tell him that
they assert that Jesus, son of Mary, is a creature.’ 3 He went to him in the
morning and told him that they said a dreadful thing about Jesus, son of
Mary, and that he should send for them and ask them about it. He did so.
Nothing of the kind had happened to them before, and the people gathered
together asking one another what they should say about Jesus when they
were asked. They decided that they would say what God had said and what
the prophet had brought, come what may. So when they went into the
royal presence and the question was put to them, Ja'far answered, ‘We say
about him that which our prophet brought, saying, he is the slave of God,
and his apostle, and his spirit, and his word, which he cast into Mary the
blessed virgin.’ The Negus took a stick from the ground and said, ‘By

221 God, Jesus, son of Mary, does not exceed what you have said by the length
of this stick.' His generals round about him snorted when he said this,
and he said, ‘Though you snort, by God! Go, for you are safe in my
country.’ [Shuyum means al-aminunai ) 4 Then he repeated three times the
words, ‘He who curses you will be fined. Not for a mountain of gold would

1 SCtra 19.

1 This is the reading of the Cairo text which unfortunately fails to record the MS. on
which (presumably) it is based. W.’s text reads Moses and he does not record a variant.

3 Lit. ‘slave 1 ,

♦ shuyUm in Eth. means ‘a high official 1 (sing.) as S. conjectured. Dabr is also an Eth.
word. The story evidently comes from someone familiar with the language of Abyssinia.

The Life of Muhammad 153

I allow a man of you to be hurt’ (199). Give them back their presents, for
I have no use for them. God took no bribe from me when He gave me
back my kingdom, that I should take a bribe for it, and God did not do
what men wanted against me, so why should I do what they want against
Him.’ So they left his presence, crestfallen, taking away their rejected
gifts, while we lived with him comfortably in the best security.

While we were living thus, a rebel arose to snatch his kingdom from him,
and I never knew us to be so sad as we were at that, in our anxiety lest this
fellow would get the better of the Negus, and that a man would arise who
did not know our case as the Negus did. He went out against him, and the
Nile lay between the two parties. The apostle’s companions called for a
man who would go to the battle and bring back news, and al-Zubayr b.
al-'Awwam volunteered. Now he was the youngest man we had.* We
inflated a waterskin and he put it under his chest, and swam across until
he reached that point of the Nile where the armies faced one another. Then
he went on until he met them. Meanwhile we prayed to God to give the
Negus victory over his enemy and to establish him in his own country;
and as we were doing so, waiting for what might happen, up came al-Zubayr
running, waving his clothes as he said, Hurrah, the Negus has conquered
and God has destroyed his enemies and established him in his land.’
By God, I never knew us to be so happy before. The Negus came back
God having destroyed his enemy and established him in his country, and
the chiefs of the Abyssinians rallied to him. Meanwhile we lived in happiest
conditions until we came to the apostle of God in Mecca.

HOW THE NEGUS BECAME KING OF ABYSSINIA

Al-Zuhr! said: I told 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr the tradition of Abu Bakr b.
'Abdu’I-Rahman from Umm Salama the prophet’s wife and he said: ‘Do
you know what he meant when he said that God took no bribe from me when
He gave me back my kingdom that I should take a bribe for it, and God did
not do what men wanted against me so why should I do what they want
against Him ? When I said that I did not know, he said that ‘A’isha told
him that the father of the Negus was the king, and the Negus was his only
son. The Negus had an uncle who had twelve sons who were of the
Abyssinian royal house. The Abyssinians said among themselves, ‘It
would be a good thing if we were to kill the father of the Negus and make
his brother king, because he has no Bon but this youngster, while his
brother has twelve sons, so they can inherit the kingdom after him so that
the future of Abyssinia may be permanently secured.’ So they attacked
the Negus s father and killed him, making his brother king, and such was the
state of affairs for a considerable time.

The Negus grew up with his uncle, an intelligent and resolute young
man. He attained an ascendancy over his uncle to such a degree that when

154 The Life of Muhammad

the Abyssinians perceived how great his influence with the king was, they
began to fear lest he might gain the crown, and would then put them all to
death because he knew that they were the murderers of his father. Accord¬
ingly they went to his uncle and said, ‘Either you must kill this young man
or you must exile him from among us, for we are in fear of our lives because
of him.’ He replied, ‘You wretches, but yesterday I slew his father, and am
I to kill him today? But I will put him out of your country.’ So they took
him to the market and sold him to a merchant for six hundred dirhams.
The latter threw him into a boat and went off with him, but on that very
evening the autumn storm clouds massed, and his uncle went out to pray
for rain beneath the mass of cloud when he was struck by lightning and
killed. The Abyssinians hastened in fear to his sons, and lol he was a
begetter of fools; he had not a son w'ho was any good at all; the situation of
the Abyssinians became very unsettled, and when they feared the pressure
223 of events they said to one another, ‘Know, by God, that your king, the
only one who can put us to rights, is the one you sold this morning, and if
you care about your country go after him now.* So they went out in search
of him and the man to whom they had sold him, until they overtook him
and took the Negus from him. They then brought him home, put the
crow r n on his head, made him sit upon the throne, and proclaimed him
king.

The merchant to whom they had sold him came and said, ‘Either you
give me my money or I shall tell him about this.’ They said, ‘We will not
give you a penny.’ He said, 'In that case, by God, I will.speak to him.’
They said, ‘Well, there he is’; so he came and stood before him and said,
‘O King, I bought a young slave from people in the market for six hundred
dirhams. They gave me my slave and they took my money, yet when I had
gone off with my slave they overtook me and seized my slave and kept my
money.’ The Negus said, 4 You must either give him his money back or let
the young man place his hand in his, and let him take him where he wishes.’
They replied, ‘No, but we wall give him his money.’ For this reason he
said the words in question. This was the first thing that was reported
about his firmness in his religion and his justice in judgement.

Yazld b. Ruman told me from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from 'A’isha that she
said: ‘When the Negus died it used to be said that a light was constantly
seen over his grave.’

THE ABYSSINIANS REVOLT AGAINST THE NEGUS

Ja'far b. Muhammad told me on the authority of his father that the
Abyssinians assembled and said to the Negus, ‘You have left our religion’
and they revolted against him. So he sent to Ja'far and his companions
and prepared ships for them, saying, ‘Embark in these and be ready. If
I am defeated, go where you please; if I am victorious, then stay where you

The Life of Muhammad x - ^

a /^-’ Then he took P a P er and wrote, ( H e testifies that there is no God but
Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and apostle; and he testifies that
Jesus Son of Mary, is His slave, His apostle, His spirit and His word
w ich He cast into Mary.’ Then he put it in his gown near the right
shoulder and went out to the Abyssinians, who were drawn up in array to
meet him., He said, ‘O people, have I not the best claim among you?’ 224
Certainly,, they said. ‘And what do you think of my life among you?’
Excellent.’ ‘Then what is your trouble?’ ‘You have forsaken our religion
and assert that Jesus is a slave.’ ‘Then what do you say about Jesus?’ ‘We
say that he is the Son of God.’ The Negus put his hand upon his breast
over his gown, (signifying), ‘He testifies that Jesus, the Son of Mary, was
no more than “this”.’ By this he meant what he had written, but they were
content and went away. News of this reached the prophet, and when the
Negus died he prayed over him and begged that his sins might be forgiven.

'UMAR ACCEPTS ISLAM

When'Amr and 'Abdullah came to the Quraysh, not having been able to
bring back the prophet’s companions and having received a sharp rebuff
from the Negus, and when 'Umar became a Muslim, he being a strong,
stubborn man whose proteges none dare attack, the prophet’s companions
were so fortified by him and Hamza that they got the upper hand of
Quraysh. 'Abdullah b. Mas ud used to say, ‘We could not pray at the
Ka ba until 'Umar became a Muslim, and then he fought the Quraysh
until he could pray there and we prayed with him.’ 'Umar became a
Muslim after the prophet’s companions had migrated to Abyssinia
Al-Bakka’i said: 1

Mis'ar b. Kidam from Sa'd b. Ibrahim said that 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud
said: “Umar’s (conversion to) Islam was a victory; his migration to
Medina was a help ; and his government was a divine mercy. We could not
pray at the Ka ba until he became a Muslim, and when he did so he fought
the Quraysh until he could pray there and we joined him.’

'Abdu’l-Rahman b. al-Harith b. 'Abdullah b. 'Ayyash b. Abu Rabi'a

b - 'Abdullah b. 'Amir b. Rabi'a from his mother Umm 225
Abdullah d. Abu Hathma who said: ‘We were on the point of setting out
or Abyssinia, and Amir had gone out for something we needed, when
Umar came and stopped beside me, he being a polytheist at the time and
we were receiving harsh treatment and affliction from him. He said’“So
youareoff, O mother of 'Abdullah.” “Yes,”Isaid, “we arc going to God’s
country. You have violently ill-treated us until God has given us a way
out. He said, “God be with you,” and I saw in him a compassion which
I had never seen before^ Then he went away, and I could see plainly that
our departure pained him; and when 'Amir came back with the thing

said’™ 5 indiCatCS thC recension of U- which I.H. used. Other MSS. read ‘Ibn Hisham

j 56 The Life of Muhammad

he needed I said to him, “0 father of 'Abdullah, I wish you had seen Umar
just now and the compassion and sorrow he showed on our account.
When he asked me if I had hopes of his becoming a Muslim, I replied
that I had, to which he answered, “The man you saw will not become a
Muslim until al-Khattab’s donkey does.” This he said in despair of him
because of his harshness and severity against Islam.

The Islam of 'Umar, so I have heard, was on this wise. His sister was
Fatima d. al-Khattab, and was married to Sa'Id b. Zayd b. 'Amr b. Nufayl,
both of whom had become Muslims and concealed the fact from 'Umar.
Now Nu'aym b. 'Abdullah al-Nahham, a man of his tribe from B. 'Adly
b. Ka'b, had become a Muslim and he also concealed the fact out of fear
of his people. Khabbab b. al-Aratt used often to come to Fatima to read
the Quran to her. One day 'Umar came out, girt with his sword, making for
the apostle, and a number of his companions, who he had been informed
had gathered in a house at al-Safa, in all about forty, including women.
With the apostle was his uncle Hamza, and AbQ Bakr, and All, from among
the Muslims who stayed with the apostle and had not gone out with those
who went to Abyssinia. Nu'aym met him and asked him where he was
going. 'I am making for Muhammad, the apostate, who has split up the
Quraysh, made mockery of their traditions, insulted their faith and their
226 gods, to kill him.’ ‘You deceive yourself, 'Umar, 1 he answered, ‘do you
suppose that B. 'Abdu Manaf will allow you to continue walking upon the
earth when you have killed Muhammad? Had not you better go back to
your own family and set their affairs in order ? W hat is the matter with my
family?’ he said. ‘Your brother-in-law, your nephew Sa'Id, and your sister
Fatima, have both become Muslims and followed Muhammad in his
religion, so you had better go and deal with them.’ Thereupon 'Umar
returned to his sister and brother-in-law at the time when Khabbab
was with them with the manuscript of Ta Ha, which he was reading to
them. When they heard 'Umar’s voice Khabbab hid in a small room, or in
a part of the house, and Fatima took the page and put it under her thigh.
Now 'Umar had heard the reading of Khabbab as he came near the house,
so when he came in he said, ‘What is this balderdash I heard? You have
not heard anything,’ they answered. ‘By God, I have,’ he said, ‘and I have
been told that you have followed Muhammad in his religion; and he
seized his brother-in-law Sa'Id, and his sister Fatima rose in defence of her
husband, and he hit her and wounded her. When he did that they said to
him, ‘Yes, we are Muslims, and we believe in God and His apostle, and
you can do what you like.’ When 'Umar saw the blood on his sister he
was sorry for what he had done and turned back and said to his sister,
‘Give me this sheet which I heard you reading just now so that I may see
just what it is which Muhammad has brought,’ for 'Umar could write.
When he said that, his sister replied that she was afraid to trust him with it.
‘Do not be afraid,* he said, and he swore by his gods that he would return
it when he had read it. When he said that, she had hopes that he would

The Life of Muhammad 157

become a Muslim, and said to him, ‘My brother, you are unclean in your
polytheism and only the clean may touch it.’ So 'Umar rose and washed
himself and she gave him the page in which was Ta Ha, and when he had
read the beginning he said, ‘How fine and noble is this speech.’ When
he heard that, Khabbab emerged and said, ‘O 'Umar, by God, I hope that
God has singled you out by His prophet’s call, for but last night I heard
him saying, “O God, strengthen Islam by Abu’l-Hakam b. Hisham or by
'Umar b. al-Khattab.’’ Come to God, come to God, O 'Umar.’ At that 227
'Umar said, ‘Lead me to Muhammad so that I may accept Islam. Khab¬
bab replied that he was in a house at al-Safa with a number of his com¬
panions. So 'Umar took his sword and girt it on, and made for the apostle
and his companions, and knocked on the door. When they heard his
voice one of the companions got up and looked through a chink in the door,
and when he saw' him girt with his sword, he went back to the apostle in
fear, and said, ‘It is 'Umar with his sw'ord on.’ Hamza said, ‘Let him in; if
he has come wfith peaceful intent, we w T ill treat him well; if he has come with
ill intent, W'e will kill him w'ith his own sw'ord.’ The apostle gave the word
and he was let in. The apostle rose and met him in the room, seized him
round the girdle or by the middle of bis cloak, and dragged him along
violently, saying, ‘What has brought you, son of Khattab, for by God, I do
not think you will cease (your persecution) until God brings calamity
upon you. 'Limar replied, ‘O Apostle of God, I have come to you to
believe in God and His apostle and what he has brought from God.’ The
apostle gave thanks to God so loudly that the w'hole household knew that
'Umar had become a Muslim.

The companions dispersed, having become confident when both 'Umar
and Hamza had accepted Islam because they knew that they W'ould protect
the apostle, and that they would get justice from their enemies through
them. This is the story of the narrators among the people of Medina about
'Umar’s Islam.

'Abdullah b. Abu Najlh, the Meccan, from his companions 'Ata* and
Mujahid, or other narrators, said that 'Umar’s conversion, according to
what he used to say himself, happened thus: ‘I was far from Islam. I was a
winebibber in the heathen period, used to love it and rejoice in it. We
used to have a meeting-place in al-Hazwara at which Quraysh used to
gather 1 near the houses of the family of 'Umar b. 'Abd b. 'Imran al- 228
Makhzuml. I went out one night, making for my boon companions in
that gathering, but when I got there, there w'as no one present, so I
thought it would be a good thing if I went to so-and-so, the wineseller, who
was selling wine in Mecca at the time, in the hope that I might get some¬
thing to drink from him, but I could not find him either, so I thought it
would be a good thing if I went round the Ka'ba seven or seventy times.

So I came to the mosque meaning to go round the Ka'ba and there was the
apostle standing praying. As he prayed he faced Syria, putting the Ka'ba

1 It was the market of Mecca.

158 The Life of Muhammad

between himself and Syria. His stance was between the black stone and
the southern corner. When I saw him I thought it would be a good
thing if I could listen to Muhammad so as to hear what he said. If I came
near to listen to him I should scare him, so I came from the direction of the
hijr and got underneath its coverings and began to walk gently. Meanwhile
the prophet was standing in prayer reciting the Quran until I stood in his
qihla facing him, there being nothing between us but the covering of the
Ka'ba. When I heard the Quran my heart was softened and I wept, and
Islam entered into me; but I ceased not to stand in my place until the
apostle had finished his prayer. Then he went away. When he went
away he used to go past the house of the son of Abu Husayn, which was
on his way, so that he crossed the path where the pilgrims run. Then he
went between the house of 'Abbas and Ibn Azhar b. 'Abdu 'Auf al-Ztihri;
then by the house of Al-Akhnas b. Shariq until he entered his own house.
His dwelling was in al-Dar al-Raqta’, which was in the hands of Mu'awiya
b. Abu Sufyan. I continued to follow him, until when he got between the
house of 'Abbas and Ibn Azhar I overtook him, and when he heard my
voice he recognized me and supposed that I had followed him only to
ill-treat him, so he repelled me, saying, “What has brought you at this
hour?” I replied that I had come to believe in God and His apostle and
what he had brought from God. He gave thanks to God and said, “God
229 has guided you.” Then he rubbed my breast and prayed that I might be
steadfast. Afterwards I left him. He went into his house.’ But God knows
what the truth was.

Nafi' freedman of 'Abdullah b. 'Umar on the authority of Ibn 'Umar
said: When my father 'Umar became a Muslim he said, ‘Which of the
Quraysh is best at spreading reports?’ and was told that it was Jamil b.
Ma'mar al-Jumahl. So he went to him, and I foliowed after to see w T hat he
was doing, for although I was very young at the time I understood every¬
thing I saw. He went to Jamil and asked him if he knew that he had become
a Muslim and entered into Muhammad’s religion; and, by God, hardly
had he spoken to him when he got up dragging his cloak on the ground as
'Umar followed him and I followed my father, until he stood by the door
of the mosque and cried at the top of his voice while the Quraysh were in
their meeting-places roupd the Ka'ba, “Umar has apostatized,’ while
'Umar behind him shouted, ‘He is a liar; but I have become a Muslim
and I testify that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His servant
and apostle.’ They got up to attack him and fighting went on between
them until the sun stood over their heads, and he became w r eary and sat
dowm while they stood over him, as he said, ‘Do as you will, for I swear by
God that if we were three hundred men we would have fought it out on
equal terms.’ At this point a shaykh of the Quraysh, in a Yamanl robe and
an embroidered shirt, came up and stopped and inquired what was the
matter. When he was told that 'Umar had apostatized he said, ‘Why should
not a man choose a religion for himself, and what are you trying to do ? Do

The Life of Muhammad

you think that B. 'Adiy will surrender their companion to you thus? Let the
man alone.’ By God, it was as though they were a garment stripped off him 1
After my father had migrated to Medina I asked him who the man was who
drove away the people on the day he became a Muslim while they were
fighting him, and he said, ‘That, my son, was al-'As b. Wa’il al-Sahml (200) ’
Abdu 1 -Rahman b. al-Harith from one of 'Umar’s clan or one of his z 3 o
amily said that Umar said, ‘When I became a Muslim that night I thought
o the man who was the most violent in enmity against the apostle so that
I might come and tell him that I had became a Muslim, and Abu Jahl
came to my mind.’ Now 'Umar’s mother was Hantama d. Hisham b al-
M S a - m tbe corning I knocked on his door, and he came out and

m r l a beSt of welcomes > n ephew, what has brought you?’ I answered
that I had come to tell him that I believed in God and His apostle Muham¬
mad and regarded as true what he had brought. He slammed the door in
my face and said, ‘God damn you, and damn what you have brought.’

tpie document proclaiming a boycott

When Quraysh perceived that the apostle’s companions had settled in a
and in peace and safety, and that the Negus had protected those who
sought refuge with him, and that 'Umar had become a Muslim and that
I:Ia / n ^ a u were on the Slde of apostle and his companions,

, , d ? , Is ! am had b f gun to s P read am ong the tribes, they came together
and decided among themselves to write a document in which they should
put a boycott on B. Hashim and B. Muttalib that they should not marry

n VK W r e r n ° r f Ve W ° men t0 them t0 marr ^ and that they should
neither buy from them nor sell to them, and when they agreed on that they

wrote it m a deed Then they solemnly agreed on the points and hung the

deed up in the middle of the Ka'ba to remind them of their obligatLs.

, AhH W M er K h ^A d u? 7 ^ Man ? Qr b- 'Ikrima b. 'Amir b. Hashim b.

u Manaf b. Abdu 1 -Dar b. Qusayy (201) and the apostle invoked
God against him and some of his fingers withered.

we?r A Q K U T^ ld !“’ the tW ° danS ° f B ‘ H5shim and B - al-Muttalib
Ahr i A^Ja 1 -. ^ emered Wlth him int0 his alle y and i° ined him.

Abu Lahab Abdu I- Uzza went out from B. Hashim and helped Quraysh. 23 <
Husayn b. Abdullah told me that Abu Lahab met Hind d 'Utba when
T C , a P eo P le ^d joined Quraysh against them, and he said, ‘Haven’t

elped al-Lat and al-'Uzza and haven’t I abandoned those who have
a andoned them and assisted their opponents?’ She said, ‘Yes, and may
God reward you well, O Abu 'Utba.’ And I was told that among the
ings that he said were, ‘Muhammad promises me things which 1 do not

mv h H T u ‘ v % WiH happCn aftCr m >' death > wh at has he put in
my hands after that?’ Then he blew on his hands and said, ‘May you

p ish. I can see nothing in you of the things which Muhammad says.’

1 i.e. ‘a fear removed’.

160 The Life of Muhammad

So God revealed concerning him the words, ‘Abu Lahab and his hands
God blast (202).’ 1

When Quraysh had agreed on this and had done what has just been
described, Abu Talib said:

Tell Lu’ayy, especially Lu’ayy of the Banu Ka'b,

News of our condition.

Did you not know that we have found Muhammad,

A prophet like Moses described in the oldest books,

And that love is bestowed on him (alone) of mankind

And that none is better than he whom God has singled out in love,

And that the writing you have fixed

Will be a calamity like the cry of the hamstrung camel ? 2

Awake, awake before the grave is dug

And the blameless and the guilty are as one.

Follow not the slanderers, nor sever
The bonds of love and kinship between us.

Do not provoke a long-drawn-out war,

Often he who brings on war tastes its bitterness.

By the Lord of the temple we will not give up Ahmad,

To harsh misfortunes and times’ troubles,

232 Before hands and necks, yours and ours,

Are cut by the gleaming blades of Qusas 3

In a close-hemmed battlefield where you see broken spears

And black-headed vultures circling round like a thirsty crowd.

The galloping of the horses about the scene
And the shout of warriors are like a raging battle.

Did not our father Hashim gird up his loins
And teach his sons the sword and spear ?

We do not tire of war until it tires of us;

We do not complain of misfortune when it comes.

We keep our heads and our valour
When the bravest lose heart in terror.

They remained thus for two or three years until they were exhausted,
nothing reaching them except what came froth their friends unknown to
Quraysh.

Abu Jahl, so they say, met Hakim b. Hizam b. Khuwaylid b. Asad with
whom was a slave carrying flour intended for his aunt Khadlja, the pro¬
phet’s wife, who was with him in the alley. He hung on to him and said,
‘Are you taking food to the B. Hashim? By God, before you and your food
move from here I will denounce you in Mecca.’ Abu’l-Bakhtarl came to
him and said, ‘What is going on between you two?’ When he said that
Hakim was taking food to the B. Hashim, he said: ‘It is food he has which

1 Sura hi. 2 An allusion to the camel of Sjalth in Sura 26. 142.

3 Qusas is said to be a mountain of B. Asad containing iron mines.

The Life of Muhammad j 5 x

belongs to his aunt and she has sent to him about it. Are you trying to
prevent him taking her own food to her? Let the man go his way!’ Abu
Jahl refused until they came to blows, and AbQ’l-Bakhtari took a'camel’s
jaw and knocked him down, wounded him, and trod on him violently
while Hamza was looking on near by. They did not wish the apostle and
his companions to hear this news 'and rejoice over their discomfiture.
Meanwhile the apostle was exhorting his people night and day, secretly and
publicly, openly proclaiming God’s command without fear of anyone.

THE ILL-TREATMENT THE APOSTLE RECEIVED FROM
HIS PEOPLE

His uncle and the rest of B. Hashim gathered round him and protected
him from the attacks of the Quraysh, who, when they saw that they could 233
not get at him, mocked and laughed at him and disputed with him. The
Quran began to come down concerning the wickedness of Quraysh and
those who showed enmity to him, some by name and some only referred
to in general. Of those named are his uncle Abu Lahab and his wife Umm
Jamil, the bearer of the wood’. God called her this because she, so I am
told, earned thorns and cast them in the apostle’s way where he would be
passing, bo God sent down concerning the pair of them;

Abu Lahab and his hands, God blast,

His wealth and gains useless at the last,

He shall roast in flames, held fast,

W ith his wife, the bearer of the wood, aghast,

On her neck a rope of palm-fibre cast. (20^) !

I was told that Umm Jamil, the bearer of the wood, when she heard what
had come down about her and about her husband in the Quran, came to
the aposde of God, when he was sitting in the mosque by the Ka’ba with
Abu Bakr, with a stone pestle in her hand, and when she stood by the
pair of them God made her unable to see the apostle so that she saw only

., , U ^ akr ant - aSked him where hls com P an ion was, ‘for I have been told
that he is1 satirizing me, 2 and by God, if I had found him I would have
smashed his mouth with this stone. By God, I am a poet.’ Then she said;

We reject the reprobate,

His words we repudiate,

His religion we loathe and hate. 3

I SGra 11 ■ T j he rh y me of the original has been imitated,
the f± ^T° Se K Hl}a .' which in ear] y times had the effect of a spell which could brine
Is ff U m "TS T" "»•. S " " 0 - ml Divination, PP . 24 sT“ sT

mou,h ™ “ *

I m the king of the castle,

Get out you dirty rascal.

M

B 4080

r 6 2 The Life of Muhammad

234 Then she went off and Abu Bakr asked the apostle if he thought she had
seen him. He replied that she had not because God had taken her sight
away from him (204).

The Quraysh had called the apostle Mudhammam to revile him. He
used to say, ‘Aren’t you surprised at the injuries of the Quraysh which God
turns away from me ? They curse me and satirize Mudhammam [reprobate]
whereas I am Muhammad [the laudable].’

[Another referred to in the Quran] is Umayya b. Khalaf b. Wahb b.
Hudhafa b. Jumah. Whenever he saw the apostle he slandered and
reviled him, so God sent down concerning him, ‘Woe to every slandering
backbiter, who has gathered wealth and increased it, and thinks that his
wealth will make him immortal. No, he will be thrown to the devouring
fire. What will make you realize what that is ? It is God’s fire kindled which
mounts over the hearts. It is shut in on them in wide columns (205).’ 1

Khabbab b. al-Aratt, the prophet’s companion, was a smith in Mecca
who used to make swords. He sold some to al-'As b. Wa’il so that he owed
him some money and he came to him to demand payment. He answered,
‘Does not Muhammad, your companion whose religion you follow, allege
that in Paradise there is all the gold and silver and clothes and servants that

235 his people can desire?’ ‘Certainly,’said Khabbab. ‘Then give me till the
day of resurrection until I return to that house and pay your debt there; for
by God, you and your companion will be no more influential with God
than I, and have no greater share in it.’ So God revealed concerning him,
‘Have*you considered him who disbelieves Our signs and says, I shall be
given wealth and children. Hath he studied the unseen ?’ so far as the
words, ‘and we shall inherit from him what he speaks of and he will come

to us alone.’ 2 „ .

Abu Jahl met the apostle, so I have heard, and said to him, fly t^oU,
Muhammad, you will either stop cursing our gods or we will curse the
God you serve.’ So God revealed concerning that, ‘Curse not those to
whom they pray other than God lest they curse God wrongfully through
lack of knowledge.’ 3 I have been told that the apostle refrained from cursing
their gods, and began to call them to Allah.

Al-Nadr b. al-Harith b. 'Alqama b. Kalada b. 'Abdu Manaf whenever
the apostle sat in an assembly and invited people to God, and recited the
Quran, and warned the Quraysh of what had happened to former peoples,
followed him when he got up and spoke to them about Rustum the Hero
and Isfandivar and the kings of Persia, saying, ‘By God, Muhammad
cannot tell a better story than I and his talk is only of old fables which he
has copied 4 as I have.’ So God revealed concerning him, ‘And they say,
Stories of the ancients which he has copied down, and they are read to

■ Sura ,04. 2 SOra I9 ' 8o -

4 SCra 25. f.'iktataba means to write down oneself, or to get something written down by
another. The former seems to be demanded by the context.

The Life of Muhammad 163

him morning and night. Say, He who knows the secrets of heaven and
earth has sent it down. Verily, He is merciful, forgiving.’ 1

And there came down concerning him, ‘When Our verses are read to
him he says, fables of the ancients’. 1

And again, ‘Woe to every sinful liar who hears God’s verses read before
him. Then he continues in pride as though he had not heard them, as
though in his ears was deafness. Tell him about a painful punishment’
(206). 2

The apostle sat one day, so I have heard, with al-Walld b. al-Mughlra 236
in the mosque, and al-Nadr b. al-Harith came and sat with them in the
assembly where some of Quraysh were. When the apostle spoke al-Nadr
interrupted him, and the apostle spoke to him until he silenced him. Then
he read to him and to the others: ‘Verily ye and what ye serve other than
God is the fuel of hell. You will come to it. If these had been gods they
would not have come to it, but all will be in it everlastingly. There is
wailing and there they will not hear’ (207). 3

Then the apostle rose and ‘Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra al-Sahml came and
sat down. Al-Walid said to him: ‘By God al-Nadr could not stand up to
the (grand)son of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib just now and Muhammad alleged
that we and our gods are fuel for hell.’ 'Abdullah said: 'If I had found
him I would have refuted him. Ask Muhammad, “Is everything which is
worshipped besides God in Gehenna with those who worship it ?” We
worship the angels; the Jew's worship 'Uzayr; and the Christians worship
Jesus Son of Mary.* Al-Walid and those with him in the assembly mar¬
velled at 'Abdullah’s words and thought that he had argued convincingly.
When the apostle w r as told of this he said: ‘Everyone who wishes to be 2 37
worshipped to the exclusion of God will be with those who worship him.
They worship only satans and those they have ordered to be worshipped.’

So God revealed concerning that ‘Those who have received kindness from
us in the past will be removed far from it and will not hear its sound
and they abide eternally in their heart’s desire’, 4 i.e. Jesus Son of Mary and
‘Uzayr and those rabbis and monks who have lived in obedience to God,
whom the erring people w'orship as lords beside God. And He revealed
concerning their assertion that they worship angels and that they are the
daughters of God, ‘And they say the Merciful has chosen a son, (exalted
be He above this); nay, they are but honoured slaves, they do not speak
before He speaks, and they carry out His commands’, as far as the words,

‘and he of them who says, I am God as well as He, that one we shall repay
with Gehenna. Thus do they repay the sinful ones.’ 5

And He revealed concerning what he mentioned about Jesus, Son of
Mary, that he was worshipped beside God, and the astonishment of al-
Walid and those who were present, at his argument and disputation, ‘And

1 Sura 83. 13.

3 Sura 2i. 98.

5 Sura 21. 26-30.

2 Sura 45. 7.

4 Sura ?,i. 101.

164 The Life of Muhammad

when Jesus, Son of Mary, was cited as an example thy people laughed
thereat’ / i.e. they rejected your attitude to what they say . 2

Then He mentions Jesus, Son of Mary, and says, ‘He was nothing but a
slave to whom We showed favour and made him an example to the children
of Israel. If We had wished We could have made from you angels to act
as vice-regents in the earth. Verily, there is knowledge of the [last] hour,
so doubt not about it but follow Me. This is an upright path,’ i.e. the
signs which I gave him in raising the dead and healing the sick, therein is
sufficient proof of the knowledge of the hour. He says: ‘Doubt not about
it, but follow Me. This is an upright path.’

Al-Akhnas b. Sharlq b. 'Amr b. Wahb al-Thaqafi, ally of B. Zuhra, was
one of the leaders of his people who was listened to with respect, and he
used to give the apostle much trouble and contradict him, so God sent
238 down about him: ‘Do not obey every feeble oath-taker, slanderer, walking
about with evil tales/ as far as the word 'zanim ?

He did not say zantm in the sense of ‘ignoble* to insult his ancestry,
because God does not insult anyone’s ancestry, but he confirmed thereby
the epithet given to him so that he might be known. Zantm means an
adopted member of the tribe. AI-Khatlm al-Tamimi said in pagan days:

An outsider whom men invite as a supernumerary
As the legs are useless additions to the width of a pelt.

Al-Walid said: ‘Does God send down revelations to Muhammad and
ignore me, the greatest chief of Quraysh, to say nothing of Abu Mas'ud
‘Amr b. ‘Umayr al-Thaqafi, the chief of Thaqlf, we being the great ones of
Ta’if and Mecca?’ So God sent down concerning him, so I am told,
‘They said, if this Quran had been revealed to a great man of the two towns,’
as far as the words, ‘than what they amass ’. 4

Ubayy b. Khalaf b. Wahb b. Hudhafa and Uqba b. Abu Mu'ayJ were
very close friends. Now ‘Uqba had sat and listened to the apostle and when
Ubayy knew of that he came to him and said, ‘Do I hear that you have sat
with Muhammad and listened to him? I swear I will never see you or
speak to you again (and he swore a great oath) if you do the same again,
or if you do not go and spit in his face. *Uqba, the enemy of God, actually
did this, God curse him. So God sent down concerning the pair of them,

1 Sura 43. 57.

1 A difficult phrase. $adda with the preposition min means ‘to laugh immoderately or to
make a loud noise’. With 'an it means ‘to turn away from’. But these t 4 vo prepositions are
often interchangeable. Ibn Ishaq’s explanation of the passage is that the fact that Christians
pray to Jesus is no justification for the polytheism of the Meccans, as the latter argued, for
Christians perverted the message Jesus brought. When Jesus is adduced as an example (of
one who called an evil people to God) the Meccans rejected Muhammad’s attitude towards
him in what they said; but this exegesis is not sound. The Sura is perfectly consistent in
showing how prophets were sent to erring peoples and were laughed at. Cf. v. 47: The
Meccans laugh when Jesus is mentioned because his worship would seem to justify their
worshipping several gods. The citation which follows shows where in Muhammad’s opinion
they were wrong. 1 . 1 . has adopted the reading yajudduna (so Nafi‘, I. ‘Amir, and al-KisS’i)
instead of the comnioner yafidduna.

3 Sura 68. 10-13. 4 Sura 43. 30.

The Life of Muhammad ^

‘On the day that the sinner bites his hands, saying, would that I had chosen
a path with the apostle,’ as far as the words ‘a deserter of men’ 1

Ubayy took to the apostle an old bone, crumbling to pieces," and said,
Muhammad, do you allege that God can revivify this after it has decayed ?’
Then he crumbled it in his hand and blew the pieces in the apostle’s face. 210
The apostle answered: ‘Yes, I do say that. God will raise it and you, after
you have become like this. Then God wall send you to Hell.’ So God
revealed concerning him, ‘He gave us a parable, and he forgot that he was
created, saying, who will revivify bones which are rotten ? Say, He who
gave them life m the first instance will revivify them. He who knows about
all creation, who has made for you fire from the green wood, and lo you
kindle flame from it.’ 2 3

™ et the a P 0Stle > a s he was going round the Ka'ba, so I have been
toldf Al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza and al-Walid b
al-Mughira and Umayya b. Khalaf and aI-‘A s b. Wa’il al-Sahml men of
reputation among their people. They said: ‘Muhammad, come let us
worship what you worship, and you worship what w’e worship You and
we will combine in the matter. If what you worship is better than what
we worship we will take a share of it, and if what we worship is better than
what you worship, you can take a share of that.’ So God revealed con¬
cerning them, Say, O disbelievers, I do not worship what you worship
and you do not worship what I worship, and I do not worship what you
worship, and you do not worship what I worship; you have your religion
and I have mine,’ 4 i.e. If you will only worship God on condition that I
worship what you worship, I have no need of you at all. You can have your
rehgion, all of it, and I have mine.

(T. Now the apostle was anxious for the welfare of his people, wishing T. i
to attract them as far as he could. It has been mentioned that he longed for
a way to attract them, and the method he adopted is what Ibn Hamid told
me that Salama said M. b. Ishaq told him from Yazld b. Ziyad of Medina
from M b. Ka'b al-Qurazi: When the apostle saw that his people turned
their backs on him and he was pained by their estrangement from what he
brought them from God he longed that there should come to him from
God a message that would reconcile his people to him. Because of his
love for his people and his anxiety over them it would delight him if
the obstacle that made his task so difficult could be removed; so that
he meditated on the project and longed for it and it was dear to him. Then
God sent down ‘By the star when it sets your comrade errs not and is not
deceived, he speaks not from his own desire,’ and when he reached His
words Have you thought of al-Lat and al-'Uzza and Manat the third, the
other , Satan, when he was meditating upon it, and desiring to bring it

J 1 ™ 25 ' . . , . . 2 Sura 36. 78. ’

man f.V?, 1 : -r es - th ' authormes for this tradition as LI. from Sa’id b. MinS, a freed-
"° f bu ' B . akht “ n - Th / re are * few verbal discrepancies: the Meccans say, ‘If what

you have’ &c US “ Vf' W * ’ * and if what wc ^ » better than what

’ ' bura io 9 - 1 Sura 53, 1-20,

166 The Life of Muhammad

(sc. reconciliation) to his people, put upon his tongue ‘these are the exalted
Gharanlq 1 whose intercession is approved / 2 When Quraysh heard that,
they were delighted and greatly pleased at the way in which he spoke of
their gods and they listened to him; while the believers were holding that
what their prophet brought them from their Lord was true, not suspecting
a mistake or a vain desire or a slip, and when he reached the prostration 3
and the end of the Sura in which he prostrated himself the Muslims
prostrated themselves when their prophet prostrated confirming what he
brought and obeying his command, and the polytheists of Quraysh and
others who were in the mosque prostrated when they heard the mention of
their gods, so that everyone in the mosque believer and unbeliever pro¬
strated, except al-Walid b. al-Mughlra who was an old man who could not
do so, so he took a handful of dirt from the valley and bent over it. Then
the people dispersed and Quraysh went out, delighted at what had been
said about their gods, saying, ‘Muhammad has spoken of our gods in
splendid fashion. He alleged in what he read that they are the exalted
Gharinlq whose intercession is approved.’

The news reached the prophet’s companions who were in Abyssinia, it
being reported that Quraysh had accepted Islam, so some men started to
return while others remained behind. Then Gabriel came to the apostle
and said, ‘What have you done, Muhammad? You have read to these
people something I did not bring you from God and you have said what
He did not say to you. The apostle was bitterly grieved and was greatly
in fear of God. So God sent down (a revelation), for He was merciful to
him, comforting him and making light of the affair and telling him. that
every prophet and apostle before him desired as he desired and wanted
what he wanted and Satan interjected something into his desires as he had
on his tongue. So God annulled what Satan had suggested and God
established His verses i.e. you are just like the prophets and apostles. Then
God sent down: ‘We have not sent a prophet or apostle before you but
when he longed Satan cast suggestions into his longing. But God will annul
what Satan has suggested. Then God will establish his verses, God being
knowing and Wise .’ 4 Thus God relieved his prophet’s grief, and made him
feel safe from his fears and annulled what Satan had suggested in the words
used above about their gods by his revelation ‘Are yours the males and His
the females? That were indeed an unfair division’ (i.e. most unjust);
‘they are nothing but names which your fathers gave them! as far as the
words ‘to whom he pleases and accepts ', 5 i.e. how can the intercession of
their gods avail with Him ?

When the annulment of what Satan had put uppn the prophet’s tongue

1 The word is said to mean ‘Numidian cranes’ which fly at a great height,

• Another reading is turtajd ‘to be hoped for’.

3 Mentioned in the last verse of the Sura.

4 Sura 22. 51. The following verse is not without relevance in this context: ‘that He may
make what Satan suggested a temptation to those whose hearts are diseased and hardened’.

• Sura 53. 19-27.

The Life of Muhammad 167

came from God, Quraysh said: ‘Muhammad has repented of what he said
about the position of your gods with Allah, altered it and brought some¬
thing else.’ Now those two words which Satan had put upon the apostle’s
tongue were in the mouth of every polytheist and they became more
violently hostile to the Muslims and the apostle’s followers. Meanwhile
those of his companions who had left Abyssinia when they heard that the
people of Mecca had accepted Islam when they prostrated themselves with
the apostle, heard when they approached Mecca that the report was false
and none came into the town without the promise of protection or secretly.

Of those who did come into Mecca and stayed there until he migrated to
Medina and were present at Badr with him was ‘Uthman b. 'Affan ... with
his wife Ruqayya d. of the apostle and Abu Hudhayfa b. 'Utba with his
wife Sahla d. of Suhayl, and a number of others, in all thirty-three men. 1

Abu Jahl b. Hisham, when God mentioned the tree of al-Zaqqum to
strike terror into them, said: ‘O Quraysh, do you know what the tree of
al-Zaqqum with which Muhammad would scare you is?’ When they said
that they did not he said: ‘It is Yathrib dates buttered. By Allah, if we
get hold of them we will gulp them down in one!’ So God sent down con¬
cerning him, ‘Verily the tree of al-Zaqqum is the food of the sinner like
molten brass seething in their bellies like boiling water,’ 2 i.e. it is not as he 240
said (208). God revealed concerning it, ‘And the tree which is cursed in
the Quran; and We will frighten them, but it increases them in naught
save great wickedness.’ 3

Al-Walid was having a long conversation with the apostle who greatly
desired to convert him to Islam when I, Umm Maktum, a blind man,
passed by and began to ask the apostle to recite the Quran. The prophet
found this hard to bear and it annoyed him, because he was diverting him
from al-Walid and spoiling the chance of his conversion; and when the
man became importunate he went off frowning and left him. So God
revealed concerning him, ‘He frowned and turned his back when the
blind man came to him’ as far as the words ‘in books honoured, exalted,
and purified’, 4 i.e. I sent you only to be an evangelist and a reprover; I did
not specify one person to the exclusion of another, so withhold not (the
message) from him who seeks it, and do not waste time over one w'ho does
not want it (209).

THE RETURN OF THOSE WHO HAD FLED TO ABYSSINIA 241

The apostle’s companions who had gone to Abyssinia heard that the
Meccans had accepted Islam and they set out for the homeland. But wdien
they got near Mecca they learned that the report w r as false, so that they

1 A parallel tradition from M. b. Ka'b al-Qura?I and M, b. Qays is given by q 1195-6.

2 Sura 44. 43, Suhayli, p. 228, has an interesting note to the effect that this word is of
Yamani origin, and that there it means anything which causes vomiting.

J Sura 17. 62. 4 Sura 80.

i68

The Life of Muhammad

entered the town under the protection of a citizen or by stealth. Some of
those who returned to him stayed in Mecca until they migrated to Medina
and were present at Badr and Uhud with the apostle; others were shut
away from the prophet until Badr and other events were passed; and
others died in Mecca. They were:

From B. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Qusayy: 'Uthman b. 'Affan
b. Abu’l-'As b. Umayya b. ‘Abdu Shams and his wife, the apostle’s
daughter Ruqayya; Abu Hudhayfa b. 'Utba b. Rabl‘a and his wife Sahla d.
Suhayl b. ‘Amr; and one of their allies ‘Abdullah b. Jahsh b. Ri’ab.

From B. Naufal b. ‘Abdu Manaf: ‘Utba b. Ghazwan, an ally of theirs
from Qays b. ‘Aylan.

From B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy: al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam
b. Khuwaylid b. Asad.

From B. 'Abdu’l-Dar b. Qusayy: Mus'ab b. 'Umayr b. Hashim b.
‘Abdu Manaf; and Suwaybit b. Sa‘d b. Harmala.

From B. 'Abd b. Qusayy: Tulayb b. ‘Umayr b. Wahb.

From B. Zuhra b. Kilab: 'Abdu’I-Rahman b. ‘Auf b. 'Abdu 'Auf
b. *Abd b. al-Uarith b. Zuhra; and al-Miqdad b. 'Amr an ally, and
'Abdullah b. Mas'ud also an ally.

From B. Makhzum b. Yaqaza: Abu Salama b. ‘Abdu’l-Asad b. Hilal
b. ‘Abdullah b. 'Amr with his wife Umm Salama d. Abu Umayya b. k

24a al-Mugh!ra; and Shammas b. 'Uthman b. al-Sharid b. Suwayd b.
Harmly b. 'Amir; and Salama b. Hisham b. al-Mughlra whom his uncle
imprisoned in Mecca so that he did not get to Medina until after Badr
and Uhud and the Trench; 'Ayyash b. Abu Rabl'a b. al-Mughlra. He
migrated to Medina with the prophet, and his two brothers on his mother’s
side followed him and brought him back to Mecca and held him there until
the three battles were over. Their names were Abu Jahl and al-Harith, sons
of HishSm. Of their allies 'Ammar b. Yasir, though it is doubted whether
he went to Abyssinia or not; and Mu'attib b. 'Auf b. 'Amir b. Khuza'a.

From B. Jumah b. 'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b: 'Uthman b. Maz'un b.
Flabib b. Wahb b. Hudhafa and his son al-Sa’ib b. ‘Uthman; and Qudama
b. Maz'un; and 'Abdullah b. Maz'un.

From B. Sahm b. ‘Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b: Khunays b. Hudhafa b.
Qays b. 'Adly; and Hisham b. al-'As b. Wa’il who was imprisoned in
Mecca after the apostle migrated to Medina until he turned up after the
three battles above mentioned.

From B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: 'Amir b. Rabl'a; one of their allies, with his
wife Layla d. Abu Hathma b. Hudhafa b. Ghanim.

From B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: 'Abdullah b. Makhrama b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza
b. Abu Qays; Abdullah b. Suhayl b. 'Amr. He was held back from the
apostle of God when he emigrated to Medina until when the battle of
Badr was joined he deserted the polytheists and joined the battle on the
side of the apostle. Abu Sabra b. Abu Ruhm b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzz 5 with his
wife Umm Kulthum d. Suhayl b. 'Amr; Sakran b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu Shams

The Life of Muhammad 169

with his wife Sauda d. Zama'a b. Qays. He died in Mecca before the
apostle emigrated and the apostle married his widow Sauda. Lastly
Sa'd b. Khaula, one of their allies.

From B. 1 -Harith b. Fihr: Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah whose name was
'Amir b. 'Abdullah; 'Amr b. al-Harith b. Zuhayr b. AbTi Shaddad; 243
Suhayl b. Bayda’ who was the son of Wahb b. Rabl'a b. Hilal; and 'Amr
b. Abu Sarh b. Rabl'a b. Hilal.

The total number of his companions who came to Mecca from Abyssinia
was thirty-three men. The names given to us of those who entered under
promise of protection are ‘Uthman b. Maz'un protected by al-Walid b.
al-Mughlra; Abu Salama under the protection of Abu Talib who was his
uncle, Abu Salama’s mother being Barra d. 'Abdu’l-Muftalib.

'uthmAn b. maz'un renounces al-walId’s protection

Salih b. Ibrahim b. 'Abdu’I-Rahman b. ‘Auf told me from one who had
got it from 'Uthman saying: When 'Uthman b. Maz'un,saw the misery
in which the apostle’s companions were living while he lived night and
day under al-Walld’s protection he said, ‘It is more than I can bear that
I should be perfectly safe under the protection of a polytheist while my
friends and co-religionists are afflicted and distressed for God’s sake.’

So he went to al-Walid and renounced his protection. ‘Why, nephew,’
he asked, ‘Can it be that one of my people has injured you?’ ‘No,’ he
answered, ‘but I want to be under God’s protection: I don’t want to ask
for anyone else’s.’ Al-Walid asked him to come to the mosque and re¬
nounce his protection publicly as he had given it publicly. When they got
there al-Walid said: “Uthman here has come to renounce my protection.’
‘True,’ said the latter, ‘I have found him loyal and honourable in his
protection, but I don’t want to ask anyone but God for protection; so
I give him back his promise!’ So saying he went away.

[On another occasion when] Labld b. Rabl'a b. Malik b. Ja'far b.
Kilab was in an assembly of the Quraysh when 'Uthman was present he
recited a verse:

Everything but God is vain,

True! interjected 'Uthman; but when he went on: 244

And everything lovely must inevitably cease,

'Uthman cried, ‘You lie! The joy of Paradise will never cease.’ Labld
said: ‘O men of Quraysh your friends never used to be annoyed thus.
Since when has this sort of thing happened among you.?’ One of the audience
answered: ‘This is one of those louts with Muhammad. They have aban¬
doned our religion. Take no notice of what he says.’ 'Uthman objected
so energetically that the matter became serious. Whereupon that man rose
to his feet and hit him in the eye so that it became black. Now al-Walid

17° The Life of Muhammad

was hard by watching what happened to 'Uthman and he said: ‘O nephew^
your eye need not have suffered this had you remained in sure protection.’
‘Uthman answered: ‘Nay by God my good eye needs what happened to
its fellow for God’s sake, and I am under the protection of One who is
stronger and more powerful than you, O Abu 'Abdu Shams.’ Al-WalTd
only said, ‘Come, nephew, my protection is always open to you,’ but he
declined it.

HOW ABO SALAMA FARED WITH HIS PROTECTOR

My father Ish§q b. Yasar on the authority of Salama b. 'Abdullah b.
'Umar b. Abu Salama told me that he told him that when Abu Salama had
asked Abu Talib’s protection some of the B. Makhzum went to him and
said: ‘You have protected your nephew Muhammad from us, but why are
you protecting our tribesman?’ He answered: ‘He asked my protection and
he is my sister’s son. If I did not protect my sister’s son I could not
protect my brother’s son.’ Thereupon Abu Lahab rose and said: ‘O
Quraysh, you have continually attacked this shaykh for giving his protec-
245 tion among his own people. By God, you must either stop this or we will
stand in with him until he gains his object.’ They said that they would
not do anything to annoy him, for he had aided and abetted them against
the apostle, and they wanted to keep his support.

Hearing him speak thus Abu TaBb hoped that he would support him
in protecting the apostle, and composed the following lines urging Abu
Lahab to help them both:

A man whose uncle is Abu 'Utayba

Is in a garden where he is free from violence.

I say to him (and how does such a man need my advice ?)

O Abu Mu'tib stand firm upright.

Never in your life adopt a course

For which you will be blamed when men meet together.

Leave the path of weakness to others,

For you were not bom to remain weak.

Fight! For war is fair;

You will never see a warrior humiliated till he surrenders.

How should you when they have done you no great injury
Nor abandoned you in the hour of victory or defeat?

God requite for us 'Abdu Shams and Naufal and Taym
And Makhzum for their desertion and wrong
In parting from us after affection and amity
So that they might get unlawful gains.

By God’s House you lie! Never will we abandon Muhammad
Before you see a dust-raising day in the shVb (210). 1

1 This is the reading of Abd Dharr which seems to me superior to that of W. and C.
Qdtim means ‘a thick cloud of dust’ and implies men on the march. No satisfactory meaning

The Life of Muhammad

17 1

ABC BAKR ACCEPTS IBN AL-DUGHUNNA’S PROTECTION AND
THEN ABANDONS IT

Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhrl from 'Urwa frqpi 'A’isha
told me that when the situation in Mecca became serious and the apostle
and his companions suffered ill treatment from the Quraysh, Abu Bakr
asked the apostle’s permission to emigrate, and he agreed. So Abu Bakr
set forth and when he had gone a day or two’s journey from Mecca he fell
in with Ibn al-Dughunna, the brother of the B. Harith b. 'Abdu Man&t
b. Kinana, who was at that time head of the Ahabish. (They were the B.
al-U 5 rith; and al-Hun b. Khuzayma b. Mudrika; and the B. al-Musfaliq
of Khuza'a.) (211.)

Replying to Ibn al-Dughunna’s inquiries Abu Bakr told him that his 246
people had driven him out and ill-treated him. ‘But why,* he exclaimed,
‘when you are an ornament of the tribe, a standby in misfortune, always
kindly in supplying the wants of others? Come back with me under my
protection.’ So he went back with him and Ibn al-Dughunna publicly
proclaimed that he had taken him under his protection and none must
treat him other than well.

He continued: Abu Bakr had a mosque by the door of his house among
the B. Jumah where he used to pray. He was a tender-hearted man and
when he read the Quran 1 he was moved to tears. Youths, slaves, and women
used to stand by him astonished at his demeanour. Some men of Quraysh
went to Ibn al-Dughunna saying, ‘Have you given this fellow protection
so that he can injure us? Lo, he prays and reads what Muhammad has
produced and his heart becomes soft and he weeps. And he has a striking
appearance so that we fear he may seduce our youths and women and weak
ones. Go to him and tell him to go to his own house and do what he likes
there.’ So Ibn al-Dughunna went to him and said: ‘I did not give you
protection so that you might injure your people. They dislike the place
you have chosen and suffer hurt therefrom, so go into your house and do
what you like there.’ Abu Bakr asked him if he wanted him to renounce
his protection and when he said that he did he gave him back his guarantee.

Ibn al-Dughunna got up and told the Quraysh that Abu Bakr was no
longer under his protection and that they could do what they liked with him.

'Abdu’l-Rahm 5 n b. al-Qasim told me from his father al-Qasim b.
Muhammad that as Abu Bakr was going to the Ka'ba one of the loutish
fellows of Quraysh met him and threw dust on his head. Al-Walld b.
al-Mughlra, or it may have been al-'As b. W 5 ’il, passed him and he said,

can be given to qaim. Presumably ‘the shi'b of Abu 'J'alib, a defile of the mountains where
the projecting rocks of AbO Qubays pressed upon the eastern outskirts of the city. It was
entered from the town by a narrow alley closed by a low gateway through which a camel
could JJ^ss with difficulty. On all other sides it was detached by cliffs and buildings.* Muir,

The Lift of Muhammad, 93 f.

1 This statement implies that some at least of the Quran was written down before the
hijra. However, qara'a may not mean more than ‘recite*.

172 The Life of Muhammad

247 ‘Do you see what this lout has done to me?’ He replied, ‘You have done it
to yourself!’ Meanwhile he was saying three times ‘O Lord how long-
suffering Thou art!’

THE ANNULLING OF THE BOYCOTT

The B. Hashim and the B. al-Muttalib were in the quarters which Quraysh
had agreed upon in the document they wrote, when a number of Quraysh
took steps to annul the boycott against them. None took more trouble in
this than Hisham b. 'Amr . . . for the reason that he was the son of a
brother to Nadia b. Hashim b. Abdu Manaf by his mother and was
closely attached to the B. Hashim. He was highly esteemed by his people.
I have heard that when these two clans were in their quarter he used to
bring a camel laden with food by night and then when he had got it to the
mouth of the alley he took off its halter, gave it a whack on the side, and
sent it into the alley to them. He would do the same thing another time,
bringing clothes for them.

He went to Zuhayr b. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira whose mother was
'Atika d. 'Abdu’I-Muttalib and said: ‘Are you content to cat food and wear
clothes and marry women while you know of the condition of your maternal
uncles? They cannot buy or sell, marry, nor give in marriage. By God I
swear that if they were the uncles of Abu’l-Hakam b. Hisham and you
asked him to do what he has asked you to do he would never agree to it.’
He said, ‘Confound you, Hisham, what can I do? I’m only one man. By

248 God if I had another man to back me I wuuld soon annul it.’ He said,
‘I have found a man. Myself.’ ‘Find another,’ said he. So Hisham went
to al-Mut'im b. 'Adiy and said, ‘Are you content that two clans of the B.
'Abdu Manaf should perish while you look on consenting to follow Quraysh ?
You will find that they will soon do the same with you.’ He made the same
reply as Zuhayr and demanded a fourth man, so Hisham went to Abu’l-
Bakhtari b. Hisham who asked for a fifth man, and then to Zama'a b.
al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib b. Asad and reminded him of their kinship
and duties. He asked whether others w r ere willing to co-operate in this
task and he gave him the names of the others. They all arranged to meet at
night on the nearest point of al-Hajun above Mecca, and there they bound
themselves to take up the question of the document until they had secured
its annulment. Zuhayr claimed the right to act and speak first. So on the
morrow when the people met together Zuhayr clad in a long robe went
round the Ka'ba seven times; then he came forward and said: ‘O people of
Mecca, are we to eat and clothe ourselves while the B. Hashim perish,
unable to buy or sell ? By God I will not sit down until this evil boycotting
document is torn up!’ Abu Jahl, who w r as at the side of the mosque,
exclaimed, ‘You lie by Allah. It shall not be torn up.’ Zama'a said, ‘You
are a greater liar; we w r ere not satisfied with the document when it was
written’. AbuTBakhtari said, 'Zama'a is right. We are not satisfied with

The Life of Muhammad 173

what is written and we don’t hold with it.’ Al-Mut'im said, ‘You are both
right and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. We take Allah to witness that
we dissociate ourselves from the whole idea and what isw'ritten in the docu¬
ment.’ Hisham spoke in the same sense. Abu Jahl said: ‘This is a matter 249
which has been decided overnight. It has been discussed somewhere
else.’ Now Abu Talib was sitting at the side of the mosque. When al-
Mut'im went up to the document to tear it in pieces he found that worms
had already eaten it except the words ‘In Thy name O Allah’. (T. This T- 1198
was the customary formula with which Quraysh began their writing.)

The writer of the deed was Mansur b. 'Ikrima. It is alleged that his hand
shrivelled (212).

When the deed was torn up and made of none effect Abu Talib com¬
posed the following verses in praise of those who had taken part in the
annulment:

Has not our Lord’s doing come to the ears of those
Far distant across the sea 1 (for Allah is very kind to men),

Telling them that the deed was torn up

And all that was against God’s wish had been destroyed ?

Lies and sorcery were combined in it,

But sorcery never gets the upper hand.

Those not involved in it assembled together for it in a remote place 2
While its bird of ill omen hovered within its head. 3
It was such a heinous offence that it would be fitting
That because of it hands and necks should be severed
And that the people of Mecca should go forth and flee,

Their hearts quaking for fear of evil

And the ploughman be left in doubt what to do—■

Whether to go down to the lowland or up to the hills— 250

And an army come up between Mecca’s hills
Equipped with bows, arrows, and spears.

He of Mecca’s citizens whose power rises

(Let him know) that our glory in Mecca’s vale is older.

We grew up there when men were few

And have ever waxed great in honour and reputation.

We feed our guests till they leave a dish untasted

When the hands of the maysir players would begin to tremble.

God reward the people in al-Hajun who swore allegiance 4

1 So the commentators, but an unnatural extension of the usual meaning of bahri is
nvolved.

2 Commentators suggest as an alternative rendering ‘those who took it seriously’. Qarqar
means ‘flat soft ground’.

3 This seems to be an adaptation of Sura 17. 14: ‘We have fastened every man’s bird of
ill omen to his neck,’ Dr. Arafat suggests that the tair here means ‘ghost’, the bird which
emerges from the head of a murdered man, and the meaning would then be that the ghost
is fluttering within it before it finally emerges.

4 Reading tabdya u with C. W. has tatabau.

J 74

The Life of Muhammad

To a chief who leads with decision and wisdom,

Sitting by the near side of al-Hajun as though princes,

Nay they are even more noble and glorious.

Every bold man helped therein

Clad in mail so long that it slowed his stride,

Running to 1 portentous deeds

Like a flame burning in the torchbearer’s hands.

The noblest of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib’s line

When they are wronged their faces show their anger.

With long cord to his sword half his shank bare.

For his sake the clouds give rain and blessing.

Prince son of prince of princely hospitality
Gathering and urging food on his guests.

Building and preparing safety for the tribesmen
When we walk through the land.

Every blameless man kept this peace.

A great leader, there was he praised.

They accomplished their work in a night

While others slept; in the morning they took their ease.

They sent back Sahl b. Baida’ well pleased
And Abu Bakr and Muhammad rejoiced thereat.

When have others joined in our great exploits,

From of old have we shown each other affection ?

Never have we approved injustice.

We got what we wanted without violence.

O men of Qusayy, w r on’t you consider,

Do you want w r hat will befall you tomorrow ?

For you and I are as the words of the saying:

‘You have the explanation if you could only speak, O Aswad. 2

Mourning al-Mut f im b. 'Adly and mentioning his stand in getting the
deed annulled, Hassan b. Thabit composed the following.

Weep O eye the people’s leader, be generous w-ith thy tears.

If they run dry, then pour out blood.

Mourn the leader of both the pilgrim sites 3

To whom men owe gratitude so long as they can speak.

If glory could immortalize anyone

1 Or ‘daring’. .

2 Commentators explain that Aswad is the name of a mountain on which a dead man was
found and there was no indication of his murderer. The relatives addressed the mountain
in the words just quoted which became a proverb.

3 See Diu'dn of Hassan b. Thabit, ed. Hartwig Hirschfeld (Gibb Memorial Senes), Lon¬
don, 1 9 ,o, 43 f. The version given there is sadly at fault, but the text in line 2 iva-rabbaha
syntactically, though not metrically, a mistake for rabbahumd (instead of I.I.’s kilayhimd). is
right - ‘weep for the lord and master of the two sanctuaries’. Cf. Agh. xiii. 6, 1. 5 (cited by
Lammens, L'Arable occidental, Beirut, 1926, p. 146): ‘the hurrying between the two
niash'ars’. I.H., though he denies that 1 . 1 . wrote ‘both’, fails to quote the right reading.

*75

The Life of Muhammad

His glory would have kept Mut'im alive today.

You protected God’s apostle from them and they became
Thy slaves so long as men cry labbayka and don the pilgrim garb.

If Ma'add and Qahtan and all the rest
Of Jurhum w r ere asked about him

They would say he faithfully performs his duty to protect
And if he makes a covenant he fulfils it.

The bright sun above them does not shine
On a greater and nobler than he;

More resolute in refusing yet most lenient in nature,

Sleeping soundly on the darkest night though responsible for his
guest (213).

Hassan also said in praise of Hisham b. ‘Arm- for his part in the matter
of the deed:

Is the protection of the Banu Umayya a bond
As trustworthy a guarantee as that of Hisham ?

Such as do not betray their proteges

Of the line of al-Harith b. Hubayyib b. Sukham.

When the Banu Hisl grant protection

They keep their word and their protege lives securely.

AL-TUFAYL B. 'AMR AL-DAUSl ACCEPTS ISI-AM 252

In spite of his people’s behaviour the apostle was continually giving them
good counsel and preaching salvation from their evil state. When God
protected him from them they began to warn all new-comers against him.

Al-Tufayl used to say that he came to Mecca when the apostle was there
and some of the Quraysh immediately camfe up to him. (He was a poet
of standing and an intelligent man.) They told him that this fellow had
done them much harm; had divided their community and broken up its
unity; ‘in fact he talks like a sorcerer separating a man from his father, his
brother, or his wife. We are afraid that he will have the same effect on you
and your people, so don’t speak to him or listen to a word from him.’

They were so insistent that I decided not to listen to a word or to speak
to him and I went so far as to stuff cotton in my ears w r hen I went to the
mosque fearing that I might overhear a word or two against my will.
When I got to the mosque there was the apostle of God standing at prayer
by the Ka'ba, so I stood near him. God had decreed that I should hear
something of his speech and I heard a beautiful saying. So I said to myself,

‘God bless my soul! Here am I, an intelligent man, a poet, knowing per¬
fectly well the difference between good and evil, so what is to prevent me
from listening to what this man is saying? If it is good I shall accept it;
if it is bad I shall reject it.’

I stayed until the apostle went to his house and I followed him and

176 The Life of Muhammad

entered his house with him. I told him what his people had said and that
253 they had so scared me that I had stuffed cotton in my ears lest I should
hear what he was saying. But God had not allowed me to remain deaf
and I heard a beautiful saying. ‘So explain the matter to me/ I said. The
apostle explained Islam to me and recited the Quran to me. By God I
never heard anything finer nor anything more just. So I became a Muslim
and bore true witness. I said, ‘O prophet of God, I am a man of authority
among my people and when I go back and call them to Islam, pray to
God to give me a sign which will help me when I preach to them.’ He
said, ‘O God give him a sign.’

So I went back to my people and when I came to the pass which would
bring me down to the settlement a light like a lamp played between my
eyes and I said, ‘O God, not in my face! for I fear that they will think
that a dire punishment has befallen my face because I have left their
religion.’ So the light moved and lighted on the top of my whip. The
people began to look at that light attached to my whip like a candle while
I was coming down from the pass to them.

When I got down my father came to me (he was a very old man) and
I said, ‘Be off with you, father, for I have nothing to do with you or you
with me!’ ‘But why, my son?’ said he. I said, ‘I have become a Muslim
and follow the religion of Muhammad.’ He said, ‘All right, my son, then
my religion is your religion.’ So I said, ‘Then go and wash yourself and
clean your clothes; then come and I will teach you what I have been taught.’
He did so; I explained Islam to him and he became a Muslim.

Then my wife came to me and I said: ‘Be off with you, for I have nothing
to do with you or you with me’. ‘Why?’ she said, ‘my father and mother
be your ransom!’ I said, ‘Islam has divided us and I follow the religion
of Muhammad.’ She said, ‘Then my religion is your religion.’ I said,
‘Then go to the hind 1 (207) (temenos ?) of Dhu’l-Shara 2 and cleanse your¬
self from it.’ Now Dhu’l-Shara was an image belonging to Daus and the
himd was the temenos which they had made sacred to him; in it there was a
trickle of water from a rivulet from the mountain. She asked me urgently,
‘Have you any fear from Dhu’l-Shara on my account?’ 3 ‘No,’ I said, ‘I
will go surety for that.’ So she went and washed and when she returned
254 I explained Islam to her and she became a Muslim.

Then I preached Islam to Daus but they held back, and I went to the
apostle in Mecca and said, ‘O prophet of God, frivolous preoccupation 4
has been too much for me with Daus, so invoke a curse on them.’ But

1 No satisfactory explanation of this word is forthcoming, so probably we should adopt
Ibn Hisham's reading.

2 On Dhu’l-Shara (Dusares) see E.I. It is a title, not a name, of a god long associated
with the Nabataeans. In all probability the title is geographical, denoting ownership. More
cannot be safely said at present.

3 Or ‘on the children’s account’.

4 I have followed the commentators in taking a milder meaning than the ordinary' sense
which is ‘fornication’; if Dhu’l-Shara was an Arab Dionysos, the normal meaning would
not be out of place.

The Life of Muhammad 177

he said, ‘O God, guide Daus! Go back to your people and preach to them
gently.’ I continued in the Daus country calling them to Islam until the
apostle migrated to Medina and Badr, Uhud, and the Trench were passed.
Then I went to the apostle with my converts while he was in Khaybar. I
arrived at Medina with seventy or eighty households of Daus, and then we
joined the apostle in Khaybar and he gave us an equal share of the booty
with the Muslims.

I remained with the apostle until God opened Mecca to him and then
I asked him to send me to burn Dhu’l-Kaffayn, 1 the image of 'Amr b.
Humama. As he lit the fire he said:

Not of your servants am I, Dhu’l-Kaffayn,

Our birth is far more ancient than thine.

To stuff this fire in your heart I pine.

He- returned to Medina to the apostle and remained with him until
God took him. When the Arabs revolted he sided with the Muslims and
fought with them until they disposed of Tulayha and the whole of Najd.
Then he went with the Muslims to the Yamama with his son 'Amr, and
while on the way he saw a vision of which he told his companions asking
for an interpretation. ‘I saw my head had been shaved and a bird was
coming out of my mouth and a woman met me and took me into her womb,
and I saw my son seeking me anxiously; then I saw him withheld from me.’
They said that they hoped it would prove a good omen, but he went on to
say that he himself would provide the interpretation of it. The shaving of
his head meant that he would lay it down; the bird which fiew r from his
mouth was his spirit; and the woman who received him into her womb
was the earth which would be opened for him and he would be hidden
therein; his son’s vain search for him meant that he would try to attain 255
what he had attained. He was slain as a martyr in al-Yamama while his
son was severely wounded and recovered later. He was actually killed
in the year of the Yarmuk in the time of 'Umar, dying as a martyr (216).

THE AFFAIR OF THE I RASH IT E WHO SOLD HIS CAMELS 257
TO ABU JAHL

Despite Abu Jahl’s hostility, hatred, and violence towards the apostle
God humiliated him before him whenever he saw him.

I was told by 'Abdu’l-Malik b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Sufyan al-Thaqafi
who had a good memory: A man from Irash (209) brought some camels of
his to Mecca and Abu Jahl bought them from him. He kept back the
money/so the man came to the assembly of Quraysh when the apostle
was sitting at the side of the mosque and said: ‘Who among you w r ill
help me to get what is due to me from Abu’l-Hakam b. Hisham? I am a

1 According to Ibnu’I-Kalbi, al-Afnam , Cairo, 1924, p. 37, it belonged to a sub-section
of Daus, called the B. Munhib.

B 4080

N

178 The Life of Muhammad

stranger, a wayfarer, and he will not pay his debt.’ They said: ‘Do you see
that man sitting there?’ pointing to the apostle. (In fact they were making
game of him for they knew quite w r ell of the enmity between him and Abu
Jahh) ‘Go to him. He’ll help you to your right.’

So the man went and stood over the apostle and said, ‘O Servant of
God, Abu’l-Hakam b. Hisham has withheld the money he owes me. I am
a stranger, a wayfarer, and I asked these men to tell me of someone who
would help me to my right and they pointed to you, so get my money
from him, God bless you.’ He said, Go to him,’ and the apostle got up
and went with him. When they saw this, the men said to one of their
number, ‘Follow him.’ The apostle went to his house and knocked on the
door, and when he asked who was there he said, ‘Muhammad! Come out to
me.’ He came out to him pale with agitation, and the apostle said, ‘Pay
this man his due.’ ‘One moment until I give him his money,’ he said,
and went indoors and came out again with the amount he owed and paid it
to the man. The apostle went away saying, ‘Go about your business.’
The Irashite went back to the gathering and said, ‘May God reward him,
for he has got me my due.’

Then the man they had sent after them came back and reported what
258 he had seen. ‘It was extraordinary,’ he said ; ‘he had hardly knocked on the
door when out he came breathless with agitation,’ and he related what had
been said. Hardly had he done so when Abu Jahl himself came up and
they said: ‘Whatever has happened, man? We’ve never seen anything like
w r hat you’ve done.’ ‘Confound you,’ he said; ‘By God as soon as he
knocked on my door and I heard his voice I was filled with terror. And
when I went out to him there was a camel stallion tow'ering above his head.
I’ve never seen such a head and shoulders and such teeth on a stallion
before. By God, if I’d refused to pay up he would have eaten me.’ 1

RUKANA AL-MUTTALIBl WRESTLES WITH THE APOSTLE

My father Ishaq b. Yasar told me saying: Rukana b. 'Abdu Yazid b.
Hashim b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib b. 'Abdu Manaf was the strongest man among
Quraysh, and one day he met the apostle in one of the passes of Mecca
alone: 'Rukana,’ said he, ‘why w r on*t you fear God and accept my preach¬
ing?’ ‘If I knew that what you say is true I would follow you,’ he said.
The apostle then asked him if he would recognize that he spoke the truth
if he threw him, and when he said Yes they began to wrestle, and when the
apostle got a firm grip of him he threw him to the ground, he being unable
to offer any effective resistance. ‘Do it again, Muhammad,’ he said, and he
did it again. ‘This is extraordinary,’ he said, ‘can you really throw me?’
‘I can show you something more wonderful than that if you wish. I will
call this tree that you see and it will come to me.’ ‘Call it,’ he said. He

1 I have endeavoured to reproduce the simple somewhat rough style of the original.

The Life of Muhammad

called it and it advanced until it stood before the apostle. Then he said,
‘Retire to your place,’ and it did so.

Then Rukana went to his people the B. 'Abdu Manaf and told them that
their tribesman could compete with any sorcerer in the world, for he had
never seen such sorcery in his life, and he went on to tell them of what he
had seen and what Muhammad had done.

A DEPUTATION OF CHRISTIANS ACCEPT ISLAM

While the apostle was in Mecca some twenty Christians came to him from
Abyssinia when they heard news of him. They found him in the mosque
and sat and talked with him, asking him questions, while some Quraysh-
ltes were in their meeting round the Ka'ba. When they had asked all
the questions they wished the apostle invited them to come to God and
read the Quran to them. When they heard the Quran their eyes flowed
with tears, and they accepted God’s 1 call, believed in him, and declared
his truth. They recognized in him the things which had been said of him
in their scriptures. When they got up to go away Abu Jahl with a number
of Quraysh intercepted them, saying, ‘God, what a wretched band you
are! ’iour people at home sent you to bring them information about the
fellow, and as soon as you sat with him you renounced your religion and
believed what he said. We don’t know a more asinine band than you,’ or
wwds to that effect. They answered: ‘Peace be upon you. We willnot
engage in foolish controversy with you. We have 011/religion and you
have yours. We have not been remiss in seeking what is best.’

It is said that these Christians came from Najran, but God knows
whether that was so. It is also said, and again God knows best, that it was
in reference to them that the verses ‘Those to whom we brought the book
aforetime, they believe in it. And when it is read to them they say We
believe in it. Verily it is the truth from our Lord. Verily aforetime we
were Muslims, as far as the words, ‘We have our works and you have your
works. Peace be upon you; we desire not the ignorant.’ 2

I asked Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri about those to whom these verses had
reference and he told me that he had always heard from the learned that
they were sent down concerning the Negus and his companions and also
the verses from the sura of The Table from the words ‘That is because
there are of them presbyters and monks and because they are not proud’
up to the words ‘So inscribe us with those who bear witness’. 3

When the apostle used to sit in the mosque with his more insignificant 260
companions such as Khabbab, 'Ammar, Abu Fukayha, Yasar, freedman of
Safwan b. Umayya b. Muharrith, Suhayb, and their like, Quraysh used
to jeer at them and say to one another, ‘These are his companions, as you
see. Is it such creatures that God has chosen from among us to give

1 Or, ‘his call’.

Sura 28. 53-55.

3 Sura 5. 85,

180 The Life of Muhammad

guidance and truth? If what Muhammad has brought were a good thing
these fellows would not have been the first to get it, and God would not
have put them before us.’ God revealed concerning them: ‘Drive not
away those who call upon their Lord night and morning seeking His face.
You are in no way responsible for them, and they are in no way responsible
for you, so that you should drive them away and become an evildoer. Thus
We tempt some by others that they may say, Are these they whom God
has favoured among us? Does not God know best about the grateful?
And when those who believe in Our signs come to thee say Peace be upon
you. Your Lord hath prescribed for Himself mercy that he who doeth
evil in ignorance and repenteth afterwards and doeth right (to him) He
is forgiving, merciful.’ 1

According to my information the apostle used often to sit at al-Marwa
at the booth of a young Christian called Jabr, 2 a slave of the B. al-Hadraml,
and they used to say ‘The one who teaches Muhammad most of what he
brings is Jabr the Christian, slave of the B. al-Hadraml.’ Then God revealed
in reference to their words ‘We well know that they say, “Only a mortal
teaches him’’.’ The tongue of him at whom they hint is foreign, and this is
a clear Arabic tongue (218). 3

261 THE COMING DOWN OF THE SURA AL-KAUTHAR

I have been told that when the apostle was mentioned Al-'As b. Wa’il
al-Sahml used to say, ‘Let him alone for he is only a childless man with
no offspring. If he were to die, his memory would perish and you would
have rest from him.’ God sent down in reference to that: ‘We have given
you al-Kauthar,’ 4 something which is better for you than the world and all
that it holds. Kauthar means ‘great’. Labid b. Rabl'a al-Kilabl said:

We were distressed at the death of the owner of Malhub 5

And at al-Rida' 6 is the house of another great man ( kauthar ) (219).

Ja'far b. ‘Amr (220) told me on the authority of 'Abdullah b. Muslim
the brother of Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab aLZuhrf from Anas b. ■
Malik that the latter said: ‘When the apostle was asked what Kauthar was
263 which God had given to him I heard him say It is a river as broad as from
San'S’ to Ayla. Its water pots are in number as the stars of heaven. Birds
go down to it with necks like camels. 'Umar b. al-Khattab said, “O
apostle of God the birds must be happy!” He answered “He who eats
them will be happier still!” ’

1 Sur« 6. 52 f.

1 N6ldeke, Der Islam , v (1914), 163, was of the opinion that this man was an Abyssinian
slave, the name Gabru (Gabre) meaning ‘slave of’ in Eth

3 Sura 16. 105. * Sura to8.

5 MalJjub is said to be either the name of water belonging to the B. Asad b. Khuzayma,
or a village of the B, 'Abdullah b. al-Duwal b. Hanifa in al-Yamima; or a horse. Cf. Diwan,
ed. Yusuf al-Ch 81 idI, Wien, 1880, p. 78.

6 Ridi' is the name of a watering place of the B. al-A'raj b. Ka'b.

The Life of Muhammad 181

In this connexion (or perhaps some other) I heard that he said: ‘He
that drinketh thereof shall never thirst.’ 1

THE COMING DOWN OF ‘WHY HAS NOT AN ANGEL BEEN
SENT DOWN TO HIM?’

The apostle called his people to Islam and preached to them, and Zama'a
b. al-Aswad, and al-Nadr b. al-Harith, and al-Aswad b. 'Abdu Yaghuth,
and Ubayy b. Khalaf, and al- As b. Wa’il said: ‘0 Muhammad, if an angel
had been sent with thee to speak to men about thee and to be seen with
thee! I hen God sent down concerning these words of theirs: ‘They say
Why hath not an angel been sent down to him ? If We sent an angel down
the matter would be settled; they would be given no more time. Had We
appointed him an angel We would have appointed him as a man and We
should have obscured for them what they obscure.’ 2

THE COMING DOWN OF ‘APOSTLES HAVE BEEN MOCKED
BEFORE THEE’

I have heard that the apostle passed by al-W’alld b. al-Mughlra and
Umayya b. Khalaf and Abu Ja 1 1 1 b. Hisham and they reviled and mocked
him, and this caused him distress. So God sent down, to him concerning
this: ‘Apostles have been mocked before thee, but that which they mocked
at hemmed them in.’ 3

inn rsiuni JUUK1NEY AND THE ASCENT TO HEAVEN

Ziyad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka’i from Muhammad b. Ishaq told me the
following: Then the apostle was carried by night from the mosque at
Mecca to the Masjfd al-Aqsa, which is the temple of Aelia, when Islam
had spread in Mecca among the Quraysh and all the tribes.

The following account reached me from 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud and Abu
Sa id al-Kfrlidrl, and 'A’isha the prophet’s wife, and Mu'awiya b. Abu
Sufyan, and al-Hasan b. Abu’l-Hasan al-Basrl, and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl
and Qatada and other traditionists, and Umm Hani’d. of Abu Talib. It
is pieced together in the story that follows, each one contributing something
of what he w'as told about what happened when lie was taken on the night
journey. The matter of the place 4 of the journey and what is said about it
is a searching test and a matter of God’s power and authority wherein is a
lesson for the intelligent; and guidance and mercy and strengthening to
those who believe. It was certainly an act of God by which He took him

1 Cf. John 4. 14.
3 Bura 6. 10.

2 Sura 6. 8.

4 Or {masra).

182 The Life of Muhammad

by night in what way He pleased 1 to show him His signs which He willed
him to see so that he witnessed His mighty sovereignty and power by
which He does what He walls to do.

According to what I have heard 'Abdullah b. Mas'iid used to say:
Buraq, the animal whose every stride carried it as far as its eye could reach
On which the prophets before him used to ride was brought to the apostle
and he w r as mounted on it. His companion (Gabriel) went with him to see
the wonders between heaven and earth, until he came to Jerusalem’s temple.
There he found Abraham the friend of God, Moses, and Jesus assembled
with a company of the prophets, and he prayed with them. Then he w r as
brought three vessels containing milk, wine, and water respectively. The
apostle said: ‘I heard a voice saying when these were offered to me: If
he takes the water he will be drowned and his people also; if he takes the
wine he will go astray and his people also; and if he takes the milk he will
264 be rightly guided and his people also. So I took the vessel containing
milk and drank it. Gabriel said to me, You have been rightly guided
and so will your people be, Muhammad.’

I was told that al-Hasan said that the apostle said: ‘While I was sleeping
in the Hljr Gabriel came and stirred me with his foot. I sat up but saw
nothing and lay down again. He came a second time and stirred me with
his foot. I sat up but saw- nothing and lay down again. He came to me the
third time and stirred me with his foot. I sat up and he took hold of my
arm and I stood beside him and he brought me out to the door of the
mosque and there was a white animal, half mule, half donkey, with wings
on its sides with which it propelled its feet, putting down each forefoot
at the limit of its sight and he mounted me on it. Then he went out with
me keeping close to me.

I was told that Qatada said that he was told that the apostle said: ‘When
I came up to mount him he shied. Gabriel placed his hand on its mane and
said, Are you not ashamed, O Buraq, to behave in this w r ay? By God, none
more honourable before God than Muhammad has ever ridden you before.
The animal was so ashamed that he broke out into a sweat and stood still
so that I could mount him.’

In his story al-Hasan said: ‘The apostle and Gabriel went their way
until they arrived at the temple at Jerusalem. There he found Abraham,
Moses, and Jesus among a company of the prophets. The apostle acted
as their imam in prayer. Then he was brought two vessels, one containing
wine and the other milk. The apostle took the milk and drank it, leaving
the wine. Gabriel said: “You have been rightly guided to the way of nature 2
and so W'ill your people be, Muhammad. Wine is forbidden you.” Then
the apostle returned to Mecca and in the morning he told Quraysh what
had happened. Most of them said, “By God, this is a plain absurdity! A

1 I think that by Kayfa shd a the author means to leave open the question whether it was
an actual physical journey or a nocturnal vision. See below.

2 Fitra is an elusive word. The meaning here may be ‘the true primeval religion’

The Life of Muhammad 183

caravan takes a month to go to Syria and a month to return and can Muham¬
mad do the return journey in one night?” Many Muslims gave up their
faith; some went to Abu Bakr and said, “What do you think of your friend 265
now, Abu Bakr ? He alleges that he went to Jerusalem last night and prayed
there and came back to Mecca.” He replied that they were lying about
the apostle; but they said that he was in the mosque at that very moment
telling the people about it. Abu Bakr said, “If he says so then it is true.

And what is so surprising in that ? He tells me that communications from
God from heaven to earth come to him in an hour of a day or night and I
believe him, and that is more extraordinary than that at which you boggle!”

He then went to the apostle and asked him if these reports were true, and
when he said they were, he asked him to describe Jerusalem to him.’ Al-
Hasan said that he was lifted up so that he could see the apostle speaking as
he told Abu Bakr what Jerusalem was like. Whenever he described a part
of it he said, ‘That’s true. I testify that you are the apostle of God’ until
he had completed the description, and then the apostle said, ‘And you,

Abu Bakr, are the Stddiq .’ 1 This was the occasion on which he got this
honorific.

Al-Hasan continued: God sent down concerning those who left Islam
for this reason: ‘We made the vision which we showed thee only for a test
to men and the accursed tree in the Quran. We put them in fear, but it
only adds to their heinous error.’ 2 Such is al-Hasan’s story with additions
from Qatada.

One of Abu Bakr’s family told me that 'A’isha the prophet’s wife used
to say: ‘The apostle’s body remained w r here it was but God removed his
spirit by night.’

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughlra b. al-Akhnas told me that Mu'awiya
b. Abu Sufyan when he was asked about the apostle’s night journey said,

‘It was a true vision from God.’ What these two latter said does not
contradict what al-Hasan said, seeing that God Himself said, ‘We made
the vision which we showed thee only for a test to men;’ nor does it con¬
tradict what God said in the story of Abraham when he said to his son,

‘O my son, verily I saw in a dream that I must sacrifice thee,’ 3 and he 266
acted accordingly. Thus, as I see it, revelation from God comes to the
prophets waking or sleeping.

I have heard that the apostle used to say, ‘My eyes sleep while my heart
is awake.’ Only God knows how revelation came and he saw what he
saw. But whether he was asleep or awake, it was all true and actually
happened.

Al-Zuhri alleged 4 as from Sa'id b. al-Musayyab that the apostle de¬
scribed to his companions Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, as he saw them that
night, saying: ‘I have never seen a man more like myself than Abraham.

1 This indicates that the meaning is not ‘Veracious’ but ‘Testifier to the Truth’.

2 Sura 13. 62. 3 Sura 37. 10.

4 The verb implies grave doubt as to the speaker’s veracity.

184 The Life of Muhammad

Moses was a ruddy faced man, tall, thinly fleshed, curly haired with ; a
hooked nose as though he were of the Shanu’a. Jesus, Son of Mary, was a
reddish man of medium height with lank hair with many freckles on his
face as though he had just come from a bath. 1 One would suppose that his
head was dripping with water, though there was no water on it. The
man most like him among you is ‘Urwa b. Mas'ud al-Thaqafi (221)/

267 The following report has reached me from Umm Hand d. of Abu
Talib, whose name was Hind, concerning the apostle’s night journey.
She said: ‘The apostle went on no night journey except while he was in my
house. He slept that night in my house. He prayed the final night prayer,
then he slept and we slept. A little before dawn the apostle woke us, and
when we had prayed the dawn prayer he said, “O Umm Hand, I prayed
with you the last evening prayer in this valley as you saw. Then I went to
Jerusalem and prayed there. Then I have just prayed the morning prayer
with you as you see.” He got up to go out and I took hold of his robe and
laid bare his belly as though it were a folded Egyptian garment. I said,
”0 prophet of God, don’t talk to the people about it for they will give you
the lie and insult you.” He said, “By God, I certainly will tell them.”
I said to a negress, a slave of mine, Follow the apostle and listen to what
he says to the people, and what they say to him. He did tell them and they
were amazed and asked what proof he had. He replied that he had passed
the caravan of so-and-so in such-and-such a valley and the animal he
bestrode scared them and a camel bolted, “and I showed them where it was
as I was on the way to Syria. I carried on until in Dajanan 2 I passed by a
caravan of the Banu so-and-so. I found the people asleep. They had a
jar of water covered with something. I took the covering off and drank
the water replacing the cover. The proof of that is that their caravan is
this moment coming down from al-Baida’ by the pass of al-Tan'Im 3 led by
a dusky camel loaded with two sacks one black and the other multihued”.
The people hurried to the pass and the first camel they met was as he had
described. They asked the men about the vessel and they told them that
they had left it full of water and covered it and that when they woke it was
covered but empty. They asked the others too who were in Mecca and they
said that it w r as quite right: they had been scared and a camel had bolted,

268 and they had* heard a rpan calling them to it so that they were able to
recover it.

THE ASCENT TO HEAVEN

One whom I have no reason to doubt told me on the authority of Abu
Sa'id al-Khudrl: I heard the apostle say, ‘After the completion of my

1 Dimas = demosian and indicates the foreign origin of this legend. Cf. Musa b. Uqba,
No. 1, in Introduction, p. xliii.

2 A mountain in the neighbourhood of Tihama. According to al-Waqidl it is 25 m. from
Mecca.

3 Bai<fa’ is a hill near Mecca on the Medina side. TanTm is on high ground very near
Mecca.

The Life of Muhammad 185

business in Jerusalem a ladder was brought to me finer than any I have
ever seen. It was that to which the dying man looks when death approaches.

My companion mounted it with me until we came to one of the gates of
heaven called the Gate of the Watchers. An angel called Isma il was in
charge of it, and under his command were twelve thousand angels each
of them having twelve thousand angels under his command.’ As he told
this story the apostle used to say, ‘and none knows the armies^of God but
He.’ 1 When Gabriel brought me in, Ismail asked who I w^as, and when he
was told that I was Muhammad he asked if I had been given a mission, 2
and on being assured of this he wished me well.

A traditionist who had got it from one who had heard ff from the
apostle told me that the latter said: ‘All the angels who met me when I
entered the lowest heaven smiled in welcome and wished me well except
one who said the same things but did not smile or show that joyful expres¬
sion which the others had. And when I asked Gabriel the reason he told
me that if he had ever smiled cn anyone before or would smile on anyone
hereafter he would have smiled on me; but he does not smile because he is
Malik, the Keeper of Hell. I said to Gabriel, he holding the position with
regard to God which he has described to you “obeyed there, trustworthy”, 3
“Will you not order him to show me hell?” And he said, “Certainly!

O Malik, show Muhammad Hell.” Thereupon he removed its covering
and the flames blazed high into the air until I thought that they would
consume everything. So I asked Gabriel to order him to send them back 269
to their place which he did. I can only compare the effect of their with¬
drawal to the falling of a shadow, until when the flames retreated whence
they had come, Malik placed their cover on them.’

In his tradition Abu Sa'id al-Khudrl said that the apostle said: ‘When
I entered the lowest heaven I saw a man sitting there with the spirits of
men passing before him. To one he w r ould speak well aiid rejoice in him
saying: “A good spirit from a good body” and of another he would say
“Faugh!” and frown, saying: “An evil spirit from an evil body.” In
answer to my question Gabriel told me that this was our father Adam
reviewing the spirits of his offspring; the spirit of a believer excited his
pleasure, and the spirit of an infidel excited his disgust so that he said the
words just quoted.

‘Then I saw men with lips like camels; in their hands were pieces of
fire like stones which they used to thrust into their mouths and they would
come out of their posteriors. I w'as told that these were those who sinfully
devoured the wealth of orphans.

‘Then I saw men in the way of the family of Pharaoh, 4 with such bellies
as I have never seen; there were passing over them as it were camels

1 Sura 74. 34.

1 Or perhaps simply ‘sent for’. 3 Sura 81. 21.

4 The allusion is to Sura 40. 49 'Cast the family of Pharaoh into the worst of all punish¬
ments’.

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The Life of Muhammad

maddened by thirst when they were cast into hell, treading them down,
they being unable to move out of the way. These were the usurers.

‘Then I saw men with good fat meat before them side by side with lean
stinking meat, eating of the latter and leaving the former. These are those
who forsake the women which God has permitted and go after those he has
forbidden.

‘Then I saw women hanging by their breasts. These were those who

270 had fathered bastards on their husbands.’

Ja'far b. 'Amr told me from al-Qasim b. Muhammad that the apostle
said: ‘Great is God’s anger against a woman who brings a bastard into her
family. He deprives the true sons of their portion and learns the secrets
of the harim .’

To continue the tradition of Sa'Id al-Khudri: ‘Then I was taken up
to the second heaven and there were the two maternal cousins Jesus, Son
of Mary, and John, son of Zakariah. Then to the third heaven and there was
a man whose face was as the moon at the full. This was my brother Joseph,
son of Jacob. Then to the fourth heaven and there was a man called
Idris. “And we have exalted him to a lofty place.” 1 Then to the fifth heaven
and there was a man with white hair and a long beard, never have I seen
a more handsome man than he. This was the beloved among his people
Aaron son of 'Imran. Then to the sixth heaven, and there was a dark man
with a hooked nose like the Shanu’a. This was my brother Moses, son of
’Imran. Then to the seventh heaven and there was a man sitting on a
throne at the gate of the immortal mansion. 2 Every day seventy thousand
angels went in not to come back until the resurrection day. Never have I
seen a man more like myself. This was my father Abraham. Then he
took me into Paradise and there I saw a damsel with dark red lips and I
asked her to whom she belonged, for she pleased me much when I saw
her, and she told me “Zayd b. Haritha”. The apostle gave Zayd the good
news about her.’

From a tradition of 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud from the prophet there has
reached me the following: When Gabriel took him up to each of the

271 heavens and asked permission to enter he had to say whom he had brought
and whether he had received a mission 3 and they would say ‘God grant
him life, brother and friend!’ until they reached the seventh heaven and
his Lord. There the duty of fifty prayers a day was laid upon him.

The apostle said: ‘On my return I passed by Moses and what a fine
friend of yours he was! He asked me how many prayers had been laid
upon me and when I told him fifty he said, “Prayer is a weighty matter
and your people are weak, so go back to your Lord and ask him to reduce
the number for you and your community”. I did so and He took off ten.
Again I passed by Moses and he said the same again; and so it went on

1 Sura 19. 58.

2 al-bayt al-mamur. In view of what follows this would seem to mean Paradise itself

( al-janna ). 3 Or ‘been sent for’, v.s.

The Life of Muhammad 187

until only five prayers for the whole day and night were left. Moses again
gave me the same advice. I replied that I had been back to my Lord and
asked him to reduce the number until I was ashamed, and I would not do it
again. He of you who performs them in faith and trust will have the
reward of fifty prayers.’

HOW GOD DEALT WITH THE MOCKERS

The apostle remained firm counting on God’s assistance, admonishing his
people in spite of their branding him as a liar and insulting and mocking
him. The principal offenders—so Yazld b. Ruman from 'Urwa b. al-
Zubayr told me—were five men who were respected and honoured among
their tribesmen: of the B. Asad . . . was al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib b. Asad 272
Abu Zama'a. (I have heard that the apostle had cursed him for his insults
and mockery, saying, ‘O God, blind him and bereave him of his son!’)

Of the B. Zuhra . . . was al-Aswad b. 'Abdu Yaghuth. Of the B. Makhzum
. . . was al-Walid b. al-Mughlra ... Of the B. Sahm b. ’Amr . . . was
al-'As b. Wa’il b. Hisham (222). Of the B. Khuza'a was al-Harith b.
al-TuIatila b. 'Amr b. al-Harith b. 'Abd b. 'Amr b. Lu’ayy b. Malakan.

When they persisted in evil and constantly mocked the apostle, God
revealed: ‘Proclaim what you have been ordered and turn away from the
polytheists. We will surely protect you against the mockers who put
another god beside God. In the end they will know.’ 1

The same Yazld told me from 'Urwa (or it may have been from some
other traditionist) that Gabriel came to the apostle when the mockers were
going round the temple. He stood up and the apostle stood at his side;
and as al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib passed, Gabriel threw a green leaf in his
face and he became blind. Then al-Aswad b. 'Abdu Yaghuth passed and he
pointed at his belly which swelled so that he died of dropsy. Next al-Walid
passed by. He pointed at an old scar on the bottom of his ankle (the result
of a wound he received some years earlier as he was trailing his gown when
he passed by a man of Khuza'a who was feathering an arrow, and the
arrowhead caught in his wrapper and scratched his foot—a mere nothing).

But the wound opened again and he died of it. Al-'As passed. He pointed
to his instep, and he went off on his ass making for al-Ta’if. He tied the
animal to a thorny tree and a thorn entered his foot and he died of it.
Lastly al-Harith passed. He pointed at his head. It immediately filled
with pus and killed him.

THE STORY OF ABU UZAYHIR AL-DAUSI 273

When al-Walld’s death was near he summoned his three sons Hisham,
al-Waltd, and Khalid and said: ‘My sons, I charge you with three duties;

1 Sura 15. 94.

188

The Life of Muhammad

be not remiss in any of them. My blood lies on the Khuza'a: don’t let it
remain uncompensated. I know that they are innocent of it, but I fear that
you may be ill spoken of because of it when I am dead. Thaqlf owe me
money in interest; see that you get it. Lastly my dowry money is with
Abu Uzayhir al-DausI. Don’t let him keep it.’ Now Abu Uzayhir had
married him to a daughter of his and then withheld her from him and did
not let him have access to her up to the day of his death.

When al-Walld died, the B. Makhzum leaped upon Khuza'a demanding
blood-money for al-Walid, saying, ‘It was your man’s arrow that killed
him.’ He was one of the B. Ka'b, an ally of the B. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib b.
Hashim. Khuza'a refused their demand and a competition in verse
followed and the situation became tense. The man whose arrow had
killed al-Walid was one of the B. Ka'b b. 'Amr of Khuza'a, and 'Abdullah
b. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Makhzum com¬
posed the following lines: 1

I’ll wager that you’ll soon run away
And leave al-Zahran with its yelping foxes.

And that you’ll leave the water in the vale of Atriqa
And that you'll ask which Arak trees are the best.

We are folk who do not leave our blood unavenged
And those we fight do not get to their feet again.

Al-Zahran and al-Arak were camping-grounds of the B. Ka'b of
Khuza'a.

Al-Jaun b. Abu’I-Jaun, brother of the B. Ka'b b. 'Amr al-Khuza'I,
answered him:

By God we will not pay unjust bloodwit for al-Walid

Until you see a day when the stars wax faint;

When ,your stout ones will be overthrown one after another

Each in death helplessly opening his mouth.

When you eat your bread and your gruel,

274 Then all of you will weep and wail for al-Walid.

There followed much argument and recrimination until it was apparent
that it was prestige that was at stake, so Khuza'a paid some of the blood-
money and they relinquished their claim to the rest. When peace had
been made al-Jaun said:

Many a man and woman when we made peace

Spoke in surprise of what we paid for al-Walid.

‘Did you not swear that you would not pay unjust compensation for
al-Walid

Until you had seen a day of great misfortune?’

1 Yaq. i. 310.

189

The Life of Muhammad

But we have exchanged 1 war for peace
Now every traveller may go safely where he will.

But al-Jaun did not stop there but went on to boast of the killing of
al-Walid, saying that they had brought about his end, all of which was
false. As a result al-Walid, his son, and his tribe met what they had been
warned against. Al-Jaun said:

Did not al-Mughira claim that in Mecca
Ka'b was a great force ?

Don’t boast, Mughira, because you see us
True Arabs and by-blows walk its streets.

We and our fathers were born there
As surely as Thablr stands in its place.

Al-Mughira said that to learn our state
Or to stir up war between us.

For Walid’s blood -will not be paid for:

You know that we do not pay for blood we shed.

The auspicious warrior hit him with an arrow
Poisoned, while he was full and out of breath.

He fell full length in Mecca’s vale.

’Twas as though a camel fell.

’Twill save me delaying payment for Abu Hisham with
Miserable 2 little curly haired camels (223).

Then Hisham b. al-Walid attacked Abu Uzayhir while he was in the
market of Dhu’l-Majaz. Now his daughter 'Atika was the wife of Abu
Sufyan b. Harb. Abu Uzayhir was a chief among his people and Hisham
killed him for the dowry money belonging to al-Walld which he had re¬
tained, in accordance with his father’s dying injunction. This happened 275
after the apostle’s migration to Medina. Badr was over and many of the
leaders of heathen Quraysh had been slain. Yazid b. Abu Sufyan went out
and collected the B. 'Abdu Manaf while Abu Sufyan was in Dhu’l-Majaz,
and people said Abu Sufyan’s honour in the matter of his father-in-law had
been violated and he will take vengeance for him. When Abu Sufyan heard
of what his son Yazid had done he came down to Mecca as fast as he could.

He w r as a mild but astute man who loved his people exceedingly, and he
was afraid that there might be serious trouble among Quraysh because
of Abu Uzayhir. So he went straight to his son, who was armed among his
people the B. 'Abdu Manaf and the ‘scented ones’, took his spear out of his
hand and hit him hard on the head with it, saying, ‘God damn you! Do
you wish to cause civil war among Quraysh for the sake of a man from
Daus? We will pay them the bloodmoney if they will accept it.’ Thus he
put an end to the matter.

1 Lit. ‘mingled’.

1 khur is the pi. of khawtvar, ‘weak’, ‘wretched’, not ‘abounding in milk’ as the commenta¬
tors explain. See Noldeke, Filnf Mu allaqat, vii. 44.

j 9 o The Life of Muhammad

Hassan b. Thabit composed the following lines to excite feeling for
the murder of Abu Uzayhir and to bring shame on Abu Sufyan for his
cowardice and betrayal of trust:

The people on both sides of Dhu’l-Majaz rose one morning,

But Ibn Harb’s protege in Mughammas 1 did not!

The farting donkey did not protect him he was bound to defend.

Hind did not avert her father’s shame.

Hisham b. al-Walid covered you with his garments,

Wear them out and mend new ones like them later.

He got what he wanted from him and became famous,

But you were utterly useless.

If the shaykhs at Badr had been present

The people’s sandals would have been red with blood newly shed.

When he heard of this satire Abu Sufyan said: Hassan wants us to
fight one another for the sake of a man from Daus. By God, what a

poor idea!’ ,

Khalid b. al-Walid when the people of TV if became Muslims spoke to
the apostle about his father’s interest which Thaqif owed him, and a
traditionist told me that those verses which prohibit the carrying oyer of
usury from the Jahiliya arose out of Khalid’s demanding interest: ‘O ye
.76 who believe, fear God .and give up what usury remains to you if you are
(really) believers’, to the end of the passage. 3

So far as we know there was no vengeance for Abu Uzayhir until Islam
made a clear cut between men; however, Dirar b. al-Khattab b. Mirdas
al-Fihrl went out with a number of Quraysh to the Daus country, and
came to the dwelling of a woman called Umm Ghaylan, a freedwoman of
Daus. She used to comb the women’s hair and prepare brides for their
husbands. Daus wanted to kill them in revenge for Abu Uzayhir, but
Umm Ghaylan and the women stood in their way and defended them. It
was in reference to that that Qirar said:

God reward Umm Ghaylan and her women w ill

For their coming without their finery with dishevelled hair.

They saved us at death’s very door
When the avengers of blood came forth.

She called on Daus and the sandbanks flowed with glory,

The streams on either side carried it on.

God requite 'Amr well. He was not weak,

He did his best for me.

I drew my sword and made play with its edge
For whom should I fight but myself (224) ?

1 al-Mughammas was on the road to T®

1 Hassan was notorious for his coarseness in lampoons.

1 Siira 2. 278.

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The Life of Muhammad

THE DEATH OF ABU TALIB AND KHADIJA

Those of his neighbours who ill treated the apostle in his house were Abu
Lahab, al-Hakam b. Abu’l-As . . ., 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'ayt, 'Adiy b. Hamra’
al-Thaqafi, and Ibnu’l-Asda’ al-Hudhall. Not one of them became a
Muslim except al-Hakam. I have been told that one of them used to throw 277
a sheepVs uterus at him while he W'as praying; and one of them used to
throw it into his cooking-pot when it had been placed ready for him. Thus
the apostle was forced to retire to a wall when he prayed. 'Umar b. 'Abdul¬
lah b. 'Urwa b. Zubayr told me on the authority of his father that when
they threw this objectionable thing at him the apostle took it out on a stick,
and standing at the door of his house, he would say, ‘O Banu 'Abdu Manaf,
what sort of protection is this?’ Then he would throw it into the street.

Khadija and Abu Talib died in the same year, and with Khadija’s death
troubles followed fast on each other’s heels, for she had been a faithful sup¬
port to him in Islam, and he used to tell her of his troubles. With the death
of Abu Talib he lost a strength and stay in his personal life and a defence
and protection against his tribe. Abu Talib died some three years before
he migrated to Medina, and it was then that Quraysh began to treat him in
an offensive way which they would not have dared to follow in his uncle’s
lifetime. A young lout actually threw dust on his head.

Hisham on the authority of his father 'Urwa told me that when this
happened the apostle w r ent into his house with the dust still on his head
and one of his daughters got up to wash it away, weeping as she did so.
‘Don’t weep, my little girl,’ he said, ‘for God will protect your father.’
Meanwhile he was saying, ‘Quraysh never treated me thus while Abu
Talib was alive.’

When Abu Talib fell ill and Quraysh learned of his grave condition they
reminded one another that now that Hamza and 'Umar had accepted Islam
and Muhammad’s reputation was known among all the Quraysh clans,
they had better go to Abu Talib and come to some compromise lest they
be robbed of their authority altogether.

Al-'Abbas b. 'Abdullah b. Ma'bad b. 'Abbas from one of his family from
Ibn 'Abbas told me that 'Utba and Shayba, sons of Rabl'a, and Abu Jahl 278
and Umayya b. Khalaf and Abu Sufyan with sundry other notables went
to Abu Talib and said: ‘You know your rank with us and now that you are
at the point of death we are deeply concerned on your account. You know
the trouble that exists between us and your nephew, so call him and let us
make an agreement that he will leave us alone and we will leave him alone;
let him have his religion and we will have ours.’ When he came Abu Talib
said, ‘Nephew, these notables have come to you that they may give you
something and to take something from you.’ ‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘you may
give me one word by which you can rule the Arabs and subject the Persians
to you.’ ‘Yea,’ said Abu Jahl, ‘and ten words.’ He said: ‘You must say
There is no God but Allah and you must repudiate what you worship

192 The Life of Muhammad

beside him.’ They clapped their hands and said, ‘Do you want to make
all the gods into one God, Muhammad? That would be an extraordinary
thing.’ Then they said one to another, ‘This fellow is not going to give
you anything you want, so go and continue with the religion of your fathers
until God judge between us.’ So saying they departed.

Abu Talib said, ‘Nephew, I don’t think that you asked them anything
extraordinary.' On hearing this the apostle had hopes that he would accept
Islam, and he said at once, ‘You say it, uncle, and then I shall be able to
intercede for you on Resurrection Day.’ Seeing the apostle’s eagerness he
replied, ‘Were it not that I fear that you and your father’s sons would be
abused after my death and that Quraysh would think that I had only said
it in fear of death, I would say it. I should only say it to give you pleasure.’
As his death was near, al-'Abbas looked at him as he was moving his lips
and put his ear close to him and said, ‘Nephew, by God, my brother has
spoken the word you gave him to say.’ The apostle replied, ‘I did not
hear it.’

God revealed concerning the people who came to him with their propo-
379 sals: ‘Sad. By the renowned Quran, Nay, those who disbelieve are in pride
and schism’ as far as the words ‘Does he make the gods one God. This is
an extraordinary thing. Their chiefs went off saying: Go and remain true
to your gods. This is a thing designed. We have not heard of this in the
last religion,’ 1 (meaning Christians because they say) ‘Verily God is the
third of three.’ 2 ‘This is nothing but an invention.’ 3 Then Abu Talib died.

THE APOSTLE GOES TO THAQlF TO SEEK HELP

In consequence of the growing hostility of Quraysh after Abu Talib’s
death the apostle went to Ta’if to seek help from Thaqlf and their defence
against his tribe. Also he hoped that they would receive the message which
God had given him. He went alone.

Yazld b. Ziyad told me from Muhammad b. Ka'b al-Qurazi: ‘When the
apostle arrived at al-Ta’if he made for a number of Thaqif who were at
that time leaders and chiefs, namely three brothers: 'Abdu Yalayl, Mas'ud,
and Habib, sons of *Amr b. ‘Umayr b. ‘Auf b. 'Uqda b. Ghiyara b. 'Auf b.
Thaqif. One of them had a Quraysh wife of the B. Jumah. The apostle
sat with them and invited them to accept Islam and asked them to help
him against his opponents at home. One of them swore that he would tear
up the covering 4 of the Ka'ba if God had sent him. 4 The other said,
“Could not God have found someone better than you to send ?” The third
said, “By God, don’t let me ever speak to you. If you are an apostle from
God as you say you are, you are far tod important for me to reply to, and if
^ou are lying against God it is not right that I should speak to you!” So
the apostle got up and went, despairing of getting any good out of Thaqif.

1 Siira 38. 1-6. 1 Sura 5. 77.

3 Sura 38. 6. 4 For this idiom see Tab. Gloss., s.v. ntaraf.

J 93

The Life of Muhammad
I have been told that -he saifimtl.^Tw “c ■ 1

have, keep the matter s-cret ” f u ’ * cem K tbat you have acted as you
abou it so thaXv Idh n 5 "l® l0ath that his P eo P Ie ^ould hear

But„,c d.d ;: h r s : o ; nd r :" r t h h y 7 ^ 7 '^. <* S ). , 8 o

and erv after him unt.Ucl P u U ‘ S and slaves t0 "'suit

refuge in an nrchard belon^,oi™! 0 ^
who were in it at the time n l ' a J,ui hls Brother Shavba

and he made fo he h de if "T had fo " 0 « cd b "" went back,

watched hint, observing whut he f 'IT while ,ilL ' ">en

told that the apostle had met theTom^ from TTe ' loca * ,out *-
her ;‘What has befallen us from y our >«pe 0 pi e =”™ h ^ ^ “

I Sa,d ' S ° r ,r ^ "° G -''«» Thee

Most Merciful, Thou art the r &TU owliness before men. O

To whom wilt Thou confide m ,T T° f ' h ° tak ' and Thou art m y Lord,
an enemy to whZ '£ ? >? £“/“<>r to
angry with me I care nnr Tt,- f ■ 1 1 ril0u art not

™..d .i,t,

»M him ml, ““ h , i ;; J, [ ... A,U*

'Addas did so and when ?, f P * P a,,er and give them to him to eat.
the name „t Cod” bZ tTT LV", 'r d h ‘ hc l*«« b o said "In
said, “By Cod, this is not the wav the p«.pl“’o1 C - IoSe, - v m, ° Kis face and

apostle then asked “Then from what country do ,u come 'oT\d 1 ' /T
what is vour relitrion 5” tr , »• , ^ . 3 ' uu L °mc, u Addas rand

Nineveh. “Krom the town ofth, iT' “ " “ S Ch, is,ian md came from *8,

the apostle. “ItT how TTv, k E 'T" T Jonah s<> " nf said

Jhings that only a pjopi.ee eouUW ™ T,*?

e th,-!rr i h,n im ,7 ’ t0,lt

anything out of Thaqif. When he retched V,IT. dcSp31rcd of Siting

ra :t ° f - - a p^

trJtiZT .— - — Ttier at. .. ,„ iir „ ty

li KIKO

O

194 The Life of Muhammad

passed by. They were—so I am told—seven jinn from Nasibin. They
listened to him and when he had finished his prayer they turned back to
their people to warn them having believed and responded to what they
had heard. God has mentioned them in the words “And when We inclined
to thee certain of the jinn who were listening to the Quran” as far as “and
He will give you protection from a painful punishment”. 1 And again,
“Say: It has been revealed unto me that a number of the jinn listened.”’ 2

THE APOSTLE OFFERS HIMSELF TO THE TRIBES

When the apostle returned to Mecca his people opposed him more bitterly
than ever, apart from the few lower-class people who believed in him.

T. 1203,3 (T. One of them said that w'hen the apostle left al-Ta’if making for Mecca
a Meccan passed and he asked him if he would take a message for him;
and when he said that he would he told him to go to al-Akhnas b. Shariq
and say, ‘Muhammad says: Will you give me protection so that I may
convey the message of my Lord ?’ When the man delivered his message
al-Akhnas replied that an ally could not give protection against a member
of the home tribe. When he told the apostle of this he asked him if he
■would go back and ask Suhayl b. 'Amr for his protection in the same words.
Suhayl sent word that the B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy do not give protection against
B, Ka’b. He then asked the man if he would go back and make the same
application to al-Mut'im b. 'Adly. The latter said, ‘Yes, let him enter,’
and the man came back and told the apostle. In the morning al-Mut'im
having girt on his weapons, he and his sons and his nephews went into the
mosque. When Abu Jahl saw him he asked, ‘Are you giving protection or
following him?’ ‘Giving protection, of course,* he said. ‘We give protec¬
tion to him whom you protect,’ he said. So the prophet came into Mecca
and dw r elt there. One day he went into the sacred mosque when the
polytheists were at the Ka'ba, and when Abu Jahl saw him he said, ‘This is
your prophet, O B. 'Abdu Manaf.’ 'Utba b. Rabi'a replied: ‘And why
should you take it amiss if we have a prophet or a king ?’ The prophet was
told of this, or he may have heard it, and he came to them and said, ‘O
'Utba, you were not angry on God’s behalf or his apostle’s behalf, but on
your own account. As for you, O Abu Jahl, a great blow of fate w r ill come
upon you so that you will laugh little and weep much; and as for you, 0
Leaders of Quraysh, a great blow of fate will come upon you so that you
will experience wffat you most abhor and that perforce!’) 3

The apostle offered himself to the tribes of Arabs at the fairs whenever
282 opportunity came, summoning them to God and telling them that he was
a prophet w r ho had been sent. He used to ask them to believe in him and
protect him until God should make clear to them the message with which
he had charged his prophet.

One of our friends whom I hold above suspicion told me from Zayd b.

1 Sura 46. 28-32. 1 Sura 72. i. 3 Cf. I.H. on p. 251 of W.

'1 he Life of Muhammad

Aslam from Rabi'a b 'TMH nl run „ f ^

told (236) and Husayn b. 'Abdullah b. ^

heard my father tdline R.hrS k , 7 b ‘ Abbas told me: I

with his father in Mina when the apostleasedT he Was a > mm gster

ments and tell them that he was the apostle ofT 7 ^ the Arab cncam P'
worship Him and not associlta anyth ng wi, hm td? ^ ,hem “

rival gods which thev wnrsKm a * , f .. ’ nd to rcn ounce the

him until God made plain Hif^ ’ and . bel,c ^ in Hl ’ s a P ostI e and protect
an artfu. sprucT t lotw£him

When the apostie fimshed hi ^peaUe used to sT'ThA Y'" ^
only to get you to strip off al-Lat and al-'I w f r ‘ J ’ hlS f< ! ° w Wlshes
allies the jinn of B Malik b f / " m ^ our nec ^ s an d your

brought. Don’t obey him and t if " inn °vation he has

Who the man

“ai‘l ‘(I™" 8 UnC ’ C ^

r e h.)° i hc tems of Kinja

offered himself to them, but they'declined 1 ^ ^ t0 G ° d and 283

One of our companions from'Abdullah b Ka'h h lyr^n * m

.he apostie went to the B. Hands where he m et £ “

G-o^? r , b - - nd oneof.be™

Quraysh I could eat up 3 ^c/T

give allegiance 1 to you and God gives you victory nw ’ If ueactua]
shall we have authority after you >’ He renh d Ti °PP oneM *>

God places where He pleases.’ He answ red ■ T whfch
protect you from the Arabs with our br^ts'and “hen ?f r^d"' 3 "' “

vretory* someone else wil, reap the benefit! Thank ™ u y ° U

unab eTa'ttn^the felT” ^ *° “ °' d *** of theirs who was

^eir re tu ^. ~rXth™ ^ “T ™

man from Quraysh—one of the B. 'Abdu’l-Muttalih to he n ‘ hj ' a
unded that he was a prophet and invited .hem^pm,“ '

^nds up OT his head mdridPO Banfi’Amm“ couid ithave't Z"ZTd^

Whenever men came together at the fairs or the apostle heard of anyone

Some MSS, and T . 1202 have 'if we follow vou’ ,

' ‘ I • it you win ,

196 The Life of Muhammad

284 of importance coming to Mecca he went to them with his message. 'Asim
b. 'Umar b. Qatada al-Ansari—more precisely al-Zafari—on the authority
of some of his shaykhs told me that they said that Suwayd b. al-Samit,
brother of the B. 'Amr b. 'Auf, came to Mecca on pilgrimage. Suwayd’s
tribesmen used to call him al-Kamil because of his toughness, his poetry,
his honour, and his lineage. He it was who said:

There’s many a man you call friend you’d be shocked

If you knew the lies he tells against you in secret.

While he’s with you his words are like honey;

Behind your back a sword aimed at the base of the neck.

What you see of him pleases you, but underneath

He’s a deceitful backbiter cutting through to the marrow.

His eyes will show you what he’s concealing,

Rancour and hatred are in his evil look.

Strengthen me with good deeds: long have you weakened me. 1

The best friends strengthen without weakening.

He once had a dispute with a man of the B. Sulaym—one of the B. Zi'b b.
Malik—over a hundred camels, and they appointed an Arab woman diviner
arbitrator and she gave judgement in his favour, and he and the SulamI
went aw r ay alone. When they reached the parting of the ways Suwayd
asked for his property. The man promised to send it, but Suwayd wanted
to know who would guarantee that the animals would be handed over. As
he could offer none but himself, Suwayd refused to leave him until he got
his due. So they came to blows and Suwayd knocked him dow r n, bound
him closely and took him aw'ay to the country of the B. 'Amr; and there he
had to stay until his tribesmen paid what was owing. It was in reference
to that, Suwayd composed these lines:

Don’t think, Ibn Zi'b son of Malik, that I
Am like the man you deceitfully slew in secret.

When I had been tbrowm I manfully became your match—

Thus the resolute man can change his position—

I locked him under my left arm
And his cheek remained in the dirt.

285 When he heard about him the apostle sought him out and invited him
to Islam. He said, ‘Perhaps you’ve got something like that w r hich I have.’
‘And what is that?’ asked the apostle. ‘The roll of Luqman,’ meaning the
wisdom of Luqman, he answered. ‘Hand it to me,’ said the apostle, and
he handed it over and he said, ‘This discourse is fine, but that which I have
is better still, a Quran which God has revealed to me which is a guidance
and a light.’ And the apostle recited the Quran to him and invited him to

1 Lit. ‘feather me . . . cut me’. The figure is that of an arrow which is feathered to
increase its flight, and whittled into shape for the same reason. Feathering can do no harm,
but whittling may cause the arrow to break: necessary' it is, but it must not be overdone.

The Lije of Muhammad 1 gy

Islam; he did not withdraw from it but said, ‘This is a fine saving.’ Then
he went off and rejoined his people in Medina and almost‘at once the
vaazraj killed him. Some ot his family used to say, ‘In onr opinion he was

a Muslim when he was killed’; he was (in iaa) killed before the battle of
Bu ath.-

IYAS ACCEPTS ISLAM

Al-Gusayn b/Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Amr b. Sa'd b. Mu'adh on the authority
of Mahmud b. Labid told me that when Abu’l-Haysar Anas h. Rafi' came
to Mecca with members of the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal including Ivas b. Mu'adh
seeking an alliance with Quraysh against their sister tribe the Khazraj the
apostle heard about them. He came and sat with them and asked them if
they would like to get something more profitable than their present errand.
When they asked him what that could be he told them that he was God’s
apostle sent to humanity to call on them to serve God and not associate
any other with Him; that He had revealed a book to him; then he told them
about Islam and read to them some of the Quran. Iyas, who was a young
man, said, By God, people, this is something better than you came for!’

1 hereupon Abu’l-Haysar took a handful of dirt from the valley and threw
it in his face, saying, ‘Shut up! We didn’t come here for this.’ So Iyas
became silent The apostle left them and they went to Medina and the 2 86
battle of Bu ath between Aus and Khazraj took place.

Within a little while Iyas died. Mahmud said: ‘Those of his people
who were present at his death told me that they heard him continually
praising and glorifying God until he died. They had no doubt that he
died a Muslim, he having become acquainted with Islam at that gathering
when he heard the apostle speak.

THE BEGINNING OF ISLAM AMONG THE HELPERS

When God washed to display His religion openly and to glorify His prophet
and to fulfil His promise to him, the time came when he met a number of
the Helpers at one of the fairs; and while he was offering himself to the
Arab tribes as was his wont he met at al-'Aqaba a number of the Khazraj
whom God intended to benefit. J

1 b ; ' Lma ^ b ‘ Qat5da me on the authority of some of the

shaykhs of his tribe that they said that when the apostle met them he
learned by inquiry that they were of the Khazraj and allies of the Tews.

, e !? Vlt . ed the . m t0 Slt Wlth him and expounded to them Islam and recited
• C ^ Uran *° lhe . m ‘ Now God had prepared the way for Islam in that they

Z JT y it r h J T Wh ° Were P £ °P Ie * scriptures and
knowledge, while they themselves were polytheists and idolaters. They

had often raided them in their district and whenever bad feeling arose the

1 The battle between Aus and Khazraj; v.i.

198 The Life of Muhammad

Jews used to say to them, ‘A prophet will be sent soon. His day is at hand.
We shall follow him and kill you by his aid as 'Ad and Iram perished.’ So
when they heard the apostle’s message they said one to another: ‘This is

287 the very prophet of whom the Jews warned us. Don’t let them get to him
before us!’ Thereupon they accepted his teaching and became Muslims,
saying, ‘We have left our people, for no tribe is so divided by hatred and
rancour as they. Perhaps God will unite them through you. So let us go
to them and invite them to this religion of yours; and if God unites them
in it, then no man will be mightier than you.’ Thus saying they returned
to Medina as believers.

There were six of these men from the Khazraj so I have been told. From
B. al-Najjar, i.e. Taym Allah of the clan of B. Malik . . . : As'ad b. Zurara
b. 'Udas b. 'Ubayd b. Tha'laba b. Ghanm b. Malik b. al-Najjar known as
Abu Umama; and 'Auf b. al-Harith b. Rifa'a b. Sawad b. Malik . .. known
as Ibn 'Afra’ (229).

From B. Zurayq b. 'Amir b. Zurayq b. 'Abdu Haritha b. Ghadb b.
Jusham . . . : Rafi' b. Malik b. al-'Ajlan b. 'Amr b. 'Amir b. Zurayq (230).

From B. Salima b. Sa'd b. 'All b. Asad b. Sarida b. Tazid b. Jusham .. .
of the clan of B. Sawad b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salima: Qutba b. 'Amir b.
Hadida b. 'Amr b. Ghanm b. Sawad (231).

From B. Haram b. Ka'b b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama: 'Uqba b. 'Amir
b. NabI b. Zayd b. Haram.

From B. 'Ubayd b. 'Adiy b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama: Jabir b. 'Abdul¬
lah b. Ri’ab b. al-Nu'man b. Sin an b, 'Ubayd.

When they came to Medina they told their people about the apostle and

288 invited them to accept Islam until it became so well known among them
that there was no home belonging to the Helpers but Islam and the apostle
had been mentioned therein.

THE FIRST PLEDGE AT AL-'AQABA AND THE MISSION
OF MUS'AB

In the following year twelve Helpers attended the fair and met at al-'Aqaba
—this was the first 'Aqaba—where they gave the apostle the ‘pledge of
women’. 1 This was before the duty of making war was laid upon them.

These men were: From B. al-Najjar: As'ad b. Zurara; 'Auf b. al-Harith
and Mu'adh his brother, both sons of 'Afra’. From B. Zurayq b. 'Amir:
Rafi* b. Malik and Dhakwan b. 'Abdu Qays b. Khalada b. Mukhlid b.
'Amir b. Zurayq (232).

From B. ‘Auf of the clan of B. Ghanm b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf who were
the Qawaqil: 'Ubada b. al-Samit b. Qays b. Asram b. Fihr b. Tha'laba b.
Ghanm; and Abu 'Abdu’ 1 -Rahman who was Yazid b. Tha'laba b. Khazma
b. Asram b. 'Amr b. 'Amm 5 ra of B. Ghu?ayna of Bally, an ally of theirs
( 233 )-

The Life of Muhammad jqq

From B. Salim b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. al-Khazraj of the clan of B. al-'Ajlan
b. Zayd b. Ghanm b. Salim: al-'Abbas b. 'Ubada b. Nadal'a b. Malik b.
al-'Ajlan.

From B. Salima: 'Uqba b. 'Amir.

From B. Sawad: Qutba b. 'Amir b. Hadida. The Aus were represented 289
by Abu’l-Haytham b. al-Tayyihan whose name was Malik of the clan of
B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal b. Jusham b. al-Harith b. al Khazraj b. 'Amr b. Malik b.
al-Aus (234).

From B. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik b. al-Aus: 'Uwaym b. Sa'ida.

Yazid b. Abu Habib from Abu Marthad b. 'Abdullah al-Yazani from
'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Usayla al-Sannaji from 'Ubada b. al-Samit told me:

‘I was present at the first 'Aqaba. There were twelve of us and we pledged
ourselves to the prophet after the manner of women and that was before
war was enjoined, the undertaking being that we should* associate nothing
with God; we should not steal; we should not commit fornication; nor kill
our offspring; we should not slander our neighbours; we should not dis¬
obey him in what was right; if we fulfilled this paradise would be ours; if
we committed any of those sins it was for God to punish or forgive as
He pleased. 1

Al-Zuhri from 'A’idhullah b. 'Abdullah al-Khaulanl Abu Idris said that
'Ubada b. al-Samit told him that ‘We gave allegiance to the apostle that
we would associate nothing with God, not steal, not commit fornication,
not kill our offspring, not slander our neighbour, not disobey him in what
was right; if we fulfilled this paradise would be ours; and if we committed
any of those sins we should be punished in this world and this would serve
as expiation; if the sin was concealed until the Day of Resurrection, then
it would be for God to decide whether to punish or to forgive.’

When these men left, the apostle sent with them Mus'ab b. 'Umayr b.
Hashim b. ‘Abdu Manaf. . . and instructed him to read the Quran to them 290
and to teach them Islam and to give them instruction about religion. In
Medina Mus'ab was called ‘The Reader’; he lodged with As'ad b. Zurara.

Asim b. Umar told me that he used to lead the prayers because Aus
and Khazraj could not bear to see one of their rivals take the lead.

THE INSTITUTION OF FRIDAY PRAYERS IN MEDINA

Muhammad b. Abu Umama b. Sahl b. Hunayf from his father from
Abdu’l-Rahman b. Ka'b b. Malik told me that the latter said: ‘I was leading
my father Ka'b when he had lost his sight, and when I brought him out to
the mosque and he heard the call to prayer he called down blessings on
Abu Umama As'ad b. Zurara. This went on for some time: whenever he
heard the adhan he blessed him and asked God’s pardon for him. I thought
that this was an extraordinary thing to do and decided to ask him why he
did it. He told me that it was because he was the first man to bring them

1 Cf. Sura 60, 12 where the wording is very similar.

1 i.e. no fighting Was involved. Cf. Sura 60. 12.

200

The Life of Muhammad

together in the low ground of al-Nablt 1 in the quarter of the B. Bayada
called Naql'u’l-Khadimat. I asked him how many of them there were,
and he told me that they numbered forty men.’

‘Ubaydallah b. al-Mughira b. Mu'ayqib and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b.
Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm told me that As'ad b. Zurara went out with
Mus'ab b. 'Umayr to the areas of B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal and of B. Zafar,
Sa'd b. al-N,u'man b. ImruVl-Qays b. Zayd b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal was the
son of As'ad’s aunt. He entered with him one of the gardens of B. Zafar
2gi (235) by a well called Maraq and sat in the garden and some of the men
who had accepted Islam gathered together there. Now Sa'd b. Mu'adh
and Usayd b. Hudayr were at that time leaders of their clan, the B. 'Abdu’l-
Ashhal, and both followed the heathenism of their tribe. When they heard
about him Sa'd said to Usayd: ‘Go to these fellows who have entered our
quarters to make fools of our weak comrades, drive them out and forbid
them to enter our quarters. If it were not that As'ad b. Zurara is related to
me as you know I would save you the trouble. He is my aunt s son and I
can do nothing to him.’ So Usayd took his lance and went to them, and
when As'ad saw him he said to Mus'ab, ‘This is the chief of his tribe who
is coming to you, so be true to God with him.’ Mus'ab said, ‘If he will sit
down I will talk to him. 1 He stood over them looking furious and asking
what they meant by coming to deceive their weaker comrades. ‘Leave us if
you value your lives,’ Mus'ab said, ‘Won’t you sit down and listen. If you
like what you hear you can accept it, and if you don’t like it you can leave
it alone.’ He agreed that that was fair, stuck his lance in the ground, and
sat down. He explained Islam to him and read him the Quran. After¬
wards they said—according to what has been reported of them—‘By God,
before he spoke we recognized Islam in his face by its peaceful glow.’ He
said, ‘What a wonderful and beautiful discourse this is! What does one do
if he wants to enter this religion ?’ They told him that he must wash and
purify himself and his garments, then bear witness to the truth and pray.
He immediately did so and made two prostrations. Then he said, There
is a man behind me who if he follows you every one of his people will
follow suit. I will send him to you at once. It is Sa'd b. Mu adh. Taking
his lance he went off to Sa'd and his people who were sitting in conclave.

292 When Sa'd saw him coming he said, ‘By God, Usayd is coming with a
different expression from that he had when he left you.’ And when he
came up he asked what had happened. He said, ‘I have spoken to the two
men and I find no harm in them, I forbade them to go on and they said
to me, We will do what you like; and I was told that the B. Haritha had
gone out against As'ad to kill him because they knew that he was the son of
your aunt so as to make you appear a treacherous protector of your guests.

Sa'd enraged got up at once, alarmed at what had been said about the B.

1 Hazamu’l-Nabit according to al-Suhayli is a mountain one post from Medina. YJqut
denies thia, because Hazam means ‘low ground’. He prefers the reading ‘in the low ground
of the Banu Nabit’, &c.

201

The Life of Muhammad

Haritha. He took the lance from his hand, saying, ‘By God, I see that you
have been utterly ineffective.’ He went out to them and when he saw them
sitting comfortably he knew that Usayd had intended that he should listen
to them. He stood over them, looking furious. To As'ad he said, ‘Were
it not for the relationship between us you would not have treated me thus.
Would you behave in our houses in a way we detest ?’ (Now As'ad had
said to Mus'ab, ‘The leader whom his people follow has come to you. If
he follows you, no two of them will remain behind.’) So Mus'ab said to
him what he had said to Usayd, and Sa'd stuck his lance in the ground and
sat down. The same thing happened again and he went to his people’s
meeting-place accompanied by Usayd. When they saw him coming they
said, ‘We swear by God Sa'd has returned with a different expression.’

And when he stopped by them he asked them how they knew what had
happened to him. They replied, ‘(You are) our chief, the most active in
our interests, the best in judgement and the most fortunate in leadership.’

He said, ‘I will not speak to a man or woman among you until you believe
in God and His apostle.’ As a result every man and woman among the 293
B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal joined Islam.

As'ad and Mus'ab returned to As'ad’s house and stayed there calling
men to Islam until every house of the Ansar had men and women who were
Muslims except those of B. Umayya b. Zayd, and Khatma and Wa’il and
Waqif; the latter were Aus Allah and of Aus b. Haritha. The reason was
that Abu Qays b. al-Aslat whose name was Sayfl was among them. He
w^as their poet and leader and they obeyed him and he kept them back from
Islam. Indeed he continued to do so until the apostle migrated to Medina,
and Badr, and Uhud, and al-Khandaq were over. He said concerning
what he thought of Islam and how men differed about his state:

Lord of mankind, serious things have happened.

The difficult and the simple are involved.

Lord of mankind, if we have erred
Guide us to the good path.

Were it not for our Lord we should be Jews
And the religion of Jew r s is not convenient.

Were it not for our Lord we should be Christians
Along with the monks on Mount Jalil. 1
But when we were created we were created
Hanlfs; our religion is from all generations.

We bring the sacrificial camels walking in fetters
Covered with cloths but their shoulders bare (236).

THE SECOND PLEDGE AT AL-'AQABA

Then Mus'ab returned to Mecca and the Muslim Ansar came to the fair
there with the pilgrims of their people who were polytheists. They met

1 i.c. Galilee.

202 The Life of Muhammad

294 the apostle at al-'Aqaba in the middle of the days of Tashrlq, 1 when God
intended to honour them and to help His apostle and to strengthen Islam
and to humiliate heathenism and its devotees.

Ma'bad b. Ka'b b. Malik b. Abu Ka'b b. al-Qayn, brother of the B.
Salima, told me that his brother 'Abdullah b. Ka'b who was one of the
most learned of the Ansar told him that his father Ka'b who was one of
those who had been present at al-'Aqaba and did homage to the apostle,
informed him saying: ‘We went out with the polytheist pilgrims of our
people having prayed and learned the customs of the pilgrimage. With us
was al-Bara’ b. Ma'rur our chief and senior. When we had started our
journey from Medina al-Bara’ said, “I have come to a conclusion and I
don’t know whether you will agree with me or not. I think that I will not
turn my back on this building” (meaning the Ka'ba), “and that I shall pray
towards it.” We replied that so far as we knew our prophet prayed towards
Syria 2 and we did not wish to act differently. He said, “lam going to pray
towards the Ka'ba.” We said, “But we will not.” When the time for
prayer came we prayed towards Syria and he prayed towards the Ka'ba
until we came to Mecca. We blamed him for what he w T as doing, but he
refused to change. When we came to Mecca he said to me, “Nephew, let
us go to the apostle and ask him about what I did on our journey. For I
feel some misgivings since I have seen your opposition.” So we went to ask
the apostle. We did not know him and we had never seen him before. We
met a man of Mecca and we asked him about the apostle; he asked if we
knew him and we said that w T e did not. Then do you know his uncle, al-
* Abbas b. 'Abdu’l-Muftalib ? We said that we did because he was always
coming to us as a merchant. He said, “When you enter the mosque he is
the man sitting beside al-'Abbas.” So we went into the mosque and there
was al-'Abbas sitting with the apostle beside him; we saluted them and sat
down. The apostle asked al-'Abbas if he knew us, and he said that he did

295 and named us. I shall never forget the apostle’s words when Ka'b’s name
was mentioned, “The poet?” Al-Bara* said, “O prophet of God, I came on
this journey God having guided me to Islam and I felt that I could not
turn my back on this building, so I prayed towards it; but when my com¬
panions opposed me I felt some misgivings. What is your opinion, O
apostle of God ?” He replied, “You would have had a qibla if you had kept
to it,” so al-BarS’ returned to the apostle’s qibla and prayed with us towards
Syria. 3 But his people assert that he prayed towards the Ka'ba until the day of
his death; but this was not so. We know more about that than they (237).” ’

1 The days of the Tashrlq are the three days following the day of sacrifice, i.e, nth, 12th,
and 13th of Dhu’l-IJijja. Various explanations are given by the lexicographers: ( a ) because
the victims were not sacrificed until the sun rose; ( b ) because the flesh of the victims was
cut into strips and left to dry in the sun on those days; and (c) because in pagan times they
used to say at that time Ashriq Thabir kayma nughir ‘Show the sun, O Thabir, that we may
pass on quickly’. See further E.I , and literature cited there.

1 i.e. Jerusalem.

1 The apostle’s reply to al-Barft’ could be taken in either sense, and considerable doubt is
reflected in the commentaries and traditions on the question involved.

The Life of Muhammad 203

Ma'bad b. Ka'b told me that his brother 'Abdullah told him that his
father Ka'b b. Malik said: ‘Then we went to the hajj and agreed to meet
the apostle at al-'Aqaba in the middle of the days of the tashrlq. When we
had completed the hajj and the night came in which w r e had agreed to meet
the apostle there was with us 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Haram Abu Jabir, one
of our chiefs and nobles w r hom we had taken wdth us. We had concealed
our business from those of our people who were polytheists. We said to
him, “You are one of our chiefs and nobles and we want to wean you
from your present state lest you become fuel for the fire in the future.”

1 hen we invited him to accept Islam and told him about our meeting
with the apostle at al-'Aqaba. Thereupon he accepted Islam and came to
al-'Aqaba with us, and became a naqib (leader). 1

‘We slept that night among our people in the caravan until when a third
of the night had passed we went stealing softly like sandgrouse to our 296
appointment with the apostle as far as the gully by al-'Aqaba. There were
seventy-three men with two of our women: Nusayba d. of Ka'b Umm
'Umara, one of the women of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar, and Asma’d. of 'Amr
b. Adiy b. Nabi, one of the women of B. Salima who was known as Umm
Manf. We gathered together in the gully waiting for the apostle until he
came with his uncle al-'Abbas who was at that time a polytheist; albeit
he wanted to be present at his nephew’s business and see that he had
a firm guarantee. When he sat down he was the first to speak and said:

“O people of al-Khazraj (the Arabs used the term to cover both Khazraj
and Aus). You know what position Muhammad holds among us. We
have protected him from our own people who think as we do about
him. He lives in honour and safety among his people, but he will turn
to you and join you. If you think that you can be faithful to what you
have promised him and protect him from his opponents, then assume
the burden you have undertaken. But if you think that you will betray
and abandon him after he has gone out with you, then leave him now.

For he is safe where he is.” We replied, “We have heard what you say.

You speak, O apostle, and choose for yourself and for your Lord what
you wish.”

‘The apostle spoke and recited the Quran and invited men to God and
commended Islam and then said: “I invite your allegiance on the basis
that you protect me as you would your women and children.” Al-Bara’
took his hand and said “By Him Who sent you with the truth we will
protect you as we protect our women. We give our allegiance and we are
men of war possessing arms which have been passed on from father to son.”
While al-Bara was speaking Abu’l-Haytham b. al-Tayyihan interrupted
him and said, “O apostle, we have ties with other men (he meant the Jews)
and if we sever them perhaps when we have done that and God will have
given you victory, you will return to your people and leave us?” The 297
apostle smiled and said: “Nay, blood is blood and blood not to be paid for

1 The term has become technical.

204 The Life of Muhammad

is blood not to be paid for. 1 I am of you and you are of me. I will war
against them that war against you and be at peace with those at peace
with you (238)/’

Ka'b continued: ‘The apostle said, “Bring out to me twelve leaders that
they may take charge of their people’s affairs.” They produced nine from
al-Khazraj and three from al-Aus.’

THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE LEADERS AND THE REST OF
THE STORY OF AL-'AQABA

According to what Ziyad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka’I told us from Muhammad
b. Ishaq al-Mut^alibi (they were):

From al-Khazraj: Abu Umama As'ad b. Zurara ... b. al-Najjar who was
Taym Allah b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. al-Khazraj; Sa'd b. al-Rabf b. 'Amr b.
Abu Zuhayr b. Malik b. Imru’u’l-Qays b. Malik b. Tha'laba b. Ka'b b. al-
Khazraj b. al-Harith. b. al-Khazraj; 'Abdullah b. Rawaha b. Tha'laba of the
same line; Rafi‘ b. Malik b. al-'Ajlan b. 'Amr . . .; al-Bara’ b. Ma'rur b.
Sakhr b. Khansa’ b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd b. 'Adiy b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama
b. Sa'd b. 'All b. Asad b. Sarida b. Tazid b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj; 'Abdul¬
lah b. 'Amr b. Haram b. Tha'laba b. Haram b. Ka'b b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b.

298 Salama ...; 'Ubada b. al-Samit b. Qays b. Asram ... (239). Sa'd b. ‘Ubada
b. Dulaym b. IJaritha b. Abu Hazlma b. Tha'laba b. Tarif b. al-Khazraj b.
Sa'ida b. Ka'b b. al-Khazraj; al-Mundhir b. 'Amr b. Khunays b. IJaritha
b. Laudhan b. 'Abdu Wudd b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. al-Khazraj of the same
line (240).

From al-Aus: Usayd b. Idudayr b. Simak b. 'Atik b. Rafi' b. Imru’u’l-
Qays b. Zayd b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal b. Jusham b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj b.
'Amr b. Malik b. al-Aus; Sa'd b. Khaythama b. al-Harith b. Malik b. Ka'b
b. al-Nahha^ b. Ka'b b. Idaritha b. Ghanm b. al-Salm b. ImruVl-Qays b.
Malikb. al-Aus; Rifa'a b. 'Abdu 1 -Mundhir b. Zubayr b. Zayd b. Umayya
b. Zayd b. Malik b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik b. al-Aus (241).

299 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that the apostle said to the Leaders: ‘You
are the sureties for your people just as the disciples of Jesus, Son of Mary,
were responsible to him, while I am responsible for my people, i.e. the
Muslims.’ They agreed.

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that when the people came together
to plight their faith to the apostle, al-'Abbas b. 'Ubada b. Nadia al-Ansari,
brother of B. Salim b. 'Auf, said, ‘0 men of Khazraj, do you realize to
what you are committing yourselves in pledging your support to this man ?
It is to war against all and sundry. 2 If you think that if you lose your
property and your nobles are killed you will give him up, then do so now,
for it would bring you shame in this world and the next (if you did so

1 i.e. He would treat blood revenge and its obligation as common to both parties. See
I.H.'g note. a Lit. ‘red and black men'.

The Life of Muhammad 205

later); but if you think that you will be loyal to your undertaking if you
lose your property and your nobles are killed, then take him, for by God it
will profit you in this world and the next.’ They said that they would
accept the apostle on these conditions. But they asked what they would
get in return for their loyalty, and the apostle promised them paradise.
They said, ‘Stretch forth your hand,’ and when he did so they pledged
their word. 'Asim added that al-'Abbas said that only to bind the obiiga- 300
tion more securely on them. 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr said that he said it
^ e Jy to kee P the people back that night, hoping that 'Abdullah b. Ubayy
b. ba ul would come and so give more weight to his people’s support. But
God knows best which is right (242).

The B. al-Najjar allege that As'ad b. Zurara was the first to strike his
hand in fealty; the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal say that he was not for Abu’l-
Haytham was the first. Ma'bad b. Ka'b told me in his tradition from his
brother 'Abdullah b. Ka'b from his father Ka'b b. Malik that al-Bara’ was
the first and the people followed him. When we had all pledged ourselves
batan shouted from the top of al-'Aqaba in the most penetrating voice I
have ever heard, ‘O people of the stations of Mina, do you want this repro¬
bate 1 and the apostates 2 who are with him? They have come together to
make war on you!’ The apostle said, ‘This is the Izb 3 of the hill. This is

the son of Azyab. Do you hear, O enemy of God, I swear I will make an
end of you! (243).

t toId them t0 dis P erse and go back to their caravan, and

al- Abbas b. Ubada said, ‘By God, if you wish it we will fall on the people
of Mina tomorrow with our swords.’ He replied, ‘We have not been com¬
manded to do that; but go back to your caravan.’ So we went back to our
beds and slept until the morrow. *

. the morning the leaders of Quraysh came to our encampment say¬

ing that they had heard that we had come to invite Muhammad to leave
them and had pledged ourselves to support him in war against them and
that there was no Arab tribe that they would fight more reluctantly than us.

I hereupon the polytheists of our tribe swore that nothing of the kind had
happened and they knew nothing of it. And here they were speaking the 301
truth for they were in ignorance of what had happened. We looked at one
another. Then the people got up, among them al-Harith b. Hisham b al-
Mughira al-Makhzuml who was wearing a pair of new sandals. I spoke a
W ?jJ d ^though I wanted t0 associate the people with what they had

said, O Abu Jabir, seeing that you are one of our chiefs, can’t you get hold
of a pair of sandals such as this young Qurayshite has? Al-Harith heard
me and took them off his feet and threw them at me saying ‘By God vou
can have them!’ Abu Jabir said, ‘Gently now, you have angered the

• 1S , pr ?7ft an offensive counterpart to the name Muhammad

tn 'tu P w Jf, f Sabl ’ th<? name R1Ven to those who had given UP their own reliction

to take another. Hardly an apostate { murtadd ). R

The word is said to mean ‘small and contemptible’.

206

The Life of Muhammad

young man, so give him back his sandals.’ ‘By God, I will not, I said, it is

a good omen and if it proves to be true I shall plunder him

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that they came to Abdullah b. Ubayy
and said to him much the same as Ka'b had said and he replied, This is a
serious matter; my people are not in the habit of deciding a question with¬
out consulting me in this way and I do not know that it has happene .

Thereupon they left him. ,

When the people had left Mina they investigated the report closely and
found that it was true. So they went in pursuit of (our) people and over¬
took Sa'd b. 'Ubada in Adhakhir and also al-Mundhir b. Amr, brother ot
B. Sa'ida, both of them being ‘leaders’. The latter got away but they
caught Sa'd and tied his hands to his neck with the thongs of the girth
and brought him back to Mecca beating him on the way and dragging him
by the hair, for he was a very hairy man. Sa'd said, ‘As they held me, a
number of Quraysh came up, among them a tall, white, handsome man o
pleasant appearance and I thought that if there was any decency among
302 them this man would show it. But when he came up he delivered me a
violent blow in the face and after that I despaired of fair treatment. As
they were dragging me along, a man took pity on me and said, You poor
devil, haven’t you any right to protection from one of the Quraysh?
“Yes ” I said “I have. I used to guarantee the safety of the merchants ot
Tubayr b. Muf im b. ‘Adly b. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf and protect them
from those who might have wronged them in my country; also al-H 5 nth
b. Harb b. Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Manaf. Very well, then,
call out the names of these two men and say what tie there is between you,
he said. This I did and that man went to them and found them in the
mosque beside the Ka'ba and told them of me and that I was calling for
them and mentioning my claim on them. When they heard who I was they
acknowledged the truth of my claim and came and delivered^. So ba
went off. The name of the man who hit him was Suhayl b. Amr, brother
of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy (244).

The first poetry about the Migration was two verses composed by l^irar
b. al-Khattab b. Mirdas, brother of B. Muharib b. Fihr:

I overtook Sa'd and took him by force.

It would have been better if I had caught Mundhir.

If I had got him his blood would not have to be paid for.

He deserves to be humiliated and left unavenged (244a).

Hassan b. Thabit answered him thus:

You were not equal to Sa'd and the man Mundhir
When the people’s camels were thin.

But for Abu Wahb (my) verses would have passed over
The top of al-Barqa’ 1 swooping down swiftly 2

• Yfiqut says that this is a place in the desert. He does not say where._

• The interpretation of this difficult line depends on the identity of Abu Wahb. The man

207

The Life of Muhammad

Do you boast of wearing cotton
When the Nabataeans wear dyed 1 wrappers ? 303

Be not like a sleeper who dreams that
He is in a town of Caesar or Chosroes.

Don’t be like a bereaved mother who

Would not have lost her child had she been wise;

Nor like the sheep which with her forelegs
Digs the grave she does not desire;

Nor like the barking dog that sticks out his neck
Not fearing the arrow of the unseen archer.

He who directs poetry’s shafts at us
Is like one who sends dates to Khaybar. 2

THE IDOL OF * AMR IBNU’L-JAMUH

When they came to Medina they openly professed Islam there. Now some
of the shaykhs still kept to their old idolatry, among whom was 'Amr b.
al-Jamuh b. YazTd b. Haram b. Ka'b b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama whose
son, Mu'adh, had been present at al-'Aqaba and had done homage to the
apostle there. 'Amr was one of the tribal nobles and leaders and had set
up in his house a wooden idol called Manat 3 as the nobles used to do,
making it a god to reverence and keeping it clean. When the young men of
the B. Salama Mu'adh b. Jabal and his own son Mu'adh adopted Islam
with the other men who had been at al-'Aqaba they used to creep in at
night to this idol of 'Amr’s and carry it away and throw it on its face into
a cesspit. When the morning came 'Amr cried, ‘Woe to you! Who has
been at our gods this night ?’ Then he went in search of the idol and when
he found it he washed it and cleaned it and perfumed it saying, ‘By God,
if I knew who had done this I would treat him shamefully!’ When night
came and he was fast asleep they did the same again and he restored the
idol in the morning. This happened several times until one day he took
the idol from the place where they had thrown it, purified it as before, and

of this name mentioned by 1.1, (p. 123) was the father of the prophet’s maternal uncle; if it
is he that is referred to, clearly the meaning must be that the presence of this man in Mecca
prevented Hassan from launching his invective against Quraysh, and the verb must mean
swooping or rushing. However, al-Barquqi in his commentary' on the Oilcan tentatively
suggests that it was Abu Wahb who brought Dirar’s lines to Medina: had he not done so
they would have fallen impotently on the way. This interpretation requires us to understand
hawo in the sense of falling, and hussara as ‘wearied’ instead of ‘stripped for action’ and so
capable of rapid movement. The last line in I.I.’s text follows this line and this rearrange¬
ment of the lines would naturally suggest that the qasaid came from the same source; but
as 1 . 1 . reported the satire such a conclusion is unnecessary. See further Dr. Arafat’s thesis
on the poetry of Hassan. 1 Or ‘bleached’.

2 i.e. Sends coals to Newcastle. This line follows line 2 in the Ditvart,

3 Suhayll explains that the idol was so called because blood was shed (muniyat) by it as
an offering and that is why idols are said to be bloody. But the explanation of the name is
to be found outside the Arabic language in the goddess of Fate. See S. H. Langdon, Semitic
Mythology, 1931, pp. 19 ff.

208 The Life of Muhammad

304 fastened his sword to it, saying, ‘By God, I don’t know who has done this;
but if you are any good at all defend yourself since you have this sword.’
At night when he was asleep they came again and took the sword from its
neck and hung a dead dog to it by a cord and then threw it into a cesspit.
In the morning 'Amr came and could not find it where it normally was;
ultimately he found it face downwards in that pit tied to a dead dog. When
he saw it and perceived what had happened and the Muslims of his clan
spoke to him he accepted Islam by the mercy of God and became a good
Muslim. He wrote some verses when he had come to a knowledge of God
in which he mentioned the image and its impotence and thanked God for
having delivered him from the blindness and error in which he had lived
hitherto:

By Allah, if you had been a god you would not have been
Tied to a dead dog in a cesspit.

Phew! that we ever treated you as a god, but now
We have found you out and left our wicked folly.

Praise be to God most High, the Gracious,

The Bountiful, the Provider, the Judge of all religions
Who has delivered me in time to save me
From being kept in the darkness of the grave.

CONDITIONS OF THE PLEDGE AT THE SECOND 'AQABA

When God gave permission to his apostle to fight, the second 'Aqaba con¬
tained conditions involving war which were not in the first act of fealty.
Now they bound themselves to war against all and sundry for God and his
apostle, while he promised them for faithful service thus the reward of
paradise.

'Ubad^ b. al-Walld b. 'Ubada b. al-Samit from his father from his
grandfather 'Ubada b. al-Samit who was one of the Leaders told me, ‘We
pledged ourselves to war in complete obedience to the apostle in w'eal and
305 woe, in ease and hardship and evil circumstances; that we would not
wrong anyone; that we would speak the truth at all times; and that in
God’s service we would fear the censure of none.’ 'Ubada was one of the
twelve who gave his word at the first 'Aqaba.

THE NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT AT THE SECOND ‘AQABA

There were seventy-three men and two women of Aus and Khazraj. 1
Of Aus there were:

Usayd b. Hudayr ... a leader who was not at Badr. Abu’l-Haytham b.
Tayyahan who was at Badr. Salma b. Salama b. Waqsh b. Zughba b.
Zu'ura* b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal who was at Badr (245). Total 3.

1 The genealogies already given have been omitted together with repetitions.

The Life of Muhammad 209

From B. Haritha b. al-Harith . . . Zuhayr b. Rafi' b. 'Adly b. Zayd b.
Jusham b. Haritha, and Abu Burda b. Niyar whose name' was Hani’ b.
Niyar b. 'Amr b. 'Ubayd b. Kilab b. Duhman b. Ghanm b. Dhubyan b.
Humaym b. Kamil b. Dhuhl b. Haniy b. Bally b. 'Amr b, al-Haf b. Quda'a,
one of their allies. He was at Badr. Nuhayr b. al-Haytham of B. NabI b!
Majda'a b. Haritha. Total 3.

Of B. Amr b. Auf b. Malik’ Sa d b. Khaythama a 'leader’ who was 306
present at Badr and was killed there as a martyr beside the apostle (246).
Rifa'a b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir, a leader present at Badr. 'Abdullah b. Jubayr
b. al-Nu'man b. Umayya b. al-Burak, the name of al-Burak being Imru VI-
Qays b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr who was present at Badr and was killed as a
martyr at Uhud commanding the archers for the apostle (247). And Ma'an
b. Adiy b. al-Jad b. al- Ajlan b. Haritha b. Dubay'a, a client of theirs from
Bally present at Badr, Uhud, and al-Khandaq and all the apostle’s battles.

He was killed in the battle of al-Yamama as a martyr in the caliphate of
Abu Bakr. And ‘Uwaym b. Sa'ida who was present at Badr, Uhud, and
al-Khandaq. Total 5.

The total for all clans of Aus was 11.

Of al-Khazraj there were:

Of B. al-Najjar who was Taymullah b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr: Abu Ayyub
Khalid b. Zayd b. Kulayb b. Tha'laba b. 'Abd b. 'Auf b. Ghanm b. Malik
b. al-Najjar. He was present at all the apostle’s battles and died in Byzan¬
tine territory as a martyr in the time of Mu'awiya. Mu'adh b. al-Harith
b. Rifa'a b. Sawad b. Malik b. Ghanm. Present at all battles. He was the
son of ‘Afra’ and his brother was 'Auf b. al-Harith who was killed at Badr
as a martyr. Mu'awwidh his brother shared the same glory. It was he
who killed Abu Jahl b. Hisham b. al-Mughira; he too was 'Afra’s son 307
(248). And 'Umara b. Hazm b. Zayd b. Laudhan b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu
'Auf b. Ghanm. He w r as present at all battles and died a martyr in the
battle of al-Yamama in the caliphate of Abu Bakr. As'ad b. Zurara, a
leader. He died before Badr when the apostle’s mosque was being built.
Total 6.

Of B. 'Amr b. Mabdhul who was ‘Amir b. Malik: Sahl b. 'Atlk b.
Nu'man b. 'Amr b. 'Atlk b. 'Amr. Was at Badr. Total 1.

Of B. 'Amr b. Malik b. al-Najjar who are the B. Hudayla (249). Aus b.
Thabit b. al-Mundhir b. Haram b. ‘Amr b. Zayd Manat b. 'Adiy b. 'Amr
b. Malik, present at Badr; Abu Talha Zayd b. Sahl b. al-Aswad b. Haram
b. ‘Amr b. Zayd Manat . . . present at Badr. Total 2.

Of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar: Qays b. Abu Sa'sa'a whose name was 'Amr b.

Zayd b. 'Auf b. Mabdhul b. 'Amr b. Ghanm b. Mazin. Present at Badr
where the apostle put him in command of the rearguard. 'Amr b. Ghazlya
b. ‘Amr b. Tha'laba b. Khansa’ b. Mabdhul . . . Total 2.

The total for B. al-Najjar was 11 (250). 3 ° 8

Of B. al-Harith b. Khazraj: Sa'd b. al-Rabl', a leader. Was at Badr and
died a martyr at Uhud. Kharija b. Zayd b. Abu Zuhayr b. Malik b.

p

B 4080

210

The Life of Muhammad

Imru’ul-Qays b. Malik al-Agharr b. Tha'laba b. Ka'b. Present at Badr
and killed at Uhud as a martyr. 'Abdullah b. Raw r a]ha, a leader, present at
all the apostle’s battles except the occupation of Mecca and was killed at
Muta as a martyr as one of the apostle’s commanders. Bashir b. Sa'd b.
Tha'laba b. Khalas b. Zayd b. Malik . . . , the father of al-Nu 'man was
present at Badr. 'Abdullah b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. 'Abdullah b. Zayd
Manat b. al-Harith. Present at Badr. He it was who was shown how to
call to prayer and was ordered by the apostle to perform it. Khallad b.
Suwayd b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. Haritha b. Imru’ul-Qays b. Malik. Present
at Badr, Uhud, and al-Khandaq and was killed as a martyr in fighting B.
Qurayza when a millstone was thrown from one of their castles and crushed
his skull. The apostle said—so they say—that he will have the reward of
two martyrs. 'Uqba b. 'Amr b. Tha'laba b. Usayra b. 'Usayra b. Jadara
b. 'Auf who is Abu Mas'ud, the youngest of those at al-'Aqaba. Died in
the time of Mu'awiya. Was not at Badr. Total 7.

Of B. Bayada b.'Amir b. Zurayq b. 'Abdu Haritha: Ziyad b. Labld b.
Tha'laba b. Sinan b. 'Amir b. 'Adiy b. Umayya b. Bayada. Present at
Badr. Farwa b. 'Amr b. Wadhafa b. 'Ubayd b. 'Amir b. Bayada. Present
at Badr (251). Khalid b. Qays b. Malik b. al-'Ajlan b. 'Amir. At Badr.
Total 3.

309 Of B. Zurayq b. 'Amir b. Zurayq b. 'Abdu Haritha b. Malik b. Ghadb b.
Jusham b. al-Khazraj: Rafi' b. al-'Ajlan, a leader. Dhakwan b. 'Abdu Qays
b. Khalda b. Mukhallad b. 'Amir. He went out to the apostle and stayed
with him in Mecca after he had migrated from Medina; thus he got the
name of Ansari Muhajirl. He was at Badr and was killed as a martyr at
Uhud. 'Abbad b. Qays b. 'Amir b. Khalda, &c. Was at Badr. Al-Harith
b. Qays b. Khalid b. Mukhallad b. 'Amir, who was Abu Khalid. Present
at Badr. Total 4.

Of B. Salama b. Sa'd b. 'All b. Asad b. Sarida b. Tazld . . . Al-Bara’ b.
Ma'rur b. Sakhr ... a leader who, the B. Salama allege, was the first to
strike his hand on the apostle’s when the conditions of the second 'Aqaba
were agreed to.. He died before the apostle came to Medina. His son
Bishr was at Badr, Uhud, and al-Khandaq and he died in Khaybar of
eating with the apostle the mutton that was poisoned. He it was to whom
the apostle referred when he asked B. Salama who their chief was and they
replied, ‘Al-Judd b. Qays in spite of his meanness!’ He said, ‘What disease
is worse than meanness? The chief of B. Sfalama is the white curly haired
Bishr b. al-Bara’ b. Ma'rur.’ Sinan b. Sayj^ib. Sakhr b. Khansa’ b. Sinan
b. 'Ubayd who was at Badr and died a martyr at al-Khandaq. Al-Tufayl
b.^Nu'man b. Khansa’ b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd with the same record. Ma'qil
b. al-Mundhir b. Sarh b. Khunas b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd who was at Badr,
together with his brother Yazld, Mas'ud b. Yazld b. Subay' b. Khansa’ b.
Sinan b. 'Ubayd. Al-Dahhak b. Haritha b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. 'Ubayd

3jo who was present 4 Badr. Yazld b. Haram b. Subay' b. Khansa b. Sinan
b. 'Ubayd. Jubbar b. Sakhr b. Umayya b. Khansa’ b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd

The Life of Muhammad 211

present at Badr (252). Al-Tufayl b. Malik b. Khansa’ b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd
who was present at Badr. 1 Total n.

Of B. Sawad b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama of the clan of Banu Ka'b b
Sawad: Ka'b b. Malik b. Abu Ka'b b. al-Qayn b. Ka'b. Total 1.

Of B. Ghanm b, Sawad b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama. Salim b. 'Amr b.
IdadIda b. 'Amr b. Ghanm who was at Badr. Qutba b. 'Amir b. Hadlda b.
Amr b. Ghanm who was at Badr. Yazld his brother known as Abu’l-
Muncfhir; was at Badr. Ka'b b. 'Amr b. 'Abbad b. 'Amr b. Ghanm known
as Abu’l-Yasar. At Badr. Sayfi b. Sawad b. 'Abbad b. 'Amr b. Ghanm
(253). Total 5.

Of B. NaMb. 'Amr b. Sawad b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama: Tha'laba b.
Ghanama b. 'Adiy b. Nabi was at Badr and was killed as a martyr at al-
Khandaq. ^ 'Amr b. Ghanama b. 'Adiy b. Nabi. 'Abs b. 'Amir b. 'Adiy was
at Badr. 'Abdullah b. Unays an ally from Quda'a. Khalid b. 'Amr b
'Adiy. Total 5.

Of B. Haram b. Ka'b b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama: 'Abdullah b. 'Amr
who was a leader and was at Badr and was killed as a martyr at Uhud.
Jabir his son. Mu'adh b. 'Amr b. al-Jamuh who was at Badr. Thabit b,
al-Jidh'(a!-Jidh' being Tha'laba b. Zayd b. al-Harith b. Haram) was at
Badr and was killed as a martyr at al-Ta‘if. 'Umayr b. al-Harith b. Tha'laba
b. al-Harith b. Haram who was at Badr (254). Khadij b. Salama b. Aus
b. 'Amr b. al-Furafir an ally from Ballv. Mu'adh b. Jabal b. 'Amr b. Aus
b. A idh b. Ka b b. Amr b. Adi 2 b. Sa d b. 'All b. Asad. It is said 'Asad b.
Sarida b. Tazld b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj, who lived with the B. Salama; he
was present at all the battles and died in 'Amwas' 1 in the year of the Syrian
plague duiing the caliphate of Umar. The B. Salama claimed him for the
reason that he was the brother of Sahl b. Muhammad b. al-Judd b. Qays b.
Sakhr b. Khansa b. Sinan b, Ubayd . . . b. Salama through his mother
(255). Total 7.

Of B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj then of the B. Salim b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf:
'Ubada b. al-Samit, a leader W'ho was at all the battles . .. (256). Al-'Abbas
b, Ubada b. Nadia . . one of those w ? ho joined the apostle in Mecca,
lived there with him, and was called an Ansari Muhajiri. He was killed at
Uhud as a martyr. Abu 'Abdu’l-Rahman Yazld b. tha'laba b. Khazama
b. Asram b. Amr b. Ammara, an ally from the B. Ghusayna of Bally.
'Amr b. al-Harith b. Labda b. 'Amr b. tha'laba. They were the Qawaqih
Total 4.

Of B. Salim b. Ghanm b. 'Auf; knovm as the B. al-Hubla (257): Rifa'a
b. 'Amr b. Zayd b. 'Amr b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. Salim b. Ghanm known 3
as Abu’l-Walid. Was at Badr (258). 'Uqba b. Wahb b. Kalda b. al-Ja'd b.
Hilal b. al-Harith b. 'Amr b. 'Adiy b. Jusham b. 'Auf b. Buhtha b. 'Abdul¬
lah b. Ghatafan b, Sa d b. Qays b. 'Aylan, an ally, present at Badr. He had
the title Ansari Muhajirl for the reason given above. Total 2.

I f 0mc aUt j°”V, eS 3SS f rt that this is the same P erson the one just mentioned above.

Some read Udhan. See Suhayli in he. 3 i.e. the biblical Emmaus.

212 The Life of Muhammad

Of the B. Sa'ida b. Ka'b: Sa'd b. 'Ubada a leader. Al-Mundhir b. 'Amr,
a leader, present at Badr and Uhud and killed at Bi’r Ma'una commanding
for the apostle. It was said of him ‘He hastened to death* (259). Total 2.

The total number of those present at the second 'Aqaba from the Aus
and Khazraj was seventy-three men and two women who they allege
pledged their obedience also. The apostle used not to strike hands with
women; he merely stated the conditions, and if they accepted them he
would say, ‘Go, I have made a covenant with you.*

(Of these two women) Nusayba was of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar. She was
d. of Ka'b b. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Mabdhul b. 'Amr b. Ghanm b. Mazin,
mother of 'Umara. She and her sister went to war with the apostle. Her
husband was Zayd b. 'Asim b. Ka'b, and her two sons were Habib and
'Abdullah. Musaylima the liar, the Hanlfl chief of the Yamama, got hold
of Habib and began to say to him, ‘Do you testify that Muhammad is the
apostle of God ?’ And when he said that he did, he went on, ‘And do you

313 testify that I am the apostle of God?* he answered, ‘I do not hear.’ So he
began to cut him to pieces member by member until he died. He tried
putting the same questions to him again and again, but he could get no
different answers. Nusayba went to al-Yamama with the Muslims and
took part in the war in person until God slew Musaylima, when she
returned having suffered twelve wounds from spear or sword. It was
Muhammad b. Yahya b. IJabban who told me this story from 'Abdullah
b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Abu Sa'sa'a.

The other woman was of B. Salama, Umm Mani', named Asma* d.
'Amr b. 'Adiy b. Nabi b. 'Amr b. Sawad b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama.

THE APOSTLE RECEIVES THE ORDER TO FIGHT

The apostle had not been given permission to fight or allowed to shed
blood before the second 'Aqaba. He had simply been ordered to call men
to God and to endure insult and forgive the ignorant. The Quraysh had
persecuted his followers, seducing some from their religion, and exiling
others from their country. They had to choose whether to give up their
religion, be maltreated at home, or to flee the country, some to Abyssinia,
others to Medina.

When Quraysh became insolent towards God and rejected His gracious
purpose, accused His prophet of lying, and ill treated and exiled those who
served Him and proclaimed His unity, believed in His prophet, and held
fast to His religion, He gave permission to His apostle to fight and to
protect himself against those who wronged them and treated them badly.

The first verse which was sent down on this subject from what I have
heard from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr and other learned persons was: ‘Permis-

314 sion is given to those who fight because they have been wronged. God is
well able to help them,—those who have been driven out of their houses
without right only .because they said God is our Lord. Had not God used-

The Life of Muhammad 213

some men to keep back others, cloisters and churches and oratories and
mosques wherein the name of God is constantly mentioned would have
been destroyed. Assuredly God will help those who help Him. God is
Almighty. Those who if we make them strong in the land with establish
prayer, pay the poor-tax, enjoin kindness, and forbid iniquity. To God
belongs the end of matters. 1 The meaning is: ‘I have allowed them to
fight only because they have been unjustly treated while their sole offence
against men has been that they worship God. When they are in the ascen-
dant they will establish prayer, pay the poor-tax, enjoin kindness, and
forbid iniquity, i.e. the prophet and his companions all of them ’ Then
God sent down to him: ‘Fight them so that there be no more seduction, 2
ue. until no believer is seduced from his religion. ‘And the religion’is
God s , i.e. Until God alone is worshipped.

When God had given permission to fight and this clan of the Ansar
had pledged their support to him in Islam and to help him and his followers
and the Muslims who had taken refuge with them, the apostle commanded
his compamons, the emigrants of his people and those Muslims who were
with him in Mecca, to emigrate to Medina and to link up with their
brethren the Ansar. ‘God will make for you brethren and houses in which
you may be safe.’ So they went out in companies, and the apostle stayed
in Mecca waiting for his Lord’s permission to leave Mecca and migrate
to Medina.

THOSE WHO MIGRATED TO MEDINA

The first of the Quraysh to migrate to Medina from among the apostle’s
companions was one of B. Makhzum, Abu Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Asad b.
Hilal b. Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum whose forename was 'Abdullah
He went to Medina a year before the pledge at al-'Aqaba, having come to
the apostle m Mecca from Abyssinia. He migrated because the Quraysh
ill-treated him and he had heard that some of the Ansar had accepted
Islam.

My father Ishaq b. Yasar on the authority of Salama who had it from
his grandmother Umm Salama the prophet’s wife told me that she said-
When Abu Salama had decided to set out for Medina he saddled his camel
for me and mounted me on it together with my son Salama who was in
my arms. Then he set out leading the camel. When the men of B
al-Mughlra b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum saw him they got up and
said: ‘So far as you are concerned you can do what you like; but what
about your wife? Do you suppose that we shall let you take her away?’
So they snatched the camel’s rope from his hand and took me from him.
Abu Salama’s family, the B. Abdu'l-Asad, were angry at this and said:
W e will not leave our son with her seeing you have torn her from our
tribesman.’ So they dragged at my little boy Salama between them until
1 SQra 22 ‘ 40 - 42 . * Sura 2. 198.

214 The Life of Muhammad

they dislocated his arm, and the B. al-Asad took him away, while the
B. al-Mughira kept me with them, and my husband Abu Salama went to
Medina. Thus I was separated from my husband and my son. I used to go
out every morning and sit in the valley weeping continuously until a year
or so had passed when one of my cousins of B. al-Mughira passed and saw
my plight and took pity on me. He said to his tribesmen, ‘Why don’t
you let this poor woman go ? You have separated husband, wife, and child.’
So they said to me, ‘You can join your husband if you like’; and then the
B. 'Abdu’l-Asad restored my son to me. So I saddled my camel and took
my son and carried him in my arms. Then I set forth making for my hus¬
band in Medina. Not a soul was with me. I thought that I could get food
from anyone I met on the road until I reached my husband. When I was in
Tan'lm 1 I met 'Uthman b. Talha b. Abu Talha, brother of B. 'Abdu’l-
Dar, who asked me where I was going and if I was all alone. I told him
that except for God and my little boy I was alone. He said that I ought
not to be left helpless like that and he took hold of the camel’s halter and
went along with me. Never have I met an Arab more noble than he. When
we halted he would make the camel kneel for me and then withdraw;
when we reached a stopping-place he would lead my camel £way, unload it,
and tie it to a tree. Then he would go from me and lie down under a tree.

316 When evening came he would bring the camel and saddle it, then go
behind me and tell me to ride; and when I was firmly established in the
saddle he would come and take the halter and lead it until he brought me
to a halt. This he did all the way to Medina. When he saw a village of
B. 'Amr b. 'Auf in Quba’ he said: ‘Your husband is in this village (Abu
Salama was actually there), so enter it with the blessing of God.’ Then
he went off on his way back to Mecca.

She used to say, By God, I do not know a family in Islam which suffered
what the family of Abu Salama did. 2 Nor have I ever seen a nobler man
than 'Uthman b. Talha.

The first emigrant to go to Medina after Abu Salama was 'Amir b.
Rabl'a, an ally of B. 'Adly b. Ka'b together with his wife Layla d. of
Idathma b. Ghanim b. 'Abdullah b. 'Auf b. 'Ubayd b, 'Uwayj b. 'Adly b.
Ka'b. Then 'Abdullah b. Jahsh b. Ri’ab b. Ya'mar b. Sabira b. Murra b.
Kathlr b. Ghanm b. Dudan b. Asad b. Khuzayma ally of B. Umayya b.
'Abdu Shams along with his family and his brother 'Abd—who was known
as Abu Ahmad. Now Abu Ahmad was blind and he used to go all round
Mecca from top to bottom without anyone to lead him. He 1 was a poet.
He had to wife al-Far'a d. of Abu Sufyan b. Harb; his mother was Umayma
d. of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib.

The house of the B. Jahsh was locked up when they left and 'Utba b.
Rabl'a and al-'Abbas b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib and Abu Jahl b. Hisham passed

1 This place is said to be two parasangs, i.e. about six miles, from Mecca.

• The family was all but destroyed in the wars that followed; 'Uthman himself was killed
  at the beginning of 'Umar’s reign.

The Life of Muhammad 2I5

by i t on their way to the upper part of Mecca. (Today it is the house" of

and 3 fro' em^Uf ' U,ba ,ooked at >t with its doors blowing to

and 11 o, empty of inhabitants, and sighed heavily and said: g

Every house however long its prosperity lasts
1 one day be overtaken by misfortune and trouble (260).

Then 'Utba went on to say, ‘The house of the R fohch h u
tenanfle^ » u al- r , , : 1 tne J a vsh has become 317

tenantless. To which Abu Jahl replied, ‘Nobody will weep over that

He went on ; This is the work of this man’s nephew. He has divided our
community, disrupted our affairs, and driven a wedge between us Abu
Salama and Amir b. Rabl'a and 'Abdullah b. Jahsh and his brother Abu

, a . were billeted on Mubashshir b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir b

Zanbar in Quba among the B. 'Amr b. 'Auf.

Then the refugees came in companies and the B. Ghanm b. Dudan were

both " h °, had g0ne “ Medlna as a bod y "' ith the apostle as emigrants

both men and women: 'Abdullah b. Jahsh and his brother Abu Ahmad

nd AA , l „ ' ?an 3n r / hUjr 8nd ' Uqba ' the t '™ WaTb

and Ai bad b. Humayyira (262 , and Munqidh b. Nubata and Sa f Td h

Ruqaysh and Muhriz b. Nadia and Yazid b Ruqaysh and Qays b it

and Amr b M.Jisan and Malik b. 'Amr and Saflan b. 'Amr andThtj

^UbavTatnd Sakhh b h Tlh' nd , a ’’ Zubayr b ' ' Ab!d and Tammam b
j aI?sh y 1 baia b ‘ Lba y da and Muhammad b. 'Abdullah b.

t W , omen were Zaynab and Uram Habib daughters of Uhch

Judhama d. Jandal and Umm Qays d. Mihsan and Umm Habib t

Hamna Tjahsh. J ' ° f RUqaySh “ d Sakhbara d ' and

Abu Ahmad mentioning the migration of the B. Asad b. Khuzayma of

s people to God and his apostle and their going in a body when they
weie called on to emigrate, said: ^ ^

Had Ahmad’s mother ‘twist Safa and Marwa sworn
.riei oath would have been true.

We were the first in Mecca and remained so
I ill the worse became the better part.

Here Ghanm b. Dudan pitched his tent.

From it Ghanm has gone and its inhabitants diminish. 1
l o ood they go in ones and twos,

Their religion the religion of God’and his apostle. 3

He also said:

When Umm Ahmad saw me setting out

In the protection of One 1 secretly fear and reverence.

C. s text has And what if Ghanm has cone’ &c AIm'i nu... r ^ • .

rendered ‘inhabitants’. * &c - Abu Dharr queries the word qatin

2l6

The Life of Muhammad

She said, ‘If you must do this,

Then take us anywhere but to Yathrib.’

I said to her, ‘Nay, Yathrib today is our goal.

What the Merciful wills the slave must do.’

Towards God and His apostle is my face

And he who sets his face to God today will not be disappointed.

How many sincere friends have we left behind

And a woman who would dissuade us with weeping and wailing.

You may think that hope of vengeance takes us far from home,

But we think that the hope of good things to come draws us.

I besought the Banu Ghanm to avoid bloodshed
And accept the truth when the way is plain to all.

Praising God they accepted the call of truth
And salvation, and went forth as one man.

We and some of our companions who left the right path
Who helped others against us with their weapons
Became two parties: one helped and guided
To the truth, the other doomed to punishment.

Unjust they have invented lies.

Iblls beguiled them from the truth—they are disappointed and
frustrated.

We turned back to the prophet Muhammad’s words.

’Twas well with us, friends of truth, and we were made happy.

We are the nearest in kin to them.

But there’s no next-of-kin when friendship is lacking.

What sister’s son after us will trust you?

What son-in-law after mine can be relied on ?

You will know which of us has found the truth

The day that separation is made and the state of men is distinct (263). 1

'UMAR MIGRATES TO MEDINA. 'AYYASH AND HIS STORY

319 Then 'Umar b. al-Khattab and 'Ayyash b. Abu Rabi'a al-Makhzumi went
to Medina. Nafi', freedman of 'Abdullah b. 'Umar, told me that the latter
informed him that his father 'Umar said: ‘When we had made up our
minds to migrate to Medina 'Ayyash, Hisham b. al-'As b. Wa’il al-Sahmi,
and I made an appointment to meet at the thorn-trees of Adat of B.
Ghifar 2 above Sarif 3 and w^e said: “If one of us fails to turn up there in the
morning he will have been kept back by force and the other two must go
on.” 'Ayyash and I duly arrived there, but Hisham was kept back and
succumbed to the temptation to apostatize.

1 This seems to be an allusion to Sura 10. 29.

a About 10 miles from Mecca. From Yaq. i. 875. 13 al-Tana^ub would seem to be a place,
or at any rate a landmark, near by. 3 About 6 miles from Mecca.

The Life of Muhammad 217

‘When we reached Medina we stayed with B. 'Amr b. 'Auf in Quba’;
and Abu Jahl and al-Harith, sons of Hisham, came to 'Ayyash who was the
son of their uncle and their maternal brother, while the apostle was still
in Mecca. They told him that his mother had vowed that she would not
comb her head or take shelter from the sun until she saw him. He felt
sorry for her and I said to him, “This is nothing but an attempt of the
people to seduce you from your religion so bew'are of them; for by God
if lice were causing your mother trouble she w'ould use her comb, and if
the heat of Mecca oppressed her she would take shelter from it.” But
he said, “I will clear my mother from her oath; also I have some money
there which I can get.” I told him that I was one of the richest of the
Quraysh and he could have half my money if he refused to go with the
two men. But when I saw that he was determined to go I said, “If you
must go, then take this camel of mine. She is well bred and easy to ride.
Don’t dismount, and if you suspect them of treachery you can escape
on her.”

‘The three went off and while they were on their way Abu Jahl said,
“Nephew, I find my beast hard to ride. Won’t you mount me behind
you?” When he agreed he and they made their camels kneel to make the
change over, and when they were on the ground they fell on him and
bound him securely and brought him to Mecca and induced him to
apostatize.’ 3 2 °

One of the family of 'Ayyash told me that they brought him in to Mecca
bound by day and said, ‘6 men of Mecca, deal with your fools as we have
dealt with this fool of ours.’

To continue NafF’s story of 'Umar’s words: ‘We were saying God will
not receive compensation or ransom or repentance from those who let
themselves be made apostates—a people who know God and then return
to unbelief because of trial!’ And they were saying that of themselves.
When the apostle came to Medina God sent down concerning them and
what we had said and what they themselves thought: ‘Say: O my servants
who have acted foolishly against yourselves, despair not of God’s mercy,
for God forgiveth all sins. He is Forgiving Merciful. Turn to your Lord
and submit yourselves to Him before punishment comes to you, then
you will not be helped. Follow that excellent course which has been sent
down to you from your Lord before punishment comes to you suddenly
when you do not perceive it.’ 1

I wrote these w r ords with my own hand on a sheet and sent it to Hisham,
and he said, ‘W'hen it came to me I read it in Dhu Tuwa, 2 bringing it near
and holding it at arms’ length and could make nothing of it until I said,

“O God, make me understand it!”. Then God put it into my heart that it
had been sent down concerning us and what we were thinking and what
was being said about us. So I returned to my camel and rejoined the
apostle who was then in Medina (264).’

1 Sura 39. 54-56. 2 A place in the lower part of Mecca,

2l8

The Life of Muhammad

THE LODGEMENTS OF THE EMIGRANTS IN MEDINA

321 'Umar accompanied by various members of his family, and his brother
Zayd, and 'Amr and 'Abdullah the sons of Suraqa b. al-Mu'tamir, and
Khunays b. Hudhafa al-Sahmi (who had married 'Umar’s daughter
Hafsa whom the apostle married after the death of her husband), and
Waqid b. 'Abdullah al-Tamlml an ally of theirs, and Khaull and Malik
b. Abu Khaull, two allies (265), and four sons of al-Bukayr, namely
Iyas, 'Aqil, 'Amir, and Khalid; and their allies from B. Sa'd b. Layth;
when they arrived at Medina stayed with Rifa'a b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir b.
Zanbar among B. 'Amr b. 'Auf in Quba’. 'Ayyash also stayed with him
when he came to Medina.

Then came successive waves of emigrants: Talha b. 'Ubayd Allah b.
'Uthman; Suhayb b. Sinan stayed with Khubayb b. Isaf brother of the B.
al-Harith b. al-Khazraj, in al-Sunh. 1 Others deny this and say that
Talha stayed with As'ad b. Zurara brother of the B. al-Najjar (266).

322 The following stayed with Kulthum b. Hidm brother of B. 'Amr b.
'Auf in Quba’'. Hamza b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib; Zayd b. Haritha; Abu Mar-
thad Kannaz b. Hisn (267); and his son Marthad of the tribe GhanT, allies
of Hamza; Anasa; and Abu Kabsha, freedmen of the apostle. Other
reports are that they stayed with Sa'd b. Khaythama; and that Hamza
stayed with As'ad b. Zurara.

The following stayed with 'Abdullah b. Salama brother of the Banu
'Ajlan in Quba’: 'Ubayda b. al-Harith and his brother al-Tufayl; al-
Husayn b. al-Harith; Mistah b. Uthatha b. 'Abbad b. al-Muttalib;
Suwaybit b. Sa'd b. Huraymila brother of B. 'Abdu’l-I>ar: Tulayb b.
'Umayr brother of the B. 'Abd b. Qusayy; and Khabbab, freedman of
'Utba b. Ghazwan.

With Sa'd b. al-Rabi' brother of the B. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj in the house
of the latter stayed 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf with some male emigrants.

With Mundhir b. Muhammad b. 'Uqba b. Uhayha b. al-julah in
al-'Usba the dwelling of the B. Jahjaba, stayed al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam
and Abu Sabra b. Abu Ruhm b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza.

With Sa'd b. Mu'adh b. al-Nu'man brother of the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal in
their dwelling stayed Mus'ab b. 'Umayr b. Hashim brother of the B.
'Abdu’l-Dar.

323 With 'Abbad b. Bishr b. Waqsh brother of the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal in
the latter’s dwelling stayed Abu Hudhayfa b. 'Utba b. Rabl'a and his
freedman Salim; and 'Utba b. Ghazwan b. Jabir (268).

With Aus b. Thabit b. al-Mundhir, brother of Hassan b. Thabit in the
dwelling of B. al-Najjar stayed 'Uthman b. 'Affan. This was the reason why
Hassan was so fond of 'Uthman and lamented him when he was slain.

It is said that the celibate emigrants stayed with Sa'd b. Khaythama
because he himself was unmarried; but God knows best about that.

1 In the upper part of Medina.

PART III

THE HIJRA

THE CAMPAIGNS FROM MEDINA
THE OCCUPATION OF MECCA
THE CONQUEST OF ARABIA
THE DEATH OF THE PROPHET

THE HIJRA OF THE PROPHET

After his companions had left, the apostle stayed in Mecca waiting for
permission to migrate. Except for Abu Bakr and 'All, none of his supporters
were left but those under restraint and those who had been forced to aposta¬
tize. The former kept asking the apostle for permission to emigrate and
he would answ'er, ‘Don’t be in a hurry; it may be that God will give you
a companion.’ Abu Bakr hoped that it would be Muhammad himself.

When the Quraysh saw that the apostle had a party and companions
not of their tribe and outside their territory, and that his companions
had migrated to join them, and knew that they had settled in a new home
and had gained protectors, they feared that the apostle might join them,
since they knew that he had decided to fight them. So they assembled
in their council chamber, the house of Qusayy b. Kilab where all their
important business was conducted, to take counsel what they should do in
regard to the apostle, for they were now in fear of him.

One of our companions whom I have no reason to doubt told me on the
authority of ‘Abdullah b. Abu Najlh from Mujahid b. Jubayr father of
al-Hajjaj; and another person of the same character on the authority of 324
‘Abdullah b. ‘Abbas told me that when they had fixed a day to come to a
decision about the apostle, on the morning of that very day which was
called the day of al-Zahma the devil came to them in the form of a hand¬
some old man clad in a mantle and stood at the door of the house. When
they saw him standing there they asked him who he was and he told them
that he was a shaykh from the highlands who had heard of their intention
and had come to hear what they had to say and perhaps to give them
counsel and advice. He was invited to enter and there he found the
leaders of Quraysh. From B. 'Abdu Shams were ‘Utba and Shayba sons
of Rabi‘a; and Abu Sufyan. From B. Naufal b. ‘Abdu Manaf Tu'ayma
b. ‘Adiy; Jubayr b. Mut‘im; and al-Harith b. 'Amir b. Naufal. From B.
'Abdu’l-Dar al-Nadr b. al-Harith b. Kalada. From B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-
'Uzza Abu’l-Bakhtarl b. Hisham and Zam'a b. al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib;
and Hakim b. Hizam. From B. Makhzum Abu Jahl b. Hisham. From
B. Sahm Nubayh and Munabbih the sons of al-Hajjaj. From B. Jumah
Umayya b. Khalaf, and others including some who were not of Quraysh.

The discussion opened with the statement that now that Muhammad
had gained adherents outside the tribe they were no longer safe against
a sudden attack and the meeting was to determine the best course to
pursue. One advised that they should put him in irons behind bars and
then wait until the same Tate overtook him as befell his like, the poets
Zuhayr and Nabigha, and others. The shaykh objected to this on the
ground that news would leak out that he was imprisoned, and immediately
his followers would attack and snatch him away; then their numbers
would so grow that they would destroy the authority of Quraysh altogether.

222

The Life of Muhammad

325 They must think of another plan. Another man suggested that they should
drive him out of the country. They did not care where he went or what
happened to him once he was out of sight and they were rid of him. They
could then restore their social life to its former state. Again the shaykh
objected that it was not a good plan. His fine speech and beautiful diction
and the compelling force of his message were such that if he settled with
some Beduin tribe he would win them over so that they would follow him
and come and attack them in their land and rob them of their position and
authority and then he could do what he liked with them. They must
think of a better plan.

Thereupon Abu Jahl said that he had a plan which had not been
suggested hitherto, namely that each clan should provide a young, power¬
ful, well-born, aristocratic warrior; that each of these should be provided
with a sharp sword; then that each of them should strike a blow at him
and kill him. Thus they would be relieved of him, and responsibility
for his blood would lie upon all the clans. The B. 'Abdu Manaf could not
fight them all and would have to accept the blood-money which they
would all contribute to. The shaykh exclaimed: ‘The man is right.
In my opinion it is the only thing to do.’ Having come to a decision the
people dispersed.

Then Gabriel came to the apostle and said: ‘Do not sleep tonight on the
bed on which you usually sleep.’ Before much of the night had passed
they assembled at his door waiting for him to go to sleep so that they
might fall upon him. When the apostle saw what they were doing he
told r AB to He on his bed and to wrap himself in his green Had rami
mantle; for no harm would befall him. He himself used to sleep in this

326 mantle.

Yazid b. Ziyad on the authority of Muhammad b. Ka r b. al-QurazI told
me that when they were all outside his door Abu Jahl said to them:
‘Muhammad alleges that if you follow him you will be kings of the Arabs
and the Persians. 'Then after death you will be raised to gardens like those
of the Jordan. But if you do not follow him you will be slaughtered, and
when you are raised from the dead you will be burned in the fire of hell.’
The apostle came out to them with a handful of dust saying: ‘I do say
that. You are one of them.’ God took away their sight so that they could
not see him and he began to sprinkle the dust on their heads as he recited
these verses: ‘Ya Sin, by the wise Quran. Thou art of those that art sent
on a straight path, a revelation of the Mighty the Merciful’ as far as the
words ‘And we covered them and they could not see’. 1 When he had
finished reciting not one of them but had dust upon his head. Then he
went wherever he ’wanted to go and someone not of their company came
up and asked them what they were waiting for there. When they said
that they were waiting for Muhammad he said: ‘ But good heavens Muham¬
mad came out to you and put dust on the head of every single man of you

1 Sura 36. 1-8.

223

The Life of Muhammad

and then went off on his ow n affairs. C an t you sec what has happened
to you?’ They put up their hands and felt the dust on their heads. Then
they began to search and saw 7 'All on the bed wrapped in the apostle’s
mantle and said, By God it is Muhammad sleeping in lus mantle.’ Thus
they remained until the morning when 'All rose from the bed and then
they realized that the man had told them the truth.

Among the verses of the Quran which God sent down about that day
and what they had agreed upon are: ‘And when the unbelievers plot to
shut thee up or to kill thee or to drive thee out they plot, but God plots
also, and God is the best of plotters’; 1 and ‘Or they say he is a poet for
whom wc may expect the misfortune of fate. Say: Go on expecting for
I am witli you among the expectant’ (269).-

It was then that God gave permission to his prophet to migrate. Now 327
Abu Bakr was a man of means, and at the time that he asked the apostle’s
permission to migrate and he replied ‘Do not hurry; perhaps God will
give you a companion,’ hoping that the apostle meant himself he bought
two camels and kept them tied up in his house supplying them with fodder
in preparation for departure.

A man whom I have no reason to doubt told me as from 'Urwa b. al-
Zubayr that 'A’isha said: The apostle used to go to Abu Bakr’s house
every' day either in the eaily morning or at night; but on the day when he
was given permission to migrate from Mecca he came to us at noon, an
hour at w'hich he was not wont to come. As soon as he saw him Abu Bakr
realized that something had happened to bring him at this hour. When
he came in Abu Bakr gave up his seat to him. Only my sister Asma’
and I were there and the apostle asked him to send us away'. ‘But they
are my two daughters and they can do no harm, may my father and my
mother be your ransom, said Abu Bakr. ‘God has given me permission
to depart and migrate,’ he answered. ‘Together?’’ asked Abu Bakr.
Together, he replied. And by God before that day I had never seen
anyone weep for joy as Abu Bakr wept then. At last he said, ‘O prophet
of God, these arc the two camels which I have held in readiness for this.’ 328
Bo they hired 'Abdullah b. Arqat, a man of B. ’I-Di’l b. Bakr whose mother
was a woman of B. Sahm b. Amr, and a polytheist to lead them on the
way, and they handed over to him their two camels and he kept them and
fed them until the appointed day came. 3

• SQra 8 - 30 . 2 Sura S 2. 30.

At this point in Suhayli’s commentary (ii, p. 2 ) there is a note of considerable impor¬
tance in the light it throws on the textual tradition of our author, ft runs thus: Ibn Ishaq
said (in a narration which does not come via Ibn Hisham) in a long, sound, tradition which
} have shortened that when Abu Bakr migrated with the apostle he left his daughters behind
in Mecca. When they got to Medina the apostle sent Zayd b. I.Iaritha and Abu Raff' his
freedman; and Abu Bakr sent 'Abdullah b. Uravqit together with 500 dirhems with which
they bought a mount in Qudayd. Arrived at Mecca they brought away Sauda d of Zama'a
and Fatima and Umm Kulthurn. 'A’isha said: My mother came out with them and Talha
b. UbaydaMah travelling together; and when we were in Qudavd the camel on whUh my
mother Umm Ruman and I were riding in a litter, bolted, and my mother began to c ry
Alas, my daughter, alas my husband! In the tradition of Yunus from Ibn Ishaq there is

224 The Life of Muhammad

According to what I have been told none knew when the apostle left
except 'All and Abu Bakr and the latter’s family. I have heard that the
apostle told 'All about his departure and ordered him to stay behind in
Mecca in order to return goods which men had deposited with the apostle;
for anyone in Mecca who had property which he was anxious about left it
with him because of his notorious honesty and trustworthiness.

When the apostle decided to go he came to Abu Bakr and the two of
them left by a window in the back of the latter’s house and made for a
cave on Thaur, a mountain below Mecca. Having entered, Abu Bakr
329 ordered his son 'Abdullah to listen to what people were saying and to
come to them by night with the day’s news. He also ordered 'Amir b.
Fuhayra, his freedman, to feed his flock by day and to bring them to them
in the evening in the cave. Asma’ his daughter used to come at night with
food to sustain them (270).

The two of them stayed in the cave for three days. When Quraysh
missed the apostle they offered a hundred she-camels to anyone who
would bring him back. During the day 'Abdullah was listening to their
plans and conversation and w'ould come at night with the news. 'Amir
used to pasture his flock with the shepherds of Mecca and when night
fell would bring them to the cave where they milked them and slaughtered
some. When 'Abdullah left them in the morning to go to Mecca, 'Amir
would take the sheep over the same route to cover his tracks. When the
three days had passed and men’s interest waned, the man they had hired
came with their camels and one of his own. Asma’ came too with a bag
of provisions; but she had forgotten to bring a rope, so that when they
started she could not tie the bag on the camel. Thereupon she undid her
girdle and using it as a rope tied the bag to the saddle. For this reason
she got the name ‘She of the girdle’ (271).

When Abu Bakr brought the two camels to the apostle he offered the
better one to him and invited him to ride her. But the apostle refused to
ride an animal which was not his own and when Abu Bakr wanted to give
him it he demanded to know what he had paid for it and bought it from
him. They rode off, and Abu Bakr carried 'Amir his freedman behind him
to act as a servant on the journey.

I was told that Asma’ said, ‘When the apostle and Abu Bakr had gone,
a number of Quraysh including Abu Jahl came to us and stood at the door.
When I went out to them they asked where my father was and when I
said that I did not know Abu Jahl, w r ho w r as a rough dissolute man,
33 ° slapped my face so violently that my earring flew off. Then they took
themselves off and we remained for three days without news until a man

mention of this hadith. In it 'A’isha said ‘I heard a voice but could see no one , . and she
goes on to describe how they came to Medina and found the apostle building a mosque and
houses for himself. ‘I stayed with Abu Bakr’s family and Sauda in her own house, and Abu
Bakr asked the apostle if he would not build for his family, and when he said that he would
if he had the money Abu Bakr gave him 12 okes and 20 dirhems.’ This tradition from
'A’isha comes via Ibn Abu’l-Zinad from Hisham b. 'Urwa from his father.

The of Muhammad 2

of the Jinn came from the lower mrt of i\/r „

the Arab wav. And lo nermlo - P l ^ Mecca s,n 8 in g s <>me verses in
voice but they could not see him^um'l h ° Wmg h,ni and Gening to his
Mecca saying the while: CIMrgcd fr0m ,hc “PP" P^t of

God the Lord of men give the best of his rewards

fo the two companions who rested in the two tents of Umm Mi'bad

M ‘TtT WIt > g0 ° d 1MCm and wcm of f at nightfall
May Muhammad’s companion prosper] §

• ay the place of the Banu Ka'b’s woman bring them luck
  For she was a look-out for the believers’ ( 2?2 ) ® '

wafm C n 0 g n t; e M c 2^Tre hCard “V"" W th * the a P ostle
'AbbTtold himrtat'h“m^tnTs 7 “ “ 7 "

Who had lost his Sight came to In 1 la,m ' Y grandfather Abu Quhafa

ass s» 3 -T ssssss

did SO and said- “There s nndh T th,S monc >’’ fath «'-" He

leaving you .his/and you wil?ravcTtouX ; Tff°7i 'T 7 f done " dl in

but I wanted to set the old man's mind ai rest.' “ ' US nolh,n 8.

fromtiffathcr 1 frames 7TsT™? b ' Mrdik >>• Vshutn told him

looking for a lost camel.” “Perhaps so ” ho i } a so-and-so

I remained there for a short whilo-ti? r’ Saic and remained Sllcnt -

ordered my horse to be got rei 1 V ^ U ^ and Went to m y house and

Of the vaiw Th“ 7 “ tethercd for in ««-' bottom

from the baT b ™*8 h *

out, having put on my armour. Then I cast the d™'^ and went

came the arrow which I did not want! “ttW n T
same again and got the same result T,u h 1 C ld the

Quraysh so that I might win the h 1 ^ °^ lng t0 bac k to

‘T • g , the hundred camels reward

rode m pursutt of him and when my horse was going at a good pace

B 40 SO

Some mark indicating this would be on the arrow.

Q

226 The Life of Muhammad

he stumbled and threw me. I thought this was somewhat unusual so
I resorted to the divining arrows again and out came the detestable “Do
him no harm/’ But I refused to be put off and rode on in pursuit. Again
my horse stumbled and threw me, and again I tried the arrows with the
same result. 1 I rode on, and at last as I saw the little band my horse
stumbled with me and its forelegs went into the ground and I fell. Then
as it got its legs out of the ground smoke arose like a sandstorm. When

332 I saw that I knew that he was protected against me and would have the
upper hand. I called to them saying who I was and asking them to wait
for me; and that they need have no concern, for no harm would come to
them from me. The apostle told Abu Bakr to ask what I wanted and I said,
“Write a document for me which will be a sign between you and me”
and the apostle instructed Abu Bakr to do so.

‘He wrote it on a bone, or a piece of paper, or a potsherd and threw it to
me and I put it in my quiver and went back. I kept quiet about the whole
affair until when the apostle conquered Mecca and finished with al-Ta’if and
flunayn I went out to give him the document and I met him in al-Ji'rana. 2

‘I got among a squadron of the Ansar cavalry and they began to beat
me with their spears, saying, “Be off with you; what on earth do you want ?”
However, I got near to the apostle as he sat on his camel and his shank
in his stirrup looked to me like the trunk of a palm-tree. I lifted my hand
with the document, saying what it was and what my name was. He said “It
is a day of repaying and goodness. Let him come near.” So I approached
him and accepted Islam. Then I remembered something that I wanted
to ask him. All I can remember now is that I said “Stray camels used to
come to my cistern which I kept full for my own camels. Shall I get a
reward for having let them have water?” “Yes,” he said, “for watering
every thirsty creature there is a reward.” Then I returned to my people
and brought my alms to the apostle' (274).

Their guide, 'Abdullah b. Arqat, took them below Mecca; then along

333 the shore until he crossed the road below 'Usfan; then below Amaj; then
after passing Qudayd by way of al-Kharrar and Thaniyyatu'l-Marra to
Liqf(275).

He took them past the waterhole of Liqf, then down to Madlajatu
Mahaj (276), then past^Marjih Mahaj, then down to Maijih of Dhu’l-
Ghadwayn (277), then the valley of Dhtl Kashr; then by al-Jadajid, then
al-Ajrad, then DhQ Salam of the valley of A'dS’, the waterhole of Ta'hin,
then by al-'Ababid (278), then by way of al-FSjja (279). Then he took
them down to al-*Arj; and one of their mounts having dropped behind,
a man of Aslam, Aus b. liujr by name, took the prophet to Medina on his
camel which was called Ibn al-Rida’, sending with him a servant called

1 This story is cast in the familiar form of the story-teller: the same words are repeated
again and again until the climax is reached. In the translation given above the sense is given
—not the repetitions.

2 A place near Mecca on the road to al-Ti’if.

if-

The Life of Muhammad 227

Mas udlb. Hunayda. From c Arj the guide took them to Thaniyyatu’l-
lr (280) 1 to the right of Rakuba until he brought them down to the valley
of Rim; thence to Quba’ to B. 'Amr b. 'Auf on Monday 12th Rabi'u’l-
awwal at high noon. 2

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from
Abdu 1-Rahman b. 'Uwaymir b. Sa'ida told me, saying, ‘Men of my tribe
who were the apostle’s companions told me, “When we heard that the
apostle had left Mecca and we were eagerly expecting his arrival we used 334
to go out after morning prayers to our lava tract beyond our land to await
him. This we did until there was no more shade left and then we went
indoors in the hot season. On the day that the apostle arrived we had sat
as we always had until there being no more shade we went indoors and
then the apostle arrived. The first to see him was a Jew. He had seen what
we were in the habit of doing and that we were expecting the arrival of
the apostle and he called out at the top of his voice ‘O Banu Qayla your
!uck has cornel’ So we went out to greet the apostle who was in the
shadow of a palm-tree with Abu Bakr who was of like age. Now most

US , h , ad n< T ver seen the a P ostle and as the people crowded round him
they did not know him from Abu Bakr until the shade left him and Abu

Bakr got up with his mantle and shielded him from the sun, and then we
knew. 1

The apostle, so they say, stayed with Kulthum b. Hidm brother of the
■ mr b - Anyone of the B. 'Ubayd. Others say he stayed with Sa'd
b. Khaythama. Those who assert the former say that it was only because he
left Kulthum to go and sit with the men in Sa'd’s house (for he was a
bachelor and housed the apostle’s companions who were bachelors) that
it is said that he stayed with Sa'd, for his house used to be called the house
of the^ bachelors. But God knows the truth of the matter.

Abu Bakr stayed with Khubayb b. Isaf, one of the B. al-Harith b. al-
Khazraj in al-Sunh. Some say it was with Kharija b. Zayd b. Abu Zuhavr
brother of the B. al-Harith. J ’

Ah stayed in Mecca for three days and nights until he had restored the

iJT I . ,he " P ,°f Ie held - This done he J°'ned .he apostle and 335
edged w.th him at Kulthum’s house. He stayed in Quba only a night or

tW “' He used to sa J' that ln Quba’ there was an unmarried Muslim woman
and he noticed that a man used to come to her in the middle of the night
and knock on her door; she would come out and he would give her some-
thmg. He felt very suspicious of him and asked her what wfs the meaning
ot th.s nightly performance as she was a Muslim woman without a husband
She told him that the man was Sahl b. Hunayf b. Wahib who knew that
she was all alone and he used to break up the idols of his tribe at night and

“ a '- GMbir ’ T - 'u™. b. al-Zubayr. Cf. Yi q .

J b !iT ragr, ? h oa - ur s under the heading 'lbn Hisham said'. But clearly it belones to
the original narrattve, one of I.H.'s characteristic interpolations occurring i„“k« middle S 1 ,

228

The Life of Muhammad

bring her the pieces to use as fuel. 'All used to talk of this incident until
Sahl died in Iraq while he was w'ith him. Hind b. Sa'd b. Sahl b. Hunayf
told me this story from what 'All said.

The apostle stayed in Quba’ among B. 'Amr b. 'Auf from Monday to
Thursday and then he laid the foundation of his mosque. Then God
brought him out from them on the Friday. The B. 'Amr allege that he
stayed longer wdth them, and God knows the truth of the matter. Friday
prayer found the apostle among B. Salim b. 'Auf and he prayed it in the
mosque which is in the bottom of the Wadi Ranunah This was the first
Friday prayer that he prayed in Medina.

Ttban b. Malik and 'Abbas b. 'Ubada b. Nadia with some of B. Salim
b. 'Auf came and asked him to live with them and enjoy their wealth and
protection, but he said, ‘Let her go her way/ for his camel was under
God’s orders; so they let her go until she came to the home of B. Bayada,
where he was met by Ziyad b. Labid and Farwa b. 'Amr with some of their
clansmen. They gave the same invitation and met with the same reply.
The same thing happened with B. Sa'ida when Sa'd b. 'Ubada and

336 al-Mundhir b. 'Amr invited him to stay; and with B. ’l-Harith b. al-
Khazraj represented by Sa'd b. al-Rabl' and Kharija b. Zayd and 'Abdullah
b. Rawaha; and with B. 'Adly b. al-Najjar (who were his nearest maternal
relatives the mother of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib Salma d. 'Amr being one of their
women), being represented by Salit b. Qays and Abu Salit and Usayra b.
Abu Kharija. Finally the camel came to the home of B. Malik b. al-Najjar
when it knelt at the door of his mosque, which at that time was used as a
drying-place for dates and belonged to two young orphans of B. al-Najjar
of B. Malik clan, who were under the protection of Mu'adh. b. ‘Afra
Sahl and Suhayl the sons of 'Amr. W r hen it knelt the apostle did not alight,
and it got up and went a short distance. The apostle left its rein free, not
guiding it, and it turned in its tracks and returned to the place where it had
knelt at first and knelt there again. It shook itself and lay exhausted with
its chest upon the ground. The apostle alighted and Abu Ayyub Khalid b.
Zayd took his baggage into the house (T. The Ansar invited him to stay with
them, but he said ‘A man (stays) with his baggage) 1 and the apostle stayed
with him. When he asked to whom the date-store belonged Mu'adh b.

' Afra’ told him that the owners were Sahl and Suhayl the sons of 'Amr who
were orphans in his care and that he could take it for a mosque and he
would pay the young men for it.

337 The apostle ordered that a mosque should be built, and he stayed with
Abu Ayyub until the mosque and his houses were completed. The
apostle joined in the work to encourage the Muslims to work and the
muhdjirin and the ansar laboured hard. One of the Muslims rhymed:

If we sat down while the prophet worked
It could be said that we had shirked.

1 T. 1259. 7.

229

The Life of Muhammad
As they built, the Muslims sang a rajaz verse:

There’s no life but the life of the next world.

O God, have mercy on the ansar and the muhajira (281).

The apostle used to sing it in the form

1 here’s no life but the life of the next world.

O God, have mercy on the muhajirin and the ansar. 1

Ammar b. Yasir came in when they had overloaded him with bricks
saying I hey are killing me. They load me wnh burdens they cand
carry themselves. Umm Salama the prophet’s wife said: I saw the
apostle run his hand through his hair—for he was a curly-haired man-

bldT m ‘nb SUnUyya! h ,S n0t ,h <* " h ° ki “ >' ou b ut a wicked

All composed a rajaz verse on that day:

There s one that labours night and day
To build us mosques of brick and clay
And one who turns from dust away! (282.)

And Ammar learned it and began to chant it

When he persisted in it one of the prophet’s companions thought that

a D lA- / " as ''Ufen-ed to m it according to what Ziv.id b. 'Abdullah

He s d T r T U ! S ' Sq ' ThC la “ er had ac ' u ally'named the man.’
He said. I have heard what you have been saying for a long time O

.bn Sumayya, and by God I think I’ll hit you on the nose!’ Now he had a
sick in his hand and the apostle was angry and said, 'What is wrong
between them and 'Ammar? He invites them to Paradise while they
invite him to hell. Ammar is as dear to me as my own face. If a man
behaves like this he will not be forgiven, so avoid him ’

al , T Jya / na mentioned 0n the authority of Zakariva from

al-bha b. that the first man to build a mosque was 'Ammar b. Yiisir.

c apostle lived in Abu Ayyiib’s house until his mosque and dwelling-
houses were built; then lie removed to his own quarters g

R J 3ZUl , b - Ab _u Habib from Marthad b. 'Abdullah al-Yazani from Abu
Ruhm al-Sama i told me that Abu Ayyub told him: 'When the apostle
came to lodge with me in my house he occupied the ground floor, while
1 and Iran Ayyub were above. I said to him, “O prophet of God, you

• X this aIterat ion the rhyme and rhythm were destroyed
  ii, p 3 Pr ° P ‘ Cy “ SUld t0 httVC bcen fulfilkd 'Amnw was killed at SifTin; Suhayl!,

1* referred no, do s „ s „

S'Sxk::-tEFr"

this point. ? un - 1 hls late wnt " may safely be ignored on

230 The Life of Muhammad

are dear to me as my parents, and I am distressed that I should be above
and you below me. So leave your present quarters and exchange places
with us.” He replied: “O Abu Ayyub, it is more convenient for me and
my guests that we should be on the ground floor of the house.” So we
remained as we were. Once we broke ajar of water and Umm Ayyub and
I took one of our garments to mop up the water in fear that it would drop
on the apostle and cause him annoyance. We had no cloth which we could
use.

‘We used to prepare his evening meal and send it to him. When he
returned w'hat was left, Umm Ayyub and I used to touch the spot where
his hand had rested and eat from that in the hope of gaining a blessing.
One night we prepared for him onions or garlic and the apostle returned it
and I saw no mark of his hand in it. I went to him in some anxiety to tell
him of our practice and that this time there was no mark of his hand, and
he replied that he had perceived the smell of the vegetables and he was a
man who had to speak confidentially to people but that we should eat them.
So we ate the dish and never sent him onions again.’

339 The emigrants followed one another to join the apostle, and none was
left in Mecca but those who had apostatized or been detained. Whole
families with their property did not come together except the B. Maz'un
from B. Jumah; the B. Jahsh b. Ri’ab, allies of B. Umayya; and the B.
Bukayr from B. Sa'd b. Layth, allies of B. 'Adly b. ICa'b. Their houses in
Mecca were locked up when they migrated, leaving no inhabitant.

When the B. Jahsh gave up their house Abu Sufyan went and sold it to
'Amr b. 'Alqama brother of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy. When the owners heard
of this 'Abdullah b. Jahsh told the apostle of it, and he replied: ‘Are you
not pleased that God will give you a better house in Paradise?’ And when
he answered Yes, he said, ‘Then you have it.’ When the apostle got
possession of Mecca Abu Ahmad spoke to him about their house; and the
apostle delayed his reply. People said to him, ‘The apostle dislikes your
reopening the question of your property which you lost in God’s service,
so don’t speak to him about it again.’ Abu Ahmad said in reference to
Abu Sufyan:

Tell Abu Sufyan of a matter he will live to regret.

You sold your cousin’s house to pay a debt you owed.

Your ally by God the Lord of men swears an oath:

Take it, Take it, may [your treachery] cling to you like the ring of the
dove.

The apostle stayed in Medina from the month of Rabl'u’l-awwal to
Safar of the following year until his mosque and his quarters were built.
This tribe of the Ansar all accepted Islam and every house of the Ansar

340 accepted Islam except Khatma, Waqif, Wa’il, and Umayya who were the
Aus Allah, a dan of Aus who clung to their heathenism.

The fiist address which the apostle gave according to what I heard on the

The Life of Muhammad 2 ^i

authority of Abu Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman—God save me from attri¬
buting to the apostle words which he did not say—was as follows: he
praised and glorified God as was His due and then said: O men, send
forward (good works) for yourselves. You know, by God, that one of
you may be smitten and will leave his flock without a shepherd. Then his
Lord will say to him—there will be no interpreter or chamberlain to veil
him from Him—Did not My apostle come to you with a message, and did
not I give you wealth and show- you favour? What have you sent forward
for yourself. Then wall he look to right and left and see nothing; he will
00k in front of him and see nothing but hell. He who can shield his face
from the fire even with a little piece of date let him do so; and he who
cannot find that then with a good word; for the good deed will be rewarded
tenfold yea to twice seven hundred fold. 1 Peace be upon you and God’s
mercy and blessing.

Then the apostle preached on another occasion as follows: Praise
belongs to God whom I praise and whose aid I implore. We take refuge in
God from our own sins and from the evil of our acts. He whom God
guides none can lead astray; and whom Me leads astray none can guide.

I testify that there is no God but He alone, He is without companion The
finest speech is the Book of God. He to whom God has made it seem
glorious and made him enter Islam after unbelief, who has chosen it above
all other speech of men, doth prosper. It is the finest speech and the most
penetrating. Love what God loves. Love God with all your hearts, and
weary not of the word of God and its mention. Harden not your hearts
from it. Out of everything that God creates He chooses and selects; the
actions He chooses He calls khira ; the people He chooses He calls mustaftv
and the speech He chooses He calls sdlih. From everything that is brought
to man there is the lawful and the unlawful. Worship God and associate 3
naught with Him; fear Him as He ought to be feared; Carry out loyally
towards God what you say with your mouths. Love one another in the

spirit of God. Verily God is angry when His covenant is broken. Peace
be upon you.

THE COVENANT BETWEEN THE MUSLIMS AND THE
MED IN AN S AND WITH THE JEWS

The apostle wrote a document concerning the emigrants and the helpers
in which he made a friendly agreement with the Jews and established them
m their religion and their property, and stated the reciprocal obligations,
as follows: In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful. This is a
document from Muhammad the prophet [governing the relations] between
the believers and Muslims of Quraysh and Yathrib, and those who

1, . . V, r .nit rest 01 xne sermon* there is an

allusion to the Quran. Cf. 34. 36 where commentators differ as to the exact meaning of A'/.

232 The Life of Muhammad

followed them and joined them and laboured with them. They are one
community ( umma ) to the exclusion of all men. The Quraysh emigrants
according to their present custom shall pay the bloodwit within their
number and shall redeem their prisoners with the kindness and justice
common among believers.

The B. 'Auf according to their present custom shall pay the bloodwit
they paid in heathenism; every section shall redeem its prisoners with the
kindness and justice common among believers. The B. Sa'ida, the B.
’ 1 -Harith, and the B. Jusham, and the B. al-Najjar likewise. 1

The B. 'Amr b. 'Auf, the B. al-Nablt and the B. al-'Aus likewise. 2

Believers shall not leave anyone destitute among them by not paying
342 his redemption money or bloodwit in kindness (283).

A believer shall not take as an ally the freedman of another Muslim
against him. The God-fearing believers shall be against the rebellious or
him who seeks to spread injustice, or sin or enmity, or corruption between
believers; the hand of every man shall be against him even if he be a son
of one of them. A believer shall not slay a believer for the sake of an
unbeliever, nor shall he aid an unbeliever against a believer. God’s pro¬
tection is one, the least of them may give protection to a stranger on their
behalf. Believers are friends one to the other to the exclusion of outsiders.
To the Jew' who follows us belong help and equality. He shall not be
WTonged nor shall his enemies be aided. The peace of the believers is
indivisible. No separate peace shall be made ’when believers are fighting
in the way of God. Conditions must be fair and equitable to all. In every
foray a rider must take another behind him. The believers must avenge
the blood of one another shed in the way of God. The God-fearing
believers enjoy the best and most upright guidance. No polytheist 3 shall
take the property or person of Quraysh under his protection nor shall he
intervene against a believer. Whosoever is convicted of killing a believer
without good reason shall be subject to retaliation unless the next of kin
is satisfied (with blood-money), and the believers shall be against him as
one man, and they are bound to take action against him.

It shall not be law'ful to a believer who holds by what is in this document
and believes in God and the last day to help an evil-doer 4 or to shelter him.
The curse of God and His anger on the day of resurrection will be upon
him if he docs, and neither repentance nor ransom 5 will be received from
him. Whenever you differ about a matter it must be referred to God and
to Muhammad.

The Jews shall contribute to the cost of war so long as they are fighting

1 These all belong to al-Khazraj. 2 These all belong to al-Aus.

• 1 Presumably the heathen Arabs of Medina are referred to.

4 Muhdith. Commentators do not explain this word and it is somewhat obscure. Possibly

it means ‘adulterer’ here, though a wider meaning suits the context better. Cf. \V. 690.

5 See Lane, 16820. Originally the phrase referred to the bloodwit. Sarf meant compensa¬
tion and 'adl the slaying of a man in revenge. Finally it came to mean anything excessive,
so that here it would be sufficient to say ‘no excuse would be received from him’.

The Life of Muhammad 233

alongside the believers. The Jew's of the B. 'Auf are one community with
the believers (the Jews have their religion and the Muslims have theirs),
their freedmen and their persons except those who behave unjustly and
sinfully, for they hurt but themselves and their families. The same applies
to the Jews of the B. al-Najjar, B. al-Harith, B. Sa'ida, B. Jusham, B. 343
al-Aus, B. Tha'laba, and the Jafna, a clan of the Tha'laba and the B.
al-Shutayba. Loyalty is a protection against treachery. 1 The freedmen of
Tha'laba are as themselves. The close friends 2 of the Jews are as themselves.
None of them shall go out to war save with the permission of Muhammad,
but he shall not be prevented from taking revenge for a wound. He who
slays a man without warning slays himself and his household, unless it be
one who has wronged him, for God will accept that. The Jews must bear
their expenses and the Muslims their expenses. Each must help the other
against anyone who attacks the people of this document. They must seek
mutual advice and consultation, and loyalty is a protection against treachery.

A man is not liable for his ally’s misdeeds. The wronged must be helped.

The Jews must pay with the believers so long as war lasts. Yathrib shall
be a sanctuary for the people of this document. A stranger under pro¬
tection shall be as his host doing no harm and committing no crime. A
woman shall only be given protection with the consent of her family. If
any dispute or controversy likely to cause trouble should arise it must be
referred to God and to Muhammad the apostle of God. God accepts
what is nearest to piety and goodness in this document. Quraysh and their
helpers shall not be given protection. The contracting parties are bound
to help one another against any attack on Yathrib. If they are called to
make peace and maintain it they must do so; and if they make a similar
demand on the Muslims it must be carried out except in the case of a
holy war. Every one shall have his portion from the side to which he
belongs; 3 the Jews of al-Aus, their freedmen and themselves have the
same standing with the people of this document in pure loyalty from the
people of this document (284).

Loyalty is a protection against treachery: He who acquires aught 8 14
acquires it for himself. God approves of this document. This deed will
not protect 4 the unjust and the sinner. The man who goes forth to light
and the man who stays at home in the city 5 is sate unless he has been
unjust and sinned. God is the protector of the good and God-fearing man
and Muhammad is the apostle of God.

1 Wellhausen, Skissen und Vornrbciten, v, Berlin, uSS’y, p. 70, renders ‘Lauterkcit steht
vor Tru^’ and accuses Sp render and Krehl of inexactness. S. has ‘sic miissen loyal und
nicht schlecht handeln’ where a general truth is in question. Suhayli says the meaning is
‘Piety and loyalty stand in the way of treachery’ (ii. 17).

2 For the meaning of this word cf. 519. 4 where bitumi clearly has such a connotation.

3 This is not clear to me.

4 For this idiom cf. Sura 6. 24.

5 Or ‘in Med ina’. Whether Medina is meant or not the passage stands self-condemned as
a later interpolation because the town is consistently called Yathrib.

2 34 The Life of Muhammad

BROTHERHOOD BETWEEN EMIGRANTS AND HELPERS

The apostle instituted brotherhood between his fellow emigrants and the
helpers, and he said according to what I have heard—and I appeal to
God lest I should attribute to him words that he did not say—‘Let each
of you take a brother in God.’ He himself Took 'All by the hand and said,
This is my brother.’ So God’s apostle, the lord of the sent ones and leader
of the God-fearing, apostle of the Lord of the worlds, the peerless and
unequalled, and 'All b. Abu Talib became brothers. Hamza, the lion
of God and the lion of his apostle and his uncle, became the brother of
Zayd b. Haritha the apostle’s freedman. To him Hamza gave his last
testament on the day of Uhud when battle was imminent in case he should
meet his death. Ja'far b. Abu Talib—the ‘one of the wings’ who was to
fly in Paradise—and Mu'adh b. Jabal brother of B. Salama became
brothers (285).

The pairs were arranged thus;

Abu Bakr and Kharija b. Zuhayr brother of B. ’ 1 -Harith b. al-Khazraj.
'Umar and Ttban b. Malik brother of B. Salim . . . b. al-Khazraj.

345 Abu 'Ubayda, 'Amir b. 'Abdullah and Sa'd b. Mu'adh b. al-Nu'man.
Abdu’l-Rahman b. Auf and Sa'd b. al-Rabl' brother of B. al-Harith.

Al-Zubayr b. al'Awwam and Salama b. Salama b. Waqsh brother of B.
'Abdu’l-Ashhal though others say that he linked up with 'Abdullah b.
Mas'ud the ally of the B. Zuhra.

Uthman b. 'Affan and Aus b. Thabit b. al-Mundhir brother of B.
al-Najjar. Talha b. 'Ubaydullah and Ka'b b. Malik brother of the B.
Salama.

Sa'd b. Zayd b. ‘Amr b. Nufayl and Ubayy b. Ka'b brother of the B.
al-Najjar.

Mus'ab b. 'Umayr and Abu Ayvub Khalid b. Zayd brother of the B. al-
Najjar Abu Hud hay fa b. 'Utba and 'Abbad b. Bishr b. Waqsh, brother of
the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal.

'Ammar b. Yasir ally of the B. Makhzum and Hudhayfa b. al-Yaman
brother of B. 'Abdu 'Abs ally of the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal. (Others say that
Thabit b. Qays b. al-Shammas brother of the B. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj
the prophet’s orator and 'Ammar b. Yasir.)

Abu Dharr, Burayr b. Junada al-Ghifari and al-Mundhir b. 'Amr,
'he who hastened to his death’, brother of B. Sa'ida of al-Khazraj
(286).

Hatib b. Abu Balta'a, ally of B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza and 'Uwaym
b. Sa'ida brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf.

Salman the Persian and Abu’l-Darda 'Uwaymir b. Tha'Iaba brother of
B. al-Harith (287). Some say 'Uwaymir was the son of 'Amir or of Zayd.
Bilal freedman of Abu Bakr and the apostle’s muezzin and Abu Ruwayha 1

1 A kunya characteristic of a negro, ‘the father of the faint smell’. Cf. II. Lamtnens,

L' Arabic occidcntale avant I'llcgire, p. 246.

The Life of Muhammad 235

'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman al-Khath'ami, more precisely one of the
Faza'.

These are the men who were named to us as those to whom the
apostle made his companions brothers.

When 'Umar compiled the registers in Syria Bilal had gone there and
remained as a combatant. He asked him with whom he wished to be 346
grouped and he said with Abu Ruwayha. ‘I will never leave him, for the
apostle established brotherhood between us.’ So he was linked with him
and the register of the Abyssinians was linked with Khath'am because of
Bilal’s position with them, and this arrangement continues to this day in
Syria.

ABU UMAMA

During the months in which the mosque was being built Abu Umama
As'ad b. Zurara died; he was seized by diphtheria and a rattling in the
throat.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. I.Iazm told me on the
authority of Yahya b. 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. As'ad b. Zurara
that the apostle said; ‘IIow unfortunate is the death of Abu Umama!

The Jews and the Arab hypocrites are sure to say “If he were a prophet
his companion would not die’’ and (truly) I have no power from God for
myself or for my companion (to avert death).’

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada al-Ansari told me that when Abu Umama died
the B. al-Najjar came to the apostle, for Abu Umama was their leader, saying
that he held the high rank the apostle knew of and would he appoint some¬
one from among them to act in his place; to which the apostle replied, ‘You
are my maternal uncles, and we belong together so I will be your leader.’

The apostle did not want to prefer any one of them to the others. Hence¬
forth the B. al-Najjar regarded themselves as highly honoured in having
the apostle as their leader.

THE CALL TO PRAYER

When the apostle was firmly settled in Medina and his brethren the
emigrants were gathered to him and the affairs of the helpers were arranged
Islam became firmly established. Prayer was instituted, the alms tax and
fasting were prescribed, legal punishments fixed, the forbidden and the
permitted prescribed, and Islam took up its abode with them. It was this 347
clan of the helpers who ‘have taken up their abode (in the city of the prophet)
and in the faith’. 1 When the apostle first came, the people gathered to
him for prayer at the appointed times without being summoned. At first
the apostle thought of using a trumpet like that of the Jews who used it to
summon to prayer. Afterwards he disliked the idea and ordered a clapper

’ Sura 59. y.

236 The Life of Muhammad

to be made, so it was duly fashioned to be beaten when the Muslims should
pray.

Meanwhile 'Abdullah b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. 'Abdu Rabbihi brother of
B. al-Harith heard a voice in a dream, and came to the apostle saying:
‘A phantom visited me in the night. There passed by me a man wearing
two green garments carrying a clapper in his hand, and I asked him to sell
it to me. When he asked me what I wanted it for I told him that it was
to summon people to prayer, whereupon he offered to show me a better
way: it was to say thrice “Allah Akbar. I bear witness that there is no
God but Allah I bear witness that Muhammad is the apostle of God.
Come to prayer. Come to prayer. Come to divine service. 1 Come to
divine service. Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar. There is no God but Allah”.’
When the apostle was told of this he said that it was a true vision if God
so willed it, and that he should go with Bilal and communicate it to him
so that he might call to prayer thus, for he had a more penetrating voice.
When Bilal acted as muezzin 'Umar heard him in his house and came
to the apostle dragging his cloak on the ground and saying that he had seen
precisely the same vision. The apostle said, ‘God be praised for that!’

I was told of this tradition by Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith on
the authority of Muhammad b. 'Abdullah b. Zayd b. Tha'laba himself
(288).

348 Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me on the authority of 'Urwa
b. al-Zubayr from a woman of B. al-Najjar who said: My house was the
highest of those round the mosque and Bilal used to give the call from
the top of it at dawn every day. He used to come before daybreak and
would sit on the housetop waiting for the dawn. When he saw it he would
stretch his arms and say, ‘O God, I praise thee and ask thy help for Quraysh
that they may accept thy religion.’ I never knew him to omit these words
for a single night.

ABU QAYS B. ABO ANAS

When the apostle was established in his house and God had manifested
his religion therein and made him glad with the company of the emigrants
and helpers Abu Qays spoke the following verses (289).

He was a man who had lived as a monk in heathen days and worn a
black mantle of camel-hair, given up idols, washed himself after impurity,
kept himself clean from women in their courses. He had thought of
adopting Christianity but gave it up and went into a house of his and made

1 Faldh. This word is generally rendered ‘salvation’ or ‘prosperity’; of. Lane, 2439(7.
But it has always seemed to me that it must be an arabized form of the Aramaic pulhdnil,
divine worship. Its original meaning is clearly cutting, especially ploughing. Among Ara¬
maic-speaking Jews and Christians it was connected with the service of God. Between the
words ‘Come to the faldh and Allah Akbar’ the Shi'a cry ‘Come to the best work (’atrial)'
which must surely be a memory of the original meaning of faldh. 1. Sayyidi’l-Nas 'Vyunu’l-
Athar, Cairo, 1356, i. 204, quotes this story in what appears to be a more primitive form.

The Life of Muhammad 237

a mosque of it, allowing no unclean person to enter. He said that he
worshipped the Lord of Abraham when he abandoned idols and loathed
them. When the apostle came to Medina he became a good Muslim. He was
an old man, who always spoke the truth and glorified God in paganism.

He composed some excellent poetry and it was he who said:

Said Abu Qays when near to depart 349

Perform all you can of my behest.

I enjoin piety, the fear of God, and

The preservation of your honour, hut piety comes first.

If your people hold authority envy them not.

If you yourselves rule, be just.

If a calamity befalls your people,

Put yourselves in the front of your tribe.

If a heavy duty falls on them help them
And bear the burdens they put upon you.

If you are poor, practise austerity.

If you have money be generous with it (290).

He also said:

Praise God at every dawn

When His sun rises and at the new moon.

. He knows what is clear and not dear to us.

What our Lord says is without error.

His are the birds which fly to and fro and shelter
In nests in their mountain retreats.

His are the wild creatures of the desert

Which you see on the dunes and in the shade of sandhills.

Him the Jews worship and follow
Every dreary custom you can think of. 1
Him the Christians worship and keep
Every feast and festival to their Lord.

His is the self-denying monk you see,

A prisoner of misery though once right happy.

My sons, sever not the bonds of kinship.

Be generous though they are mean. 2

Fear God in dealing with defenceless orphans

Often the forbidden is regarded as lawful.

Know that the orphan has an All-knowing protector
Who guides aright without being asked.

Devour not the wealth of orphans,

A mighty protector watches over the same.

1 A. Dh. explains that ‘ udal , a wearisome incurable disease, is a metaphor.

2 Commentators differ on the meaning of this phrase. Another possibility is: ‘Though
their pedigree is short their hearts arc generous'. All through these verses one feels that the
wretched rhymester is imprisoned within his rhymes.

238

The Life of Muhammad

My sons, transgress not the proper limits
'Transgressing the hounds brings one to a halt.

O my sons, trust not the days.

Beware their treachery and the passage of time.

Know that it consumes all creation,

Both the new and the old.

Live your lives in piety and godliness.

Abandon obscenity and hold fast to what is right. 1

In the following poem he mentioned how God had honoured them with
Islam and His special favour in sending His apostle to them:

He abode among Quraysh some ten years
Hoping for a friend to help him.

He displayed himself to those who came to the fairs
But found none to offer him hospitality.

But when he came to us God displayed his religion
And he became happy and contented in Medina/

He found friends and ceased to long for home
And w r as plainly helped by God. 3
He told us what Noah said to his people
And what Moses answered when he was called.

None near at hand need he fear

And those afar he recked not of. 4

We spent on him the best of our possessions,

Sparing not our lives in war at his side.

We know that there is nought beside God
And we know that God is the best guide.

We shall fight any man that fights Him,

Be he our dearest friend.

In every mosque when I pray to Thee
I say Blessed art Thou (Oft have I mentioned Thy name).

I say when I traverse a land I fear

‘Mercy! Let not my enemies triumph over me.’

Go where you will death comes in many guises
And you cannot live for ever.

A man does not know how' to protect himself
Unless he makes God his protector.

The palm that needs water 5 cares naught for its owner
If it has moisture, though he be dead (291).

1 The influence of Syriac as in the words shammasa and tukhum is clear, and some of the
verses are reminiscent of the Psalms.

2 Tiba, ‘the Fragrant’, is the ancient honorific of Medina. Cf. Hassan’s opening line on
p. ro22, ‘In Tiba are the monuments of his luminous sojourn’.

3 W.’s text ‘He was a plain help to us from God’ seems inferior to the C. text.

4 The verse is just as banal in the original.

s I follow C. in reading mu'ima for W.’s muqima, and tdiviya for thawiya ‘standing’.

The Life of Muhammad 239

(T. 'Ali b. Mujahid said on the authority of Muhammad b. Ishaq from T. 1253.
al-Zuhr! and from Muhammad b. Salih from al-Sha'bl that they both said:

The B. Isma'il dated from the fire of Abraham to the building of the
temple when Abraham and Isma'il built it; then they dated from the
building of the temple until they dispersed, and it happened that when¬
ever people left Tihama they dated from their leaving it, and those who
remained in Tihama of B. Isma'il used to date from the going out of
Sa'd and Nahd and Juhayna of B. Zayd from Tihama until Ka'b b. Lu’ayy
died. Then they dated from the death of Ka'b to the elephant. 'The dating
from the time of the elephant continued until 'Umar b. al-Khattab dated
from the Hijra which was the year 17 or 18. 1

THE NAMES OF THE JEWISH ADVERSARIES

About this time the Jewish rabbis showed hostility to the apostle in envy, 351
hatred, and malice, because God had chosen His apostle from the Arabs.

They were joined by men from al-Aus and al-Khazraj who had obstinately
clung to their heathen religion. They were hypocrites, clinging to the
polytheism of their fathers denying the resurrection; yet when Islam
appeared and their people flocked to it they were compelled to pretend
to accept it to save their lives. But in secret they were hypocrites whose
inclination was towards the Jews because they considered the apostle a liar
and strove against Islam.

It was the Jewish rabbis who used to annoy the apostle with questions
and introduce confusion, so as to confound the truth with falsity. The
Quran used to come down in reference to these questions of theirs, though
some of the questions about what was allowed and forbidden came from
the Muslims themselves. These are the names of those Jews:

From B. al-Nadir: Huyayy b. Akhtab and his brothers Abu Yasir and
Judayy; Sallam b. Mishkam; Kinana b. al-Rabi' h. Abu’l-Huqayq;

Sallam b. Abu’l-Huqayq Abu Rafi' al-A'war whom the apostle’s com¬
panions killed in Khaybar; al-Rabi' b. al-Rabi' b. Abu’l-IIuqayq; 'Amr
b. Jahhash; Ka'b b. al-Ashraf who belonged to Tay’, of the clan of B.

Nabhan, his mother being from B. al-Nadir; al-Hajjaj b. 'Amr, an ally of
Ka'b; and Kardam b. Qays, an ally of Ka'b.

From B. Tha'laba b. al-Fityaun: 'Abdullah h. Suriya the one-eyed who
was the most learned man of his time in the Hijaz in Torah studies; Ibn
Saluba; and Mukhayriq their rabbi who became a Muslim.

From B. Qaynuqa': Zayd b. al-Lasit (291); Sa'd b. Hunayf; Mahmud
b. Sayhan; 'Uzayr b. Abu 'Uzayr; and Abdullah b. Sayf (292). Suwayd b. 352
al-Harith; Rifa'a b. Qays; Finhas; Ashya'; Nu'man b. Ada; Bahriy b.

1 This paragraph is part of a long chapter which T, devotes to the question of chronology
in reference to the principal events in the prophet’s life. It is put here because the last
passage he quotes from 1 . 1 , is the poem of Abu Qays mentioning the length of the prophet’s
sojourn in Mecca after the beginning of his mission; the connexion with chronology is
obvious.

240 The Life of Muhammad

'Amr; Sha’s b. 'Adiy; Sha’s b. Qays; Zayd b. al-Harith; Nu'man b. 'Amr;
Sukayn b. Abu Sukayn; 'Adiy b. Zayd; Nu'man b. Abu Aufa; Abu Anas;
Mahmud b. Dahya; Malik b. Sayf (293). Ka'b b. Rashid; ‘Azar; Rah
b. Abu Rafi'; Khalid; Azar b. Abu Azar (294); Rafi' b. Haritha; Rafi b.
Huraymila; Rafi' b. Kharija; Malik b. 'Auf; Rifa'a b. Zayd b. al-Tabut
‘Abdullah b. Salam b. al-Harith; who was their rabbi and most learned
man. His name was al-Husayn. The apostle named him 'Abdullah when
he accepted Islam.

From B. Qurayza: al-Zubayr b. Bata b. Wahb; 'Azzal b. Shamwil;
Ka'b b. Asad responsible on behalf of his tribe for the agreement which was
broken in the year of the Parties; Shamwil b. Zayd; Jabal b. 'Amr b,
Sukayna; al-Nahham b. Zayd; Qardam b. Ka'b; Wahb b. Zayd; Nafi' b.
Abu Nafi'; Abu Nafi'; 'Adiy b. Zayd; al-Harith b. 'Auf; Kardam b. Zayd;
Usama b. Habib; Rafi' b. Rumayla; Jabal b. Abu Qushayr; Wahb b.
Yahudha.

From B. Zurayq: Labld b. A'sam who bewitched the apostle of God so
that he could not come at his wives. 1

From B. Haritha: Kinana b. Suriya.

B. 'Amr b. 'Auf: Qardam b. 'Amr.

From B. al-Najjar: Silsila b. Barham.

These were the Jewish rabbis, the rancorous opponents of the apostle
and his companions, the men who asked questions, and stirred up trouble
against Islam to try to extinguish it, except for 'Abdullah b. Salam and
Mukhayrlq. 2

353 'ABDULLAH B. SALAM ACCEPTS ISLAM

I was told the story of 'Abdullah b. Salam, a learned rabbi, by one of his
family. He said: ‘When I heard about the apostle I knew by his descrip¬
tion, name, and the time at which he appeared that he was the one we
were waiting for, and I rejoiced greatly thereat, though I kept silent about
it until the apostle came to Medina. When he stayed in Quba’ among the
B. 'Amr b. 'Auf a man came with the news while I was working at the top
of a palm-tree and my aunt Khalida d. al-Harith was sitting below. When
I heard the news I cried Allah Akbar and my aunt said, “Good gracious,
if you had heard that Moses b. 'Imran had come you could not have made
more fuss!” “Indeed, aunt,” I said, “he is the brother of Moses and follows
his religion, being sent with the same mission.” She asked, “Is he really

1 In commenting on this Suhayli asserts that the tradition is sound and is accepted by the
traditionists. He found in the Jami' of Mu'ammar b. Rashid {a work which I cannot find
mentioned by Brockelmann) the statement that the spell lasted for a year. He adds that the
Mu'tazila and Modernists rejected the tradition on the ground that prophets could not be
bewitched otherwise they would commit sin and that would be contrary to the word of God
‘And God will protect thee from men’ (Sura 5. 71). He finds the tradition unassailable. It
is properly attested and intellectually acceptable. The prophets were not preserved from
bodily afflictions in which category sorcery falls,

2 It is noteworthy how few Hebrew names are to be found among the Jews of Medina.

The Life of Muhammad 241

the prophet who we have been told wall be sent at this very time ?” and
she accepted my assurance that he was. Straightway I went to the apostle
and became a Muslim, and w'hen I returned to my house I ordered my
family to do the same.

‘I concealed the matter from the Jew's, and then went to the apostle
and said, “The Jews are a nation of liars and I wish you w’ould take me into
one of your houses and hide me from them. Then ask them about me so
that they may tell you the position I hold among them before they know
that I have become a Muslim. For if they know it beforehand they will
utter slanderous lies against me.” The prophet housed me; the Jew's came;
and the apostle asked them about my standing among them. They said:

“He is our chief, and the son of our chief; our rabbi, and our learned man.”
When they said this I emerged and said: “O Jews, fear God and accept
what He has sent you. For by God you know' that he is the apostle of God.

You will find him described in your Torah and even named. I testify
that he is the apostle of God, I believe in him, I hold him to be true, and
I acknowledge him.” They accused me of lying and reviled me. Then I 354
reminded the apostle that I had said that they would do this, for they
were a treacherous, lying, and evil people. I publicly proclaimed my
conversion and my household and my aunt Khalida followed suit.’

THE STORY OF MUKHAYRlQ

He was a learned rabbi owming much property in date palms. He re¬
cognized the apostle by his description and his own learning, and he
felt a predilection for his religion 1 until on the day of Uhud, which fell on
the sabbath, he reminded the Jews that they were bound to help Muham¬
mad. They objected that it w r as the sabbath. ‘May you have no sabbath,’ 2
he answered, and took his weapons and joined the apostle in Uhud. His
parting testimony to his people was: ‘If I am killed today my property is
to go to Muhammad to use as God show's him.’ He w r as killed in the battle
that followed. I am told that the apostle used to say ‘Mukhayrlq is the best
of the Jews.’ The apostle took over his property and all the alms he
distributed in Medina came from ifi

THE TESTIMONY OF S A FI Y A

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm told me that he
was told that Safiya d. Huyayy b. Akhtab said ‘I was the favourite child
of my father and my uncle Abu Yasir. When I w T as present they took no
notice of their other children. W'hen the apostle was staying in Quba’
with the B. 'Amr b. 'Auf, the two w r ent to see him before daybreak and did
not return until after nightfall, weary, worn out, drooping and feeble.

1 Presumably ‘Muhammad's religion’; the pronoun is ambiguot:

2 Or, perhaps, 'You have no rabbath’.

II 4080

242 The Life of Muhammad

355 I went up to them in childish pleasure as I always did, and they were so
sunk in gloom that they took no notice of me. I heard my uncle say to my
father, “Is he he? Do you recognize him, and can you be sure?” “Yes!”
“And what do you feel about him?” “By God I shall be his enemy as long
as I live!” ’

THE JEWS ARE JOINED BY ANSARl HYPOCRITES

The following hypocrites’ from al-Aus and al-Khazraj joined the Jews
according to information given me. God knows best about the truth.
From Aus of the section of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik of the subdivision
Laudhan b. 'Amr b. r Auf: Zuwayy b. al-Harith. From B. Hubayb b. ‘Amr
b. ‘Auf: Julas b. Suwayd b. al-Samit and his brother al-Harith. Julas was
one of those who withdrew from the apostle in the raid on Tabuk. He
said, ‘If this man is right we are worse than donkeys.’ 'Umayr b. Sa'd, one
of them, w r ho was closely related to Julas, he having married his mother
after his father’s death, reported what he had said to the apostle. But
first he said to Julas: ‘You are dearer to me than any man, the most
generous to me, and it is most painful to me that anything should happen
to upset you; but you have said words which if I repeat them I shall bring
shame upon you, and if I keep silence I shall bring my religion into peril.
One is preferable to the other.’ Then he went to the apostle and told him
what Julas had said. Julas sw r ore by God that he had not said the words
attributed to him by 'Umayr. And God sent down concerning him:
‘They swear by God that they did not say, when they did actually say,
words of unbelief and did disbelieve after they had surrendered themselves.
They planned what they could not carry out and they had nothing to
avenge but that God and His apostle had enriched them by His bounty.
If they repent it will be better for them; and if they turn back God will
afflict them with a painful punishment in this world and the next. In this
world they have no friend or helper’ (295). 2

356 It is alleged that he repented and was known to be a good Muslim.
His brother*al-Harith who killed al-Mujadhdhar b. Dhiyad al-BalawI and
Qays b. Zayd one of B. Dubay'a at Uhud, went out with the Muslims. He
was a hypocrite, and when battle was joined he fell upon these two men,
killed them, and attached himself to Quraysh (296).

Mu'adh b. ‘Afra’ killed Suw r ayd treacherously when there w r as no war.
He shot him with an arrow before the battle of Bu'ath.

The apostle—so they say—had ordered 'Umar to kill him if he could
get hold of him, but he escaped and got to Mecca. Then he sent to his
brother Julas asking for forgiveness so that he might return to his people.

1 Wha*b Arabic writers mean by ‘hypocrites’ has been made dear in the section on the
Jewish adversaries. It is not a really good rendering of mundfiq , but no one word suggests
itself as better. Muslims look with a tolerant eye on a man who conceals his belief through
force majeure, but to pretend to be a Muslim is a crime. 2 Sura 9. 75.

The Life of Muhammad 243

God sent down concerning him according to what I have heard on the
authority of Ibn Abbas: ‘How can God guide a people-who have dis¬
believed alter having believed and witnessed that the apostle is true and

sure proofs have come to them from God. God does not guide a sinful
people.’’

From B. Pubay'a b. Zayd b. Malik b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf: Bijad b.
Uthman b. 'Amir. From B. Laudhan b. 'Amr b. 'Auf: Nabtal b. al- Harith
I have heard that it was of him that the apostle said, ‘Whoever wants to see
Satan let him take a look at Nabtal b. al-Harith!’ He was a sturdy black
man with long flowing hair, inflamed eyes, and dark ruddy cheeks. He
used to come and talk to the apostle and listen to him and then carry what
he had said to the hypocrites. It was he who said: ‘Muhammad is all
ears: if anyone tells him anything he believes it.’ God sent down concern¬
ing him: And of them are those who annoy the prophet and say he is all 357
ears.. Say: Good ears for you. He believes in God and trusts the believers
and is a mercy for those of you who believe; and those who annoy the
apostle of God for them there is a painful punishment.’ 2

A man of B. al- Ajlan told me that he was told that Gabriel came to the
apostle and said, ‘There comes to sit with you a black man with long
flowing hair, ruddy cheeks, and inflamed eyes like two copper pots. His
heart 3 is more gross than a donkey’s; he carries your words to the hypo¬
crites so beware of him.’ This, so they say, was the description of
Nabtal. r

Also from B. Dubay'a was Abu Habiba b. al-Az'ar, one of those who
had built the mosque of al-Dirar; Tha'laba b. Hatib; and Mu'attib b.
Qushayr. It was those two who made a covenant with God saying, ‘If
he gives us of his bounty we will give alms and be of the righteous’ 4
to the end of the story. And it was Mu'attib who said at Uhud: ‘If we had
any part in the ordering of things we should not be killed here.’ So God
sent down concerning what he said: ‘A party who were anxious about their
lives thought wrongly about God as the pagans thought. They said:

If we had any part in the ordering of things we should not be killed here” 3
to the end of the context. It was he who said on the day of the Parties
Muhammad promises us that we shall enjoy the treasures of Chosroes
and Caesar whereas it is not safe for one of us to go to the privy'” So God
revealed concerning him: ‘And when the hypocrites and those in whose

ddusion ?fi diSeaSe S3y G ° d and his a P ostle have promised us nothing but a

Also al-Harith b. Hatib (297).

Also -Abbad b. Hunayf brother of Sahl, and Bahzaj who were anion, the

bmklers of the mosque of al-Dirar. And 'Amr b. Kliidham and 'Abdullah
b. Nabtal.

Of the IS. Tha'laba were Jariya b. 'Amir b. al-'Attaf and h,s two sons .,,8

1 Sura 3. 80.
4 Sura 9, 76.

2 Sura 9. 61.

5 Sura 3. 148,

3 Lit. ‘liver’.

6 Sura 33. i2.

2 44 The Life of Muhammad

Zayd and Mujammi'. They were also concerned with the mosque of al-
Dirar. Mujammi' was a youth who had collected most of the Quran and
he used to lead them in prayer. When the mosque had been destroyed and
certain men of B. 'Arm b. 'Auf who used to lead their people in prayer in
their mosque, died, in the time of 'Umar, Mujammi' was mentioned to act
as leader, but 'Umar would not have it, saying, ‘Wasn’t he the imam of the
hypocrites in the mosque of al-Dirar?’ He replied: ‘By God, I knew nothing
of their affairs. But I was a youngster who could recite the Quran,
whereas they could not, so they put me forward to lead the prayers. Their
affair seemed to me to accord with the best account they gave. They allege
that 'Umar let him go and lead the prayers of his people.

Of B. Umayya b. Zayd b. Malik: Wadi'a b. Thabit, one of the builders
of the Dirar mosque who said, ‘We were only talking and jesting. So
God sent down: ‘If you ask them they will say tve were only talking and
jesting. Say: Is it about God and His signs and His apostle you were

jesting?’to the end of the passage.

Of B. Ubayd b. Zayd b. Malik: IChidham b. Khalid, from whose house
the mosque of al-Dirar was carved out; and Bishr and Raff the two

sons of Zayd. , TT . , , . 7r ,

Of B. al-Nablt (298) of the clan of B. Haritha b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj

b. 'Amr b. Malik b. al-Aus: Mirba' b. Qayzl who said to the apostle when
he passed through his garden on his way to Uliud: ‘I do not allow you
Muhammad to pass through my garden even if you are a prophet. He
took a handful of dirt and said: ‘By God, if I did not know that I might
throw it on others I would throw this dirt at you.’ The people pressed on
him to kill him and the apostle said: ‘Let him alone. For this blind man
is blind of heart and blind of perception’. Sad b. Zayd brother of B.
'Abdu’l-Ashhal hit him with his bow and wounded him; also his brother
359 Aus b. Qayzl, who said to the apostle on the day of the Trench: ^ Our
houses lie open to the enemy, so give us leave to go back to them. So
God revealed concerning him: ‘They say Our houses lie open to the enemy.
They are not open; all they want is to run away’ (299). 1

Of B. Zafar (Zafar’s name was Ka'b b.al-Harith b. al-Khazraj): Hatib b.
Umayya b. Raff'. He was a sturdy old man steeped long in paganism.
A son of his was one of the best of the Muslims, Yazid by name. He was
disabled by wounds received at Uhud and was carried to the house o the

‘Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that the Muslims there both men and
women gathered to him when he was at the point of death and were saying.
‘Rejoice? O son of Hatib, in the thought of paradise!’ Then his hypocrisy
showed itself, for his father said, ‘Humph! By God it is a garden of rue.
You have sent this poor fellow to his death by your deception.

Also Bus'hayr b. Ubayriq Abu TVma, the ‘Stealer of the Two Breast¬
plates’ concerning whom God sent down: ‘And argue not on behalf of

1 Sura g. 66.

The Life of Muhammad 245

those w r ho deceive themselves. God does not love a sinful deceiver.’ 1
Also Quzman, an ally of theirs.

The same 'Asim told me that the apostle used to say: ‘He belongs to the
people of hell.’ At Uhud he fought so valiantly that he killed several
polytheists. But they severely wounded him and he w r as carried to the
quarters of the B. Zafar. The Muslims said, ‘Cheer up, O Quzman; you
have done gallantly today and your sufferings have been for God’s sake.’

He said: ‘Why should I cheer up? I fought only to protect my people.’

And w r hen the pain of his wounds became unendurable he took an arrow
from his quiver and cut a vein in his hand and thus committed suicide.

Among B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal no hypocrite male or female was known 360
except al-Dahhak b. Thabit, one of the B. Ka'b of the family of Sa'd b.
Zayd. He was suspected of hypocrisy and love of the Jews.

Hassan b. Thabit said of him: 2

Who will tell al-Dahhak that his veins
Were unable to be glorified in Islam?

Do you love the Jews of al-Hijaz and their religion,

You liver-hearted ass, and not love Muhammad?

Their religion will never march with ours
As long as men roam the open desert.

I have heard that before his repentance Julas together with Mu'attib,
Rafi', and Bishr used to make false profession of Islam. 3 Some Muslims
asked them to go to the apostle to settle a matter in dispute between them,
while they wanted to refer it to the kahins w r ho acted as arbitrators in the
pagan era. So God sent down concerning them: ‘Hast thou considered
those who allege that they believe in what has been sent down to thee
and what was sent down before thee who wash to go to idolatry for arbitra¬
tion w'hen they have been commanded to give up belief in it ? Satan wishes
to lead them far astray.’ 4

Of Khazraj from B. al-Najjar: Rafi' b. Wadi'a, Zayd b. 'Amr, 'Amr
b. Qays, and Qays b. 'Amr b. Sahl.

Of B. Jusham of the clan of B. Salima: al-Jidd b. Qays w r ho said, ‘O
Muhammad, give me leave (to stay at home) and tempt me not.’ So God
sent down concerning him: ‘Of them is he who says, Give me leave (to stay
at home) and tempt me not. Surely it is into temptation that they have
fallen and hell encompasses the unbelievers.’ 5

Of B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj: 'Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul. He was the
head of the hypocrites. They used to gather to him and it was he who said,

‘If we go back to Medina the stronger will drive out the weaker.’ This
■was during the raid on the B. al-Mustaliq and the whole sura of the

1 Sura 4. 107. I.H. has omitted much of what Yunus reported from 1 . 1 . See Suhayli,
ii. 28 f. 2 Diudn, p. 34.

3 Read yaddatlna (against both C. and W.) in accord with Sura 67- 27; and for the mean¬
ing see Lane, 884a and b.

• Sura 4. 63.

5 Sura 9. 49.

246 The Life of Muhammad

Hypocrites 1 came down about him and Wadi'a a man of B. 'Auf and Malik
b. Abu Qauqal and Suwayd and Da'is of the clan of 'Abdullah b. Ubayy.
Those were his men who sent secret messages to B. al-Nadir 2 when the
361 apostle besieged them: ‘Stand fast, for by God if you are driven out we will
go forth with you and we will never obey anyone against you and if you are
attacked we will help you.’ So God sent down concerning them: ‘Hast
thou not considered the hypocrites who say to their brethren of the scrip¬
ture folk, If you are driven out we will go forth with you and we will
never obey anyone against you and if you are attacked w r e will help you.
God bears witness that they are liars’, as far as His words ‘Like Satan
when he says to men, “Disbelieve,” and when they disbelieve he says,
“I am not responsible for you; for my part I fear God the Lord of the
worlds.” ’ 3

THE RABBIS WHO ACCEPTED ISLAM HYPOCRITICALLY

The following arc the Jewish rabbis who took refuge in Islam along with
the Muslims and hypocritically professed it: Of B. Qaynuqa': Sa'd b.
Hunayf; Zayd b. al-Lusayt; Nu man b. Aufa b. 'Amr; 'Uthman b. Aufa;
Zayd b. al-Lusayt who fought with 'Umar in the market of the B. Qay¬
nuqa'. He was the man who said when the apostle’s camel wandered
off: ‘Muhammad alleges that revelations come to him from heaven and he
doesn’t know where his camel is!’ When the apostle heard of what this
enemy of God had said and God had told him where his camel was he said,
‘I only know what God lets me know. And God has shown me. It is in
such-and-such a glen caught by its rope to a tree.’ The Muslims went
and found it in that very spot caught up as the apostle had said.

Also Rafi' b. Huraymila of whom I have heard that the prophet said,
36a ‘One of the greatest hypocrites has died today.’ And Rifa'a b. Zayd b.
al-Tabut of whom the prophet said when there was a high wind as he was
returning from the expedition against the B. al-Mustaliq and the Muslims
were in great anxiety: ‘Don’t be afraid; the wind is blowing because a
great unbeliever is dead.’ When he got back to Medina he found that
Rifa'a had died the day the wind blew. Also Silsila b. Barham and Kinana
b. Suriya.

These hypocrites used to assemble in the mosque and listen to the
stories of the Muslims and laugh and scoff at their religion. When some
of them 4 were there one day the apostle saw them talking with lowered
voice among themselves huddled together. He ordered that they should
be ejected and they were put out with some violence. Abu Ayyub Khalid
b. Zayd b. Kulayb got up and went to 'Amr b. Qays, one of B. Ghanm

1 Sura 63. Cf. W. 727 infra.

2 Cf. W. 653. 10. 3 Sura 59- n-:6.

4 It is by no means certain that these men were Jews. The previous section almost cer¬
tainly proves that they were not; however they may well have been half converted to
Judaism like so many of the inhabitants of Medina.

The Life of Muhammad 247

b. Malik b. al-Najjar who was the custodian of their gods during the pagan
era, took hold of his foot and dragged him outside the mosque, he saying
meanwhile ‘Would you drag me out of the datebarn of the B. Tha'laba!’
Then he W'ent for Rah' b. Wadi'a, one of the B. al-Najjar, gripped him
by his robe, slapped his face, and dragged him forcibly out of the mosque,
saying, ‘Faugh! you dirty hypocrite! Keep out of the apostle’s mosque,
you hypocrite!’ (300).

'Umara b. Hazm went lor Zayd b. 'Amr who had a long beard and seized
him by it and dragged him violently out of the mosque. Then clenching
his fists he punched him in the chest and knocked him down, Zayd crying
the meanwhile, ‘You have torn my skin off!’ ‘God get rid of you, you
hypocrite,’ he answered, ‘God has a worse punishment than that in store
for you, so don’t come near the apostle’s mosque again!’ (301).

Abu Muhammad Mas'ud b. Aus b. Zayd b. Asram b. Zayd b. Tha'laba 363
b. Ghanm b. Malik b. al-Najjar (who was at Badr) w r ent for Qays b.
'Amr b. $ahl who was a youth (the only >^)ung man known to have been
among the hypocrites) and pushed him in the back of the neck until he
ejected him from the mosque.

A man of B. al-Khudra b. al-Khazraj of the family of Abu Sa'd called
'Abdullah b. al-Harith, hearing the order to clear the mosque, went for
al-Harith b. 'Amr, a man with long hair, and taking a good grip of it he
dragged him violently the whole way along the floor until he put him
out, the hypocrite meanwhile saying ‘You are very rough, Ibnu’l-Harith.’
‘Serve you right, you enemy of God, for what God has sent down about
you,’ he answered, ‘Don’t come near the apostle’s mosque again, for you
are unclean.’

A man of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf went for his brother Zuwayy b. al-Harith
and put him out violently, saying, ‘Faugh! You are doing Satan’s work
for him!’

These were the hypocrites whom the apostle ordered to be expelled
from the mosque that day.

REFERENCES TO THE HYPOCRITES AND THE JEWS IN THE
SURA ENTITLED ‘THE COW’

The first hundred verses of the sura of the Cow came down in reference
to these Jewish rabbis and the hypocrites of Aus and Khazraj, according to
what I have been told, and God knows best. He said: 'Alif Lam Mim.

That is the book wherein there is no doubt.’ The word rayb means doubt
( 3 02 )>

‘A guidance to the god-fearing’, i.e. those who fear God’s punishment 364
for abandoning the guidance they ■ recognize, and hope for His mercy
through believing in what has come to them from Him. ‘Who believe
in the unseen and establish prayer and give out what We have provided
them with,’ i.e. they establish prayer in its prescribed form and pay the

248 The Life of Muhammad

poor-tax expecting a (future) reward for it. ‘And those who believe in
what has been sent down to thee and to those who were before thee/ i.e.
they believe thee to be true in what thou hast brought from God and what
the sent ones brought before thee, making no difference between them nor
opposing what they brought from their Lord. ‘And are certain of the
latter end/ i.e. the waking from death, the resurrection, paradise and hell,
the reckoning and the scales, i.e. these are those who allege that they believe
in what was before thee and in what has come to thee from thy Lord.
‘These live in guidance from their Lord/ i.e. according to light from their
Lord and uprightly according to what has come to them. ‘These are they
who prosper/ i.e. who attain what they seek and escape the evil they flee
from. ‘As for those who disbelieve,’ i.e. in what has been sent down to
thee though they say we have long believed in what came to us before thee,
‘it is all one to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them they
will not believe/ i.e. they disbelieve that thou art mentioned (in the books)
they have and they reject the covenant which was made with them with
reference to thee. They disbelieve in what has come to thee and in what
they have already which others brought to them so how will they listen to
warning and exhortation from thee when they have denied that they have
any knowledge of thee? ‘God hath sealed their hearts and their hearing
and over their sight there is a covering/ i.e. so that they will never find
guidance, meaning: because they have declared you a liar so that they will
not believe in the truth which has come to thee from thy Lord though they
believe in all that came before thee. For opposing thee they will have an
awful punishment. Thus far concerning the Jewish rabbis for calling the
truth a lie after they knew' it.

‘And there are some men who say, We believe in God and the last day
w'hen they do not believe.’ He means the hypocrites of Aus and Khazraj
and their followers. ‘They would deceive God and those who believe,
but they deceive only themselves, and perceive it not. In their hearts
is a sickness,’ i.e. doubt. ‘And God increases their sickness/ i.e. doubt.

365 ‘A painful punishment is theirs because they lie. And when it is said to
them, ‘Do not make mischief in the land they say we are only putting
things to right,’ i.e. we only wish to make peace between the two parties
of the believers and the scripture folk. God said: ‘Are not they indeed the
mischief makers but they perceive it not? And when it.is said to them,
Believe as the people believe they say: Are we to believe as the foolish
believe ? Surely they are the foolish but they know it not. And when they
meet those who believe they say, We believe; and w'hen they go apart to
their leaders,’ 1 i.e. the Jews who order them to deny the truth and contra¬
dict what the apostle brought, ‘They say Certainly we are with you/ i.e.
we agree entirely with you. ‘We were only mocking/ i.e. mocking the
people and jesting with them. God said: ‘God will mock at them and let
them continue to wander blindly in their error’ (303).

! Lit. 'their satans’.

The Life of Muhammad 249

‘These are they who buy error at the price of guidance/ i.e. disbelief
for faith. ‘So their traffic is not profitable and they are not rightly guided.’

Then God employed a simile and said: ‘They are like a man who lights
a fire and when it lightens his environment God takes away their light and
leaves them in darkness unable to see,’ i.e. they cannot see the truth and
profess it so that when they go out with it from the darkness of unbelief
they extinguish it with their unbelief and hypocrisy, and God leaves
them in the darkness of unbelief and they do not see guidance and are not
upright in truth. ‘Deaf, dumb, blind, and they return not,’ i.e. they
return not to guidance, deaf, dumb, blind to what is good, they return not
to good and find no escape from their condition. ‘Or like a rainstorm from
heaven wherein is darkness and thunder and lightning. They put their
fingers in their ears because of the thunderings, in fear of death. God
encompasses the unbelievers’ (304), i.e. because of the darkness of 366
unbelief and the fear of death in which they are, arising from their opposi¬
tion and fear of you, they are like the man in the rainstorm who puts his
fingers in his ears at the thunderclaps in fear of death. He says: And
God brings that vengeance upon them, i.e. He encompasses the urn-
believers. ‘The lightning almost takes away their sight/ i.e. because of the
exceeding brightness of the truth. ‘Whenever it gives light to them they
walk in it and when it is dark for them they stand still,’ i.e. they know the
truth and talk about it and so far as their talk goes they are on the straight
path; but when they relapse from it into infidelity they come to a halt in
bewilderment. ‘And if God willed He could take away their hearing and
their sight,’ i.e. because they have forsaken the truth after they knew it.
‘God is able to do all things.’

Then He says: ‘O men, worship your Lord,’ addressing both unbelievers
and hypocrites, i.e. acknowledge His unity. ‘Who created you and those
before you, perchance you may ward off evil. Who has made the earth a
bed for you and the heaven a building, and sent down water from heaven
and has brought forth fruits thereby as food for you. So make not rivals of
God w'hen you know (better)’ (305), i.e. do not associate with God rivals
which can neither profit nor harm when you know that you have no Lord
that can feed you other than He, and you know that the monotheism to
which the apostle calls you is the truth about which there is no doubt.

‘And if you are in doubt about that which We have sent down to our 367
servant/ i.e. in doubt about what he has brought you, ‘then produce a
sura like it and summon your witnesses other than God,’ i.e. whatever
helpers you can get ‘if you are truthful; and if you do not and you cannot’
for the truth has become clear to you, ‘then fear hell whose fuel is men and
stones 1 prepared for the unbelievers,’ i.e. for those who are in a state of
infidelity like you.

Then he appeals to their interest and warns them against breaking the
covenant which He made with them in reference to His prophet when

1 It is said that the stones were those worshipped by the pagan Arabs.

250 The Life of Muhammad

He came to them, and He reminds them of the beginning of their creation
when He created them, and what happened to their forefather Adam ami
how he was dealt with for his disobedience; then He says: 1 '0 children of
Israel,’ addressing the Jewish rabbis, ‘Remember the favour I showed you,’
i.e. My care for you and your fathers, wherewith He delivered them from
Pharaoh and his army. ‘And fulfil My covenant’ which I placed on your
necks with regard to My prophet Ahmad when he should come to you.
‘I shall fulfil My part of the covenant.’ I shall carry out what I promised
you for believing in and following him by removing the bonds and chains
which were upon your necks because of the sins which you had com¬
mitted. ‘And stand in awe of Me,’ i.e. lest I bring down on you what I
brought down on your fathers before you—the vengeance that you know of,
bestial transformation and the like. ‘And believe in what I have sent down
confirming what you already have, and be not the first to disbelieve it
seeing that you have knowledge which others have not about it. And
fear Me and do not mingle truth with falsehood nor hide the truth which
you know,’ i.e. do not conceal the knowledge which you have about My
apostle and what he has brought when you will find it with you in what
you know of the books which are in your hands. ‘Would you tell men to be
good and forget to be so yourselves, you being readers of scripture? Do
you not understand?’ i.e. would you forbid men to disbelieve in the
prophecy you have and the covenant of the TY>rah and abandon it yourselv es ?
i.e. when you deny that it contains My covenant with you that you must
pronounce My apostle to be true, and you break My agreement and you
contradict what you know to be in My book.

Then He recounts their sins, mentioning the calf and what they did
with it; how He forgave them and pardoned them; then their words
‘Show us God plainly’ (306); and how the storm came upon them because
of their presumptuousness; then He quickened them after they had died,
overshadowed them with the cloud, sent down to them manna and quails
and said to them, ‘Enter the gate with prostrations and say Hitta,’ 2 i.e. say
what I command you, and I will remove your sins from you; and their
changing that word making a mockery of His command; and His forgiving
them after their mockery (307).

With regard to their changing that word, the apostle said according
to what Salih b. Kaisan from Salih, freedman of al-Tau ama d. Umayya
b- Khalaf from Abu Hurayra and someone above suspicion from Ibn
‘Abbas: They entered the gate they were ordered to enter with prostra¬
tions in a crowd saying, ‘Wheat is in the barley (308)* (He a l so reminded
them of) Moses praying for water for his people and His commanding
him to strike the rock with his staff so that the water gushed forth in
twelve streams, one for each tribe to drink from, each tribe knowing the

1 The meaning of this word (lit. unloading, or relief), and indeed the significance of the

whole passage, is obscure. Presumably a Jewish midrash lies behind it. Cf. Geiger, op. cit. 17 •

The Life of Muhammad 251

one from which it was to drink. And their saying to Moses, ‘We cannot
bear one kind of food. Fray to your Lord for us that He may bring forth to
us vegetables which the earth produces such as cucumbers and corn (309)
and beans and onions. He said: Will you exchange that which is better
for that which is baser? Go down to Egypt; thus you will get what you
ask for.’ They did not do so. Further how He raised the mountain above
them 1 that they might receive what was brought to them; and the bestial
transformation when He made them into apes for their sins; and the cow
which God showed them in which there was a lesson concerning the slain
man about whom they differed until God made clear to them his affair
after their repeated requests to Moses for a description of the cow;
further the hardness of their hearts afterwards so that they were harder
than stone. Then He said: ‘There are rocks from which rivers gush forth
and there are rocks which split asunder and water comes out of them, and
there are rocks which fall down for fear of God,’ i.e. some rocks are softer
than your hearts in regard to the truth to which you were called. ‘And
God is not unaware of what you do.’

Then He said to Muhammad and the.believers with him, causing them
to despair of them: ‘Do you hope that they will believe you when there is a
party of them who listen to the word of God then change it after they
understand it, doing so knowingly?’ His saying ‘They listen to the Torah’ 2
does not mean that they all heard it, but only a party of them, i.e. a selected
number according to what I was told by a scholar. They said to Moses:
Something has come between us and the vision of God so let us hear
His word when He speaks to thee. Moses conveyed the request to God
who said: Yes, command them to purify themselves or to purify their
clothing and to fast; and they did so. Then he brought them forth to the 370
mountain, and when the cloud covered them Moses commanded them to
prostrate themselves and his Lord spoke to him and they heard His voice
giving them commands and prohibitions so that they understood what they
heard. Then he went back with them to the Children of Israel and when
he came to them a party of them changed the commandments they had
been given; and when Moses said to the Children of Israel, ‘God has
ordered you to do so-and-so,’ they contradicted him and said that God
had ordered something else. It is they to whom God refers.

Then God said: ‘And when they meet those who believe they say:

We believe,’ i.e. in your leader the apostle of God; but he (has been sent)
to you alone. And when they go apart with one another they say, Don’t
talk to the Arabs about this for you used to ask for victory over them
through him and he is of them. So God sent down concerning them:

‘And when they meet those who believe they say, We believe. But when

1 Cf. Sura 7. 170 and Geiger, Was hat Muhammad aus dem Judenthum aufgenomrnen ?,

Bonn, 1833, pp. 164 f., and A. S. Yahuda in Ignace Galdziher Memorial Volume, Pt. T,
Budapest, 1948, p, 283.

• These words are I.I.’s explanation. ‘The word of God' just mentioned could only have

been the Torah.

252 The Life of Muhammad

they go apart with one another they say, Will you talk about what God has
revealed to you that they may contend with you about it before your Lord ?
Have you no understanding?’ i.e. maintain that he is a prophet since you
know that God has made a covenant with you that you should follow him,
while he tells you that he is the prophet whom we are expecting and find
in our book. Oppose him and do not recognize him. God said: ‘Do they
not know that God knows what they conceal and what they proclaim,
and some of them are gentiles 1 who do not know the book but merely
recite passages (310). 2 ‘They only think they know, i.e. they don t
know the book and they do not know what is in it, yet they oppose thy
prophethood on mere opinion. ‘And they say the fire will not touch us
except for a limited time. Say, Have ye received a covenant horn God ?
God will not break His covenant—or do you say what you do not know
about God ?’

A freedman of Zayd b. Thabit told me as from 'Ikrima or from Sa'id
b. Jubayr from Ibn 'Abbas: The apostle came to Medina when the Jews
were saying that the world would last for seven thousand years and that
God would only punish men in hell one day in the next world for every
thousand in this world. There would be only seven days and then punish¬
ment would cease. So God sent dowm concerning this saying: And they
say, The fire will not touch us except for a limited time. Say, Have ye
received a covenant from God? God will not break His covenant or do
you say what you do not know about God ? Nay whoso does evil and his sin
encompasses him,’ i.e. he who does as you do and disbelieves as you
disbelieve, his unbelief encompasses the good he has acquired with God.
‘They are the people of hell; they will be there eternally,’ i.e. for ever.
‘And those who do good, they are the people of paradise; they will be there
eternally,* i.e. those who believe in what you deny and do what you have
left undone of His religion. They shall have paradise for ever. He
tells them that the recompense for good and evil is eternal: it will never
cease.

Then He said in blaming them, ‘And when We made a covenant with the
children of Israel,’ i.e. your covenant. ‘Worship none but God, show
kindness to parents and to near relatives, and to orphans and the poor,
and speak kindly to men, and establish prayer and pay the poor-tax,
then you turned your backs except a few of you, being averse,’ 3 i.e. you
abandoned all that—nothing less. ‘And when we made a covenant with

1 This word uvvni is generally translated ‘illiterate’. In Sura 7. 157 an d t5® Muhammad
calls himself ‘the gentile prophet’; but practically all Arab writers claim that he meant that
he could not read or write (see, e,g., Pickthall’s translation). Geiger, op. cit. 26 f., was, I
think, the first to point out the only possible derivation of the word, and he has been followed
by every subsequent European Arabist. But this passage brings to light the fact that he was
preceded by these two early traditionists who identified the ummtyun as Arab proselytes who
did not themselves know the scriptures.

1 That is to say these Arabs cannot read the sacred books, but they can join in the Jewish
liturgy reciting the prayers and responses.

3 v. 77.

The Life of Muhammad 253

you, Shed not your blood* (311). 1 ‘And do not turn (some of) your people 1
out of your dwellings. Then ye ratified it and you are witnesses thereof,’ 373
i.e. that My covenant condition truly binds you. ‘Then you are they who
kill your people and drive some of them from their houses, supporting
one another against them by crime and transgression,’ i.e the polytheists,
so that they shed their blood along with them and drive them from their
houses along with them. ‘And if they came to you as prisoners you would
ransom them’ knowing that that is incumbent upon you in your religion,
‘while their expulsion is forbidden to you’ in your scripture. ‘Will you
believe in a part of the scripture and disbelieve in another part ?’ i.e.
will you ransom them believing in one part and expel them disbelieving in
another part? ‘And what is the recompense of those of you who do that
but shame in this world and on the day of resurrection they will be sent to
the severest punishment. For God is not unaware of w r hat you are doing.
These are they who buy this life at the price of the next life. Their punish¬
ment will not be lightened nor will they be helped.’ Thus God blamed
them for what they were doing, He having in the Torah prohibited
them from shedding each other’s blood and charged them to redeem
their prisoners.

There were two parties: The B. Qaynuqa' and their adherents, allies of
Khazraj; and al-Nadir and Qurayza and their adherents allies of Aus.
When there was war between Av-^and Khazraj the B. Qaynuqa' went out
with Khazraj, and al-Nadir and Qurayza with Aus, each side helping his
allies against his own brethren so that they shed each other’s blood, while
the Torah w r as in their hands by which they knew what was allowed and
what was forbidden them. Aus and Khazraj were polytheists worshipping 373
idols knowing nothing about paradise and hell, the waking and the resur¬
rection, the scriptures, the permitted and the forbidden. When the war
came to an end they ransomed their prisoners in accordance with the Torah
each side redeeming those of their men who had been captured by the
other side, disregarding the bloodshed that had been incurred in helping
the polytheists. God said in blaming them for that: ‘Will you believe in a
part of the scripture and disbelieve in another part?’ i.e. would you
redeem him in accordance with the Torah and kill him when the Torah
forbids you to do so, killing him and driving him out of his house and
helping the polytheist who worships idols instead of God against him, all
for the sake of this world’s gain? According to my information this passage
came down with reference to their behaviour with Aus and Khazraj.

He continued: ‘We gave Moses the scripture and We sent apostles after
him and We gave Jesus, Son of Mary, the clear proofs,’ i.e. the signs which
were wrought by Him in raising the dead; forming the likeness of birds
from clay and then breathing into them so that they became birds by
God’s permission * healing the sick; and news of many hidden things which

1 Your blood and yourselves, because in ancient Semitic thought the tribe was one blood
and had as it were one personality.

254 The Life of Muhammad

they stored in their houses; and His confuting them from the Torah and
the Gospel which God had created for Him . 1 Then he mentions their
disbelief in all that and says: ‘Is it that whenever there comes to you an
apostle with w r hat you do not like you act arrogantly; some you declare
liars and some you put to death?’ Then he says: ‘And they said, Our
hearts are uncircumcised,’ i.e. in coverings. ‘Nay, but God has cursed
them for their unbelief. Little do they believe. And when a scripture
comes to them from God confirming what they already have, though
before that they were asking for a victory over the unbelievers, when there
comes to them what they know they deny it. God’s curse is on the un¬
believers.’

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that shaykhs of his people said:
This passage came down about us and them. We had got the better of
them in the pagan era, we being polytheists and they scripture folk. They
374 used to say to us, ‘Soon a prophet will be sent whom we shall follow; his
time is at hand. With his help we shall kill you like 'Ad and Iram.’ And
when God sent His apostle from Quraysh and we followed him they
denied him. God said: ‘And w r hen there comes to them what they know
they deny it. God’s curse is on the unbelievers. Wretched is that for
w r hich they sell themselves in disbelieving in what God has sent down,
grudging that God should send down of His bounty upon whom He will of
His servants,’ i.e. that He should have given it to one who was not of them.
‘They have incurred anger upon anger and for the unbelievers there is a
shameful punishment’ (312).

The double anger is His anger at what they have disregarded of the
Torah which they had and His anger at their disbelieving in this prophet
whom God had sent to them . 2 Then He told them of 3 the raising of the
mountain above them and their taking the calf as a god instead of their
Lord. God then said: ‘Say, If the last dwelling with God is for you alone
excluding others, then long for death if you are truthful,’ i.e. pray for
death to which of the two parties is most false with God. And they
refused the apostle’s suggestion. God said to His prophet: ‘They will
never long for it because of what their hands have sent before them ,’ 4
i.e. because they know about thee by the knowledge which they have
and deny it, It is said that if they had longed for it the day he said that to
them, not a single Jew would have remained on the earth but would have
died. Then He mentions their love of this life and of a long life and God
said: ‘Thou wilt find them the most eager of men for life’, the Jew's, ‘even
more than the polytheists; each one W'ould like to live a thousand years
and to be allowed to live long would not remove him from the punishment,’
i.e. it w r ould not deliver him from it. The reason is that the polytheist

1 Ahdatha Hay hi. Apparently this is a pregnant construction meaning ‘created and sent
to him’. 2 Ahdatha ilayhirn.

3 The text of VV. and C. annabahum ‘blamed them’ yields no suitable meaning. The true
text is given in W.‘s notes, ii. iii, anba’ahum. I owe this correction to Dr. Arafat.

4 i.e. their past deeds.

The Life of Muhammad 255

does not hope for raising after death so he w'ants to live long, and the Jew
know's what awaits him of shame in the next life because he has wasted the
knowledge that he has. I hen God said: ‘Say, Who is an enemy to Gabriel ?

For it is lie who brought it down to thy heart by God’s permission.’

'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Abu Husayn al-Makkl told me from 375
Shahr b. Haushab al-Ash ari that a number of Jewish rabbis came to the
apostle and asked him to answer lour questions, saying that if he did so
they would follow him and testify to his truth, and believe in him. He
got them to swear a solemn oath that if he gave them the right answers
they would acknowledge his truth and they began: ‘Why does a boy
resemble his mother when the semen comes from the man?’ ‘I adjure
you by God and^ His favours towards the children of Israel, 1 do you not
know that a man’s semen is white and thick while a woman’s is yellow and
thin, and the likeness goes with that which comes to the top?’ ‘Agreed,’
they said. Tell us about your sleep.’ ‘Do you not know that a sleep which
you allege I do not have is when the eye sleeps but the heart is awake?’
Agreed.’ ‘Thus is my sleep. My eye sleeps but my heart is awake.’ ‘Tell
us about what Israel voluntarily forbade himself.’ ‘Do you not know that
the food he loved best was the flesh and milk of camels and that once when
he was ill God restored him to health so he deprived himself of his favourite
food and drink in gratitude to God?’ ‘Agreed. Tell us about the Spirit.’

Do you not know that it is Gabriel, he who comes to me?’ ‘Agreed, but
0 Muhammad he is an enemy to us, an angel who comes only ’with
violence and the shedding of blood, and were it not for that we would
follow you.’ So God sent down concerning them: ‘Who is an enemy to
Gabriel? For it is he who brought it down to thy heart by God’s permis¬
sion confirming what was before it and a guidance and good tidings to the
believers as far as the words ‘ Is it not that when they make a covenant some
of them set it aside, nay most of them do not believe. And when an apostle 376
comes to them from God confirming that which they have, some of them
who have received the scripture, the book of God, put it behind them as if
they did not know it and they follow that which the satans read concerning
the kingdom of Solomon,’ i.e. sorcery. ‘Solomon did not disbelieve, but
the satans disbelieved, teaching men sorcery.’ 2

This, so I have heard, happened when the apostle mentioned Solomon
b. David among the sent ones. One of the rabbis said, ‘Don’t you wonder
at Muhammad? He alleges that Solomon was a prophet, and by God he
was nothing but a sorcerer.’ So God sent down concerning that: ‘Solomon
did not disbelieve but the satans disbelieved,’ i.e. in following sorcery
and practising it. ‘And that which was revealed to the two angels Harut and
Marut in Babylon and they taught nobody.’

Someone above suspicion told me from ; Ikrima from Ibn 'Abbas that he
used to say: ‘What Israel forbade himself was the two lobes of the liver,

1 This formula is repeated four times.

2 v. 94.

256 The Life of Muhammad

the kidneys and the fat (except what was upon the back), for that used to be
offered in sacrifice and the fire consumed it .’ 1

The apostle wrote to the Jews of Khaybar according to what a freedman
of the family of Zayd b. Thabit told me from Ikrima or from Sa id b.
Jubayr from Ibn 'Abbas: Tn the name of God the compassionate the
merciful from Muhammad the apostle of God friend and brother of
Moses who confirms what Moses brought. God says to you, O scripture
folk, and you will find it in your scripture ii Muhammad is the apostle o
God; and those with him are severe against the unbelievers, merciful
among themselves. Thou seest them bowing, falling prostrate seeking
bounty and acceptance from God. The markof their prostrations is on their
foreheads. That is their likeness in the Torah and in the Gospel like a
seed which sends forth its shoot aftd strengthens it and it becomes thick
and rises straight upon its stalk delighting the sowers that He may anger the
unbelievers with them. God has promised those who believe and do well
forgiveness and a great reward .” 2 I adjure you by God, and by what
He has sent down to you, by the manna and quails He gave as food to your
tribes before you, and by His drying up the sea for your fathers when
He delivered them from Pharaoh and his works, that you tell me, Do

377 you find in what He has sent down to you that you should believe in
Muhammad? If you do not find that in your scripture then there is no
compulsion upon you. “The right path has become plainly distinguished
from error ” 3 so I call you to God and His prophet (313)-

Among those people concerning whom the Quran came down, especially
the rabbis and unbelieving Jews who used to ask him questions and annoy
him in confusing truth with falsehood'—as I was told on the authority of
‘Abdullah b. ‘Abbas and Jabir b. 'Abdullah b. Ri ab was Abu Yasir b.
Akhtab who passed by the apostle as he was reciting the opening words of
The Cow: ‘Alif, Lam, MIm, That is the book about which there is no
doubt. He came to his brother Huyayy who was with some other, Jews
and said: ‘Do you know that I have heard Muhammad reciting in what has
been sent down to him Alif Lam Mim, &c? After expressing surprise
Huyayy and these men went to the apostle and told him what had been
reported to them and asked if Gabriel had brought the message from God.
When he said that he had they said: God sent prophets before you but we
do not know of anyone of them being told how long his kingdom would
last and how long his community would last. Huyayy went up to his men
and said to them: ‘Alif is 1; Lam is 30; and Mim is 40, i.e. 71 years. Are
you going to adopt a religion whose kingdom and community will last

378 for only 71 years?’ Then he went to the apostle and said, ‘Have you any¬
thing else, Muhammad?* ‘Yes, Alif Lam Mim Sad.’ ‘This by God is
more weighty and longer: Alif 1; Lam 30; Mim 40, Sad 96, i.e. 161 years.

1 This is the sacrificial law given in Leviticus 3,4, io, 15, &c., and the tradition shows a
remarkable knowledge of the Jewish Law.

2 Sura 48. 29.

3 Sura 2. 257.

The Life of Muhammad 257

Similar questions were asked and answered in respect of Alif Lain' Ra 231;
Alii Lam Mim Ra 271; then he said, ‘Your situation seems obscure to us,
Muhammad, so that we do not know whether you will have a short or
long duration.’ 1 hen they left him. Abu Yasir said to his brother Huyayy
and the others, ‘How do you know that all these totals should not be added
together to make a grand total of 734 years?’ They answered, ‘His affair
is obscure to us.* They allege that these verses came down in reference to
them: ‘The plain verses are the mother of the Book; the rest are obscure.’ 1

I heard a scholar above suspicion mentioning that these verses were sent
down about the people of Najran when they came to the apostle to ask
him about Jesus, Son of Mary.

Muhammad b. Abu Umama b. Sahl b. Hunayf told me that he had heard
that they were sent down about a number of Jews, but he did not explain
that to me. God knows best.

According to what I heard from ‘Ikrima, freedman of Ibn ‘Abbas or
from Sa Id b. Jubayr from Ibn ‘Abbas, Jews used to hope that the
apostle would be a help to them against Aus and Khazraj before his mission
began; and when God sent him from among the Arabs they disbelieved
in him and contradicted what they had formerly said about him. 2 Mu'adh
b. Jabal and Bishr b. al-Bara b. Ma rur brother of the B. Salama said to
them: O Jews, fear God and become Muslims, for you used to hope for
Muhammad’s help against us when we were polytheists and to tell us that 379
he would be sent and describe him to us.’ Salam b. Mishkam, one of B.
al-Nadlr, said, ‘He has not brought us anything we recognize and he is
not the one we spoke of to you.’ So God sent down about that saying of
theirs: ‘And when a book comes to them from God confirming what they
have, though beforehand they were asking for help against those who
disbelieve, when there came to them what they knew, they disbelieved in
it, so God’s curse rests on the unbelievers.’ 3

Malik b. al-Sayf 4 said when the apostle had been sent and they were
reminded of the condition that had been imposed on them and what God
had covenanted with them concerning him, ‘bio covenant was ever made
with us about Muhammad.’ So God sent down concerning him: ‘Is it not
that whenever they make a covenant a party of them set it aside? blay most
of them do not believe’.’ 5

Abu Saluba al-Fityunl said to the apostle: ‘O Muhammad, you have
not brought us anything we recognize, and God has not sent down to you
any sign that we should follow' you.’ So God sent down concerning his
words, ‘We have sent down to thee plain signs and only evildoers dis¬
believe in them.’

Rafi‘ b. Huraymila and Wahb b. Zayd said to the apostle, ‘Bring us a

1 Sura 3. 5,

2 This and similar passages seem to indicate that the messianic: hope was strong among

the Jews. 3 Sura 2. 83.

Or al-Dayf. v.s. s S ura 2< 94

B 40S0

258 The Life of Muhammad

book; bring it down to us from heaven that we may read it; bring out
rivers for us from the earth, then we will follow you and believe in you.’
So God sent down concerning that: ‘Or do you wish to question your
apostle as Moses w'as questioned aforetime; he who exchanges faith for
unbelief has wandered from the straight road’ (314)- 1

Huyayy and Abu Yasir were the most implacable enemies of the Arabs
when God chose to send them an apostle from among themselves and they
3 g 0 used to do all they could to turn men away from Islam. So God sent down
concerning them: ‘Many of the scripture folk wish to make you unbelievers
again after you have believed being envious on their own account after the
truth has become plain to them. But forgive and be indulgent until God
shall give you His orders. God can do anything.’ 2

When the Christians of Najran came to the apostle the Jewish rabbis
came also and they disputed one with the other before the apostle. RafV
said, ‘You have no standing,’ and he denied Jesus and the Gospel; and a
Christian said to the Jew’s, ‘You have no standing’ and he denied that
Moses was a prophet and denied the Torah. So God sent down concerning
them: ‘The Jews say the Christians have no standing; and the Christians
say that Jews have no standing, yet they read the scriptures. They do not
know what they are talking about. God will judge between them on the
day of resurrection concerning their controversy,’ i.e. each one reads in his
book the confirmation of w’hat he denies, so that the Jew's deny’ Jesus
though they have the Torah in which God required them by the word of
Moses to hold Jesus true; while in the Gospel is what Jesus brought in
confirmation of Moses and the Torah he brought from God: so each one
denies what is in the hand of the other.

Raft' said: ‘If you are an apostle from God as you say, then ask God to
speak to us so that we may hear His voice.’ So God revealed concerning
that: ‘And those who do not know say, Why does not God speak to us or a
sign come to us ? Those w’ho were before them said the same. Their minds
are just the same. We have made the signs clear to a people who are sure.’

‘Abdullah b. Suriya, the one-eyed man, said to the apostle, ‘The only
guidance is to be found wdth us, so follow us, Muhammad, and you will
381 be rightly guided.’ The Christians said the same. So God sent down
concerning them both: ‘And they say, Be Jew’s or Christians then you
will be rightly guided. Say, Nay, the religion of Abraham a hamf who was
no polytheist,’ as far as the words ‘Those are a people who have passed
away; they have what they earned and you have what you have earned and
you will not be asked about w’hat they used to do.’ 3

And when the qibla was changed from Syria to the Ka'ba—it was
changed in Rajab at the beginning of the seventeenth month after the
appstle’s arrival in Medina—Rifa'a b. Qays; Qardam b. 'Amr; Ka'b b.
al-Ashraf; Rafi' b. Abu Rafi'; al-Hajjaj b. ‘Amr, an ally of Ka'b’s; al-Rabl

1 Sura 2. 102.

3 Sura 129-36, i.e. ‘You are not responsible.’

Sura 2. 107,

The Life of Muhammad 2 _ ( ,

b. al-Rabi b. Abu 1-Huqayq; and Kinana b. al-Rabl* b AbiVl Hum

so God sent down concerningThem-^ f Se ^ U e hlm from his reli gion,
made them turn',hTb ckon Z f 1° " ‘ pe ? >Ic wi " sa >"-" Wh.«

Say, To God belongs ihe eat and Z tvet H Zl T** ’

straight path Thus we h ive i * ‘ guides whom He will to the

be t,ne P sses agat, men amHhaVr “ T ~“ y ,h * >" ou "»X

you. And we appointed the qibla whit Ton duTsjformeriv T **“7

• heels,' L. t0 test t ^ ^ *'™ “P°n

those whom God guided ’ ; * * ■ > 'vas a haul test except tor

lished. -It was not All: Ids D T *“ np,a, 1 lon - th °« whom Allah i»ab.

you the reward of both of them ‘f t , ’ ■ • so 'hat he may give

Then God said 4? God ,s kmti and compassionate to mend

heaven and We til 21 ZITM T** ^

so turn thy face towards the sacred

atfa Sr tn h r

do. If thou didst brl o th ’ a K M k G0Cl ,S n0t unmindfuI of what they
would not follow thy qibla arnTthn ° . '^ V 2' scn P ture every sign they
would some of them" follow the nibl' "<° U R I10t fo ,ow ’heir qibla nor

their desires after The knoJled^ ' / Tl^ If ,hou shou]dst follow
wouldst be an evildoer ’ as far as^he 'Y come *° ,lu ‘e then thou
so be not of the doubter?. * * he ' rUti ’ from % L °’ d

them: ‘Those who con i72 > / 8 '*' S ° God •« down about

We have made it pCTomt af ’»

who curse will curse them.’ ’ curse them and those

The apostle summoned the Jewish orrint,,,-, r u T t
attractive to them and warned them of God’- n V° am antl made h
Rafi' b. Kharija and Malik b 'W Jd 7“ P mshmmt vengeance,
religion of their fathers for thet 1- T M they " ould '«"<>"■ the

they. So God sen, ^ T'" *" an

them, Follow what God has sent R 1 A " ,Hn 11 ls said to

What we found our Set ^ Mo '" ^

nothing and were not rightly guided ?’ th heis understood

1 Sura 2. 140-2.

2 6o The Life of Muhammad

When God smote Quraysh at Badr, the apostle assembled the Jews in the
market of the B. Qaynuqa' when he came to Medina and called on them to
accept Islam before God should treat them as he had treated Quraysh.
They answered, ‘Don’t deceive yourself, Muhammad. You have killed a
number of inexperienced Quraysh who did not know how to fight. But
if you fight us you will learn that we are men and that you have met your
equal.’ So God sent down concerning their words: ‘Say to those who
disbelieve, You will be defeated and gathered into hell, a wretched resting-
place. You had a sign in the two parties which met: one party fought in the
way of God and the other was unbelieving seeing twice their number with
their very eyes. God will strengthen with His help whom He will. In that

there is a warning for the observant.’ 1

The apostle entered a Jewish school where there was a number of Jews
and called them to God. Al-Nu' man b. 'Amr and al-Harith b. Zayd said
to him:

‘What is your religion, Muhammad?

‘The religion of Abraham.’

‘But Abraham was a Jew.’

‘Then let the Torah judge between us.’

They refused, and so God sent down concerning them: ‘Hast thou not
seen how those who have received a portion of scripture when invited to
God’s book that it may judge between them, a party of them turn their
backs in opposition. That is because they say, The fire will not touch us
except for a limited time. What they were inventing has deceived them in

their religion.’ , .

The Jewish rabbis and the Christians of Najran, when they were together
before the apostle, broke into disputing. The rabbis said that Abraham
was nothing but a Jew. 1 he Christians said he was nothing but a Christian,
so God revealed concerning them: ‘O Scripture folk, Why do you argue
about Abraham when the Torah and the Gospel were not sent down untd
after his time? Can it be that you do not understand ? Behold, you are
they who argue of what you know something, but why do you argue
about what you know nothing ? God knows but you do not know. Abiaham
was neither'a Jew nor a Christian but he was a Muslim hamf and he was
not a polytheist. Those who are the nearest to Abraham are those who
follow him and this prophet and those who believe, God being the friend of

believers.’ 2 , TT . , , ,. , ,

‘Abdullah b. Sayf and ‘Adiy b. Zayd and .al-Harith b. Auf agreed

among themselves that they should affect to believe in what had been sent
down to Muhammad and his companions at one time and deny it at another
so as to confuse them, with the object of getting them to follow their
example and give up his religion. So God sent down concerning them.
‘O Scripture folk, why confuse ye the true with the false and conceal the
truth which you know? Some of the Scripture folk said, Believe in that
i e r ,, Q , TO 2 Sura 3. 58.

The Life of Muhammad 261

which has been sent down to those that believe at the beginning of the
day and deny it at the end of the day; perhaps they will go back (on it).
Believe only in one who follows your religion. Say, The guidance is
God’s guidance that anyone should be given the like of what you have
been given or that they may argue with you before their Lord. Say: the
bounty is in the hand of God. He giveth it to whom he pleases and God is
all-embracing and all-knowing.’ 1

Abu Rafi' al-Qurazi said when the rabbis and the Christians from
Najran had assembled before the apostle and he invited them to Islam,

‘Do you want us, Muhammad, to worship you as the Christians worship
Jesus, Son of Mary?’ One of the Christians called al-Ribbis (or al-Ris or
al-Ra’Ts) said, ‘Is that what you want of us and invite us to, Muhammad?’
or words to that effect. The apostle replied, ‘God forbid that I should
worship anyone but God or order that any but He should be worshipped.

God did not send me and order me to do that’ or words to that effect. So
God sent down concerning their words: ‘No mortal to whom God has
sent a book and authority and prophecy could say to men,Worship me
instead of God; but Be learned in that you teach the book and in that you
study it’ as far as the words ‘after ye had become Muslims’ (316). 2

‘And he did not command you to take the angels and prophets as 385
lords. Would He command you to disbelieve after you had become
Muslims ?’

Then he mentions how God had imposed on them and on their prophets
the obligation to bear witness to his truth when he came to them and their
taking that upon themselves and he says: ‘When God made His covenant
with the prophets (He said) Behold that which I have given you—a book
and wisdom. Then when an apostle shall come to you confirming what
you have, you shall believe in him and help him. He said, Do you agree
and take upon yourselves my burden ? They answered, We agree. He said,
Then bear witness, I being with you as a witness’ to the end of the passage.

Shiis b. Qays, who was an old man hardened in unbelief and most
bitter against the Muslims and exceeding envious of them, passed by a
number of the apostle’s companions from Aus and Khazraj in a meeting
while they were talking together. When he saw their amity and unity and
their happy relations in Islam after their enmity in pagan times he was
filled with rage and said: ‘The chiefs of B. Qayla in this country having
united there will be no firm place for us with them.’ So he gave orders to a
Jewish youth who was with them to go to them and sit with them and
mention the battle of Bu'ath and the preceding events, and recite to them
some of the poetry composed by each side.

Now at the battle of Bu'ath Aus and Khazraj fought and the victory
went to Aus who were commanded at the time by Hudayr b. Simak 386
al-Ashhall the father of Usayd b. Hudayr, Khazraj being led by 'Amr b. al-
Nu'man al-Bayadi, and both were killed (317).

1 Sura 3. .

2 Sura 3. 73.

262

The Life of Muhammad

The youth did so. Thereupon the people began to talk and to quarrel
and to boast until two men of the two clans leapt up, Aus b. Qayzi of B.
Haritha b, Harith of Aus and Jabbar b. Sakhr of B. Salama of Khazraj.
They began to hold forth against each other until one of them said, ‘If
you wish we will do the same again.’ Thereupon both sides became enraged
and said, ‘We will. Your meeting-place is outside—that being the volcanic
tract—To arms! To arms!’ So out they went and when the news reached
the apostle he went out with such of the emigrants as were with him and
said to them: ‘0 Muslims, remember God. Remember God. Will you
act as pagans while I am with you after God has guided you to Islam and
honoured you thereby and made a clean break with paganism; delivered
you thereby from unbelief; made you friends thereby?’ Then the people
realized that the dissension was due to Satan and the guile of their enemy.
They wept and the men of Aus and Khazraj embraced one another. Then
they went off with the apostle, attentive and obedient, God having
quenched the guile of the enemy of God Shas b. Qays. So God sent down
concerning him, and w’hat he did: ‘Say: O Scripture folk, why do you deny
God’s signs while God is witness of w’hat you do ? Say, O Scripture folk,

387 w'hy do you keep those w'ho believe from God’s way wishing to make it
crooked w r hen you are witnesses and God is not unmindful of what you
are doing?’ 1

God sent down concerning Aus and Jabbar and the people who were
with them when Shas brought back for a moment the atmosphere of
pagan days, ‘O you w r ho believe, if you obey some of those to whom a
•book has been given they will make you unbelievers again after your
faith. How- can you disbelieve w'hen God’s verses are read to you and His
apostle is with you? He who holds fast to God is guided to a straight path.
O ye who believe, fear God as He ought to be feared and die not except as
Muslims’ as far as the words ‘Those shall have a painful punishment’.

When Abdullah b. Salam, Tha'laba b. Sa'ya, and Usayd b. Sa'ya, and
Asad b. 'Ubayd and other Jews became Muslims and believed and were
earnest and firm in Islam, the rabbis who disbelieved said that it was only
the bad Jews who believed in Muhammad and followed him. Had they
been good men they would not have forsaken the religion of their fathers
and adopted another. So God sent dowm concerning what they had said:
‘They are not (all) alike: of the scripture folk there is an upright community
who read God’s verses in the night season prostrating themselves (318). 2
They believe in God and the last day and enjoin good conduct and forbid
evil and vie with one another in good works. Those are the righteous.’

Some Muslims remained friends w r ith the Jew's because of the tie of
mutual protection and alliance which had subsisted between them, so
God sent down concerning them and forbidding them to take them as

388 intimate friends: ‘O you W'ho believe, do not choose those outside your
community as intimate friends. They will spare no pains to corrupt you

1 Sura 3. 93

v. ioy.

The Life of Muhammad 263

longing for your ruin. From their mouths hatred has already shown itself
and what their breasts conceal is greater. We have made the signs plain
to you if you will understand. Behold you love them but they love not
you and you believe in the book—all of it,” i.e. you believe in their book
and in the books that were before that w'hile they deny your book, so that
you have more right to hate them than they to hate you. ‘And when they
meet you they say, We believe and when they go apart they bite their
fingers against you in rage. Say, Die in your rage’, &c.

Abu Bakr went into a Jew'ish school and found a good many men gathered
round a certain Finhas, one of their learned rabbis, and another rabbi
called Ashyab Abu Bakr called on the former to fear God and become a
Muslim because he knew that Muhammad w-as the apostle of God w'ho
had brought the truth from Him and that they wmuld find it written in the
Torah and the Gospel. Finhas replied: ‘We are not poor compared to
Allah but He is poor compared to us. We do not humble ourselves to
Him as He humbles Himself to us; we are independent of Him w'hile He
needs us. Were He independent of us He w ; ould not ask us to lend Him
our money as* your master pretends, prohibiting you to take interest and
allowing us to. Had He been independent of us He would not have given
us interest.’ 2

Abu Bakr was enraged and hit Finhas hard in the face, saying, ‘Were
it not for the treaty between us I would cut off your head, you enemy of
Allah!’ Finhas immediately went to the apostle and said, ‘Look, Muham¬
mad, at w’hat your companion has done.’ The apostle asked Abu Bakr
what had impelled him to do such a thing and he answered: ‘The enemy
of Allah spoke blasphemy. lie alleged that Allah was poor and that they 389
were rich and I was so angry that I hit his face.’ Finhas contradicted this
and denied that he had said it, so Allah sent dowm refuting him and con¬
firming what Abu Bakr had said: ‘Allah has heard the speech of those who
say: “Allah is poor and we are rich.’) We shall w'rite what they say and
their killing the prophets wrongfully and we shall say, Taste the punish¬
ment of burning.’ 3

And there came down concerning Abu Bakr and the anger that he felt:

‘And you will certainly hear from those who received the book before you
and from the polytheists much w r rong but if you persevere and fear God
that is of the steadfastness of things.’

’Then He said concerning what Finhas and the other rabbis with him
said: ‘And when God laid a charge upon those who had received the book:

You are to make it clear to men and not to conceal it, they cast it behind

1 Sura 3. 114.

2 The key to this seemingly blasphemous utterance is in the words ‘as your master pre¬
tends’. Later Muslim scholars would have called it an ilzdm, a form of the argumentum ad
absurdum in which an opponent's proposition is adopted and followed to its (absurd) conclu¬
sion. The Jews had objected to contributing to the cost of the war against the Meccans,
saving that il God needed their money as the apostle said they must be better off than Hel

3 Sura 3. 177.

264 The Life of Muhammad

their backs and sold it for a small price. Wretched is the exchange!
Think not that those who rejoice in what they have done and want to be
praised for what they have not done—think not that they will escape the
punishment: theirs will be a painful punishment.’ 1 He means Finhas
and Ashya' and the rabbis like them who rejoice in what they enjoy of
worldly things bv making error attractive to men and wish to be praised
for what they have not done so that men will say they are learned when they
are nothing of the kind, not bringing them to truth and guidance and
wanting men to say that they have so done.

Kardam, Usama, Naff', Bahri, Huyayy, and Rifa'a 2 used to go to some
of the helpers advising them not to contribute to the public expenses,
Tor we fear that you will come to poverty. Don’t be in a hurry to contri-
390 bute, for you do not know the outcome.’ So God sent down concerning
them: ‘Who are avaricious and enjoin avarice on others concealing the
bounty they have received from God’, i.e. the Torah w r hich confirms what
Muhammad brought. 3 ‘We have prepared for the unbelievers a shameful
punishment, and those who spend their money to be seen of men and
believe not in God and the last day’ as far as the words ‘God knows about
them’.

Rifa'a was a notable Jew. When he spoke to the apostle he twisted his
tongue and said: ‘Give us your attention, Muhammad, so that we can
make you understand.’ Then he attacked Islam and reviled it. So God
sent down concerning him: ‘Hast thou considered those to whom a part
of the book has been given how they buy error and wish that you should
err as to the way. But God knows best about your enemies. God is
sufficient as a friend and helper. Some of the Jews change words from
their contexts and say: We hear and disobey; hear thou as one that heareth
not and listen to us, twisting their tongues and attacking religion. Had they
said, We hear and we obey; hear thou and look at us, it would have been
better for them and more upright. But God has cursed them for their
unbelief and only a few will believe.’ 4

The apostle spoke to two of the chiefs of the Jewish rabbis 'Abdullah
b. Suriya al-A'war and Ka'b b. Asad calling on them to accept Islam,
for they knew that he had brought them the truth; but they denied that
they knew it and were obstinate in their unbelief. So God sent down
concerning them: ‘O you to whom the book was sent, Believe in what
We have sent down in confirmation of what you have before We efface

1 v. 184.

2 Their names have already been given in full.

3 One would naturally suppose that their wealth is referred to here.

4 Sura 4. 47. This text shows that Muhammad knew («) that when they said ‘We hear’
and ‘apaynd they were playing on the similar-sounding Hebrew word astnu (with sin) mean¬
ing ‘we carry out’, and ( b ) that ra'ina to them meant ‘our evil one’. It seems, therefore,
probable that ghayra musma'in is not to be understood in the sense given above, but as a
vocative, ‘O thou that hast not been made to hear’, i.e. thou who hast not received a divine
revelation. The ‘tongue-twisting’ is revealed as the sarcastic use of Arabic in a Hebrew
sense by a bilingual scholar.

265

The Life of Muhammad

(your) features and turn them back to front or curse you as We cursed the
sabbath-breakers when God’s command was carried out’ 1 (7= 19).

And those who formed parties of Quraysh and Ghatafan ami B. Qurayza 39.
were Huyayy and Sallam and Abu Rafi' and al-Rabi' and Abu 'Ammfir and
Waliwah b. Amir, and Haudha b. Qays, the latter three being of B
\ ail while the rest were of B. al-Nadir. When they came to Quraysh
they told them that these were Jewish rabbis, the folk who possessed the
first (sacred) book, and they could ask them whether their religion or that
of Muhammad was the better. When they did ask them they answered-
Four religion is better than his and you are on a better path 'than he and
t ose who follow him.’ So God sent down concerning them: ‘Hast thou
considered those to whom a part of the book has been sent how they
beheve in al-Jibt and al-Taghut? (320). And they sav of those who
disbelieve: I hese are better guided to the right path'than those who
beheve as far as the words ’or are they envious of men because God has
given them of His bounty. We gave the family of Abraham the book
and wisdom and We gave them a great kingdom.’ 2 392

Sukayn and 'Adiy b. Zayd said: ‘O Muhammad, we do not know of
God s having sent down to mortals anything after Moses.’ So God sent
down concerning their words: ‘We have revealed unto thee as we revealed
unto Noah and the prophets after him, and we revealed unto Abraham
and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and Jesus and Job and
Jonah and Aaron and Solomon and we brought to David the Psalms - and
apostles We have told thee of before and apostles We have not told thee of-■
and God spoke directly to Moses; apostles bringing good news and warning
that men might have no argument against God after the apostles (had
come). God is Mighty, Wise.’ 3 V

A number of them came in to the apostle and he said to them, ‘Surely
you know that I am an apostle from God to you.’ They replied that they
did not know it and would not bear witness to him. So God sent down
concerning their words: ‘But God testifies concerning what He has sent
down to thee. With His knowledge did He send it down and the angels
bear witness. And God is sufficient as a witness.’

The apostie went out to the B. al-Nadir to ask their help in the matter
of the blood-money of the two 'Amirites whom 'Amr b. Umavva al-Damri
had slam. And when they were alone together they said, ‘You will not
find Muhammad nearer than he is now; so what man will get on top of the
house and throw a stone on him so that we may be rid of him?’ 'Amr b
Jh b - Kab volunteered to do so. The apostle got to know of their
scheme and he left them and God sent down concerning him and his
people s intention: O you who believe, remember God’s favour to you

ihLlA° P e K PUr r f ed t0 Stretch out theiV ha ” ds “gainst you and He
j^hheld their hands from you. Fear God and on God let the believers

1 SOfa 4 ' 5 °- 2 SOra 4 ' 3 Sura 4. 161. 4 Sura s . , 4 .

2 66 The Life of Muhammad

Nu'man b. Ada’ and Bahri b. 'Amr and Sha’s b. 'Adiy came to the apostle
393 and he invited them to come to God and warned them of His vengeance.
They replied: ‘You cannot frighten us, Muhammad. Wc are the sons and
the beloved of God’ as the Christians say. So God sent down concerning
them: ’And the Jews and the Christians say, We arc the sons and the
beloved of God. Say, Then why does He punish you for your sms?
Nav you are but mortals of those He has created. He pardons whom He
will and He punishes whom He will and to God belongs the kingdom of the
heavens and the earth and what lies between them and to Him is the

journeying.’ 1 .

The apostle invited the Jews to Islam and made it attractive to them
and warned them of God’s jealousy and His retribution ; but they repulsed
him and denied what he brought them. Mu'adh b. Jabal and Sa d b.
‘Ubada and 'Uqba b. Wahb said to them: ‘Fear God, for you know right
well that he is the apostle of God and you used to speak of him to us before
his mission and describe him to us.’ Rafi' b. Huraymila and Wahb b.
Yah fid ha said, ‘We never said that to you, and God has sent down no
book since Moses nor sent an evangelist or warner after him. So God
sent down concerning their words: ‘O scripture folk, our apostle has come
to you to make things plain to you after a cessation of apostles lest you
should say: No evangelist and no warner has come to us when an evangelist
and warner has come to you (now). God is able to do all things.

Then he recounted to them the story of Moses and their opposition to
him, and how they disobeyed God’s commands through him so that they
wandered in the wilderness forty years as a punishment.

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl told me that he heard a learned man of Muzayna
telling Sa'Id b. al-Musayyab that Abu Hurayra had told them that Jewish
rabbis had gathered in their school when the apostle came to Medina.
A married man had committed adultery with a married woman and they
said: ‘Send them to Muhammad and ask him what the law about them is
and leave the penalty to him. If he prescribes tajbih (which is scourging
with a rope of palm fibre smeared with pitch, the blackening of their
394 faces mounting on two donkeys with their faces to the animal s tail)
" then’follow him, for he is a king and believe in him. If he prescribes
stoning for them, he is a prophet so beware lest he deprive you of what you
hold ’ They brought the pair to Muhammad and explained the position.
The prophet walked to meet the rabbis in the school house and called on
them to bring out their learned men and they produced Abdullah .

’ One of the B. Qurayza told me that Abu Yasir and Wahb b. Yahudha
were with them and the apostle questioned them so that he got to the
bottom of their affair until they said (pointing) to 'Abdullah b. Suriya,
‘This is the most learned man living in the Torah’ (321).

I le was one of the youngest of them and when the apostle was alone

1 Sura 5. 21. The last word mrssir may mean ‘return .

The Life of Muhammad 267

with him he put him on his oath as to whether the Forah did not prescribe
stoning for adulterers. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘they know right well, AbiVl-Qasim,
that you arc a prophet sent (by God) but they envy you.’ The apostle
went out to them and commanded that the two should be stoned and they
y/ere stoned at the door of his mosque among B. Ghanm h. Malik b.
al-Najjar. Afterwatds Ibn Suriya disbelieved and denied that the apostle
was a prophet. So God sent down concerning them: ‘Q apostle, let not
those who vie with one another in unbelief sadden thee, those who say
with their mouths, We believe, but their hearts do not believe, those
Jews who listen to lies, listening for other people who do not come to
thee,’ i.e. those who sent others and stayed behind themselves and gave
them orders to change the judgement from its context. Then He said:
They change woids from their places, saying, If this be given to you 395
receive it, and if it is not given to you, i.e. the stoning, beware of it’, See.

Muhammad b. Talha b. Yazld b. Rukana from Isma'll b. Ibrahim from
Ibn 'Abbas told me that the apostle ordered them to be stoned, and they
w : cre stoned at the door of his mosque. And when the Jew’ felt the first
stone he crouched over the woman to protect her from 'the stones until
both of them were killed. 'I his is what God did for the apostle m exacting
the penalty for adultery from the pair.

Salih b. Kaisan from NafY, freedman of 'Abdullah b. 'Umar from
Abdullah b. Umar, told me: When the apostle gave judgement about them
he asked for a 1 orah. A rabbi sat there reading it having put his hand over
the verse of stoning. 'Abdullah b. Salam struck the rabbi’s hand, saying,
‘This, O prophet of God, is the verse of stoning which he refuses to read
to you. The apostle said, ‘Woe to you Jews! What has induced you to
abandon the judgement of God which you hold in your hands?’ They
answered: ‘The sentence used to be carried out until a man of royal birth
and noble origin committed adultery and the king refused to allow him to
be stoned. Later another man committed adultery and the king wanted
him to be stoned but they said No, not until you stone so-and-so. And
when they said that to him they agreed to arrange the matter by tajbih and
they did away with all mention of stoning.’ The apostle said: ‘1 am the
first to revive the order of God and His book and to practise it.’ They
were duly stoned and 'Abdullah b. ‘Umar said, ‘I was among those that
stoned them.’

Da’ud b. al-Husayn from Tkrima from Ibn 'Abbas said that the verses
of The Tabic in which God said: ‘Then judge between them or withdraw
from them and if you withdraw from them they will do thee no harm. And
if thou judgest, judge with fairness, for God loveth those who deal fairly’ 396
were sent down concerning the blood-money between B. al-Nadlr and B.
Qurayza. those slain from B. al-Nadir were leaders and they wanted the
whole blood wit while B. Qurayza wanted half of it. They* referred the
matter for arbitration to the apostle, and God sent down that passage-
concerning them. The apostle ordered that the matter should be settled

268 The Life of Muhammad

justly and awarded the bloodwit in equal shares. But God knows which
account is correct.

Ka'b b. Asad and Ibn Saluba and his son 'Abdullah and Sha’s said one
to another, ‘Let us go to Muhammad to see if we can seduce him from his
religion, for he is only a mortal’; so they went to him and said: ‘You know,
Muhammad, that we are the rabbis, nobles, and leaders of the Jews;
and if we follow you the rest of the Jews will follow you and not oppose
us. Now we have a quarrel outstanding with some of our people and if we
believe in you and say that you are truthful will you, if we appoint you
arbitrator between us, give judgement in our favour ?’ The apostle refused
to do so and God sent down concerning them: ‘And judge between them
by what God has sent down and follow not their vain desires; and beware
of them lest they seduce thee from some of what God has sent down to thee.
And if they turn their backs then know that God wishes to smite them for
some of their sins. Many men are evil-doers. Is it that they are seeking
the judgement of paganism? Who is better than God in judgement for a
people who are certain?’ 1

Abu Yasir and Nafi' b. Abu Naff' and 'Azir and Khalid and Zayd and
Izar and Ashya' came to the apostle and asked him about the apostles he
believed in. So the apostle said: ‘We believe in God and what he has sent
down to us and what was sent down to Abraham and Isbmael and Isaac
and Jacob and the tribes and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what
was given to the prophets from their Lord; we make no difference between
any one of them. And we are submissive unto Him.’ 2 When he mentioned
Jesus, Son of Mary, they denied that he was a prophet, saying, ‘We do not
397 believe in Jesus, Son of Mary, or in anyone who believes in him.’ So God
sent down concerning them: ‘O Scripture folk, do you blame us for any¬
thing but our belief in God and what He has sent down to us and what was
sent down aforetime and because most of you are evil-doers?’ 3

Rafi' b. Haritha and Sallam b. Mishkam and Malik b. al-Sayf and Rah'
b. Huraymila came to him and said: ‘Do you not allege that you follow
the religion of Abraham and believe in the Torah which we have and
testify that it is the truth from God?’ He replied, ‘Certainly, but you have
sinned and broken the covenant contained therein and concealed what you
were ordered to make plain to men, and I dissociate myself from your sin.’
They said, ‘We hold by what we have. We live according to the guidance
and the truth and we do not believe in you and we will not follow you.’
So God sent down concerning them: ‘Say, O Scripture folk, you have no
standing until you observe the Torah and the Gospel and what has been
sent down to you from your Lotd. What has been sent down to thee from
thy Lord will assuredly increase many of them in error and unbelief.
But be not sad because of the unbelieving people.’ 4

Al-Nahham and Qardam and Bahrl came and said to him: ‘Do you not

2 Sura 3. 5K.

4 Sura 5. 72.

’ Sura 5. 54.
3 Sura 5. 64.

The Life of Muhammad 269

know that there is another god with God:’ The apostle answered: ‘God,
there is no God but lie. With that (message) I was sent and that I preach.’

God sent down concerning their words: ‘Sav, What is the greatest testi¬
mony? Say God is witness between me and you, and this Quran has been
revealed to me that I might warn you by it and whomsoever it reaches.

Do you actually testify that with God there are other gods ? Say, I do not
testify to that. Say He is only One God, and I dissociate myself from what
you associate (with Him). Those to whom We sent the book know it as
they know their own sons. Those who destroy themselves will not believe.’ 1

Rifa'a and Suwayd had hypocritically affected to embrace Islam and
some of the Muslims were friendly with them. So God sent down con¬
cerning these two men: ‘O Believers, choose not as friends those who have
chosen your religion to make a jest and game of it from among those who
received the scripture before you, nor the unbelievers, and fear God if 398
you are believers’, as far as the words ‘And when they come to you they
say, We believe, but they came in in unbelief and they went out with it and
God knows best about what they are concealing.’ 2

Jabal and Shamwil came to the apostle and said: ‘Tell us when the hour
will be if you are a prophet as you say.’ So God sent down concerning
them: ‘They will ask you about the hour when it will come to pass. Say,
only my Lord knows of it. None but He will reveal it at its proper time.

It is heavy in the heavens and the earth. Suddenly will it come upon you.
They will ask you as though you knew about it. Say Only God knows
about it, but most men do not know’-’ (322).

Sallam and Nu'man b. Aufa and Mahmud b. Dihya and Sha’s and
Malik came and said to him: ‘How can we follow you when you have
abandoned our Qihla and you do not allege that 'Uzayr is the son of God ?’ 399
So God sent down concerning these words: ‘The Jews say that 'Uzayr
is the son of God and the Christians say the Messiah is the son of God.
That is what they say with their mouths copying the speech of those who
disbelieved aforetime. God fight them! How perverse they are’ to the
end of the passage 4 (323).

Mahmud b. Sayhan and Nu'man b. Ada’ and Bahrl and 'Uzayr and
Sallam came to him and said: ‘Is it true, Muhammad, that what you have
brought is the truth from God? For our part we cannot see that it is
arranged as the Torah is.’ He answered, ‘You know quite well that it is
from God; you will find it written in the Torah which you have. If men
and jinn came together to produce its like they could not.’ Finhas and
'Abdullah b. Suriya and Ibn Saluba and Kinana b. al RabI' and Ashva'
and Ka'b b. al-Asad and Shamwil and Jabal were there and they said:

‘Did neither men nor jinn tell you this, Muhammad ?’ He said: ‘You know

1 The charge of polytheism made against the Jews is very puzzling and hard to explain.
Certainly this passage (Sura 6. 19) and the context in which it occurs refers not to the Jews
but to the polytheists. 2 bum 5. (>2.

3 Sura 7. 186. To make sense \ve must supply the words ‘that they do not know’ at the
end. 4 SG ra 9. 30.

270 The Life of Muhammad

well that it is from God and that I am the apostle of God. You will find
it written in the Torah you have.’ They said: ‘When God sends an apostle
He does for him what he wishes, so bring down a book to us from heaven
that we may read it and know what it is, otherwise we will produce one
like the one you bring.’ So God sent down concerning their words:
‘Sav, Though men and jinn should meet to produce the like of this Quran
they would not produce its like though one helped the other’ 1 (324).

400 Huyayy, Ka'b, Abu Raft', Ashya', and Shamwll said to 'Abdullah b.
Salam when he became a Muslim, ‘There is no prophecy among the Arabs,
but your master is a king.’ Then they went to the apostle and asked him
about Dhu’l-Qarnayn and he told them what God had sent him about
him from what he had already narrated to Quraysh. They were of those
who ordered Quraysh to ask the apostle about him when they sent ah Nad r
and 'Uqba to them. 2

I was told that Sa'id b. Jubayr said: A number of Jews came to the apostle
and said: ‘Now, Muhammad, Allah created creation, but who created
Allah?’ The apostle was so angry that his colour changed and he rushed
at them being indignant for his Lord. Gabriel came and quietened him
saying, ‘Calm yourself, O Muhammad.’ And an answer to what they asked
came to him from God: ‘Say, He God is One. God the Eternal. He
begetteth not neither is He begotten and there is none equal to Him.’ 3
When he recited that to them they said, ‘Describe His shape to us,
Muhammad; his forearm and his upper arm, what are they like?’ The
apostle was more angry than before and rushed at them. Gabriel came to
him and spoke as before. And an answer to what they asked came to him
from God: ‘They think not of God as He ought to be thought of; the
whole earth will be in His grasp at the day of resurrection and the heavens
folded up in His right hand. Glorified and Exalted is He above what they
associate with Him.’ 4

'Utba b. Muslim freedman of the B. Taym from Abu Salama b.
'Abdu’l-Rahman from Abu Hurayra told me: I heard the apostle say,
‘Men question their prophet 5 to such an extent that one would almost
say, Now God created creation, but who created God ? And if they say
that, say ye: He God is One,’ &c. Then let a man spit three times to the
left and say ‘I take refuge in God from Satan the damned’ (325).

401 A DEPUTATION FROM THE CHRISTIANS OF NAJRAN

A deputation from the Christians of Najran came to the apostle. There
were sixty riders, fourteen of them from their nobles of whom three were
in control of affairs, namely {a) the 'Aqib the leader of the people, a man
of affairs, and their chief adviser whose opinion governed their policy,

1 17. 90. 2 w.jr., p. 136. 3 112.

4 39. 67. In W.’s text this paragraph is attributed to Ibn Hisham.

5 I prefer W.’s reading to that of C.

The Life of Muhammad 271

'Abdu’l-MasTh by name; ( b ) the Sayyid , their administrator who saw r to
transport and general arrangements, whose name was al-Ayham; and
(c) their Bishop, scholar, and religious leader who controlled their schools,

Abu Haritha b. 'Alqama, one of B. Bakr b. Wa’il.

Abu Haritha occupied a position of honour among them, and was a
great student, so that he had an excellent knowledge of their religion, and
the Christian kings of Byzantium had honoured him and paid him a sub¬
sidy and gave him servants, built churches for him and lavished honours
on him, because of his knowledge and zeal for their religion.

When they set out 1 from Najran to see the apostle Abu Haritha was
riding on a mule of his with a brother at his side whose name was Kuz b.
'Alqama (326). Abu Haritha’s mule stumbled and Kuz said, ‘May So-and-
so stumble,’ [i.e. Curse him!], meaning the apostle. Abu Haritha said, ‘Nay
but may you stumble.’ ‘But why, brother ?’ he asked. ‘Because by God he
is the prophet we have been waiting for.’ Kuz said, ‘Then if you know
that, what stops you from accepting him?’ He replied, ‘The way these
people have treated us. They have given us titles, paid us subsidies, and
honoured us. But they arc absolutely opposed to him, and if I were to
accept him they would take from us all that you see.’ Kuz pondered over
the matter until later he adopted Islam, and used to tell this story, so I
have heard (327).

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me that when they came to
Medina they came into the apostle’s mosque as he prayed the afternoon
prayer clad in YamanI garments, cloaks, and mantles, with the elegance of
men of B. al-IIarith b. Ka'b. The prophet’s companions who saw them
that day said that they never saw their like in any deputation that came
afterwards. The time of their prayers having come they stood and prayed
in the apostle’s mosque, and he said that they w r ere to be left to do so.
They prayed towards the east.

The names of the fourteen principal men among the sixty riders were:
'Abdu’l-Masih the 'Aqib, al-Ayham the Sayyid; Abu Haritha b. 'Alqama
brother of B. Bakr b. Wa’il; Aus; al-Harith; Zayd; Qays; Yazid ; Nubayh; 403
Khuwaylid; 'Amr; Khalid; 'Abdullah; Johannes; of these the first three
named above spoke to the apostle. They were Christians according
to the Byzantine rite, though they differed among themselves in some
points, saying He is God; and He is the son of God; and He is the third
person of the Trinity, which is the doctrine of Christianity. They argue
that he is God because he used to raise the dead, and heal the sick, and
declare the unseen; and make clay birds and then breathe into them so
that they flew away; 2 and all this was bv the command of God Almighty,

‘W e will make him a sign to men.’ 3 They argue that he is the son of God in
that they say he had no known father; and he spoke in the cradle and this
is something that no child of Adam has ever done. They argue that he is
the third of three in that God says: We have done, We have commanded,

1 Reading wajjahu with W. 2 Sura 3. 43. 3 Sura 19. 21.

4°4

272 The Life of Muhammad

We have created and We have decreed, and they say, If He were one he
would have said I have done, I have created, and soon, but He is He and
Jesus and Mary. Concerning all these assertions the Quran came down.

When the two divines spoke to him the apostle said to them, ‘Submit
yourselves.’ 1 They said, ‘We have submitted.’ He said: ‘You have not
submitted, so submit.’ They said, ‘Nay, but we submitted before you.’
He said, ‘You lie. Your assertion that God has a son, your worship of the
cross, and your eating pork hold you back from submission.’ They said,
‘But who is his father, Muhammad?’ The apostle was silent and did not
answer them. So God sent down concerning their words and their in¬
coherence the beginning of the sura of the Family of 'Imran up to more
than eighty verses, and He said: ‘Alif Lam Mlm. God there is no God but
He the Living the Ever-existent.’ 2 Thus the sura begins with the statement
that He transcends what they say, and His oneness in creation and autho¬
rity, without associate therein, in refutation of the infidelity they have
invented, and their making rivals to Him; and using their own arguments
against them in reference to their master to show them their error thereby.
‘God there is no God but He,’ no associate is with Him in His authority.
‘The Living the Ever-existent,’ the living Who cannot die, whereas Jesus
died and was crucified according to their doctrine; ‘The Ever-existent’ one
who remains unceasingly in the place of His sovereignty in His creation,
whereas Jesus, according to their doctrine, removed from the place where
he was and went from it elsewhere. ‘He has brought down to thee the book
in truth,’ i.e. with the truth about which they differ. ‘And He sent down
the Torah and the Gospel,’ the Torah to Moses and the Gospel to Jesus,
as He sent down books to those who were before him. ‘And He sent down
the Criterion,’ i.e. the distinction between truth and falsehood about
which the sects differ in regard to the nature 3 of Jesus and other matters.
‘Those who disbelieve in God’s signs will have a severe punishment. God
is Mighty, Vengeful,’ i.e. God will take vengeance on all who deny His
signs, after knowing about them and about what comes from Him in them.
‘Nothing in heaven or earth is hidden from God,’ i.e. He knows what they
intend and scheme and what comparison they seek to establish in their
doctrine of Jesus when they make him God and Lord, when they possess
the knowledge that he is nothing of the kind, thus behaving with insolence
and infidelity. ‘He it is who forms you in the womb as He pleases,’ i.e.
Jesus was one who was formed in the womb—they do not attempt to deny
that—like every other child of Adam, so how can he be God when he had
occupied such a place? Then He says, to lift His transcendence and
His essential Unity above what they put with Him, ‘There is no God but
He the Mighty the Wise.’ The Mighty in Ilis victory over those who deny

1 The ordinary meaning of the word must stand here. Muhammad, of course, meant
‘Become Muslims’. The Christians answered that they had already submitted themselves
to Cod—sec what was said on p. 1 79 - 2 3 ' T -

3 Not in the theological sense, though undoubtedly christological differences form the
background of this sura.

The Life of Muhammad 273

Him when He wills, and the Wise in Ilis argument and His case against
His creatures. ‘He it is who has sent down to thee the book which has
plain verses: they arc the core 1 of the book’, in them is the divine argument,
the protection of (His) creatures, and the thrusting aside of controversy
and falsehood. These are not subject to modification or alteration 2 in the
meaning which has been given. ‘And others are obscure’, they are subject
to modification and interpretation. By them God tests His creatures as He
tests them with things permitted and forbidden that they should not be
changed into what is false and altered by declining from the truth. ‘But
as to those in whose hearts is a deviation, i.e. turning away from true
guidance, ‘they follow what is ambiguous,’ i.e. what can be otherwise
interpreted to substantiate thereby what they have invented and introduced
anew that they may have an argument and a plausible reason for their doc¬
trine, ‘desiring fitna,' i.e. confusion, and ‘desiring an arbitrary interpreta¬
tion,’ e.g. the error they adopted in explaining ‘We created’ and ‘We
decreed’. ‘And none knows its interpretation,’ i.e. what they mean by it,
‘except God; and those grounded in knowledge. They say, We believe in
it. Everything comes from our Lord.’ So how can there be any contro¬
versy when it is one speech from one Lord ? Then they carry over the 405
inteipretation of the obscure to the plain which can have only one meaning
and thus the book becomes consistent, one part confirming another, the
argument effective and the case clear; falsehood is excluded and unbelief
is overcome. ‘None but the intelligent take heed’ in this way. ‘0 Lord,
Suffer not our hearts to go astray after Thou hast guided us,’ i.e. Do not let
our hearts swerve, though wc swerve aside through our sins. ‘Grant us
mercy from Thy presence. Thou art the Generous Giver.’ Then He says,

God witnesses that there is no God but He, and the angels and the men
of knowledge too’ contrary to what they say ‘subsisting ever in justice,’ i.e.
in equity. There is no God but He the IMighty the Wise. The religion
with God is Islam,’ i.e. the religion you practise, O Muhammad, aeknow-
ledging the oneness of God iind confirming the apostles. ‘ 1 hose to whom
the book was brought differed only after knowledge had come to them,’ j.e.
that which came to thee, namely that God is One without associate,
‘through transgression among themselves. And whosoever disbelieves in
God’s revelations—God is swift to take into account. And if they argue
with thee,’ i.e. with the false doctrine they produce about ‘Wc created,.’

1 Lit. ‘the mother’.

• two words used, tasrif and tahrif, are not always dearly defined by the Arab com¬
  mentators. Lane says that the lasrif of the verses means ‘the varying or diversifying of the
  verses of the Quran by repeating them in different forms, or the making of them distinct in
  their meanings by repeating and varying them’. As to tahrif, Buhl’s article in E.I. should
  be consulted: ‘It may happen in various ways, by direct alteration of the written text, by
  arbitrary alterations in reading aloud the text which is itself correct, by omitting parts of it
  or by interpolations or by a wrong exposition of the true sense. . . .’ Ibn Ishaq says that
  neither the plain nor the obscure verses may be treated with tahrif - hut in the iatter category
  tahrif and interpretation may be resorted to—i.e. a meaning may be given to them which
  the words taken as they stand do not justify.

B 4080

T

274 The Life of Muhammad

‘We did’, and ‘We commanded’, it is only a specious argument devoid of
truth. ‘Say, I have surrendered my purpose 1 to God,’ i.e. to Him alone, ‘as
have those who follow me. And say to those who received the book and
to the gentile (converts) who have no book, ‘Have you surrendered? For
if they have surrendered they will be rightly guided and if they turn their
backs it is only incumbent on thee to deliver the message. And God sees
(His) servants.’

Then He combined the Jews and Christians and reminded them of
what they had newly invented and said: ‘Those who disbelieve in God’s
revelations and kill the prophets wrongfully and kill men who enjoin
justice’ as far as the words, ‘Say, O God possessor of sovereignty,’ i.e.
Lord of mankind and the King who alone decrees among them. ‘Thou
givest sovereignty to whom Thou wilt and takest it aw r ay from whom
Thou wilt. Thou exaltest and abasest whom Thou wilt; in Thy hand is
good,’ i.e. there is no God but Thee. ‘Thou canst do all things,’ i.e. none
406 but Thou can do this in thy majesty and power. ‘Thou causest the night
to pass into day and the day into night and bringest forth the living from
the dead and the dead from the living’ by that power. ‘And Thou nur-
turest whom Thou wilt without stint.’ None has power to do that but
Thou; i.e. though I gave Jesus power over those matters in virtue of which
they say that he is God such as raising the dead, healing the sick, creating
birds of clay, and declaring the unseen, I made him thereby a sign to men
and a confirmation of his prophethood wherewith I sent him to his people.
But some of My majesty and power I withheld from him such as appoint¬
ing kings by a prophetic command and placing them where I wished, and
making the night to pass into day and the day into night and bringing
forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living and nurturing
whom I wall without stint, both the good and the evil man. All that I
withheld from Jesus and gave him no power over it. Have they not an
example and a clear proof that if he were a God all that would be within
his power, while they know that he fled from kings and because of them
he moved about the country from town to town.

Then he admonished and warned the believers and said: ‘Say, If you
love God,’ i.e. if w r hat you say is true in love to God and in glorifying Him
‘and follow 1 me, God will love you and forgive you your sins,’ i.e. your past
unbelief. ‘And God is Forgiving Merciful. Say, Obey God and His
apostle,’ for you know him and find him (mentioned) in your book. ‘But if
you turn back,’ i.e. to your unbelief, ‘God loveth not the unbelievers.’

Then He explained to them how what God intended to do with Jesus
originated and said; ‘God chose Adam and Noah and the family of Abra¬
ham and the family of 'Imran above the worlds. They were descendants
one of another and God is a Hearer, a Knower.’ Then he mentioned the
affair of 'Imran’s wife and how- she said: ‘My Lord, I vow to Thee what is
in my womb as a consecrated offering,’ i.e. I have vowed him and made

1 zvajki.

2 75

1 he Life of Muhammad

‘A”e e pT(h1 G A?u arute strh'heKno "° "Tf ““«>•

z ooizt o [^f:z d sh ° my n rdi 1 h -

female,’ 1,. f T * *

consecrated offering. ‘I have called her Mq it ber t0 ^ ee as a
and her offspring from Satan the k “ pin * 407

accepted her with kindly acceptance and mule'he A Cr L ° rd

growth and made Zachariah her guardian’ hT h S Ti Up “ 3 g0odl }'
were dead (328). ^ ‘ n aftcr ^ ei f at her and mother

wit h m e en p“o1 and'XTff g“ ‘r ^ ” d Za “ » d

Yahya. Then He mentiom Marv ndTo rh "'T He . beW0wed <» him
God hath chosen thee and purified the ^ a 4 an & e s Sa ^ t0 ber, ‘O Mary,
of the worlds. O Mary, be obedient to Thl ^ above the WOmen

bow with those that bow’ savin? ‘That ' ^ pr0Strate th yself and

hidden. We reveal it to thee Th * S ° mC ° f the tldm S s of things

wastnot with them,’ i.e. thol

should be the guardian of Mary’ (329). ^ t0 kn °' V whlch of them

arrtrcame'omlt^himso heto^rTt* * ° f * Isr5U The

heretofore. A grievous famine befell lhs r rfl a niTA beCn . hergUardian
to support her so thev cast lor, tn * i V , Zachanah was unable
lot fell on Jurayj the ascetic ^ ^ ^

not with them when thev disnmed > ; k guardian. And thou wast

what they concealed from hirrmhoueh thev iT* ^ ^ tdlS ^ ab ° Ut

hood and as an argument against them bv rVir^ ? t0 P f° Ve hlS pro P hct '
cealed from him. g b> tellmg them what they had con-

Then He said: ‘Then the angels said' O Yhrv • 1 .

tidings of a word from 1 h U A God g lveth thee good

i.e. thus wZ his Iffl " h0SCMm - e ,S “ ,C Mcssl3h J“us, Son of Alary,’
world and the next ’ i e with Z h' con o ernlng Illm > ‘illustrious in this

He will speak to men in his cra^He and A - ,h °“. who brough ‘ •’

righteous ones ’ tellin? them ftt. ‘ a g roun naan, and he is of the

pass like the o'ther sonLf Adam huheirO thn,u , gh " hich hc
marked him out by speech tZ young and ° Id ' although God

to show mankind where his powelTav ‘She 8 ',aid" o'mv ’TffZ ^

I have a child when no man hath toujhed

God creates what He will ’ i p nm , TT . ’ 1 nUh ( u "ul be)

He wills of mortal or non-mortal \vhe H H f W1SheS ’ and Crcatcs what 4°8

him the book and the wisdom and the TVah’ whichhadh' ^ 'h”
from the time of Moses before him S

sc, to God’ or 'by God’.

The Life of Muhammad

2 ^ , . i t v. v u a( j only the mention of him that he

God initiated and gave to him, > “ ,£ nd an apostle to B, IsrS’Il

would be one of the prophets a h Lo rf,- i.e. confirming

(saying) I have come tojo» an apostle from Him to you. ‘I will

thereby my prophethood that th , P f orm 0 f birds and I will breathe

create for you from clay the hkenes h permission ,' Who has sent

into them and they will becom j W ; B heal him who was

me unto you, He being my ' or an^ J ^ ^ quicken the dead by God’s
born blind and the leper (33 )• eat and store up in your houses,

permission and I will tell you onv J j Go d to you, ‘if you

Therein is a sign for you that I am ^ ^ be f or e me of the Tor ah,'
become believers. And confirm) g so me of , hat which

i.e* what of it preceded me and m make lawful t_ y ^ fo ^ yQ and

was forbidden you, i.e. I te y to you to relieve you of it and you

you abandoned it; then I ma U J S . A nd I bring you signs from

can enjoy it and be is my Lord and your Lord ’

vour Lord, so fear God an Y and ing that his Lord (is God),
i.e- disowning what they say abo , . P that g t0 which I urge you and

‘So worship Him. This is a stfaig _ P » * disbelief’ and enmity against

bring you. ‘But when Jesus perceiv The disciples said: We

him 'He said, Who are my be P ei ^ , , Th - - t h e i r saying by which they
are God’s helpers. We behevem God.J J are Muslims,’
gained favour from then Lo • a bout Him. ‘O our Lord, we

not what those who argue v, ' lt 4 ve f 0 Uow the apostle, so write

believe in what Thou hast sent downed wc^toil ^ thejr faith .

us down among the witnesses, i.e. Himself when they decided

409 Then He mentions H.s akmgupof ^ and God is the best

to kill him and says. An > P h h ssert 0 f the Jews m

Of plotters.’ Then He lens hem-refuting vh^ him from th In

regard to his crucifixio a b out to cause thee to die and to

and says: ‘When God said, O Jes disbelieve’ when

exalt thee to Myself and to who foBow thee above

they purposed as tlhey d d ’A resurrection . The narration con-

those who disbelieve un unto t hec,’ O Muhammad, of

tinues until the words 1SV> aMbe final the decisive, the true, in which no

the signs and the wise warning, ’ & an(1 0 f w hat they differed m

falsehood is mingled, of the sto > J of Jesus with God,’

regard to him, - accept no o^ter re £ crc J d ’ of earth’, then

And listen! ‘is as the likeness om frQm th Lord ; ;. e . the report

said to him: Be; and he was 1 he ^ ^ ] oubters ,’ i. c . the truth

which comes to thee about Jesus, doubtful about it; and if they

has come to thee from thy Lord S °L (intervening), I created Adam from
say, Jesus was created without » m < ^ , female. And he was as

Tl ff* and skin. The creation of Jest, without

1 See p. 254 > n - 1 •

The Life of Muhammad 277

a male is no more wonderful than this. 'Whoso argues with thee about him
after knowledge has come to thee,’ i.e. after I have told thee his story and
how his affair was, ‘Then say: Come, let us summon our sons and your
sons, our wives and your wives, ourselves and yourselves, then let us pray
earnestly 5 and invoke God’s curse upon the liars’ (331)- ‘Verily this’ which 410
I have brought you of the story of Jesus ‘is the true story’ of his affair.
‘There is no God but God, and God is Mighty Wise. If they turn back
God knows about the corrupt doers. Say, O Scripture folk, Come to a
just word between us that we will worship only God and associate nothing
with Him and some of us will not take others as lords beside God. And if
they turn back say: Bear witness that we are Muslims.’ Thus he invited
them to justice and deprived them of their argument.

When there came to the apostle news of Jesus from God and a decisive
judgement between him and them, and he was commanded to resort to
mutual invocation of a curse if they opposed him, he summoned them to
begin. But they said: ‘O Abu ’ 1 -Qasim, let us consider our affairs; then we
will come to you later with our decision.’ So they left him and consulted
.with the 'Aqib who was their chief adviser and asked him what his opinion
was. He said: ‘O Christians, you know right well that Muhammad is a
prophet sent (by God) and he has brought a decisive declaration about the
nature of your master. You know too that a people has never invoked a
curse on a prophet and seen its elders live and its youth grow up. If you
do this you will be exterminated. But if you decide to adhere to your
religion and to maintain your doctrine about your master, then take your
leave of the man and go home.’ So they came to the apostle and told him
that they had decided not to resort to cursing and to leave him in his
religion and return home. But they would like him to send a man he could
trust to decide between them in certain financial matters in dispute among
them.

Muhammad b. Ja'far said: The apostle said, ‘If you come to me this
evening I will send a firm and trusty man.’ 'Umar used to say, ‘I never
wanted an office more than I wanted that one and hoped that I should get
it. I went to the noon prayer in the heat and when the apostle had con¬
cluded it he looked to right and left and I began to stretch myself to my
full height so that he could see me; but he kept on searching with his eyes
until he saw Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah and calling him he said, “Go with 411
them and judge between them faithfully in matters they dispute about.’”

So, said 'Umar, Abu 'Ubayda went with them.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HYPOCRITES

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that when the apostle came to Medina
the leader there was 'Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul al-'Aufi of the clan of B.
al-Hublii; none of his own people contested his authority and Aus and

1 As the sequel shows, the meaning is ‘let us invoke God’s curse on which of us is K ing’.

278 The Life of Muhammad

Khazraj never rallied to one man before or after him until Islam came, as
they did to him. With him was a man of Aus whom Aus obeyed, Abu
‘Amir 'Abdu 'Amr b. Sayfl b. al-Nu'man, one of 13 . Dubay'a b. Zayd,
the father of Ilanzala, ‘the washed’ on the day of Uhud. 1 He had been an
ascetic in pagan days and had worn a coarse hair garment and was called the
monk’. These two men were damned through their high status and it did
them harm.

'Abdullah b. Ubayy’s people had made a sort of jewelled diadem to
crown him and make him their king when God sent His apostle to them,
so when his people forsook him in favour of Islam he was filled with cn~
mitv realizing that the apostle had deprived him of his kingship. However,
when he saw that his people w r ere determined to go over to Islam he went
too, but unwillingly, retaining his enmity and dissimulating.

Abu 'Amir stubbornly refused to believe and abandoned his people
when they went over to Islam and -went off to Mecca w r ith about ten fol¬
lowers to get away from Islam and the apostle. Muhammad b. Abu
Umama from one of the family of Hanzala b. Abu Amir told me that the
apostle said, ‘Don’t call him the monk but the evil-doer.’

Ja'far b. 'Abdullah b. Abu’l-Hakam whose memory went back to aposto¬
lic days and who was a narrator of tradition told me that before he left for
Mecca Abu 'Amir came to the apostle in Medina to ask him about the
religion he had brought.

‘The Hanlflya, the religion of Abraham.’

‘That is what I follow.’

412 ‘You do not.’

‘But I do! You, Muhammad, have introduced into the Hanlflya things
which do not belong to it.’

‘I have not. I have brought it pure and white.’

‘May God let the liar die a lonely, homeless, fugitive!’ (meaning the
apostle as if he had falsified his religion).

‘Well and good. May God so reward him!’

That actually happened to the enemy of God. He went to Mecca and
when the apostle conquered it he went to Ta’if; when Ta if became Mus¬
lim he went to Syria and died there a lonely, homeless, fugitive.

Now there went with him 'Alqama b. 'Ulatha b. 'Auf b. al-Ahwas b.
Ja'far b. Kilab, and Kinana b. 'Abd Yalil b. 'Amr b. 'Umayr al-Thaqafl.
When he died they brought their rival claims to his property before Caesar,
lord of Rome. 2 fcaesar said, ‘Let townsmen inherit townsmen and let
nomads inherit nomads.’ So Kinana b. *Abd A alii inherited his property
and not 'Alqama.

Ka'b b. Malik said of Abu 'Amir and what he had done:

God save me from an evil deed

Like yours against your clan, O 'Abdu 'Amr.

2 i.e. Nova Roma.

279

The Life of Muhammad

You said, ‘I have honour and wealth’,

But of old you sold your faith for infidelity (332).

‘Abdullah b. Ubayy while maintaining his position among his people
kept wavering until finally he adopted Islam unwillingly.

Muhammad b. Muslim al-Zuhri from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from Usama
b. Zayd b. Haritha, the beloved friend of the apostle, told me that the
apostle rode to Sa'd b. 'Ubada to visit him during his illness, mounted on
an ass with a saddle surmounted by a cloth of Fadak with a bridle of palm-
fibre. Said Zayd: ‘The apostle gave me a seat behind him. He passed
'Abdullah b. Ubayy as he was sitting in the shade of his fort Muzaham
(333). Round him were sitting some of his men, and when the apostle saw
him his sense of politeness would not allow him to pass without alighting. 413
So he got off the animal and sat for a little while reciting the Quran and
inviting him to God. He admonished and warned him and preached the
good news to him while he, with his nose in the air, uttered not a word.
Finally, when the apostle had finished speaking he said, “There would be
nothing finer than w r hat you say if it were true. But sit in your own house
and if anyone comes, talk to him about it; but don’t importune those who
do not come to you, and don’t come into a man’s gathering with talk which
he docs not like.” 'Abdullah b. Rawaha, who was one of the Muslims who
were sitting with him, said, “Nay, do come to us with it and come into our
gatherings and quarters and houses. For by God it is what we love and
what God has honoured us with, and guided us to.” When 'Abdullah b.
Ubayy saw that his people were opposed to him he said:

When your friend is your opponent you will always be humiliated

And your adversaries will overthrow you. 1

Can the falcon mount without his wings?

If his feathers are clipped he falls to the ground (334).

‘Al-Zuhri from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from Usama told me that the
apostle got up and went into the house of Sa'd b. 'Ubada, his face showing
the emotions raised by I bn Ubayy, the enemy of God. Sa'd asked the
apostle why he looked so angry as though he had heard something that
displeased him, and then he told him what Ibn Ubayy had said. Sa'd said:
‘Don’t be hard on him; for God sent you to us as we were making a diadem
to crown him, and by God he thinks that you have robbed him of a king¬
dom.’

FEVER ATTACKS THE APOSTLE’S COMPANIONS

Hisham b. 'Urwa and 'Umar b. 'Abdullah b. 'Urwa from 'Urwa b. al-
Zubayr told me that 'A’isha said: When his apostle came to Medina it

1 Ibn Qutayba, Muqaddima, tr. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Paris, 1947, p. 22, has vn'Iuka
for y« sraka. G.-D. translates maulaka by ’ton patron’. The word is a homonym and in
its context seems to require the meaning I have given.

280 The Life of Muhammad

was the most fever-infested land on earth, and his companions suffered

414 severely from it, though God kept it from His apostle. 'Amir b. Fuhayra
and Bilal, freedmen of Abu Bakr, were with him in one house when the
fever attacked them, and I came in to visit them, for the veil had not then
been ordered for us. Only God knows how much they suffered from the
fever. I came to my father and asked him how he fared and he said:

Any man might be greeted by his family in the morning
While death was nearer than the thong of his sandal.

I thought that my father did not know what he was saying. Then I went to
'Amir and asked him how he was and he said:

I have experienced death before actually tasting it:

The coward’s death comes upon him as he sits.

Every man resists it with all his might

Like the ox who protects his body with his horns (335).

I thought that 'Amir did not know' what he was saying. Bilal when the
fever left him lay prostrate in a corner of the house. Then he lifted up his
voice and said:

Shall I ever spend a night again in Fakhkh 1
With sweet herbs and thyme around me?

Will the day dawm when I come down to the waters of Majanna
Shall I ever see Shama and Tafll again? (336)

I told the apostle what they had said and he remarked that they were
delirious and out of their minds with a high temperature. He said, “O God,
make Medina as dear to us as Mecca and even dearer! And bless to us its
food, and carry its fever to Mahya'a.” Mahya'a is al-Juhfa.’ 2

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. al- As mentioned that,
when the apostle came to Medina with his companions, the fever of Medina
smote them until they were extremely ill (though God turned it away from

415 his prophet) to such a degree that they could only pray sitting. The apostle
came out to them when they were praying thus and said: ‘Know that the
prayer of the sitter is only half as valuable as the prayer of the stander.’
Thereupon the Muslims painfully struggled to their feet despite then
weakness and sickness, seeking a blessing.

Then the apostle prepared for war in pursuance of God’s command to
fight his enemies and to fight those polytheists who were near at hand
whom God commanded him to fight. This was thirteen years after his
call.

1 Cf. Ya<|. iii. 8^4. 11, and Bukhari, i. 47U 13. Fakhkh is a place outside Mecca. Majanna
in the lower part of Mecca was a market of the Arabs in pa^an days.

2 Cf. Yaq. i. 35. j 6, who says it was once a large village with a pulpit on the road from’
Medina to Mecca about four stages distant from the latter. It was the rendezvous of the
Egyptians and Syrians if they wished to avoid Medina.

The Life of d / a ham mad 2 81

THE DATE OE THE HIJRA

By the preceding isnad from 'Abdullah b. Iiisham who said Ziyad b.
'Abdullah al-Bakka’I from Muhammad b. Ishaq told me that the apostle
came to Medina on Monday at high noon on the 12th of Rabi'u’l-awwal.

The apostle on that day was fifty-three years of age, that being thirteen
years after God called him. He stayed there for the rest of Rabi'u’l-awwal,
the month of Rabl'u’l-Akhir, the two Jumadas, Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadan,
Shawwal, Dhu’l-Qa'da, Dhu’l -Hijja (when the polytheists supervised the
pilgrimage), and Muharram. Then he went forth raiding in Safar at the
beginning of the twelfth month from his coming to Medina (337).

(THE RAID ON WADDAN WHICH WAS HIS FIRST RAID)

until he reached Waddan, which is the raid of al-Abwa’, making for Quravsh
and B. Damra b. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana. The B. Damra there 41
made peace with him through their leader MakhshI b. 'Amr al-Damrl.
Then he returned to Medina without meeting war and remained there lor
the rest of Safar and the beginning of Rabi'u’l-awwal (338).

THE EXPEDITION OF 'iJBAYDA B. AL-IIARTTH

During that stay in Medina the apostle sent X'bayda b. al-Jlarith b. al-
Muttalib with sixty or eighty riders from the emigrants, there not being a
single one of the Ansar among them. He went as far as- water in the Hijaz
below Thanlyatu’l-Murra, where he encountered a large number of
Quravsh. No fighting took place except that Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas shot an
arrow on that day. It was the first arrow to he shot in Islam. Then the two
companies separated, the Muslims having a rearguard. Al-Miqdad b.
'Amr al-Bahrani, an ally of the B. Zuhra, and 'Utba b. Gha/,wan b. Jabir
al-Mazini, an ally of the B. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manat’, fied from the poly¬
theists and joined the Muslims to whom they really belonged. They had
gone out with the unbelievers in order to be able to link up with the Mus¬
lims. 'Ikrima h. Abu Jahl was in command of the Meccans (339).
Concerning this raid Abu Bakr composed the following (340).

Could you not sleep because of the spectre of Salma in the sandy
valleys,

And the important event that happened in the tribe?

You see that neither admonition nor a prophet’s call
Can save some of Lu’avy from unbelief;

A truthful prophet came to them and they gave him the lie, 4 1

And said, ‘You shall not live among us.’

When we called them to the truth they turned their backs,

They howled like bitches driven back panting to their lairs;

282

The Life of Muhammad

With how many of them have we ties of kinship.

Yet to abandon piety did not weigh upon them;

If they turn back from their unbelief and disobedience
(For the good and lawful is not like the abominable);

If they follow' their idolatry and error
God’s punishment on them will not tarry;

We are men of Ghalib’s highest stock
From which nobility comes through many branches;

I swear by the lord of camels urged on at even by singing,

Their feet protected by old leather thongs,

Like the red-backed deer that haunt Mecca
Going down to the well’s slimy cistern;

I sw'ear, and I am no perjurer,

If they do not quickly repent of their error,

A valiant band will descend upon them,

Which will leave women husbandless.

It will leave dead men, with vultures wheeling round,

It will not spare the infidels as Ibn Harith did. 1
Give the Banu Sahm with you a message
And every infidel who is trying to do evil;

If you assaiF my honour in your evil opinion
I will not assaiF yours.

‘Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra al-Sahml replied thus:

Does your eye weep unceasingly

Over the ruins of a dwelling that the shifting sand obscures?

And one of the wonders of the days
(For time is full of wonders, old and new)

Is a strong army which came to us
Led by 'Ubayda, called Ibn Harith in war,

That we should abandon images venerated in Mecca,

Passed on to his heirs by a noble ancestor.

When we met them with the spears of Rudayna,

And noble steeds panting for the fray,

And swords so white they might be salt-strewm
In the hands of w'arriors, dangerous as lions,

4x8 Wherewith eve deal with the conceited 3

And quench our thirst for vengeance without delay,

They withdrew 7 in great fear and aw : e,

Pleased wfith the order of him w-ho kept them back.

Ilad they not done so the women would have wailed,

1 i.c. 'Ubayda.

2 Abu Dharr refers the meaning of this word to the divine omniscience. In this line
possibly ‘ancestry’ rather than ‘honour’ is the meaning of ' ird.

} Lit., the turning away of him who turns to one side. Possibly the writer has in mind
Sura 31. 17, ‘Turn not thy cheek in scorn towards people’.

2S3

The Life of Muhammad

Bereft of their husbands all of them.

The slain would have been left for those concerned
And those utterly heedless to talk about.

Give Abu Bakr with you a message:

You have no further part in the honour 1 of Fihr,

No binding oath that cannot be broken
That w r ar will be renewed is needed from me (341).

Sa r d b. Abu Waqqas, according to reports, said about his having shot an
arrow 7 :

Has the news reached the apostle of God

That I protected my companions with my arrows?

By them I defended their vanguard
In rough ground and plain.

No archer who shoots an arrow at the enemy
Will be counted before me, O apostle of God.

’Twits because thy religion is true

Thou hast brought what is just and truthful.

By it the believers are saved

And unbelievers recompensed at the last.

Stop, thou hast gone astray, so do not slander me.

Woe to thee Abu Jahl, lost one ot the tribe! (342).

The flag of ‘Ubayda b. al-Harith according to my information was the
first flag which the apostle entrusted to a believer in Islam. Some scholars
allege that the apostle sent him when he came back from the raid of al-
Abwa’ before he got to Medina.

hamza’s expedition to the sea-siiore 419

While he w r as staying there he sent Hamza bt 'Abdu’l-Muttalib to the sea¬
shore in the neighbourhood of Al-'Is (T. in the territory of Juhayna) with
thirty riders from the emigrants; none of the helpers took part. He met
Abu Jahl with three hundred riders from Mecca on the shore, and Majdl
b. 'Amr al-Juhani intervened between them, for he was at peace with both
parties. So the people separated one from another without fighting.

Some people say that Hamza's flag was the first which the apostle gave
to any Muslim because he sent him and 'Ubayda at the same time, and
thus people became confused on the point. They alleged that Hamza had
composed poetry in which he says that his flag was the first which the
apostle entrusted to anyone. Now' if Hamza actually said that, it is true if
God wills. lie would not have said it if it were not true, but God knows
what happened. We have heard from learned people that 'Ubayda was the
first man to receive a flag. Hamza said concerning that, so they allege (343):
Wonder, O my people, at good sense and at folly,

At lack of sound counsel and at sensible advice,

1 See n. 2 on the previous page.

284

The Life of Muhammad

At those who have wronged us, while we have left
Their people and their property inviolate,

As though we had attacked them;

But all we did was to enjoin chastity and justice
And call them to Islam, but they received it not,

And they treated it as a joke.

They ceased not so until I volunteered to attack them
Where they dwelt, desiring the satisfaction of a task well done
At the apostle’s command—the first to march beneath his flag,
Seen with none before me,

A victorious flag from a generous, mighty God,

Whose acts are the most gracious.

At even they sallied forth together,

Each man’s pot burning with his companion’s rage;

When we saw each other, they halted and hobbled the camels,
And we did the same an arrow-shot distant.

We said to them, ‘God’s rope is our victorious defence,

You have no rope but error.’

Abu Jahl warred there unjustly,

And was disappointed, for God frustrated his schemes.

W e were but thirty riders, while they were two hundred and one.
Therefore, O Lu’ayy, obey not your deceivers,

Return to Islam and the easy path,

For I fear that punishment will be poured upon you
And you will cry out in remorse and sorrow.

Abu Jahl answered him, saying:

I am amazed at the causes of anger and folly
And at those who stir up strife by lying controversy,

Who abandon our fathers’ ways.

Those noble, powerful men,

They come to us with lies to confuse our minds,

But their lies cannot confuse the intelligent.

We said to them, ‘O our people, strive not with your folk—
Controversy is the utmost folly—

For if you do, your weeping women will cry out
Wailing in calamity and bereavement.

If you give up what you are doing,

We are your cousins, trustworthy and virtuous.’

They said to us, ‘We find Muhammad

One whom our cultured and intelligent accept.’

W hen they were obstinately contentious
And all their deeds were evil,

I attacked them by the sea-shore, to leave them
Like a withered leaf on a rootless stalk.

285

The Life of Muhammad

Majdl held me and my companions back from them
And they helped me with swords and arrows
Because of an oath binding on us, which we cannot discard,

A firm tie which cannot be severed.

But for Ibn 'Amr I should have left some of them
Food for the ever-present vultures, unavenged:

But he had sworn an oath, which made
Our hands recoil from our swords.

II time spares me I will come at them again,

With keen, new polished swords,

In the hands of warriors from Lu’ayy, son of Ghalib,

Generous in times of dearth and want (344). 1

THE RAID ON BUWAT

Then the apostle went raiding in the month of Rabfu’I-Awwal making for
Quraysh (345), until he reached Buwat in the neighbourhood of Radwa.
Then he returned to Medina without fighting, and remained there for the
rest of Rabi'u’l-Akhir and part of Jumada’l-llla.

THE RAID ON AL-WjSIIAYRA

Then he raided the Quraysh (346). He went by the way of B. Dinar, then
by Fayfa’u-l-Khabar, and halted under a tree in the valley of Ibn Azhar
called Dhatu’l-Saq. There he prayed and there is his mosque. Food was
prepared and they all ate there. The place occupied by the stones which
supported his cooking-pot is still known. He drank from a watering place
called al-Mushtarib. 2 Then he went on leaving al-Khala’iq 3 on the left
and went through a glen called 'Abdullah to this day; then he bore to the
left 4 until he came down to Yalyal and halted where it joins al-Dabu'a.
He drank of the well at al-Dabu'a and then traversed the plain of Malal
until he met the tiack in Sukhayrat al-A amam which curried him straight
to al-'Ushayra in the valley of Yanbu' where he stopped during Jumada’l-
Ola and some days of the following month. He made a treaty of friend¬
ship there with B. Mudlij and their allies B. Damra, and then returned to
Medina without a fight. It was on this raid that he spoke the well-known
words to 'Ah.

Yazid b. Muhammad b. Khaytham al-Muharibt from Muhammad b.
Ka'b. al-Qurazi from Muhammad b. Khaytham the father of Yazid from
Ammar b. Ausn told me that the latter said: All and I were close com¬
panions in the raid of al-'Lshayra and when the apostle halted there we saw

1 The language of this ‘poem’ and its predecessor owes much to the Quran.

i Tab. and Suhayli have hil-Mushavrib.

3 According to Yaqiit there is a place of this name near Medina which belonged to
Abdullah b. Ahmad b, Jahsh.

4 Reading yasdr for W.’s Sad. Cf. Suhayli in lot:.

286

The Life of Muhammad

some men of B. Mudlij working at a well and on the date palms. ‘All
suggested' that we should go and see what the men were doing, so we went
and watched them for a time until we were overcome by drowsiness and
we went and lay down under some young palms and fell fast asleep in the
soft fine dust. And then who should wake us but the apostle himself as he
stirred us with his foot! It was as we were dusting ourselves that the apostle
said to r Ali when he saw him covered with dust, ‘What have you been up
to, Abu Turab (father of dust)?’ Then he went on, ‘Shall I tell you of the
two most wretched creatures? Uhaymir of Thamud who slaughtered the
camel, and he who shall strike you here, 'All’—and he put his hand to the
side of his head—‘until this is soaked from it’—and he took hold of his
beard.

A learned traditionist told me that the real reason why the apostle called
‘Ali Abu Turab was that when 'All’ was angry with Fatima he would not
speak to her. He did not say anything to annoy her, but he used to sprinkle
dust on his head. Whenever the apostle saw dust on 'All’s head he knew'
that he was angry with Fatima and he would say, ‘What is your trouble, 0
Abu Turab?’ But God knows the truth of the matter.

THE RAID OF Sa'd B. ABU WAQQAS

Meanwhile the apostle had sent Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas with eight men from
the emigrants. He went as far as al-Kharrar in the Hijaz. Then he returned
424 without fighting (347).

THE RAID ON SAFAWAN, WHICH IS T 1 IE FIRST RAID OF BADR

The apostle stayed only a few nights, less than ten, in Medina when he
came back from raiding Al-'Ushayra, and then Kurz b. Jabir al-Fihrl
raided the pasturing camels of Medina. The apostle went out in search of
him (348), until he reached a valley called Safawan, in the neighbourhood
of Badr. Kurz escaped him and he could not overtake him. This was the
first raid of Badr. Then the apostle returned to Medina and*stayed there
for the rest of Jumada’l Akhira, Rajab, and Sha'ban.

EXPEDITION OF ‘ABDULLAH B. JAIISII AND THE
COMING DOWN OF ‘THEY WILL ASK YOU ABOUT THE
SACRED MONTH’

The apostle sent 'Abdullah b. Jahsh b. Ri’iib al-Asadi in Rajab on his
return from the first Badr. He sent with him eight emigrants, without any
of the Ansar. He wrote for him a letter, and ordered him not to look at it

1 In IE (1271 ult.) the suggestion is made to 'AH by 'Ammar. Someone has been guilty
of a deliberate alteration.

The Life of Muhammad 287

until he had journeyed for two days, and to do what he was ordered to do,
but not to put pressure on any of his companions. The names of the eight
emigrants were, Abu Hudhayfa, 'Abdullah b. Jahsh, TJkkasha b. Mihsan,
'Utba b. Ghazwan, Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas, 'Amir b. Rabl'a, Waqid b. 424
'Abdullah, and Khalid b. al-Bukayr. 1

When 'Abdullah had travelled for two days he opened the letter and
looked into it, and this is what it said: ‘When you have read this letter of
mine proceed until you reach Nakhla between Mecca and Al-Ta’if. Lie in
wait there for Quraysh and fund out for us what they are doing.’ Having
read the letter he said, Fo hear is to obey.’ I hen he said to his com¬
panions, ‘The apostle has commanded me to go to Nakhla to lie in wait
there for Quraysh so as to bring him news of them. He has forbidden me
to put pressure on any of you, so if anyone wishes for martyrdom let him
go forward, and he who does not, let him go back ; as for me I am going on
as the prophet has ordered.’ So he went on, as did all his companions, not
one of them falling back. He journeyed along the Hijaz until at a mine
called Bahran above al-Furu', Sa'd and 'Utba lost the camel which they
were riding by turns, so they stayed behind to look for it,'while 'Abdullah
and the rest of them went on to Nakhla. A caravan of Quraysh carrying
dry raisins and leather and other merchandise of Quraysh passed by them,

Amr b. al-Hadrami (349), Uthman b. Abdullah b. al-Mughira and his
brother Naufal the Makhzumites, and al-Hakam b. Kaysan, freedman
of Hisham b. al-Mughira being among them. When the caravan saw them
they were afraid of them because they had camped near them. 'Ukkasha,
who had shaved his head, looked down on them, and when they saw him
they felt safe and said, ‘They are pilgrims, you have nothing to fear from
them.’ The raiders took council among themselves, for this was the last
day of Rajab, and they said, ‘If you leave them alone tonight they will get
into the sacred area and will be safe from you; and if you kill them, you 4 2 5
will kill them in the sacred month,’ so they were hesitant and feared to
attack them. Then they encouraged each other, and decided to kill as
many as they could of them and take what they had. Waqid shot 'Amr b.
al-Hadrami with an arrow and killed him, and 'Uthman and al-Hakam
surrendered. Naufal escaped and eluded them. 'Abdullah and his com¬
panions took the caravan and the two prisoners and came to Medina with
them. One of 'Abdullah’s family mentioned that he said to his companions,

‘A fifth of what we have taken belongs to the apostle.’ (This was before
God had appointed a fifth of the booty to him.) So he set apart for the
apostle a fifth of the caravan, and divided the rest among his companions.

When they came to the apostle, he said, T did not order you to fight in
the sacred month,’ and he held the caravan and the two prisoners in sus¬
pense and refused to take anything from them. When the apostle said that,
the men were in despair and thought that they were doomed. Their Mus-

1 As these men have already been named with full particulars of their genealogy and
tribes, only their first names are repeated here.

288 The Life of Muhammad

lim brethren reproached them for what they had done, and the Quraysh
said ‘Muhammad and his companions have violated the sacred month,
shed blood therein, taken booty, and captured men.’ The Muslims in
Mecca who opposed them said that they had done it in Sha'ban. The
Jews turned this raid into an omen against the apostle. 'Ann* b. al-Hadrami
whom Waqid had killed they said meant ' amarati’l-harb (war has come to
life), al-Hadrami meant had aratL l-harb (war is present), and Waqid meant
icaqadati l-harb (war is kindled); but God turned this against them, not
for them, and when there was much talk about it, God sent down to his
apostle: ‘They will ask you about the sacred month, and war in it. Say,
war therein is a serious matter, but keeping people from the way of God
and disbelieving in Him and in the sacred mosque and driving out His
people therefrom is more serious with God.’ 1 i.e. If you have killed in the
sacred month, they have kept you back from the way of God with their
unbelief in Him, and from the sacred mosque, and have driven you from
it when vou were its people. This is a more serious matter with God than

426 the killing of those of them whom you have slain. ‘And seduction is
worse than killing.’ i.e. They used to seduce the Muslim in his religion
until they made him return to unbelief after believing, and that is worse
with God than killing. ‘And they will not cease to fight you until they
turn you back from your religion if they can.’ i.e. They are doing more
heinous acts than that contumaciously.

And when the Quran came down about that and God relieved the Mus¬
lims of their anxiety in the matter, the apostle took the caravan and the
prisoners. Quraysh sent to him to redeem 'Uthman and al-Hakam, and
the apostle said, ‘We will not let you redeem them until our two com¬
panions come,’ meaning Sa'd and 'Utba, ‘for we fear for them on your
account. If you kill them, we will kill your two friends.’ So when Sa'd and
'Utba turned up the apostle let them redeem them. As for al-Hakam he
became a good Muslim and stayed with the apostle until he was killed as
a martyr at Bi’r Ma'una. 'Uthman went back to Mecca and died there as
an unbeliever. When 'Abdullah and his companions were relieved of their
anxiety when the Quran came down, they were anxious for reward, and
said, ‘Can we hope that it will count as a raid for which we shall be given
the reward of combatants?’ So God sent down concerning them: ‘Those
who believe and have emigrated and fought in the way of God, these may
hope for God’s mercy, for God is forgiving, merciful.’ That is, God gave
them the greatest hopes therein. The tradition about this comes from Al-
Zuhrl and Yazld b. Human from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr.

One of 'Abdullah’s family mentioned that God divided the booty when
He made it permissible and gave four-fifths to whom God had allowed to
take it and one-fifth to God and His apostle. So it remained on the basis
of what 'Abdullah had done with the booty of that caravan (350).

427 Abu Bakr said concerning 'Abdullah’s raid (though others say that 'Ab-

1 Sura 2. 214.

7 he Life of Muhammad 289

dullah himself said it), when Quraysh said, ‘Muhammad and his com¬
panions have broken the sacred month, shed blood therein, and taken
booty and made prisoners’ (351):

\ou count war in the holy month a grave matter,

But graver is, if one judges rightly,

Your opposition to Muhammad’s teaching, and your
Unbelief in it, which God sees and witnesses,

^our driving God’s people from His mosque
So that none can be seen worshipping Him there.

Though you defame us for killing him,

More dangerous to Islam is the sinner who envies.

Our lances drank of Ibn al-lladrami’s blood
In Nakhla when Waqid lit the flame of war,

Uthman ibn 'Abdullah is with us,

A leather band streaming with blood restrains him. 1

THE CHANGE OF THE Q 1 HLA TO THE' Ka'bA

It is said that the Qibla was changed in Sha'ban at the beginning of the
eighteenth month after the apostle’s arrival in Medina.

i,o 1 1 A ^ 1 >

Then the apostle heard that Abu Sufyan b. Harb was coming from Svria
with a large caravan of Quraysh, containing their money and merchandise,
accompanied by some thirty or forty men, of whom were Makhrama b.

Naufal b. Uhayb b. ‘Abdu Manaf b. Zuhra, and 'Amr b. al-'As b. Wa’il b
Hisham (352).

( Muhammad b. Muslim al-Zuhri and 'Asim b. 'Umar b Qatada and
Abdullah b. Abu Bakr and Ya/.Td b. Human from 'Urwa b. al-Zubavr, and
other scholars of ours from Ibn 'Abbas, each one of them told me some of
this story and their account is collected in what I have drawn up of the
story of Badr. They said that when the apostle heard about Abu Sufvan
commg from Syria, he summoned the Muslims and said, “Phis is the
Quraysh caravan containing their property. Go out to attack it, perhaps
j od will give it as a prey.’ The people answered his summons, some
eagerly, others reluctantly because they had not thought that the apostle
wouU go to war. When he got near to the Ilijaz, Abu Sufvan was seeking
news, and questioning every rider in his anxiety, until he'got news from
some rulers that Muhammad had called out his companions against him
and Us caravan. He took alarm at that and hired Damdam b. 'Amr al-
Ghifari and sent him to Mecca, ordering him to call out Quraysh in defence
of their property, and to tell them that Muhammad was lying in wait for
it with his companions. So Damdam left for Mecca at full speed.

1 Cf. Sura 2. 214 f. which these lines endeavour to put into verse
B 4080 L -

290

The Life of Muhammad

the dream of 'atika d. of 'abdu l-mutialib

A person above suspicion told me on the authority of 'Iknma from b.
'Abbas and Yazld b. Ruman from ‘Urwa b. al-Zubayr, saying: ‘three days
before Damdam arrived 'Atika saw a vision which frightened her. She sent
to her brother aI-‘Abbas saying, “Brother, last night I saw a vision which
frightened me and I am afraid that evil and misfortune will come upon
your people, so treat what I tell you as a confidence.” lie asked wlvat she
had seen, and she said, “I saw a rider coming upon a camel who halted m
the valley. Then he cried at the top of his voice, ‘Come forth, O people,
do not leave your men to face a disaster that will come in three days time.

I saw the people flock to him, and then he went into the mosque with the
people following him. While they were round him his camel mounted to
the top of the Ka'ba. Then he called out again, using the same words.

429 Then his camel mounted to the top of Abu Qubays, 1 2 and he cried out
again. Then he seized a rock and loosened it, and it began to fall, until at
the bottom of the mountain it split into pieces. There was not a house or
a dwelling in Mecca but received a bit of it.” al-'Abbas said. By God, this
is indeed^ a vision, and you had better keep quiet about it and not tell
anvone.” Then 'Abbas went out and met al-Walld b. 'Utba, who was a
friend of his, and told him and asked him to keep it to himself. al-YVa id
told his father and the story spread in Mecca until Quraysh were talking

about it in their public meetings. . T ,ki

‘al-'Abbas said, “I got up early to go round the temple, while Abu Jahl
was sitting with a number of Quraysh talking about ‘Atika s vision. W hen
he saw me he said, ‘Come to us when you have finished going round the
temple.’ When I had finished I went and sat with them, and he said, U
Banu 'Abdu’I-Muttalib, since when have you had a prophetess among you r
‘And what do you mean by that ?’ I said. ‘That vision which 'Atika saw, he
answered. I said, ‘And what did she see?’ He said, ‘Are you not satisfie
that your men should play the prophet that your women should do so also.
'Atika has alleged that in her vision someone said, “Come forth to war m
three days.” We shall keep an eye on you these three days, and if what s ae
says is true, then it will be so; but if the three days pass and nothing hap¬
pens, we will write you down as the greatest liars of the temple peop e
among the Arabs.’ Nothing much had passed between us except that X
contradicted that and denied that she had seen anything. on we sepa
rated. When night came every single woman of B. ‘Abdu 1 -Muttahb came
to me and said, ‘Have you allowed this evil rascal to attack your men and
then go on to insult your women while you listened? Have you no shame
that you should listen to such things ?’ I said, ‘By God I have done some¬
thing; nothing much passed between us but I swear by God that I will
confront him, and if he repeats what he has said, I will rid you of him.

1 Lit. ‘Come forth ye perfidious to your disaster’, &c. See Suhayli’a note m loc.

2 A mountain hard by.

The Life of Muhammad 291

On the third day after ‘Atika’s vision, while I was enraged, thinking that
I had let something slip which I wanted to get from him, I went into the 430
mosque and saw him, and as I was walking towards him to confront him
so that he should repeat some of what he had said and I could attack him,
for he was a thin man with sharp features, sharp tongue, and sharp sight,
lo, he came out towards the door of the mosque hurriedly, and I said to
myself, ‘What is the matter with him, curse him, is all this for fear that I
should insult him?’ But lo, he had heard something which I did not hear,
the voice of Damdam crying out in the bottom of the wadi, as he stood
upon his camel, having cut its nose, turned its saddle round, and rent his
shirt, while he was saying, ‘O Quraysh, the transport camels, the transport
camels! Muhammad and his companions are lying in wait for your pro¬
perty which is with Abu Sufyan. I do not think that you will overtake it.
Help! Help!’ This diverted him and me from our affair.”

QURAYSH PREPARE TO GO TO BADR

The men prepared quickly, saying, “Do Muhammad and his companions
think this is going to be like the caravan of Ibn Hadrami? By God, they
will soon know that it is not so.” Every man of them either went himself or
sent someone in his place. So all went; not one of their nobles remained
behind except Abu Lahab. fie sent in his place al-'As b. Hisham b. al-
Mughira who owed him four thousand dirhams which he could not pay.

So he hired him with them on the condition that he should be cleared of his
debt. So he went on his behalf and Abu Lahab stayed behind.’

‘Abdullah b. Abu Najlh told me that Umayya b. Khalaf had decided to
stay at home. He w r as a stately old man, corpulent and heavy. ‘Uqba b.

Abu Mu'ayt came to him as he was sitting in the mosque among his com¬
panions, carrying a censer burning with scented wood. He put it in front
of him and said, ‘Scent yourself with that, for you belong to the women!’

‘God curse you and what you have brought,’ he said, and then got ready
and went out with the rest. When they had finished their preparations
and decided to start, they remembered the quarrel there was between them
and B. Bakr b. ‘Abdu Manat b. Kinana, and were afraid that they would
attack them in the rear.

The cause of the war between Quraysh and B. Bakr, according to what 431
one of B. ‘Amir b. Lu’ayy from Muhammad b. Sa'Id b. al-Musayyab told
me, was a son of Hafs b. al-Akhyaf, one of the B. Ma'Is b. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy.

He had gone out seeking a lost camel of his in Dajnan, He was a youngster
with flowing locks on his head, wearing a robe, a good-looking, clean youth.

He passed by 'Amir b. Yazld b. 'Amir b. al-Mulawwih, one of B. Ya'mar b.

'Auf b. Ka'b b. ‘Amir b. Layth b. Bakr b. ‘Abdu Manat b, Kinana in
Pajnan, he being the chief of B. Bakr at that time. When he saw' him he
liked him and asked him who he was. When he told him, and had gone
away, he called his tribesmen, and asked them if there was any blood

2 Q2 The Life of Muhammad

outstanding with Quraysh, and when theysaid there was, he said,‘Any man
who kills this youngster in revenge for one of his tribe will have exacted
the blood due to him.’ So one of them followed him and killed him m
revenge for the blood Quraysh had shed. When Quraysh discussed the
matter, 'Amir b. Yazld said, ‘You owed us blood so what do you want ? If
you wish pay us what you owe us, and we will pay you what we owe. If,
you want only blood, man for man, then ignore your claims and we will
ignore ours’; and since this youth was of no great importance to this clan
of Quraysh, they said, ‘All right, man for man’, and ignored his death and
sought no compensation for it.

Now while his brother Mikraz was travelling in Marr al-Zahran he saw
'Amir on a camel, and as soon as he saw ? him 'Amir went up to him and made
his camel kneel beside him. "'Amir was wearing a sword, and Mikraz brought
his sword down on him and killed him. Then he twirled his sword about in
his belly, and brought it back to Mecca and hung it overnight among the
curtains of the Ka'ba. When morning came Quraysh saw 'Amir’s sword
hanging among the curtains of the Ka'ba and recognized it. They said,
43 2 ‘This is 'Amir’s sword; Mikraz has attacked and killed him.’ This is what
happened, and while this vendetta was going on, Islam intervened between
men, and they occupied themselves with that, until when Quraysh decided
to go to Badr they remembered the vendetta with B. Bakr and were afraid

of them.

Mikraz b. Hafs said about his killing 'Amir:

When I saw that it was 'Amir I remembered the fleshless corpse of my
dear brother.

I said to myself, it is 'Amir, fear not my soul and look to what you do.

I was certain that as soon as I got in a shrewd blow with the sword, it
would be the end of him.

I swooped down on him, on a brave, experienced man, with a sharp

sword. .

When we came to grips I did not show myself a son of ignob e

parents,

I slaked my vengeance, forgetting not revenge which only weaklings
forgo (353).

Yazld b. Ruman from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr told me that when Quraysh
were ready to set off they remembered their quarrel with B. Bakr and it
almost deterred them from starting. However, Iblls appeared to them in
the form of Suraqa b. Malik b. Ju'tham al-Mudliji who was one of the
chiefs of B. Kinana saying, ‘I will guarantee that Kinana will not attack
you in the rear,’ so they went off speedily.

The apostle set out in the month of Ramadan (354). He gave the flag to
433 Mus'ab b. 'Umayr b. Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf b. 'Abdu’l-Dar (355). The
apostle was preceded by two black flags, one with 'All called al- Uqab and
the other with one of the Ansar. His companions had seventy camels on

The Life of Muhammad 293

which men rode in turns: the apostle with 'All and Marthad b. Abu Mar-
thad al-Ghanawi one camel; Hamza and Zayd b. Haritha and Abu Kabsha
and Anasa freedmen of the apostle one camel; and Abu Bakr, and 'Umar,
and 'Abdu’I-Rahman b. 'Auf one camel. The apostle put over the rear¬
guard Qays b. Abu Sa'sa'a brother of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar (356).

He took the road to Mecca by the upper route from Medina, then by al-
'Aqlq, Dhu’l-Hulayfa, and Olatu’l-Jaysh (357). Then he passed '[’urban,
Malal, Ghamisu’I-Hamam, Sukhayratu’l-Yamam, and Sayala; then by the
ravine of al-Rauha’ to Shaniika, which is the direct route, until at 'Irqu’l-
Zabya (35S) be met a nomad. He asked him about the Quraysh party, but
found that he had no news. The people said, ‘Salute God’s apostle.’ He
said, ‘Have you got God’s apostle with you V and when they said that they
had, he said, ‘If you are God’s apostle, then tell me what is in the belly of
my she-camel here.’ Salama b. Salama said to him, ‘Don’t question God’s
apostle; but come to me and I will tell you about it. You leapt upon her
and she has in her belly a little goat from you!’ The apostle said, ‘Enough!

You have spoken obscenely to the man.’ Then he turned away from
Salama.

The apostle stopped at Sajsaj which is the well of al-Rauha ; then went
on to al-Munsaraf, leaving the Meccan road on the left, and went to the
right to al-Naziya making for Badr. Arrived in its neighbourhood he 434
crossed a wadi called Ruhqan between al-Naziya and the pass of al-Safra’;
then along the pass; then he debouched from it until when near al-Safra’
he sent Basbas b. 'Amr al-Juhani, an ally of B. Sa'ida, and 'Adiv b. Abu
Zaghba’ al-Juhani, ally of B. al-Najjar, to Badr to scout for news about
Abu Sufvan and his caravan. 1 Having sent them on ahead he moved off
and when he got to al-Safra’, w'hich is a village between two mountains, he
asked what their names were. He was told that they were Muslih and
Mukhrik 2 He asked about their inhabitants and was told that they were
B. al-Nar and B. Huraq, 1 two clans ot B. Ghifar. The apostle drew an ill
omen from their names and so disliked them that he refused to pass be¬
tween them, so he left them and al-Safra’ on his left and went to the right
to a wadi called Dhafiran which he crossed and then halted.

News came to him that Quraysh had set out to protect their caravan,
and he told the people of this and asked their advice. Abu Bakr and then
'Umar got up and spoke well. Then al-Miqdad got up and said, ‘O apostle
of God, go where God tells you for we are with you. We will not say as the
children of Israel said to Moses, “You and your Lord go and fight and wc
will stay at home,’’ 4 but you and your Lord go and fight, and we will fight

1 Though there is no authority in the printed editions, or in the variants cited therein,

I cannot help thinking that the reading should be 'irihi and not ejmyrihi, ‘anyone else’. In
the earlier raids the prophet had not made inquiries about all and sundry and all he was
concerned vvith was the Meccan caravan and the Meccan army. If the latter were meant in
the assumed reading - j’hayrihi, one feels they would have been explicitly mentioned. No!,
reads ‘'irihi T. 129c}’. 2 Both names mean ‘defecator’.

3 ‘.Fire’ and ‘Burning’ respectively. 4 Sura 5. 27.

294 The Life of Muhammad

with you. By God, if you were to take us to Bark al-Ghimad, 1 we would
fight resolutely with you against its defenders until you gained it.’ The
apostle thanked him and blessed him. Then he said, ‘Give me advice, O
Men,’ by which he meant the Ansar. This is because they formed the
majority, and because when they had paid homage to him in al-'Aqaba
they stipulated that they were not responsible for his safety until he entered
their territory, and that when he was there they would protect him as they
did their wives and children. So the apostle was afraid that the Ansar
would not feel obliged to help him unless he was attacked by an enemy in
Medina, and that they would not feel it incumbent upon them to go with

435 him against an enemy outside their territory. When he spoke these words
Sa'd b. Mu'adh said, ‘It seems as if you mean us,’ and when he said that
he did, Sa'd said, ‘We believe in you, we declare your truth, and we witness
that wdiat you have brought is the truth, and we have given you our word
and agreement to hear and obey; so go where you wish, we are with you;
and by God, if you were to ask us to cross this sea and you plunged into it,
we would plunge into it with you; not a man would stay behind. We do
not dislike the idea of meeting your enemy tomorrow'. We are experienced
in war, trustworthy in combat. It may w'ell be that God will let us show
you something W'hich will bring you joy, so take us along with God’s
blessing.’ The apostle was delighted at Sa'd’s words which greatly encou¬
raged him. Then he said, ‘Forward in good heart, for God has promised
me one of the two parties, 2 and by God, it is as though I now saw the
enemy lying prostrate.’ Then the apostle journeyed from Dhafran and
w'ent over passes called Asafir. Then he dropped dowm from them to a
towm called al-Dabba and left al-Hannan on the right. This w'as a huge
sandhill like a large mountain. Then he stopped near Badr and he and
one of his companions (359) rode on, as Muhammad b. Yahya b. Habban
told me, until he stopped by an old man of the Beduin and inquired about
Quraysh and about Muhammad and his companions, and wdiat he had
heard about them. The old man said, ‘I w'on’t tell you until you tell me
which party you belong to.’ The apostle said, ‘If you tell us w r e w T ill tell
you.’ He said, ‘Tit for tat?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. The old man said, ‘I have
heard that Muhammad and his companions went out on such-and-such a'
day. If that is true, today they are in such-and-such a place,’ referring to
the place in w'hich the apostle actually was, ‘and I heard that Quraysh
W'ent out on such-and-such a day, and if this is true, today they are in
such-and-such a place,’ meaning the one in W'hich they actually w'ere.
When he had finished he said, ‘Of wdiom are you ?’ The apostle said, ‘We
are from Ma’.’ 3 Then he left him, while the old man w r as saying, ‘What does

436 “from Ma”’ mean? Is it from the water of Iraq?’ (360).

1 A place in the Yemen, others say the farthest point of Hajar. q I 3 °° adds ‘a town of
the Abyssinians’.

2 i.e. the caravan or the army. Cf. Sura 8. 7

3 i.e. Water.

The Life of Muhammad 295

Then the apostle returned to his companions; and when night fell he
sent ‘Ah and al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam and Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas with a
number of his companions to the well at Badr in quest of new's of both
parties, according to wdiat Yazld b. Ruman from TJrwa b. al-Zubayr told
me, and they fell in with some water-camels of Quraysh, among whom
were Aslam, a slave of B. al-Hajjaj, and ‘Arid Abu Yasar, a young man of
B. Al-'As b. Sa'Id, and they brought them along and questioned them
while the apostle was standing praying. 'They said, ‘We are the watermen
of Quraysh; they sent us to get them water.’ The people w'ere displeased
at their report, for they had hoped that they would belong to Abu Sufyan,
so they beat them, and w r hen they had beaten them soundlv, the two men
said, ‘We belong to Abu Sufyan,’ so they let them go. The apostle bowed
and prostrated himself twice, and said, ‘When they told you the truth you
beat them; and w'hen they lied you let them alone. They told the truth;
they do belong to Quraysh. Tell me you two about the Quraysh.’ 1 They
replied, ‘They arc behind this hill which you see on the farthest side.’
(The hill was al-'Aqanqal.) The apostle asked them how many they were,
and w'hen they said, ‘Many,’ he asked for the number, but they did not
know r ; so he asked them how many beasts they slaughtered every day, and
when they said nine or ten, he said, ‘The people are between nine hundred
and a thousand.’ Then he asked how' many nobles of Quraysh were
among them. They said: “Utba, Shayba, Abu’l-Bakhtari, Hakim, Xaufal,
al-Harith b. ‘Amir, Tu'ayma, al-Nadr, Zama'a, Abu Jald, Umayya, Nabih,
Munabbih, Suhayl, 'Amr b. 'Abdu Wudd.’ The apostle went to the people
and said, ‘This Mecca has thrown to you the pieces of its liver!’ 2

Basbas and ‘Adiy had gone on until they reached Badr, and halted on a
hill near the water. Then they took an old skin to fetch water while Majdi
b. 'Amr al-Juhani was by the water. 'Adiy and Basbas heard two girls
from the village discussing a debt, and one said to the other, ‘The caravan 43
will come tomorrow' or the day after and I will w'ork for them and then
pay you what I owe you.’ Majdi said, ‘You are right,’ and he made
arrangements with them. Adiy and Basbas overheard this, and rode off to
the apostle and told him wdiat they had overheard.

Abu Sufyan w'ent forward to get in front of the caravan as a precaution¬
ary measure until he came dowm to the water, and asked Majdi if he had
noticed anything. He replied that he had seen nothing untoward: merelv
two riders had stopped on the hill and taken water away in a skin. Abu
Sufyan came to the spot where they had halted, picked up some camel
dung and broke it in pieces and found that it contained date-stones, ‘By
God,’ he said, ‘this is the fodder of Yathrib.’ He returned at once to his
companions and changed the caravan’s direction from the road to the sea¬
shore leaving Badr on the left, travelling as quickly as possible.

Quraysh advanced and when they reached al-Juhfa Juhavm b. al-Salt b.
Makhrama b. al-Muttalib saw a vision. He said, ‘Between waking and

1 T- I 3°4> 4. ‘where the Quraysh are’. 2 i.e. ‘its best men’.

296 The Life of Muhammad

sleeping I saw a man advancing on a horse with a camel, and then he
halted and said: “Slain are 'Utba and Shayba and Abu’I-Ilakam and
Umayya” (and he went on to enumerate the men who were killed at Badr,
all nobles of Quraysh). Then I saw him stab his camel in the chest and
send it loose into the camp, and every single tent was bespattered with its
blood.’ When the story reached Abu Jahl he said, ‘Here’s another prophet
from B. al-Muttalib! He’ll know tomorrow if we meet them who is going
to be killed!’

When Abu Sufyan saw that he had saved his caravan he sent word to
Quraysh, ‘Since you came out to save your caravan, your men, and your

438 property, and God has delivered them, go back.’ Abu Jahl said, ‘By God,
we will not go back until we have been to Badr’—Badr was the site of one
of the Arab fairs where they used to hold a market every year. ‘We will
spend three days there, slaughter camels and feast and drink wane, and
the girls shall play for us. The Arabs will hear that we have come and
gathered together, and will respect us in future. So come on!’

AI-Akhnas b. Sharlq b. 'Amr b. Wahb al-Thaqafl, an ally of B. Zuhra
who were in al-Juhfa, addressed the latter, saying, ‘God has saved you
and your property and delivered your companion Makhrama b. Naufal;
and as you only came out to protect him and his property, lay any
charge of cowardice on me and go back. There is no point in going to war
without profit as this man would have us,’ meaning Abu Jahl. So they
returned and not a single Zuhrite w r as present at Badr. They obeyed him
as he was a man of authority. Every clan of Quraysh was represented
except B. 'AdTv b. Ka'b: not one of them took part, so with the return of
B. Zuhra with al-Akhnas these two tribes were not represented at all.
There was some discussion between Talib b. Abu Talib, who was with the
army, ami some of Quraysh. The latter said, ‘We know, O B. flashim,
that if you have come out with us your heart is with Muhammad.’ So
Talib and some others returned to Mecca. Talib said:

O God, if Talib goes forth to war unwillingly
With one of these squadrons,

Let him be the plundered not the plunderer,

The vanquished not the victor (361).

439 Quraysh w'ent on until they halted on the farther side of the wadi
behind al-'Aqanqal. The bed of the wadi—Yalyal—w r as between Badr and
al-'Aqanqal, the hill behind which lay Quraysh, while the wells at Badr
were on the side of the wadi bed nearest to Medina. God sent a rain which
turned the soft sand of the wadi into a compact surface w'hich did not
hinder the apostle’s movements, but gravely restricted the movements of
Quraysh. The apostle went forth to hasten his men to the water and when
he got to the nearest water of Badr he halted.

I was told that men of B. Salama said that at-Hubab b. al-Mundhir b.
al-Jamuh said to the apostle: ‘Is this a place which God has ordered

The Life of Muhammad 297

you to occupy, so that we can neither advance nor withdraw from it,
or is it a matter of opinion and military tactics?’ When he replied that
it was the latter he pointed out that it was not the place to stop but that
they should go on to the water nearest to the enemy and halt there, stop
up the wells beyond it, and construct a cistern so that they would have
plenty of water; then they could fight their enemy who would have nothing
to drink. The apostle agreed that this was an excellent plan and it was
immediately carried out; the wells were stopped; a cistern was built and
filled with water from which his men replenished their drinking-vessels.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that he was informed that Sa'd b. Mu'adh
said: ‘O prophet of God, let us make a booth (T. of palm-branches) for
you to occupy and have your riding camels standing by; then we will meet
the enemy and if God gives us the victory that is what we desire; if the 440
worst occurs you can mount your camels and join our people who are left
behind, for they are just as deeply attached to you as we are. Had they
thought that you would be fighting they would not have stayed behind.

God will protect you by them; they will give you good counsel and fight
with you.’ The apostle thanked him and blessed him. Then a booth was
constructed for the apostle and he remained there.

Quraysh, having marched forth at daybreak, now came on. When the
apostle saw them descending from the hill 'Aqanqal into the valley, he
cried, ‘O God, here come the Quraysh in their vanity and pride, contending
with Thee and calling Thy apostle a liar. O God, grant the help which
Thou didst promise me. Destroy them this morning!’ Before uttering
these words he had seen among the enemy 'Utba b. Rabi'a, mounted on a
red camel of his, and said, ‘If there is any good in any one of them, it will
be with the man on the red camel: if they obey him, they will take the right
way.’ Khufaf b. Aima’ b. Rahada, or his father Aims’ b. Rahada al-
Ghifan, had sent to Quraysh, as they passed by, a son of his with some
camels for slaughter, which he gave them as a gift, saving, ‘If you want us
to support you with arms and men, we will do so;’ but they sent to him the
following message by the mouth of his son—‘You have done all that a
kinsman ought. If we are fighting only men, w ? e are surely equal to them;
and if we are fighting God, as Muhammad alleges, none is able to with¬
stand Him.’ And when Quraysh encamped, some of them, among whom
was Hakim b. Hizam, went to the cistern of the apostle to drink. ‘Let them
be!’ he said; and every man that drank of it on that day was killed, except
Hakim, 1 who afterwards became a good Muslim and used to say, w hen he
was earnest in his oath, ‘Nay, by Him who saved me on the day of Badr.’

My father, Ishaq b. Yasar, and other learned men told me on the autho- 441
rity of some elders of the Ansar that when the enemy had settled in their
camp they sent TJmayr b. Wahb al-Jumahl to estimate the number of
Muhammad’s followers. He rode on horseback round the camp and on his
return said, ‘Three hundred men, a little more or less; but wait till 1 see
1 T. adds: ‘He escaped on a horse of his called al-Wajih. 1 So also al-Agh.

298 The Life of Muhammad

whether they have any in ambush or support.’ He made his way far into
the valley but saw nothing. On his return he said, ‘I found nothing, but O
people of Quraysh, I have seen camels carrying Death—the camels of
Yathrib laden with certain death. These men have no defence or refuge
but their swords. By God! I do not think that a man of them will be slain
till he slay one of you, and if they kill of you a number equal to their own,
what is the good of living after that ? Consider, then, what you will do.’
When I laklm b. Hizam heard those words, he went on foot amongst the
folk until he came to 'Utba b. Rabl'a and said, 'O Abu’l-Walld, you are
chief and lord of Quraysh and he whom they obey. Do you wish to be
remembered with praise among them to the end of time?’ 'Utba said,
‘Ilow' may that be, O Hakim ?’ He answered, ‘Lead them back and take up
the cause of your ally, 'Amr b. al-Hadrami.’ ‘I will do it,’ said 'Utba, ‘and
you are witness against me (if I break my word): he was under my protec¬
tion, so it behoves me to pay his bloodwit and w 7 hat w 7 as seized of his wealth
(to his kinsmen). Now go you to Ibn al-Hanzaliya, for I do not fear that
any one will make trouble except him (362).’ Then 'Utba rose to speak
and said, ‘O people of Quraysh! By God, you wall gain naught by giving
battle to Muhammad and his companions. If you fall upon him, each one
of you will always be looking with loathing on the face of another w r ho has
slain the son of his paternal or maternal uncle or some man of his kin.
Therefore turn back and leave Muhammad to the rest of the Arabs. If
442 they kill him, that is what you want; and if it be otherwise, he will find
that you have not tried to do to him what you (in fact) wmuld have liked
to do.’

HakI m said: ‘I went to Abu Jahl and found him oiling a coat of mail

(363) 1 which he had taken out of its bag. 1 said to him, “O Abu’l-Hakam,
'Utba has sent me to you with such-and-such a message,” and I told him
what 'Utba had said. “By God,” he cried, “his lungs became swollen (with
fear) w'hen he saw 7 Muhammad and his companions. No, by God, w 7 e will
not turn back until God decide between us and Muhammad. 'Utba does
not believe his own words, but he saw that Muhammad and his com¬
panions are (in number as) the eaters of one slaughtered camel, and his
son is among them, so he is afraid lest you slay him.” Then he sent to
'Amir b. al-Hadrami, saying, “This ally of yours is for turning back w 7 ith
the folk at this time when you see your blood-revenge before your eyes.
Arise, therefore, and remind them of your covenant and the murder of
your brother.” 'Amir arose and uncovered; then he cried, “Alas for 'Amr!
Alas for 'Amr!” And w 7 ar was kindled and all was marred and the folk held
stubbornly on their evil course and 'Utba’s advice was w'asted on them.
When 'Utba heard how Abu Jahl had taunted him, he said, “He with the
befouled garment 2 will find out whose lungs are swollen, mine or his

(364) .”’ Then 'Utba looked for a helmet to put on his head; but seeing

1 Or ‘shield’,

2 A coarse expression for a coward.

The Life of Muhammad 299

that his head w r as so big that he could not find in the army a helmet that
would contain it, he wound a piece of cloth he had round his head.

Al-Aswad b. 'Abdu’l-Asad al-Makhzumi, who was a quarrelsome ill-
natured man, stepped forth and said, ‘I sw 7 ear to God that I will drink
from their cistern or destroy it or die before reaching it.’ Hamza b. 'Abdu-
’l-Muttalib came forth against him, and when the two met, Hamza smote
him and sent his foot and half his shank flying as he was near the cistern.

He fell on his back and lav there, blood streaming from his foot towards 443
his comrades. Then he crawded to the cistern and threw 7 himself into it
with the purpose of fulfilling his oath, but Hamza followed him and smote
him and killed him in the cistern.

Then after him 'Utba b. Rabl'a stepped forth between his brother
Shayba and his son al-Walid b. 'Utba, and when he stood clear of the
ranks gave the challenge for single combat. Three men of the Ansar came
out against him: 'Auf and Mu'awwidh the sons of Harith (their mother
was 'Afra) and another man, said to have been 'Abdullah b. Rawaha. The
Quraysh said, ‘Who are you ?’ They answered, ‘Some of the Ansar,’ where¬
upon the three of Quraysh said, ‘We have nothing to do with you.’ Then
the herald of Quraysh shouted, ‘O Muhammad! Send forth against us our
peers of our own tribe!’ The apostle said, ‘Arise, O 'Ubayda b. ljarith,
and arise, O Hamza, and arise, O 'All.’ And when they arose and ap¬
proached them, the Quraysh said, ‘Who are you ?’ And having heard each
declare his name, they said, “Yes, these are noble and our peers.’ Now 7
'Ubayda w 7 as the eldest of them, and he faced 'Utba b. Rabl'a, while
Hamza faced Shayba b. Rabl'a and 'All faced al-Walid b. 'Utba. It was
not long before Hamza slew 7 Shayba and 'All slew al-Walid. 'Ubayda and
'Utba exchanged tw 7 o blows with one another and each laid his enemy low.
Then Hamza and 'All turned on 'Utba with their swords and dispatched
him and bore aw ; ay their comrade and brought him back to his friends.

(T. 1318. 2. His leg had been cut off and the marrow w as oozing from it.
When they brought 'Ubayda to the prophet he said, ‘Am I not a martyr,

0 apostle of God?’ ‘Indeed you are,’ he replied. Then 'Ubayda said,
‘Were Abu Talib alive he would know that his words 1

We will not give him up till we lie dead around him
And be unmindful of our women and children

are truly realized in me.’) 'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that when
the men of the Ansar declared their lineage, 'Utba said, ‘You are noble
and our peers, but we desire men of our own tribe.’

Then they advanced and drew near to one another. The apostle had
ordered his companions not to attack until he gave the word, and if the
enemy should surround them 2 they were to keep them off with showers of
arrows. He himself remained in the hut with Abu Bakr. 1 was informed
by Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. al-Husayn that the battle of Badr was fought

1 W. 174. 9. 2 T. 1318. ii ‘come near’.

30i

300 The Life of Muhammad

on Friday morning on the 17th of Ramadan. Habban b. Wasi' b. Habban
444 told me on the authority of some elders of his tribe that on the day of
Badr the apostle dressed the ranks of his companions with an arrow which
he held in his hand. As he passed by Sawad b. Ghazlya, an ally of B.
'Adiy b. al-Najjar (365), who was standing out (366) of line he pricked him
in his belly with the arrow, saying, ‘Stand in line, O Sawad!’ ‘You have
hurt me, 6 apostle of God,’ he cried, ‘and God has sent you with right and
justice so let me retaliate.’ The apostle uncovered his belly and said Take
your retaliation.’ Sawad embraced him and kissed his belly. He asked
what had made him do this and he replied, ‘O apostle of God, you see
what is befoYe us and I may not survive the battle and as this is my last
time with you I want my skin to touch yours.’ The apostle blessed him.

Then the apostle straightened the ranks and returned to the hut and
entered it, and none was with him there but Abu Bakr. The apostle was
beseeching his Lord for the help which He had promised to him, and
among his words were these: ‘O God, if this band perish today Thou wilt
be worshipped no more.’ But Abu Bakr said, 0 prophet of God, your
constant entreaty will annoy thy Lord, for surely God will fulfil His
promise to thee.’ While the apostle was in the hut he slept a light sleep;
then he awoke and said, ‘Be of good cheer, O Abu Bakr. God s help is
come to you. Here is Gabriel holding the rein of a horse and leading it.
The dust is upon his front teeth.’

’(’he first Muslim that fell was Mihja', a freedman of 'Umar: he was shot
by an arrow. Then while Haritha b. Suraqa, one of B. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar,
was drinking from the cistern an arrow pierced his throat and killed him.

445 Then the apostle went forth to the people and incited them saying, ‘ By
God in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, no man will be slain this
day fighting against them with steadfast courage advancing not retreating
but God wall cause him to enter Paradise.’ 'Umayr b. al-Humam brother
of B. Salima was eating some dates which he had in his hand. ‘Fine, Fine!’
said he, ‘is there nothing between me and my entering Paradise save to be
killed by these men ?’ He flung the dates from his hand, seized his sword,
and fought against them till he w’as slain, [saying the while

In God’s service take no food
But piety and deeds of good.

If in God’s war you’ve firmly stood
You need not fear as others should
While you are righteous true and good.] 1

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that 'Auf b. Harith—his mother was
‘Afra’—said ‘O apostle of God, what makes the Lord laugh with joy at His
servant?’ He answered, ‘When he plunges into the midst of the enemy
without mail.’ 'Auf drew' off the mail-coat that was on him and threw it
away: then he seized his sword and fought the enemy till he was slain.

1 Mawardi, 67.

The Life of Muhammad

Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhrl on the authority of 'Abdullah
b. Tha'laba b. Su'ayr al-'Udhri, an ally of B. Zuhra, told me that when the
warriors advanced to battle and drew' near to one another Abu Jahl cried,

‘0 God, destroy this morning him that more than any of us hath cut the
ties of kinship and wrought that which is not approved.’ 1 Thus he con¬
demned himself to death.

Then the apostle took a handful of small pebbles and said, turning
towards Quraysh, ‘Foul be those faces!’ Then he threw the pebbles at
them and ordered his companions to charge. The foe was routed. God
slew many of their chiefs and made captive many of their nobles. Mean¬
while the apostle was in the hut and Sa'd b. Mu'adh was standing at the
door of the hut girt with his sword. With him were some of the Ansar
guarding the apostle for fear lest the enemy should come back at him.
While the folk were laying hands on the prisoners the apostle, as I have
been told, saw displeasure on the face of Sa'd at what they were doing. He
said to him, ‘You seem to dislike what the people are doing.’ ‘Yes, by 446
God,’ he replied, ‘it is the first defeat that God has brought on the infidel
and I would rather see them slaughtered than left alive.’

Al-'Abbas b. 'Abdullah b. Ma'bad from one of his family from Ibn
'Abbas told me that the latter said that the prophet said to his companions
that day, ‘I know that some of B. Hashim and others have been forced to
come out against their will and have no desire to fight us; so if any of you
meet one of B. Hashim or Abu’l-Bakhtari or al-'Abbas the apostle’s uncle
do not kill him, for he has been made to come out against his will.’ Abu
Hudhayfa said: ‘Are we to kill our fathers and our sons and our brothers
and our families and leave al-'Abbas ? By God, if I meet him I will flesh
my sword in him!’ (367).

This saying reached the apostle’s ears and he said to 'Umar, ‘O Abu
Hafs’—and 'Umar said that this was the first time the apostle called him
by this honorific—‘ought the face of the apostle’s uncle to be marked with
the sword?’ 'Umar replied, ‘Let me off with his head! By God, the man
is a false Muslim.’ 2 Abu Hudhayfa used to say, ‘I never felt safe after my
words that day. I was always afraid unless martyrdom atoned for them.’

He was killed as a martyr in the battle of al-Yamama.

The reason w'hy the apostle forbade the killing of Abu’l-Bakhtari was
because he had kept back the people in Mecca from the apostle; he never
insulted him or did anything offensive; and lie took a prominent part in
the cancelling of the boycott which Quraysh had written against 13 . Hashim
and B. al-Muttalib. Now' al-Mujadhdhar b. Dhiyad al-BalavvI, an ally of
the Ansar, of the clan of B. Salim b. 'Auf, fell in with him and told him
that the apostle had forbidden them to kill him. Now al-'As Abu’l-Bakh-

1 v.i. W. 478.

• The verb from which mtmafiqutt , generally rendered ‘hypocrites’, is formed. Clearly it
  includes the meaning of a rebel against the prophet’s authority; perhaps the underlying idea
  is feigned obedience.

302

The Life of Muhammad

447 tari was accompanied by his fellow-rider Junada b. Mulayha d. Zuhayr b.
al-Harith b. Asad who was one of B. Layth, and he said, ‘And what about
my friend here?’ ‘No, by God,’ said al-Mujadhdhar, ‘we are not going to
spare your friend. The apostle gave us orders about you only.’ ‘In that
case,’ he said, ‘I will die with him. The women of Mecca shall not say that
I forsook my friend to save my own life.’ hie uttered this rajaz as al-
Mujadhdhar came at him and he insisted on fighting:

A son of the free betrays not his friend

Till he’s dead, or sees him safe on his way.

The result was that al-Mujadhdhar killed him and composed these lines
thereon:

Do you not know or have you forgotten ?

Then note well my line is from Bali.

Those who thrust with Yazani spears

Smiting down chiefs and bringing them low.

Tell Bakhtari that he’s bereaved of his father

Or tell my son the like of me.

I am he of whom it is said my origin is in Bali.

When I thrust in my spear it bends almost double.

I kill my opponent with a sharp MashrafI sword,

I yearn for death like a camel overfull with milk.

You will not see Mujadhdhar telling a lie (368).

Then al-Mujadhdhar went to the apostle and told him that he had done
his best to take him prisoner and bring him to him but that he had insisted
on fighting and the result had been fatal to him (369).

448 Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubavr told me on the authority of
his father; and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr and others on the authority of
'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf told me the same, saying: 'Umayya b. Khalaf was
a friend of mine in Mecca and my name was 'Abdu 'Amr, but I was called
'Abdu’l-Rahman when I became a Muslim. When we used to meet in
Mecca he would say, “Do you dislike the name your parents gave you?”
and I would say yes; and he would say, “As for me, I don’t know al-
Rahman, so adopt a name which I can call you between ourselves. You
won’t reply to your original name, and I won’t use one I don’t know.”
When he said “O 'Abdu'Amr” I wouldn’t answer him, and finally I said ,“0
Abu 'All, call me what you like,” and he called me “ 'Abdu’l-Ilah” and I
accepted the name from him. On the day of Badr I passed by him standing
with his son 'All holding him by the hand. I was carrying coats of mail
which I had looted; and when he saw me he said, “O 'Abdu 'Amr,” but
I would not answer until he said “O 'Abdu’l-Ilah.” Then he said, “Won’t
you take me prisoner, for I am more valuable than these coats of mail
which you have ?” “By God I will,” I said. So I threw away the mail and
took him and his son by the hand, he saying the while “I never saw a day

The Life of Muhammad 303

like this. Have you no use for milk?” Then I walked off with the pair of
them (370). *

'A^ b u U rM V5l,nd H b ' Aba Aun fr0m SaV1 b - ibr5h >m from his father
r n L , mSn Auf t0ld m£ that lhc Iatter said: Imavva said to me
as I walked between them holding their hands, ‘Who is that man who is
wearing an ostrich feather on his breast?’ When I told him it was Hamza
e said that it was he who had done them so much damage. As I was
leading them away Bilal saw him with me. Now it was Umayya who used
to torture Bilal in Mecca to make him abandon Islam, bringing him out to
the scorching heat of the sun, laying him on his back, and putting a great
stone on his chest, telling him that he could stay there until he gave up the 449
religion of Muhammad, and Bilal kept saying ‘One! One!’ As'soon as he
saw him he said, The arch-infidel Umayya b. Khalaf! May I not live if
he lives. I said, ‘(Would you attack) my prisoners ?’ But he kept crying out
these words m spite of my remonstrances until finally he shouted at the
top of his voice, ‘O God’s Helpers, the arch-infidel Umayya b. Khalaf!

May I not live if he lives.’ The people formed a ring round us as I was
protecting him. Then a man drew his sword 1 and cut off his son’s foot so
that he fell down and Umayya let out a cry such as I have never heard • and
I said to him‘Make your escape’ (though he had no chance of escape) ‘I can
do nothing for you.’ They hewed them to pieces with their swords until
they were dead. Abdu’l-Rahman used to say, ‘God have mercy on Bilal,
i lost my coats of mail and he deprived me of my prisoners.’

f iw-v'r-h b ‘ Ahu Babr toId me he was toIti as from I bn 'Abbas: ‘A man
ot BGhifar told me: I and a cousin of mine went up a hill from which we
could look down on Badr, we being polytheists waiting to see the result of
the battle so that we could join in the looting. And while we were on the
hill a cloud came near and we heard the neighing of horses and I heard one
saying Forward, HayzOm!” 2 As for my cousin, his heart burst asunder
and he died on the spot; I almost perished, then I pulled myself together.’

Abdullah b. Abu Bakr from one of B. Sa'ida from Abu Usavd Malik
b. Rabi a who was present at Badr told him after he had lost his sight: ‘If
I were in Badr today and had my sight I could show you the glen from
which the angels emerged. I have not the slightest doubt on the point.’

My father Ishaq b. Yasiir from men of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar from Abu
Da ud aKMaz.nl, who was at Badr, told me: ‘I was pursuing a polvtheist 450
at Badr to smite him, when his head fell off before I could get at him with
my sword, and I knew that someone else had killed him.’

One above suspicion from Miqsam, freedman of 'Abdullah b al-I-Iarith
from 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, told me, ‘The sign of the angels at Badr was
white turbans flowing behind them: at Ilunayn thev wore red turbans’

( 37 i)-

One above suspicion from Miqsam from Ibn 'Abbas told me: The angels

hL akhlafa mCanS th3t hC PUt h '' S hand behind h)m 1(5 draw his sword which hun K behind

1 The name of Gabriel’s horse.

304 The Life of Muhammad

did not fight in any battle but Badr. In the other battles they were there as
reinforcements, but they did not fight.

As he was fighting that day Abu Jahl was saying:

What has fierce war to dislike about me,

A young he-camel with razor-like teeth ?

For this very purpose did my mother bear me (372).

When the apostle had finished with the enemy he ordered that Abu Jahl
should be looked for among the slain. (T. He said, ‘O God, don’t let him
escape Thee!’) The first man to find him—so Thaur b. Yazld from 'Ikrima
from Ibn 'Abbas told me; as well as 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr who told me
the same—was Mu'adh b. 'Arm* b. al-Jamuh, brother of B. Salama, whom
they reported as saying: I heard the people saying when Abu Jahl was in a
sort of thicket, 'Abu’l-Hakam cannot be got at’ (373). When I heard that

451 I made it my business, and made for him. When I got within striking dis¬
tance I fell upon him and fetched him a blow which sent his foot and half
his shank flying. I can only liken it to a date-stone flying from the pestle
when it is beaten. His son 'Ikrima struck me on the shoulder and severed
my arm and it hung by the skin from my side, and the battle compelled me
to leave him. 1 fought the whole of the day dragging my arm behind me
and when it became painful to me I put my foot on it and standing on it I
tore it off.’ He lived after that into the reign of 'Uthman.

Mu'awwidh b. 'Afra’ passed Abu Jahl as he lay there helpless and smote
him until he left him at his last gasp. He himself went on fighting until he
was killed. Then 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud passed by Abu Jahl when the apostle
had ordered that he was to be searched for among the slain. I have heard
that the apostle had told them that if he was hidden among the corpses
they were to look for the trace of a scar on his knee. When they both were
young they had been pressed together at the table of 'Abdullah b. Jud'an.
He was thinner than Abu Jahl and he gave him a push which sent him to
his knees and one of them was scratched so deeply that it left a permanent
scar. 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud said that he found him at his last gasp and put
his foot on his neck (for he had once clawed at him and punched him in
Mecca), and said to him: ‘Has God put you to shame, you enemy of God?’
He replied ‘How has He shamed me? Am I anything more remarkable
than a man you have killed? 1 Tell me how the battle went. He told him
that it went in favour of God and His apostle (374).

Men of B. Makhzum assert that Ibn Mas'ud used to say: He said to me,

452 ‘You have climbed high, you little shepherd.’ Then I cut off his head and
brought it to the apostle saying, ‘This is the head of the enemy of God,
Abu Jahl.’ He said, ‘By God than Whom there is no other, is it?’ (This
used to be his oath.) ‘Yes,’ I said, and I threw his head before the apostle
and he gave thanks to God (375).

1 This is a difficult expression much commented on by Arab writers: other possibilities
are: ‘Am 1 to wonder at, or be angry’, &c. Cf. Lane, 2151c and 'gab. Glos. 376.

The Life of Muhammad o 0 <j

'Ukkasha b. Mihsan b. Hurthan al-Asadi, ally of B. 'Abdu Shams, fought
at Badr until his sword was broken in his hand. He came to the apostle
who gave him a wooden cudgel telling him to fight with that. When he
took it he brandished it and it became in his hand a long, strong, gleaming
sword, and he fought with it until God gave victory to the Muslims. The
sword was called al-'Aun and he had it with him in all the battles he fouaht
with the apostle until finally he was killed in the rebellion, still holding it.

Tulay(ia b. Khuwayhd al-Asadi 1 killed him, and this is what he said
about it:

What do you think about a people when you kill them?

Are they not men though they are not Muslims ?

If camels and women *were captured
Fou will not get away scatheless after killing Hibah
I set Himala’s breast against them—a mare well used to
The cry of ‘Warriors dow r n to the fight!’

(One day you see her protected and covered,

Another day unencumbered dash to the fray)

The night I left Ibn Aqram lying

And 'Ukkasha the Ghanmite dead on the field (376). 453

When the apostle said, '70,000 of my people shall enter Paradise like the
u moon Ukkasha asked if he could be one of them, and the apostle
prayed that he might be one. One of the Ansar got up and asked that he
too might be one of them, and he replied, "Ukkasha has forestalled you
and the prayer is cold.’ J

I have heard from his family that the apostle said: ‘Ours is the-best
horseman among the Arabs,’ and when we asked who, he said that i, was
Ukkasha When Dirar b. al-Azwar al-Asadi said, ‘That is a man of ours ’
the apostle answered, ‘He is not yours but ours through alliance’ (177). ’

latIr Z s‘ a d ;d'‘wi! nan k fr0m l ! rWa b ' al * Zubayr from 'A’isha told me that the
latter said. W hen the apostle ordered that the dead should be thrown into a

pit they were all thrown ,n except Umayya b. Khalaf whose body had swelled
withm his armour so that ,t filled it and when they went ,<> move him his
body dintegrated;.so they left it where it was and heaped earth and stones
upon it As they threw them into the pit the apostle stood and said- “O
people of the pit, have you found that what God threatened is true? For

asked' ‘‘A Und tha ‘ " 1 ! at m> ' fT promis - ed me is true.” His companions 454
WhaiT Y OU r T? g '° dead P “ pIc He replled that they knew that

,hah,T ‘7 Pr T Sed ,hem was truc -’ Wisha said: ‘People say
feW’ T d The> ’ ‘ ear Wha ' 1 S3y them ’” but what he said was ‘‘They

l ° ne of the Baders of the apostate rebels.

wer^there’are £“7™,/?• 'T «'*'“■ therefore there who

tradition is evidently a sly attack on Musa h 'T' h ■' “'.T a P°tlo said than she. This
See. No. 5. MuSa b ' Uqba s tradltlon from 'Abdullah b. 'Umar.

B 4080

X

306 The Life of Muhammad

Humayd al-Tawil told me that Anas b. Malik said: ‘The apostle’s com¬
panions heard him saying in the middle of the night “O people of the pit:
O 'Utba, O Shayba, 0 Umayya, O Abu Jahl,” enumerating all who had
been thrown into the pit, “Have you found that what God promised you
is true? I have found that what my Lord promised me is true.” The
Muslims said, “Are you calling to dead bodies?” He answered: “You
cannot hear what I say better than they, but they cannot answer me.”’

A learned person told me that the apostle said that day, ‘O people of the
pit, you were an evil kinsfolk to your prophet. You called me a liar when
others believed me; you cast me out when others took me in; you fought
against me when others fought on my side.’ Then he added ‘Have you
found that what your Lord promised you is true?’

Hassan b. Thabit said:

I recognize the dwellings of Zaynab on the sandhill
Looking like the writing of revelation on dirty old paper. 1
Winds blow over them and every dark cloud
Pours down its heavy rain;

Its traces obscured and deserted

Were once the abodes of dearly loved friends.

Abandon this constant refnembrance of them,

Quench the heat of the sorrowing breast.

Tell the truth about that in which there is no shame,

Not the tale of a liar,

Of what God did on the day of Badr,

Giving us victory over the polytheists.

The day when their multitude was like Hira’

Whose foundations appear at sunset.

We met them with a company
Like lions of the jungle young and old
455 In defence of Muhammad in the heat of war

Helping him against the enemy.

In their hands were sharp swords
And well-tried shafts with thick knots.

The sons of Aus the leaders, helped by
The sons of al-Najjar in the strong religion.

Abu Jahl we left lying prostrate
And f Utba we left on the ground.

Shayba too with others
Of noble name and descent.

The apostle of God called to them
When we cast them into the pit together.

‘Have you found that I spoke the truth?

And the command of God takes hold of the heart ?’

1 I follow S.’s suggestion for the meaning of qashib.

3°7

The Life of Muhammad

They spoke not. Had they spoken they would have said,

‘Thou wast right and thy judgment was sound.’

, When thc a P° stIe g av e the order for them to be thrown into the pit
Utba was dragged to it. I have been told that the apostle looked at the
face of his son Abu Hudhayfa, and lo he was sad and his colour had
changed. He said, ‘I fear that you feel deeply the fate of your father’ or
words to that effect. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I have no misgivings about my father
and his death, but I used to know my father as a wise, cultured, and vir¬
tuous man and so I hoped that he would be guided to Islam. ’ When I
saw what had befallen him and that he had died in unbelief after my hopes
for him it saddened me. The apostle blessed him and spoke kindly to him.

I have been told that the Quran came down about certain men who were
killed at Badr: Those whom the angels took who were wronging them¬
selves they asked, What were you (doing) ? They said: We were oppressed
m the earth. They said: Was not God’s earth wide enough that you could
have migrated therein ? As for them their habitation will be hell—an evil 456
resort ” They were: al-Harith b. Zama'a; Abu Qays b. al-Fakih; Abu
Qays b. al-Walid; 'All b. Umayya; and al-'As b. Munabbih. These had
been Muslims while the apostle was in Mecca. When he migrated to
Medina their fathers and families in Mecca shut them up and seduced
them and they let themselves be seduced. Then they joined their people
in the expedition to Badr and were all killed.

Then the apostle ordered that everything that had been collected in the
camp should be brought together, and the Muslims quarrelled about it.
Those who had collected it claimed it, and those who had fought and
pursued thc enemy claimed that had it not been for them there would
have been no booty and that had they not engaged the enemv they would
not have been able to get anything; while those who were guarding the
apostle lest the enemy should attack him claimed that they had an equal
right, for they had wanted to fight the enemy, and they had wanted to
seize the booty when there was none to defend it, but they were afraid
that the enemy might return to the charge and so thev kept their position
round the apostle.

'Abdu’l-Rahman b. al-Harith and others of our friends from Sulavman
b. Musa from Makhul from Abu Umama al-Bahill (378) said: ‘I asked
Ubada b. al-Samit about the chapter of al-Anfal and he said that it came
down concerning those who took part in the battle of Badr when thev
quarrelled about the booty and showed their evil nature. God took it out
of their hands and gave it to the apostle, and he divided it equally among
the Muslims.’ ' 6

‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that Malik b. Rabi'a one of B. Sa'ida 457
from Abu Usayd al-Sa'idi said: ‘I got a sword belonging to B. ‘A’idh the
Makhzumites which was called al-Marzuban, and when the apostle ordered

308 The Life of Muhammad

everyone to turn in what they had taken I came and threw it into the heap
of spoils. Now the apostle never held back anything he was asked for and
al-Arqam b. Abu’l-Arqam knew this and asked him for it and the apostle
gave it him.’

Then the apostle sent 'Abdullah b. Rawaha with the good news of the
victory to the people of Upper Medina, and Zayd b. Haritha to the people
of Lower Medina. Usama b. Zayd said: ‘The news came to us as we had
heaped earth on Ruqayya the apostle’s daughter who was married to
'Uthman b. 'Affan, (the apostle having left me behind with 'Uthman to
look after her), that Zayd b. Haritha had come. So I went to him as he
was standing in the place of prayer surrounded by the people, and he was
saying: “ 'Utba and Shayba and Abu Jahl and Zama'a and Abu’I-Bakhtar!
and Umayya and Nubayh and Munabbih have been slain.” I said, “Is
this true, my father?” and he said, “Yes, by God it is, my son.”’

Then the apostle began his return journey to Medina with the un¬
believing prisoners, among whom were 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'ayt and al-Nadr
b. al-Harith. The apostle carried with him the booty that had been taken
from the polytheists and put 'Abdullah b. Ka'b in charge of it. A rajaz
poet of the Muslims (379) said:

Start your camels, O Basbas)

There’s no halting-place in Dhu Talh 1
458 Nor in the desert of Ghumayr a pen.

The people’s camels cannot be locked up.

So to set them on the way is wiser

God having given victory and Akhnas having fled.

Then the apostle went forward until when he came out of the pass of
al-Safra’ he halted on the sandhill between the pass and al-Naziya called
Sayar at a tree there and divided the booty which God had granted to the
Muslims equally. 2 Then he marched until he reached Rauha’ when the
Muslims met him congratulating him and the Muslims on the victory God
had given him. Salama b. Salama—so 'Asim b. ‘Umar b. Qatada and
Yazld b. Ruman told me—said, ‘What are you congratulating us about?
By God, we only met some bald old women like the sacrificial camels
who are hobbled, and we slaughtered them!’ The apostle smiled and
said, ‘But, nephew, those were the chiefs’ (380). When the apostle was in
al-Safra’, al-Nadr was killed by ‘All, as a learned Meccan told me. When
he was in 'Irqu’l-Zabya 'Uqba was killed (381). He had been captured by
'Abdullah b. Salima, one of the B. al-'Ajlan.

When the apostle ordered him to be killed 'Uqba said, ‘But who will
look after my children, O Muhammad?’ ‘Hell’, he said, and 'Asim b.
Thabit b. Abu’l-Aqlah al-Ansari killed him according to what Abu
'Ubayda b. Muhammad b. 'Ammar b. Yasir told me (382).

1 Or, possibly, acacia trees; no place for them to halt.

1 T. adds; ‘He drank from the water there called al-Arwaq’.

The Life of Muhammad yog

Abu Hind, freedman of Farwa b. 'Amr al-Bayadi, met the apostle there
with a jar full of butter and dates (383). He had stayed behind from Badr
but was present at all the other battles and afterwards became the apostle’s

cupper. The apostle said, ‘Abu Hind is one of the Ansar; intermarry with 450
him, and they did so.

The apostle arrived in Medina a day before the prisoners. 'Abdullah b
Abu Bakr told me that Yahya b. 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’I-Rahman b. As'ad b.'
Zurara told him that the prisoners were brought in when Sauda d. Zama'a
the wife of the prophet, was with the family of 'Afra’ when they were be¬
wailing 'Auf and Mu'awwidh 'Afra”s sons, this being before the veil was
imposed on them. Sauda said: ‘As I was with them, suddenly it was said:

Here are the prisoners” and I returned to my house where the apostle
was. And there was Abu Yazld Suhayl b. 'Amr in a corner of the room
with his hands tied to his neck. I could hardly contain myself when I saw
Abu Yazld in this state and I said, “O Abu Yazld, you surrendered too
readily, \ou ought to have died a noble death!” Suddenly the pro¬
phet’s voice startled me: “Sauda, would you stir up trouble against God
and his apostle?” I said, “By God, I could hardly contain myself when I
saw Abu Yazld in this state and that is why i said what I did ” ’

Nubayh b. Wahb brother of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar told me that the apostle
divided the prisoners amongst his companions and said, ‘Treat them well.’

Now Abu 'Aziz b. 'Umayr b. Hashim, brother of Mus'ab b. 'Umayr by
the same mother and father, was among the prisoners and he said, ‘My
brother Mus'ab passed by me as one of the Ansar was binding me and he
said: “Bind him fast, for his mother is a wealthy woman; perhaps she will
redeem him from you.” I was with a number of the Ansar when they
brought me from Badr, and when they ate their morning and evening
meals they gave me the bread and ate the dates themselves in accordance
with the orders that the apostle had given about us. If anyone had a 460
morsel ot bread he gave it to me. I felt ashamed and returned it to one of
them but he returned it to me untouched’ {384).

The first to come to Mecca with news of the disaster was al-Haysuman
b. Abdullah al-Khuza i, and when they asked for news he enumerated all
the Quraysh chiefs who had been killed. Safwan who was sitting in the
hij r said, ‘This fellow is out of his mind. Ask him about me.’ So they
said: ‘What happened to Safwan b. Umayya?’ He answered, ‘There he is
sitting in the hijr } and by God I saw his father and his brother when they
were killed.’ 1

Uusayn b. 'Abdullah b. 'Ubaydallah b. 'Abbas from 'Ikrima, freedman
ot I bn Abbas, tojd me that Abu Rafi', freedman of the apostle, said, ‘I used
to be a slave of 'Abbas. Islam had entered among us, the people of the
house; 'Abbas had become a Muslim, and so had Ummu’l-FadI and so
had L But 'Abbas was afraid of his people and disliked to go against them,
so he hid his faith; he had a great deal of money scattered among the

These words are not found in q\’s quotation from I. I,

310 The Life of Muhammad

people. Abu Lahab had stayed behind from the Badr expedition sending
in his stead ai-'As b. Hisham; for that is what they did—any man who
stayed behind sent another in his place. And when news came of the
Quraysh disaster at Badr God humiliated Abu Lahab and put him to
shame w'hile we found ourselves in a position of power and respect. Now
I was a weak man and I used to make arrows, sharpening them in the tent
of Zamzam, and lo as I was sitting there with Ummu’l-Fadl sharpening
arrows delighted with the news that had come, up came Abu Lahab
dragging his feet in ill temper and sat down at the end of the tent with his
back to mine. As he was sitting there people said, “Here is Abu Sufyan b.
al-Harith b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib (385) just arrived.” Abu Lahab said,
“Come here, for you have news.” So he came and sat with him while the
people stood round, and when he asked his nephew for the news he said,
“As soon as we met the party we turned our backs and they w r ere killing
and capturing us just as they pleased; and by God I don’t blame the people
for that. We met men in white on piebald horses between heaven and
earth, and by God they spared nothing and none could withstand them.”
So I lifted the rope of the tent and said: “Those w r ere the angels.” Abu
Lahab struck me violently in the face. I leapt at him, but he knocked me
down and knelt on me beating me again and again, for I w'as a weak man.
Ummu’l-Fadl went and got one of the supports of the tent and split his
head with a blow which left a nasty wound, saying, “You think you can
despise him now his master is away!” He got up and turned tail humiliated.
He only lived for another week, for God smote him with pustules, from
which he died.*

(T. 1340. 10. His two sons left him unburied for two or three nights so
that the house stank (for the Quraysh dread pustules and the like as men
dread plague) until finally a man said to them: ‘It is disgraceful! Are you
not ashamed that your father should stink in his house while you do not
cover him from the sight of men ?’ They replied that they were afraid of
those ulcers. He offered to go with them. They did not w'ash the body
but threw water over it from a distance without touching it. Then they
took it up and buried it on the high ground above Mecca by a wall and
threw stones over it until it was covered.

Ibn Hamid said that Salama b. al-Fadl said that Muhammad b. Ishaq
said that al-'Abbas b. 'Abdullah b. Ma'bad from one of his family on the
authority of 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas said: ‘On the night of Badr w f hen the
prisoners were safely guarded, the apostle could not sleep during the first
part of the night. When his companions asked him the reason he said:
“I heard the writhing of al-'Abbas in his prison.” So they got up and
liberated him whereupon the apostle slept soundly.’

On the same authority I heard that Muhammad b. Ishaq said: ‘“al-
Hasan b. 'Umara told me from al-Hakam b. 'Utayba from Miqsam from
Ibn 'Abbas: The man who captured al-'Abbas was Abu’I-Yasar Ka'b b.
'Amr brother of the B. Salima. Abu’I-Yasar was a compact little man

The Life of Muhammad 311

while al-'Abbas w r as bulky. When the apostle asked the former how he
had managed to capture him, he said that a man such as he had never seen
before or afterwards had helped him, and when he described him, the
apostle said, “A noble angel helped you against him.’”)

(Suhayll, ii. 79: In the riwdya of Yunus I. I. recorded that the apostle
saw her (Ummu’l-Fadl) when she was a baby crawling before him and
said, ‘If she grows up and I am still alive I will marry her.’ But he died
before she grew up and Sufyan b. al-Aswad b. 'Abdu’l-Asad al-Makhzuml
married her and she bore him Rizq and Lubiiba. . . .

They did not bury Abu Lahab, but he was put against a wall and stones
were thrown upon him from behind the wall until he was covered. It is
said that when 'A’isha passed the place she used to veil her face.)

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father 'Abbad told
me that Quraysh bewailed their dead. Then they said, ‘Do not do this,
for the news will reach Muhammad and his companions and they will
rejoice over your misfortune; and do not send messengers about your
captives but hold back so that Muhammad and his companions may not
demand excessive ransoms.’ Al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib had lost three of his
sons: Zama'a, ‘Aqll, and al-Harith b. Zama'a, and he wanted to bewail
them. Meanwhile he heard a weeping woman, and as he was blind he told a
servant to go and see whether lamentation had been permitted, for if Quraysh
were weeping over their dead he might weep for Zam'a Abu Haklma, for 4^z
he was consumed by a burning sorrow. The servant returned to say that
it was a woman weeping over a camel she had lost. Thereupon he said:

Does she weep because she has lost a camel ?

And does this keep her awake all night ?

Weep not over a young camel

But over Badr where hopes were dashed to the ground.

Over Badr the finest of the sons of Husays
And Makhzum and the clan of Abu’l-Walld.

Weep if you must weep over 'Aqll,

Weep for Harith the lion of lions,

Weep unweariedly for them all,

For Abu Hakima had no peer.

Now they are dead, men bear rule

Who but for Badr would be of little account (386).

Among the prisoners was Abu Wada'a b. Dubayra al-Sahml. The
apostle remarked that in Mecca he had a son who was a shrewd and rich
merchant and that he would soon come to redeem his father. When
Quraysh counselled delay in redeeming the prisoners so that the ransom
should not be extortionate al-Muttalib b. Abu Wada'a—the man the
apostle meant—said, ‘You arc right. Don’t be in a hurry.’ And he slipped
away at night and came to Medina and recovered his father for 4,000
dirhams and took him away.

312 The Life of Muhammad

Then Quraysh sent to redeem the prisoners and Mikraz b. Hafs b. al-
Akhyaf came about Suhayl b. 'Amr who had been captured by Malik b.
al-Dukhshum, brother of the B. Salim b. 'Auf, who said:

I captured Suhayl and I would not exchange him
For a prisoner from any other people.

Khindif knows that its hero is Suhayl
When injustice is complained of.

I struck with my keen sword until it bent.

I forced myself to fight this hare-lipped man.

Suhayl was a man whose lower lip was split (387).

463 Muhammad b. 'Amr b. 'Ata brother of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy, told me
that 'Umar said to the apostle, ‘Let me pull out Suhayl’s two front teeth;
his tongue will stick out and he will never be able to speak against you
again.’ He answered, ‘I will not mutilate him, otherwise God would muti¬
late me though I am a prophet.’

I have heard that in this tradition the apostle said to 'Umar, ‘Perhaps he
will make a stand for which you will not blame him’ 1 (388).

When Mikraz had spoken about him and finally agreed on terms with
them they demanded the money, and he asked that they would hold him
as security and let Suhayl go so that he could send his ransom. They did
so and imprisoned Mikraz in his stead. Mikraz said:

I redeemed with costly 2 she-camels a captive hero.

(The payment is for a true Arab not for clients).

I pledged my person, though money would be easier for me.

But I feared being put to shame.

I said, 'Suhayl is the best of us, so take him back

To our sons so that we may attain our desires’ (389).

(T. 1344. Ibn Hamid from Salama from Ibn Ishaq from al-Kalbl from
Abu Salih from Ibn 'Abbas told me that the apostle said to al-'Abbas when
he was brought to Medina, ‘Redeem yourself, O 'Abbas, and your two
nephews 'Aqll b. Abu Talib and Naufal b. al-Harith and your ally 'Utba b.
'Amr b. Jahdam brother of the B. al-Harith b. Fihr, for you are a rich
man.’ He replied, ‘I was a Muslim but the people compelled me (to fight).
He answered, ‘God knows best about your Islam. If what you say is true
God will reward you for it. But to all outward appearance you have been
against us, so pay us your ransom.’ Now the apostle had taken twenty okes
of gold from him and he said, ‘O apostle of God, credit me with them in
my ransom.’ He replied, ‘That has nothing to do with it. God took that
from you and gave it to us.’ He said, ‘I have no money.’ ‘Then where is
the money which you left with Ummu’I-FadI d. al-Harith when you left

1 r.t. 1021 for Suhayl’s speech after the death of the prophet.

2 Reading thimdn, The variant thamdnin is Jess likely because dhaud generally means
from three to ten camels.

The Life of Muhammad 313

Mecca? You two were alone when you said to her, “If I am killed so much
is for al-Fadl, 'Abdullah and Qutham and 'Ubaydullah.”’ ‘By him who
sent you with the truth,’ he exclaimed, ‘none but she and I knew of this
and now I know that you are God’s apostle.’ So he redeemed himself and
the three men named above.) 1

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that Abu Sufyan’s son ‘Amr whom he
had by a daughter of 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'ayt (390) was a prisoner in the
apostle’s hands from Badr (391); and when Abu Sufyan was asked to
ransom his son 'Amr he said, ‘Am I to suffer the double loss of my blood
and my money? They have killed Hanzala and am I to ransom 'Amr?
Leave him with them. They can keep him as long as they like!’

While he was thus held prisoner in Medina with the apostle Sa'd b. al-
Nu'man b. Akkal, brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf, one of the B. Mu'awiya, 464
went forth on pilgrimage accompanied by a young wife of his. He was an
old man and a Muslim who had sheep in al-Naqi'. 2 He left that place on
pilgrimage without fear of any untoward events, never thinking that he
would be detained in Mecca, as he came as a pilgrim, for he knew that
Quraysh did not usually interfere with pilgrims, but treated them well.

But Abu Sufyan fell upon him in Mecca and imprisoned him in retaliation
for his son 'Amr. Then Abu Sufyan said:

O family of Ibn Akkal, answer his plea

May you lose each other! Do not surrender the chief in his prime.

The Banu 'Amr will be base and contemptible

If they do not release their captive from his fetters.

Hassan b. Thabit answered him:

If Sa'd had been free the day he was in Mecca
He would have killed many of you ere he was captured.

With a sharp sword or a bow of nab’a wood
Whose string twangs when the arrow is shot.

The B. 'Amr b. 'Auf went to the apostle and told him the news and
asked him to give them 'Amr b. Abu Sufyan so that they could let him go
in exchange for their man and the apostle did so. So they sent him to Abu
Sufyan and he released Sa'd.

Among the prisoners was Abu’l-'As b. al-Rabi', son-in-law of the apostle,
married to his daughter Zaynab (392). Abu’l-'As was one of the important
men of Mecca in wealth, respect, and merchandise. His mother was
Hala d. Khuwaylid, and Khadlja was his aunt. Khadlja had asked the
apostle to find him a wife. Now the apostle never opposed her—this was
before revelation came to him—and so he married him to his daughter.
Khadlja used to regard him as her son. When God honoured His apostle 465

1 All writers on the Sira have drawn attention to the passages referring to the capture of
'Abbas which I.H. omitted. See now the pre-'Abbasid tradition of Musa b. 'Uqba, No. 6.

2 A place near Medina.

314 The Life of Muhammad

with prophecy Khadija and her daughters believed in him and testified
that he had brought the truth and followed his religion, though Abu’I-'As
persisted in his polytheism. Now the apostle had married Ruqayva or
Umm Kulthum to 'Utba b. Abu Lahab, and when he openly preached to
Quraysh the command of God and showed them hostility they reminded
one another that they had relieved Muhammad of his care for his daughters
and decided to return them so that he should have the responsibility of
looking after them himself. They went to Abu’1-'As and told him to
divorce his wife and they would give him any woman he liked. He refused,
saying that he did not want any other woman from Quraysh; and I have
heard that the apostle used to speak warmly of his action as a son-in-law.
Then they went to 'Utba b. Abu Lahab with the same request and he
said that if they would give him the daughter of Aban b. Sa'Id b. al-'As or
the daughter of Sa'Id b. al-'As he would divorce his wife, and when they
did so he divorced her, not having consummated the marriage. Thus God
took her from him to her honour and his shame, and 'Uthman afterwards
married her.

Now the apostle had no power of binding and loosing in Mecca, his
circumstances being circumscribed. Islam had made a division between
Zaynab and her husband Abu’I-'As, but they lived together, Muslim and
unbeliever, until the apostle migrated. Abu’I-'As joined the expedition to
Badr and was captured among the prisoners and remained at Medina with
the apostle.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father 'Abbad told
me that 'A’isha said: ‘When the Meccans sent to ransom their prisoners,
Zaynab sent the money for Abu’I-'As; with it she sent a necklace which
Khadija had given her on her marriage to Abu’I-'As. When the apostle
466 saw it his feelings overcame him and he said: “If you would like to let her
have her captive husband back and return her money to her, do so.’’ The
people at once agreed and they let him go and sent her money back.’

ZAYNAB SETS OUT FOR MEDINA

Now the apostle had imposed a condition on Abu’I-'As, or the latter had
undertaken it voluntarily—the facts w r ere never clearly established—that
he should let Zaynab come to him. At any rate, after Abu’I-'As had
reached Mecca the apostle sent Zayd b. Haritha and one of the Ansar with
instructions to stop in the valley of Yajaj 1 until Zaynab passed, and then to
accompany her back to him. About a month or so after Badr they went off
to take up their position. Meanwhile Abu’I-'As came to Mecca and told
Zaynab to rejoin her father, and she went out to make her preparations.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that he had been told that Zaynab said
that while she was making her preparations she was met by Hind d. 'Utba
who inquired whether she was going off to rejoin Muhammad. When she
1 About 8 miles from Mecca.

The Life of Muhammad 315

said that she did not wish to go, Hind offered to give her anything she
needed for the journey as well as money. She need not be shy of her, for
women stood closer together than men. However, though she thought she
was sincere she was afraid of her and denied that she had any intention of
going. But she went on with her preparations.

These completed, her brother-in-law^ Kinana b. al-Rabl' brought her a
camel and taking his bow he led her aw'ay in a howdah in broad daylight.
After discussing the matter Quraysh went off in pursuit and overtook
them in Dhu Tuwa. The first man to come up with them was Habbar b. 467
al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib b. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza al-Fihrl. He threatened
her with his lance as she sat in the howdah. It is alleged that the woman
was pregnant and when she was frightened she had an abortion. Her
brother-in-law Kinana knelt and emptied his quiver [in front of him] and
said, ‘By God, if one of you comes near me I will put an arrow through
him.’ So the men fell back. Then Abu Sufyan with some Quraysh leaders
came up and asked him to unbend his bow so that they could discuss the
matter. Then he came up to him and said, ‘You have not done the right
thing. You have taken the woman out publicly over the heads of the people
when you know of our misfortune and disaster which Muhammad has
brought on us. The people will think, if you take away his daughter pub¬
licly over the heads of everyone, that that is a sign of our humiliation after
the disaster that has happened and an exhibition of utter weakness. ’Od’s
life we don’t want to keep her from her father and that is not our way of
seeking revenge. But take the woman back, and when the chatter has died
down and people say that we have brought her back you can take her away
secretly to rejoin her father.’ This is exactly what happened and one night
he took her off and delivered her to Zayd b. Haritha and his companion,
and they took her to the apostle.

'Abdullah b. Rawaha or Abu Khaythama, brother of B. Salim b. 'Auf,
said of this affair of Zaynab’s (393):

Tidings reached me of their wicked treatment of Zaynab,

So criminal that men could not imagine it.

Muhammad was not put to shame when she was sent forth
Because of the result of the bloody war between us.

From his alliance with Damdam 1 and his war with us
Abu Sufyan got but disappointment and remorse.

We bound his son 'Amr and his sworn friend together
In well-w'rought jangling irons.

I swear we shall never lack soldiers,

Army leaders with many a champion.

Driving before us infidel Quraysh until we subdue them 468

With a halter above their noses (and) with a branding iron.

We will drive them to the ends of Najd and Nakhla.

1 Cf. p. 428.

3 l6

The Life of Muhammad

If they drop to the lowland we will pursue them with horse and foot
So that our road will never deviate.

We will bring upon them the fate of 'Ad and Jurhum.

A people that disobeyed Muhammad will regret it.

And what a time for showing repentance!

Tell Abu Sufyan if you meet him
‘If you are not sincere in worship, and embrace Islam
Then shame will come on you speedily in this life
And in hell you will wear a garment of molten pitch for ever!’ (394)

Abu Sufyan’s ‘sworn friend’ was 'Amir b. al-Hadrami 1 who was among the
prisoners. Al-Hadrami was an ally of Harb b. Umayya (395).

When those who had gone out to Zaynab returned Hind d. 'Utba met
them and said:

In peace are you wild asses—rough and coarse

And in war like women in their courses ?

Kinana b. al-Rabl' when he handed Zaynab over to the two men said:

I am astonished at Habbar and the paltry ones of his people
Who wish me to break my word with Muhammad’s daughter.

I care not for their numbers as long as I live
And as long as my hand can grasp my trusty blade.

Yazid b. Abu Habib from Bukayr b. 'Abdullah b. al-Ashajj from Sulay-
man b. Yasar from Abu Ishaq al-DausI from Abu Hurayra, told me that
the latter said: ‘The apostle sent me among a number of raiders with
orders that if we got hold of Habbar b. al-Aswad or the other man who
first got to Zaynab with him (396) we were to burn them with fire. On the
following day he sent word to us “I told you to burn these two men if you
got hold of them; then I reflected that none has the right to punish by fire
save God, so if you capture them kill them.”’

ABU’l-AS B. AL-RABl' BECOMES a MUSLIM

When Islam thus came between them Abu’l-'As lived in Mecca while
Zaynab lived in Medina with the apostle until, shortly before the con¬
quest, 2 Abu’l-'As went to Syria trading with his own money and that of
Quraysh which they entrusted to him, for he was a trustworthy man.
Having completed his business he was on his way home when one of the
apostle’s raiding parties fell in with him and took all he had, though he
himself escaped them. W hen the raiders went off with their plunder Abu’l-
'As went into Zaynab’s house under cover of night and asked her to give
him protection. She at once did so. He came to ask for his property.
When the apostle went out to morning prayer—soYazId b. Ruman told me

1 Cf. p. 442.

3 sc. of Mecca.

The Life of Muhammad 317

—and said ‘Allah akbar’ followed by all present, Zaynab cried from the
place where the women sat ‘O you men, I have given protection to Abu’l-
'As b. al-Rabl'.’ 1 His prayers over, the apostle turned round to face the men
and asked them if they had heard what he had heard, and when they said
that they had he swore that he knew nothing about the matter until
Zaynab made her declaration, adding, ‘the meanest Muslim can give
protection on their behalf’. He went off to see his daughter and told her
to honour her guest but not to allow him to approach her for she was not
lawful to him.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that the apostle sent to the raiding party
which had taken Abu’l-'As’s goods saying: ‘This man is related to us as
you know and you have taken property of his. If you think well to restore
it to him we should like that; but if you will not it is booty which God has
given you and you have the better right to it.’ They replied that they 470
would willingly give it back and they were so scrupulous that men brought
back old skins and little leather bottles and even a little piece of wood until
everything was returned and nothing withheld. Then Abu’l-'As went to
Mecca and paid everyone what was due, including those who had given
him money to lay out on their behalf, and asked them if anyone of them
had any further claim on him, ‘No,’ they said, ‘God reward you; we have
found you both trustworthy and generous.’ ‘Then’, said he, ‘I bear witness
that there is no God but the God and that Muhammad is his servant and
his apostle. I would have become a Muslim when I was with him but that
I feared that you would think that I only wanted to rob you of your
property; and now that God has restored it to you and I am clear of it I
submit myself to God.’ Thus saying he went off to rejoin the apostle.

Dawud b. al-Husayn from 'Ikrima from b. 'Abbas told me that the
apostle restored Zaynab to him according to the first marriage after six
years had passed without any new procedure (397).

Among the prisoners who, I was told, were given their freedom without
having to pay ransom were: Abu’l-'As whom the prophet freed after Zaynab
his daughter had sent his ransom; al-Muttalib b. Hantab b. al-Harith b.
'Ubayda b. 'Umar b. Makhzum who belonged [by capture] to some of
B. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj (He was left in their hands until they let him
go, and he went to his people.) (398); Sayfl b. Abu Rifa'a b. 'Abid b. 471
'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum. (He was left in the hands of his captors
and when no one came to ransom him they let him go on condition that
he should send his ransom, but he broke his word to them. Hassan b.
Thabit said in reference to that:

Sayfi is not the man to fulfil his pledge

The back of a fox tired at some waterhole or other; 2

and Abu 'Azza 'Amr b. 'Abdullah b. 'Uthman b. Uhayb b. Hudhafa b.

1 Zaynab called out in a moment of complete silence at the beginning of prayer.

• Ditcatt, L. The line is not clear to me. • These words are not in W.

318 The Life of Muhammad

Jumah. He was a poor man whose family consisted of daughters, and he
said to the apostle: ‘You know that I have no money, and am in real need
with a large family, so let me go without ransom.’ The apostle did so on
condition that he should not fight against him again. Praising him and
mentioning his kindness among his people Abu 'Azza said:

Who will tell the apostle Muhammad from me
You are true and the divine King is to be praised?

You call men to truth and right guidance,

God himself witnesses to you.

You are a man given a place among us
To which there are steps hard and easy.

Those who fight you die miserably,

Those who make peace live happily.

When I am reminded of Badr and its people
Sorrow and a sense of loss come over me (399). 1

'UMAYR B. WAHB BECOMES A MUSLIM

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr from ‘Urwa b. al-Zubayr told me that
'Umayr was sitting with Safwan b. Umayya in the hijr shortly after Badr.

472 Now 'Umayr was one of the leaders of Quraysh who used to molest the
apostle and his companions and cause them distress while he was in
Mecca, and his son Wahb was among the prisoners taken at Badr (400).
He mentioned those who were thrown into the well and Safwan said, ‘By
God, there is no good in life now they are dead.’ ‘You are right,’ said
'Umayr, ‘were it not for a debt outstanding against me which I cannot pay
and a family I cannot afford to leave unprovided for, I would ride to
Muhammad and kill him, for I have good cause against the lot of them, my
son being a prisoner in their hands.’ Safwan took him up and said: ‘I will
discharge your debt and take care of your family with my own so long as
they live. All that I have shall be theirs.’ ‘Umayr and he agreed to keep
the matter secret.

Then 'Umayr called for his sword and sharpened it and smeared it with
poison and went off to Medina. While 'Umar was talking with some of the
Muslims about Badr and mentioning how God had honoured them in
giving them victory over their enemies he suddenly saw ‘Umayr stopping
at the door of the mosque girt with his sword, and said, ‘This dog the
enemy of God is 'Umayr b. Wahb. By God he’s come for some evil
purpose. It was he who made mischief among us and calculated our
numbers for the enemy at Badr.’ Then ‘Umar went into the apostle and
said, ‘O prophet of God, this enemy of God 'Umayr b. Wahb has come
girt with his sword.’ He told him to let him come in and 'Umar advanced

1 I prefer the reading fuqudu to qu’udu. This is perhaps the most blatant forgery of all
the ‘poems’ of the Sira. The heathen author’s record was so bad that the prophet ordered
his execution and yet he is made to utter fulsome praise of him and devotion to Islam.

The Life of Muhammad

and seizing his bandoleer he gripped him round the neck with it. He told
the Ansar who were with him to come in and sit with the apostle and to
watch the rascal carefully, for he was not to be trusted. When the apostle
saw 'Umayr and 'Umar grasping the bandoleer round his neck he told
Umar to let go and 'Umayr to advance. He came up and said 'Good
morning’, for that was the greeting of paganism. The apostle said, ‘God 473
has honoured us with a better greeting than thine, 'Umayr. It is Salam,
the greeting of the inhabitants of Paradise.’ ‘By God, Muhammad, you
have taken to it only recently.’ 1 ‘What brought you ?’ ‘I have come about
this prisoner you have that you may treat him well.’ ‘Then why have you
a sword round your neckr' ‘God damn the swords. Have they done us
any good? Tell me the truth. Why have you come?’ ‘I came only for
the reason I have told you.’ ‘Nay, but you and Safwan b. Umayya sat
together in the hijr and talked about the Quraysh who were thrown into
the well. Then you said “But for debts and family reasons I would go and
kill Muhammad.” And Safwan assumed responsibility for both if you
would kill me for him, but God intervened.’ ‘I testify that you are "the
apostle of God. We used to call you a liar when you brought us tidings
from heaven and we denied the revelation you brought. But this is a
matter to which only 1 and Safwan were privy, and none can have told you
of it but God. Praise be to God who has guided me to Islam and led me
thus.’ Then he testified to the truth and the apostle said, ‘Instruct your
brother in his religion, read the Quran to him, and free his prisoner for
him,’ and they did so.

I hen he said, ‘I used to be active in extinguishing the light of God and
in persecuting those who followed God’s religion. I should like you to
give me permission to go to Mecca to summon them to God and His
apostle and to Islam that perhaps God may guide them; and if not I will
persecute them in their religion as I used to persecute your companions.’

The apostle agreed and hei went to Mecca. When 'Umayr had left, Safwan
was saying, ‘You will soon have some good news which will make you
forget what happened at Badr.’ Safwan kept questioning riders until one
came who told him of 'Umayr’s Islam, and he swore that he would never
speak to him again nor do him a service. When 'Umayr came to Mecca he
stayed there summoning people to Islam and treating those who opposed
him violently so that through him many became Muslims. 474

I was told that it was cither Umayr or al-Harith b. Hisham who saw the
devil when he turned on his heels on the day of Badr and said, ‘Where are
you going, O Suraqa?’ And the enemy of God lay on the ground and dis¬
appeared. 2 So God sent down concerning him, ‘And when Satan made
their works seem good to them and said None can conquer you today for I
am your protector 3 and he mentions how r the devil deceived them and took

1 Reading Kunta for C, and W.’s Kuntu, but perhaps the meaning is ‘It is new to me’.
z In another tradition quoted by Suhayli ii. 85 it is the devil who knocks down al-Hanth.

3 Sura 8. 50.

320 The Life of Muhammad

the form of Suraqa b. Malik b. Ju'shum when they remembered the quarrel
they had with B. Bakr. God said, ‘And when the two armies saw each
other’ and the enemy of God saw the armies of angels by which God
strengthened His apostle and the believers against their enemies ‘he turned
on his heels and said, “I am quit of you, for I see what you do not see.”
The enemy of God spoke the truth for he did see what they could not see
and said, “I fear God for God is severe in punishment.”’ I was told that
they used to see him in every camp whenever he appeared in the form of
Suraqa not suspecting him until on the day of Badr when the two armies
met he turned on his heels and betrayed them after he had led them on
(401).

Hassan b. Thabit said:

My people it was who sheltered their prophet

And believed in him when all the world were unbelievers,

Except a chosen few who were forerunners
To the righteous, helpers with the Helpers.

Rejoicing in God’s portion

Saying when he came to them, noble of race, chosen,

Welcome in safety and comfort,

Goodly the prophet the portion and the guest.

They gave him a home in which a guest of theirs
Need have no fear—an (ideal) home.

They shared their wealth when the refugees came
While the share of the stubborn opponent is hell.

475 To Badr we went—they to their death.

Had they known what they should have known they would not have
gone;

The devil deluded and then betrayed them.

Thus does the evil one deceive his friends.

He said I am your protector and brought them to an evil pass
Wherein is shame and disgrace.

Then when we fought them they deserted their leaders,

Some fleeing to high ground others to the plain (402).

THE QURAYSH WHO FED THE PILGRIMS
The names of the Quraysh who used to feed the pilgrims are as follows:

From B. Hashim: Al-'Abbas b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib.

From B. 'Abdu Shams: 'LItba b. Rabi'a.

From B. Naufal: al-Harith b. 'Amir and Tu'ayma b. 'Adiy by turns.

From B. Asad: Abu’l-Bakhtari and Hakim b. Hizam by turns.

From B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: al-Nadr b. al-Harith b. Kalda b. 'Alqama (403).

From B. Makhzum: Abu Jahl.

From B. Jumah: Umayya b. Khalaf.

The Life of Muhammad 321

From B. Sahm: Nubayh and Munabbih sons of al-Hajjaj b. 'Amir by
turns.

From B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: Suhayl b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu Shams (404).

THE COMING DOWN OF THE SURA ANFAL 1 476

When Badr was over, God sent down the whole Sura Anfal about it. With
regard to their quarrelling about the spoils there came down: ‘They will
ask you about the spoils, say, the spoils belong to God and the apostle, so
fear God and be at peace with one another, and obey God and His apostle
if you are believers.’

'Ubada b. al-Samit, so I have heard, when he was asked about this sura
said: ‘It came down about us, the people of Badr, when we quarrelled
about the booty on that day, and God took it out of our hands when we
showed an evil disposition and gave it to the apostle, who divided it equally
among us. In that there was the fear of God, and obedience to Him and to
His apostle, and peace among us.’

Then He mentions the army, and their journey with the apostle when 1
they knew that Quraysh had come out against them, and they had only
gone out making for the caravan because they wanted booty, and He said,

‘As thy Lord brought thee out of thy house in truth when a part of the
believers were un-willing, they disputed with thee about the truth after it
had become plain, as though they were being driven to their death while
they looked on.’ i.e. Unwilling to meet the army and disliking to confront
Quraysh when they w r ere told of them.

‘And when God promised you that one of the parties should be yours, and
you wanted to have the one that was not armed.’ i.e. Booty and not war.

‘And God wanted to establish the truth by His words, and to cut off the 477
uttermost part of the unbelievers.’ i.e. By the disaster which He brought
upon the chiefs and leaders of Quraysh on the day of Badr.

‘When you asked your Lord for help.’ i.e. Their prayers when they
looked at the multitude of their enemies and their own small numbers.

‘And He answered you.’ i.e. The prayer of His apostle and your prayers.

‘I will reinforce you with a thousand angels, one behind another. When
He made you slumber as a reassurance from Him.’ i.e. I sent down reassur¬
ance upon you when you slumbered unafraid.

‘And He sent down water from heaven upon you.’ i.e. The rain that
came upon them that night and prevented the polytheists from getting to
the water first, and left the way clear to the Muslims.

‘That He might cleanse you by it, and take from you the impurity of
Satan, and strengthen your hearts, and confirm your steps.’ i.e. To take
from you the doubt of Satan when he made them afraid of the enemy, and
the hardening of the ground for them so that they got to their halting-place
before the enemy arrived.

B 4090

Sura 8.
Y

322 The Life of Muhammad

Then God said, ‘Then thy Lord revealed to the angels, I am with you so
strengthen those that believe.’ i.e. help those that believe.

‘I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, so strike off
their heads and cut off all their fingers, because they opposed God and His
apostle and he who opposes God and His apostle (will find) God severe
in punishment.’

Then He said, ‘O you who believe, when you meet those who disbelieve
on the march, do not turn your backs. He who turns his back except in
manoeuvring or intending to join another section, incurs the wrath of God,
and his destination is Hell, a miserable end.’ i.e. Inciting them against
their enemy so that they should not withdraw from them when they met
them, God having promised what He had promised.

Then God said concerning the apostle’s throwing pebbles at them,
‘When you threw, it was not you that threw, but God.’ i.e. Your throwing
would have had no effect unless God had helped you therein and cast
terror into their hearts when He put them to flight.

‘And to test the believers with a good test.’ i.e. To let them know of His
favour towards them in giving them victory over their enemies in spite of
their small number that they might know thereby His truth, and be thank¬
ful for His favour.

Then He said, ‘If you sought a judgement, a judgement came to you.’
i.e. With reference to what Abu Jahl said, ‘O God, he who is the worst in
severing relations and bringing us things that are unacceptable destroy him
this morning.’ 1 Istiftdh means to pray for what is just.

God said, ‘If you cease,’ that is addressed to Quraysh, ‘it is better for
you, and if you return (to the attack) We will return.’ i.e. With a similar
blow to that which We gave you on the day of Badr.

‘And your army will avail you nothing how’ever numerous, and (know)
that God is with the believers.’ i.e. That your number and multitude will
not avail you at all while I am with the believers, helping them against
those that oppose them.

Then God said, ‘O you that believe, obey God and His apostle, turn not
away from him while you are listening.’ i.e. Do not contradict his orders
when you hear him speak and while you assert that you are on his side.

‘And be not like those who said, “We hear’’ when they did not hear.’
i.e. Like the hypocrites who pretend to be obedient and are secretly dis¬
obedient to him.

‘The worst of beasts with God are the deaf and the dumb who do not
understand.’ i.e. The hypocrites whom I have forbidden you to imitate.
Dumb in reference to good, deaf to truth, not understanding and not know¬
ing the vengeance and consequence which will come upon them.

‘Had God known that there was good among them, He would have made
them listen.’ i.e. In performing for them the words which they spoke with
their tongues, but their hearts contradicted them, and if they had come

1 v.s. W. 445 med.

The Life of Muhammad 323

forth with you, ‘they would have turned their backs, going aside.’ i.e. Would
not have been faithful to you in the purpose for which they had come out.

‘O you who believe, respond to God and the apostle when he summons
you to that which will quicken you,’ i.e. to the war in which God exalted
you after humiliation, and made you strong after weakness, and protected
you from your enemies after you had been overcome by them.

‘And remember when you were few, despised in the land, fearing that
men would pluck you away, and He gave you refuge and strengthened you
by His help and nourished you with good things that you might be thank¬
ful. 0 you who believe, betray not God and His apostle and betray not
your trust knowingly.’ i.e. Do not show Him what is right, which pleases
Him, and then oppose Him secretly in something else, for that is destroying
your trust and treachery to yourselves.

‘O you who believe, fear God and He will make for you a furqan , 1 and 479
wipe away your evil acts and pardon you. od is exceeding bountiful.’ i.e.

A distinction between true and false by which God shows your truth and
extinguishes the falsehood of those who oppose you.

Then He reminds the apostle of His favour towards him when the people
plotted against him ‘to kill him, or to wound him, or to drive him out; and
they plotted and God plotted, and God is the best of plotters.’ i.e. I
deceived them with My firm guile so that I delivered you from them.

Then He mentions the folly of Quraysh in asking for a judgement
against themselves when they said, ‘O God, if this is the truth from Thee,’
i.e. what Muhammad has brought, ‘then rain upon us stones from heaven.’
i.e. As you rained them upon the people of Lot.

‘Or bring us a painful punishment.’ i.e. Some of that by which You
punished the peoples before us.

They used to say, God will not punish us when we ask for His pardon,
and He will not punish a people whose prophet is with them until He has
sent him away from them. That is what they said when the apostle was
among them, and God said to His apostle, mentioning their ignorance and
folly and the judgement they asked against themselves when He reproached
them with their evil deeds. ‘God will not punish them while you are with
them, and God will not punish them while they ask for forgiveness.’ i.e.
When they said, ‘We ask for forgiveness and Muhammad is among us.’

Then He said, ‘What (plea) have they that God should not punish them ?’
though you are among them and though they ask for forgiveness as they say.

1 I.I.’s explanation of the meaning of furqan is adopted by Tabari on 2. 50 and it admir¬
ably suits the sense of the verb in Arabic; but Baydawi on 21. 49 and Zamakhshari on 8, 29
(this verse) collect a number of meanings. If the word were purely Arabic, it would be
difficult to see why there was any doubt about it. The facts are that in Aramaic furqan means
‘deliverance’, and in Christian Aramaic it is the common word for ‘salvation’. In the Quran
it often means, or seems to mean, some sort of book, 2. 50; 3. 2; and 2r. 49, &c., but in
8. 42 (1 hi.) ‘The day of the furqan, the day when the two hosts met', ‘deliverance’ seems to
be the most probable meaning, and the same would seem to apply to this verse. For an
illuminating discussion of the evidence and theories formed thereon see Jeffery, Foreign
Vocabulary, 225-9.

324 The Life of Muhammad

‘While they bar the way to the sacred mosque.’ i.e. Against those who
believe in God and His servant, i.e. You and those who iollow you.

‘And they are not its guardians, its guardians are only the God-fearers,’
who observe its sanctity and perform prayer by it. i.e. You and those who
believe in you.

‘But most of them do not know and their prayer at the temple,’ i.e. By
which they assert that evil is kept from them, ‘Is nothing but whistling and
clapping of hands’ (405).

480 And that is what God does not approve of and does not like and what
they were not ordered to do.

‘So taste the punishment for what you'are disbelieving.’ i.e. When He
brought death upon-them at the battle of Badr.

Yahya b. ‘Abbad b. ‘Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father 'Abbad from
‘A’isha, who said that only a little time elapsed between the coming down
of ‘O thou that art enwrapt’ 1 and the word of God about it, Leave Me to
deal with the liars living at ease, and let them alone for a little. We have
fetters and fire and food which chokes, and a painful punishment, until
God smote Quraysh on the day of Badr (406).

Then God said,

‘Those who disbelieve, spending their wealth to keep men from the way
of God will expend it, then they will suffer loss, then they will be over¬
come, and those who disbelieve will be gathered to Hell. He means those
who went to Abu Sufyan and to everyone of the Quraysh who had money
in that merchandise, and asked them to help them with it in the war
against the apostle, and they did so.

Then He said, ‘Say to those who disbelieve, if they cease, they will be
pardoned for what is passed, and if they return’, to fight you, the example
of the ringleaders has been made.’ 2 i.e. those who were killed at Badr.

Then He said, ‘Fight them so that there is no more persecution, 3 and
religion, all of it, shall belong to God.’ i.e. So that no believer is persecuted
from his religion, and monotheism may be pure, God having no partner
and no rivals.

‘If they ce&se, then God sees what they do, and if they turn away,’ from
481 thy commandment to their unbelief, ‘then know that God is your friend ,
who glorified vou and helped you against them on the day of Badr in spite
of their great numbers and your small force.

‘A fine friend, and a fine helper.’

Then He taught them how to divide the spoil and His judgement about
it when He made it lawful to them and said: ‘And know that what you take
as booty a fifth belongs to God and the apostle and next of kin and orphans
and the poor and the wayfarer, if you believe in God and what W e sent
down to Our servant on the day of furqan, the day the two armies met; and

1 Sura 73. 1 and 1 r-14.

2 Normally awtvalin would mean 'the men of old’.

3 fitna. This word contains the ideas of painful trial, rebellion, and seduction.

The Life of Muhammad 325

God is able to do all things,’ i.e. the day I divided between the true and the
false by My power the day the two armies met—you and they ‘when you
were on the nearer side’ of the wadi ‘and they on the further side’ of the
wadi towards Mecca ‘and the caravan was below you,’ i.e. the caravan of
Abu Sufyan which you had gone out to capture and they had gone out to
protect without any appointment between you. ‘And if you had arranged
to meet you would have failed to meet,’ i.e. had you arranged to meet and
then you had heard of their multitude compared with your force you would
not have met them; but that God might accomplish a thing that had to
be done,’ i.e. that He might accomplish what He willed in His power,
namely to exalt Islam and its followers and to abase the unbelievers without
your fighting hard. He did w r hat He willed in His goodness. Then He
said: that he who died should die with a clear proof and he who lived
should live by a clear proof. God is a Hearer, a Knower, ’ i.e. that he who
disbelieved should disbelieve after the proof in the sign and example which
he had seen and he who believed should believe by the same warrant.

Then He mentioned His kindness and His plotting for him: ‘When God
showed thee in thy sleep that they were few, and if He had shown them to
thee as many you would have failed and quarrelled over the affair; but God
saved you. He knows what is within the breasts.’ What God showed him
was one of His favours by which He encouraged them against their enemy,
and kept from them what would have frightened them because of their
weakness, because He knew what was in them (407). ‘And when you met
them He made you see them as few 7 making you seem small in their eyes
that God might accomplish a thing that had to be done,’ i.e. to unite them
for war to take vengeance on whom He willed and to show favour to those
Whom He willed so to bless, who were of the number of His friends. 482
Then He admonished and instructed and taught them how they ought
to conduct their wars and said: ‘O believers, w'hen you meet an armv’ whom
you fight in the way of God ‘Stand, firm and remember God often’ to
Whom you devoted yourselves w'hen you gave your allegiance to Him ‘so
that you may prosper. And obey God and His apostle and wrangle not lest
you fail,’ i.e. do not quarrel so that your affairs become disordered ‘and
your spirit depart,’ i.e. your bravery go, ‘and be steadfast. God is with
the steadfast,’ i.e. I am with you when you do that. ‘And be not like those
who went forth from their houses boastfully to be seen of men,’ i.e. do not
be like Abu Jahl and his companions who said, ‘We will not go back until
we have been to Badr and slaughtered camels there and drunk w'ine and
the singing girls have made music for us and the Arabs will hear of it,’ i.e.
let not your affair be outw T ard show and the subject of gossip, nor con¬
cerned with men, and purify your intention towards God and your efforts
for the victory of your religion and the help of your prophet. Simply do
that and do not aim at anything else. Then He said: ‘And when Satan
made their deeds seem good to them and said, ‘hlo man can conquer you
today for I am your protector”’ (408).

326 The Life of Muhammad

Then God mentions the unbelievers and what they will meet when they
die, and describes them, and tells His prophet about them until He says:
‘If you come upon them in war, deal with them so forcibly as to terrify
those who follow' them, haply they may take warning,’ i.e. make a severe
example of them to those that come after, that haply they may understand,
‘And prepare what strength you can against them, and cavalry by whicfy
you may strike terror into the enemy of God and your enemy’ as far as His
words, ‘And whatever you spend in the way of God will be repaid to you:
you will not be w'ronged,’ i.e. you will not lose your rew'ard with God in
the next life and a rapid recompense in this world. Then He said, ‘And if
they incline to peace incline thou to it,’ i.e. if they ask you for peace on the
basis of Islam then make peace on that basis, ‘and rely on God,’ verily

483 God will suffice thee, ‘He is the Hearer, the Knower’ (409). ‘And if they
would deceive thee, God is sufficient for thee,’ He being behind thee, ‘He
it is w r ho strengthens thee with His help’ after weakness ‘and by the be¬
lievers. And He made them of one mind’ by the guidance with which God
sent thee to them. ‘Hadst thou spent all the world’s wealth thou hadst not
made them of one mind but God made them of one mind’ by His religion
to which He gathered them. ‘He is mighty, wise.’

Then He said: ‘O prophet, God is sufficient for thee and the believers
who follow' thee, O prophet, exhort the believers to fight. If there are
twenty steadfast ones among you they will overcome tw'o hundred, and if
there are a hundred of you they will overcome a thousand unbelievers for
they are a senseless people,’ i.e. they do not fight with a good intention nor
for truth nor have they knowledge of what is good and what is evil.

484 ‘Abdullah b. Abu Najlh from *Ata’ b. Abu Ribah from ‘Abdullah b.
‘Abbas told me that when this verse came dowm it came as a shock to the
Muslims who took it hard that twenty should have to fight two hundred,
and a hundred fight a thousand. So God relieved them and cancelled the
verse with another saying: ‘Now' has God relieved you and He knows that
there is weakness amongst you, so if there are a hundred steadfast they
shall overcome tw r o hundred, and if there are a thousand of you they shall
overcome two thousand by God’s permission, for God is wfith the stead¬
fast.’ (‘Abdullah) said, ‘When they numbered half of the enemy it was
wrong for them to run from them; but if they were less than half they
w'ere not bound to fight and it w'as permissible for them to withdraw.’

Then God reproached him about the prisoners and the taking of booty,
no other prophet before him having taken booty from his enemy. Muham¬
mad Abu Ja'far b. ‘All b. al-Husayn told me that the apostle said: ‘I was
helped by fear; the earth w'as made a place to pray, and clean; I was given
all-embracing words; booty w'as made lawful to me as to no prophet
before me; and I was given the power to intercede; five privileges accorded
to no prophet before me.*

God said, ‘It is not for any prophet,’ i.e. before thee, ‘to take prisoners’
from his enemies ‘until he has made slaughter in the earth,’ i.e. slaughtered

The Life of Muhammad 327

his enemies until he drives them from the land. 1 ‘You desire the lure of
this world,’ i.e: its goods, the ransom of the captives. ‘But God desires the
next world,’ i.e. their killing them to manifest the religion w'hich He wishes
to manifest and by which the next world may be attained, ‘Had there not
previously been a book from God there would have come upon you for
what you took,’ i.e. prisoners and booty, ‘an aw'ful punishment,’ i.e. had it
not previously gone forth from Me that I would punish only after a prohibi¬
tion—and He had not prohibited them—I w'ould have punished you for
what you did. Then He made it law'ful to him and to them as a mercy from
Him and a gift from the Compassionate, the Merciful. He said, ‘So enjoy
what you have captured as lawful and good, and fear God. God is For¬
giving, Merciful.’ Then He said: ‘O prophet, Say to those captives in
your hands, If God knows any good in your hearts He will give you some¬
thing better than that which has been taken from you and God wall pardon
you. God is Forgiving, Merciful.’

He incited the Muslims to unity and made the Refugees and the Helpers 485
friends in religion and the unbelievers friends one of another. Then He
said: ‘If you do not do so, there will be confusion in the land and a great
corruption,’ i.e. unless believer becomes friend of believer to the exclusion
of the unbeliever even though he is of his kin. ‘There will be confusion in
the land,’ i.e. doubt about the true and the false and the rise of corruption
in the land if the believer takes the side of the unbeliever against the
believer.

Then He assigned inheritances to next of kin of those who became
Muslims after the friendship between Refugees and Helpers and said: ‘And
those who believed afterwards and migrated and strove along wfith you they
are of you; and those wffio are akin are nearer to one another in God’s book,’
i.e. in inheritance ‘God knoweth all things’.

THE MUSLIMS WHO WERE PRESENT AT BADR

The names of those who were present at Badr are: Of Quraysh of B.
Hashim b. ‘Abdu Manaf and B. al-Muttalib b. ‘Abdu Manaf b. Qusayy b.
Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr b. Malik b. al-Nadr
b. Kinana:

Muhammad, God’s apostle the lord of the sent ones, b. ‘Abdullah b.
'Abdu’l-Muttalib b. Hashim; Hamza b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib b. Hashim, the
lion of God and of His apostle, the apostle’s uncle; ‘All b. Abu Talib b.
'Abdu’l-Muttalib b. Hashim; Zayd b. Haritha b. Shurahbll b. Ka'b b.
‘Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Imru’u’l-Qays al-Kalbl (410); Anasa the apostle’s freed- 486
man; and Abu Kabsha likewise (411); Abu Marthad Kannaz b. Hisn b.

1 Commentators explain that ithkhdn here means ‘reduce to straits’, but in view of what
Ibn Ishaq goes on to say this is improbable, and in view of what 4 ’ (1357) reports from him
via Salama impossible: when the words ‘it is not for any prophet, &c.’ came down the apostle
said, If punishment had come down from heaven, none would escape it but Sa'd b. Mu’adh
because he said, ‘I would rather be slaughtered in battle than be spared to live among men.’

2 2 8 The Life of Muhammad

Yarbu' b. 'Amr b. Yarbu' b. Kharasha b. Sa'd b. Tarlf b. Jillan b. Ghanm
b. Ghaniy b. Ya'sur b. Sa'd b. Qays b. 'Aylan (412), and his son Marthad
b. Abu Marthad, allies of Hamza; 'Ubayda b. al-Harith b. al-Muttalib,
and his two brothers al-Tufayl and al-Husayn; and Mistah whose name
was 'Auf b. Uthatha b. 'Abbad b. al-Muttalib. Total 12 men.

Of B. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Manaf: 'Uthman b. 'Affan b. Abu’l-'As b.
Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams; (He stayed behind on account of his wife
Ruqayya the apostle’s daughter, so the apostle assigned him his portion.
He asked ‘And my reward (from God) as well? ‘Yes’, said the apostle.)
Abu Hudhayfa b. 'Utba b. Rabi'a b. 'Abdu Shams, and Salim his freedman
(413). They allege that Subayh freedman of Abu’l-'As b. Umayya got ready
to march with the apostle, but fell sick and mounted on his camel Abu
Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Asad b. Hilal b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum.
Afterwards Subayh was present at all the apostle’s battles.

Of B. 'Abdu Shams’s allies, of B. Asad b. Khuzayma: 'Abdullah b.
Jahsh b. Ri’ab b. Ya'mar b. Sabra b. Murra b. Kablr b. Ghanm b. Dudan;

487 'Ukkasha b. Mihsan b. Hurthan b. Qays b. Murra b. Kabir b. Ghanm b.
Dudan; Shuja' b. Wahb b. Rabi'a b. Asad b. Suhayb b. Malik b. Kabir,
&c., and his brother 'Uqba b. Wahb; Yazld b. Ruqaysh b. Ri’ab, &c. Abu
Sinan b. Mihsan b. Hurthan b. Qays brother of Ukkasha b. Mihsan, and
his son Sinan b. Abu Sinan; and Muhriz b. Nadia b. 'Abdullah b. Murra
b. Kabir, &c.; and Rabi'a b. Aktham b. Sakhbara b. 'Amr b. Lukayz b.
'Amir b. Ghanm b. Dudan.

Of the allies of B. Kabir: Thaqf b. 'Amr and his two brothers Malik
and Mudlij (414). They belonged to the B. Hajr, a clan of B. Sulaym;
Abu Makhshi an ally of theirs (415). Total 16 men.

Of B. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf: 'Utba b. Ghazwan b. Jabir b. Wahb b.
Nusayb b.* Malik b. al-Harith b. Mazin b. Mansur b. 'Ikrima b. Khasafa
b. Qays b. 'Aylan; and Khabbab freedman of 'Utba. Total 2 men.

Of B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy: al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam b.
Khuwaylid b. Asad; Hatib b. Abu Balta'a; and Sa'd freedman of Hatib
(416). Total 3 men.

Of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar b. Qusayy: Mus'ab b. 'Umayr b. Hashim b. 'Abdu
Manaf and Suwaybft b. Sa'd b. Huraymila b. Malik b. 'Umayla b, al-
Sabbaq b. 'Abdu’l-Dar. Total 2 men.

Of B. Zuhra b. Kilab: 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf b. 'Abdu 'Auf b. 'Abd
b. al-Harith b. Zuhra; Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas, who was Malik b. Uhayb b.

488 'Abdu Manaf b. Zuhra, and his brother 'Umayr. Of their allies: al-
Miqdad b. 'Amr b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. Rabi'a b. Thumama b. Matrud b.
'Amr b. Sa'd b, Zuhayr b. Thaur b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. al-Sharid b.
Hazl b. Qa’ish b. Duraym b. al-Qayn b. Ahwad b. Bahra’ b. 'Amr b. al-
Haf b. Quda'a (417) and Dahir b. Thaur; and 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud b. al-
Idarith b. Shamkh b. Makhzum b. Sahila b. Kahil b. al-Harith b. Tamim
b. Sa'd b. Hudhayl; Mas'ud b. Rabi'a b. 'Amr b. Sa'd b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b‘.
Hamala b. Ghalib b. Muhallim b. 'A’idha b. Subay' b. al-Hun b. Khu-

The Life of Muhammad 329

zayma of al-Qara (418). Dhu’l-Shimalayn b. 'Abd 'Amr b. Nadia b.
Ghubshan b. Sulaym b. Mallikan b. Afsa b. Haritha b. 'Amr b. 'Amir of
Khuza'a (419) and Khabbab b. al-Aratt (420). Total 8 men.

Of B. Taym b. Murra: Abu Bakr w'hose full name was 'Atlq b. 'Uthman
b. 'Amir b. 'Amr b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Taym (421). Bilal his freedman, born
a slave among the B. Jumah. Abu Bakr bought him from Umayya b.
Khalaf. His name was Bilal b. Rabah. He had no offspring; 'Amir b.
Fuhayra (422) and Suhayb b. Sinan from al-Namr b. Qasit (423) and Talha 489
b. 'Ubaydullah b. 'Uthman b. 'Amr b. Ka'b, &c. He was in Syria and did
not turn up until the apostle had returned from Badr. Nevertheless, he
allotted him a share in the booty as he had done in the case of 'Uthman.
Total 5 men.

Of B. Makhzum b. Yaqaza b. Murra: Abu Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Asad
W'hose name was 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Asad b. Hilal b. 'Abdullah b.
'Umar b. Makhzum; and Shammas b. 'Uthman b. al-Sharid b. Suwayd
b. Harmiy b. 'Amir (424); and al-Arqum b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Asad, Asad
being Abu Jundub b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum; and 'Ammar b.
Yasir (425); and Mu'attib b. 'Auf b. 'Amir b. al-Fadl b. 'Afif b. Kulayb b.
Hubshiya b. Salid b. Ka'b b. 'Amr, an ally of theirs from Khuza'a known
as 'Ayhama. Total 5 men.

Of B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: 'Umar b. al-Khattab b. Nufayl b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b.
Riyah b. 'Abdullah b. Qurt b. Razah b. 'Adly and his brother Zayd; and
Mihja', 'Umar’s freedman from the Yaman (he w'as the first Muslim to fall 49°
at Badr, being shot by an arrow.) (426); and 'Amr b. Suraqa b. Anas
b. Adhat b. 'Abdullah b. Qurt . . . and his brother 'Abdullah; Waqid b.
'Abdullah b. 'Abdu Manaf b. 'Arm b. Tha'laba b. Yarbu' b. Hanzala b.
Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim, an ally of theirs, and Khauliy b. Abu
Khauliy and Malik b. Abu Khauliy, two allies of theirs (427); and 'Amir
b. Rabi'a, an ally of the family of al-Khattab from ‘Anaz b. Wa’il (428); and
'Amir b. al-Bukayr b. 'Abdu Yalll b. Nashib b. Ghira of the B. Asad b.
Layth; and 'Aqil and Khalid and Iyas sons of al-Bukayr, allies of B. 'Adly
b. Ka'b; and Sa'id b. Zayd b. 'Amr b. Nufayl b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. 'Abdullah
b. Qurt b. Riyah b. Rizah b. 'Adly b. Ka'b who came from Syria after the
apostle’s return from Badr and w r as given a share in the booty. Total 14
men.

Of B. Jumah b, 'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b: 'Uthman b. Maz'un b. Habib
b. Wahb b. Hudhafa b. Jumah and his son al-Sa’ib and 'Uthman’s two
brothers Qudama and 'Abdullah; Ma'mar b. al-Harith b. Ma'mar b.
Habib b. Wahb b. Hudhafa b. Jumah. Total 5 men.

Of B. Sahm b. 'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b: Khunays b. Hudhafa b.

Qays b. 'Adiy b. Sa'd b. Sahm. Total 1 man.

Of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy of the subdivision B. Malik b. Hisl b. 'Amir: Abu
Sabra b, Abu Ruhm b, 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Abu Qays b. 'Abdu Wudd b. 491
Nasr b. Malik b. Hisl; 'Abdullah b. Makhrama b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza, &c.;
'Abdullah b. Suhayl b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Wudd, &c. (he

330 The Life of Muhammad

had gone forth to war with his father Suhayl and when the people camped
at Badr he fled to the apostle and took part in the battle on his side); and
'Umayr b. 'Auf, freedman of Suhayl; and Sa'd b. Khaula an ally of theirs
(429). Total 5 men.

Of B. al-Harith b. Fihr: Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah who was 'Amir b.
'Abdullah b. al-Jarrah b. Hilal b. Uhayb b. Dabba b. al-Harith; and 'Amr
b. al-Harith b. Zuhayr b. Abu Shaddad b. Rabl'ab. Hilalb. Uhayb, &c. ;and
Suhayl b. Wahb b. Rabl'a b. Hilal, &c., and his brother Safwan who were the
two sons of Baida’, and 'Amr b. Rabl'a b. Hilal b. Uhayb. Total 5 men.

The total number of the Emigrants who took part in the battle of Badr
to whom the apostle allotted shares in the booty was 83 men (430).

THE HELPERS AND THEIR ADHERENTS WHO WERE AT BADR

Of al-Aus b. Haritha b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. 'Amir of the subdivision B.
'Abdu’l-Ashhal b. Jusham b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj b. 'Amr b. Malik b.
al-Aus: Sa'd b. Mu'adh b. al-Nu'man b. Imru’ul-Qays b. Zayd b. 'Abdu’l-
Ashhal; 'Amr b. Mu'adh b. al-Nu'man; al-Harith b. Aus b. Mu'adh b. al-

492 Nu'man; and al-Harith b. Anas b. Rafi' b. Imru’ul-Qays.

Of B. 'Ubayd b. Ka'b b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal: Sa'd b. Zayd b. Malik b.
'Ubayd.

Of B. Za'ura b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal (431): Salama b. Salama b. Waqash b.
Zughba; 'Abbad b. Bishr b. Waqash b. Zughba b. Za'ura; Salama b.
Thabit b. Waqash; Rafi' b. Yazld b. Kurz b. Sakan b. Za'ura; al-Harith
b. Khazama b. 'Adiy b. Ubayy b. Ghanm b. Salim b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf
b. al-Khazraj an ally of theirs from B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj; Muhammad b.
Maslama b. Khalid b. 'Adiy b. Majda'a b. Haritha b. al-Harith an ally from
the B. Haritha b. al-Harith; and Salama b. Aslam b. Harlsh b. 'Adiy b.
Majda'a b. Haritha an ally from the B. Haritha b. al-Harith (432); and
Abu’I-Haytham b, al-Tayyahan; and 'Ubayd b. al-Tayyahan (433) and
'Abdullah b. Sahl (434). Total 15 men.

Of B. Zafar of the section B. Sawad b. Ka'b, Ka'b being Zafar (435):
Qatada b. al-Nu'man b. Zayd b. 'Amir b. Sawad, and 'Ubayd b. Aus b.
Malik b. Sawad (436). Total 2 men.

Of B. 'Abd b. Rizah b. Ka'b: Nasr b. al-Harith b. 'Abd and Mu'attib b.
'Abd; and 'Abdullah b. Tariq from their Ball allies. Total 3 men.

Of B. Haritha b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj b. 'Amr b. Malik b. Aus:

493 Mas'ud b. Sa'd b. 'Amir b. 'Adiy b. Jusham b. Majda'a b. Haritha (437);
and Abu 'Abs b. Jabr b. 'Amr b. Zayd b. Jusham b. Majda'a b. Haritha;
and of their Bali allies: Abu Burda b. Niyar whose full name was Hani’ b,
Niyar b. 'Amr b. 'Ubayd b. Kilab b. Duhman b. Ghanm b. Dhubyan b.
Humaym b. Kahil b. Dhuhl b. Hunavy b. Bali b. 'Amr b. al-Haf b. Quda'a.
Total 3 men.

Of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik b. al-Aus of the section of B. Dubay'a b.
Zayd b. Malik b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf: 'Asim b. Thabit b, Qays—Qays

The Life of Muhammad 331

Abu’l-Aqlah b. Isma b. Malik b. Amat b. Dubay'a—and Mu'attib b.
Qushayr b. Mulayl b. Zayd b. al-'Attaf b. Dubay'a; and Abu Mulayl b.
al-Az'ar b. Zayd b. al-'Attaf; and 'Umar b. Ma'bad b. al-Az'ar, &c. (438);
and Sahl b. Hunayf b. Wahib b. al-'Ukaym b. Tha'laba b. Majda'a b. al-
Harith b. 'Amr who was called Bahzaj b. Hanash b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf.
Total 5 men.

Of B. Umayya b. Zayd b. Malik: Mubashshir b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir b.
Zanbar b. Zayd b. Umayya and Rifa'a his brother; Sa'd b. 'Ubayd b.
al-Nu'man b. Qays b. 'Amr b. Zayd b. Umayya; 'Uwaym b. Sa'ida; Rafi'
b. 'Unjuda (439); and 'Ubayd b. Abu 'Ubayd; and Tha'laba b. Hatib. It
is alleged that Abu Lubaba b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir and al-Harith b. Iiatib went
out with the apostle, and he sent them back, putting the former in charge of
Medina. He gave them both shares in the booty of Badr (440). Total 9 men.

Of B. 'Ubayd b. Zayd b. Malik: Unays b. Qatada b. Rabi'a b. Khalid 494
b. al-Harith b. 'Ubayd: of their Bali allies: Ma'n b. 'Adiy b. al-Jadd b.
al-'Ajlan b. Dubay'a; Thabit b. Aqram b. Tha'laba b. 'Adiy b. al-'Ajlan;
'Abdullah b. Salama b. Malik b. al-Harith b. 'Adiy b. al-'Ajlan; Zayd b.
Aslam b. Tha'laba b. 'Adiy b. al-'Ajlan; Rib'i b. Rafi' b. Zayd b. Haritha
b. al-Jadd b. 'Ajlan. 'Asim b. 'Adiy b. al-Jadd b. al-'Ajlan went forth to
fight but the apostle sent him back, afterwards giving him his share of the
booty. Total 7 men.

Of B. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. 'Auf: 'Abdullah b. Jubayr b. al-Nu'man b.
Umayya b. al-Burak whose name was Imru’ul-Qays b, Tha'laba; and
'Asim b. Qays (441); and Abu Dayyah b. Thabit b. al-Nu'man b. Umayya,

&c.; and Abu Hanna (442); and Salim b. 'Umayr b. Thabit b. al-Nu'man,

&c. (443); and al-Harith b. al-Nu'man b. Umayya, &c.; and Khawwat b.
Jubayr b. al-Nu'man whom the apostle gave a share of the booty. Total
7 men.

Of B. Jahjaba b. Kulfa b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf: Mundhir b. Muhammad
b. 'Uqba b, Uhayha b. al-Julah b. al-Harish b. Jahjaba b. Kulfa (444);
and of their allies from the B. Unayf: Abu 'Aqil b. 'Abdullah b. Tha'laba
b. Bayhan b. 'Amir b. al-Harith b. Malik b. 'Amir b. Unayf b. Jusham b.
'Abdullah b. Taym b. Irash b. 'Amir b. 'Umayla b. Qasmll b. Faran b.

Bali b. 'Amr b. al-Haf b. Quda'a (445). Total 2 men. 495

Of B. Ghanm b. al-Salm b. Imru’ul-Qays b. Malik b. al-Aus: Sa'd b.
Khaythama b. al-Harith b. Malik b. Ka'b b. al-Nahhat b. Ka'b b. Haritha
b. Ghanm; and Mundhir b. Qudama b. 'Arfaja; and Malik b. Qudama b.
'Arfaja (446); and al-Harith b. 'Arfaja; and Tamlm freedman of the B.
Ghanm (447). Total 5 men.

Of B. Mu'awiya b. Malik b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf: Jabr b. 'Atik b. al-
IJarith b. Qays b. Haysha b. al-Harith b. Umayya b. Mu'awiya; and
Malik b. Numayla an ally from Muzayna; and al-Nu'man b. 'Asar, a Bali
ally. Total 3 men.

The total number of Aus who fought at Badr with the apostle and of
those who were given a share of the booty was 61 men.

33 2 The Life of Muhammad

Of Khazraj b. Haritha b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. ‘Amir of the tribe of B.
Harith subdivision B. Imru’ul-Qays b. Malik b. Tha'laba b. Ka b b. al-
Khazraj b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj: Kharija b. Zayd b. Abu Zuhayr b.
Malik b. Imru’ul-Qays; Sa'd b. RabI b. ‘Amr b. Abu Zuhayr, &c.; ‘Abdul¬
lah b. Rawaha b. Tha'laba b. Imru’ul-Qays b. ‘Amr b. Imru’ul-Qays;
Khallad b. Suwayd b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. Haritha b. Imru’ul-Qays.
Total 4 men.

Of B. Zayd b. Malik b. Tha'laba b. Ka‘b b. al-Khazraj b. al-Harith b.
al-Khazraj: Bashir b. Tha'laba b. Khilas b. Zayd (448) and his brother

Simak. Total 2 men. t

496 Of B. 'Adly b. Ka'b b. al-Khazraj b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj: Subay b.
Qays b. ‘Aysha b. Umayya b. Malik b. ‘Amir b. 'Adiy; and ‘Abbad b.
Qays b. 'Aysha, his brother (449); and ‘Abdullah b. Abs. Total 3 men.

Of B. Ahmar b. Haritha b. Tha'laba b. Ka'b b. al-Khazraj b. al-Harith
b. al-Khazraj; Yazld b. al-Harith b. Qays b. Malik b. Ahmar who was

known as Ibn Fushum ( 45 °)* Total 1 man

Of B. Jusham b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj and Zayd b. al-Harith who
were twin brothers: Khubayb b. Isaf b. ‘Itaba 1 b. 'Amr b. Khadlj b. 'Amir
b. Jusham; 'Abdullah b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. ‘Abdu Rabbihi b. Zayd; and
his brother Hurayth so they allege; and Sufyan b. Bashr (451). 2 Total 4

Of B. Jidara b. 'Auf b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj: Tamlm b. Ya ar b.^Qays
b. ‘Adiy b. Umayya b. Jidara; 'Abdullah b. Umayr of the B. Haritha
(452); Zayd b. al-Muzayyan b. Qays b. 'Adiy b. Umayya b. Jidara (453);
and ‘Abdullah b. ‘Urfuta b. ‘Adiy b. Umayya b. Jidara. Total 4 mem
Of B. al-Abjar b. 'Auf b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj: ‘Abdullah b. RabI' b.
Qays b. 'Amr b. 'Abbad b. al-Abjar. Total 1 man.

Of B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj of the clan of B. ‘Ubayd b. Malik b. Salim b.

497 Ghanm b. ‘Auf who were the B. al-Hubla (454): ‘Abdullah b. Abdullah
b. Ubavy b. Malik b. al-Harith b. 'Ubayd best known as b. Salul. Salul
was a woman, the mother of Ubayy; and Aus b. Khauli b. ‘Abdullah b.
al-Harith b.‘Ubayd. Total 2 men.

Of B. Jaz’ b. 'Adiy b. Malik b. Ghanm: Zayd b. Wadl'a b. Amr b.
Qays b. Jaz’; ‘Uqba b. Wahb b. Kalada, an ally from the B.'Abdullah b.
Ghatafan; Rifaa b. 'Amr b. Zayd b. 'Amr b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. Salim
b. Ghanm; 'Amir b. Salama b. 'Amir, an ally from the Yaman (4 55 )j Abu
Humayda Ma'bad b. 'Abbad b. Qushayr b. al-Muqaddam b. Salim b.
Ghanm (456); and 'Amir b. al-Bukayr, an ally (457). Total 6 men.

Of B. Salim b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. al-Khazraj of the clan of B. al-'Ajlan b.
Zayd b. Ghanm b. Salim: Naufal b. 'Abdullah b. Nadia b. Malik b. al-

'Ajlan. Total i man. _ .

Of B. Asram b. Fihr b. Tha'laba b. Ghanm b. Salim b. Auf (458):

1 So A.Dh. W. has ‘Utba. , , . ,. ~ ... w

• 2 Dr. Arafat notes that the usual form of this name is Bishr and that in his Tabelltn W.

has Nasr. [This latter is in agreement with A.Dh. as well as I.H.]

The Life of Muhammad 333

'Ubada b. al-Samit b. Qays b. Asram and his brother Aus. Total 2 men.

Of B. Da'd b. Fihr b. Tha'laba b. Ghanm: al-Nu'man b. Malik b.
Tha'laba b. Da'd; this man was known as Qauqal. Total 1 man.

Of B. Quryush b. Ghanm b. Umayya b. Laudhan b. Salim (459):
Thabit b. Hazzal b. 'Amr b. Quryush. Total 1 man.

Of B. Mardakha b. Ghanm b. Salim: Malik b. al-Dukhsham b. Mar-
dakha (460), Total 1 man.

Of B. Laudhan b. Salim: RabI' b. Iyas b. 'Amr b. Ghanm b. Lhnayya b.
Laudhan, and his brother Waraqa; and ‘Amr b. Iyas an ally of theirs from 498
the Yaman (461). Total 3 men.

Of their allies from Ball of the clan of B. Ghusayna (462): al-Mujadh-
dhar b. Dhiyad b. ‘Amr b. Zumzuma b. ‘Amr b. 'Umara b. Malik b. Ghu¬
sayna b. 'Amr b. Butayra b. Mashnu b. Qasr b. Taym b. Irash b. 'Amir b.
‘Umayla b. Qismil b. Faran b. Bali b. ‘Amr b. al-Haf b. Quda'a (463); and
'Ubada b. al-Khashkhash b. 'Amr b. Zumzuma, and Nahhab b. Tha'laba
b. Hazama b. Asram b. 'Amr b. 'Umara (464); and ‘Abdullah b. Tha'laba
b. Hazama b. Asram; and they allege that 'Utba b. Rabi'a b. Khalid b.
Mu'awiya, an ally from Bahra’, tvas at Badr (465). Total 5 men.

Of B. Sa'ida b. al-Khazraj of the clan of B. Tha'laba b. Sa'ida: Abu
Dujana Simak b. Kharasha (466); and al-Mundhir b. ‘Amr b. Khunays b.
Haritha b. Laudhan b. 'Abdu Wudd b. Zayd b. Tha'laba (467). Total 2
men.

Of B, al-Badiy b. ‘Amir b. 'Auf b. Haritha b. ‘Amr b. al-Khazraj b.
Sa'ida: Abu Usayd Malik b. Rabi'a b. al-Badiy, and Malik b. Mas'iid wdro
was attached to al-Badiy (468). Total 2 men. 499

Of B. Tarif b. al-Khazraj b. Sa'ida: 'Abdu Rabbihi b. I.Iaqq b. Aus b.
Waqsh b. Tha'laba b. Tarif. Total 1 man.

And of their allies from Juhayna: Ka'b b. Himar b. Tha'laba (469); and
Damra and Ziyad and Basbas the sons of 'Amr (470); and ‘Abdullah b.
'Amir from Bali. Total 5 men.

From 3 , Jusham b. al-Khazraj of the clan B. Salima b. Sa'd b. ‘All b.

Asad b. Sarida b. Tazid b. Jusham of the subdivision B. Haram b. Ka'b
b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salima: Khirash b. al-Simma b. 'Amr b. al-Jamuh
b. Zayd b. Haram; and al-Hubab b. al-Mundhir b. al-Jamuh, &c.; and
'Umayr b. al-IIumam b. al-Jamuh, &c.; and Tamim freedman of Khirash
b. al-Simma; and 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Haram b. Tha'laba b. Haram; and
Mu'adh b. ‘Amr b. al-Jamuh and Khallad and Mu'awwidh his brothers;
and 'Uqba b. ‘Amir b. Nabi b. Zayd b. Haram and Habib b. Aswad their
freedman; and Thabit b. Tha'laba b. Zayd b. al-Harith b. Haram; and
Tha'laba w'ho was called al-Jidh'; and 'Umayr b. al-Harith b. Tha'laba b.
al-Harith b. Haram (471). Total 12 men.

Of B. 'Ubayd b. 'Adiy b. Ghanm b, Ka'b b. Salima of the clan of B.
Khansa’ b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd: Bishr b. al-Bara’ b. Ma'rur b. Sakhr b.
Malik b. Khansa’; al-Tufayl b. Malik; and al-Tufayl b. al-Nu'man; and
Sinan b, Sayfi b. Sakhr; and 'Abdullah b. al-Jadd b. Qays b, Sakhr; and 500

334 The Life of Muhammad

'Utba b. ‘Abdullah b. Sakhr; and Jabbar b. Sakhr b. Umayya; and Kharija
b. Humayyir; and ‘Abdullah b. Humayyir, two allies from Ashja' of
B. Duhman (472). Total 9 men.

Of B. Khunasb. Sinan b.'Ubayd: Yazld b.al-Mundhir b. Sarh and Ma'qil
his brother; and 'Abdullah b. al-Nu'man b. Baldama (473); and al-Dahhak
b. Haritha b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. 'Ubayd b. 'Adiy; and Sawad b. Zurayq
b. Tha'laba b. 'Ubayd b. 'Adiy (474); and Ma'bad b. Qays b. Sakhr b.
Haram b. Rabi'a b. 'Adiy b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salima (475); and 'Abdullah
b. Qays b. Sakhr b. Haram b. Rabl'a b. 'Adiy b. Ghanm. Total 7 men.

Of B. al-Nu'man b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd: 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu Manaf b.
al-Nu'man; and Jabir b. 'Abdullah b. Ri’ab b. al-Nu'man; and Khulayda
b. Qays and al-Nu'man b. Sinan their freedman. Total 4 men.

Of B. Sawad b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salima, of the clan of B. Hadida b.
'Amr b. Ghanm b. Sawad (476): Abu’l-Mundhir Yazld b. 'Amir b. Hadida;
Sulaym b. 'Amr; Qutba b. 'Amir, and 'Antara freedman of Sulaym b.
'Amr (477). Total 4 men.

Of B. 'Adiy b. NabI b. 'Amr b. Sawad b. Ghanm: 'Abs b. 'Amir b.

501 'Adiy; and Tha'laba b. Ghanama b. 'Adiy; and Abu’l-Yasar Ka'b b. 'Amr
b. 'Abbad b. 'Amr b. Ghanm b. Sawad; and Sah! b. Qays b. Abu Ka'b
b. al-Qayn b. Ka'b b. Sawad; and 'Amr b. Talq b. Zayd b. Umayya b.
Sinan b. Ka'b b. Ghanm; and Mu'adh b. Jabal b. 'Amr b. Aus b. 'A’idh
b. 'Adiy b. Ka'b b. 'Adiy b. Udayy b. Sa'd b. 'All b. Asad b. Sarida b.
Tazid b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj b. Haritha b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. 'Amir
(478). Total 6 men. Those who smashed the idols of B. Salima were
Mu'adh b. Jabal; 'Abdullah b. Unays; and Tha'laba b. Ghanama, they
being among B. Sawad b. Ghanm.

Of B. Zurayq b. 'Amir b. Zurayq b. 'Abdu Haritha b. Malik b. Ghadb
b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj of the clan B. Mukhallad b. 'Amir b. Zurayq (479):
Qays b. Mihsan b. Khalid b. Mukhallad (480); and Abu Khalid al-Harith
b. Qays b. Khalid b. Mukhallad and Jubayr b. Iyyas b. Khalid b. Muk¬
hallad; and Abu 'Ubada Sa'd b. 'Uthman b. Khalada b. Mukhallad and
his brother 'Uqba b. 'Uthman, &c.; and Dhakwan b. 'Abdu Qays b.
Khalada b. Mukhallad; and Mas'ud b. Khalada b. Amir b. Mukhallad.
Total 7 men.

Of B. Khalid b. 'Amir b. Zurayq: 'Abbad b. Qays b. 'Amir b. Khalid.
Total 1 man.

Of B. Khalada b. 'Amir b. Zurayq: As'ad b. Yazld b. al-Fakih b. Zayd b.
Khalada; and al-Fakih b. Bishr b. al-Fakih b. Zayd b. Khalada (481),
and Mu'adh b. Ma'is b. Qays b. Khalada and his brother 'A’idh; and

502 Mas'ud b. Sa'd b. Qays b. Khalada. Total 5 men.

Of B. al-'Ajlan b. 'Amr b. 'Amir b. Zurayq: Rifa'a b. Raft' b. al-'Ajlan
and his brother Khallad; and 'Ubayd b. Zayd b. 'Amir b. al-'Ajlan.
Total 3 men.

Of B. Bayada b. 'Amir b. Zurayq: Ziyad b. Labid b. Tha'laba b.
Sinan b. 'Amir b. 'Adiy b. Umayya b. Bayada; and Farwa b. 'Amr b.

The Life of Muhammad 235

Y adhafa b. Abid b. Amir (482); and Khalid b. Qays b. Malik b. al-'Ajlan
b. Amir; and Rujayla b. Tha'laba b. Khalid b. Tha'laba b 'Amir (A,)-

'it A u iy <A b ‘ N ' UWa y ra b ‘ <AmIr b - ' A Py« b. 'Amir; and Khulayfa (484) b
Adiy b. Amr b. Malik b. 'Amir b. Fuhayra. Total 6 men.

Of B. fjabib b 'Abdu Haritha b. Malik b. Ghadb b. Jushaip b. al-Khazraj :
Rafi b. al-Mu alia b. Laudhan b. Haritha b. 'Adiy b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b.
Zaydu Manat b. Habib. Total 1 man.

Of B Najjar who was Taymullah b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. al-Khazrai
of the dan of B Ghanm b. Malik b. al-Najjar of the subdivision of B.

V } TWM U ^ Uf i b ' Ghanm; Ab0 Khalid b. Zayd b.

Kulayb b. Tha laba. Total 1 man.

Of B. 'Usayra b. 'Abdu 'Auf b. Ghanm: Thabit b. Khalid b. al-Nu'man
b* Khansa b. Usayra (485). Total 1 man.

t °u, B ' '^T, b ' Abdu Auf b - GI,anm: 'Umara b. Hazm b. Zayd b
Laudhan b. Amr; and Suraqa b. Ka'b b. 'Abdu'l-'Uzza b. Ghaziya b
Amr. Total 2 men. J

Of B. Ubayd b. Tha'laba b. Ghanm: Haritha b. al-Nu'man b Zayd

b Abid; and Sulaym b. Qays b. Qahd who was Khalid b. Qavs b.''Abld
(400). total 2 men. "

, A /. db b ‘ rrha<Iaba b * Ghanm (487): Suhayl b. Rafi' b. Abu 'Amr

b. A idh; Adiy b. al-Raghba’, an ally from Juhayna. Total 2 men.

Of B. Zayd b. 1 ha laba b. Ghanm: Mas'ud b. Aus b. Zayd; and Abu
Khuzayma b. Aus b. Zayd b. Asram b. Zayd; and Rafi' b. al-Harith b.
Sawad b. Zayd. Total 3 men.

Of B. Sawad b. Malik b. Ghanm: 'Auf and Mu'awwidh and Mu'adh
sons of al-Harith b. Rifa'a b. Sawad by 'Afra (488); and al-Nu'man b
Amr b. Rita a b. Sawad (489); and 'Amir b. Mukhallad b. al-Harith b
Sawad; and 'Abdullah b. Qays b. Khalid b. Khalada b. al-Harith; and
l?ayma an ally from Ashja'; and Wadi'a b. 'Amr an ally from Juhayna-
and Thabit b. Amr b. Zayd b. 'Adiy. They allege that Aba’l-Hamra’’
freedman of al-Harith b. r Afra’ was at Badr (490). Total 10 men. ’

Gf t B * ' Ami f b - Mm b ‘ abNa JJ ar > ,Amir bcin 8 Mabdhul of the clan
of B. Atik b. Amr b. Mabdhul: Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. Mihsan b. 'Amr b.
Atik; and Sahl b. 'Atik b. 'Amr b. al-Nu'man; and al-Harith b. al-Simma
b. Amr; his leg was broken at al-Rauha’ and the apostle gave him his
share in the booty. Total 3 men.

Of B.'Amr b. Malik b. al-Najjar, the B. Hudayla, of the clan of B.
Qays b. Ubayd b. Zayd b. Mu'awiya b. 'Amr b. Malik b. al-Najjar (401):

Ubayy b. Ka'b b. Qays; and Anas b. Mu'adh b. Anas b. Qays. Total 504
2 men.

,Adly b : Amr b - Malik b> aI - Na ijar (492): Aus b. Thabit b. al-
Mundhir b Haram b. 'Amr b. Zaydu Manat b. 'Adiy; and Abu Shavkh
Ubayy b. Thabit b. al-Mundhir b. Haram b. Zaydu Manat b. 'Adiy Gen)-
and Abu Talha who was Zayd b. Sahl b. al-Aswad b. Haram b. 'Amr b.
Zaydu Manat b. 'Adiy. Total 3 men.

336 The Life of Muhammad

Of B. 'Adly b. al-Najjar of the clan of B. 'Adiy b. 'Amir b. Ghanm b.
al-Najjar: Haritha b, Suraqa b. al-Harith b. 'Adly b. Malik b. 'Adiy b.
'Amir; 'Amr b. Tha'laba b. Wahb b. 'Adiy b. Malik b. 'Adly b. 'Amir
known as Abu Hakim; Sallt b. Qays b. ‘Amr b. 'Atik b. Malik b. 'Adiy b.
'Amir; Abu Sallt Usayra b. 'Amr; and 'Amr Abu Kharija b. Qays b.
Malik b. ‘Adiy b. 'Amir; Thabit b. Khansa’ b. 'Amr b. Malik, &c.;
'Amir b. Umayya b. Zayd b. al-Hashas b. Malik, &c.; and Muhriz b.
'Amir b. Malik b. 'Adiy; and Sawad b. Ghaziya b. Uhayb an ally from
Bali (494). Total 8 men.

Of B. Haram b. Jundub b. 'Amir b. Ghanm b. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar: Abu
Zayd Qays b. Sakan b. Qays b. Za'ura’ b. Haram; and Abu’l-A'war b.
al-Harith b. Zalim b. 'Abs b. Haram (495); and Sulaym b. Milhan and

505 Haram his brother. Milhan’s name was Malik b. Khalid b. Zayd b.
Haram. Total 4 men.

Of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar of the clan of B. 'Auf b. Mabdhul b. 'Amr b.
Ghanm b. Mazin b. al-Najjar: Qays b. Abu Sa'sa'a whose name was
'Amr b. Zayd b. 'Auf; and 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. 'Amr b. 'Auf; and
'Usayma an ally from B. Asad b. Khuzayma. Total 3 men.

Of B. Khansa’ b. Mabdhul b. 'Amr b. Ghanm b. Mazin: Abu Da’ud
'Umayr b. 'Amir b. Malik b. Khansa’; and Suraqa b. 'Amr b. ‘Atiya.
Total 2 men.

Of B. Tha'laba b. Mazin b. al-Najjar: Qays b. Mukhallad b. Tha'laba
b. Sakhr b. Habib b. al-Harith b. Tha'laba. Total 1 man.

Of B. Dinar b. al-Najjar of the clan of B. Mas'ud b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal b.
Haritha b. Dinar: al-Nu'man b. 'Abdu 'Amr b. Mas'ud; and al-Dahhak
b. 'Abdu 'Amr b. Mas'ud; and Sulaym b. al-Harith b. Tha'laba b. Ka'b
b. Haritha brother of al-Dahhak and al-Nu'man the sons of 'Abdu 'Amr
by the same mother; Jabir b. Khalid b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal b. Haritha; and
Sa'd b. Suhayl b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal. Total 5 men.

Of B. Qays b. Malik b. Ka'b b. Haritha b. Dinar b. al-Najjar: Ka'b b.
Zayd b. Qays; and Bujayr b. Abh Bujayr, an ally (496). Total 2 men.
The men of al-Khazraj who were at Badr number 170 (497).

506 Thus the total number of Muslims, emigrants, and Helpers who were
at Badr and were allotted a share in the booty was 314, the emigrants
providing 83, Aus 61, and Khazraj 170.

THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO DIED AS MARTYRS AT BADR 1

Of Quraysh of the clan of B. al-Muttalib: 'Ubayda b. al-Harith whom
'Utba b. Rabi'a slew by cutting off his leg. He afterwards died in al-Safra’.
Total 1.

Of B. Zuhra b. Kilab: 'Umayr b. Abu Waqqas (498) and Dhu’l-Shimalayn
b. 'Abdu 'Amr an ally from Khuza'a of B. Ghubshan. Total 2.

As these persons’ names have already been given in full their genealogies are shortened
here.

The Life of Muhammad 337

Of B. Adi b. Ka'b: 'Aqil b. al-Bukayr an ally from B. Sa'd b. Layth-
and Mihja' freedman of 'Umar. Total 2.

Of B. al-Harith b. Fihr: Safwan b. Bayda . Total 1, Grand total 6

Of the Helpers: of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf: Sa'd b. Khaythama, and Mubash-
shir b. Abdu’l-Mundhir b. Zanbar. Total 2.

Of B. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj: \azid b. al-Harith known as Ibn Fusham
lotal 1.

Of B. Salama of the clan of B. Haram b. Ka'b b. Ghanm: 'Umayr b
al-Humam. Total 1.

Of B. Habib b. 'Abdu Haritha b. Malik b. Ghadb b. Jusham: Rah' b 507
al-Mu alia. Total 1.

Of B. al-Najjar: Haritha b. Suraqa b. al-Harith. Total 1.

1 Ghanm b. Malik b. al-Najjar: 'Auf and Mu'awwidh the two sons of
al-Hanth b. Rifa'a by 'Afra Total 2, Grand total 8.

the NAMES OF the POLYTHEISTS WHO WERE SLAIN AT BADR
The Quraysh losses at Badr were as follow:

Of B. 'Abdu Shams: Hanzala b. Abu Sufyan (499); al-Harith b.
al-Hadram, and Amir b. al-Hadrami. two allies of theirs (joo); and
Umayr b Abu Umayr and his son two freedmen of theirs (roi)- and
Ubayda b Sa'id b. al-'As b. Umayya whom al-Zubayr b. ab'Awwam
killed; and al-As b. Sa'id whom All killed; and 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'avt
whom Asim b. Thabit killed (502); and 'Utba b. Rabi'a whom 'Ubayda
, “T" th , kll led ( 5 ° 3 ); and Shayba b. Rabi'a whom Hamza killed; and
al-Walid b Utba whom 'All killed; and 'Amir b. 'Abdullah, an ally from
B. Anmar b. Baghid whom 'AH killed. Total 12
Of B. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf: al-Harith b. 'Amir whom Khubayb b.

“ sa ‘ d t0 have klIled l and Tu'ayma b. 'Adiy b. Kaufal whom 'All
killed while others say Hamza killed him. Total 2.

Of B. Asad b 'Abdu VUzza: Zama'a b. al-Aswad (504); and al-Harith
‘ amaa ( 505 ); and Uqayl b. al-Aswad {506); and Abu’I-Bakhtari
who was al- As b Hisham whom al-Mujadhdhar b. Dhiyad al-Balawi
kiUed (507); and Naufal b. Khuwaylid who was b. al-'AdawIya the 'Adiy
of Khuza a; it was he who bound Abu Bakr and Talha b. ‘Ubaydullah
with a rope when they became Muslims and so were cailed ‘the-two-tied-
together-onesk He was one of the principal men of Quraysh. 'All killed
rum. lotal 5 men.

• ^l Abdu *~ Dar ; :ikN ' adr b - al-Harith whom they say that 'All executed
m the presence of the apostle at al-Safra’ (508);' and Zayd b. Mulays
freedman of Umayr b. Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf (509). Total 2.

Mart B ', Tay " 1 , b - ^“ rra: 'Umayr b. 'Uthman (510); and 'Uthman b. 509
Malik whom Suhayb b. Sman killed. Total 2.

Of B. Makhzum b. Yaqaza: Abu Jahl b. Hisham (Mu'adh b. 'Amr

B 4080

Z

338 The Life of Muhammad.

struck off his leg. His son 'Ikrima struck off Mu'adh’s hand and he threw
it from him; then Mu'awwidh b. 'Afra’ struck him so that he disabled him
leaving him at the last gasp; then 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud quickly dispatched
him and cut off his head when the apostle ordered that search should be
made among the slain for him); and al-'As b. Hisham whom 'Umar killed;
and Yazld b. 'Abdullah, an ally from B. Tamlm (511); and Abu Musafi'
al-Ash'arl, an ally (512); and Harmala b. 'Amr, an ally (513); and Mas'ud
b. Abu Umayya (514); and Abu Qays b. al-Walid (515); and Abu Qays b.
al-Fakih (516) ; and Rifa'a b. Abu Rifa'a (517); and al-Mundhir b. Abu

510 Rifa'a (518); and 'Abdullah b. al-Mundhir (519); and al-Sa’ib b. Abu’l-
Sa’ib (520); and al-Aswad b. 'Abdu’l-Asad whom Hamza killed; and
Hajib b. al-Sa’ib (521); and 'Uwaymir b. al-Sa’ib (522); and 'Amr b.
Sufyan; and Jabir b. Sufyan, two allies from Tayyi’ (523). Total 17.

Of B. Sahm b. 'Amr: Munabbih b. al-Hajjaj whom Abu’l-Yasar killed;
and his son al-'As (524); and Nubayh b. al-Hajjaj (525); and Abu’l-'As b.

511 Qays (526); and 'Asim b. 'Auf (527). Total 5.

Of B. Jumah: Umayya b. Khalaf whom a Helper of B. Mazin killed
(528); and his son 'All b. Umayya whom 'Ammar killed; and Aus b.
Mi'yar (529). Total 3.

Of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: Mu'awiya b. 'Amir, an ally from 'Abdu’l-Qays
whom 'All killed (530); and Ma'bad b. Wahb, an ally from B. Kalb b.
'Auf whom Khalid and Iyas the two sons of al-Bukayr killed (531).
Total 2.

Thus the total number of Quraysh slain at Badr as given to us is 50
men (53 2 )-

513 A LIST OF THE QURAYSH POLYTHEISTS WHO WERE TAKEN

PRISONER AT BADR

From B. Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf: 'Aqll b. Abu Talib and Naufal b.
al-Harith b. 'Abdu’I-Muttalib. 1

From B. al-Muttalib b. 'Abdu Manaf: al-Sa’ib b. 'Ubayd b. 'Abdu
Yazid and Nu'man b. 'Amr b. 'Alqama. 2.

From B. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Manaf: 'Amr b. Abu Sufyan b. Harb
b. Umayya and al-Harith b. Abu Wajza b. Abu 'Amr b. Umayya (533);
and Abu’l-'As b. al-Rabl' b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza; and Abu’l-'As b. Naufal;
and of their allies Abu Risha b. Abu 'Amr; and 'Amr b. al-Azraq; and
'Uqba b. 'Abdu’l-Harith b. al-IIidraml. 7.

1 Here one would expect that the number of the Hashimite prisoners would be given,
but it is not. A.Dh. says: ‘He does not mention al-'Abbas along with these two prisoners
because he had become a Muslim, and used to conceal his religion because he was afraid
of his tribesmen.’ However, since I.I. at the end of the list says that the total number was
43, whereas only 42 are named, it is obvious that he must have included ‘Abbas among the
psisoners. I.H.’s note is that one prisoner, whose name is not mentionedyis missing from
the list.

The Life of Muhammad ^9

. r *T R ‘ ^ a J fal b - ' Abdu Man5f : ‘Adiy b. al-Khiyar b. 'Adly and

fr b u U J hamS nephew of Ghazwan b - Jabir, an ally of theirs

from B. Mazin b. Mansur; and Abu Thaur, an ally. 3.

, AbdS 1 M^,3 bd H I ‘i D J r Abl3 ' Azrz b< ' Um * yr b * Hashim b.

thp Tj ^ . f ’ an k d f bAswad b. Amir, an ally. They used to say ‘We are
t e B. al-Aswad b. Amir b. 'Amr b. al-Harith b. al-Sabbaq.’ 2 .

rom B Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy: al-Sa’ib b. Abu Hubaysh b

As’ad^^jVr k c‘b and aI ' HuWayHth b - ‘ Abb5d b. 'Uthman (534) b *
Asad, and Sahm b. Shammakh an ally. 3.

Muehlra u Y?, qa?a b ' Murra: KhSIid b ' Hisham b. al-

ughira b. Abdullah b. Umar; and Umayya b. Abu Hudhavfa h

’• and WUfd b. al-Wah-d b. al-Mughtra; and 'uih^n b

b 'Abid b 'AM uYn ' Abdul > ah b - Umar; and Sayfi b. Abu Rifa'a 5-4
'Ata''AM n a and Abu'l-Mundhir his brother; and Abu

ta Abdullah b. Abu 1 -Sa lb b. 'Abid b. 'Abdullah b 'Umar- and

a "San ab b ' ^ ’ Ubayd b ' ' Umar; and KhS ’ lid b

it wa s “aid! y ™ S firS * “ tUr " his back in % ht ' He

The wounds that bleed are not on our backs

But the blood drops on to our feet. ^ ^5)

J™* f abm b - ' Amr b ' Hu ? a y? b. Ka'b: Aba Wada'a b. Dubavra b.
j X b :, Sa d , ; vh0 was the first prisoner to be redeemed. His son
al-Mullahb paid his ransom money. Farwa b. Qays b. 'Adiy b. Hudhafa
b Sad; and Hanzala b. Qablsa b. Hudhafa b. Sa'd- and al-Haiiai h
al-Hanth b. Qays b. 'Adiy b. Sa'd. 4. ’ • JJ J •

TChlYA h ' Hu?ay? b ' Ka ' b; ' AbdulIa b b. Ubayy b.

b Wk k i n ?“ dhafa: and Aba <Azza 'Amr b. 'Abdullah b. 'Uthman
. u a y ■ Hudhafa and al-Fakih, freedman of Umayya b. Khalaf
After that Rabab b al-Mughtarif claimed him asserting that he was of B.'

TarwTh H dk b rYT‘ h A * “ Said that ™ the son of

J . ,,, ' 7 am b - Auf b. Ghadb b. Shammakh b. Muharib b. Fihr

and Wahb b. Umayr b Wahb b. Khalaf b. Wahb b. Hudhafa; and Rabi'i

b. Darraj b al-'Anbas b. Uhban b. Wahb b. Hudhafa. r.

b - •Luayy; Suhayl b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu
Wudd b. Nasr b Malik b. Hisl (Malik b. al-Dukhshum brother of B

Sham, b a " d ' Abd b ' Zama ' a b ' Qa > s b ' ' Abdu srs

Shams b Abdu Wudd b. Nasr b. Malik b. Hisl; and 'Abdu'l-Rahman b.

Mahk n b. Hisl b q 4 mir' ^ ^ ^ ^ W ” dd >>'W b '

'Am^fahdtft Fihr '' al ' TUfeyI b - AM Qunay ' “ d ' Utba »•

The total number reported to me was 43 men (536).

340

The Life of Muhammad

516 SOME POETRY ABOUT THE BATTLE OF BADR

Of the poetry about the battle of Badr which the two parties bandied
between them in reference to what happened therein are the lines of
liamza b. 'Abdu’l-Mutfalib (537):

Surely one of time’s wonders 1
(Though roads to death are plain to see)

Is that a people should destroy themselves and perish 2
By encouraging one another to disobedience and disbelief.

The night they all set out for Badr
And became death’s pawns in its well.

We had sought but their caravan, naught else,

But they came to us and we met unexpectedly. 3
When we met there was no way out

Save with a thrust from dun-coloured straight-fashioned shafts
And a blow with swords which severed their heads,

Swords that glittered as they smote.

We left the erring 'Utba lying dead

And Shayba among the slain thrown in the w r ell;

‘Amr lay dead among their protectors

And the keening women rent their garments for him,

The noble women of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib
Who surpass the best of Fihr.

Those were folk who were killed in their error
And they left a banner not prepared for victory—

A banner of error whose people Iblis led.

He betrayed them (the evil one is prone to treachery).

When he saw things clearly he said to them,

‘I am quit of you. I can no longer endure, 4
I see what you do not see, I fear God’s punishment
For He is invincible.’

He led them to death so that they perished
While he knew what they could not know.

On the day of the well they mustered a thousand,

We three hundred like excited white stallions.

With us were God’s armies when He reinforced us with them
In a place that will ever be renowned.

5 J 7 Under our banner Gabriel attacked with them
In the fray where they met their death.

1 Lit. Did you see a thing that wa9 one of time’s wonders ?

That a people, &c.

2 Reading fahanu with C.

3 'aid qadrin, lit. by (God’s) decree.

4 Cf. Sura 8. 50. The preceding lines seem to be the work of the man who wrote the
poem attributed to Hassan. Cf. W. 475, line z.

341

The Life of Muhammad

Al-Harith b. Hisham b. al-Mughira answered them thus:

Help, O my people, in my longing and loss
My sorrow and burning heart!

Tears flow copiously from my eyes

“ ng fr ° m the COrd of the woman who strings them
Weeping for the swect-natured hero S ’

Death’s pawn at the well of Badr.

If“ S rS’mt^"T? and COm P anion of “<** generous nature.

Well timeT L ^. K y ° U when your luck out,
well, time is bound to bring its changes.

In past times which are gone

You brought upon them a humiliation which is hard to bear.

less I die I shall not leave you unavenged.

I will spare neither brother nor wife’s kin.

I will slay as many dear to them
As they have slain of mine.

Have strangers whom they have collected deceived them
While we are the pure stock of Fihr?

Help, O Lu’ayy, protect your sanctuary and your gods*

Give them not up to the evil man! 1

“ W andTurt n am yOU "" **

Why did the reprobate want to destroy you ?3
Forgive him not, O tribe of Ghalib,

Fight your adversary with all your might and help one another
Bear one another s afflictions with endurance.

1 ou may well avenge your brother

Nothing matters if you fail to take revenge on 'Amr’s slayers.

1 h waving swords flashing in your hands like lightning
bending heads flying as they glitter. ®

As it were the tracks of ants on their blades

When they are unsheathed against the evil-eyed enemy (538).

Alf b. Abu Talib said:

Have you not seen how God favoured His apostle
With the favour of a strong, powerful, and gracious one-
How He brought humiliation on the unbelievers
Who were put to shame in captivity and death
Wflule the apostle of God’s victory was glorious
He being sent by God in righteousness.

He brought the Furqan sent down from God,

3 Reading dhamim or laim for halm in the text.

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The Life of Muhammad

Its signs 1 are plain to men of sense.

Some firmly believed in that and were convinced
And (thanks to God) became one people; 2
Others disbelieved, their minds went astray

And the Lord of the throne brought repeated calamities upon them;
At Badr He gave them into the pow r er of His apostle
And an angry army who did valiantly.

They smote them with their trusty swords,

Furbished well, and polished.

How many a lusty youngster,

Many a hardy warrior did they leave prone.

Their keening women spent a sleepless night,

Their tears now strong, now weak.

They keen for erring 'Utba and his son,

And Shayba and Abu Jahl
And Dhu’l-Rijl 3 and Ibn Jud'an also,

With burning throats in mourning garb displaying bereavement.
Dead in Badr’s well lay many,

Brave in w 7 ar, generous in times of dearth;

Error called them and some responded
(For error has ways easy to adopt).

Now they are in Hell,

Too occupied to rage furiously against us.

Al-Harith b. Hisham b. al-Mughlra answered him thus:

I wonder at folk whose fool sings
Of folly captious and vain,

Singing about the slain at Badr

When young and old vied in glorious endeavour,

The brave swordsman of Lu’ayy, Ibn Ghalib,

Thrusting in battle, feasting the hungry in times of dearth;

They died nobly, they did not sell their family
For strangers alien in stock and homeland,

Like you w 7 ho have made Ghassan your special friends
Instead of us—a sorry deed,

An impious, odious crime, and a severing of the ties of blood;

Men of judgement and understanding perceive your wrongdoing.
True, they are men w'ho have passed away,

But the best death is on the battlefield.

Rejoice not that you have killed them,

For their death will bring you repeated disaster.

Now they are dead you will always be divided,

1 Or ‘its messages’.

2 shaml , or ‘lived in harmony’. See Lyall, The Poems of 'Amr son of Qamiah, Cambridge,
1919, p. 14.

3 i.c. Al-Aswad whose leg Hamza hewed off, v.s.

343

The Life of Muhammad

Not one people as you desire,

By the loss of Ibn Jud'an, the praiseworthy,

And 'Utba, and him who is called Abu Jahl among you.

Shayba and Al-Walld were among them,

Umayya, the refuge of the poor, and Dhu’l-Rijl. 1
Weep for these and not for others,

The keening women will bew 7 ail their loss and bereavement,

Say to the people of Mecca, Assemble yourselves
And go to palmy Medina’s forts,

Defend yourselves and fight, O people of Ka'b,

With your polished and burnished swords
Or pass the night in fear and trembling
By day meaner than the sandal that is trodden underfoot.

But know 7 , O men that by Al-Lat, I am sure
That you will not rest without taking vengeance.

All of you, don your mall, take the spear,

The helmet, sharp sword and arrow's.

Dirar b. al-Khattab t>. Mirdas brother of B. Muharib b. Fihr said:

I wonder at the boasting of Aus w'hen death is coming to them to¬
morrow 7

(Since time contains its warnings)

And at the boasting of the Banu’I-Najjar because certain men died
there,

For all of them were steadfast men.

If some of our men were left dead
We shall leave others dead on the field. 2
Our flying steeds will carry us among you,

Till we slake our vengeance, O Banu’l-Aus,

We shall return to the charge in the midst of the Banu’I-Najjar,

Our horses snorting under the weight of the spearmen clad in mail.
Your dead w 7 e shall leave with vultures circling round
To look for help but a vain desire.

Yathrib’s women will mourn them,

Their nights long and sleepless
Because our sw'ords will cut them dow 7 n,

Dripping with the blood of their victims.

Though you won on the day of Badr
Your good fortune was plainly due to Ahmad
And the chosen band, his friends,

Who protected him in battle when death w 7 as at hand,

Abu Bakr and Hamza could be numbered among them

Apparently al-Aswad the Makhzumite whose leg was cut off as he tried to drink
from the well at Badr is meant. See W. 442.

2 i.e. of the enemy. C. and W. differ in this line.

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The Life of Muhammad

And 'All among those you could mention,

Abu Hafs and 'Uthman were of them,

Sa'd too, if anyone was present,

Those men—not the begettings of Aus and Najjar—

Should be the object of your boasting,

But their father was from Lu’ayy Ibn Ghalib,

Ka'b and 'Amir when noble families are reckoned.

They are the men who repelled the cavalry on every front,

The noble and glorious on the day of battle.

Ka'b b. Malik brother of the B. Salima said:

I wonder at God’s deed, since He
Docs what He wills, none can defeat Him.

He decreed that we should meet at Badr
An evil band (and evil ever leads to death).

They had summoned their neighbours on all sides
Until they formed a great host.

At us alone they came with ill intent,

Ka'b and 'Amir and all of them.

With us was God’s apostle with Aus round him
Like a strong impregnable fortress
The tribes of Banu Najjar beneath his banner
Advancing in light armour while the dust rose high.

When we met them and every steadfast warrior
Ventured his life with his comrades
521 We testified to the unity of God

And that His apostle brought the truth.

When our light swords were unsheathed
’Twas as though fires flashed at their movement.

With them we smote them and they scattered
And the impious met death,

Abu Jahl lay dead on his face

And 'Utba our swords left in the dust. 1

Shayba and Al-Taymi they left on the battlefield,

Everyone of them denied Him who sitteth on the throne.

They became fuel for Hell,

For every unbeliever must go there.

It will consume them, while the stoker
Increases its heat with pieces of iron and stone. 2
God’s apostle had called them to him

But they turned away, saying, ‘You are nothing but a sorcerer.’
Because God willed to destroy them,

And none can avert what He decrees.

1 Readme \ifiru with some authorities for 'athiru, though these letters sometimes inter¬
change. 1 Cf. Sura 18. 95 .

The Life of Muhammad 345

'Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra al-Sahmi (an ally of the B. 'Abdu’l-Dar), 1 be¬
wailing the slain at Badr, said (539):

What noble warriors, handsome men, lie round Badr’s battlefield.

They left behind them Nubayh and Munabbih and
The two sons of Rabi'a’, best fighters against odds,

And the generous Harith, whose face shone
Like the full moon illuminating night;

And al-'As b. Munabbih, the strong,

Like a long lance without a flaw.

His origin and his ancestors

And the glory of his father’s and his mother’s kin raise him high.

If one must weep and show great grief
Let it be over the glorious chief Ibn Hisham,

God, lord of creatures, save Abu’l-Walid and his family,

And grant them special favour.

Hassan b. Thabit al-Ansarl answered him:

Weep, may your eyes weep blood, 522

Their rapid flow ever renewed.

Why weep for those who ran to evil ways ?

Why have you not mentioned the virtues of our people
And our glorious, purposeful, tolerant, courageous one,

The prophet, soul of virtue and generosity,

The truest man that ever swore an oath ?

One who resembles him and does his teaching
Was the most praised there not without effect. 2

Hassan also Said:

A maiden obsesses thy mind in sleep
Giving the sleeper a drink with cool lips
Like musk mingled with pure water
Or old wine red as the blood of sacrifices.

Wide in the rump, her buttocks ripples of fat,

Vivacious, not hasty in swearing an oath.

Her well-covered hips as she sits

Form a hollow in her back like a marble mortar,

So lazy she can hardly go to bed,

Of beautiful body and lovely figure.

By day I never fail to think of her,

1 In deference to the text these words have been retained; but (i) they occur after
I.H.'s interpolation in which he ascribes the poem to at-A'sha b. Zurara, an ally of R.

*Abdu Naufal, and (2) 'Abdullah, though he belonged to Sahm who were in the ahlaf
alliance with B, 'Abdu’l-Dar, could hardly be called a halt/. Therefore it looks as if the
words refer to al-'Asha. Whether I.H. inserted them because he knew that I.I. differed
from him, or whether someone else did for the same reason, it is impossible to say.

1 The line is clumsy and the syntax questionable.

346 The Life of Muhammad

By night my dreams inflame my desire for her.

I swear I will not forget to think of her
Until my bones lie in the grave.

O woman who foolishly blames me,

I refuse to accept blame on account of my love;

She came to me at dawn after I woke
When life’s troubles were at hand.

She told me that man is sad all his life
Because he lacks plenty of camels;

If you lied in what you said

May you escape the consequences as Al-Harith b. Hisham did.

He left his friends fearing to fight in their defence,

And escaped by giving his horse free rein.

It left the swift steeds behind in the desert;

As the weighted rope drops down the well.

His mare galloped away at full speed while
His friends remained in their evil plight
[His brothers and his family were in the battle
523 In which God gave the Muslims victory—

For God accomplishes His work—war ground them to powder,

Its fire blazed (with them as fuel).

But for God and the animal’s speed (our horses) had left him

A prey to wild beasts trodden under their hoofs.] 1

Some of them firmly bound prisoners (though they were)

Hawks protecting (their young) when they met the spears;

Some prostrate never to answer to the call
Till the highest mountains cease to be,

In shame and plain disgrace when they saw

The sword blades driving every resolute chief before them.

Swords in the hands of noble valiant chiefs,

Whose noble ancestry is vindicated without searching inquiry.
Sw 7 ords that strike fire from steel
Like lightning ’neath the storm clouds.

Al-Harith answered him and said:

The people know well 2 I did not leave the fight until my steed w'as
foaming with blood

I knew that if I fought alone I should be killed; my death would not
injure the enemy

So I withdrew and left my friends meaning to avenge them another
day.

1 These three verses are obviously a later interpolation. The syntax requires that the
partitive min should follow its antecedent ‘his friends’. Moreover, the ostentatious piety of
these verses is foreign to Hassan.

• C. has ‘God knows best’, but this is almost certainly wrong. I have followed the text
  of W.

The Life of Muhammad 347

This is what Al-Harith said in excuse for running away from the battle
of Badr (540).

Hassan also said: 1

Quraysh knew on the day of Badr,

The day of captivity and violent slaughter,

That when the lances crossed we were the victors
In the battle of Abu’l-Walid.

We killed Rabl'a’s two sons the day they came
Clad in double mail against us.

Hakim fled on the day that the Banu’l-Najjar
Advanced upon them like lions.

All the men of Fihr turned tail,

The miserable Harith abandoned them from afar. 524

You met shame and death

Quick, decisive, under the neck vein.

All the force turned tail together.

They paid no heed to ancestral honour.

Hassan also said: 2

O Harith, you took a base decision in war
And the day when ancestral fame is shown,

When you rode a swift-footed noble mare,

Rapid-paced and long in flank,

Leaving your people behind to be slain,

Thinking only of escape when you should have stood fast.

Could you not have shown concern for your mother’s son
Who lay transfixed by spears, his body stripped ?

God hastened to destroy his host

In shameful disgrace and painful punishment! (541).

Hassan also said (54a): 3

A bold intrepid man—no cow T ard—

Led those clad in light chain armour.

I mean the apostle of God the Creator

Who favoured him with piety and goodness above all;

You had said you would protect your caravan
And that Badr’s waters could not be reached 4 by us.

There we had come down, not heeding your words so that
We drank to the full without stint,

Holding fast to an unseverable rope,

The w-ell plaited rope of God that stretches far.

We have the apostle and we have the truth which w r e follow

1 Diwdn Ixxvi. 1 Diwdn cli. 3 Diwdn xxxvi.

4 Reading maurud for mardiid. Dhimdr includes anything that must be protected.

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The Life of Muhammad

To the death; we have help unlimited
Faithful to his promise, intrepid, a brilliant star,

A full moon that casts light on every noble man ( 543 )*

Hassan also said - . 1

The Banu Asad were disappointed and their raiders returned
On the day of the Well in misery and disgrace.

Abu’I-'As soon lay dead on the ground:

Hurled from the back of his galloping steed:

He met his end with his weapons, good fighter as he w'as
When he lay still in death.

The man Zam'a we left with his throat severed,

His life blood flowing away,

His forehead cushioned in the dust,

His nostrils defiled with filth;

I bn Qays escaped with a remnant of his tribe
Covered with w r ounds, at the point of death.

Hassan also said: 2

Can anyone say if the Meccans know

How we slew the unbelievers in their evil hour ?

We killed their leaders in the battle
And they returned a shattered force;

We killed Abu Jahl and 'Utba before him,

And Shayba fell forward with his hands outstretched. 3
We killed Suwayd and 'Utba after him.

Tu'ma also in the dust of combat.

Many a noble, generous man we slew
Of lofty line, illustrious among his people.

We left them as meat for hyaenas
Later to burn in Hell fire. 4

I’faith Malik’s horsemen and their followers w f cre no protection
When they met us at Badr (544).

Hassan also said 5

Hakim’s speed saved him on the day of Badr
Like the speed of a colt from al-A w'aj s mares,

When he saw Badr’s valley walls

Swarming with the black-mailed squadrons of Khazraj
Who do not retire when they meet the enemy,

Who march boldly in the middle of the beaten track.

2 Diwdti xliv.

3 ThTtrue'reading is yakbu. W.’s yabku is an obvious misprint. The widely different

reading in H.’s Diicdn » ^rkedly inferior. s lxxx .

4 A reminiscence of aura hS.4. ,

6 A horse as famous in pagan sagas as Black Bess in English legend.

349

The Life of Muhammad

How many a valiant chief they have,

Heroes where the cow r ard turns at bay,

Chiefs giving lavishly with open hand,

Crowned ones bearing the burden of blood-wits,

Ornaments in conclave, persistent in battle,

Smiting the bold with their all-piercing sw^ords (545).

Hassan also said: 526

Thanks to God w r e fear not an army

How many they be with their assembled troops.

Whenever they brought a multitude against us
The gracious Lord sufficed us against their sw r ords;

At Badr we raised our spears aloft,

Death did not dismay us.

You could not see a body of men

More dangerous to those they attack wdien w r ar is stirred up, 1
But we put our trust [in God] and said:

‘Our swords are our fame and our defence.’

With them we met them and were victorious
Though but a band against their thousands.

Hassan also said, satirizing B. Jumah and those of them W'ho w r ere slain:

Banu Jumah rushed headlong to disaster 2 because of their unlucky
star

(The mean man inevitably meets humiliation).

They w'ere conquered and slain at Badr,

They deserted in all directions,

They rejected the scripture and called Muhammad liar.

But God makes the religion of every apostle victorious;

God curse Abu Khuzayma and his son,

The two Khalids and Sa'id b. 'Aqil.

'Ubayda b. al-Harith said about the battle of Badr, and the cutting off of
his foot when it was smitten in the fight, when he and Hamza and 'Alt
fought their enemies (546):

A battle will tell the Meccans about us:

It will make distant men give heed,

When 'Utba died and Shayba after him

And 'LTtba’s eldest son had no cause to be pleased with it. 3

You may cut off my leg, yet I am a Muslim,

I hope in exchange for a life near to Allah

With Houris fashioned like the most beautiful statues

With the highest heaven for those who mount there.

1 The metaphor is that of the untimely address of the he-camel to the mare.

3 Here there is a pun on the name Jumah.

3 'Utba’s firstborn al-Walld was also slain at Badr.

35 °

The Life of Muhammad

I have bought it with a life of which I have tasted the best 1
And which I have tried until I lost even my next-of-kin.

527 The Merciful honoured me with His favour
With the garment of Islam to cover my faults.

I did not shrink from fighting them

The day that men called on their peers to fight them,

When they asked the prophet he sought only us three
So that we came out to the herald;

We met them like lions, brandishing our spears,

We fought the rebellious for God’s sake;

We three did not move from our position
Till their fate came upon them (547).

When 'Ubayda died of the wound in his leg at the battle of Badr, Ka'b b.
Malik, the Ansarl, wrote this elegy on him:

O eye, be generous, not niggardly,

With thy true tears; spare them not
For a man whose death appalled us,

Noble in deed and in descent,

Bold in attack with sharpened sword,

Of noble repute and goodly descent. 2
'Ubayda has passed away, we cannot hope
For good or evil from him,

On the eve of battle he used to protect our rearguard with his sword.
Ka'b also said:

Have Ghassan heard in their distant haunt

(The best informant is one with knowledge thereof),

That Ma'add shot their arrows at us.

The whole tribe of them were hostile,

Because we worship God, hoping in none other,

528 Hoping for heaven’s gardens since their prophet has come to us. 3
A prophet with a glorious inheritance among his people,

And truthful ancestors whose origin made them pure;

Both sides advanced, and we met them like lions
Whose victims have nothing to hope for;

We smote them in the battle

Till Lu’ayy’s leader fell upon his face;

They fled, and we cut them down with our sharp swords,

Their allies and their tribesmen alike.

Ka'b also said:

By your father’s life, ye sons of Lu’ayy,

Despite your deceit and pride,

1 Reading la arraftu.

2 Or reading makshari, ‘of sweet breath’.

3 Lit. ‘guarantor’

The Life of Muhammad 351

Your horsemen did not protect you at Badr,

They could not stand fast when they met us;

We came there with God’s light

Clearing away the cover of darkness from us.

God’s apostle led us, by God’s order,

An order He had fixed by decree;

Your horsemen could not conquer at Badr
And returned to you in evil case;

Do not hurry, Abu Sufyan, and watch
For the fine steeds coming up from Kada’, 1
By God’s help the holy spirit is among them 2
And Michael, what a goodly company!

Talib b. Abu Talib, praising the apostle and lamenting the men of
Quraysh who were thrown into the pit at Badr, said:

My eye wept copiously

Over Ka'b, though it sees them not.

Ka'b deserted one another in the w'ars, and
Fate destroyed them, they having greatly sinned. 3
And 'Amir this morning are weeping for the misfortunes (that befell
them).

Shall I ever see them closer (to each other) ?

They are my brothers, their mother no harlot,

And never their guest suffered wrong;

O our brothers 'Abdu Shams and Naufal, may I be your ransom,

Put not war between us. After the love and friendship we had
Become not (the subject of) stories in which all of you have something 529
to complain of.

Do you not know w T hat happened in the w r ar of Dahis
And w'hen Abu Yaksum’s army filled the ravine?

Had not God the Sole Existent saved you
You could not have protected your people.

We among Quraysh have done no great w r rong

But merely protected the best man that ever trod the earth;

A standby in misfortunes, generous,

Noble in reputation, no niggard, no wrongdoer.

His door is thronged by those seeking his bounty,

A sea of generosity, vast, unfailing.

By God, my soul will ever be sad,

Restless, until you smite Khazraj well and truly.

Dirar b, al-Khattab al-Fihrl lamenting Abu Jahl said:

Alas for my eye that cannot sleep

Watching the stars in the darkness of the night!

1 A place near Mecca. Cf. W, 829, line 8. 2 i.e. Gabriel.

3 The language is reminiscent of Sura 45. 20.

530

352 The Life of Muhammad

It is as though a mote were in it,

But there is naught but flowing tears.

Tell Quraysh -Tat the best of their company,

The noblest man that ever walked,

At Badr lies imprisoned in the well;

The noble one, not base-born and no niggard.

I swear that my eyes shall never weep for any man
Now Abu’l-Hakam our chief is slain.

I weep for him whose death brought sorrow to Lu’ayy b. Ghalib,
To whom death came at Badr where he remains.

You could see fragments of spears in his horse’s chest,

Scraps of his flesh plainly intermingled with them.

No lion lurking in the valley of Bisha,

Where through jungled vales the waters flow,

Was bolder than he when lances clashed,

When the cry went forth among the valiant ‘Dismount’ 1
Grieve not overmuch, Mughlra’s kin, be resolute
(Though he who so grieves is not to be blamed).

Be strong, for death is your glory,

And thereafter at life’s end there is no regret.

I said that victory will be yours

And high renown—no man of sense will doubt it (548).

Al-Harith b. Hisham, bewailing his brother Abu Jahl, said:

Alas my soul for 'Amr!

But can grief avail one whit? 2
Someone told me that 'Amr

Was the first of his people to go into the old abandoned pit.

I have always thought it right (that you should be the first),

Since your judgement in the past was sound.

I was happy while you were alive;

Now I am left in a miserable state.

At night when I cannot see him I feel
A prey to indecision and full of care.

When daylight comes once more

My eye is weary of remembering 'Amr (549).

Abu Bakr b. al-Aswad b. Shu'ub al-Laythl, whose name was Shaddad,
said:

Ummu Bakr gave me the greeting of peace;

But what peace can I have now my people are no more ?

In the pit, the pit of Badr,

What singing girls and noble boon companions!

1 Or, perhaps, To battle!

1 A happy suggestion of the editors of C. is to read fatll, a Quranic figure for complete
insignificance. This is much to be preferred to the obvious gatil of the MSS.

The Life of Muhammad 353

In the pit, the pit of Badr,

What platters piled high with choicest camel-meat!

In the well, the well of Badr,

How many camels straying freely were yours!

In the well, the well of Badr,

How many flags 1 and sumptuous gifts!

What friends of the noble Abu 'All,

Brother of the generous cup and boon companions!

If you were to see Abu 'Aqll
And the men of the pass of Na'am

You would mourn over them like the mother of a new-born camel
Yearning over her darling.

The apostle tells us that we shall live,

But how can bodies and wraiths meet again? 2 (550)

Umayya b. Abu’I-Salt, lamenting those who died at Badr, said:

Would’st thou not w r eep over the nobles,

Sons of nobles, praised by all,

As the doves mourn upon the leafy boughs,

Upon the bending branches,

Weeping in soft dejected notes
When they return at nightfall.

Like them are the weeping women,

The keeners who lift up their voices.

He who weeps them weeps in real sorrow,

He who praises them tells the truth.

What chiefs and leaders
At Badr and al-'Aqanqal,

At Madafi'u’l-Barqayn and Al-Hannan,

At the end of al-Awashih,

Grey-beards and youths, Bold leaders,

Raiders impetuous!

See you not what I see
When it is plain to all beholders,

1 Or, possibly, ‘great intentions’.

2 $ada. The old Arabs believed that when a man had been killed and his slayer was still
at large a bird like an owl came forth from his head crying, ‘Give me to drink’ sc. the slayer’s
blood. The word facia afterwards came to be applied to the head or brain, and to the corpse
itself, which seems to be the meaning here. Hama also means the head of a man or the bird
emerging therefrom which could be conceived as a wraith. For the liqd of our text Bukh.
iii. 45. 13 has baqa ‘persist’, while Shahrastani, Mila!, 433, has the reading quoted by I.H.
A poem, that is recognizably another version, will be found in the Risdlatu'l-Ghufrdr
(J.R.A.S. 1902, p. 818). For the last verse Abu’l-'Ala heard: ‘Does Ibn Kabsha promise us
that we shall live ?’ This must be early because such a designation of the prophet would
hardly have been coined in later times. Commentators explain that the prophet was called
Ibn Kabsha (for Ibn Abu Kabsha) after a man of that name who during the pagan era
abandoned the religion of his fathers.

a a

B 4060

354

The Life of Muhammad

That the vale of Mecca has altered,

Become a valley deserted
By every chief, son of a chief, 1
Fair-skinned, illustrious,

Constantly at the gate of kings,

Crossing the desert, victorious,

Strong-necked, stout of body,

Men of eminence, successful in enterprise,

Who say and do and order what is right,

Who feed their guests on fat meat
Served on bread white as a lamb s stomach,

Who offer dishes and yet more dishes
As large as water pools.

The hungry finds them not empty
Nor wide'without depth,

To guest after guest they send them
With broad open hand,

Givers of hundreds from hundreds of milch camels
To hundreds of their guests,

Driving the camel herds to the herds,

Returning from Baladih.

Their nobles have a distinction
Outweighing the nobility of others
As the weights send down the scale
As the balancer holds it.

A party deserted them, while they protected
Their women from disgrace,

Men who smote the front ranks of the enemy
With broad-bladed Indian swords;

Their voices pained me as they
Called for water crying aloud;

How fine were the sons of 'Ali all of them! 2
If they do not raid such a raid
As would send back every barking dog to its lair,
With horses trained to long rides,

With proudly raised heads, kept near the tents,

As young men on fine horses
Against fierce menacing lions;

Each man advances to his enemy
Walking as though to shake hands,

1 bitriq ( palricius) by this time little more than an honorary title in the has tern Empire.
The word must have been well known to the Arabs because it occurs frequently in early
literature. My colleague, Professor Lewis, reminds me that I.lanth b. Jabala was appointed

nhylarch and patricius by Justinian in 529. ...... ,

P * The reference to the death of Husayn at Karbela and the call to the Ahds to rise and

icvenge themselves is unmistakable.

355

The Life of Muhammad

About a thousand or two thousand
Mailed men and spearmen (551). 1

Umayya also said, lamenting Zama'a b. al-Aswad and the B. Aswad who 533
were slain:

O eye, weep with overflowing tears for AbuTHarith
And hold not thy tears for Zama'a.

Weep for 'Aqil b. Aswad, the bold lion,

On the day of battle and the dust of war.

Those Banu Aswad were brothers like the Gemini,

No treachery and no deceit was in them,

They are the noblest family of Ka'b,

The very summit of excellence.

They produced sons as many as the hairs of the head
And established them in impregnable positions. 2
When misfortune visited their kinsmen
Their hearts ached for them.

They gave their food when rain failed,

When all was dry and no cloud could be seen (552).

Abu Usama Mu'awiya b. Zuhayr b- Qays b. al-Harith b. Dubay'a
b. Miizin b. 'Adly b. Jusham b. Mu'awiya, an ally of B. Makhzum (553),
passed Hubayra b. Abu Wahb as they were running away on the day of 534
Badr. Hubayra was exhausted and threw away his coat of mail and
(Mu'awiya) picked it up and went off with it. Fie composed the following
lines (554):

When I saw the army panic,

Running away at top speed
And that their leaders lay dead,

Methought the best of them
Were like sacrifices to idols.

Many of them lay there dead,

And we were made to meet our fate at Badr.

1 Abu Dharr has an interesting note here of a tradition going back to Abu f lurayra which
reads thus: ‘The apostle gave us permission to recite the poetry of the pagan era except the
ode of Umayya b. Abu al-Salt about Badr (i.e. this ode) and the ode of al-A'sha which
begins ‘‘ahdi biha’ (lines 10-18 in No. 18 of the Dhvdn ed. Geycr which has many variants).

The apostle forbade the recitation of this ode because it lamented the death of the un¬
believers and attacked the reputation of the prophet’s companions. It was only for that
reason that Ibn Hisharn omitted two verses from Umayya’s ode. Similarly al-A'sha’s verse
praised 'Amr b. Tufayl and satirized 'Alqama b. 'UJatha. ‘Amrdied an unbeliever. ‘Alqama
became a Muslim, and when the king of the Byzantines asked him about the apostle he spoke
well of him, and the prophet held that in his favour and remembered him. Some scholars
say that the prohibition to recite these two odes in the early days of Islam was because of
the feeling between Muslims and unbelievers, hut when Islam was generally accepted and
hatred and enmity ceased, there was no harm in citing them.

2 Manaa is explained by the Taj, vol. v, p. 516. In the plural mana at is ‘bastions and
strongholds’. As manaa is a mountain in Hudhayl territory and mana is high ground in
Jabal Tayyi’. the general meaning seems clear.

356 The Life of Muhammad

We left the way and they overtook us
In waves, like an overwhelming flood;

Some said, ‘Who is Ibn Qays?’

I said, ‘Abu Usama, without boasting,

I am the Jushamite, that you may know me,

I will announce my lineage,

Answering challenge by challenge.

If you are of the best born of Quraysh,

I am from Mu'awiya ibn Bakrd
Tell Malik, when we were attacked,

For you, O Malik, know of me;

Tell Hubayra of us if you meet him,

For he is wise and influential,

That w 7 hen I w'as called to Ufayd 1
I returned to the battle with undaunted heart,

The night the hapless w^ere left unheeded
Old friends and mother’s kindred.

So that is your brother, O B. Lu’ayy,

And that is Malik, O Umm 'Amr, 2 for
Had I not been there striped hyaenas,

Mothers of cubs would have had him,

Digging at the graves w r ith their claws,

Their faces as black as a cooking-pot;

I swear by Him Who is my Lord

And by the blood-stained pillars of the stoning places

You will see what my true worth is

When men become as fierce as leopards. 3

No lion from his lair in Tarj—

Bold, menacing, fathering cubs in the jungle,

Who has made his den taboo against intruders
So that none can approach him even with a force. 4
535 In the sand, bands of men are helpless

He leaps upon all who try to drive him away—

Is swifter than I

When I advance roaring and growling at the enemy
With arrow's like sharp lances
Their points like burning coals.

And a round 5 shield of bull’s hide
And a strongly fashioned bow, and
A glittering sword w'hich 'Umayr, the polisher,

Whetted for a fortnight.

1 Commentators differ as to whether this is the name of a place, or a man, or a body of

men, the leaders of an attack. 2 The hyaena.

3 Lit. ‘when skins are changed to leopards' skins’. Sec note on 741. 3.

4 Reading binafri. 5 Or, reading aklaf, ‘black’.

357

The Life of Muhammad

I let its lanyard trail, and strode proudly forward
A ith body at full stretch, as a lion w r alks.

Sa d the warrior said to me, Here is a gift, 1
I answered, Perhaps he is bringing treachery,

And I said, O Abu ‘Adiy, do not go near them
If you will obey my orders today
As they did with Farwa when he came to them
And he was led away bound with cords (555).

Abu Usama also said:

Who will send a messenger from me
With new’s that a shrewd man will confirm?

Do not you know how I kept returning to the fight at Badr
W hen the swords flashed around you,

^ hen the army’s leaders were left prostrate,

Their heads like slices of melon r
A gloomy fate, to the people’s hurt,

Came upon you in the valley of Badr;

My resolution saved them from disaster
And God s help and a well-conceived plan.

I returned alone from al-Abwa’
hen you w'ere surrounded by the enemy,

Helpless, if anyone attacked you,

Wounded and bleeding by the side of Kurash. 2
Whenever a comrade in distress called
For my aid in an evil day,

A brother or ally in such case,

Much as I love my lile I answered his call.

I returned to the fray, dispelling gloom,

And shot when faces showed hostility.

Many an adversary have I left on the ground
To rise painfully like a broken twig. 3
When battle was joined I dealt him a blow
That drew blood—his arteries murmured aloud;

That is what I did on the day of Badr,

Before that I was resourceful and steadfast,

Your brother as you know in war and famine
W hose evils are ever with us,

W>ur champion undaunted by darkest night or superior numbers
Out into the bitter black night I plunged 4
When the freezing wind forces dogs to shelter (556).

2 A. Dh. says that ’a prisoner’ is meant here.

meaning becauseV, mU ” b ' ,hc

358 The Life of Muhammad

Hind d. 'Utba b. Rabfa bewailing her father on the day of Badr
said:

O eyes, be generous with thy tears
For the best of Khindif’s sons
Who never returned (home).

His clan fell upon him one morning,

The sons of Hashim and the sons of al-Muttalib
They made him taste the edge of their swmrds,

They attacked him again when he was helpless,

They dragged him stripped and spoiled
With the dust upon his face;

To us he was a strong mountain,

Grass-clad, pleasing to the eye;

As for al-Bara’ I do not mention him,

May he get the good he counted on.

She also said:

Fate is against us and has wronged us,

But we can do naught to resist it.

537 After the slain of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib,

Can a man care about his death or the death of his friend ?

Many a day did he rob himself of wealth
By lavishing gifts morning and evening.

Give Abu Sufyan a message from me:

If I meet him one day I w'ill reprove him.

’Twas a war that will kindle another war,

For every man has a friend to avenge (557).

She also said:

What an eye which saw a death like the death of my men!

How many a man and woman tomorrow
Will join with the keening women;

How many did they leave behind on the day of the pit,

The morning of that tumultuous cry!

All generous men in years of drought
When the stars withheld their rain. 1
I was afraid of what I saw
And now my fear is realized.

I w r as afraid of what I saw
And today I am beside myself.

How many a woman will say tomorrow
Alas Umm Mu'awiya! (558)

The ancient Arabs thought that the stars brought rain.

Hind also said:

The Life of Muhammad

359

O eye, weep for Ltba, the strong-necked chief,

Who gave his food in famine,

Our defence on the day of victory,

I am grieved for him, broken-hearted, demented. 1
Let us fall on l:athrib with an overwhelming attack
With horses kept hard by,

Every long-bodied charger.

‘T US5fi l b ', Ab0 Amr b ' Uma - V >' a b ' ' Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu s 3 8
Manaf, bewailing the slam in the pit of Badr, said:

Alas for my eye painful and bleared
The night far spent, the rising sun still hid!

I was told that the noble chieftains
Fate had seized for ever,

That the riders fled with the army and
Mothers neglected their children that morning.

Arise, Saflya, forget not their relationship,

And it you weep, it is not for those who are distant.

They were the supports 2 of the tent.

When they broke, the roof of the tent was left unsupported (559).

Saflya also said:

Alas my eye, weeping has exhausted its tears
Like the two buckets of the waterman
Walking among the trees of the orchard.

No lion of the jungle with claws and teeth,

Father of cubs, leaping on his prey,

Exceeding fierce and angry,

Is equal to my love when he died

Facing people whose faces were changed in anger,

In his hand a sharp sword of the finest steel.

When you thrust with a spear you made great wounds
From which came hot foaming blood (560).

Hind d. Ut hatha b. 'Abbad b. al-Muttalib lamenting 'U bay da b al
Harith b. al-Muttalib said: *

Al-Safra’ 3 holds glory and authority,

Deep-rooted culture, ample intelligence.

Weep for TJbayda, a mountain of strength to the strange guests
And the widow who suckles a dishevelled baby;

» ^ “■ but “■

I follow C. in reading suqub.

3 A place between Mecca and Medina.

360 The Life of Muhammad

To the people in every winter
When the skies are red from famine;

To the orphans when the wind was violent.

He heated the pert which foamed with milk as it seethed;

When the fire burned low and its flame died
539 He would revive it with thick brushwood.

Mourn him for the night traveller or the one wanting food,

The wanderer lost whom he put at his ease (561).

Qutayla d. al-Harith, sister of al-Nadr b. al-Harith, weeping him said:

O Rider, I think you will reach Uthayl 1
At dawn of the fifth night if you are lucky.

Greet a dead man there for me.

Swift camels always carry news from me to thee.

(Tell of) flowing tears running profusely or ending in a sob.

Can al-Nadr hear me when I call him,

How can a dead man hear who cannot speak ?

O Muhammad, finest child of noble mother,

Whose sire a noble sire was,

’Twould not have harmed you had you spared him.

(A warrior oft spares though full of rage and anger.)

Or you could have taken a ransom,

The dearest price that could be paid. 2
Al-Nadr was the nearest relative you captured
With the best claim to be released.

The swords of his father’s sons came down on him.

Good God, what bonds of kinship there were shattered!

Exhausted he was led to a cold-blooded death,

A prisoner in bonds, walking like a hobbled beast (562), 3

The apostle left Badr at the end of the month of Ramadan or in Shawwal.

THE RAID ON B. SUL A YM IN AL-KUDR

540 The apostle stayed only seven nights in Medina before he himself made a
raid against B. Sulaym (563). He got as far as their watering place called
al-Kudr and stayed there three nights, returning to Medina without any
fighting. He stayed there for the rest of Shawwal and Dhu’l-Qa'da, and
during that time he accepted the ransom of most of the Quraysh prisoners.

1 A place near Medina between Badr and Wadi §afra.

2 Noldeke’s Delectus, p. 67, has a different text here.

3 Some MSS., followed by Suh. and W., make I.H. responsible for its inclusion in the
Sira.

543

The Life of Muhammad 761

THE RAID OF AL-SAWlQ

AbQ Muhammad 'Abdu’I-Malik b. Hisham from Ziyad b. 'Abdullah
al-Bakka’i from Muhammad b. Ishaq al-Muttalibl said: Then Abu
Sufyan b. Harb made the raid of Sawiq in Dhu’i-Hijja. The polytheists
were in charge of the pilgrimage that year. Muhammad b. Ja'far b.
al-Zubayr and Yazld b. Ruman and one whose veracity I do not suspect
from 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik who was one of the most learned Helpers
told me that when Abu Sufyan returned to Mecca and the Quraysh
fugitives returned from Badr. he swore that he would not practise ablution 1
until he had raided Muhammad. Accordingly he sallied forth with two
hundred riders from Quraysh to fulfil his vow. He took the Nejd road and
stopped by the upper part of a watercourse which led to a mountain called
Thayb about one post distance from Medina. Then he sallied forth by
night and came to the B. al-Nadlr under cover of darkness. He came to
Huyayy b. Akhtab and knocked upon his door, but as he was afraid of him
he refused to open the door, so he went to Sallam b. Mishkam, who was
their chief at that time, and keeper of the public purse. He asked permis¬
sion to come in and Sallam entertained him with food and drink, and gave
him secret information about the Muslims. He rejoined his companions
at the end of the night and sent some of them to Medina. They came to an
outlying district called Al-‘Urayd and there they burnt some young palm-
trees and finding one of the Helpers and an ally of his working the fields
there, they killed them and returned. People got warning of them and so
the apostle went out in pursuit (564). He got as far as Qarqaratu’l-Kudr 2
and then returned because Abu Sufyan and his companions had eluded
him. They saw some of the provisions which the raiders had thrown away
m the fields to lighten their baggage so as to get away quickly. When the
apostle brought the Muslims back they asked, ‘Do you hope that this will 544
count (with God) in our favour as a raid?’ and he replied, ‘Yes’ (565).

When he went away Abu Sufyan said of Sallam’s treatment of him:

I chose one man out of Medina as an ally,

I had no cause to regret it, though I did not stay long.

Sallam ibn Mishkam gave me good wine,

He refreshed me in full measure despite my haste.

When the raiders turned back I said
(Unwilling to burden him),

Look forward to raiding and booty.

Consider, for the people are the pure stock of Lu’ayy,

Not a mixed rabble of Jurhum’.

It was no more than (spending) part of the night by a traveller
Who came hungry though not needy and destitute/

' A euphemism for abstaining from sexual intercourse.

About eight posts distance from Medina.

^2 The Life of Muhammad

T- 1365 [Abu Sufyan had composed some verses to incite Quraysh when he
got ready to march from Mecca to Medina:

Return to the attack on Yathrib and the lot of them,

For what they have collected is booty for you.

Though the battle of the cistern went in their favour
The future will restore your fortunes.

I swear that I will not come near women

Nor shall I use the water of purification

Until you destroy the tribes of Aus and Khazraj.

My heart is burning for revenge *

Ka'b b. Malik answered him:

The Muslims' arc sorry for Ibn Harb’s army,

So futile in the harra _ _ 2

When those who were sick of their provision cast away the burden

Climbing up to the top of the mountain.

The place where their camels knelt can be compared

Only with the hole of foxes, 3

Bare of gold 1 and wealth and of

The warriors of the vale and their spears.]

TIIF. RAID OF D1IU AMARR

When the apostle returned from the raid of al-SawIq he stayed in Medina
for the rest of Dhu’l-i Iijju, or nearly all of it. Then he raided Tajd,
making for Ghataian. This is the raid of Dhu Amarr (566). He stayed in
Xajd during the month of Safar, or nearly all of it, and then returned to
Medina without any fighting. There he remained for the month of
Rabl'u’l-Awwal, or a day or two less.

THE raid of al-furu* of bahran

Then he made a raid on Quraysh as far as Bahran, a mine in the Hijaz in
the neighbourhood of Al-FuruV He stayed there for the next two months
anti then returned to Medina without fighting (56/)*

• T. omits the poem in the Sira and in its place has the lines above.

1 f.it. ’the mother of those who pray’; of. Sura 37. 43 - , - , ....

• The true text is in the Corrigenda. I take al-tayra to he the pi. of in ,ra. See Lane,

,9 ° 4 ThTscnse is not very clear. The glossary to 'lab. 23 5 tentatively suggests that the

crn-inv dare not pitch camp there.

4 ] fallow dc Jong’s conjecture and read aUnadr for al-na$r.

5 A t illage near Medina.

545

The Life of Muhammad 363

THE AFFAIR OF THE B. QAYNUQA*

Meanwhile there was the affair of the B. Qaynuqah The apostle assembled
them in their market and addressed them as follows: ‘O Jews, beware lest
God bring upon you the vengeance that He brought upon Quraysh and
become Muslims. You know that I am a prophet who has been sent—
you will find that in your scriptures and God’s covenant with you.’ They
replied, ‘O Muhammad, you seem to think that we arc your people. Do
not deceive yourself because you encountered a people with no knowledge
of war and got the better of them; for by God if we fight you, you will find
that w T e are real men!’

A freedman of the family of Zayd b. Thabit from Sa'Id b. Jubayr or from
'Ikrima from Ibn 'Abbas told me that the latter said the following verses
came down about them:

‘Say to those who disbelieve: you will be vanquished and gathered to
Hell, an evil resting place. You have already had a sign in the two forces
which met’, i.c. the apostle’s companions at Badr and the Quraysh.
‘One force fought in the way of God; the other, disbelievers, thought they
saw double their own force with their very eyes. God strengthens with
His help whom He will. Verily in that is an example for the discerning.”

*Asim b. ‘Umar b. Qatada said that the B. Qaynuqa' were the first of the
Jews to break their agreement with the apostle and to go to war, between
Badr and Uhud (568), and the apostle besieged them until they surrendered 546
unconditionally. 'Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul went to him when God
had put them in his power and said, ‘O Muhammad, deal kindly with my
clients’ (now they were allies of Khazraj), but the apostle put him off.

He repeated the words, and the apostle turned away from him, whereupon
he thrust his hand into the collar of the apostle’s robe (569); the apostle
was so angry that his face became almost black. He said, ‘Confound you,
let me go.’ He answered, ‘No, by God, I will not let you go until you deal
kindly with my clients. Four hundred men without mail and three hundred
mailed protected me from all mine enemies; would you cut them down in
one morning? By God, I am a man who fears that circumstances may
change.’ The apostle said, ‘You can have them (570).’

My father Ishaq b. Yasur told 'me from ‘Ubada b. al-Walid b. 'Ubada
b. al-Samit who said: when the B. Qaynuqa' fought the apostle ‘Abdullah
b. Ubayy espoused their cause and defended them, and ‘ Ubada b. al-Sfmnt,
who was one of the B. ‘Auf, who had the same alliance with them as had
‘Abdullah, went to the apostle and renounced all responsibility for them
in favour of God and the apostle, saying, ‘O apostle of God, 1 take God
and His apostle and the believers as my friends, and I renounce mv
agreement and friendship with these unbelievers.’ Concerning him and
‘Abdullah b. Ubayy, this passage from the chapter of the Table came down : 2

1 Sura 3 . 10 . 1 Sura 3 . 56 f.

3 64 The Life of Muhammad

‘O you who believe, take not Jews and Christians as friends. They are
friends one of another. Who of you takes them as friends is one of them.
God will not guide the unjust people. You can see those in whose heart
547 there is sickness’, i.e. 'Abdullah b. Lbayy when he said, I fear a change
of circumstances.’ ‘Acting hastily in regard to them they say we fear that
change of circumstances may overtake us. Peradventure God will bring
victory or an act from Him so that they will be sorry for their secret
thoughts, and those who believe will say, Are these those who swore by
God their most binding oath?’ [that they were with you], as far as God’s
words, ‘Verily God and His apostle are your friends, and those who
believe, who perform prayer, give alms and bow in homage, mentioning
*Ubada taking God and" His apostle and the believers as friends, and
renouncing his agreement and friendship with the B. Qaynuqa , 1 hose who
take God and His apostle and the believers as friends, they are God’s party,
they are the victorious.’

THE RAID OF ZAYD B. HARITIIA TO AL-QARADA

The story of the foray of Zayd who captured the caravan of Quraysh, in
which was Abu Sufyan b. Iiarb, when the apostle sent him to al-Qarada,
a watering-place in Najd, is as follows:

Quraysh were afraid to follow their usual route to Syria after what had
happened at Badr, so they went by the Iraq route. Some of their merchants
went out, among whom was Abu Sufyan, carrying a great deal of silver
which formed the larger part of their merchandise. They hired a man from
the B. Bakr b. Wa’il called Furat b. Hayyati to conduct them by that route
(571). The apostle duly sent Zayd, and he met them by that watering-place
and captured the caravan and its contents, but the men got away. He
brought the spoil to the apostle.

Hassan b. Thabit after Uhud concerning the last raid of Badr taunted
Quraysh for taking the Iraq road thus:

You can say good-bye to the streams of Damascus, for in between
Are swords like the mouths of pregnant camels who feed on arak trees
In the hands of men who migrated to their Lord
And His true helpers and the angels.

548 If they go to the lowland of the sandy valley
Say to them, There is no road here (572). 1

THE KILLING OF KA'b B. AL-ASHRAF

After the Quraysh defeat at Badr the apostle had sent Zayd b. Haritha to
the lower quarter and 'Abdullah b. Rawaha to the upper quarter to tell the
Muslims of Medina of God’s victory and of the polytheists who had been
killed. 'Abdullah b. al-Mughith b. Abu Burda al-Zafar! and 'Abdullah b.
Abu Bakr b. Muhammad b. 'Amr b. Hazm and 'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada

1 Cf. W. 667.

The Life of Muhammad 365

and Salih b. Abu Umama b. Sahl each gave me a part of the following
story: Ka'b b. al-Ashraf who tvas one of the Tayyi’ of the subsection B.
Nabhan whose mother was from the B. al-Nadlr, when he heard the news
said, ‘Is this true? Did Muhammad actually kill these whom these two
men mention ? (i.e. Zayd and 'Abdullah b. Rawaha). These are the nobles
of the Arabs and kingly men; by God, if Muhammad has slain these people
’twerc better to be dead than alive.’ 1

When the enemy of God became certain that the news was true he
left the town and went to Mecca to stay with al-Muttalib b. Abu Wada'a
b. Dubayra al-Sahml w f ho was married to 'Atika d. Abu’l-Ts b. Umayya
b. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Manaf. She took him in and entertained him
hospitably. He began to inveigh against the apostle and to recite verses
in which he bewailed the Quraysh who were thrown into the pit after
having been slain at Badr. He said:

Badr’s mill ground out the blood of its people.

At events like Badr you should weep and cry.

The best of the people were slain round their cisterns, 549

Don’t think it strange that the princes were left lying.

How many noble handsome men,

The refuge of the homeless were slain,

Liberal when the stars gave no rain,

Who bore others’ burdens, ruling and taking their due fourth.

Some people w'hose anger pleases me say
‘Ka'b b. al-Ashraf is utterly dejected’.

They are right. O that the earth when they were killed
Had split asunder and engulfed its people,

That he who spread the report had b^en thrust through
Or lived cowering blind and deaf.

I was told that all the Banu’l-Mughlra were humiliated
And brought low by the death of Abu’l-Hakim
And the tw r o sons of Rabi'a with him,

And Munabbih and the others did not attain (such honour) as those
who were slain. 2

I was told that al-Harith ibn Hisham
Is doing well and gathering troops
To visit Yathrib with armies,

For only the noble, handsome man protects the loftiest 3 reputation
( 573 )-

Hassan b. Thabit answered him thus:

Does Ka'b weep for him again and again
And live in humiliation hearing nothing ? 4

1 Lit- the inside of the earth is better than the outside.

3 Or ‘Tubba' did not’ (so A. Dh.). Waq, has hal for ma and al-tubba u for tcatubbau.

3 The reading must be 'ula, because yahnti governs an accusative.

4 The question is ironical: let him weep if he wants to. The text of this poem is dubious.

366 The Life of Muhammad

In the vale of Badr I saw some of them, the slain,

Eyes pouring with tears for them.

Weep fAtika], for you have made a mean slave weep
Like a pup following a little bitch.

God has given satisfaction to our leader

And put to shame and prostrated those who fought him.

Those whose hearts were torn with fear
Escaped and fled away (574).

550 A Muslim woman of B. Murayd, a clan of Ball who were allied attach
ments of B. Umayya b. Zayd, called al-Ja'adira answered Ka'b (575):

This slave shows great concern
Weeping over the slain untiringly. ■

May the eye that weeps over the slain at Badr weep on
And may Lu ayy b. Ghalib weep double as much!

Would that those weltering in their blood

Could be seen by those who live between Mecca’s mountains!

They would know for certain and would see
How they were dragged along by hair and beard. 1

Ka'b b. al-Ashraf answered her:

Drive off that fool of yours that you may be safe
From talk that has no sense!

Do you taunt me because I shed tears
For people who loved me sincerely?

As long as I live I shall weep and remember

The merits of people whose glory is in Mecca’s houses.

By my life Murayd used to be far from hostile
But now they are become as jackals.

They ought to have their noses cut off

For insulting the two clans of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib.

I give my share in Murayd to Ja'dar

In truth, by God’s house, between Mecca’s mountains.

• 3^9 (T. Then Ka b returned to Medina and composed amatory verses

about Ummu’l-Fadl d. al-Harith, saying:

Are you off without stopping in the valley
And leaving Ummu’l-Fadl in Mecca ?

Out would come what she bought from the pedlar of bottles,
Henna and hair dye.

What lies ’twixt ankle and elbow is in motion 2
When she tries to stand and does not.

Or, reading mahazzahum ‘the sword cuts above their beards and eyebrows'.

Presumably her buttocks are meant; they would be between her ankle and her elbow
as^she reclined. Large and heavy buttocks were marks of female beauty among the old

The Life of Muhammad 367

Like Umm Hakim when she was with us
The link between us firm and not to be cut.

She is one of B. 'Amir who bewitches the heart,

And if she wished she could cure my sickness.

The glory of w r omen and of a people is their father,

A people held in honour true to their oath.

Never did I see the sun rise at night till I saw her
Display herself to us in the darkness of the night!)

Then he composed amatory verses of an insulting nature about the
Muslim women. The apostle said—according to what 'Abdullah b.
al-Mughlth b. Abu Burda told me—‘Who will rid me of Ibnu’l-Ashraf?’
Muhammad b. Maslama, brother of the B. 'Abdu’I-Ashhal, said, ‘I will
deal with him for you, O apostle of God, I will kill him.’ He said, ‘Do so if
you can.’ So Muhammad b. Maslama returned and waited for three days
without food or drink, apart from what was absolutely necessary. When
the apostle was told of this he summoned him and asked him why he had
given up eating and drinking. He replied that he had given him an under¬
taking and he did not know whether he could fulfil it. The apostle said,

‘AH that is incumbent upon you is that you should try.’ He said, ‘O apostle
of God, we shall have to tell lies.’ He answered, ‘Say what you like, for 5S 1
you are free in the matter.’ Thereupon he and Silkan b. Salama b. Waqsh
who was Abu Na’ila one of the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal, foster-brother of Ka'b,
and 'Abbad b. Bishr b. Waqsh, and al-Harith b. Aus b. Mu'adh of the B.
'Abdu’l-Ashhal and Abu 'Abs b. Jabr of the B. Haritha conspired together
and sent Silkan to the enemy of God, Ka'b b. Ashraf, before they came to
him. He talked to him some time and they recited poetry one to the other,
for Silkan was fond of poetry. Then he said, ‘O I bn Ashraf, I have come to
you about a matter which I want to tell you of and wish you to keep secret.’
‘Very well,’ he replied. He went on, ‘The coming of this man is a great
trial to us. It has provoked the hostility of the Arabs, and they are all in
league against us. The roads have become impassable so that our families
are in want and privation, and we and our families are in great distress.’
Ka'b answered, ‘By God, I kept telling you, O Ibn Salama, that the things
1 warned you of would happen.’ Silkan said to him, ‘I want you to sell us
food and we will give you a pledge of security and you deal generously in
the matter.’ He replied, ‘Will you give me your sons as a pledge?’ He
said, ‘You want to insult us. I have friends who share my opinion and
I want to bring them to you so that you may sell to them and act generously,
and we will give you enough weapons for a good pledge.’ Silkan’s object
was that he should not take alarm at the sight of weapons when they
brought them. Ka'b answered, ‘Weapons are a good pledge.’ Thereupon
Silkan returned to his companions, told them what had happened, and
ordered them to take their arms. Then they went away and assembled with
him and met the apostle (576).

368 The Life of Muhammad

Thaur b. Zayd from ‘Ikrima from Ibn ‘Abbas told me the apostle walked
with them as far as BaqI'u’l-Gharqad. Then he sent them off, saying, ‘Go

552 in God’s name; O God help them.’ So saying, he returned to his house.
Now it was a moonlight night and they journeyed on until they came to his
castle, and Abu Na’ila called out to him. He had only recently married,
and he jumped up in the bedsheet, and his wife took hold of the end of it
and said, ‘You are at war, and those who are at war do not go out at this
hour.’ He replied, ‘It is Abu Na’ila. Had he found me sleeping he would
not have woken me.’ She answered, ‘By God, I can feel evil in his voice.’
Ka'b answered, ‘Even if the call were for a stab a brave man must answer
it.’ So he went down and talked to them for some time, while they conversed
with him. Then Abu Na’ila said, ‘Would you like to walk with us to
Shi'b al-'Ajiiz, so that we can talk for the rest of the night?’ ‘If you like,’
he answered, so they went off walking together; and after a time Abu
Na’ila ran his hand through his hair. Then he smelt his hand, and said,
‘I have never smelt a scent finer than this.’ They walked on farther and he
did the same so that Ka'b suspected no evil. Then after a space he did it
for the third time, and cried, ‘Smite the enemy of God!’ So they smote
him, and their swords clashed over him with no effect. Muhammad b.
Maslama said, ‘I remembered my dagger when I saw that our swords were
useless, and I seized it. Meanwhile the enemy of God had made such a
noise that every fort around us was showing a light. I thrust it into the
lower part of his body, then I bore down upon it until I reached his
genitals, and the enemy of God fell to the ground. Al-Harith had been
hurt, being wounded either in his head or in his foot, one of our swords
having struck him. We wont away, passing by the B. Umayya b. Zayd
and then the B. Qurayza and then Bu'ath until we wont up the Harra of
al-'Urayd. 1 Our friend al-Harith had lagged behind, weakened by loss of
blood, so wo waited for him for some time until he came up, following our
tracks. We carried him and brought him to the apostle at the end of the
night. We saluted him as he stood praying, and he came out to us, and we
told him that wo had killed God’s enemy. He spat upon our comrade’s
wounds, and both he and we returned to our families. Our attack upon
God’s enemy cast terror among the Jews, and there was no Jew in Medina
who did not fear for his life.’ 2

Ka f b b. Malik said:

553 Of them Ka'b was left prostrate there
(After his fall al-Nadlr wore brought low).

1 Harra is a district of black volcanic stone and *Uray<£ is one of the valleys yf Medina.

1 A photograph of the ruins of Ka'b’s castle is given in The Islamic Review, Sept. 1953,
p. 13 . There Dr. M, Hamidullah writes: ‘Towards the south [of Medina] in the eastern
lava plain near Wadi Mudbanib, there is a small hillock. On this the walls of the palace of
Ka'b Ibn al-Ashraf still stand, about a yard or a yard and a quarter in height, built of stone.
Inside the palace there is a well. ... In front of the palace, on the base of the hillock, there
are rims of a big cistern of water, built of.lime and divided into several sections, each con¬
nected with the other by means of clay pipes.’

The Life of Muhammad ^69

Swwd in hand we cut him down

By Muhammad’s order when he sent secretly by night
Ka b s brother to go to Ka'b.

He beguiled him and brought him down with guile
Mahmud was trustworthy, bold (577).

Abfi^i-Huqayqfsaid:' ^ ^ ° f Ka ' b “ d ° f &«*■» b.

What a fine band you met, O Ibnu’I-Huqayq
And you too, Ibnu’l-Ashraf,

Travelling by night with their light swords
Bold as lions in their jungle lair
Until they came to you in your quarter
And made you taste death with their deadly swords
eeking victory for the religion of their prophet
Counting their lives and wealth as nothing (578).

the affair of muhayyisa and huwayyisa

The apostle said, ‘Kill any Jew that falls into your power.’ ThereuDon

Muhayyisa b. Mas ud leapt upon Ibn Sunavna fr^'i t„ • 1 J 3
with whom thpv h»A 1 ajna (579), a Jewish merchant

• Z v and busmess relations, and killed him Hu wav

yisa was not a Muslim at the time though he was the elder brotW Wh en

‘d e t-B uwa JW> began to beat him, saying, ‘You enemy

° U ; dl v r y T kl hlm when much of the fat on your belly conies from his
wealth. Muhayyisa answered, ‘Had the one who ordered me to kill him
ordered me to kill you I would have cut your head off. He”aid tha! Z

^Bv God b if mT 6 ° f H ™ ay> ' i?a ’ S accc Ptance of Islam. The other replied

me ^He slid' ' YeTTv C d TTu ^ '° ““ me WOuld you have killed
___ w , • y es ’,ky God , had he ordered me to cut dff your head I

would have done so. He exclaimed, ‘By God a religion whiVb u *

you to this is marvellous!’ and he became a MusHm g

M ,,y S . told this st 7 y by a client of B. Haritha from the daughter of
Muhayyisa from Muhayyisa himself. g

Muhayyisa composed the following lines on the subject:

My mother’s son blames me because if I were ordered to kill him
I would smite his nape with a sharp sword,

A blade white as salt from polishing.

My downward stroke never misses its mark.

It would not please me to kill you voluntarily
Though we owned all Arabia from north to south (580)

b b

B 4080

37 <>

The Life of Muhammad

THE BATTLE OF UHUD

I have pieced together the following story about the battle of Uhud, from
what I was told by Muhammad b. Muslim al-Zuhrl and Muhammad b.
Yahya b. Hibban and ‘Asim b. ‘Umar b. Qatada and Al-Husayn b.
'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Amr b. Sa'd b. Mu'adh and other learned traditionists.
One or the other, or all of them, is responsible for the following narrative.
When the unbelieving Quraysh met disaster at Badr and the survivors
returned to Mecca and Abu Sufyan b. Harb had returned with his caravan,
‘Abdullah b. Abu Rabl'a and ‘Ikrima b. Abu Jahl and Safwan b. Umayya
walked with the men whose fathers, sons, and brothers had been killed
at Badr, and they spoke to Abu Sufyan and those who had merchandise in
that caravan, saying, ‘Men of Quraysh, Muhammad has wronged you and
killed your best men, so help us with this money to fight him, so that we
may hope to get our revenge for those we have lost,’ and they did so.

556 A learned person told me that it was concerning them that God sent
down: 1 ‘Those who disbelieve spend their money to keep others from the
way of God, and they will spend it, then they will suffer the loss of it, then
they will be overcome, and those who disbelieve will be gathered to Hell.’

So Quraysh gathered together to fight the apostle when Abu Sufyan did
this, and the owners of the caravan, with their black troops, and such of
the tribes of Kinana as would obey them, and the people of the low country.
Now Abu 'Azza al-Jumahl had been spared by the apostle at Badr because
he was a poor man with a large family. 2 He had been taken prisoner, and
said, ‘I am a poor man with a large family and great need, as you know,
so spare me,’ and the apostle let him go. Safwan said to him, ‘Now, Abu
'Azza, you are a poet so help us with your tongue and go forth with us.’
He replied, ‘Muhammad spared me and I do not want to go against him.’
He said, ‘No, but help us with your presence, and God is my witness that
if I return I will make you rich; and if you are killed I will treat your
daughters as my own. What befalls mine, whether good or ill, shall
befall yours.’ So Abu 'Azza went through the low country calling the B.
Kinana and saying:

Listen, sons of 'Abdu Manat, the steadfast,

You are stout warriors like your father,

Do not promise me your help a year hence,

Do not betray me, for betrayal is not right. 3

Musafi' b. 'Abdu Manat b. Wahb b. Hudhafa b. Jumah went out to the
B. Malik b. Kinana stirring them up and calling them to fight the apostle,
saying:

O Malik, Malik, foremost in honour,

I ask in the name of kindred and confederate,

1 SQra 8. 37. 1 v.s . W. p. 471.

3 The sting is in the tail where islam is used in the sense of ‘betrayal’.

The Life of Muhammad

Those who are next-of-kin and those who are not,

In the name of the alliance in the midst of the holy city
At the wall of the venerable Ka'ba.

Jubayr b. Mut lm summoned an Abyssinian slave of his called Wahshi
who could throw a javelin as the Abyssinians do and seldom missed the

mark. He said, Go forth with the army, and if you kill Hamza, Muham- 5S7

mad s uncle, m revenge for my uncle, Tu'ayma b. 'Adiy, you shall be free.' "
bo Uuraysh marched forth with the flower of their armv, and their black
troops and their adherents from the B. Kinana. and ihc people of the
lowland, and women in howdahs went with them to stir up their anger and
prevent then running away. Abu Sufyan, who was in command, went out
with Hind d Utba and 'Ikrima b. Abu Jahl went with Umm Hakim
, J ll ‘ I L nth b. Hisham b. al-Mughira; and al-Harith b. Hisham b
al-Mughira went with Fatima d. al-Walid b. al-Mughira ; and Safwan wen

of ''AbTll d h ^ b ' Amr b ' ' Umayr the Thaqafite who was the mother
„ Ab n U M k b ,' Umayya ( 5 8 i)- 'Amr b. al-'As went with

m m u b - al -F a ijaj "’ho was Umm 'Abdullah b. 'Amr

X a '' a , b - n A . bu Talha who was 'Abdullah b. ’Abdu’I-’Uzza b. 'Uthman b.'

Abdu I-Dar went with Sulafa d. Sa'd b. Shuhayd al-Ansariva who was
mother of the sons of Talha, Musafi', al-Julas and Kilab; they were killed
with their father that day. Khunas d. Malik b. al-Mudarrib, one of the
women ot the B. Malik b. His! went with her son Abu Aziz b. 'Umayr She
was the mother of Mu?’ab b. 'Umayr. 'Amra d. 'Alqama, one of the women
°f thic B^ al-IIaritli 1 ,. Abdu Manat b. Kinana went out. Whenever Hind
passed Wahslu or he passed by her, she would say, ‘Come on, you father
of blackness, satisfy your vengeance and ours.’ Wahshi had the title of
Abu Dasma. They went forward until they halted at 'Aynavn on a hill in
Hie valley of al-Sabkha of Qanat by the side of the wadi opposite Medina 1

• L ,, t e %° S jl e b Tc ab ° Ut ,hcm> and the Muslim » ha d encamped, he 558
to them, By God, I have seen (in a dream) something that augurs well
I saw cows and I saw a dent in the blade of my sword, and I saw that I had

Medi T/itTrf' nt0a n' r ? ngCOat 0f mail and 1 inter P r eted that .0 mean
Medina (582). If you think it well to stop in Medina and leave them where

they have encamped, for if they halt they will have halted in a bad position
7 'L'ZTtmT C,ty ’ we can fight them ‘herein, (that is a good

thought dffil aH 5 ' l M 3yy b ' Salfll agrCed with ,he a P° stk this, and

disliked ,h “U,'° U n0 ‘ 8 °" t0 fight ,hcm ' and ‘he apostle himself

disliked the idea of leaving the city. Some men whom God honoured with

martyrdom at Uhud and others who were not present at Badr said ‘O

apost e of God, lead us forth to our enemies, lest they think that we are too

cowardly and too weak to fight them.’ ’Abdullah said, 'O apostle of God,

1 See M. Hamidullah in R.E.T. i 9lg> j_ n

Friday, 'ww & „nd remained .here till

v.U« y of U b ud and they met on th e “ ' h '

37 2 The Life of Muhammad

stay in Medina, do not go out to them. We have never gone out to fight an
enemy but we have met disaster, and none has come in against us without
being defeated, so leave them where they are. If they stay, they stay in an evil
predicament, and if they come in, the men will fight them and the women
and children will throw stones on them from the walls, and if they retreat
they will retreat low-spirited as they came.’ Those who wanted to fight
Quraysh kept urging the apostle until he went into his house and put on
his armour. That was on the Friday when he had finished prayers. On
that day one of the Ansar, Malik b. 'Amr one of the B. al-Najjar died, and
the apostle prayed over him, and then went out to fight. Meanwhile the
people had repented of their design, saying they thought they had persuaded
the apostle against his will, which they had no right to do, so that when he
went out to them they admitted that and said that if he wished to remain
inside the city they would not oppose him. The apostle said, ‘It is not
fitting that a prophet who has put on his armour should lay it aside until

559 he has fought,’ so he marched out with a thousand of his companions (583),
until when they reached al-Shaut between Medina and Uhud, ‘Abdullah b.
Ubayy withdrew with a third of the men, saying, ‘He has obeyed them and
disobeyed me. We do not know why we should lose our lives here, O
men.’ So he returned with the waverers and doubters who followed him,
and 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Haram, brother of the B. Salama, followed them,
saying, ‘O people, I adjure you by God not to abandon your people and
your prophet when the enemy is at hand.’ They replied, ‘If we knew that
you w r ould fight we would not abandon you, but we do not think that there
will be a battle.’ So when they withstood him and persisted in withdrawing,
he said, ‘May God curse you, you enemies of God, for God will make His
prophet independent of you.’ Someone, not Ziyad, 1 from Muhammad b.
Ishaq from al-Zuhrf, said that on that day the Ansar said, ‘O apostle, should
we not ask help from our allies, the Jews?’ He said, ‘We have no need of
them.’ Ziyad said Muhammad b. Ishaq told me that the apostle went his
way until he passed through the harra of the B. Haritha and a horse
swished its tail and it caught the pommel of a sword so that it came out of
its sheath (584). The apostle, who liked auguries, though he did not
observe the flight of birds, said to the owner of the sword, ‘Sheath your
sword, for I can see that swords will be drawn today.’

Then the apostle asked his companions whether anyone could take them
near the Quraysh by a road which would not pass by them. Abu Khay-
thama, brother of B. Haritha b. al-Harith, undertook to do so, and he took
him through the harra of B. Haritha and their property until he came out
in the territory of Mirba' b. Qayzi who was a blind man, a disaffected
person. When he perceived the approach of the apostle and his men he
got up and threw dust in their faces saying, ‘You may be the apostle of

560 God, but I won’t let you through my garden!* I was told that he took a
handful of dust and said, ‘By God, Muhammad, if I could be sure that I

1 Ziyad b. ‘Abdullah al-Bakka’i.

The Life of Muhammad

rushed onhim to Id ^ thr ,° W y0ur fa “-’ The pcopfe

blmd man is bllnd of heart Wild oTSht “‘sv'fb 7 d"^ **«“•

Abdu’l-Ashhal rushed at him K f 'Jr ' , b ' Zayd ’ brother of B.

Lead with htbow?££$£“* ““

ground o P f the wad! T ^

NowQLay!h d h!!!!trAd^meis ne d° 1 2 fig ‘ U umil -e gnx'the word.-
which were in al-Sameha 2 S c ’!i rses 00se t0 P asture in some crops
When the to tbe MuriinS.

the crops of the B Qavla o he j° ^ ° nC of the An 5 5r ^id, 'Are
The apostle drew up^h!Jtroons for'hat'd ° n h WIth ° Ut * b1 ™*’

archers 'Abdullah b. Jubayl brother of B T 70 °wi He put over the
tinguished that day by his white varments' Tl b ' Auf Wh ° was dls '
he said, ‘Keep the cavalry away from us with vA™ S °, f chers - and
come on us from the rear w h i . , - our arrows and let them not

us; and ke p y 0 ”r p ace ‘ 0 '22 the bat, ! e in «« favour or agatnst

The apostle then pm „„ .A W T" 0 ?' g ° £ at from >' our direction.’
M ^, abb - ' U “ a y r . brother of B* Standard t0

which they"had l^Iirnwiih'th'em 1 ’'^ 0 ' 1 ' 3 ’°?° "' ith 200 horSes 561
commanded by Khalid b al WalM f™' Cava l r y on the left flank was
Jahl. 7 b ' lld; and on ‘he right by 'Ikrima b. Abu

up a sword and brandishe"d°22 ° f U1?ud ’ and he took M - 65
right?- Some men got up ,0 ,2 ifV 2 ° 2 2 2 * sw ” d with its

Abu Dujana Simak b. Kharasha brother of if'cA' “ fr ° m them untU
[M. 'Umar got up to take it „ ’■ B ' ba lda ’ got up to take it.

prophet turned awaf from ft d wtl take it with its right,' but the

the same words Then al 7,.tv, u rT 1Sbed 11 a second time using
rejected, and the two of them we al 'i Aww5m « ot U P and he too waf
&c.] H asked ma 7 i tT T 2 C f m0rtified - Then Abu Dujana,

‘Tlit voulould Ih L I” 8 2 P0StIe 0f God? ’ He answered!
that he would take it with 232 “ 2 b f ds ' Wh en he said

SfeftSSisS? “ =

•w« - -».

1 m th f man who took the sword

Fn hC tb Us f U Was the P ro P het ’ s word.

For the sake of God, of all the Lord

V ho doth to all their food afford.]

And he began to strut up and down between the lines.

1 i.e. use it as it ought and deserves to be used.

374 The Life of Muhammad

ja*far b. 'Abdullah b. Aslam, client of 'Umar b. al-Khattab, told me on
the authority of one of the Ansar of B. Salama that the apostle said when he
saw Abu Dujana strutting, ‘This is a gait which Allah hates except on an

occasion like this.’ 1 < ,

j „ 8 [T. Now Abu Sufyan had sent a messenger saying, You men of Aus and

Khazraj, leave me to deal with my cousin and we will depart from you, for
we have no need to fight you’; but they gave him a rude answer.]

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that Abu 'Amir Abdu Amr b.
Sayfi b Malik b. al-Nu'man, one of the B. Dubay'a who had separate
from the apostle and gone off to Mecca along with fifty young men of
al-Aus [T. among whom was 'Uthman b. Hunayf] though some people
say there were only fifteen of them, was promising Quraysh that if h e
his people no two men of them would exchange blows with him; and when
the battle was joined the first one to meet them was Abu 'Amir with the
<62 black troops and the slaves of the Meccans, and he cried out, O men o
Aus, I am Abu 'Amir.’ They replied, ‘Then God destroy your sight, you
impious rascal.’ (In the pagan period he was called ‘the monk - the apostle
called him ‘the impious’.) When he heard their reply he said Evil has
befallen my people since I left them.’ Then he fought with all his might,

pelting them with stones. , ,. __

Abu Sufyan had said to the standardbearers of the B. Abdu 1 -D ar >
inciting them to battle, ‘0 Band 'Abdu’l-Dar, you had charge of our flag
on the day of Badr-you saw what happened. Men are dependent on the
fortunes of their flags, so either you must guard our standard eftcien y
or you must leave it to us and we will save you the trouble (of defending) it.
They pondered over the matter and threatened him, saying, ‘Are we to
surrender our flag to you ? You will see tomorrow how we shall act when
battle is joined’ and that was just what Abu Sufyan wanted. W hen each
side drew near to the other Hind b. 'Utba rose up with the women that
were with her and took tambourines which they beat behind the men to
incite them while Hind was saying:

On ye sons of 'Abdu’l-Dar,

On protectors of our rear,

Smite with every sharpened spear!

She also said:

If you advance we hug you,

Spread soft rugs beneath you;

If you retreat we leave you,

Leave and no more love you (586). 2

The people went on fighting until the battle grew hot, and Abu Dujana
fought until he had advanced far into the enemy’s ranks (587).

1 In M. 166 ) the verse given by 1 . 1 . 563 follows here. n Cf

2 Almost the same words were used by a woman of B. Ijl at the battle of Dhu Q< • •

Naqaitf, 641.

The Life of Muhammad 375

Whenever he met one of the enemy he killed him. Now among the 563
pagans there was a man who dispatched every man of ours he wounded.
These two men began to draw near one to the other, and I prayed God that
He would make them meet. They did meet and exchanged blows, and the
polytheist struck at Abu Dujana, who warded off the blow with his shield ;
his sw r ord sank into the shield so that he could not withdraw it, and Abu
Dujana struck him and killed him. Then I saw' him as his sword hovered
over the head of Hind d. 'Utba. Then he turned it aside from her. Al-
Zubayr said, ‘And I said, “God and His apostle know best.’’ ’

Abu Dujana said, ‘I saw a person inciting the enemy, shouting violently,
and I made for him, and when I lifted my sword against him, he shrieked,
and lo, it w 7 as a woman; I respected the apostle’s sword too much to use it
on a woman,’

Hamza fought until he killed Arta b. 'Abdu Shurahbll b. Hashim b.
'Abdu Manaf b. 'Abdu’l-Dar who was one of those w r ho w 7 ere carrying the
standard. Then Siba' b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza al-Ghubshani, w r ho was known as
Abu Niyar, passed by him, and Hamza said, ‘Come here, you son of a
female circumciser.’ Now his mother was Umm Anmar, freed woman of
Shariq b. 'Amr b. Wahb al-Thaqafl (588), a female circumciser in Mecca.
When they closed Hamza smote him and killed him.

WahshI* the slave of Jubayr b. Mut'im, said, ‘By God, I was looking at 564
Hamza while he was killing men with his sword, sparing no one, like a huge
camel , 1 when Siba'came up to him before me, and Hamza said, “Come here,
you son of a female circumciser,” and he struck him a blow' so swiftly that
it seemed to miss his head. I poised my javelin until I was sure that it
would hit the mark, and launched it at him. It pierced the lower part of his
body and came out between his legs. He came on towards me, but
collapsed and fell. I left him there until he died, when I came and re¬
covered my. javelin. Then I w r ent off to the camp, for I had no business
with anyone but him.’

'Abdullah b. al-Fadl b. 'Abbas b. Rabi'a b. al-Harith from Sulayman b.
Yasar from Ja'far b. 'Amr b. Umayya al-Damri told me: T w'ent out with
'Ubaydullah b. 'Adiy b. al-Khiyar brother of the B. Naufal b. 'Abdu
Manaf in the time of Mu'awiya b. Abu Sufyan and we made an excursion
with the army. When w r e came back we passed by Hims where WahshI had
taken up his abode. When we arrived there 'Ubaydullah said to me, “Shall
we go and see WahshI and ask him how 7 he killed Hamza ?” “If you like,”

I said. So we w : ent to inquire about him in Hims. While we w 7 ere doing so
a man said to us, “You will find him in the courtyard of his house. He is a
man much addicted to wine; and if you find him sober, you will find an
Arab and will get what you want from him in answer to your questions;
but if you find him in his usual state, then leave him alone.” So w r e walked
off to find him, and there he was in the courtyard of his house upon a

1 Lit. ‘dust coloured'. Camels of this colour were unusually large so that the speaker
means that yamza towered over his opponents.

376 The Life of Muhammad

carpet, an old man like a bughath (589). He was quite sober and normal.
We saluted him, and he lifted his head to look at 'Ubaydullah, and said,
“Are you the son of 'Adiy b. al-Khiyar ?” and when he said he was, he said,
“By God, I have not seen you since I handed you to your Sa'dite mother

565 who nursed you in Dhu Tuwa. 1 I handed you to her when she was on her
camel, and she clasped you round your body with her two hands. You
kicked 2 me with your feet when I lifted you up to her. By God, as soon as
you stood in front of me I recognized them/’ We sat down and told him
that we had come to hear his account of how he killed Hamza. He said,
“I will tell you as I told the apostle when he asked me about it. I was a
slave of Jubayr b. Mu$'im, whose uncle Tu'ayma b. 'Adiy had been killed
at Badr, and when Quraysh set out for Uhud, Jubayr told me that if I
killed Hamza, Muhammad’s uncle, in revenge for his uncle, I should be
free. So I went out with the army, a young Abyssinian, skilful like my
countrymen in the use of the javelin—I hardly ever missed anything with
it. When the fight began I went out to look carefully for Hamza, until I
saw him in the midst of the army, like a great camel, slaying men with his
sword, none being able to resist him, and by God, I was getting ready for
him, making towards him and hiding myself behind trees or rocks so that
he might come near me, when suddenly Siba' got to him first, and when
Hamza saw him, he said, “Come here, you son of a female circumciser,”
and struck him a blow so swiftly that it seemed to miss his head. I poised
my javelin until I was sure that it would hit the mark and launched it at
him. It pierced the lower part of his body and came out between his legs,
and he began to stagger towards me. Then he collapsed, and I left him
with the javelin until he died; then I came back and recovered my javelin,
and returned to the camp and stayed there, for I had no further business,
and my only object in killing him was that I might be freed. When I
returned to Mecca I was freed and lived there until the apostle conquered
Mecca, when I fled to al-Ta’if, and stayed there for some time. When the
envoys of Ta’if went out to the apostle to surrender, I was in an impasse
and thought that I would go to Syria or the Yaman, or any other country,
and while I was in this anxiety a man said to me, “Good heavens, what is
the matter ? He does not kill anyone who enters his religion and pronounces
the shahadaT On hearing this I went out of the town to the apostle at
Medina, and the first thing to surprise him was to see me standing at his
head, witnessing to the truth of God and His apostle. When he saw me he
said, “Is it Wahshi?” “Yes, O apostle of God,” I said. He replied, “Sit

566 down and tell me how you killed Hamza.” So I told him as I have told
you. When I had finished he said, “Woe to you, hide your face from me
and never let me see you again.” So I used to avoid the apostle wherever
he was so that he should not see me, until God took him.

1 A place in Mecca.

2 Or. perhaps, ‘Your feet looked shiny to me’. In what respect this person’s feet were not
normal is not indicated.

The Life of Muhammad 377

“When the Muslims went out against Musaylima, the false prophet, lord
of the Yamama, I accompanied them, and I took the javelin with which I
had killed Hamza, and when the armies met I saw Musaylima standing
with a sword in his hand, but I did not recognize him. I made ready for
him and so did one of the Ansar from the other side, both of us intending
to kill him. I poised my javelin until I was sure that it would hit the mark,
and launched it at him, and it pierced him, and the Ansar! rushed at him
and smote him with his sword, so your Lord knows best which of us killed
him. If I killed him, then I have killed the best man after the apostle and
I have also killed the worst man.” ’

[When he came to Medina the men said ‘O apostle, this is Wahshi’ to S.
which he replied ‘Let him alone for that one man should accept Islam is
dearer to me than the killing of a thousand unbelievers.’] 1

'Abdullah b. al-Fadl from Sulayman b. Yasar from ‘Abdullah b. 'Umar
b. al-Khattab who was present at Yamama said, I heard someone shouting,
‘The black slave has killed him’ (590).

Mus'ab b. 'Umayr fought in the defence of the apostle until he was
killed. The one who killed him was Ibn Qami’a al-Laythi, who thought he
was the apostle, so he returned to the Quraysh and said, ‘I have killed
Muhammad.’ When Mus'ab was killed the apostle gave the standard to
'All, and 'All and the Muslims fought on (591).

Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas killed Abu Sa'd b. Abu Talha; 'Asim b. Thabit b. 567
Abu’l-Aqlah fought and killed Musafi' b. Talha and his brother al-Julas,
shooting both of them with an arrow. Each came to his mother, Sulafa,
and laid his head in her lap. She said, ‘Who has hurt you, my son?’
and he replied, ‘I heard a man saying as he shot me, “I am Ibn Abu’l-
Aqlah, take that!”’ She swore an oath that if God ever let her get
the head of 'Asim she would drink wine from it. It was ‘Asim who had
taken God to witness that he would never touch a polytheist or let one
touch him.

'Uthman b. Abu Talha said that day as he was carrying the standard of
the polytheists:

It is the duty of standardbearers

To blood their spears until they are broken to pieces.

Hamza killed him.

Hanzala b. Abu 'Amir, the washed one, and Abu Sufyan met in combat,
and when Hanzala got the better of him, Shaddad b. al-Aswad, who was
Ibn Sha'ub, saw that he had beaten Abu Sufyan, and so he struck him and 568
killed him. The apostle said, ‘Your companion, Hanzala, is being washed
by the angels.’ They asked his family about his condition, and when his
wife was asked, she said that he had gone out to battle when he heard the
cry while in a state of ritual impurity (592).

1 The passage in brackets is taken from Yunus’ ritvaya. It is cited from Suhayli (ii. 132
in W. ii in loc.

378 The Life of Muhammad

The apostle said, ‘For this reason the angels washed him.’ Shaddad said
about his killing Hanzala:

I protect my friend and myself

With a thrust that pierces like the rays of the sun.

Abu Sufyan, mentioning his hardihood on that day and the help that Ibn
Sha'ub gave him against Hanzala, said:

Had I wished it my swift bay could have saved me,

And I should owe no thanks to Ibn Sha'ub.

It remained but a stone’s throw off
From early morn till set of sun;

I fought them and cried, ‘On, Ghalib!’

I beat them from me with firm strength;

Heed not the remonstrance of others,

Grow not weary of tears and sighs,

Weep for thy father and his brothers who have passed away,

Their fate deserves thy tears;

My former sorrow is relieved
Because I killed the best men of Najjar,

And Hashim’s noble stallion and Mus'ab
Who was not cowardly in war.

Had I not slaked my vengeance on them,

My heart had been seared and scarred.

569 They retired their (Meccan) vagabonds dead 1

Thrust through, bleeding, prostrate. 2
Those not their equals in blood smote them
And those who were beneath them in rank (593). 3

Ibn Sha'ub, mentioning the way he helped Abu Sufyan and defended him,
said:

Had I not been there and defended you, Ibn Harb,

You would have been left speechless for ever at the mountain foot.

1 Jalabib is said to mean ‘leather aprons or coverings’, as though it were the plural of
jilbab. Though Meccans exported leather, that can hardly have been matter for reproach
because leather was sent to the Negus as a gift known to be highly prized in Abyssinia,
Moreover, why should Abu S.ufyan reproach his fellow townsmen for wearing garments
which presumably differed in no way from those worn by other Meccans? It is clear that
the word is an insult, and the question is why ? Hassan’s poem (W. 738, Dhcan cxl) attacking
the muhajirs begins:

The Jalabib have become powerful and numerous
and I. Salul (W. 726) uses the same words to express his anger and dislike of the emigrants.
Therefore it seems that the origin of the insult is to be sought in jalab ‘a thing driven or
brought from one town to another’ indjorjalib ‘an imported slave’; and so some such w r ord
as ‘vagabonds’ is as near as one can get to the meaning. See W. Arafat, The Poems ascribed
to Hassdn ibn Thdbit, 146, where he adopts the rendering ‘tramps’.

1 Reading kabtbu.

3 The meaning would appear to be that the muhajirs were killed by negroes and brigand
mercenaries, though there may be a reference to the killing of fjamza by Wahshi.

379

The Life of Muhammad

Had I not brought my horse back there,

Hyaenas or jackals would have devoured your flesh (594).

Al-Harith b. Hisham, answxring Abu Sufyan, said:

Had you seen what they did at Badr’s pool

You would have returned with fear in your heart as long as you live;

(Or you would have been killed and I should have caused

Weeping women to weep for you,

And you would not have felt sorrow for the loss of a dear one).

I paid them back in kind for Badr

On a spirited galloping prancing horse (595).

Then God sent down His help to the Muslims and fulfilled His
promise. They slew the enemy with the sword until they cut them off from
their camp and there was an obvious rout.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father from f Ab- 57°
dullah b, al-Zubyr from Zubayr said: I found myself looking at the anklets
of Hind d. 'Utba and her companions, tucking up their garments as they
fled. There was nothing at all to prevent anyone seizing' them when the
archers turned aside to the camp w r hen the enemy had been cut off from it
(T. making for the spoil). Thus they opened our rear to the cavalry and
we were attacked from behind. Someone called out ‘Ha, Muhammad has
been killed.’ We turned back and the enemy turned back on us after we
had killed the standardbearers so that none of the enemy could come near
it (596).

A traditionist told me that the standard lay on the ground until ‘Amra
the Harithite d. 'Alqama took it up and raised it aloft for Quraysh so that
they gathered round it. It had been with Su’ab, a slave of B. Abu Talha,
an Abyssinian. He was the last of them to take it. He fought until his
hands were cut off; then he knelt upon it and held the flag between his
breast and throat until he was killed over it, saying the while ‘O God, have
I done my duty?’ 1 He could not pronounce the dhal.

Hassan b. Thabit said about that:

You boasted of your flag, the worst (ground for) boasting
Is a flag handed over to Su’ab.

You have made a slave your boast,

The most miserable creature that walks the earth.

You supposed (and only a fool so thinks,

For it is anything but the truth)

That fighting us the day we met

Was like your selling red leather sacks in Mecca.

It gladdened the eye to see his hands reddened,

Though they were not reddened by dye (597).

1 Lit. ‘Am I excused ?’

38° The Life of Muhammad

57 1 Hassan also said about Amra and her raising the standard:

When 'Adal were driven to us
They were like fawns of Shirk 1
With strongly marked eyebrows.

We attacked them thrusting, slaying, chastising,

Driving them before us with blows on every side.

Had not the Harithite woman seized their standard
They would have been sold in the markets like chattels.

The Muslims were put to flight and the enemy slew many of them. It
was a day of trial and testing in which God honoured several with martyr¬
dom, until the enemy got at the apostle who was hit with a stone so that
he fell on his side and one of his teeth was smashed, his face scored, and his
lip injured. The man who wounded him was 'Utba b. Abu Waqqas.

Humayd al-TawIl told me from Anas b. Malik: The prophet’s incisor
was broken on the day of Uhud and his face was scored. The blood began
to run down his face and he began to wipe it away, saying the while, ‘How
can a people prosper who have stained their prophet’s face with blood while
he summoned them to their Lord?’ So God revealed concerning that: ‘It
is not your affair whether He relents towards them or punishes them, for
they are wrongdoers’ 2 (598).

572 Hassan b. Thabit said of 'Utba:

When God recompenses a people for their deeds

And the Rahman punishes them 3

May my Lord disgrace you, 'Utayba b. Malik,

And bring you a deadly punishment before you die.

ou stretched out your hand with evil intent against the prophet,

'Vou blooded his mouth. May your hand be cut off!

Did you forget God and the place you will go to
When the final misfortune overtakes you! (599).

According to what al-Husayn b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Amr b. Sa'd b.
Mu'adh told me on the authority of Mahmud b; 'Amr, when the enemy
hemmed him in, the apostle said: ‘Who will sell his life for us ?’ and Ziyad b.
al-Sakan with five of the Ansar arose. (Others say it was 'Umara b. Yazld
b. al-Sakan.) They fought in defence of the apostle man after man, all
being killed until only Ziyad (or Umara) was left fighting until he was
disabled. At that point a number of the Muslims returned and drove the

573 enemy away from him. The apostle ordered them to bring him to him
and made his foot a support for his head and he died with his face on the
apostle’s foot (600).

1 A.Dh. gives the forms Shurk and Shirk. Yaqut gives Shark as the name of a place in
the Hjjaz and Shirk as the name of a waterhole on the other side of the mountain of al-
Qunan in Asad territory. ’Ada! is a tribe of Khuzayma.

Sura 3. 123. 2 Reading icatfarrahum with C.

The Life of Muhammad 381

Abu Dujana made his body a shield for the apostle. Arrows were falling
on his back as he leaned over him, until there were many stuck in it. Sa'd
b. Abu Waqqas shot his arrows in defence of the apostle. He said, ‘I have
seen him handing me the arrows as he said “Shoot, may my father and my
mother be your ransom” until he would even hand me an arrow that had
no head, saying “Shoot with that”.’

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada said that the apostle went on shooting from
his bow until the bottom of it broke. Qatada b. al-Nu'man took it and kept
it. That day his eye was so injured that it lay exposed upon his cheek. 574
'Asim told me that the apostle restored it to its place with his hand and it
became his best and keenest eye afterwards.

Al-Qasim b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Rafi', brother of the B. 'Adly b. al-
Najjar, told me that Anas b. al-Nadr, uncle of Anas b. Malik, came to
'Umar b. al-Khattab and Talha b. 'Ubaydullah with men of the Muha-
jirun and Ansar who were dejected. He said, ‘What makes you sit there?’
They said, ‘The apostle has been killed,’ He answered, ‘Then what will
you do with life henceforth ? Get up and die in the way that the apostle
has died.’ Then he went towards the enemy and fought until he was
slain. Anas b. Malik was named after him.

Humayd al-TawIl told me from Anas, ‘We found seventy cuts (T. and
thrusts) in Anas b. al-Nadr that day and no one recognized him except his
sister, who knew him by the tips of his fingers (601).’

The first man to recognize the apostle after the rout when men were
saying ‘The apostle has been killed’ was Ka'b b. Malik, according to what
al-Zuhri told me. Ka'b said, ‘I recognized his eyes gleaming from beneath
his helmet, and I called out at the top of my voice “Take heart, you Mus¬
lims, this is the apostle of God,” but the apostle signed to me to be silent.’
When the Muslims recognized the apostle they took him up towards the
glen. He was accompanied by Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'All, Talha, al-Zubayr,
and al-Harith b. al-Simma and others. When the apostle climbed up the 575
glen Ubayy b. Khalaf overtook him, saying, ‘Where is Muhammad ? Let
me not escape if you escape.’ The people said ‘Shall one of us go for him ?’

The apostle said, ‘Let him alone,’ and when he came near he took a lance
from al-Harith. (I have been told that some people say that when the
apostle took it from him he shook himself free from us so that we flew off
from him as stinging flies fly off a camel’s back when it shakes itself (602).)
Then, turning to face him, he thrust him in the neck so that he swayed
and fell from his horse (603). Now Ubayy, according to what Salih b.
Ibrahim b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf told me, when he used to meet the
-apostle in Mecca, would say, ‘Muhammad, I have got a horse called 'Aud
which I feed every day on many measures of corn. I shall kill you when
l am riding it.’ The apostle answered, ‘No, I shall kill you, if God wills.’

Now when he returned to Quraysh he had a slight scratch on his neck,
which did not even bleed. He said, ‘By God! Muhammad has killed me.’
-They answered, ‘By,_Qod! You have lost heart. You are not hurt.’ He

382 The Life of Muhammad

answered, ‘He said to me in Mecca that he would kill me, and, by God, if
he had spat on me he would have killed me.’ The enemy of God died in
Sarif as they were taking him back to Mecca.

In reference to that Hassan b. Thabit said:

Ubayy showed the disbelief inherited from his father

The day the apostle met him in battle.

You came to him carrying a mouldering bone

And threatened him, ignorant of his office.

Banu’I-Najjar killed Umayya from among you

When he called on 'Aqil for help.

Rabl'a’s two sons perished when they obeyed Abu Jahl.

Their mother became childless.

Harith escaped when we were busy taking prisoners.

To capture him was not worth while (604). 1

576 Hassan b. Thabit also said:

Who will give a message from me to Ubayy ?

You have been cast into the nethermost hell;

Long have you pursued error,

Sworn vows that you would win.

Long have you indulged in such hopes,

But unbelief leads to disappointment.

A thrust from an angry warrior found you
One of a noble house, no miscreant.

Who surpasses all other creatures
When misfortunes befall.

When the apostle reached the mouth of the glen 'All came out and filled
his shield with water from al-Mihras 2 and brought it to the apostle, who
refused to drink it because its evil smell repelled him. However, he used
the water to wash the blood from his face and as he poured it over his head
he said: ‘The wrath of God is fierce against him who blooded the face of
His prophet.’

Salih b. Kaysan told me from an informant who got it from Sa'd b. Abu
Waqqas that the latter used to say: ‘I was never more eager to kill anyone
than I was to kill 'Utba b. Abu Waqqas; he was, as I know, of evil character
and hated among his people. It was enough for me (to hate him) that the'
apostle should say, “The wrath of God is fierce against him who blooded
the face of His prophet”.’

While the apostle was in the glen with a number of his companions
suddenly a troop of Quraysh came up the mountain (605). The apostle
said, ‘O God, it is not fitting that they should be above us,’ so ‘Umar

1 Reading asratuhu for usratuhu (so Dr. Arafat).

1 According to some commentators this is the name of a well at Ufmd. The word itself
can mean a stone trough beside a well.

The Life of Muhammad 383

and a number of emigrants fought until they drove them down the
mountain.

The apostle made for a rock on the mountain to climb it. He had become
heavy by reason of his age, and moreover he had put on two coats of mail,
so when he tried to get up he could not do so. Talha b. ‘Ubaydullah 577
squatted beneath him and lifted him up until he settled comfortably upon it.

Yahya b. ‘Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father from ‘Abdul¬
lah b. al-Zubayr from al-Zubayr said: ‘That day I heard the apostle saying
“Talha earned paradise when he did what he did for the apostle (606).’”

The army had fled away from the apostle until some of them went as far
as al-Munaqqa near al-A'was. 1 'Asim b. ‘Umar b. Qatada from Mahmud
b. Labid told me that when the apostle went out to Uhud Husayl b. Jabir,
who was al-Yaman Abu Hudhayfa b. al-Yaman, and Thabit b. Waqsh
were sent up into the forts with the women and children. They were both
old men and one said to the other, ‘What are you waiting for, confound
you ? Neither of us will live much longer. 2 We are certain to die today or
tomorrow, so let us take our swords and join the apostle. Perhaps God will
grant us martyrdom with him.’ So they took their swords and sallied out
until they mingled with the army. No one knew anything about them.
Thabit was killed by the polytheists and Husayl by the swords of the Mus¬
lims, who killed him without recognizing him. Hudhayfa said, ‘It is my
father.’ They said, ‘By God, we did not know' him,’ and they spoke the
truth. Hudhayfa said, ‘May God forgive you, for He is most compassion¬
ate.’ The apostle wanted to pay his blood-money, but Hudhayfa gave it
as alms to the Muslims and that increased his favour w'ith the apostle.

'Asim also told me that a man called Hatib b. Umayya b, Rafi', who had 578
a son called Yazid, was grievously wounded at Uhud and w-as brought to
his people’s settlement at the point of death. His kinsmen gathered round
and the men and w r omen began to say to him, ‘Good news of the garden
(of paradise), O son of Hatib.’ Now Hatib w r as an old man who had lived
long in the heathen period and his hypocrisy appeared then, for he said,
‘What good news do you give him? Of a garden of rue? 3 By God, you
have robbed this man of his life by your deception (and brought great
sorrow on me.’ Tab.).

‘Asim told me: ‘There was a man among us, a stranger of unknown
origin called Quzman. The apostle used to say when he was mentioned,

“He belongs to the people of hell.” On the day of Uhud he fought fiercely
and killed seven or eight polytheists single-handed, he being a stout
warrior. He was disabled by wounds and carried to the quarter of B.

Zafar. The Muslims began to say to him, “You have done gallantly, Quz¬
man, be of good cheer!” “Why should I,” he said, “I only fought for the
honour of my people; but for th^t I should not have fought.” And when

A place near Medina. 2 Only as long as a donkey’s drink.

3 The dead were buried with rue at their feet at this time. See Waqidi B M MS A
20737. LI. 63 a.

3 g 4 The Life of Muhammad

the pain of his wounds became unbearable he took an arrow from his
quiver, (T. cut the veins of his wrist, and bled to death. When the apostle
was told of this he said “I testify that I am truly God’s apostle’ 5 ).’ 1

Among those killed at Uhud was (T. the Jew) Mukhayrlq who was one
of the B. Tha'Iaba b. al-Fityun. On that day he addressed the Jews saying:
‘You know that it is your duty to help Muhammad, 5 and when they replie
that it was the Sabbath day, he said, ‘You will have no Sabbath,’ and taking
his sword and accoutrements, he said that if he was slain his property was
to go to Muhammad, who could deal with it as he liked. Then he joined
the apostle and fought with him until he was killed. I have heard that the
apostle said, ‘Mukhayrlq is the best of the Jews.’

579 Al-Harith b. Suwayd b. Samit was a hypocrite. He went out with the
Muslims to Uhud, and when the armies met he attacked al-Mujadhdhar b
Dhiyad al-Balawi and Qays b. Zayd, one of the B. Dubay'a, and killed
them. Then he joined the Quraysh in Mecca. Now the apostle, as they
say had ordered ‘Umar to kill him if he got the better of him, but he
escaped him and was in Mecca, Then he sent to his brother al-Julas desir¬
ing forgiveness so that he might return to his people, and God sent down
concerning him, as I have heard on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas: How can
God guide a people who have disbelieved after their belief, and after that
they have testified that the apostle is true and proofs have been given to
them. God will not guide an evil people’ 2 to the end of the passage (607).

Mu'adh b. ‘Afra’ had killed Suwayd b. al-Samit treacherously m some
other battle. He shot him with an arrow and killed him before the day of

Al-Husayn b. ‘Abdu’l-Rahman b. ‘Amr b. Sa‘d b. Mu'adh from Abu
Sufyan client of Ibn Abu Ahmad from Abu Hurayra said that he used to
say: ‘Tell me about a man who entered paradise never having prayed in his
580 life,’ and when the people did not know, they asked him who it. was and he
said, ‘Usayrim of the B. ‘Abdu’l-Ashhal, ‘Amr b. Thabit b. Waqsh. Al-
Husayn asked Mahmud b. Asad what were the facts of Usayrim, and he
replied that in spite of his people he had refused to accept Islam, but on the
day that the apostle marched out to Uhud he accepted it. He took his
sword, plunged into the heart of the battle, and fought until he was over¬
come by wounds. While the B. ‘Abdu’l-Ashhal were looking for their_ dead
in the battle suddenly they came upon him and marvelled that he should
be there when they had left him showing his dislike for Islam. They ashed

1 For the words in brackets I.I. has merely ‘and killed himself with it’.

Th" to a° repetition of wh.t U. «id on p. 356: Mu'atfi. Wiled Suwayd b. al-Stmit
before Islam Hwe he has said that Suwayd’s son killed al-Mujadhdhar and Qays treacher-
ouS at Uhud „"e said on p. 356. Both her, and on p. 3S.6 I.H. agrees that Suwayd son
killed al-Mujadhdhar and denies that he'killed Qays, giving as a proof the fact that I,..
does!not mention him among those slain a. Uhud. He further,tssern= th.
had killed Suwayd before Islam. The emphatic way in which I.I. states that Mu adh kilie
him (object before subject) would seem to indicate that I.I. knew of the rival story twice
repeated by I.H. but stuck to his guns.

The Life of Muhammad 385

him what had brought him, whether it was concern for his people or good¬
will towards Islam. He replied that it was the latter. ‘I believed in God
and His apostle and became a Muslim, Then I took my sword and fought
with the apostle until I met the fate you see.’ Soon afterwards he died in
their hands. When they mentioned him to the apostle he said, ‘Verily, he
belongs to the people of paradise.’

My father Ishaq from shaykhs of the B. Salama told me that ‘Amr b.
al-Jamuh was a man who was very lame. He had four lion-like sons who
were present at the apostle’s battles. On the day of Uhud they wanted to
detain him, saying that God had excused him. He came to the apostle and
told him that his sons wanted to keep him back and prevent his joining the
army, ‘Yet by God, I hope to tread the heavenly garden despite my lame¬
ness.’ The apostle said, ‘God has excused you, and Jihad is not incumbent
on youand to his sons he said, ‘You need not prevent him; perhaps God
will favour him with martyrdom,’ so he went along with him and was
killed at Uhud.

According to what Salih b. Kaysan told me, Hind d. ‘Utba and the 581
women with her stopped to mutilate the apostle’s dead companions. They
cut off their ears and noses and Hind made them into anklets and collars
and gave her anklets and collars and pendants to Wahshi, the slave of
Jubayr b. Mut'im. She cut out Hamza’s liver and chewed it, but she was
not able to swallow it and thre^ it away. 1 Then she mounted a high rock
and shrieked at the top of her voice:

We have paid you back for Badr

And a war that follows a war is always violent.

I could not bear the loss of ‘Utba

Nor my brother and his uncle and my first-born.

I have slaked my vengeance and fulfilled my vow.

You, O Wahshi, have assuaged the burning in my breast.

I shall thank Wahshi as long as I live
Until my bones rot in the grave.

Hind d. Uthatha b. 'Abbad b. al-Muttalib answered her:

You were disgraced at Badr and after Badr,

O daughter of a despicable man, great only in disbelief.

God brought on you in the early dawn
Tall and white-skinned men from Hashim,

Everyone slashing with his sharp sword:

Hamza my lion and 'All my falcon.

When Shayba and your father planned to attack me
They reddened their breasts with blood.

Your evil vow was the worst of vows (608).

1 This seems to be a survival of prehistoric animism. By devouring an enemy’s liver it was
hoped to absorb his strength.

B 4080 C C

386 The Life of Muhammad

Hind d. 'Utba also said:

I slaked my vengeance on Hamza at Uhud.

I split his belly to get at his liver.

This took from me what I had felt
Of burning sorrow and exceeding pain.

War will hit you exceeding hard
Coming upon you as lions advance.

582 Salih b. Kaisan told me that he was told that 'Umar said to Hassan, ‘O
Ibn al-Furay'a (609), I wish you had heard what Hind said and seen her
arrogance as she stood upon a rock uttering her taunts against us, remind¬
ing us of what she had done to Hamza.’ Hassan replied, ‘I was looking at
the lance as it fell, while I was on the top of Fari”—meaning his fort—‘and
I realized that it was not one of the weapons of the Arabs. It seemed to me
as though it was directed at Hamza, but I was not sure. But recite me some
of her verse: I will rid you of her.’ So 'Umar quoted some of what she
said and Hassan said:

The vile woman was insolent: her habits were vile;

Seeing that disbelief accompanied her insolence (610).

Al-Hulays b. Zabban, brother of the B. al-Harith b. 'Abdu Manat, who
was then chief of the black troops, passed by Abu Sufyan as he was striking
the side of Hamza’s mouth with the point of his spear saying, ‘Taste that,
you rebel.’ Hulays exclaimed, ‘O B. Kinana, is this the chief of Quraysh
acting thus with his dead cousin as you see?’ He said, ‘Confound you.
Keep the matter quiet, for it was a slip.’

When Abu Sufyan wanted to leave he went to the top of the mountain
and shouted loudly saying, ‘You have done a fine work; victory in w&r goes
by turns. Today in exchange for the day (T. of Badr). Show your superior¬
ity, Hubal,’ i.e. vindicate your religion. The apostle told 'Umar to get up
and answer him and say, ‘God is most high and most glorious. We are not
equal. Our dead are in paradise; your dead in hell.’ At this answer Abu

583 Sufyan said to 'Umar, ‘Come here to me.’ The apostle told him to go and
see what he was up to. When he came Abu Sufyan said, ‘I adjure thee by
God, 'Umar, have we killed Muhammad?’ ‘By God, you have not, he is
listening to what you are saying now,’ he replied. He said, ‘I regard you as
more truthful and reliable than Ibn Qami’a,’ referring to the latter’s claim
that he had killed Muhammad (611).

Then Abu Sufyan called out, ‘There are some mutilated bodies among
your dead. By God, it gives me no satisfaction, and no anger. I neither
prohibited nor ordered mutilation.’ When Abu Sufyan and his com¬
panions went away he called out, ‘Your meeting-place is Badr next year,’
The apostle told one of his companions to say, ‘Yes, it is an appointment
between us.’

Then the apostle sent 'All to follow the army and see what they were

The Life of Muhammad 387

doing and what their intentions were. If they were leading their horses
and riding their camels they would be making for Mecca; but if they were
riding the horses and driving the camels they w'ould be making for Medina.

T S d he S y the ? make for Medina I will go to them there. Then

I will fight them. All said that he followed their tracks and saw what they
were doing. They w^ere leading their horses, riding their camels and going
towards Mecca. (T. The apostle had said ‘Whatever they do, keep silent T 1410
about it until you come to me.’ When I saw they had set out for Mecca I
came back shouting. I could not hide the fact as the apostle had ordered

me because of my joy at seeing them going to Mecca and thus avoiding
Medina.) 6

The people searched for their dead, and the apostle said, according to
what Muhammad b. 'Abdul-Rahman b. AbG Sa'saa al-Mazini, Mother
of the B. al-Najjar told me, ‘Who will find out for me what has happened to
ba d b. al-Rabi . Is he alive or among the dead ?’ One of the Ansar volun-
teered and found him lying wounded among the slain, at the point of death.

He told him that the apostle had ordered him to see if he was alive or
among the dead. He said, ‘I am among the dead. Convey my greetings to
the apostle and say: “Sa'd says to you ‘May God reward yoJ by us better 584
than he has rewarded any prophet by his people,”’ and give your people a
greeting from me and say “You have no excuse with God if anything has
happened to your prophet while you can flutter an eyelid,’” and straight-
^vay he died. He said: ‘I came to the apostle and delivered his message’

I have been told that the apostle went out seeking Hamza and found him
at the bottom of the valley with his belly ripped up and his liver missing
and his nose and ears cut off. Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me
that when he saw this the apostle said: ‘Were it not that Saflya would be
miserable and it might become a custom after me 1 I would leave him as he
is, so that his body might find its way into the bellies of beasts and the
crops of birds. If God gives me victory over Quraysh in the future I will
mutilate 30 of their men.’ When the Muslims saw the apostle’s grief and
anger against those who had thus treated his uncle, they said ‘By God if
God gives us victory over them in the future we will mutilate them as no
Arab has ever mutilated anyone’ (613).

Bur a yd a b. Sufyan b. Farwa al-Aslami from Muhammad b. Ka'b al-
Qura^i, and a man I have no reason to suspect from Ibn 'Abbas told me 585
that God sent down concerning the words of the apostle and his com¬
panions If you punish, then punish as you have been punished. If you
endure patiently that is better for the patient. Endure thou patiently Thy
endurance is only in God. Grieve not for them, and be not in distress
at what they plot. 2 So the apostle pardoned them and was patient and

act Joukl b fotn h ; n ^ ", * r f , tW °” hy ‘ in ^tc S that the prophet was aware that his every
‘ rl j a Precedent for future generations. However, it is possible that the four

words in the Arabic text have been added. 2 S ura 16. 127.

388 The Life of Muhammad

forbade mutilation. Humayd al-Tawil from al-Hasan irom Samura b.
Jundub told me: ‘The apostle never stopped in a place and left it without
enjoining on us almsgiving and forbidding mutilation.’

One whom I do not suspect from Miqsam, a client of ‘Abdullah b. al-
Harith from Ibn ‘Abbas, told me that the apostle ordered that Hamza
should be wrapped in a mantle; then he prayed over him and said ‘Allah
Akbar’ seven times. Then the dead were brought and placed beside
Hamza and he prayed over them all until he had prayed seventy-two
prayers.

According to what 1 have been told Saflya d. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib came
forward to look at him. He was her full-brother and the apostle said to her
son, al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam, ‘Go to meet her and take her back so that
she does not see what has happened to her brother.’ He said to her,
‘Mother, the apostle orders you to go back.’ She said, ‘Why ? I have heard
that my brother has been mutilated and that for God’s sake [T. is a small
thing]. He has fully reconciled us to what has happened. I will be calm
and patient if God will.’ When Zubayr returned to the prophet and
reported this to him he told him to leave her alone; so she came and looked
at Hamza and prayed over him and said, ‘We belong to God and to God do
we return,’ and she asked God’s forgiveness for him. Then the apostle
ordered that he should be-buried. The family of 'Abdullah b. Jahsh, who
was the son of Umayma d. ‘Abdu’l-Muttalib, Hamza being his maternal
uncle, and he having been mutilated in the same way as Hamza except that
his liver had not been taken out, asserted that the apostle buried him in
the same grave with Hamza; but I heard that story only from his family.

Now some Muslims had carried their dead to Medina and buried them
586 there. The apostle forbade this and told them to bury them where they
lay. Muhammad b. Muslim al-Zuhrl from 'Abdullah b. Tha'laba b. Su'ayr
al-'Udhri, an ally of the B. Zuhra, told me that the apostle said when he
looked down on the slain at Uhud: ‘I testify concerning these that there is
none wounded for God’s sake but God will raise him on the resurrection
day with his wounds bleeding, the colour that of blood, the smell like
musk; look for the one who has collected 1 most of the Quran and put him
in front of his companions in the grave.’ They were burying two and three
in one grave.

My uncle Musa b. Yasar told me that he heard Abu Hurayra say: Abu’l-
Qasim 2 said, ‘There is none wounded for God’s sake but Gqd will raise
him on the resurrection day with his wounds bleeding, the colour that of
blood, the smell like musk.’

My father Ishaq b. Yasar told me on the authority of shaykhs of the B.
Salama that when the apostle ordered the dead to be buried he said, ‘Look
out for 'Amr b. al-Jamuh and ‘Abdullah b. *Amr b. Haram; they were
close friends in this world, so put them in one grave.’ (T. When Mu'awiya
dug the canal and they were exhumed they were as free from rigor mortis
1 i.e. learned. 2 i.e. Muhammad.

The Life of Muhammad ^89

as though buried but yesterday.) Then the apostle went back on his way
to Medina and there met him Hamna d. Jahsh, so I have been told. As she
met the army she was told of the death of her brother 'Abdullah and she
exclaimed, We belong to God and to God we return,’ and asked forgive¬
ness for him. Then she was told of the death of her maternal uncle Hamza,
and uttered the same words. Then she was told of the death of her hus¬
band Mus'ab b. 'Umayr and she shrieked and wailed. The apostle said:

The woman’s husband holds a special place with her, as you can see from
her self-control at the death of her brother and uncle and her shrieking
over her husband.’ 6

The apostle passed by one of the settlements of the Ansar of the B.
Abdu 1 -AshhaI and Zafar and he heard the sound of weeping and wailing
over the dead. The apostle’s eyes filled with tears and he wept and said
But there are no weeping women for Hamza.’ When Sa‘d b. Mu'adh and
IJsayd b. Hudayr came back to the quarter, they ordered their women to 587
gird themselves and go and weep for the apostle’s uncle.

Hakim b. Hakim b. 'Abbad b. IJunayf from a man of the B. 'Abdu’l-
Ashhal told me: ‘When the apostle heard their weeping over Hamza at the
door of his mosque he said “Go home; may God have mercy on you; you
have been a real help by your presence” ’ (614).

Abdu’l-Wahid b. Abu 'Aun from Isma'il b. Muhammad from Sa'd b.

Abu Waqqas told me that the apostle passed by a woman of the B. Dinar
whose husband, brother, and father had been killed at Uhud, and when
she was told of their death she asked what had happened to the apostle,
and when they replied that thanks to God he was safe, she asked that she
might see him for herself. When he was pointed out to her she said, ‘Every
misfortune now that you are safe is negligible’ (using the word jalal in the
sense of‘small’) (61 <;).

When the.apostle rejoined his family he handed his sword to his daughter 588
Fatima, saying, ‘Wash the blood from this, daughter, for by God it has
served me well today.’ 'All also handed her his sword and said, ‘This one
too, wash the blood from it, for by God it has served me well today ’ The
apostle said, ‘If you have fought well, Sahl b. Hunayf and Abu Dujana
fought well with you’ (616).

The battle was fought on the sabbath in mid-Shawwal; : and on the
morning of Sunday the 16th of the month the apostle’s crier called to the
men to go in pursuit of the enemy and announced that none should go out
wuth us unless he had been present at the battle on the preceding day.

Jabir b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Haram said, ‘O apostle of God, my father left
me behind to look after my seven sisters, saying that it w^as not right for us
both to leave the women without a man and that he was not one to give me
the precedence in fighting with the apostle. So I stayed behind to look
after them.’ The apostle gave him permission to go and he went out with
him. The apostle merely marched out as a demonstration against the

In W. this sentence is ascribed to I.H. Tab. supports C. Cf. p. 1427.

390 The Life of Muhammad

enemy to let them know that he was pursuing them so that they might
think he %vas in strength, and that their losses had not weakened them
'Abdullah b. Kharija b. Zayd b. Thabit from Abu’l-Sa’ib, a freed slave
of 'A’isha d. 'Uthman, told me that one of the apostle’s companions from
rgo the B. 'Abdul-Ashhal who had been present at Uhud said, 'I and one of
my brothers were present at Uhud and we came back wounded. Wien the
apostle’s crier announced that we must pursue the enemy, I sai to my
brother or he said to me, ‘Are we going to stay away from an expedition wit
the apostle ? We have no beast to ride and are severely wounded. However,
we marched out with the apostle and since my wound was less severe, w en
he was enfeebled I put him on the beast for a time and we walked and rode
turn and turn about until we came up to where the Muslims had halte .

The apostle went as far as HamraVl-Asad, about eight miles from
Medina (617). He stayed the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and

then returned to Medina. _

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that Ma'bad b. Abu Ma bad al-Khuza 1
passed by him. The Khuza'a, both their Muslims and polytheists, were
confidants of the apostle in Tihama, they having agreed that they would
not conceal from him anything that happened there. Now at this time
Ma'bad was a polytheist and he said, ‘Muhammad, we are distressed at
what has happened to you [T. with your companions] and we wish that
God would preserve you among them.’ Then he went out while the apostle
was in Hamra’u’l-Asad until he met Abu Sufyan and his men in al-Rauha
when they had determined to come back to the apostle and his companions.
They said, ‘We have killed the best of his companions, their leaders and
their- nobles. Shall we then go back before we have exterminated them.
Let us return to the survivors and make an end of them.’ W hen Abu
Sufyan saw Ma'bad he said, ‘What is the news ?’ He replied, ‘Muhammad
has come out with his companions to pursue you with an army whose like
I have never seen, burning with anger against you. Those who stayed
behind when you fought them have joined him; they are sorry for what
they did and are violently enraged against you. Never have I seen anything
, QO like it.’ He said, ‘Confound you, what are you saying?’ He answered. By
God, I do not think that you will move off before you see the forelocks of
the cavalry.’ He replied, ‘But we have determined to attack them to
exterminate their survivors.’ He answered, ‘But I would advise against
that. What I saw induced me to utter some verses about them. When he
asked what they were, he recited:

My mount almost fell with fright at the clamour
When the ground flowed with troops of horse
Hastening with noble lion-like warriors
[429 Eager for the fray; firm in the saddle ; J fully armed.

1 MU is the pi. of amval 'not fully armed’. It also means ‘unsteady in the saddle , a
meaning supported by T-’s khurq. However, the first is a cliche among the poet# and lS a
synonym of tna dzil » the word that follows it.

The Life of Muhammad 391

I continued to run, thinking the very earth was moving.

When they came up with the prince who never lacks support
I said, ‘Alas for Ibn Harb when he meets you
When the plain is surging with men.’

I warn the people of the sanctuary plainly
Every prudent and sensible man among them
Of Ahmad’s army—no poltroons his riders
And the warning 1 give is true.

These words turned back Abu Sufyan and his followers.

Some riders from 'Abdu’l-Qays passed him and he learned that they
were going to Medina for provisions. He said, ‘Will you take a message to
Muhammad for me ? And I will load these camels of yours tomorrow with
raisins in Ukaz, when you arrive there.’ They agreed, and he said, ‘Then
when you come to him tell him that we have resolved to come to him and
his companions to exterminate them.’ The riders passed by the apostle
when he was in Hamra’u’l-Asad and told him of what Abu Sufyan had said
and he exclaimed, ‘God is our sufficiency, the best in whom to trust (618).’

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri told me that when the apostle came to Medina 591
'Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul who had a place which he used to occupy
every Friday without opposition out of respect for him personally and his
people, he being a chief, got up when the apostle sat on the Friday address¬
ing the people and would say, ‘O people, this is God’s apostle among you.

God has honoured and exalted you by him, so help him and strengthen
him; listen to his commands and obey them.’ Then he used to sit down
until when he acted as he did on the day of Uhud and came back with his
men, he got up to do as he was wont and the Muslims took hold of his
garments and said, ‘Sit down, you enemy of God. You are not worthy of 592 -
that, having behaved as you did.’ So he went out stepping over the necks
of the men and saying, ‘One would think I had said something dreadful in
getting up to strengthen his case.’ One of the Ansar met him at the door
of the mosque and asked him what was the matter. He said, ‘I got up to
strengthen his case when some of his companions leapt upon me and
dragged me along with violence. One would think that I had said some¬
thing dreadful.’ He answered, ‘Go back and let the apostle ask forgiveness
for you.’ He said, ‘By God, I do not want him to.’

The day of Uhud was a day of trial, calamity, and heart-searching on
which God tested the believers and put the hypocrites on trial, those who
, professed faith with their tongue and hid unbelief in their hearts; and a day
in which God honoured with martyrdom those whom he willed.

PASSAGES IN THE QURAN WHICH DEAL WITH UHUD

Abu Muhammad 'Abdu’i-Malik b. Hisham told us from Ziyad b. 'Abdul¬
lah al-Bakka’I from Muhammad b. Ishaq al-Muttalibl: There are sixty

392 The Life of Muhammad

verses in ‘The Family of Imran’ 1 which God sent down concerning the
day of Uhud in which there is a description of what happened on that day
and the blame of those who merited His rebuke.

God said to His prophet: ‘And when you went forth early from your
family you assigned to the believers positions for the fighting, God hearing
(and) knowing’ (619). ‘Hearing’ what you said; ‘knowing’ about what you
were concealing.

‘When two parties of you thought they would fail,’ i.e. of deserting; and
the two parties were the B. Salima b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj and the B.
HSritha b. al-Nablt of al-Aus, they being the two wings.

593 God said: ‘And God was their friend,’ i.e. God protected them from the
cowardice they meditated because it was only the result of weakness and
feebleness which overcame them, not doubt in their religion, so He thrust
that from them in His mercy and pardon so that they were saved from
their weakness and feebleness and stuck to their prophet (620).

God said: ‘Upon God let the believers rely,’ i.e. the believer who is
Weak let him rely on Me and ask My help. I will help him in his affair and
protect him until I bring him to his appointed time of life and ward off evil
from him and strengthen him in his purpose.

‘God helped you at Badr when you were contemptible, so fear God that
you may be thankful,’ i.e. fear Me, for that is gratitude for My kindness.

‘God helped you at Badr’ when your numbers and strength were inferior
‘when thou didst say to the believers: “Is it not enough for you that your
Lord reinforced you with three thousand angels sent down? Nay, if you
are steadfast and fear God and they come on you suddenly your Lord will
reinforce you with five thousand angels clearly marked,’” i.e. ifyou are stead¬
fast against My enemy and obey My command and they come on you reck¬
lessly I will reinforce you with five thousand angels clearly marked (621).

594 ‘God did this only as good news for you that your hearts might be at
rest therein. Victory comes only from God, the Mighty the Wise,’ i.e. I
mentioned the armies of My angels only as good news for you and that
your hearts might be at rest therein, because I know your weakness and
victory comes only from Me because of My sovereignty and power for the
reason that power and authority belong to Me, not to any one of my
creatures.

Then He said: ‘that He may cut off a part of those who disbelieve or
overturn them so that they retire disappointed,’ i.e. to cut off a part of the
polytheists in a fight in -which He will take vengeance on them or drive
them back in chagrin, i.e. that those who survive may retreat as frustrated
fugitives having achieved nothing that they hoped to attain (622).

Then He said to Muhammad the apostle of God: ‘It is not your affair
whether He changes His attitude to them or punishes them, for they are
evil doers,’ i.e. you have no concern with My judgement of My slaves except
in so far as I give you orders concerning them or I change towards them

1 Sura 3. 117 f.

The Life of Muhammad 2 93

in my mercy, for if I wish I shall do so; or I shall punish them for their
sms for that is my prerogative; ‘for they are evil-doers,’ i.e. thev have
deserved that for their disobedience to Me. ‘And God is forgiving, merci¬
ful, i.e. He forgives sins and has mercy on His slaves according to’ what is
in them.

Then He said: ‘O ye who believe, Take not 2 usurv, doubling and quad- 595
ruphng, i.e. Do not devour in Islam, to which God has now guided vou
what you used to devour when you followed another religion; such is not
permitted to you in your religion. ‘And fear God, haply you may be pros-
perous i.e. So obey God, perhaps you may escape from His punishment
o which He has warned you, and attain His reward which He has made
you desire. And fear the fire which is prepared for the disbelievers,’ i.e.
which has been made a dwelling for those who disbelieve in Me.

Then He said: ‘And obey God and the apostle, haply you will attain
mercy’ reproaching those who disobeyed the apostle in the orders he gave
them that day and at other times. Then He said: ‘And vie with one
another for forgiveness from your Lord and a garden as w'ide as the
heavens and the earth prepared for those who fear (God),’ i.e. a dwelling
for those who obey Me and obey My apostle. ‘Those who spend (their
money) in ease and adversity and who control their wrath and are forgiving
to men, for God loves those who do well,’ i.e. that is well doing and I love
those who act thus. ‘And those who when they act unseemly or W'rong
themselves, remember God and ask forgiveness for their sins—and who
forgives sins but God ? and have not persisted in their actions knowingly,’
i.e. if they have acted unseemly or wronged themselves by disobedience,
they remember God’s prohibition and what He has declared evil, and ask
forgiveness, knowing that none can forgive sins but He. ‘And have not
persisted in their actions knowingly,’ i.e, have not continued to disobey Me
like those who associate others with Me in the extravagance of their dis¬
belief while they know that I have prohibited the worship of any but
Myself. ‘The reward of such is forgiveness from their Lord and gardens
beneath which run rivers, in which they will abide for ever—a fine reward
for workers,’ i.e. the reward of the obedient.

Then He mentioned the catastrophe which befell them and the mis-

jt 1 ? 6 W ^ 1Ch CamC Up ° n them and the trial (° f the faith) that was in them
and His choice of martyrs from among them, and He said comforting them
and telling them of what they had done and what He was about to do with
them: Examples have been made before your time, so go through the land
and see the nature of the punishment of those who called (apostles) liars,’
i.e. vengeance came from me upon those who gave the lie to My apostles
and associated others with Me (such as) 'Ad and Thamud and the people
of Lot and the men of Midian and they saw what I did to them and to those 506
m like case with them, for I was forbearing to them purely for the reason
that they should not think that My vengeance was cut off from your enemy

1 ° r ' <in S P ite ° r - 2 V. 125, lit. ‘devour not*.

394 The Life of Muhammad

and mine in the time in which I let them get the better of you to test you
thereby to show you your true selves.

Then He said: ‘This is a plain statement to men and guidance and
admonition to those that fear God/ i.e. this is an explanation to men if they
receive guidance; ‘and guidance and admonition/ i.e. a light and discipline
‘to those who fear/ i.e. to those who obey Me and know My command¬
ment ; ‘and do not wax faint or be sad/ i.e. do not become weak and despair
at what has befallen you ‘you being the superiors/ i.e. you will have the
victory ‘if you believe/ i.e. if you had believed in what My prophet
brought from Me. ‘If you have received a shock the (Meccan) army
received a shock likewise/ i.e. wounds like yours. ‘These are days which
We alternate among men/ i.e. we change them among men for trial and
search; ‘and that God may know those who believe and may choose
martyrs from among you, and God loves not wrongdoers/ i.e. to distinguish
between believers and hypocrites and to honour some of the faithful with
martyrdom. ‘And God loves not wrongdoers/ i.e. the hypocrites who pro¬
fess obedience with their tongues while their hearts are firm in dis¬
obedience; ‘and that God may try those who believe/ i.e. put to the test
those who believe, so that He may purify them by the misfortune which
came upon them, and their constancy and certainty; ‘and confound the
disbelievers/ i.e. bring to naught what the hypocrites say with their tongues
that is not in their hearts until He brings to light their disbelief which they
are concealing.

Then He said: ‘Or do you think that you will enter the garden when
God does not yet know those of you who arc energetic and steadfast?’ i.e.
Do you think that you will enter the garden and receive the honour of My
reward when I have not tested you with hardship and tried you with mis¬
fortune so that I may know your loyalty by faith in Me,and steadfastness
in what has befallen you through Me? ‘And you used to wish’ for martyr¬
dom when you were in the way of truth before you met your enemy. He
597 means those who urged the apostle to take them out against their enemy
because they had not been present at the battle of Badr before that and
longing for the martyrdom which they had escaped there. He said: ‘And
you used to wish for death before you met it.’ He says: ‘Now you have
seen it with your eyes!’ i.e. death by swords in the hands of men with
nothing between you and them while you looked on. Then He kept them
back f r om you. ‘And Muhammad is nothing but an apostle; apostles have
passed away before him. Will it be that if he dies or is killed you will turn
back on your heels? He who so turns back will not harm God at all, and
God will reward the thankful’ in reference to the men saying ‘Muhammad
has been killed’ and their flight thereat and breaking away from their
enemy. ‘Will it be if he dies or is killed’ you will go back from your religion
disbelievers as you once were and abandon the fight with your enemy, and
God’s book, and what His prophet will have left behind of his religion with
you and in your possession when he has explained to you what he brought

The Life of Muhammad 395

from Me to you that he would die and leave you ? ‘And he who so turns
back,’ i.e. turns back from his religion ‘will not harm God at all/ i.e. he
will not diminish His glory and kingdom and sovereignty and power.
‘And God will reward the thankful/ i.e. those who obey Him and do what
He has commanded.

‘And no soul can die but by God’s permission in a term that is written/
i.e. Muhammad has a fixed time which he will attain and when God gives
permission in regard to that it will happen. ‘And he who desires the reward
of this world We will give him it; and he who desires the reward of the
next world We will give him it and We shall reward the thankful,’ i.e. he
of you who desires this world having no desire for the next We will give
him his allotted portion of sustenance and nothing more and he has no
share in the next world; and he who desires the reward of the next world
We will give him what he has been promised together with his reward of
sustenance in this world. That is the reward of the thankful, i.e. the pious.

Then He said: ‘And with how many a prophet have myriads been slain
and they waxed not faint at what befell them in the way of God and were
not weak nor humiliated for God loves the steadfast,’ i.e. how many a
prophet has death (in battle) befallen and many myriads with him, i.e. a
multitude, and they w^axed not faint at the loss of their prophet nor showed
weakness towards their enemies and were not humiliated when they
suffered in the fight for God and their religion. That is steadfastness and
God loves the steadfast. ‘All that they said w T as, Forgive us our sins, O 598
Lord, and our wasted effort in our affair; make our feet firm and give us
the victory over a disbelieving people’ (623), i.e. say what they said and
know' that that is for your sins, and ask His forgiveness as they did, and
practise your religion as they did, and be no renegades turning back on your
heels; and ask Him to make your feet firm as they did ; and ask His help
as they did against a disbelieving people. For all that they said actually
happened and their prophet was killed, yet they did not do what you did.

So God gave them the reward of this w r orId by victory over their enemy and
a fine rew'ard in the hereafter with what He had promised therein, for God
loves those who do well.

‘O you who believe, if you obey those who disbelieve they wall turn you
back on your heels and you wall return as losers,’ i.e. from your enemy, and
will lose this world and the next. ‘But God is your protector and He is the
best of helpers. If what you say w r ith y r our tongues is true in your hearts
then hold fast to Him and ask victory only of Him and do not turn back,
withdrawing from His religion. ‘We will cast terror into the hearts of those
who disbelieve, i.e. that by which I w ? as helping you against them because 599
they associated with Me that for which I gave them no warrant; i.e. do not
think that they will have the final victory over you, while you hold fast to
Me and follow My commandment, because of the disaster which befell
you through sins which you committed whereby you went against My
commandment in disobedience and also disobeyed the prophet. ‘God ful-

396 The Life of Muhammad

filled His promise when you routed them by His leave until you failed and
disagreed about the order and were disobedient after He had shown you
what you were desiring. Some of you desired this world and some desired
the hereafter. Then He made you flee from them that He might try you.
Yet He forgave you, for God is full of kindness to the believers,’ i.e. I
carried out My promise to give you victory over your enemy when you
routed them with the sword, i.e. killing them by My permission and My
giving you power over them and keeping them from you (624). ‘Until you
failed,’ i.e. deserted and disagreed about the order; i.e. you disputed about
My order, i.e. you abandoned the order of your prophet and what he had
told you to do, meaning the archers. ‘After He had shown you what you
were desiring,’ i.e. victory about which there was no doubt and the flight
of the (Meccan) army from their wives and property. ‘Some of you desired
this world,’ i.e. those who desired the spoil in this world and abandoned
their orders which carried the reward of the hereafter; ‘and some of you
desired the hereafter,’ i.e. those who fought for God s sake and did not
transgress in going after what they had been forbidden for an accident 1 of
this world out of desire for it, hoping for the fine reward that is with God
hereafter; i.e. those who fought for religion and did not transgress in going
after what they had been forbidden for an accident 1 of this world. ‘To try
you’ for some of your sins. God pardoned the great sin in that He did not
destroy you for having disobeyed your prophet. But I restored My kindness
to you. ‘And thus God favours the believers.’ He punished some sins at
once in this world by way of discipline and admonition, but He did not
exterminate all for the debt they owed Him because they suffered for dis¬
obeying Him, out of mercy to them and as a reward for such faith as they had.

Then He reproached them for running away from their prophet and
paying no heed when he called to them: ‘When you climbed up and paid
no heed to any one while the apostle was calling behind you, He rewarded
you with grief for grief, that you might not be sad for what you missed and
for what befell you,’ i.e. grief after grief by the killing of some of your
brethren and your enemy getting the better of you, and what you felt when
someone said your prophet had been killed. That was what brought grief
for grief to you so that you might not be sad over the victory you had
missed after you had seen him with your own eyes, nor over the death of
your brethren until I gave you ease of that sorrow. And God is informed
of what you do.’ God comforted them from the sorrow and grief which
they suffered in rebutting the lie of Satan that their prophet had been
killed; and when they saw the apostle alive among them what they had
missed from the Meccans after the victory over them and their disaster in
the loss of their brethren became easy to bear when God had turned death
aside from their prophet.

‘Then after grief He sent down safety for you, as a sleep. It came upon
a party of you while another party were troubled in mind thinking wrongly

1 A transitory and adventitious advantage.

The Life of Muhammad 397

about God thoughts of heathen days, saying, Have we anything to do with
the matter? 1 Say, the whole matter belongs to God. They hide in them¬
selves what they do not reveal to thee. They say, If we had had anything
to do with the matter we should not have been killed here. Say: Had you
beeni n your houses, those whose slaying has been written would have gone
forth to the places where they were to lie. (This has happened) that God 601
might test what is in your breasts and prove what is in your hearts, for God
knows about what is in the breasts.’ God sent down sleep in security upon
the people who were confident in Him and they slept unafraid; while the
hypocrites whose thoughts troubled them, thinking wrongly about God
thoughts of heathen days, were afraid of death because they had no hope
in the final result. God mentioned their recriminations and sorrow at what
befell them. Then He said to His prophet, ‘Say “Had you been in your
houses,” ’ you would not have been in this place in which God has made plain
your secret thoughts ‘those whose slaying has been written would have
gone forth to the places where they were to lie’ to some other place where
they would have been slain so that He might test what w r as in their breasts
‘and prove what was in their hearts, for God knows what is in the breasts,’
i.e. what is in their breasts which they try to conceal from you is not hidden
from Him.

Then He said: ‘O you who believe, be not like those who disbelieved
and said of their brethren who journeyed through the land or were raiding
“Had they been with us, they would not have died or been killed that God
may make that sorrow in their hearts. God gives life and causes death and
God is a seer of what you do,”’ i.e. be not like the hypocrites who forbid
their brethren to war for God’s sake and to travel through the land in
obedience to God and His apostle and say when they die or are killed,
‘Had they obeyed us, they would not have died or been killed.’ ‘That God
may make that sorrow in their heart’ because of their lack of certainty in
their Lord. ‘God gives life and causes death,’ i.e. their earthly stay is
shortened or prolonged by His power as He wishes. Then God said: ‘If
you are slain for God’s sake or die, pardon from God and mercy are better
than what you amass,’ i.e. there is no escape from death, so death for God’s
sake or death in battle is better even if they had known and been certain
of what they would amass from the world for which they hold back from
fighting in fear of death and battle because of what they have amassed
from the splendour of this world, not desiring the hereafter, ‘If you die or
are slain,’ whichever it may be, ‘surely to God will you be gathered,’ i.e. to
God you must return. Let not the world deceive you and be not deceived
by it. Let fighting and the reward which God holds out to you have more
weight with you than that.

Then he said: ‘It was by the mercy of God that thou wast lenient to them.
Hadst thou been stern and rough, they would have dispersed and been no 602
longer round thee,’ i.e. they would have left you. ‘So forgive them,’ i.e.

1 Or ‘order’.

398 The Life of Muhammad

overlook their offence, ‘and ask pardon for them and consult them about
the matter. When thou art resolved put thy trust in God, for God loves
those who trust.’ He reminded His prophet of his leniency to them, and
his patience with them in their weakness and their lack of patience had he
treated them harshly for all their opposition when there was laid upon
them the duty of obeying their prophet. Then He said: ‘So forgive them,’
i.e. overlook their offence ‘and ask pardon’ for their sins: the people of faith
who did wrong. ‘And consult them about the matter’ to show them that
you listen to them and ask their help, even if you are independent of them,
thereby making their religion agreeable to them. ‘And when thou art
resolved’ on a matter which has come from Me and a matter of religion
concerning fighting your enemy when only that will bring you and them
advantage, then do as you have been ordered despite the opposition of
those who oppose you and in agreement with those who agree with you.
‘And trust in God,’ i.e. please Him rather than men. ‘God loves them that
trust. If God helps you none can overcome you; if He forsakes you, who
thereafter can help you?’ i.e. so that you do not leave My command for
men, and forsake men’s orders for Mine. On God, not on men, let
believers trust.

Then He said: ‘It is not for any prophet to deceive. Whoso deceives
will bring his deceit with him on the day of resurrection. Then every soul
will be paid in full what it has earned and they will not be wronged.’ It is
not for a prophet to conceal from men what he has been ordered to reveal
either out of fear or desire to please them. W hoso does that will bring it
with him on the day of resurrection; then he will be repaid what he has
earned not wronged nor defrauded. ‘Is one who follows the pleasure of
God’ whether men like it or not ‘like one who has incurred God’s dis¬
pleasure?’ by pleasing or displeasing men. He says, Is one who obeys Me
whose reward is the garden and the goodwill of God like one who has
incurred God’s anger and deserves His anger, whose home is hell and a
miserable end? Are the two examples the same? So know ‘There are
degrees with God and God is a seer of what they do of all the degrees of
603 what they do in paradise and hell, i.e. God knows those who obey and
those who disobey Him.

Then He said: ‘God showed favour to the believers when He sent
among them an apostle from among themselves who recited to them His
verses and purified them and taught them the book and wisdom, though
before they were in obvious error.’ God favoured you, O people of the
faith, when He sent among you an apostle of your own, reciting to you His
verses concerning what you did, and teaching you good and evil that you
might know the good and do it; and the evil and guard yourselves against
it, and telling you of His pleasure with you when you obeyed Him; that you
might gain much from obeying Him and avoid the wrath proceeding from
disobedience that thereby you might escape His vengeance and obtain the
reward of His garden. ‘Though before you were in obvious error,’ i.e. in

The Life of Muhammad 399

the blindness of paganism not knowing what was good nor asking pardon
for evil—deaf to good, dumb to the right, blind to guidance.

Then He mentioned the catastrophe that befell them: ‘And was it so
when a catastrophe befell you though you had smitten (them) with a disas¬
ter twice as great you said: How’ is this? Say: It is from yourselves. God
is able to do all things.’ Though a catastrophe befell you in the death of
your brethren because of your sins, before that you had smitten your
enemy with double that on the day of Badr in slaying and taking prisoners;
and you have forgotten your disobedience and your opposition to what your
prophet commanded you. You have brought that on yourselves. ‘God is
able to do all things.’ God is able to do what He walls with His servants in
taking vengeance or pardoning. ‘And w-hat befell you on the day the two
armies met was by God’s permission and that He might know the believers.’
What befell you when you and your enemy met was by My permission.
That happened when you acted as you did after My help had come to you
and I had fulfilled my promise to you to distinguish between believers and
hypocrites and to know r those w'ho were hypocrites among you, i.e. to make
plain what was in them. ‘And it was said to them, Come, fight for God’s
sake or defend,’ meaning ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy and his companions who
went back from the apostle when he weht against his polytheistic enemies
at Uhud and their words: ‘If we knew 7 that you were going to fight we
would go w'ith you and would defend you; but we do not think that there
will be a fight.’ So he showed what they w r ere hiding within them.

God said: ‘They were nearer to disbelief than to faith that day saying
with their mouths what was not in their hearts,’ i.e. showing you faith
which was not in their hearts ‘but God knows best about what they con¬
ceal,’ i.e. what they hide, ‘who said of their brethren’ W'ho belonged to
their families and people who were killed in your company, ‘Had they
obeyed us they would not have been killed. Say: Then avert death from
yourselves if you are truthful,’ i.e. there is no escape from death, but if you
are able to keep death away* from you then do so. This w'as because they
were hypocritical and left fighting for God’s sake, eager to survive in this
world and fleeing from death.

Then He said to His prophet to make the believers wish to fight and
desire battle: ‘And do not think that those who were killed for God’s sake
are dead, nay they are alive with their Lord being nourished, glad with the
bounty that God has brought them and rejoicing in those who have not
yet joined them that they have nothing to fear or grieve over,’ i.e. Do not
think that those who were killed for God’s sake are dead, i.e. I have brought
them to life again and they are with Me being nourished in the rest and
bounty of the Garden, rejoicing in the bounty that God has brought them
for their striving on His account, and happy about those who have not
yet joined them, i.e. glad when those of their brethren join them on
account of their effort in w r ar that they will share wdth them in the reward
that God has given them, God having removed from them fear and sorrow.

400 The Life of Muhammad

God says: ‘Rejoicing in the favour and bounty of God and that God does
not waste the wages of the believers’ because they have seen the fulfilment
of the promise and the great reward.

Isma'il b. Umayya told me from Abu’I-Zubayr from Ibn 'Abbas: The
apostle said when your brethren were slain at Uhud, ‘God has put their
spirits in the crops of green birds which come down to the rivers of the
Garden; they eat of its fruits and come home to where there are golden

605 candlesticks in the shadow of the throne; and when they experience the
goodly drink and food and their beautiful resting-place they say: Would
that our brethren knew what God has done with us that they might not
dislike fighting and shrink from war!’ And God says ‘I will tell them of
you’ so He sent down to His apostle these verses ‘And do not think,’ &c.

Al-Harith b. al-Fudayl.told me from Mahmud b. Labid al-Ansari from
Ibn 'Abbas: The martyrs are at Bariq, a river at the gate of the Garden, in
a green tent, their provision from the Garden coming out to them morning
and evening.

One whom I do not suspect told me from 'Abdullah b.dMas^ud that he
was asked about these verses *Do not think’, &c., and he said, We asked
about them and we were told that when your brethren were slain at Uhud
God put their spirits in the crops of green birds which come down to the
rivers of the Garden and eat of its fruits and come home to where there are
golden candlesticks in the shade of the throne and God takes one look at
them and says ,-‘0 My servants, What do you wish that I should give you
more?’ And they say, ‘O our Lord, there is nothing beyond the Garden
which Thou hast given us from which we eat when we please.’ After the
question has been put three times they say the same, adding, ‘except that
we should like our spirits to return to our bodies and then return to the
earth and fight for Thee until we are killed again.’

One of our companions told me from 'Abdullah b. Muhammad b. 'Aqil
from Jabir b. 'Abdullah: The apostle said to me, ‘I will give you good
news, Jabir. God has restored to life your father who was killed at Uhud.’
Then He asked him what he would like Him to do for him and he said
that he would like to return to the world and fight for Him and be killed
a second time.

606 'Amr b. 'Ubayd told me from al-Hasan that the apostle swore that there
was no believer who had parted from the world and wanted to return to it
for a single hour even if he could possess it with all it has except the
martyr who would like to return and fight for God and be killed a second
time.

Then God said, ‘Those who responded to God and His apostle after
harm had befallen them,’ i.e. wnunds. They are the believers who went
with the apostle on the morrow of Uhud to Hamra’u’l-Asad in spite of the
pain of their wounds, ‘for those of them who do w'ell and are pious there is
a great reward; those to whom men said: The men (of Mecca) have
gathered against you so fear them, and that but increased their faith and

The Life of Muhammad 401

they said, Allah is sufficient for us and a fine one in whom to trust.’ The
men who said that were a number of 'Abdu’I-Qays to whom Abu Sufyan
spoke. They said; ‘Abu Sufyan and his company are certainly coming back
to you.’ God says, ‘So they returned with God’s grace ahd favour. Harm
did not befall them and they followed God’s pleasure and God is of great
bounty’ in that He turned away their enemy so that they did not meet
him. ‘It is only the devil,’ i.e. those men and what Satan put into their
mouths, ‘who would make men fear his adherents,’ i.e. frighten you by
means of his adherents. But fear them not and fear Me if you are believers.
Let not those who vie in running to disbelief grieve you,’ i.e, the hypo¬
crites, they can in no wise injure God. God wills not to assign them a
portion in the next world where they will have a painful punishment.
Those who buy infidelity with faith will in no wise injure God: they will
have a painful punishment. Let not those who disbelieve think that the
respite We give them is good for them. We give them a respite only that
they may increase in trespass. Theirs is an ignominious punishment. It
is not God’s purpose to leave the believers as you are till He shall separate
the evil from the good,’ i.e. the hypocrites. ‘And it is not God’s purpose to
let you know the unseen,’ i.e. what He wills to try you with that you may
take heed of what comes to you. ‘But God chooses whom He will of His
messengers,’ i.e. He lets him know that ‘So believe in God and His
messengers and if you believe and are pious,’ i.e. return and repent ‘then
you will have a great reward.’

THE NAMES OF THE MUSLIMS WHO WERE MARTYRED

AT UHUD

The Muslims who were martyred at Uhud in the company of the apostle
were as follows:

Emigrants from Quraysh: of the B. Hashim: Hamza whom W'ahshi the
slave of Jubayr b. Mut'im killed. Of B. Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams: 'Abdul¬
lah b. Jahsh, an ally from B. Asad b. Khuzayma. Of B. 'Abdul’l-Dar:
Mus'ab b. 'Umayr whom Ibn Qami’a al-Laythl killed. Of B. Makhzum
b. Yaqaza: Shammas b. 'Uthman. Total 4.

Of the Ansar: of B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal: 'Amr b. Mu'adh; al-Harith b.
Anas b - . Rafi'; and 'Umara b. Ziyad b. al-Sakan (625); Salama b. Thabit b.
Waqsh and 'Amr his brother ('Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada asserted to me
that their father Thabit was killed that day); and Rifa'a b. Waqsh; and
Husayl b. Jabir Abu Hudhayfa who was al-Yaman (the Muslims killed him
unwittingly and Hudhayfa forewent his blood-wit incumbent on the
slayer); and Sayfl and Habab sons of Qayzl; and 'Abbad b. Sahl; and al-
Ijlarith b. Aus b. Mu'adh. Total 12.

Of the men of Ratij: 1 Iyas b. Aus b. 'Atik b. 'Amr b. 'Abdu’l-A'lam b.

B 4080

1 One of the forts in Medina.

d d

402 The Life of Muhammad

Za'ura' b. Jusham b. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal; and 'Ubayd b. al-Tayyih&n (626);
and Habib b. Yazld b. Taym. 3.

Of B. Zafar: Yazld b. Hatib b. Umayya b. Rafi 1.

Of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf of the subdivision B. Dubay'a b. Zayd: Abu Sufyan
b. al-Harith b. Qays b. Zayd; Hanzala b. Abu 'Amir b. Sayfi b.Numan
b. Malik b. Ama, the man washed by the angels whom Shaddad b. al-
Aswad b. Sha'ub al-Laythi killed (627). 2.

Of B. 'Ubayd b. Zayd: Unays b. Qatada. 1.

Of B. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. ‘Auf: Abu Hayya, brother to Sa d b. Khay-
thama by his mother (628); and 'Abdullah b. Jubayr b. al-Nu'man who

commanded the archers. 2. , _

Of B. al-Salm b. Imru’ul-Qays b. Malik b. al-Aus: Khaythama Abu

Sa'd b. Khaythama. 1.

Of their allies from B. al-'Ajlan: 'Abdullah b. Salama. 1.

Of B. Mu'awiya b. Malik: Subay' b. Hatib b. al-Harith b. Qays b.

Haysha (629). x. tA ,

Of B. al-Najjar, of the clan of B. Sawad b. Malik b. Ghanm : Amr b.

Qays and his son Qays (630); and Thabit b. 'Amr b. Zayd; and Amir b.

Makhlad. 4. ,

Of B. Mabdhul: Abu Hubayra b. al-Harith b. Alqama b. Amr b.
Thaqf b. Malik b. Mabdhul; and ‘Amr b. Mutarrif b. 'Alqama b. 'Amr. 2.
Of B. 'Amr b. Malik: Aus. b. Thabit b. al-Mundhir (631). 1.

Of B. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar: Anas b. al-Nadr b. Damdam b. Zayd b. Haram
b. Jundub b. 'Amir b. Ghanm b. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar (632). 1.

Of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar: Qays b. Mukhallad and Kays 5 n a slave of

theirs. 2. ♦ AUJ

Of B. Dinar b. al-Najjar: Sulaym b. al-Harith; and Nu man b. Abdu

‘Amr. 2. ,

Of B. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj: Kharija b. Zayd b. Abu Zuhayr; and
Sa'd b. al-Rabl' b. 'Amr b. Abu Zuhayr who were buried in one grave; and
Aus b. al-Arqam b. Zayd b. Qays b. Nu'man b. Malik b. Tha'laba b.

Of B. al-Abjar, the B. Khudra: Malik b. Sinan b. 'Ubayd b. Tha'laba b.
'Ubayd b. al-Abjar the father of Abu Sa'ld al-Khudri (633); and Sa'Id b.
Suwayd b. Qays b. 'Amir b. 'Abbad b. al-Abjar; and 'Utba b. Rabi' b.
Rafi' b. Mu'awiya b. 'Ubayd b. Tha'laba b. 'Ubayd. 3. ^

Of B. Sa'ida b. Ka'b b. al-Khazraj: Tha'laba b. Sa'd b. Malik b. Khalid
b. Tha'laba b. Haritha b. 'Amr b. al-Khazraj b. Sa'ida; and Thaqf b.

Farwa b. al-Badl. 2.

Of B. 'farif, the family of Sa'd b. 'Ubada: 'Abdullah b.'Amr b. Wahbb.
Tha'laba b. Waqsh b. Tha'laba b. Tarif; and Qamra, an ally from B.

Juhayna. 2. .

Of B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj of the clan of B. Salim of the subdivision of B.

Malik b. al-'Ajlan b. Zayd b. Ghanm b. Salim: Naufal b. 'Abdullah;
'Abbas b. 'Ubada b. Nadia b. Malik b. al-'Ajlan; Nu'man b. Malik b.

The Life of Muhammad 403

Tha'laba b. Fihrb. Ghanm b. Salim ;al-Mujadhdharb.Dhiyad, an ally from
Baliy; and 'Ubada b. al-Hashas, the last three being buried in one grave. 5.

Of B. al-Hubla; Rifa'a b. 'Amr. 1.

Of B. Salima of the clan of B. Haram: 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Haram b.
Tha'laba b. Haram; 'Amr b. al-Jamuh b. Zayd b. Haram who were buried
together; Khallad b. 'Amr b. al-Jamuh, &c.; and Abu Ayman a client of
'Amr b. al-Jamuh. 4.

Of B. Sawad b. Ghanm: Sulaym b. 'Amr b. Hadlda and his client
'Antara; and Sahl b. Qays b. Abu Ka'b b. al-Qayn. 3.

Of B. Zurayq b. 'Amir: Dhakwan b. 'Abdu Qays; and 'Ubayd b. al-
Mu'alla b. Laudhan (634). 2.

The total number of Muslims killed including both Emigrants and
Ansar was 65 men (635).

THE NAMES OF THE POLYTHEISTS WHO WERE 610

KILLED AT UHUD

Of the Quraysh from B. 'Abdu’l-Dar b. Qusayy who carried the standard:
Talha b. 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. 'Uthman b. 'Abdu’l-Dar whom
'All killed; and Abu Sa'Id b. Abu Talha whom Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas killed

(636) ; and 'Uthman b. Abu Talha whom Hamza killed; and Musafi' and
al-Julas sons of Talha whom 'Asim b. Thabit b. Abu’I-Aqlah killed; and
Kilab and al-Harith sons of Talha killed by Quzman an ally of B. Zafar

(637) ; and Arta b. 'Abdu Shurahbil b. Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Abdu’l-
Dar whom Hamza killed; and Abu Zayd b. 'Umayr b. Hashim, See., whom
Quzman killed; and Su’ab an Abyssinian slave of his also killed by Quzman

(638) ; and al-Qasit b. Shurayh b. Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf whom Quzman 611
killed. 11.

Of B. Asad b. Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy: 'Abdullah b. Humayd b. Zuhayr
b. al-Harith b. Asad whom 'All killed. 1.

Of B. Zuhra b. Kilab: Abu’l-Hakam b. al-Akhnas b. Sharlq b. 'Amr b.
Wahb al-Thaqafi, an ally of theirs whom 'All killed; and Siba' b. 'Abdu’l-
'Uzza—the latter’s name was 'Amr b. Nadia b. Ghubshan b. Salim b.
Malakan b. Afsa—an ally from Khuza'a whom Hamza killed. 2.

Of B. Makhzum b. Yaqaza: Hisham b. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira
whom Quzman killed; and al-Walld b. al-'As b. Hisham b. al-Mughira
whom Quzman killed; and Abu Umayya b. Abu Hudhayfa b. al-Mughira
whom 'All killed; and Khalid b. al-A'lam an ally whom Quzman killed. 4.

Of B. Jumah b. 'Amr: 'Amr b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umayr b. Wahb b. Hudhafa
b. Jumah who was Abu 'Azza whom the apostle killed when a prisoner;
and Ubayy b. Khalaf b. Wahb b, Hudhafa b. Jumah whom the apostle
killed with his own hand. 2.

Of B. 'Amir b, Lu’ayy: 'Ubayda b. Jabir; and Shayba b. Malik b. al-
Mudarrib both of whom were killed by Quzman (639). 2.

Thus God killed on the day of Uhud 22 polytheists.

The Life, of Muhammad

4°4

POETRY ON TElE BATTLE OF UHUD

The following wrote erses on the subject:

Hubayra b. Abu Wahb b. 'Amr b. Aidh b. 'Abd b. 'Imran b. Makhzuin
(640):

Why does this painful anxiety afflict me at night.

My love for Hind beset by cares. 1 .

Hind keeps blaming and reproaching me
While war has distracted me from her.

Gently now, blame me not; ’tis my habit
As you know I have never concealed it.

I help the B. Ka'b as they demand
Struggling with the burdens they impose.

I bore my arms bestride a noble horse , , ,1

Long of pace, smooth in gait, keeping up with the cavalry s gal op,

Running like a wild ass in the desert which
Pursued by hunters keeps close to the females.

Sired by A'waj, which rejoices men’s hearts
Like a branch on a thick lofty palm.

I got him ready and a sharp choice sword
And a lance with which I meet life’s crises.

This and a well-knit coat of mail like a wavy pool
Fastened on me clear of blemishes.

We brought Kinana from the confines of yonder lemen
Across the land driving them hard.

When Kinana asked where we were taking them.

We told them Medina ; 3 so they made for it and its people.

We were the true knights that day on Uhud’s slope. .

Ma'add were in terror so we said we would come to their ai .

They feared our strokes and thrusts well aimed and cutting
Which they beheld when their outposts had drawn together.

Then we came like a cloud of hail,

The B. al-Najjar’s bird of death bemoaned them.

Their skulls in the battle were like ostrich eggs
Split open (by the chicks) and cast aside;

Or a colocynth on a withered shoot
Loosened by the sweeping winds.

We spend our wealth lavishly without reckoning
And we stab the horsemen in their eyes right and left.

• So A. Dh„ but 'ddiya in 74*. 3 7 ™ans ‘troops’ and it may well be that love and war

are mingled in his thoughts. , 18 <0 • but a comparison with 'Amr

b . o %££$£££%£» ,e,a JU-

‘biting’ to quicken their pace as he protects their re*r.

3 Al-Nukhayl. A watering-place near Medina.

The Life of Muhammad 405

Many a night when the host warms his hands in the belly of a slaughtered
camel

And invites only wealthy guests, 1

Many a night of jumada with freezing 2 rain

Have I travelled through the wintry cold.

Because of the frosts the dogs bark but once
And the vipers leave not their holes.

I kindled then a blaze for the needy

Bright as the lightning that illumines the horizon.

'Amr and his father before him bequeathed me this example. 613

He used to do this again and again.

They vied with the courses of the stars.

Their deeds never fell below the highest standard.

Hassan b. Thabit answered him:

You brought Kinana in your folly (to fight) the apostle,

For God’s army was (bound to) disgrace them.

You brought them to death’s cisterns in broad daylight.

Hell was their .meeting-place, killing what they met with.

You collected them, black slaves, men of no descent,

O leaders of infidels whom their insolent ones deceived.

Why did you not learn from those thrown into Badr’s pit
Slain by God’s horsemen ?

Many a prisoner did we free without ransom,

Many a captive’s forelock did we, his masters, cut! (641)

Ka'b b. Malik also answered Hubayra:

Have Ghassan heard about us though

Wide desert land where travel is uncertain separates them ?

Deserts and mountains looking black in the distance
Like pillars of dust dotted here and there.

Strong camels there become feeble,

The yearly rains pass over it to make other lands fertile. 3
There the skeletons of exhausted ai mals
Look like merchants’ linen dotted with figures.

The wild oxen and gazelles walk in file
And broken ostrich eggs lie strewn abroad.

Our warriors who fight for their religion are all troops
Skilled in war with helmets 4 shining.

1 The mean man does not throw the meal open to all and sundry, but invites only those
who can return his hospitality.

1 jumadiya. S. points out that the old names of the months indicated their position in
the solar year and that these names persisted when the months fell in different seasons
after the lunar calendar was adopted; thus Ramadan, ‘the scorcher’, could begin in January
and Rabi'a, ‘the Spring’, begin in November.

3 Or ‘The yearly rain clouds are empty and pass swiftly on’.

4 Properly the tops of the Pickelhaube.

406

The Life of Muhammad

Every coat of mail preserved in store is
When donned as a well-filled pool.

614 But ask any man you meet about Badr;

News you are ignorant of will be profitable.

Had other men been in that land of fear

They would have decamped at night and fled away.

When a rider of ours came he said,

‘Prepare to meet the force Ibn Harb has collected.’

In misfortunes that would distress others
We showed greater calmness than all.

Had others been beset by a multitude
They would have given up and lost heart. 1
We fought them; no tribe could stand against us
But feared and fled in dread.

When they made their home in Trd 2 our leader said,

‘Why do we plant grain if we do not protect it?’

Among us was God’s apostle whose command we obey.

When he gives an order w r e do not examine it.

The spirit 3 descends on him from his Lord

Brought down from the midst of heaven and taken up again.

We consult him on our wishes, and our desire
Is to obey him in all that he wants.

The apostle said when they appeared,

‘Cast off the fear of death and desire it,

Be like one who sells his life

To draw near to a King by Whom he will be restored to life.

Take your swords and trust in God
To Whom belongs the disposal of all things.*

We made for them openly as they rode their camels

Bearing swords and unafraid

In a compact force with lances and spears;

When our steeds planted their feet they kept them firm.

Into a sea of foemen we plunged,

Their blacks in the centre some in armour some unprotected.

They were three thousand while we were three hundred £lite
Or four hundred at the most.

The battle went to and fro while death ran between us.

We tried to get to the cistern of death before them and did so.

Bows of lote wood exchanged ‘presents* between us
All of them cut from YathribI wood 4
And Meccan arrows made by Sa'id

1 Or, reading tawazxa'u, ‘dispersed’.

2 A place outside Medina. 3 i.e. Gabriel.

4 A.Dh. explains YathribI as ‘bow strings' cut in Medina, but the context implies that

arrows were exchanged.

The Life of Muhammad ^

Sprinkled with poison at the time they were made
Sometimes hitting men’s bodies,

Sometimes glancing off shields with a clang;

And horsemen in the plain looking like locusts
Which the east wind brings, moving briskly in the cold.

When we met them and the battle was fierce
(For there is no defence against God’s decree)

We smote them until we left their leaders
Lying in the hollow like fallen trees.

From mom till eve until we recovered our strength
Our zeal was like a fire burning all in its path.

They fled in haste hurrying away

Like a cloud wisp that the wind robs of rain.

We went on, our rearguard coming slowly,

Like strong lions seeking 1 meat in Blsha.

We inflicted loss on you and you on us;

Perhaps we should have won, but what is with God is more spacious.

The battle waged hot between us

And all were made to get their fill of evil.

We are men who see no blame in him who kills
To guard and protect his protegees.

Firm in misfortunes, you will never see
Our eyes weeping over a comrade slain;

Warriors who do what we say

Nor become despondent in war’s trials;

Warriors who commit no atrocities in victory
Nor complain of war’s scratches.

We are a flame whose heat men ward off,

Those near it withdraw with scorched faces.

You taunt me, Ibn al-Ziba ra, 2 yet a party went after you
Searching for you at nightfall.

Ask about yourself in the summit of Ma'add and elsewhere
Who is the lowest and most shameful of men ?

Whom did war leave shorn of glory,

His face humiliated on the day of war?

We attacked you with God’s help and succour
Our spearheads directed at you.

Our lances made gaping wounds among you

Like the mouths of waterskins where the water gushes forth.

We attacked the standard-bearers, and he who hastens to mention the
standard

Is the first in giving praise. 3

1 The reading is doubtful.

2 But the poem is said to be a reply to Hubayra who is not even mentioned!

1 ne text of this verse is difficult and is probably corrupt.

408 The Life of Muhammad

616 But they were treacherous, surrendered, and deserted.

Only God’s will can prevail and He is the greatest doer (642)

'Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra:

O raven, you have made men hear, then speak.

You can say only what has happened.

(To good and evil there is an end and both befall men.

Gifts are mean among them

And the graves of the rich and the poor are equal.

Every comfortable and pleasant life comes to an end
And the blows of fate play with us all.)

Give Hass an a message from me,

For composing poetry cures inward pain.

How many skulls on the mountain slope did you see,

How many hands and feet cut off,

Fine armour stripped from the brave
Who had perished in the battle ?

How many noble chiefs did we slay,

Their descent doubly glorious, intrepid warriors;

Truly courageous, noble, conspicuous,

No weaklings when the spears fell ?

Ask al-Mihras who inhabits it,

Between skulls and brains, like partridges?

Would that my elders in Badr had seen
The fear of Khazraj when the spears fell;

When (war) rubbed its breast in Quba’ 1

And the slaughter waxed hot among the 'Abdu’l-Ashhai.

Then they were nimble in flight
Like young ostriches running up a hill.

We killed a double number of their nobles
And adjusted the inequality of Badr.

I do not blame myself, but

Had we,returned we should have made a clean sweep of them,

617 With Indian swords above their heads
Delivering blow after blow.

Idassan b. Thabit answered him:

The battle is over, O Ibn Ziba'rS 2

(Had he been fair he would have admitted our superiority).

You inflicted loss on us and we on you.

The fortunes of war often change.

We thrust our swords between your shoulders
Where they drank blood again and again.

1 War is compared to a camel.

2 But the reading of the Ditvatt , xi, ‘A battle ran away with Ibn Ziba'r is better.

409

The Life of Muhammad

^ e made liquid to run from your arses
Like the ordure of camels that have eaten 'asal.

When you took to your heels* in the pass
And fled like sheep one behind the other;

When we attacked you boldly
And drove you to the bottom of the mountain
With companies like vast objects (?) in the plain 2
Whoever meets them is terrified.

The pass was too narrow for us when we traversed it
And we filled its heights and depths
With men you cannot equal
Strengthened by Gabriel’s help who came down.

We conquered at Badr by piety,

Obeying God and believing the apostles.

We killed all their chiefs

And we killed every long-robed noble.

We left in Quraysh a lasting shame that day of Badr
An example to be talked of. ’

While the apostle of God witnessed truly,

W hile the short fat people among Quraysh

Got together by them were as

Camels collected in herbage and left shepherdless 3

We and not men like you, children of your mother's arse,

Meet the fighters 4 when adversity comes (643).

Ka'b mourning Hamza and the Muslim dead:

You w r eep, but do you w r anf one to stir you to tears?

You who are lost in grief when you remember them 5
Remembering a people of whom
Stories have reached me in this crooked age. 6
^ our heart palpitates at the memory of them
In longing and tearful sadness.

Yet their dead are in lovely gardens
Honoured in their exits and entrances.

Because they were steadfast beneath the flag,

The flag of the apostle in Dhu’i-Adwaj, 7
The morning when the B. Aus and Khazraj
All responded with their swords
And Ahmad’s supporters followed the truth,

The language is Quranic.

Th^ UnCer fT' A ’ Dh> CitCS ’ Jinns ’ as an alternative reading
It would be tempting' to^ea'd ^

The poet is apostrophizing himself.

clear indication of the comparatively late date of this noem Cf \v f. u r

A place near Ufcud. Yaq. i. 305. P 0 628 > line 5 *

410 The Life of Muhammad

The light-giving straight way.

They continually smote the warriors
As they passed through the clouds of dust
Till at last the King summoned them
To a garden with thick trees at its entrance.

All of them proved pure in the trial,

Died unflinchingly in God’s religion
Like tlamza when he proved his loyalty
With a sharp well-whetted sword.

The slave of the B. Naufal met him
Muttering like a huge black camel
And pierced him with a lance like a flame
That bums in a blazing fire.

And Nu'mSn fulfilled his promise

And the good Hanzala turned not from the truth

Until his spirit passed

To a mansion resplendent in gold.

Such are (true men) not those of your company
Who lie in nethermost hell with no escape.

Pirar b. al-Khattab al-Fihri answered him:

Does Ka'b grieve over his followers

And weep over a crooked age

Crying like an old camel who sees his companions

Returning at even while he is kept back ?

The water camels pass on and leave him

Grumbling of ill-treatment while he is not even saddled for women.
619 Say to Ka'b, ‘Let him double his weeping
And let him suffer pain therefrom;

For the death of his brothers when the cavalry charged
In clouds of rising dust.’

Would that 'Amr and his followers

And r Utba had been in our flaming meeting-place

That they might have slaked their vengeance

On those of Khazraj who were slain

And on those of Aus who died on the battlefield,

All of them slain in Dhu’l-Adwaj. 1
And the killing of Hamza under the flag
With a pliant death-dealing lance.

And where Mus'ab fell and lay

Smitten by a sword’s quick stroke

In Uhud when our swords flashed among them

Flaming like a roaring fire

On the morn we met you with swords

1 V.S.

The Life of Muhammad 411

Like lions of the plains who cannot be turned back;

All our steeds like hawks,

Blood horses fiery, well-saddled.

We trod them down there until they fled
Except the dying or those hemmed in (644).

'Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra:

Surely tears flowed from your eyes 1

When youth had fled and the loved one was far away.

Far off and gone is she whom you love and

The camp, now removed, has robbed me of a dear one.

The ardent lover cannot recover what is gone
However long he weeps.

But let be: Has Umm Malik news of my people

Since news spreads far and wide

Of our bringing horses to the men of Medina,

Fine handsome horses, some reared with us, some outbom,

The night we went forth in great force

Led by one, the dread of his enemies, the hope of his friends ?

All were clad in coats of mail

Which looked like a well-filled pool where two valleys meet.

When they saw us they were filled with awe, 620

A dreadful plight confronted them;

They wished that the earth would swallow them,

Their stoutest hearted warriors were in despair.

When our swords W'ere drawn they were like
A flame that leaps through brushwood.

On their heads we brought them down
Bringing swift death to the enemy.

They left the slain of Aus with hyaenas hard at them and
Hungry vultures lighting on them.

The Banti Najjar on every height

Were bleeding from the wounds on their bodies.

But for the height of the mountain pass they would have left Ahmad
dead,

But he climbed too high though the spears were directed at him,

As they left Hamza dead in the attack
With a lance thrust through his breast.

Nu'man too lay dead beneath his banner,

The falling vultures busy at his bowels. 2

1 Or the poet may be urging himself to weep.

2 This unpleasant version is probably the original. For yajufna C. follows the MSS. which
have yahufna, said to mean ‘fall upon’, w'hich seems unnatural here. Another variant quoted
by C. is yafrumna ‘hover’, while N 81 ., Delectus, 68, read yajuna ‘hunger for’, which again is
unnatural. AH these variants can be accounted for by the assumption that editors wanted
to tone down the ghastly description of this early Muslim's death.

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The spears of our warriors came on them in Uhud (as-swiftly)

As a well devours the ropes of the bucket. 1

Hassan b. Thabit:

Do the spring camps make you long for Ummu’l-Walld,

The waste lands deserted by their people ?

The winds of summer and the rain of Aquarius,

The torrential cloudbringer, has effaced them;

Naught remains but the place where the fire was,

Round it on the ground are the firestones like doves.

Mention no more the camp whose people distance separates
Severing the strongest ties, and say

‘If there was a battle in Uhud which a fool counts a victory
The real truth w r ill some day be known.’

All the Banu Aus stood firm that day,

High renowm was theirs.

The Banu Najjar were steadfast in defence,

None was fainthearted in the fight

In front of the apostle of God, they did not desert him.

They had a helper from their Lord and an intercessor.

They were faithful when you, Quraysh, 2 denied your Lord.

(The loyal and the disloyal slave are never equal)

621 With swords in their hands when the battle was hot
He whom they smote could not but die.

They left 'Utba and Sa'd lying in the dust
As the spears found their mark.

They left Ubayy laid beneath the dust by the apostle’s own hand,
His shirt wet with blood

When the dust they stirred up covered the people.

These w'ere chiefs from your leading families,

For every army has chiefs.

By them 3 we help God when 4 He helps us
Even if things are terrible, O Quraysh.

Mention not the slain since Hamza is among them,

Dead for God’s sake in true obedience.

Paradise eternal he lives in now

(The command of Him who decrees is swift).

1 Or, ‘a water-drawer grasps’. Noldeke, Delectus, 70, renders nazu' by profundus puteus,
but this is wrong because, according to the Taj, Lisdtt, and Qati/us, it means a shalloui well.
See further E. Braunlich in Islamica, I, 1925, 338. Alternatively nazu could mean an
habitual water-drawer. If, with some authorities, mtzu be read, then the act of drawing
water is intended. The verb ghdla means taking away quickly, destroying, devouring,
grasping, &c. Thus the point of the simile would seem to be that, the spears went in and
out of the bodies as fast as a skilled water-drawer could send buckets up and down a well,
or that they went in as quickly as a well (or the act of drawing water) takes away the ropes.
1 Eaters of sakhina.
i i.e. the swords.

4 C. has hattd.

4 X 3

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•While your dead are in hell, their best food
Thorns and boiling water to fill their bellies (645) : J
'Amr b. al-'As.

We went forth from the barren desert against them
Forming as it were a streaked girdle to Radwa in the morning.

B. Najjar foolishly wished to meet us
By the side of Sab and hopes are sometimes realized
What scared them suddenly in the valley was
Squadrons of horse coming forth to the "battle.

They r wanted to plunder our tents,

But protecting those tents that day were shattering blows.

I hey were tents that have always been protected,

If a people made for them they would be spoiled’and meet our rage
The heads of the Khazrajis that morning S

By the side of Sal were like sliced melons,

And their hands holding Yamani swords were like barzvaq 2 (646).

Pirar b. al-Khattab:

„ ' 622

y t y grandfather, 3 had I not advanced my horse

nn h I th r V ^ u W l! eeI , ed between the slope and the low ground
On the side of U hud s slope, there had not ceased

knZT S ° f y ° Ur WraithS CalHng f ° r Ven S eance ’ their cause well

And a horseman, his forehead split by a sword,

His skull in pieces like a shepherd’s cloak. 4

By thy grandfather, I am always girded with a sharp sword white as

On the saddle of a mare thrusting forward to the one who calls for help
As long as the cry for aid is raised.

lam not reckoned the son of weaklings and non-combatants
Ur miserly cowards on the day of battle,

But of those who smite the trusty helms’ when they reach them
Warriors of proud descent on the day of battle, ’

Proud leaders bearing long swords who advance to death unfaltering.

He also said:

W hen there came from K.a*b a squadron

And the Khazrajiya with glittering swords

And they drew their Mashraflya swords

And displayed a flag fluttering like the wings of an eagle

1 Cf. Sura 88. 6.

P '* nt “ di " g “ Sma " chickpeas: a simile „f week „ ejs , nd

poet ot « shepherd s cloak whrch had been made of odd pieces of fur.

The Life of Muhammad

I said, This will be a battle worth many a battle,

It will be talked of as long as leaves fall.

Every day they have been accustomed to gain the victory in battle
And the spoils of those they encountered.

I forced myself to be steadfast when I felt afraid 1

And I was certain that glory could only be got in the forefront.

I forced my steed to plunge into their ranks
And drenched him with their blood.

My horse and my armour were coloured

With blood that spurted from their veins and coagulated.

I felt sure I should stay in their dwellings
For ever and a day.

Do not despair, O Banu Makhzum, for you have men
Like Al-Mughira, men without blame.

Be steadfast, may my mother and brothers be your ransom,
Exchanging blows until time be no more.

'Amr b. al-'As:

When I saw war’s flames leaping over the fire stones
Reaching the squadrons flaying men with their heat 2
I was sure that death was truth and life a delusion.

I set my arms on a strong horse which could outrun others easily,
Docile when others go astray in the desert outrunning the best horse.
When the sweat flowed down his flanks he showed more spirit;

Swift as a young hart of the desert when archers scare him to run full
stretch,

Firm of fetlock he leads the cavalry in canter and gallop.

My mother be your ransom that fearful morning
When they walked like sandgrouse

Making for the leader of the squadron when the sun revealed him
plainly (647).

Ka'b b. Malik answered the two of them:

Tell Quraysh (the best word is the truest and truth is always accep¬
table to the wise)

That we killed your best men, the standard-bearers,

In revenge for our slain, so what is all the talk about?

And on the day that we met you

Michael and Gabriel reinforced and helped us.

If you kill us the true religion is ours

And to be killed for the truth is to find God’s favour.

If you think that we are fools

1 Reading jabbartu,

2 Ra 4 f could mean ‘forelegs’ and shahba ‘flames’. There is a variant reading tanazalat
‘squadrons charged one after another’. In any event there is a conscious jinas in the double
meaning of ‘flame’ and ‘squadron’.

The Life of Muhammad 415

The opinion of those who oppose Islam is misleading.

Do not wish for more war but stay at home,

The habitual man of war is blood-stained, never free of care. 1

You will get such blows at our hands

That the hyaenas will rejoice at the lumps of meat.

We are men of war who get the utmost from it
And inflict painful punishment on the aggressors.

If Ibn Harb escaped with the skin of his teeth

(And God’s will must be done) it gave him discernment

And admonition if he has the sense to appreciate it.

Had you come to the bottom of the torrent bed
A swift stroke would have met you on the valley side,

Bands of men round the Prophet would have confronted you
With breastplates prepared for war,

Men of Ghassan stock with drawn sw ords,

No unarmed cowards they;

They walk towards the dark clouds of batde
As the camels’ white foals walk in train,

Or as lions walk in a covert w r etted by rain
Brought by the north wind from the Gemini
In long close-knit mail like a rippling pool,

Its wearer broad-shouldered, 2 a chief like a sword,

Which makes the strongest arrowhead useless
And the sw r ord recoil wdth blunted edge.

Though you threw' off Mount SaP from your backs
(And sometimes life can be prolonged and death avoided)

You would never be able to take revenge;

Time will pass the slain not paid for, 3
Slave and free, noble, tied up like game (led)

Towards Medina bound and slain.

We were hoping to get you all, but our knights w’ith their weapons
Chased you from us too quickly.

When one of them commits a crime they know' for certain
That the consequence will be borne (by the tribe).

His crime is not an unmistakable crime,

None blames him and none evades his share of the penalty. 4

Hassan b. Thabit:

At even when the stars were setting

I could not sleep for care

And the vision of the beloved that haunted me.

A sickness pervaded my heart and an inner hidden passion.

1 W. adopts the variant mash'ul ‘on fire’ which hardly seems right. Perhaps ‘with greying
hair’ is what was intended.

2 Reading/a/yuti. 3 Lit. ‘stones will disappear’ or ‘wear away’.

4 These lines seem to refer to the archers w'ho left their post in quest of loot. See W. 570,

625

416 The Life of Muhammad

O my people, can one without strength and courage
Slay a man like me ?

If the tiniest ants were to crawl upon her
They would make wounds in her skin.

She smells of' sweet scent and lingers in her bed
Adorned with silver and strung with pearls.

The daily sun surpasses her in naught
Except that youth does not endure.

My uncle was orator at Jabiyatu’l-Jaulan
With al-Nu'man when he stood up (to speak).

I was the hawk at the door of I bn Salma
On the day that Nu'man was sick in fetters.

Ubayy and Waqid were set free for me.

The day they went forth with their fetters broken
I went surety for them with all my wealth,

Every scrap of it was allotted.

My family stood high in their regard,

Every dwelling had a great ancestor of mine.

My father gave decisive judgement at Sumayha 2
When disputes were referred to him.

Such were our deeds, but al-Ziba'ra

Is a man of no account, blamed even by his friends.

How much culture is destroyed by poverty
While prosperity hides barbarism! 3
Do not insult me for you cannot do so,

Only a gentleman can insult his peer. 4
I care not if a he goat cries in the wasteland 5
Or a churl speaks evil behind my back.

The finest stock of Banu Qusayy took over the courage
(You ought to have had) when you withdrew.

626 Nine carried the standard while

Makhzum ran away from the spears with the riff-raff.

They stood firm together in their place till all were slain,

All of them bleeding from open wounds. 6

It was only honourable that they should stand firm.

The noble man is truly noble.

They stood fast until death came upon them
With the lances broken in their throats.

Quraysh fled from us seeking refuge

1 Lit. ‘Her interest is’.

1 Sumayha was a well in Medina; Aus and Khazraj used to submit their disputes to the
arbitration of his grandfather al-Mundhir b. Haram.

3 A variant in then way a of Yunus is ‘mounts above’.

4 The Lisdn and Jamhara attribute this line (which is not in the Diiuan) to Hassan’s son
‘ Abdu’l-Rahman.

5 If a brutish man becomes enraged. 6 Reading tnadmum, cf. A. Dh.

417

The Life of Muhammad

So that they stood not fast but lost their wits.

Their collarbones could not sustain its weight;

Only the best men can carry the standard (648).

Hassan b. Thabit mourning Hamza'

O Mayya, arise and weep sadly at dawn as the keening women do:

As those who cany heavy burdens cannot move for their weight
W ho cry aloud scratching the faces of free women.

When their tears run they are like the pillars reddened by the blood
of victims. J

They let their hair loose and their locks appear

Like the tails of restive plunging horses in the morning,

borne plaited, 1 some cut, dishevelled by the wind. 6a7

They weep sadly like mourners whom fate has wounded,

Their hearts scarred by painful wounds.

Fate has smitten those who were our hope when we were afraid.

The men of Uhud whom fate’s calamities destroyed.

Our knight and protector when armed men appeared,

O Hamza, I will not forget you while time lasts,

The refuge of orphans and guests and the widow who looks shyly away
d from the fate that brings war after war with growing evil,
knight, O protector, O Hamza, you were our great defender
rrom blows of fate when they were crushing.

wu U re ™ n ^ ed me of the lion of apostle, that protector of ours
V ho will always be mentioned when noble chiefs are counted
High above the leaders, generous, white, shining;

Not frivolous, poor spirited, nor grumbling at life’s burdens
A sea of generosity, he never withheld gifts from a guest.

'ioung men of honour, zealous and serious minded, have died

Who in the winter when none gets his fill of milk

Offered the flesh of camels’topped by slices carved from its fat,

Protecting their guests as long as the enemy attacks.

Alas for the young men we have lost, they were as lamps, 628

Proud, patricians, princes, lavishly generous,

Who bought reputation with their wealth, (for reputation is a gain)

Who leapt to their bridles if a cry for help was raised.

One who suffered misfortunes in an unrighteous age. 2
His camels kept going over the dusty plain,

They went vying with each other while he was among those
Whose breasts ran with sweat so that good fortune might return to him,

Not the lot of him who gets the unlucky arrow. 3
O Hamza, you have left me lonely like a branch cut off from a tree,

1 Reading mashsur with A. Dh.

w H!,f. r ° Ph ^ " me b V*“' d Thi, mu « be . disguieed lament

Tt; ,! and Husayn The preceding verses in the plural cannot refer to Hamza,
in the Arab game of chance.

B 4080 £ e

The Life of Muhammad

I complain to you when layers of dust and stone cover you, of
The stone we put above you when the gravedigger finished his work
In a wide space, covering it with earth carefully smoothed.

Our comfort is that we say (and what we say is grievous har )

He who is free from life’s misfortunes let him come to us
And weep for our noble generous dead,

Who said and did what they said, the truly laudable,

W T ho always gave freely even when they had little to spare ( 49).

He also said:

Do you know the camp whose traces since you saw it
Are swept away by a mighty torrent of rain

Between Al-Saradih and Udmana and the channel of Al-Rauha
Ha’il ?

I asked it of that and it would not answer;

It did not know the answer.

Give no thought to a camp whose traces have disappeared,

And weep over Hamza the generous who filled the platter
When the storm blew in bitter cold and famine,

Who left his adversaries in the dust
Stumbling on his slender lance,

Who threw himself among the horses when they held back
Like a lion bold in his thicket.

in

Shining at the summit of the Hashim clan
He did not oppose the truth with lies.

He died a martyr under your swords.

May the hands of WahshI, the murderer, wdther!

What a man did he leave on his lance, its point deadly sharp.

The earth has become dark at his loss

And the moon shining forth from the clouds is blackened.

God bless him in the heavenly paradise.

May his entry be honoured.

We looked on Hamza as a protector in all the blow's of misfortune.
In Islam he was a great defence

Who made up for the loss of miserable stay-at-homes.

Rejoice not, O Hind, but produce thy tears,

Let flow the tears of the bereaved.

Weep for 'Utba whom he cut down with the sword
Who lay in the whirling dust,

When he fell among your shaykhs
Insolent, ignorant fellows.

Hamza killed them with a family who walk in long armour
The day that Gabriel helped him,

That fine helper of an intrepid horseman.

1 Or ‘mingled with’, al-labis.

The Life of Muhammad 419

Ka'b b. Malik:

Visited by care you could not sleep

And feared because joyous youth had been taken from you.

A Damn girl claimed your love,

But your love is Ghauri and your company is Najdl. 1
Do not go too far rashly in the folly of love,

You have always been thought foolish for following its allure.

It is time for you to stop in obedience
Or to awake when an adviser warns you.

I was crushed by the loss of Hamza,

My inward parts trembled.

If Mount Hira’ had been so distressed
You would have seen its firm rocks shattered.

A noble prince, strong in the lofty stock of Hashim,

Whence come prophecy, generosity, and lordship,

Who slew fat-humped camels when the wind is so cold
That it almost freezes the water,

Who left a brave opponent prostrate on the ground
On the day of battle, with his lance broken.

You could see him sweeping along in steel,

Like a tawny strong-pawed lion,

The prophet’s uncle and chosen one
Came to his death—a goodly end.

He met his fate marked out among a people
Who helped the prophet and sought martyrdom.

I imagine that Hind has been told of that
To still the burning choking within her breast
How we met her people on the sandhill
The day in which happiness left her.

And of the well of Badr when Gabriel and Muhammad
Beneath our banner turned them back

So that I saw their best men with the prophet in two parties,

One killing and one pursuing whom he pleased.

There remained where the camels knelt
Seventy men, 'Utba and al-Aswad among them,

And Ibnu’l-Mughlra whom we smote above the neck vein
From which foaming blood gushed forth.

A sharp sword in the hands of the believers
Reduced the pride of Umayya al-Jumahi. 2

1 The poet is addressing himself. There is a play on the underlying meaning of ghaur,
low ground, and najd, high ground. The reading fahimtka would give a sense that could be
expressed by ‘Your heart is in the lowlands and your head in the highlands’, though more
exactly the word means ‘Your return to sobriety’.

• qawtoama maylahu , lit. ‘straightened his turning aside’, i.e. struck him in the face which
  in his arrogance he was wont to turn away.

630

420

The Life of Muhammad

The fugitive polytheists came to you like runaway ostriches
With the cavalry in full pursuit.

631 Different are those whose home is hell everlasting
And those who are eternally in paradise.

He also said:

Rise, O Safiya, be not weak.

Make the women weep over Hamza.

Be not weary in prolonging weeping
Over God’s lion in the melee.

For he was a strength to our orphans
And a lion of battle amid the weapons,

Wishing thereby to please Ahmad
And the glorious Lord of the throne.

He also said:

By thy noble father’s life I adjure you.

Ask those who sought our hospitality,

For if you ask them you will not be told a lie,

Those you ask will tell you the truth

That on nights when bones were gathered for food

We gave sustenance to those who visited us:

(Crowds 1 took refuge in our shelters
From distress in years of famine)

With a gift of what our rich provided

With patience and generosity towards the indigent.

The shears of war left us

Those whose ways we have always tried to vie with.

One who saw the place where the camels go to water
Would think it was black rocky ground.

There the best camels are broken in,

Black, red, and white. 2

The rush of men was like Euphrates in flood,

Solid well-armed masses destroying all in their path.

You would think their glitter was the shining of stars,

They dazzle beholders in their commotion.

If you are ignorant of our importance
Then ask those near us who know',

How we behave when war is violent
In slaughter, severity, biting, and mauling.

Do we not tighten the cord round the camel’s udder
Until she yields her milk and becomes gentle ? 3

1 W. has najud ‘poor women’.

2 White or, less likely, blackish. This word is one of the addad.

J In these two lines war is compared to a savage camel that is subdued by the tribe s
firmness and resource and ends to their advantage.

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The Life of Muhammad

A day in which fighting is continuous, 6

Terrifying, burning those who kindled its blaze,

Long drawn out exceeding hot fighting.

Fear of it keeps the base-born away.

1'ou would think the heroes engaged in it
Were happily drunk and inebriated,

Their right hands exchanging the cups of death
With their sharp-edged swords.

We were there and we were courageous
Wearing our badges under clouds of dust,

With silent fine blood-stained swords,

Blades of Busra which loathe the scabbard;

Which grow not blunt nor buckle

And cease not smiting if they are not held back,

Like autumn lightning in the hands of heroes
Overwhelming in blood heads that remain in place.

Our fathers taught us how to strike
And we will teach our sons

The swordsmanship of heroes and the spending of patrimony
In defence of our honour as long as we live.

When a champion passes, his posterity takes his place
And he leaves others to inherit him.

We grow up and our fathers perish,

And while we bring up our sons we cease to be.

I asked about you, Ibnu’l-Ziba'ra,

And was told that you were baseborn,

Evil, of disgraceful life, persistently mean.

You have said much 1 in insulting God’s apostle.

God slay you, you cursed rude fellow!

You utter filth, and then throw it

At the dean robed godly faithful one (650).

He also said:

Ask Quraysh of our flight and of theirs
That morn at the base of Uhud’s hill.

We were lions, they but leopards when they came. 633

We cared nothing for blood relationship.

How many brave chiefs did we leave there
Protectors of proteges, noble in birth and reputation ?

Among us the apostle, a star, then there followed him
A brilliant light excelling the stars.

True is his speech, just his behaviour.

He who answers his call will escape perdition,

Brave in attack, purposeful, resolute

• Another reading is tanajjasta ‘You have behaved filthily’, which may be right.

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The Life of Muhammad
When hearts are moved by fear,

Advancing and encouraging us so that we should not be disobedient,
Like the full moon that cannot lie.

When he appeared we followed him and held him true.

They called him liar so we are the happiest of the Arabs.

They wheeled and we wheeled, they did not reform or return
While we followed them in unwearying pursuit.

The two armies had nothing in common,

God’s party and the men of polytheism and idols (651). 1

’Abdullah b. Rawaha said (652):

My eye wept and right well it did so
(But what avails weeping and lamentation),

For God’s lion on the day that they said
‘Is that slain man Hamza?’

All the Muslims were distressed thereat;

The apostle too suffered.

O Abu Ya'la, 2 your pillars were shattered,

You the noble, just, bounteous one.

God’s peace on you in paradise
With everlasting felicity!

O Hashim, the best men, be steadfast
Whose every deed is fine and laudable. 3
God’s apostle is patient, noble,

Whenever he speaks ’tis by God’s command.

Will someone tell Lu’ayy for me

(For after today war’s fortune will change,

And previously they haVe known and tasted of
Our fighting in which vengeance was slaked),

You have forgotten our blows at Badr’s pool
When swift death came to you,

The morn that Abu Jahl lay prostrate,

The vultures wheeling and circling over him.

f Utba and his son fell together

And Shayba whom the polished sword bit.

We left Umayya stretched on the ground,

A huge lance in his belly.

Ask the skulls of Banu Rabi’a,

For our swords were notched by them.

Weep, O Hind, grow not weary,

For you are the bereaved one in tears for a lost son.

■ These mo poems ,re in sharp contra,,. The firs, is a fine example of^ ' A f ”^ U "

spirit; the second belongs to the large category of the spurious, and clearly dates from

later age.

1 The kunya of Hamza.

3 Cf. Suras 38. 47. 8; 12. 18, 83.

The Life of Muhammad 423

Show not joy at Hamza’s death, O Hind,

For your boasting is contemptible.

Ka'b b. Malik said:

Say to Quraysh despite their distance,

Do you boast of what you have not won ?

You boast of the slain on whom the favours
Of Him who grants the best favours have fallen.

They dwell in gardens and have left waiting for you
Lions who protect their cubs,

To fight for their religion, in their midst
A prophet who never recedes from the truth.

Ma'add attacked him with infamous words
And the arrows of enmity unceasingly (653).

Dirar b. al-Khattab:

What ails thine eye which sleeplessness affects
As though pain were in thine eyelids ?

Is it for the loss of a friend whom you hold dear
Parted by distance and foes ?

Or is it because of the mischief of a useless people
When wars blaze with burning heat ?

They cease not from the error they have committed.

Woe to them! No helper have they from Lu’ayy.

We adjured them all by God, 6 5 3

But neither kinship nor oaths deterred them;

Till finally when they determined on war against us
And injustice and bad feeling had grown strong,

We attacked them with an army
Flanked by helmeted strong mailed men
And slender horses sweeping along with warriors
Like kites, so smooth was their gait;

An army which Sakhr 1 led and commanded
Like an angry lion of the jungle tearing his prey.

Death brought out a people from their dwellings,

We and they met at Uhud.

Some of them were left stone dead

Like goats which the hail has frozen to the cold ground.

Noble dead, the Banu’bNajjar in their midst

And Mus'ab with broken pieces of our shafts around him

And Hamza the chief, prostrate, his widow going round him.

His nose and liver had been cut away. It was
As if when he fell he bled beneath the dust
Transfixed by a lance on which the blood had dried.

1 i.e. Abu Sufyan.

6 3 6

424 The Life of Muhammad

He was the colt of an old she-camel whose companions had fled
As frightened ostriches run away
Rushing headlong filled with terror,

The steep precipitous rocks aiding their escape.

Husbandless women weep over them
In mourning garb rent in pieces.

We left them to the vultures on the battlefield
And to the hyaenas who made for their bodies (654):

Abu Za'na b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. 'Utba, brother of B. Jusham b. al-
Khazraj:

I’m Abu Za'na. Al-Huzam 1 takes me apace,

Painful exertion alone saves disgrace.

A Khazrajite of Jusham his ward will solace.

‘All b. AbQ Talib (655):

Al-Harith b. al-Simma

Was faithful to his covenant with us.

He went through painful deserts,

Black as darkest night,

Among many swords and spears

Seeking God’s apostle in what was happening there.

'Ikrima b. Abu Jahl:

Each of them says to his horse, Come on here!

You can see him advancing today without fear
Bearing a leader with his mighty spear.

Al-A'sha b. Zurara b. al-Nabbash al-Tamimi, of B. Asad b. 'Amr b.
Tamim, weeping the slain of B. 'Abd al-Dar:

Let the Band Abu Talha in spite of their distance
Be given a greeting that will not be rejected.

Their w r atercarrier passed them with it
And**eyery wratercarrier of theirs is known.

Their neighbour and guest never complained,

No door was closed in their face. 2

'Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra:

We killed Ibn Jahsh and rejoiced at his death
And Hamza with his horsemen and Ibn Qauqal.

Some men escaped us and got quickly away.

Would that they had stopped and we had not been hasty,

That they had stood so that our swords their best men
Might have cut down, for all of us were fully armed;

1 The name of his horse.

3 The last line is omitted by W., probably rightly. He refers to it in his notea in vol. II.

The Life of Muhammad 425

And that there might have been a fight between us
When they would have a morning draught 1 w r hose evil w r ould not
pass away (656).

Safiya d. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib mourning her brother Hamza 1 .

Are you my sisters asking in dread

The men of Uhud, the slow of speech and the eloquent ? 2

The latter said Hamza is dead,

The best helper of the apostle of God.

God the true, the Lord of the Throne, called him
To live in paradise in joy.

That is what we hoped and longed for.

Hamza on the day of gathering w r ill enjoy the best reward.

By God I’ll ne’er forget thee as long as the east wind blow's
In sorrow and weeping, whether at home or in travel,

For the lion of God who was our defence,

Protecting Islam against every unbeliever.

Would that my limbs and bones were there
For hyaenas and vultures to visit.

I said w T hen my family raised their lamentation,

God reward him, fine brother and helper as he was ! (657).

Nu'm wife of Shammas b. 'Uthman weeping her husband:

O eye be generous, let thy tears flow spontaneously
For the noble and victorious warrior

Whose opinion was accepted, whose deeds were successful,

Who carried the standards, the rider of horses.

I said in anguish when news of his death came,

‘The generous man who fed and clothed others has perished.’

I said when the places w'here he sat were forsaken,

‘May God not take Shammas far from us!’

Her brother Abu’l-Hakam b. Sa'Id b. Yarbu' replying to comfort her:

Preserve thy modesty in secret and in honour,

For Shammas was only a man.

Kill not thyself because he met his death
In obeying God on the day of heroic battle.

Hamza was the lion of God, so be patient;

He too on that day tasted Shammas’s cup.

Hind d. ‘Utba when the polytheists withdrew' from Uhud:

I came back my heart filled with sorrow',

For some from w r hom I sought vengeance had escaped me,

1 W. has fabdh ‘morning’.

2 i.e, W'hether they know or not. This poem is attributed to Hassan in the Ditvdn (xxxviii)
where the text differs somewhat. It is obviously the product of a later age.

426 The Life of Muhammad

Men of Quraysh who were at Badr,

Of Banu Hashim, and of Yathrib’s people.

638 I gained somewhat from the expedition

But not all that I had hoped (658).

THE DAY OF AL-RAjf, A.H. 3

Abu Muhammad/Abdu’l-Malik b. Hisham told us from Ziyad b. 'Abdul¬
lah al-Bakka’i from I. Ishaq from 'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada: After Uhud
a number of 'Adal and al-Qara came to the apostle (659). They said that
some of them had already accepted Islam and they asked him to send some
of his companions to instruct them in religion and to teach them to read
the Quran and to teach them the laws of Islam. The apostle sent the
following six of his companions.-Marthad b. Abu Marthad al-Ghanawi,
an ally of Hamza; Khalid b. al-Bukayr al-Laythl, an ally of B. 'Adly b.
Ka'b; 'Asim b. Thabit b. Abu’I-Aqlah, brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf b.
Malik b. al-Aus; Khubayb b. 'Adly, brother of B. Jahjaba b. Kulfa b.
'Amr b. 'Auf; Zayd b. al-Dathinna b. Mu'awiya, brother of B. Bayada b.
'Amr b. Zurayq b. 'Abdu Haritha b. Malik b. Ghadb b. Jusham b. al-
Khazraj; and 'Abdullah b. Tariq, ally of B. Zafar b. al-Khazraj b. 'Amr b.
Malik b. al-Aus.

The apostle put Marthad in command of them and the band got as far as
al-Rajf, a watering-place of Hudhayl in a district of the Hijaz at the upper
part of al-Had’a. 1 There they betrayed them and summoned Hudhayl
against them. While they were off their guard sitting with their baggage
suddenly they were set upon by men with swords in their hands, so they
took their swords to fight them; but the men said that it was not their
intention to kill them; they wanted to get something for them from the
639 people of Mecca. They swore by God that they would not kill them.

Marthad, Khalid, and 'Asim said: ‘By God, we will never accept an
undertaking and agreement from a polytheist.’ 'Asim said:

No weakling I, an archer bold,

My bow thick-stringed with trusty hold

Broad arrows can life’s coil unfold.

Death’s certain—life a mere tale told.

What God decrees men shall behold,

Life must return to Him its mould.

I fight though I leave a mother, cold (660).

He also said:

I’m Abu Sulayman with al-Muq'ad’s shafts. 2

Like Gehenna they burn my feathered shafts.

1 Between 'Asfan and Mecca; according to others between Mecca and al-T»’if-
1 A Meccan who was famed for feathering arrows skilfully.

The Life of Muhammad 427

When battle’s abroad I am not afraid/

With shield of smooth ox-hide I’m safely arrayed
And I firmly believe in what Muhammad has said.

He also said:

I’m Abu Sulayman, an archer fine,

And come of a people of noble line.

His kunya was Abu Sulayman.

Thereupon he fought with the people until he and his two companions
were killed.

When 'Asim was slain Hudhayl wanted to take his head to sell it to
Sulafa d. Sa'd b. Shuhayd. When he killed her two sons at Uhud she
swore a vow that if she could get possession of his head she would drink
wine in his skull; but bees 2 protected him. When the bees came between
it and them they said, ‘Let him alone until nightfall when they will leave
him and we can take the skull.’ But God sent a flood in the wadi and it
carried 'Asim away. Now 'Asim had made a covenant with God that no
polytheist should touch him nor would he ever touch a polytheist for fear
of contamination. 'Umar used to say when he heard of how the bees
protected him, ‘God protects the believer. 'Asim had vowed that no poly¬
theist should touch him and that he would never touch one so long as he
lived, so God protected him after his death as he had protected himself
while he was alive.’

Zayd, Khubayb, and Abdullah b. Tariq were weak and yielding in their
desire to preserve their lives so they surrendered and were bound and 64'
taken to Mecca to be sold there. When they were in al-Zahran 'Abdullah
bfoke loose from his bonds and drew his sword. But the men drew back
from him and stoned him until they killed him. His grave is in al-Zahran.
Khubayb and Zayd were brought to Mecca (66r).

Hujayr b. Abu Ihab al-Tamlml, an ally of B. Naufal, bought Khubayb
for 'Uqba b. al-Harith b. 'Amir b. Naufal, Abu Ihab being the brother of
al-Harith b. 'Amir by the same mother, to kill him in revenge for his
father (662).

Safwan b. Umayya bought Zayd to kill him in revenge for his father
Umayya b. Khalaf. Safwan sent him with a freedman of his called Nistas 3
to al-Tan'Im and they brought him out of the haram to kill him. A number
of Quraysh gathered, among whom was Abu Sufyan b. Harb, who said to
him as he was brought out to be killed, ‘I adjure you by God, Zayd, don’t
you wish that Muhammad was with us now in your place so that we might

1 The readings vary; al-nawdhl 'the ways’ and ufturishat ‘full of men’; al-tiaivaji 'swift
camels’ and uqlurishat ‘collected’. The probable sense is given above.

2 Or, more probably, ‘hornets’. But see below.

• The passages marked are quoted by b. Yusuf b. Yahya al-Tadali known as I. al-Zayyat
(d. 627/1299) in his al-Tashau>wuf ila rijali l-tafarvtvuf, Rabat MS. D. 767, f. 24r, where
dabr is glossed by nahl. I owe this reference to my colleague Mr. Hopkins.

J Possibly for Anastasius.

428 The Life of Muhammad

cut off his head, and that you were with your family ?’ Zayd answered, ‘By
God, I don’t wish that Muhammad now were in the place he occupies and
that a thorn could hurt him, and that I were sitting with my family.’ Abu
Sufyan used to say, ‘I have never seen a man who was so loved as Muham¬
mad’s companions loved him.’ Then Nistas killed him, God pity him.

'Abdullah b. Abu Najlh told me that he was told by Mawiya, 1 freed-
woman of Hujayr b. Abu Ihab, who had become a Muslim: Khubayb was
imprisoned in my house and I looked at him one day with a bunch of
grapes in his hand as big as a man’s head from which he was eating. I did
not know that there were grapes on God’s earth that could be eaten (at
that time).

641 'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada and 'Abdullah b. Abu Najih both told me that
she said: When the time for his execution had come he asked me to send
him a razor with which to cleanse himself before he died; so I gave a razor
to a youth of the tribe and told him to take it to the man in the house.
Hardly had he turned his back to take it to him when I thought, ‘What
have I done ? By God, the man will take his revenge by killing the young¬
ster and it will be man for man.’ But when he handed him the steel he
took it from him saying, ‘Good gracious, your mother was not afraid of my
treachery when she sent you to me with this razor!’ Then he let him go (663).

'Asim said, Then they took out Khubayb as far as al-Tan'Im to
crucify him. He asked them to give him time to make a couple of bowings,
and they agreed. He performed two excellent bowings and then turned to
the people saying, ‘Were it not that you would think that I only delayed
out of fear of death I would have prolonged my prayer.’ Khubayb b.
'Adly w r as the first to establish the custom of performing two bowings at
death. Then they raised him on the wood and when they had bound him
he said, ‘O God, we have delivered the message of Thy apostle, so tell him
tomorrow what has been done to us.’ Then he said, ‘O God, reckon them
by number and kill them one by one, let none of them escape.’ Then they
killed him, God pity him.

Mu'awiya b. Abu Sufyan used to say: ‘I was present that day among
those who were there with Abu Sufyan and I saw him throw me to the
ground out of fear of Khubayb’s curse.’ They used to say, ‘If a man is
cursed and is thrown to one side the curse will pass over him.’

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father 'Abbad
concerning 'Uqba b. al-Harith said: ‘I heard him say, “It was not I who
killed Khubayb, for I was too young to do that; but Abu Maysara brother
of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar took a lance and put it in my hand. Then he covered
my hand with his and thrust him with it until he killed him.’”

One of our companions said that 'Umar had appointed Sa'id b. 'Amir b.

642 Hidhyam al-Jumahi over a part of Syria. Fainting fits used to seize him
when he was among the people and ‘Umar was told of this. It was said

1 S. says that this is the reading of Yunus b. Bukayr and it is to be found in old copies of
I.H., but others give the name as Mariya on I.I.'s authority'.

The Life of Muhammad 429

that the man was subject to seizures. During one of his visits 'Umar asked
him the cause of the trouble and he said, ‘There is nothing the matter with
me, but I was one of those who was present when Khubayb b. 'Adly was
killed and I heard his curse, and whenever I remember it when I am in a
meeting I faint away.’ This increased his favour in 'Umar’s eyes (664).

A freedman of Zayd b. Thabit told me from 'Ikrima, freedman of Ibn
Abbas, or from Sa Id b. Jubayr, that Ibn Abbas said with reference to a
passage of the Quran about this expedition: When the expedition in which
Marthad and 'Asim took part came to grief in al-Raji' some of the dis¬
affected said, ‘Alas for those beguiled fellows who perished thus! They
did not stay with their families nor did they deliver the message of their
master.’ Then God sent down concerning their words and the good they
gained by their suffering: ‘There is the kind of man whose talk about the
life of this world pleases you,’ i.e. when he professes Islam with his tongue,

‘and he calls God to witness about that which is in his heart’ which is
contrary to what he professes with his tongue, ‘yet he is the most quarrel¬
some of adversaries’, i.e. a controversialist when he argues with you (66Q. 1

God said, ‘And when he turns away,’ i.e. goes out from your presence, 643
he hastens through the land to make mischief therein and to destroy the
crops and the cattle; but God loves notmischief,’ i.e. He does not love the
doing of it nor does it please Him. ‘And when it is said to him, Beware of
God, pride seizes him in sin. Hell will be his reckoning, an evil resting-
place. And there is the kind of man who would sell himself in his desire
to please God and God is kind to His servants,’ i.e. they sold themselves to
God by fighting in His way and doing what He required until they gave up
their lives. He means that expedition (666).

Among the poems about this is that of Khubayb b. 'Adly when he heard
that the people had gathered to crucify him (667):

The confederates gathered their tribes around me
And assembled all whom they could collect.

All of them show vidlent enmity against me
Because I am helpless in bonds.

They collect their women and children
And I am brought to a lofty high trunk.

To God I complain of my loneliness and pain

And of the death the confederates have prepared for me.

Lord of the throne, give me endurance against their purpose.

They have pierced my flesh—all hope is gone!

This is for God’s sake, and if He wills

1 Sura 2. 200. S. records a variant reading of Ibn Muhaysin, wayashhadu'lldhu for wayush-
hidu llaha, i.e. God knows what is in his heart, and this may well be the true reading. He
also says that the majority of commentators hold that this verse came down with reference
to al-Akhnas b. Shariq al-Thaqafi according to the tradition from Ibn 'Abbas through Abu
Malik, and Mujahid said the same. Ihnu’l-Kalbl said that when he was in Mecca he gave
that opinion, but one of al-Akhnas’s offspring denied it and said that it came down with
reference to the people of Mecca,

o The Life of Muhammad

He will bless the limbs thus torn.

They let me choose infidelity but death is preferable,

And my tears flowed though not in fear.

I fear not death who am about to die
But I fear hell and its all-embracing fire.

By God, I fear not 1 if I die a Muslim
What death I suffer for God’s sake.

I will not show subservience to the enemy
Nor despair, for ’tis to God I return.

Hassan b. Thabit said, mourning Khubayb:

What ails thine eye that its tears cease not
Flowing on to thy breast like loose pearls ?

For Khubayb the hero, no coward when you meet him,

No fickle youth as men well know.

Then go, Khubayb, may God reward thee well

In the eternal gardens with houris among thy companions.

What will you say when the prophet says to you
When the pure angels are in the firmament,

Why did you kill God’s martyr for the sake of an evil man
Who committed crimes far and wide ? (668)

Hassan also said:

O eye, be generous with thy tears;

Weep for Khubayb who did not return with the warriors.

A hawk, ’midst the Ansar was his dignity,

Generous by nature of pure unmixed descent.

My eye was inflamed because of the difficulty of weeping 2
When ’twas said, He has been lifted up on a tree.

O raider going forth on your business
Convey a threat—no idle threat
To the Banu Kuhayba that war’s milk
Will be bitter when its teats are pressed.

In it will be the lions of the Banu al-Najjar,

Their glittering spears in front of a great shouting army (669).

Hassan also said:

Had there been in the camp a noble chief, a warrior,

A champion of the people, a hawk whose uncle is Anas,

Then, Khubayb, you would have had a spacious place to sit in
And not have been confined by guards in prison.

Low adherents of the tribes would not have borne you to Tan'im,
Some of them men whom 'Udas had expelled.

1 raja is one of the atjddd.

1 i.e. my nature is such that my eyes are unaccustomed to tears.

The Life of Muhammad 431

They deceived you w'ith their treachery, breaking their faith,

You were wronged, a prisoner in their camp (670).

Those who formed the mob from Quraysh when Khubayb was killed
were Tkrima b. Abu Jahl; Sa'Id b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Qays b. 'Abdu Wudd;
al-Akhnas b. Shariq al-Thaqafl, ally of B. Zuhra; 'Ubayda b. Hakim b.
Umayya b, Haritha b. al-Auqas al-Sulaml, ally of B. Umayya b. 'Abdu
Shams; and Umayya b. Abu 'Utba and the B. al-Hadrami.

Hassan also said reviling Hudhayl for what they did to Khubayb:

Tell Banu 'Amr that a man steeped in treachery
Sold their brother as a chattel.

Zuhayr b. al-Agharr and Jami’ sold him,

Both of them committing foul crimes.

You promised him protection and having done so betrayed him.

In the region of al-Raji' you were as sharp swords. 1

Would that Khubayb had not been deceived by your promise;

Would that he had known what people he was dealing with! (671)

Hassan also said:

If pure unalloyed treachery pleases you

Go to al-Raji' and ask about the abode of Lihyan;

A people who adjure one another to devour the guest among them. 2
Dog and ape are like such men.

If a he-goat were to rise up and address them one day

He would be a man of honour and importance among them! (672)

Hassan also said:

Hudhayl asked the apostle for something disgraceful.

They erred therein and went astray;

They asked their apostle what he would not grant them
To their dying day and they were the disgrace of the Arabs.

Never will you see in Hudhayl one

Calling others to a generous deed in that place of plunder.

Woe to them who desired to make immoral conditions
To be allowed what the scripture forbids!

Hassan also said:

The tale of Khubayb and 'Asim

Has ruined the name of Hudhayl ibn Mudrik.

The tale of Lihyan has ruined their reputation,

For Lihyan has committed the worst of crimes.

Men, the best stock of their tribe,

Like hairs upon a horse’s fetlock,

1 Or, perhaps, ‘thieves’.

2 Bukhala , Cairo, 1948, p. 216, understands from this and other satirical poems
that these men were cannibals.

432

The Life of Muhammad
Were treacherous on the day of al-Raji',

Betraying their ward to whom kindness and generosity were ue,

The apostle’s messenger. Hudhayl took no pains
To ward off the evil of loathsome crimes.

One day they will see victory turn against them
For killing one whom there protected against evil deeds
Swarms of hornets standing guard over his flesh
Which protected the flesh of one who witnessed great battles.

Perhaps in return for killing him Hudhayl will see
Dead lying prostrate or women mourning
As we bring a violent attack upon them,

Which riders will relate faithfully to those at the fairs
By command of God’s apostle, for he with full knowledge
Has made a forceful decision against Lihyan,

A contemptible tribe caring nothing for good faith.

If they are wronged they do not resist the aggressor.

When people live in an isolated quarter

You see them in the watercourses between the well-worn channels.

Un Their place is the home of death. . , , .

When anything happens to them they have the minds of cattle.

Hassan also said:

God curse Lihyan, for their blood does not repay us
For their having slain the two in treachery.

At al-Rajf they killed the son of a free woman
Faithful and pure in his friendship.

Had they all been killed on the day of al-Raji'

In revenge for 'Asim 2 that ’would not have sufficed
For the dead man whom the bees protected m their tents,

Among people of obvious infidelity and coarseness.

Lihyan killed one more honourable than they

And sold Khubayb for a miserable price, woe to them.

Ugh! for Lihyan in every event.

May their memory perish and not even be mentioned.

A contemptible tribe of mean and treacherous descent,

Their meanness cannot be concealed.

If they were slain their blood would not pay for him ^

But the killing of his killers would cure me (of my pain).

Unless I die I will terrify Hudhayl with a plundering raid
Swift as the early morning cloud.

By the apostle’s command, and his it is.

Disaster will spend the night in Lihyan’s court.

■ W*» refers .o .he oa.h taken by 'A ? im that he *

polytheist, and also to the vow of SuISfa that the would dnnk ... from A 5 .ra
= Lit. ‘he of the hornets’

433

The Life of Muhammad

The people in al-Raji' will be found in the morning

Like little goats who have passed the winter without warmth. 1

Hassan also said:

By God, Hudhayl do not know

Whether Zamzam’s water is clean or foul;

And if they make the great or lesser pilgrimage

They have no share in the hijr or the running.

But at al-Raji' they have a place,

The home of open meanness and disgrace.

They are like goats in the Hijaz bleating

In the evening beside the shelters.

They were treacherous to Khubayb their ward.

What a miserable covenant was their false word! (673)

Hassan also said: 648

God bless those who followed one another (to death) the day of al-
Raji'

And were honoured and rewarded.

Marthad the head and leader of the party and

Ibn al-Bukayr their imam and Khubayb.

And a son of Tariq; Ibn Dathinna was there too.

There his death as it was written befell him

And al-'Asim slain at Rajf

Attained the heights (of heaven) great gainer he.

He averted the disgrace of wounds in the back.

He met them sword in hand, the noble warrior (674).

THE STORY OF BI*R Ma'UNA IN SAFAR, A.H. 4

The apostle stayed (in Medina) for the rest of Shawwal, Dhu’l-Qa'da,
Dhu’I-Hijja, and al-Muharram while the polytheists supervised the pil¬
grimage. Then he sent the men of Bi’r Ma'una forth in Safar, four months
after Uhud.

My father Ishaq b. Yasar from al-Mughira b. Abdu’l-Rahman b. al-
Harith b. Hisham told me, as did 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad
b. 'Amr b. Hazm and other traditionists, as follows: Abu Bara’ 'Amir b.

Malik b. Ja'far the ‘Player with the Spears’ came to the apostle in Medina
(T and offered him a present. The apostle refused it, saying that he could T- 1442
not accept a present from a polytheist and telling him to become a Muslim
if he wished him to accept his present ). 2 The apostle explained Islam to
him and invited him to accept it. He would not do so yet he was not far
from Islam. He said: 'O Muhammad (T. your affair to which you invite

1 I follow the reading of C.

2 F’s version is more verbose than I.H.’s recension.

F f

B 4080

434 The Life of Muhammad

me is most excellent). If you were to send some of your companions to
the people of Najd and they invited them to your affair I have good hopes
that they would give you a favourable answer.’ The apostle said that he
feared that the people of Najd would kill them; to which Abu Bara’ replied
that he would go surety for them, so let him send them and invite men to
his religion. So the apostle sent al-Mundhir b. 'Amr, brother of B. Sa'ida,
‘The Quick to seek Death’, with forty of his companions from the best of

649 the Muslims. Among them were al-Harith b. al-Simma; Haram b. Milhan,
brother of B. 'Adly b. al-Najjar; 'Urwa b. Asma’ b. al-Salt al-Sulaml;
Nafi' b. Budayl b. Warqa’ al-Khuza'i; 'Amir b. Fuhayra, freedman of Abu
Bakr, of those who were named of the best Muslims. (T. Humayd al-
Tawll from Anas b. Malik who said that the apostle sent al-Mundhir b.
'Amr with seventy riders.) 1 They went on until they halted at Bi’r Ma'una
which is between the land of B. 'Amir and the harra of B. Sulaym, near to
both districts but nearer to the harra .

When they alighted at it they sent Haram b. Milhan with the apostle’s
letter to the enemy of God 'Amir b. Tufayl. When he came to him he
rushed at the man and killed him before he even looked at the letter. Then
he tried to call out the B. 'Amir against them, but they refused to do what
he wanted, saying that they would not violate the promise of security which
Abu Bara’ had given these men. Then he appealed to the tribes of B.
Sulaym of 'Usayya, Ri'I, and Dhakwan, and they agreed and came out
against them and surrounded them as they were with their camels. Seeing
them they drew their swords and fought to the last man. All were killed
but Ka'b b. Zayd, brother of B. Dinar b. al-Najjar; him they left while
breath was in him. He was picked up from among the slain and lived until
the battle of the Trench when he was killed as a martyr.

'Amr b. Umayya al-Damrl and an Ansar! of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf were with
the camels out at pasture (675). They did not know of the death of their
companions until they saw vultures circling round the camp. They knew
that this must mean that something serious had happened, so they went
to investigate and there were the men lying in their blood and the horse¬
men who had killed them standing near. 'Amr’s opinion was that they
should rejoin the apostle and tell him the news, but the Ansar! said that he
could not bring himself to leave the spot where al-Mundhir had been slain,
nor could he bear that people should say that he had done such a thing, so
he fought the party until he was killed. They took 'Amr prisoner, and
when he told them that he was of Mudar, 'Amir b. al-Tufayl let him go

650 after cutting off his forelock. He freed him, so he alleged, because of an
oath taken by his mother. 2

'Amr got as far as al-Qarqara at the beginning of Qanat when two men
of B. 'Amir turned up and stopped with him in the shade (676). Now
there was an agreement of friendship between the apostle and the two

1 This is accepted by Bukhari.

2 Cf. the shorter account in Musa b. 'Uqba, No. 7.

The Life of Muhammad ^-

Amiris of which 'Amr knew nothing, and when after questioning he found
th , at th ? y be °nged to B. 'Amir he let them alone for a time until they slept
when he fell upon them and killed them, thinking that he had taken
vengeance on them for the killing of the apostle’s companions. But when
he came to the apostle and told him what he had done he said ‘You have
killed two men whose bloodwit I must pay.’ Then the apostle said '‘This
is (the result of) Abu Bara’s act. I did not like this expedition fearing
what would happen.’ When Abu Bara’ heard the news he was much
upset at Amir’s violation of his guarantee in that the apostle’s companions
had been killed because of what he had done and because he had promised
them safety. Among those who were killed was 'Amir b. Fuhayra.

Hisham b. 'Urwa from his father told me that 'Amir b. al-Tufayl used to
ask, W ho was the man I saw lifted up between heaven and earth when he
ad been killed until I saw the sky receive him?’ They answered, ‘It was
Amir b. Fuhayra.

One of B. Jabbar b. Salma b. Malik b. Ja'far told me-Jabbar was among
those who were present that day with 'Amir and afterwards became a Mus-
im that Jabbar used to say, 'What led me to become a Muslim was that
stabbed one of them between the shoulders that day and I saw the point
ot the spear come out of his chest, and I heard him say, "I have won by
, 1 couId n °t make out what he meant by the words seeing that I had
killed him until afterwards I asked others and was told that it was martyr-
dom, and then I said, 4£ By God he has won.” 1

Hassan b. Thabit, inciting B. Abu Bara’ against 'Amir b, al-Tufayl, said:

^ e sons of Ummu’l-Banln, are you not dismayed,

You the loftiest of Najd’s people,

At Amir s insolence to Abu Bara’ in violating his safe conduct? 6si
For a mistake is not the same as a deliberate act.

Say to Rabi a who strives after great deeds,

What did you do after I left you ?

our father Abu Bara’ is a man of war,

Your uncle Hakam b. Sa'd is celebrated (677).

ET* Ka b b. Malik also said on the same subject

T- 144

The violation of Abu Bara”s guarantee u ^*

Is blazed abroad far and wide.

It is like Musahhab and his father’s sons
Hard by al-Radh in the region of Suwa’.

O sons of Ummu’l-Banln, did you not hear
The cry for help at eventide, the loud call for aid ?

You did indeed but you knew that he was a doughty warrior.

The Banu Kilab and al-Qurata’

Are homes of broken faith.

O Amir, Amir of ancient infamy,

6 The Life of Muhammad

You have won, but without intelligence or dignity.

Did you not deal falsely with the prophet'

Yet of old have you behaved infamously.

You are not like the guest of Abu Duwad
Nor al-Asadi the guest of Abu’l- Ala ;

«!». * tfzpz

Bara )] he attacke * ^ u t f e jf f rom his horse saying, This is

his I'.'.'" / [ blood (1 give) to my ondc= sod ho is

srtsfti •»

wht n kUl b ed NSfi^b! Budayl b. Warqa’ al-Khuza'l that day, said:

I left Ibn Warqa’ dead on the ground
With the dust wind blowing o’er him.

I remembered Abu’l-Rayyan 3 when I saw h
And made sure that I was avenged.

Abu’l-Rayyan was Tuayma b.’Adiy. „ W a r qa’ said:

‘Abdullah b. Rawaha mourning Nafi b. Budayl b. warq

God have the mercy on Nafi’b. Budayl

That belongs to those who seek the reward ofjtha -
Fnduring, truthful, faithful,

When men talked too much he spoke to the point.

Hass-an b. Th S bit, mourning the slain at BiV MaOna and especially al-
Mundhir b. ‘Amr, said:

Weep for the slain at Ma‘una
With everflowing tears,

For the apostle’s horsemen the day
They met their death by God s decree.

They met their end because a peop e
Were false to their covenant and treacherous.

Alas for Mundhir who died there
And hastened to his end steadfastly.

How many a noble welcoming man

Of 'Amr’s best people was done to death. (67 )

• T . has ‘the spear was deflected so that it did not kill him’.

1 i.e. ‘I forgive him’.^

3 W. has Abd’l-Zabban. . rf n - r x i

4 Ttasc lines .re .tmbu.cd .0 H.ssan, Cf. D,«*n

The Life of Muhammad

437

THE DEPORTATION OF THE B. AL-NADIR, A.H. 4

According to what Yazid b. Ruman told me the apostle went to B. al- 652
Nadir to ask for their help in paying the bloodwit for the two men of B.

‘Amir whom 'Amr b. Umayya al-Damri had killed after he had given them
a promise of security. There was a mutual alliance between B. al-Nadir
and B. 'Amir. When the apostle came to them about the bloodwit they
said that of course they would contribute in the way he wished; but they
took counsel with one another apart, saying, ‘You will never get such a
chance again. Who will go to the top of the house and drop a rock on him
(T. so as to kill him) and rid us of him ?’ The apostle was sitting by the T. 1448
wall of one of their houses at the time. 'Amr b. Jihash b. Ka'b volunteered
to do this and went up to throw down a rock. 1 As the apostle was with a
number of his companions among whom were Abu Bakr, 'Umar, and 'All,
news came to him from heaven about what these people intended, so he
got up (T. and said to his companions, ‘Don’t go away until I come to
you’) and he w r ent back to Medina. When his companions had waited long 653
for the prophet, they got up to search for him and met a man coming from
Medina and asked him about him. He said that he had seen him entering
Medina, and they went off, and when they found him he told them of the
treachery w’hich the Jews meditated against him. The apostle ordered them
to prepare for war and to march against them (679). Then he went off with
the men until he came upon them (680).

The Jews took refuge in their forts and the apostle ordered that the
palm-trees should be cut down and burnt, and they called out to him,
‘Muhammad, you have prohibited wanton destruction and blamed those
guilty of it. Why then are you cutting down and burning our palm-trees ?’

Now there was a number of B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj among whom were
‘Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul and Wadi'a and Malik b. Abu Qauqal and
Suwayd and Da'is who had sent to B. al-Nadir saying, ‘Stand firm and
protect yourselves, for we will not betray you. If you are attacked wc will
fight with you and if you are turned out, we will go with you.’ Accordingly
they waited for the help they had promised, but they did nothing and God
cast terror into their hearts. They asked the apostle to deport them and to
spare their lives on condition that they could retain all their property which
they could carry on camels, except their armour, and he agreed. So they
loaded their camels with what they could carry, .Men were destroying
their houses down to the lintel of the door which they put upon the back
of their camels and went off with it. Some went to Khaybar and others
went to Syria. Among their chiefs who went to Khaybar were Sallam b.

! I think it is clear that another and later story has been attached to this incident. Ob¬
viously if the prophet had overheard their designs there was no need of a supernatural
communication from heaven. Further, it should be noted that in this later story the apostle
i» called ‘the prophet'. Thi9 is a term which 1.1. uses most sparingly, though it is fairly
frequently employed by his editor I.H.

438 The Life of Muhammad

Abu’l-Huqayq, Kinana b. al-Rabl b. Abu’l-Huqayq, and Huyayy b. AJkh-
tab. When they got there the inhabitants became subject to them.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that he was told that they carried off the
women and children and property with tambourines and pipes and singing-
girls playing behind them. Among them was Umm 'Amr, wife of 'Urwa b.
al-Ward al-'Absi, whom they had bought from him, she being one of the

654 women of B. Ghifar. (They went) with such pomp and splendour as had
never been seen in any tribe in their days.

They left their property to the apostle and it became his personal
property which he could dispose of as he wished. He divided it among the
first emigrants to the exclusion of the Ansar, except that Sahl b. Hunayf
and Abu Dujana Simak b. Kharasha complained of poverty and so he gave
them some. Only two of B. al-Nadlr became Muslims: Yamin b. ‘Umayr
Abu Ka'b b. 'Amr 1 b. Jihash and Abu Sa'd b. Wahb who became Muslims
in order to retain their property.

One of Yamln’s family told me that the apostle said to Yamin, ‘Have you
seen the way your cousin has treated me and what he proposed to do?’
Thereupon Yamin gave a man money to kill 'Amr b. Jihash and he did
kill him, or so they allege.

Concerning B. al-Nadlr the Sura of Exile came down in which is
recorded how God wreaked His vengeance on them and gave His apostle
power over them and how He dealt with them. God said: ‘He it is who
turned out those who disbelieved of the scripture people from their homes
to the first exile. You did not think that they would go out and they thought
that their forts would protect them from God. But God came upon them
from a direction they had not reckoned and He cast terror into their hearts
so that they destroyed their houses with their own hands and the hands of
the believers.’ 2 That refers to their destroying their houses to extract the
lintels of the doors when they carried them away. ‘So consider this, you
who have understanding. Had not God prescribed deportation against
them,’ which was vengeance from God, ‘He would have punished them in
this world,’ i.e. with the sword, ‘and in the next world there would be the
punishment of hell’ as well. ‘The palm-trees which you cut down or left
standing upon their roots.’ Lina means other than the best kind of dates.
‘It was by God’s permission,’ i.e. they were cut down by God’s order; it
was not destruction but was vengeance from God, ‘and to humble evil-

655 doers’ (68i). ‘The spoil which God gave the apostle from them,’ i.e. from
B. al-Nadlr. ‘You did not urge on your cavalry or riding camels for the
sake of it, but God gives His apostle power over whom He wills and God is
Almighty,’ i.e. it was peculiar to him (682), ‘The spoil which God gave the
apostle from the people of the towns belongs to God and His apostle.’
What the Muslims gallop against with horses and camels and what is cap¬
tured by force of arms belongs to’God and the apostle. ‘And is for the next
of kin and orphans and the poor and the wayfarer so that it should not

1 W. has ‘a cousin of 'Amr’. 2 Sura 59.

The Life of Muhammad ^9

circulate among your rich men; and what the apostle gives you take and
abstain from what he forbids you.’ He says this is another division between
Muslims concerning what is taken in war according to what God prescribed
to him. 1 r

T* 16 , 1 ? , G ° d T S i id ’ * HaVC y ° U Seen th0Se who are disaffected,’ meaning
Abdullah b. Ubayy and his companions and those who are like-minded
who say to their brothers of the scripture people who disbelieve,’ i.e. the
B. al-Nadlr, up to the words ‘like those who a short time before them tasted
the misery of their acts and had a painful punishment,’ i.e. the B. Qaynuqa'.
Then as far as the words ‘Like Satan when he said to man Disbelieve and
when man disbelieved he said, I am quit of you. I fear Allah the Lord of
the worlds and the punishment of both is that they will be in hell ever¬
lastingly. That is the reward of the evildoers.’

Among the verses composed about B. al-Nadlr are the following from
I. Luqaym al-'Absi. (Others say Qays b. Bahr b. Tarlf was the author

My people be a ransom for the immortal man
Who forced the Jews to settle in a distant place. 2
1 hey pass their siesta with live coals of tamarisk.

Instead of the young shooting palms they have the bare hills of 'OdI. 3

If I am right about Muhammad

You will see his horses between al-Sala and Y'aramram

Making for Amr b. Buhtha. They are the enemy.

(A friendly tribe is not the same as an evil one.)

On them are heroes, firebrands in war,

Brandishing spears directed at their enemies.

Every fine sharp Indian blade

Inherited from the days ot Ad and Jurhum.

W ho will give Quraysh a message from me,

For is there one honoured in glory after them ?

nun

■ c il.au- . ■„ . ’ ^ ioi., mis passage reads as to ows ■

whichrw/a" A X U Za ‘ d , a M uha , mmad b ' Is M concerning God's word "The spoil
which God gave the apostle from them", i.e. from B. al-Na^ir, "you did not urge cavalry

E? U dcd > HC taUgh i! thCm tHat 11 W3S pecu!iar t0 the a PQStle and to none else. S> the
Eid d f Vlded f an Y ng [ he eml 8 ra nts except that Sahl b, Hunayf and Abu Dujana com¬
plained of poverty and so he gave them some ftw.]. As to His words "The spoil which God
gave the apostle from the people of the towns belongs to God and His apostle" to the end of
the verse He says this is another division between Muslims according to what God described ’

It does not necessarily follow that this is what 1 . 1 , w'rote, though the arrangement of the
matter is certainly more systematic. That may be due to al-Baiadhuri. On the other hand
4m^ entl0n °fl T emigrants seems somewhat strange. The exclusion of the
tSZZS 7 h e E aVe be / nlg Y° red by the later wr iter as foreign to his purpose. On Ihe
other hand, the c umsy Arabic concerning what is taken in war’ does not appear here The
change of ‘prescribed’ into ‘described’ is not an oral mistake but a misreading and inddem
u-iA 1S 0ne o f , countIess proofs that tradition in early days was written down, A confusion
betweeniw *hu and wa^qfahu in speech is utterly impossible: in writing it might well be
impossible to determine which alternative to adopt.

2 The meaning is obscure. I have followed S.

J A. Dh. says that this is the name of a place. Yaqut does not mention it.

440

The Life of Muhammad

That your brother Muhammad, and know it well,

Is of that generous stock between al-Hajun 1 and Zamzam.

Obey him in truth and your fame will grow
And you will attain the greatest heights. He is
A prophet who has received God’s mercy.

Ask him no hidden uncertain matter.

You had an example at Badr, O Quraysh,

And at the crowded cistern
The morning he attacked you with the Khazrajls,

Obeying the Great and Honoured One,

Helped by the Holy Spirit, 2 smiting his foes,

A true apostle from the Compassionate on high;

An apostle from the Compassionate reciting His book.

When the truth shone forth he did not hesitate.

I see his power mounting on every hand
In accord with God’s decree (684).

657 Mentioning the deportation of B. al-Nadir and the killing of Ka'b b.
al-Ashraf, 'All said (685):

I know, and he who judges fairly knows.

I’m sure and swerve not

From the determined word, the signs which came
From God the Kind, the Most Kind,

Documents studied among the believers
In which he chose Ahmad the chosen one.

So Ahmad became honoured among us,

Honoured in rank and station.

O you who foolishly threaten him

Who came not in wickedness and was not overbearing,

Do you not fear the basest punishment

(He who has nothing to fear from God is not like him who lives in
dread.) 3

And that you may be thrown beneath his swords

As Ka'b al-Ashraf was

The day that God saw 7 his insolence

When he turned aside like a refractory camel ?

And He sent down Gabriel with a gracious revelation
To His servant about his killing.

So the apostle secretly sent a messenger to him
With a sharp cutting sword.

Eyes w r ept copiously for Ka'b

1 A place in Mecca. 2 i.e. Gabriel.

• Whenever the reader encounters this miserable banality ‘A is not the same as B ’—there
  is an example in the preceding poem—he may be sure that it is the product of the forger of
  much of the poetry of the Sira,

The Life of Muhammad 441

When they learned that he w 7 as dead.

They said to Ahmad, ‘Leave us awhile,

For we are not yet recovered from weeping.’

So he left them; then he said, ‘Begone
In submission and humiliation.’

He sent al-Nadir to a distant exile,

They having enjoyed a prosperous home

To Adhri'at 1 riding pillion

On every ulcerous worn-out camel they had.

Sammak the Jew answered him:

If you boast, for it is a boast for you
That you killed Ka'b b. al-Ashraf
The day that you compassed his death,

A man who had shown neither treachery nor bad faith,

Haply time and the change of fortune 658

Will take revenge from ‘the just and righteous one’ 2

For killing al-Nadir and their confederates

And for cutting down the palms, their dates ungathered.

Unless I die w r e will come at you w r ith lances

And every sharp sword that w 7 e have

In the hand of a brave man who protects himself.

When he meets his adversary he kills him.

With the army is Sakhr 3 and his fellows.

When he attacks he is no weakling
Like a lion in Tarj 4 protecting his covert,

Lord of the thicket, crushing his prey, enormous.

Ka'b b. Malik said on the same subject:

The rabbis were disgraced through their treachery,

Thus time’s wheel turns round.

They had denied the mighty Lord
Whose command is great.

They had been given knowledge and understanding
And a warner from God came to them,

A truthful warner who brought a book
With plain and luminous verses.

They said, ‘You’ve brought no true thing

And you are more worthy of God’s disapproval 5 than we.*

He said, ‘Nay, but I’ve brought the truth,

The wise and intelligent believe me;

He who follows it will be rightly guided

1 In Syria. 1 A sarcastic reference to the prophet. C. has yudil.

1 Abu Sufy&n. * A mountain in the Hijaz.

• Or, perhaps, ‘of being disbelieved’.

442

The Life of Muhammad

And the disbeliever therein will be recompensed.’

And when they imbibed treachery and unbelief
And aversion turned them from the truth,

God showed the prophet a sound view.

For God’s decision is not false.

He strengthened him and gave him power over them
And was his Helper, an excellent Helper!

Ka'b was left prostrate there.

After his fall Nadir was brought low.

Sword in hand w r e cut him down
By Muhammad’s order w'hen he sent secretly by night
Ka'b’s brother, to go to Ka'b.

&S 9 He beguiled him and brought him down with guile.

Mahmud was trustworthy, bold.

Those Banu’l-Nadlr were in evil case,

They w r ere destroyed for their crimes

The day the apostle came to them with an army

Walking softly as he looked at them.

Ghassan the protectors were his helpers
Against the enemies as he helped them.

He said ‘(I offer) Peace, woe to you,’ but they refused
And lies and deceit were their allies.

They tasted the results of their deeds in misery,

Every three of them shared one camel.

They were driven out and made for Qaynuqa',

Their palms and houses were abandoned.

Sammak the Jew answered him:

I was sleepless while deep care was my guest
On a night that made all others seem short.

I saw that all the rabbis rejected him,

All of them men of knowledge and experience
WTo used to study every science
Of which the Law and Psalms do speak.

You killed Ka'b the chief of the rabbis, 1
He whose ward was always safe.

He came dow r n to Mahmud his brother, 2
But Mahmud was harbouring a wicked design.

He left him in his blood looking as though
Saffron was flowing o’er his clothes.

By your father and mine,

1 Ka'b was nothing of the kind. His father was of though his mother belonged

to B, al-Natfir. Can the forger possibly have confused him with Ka'b al-Ahbar?

2 But the man’s name was Silkan (W. 551, line 2). Is the forger referring to Muhammad
b. Maslama, one of the assassins, whom he confused with Mahmud b. Maslama (W. 758,
769)?

443

The Life of Muhammad

When he fell al-Nadir fell also.

If we stay safe we shall leave in revenge for Ka b
Men of yours with vultures circling round them
As though they W'ere beasts sacrificed on a feast day
With none to say them nay,

With swords that bones cannot resist,

Of finest steel and sharpened edge
Like those you met from brave Sakhr
At Uhud when you had no helper.

'Abbas b. Mirdas, brother of B. Sulaym, praising the men of B. al-
Nadir, said:

Had the people of the settlement not been dispersed 660

You would have seen laughter and gaiety within it.

By my life, shall I show you women in howdahs
Which have gone to Shatat and Tay’ab ?

Large-eyed like the gazelles of Tabala;

Maidens that would bewitch one calmed by much truck with women ? l
When one seeking hospitality came they would say at -once
With faces like gold, ‘Doubly welc&me!

The good that you seek will not be withheld.

You need fear no wrong while with us.’

Don’t think me a client of Salam b. Makhzum
Nor of Huyayy b. Akhtab. 2

Khawwat b. Jubayr, brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf, answered him:

You weep bitterly over the Jewish dead and yet you can see
Those nearer and dearer to you if you want to weep.

Why do you not weep o’er the dead in Urayniq’s valley
And not lament loudly with sad face (over others) ?

When peace reigned with a friend you rejected it.

In religion an obstruction, in war a poltroon.

You aimed at power for your people, seeking
Someone similar that you might get glory and victory.

When you wanted to give praise you went
To one whom to praise is falsehood and shame.

You got what you deserved and you did not find
One among them to say Welcome to you.

Why did you not praise people whose kings
Built up their standing from ancient fame,

A tribe who became kings and w'ere honoured ?

None seeking food was ever found hungry among them.

Such are more worthy of praise than Jews;

In them you see proud glory firmly established.

1 Or, perhaps, ‘a dignified man of experience’.

2 See W. 543.

444 77 ^ Life of Muhammad

'Abbas b. Mirdas al-Sulaml answered him:

You satirized the purest stock of the two priests, 1
Yet you always enjoyed favours at their hands.

’Twere more fitting that you should weep for them,

Your people too if they paid their debt of gratitude.

Gratitude is the best fruit of kindness,

And the most fitting act of one who would do right.

You are as one who cuts off his head
661 To gain the power that it contains. 2

Weep for B. Harun and remember their deeds,

How they killed beasts for the hungry when you were famished. 3
O Khawwat, shed tear after tear for them,

Abandon your injurious attack upon them.

Had you met them in their homes
You would not have said what you say.

They were the first to perform noble deeds in war,

Welcoming the needy guest with kind words. 4

Ka'b b. Malik (685) answered him:

On my life the mill of war

After it had sent Lu’ayy flying east and west 5

Ground the remains of the family of the two priests, and their glory

Which once was great became feeble.

Salam and I. Sa'ya died a violent death
And I. Akhtab was led to a humiliating fate.

He made such noise in seeking glory (’twas really humiliation he
sought),

What he gained from his fuss was frustration, 6

Like him who leaves the plain and the height distresses him,

And that men find more difficult and arduous.

Sha’s and 'Azzal suffered war’s fiery trial,

They were not absent as others were.

'Auf b. Salma and I. 'Auf, both of them,

1 Commentators say that there were two tribes known as the Kahinayn in the neighbour¬
hood of Medina. Some read kahinirt in the plural. If (cf. v. 5) one of these tribes was the
'Sons of Aaron', could the other have been the tribe of Moses ? But one must not take this
forger’s work too seriously. What Jew would refer to the Bible as ‘The Law and the
Psalms' ? However, it is possible that al-zubur here means no more than ‘The Writings’.
If so, it would, of course, be appropriate in the mouth of a Jew. And what had they to do
with the slaughter of beasts on the open plain?

1 i.e. kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. In destroying the Jewish settlements they
had destroyed the prosperity of the Hijaz.

3 Lit. ‘killed hunger’.

4 It says much for the impartiality of the biographer and his editor that they have
retained this touching tribute to the unfortunate Jews.

5 He refers to the battle of Badr.

6 The meaning of the gloss in B.M. MS. 1489 seems to be ‘In seeking glory he appealed
to outsiders’, &c.

445

The Life of Muhammad

And Ka'b chief of the people died a disappointed man.

Away with B. Nadir and their like

Whether the result be victory or God (686). 1

THE RAID OF DHATU’l-RIQa'

After the attack on B. al-Nadtr the apostle stayed in Medina during
Rabi'u’I-Akhir and part of Jumada. Then he raided Najd making for B.
Muharib and B. Tha'Iaba of Ghatafan (687), until he stopped at Nakhl. 662
This was the raid of Dhatu’l-Riqa'. There a large force of Ghatafan was
encountered. The two forces approached one another, but no fighting
occurred, for each feared the other. The apostle led the prayer of fear;
then he went off with the men.

(T. Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr and Muhammad b. 'Abdu’l- T- 1454
Rahman from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from Abu Hurayra: We went with the
apostle to Najd until at Dhatu’l-Riqa' he met a number of Ghatafan.

There was no fighting because the men were afraid of them. The prayer
of fear came down 2 and he divided his companions into two sections, one
facing the enemy and the other behind the apostle. The apostle cried
‘Allah akbar,’ and so did they all. Thendie bowed with those behind him,
and he and they prostrated themselves. When they stood erect they walked
backwards to the ranks of their companions and the others returned and
prayed one bow. Then they stood erect and the apostle prayed one bow
with them and they sat. Those who were facing the enemy came back and
prayed the second bow and all sat and the apostle united them with the
salam, and gave them the Muslim greeting.) 3 (688)

'Amr b. 'Ubayd from al-Hasan from Jabir b. 'Abdullah told me that a 663
man of B. Muharib called Gbaurath said to his people of Ghatafan and
Muharib, ‘Shall I kill Muhammad for you?’ They encouraged him to do
so and asked him how he proposed to carry out his design. He said that
he would take him by surprise; so be went to the apostle as he was sitting
with his sword in his lap, and asked to be allowed to look at it (689). The
apostle gave it to him and he drew it and began to brandish it intending
to strike him, but God frustrated 4 him. He said, ‘Aren’t you afraid of me,
Muhammad?’ ‘No, w r hy should I be?’ ‘Aren’t you afraid of me when I
have a sword in my hand ?’ ‘No, God will protect me from you.’ Then he
returned the apostle’s sword to him. God sent down, ‘O you who believe,
remember God’s favour to you when a people purposed to lay hands on
you and he turned their hands away from you. Fear God and on God let
the believers rely.’ 5

Yazld b. Ruman told me that this came down in reference to 'Amr b.

1 i.c. we have nothing but our hope in God. 2 Sura 4. 102 f.

3 See further E.I., art. ‘§alat, p. 102 b. T* here notes that there is an irreconcilable differ¬
ence in tradition, and proposes to deal with the problem elsewhere, I.H. has probably
omitted the story because of the conflict in tradition.

4 Or, ‘knocked him down’.

5 Sura 5. 14.

446 The Life of Muhammad

Jihash, brother of B. al-Nadlr, and his intention. But God knows the truth
of the matter.

Wahb b. Kaysan from Jabir b. 'Abdullah said: I went out with the
apostle to the raid of Dhatu’l-Riqa'of Nakhl on an old feeble camel of mine.
On the way back the company kept going on while I dropped farther
behind until the apostle overtook me and asked me what the trouble was.

I told him that my camel was keeping me back, and he told me to make it
kneel. I did so and the apostle made his camel kneel and then said, ‘Give
me this stick you are holding’ or ‘Cut me a stick from a tree.’ He took it
and prodded the beast with it a few times. Then he told me to mount and
off we went. By Him who sent him with the truth my (old) camel kept up
with the rapid pace of his she-camel.

As we were talking, the apostle asked me if I would sell him my camel.
I said that I would give him it, but he insisted on buying it, so I asked him
to make me an offer. He said he would give me a dirham. I refused and
664 said that would be cheating me. Then he offered two dirhams and I still
refused and the apostle went on raising his offer until it amounted to an
ounce (of gold). When I asked him if he was really satisfied he said that he
was and I said the camel was his. Then he asked me if I were married;
then was she a virgin or a woman previously married ? I told him she had
been married before and he said, ‘No girl so that you could sport together!’
I told him that my father had been killed at Uhud leaving seven daughters
and I had married a motherly woman who could look after them efficiently.
He said, ‘You have done well, if God will. Had we come to Sirar 1 we
would order camels to be slaughtered and stay there for the day and she
would hear about us and shake the dust off her cushions.’ I said, ‘But by
God we have no cushions!’ He said, ‘But you will have. When you return
behave wisely.’ When we got to Sirar the apostle ordered the camels to be
slaughtered and we stayed there for the day. At night the apostle went
home and so did we. I told the woman the news and what the apostle had
said to me. She said‘Look alive and do what he tells you.’ In the morning
I led away the camel and made it kneel at the apostle’s door. Then I sat
inside the mosque hard by. He came out and saw it and asked what it was,
and they told him it was the camel which I had brought. He asked where I
was and I was summoned to him. He said, ‘O son of my brother, take away
your camel for it is yours,’ and he called Bilal and told him to give me an
ounce of gold. He did so and added a little more. By God it continued
to thrive with me and its effect on our household could be seen until it
was lost recently in the misfortune which befell us, meaning the day of
al-Harra. 2

[My uncle] 3 Sadaqa b. Yasar from 'Aqil b. Jabir from Jabir b. 'Abdullah

1 A spot about three miles from Medina.

2 When Medina rebelled against Yazid b. Mu’awiya.

3 This word *amtni is not in T-’s recension. A. Dh. says it is a mistake because this man
$adaqa was a Khuzri who lived in Mecca, and was not I.I/s uncle. He adds that Abu
Da’ud [i.e. al-Sijist&ni, author of the Sunan] would not have it that he was I.I.’s uncle.

The Life of Muhammad 447

al-Ansarl said: We went with the apostle on the raid of Dhatu’I-Riqa' of
Nakhl and a man killed the wife of one of the polytheists. When the 665
apostle was on his way back her husband, who had been away, returned
and heard the news of her death. He swore that he would not rest until
he had taken vengeance on Muhammad’s companions. He went off follow¬
ing the track of the apostle, who when he halted asked that someone should
keep watch during the night. A Muhajir and an Ansari volunteered and he
told them to stay in the mouth of the pass, the apostle and his companions
having halted lower down the pass (690).

When the two had gone to take up their positions the Ansari asked the
Muhajir! whether he would prefer to watch for the first or the second part
of the night. He said that he would like to be relieved of the first part and
lay down and went to sleep, while the Ansari stood up to pray. The man
who had been following them perceiving the figure of the man on guard
and recognizing him for what he was, shot him with an arrow. The guard
pulled it out and laid it down and remained standing. He shot him a
second and a third time, and each time he pulled out the arrow' and laid it
down. Then he bowed and prostrated himself. Only then did he wake his
companion, saying, ‘Sit down, for I have been wounded.’ But he leapt up,
and tvhen the man saw the two of them he knew that they were aware of
him and fled. When the Muhajir! saw the Ansari flowing with blood he
said ‘Good gracious, why didn’t you w r ake me the first time you w r ere hit?’

He replied, ‘I was reading a sura and I did not want to stop until I had
finished it. When the shooting continued I bowed in prayer and woke you.

By God, unless I were to lose a post which the apostle had ordered me to
hold he could have killed me before I would break off my reading until I
had finished the sura (691).’

When the apostle came to Medina after this raid he stayed there for the
rest of Jumada’l-ula, Jumada’l-akhira, and Rajab.

THE LAST EXPEDITION TO BADR, A.H. 4 666

In Sha'ban he went forth to Badr to keep his appointment with Abu Sufyan
and stopped there (692).

He stayed there for eight nights waiting for Abu Sufyan. Abu Sufyan
with the men of Mecca went as far as Majanna in the area of (T. Murr)
al-Zahran. Some people say he reached (T. passed through) 'Usfan; then
he decided to go back. He told the Quraysh that the only suitable year w r as
a fertile year when they could pasture the animals on the herbage and drink
their milk, whereas this was a dry year. He was going to return and they
must return with him. And so they did. The Meccans called them ‘the
porridge army’, saying that they merely w r ent out to drink porridge. 1

While the apostle was staying at Badr waiting for Abu Sufyan to keep

1 Sawiq was made of parched wheat or barley, mixed with water or butter; it was ‘drunk’
as a sort of porridge.

44 § The Life of Muhammad

his appointment Makhshiy b. 'Amr al-Damn, who had made an agreement
with him concerning B. £>amra in the raid of Waddan, came to him and
asked him if he had come to meet Quraysh by this water. He said, ‘Yes, O
brother of B. Damra; nevertheless, if you wish we will cancel the arrange¬
ment between us and then fight you until God decide between usd He
answered, ‘No, by God, Muhammad, we do not want anything of the
kind.’

As he remained waiting for Abu Sufyan, Ma'bad b. Abu Ma'bad al-
Khuza'I passed by. He had seen where the apostle was as his she-camel
passed swiftly by and he said:

She fled from the two companies of Muhammad
And a datestone from Yathrib like a raisin stone
Hastening in the ancient religion of her fathers.

She made the water of Qudayd 1 my meeting-place
And the water of Pajnan 2 will be hers tomorrow'.

'Abdullah b. Raw'aha said concerning this: (693):

We arranged to meet Abu Sufyan at Badr,

But we did not find him true to his promise,

667 I swear if you had kept your w'ord and met us

You would have returned disgraced without your nearest kin.

We had left there the limbs of 'Utba and his son
And 'Amr Abu Jahl we left lying there.

You disobeyed God’s apostle—disgusting your religion
And your evil state that’s all astray.

If you reproach me I say

My wealth and people be the apostle’s ransom!

We obey him treating none among us as his equal.

He is our guiding light in the darkness of the night.

Hassan b. Thabit said concerning that:

You can say good-bye to Syria’s running streams,

For in between are swords like mouths of pregnant camels that feed
on arak trees

In the hands of men who migrated to their Lord,

In the hands of His true helpers and the angels too.

If they go to the lowland of the sandy valley

Say to them: ‘This is not the road.’ 3

We stayed by the shallow w'ell eight nights

With a large w r ell-equipped force with many camels, 4

With every dark bay its middle half its size

1 Qudayd was near Mecca.

2 pajnan is a mountain in the Tihama about one post from Mecca.

3 These lines have already been cited on p. 547.

4 Lit. ‘wide kneeling places’.

449

The Life of Muhammad
Slender, long, of lofty withers.

You could see the swift camel’s feet
Uprooting the annual herbs.

If on our journeyings we meet Furat b. Hayyan
He will become death’s hostage.

If we meet Qays b. Imru’u’l-Qays hereafter
His black face will become blacker still!

Take Abu Sufyan a message from me
For you are the best of a bad lot.

Abu Sufyan b. al-Harith b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib answered him:

O Hassan, son of a mouldy date-eating woman,

I swear that we so traversed wide deserts
That young gazelles could not escape between us
Had they fled from us swiftly one after the other. 1
\ hen we left our halting-place you would have thought it
Dunged by the cnnvds at a fair.

ou stayed by the shallow W'ell wanting us
And you left us in the palm-groves hard by.

Our horses and camels walked on the crops 668

And what they trod on they drove into the soft sand.

We stopped three days between Sal' and Fari' 2
ith splendid steeds and swift camels.

You would have thought fighting people beside their tents
Was as easy as buying lead for money.

Don t describe your fine horses, but speak of them
As one w'ho holds them firmly back.

You rejoice in them, but that is the right of others,

The horsemen of the sons of Fihr b. Malik.

You have no part in the migration though you mention it
And do not observe the prohibitions of its religion (694).

THE RAID ON DUMATU’l-JANDAL, A.H. 5

^ e _„ a ?°. st,e re,urned >» Medina and stayed there some months until
Dhu I-Hijja had passed. This was the fourth year of his sojourn in Medina
and the polytheists were in charge of the pilgrimage. Then he raided
Dumatu’l-Jandal (695).

Then he returned, not having reached the place, without fighting, and
stayed in Medina for the rest of the year,

't COTd ?? thC com u mentator the ^^ning is that their force was so large that the
gazelles could not escape them.

2 Two mountains.

B 4080

G 8

450 The Life of Muhammad

THE BATTLE OF THE DITCH, 1 A.H. $

669 This took place in ShawwSl, A.H. 5. Yazid b. Rum 3 n, client of the family
of al-Zubayr b. 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr, and one whom I have no reason to
suspect from ‘Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik, and Muhammad b. Ka'b al-
Qura^i, and al-Zuhxi, and *A$im b. ‘Umar b. Qatada, and Abdullah b.
Abu Bakr and other traditionists of ours told me the following narrative,
each contributing a part of it:

A n um ber of Jews who had formed a party against the apostle, among
whom- were SalLam b. Abu’l-IJuqayq al-Nadn, and Huyayy b. Akh|ab al-
Nadri and KinSna b. Abu’I-Huqayq al-Nadri, and Haudha b. Qays al-
Wi’ili, and Abu ‘Ammar al-Wa’ili with a number of B. al-Nadlr and B.
WS’il went to Quraysh at Mecca and invited them to join them in an attack
on the apostle so that they might get rid of him altogether. Quraysh said,
‘You, O Jews, are the first scripture people and know the nature of our
dispute with Muhammad. Is our religion the best or is his ?’ They replied
that cer tainl y their religion was better than his and they had a better claim
to be in the right. (It was about them that God sent down, ‘Have you not
considered those to whom a part of the scripture was given who believe in
idols and false deities and say to those who disbelieve, These are more
rightly guided than those who believe ? These are they whom God hath
cursed and he whom God has cursed you will find for him no helper as
far as His words, ‘Or are they jealous of men because of what God from
His bounty has brought to them?* i.e. prophecy. ‘We gave the family of
Abraham the scripture and wisdom and we gave them a great kingdom and
some of them believed in it and some of them turned from it, and hell is
sufficient for (their) burning.’) 2

These words rejoiced Quraysh and they responded gladly to their invita¬
tion to fight the apostle, and they assembled and made their preparations.
Then that company of Jews went off to GhatafSn of Qays Ayl5n and
invited them to fight the apostle and told them that they would act with
them and that Quraysh had followed their lead in the matter; so they too
joined in with them ( r £ and agreed to what they suggested).

670 Quraysh marched under the leadership of Abu Sufyan b. Harb; and
Gha|afan led by Uyayna b. Hi§n b. Hudhayfa b. Badr with B. FazSra; and
al-Ijarith b. Auf b. Abu Haritha al-Murri with B. Murra; and Mis'ar b.
Rukhayla b. Nuwayra b. Tarif b. Suhma b. ‘Abdullah b. Hilal b. Khalawa
b. Ashja b. Rayth b. Ghatafan with those of his people from Ashja who
followed him.

When the apostle heard of their intention he drew a trench about Medina
and worked at it himself encouraging the Muslims with the hope of reward
in heaven. The Muslims worked very hard with him, but the disaffected
held back from them and began to hide their real object by working slackly
and by stealing away to their families without the apostle’s permission or

'* 1 The story comet from I.I. by way of iI-Bikkil end I.H. * SGra 4. 54 f.

The Life of Muhammad 451

knowledge. A Muslim who had to attend to an urgent matter would ask
the apostle's permission to go and would get it, and when he had carried
out his business he would return to the work he had left because of his
desire to do what was right and his respect for the same. So God sent
down concerning those believers: ‘They only are the believers who believe
in God and His apostle and when they are with him on a common work do
not go away without asking his permission. Those who ask thy permis¬
sion are they who believe in God and His apostle. And if they ask thy
permission in some business of theirs, give leave to whom thou wilt of them
and ask God’s pardon for them. God is forgiving, merciful.’ 1 This passage
came down concerning those Muslims who desired the good and respected
it, and obeyed God and His apostle.

Then God said of the disaffected who were stealing away from the work
and leaving it without the prophet’s permission, ‘Do not treat the call of
the apostle among you as if it were one of you calling upon another. God
knows those of you who steal away to hide themselves. Let those who
conspire to disobey his order beware lest trouble or a painful punishment
befall them’ (696). ‘Verily to God belong heaven and earth. He knows 671
what you are doing’ the man who speaks the truth and the man who lies.
‘And (He knows) the day they will be returned to Him when He will tell
them what they did, for God knows all things.’

The Muslims worked at the trench until they had finished it, and they
made a jingle about one of the Muslims called Ju‘ayl whom the apostle
had named ‘Amr, saying,

He changed his name from Ju'ayl to ‘Amr
And was a help to the poor man that day.

When they came to the word ‘Amr the apostle said “Amr’, and when they
came to ‘help’ he said ‘help’. 2

I have heard some stories about the digging of the trench in which there
is an example of God’s justifying His apostle and confirming his prophetic
office, things which the Muslims saw with their eyes. Among these stories
is one that I have heard that Jabir b. ‘Abdullah used to relate: When they
were working on the trench a large rock caused great difficulty, and they
complained to the apostle. He called for some water and spat in it; then
he prayed as God willed him to pray; then he sprinkled the water on the
rock. Those who were present said, ‘By Him who sent him a prophet with
the truth it was pulverized as though it were soft sand so that it could not
resist axe or shovel.’

Sa‘id b. Mina told me that he was told that a daughter of Bashir b. Sa*d,
sister of al-Nu‘man b. Bashir, said: ‘My mother ‘Amra d. Rawaha called 67a
me and gave me a handful of dates which she put in my garment and told
me to take them to my father and my uncle ‘Abdullah b. Rawaha for their

1 Sura 24 . 62 .

3 The prophet came in with the rhyming words of each hemistich.

The Life of Muhammad

food. As I WCn ^ ff I l ^" , VhsnUold C IhatT was taking did datas to

iLy - .»^

them into his hands but they i no it so that they

« - - «■«- *•

ends of the garment. worked with the apostle at the

On the same authority I was ^I thought it would be

trench. Now I had a little ewe not fully fattened d I h.^ ^

a good thing to dress it for t e a P 0S > j killed the sheep and we roasted
barley and make some bread or us nd P , eaye the

it for the apostle. When ^ in the even,n g -I

trench-for we used to work at ,t all day a g ^ ^ ^ ^ , should
told him that we had prepared brea wanted; but

like him to come with me to my house. It was only h ^ ^ ^ ^ come (0

when I said this he ordered a crier to shout return!" However,

my house. I said, 'To God we belong and m H.m we duced the

he and the other men came and when hehadwt he ate

food and he blessed it and invoked t e na another lot came until

as did all the others. As soon as one lot had finished ano

673 the diggers turned from it with a pick in the

I was told that Salman al-Fansi sald. v s 8 was ^ ^

trench where a rock gave me much trouble The apos d

hand saw me hacking and saw how difficul^he place ^ ^ ^

down into the trench an P This haonened a second and

blow that f'ghtni"g.showed beneath the p.^ Qr P mother , what is the

a third time. I said. O you, c-trike?’ He said: ‘Did you

meaning of this light beneat your ^ God has ope ned up to me

really see that, Salman, t . and the third the east.’ One

the Yaman; the second Syria anc Hurayra used to say when these

whom I do not suspect tol me 'Tjmar and 'Uthman and after,

countr.es were conquered '^"ouhavT not conquered and to the
;esuTcfio: day you wTA notconq^r a city whose keys God had not given

beforehand to Muhammad. rwavsh came and encamped

When the apostle had finished Zughtb. with

where the torrent-beds of Ruma followers from B. Kinana

ten thousand of their black mercenaries ^ t ^ e i r followers from

and the people of TihSma. Ghatafan too ca r of u]?ud< The

Najd and halted at Dhanab N ^^ i t ° h ^ f thousand men having Sal* at
r H “ “p 1 7here with the trench between him and

• A pious exclamation in misfortunes.

The Life of Muhammad 453

his foes (697), and gave orders that the women and children were to be taken 674
up into the forts.

The enemy of God Huyayy b. Akhtab al-Nadri went out to Ka'b b. Asad
al-Qurazi who had made a treaty with the apostle. When Ka'b heard of
Huyayy’s coming he shut the door of his fort in his face, and when he asked
permission to enter he refused to see him, saying that he was a man of ill
omen and that he himself was in treaty with Muhammad and did not intend
to go back on his word because he had always found him loyal and faithful.
Then Huyayy accused him of shutting him out because he was unwilling to
let him eat his corn. This so enraged him that he opened his door. He said,
‘Good heavens, Ka'b, I have brought you immortal fame and a great
army. I have come with Quraysh with their leaders and chiefs which I
have halted where the torrent-beds of Ruma meet; and Ghatafan with
their leaders and chiefs which I have halted in Dhanab Naqma towards
Uhud. They have made a firm agreement and promised me that they will
not depart until we have made an end of Muhammad and his men.’ Ka'b
said: ‘By God, you have brought me immortal shame and an empty cloud
which has shed its water while it thunders and lightens with nothing in it.

Woe to you Huyayy leave me (T. and Muhammad) as I am, for I have
always found him loyal and faithful.’ Huyayy kept on wheedling Ka'b until
at last he gave way in giving him a solemn promise that if Quraysh and
Ghatafan returned without having killed Muhammad he would enter his
fort with him and await his fate. Thus Ka'b broke his promise and cut
loose from the bond that was between him and the apostle.

When the apostle and the Muslims heard of this the apostle sent Sa'd b.
Mu'adh b. al-Nu'man who was chief of Aus at the time, and Sa'd b. 675
'Ubada b. Dulaym, one of B. Sa'ida b. Ka'b b. Khazraj, chief of al-Khazraj
at the time, together with 'Abdullah b. Rawaha brother of B. al-Harith b.
al-Khazraj, and Khawwat b. Jubayr brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf, and told
them to go and see whether the report was true or not. ‘If it is true give me
an enigmatic message 1 which I can understand, and do not undermine the
people’s confidence; and if they are loyal to their agreement speak out
openly before the people.’ They went forth and found the situation even
more deplorable than they had heard; they spoke disparagingly of the
apostle, saying, ‘Who is the apostle of God ? We have no agreement or
undertaking with Muhammad.’ Sa'd b. Mu'adh reviled them and they
reviled him. He was a man of hasty temper and Sa'd b. 'Ubada said\to
him, ‘Stop insulting them, for the dispute between us is too serious for
recrimination.’ Then the two Sa'ds returned to the apostle and after salut¬
ing him said: “Adal and al-Qara’ i.e. (It is) like the treachery of 'Adal and
al-Qara towards the men of al-Rajl', Khubayb and his friends. 2 The
apostle said ‘Allah akbarl Be of good cheer, you Muslims.’

The situation became serious and fear was everywhere. The enemy came

1 See the excursus on the semantic development of the word lahn in J. FUck, Arabiya,

Berlin, 1950, p. 132. a v.s.

454 The Life of Muhammad

at them from above and below until the believers imagined vain things, 1
and disaffection was rife among the disaffected to the point that Mu'attib b.
Qusyahr brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf said, ‘Muhammad used to promise us
that we should eat the treasures of Chosroes and Caesar and today not one
of us can feel safe in going to the privy!’ (698). It reached such a point that
Aus b. Qayzi, one of B. Haritha b. al-Harith, said to the apostle, ‘Our
houses are exposed to the enemy’—this he said before a large gathering of
his people—-‘so let us go out and return to our home, for it is outside
676 Medina.’ The apostle and the polytheists remained twenty days and more,
nearly a month, without fighting except for some shooting with arrows, and
the siege.

When conditions pressed hard upon the people the apostle—according
to what 'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada and one whom I do not suspect told
me from Muhammad b. Muslim b. 'UbayduIIah b. Shihab al-Zuhri—sent
to 'Uyayna b. Hisn b. Hudhayfa b. Badr and to al-Harith b. 'Auf b. Abu
Haritha al-Murri who were leaders of Ghatafan and offered them a third
of the dates of Medina on condition that they would go back with their
followers and leave him and his men, so peace was made between them so
far as the writing of a document. It was not signed and was not a definite
peace, merely peace negotiations (T. and they did so). When the apostle
wanted to act he sent to the two Sa'ds and told them of it and asked their
advice. They said: ‘Is it a thing you want us to do, or something God has
ordered you to do which we must carry out? or is it something you are
doing for us?’ He said: ‘It is something I am doing for your sake. By God,
I would not do it were it not that I have seen the Arabs have shot at you
from one bow, and gathered against you from every side and I want to
break their offensive against you! Sa'd b. Mu'adh said: ‘We and these
people were polytheists and idolaters, not serving God nor knowing him,
and they never hoped to eat a single date (T. of ours) except as guests or
by purchase. Now, after God has honoured and guided us to Islam and
made us famous by you, are we to give them our property? We certainly
will not. We will give them nothing but the sword until God decide
between us.’ The apostle said: ‘You shall have it so.’ Sa'd took the paper
and erased what was written, saying, ‘Let them do their worst against us!’

677 The siege continued without any actual lighting, but some horsemen of
Quraysh, among whom were 'Amr b. 'Abdu Wudd b. Abu Qays (699)
brother of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy; 'Ikrima b. Abu Jahl; Hubayra b. Abu
Wahb, both of Makhzum; pirar b. al-Khattab the poet, b. Mirdas brother
of B. Muharib b. Fihr donned their armour and went forth on horseback
to the stations of B. Kinana, saying, ‘Prepare for fighting and then you will
know who are true knights today.’ They galloped forward until they
stopped at the trench. When they saw it they exclaimed, ‘This is a device
which the Arabs have never employed!’ (700).

Then they made for a narrow part of the trench and beat their horses

1 The language is borrowed from Sura 33. 10.

The Life of Muhammad

between the ^ ™

gap through which they had forced a passage against ^

the horsemen galloped to meet them. Now VW bAwl" ^
fought at Badr until he was disabled bv wound. . j V l , " udd had

Uhud. At the battle of the tv T , 7 WOUnds ’ and 80 he had not been at

mark to show his rank, and Ihen hiLT^con™ 8 * disti "S uishin S
lenged anyone to ffoht him •!-V “ V ? c0 " tm S“t stopped he chal-
‘ A you

alternatives you would accept one of them?' ‘Yes I dicP h T . 7 ,°

eavahy fled bursting headlong! flight acrotfoe ttch ^ ““
l When Amr issued his challenge to single combat 'Air , A .

ss t g«-' .&«“>■ 'if

them and saying, ‘Where is vour Pard ^ 1S chailen & e tau ntmg

lose in battle will’enter it? Can't you send!!! bkh

I ve become hoarse from shouting.

Isn't there one among the lot of you who'll answer my challenge?

I’ve stood here like a fighting champion 7 g

While the so-called brave are cowards.

I’ve always hastened to the front
Before the fight begins.

Bravery and generosity are in truth
The best equalities of a warrior.

Ah asked the prophet’s permission to fight him, even if he were 'Amr
and he let him go. He marched towards him saying the while:

Don’t be in a hurry. No weakling
Has come to answer your challenge.

A man of resolution and foresight.

Truth is the refuge of the successful.

I hope to make the keening women
Busy over your corpse
Through the blow of a spear
Whose memory will last while fights are talked of.

'Amr asked him who he was, and when he told him he said: ‘Let it be

456 The Life of Muhammad

one of your uncles who is older than you, my nephew, for I don’t want to
shed your blood.’ 'All answered, ‘But I do want to shed your blood.’ He
became angry, and drew his sword which flashed like fire, and advanced in
his anger (it is said that he was mounted). 'All said to him, ‘How can I
fight you when you are on a horse ? Dismount and be on a level with me.’
So he got off his horse and came at him and 'All advanced with his shield.
'Amr aimed a blow which cut deeply into the shield so that the sword
stuck in it and struck his head. But 'All gave him a blow on the vein at the
base of the neck and he fell to the ground. The dust rose and the apostle

S. ii, 191 heard the cry, ‘Allah Akbar’ and knew that ‘All had killed him. [Suhayli

continues:] As he came towards the apostle smiling with joy 'Umar asked
him if he had stripped him of his armour, for it was the best that could be
found among the Arabs. He answered: ‘When I had struck him down he
turned his private parts towards me and I felt ashamed to despoil him and
moreover he h#d said that he did not want to shed my blood because my
father was a friend of his.’] 1

T. 1476 [T. With 'Amr were killed two men, Munabbih b. 'Uthman b. 'Ubayd

b. al-Sabbaq b. 'Abdu’l-Dar who was hit by an arrow and died in Mecca;
and of B. Makhzum Naufal b. 'Abdullah b. al-Mughira who had stormed
the trench and rolled down into it and they stoned him. He called out, ‘O
Arabs, Death is better than this,’ so ‘All went down to him and dispatched
him. The Muslims got possession of his body and asked the apostle to let
them sell his effects. He told them that he had no use for his effects or the
price they would fetch, and it was their affair; and he left them a free
hand.]

'All said concerning that:

In his folly he fought for the stone pillars 2
While I fought for the Lord of Muhammad rightly.

I rejoiced when I left him prone
Like a stump between sand and rocks.

I forbore to tkke his garments 3

Though had I been the vanquished he would have taken mine.

Do not imagine, you confederates, that God
Will desert His religion and His prophet (701).

1 This incident is reported by I.H., Suh., T. S. Nas., and al-Mawardi, 64, all of them
saying that it was not reported by I.H. in the form given above. I. S. Nas says it was not in
the riiuaya of al-Bakka’i. Mawardi adds the details (a) that the three challenges of 'Amr were
issued on three successive days; ( b ) that he called out to Muhammad. His version seems
to be the original, as there is more point in the taunt: ‘What’s the matter when none of you
will advance to get his reward from his Lord (by being killed) or send an enemy to hell?’
He ends: ‘They circled round each other and the dust rose so that it hid them from sight.
When it cleared away there wa9 'Ali wiping his sword on 'Amr’s garments and he was slain.’
Miwardi took this from a written source, because he says that I.H. narrated the story in his
Maghazi.

2 i.e, the idols.

3 The point of this is made clear in the extract from I.I.’s Maghazi and TVs quotation
from 1 . 1 . As the Sir a of I.H, stands it is left in the air.

The Life of Muhammad 457

Tkrima b. Abu Jahl threw away his spear as he was running from 'Amr,
so Hassan b. Thabit said:

As he fled he threw his spear to us.

Perhaps, Tkrima, you have not done such a thing before ?

As you turned your back you ran like an ostrich

Turning neither to right nor left.

You didn’t turn your back as a human being would,

The back of your neck was like a young hyaena’s (702).

Abu Layla 'Abdullah b. Sahl b. 'AbduTRahman b. Sahl al-Ansari,
brother of B. Haritha, told me that 'A’isha was in the fort of B. Haritha on
that day. It was one of the strongest forts of Medina. The mother of Sa'd
b. Mu'adh was with her. 'A’isha said: ‘This was before the veil had been
imposed upon us. Sa'd went by wearing a coat of mail so short that the
whole of his forearm was exposed. He hurried along carrying a lance, 679
saying the while,

Wait a little! Let Hamal 1 see the fight.

What matters death when the time is right ?

His mother said, “Hurry up, my boy, for by God you are late.” I said to
her, “I wish that Sa'd’s coat of mail were longer than it is”, for I was afraid
for him where the arrow actually hit him. Sa'd was shot by an arrow
which severed the vein of his arm. The man who shot him, according to
what 'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me, was Hibban b. Qays b. al-'Ariqa, 2
one of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy. When he hit him he said, “Take that from me,
the son of al-'Ariqa.” 2 Sa'd said to him, “May God make your face sweat
farraq) in hell. O God, if the war with Quraysh is to be prolonged spare
me for it, for there is no people whom I want to fight more than those who
insulted your apostle, called him a liar, and drove him out. O God, seeing
that you have appointed war between us and them grant me martyrdom
and do not let me die until I have seen my desire upon B. Qurayza.” *

One whom I do not suspect told me from 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik
that he used to say: ‘The man who hit Sa'd that day was Abu Usama al-
Jushaml, an ally of B. Makhzum. This Abu Usama composed an ode
about it with reference to Tkrima b. Abu Jahl:

O Tkrima, why did you blame me when you said

Khalid be your ransom in the forts of Medina ?

Am I not he who inflicted a bloody wound on Sa'd ?

The vein where the elbow bends gushed with his blood.

Sa'd died of it and the grey-haired matrons

And the high-breasted virgins made loud lamentation.

You are the one who protected him when 'Ubayda 3

1 The saying is proverbial. The readings vary between Hamal and Jamal, and the com¬
mentators are not agreed on the reading or the man intended.

• She was Khadija’s grandmother according to some.

• la this 'Ubayda b. Jabir who was slain at Uljud ?

45^ The Life of Muhammad

Called all of them in his stress,

What time some of them turned away from him
And others made off in their terror. 1

God knows best about that’ (703).

680 Yahya b. 'Abbad b. ‘Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father 'Abbad told
me as follows: Saflya d. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib was in Fari', the fort of Hassan
b. Thabit. She said: ‘Hassan was with us there with the women and
children, when a Jew came along and began to go round the fort. The B.
Qurayza had gone to war and cut our communications with the apostle,
and there was no one to protect us while the apostle and the Muslims were
at the enemy’s throats unable to leave them to come to us if anyone turned
up. I told Hassan that he could see this Jew going round the fort and I
feared that he would discover our weakness and inform the Jews who were
in our rear while the apostle and his companions were too occupied to
help us, so he must go down and kill him. “God forgive you,” he said.
“You know quite well that I am not the man to do that.” When he said
that and I saw that no help was to be expected from him I girded myself 2
and took a club, and went down to him from the fort above and hit him
with the club until I killed him. This done I went back to the fort and told
Hassan to go down and strip him: I could not do it myself because he was
a man. He said, “I have no need to strip him, Bint 'Abdu’l-Muttalib/” 3
As God has described, 4 the apostle and his companions remained in fear
and difficulty when the enemy came on them from above and below. Then
Nu'aym b. Mas'ud b. 'Amir b. Unayf b. Tha'laba b. Qunfud b. Hilal b.
Khalawa b. Ashja' b. Rayth b. Ghatafan came to the apostle saying that he
had become a Muslim though his own people did not know of it, and let
681 him give him what orders he would. The apostle said: ‘You are only one
man among us, so go and awake distrust among the enemy to draw them
off us if you can, for war is deceit/ Thereupon Nu'aym went off to B.
Qurayza with whom he had been a boon companion in heathen days, and
reminded them of his affection for them and of the special tie between
them. When they admitted that they did not suspect him he said: ‘Quraysh
and Ghatafan are not like you: the land is your land, your property, your
wives, and your children are in it; you cannot leave it and go somewhere
else. Now Quraysh and Ghatafan have come to fight Muhammad and his
companions and you have aided them against him, but their land, their

• Or, reading marghub, 'made off to avoid trouble’.

2 Or, reading i'tajartu, 'fastened my veil’.

3 The commentators do not like this story to the discredit of one of the prophet’s com¬
panions. Suhayli says that the learned reject the tradition because the isnad is broken off.
Further, had the story of ffassSn’s cowardice been true the poets who satirized him would
have mentioned it. As they did not the tradition must be weak. On the other hand, if it is
sound, it may be that fjassan was ill on that day and could not fight. Al-Zarqani, who
believes the story, discounts the argument that rival poets would have used the story had it
been true by saying that the fact that he was a companion of the prophet saved him, and
their silence on the subject is one of the ‘marks of prophecy’.

4 Sura 33. 10.

The Life of Muhammad 459

property, and their wives are not here, so they are not like you. If they
see an opportunity they will make the most of it; but if things go badly
they will go back to their own land and leave you to face the man in your
country and you will not be able to do so if you are left alone. So do not
fight along with these people until you take hostages from their chiefs who
will remain in your hands as security that they will fight Muhammad with
you until you make an end of him.’ The Jews said that this was excellent
advice.

Then he went to Quraysh and said to Abu Sufyan b. Harb and his
company: ‘You know my affection for you and that I have left Muhammad.
Now I have heard something which I think it my duty to tell you of by way
of warning, but regard it as confidential.’ When they said that they would,
he continued: ‘Mark my words, the Jews have regretted their action in
opposing Muhammad and have sent to tell him so, saying: “Would you
like us to get hold of some chiefs of the two tribes Quraysh and Ghatafan
and hand them over to you so that you can cut their heads off? Then we
can join you in exterminating the rest of them.’ He has sent w r ord back to
accept their offer; so if the Jews send to you to demand hostages, don’t
send them a single man.’

Then he went to Ghatafan and said: You are my stock and my family,
the dearest of men to me, and I do not think that you can suspect me/
They agreed that he was above suspicion and so he told the same story as 682
he had told Quraysh.

On the night of the sabbath of Shawwal a.h. 5 it came about by God’s
action on behalf of His apostle that Abu Sufyan and the chiefs of Ghatafan
sent 'Ikrima b. Abu Jahl to B. Qurayza with some of their number saying
that they had no permanent camp, that the horses and camels were dying;
therefore they must make ready for battle and make an end of Muhammad
once and for all. They replied that it was the sabbath, a day on which they
did nothing, and it was well known what had happened to those of their
people who had violated the'sabbath. ‘Moreover we will not fight Muham¬
mad along with you until you give us hostages whom we can hold as
security until we make an end of Muhammad; for we fear that if the
battle goes against you and you suffer heavily you will withdraw at once to
your country and leave us while the man is in our country, and we cannot
face him alone.’ When the messengers returned with their reply Quraysh
and Ghatafan said (T. Now you know) that what Nu'aym told you is the
truth; so send to B. Qurayza that we will not give them a single man, and
if they want to fight let them come out and fight. Having received this
message B. Qurayza said: ‘What Nu'aym told you is the truth. The people
are bent on fighting and if they get an opportunity they will take advantage
of it; but if they do not they will withdraw to their own country and leave
us to face this man here. So send word to them that we will not fight
Muhammad with them until they give us hostages.’ Quraysh and Ghatafan
refused to do so, and God sowed distrust between them, and sent a bitter

460 The Life of Muhammad

cold wind against them in the winter nights which upset their cooking-pots
and overthrew their tents.

When the apostle learned of their dispute and how God had broken up
their alliance he called Hudhayfa b. al-Yaman and sent him to them to
see what the army w r as doing at night.

683 Yazld b. Ziyad told me from Muhammad b. Ka'b b. al-QurazI: A man
of Kufa said to Hudhayfa, ‘Did you really see the apostle and were you his
companion ?’ When he replied Yes, he asked what they used to do, and he
said that they used to live a hard life. He said, ‘By God, if we had lived in
his day we would not have allowed him to set foot on the ground, but
would have carried him on our shoulders.’ Hudhayfa said, ‘I can see us
with the apostle at the trench as he prayed for a part of the night and then
turned to us and said, “Who will get up and see for us what the army is
doing and then return—the apostle stipulating that he should return—I
wall ask God that he shall be my companion in paradise.” Not a single man
got up because of his great fear, hunger, and the severe cold. When no one
got up the apostle called me, and I had to get up when he called me. He
told me to go and see what the army w r as doing and not to do anything
else 1 until I returned to him. So I went out and mingled with the army
while the wind and God’s troops were dealing w'ith them as they did,
leaving neither pot, nor fire, nor tent standing firm. Abu Sufyan got up
and said, “O Quraysh, let every man see who is sitting next him.” So I
took hold of the man w r ho was at my side and asked him who he was and he
said So-and-so.

‘Then Abu Sufyan said: “O Quraysh, we are not in a permanent camp;
the horses and camels are dying; the B. Qurayza have broken their word to
us and we have heard disquieting reports of them. You can see the
violence of the wind which leaves us neither cooking-pots, nor fire, nor
tents to count on. Be off, for I am going!” Then he went to his camel
which was hobbled, mounted it, and beat it so that it got up on its three
legs; by God its hobble was not freed until it was standing. 2 Were it not
that the apostle had enjoined me not to do anything else until I returned to
him, if I washed I could have killed him with an arrow.

‘I returned to the apostle as he was standing praying in a wrapper be-

684 longing to one of his wives (704). When he saw me he made me come in
to sit at his feet and threw the end of the wrapper over me; then he bowed
and prostrated w r hile I was in it (T. And I disturbed him). When he had
finished I told him the news. When Ghatafan heard of what Quraysh had
done they broke up and returned to their own country.’

In the morning the apostle and the Muslims left the trench and returned
to Medina, laying their arms aside.

1 i.c. not to act on his own initiative.

3 The Arabs still hobble their camels when they are kneeling with their legs folded
beneath them. One of the forelegs is tied by the halter in the folded position. If the camel
gets up before the hobble is undone one leg is perforce doubled up and cannot be put to
the ground.

The Life of Muhammad

461

THE RAID ON B. QURAYZA

According to what al-Zuhrl told me, at the time of the noon prayers
Gabriel came to the apostle wearing an embroidered turban and riding on
a mule with a saddle covered with a piece of brocade. He asked the apostle
if he had abandoned fighting, and when he said that he had he said that
the angels had not yet laid aside their arms and that he had just come from
pursuing the enemy. ‘God commands you, Muhammad, to go to B.
Qurayza. I am about to go to them to shake their stronghold.’

The prophet ordered it to be announced that none should perform the
afternoon prayer until after he reached B. Qurayza (705). ^ The apostle
sent ‘All forward with his banner and the men hastened to it. 'All advanced
until when he came near the forts he heard insulting language used of the
apostle. He returned to meet the apostle on the road and told him that it
was not necessary for him to come near those rascals. The apostle said,
‘Why? I think you must have heard them speaking ill of me,’ and when
*Ali said that that was so he added, ‘If they saw me they would not talk in
hat fashion.’ When the apostle approached their forts he said, ‘You
mothers of monkeys, has God disgraced you and brought His vengeance
upon you?’ They replied, ‘O Abu’KQasim, you are not a barbarous

person.’

The apostle passed by a number of his companions in al-Saurayn before
he got to B. Qurayza and asked if anyone had passed them. They replied 685
that Dihya b. Khalifa al-Kalbl had passed upon a white mule with a saddle
covered with a piece of brocade. He said, ‘That was Gabriel who has been
sent to B. Qurayza to shake their castles and strike terror to their hearts.’

When the apostle came to B. Qurayza he halted by one of their w^ells
near their property called The Well of Ana (706). The men joined him.
Some of them came after the last evening prayer not having prayed the
afternoon prayer because the apostle had told them not to do so until he
got to B. Qurayza. They had been much occupied with warlike prepara¬
tions and they refused to pray until they came to B. Qurayza in accordance
with his instructions and they prayed the afternoon prayer there alter the
last evening prayer. God did not blame them for that in His book, nor did
the apostle reproach them. My father Ishaq b. Yasar told me this tradition
from Ma'bad b. Malik al-Ansari.

The apostle besieged them for twenty-five nights until they were sore
pressed and God cast terror into their hearts.

NowHuyayy b. Akhtab had gone with B. Qurayza into their forts when
Quraysh and Ghatafan had wdthdrawn and left them, to keep his w-ord to
Ka'b b. Asad; and when they felt sure that the apostle tvould not leave
them until he had made an end of them Ka'b b. Asad said to them. O
Jews, you can see what has happened to you; I offer you three alternatives.
Take which you please.’ (i) We will follow this man and accept him as
true, for by God it has become plain to you that he is a prophet who has

462 The Life of Muhammad

been sent and that it is he that you find mentioned in your scripture; and
then your lives, your property, your women and children will be saved.
They said, ‘We will never abandon the laws of the Torah and never change

686 it for another.’ He said, ‘Then if you won’t accept this suggestion (ii) let
us kill our wives and children and send men with their swords drawn to
Muhammad and his companions leaving no encumbrances behind us, until
God decides between us and Muhammad. If we perish, we perish, and we
shall not leave children behind us to cause us anxiety. If we conquer we
can acquire other wives and children.’ They said, ‘Should we kill these
poor creatures? What would be the good of life when they were dead?’
He said, ‘Then if you will not accept this suggestion (iii) tonight is the eve
of the sabbath and it may well be that Muhammad and his companions
will feel secure from us then, so come down, perhaps we can take Muham¬
mad and his companions by surprise.’ They said: ‘Are we to profane our
sabbath and do on the sabbath what those before us of whom you well
know did and were turned into apes?’ He answered, ‘Not a single man
among you from the day of your birth has ever passed a night resolved to
do what he knows ought to be done.’

Then they sent to the apostle saying, ‘Send us Abu Lubaba b. 'Abdu’l-
Mundhir, brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf (for they were allies of al-Aus), that
we may consult him.’ So the apostle sent him to them, and when they saw
him they got up to meet him. The women and children went up to him
weeping in his face, and he felt sorry for them. They said, ‘Oh Abu
Lubaba, do you think that we should submit to Muhammad’s judgement?’
He said, ‘Yes,’ and pointed with his hand to his throat, signifying slaughter.
Abu Lubaba said, ‘My feet had not moved from the spot before I knew
that I had been false to God and His apostle.’ Then he left them and did
not go to the apostle but bound himself to one of the pillars in the mosque
saying, ‘I will not leave this place until God forgives me for what I have
done,’ and he promised God that he would never go to B. Qurayza and
would never be seen in a town in which he had betrayed God and His
apostle (707).

687 When the apostle heard about him, for he had, been waiting for him a
long time, he said, ‘If he had come to me I would have asked forgiveness
for him, but seeing that he behaved as he did I will not let him go from his
place until God forgives him.’ Yazid b. ‘Abdullah b. Qusayt told me that
the forgiveness of Abu Lubaba came to the apostle at dawn while he was
in the house of Umm Salama. She said: ‘At dawn I heard the apostle laugh
and I said: ‘Why did you laugh? May God make you laugh!’ He replied,
‘Abu Lubaba has been forgiven.’ She said, ‘Cannot I give him the good
news ?’ and when he said that she could she went and stood at the door of
her room 1 (this was before the veil had been prescribed for women) and
said, ‘O Abu Lubaba, rejoice, for God has forgiven you’; and men rushed
out to set him free. .He said,.‘No, not until the apostle frees me with his

1 The prophet’8 house was next door to the mosque where Abu Lubaba had tied himself.

The Life of Muhammad 463

own hand.’ When the apostle passed him when he was going out to
morning prayer he set him free (708).

Tha'laba b. Sa'ya, Usayd his brother, and Asad b. 'Ubayd of B. Hadl
who were not related to B. Qurayza or B. al-Nadir (their pedigree is far
above that), accepted Islam the night on which B. Qurayza surrendered to
the apostle’s judgement.

On that night 'Amr b. Su'da al-Qurazi went out and passed the apostle’s
guards commanded that night by Muhammad b. Maslama who challenged
him. Now Amr had refused to join B. Qurayza in their treachery towards
the apostle, saying, ‘I will never behave treacherously towards Muham- 688
mad.’ When Muhammad b. Maslama recognized him he said/O God, do
not deprive me (of the honour) of setting right the errors of the noble’ and
let him go his way. He went as far as the door of the apostle’s mosque 1 in
Medina that night; then he vanished, and it is not known to this day where
he went. When the apostle was told he said, ‘That is a man whom God
delivered because of his faithfulness.’ Some people allege that he was
bound with a rotten rope along with the captives of B. Qurayza when they
submitted to the apostle s judgement, and his old rope was found cast away
none knowing whither he went and the apostle then said those words. God
knows what really happened.

In the morning they submitted to the apostle’s judgement and al-Aus
leapt up and said, ‘O Apostle, they are our allies, not allies of Khazraj, and
you know how you recently treated the allies of our brethren.’ Now the
apostle had besieged B, Qaynuqa who were allies of al-Khazraj and when
they submitted to his judgement 'Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul had asked
him for them and he gave them to him; so when al-Aus spoke thus the
apostle said. Will you be satisfied, O Aus, if one of your own number
pronounces judgement on them?’ When they agreed he said that Sa'd b.

Mu adh was the man. The apostle had put Sa'd in a tent belonging to a
woman of Aslam called Rufayda inside his mosque. She used to nurse the
wounded and see to those Muslims who needed care. The apostle had told
his people when Sa'd had been wounded by an arrow at the battle of the
Trench to put him in Rufayda’s tent until he could visit him later. When
the apostle appointed him umpire in the matter of B. Qurayza, his people
came to him and mounted him on a donkey on which they had put a
leather cushion, he being a corpulent man. As they brought him to the
apostle they said, ‘Deal kindly with your friends, for the apostle has made
you umpire for that very purpose.’ When they persisted he said, ‘The time 689
has come for Sa d in the cause of God, not to care for any man’s censure.’

Some of his people who were there went back to the quarter of B. 'Abdu’l-
Ashhal and announced to them the death of B. Qurayza before Sa'd got to
them, because of what they had heard him say.

When Sa’d reached the apostle and the Muslims the apostle told them
to get up to greet their leader. The muhajirs of Quraysh thought that the

1 W. has ‘until he passed the night in’.

4 6 4 The Life of Muhammad

apostle meant the Ansar, while the latter thought that he meant everyone,
so they got up and said ‘0 Abu' Amr, the apostle has entrusted to you the
affair of your allies that you may give judgement concerning them, ba d
asked ‘Do you covenant by Allah that you accept the judgement 1 pro¬
nounce on them ?’ They said Yes, and he said, ‘And is it incumbent on the
one who is here?’ (looking) in the direction of the apostle not mentioning
him out of respect, and the apostle answered Yes. Sa'd said Then I give
judgement that the men should be killed, the property divided, and the

women and children taken as captives. ,. , c <,

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me from 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Amr b. ba d
b. Mu'adh from 'Alqama b. Waqqas al-Laythl that the apostle said to
Sa'd, ‘You have given the judgement of Allah above the seven heavens

^ Then they surrendered, and the apostle confined them in Medina in the
quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went
out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and ug
600 trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads m those
trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among t era was e
enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka'b b. Asad their chief. There
were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.
As they were being taken out in batches to the apostle they asked Ka b
what he thought would be done with them. He replied, ‘Will you never
understand ? Don’t you see that the summoner never stops and those, who
are taken away do not return? By Allah it is death!’ This went on until
the apostle made an end of them.

Huyayy was brought out wearing a flowered robe (710) in which he had
made holes about the size of the finger-tips in every part so that it should
not be taken from him as spoil, 1 with his hands bound to his neck by a rope.
When he saw the apostle he said, ‘By God, I do not blame myself for
opposing you, but he who forsakes God will be forsaken. Then he went
to the men and said, ‘God’s command is right. A book and a decree and
massacre have been written against the Sons of Israel. Then he sat down

and his head was struck off.

Jabal b. Jawwal al-Tha'labl said:

Ibn Akhtab did not blame himself

But he who forsakes God will be forsaken.

He fought until he justified himself

And struggled to the utmost in pursuit of glory.

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr that
‘A’isha said: ‘Only one of their women was killed. She was actually with
me and was talking with me and laughing immoderately as the apostle
was killing her men in the market when suddenly an unseen voice calle

1 A variant ‘so that none should wear it after him’ is worth mention.

The Life of Muhammad 465

her name. ‘Good heavens,’ I cried, ‘what is the matter?’ ‘I am to be
killed,’ she replied. ‘What for?’ I asked. ‘Because of something I did,’
she answered. She was taken away and beheaded. ‘A’isha used to say, ‘I
shall never forget my wonder at her good spirits and her loud laughter 691
when all the time she knew' that she would be killed’ (711).

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl told me that Thabit b. Qays b. al-Shammas had
gone to al-Zabir b. Bata al-QurazI who was Abu 'Abdu’l-Rahman. Al-
Zabir had spared Thabit during the pagan era. One of al-Zabir’s sons told
me that he had spared him on the day of Bu'ath, having captured him
and cut off his forelock and then let him go. Thabit came to him (he was
then an old man) and asked him if he knew him, to which he answered,

‘Would a man like me not recognize a man like you ?’ He said, ‘I want to
repay you for your service to me.’ He said, ‘The noble repays the noble.’

Thabit went to the apostle and told him that al-Zabir had spared his life
and he wanted to repay him for it, and the apostle said that his life would
be spared. When he returned and told him that the apostle had spared
his life he said, ‘What does an old man without family and without children
want with life ?’ Thabit went again to the apostle, who promised to give
him his wife and children. When he told him he said, ‘How can a
household in the Hijaz live without property ?’ Thabit secured the apostle’s
promise that his property would be restored and came and told him so,
and he said, ‘O Thabit, what has become of him whose face was like a
Chinese mirror in which the virgins of the tribe could see themselves,

Ka'b b. Asad ?’ ‘Killed,’ he said. ‘And what of the prince of the Desert
and the Sown, Huyayy b. Akhtab?’ ‘Killed.’ ‘And what of our vanguard
when we attacked and our rearguard when we fled (T. returned to the
charge), 'Azzal b. Samaw’al?’ ‘Killed.’ ‘And what of the two assemblies?’
meaning B. Ka'b b. Qurayza and B. 'Amr b. Qurayza. ‘Killed.’ He said,

‘Then I ask of you, Thabit, by my claim on you that you join me with
my people, for life holds no joy now that they are dead, and I cannot bear
to wait another moment 1 to meet my loved ones.’ So Thabit went up to 692
him and struck off his head.

When Abu Bakr heard of his words ‘until I meet my loved ones’ he said,

‘Yes, by Allah he will meet them in hell for ever and ever’ (712).

(Thabit b. Qays said concerning that, mentioning al-Zabir b. Bata: T< 1496

My obligation is ended; I was noble and persistent
When others swerved from steadfastness.

Zabir had a greater claim than any man on me
And when his wrists were bound with cords
I went to the apostle that I might free him.

The apostle was a very sea of generosity to us.)

The apostle had ordered that every adult of theirs should be killed.

1 Lit. ‘the time it takes a man to pour a bucket of water into the trough and return the
bucket’.

B 4080 H h

466 The Life of Muhammad

Shu'ba b. al-Hajjaj told me from ‘Abdu’l-Malik b. 'Umavr from 'Atiya
al-Qurazi: The apostle had ordered that every adult of B. Qurayza should
be killed. I was a lad and they found that I was not an adult and so they
let me go.

Ayyub b. r Abduu’I-Rahman b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Sa'sa'a brother of B.
'Adly b. al-Najjar told me that Salma d. Qays, mother of al-Mundhir sister
of Salit b. Qays—she w r as one of the maternal aunts of the apostle who had
prayed with him both towards Jerusalem and towards Mecca and had
sw r orn the allegiance of women to him—asked him for Rifa'a b. Sarnaw’al
al-Qurazi wiio was a grow r n man who had sought refuge with her, and w r ho
used to know them. She said that he had alleged that he w r ould pray and
eat camel’s flesh. So he gave him to her and she saved his life.

Then the apostle divided the property, wives, and children of B. Qurayza
among the Muslims, and he made knowm on that day the shares of horse

693 and men, and took out the fifth. A horseman got three shares, tw'O for the
horse and one for his rider. A man without a horse got one share. On the
day of B. Qurayza there w^ere thirty-six horses. It w r as the first booty on
which lots w : ere cast and the fifth was taken. According to its precedent
and what the apostle did the divisions w^ere made, and it remained the
custom for raids.

Then the apostle sent Sa'd b. Zayd al-Ansarl brother of b. ‘Abdu’I-
Ashhal with some of the captive w’omen of B. Qurayza to Najd and he sold
them for horses and weapons.

The apostle had chosen one of their women for himself, Rayhana d.
'Amr b. Khunafa, one of the women of B. 'Amr b. Qurayza, and she
remained with him until she died, in his powder. The apostle had proposed
to marry her and put the veil on her, but she said: ‘Nay, leave me in your
power, for that will be easier for me and for you.’ So he left her. She had
shown repugnance towards Islam wTen she was captured and clung to
Judaism. So the apostle put her aside and felt some displeasure. While
he was with his companions he heard the sound of sandals behind him and
said, ‘This is Tha'laba b. Sa'ya coming to give me the good news of
Rayhana’s acceptance of Islam’ and he came up to announce the fact.
This gave him pleasure.

God sent down concerning the trench and B. Qurayza the account w'hich
is found in the sura of the Confederates 1 in w r hich He mentioned their trial
and His kindness to them, and His help when He removed that from them
after one of the disaffected had said what he did: ‘O you who believe,
remember God’s favour to you when armies came against you, and We
sent against them a w r ind and armies you could not see, and God is a seer
of what you do.’ The armies w r ere Quraysh, and Ghatafan, and B. Qurayza.

694 The armies which God sent with the wind w r ere the angels. God said,
‘When they came at you from above you and below r you, and when eyes
grew wild and hearts reached to the throats and you thought vain things

1 Sura 33.

The Life of Muhammad ^

were B - Quray ? a: thos =

and shaken with a mighty shock Andlhe th “r'bT be,levers tested

whose hearts was a disease were ,avW Wh!t P , e d, J “® ected a " d those m

“ 7 ght but a dd ^°n' dfers t! the words 7 WaSTb* Qush^

saying Our houses are exposed and th™ S ° USht the P r0 Phet’s permission

only to run away- refers m^he A u VW ?°' “P®* 4 The 3' wished

people who shared his opinion ‘And jf p 1 ‘ T h b ' Qay?I and those of his
he. Medina (713). P And it it had been entered from its sides',

'.hlytuW^vetSt! ™l b f ° n ; ’> “T’ 1 ™ t0 P0,ytbe ™'

r e K Tf Wh ° th0Ught *° dese « on 'he day of Uhud w ,h B <J^
when both thought to desert on the day of Uhud Then he” , ' S 7 ?

that they would never dn rf,,. kc*. • , . • ' 1 den SWOr e to God

had taken on ° f ^ ^

death or killing, and then you will enjoy comfort but for°a little^SaT \Vh
can preserve you from Albh if rm : j •, tU • ba ^ ™ho

mercy. They will nTfind t ' d f ev ' lt0 ™ d * or intends

7" b ”, Al‘ah.

battle

their help ,o you.'

departs they scald you with sharp tongues ’ i e with talk ah T 7,7 6,s
not please you because their hope is m”his hfe hi f "l' d ° eS

does not move them, for they fear death wdth the ’dread o W 1 T"*
hope in a future life in i‘TU, - , , , read mm who.has no

T! j 1 , f wcrc amon g you they would fight but little ’ "

Then He addressed the believers and said ‘Tn r n v ,

fine example for one who hopesforAHahaid 7 *T 3

shoulder prefer themselves to him and not desire to be in a piacelhel

to the decree and

468 The Life of Muhammad

promised them. Then He said: ‘Some of the believers are men who are
true to what they covenanted with Allah and some of them have fulfilled
their vow in death,’ i.e. finished their work and returned to their Lord like
those who sought martyrdom at Badr and Uhud (715).

696 ‘And some of them are still waiting,’ i.e. for the help which Allah
promised them and the martyrdom like that which befell his companions.
God said: ‘And they have not altered in the least,’ i.e. they did not doubt
nor hesitate in their religion, and did not change it for another. ‘That God
may reward the true men for their truth and punish the disaffected if He
will, or repent towards them. God is forgiving, merciful. And Allah
turned back those who disbelieved in their wrath,’ i.e. Quraysh and Ghata-
fan. ‘They gained no good. God averted battle from the believers, and
Allah is strong, mighty. And He brought down those of the Scripture
people who helped them,’ i.e. B. Qurayza, ‘from their strongholds’ the

697 forts and castles in which they were (716). ‘And he cast terror into their
hearts; some you slew and some you captured,’ i.e. he killed the men and
captured the women and children. ‘And caused you to inherit their land
and their dwellings, and their property, and a land you had not trod,’ i.e,
Khaybar. ‘For Allah can do all things.’

When the affair of B. Qurayza was disposed of, Sa'd’s wound burst open
and he died a martyr therefrom.

Mu'adh b. Rifa'a al-Zuraqi told me: Anyone you like from the men of

698 my people told me that Gabriel came to the apostle when Sa'd was taken,
in the middle of the night wearing an embroidered turban, and said,
‘O Muhammad, who is this dead man for whom the doors of heaven
have been opened and at whom the throne shook ?’ The apostle got up
quickly dragging his garment as he went to Sa'd and found him already
dead.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me from 'Amra d. 'Abdu’I-Rahman: As
'A’isha was returning from Mecca with Usayd b. Hudayr he heard of the
death of a wife of his, and showed considerable grief. 'A’isha said: ‘God
forgive you, O Abu Yahya, will you grieve over a woman when you have
lost the son of yojir uncle, for whom the throne shook ?’

One I do not suspect told me from al-Hasan al-Basrl: Sa'd was a fat man
and whefi the men carried him they found him light. Some of the dis¬
affected said, ‘He was a fat man and we have never carried a lighter bier
than his.’ When the apostle heard of this he said, ‘He had other carriers
as well. By Him Who holds my life in His hand the angels rejoiced at
(receiving) the spirit of Sa'd and the throne shook for him.’

Mu'adh b. Rifa'a told me from Mahmud b, 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. ‘Amr
b. al-Jamuh from Jabir b. 'Abdullah: When Sa'd was buried as we were
with the apostle he said Subhdna llah and we said it with him. Then he
said Allah akbar and the men said it with him. When they asked him why
he had said Subhdna'Hah he said ‘The grave was constricted on this good
man until God eased him from it’ (717).

469

The Life of Muhammad
Of Sa d one of the Ansar said:

We have never heard of the throne of God
Shaking for any dead man but Sa'd Abu 'Amr.

(71% m ° ther Said When his bier Was bein S carried ' as she was weeping

Alas Lmm Sa'd for Sa'd the brave and bold
Leader glorious, knight ever ready,

Stepping mto the breach, cutting heads to pieces. 1

The apostle said, ‘Every wailing woman lies excent r-srt u
Sa'd b. Mu'adh. P the one who we Pt

B 'AM'] M ^ h '^ sf f ui ; d martyrdom at the battle of the Trench- Of

•Abd u b Ha U h 1 b A Sa h h b : 3 Sa d b ' MU ' 5dH; »• *<“ »' b. an"

Nu^a J n U d Sh ^-L: 1 b K G“2“ f a. th 2 e ^ B ^ b

hit and skw(7t9) 0f ^ ^ B ' DlMr: K “ b b ' Zayd whom 2 random arrow
Three polytheists were killed:

Of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: Munabbih b. 'Uthman b. 'Ubayd b al-Sabbao hit
by an arrow and died in Mecca (720). * * & bbaq hlt

Makhz ,™ b.’Yaqaza: Naufal b. 'Abdullah b. al-Mughlra They
^ked the apostle to et them buy his body he having stormed t e trlnch
and become trapped m it and killed, and the Muslims got possession of ht

. . be apostle said that they had no use for his body and did not want
to be paid for it. and he let them have it (72,) X

whom'Ah kdied ( 7 U 4 y ’“ b ' ^ 'Abdu Wudd

apostle'ssu'd ‘He whit 3 “TT 8 WOU " d - Thcy ^geThaUhe' ^

aposne said. He will have the reward of two martyrs ’

Abu Si nan b. Mihsan b. Hurthan brother of B Asad h . u- a

of h R e o' ap0Stle 7 “ besi eging B. Qurayza and was buried in the c^etery
Jsiam?he r r a e y?a Wh ‘ Ch “ ^ They b ™e d «1><~ who d”ed m

saiA^O the ^ efe . I ? ders of thc trench it I have heard that the apostle

Qurav?h d!d S noTa t n0 Frh ta T ** ^ "'ill attack them '

God conquered^Mecca by him!"' ‘ ha ‘' * *“ "’ h ° at “ ked -tii

1 This line is omitted by W.

470

The Life of Muhammad

POETRY ABOUT THE TRENCH AND B. QURAYZA

Dirar b. al-Khattab b. Mirdas brother of B. Muharib b. Fihr said about
the battle of the Trench:

Many a sympathetic woman had doubts about us, 1
Yet we led a great force, crushing all before us.

Its size w r as as Uhud

When one could see its whole extent.

You could see the long mail upon the warriors

And their strong leather shields

And the fine steeds like arrows

Which we discharged against the sinful wrongdoers.

W 7 hen we charged the one the other,

’Twas as though at the gap in the trench men would shake hands.
You could not see a rightly guided man among them
Though they said: ‘Are we not in the right?’

We besieged them for one whole month
Standing over them like conquerors.

701 Night and morning every day
We attacked them fully armed;

Sharp swords in our hands
Cutting through heads and skulls.

’Twas as though their gleam when they were drawn
When they flashed in the hands of those that drew them
Was the gleam of lightning illuminating the night
So that one could see the clouds clearly.

But for the trench which protected them
We would have destroyed them one and all.

But there it stood in front of them,

And they took refuge in it from fear of us.

' Though we withdrew we left

Sa'd hostage to death in front of their tents.

When darkness came you could hear the keening women
Raising their lament over Sa'd.

Soon we shall visit you again
Helping one another as we did before
With a company of Kinana armed
Like lions of the jungle protecting their dens.

Ka'b b. Malik brother of B. Salima answered him:

Many a woman will ask of our fight.

Had she been there she would have seen we were steadfast.

1 If this poem is really Dirar’s it must have been composed after Sura 33, for it uses the
language of verse 10. It is hardly likely that a Muslim would have boasted of the doings of
Quraysh, or that a polytheist would have borrowed language from the Quran. Therefore it
would seem to be a sort of literary Aunt Sally, put up to be assailed in the poems that
follow.

47 1

The Life of Muhammad

W e were steadfast trusting in Him;

We saw nothing equal to God in the hour of our danger.

We have a prophet, a true helper,

By whom we can conquer all men.

We fought an evil disobedient people
Fully prepared in their hostile attack.

When they came at us we struck them blows
Which dispatched the precipitate.

You would have seen us in wide long mail which
Glittered like pools in the plain;

Sharp swords in our hands

By which we quench the spirit of the mischievous.

Like lions at the gap in the trench
Whose tangled jungle protects their lairs.

Our horsemen when they charged night and morning
Looked disdainfully at the enemy as they wore their badges
To help Ahmad and God so that we might he 702

Sincere slaves of truth,

And that the Meccans might know when they came
And the people of different parties
That God has no partners,

And that He helps the believers.

Though you killed Sa'd wantonly,

God’s decrees are for the best.

He will admit him to goodly gardens
The resting-place of the righteous.

As He repulsed you, runaway fugitives,

Fruitless, disgraced, despite your rage.

Disgraced, you accomplished nothing there
And were all but destroyed
By a tempest which overtook you
So that you were blinded by its force.

‘Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra al-Sahml said about the trench:

Salute the dwelling whose vestiges

Long decay and time’s changes have effaced.

’Tis as though their remains were the writings of Jews
Except the zarebas and (marks of) tentpegs. 1
A desert as though you did not find diversion in it
Happily with young girls of one age.

But speak no more of a life that has passed
And a place become ruined and deserted,

And gratefully remember the gallantry of all

1 The trace of an old camp (rasm) is compared to Hebrew script. The word also means

writing .

472

The Life of Muhammad

Who marched from the sacred stones, 1
The stones of Mecca, making for Yathrib,

With a loud-throated mighty force;

Leaving the high ground well used paths
In every conspicuous height and pass;

The fine lean steeds led beside them
Thin in belly, lean of flank,

Foaled from long-bodied mares and stallions,

Like a wolf who attacks careless watchmen.

‘Uyayna marched with the banner of the army;

Sakhr led the confederates;

Two chiefs like the moon in its splendour,

The help of the poor, the refuge of the fugitive,

703 Until when they came to Medina

And girt themselves for death their sharp swords drawm.

For forty days they had the best of Muhammad
Though his companions in war were the best.

They called for withdrawal the morning you said
‘We are almost done for.’

But for the trench they would have left them
Corpses for hungry birds and wolves.

Hassan b. Thabit answered him and said:

Can the vanished traces of a deserted place
Answer one who addresses it ?

A desert where clouds of rain have effaced its traces
And the constant blowing of every high wind ? •"

Yet have I seen their dwellings adorned by
Shining faces, heirs of a glorious past.

But leave the dwellings, the talk of lovely maidens
With soft breasts, sw'eet in converse,

And complain to God of cares and what you see—

An angry people who wronged the apostle,

Who marched with their company against him
And collected townsmen and desert dwellers,

The army of 'Uyayna and Ibn Harb
Mingled with the horsemen of the confederates
Until they came to Medina and hoped to slay
The apostle’s men and plunder them,

And attacked us in their strength.

They were put to flight in their fury

By a tempest which dispersed their company

1 The an$db may mean either the stones set up to mark the boundary of the sacred terri¬
tory, such as remain to this day, or the stones at which the sacrificial victims were slaugh¬
tered.

473

The Life of Muhammad

And the armies of thy Lord the Lord of lords.

God averted battle from the believers 1
And gave them the best of rewards.

When they had abandoned hope, our bounteous King
Sent down His aid and scattered them;

Gave ease to Muhammad and his companions
And humiliated every lying doubter,

Hard-hearted, suspicious, doubtful,

Not men of pure life, unbelievers.

May misery cling to their hearts, for
In unbelief they persisted to the very end. 2

Ka'b b. Malik also answered him: 704

War has left over to us

The best gift of our bounteous Lord;

High white forts and resting-places for camels where [from their
rubbing]

Palms are black and where milk is plentiful.

They are like lava tracts and their bounty is lavished
On the visiting guest and relative.- 3
And horses 4 swift as wolves
Fed on barley and cut lucerne

With hairless fetlocks and firm-fleshed hindquarters,

Smooth their coats from head to tail;

Long-neckcd, answering the View hallo
As hounds speed to the huntsman’s call.

Now guarding the tribesman’s cattle,

Now slaying the enemy and returning with the spoil,

Scaring wild beasts, swift in war,

Grim in combat, of noble spirit,

Well fed and sleek

Well fleshed yet thin bellied.

They bring coats of mail doubly woven
With strong spears which hit the mark,

And swords whose rust the polishers have removed;

1 Almost an exact quotation from Sura 33. 25.

2 Or, To whose hearts misery has clung

So that their hearts persist in disbelief to the end of time.

3 A.Dh.’s explanation implies:

High white forts and resting-places for camels
Where the camels have black necks and are rich in milk.

They (the resting places) are like lava tracts
Their bounty, &c.

S. renders ma'dtin ‘palm plantations’ and judhu ‘trunks’ and then has to take ahldb as
a metaphor of ‘fruit.’

The verse is difficult, but it is possible to avoid unnatural metaphors in its translation.

The dung of the camels made the ground look like a lava tract.

4 nazai arc horses imported from elsewhere.

474

The Life of Muhammad

All with a splendid highborn knight,

His right hand holding a spear ready for the thrust
Whose fashioning was entrusted to Khabbab.

The glitter of his lance is like
A flash of flame in the darkness of the night,

And a force whose mail defies the arrows
And repels the bolts that would pierce the thighs.

Reddish-black, massed, as though their spears
Were a blazing forest in every encounter,

Seeking the shadow of the standard as though
On the shaft of the spear there was the shadow of a hawk.

Their courage defeated Abu Karib and Tubba'

And their gallantry overcame the Bedouin.

We were guided by admonitions from our Lord
On the tongue of one radiant and pure.

They were laid before us and we loved to remember them
After they had been laid before the confederates (and rejected).

705 Axioms which evildoers assert they thought too strict
But the wise understand.

Quraysh came to contend with their Lord,

But he who contends with the Conqueror will surely be conquered (723).

Ka'b b. Malik said about the trench:

Let one who enjoys the noise of battle where blows resound
Like the crackling of burning reeds,

Come to the fight where swords are sharp
Between al-Madhad 1 and the side of the trench.

They were bold in smiting champions
And surrendered their lifeblood to the Lord of the world
In a company by which God helped His prophet
And was gracious to His servant.

All in long mail w'hose ends swept the ground,

Looking like an undulating pool blown by the wind
With mail well wrought and woven as though its nails
Were the eyes of a locust in the chain rings.

Braced up by the belt of a sword
Of pure steel, cutting, and shining.

Such with piety was our clothing on the day of battle 2
And every hour that called for bravery.

When our swords were too short to meet the enemy
We made them reach by going forward.

You could see skulls split asunder,

1 The place where the trench was dug, Some say that it was between Sal' and the

trench.

3 Borrowed from Sura 7. 25, ‘The clothing of piety is the best 1 .

475

The Life of Muhammad

To say nothing of hands, as though they had not been created.

We met the enemy with a compact force
Driving away their force who went as though to the top of al-
Mashriq. 1

Against the enemy we prepared
Every swift, bay, white-legged, piebald horse
Carrying riders who in battle were like
Lions on damp dewy soil, 2

Trusty ones who bring death to brave men 706

With death-dealing spears beneath the clouds of dust.

God commanded that the horses should be kept for His enemy in the
fight 3

(Truly God is the best guarantor of victory)

That they might vex the enemy and protect the dwellings
If the horses of the miscreants came near.

God the mighty helped us with His strength
And loyal steadfastness on the day of the encounter.

We obeyed our prophet’s orders.

When he called for war we were the first to respond.

When he called for violent efforts we made them.

When we saw the battle we hastened thither.

He who obeys the prophet’s command (let him do so), for among us
He is obeyed and truly believed.

By this He will give us victory and show our glory
And so give us a life of ease.

Those who call Muhammad a liar

Disbelieve and go astray from the way of the pious (724).

Ka'b also said:

The mixed tribes knew when they gathered together against us
And attacked our religion that we would not submit.

Confederates from Qays b. 'Aylan and Khindif with one accord
Made common cause, not knowing what would happen.

They tried to turn us from our religion while we

Tried to turn them from disbelief, but God is a seer and a hearer.

When they raged against us in battle
The all embracing help of God aided us.

’Twas God’s protection and His grace towards us
(He whom God does not guard is lost).

He guided us to the true religion and chose it for us.

God can do more than man can do.

1 A mountain between al-Sarif and al-QasIm in L)abba country.

1 In such conditions lions are said to be most fierce, presumably because wet ground
would ruin the scent of their prey and so they would be ravenous.

3 Cf. Sura 8. 62.

The Life of Muhammad

476

Ka'b also said:

707 Tell Quraysh that Sal'

And the land between al-'Urayd and al-Sammad 1
Is a land where camels w r ho know war carry water,

Where wells dug in the days of 'Ad abound.

Still waters fed by copious fountains
That keep the wells at a steady depth.

The tangled growth and the rushes there
Seem to rustle when they yellow at the harvest.

Our trade does not consist in selling donkeys
To the land of Daus or Murad.

Ours is a land w'ell tilled, for it we fight
If you have stomach for the battle.

We ploughed and planted it as peasants do;

Never have you seen a valley bordered like it.

We have kept every fine high-standing
Powerful courser for great objects.

Respond to our invitation
For clear statement and truth,

Or take the blows you will get from us
At the side of al-Madhad.

We will meet you with all our warriors
And well made tractable horses,

And bloodmares whose sides throb
Like the beating of a locust’s wfings 2
Swift of limb, firm fleshed,

Perfectly made from head to tail.

Horses which live through famine years
When other men’s horses die;

Which tug at the reins, turning their necks to one side, 3
When their master calls them to war.

When our warners say: ‘Be ready’

We put our trust in the Lord of men.

And we said: ‘Nothing will ease our troubles
But smiting the helmets and desperate fighting.’

You have seen none among those we fought,

Whether townsmen or tribesmen,

Bolder than we were in attack
Nor gentler in affection.

When we tied with trusty knots
Fine coats of mail upon them

708 Into long armour we put every fierce noble warrior

1 All these places are in the neighbourhood of Medina.

2 An unusually fast-flying species of locust is meant.

3 This hemistich is repeated verbatim in the poem attributed to Niassan in W. 829. 8.

477

The Life of Muhammad

Careful in his preparation for battle;

Haughty as an angry lion
When someone appears in his valley,

Who shatter the skull of the doughtiest warrior
With the middle of a sword carried loose on its lanyard.

That we may make Thy religion victorious, O God.

We are in Thy hand, so guide us in the right paths (725).

Musafi' b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Wahb b. Hudhafa b. Jumah, weeping for
'Amr b. 'Abdu Wudd and mentioning how 'All killed him, said:

'Amr b. 'Abd was the first horseman to cross Mad had
And he was the horseman of Yalyal. 1
Mild in nature, noble, firm,

Seeking armed combat, never showing fear.

You knew that when they fled from you
Ibn Abd only hurried not
Until the best fighters surrounded him
Seeking untiringly to kill him.

On SaP’s sides the spears surrounded
A horseman who w r as no unarmed coward.

You asked Ghalib’s horseman to dismount, O 'All,

On Safi’s sides. Would he had not done so.

Away with you, 'All! Never have you overcome his like in renown
Nor coped with such a difficult task.

My life be a ransom for the horseman of Ghalib
Who met death unperturbed,

He who crossed al-Madhad with his mare
Seeking to avenge the men he \yould not desert.

Musafi' also said, reproaching the horsemen of 'Amr who decamped and
deserted him:

'Amr b. 'Abd and the fine horses he led—

Horses led for him and horses shod—

His horsemen decamped and his clan left 709

A great pillar, the first among them.

Marvel as I may I saw it

When you, 'AH, asked 'Amr to dismount he dismounted.

Be not far, 2 for I have suffered by his death
And till I die I have a burden heavy to bear.

Hubayra who was despoiled turned his back in flight
Fearing the fight lest they should be killed.

And Dirar who had shown courage

Fled like a miserable unarmed wretch (726).

1 A wadi in Badr.

1 The dead are thus apostrophized.

478 The Life of Muhammad

Hubayra b. Abu Wahb making excuses for his flight, weeping for 'Amr,
and mentioning how 'All killed him, said:

On my life, I did not turn my back

On Muhammad and his companions in cowardice or fear of death;
But I considered my position and could find
No advantage in sword or arrow if I used them.

I stopped, and when I could not go forward
I withdrew like a strong lion with his cubs,

Who turns his shoulder from his adversary when
He can find no way to return to the fray—such has always been my
way.

Be not far, O 'Amr, alive or dead.

Such as you deserves the highest praise from one like me
Who (now) will drive on horses checked by spears
Be not far, O 'Amr alive or dead.

You have gone (from us) full of praise, noble of ancestry.

Tell of his glory when the camels bellow loudly? 1
Had Ibn 'Abd been there he would have gone to them
And relieved them, that never ignoble man.

Away with you, 'All, never have I seen one who behaved like you
Against a brave man advancing like a stallion.

Never have you achieved such a proud boast.

As long as you live you can feel safe from stumbling thereby.

Hubayra also said:

The noblest man of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib knows
That when misfortune came their knight was 'Amr.

7jo Their knight was 'Amr and 'All asked him to dismount.

(The lion must seek his enemy.)

He was their knight when 'All called to him
When the squadrons basely left him.

Alas that I left 'Amr in Yathrib.

May misfortunes never cease there!

Hassan b. Thabit boasting of the killing of 'Amr b. 'Abdu Wudd
said:

‘Amr, the last of you, we slew with the lance
As we defended Yathrib with our small force.

We killed you with our Indian swords,

For we are masters of war when we attack.

We killed you in Badr too

And left your tribes threading their way through the dead (727).

1 So loud was his voice that he could be heard above the grumbling of the camels, as he
boasted of his tribe’s prowess.

The Life of Muhammad 479

Hassan also said:

The warrior 'Amr b. 'Abd is on the flanks of Yathrib
Requiring to be avenged: he was not given respite. 1
You found our swords drawn
And you found our horses ready.

At Badr you met a band

Who smote you with no weakling’s blow.

No more will you be summoned on the day of great things
Or to important distasteful tasks, O 'Amr! (727)

Hassan also said:

Give Abu Hidm a message,

One with which the camels hasten.

Am I your friend in every hardship
And another your friend in a time of ease ?

You have a witness who saw 7 me

Lifted up to him as a child is carried (728).

HassSn said concerning B. Qurayza mourning Sa'd b. Mu'adh and 711
mentioning his judgement concerning the former:

Tears streamed from my eyes,

’Tis right that they should weep for Sa'd
Lying on the battlefield. Eyes that flow with tears
Suffer his loss without ceasing.

Slain in God’s religion, he inherits paradise with martyrs,

Theirs a noble company.

Though you have said farewell and left us

And lie in the dusty darkness of the grave

You, O Sa'd, have returned (to God) with a noble testimony

And garments of honour and praise.

By pronouncing on the two tribes of Qurayza the (same) judge¬
ment

Which God had decreed against them you did not judge of your own
volition.

Your judgement and God’s were at one

And you did not forgive when you were reminded of a covenant.

Though fate has brought you to your death

Among those who sold their lives for everlasting gardens

Yet blessed is the state of the true ones

When they arc summoned to God for favour and regard.

1 The reading in the Diu-dn xcv is easier but not necessarily original:

‘'Amr . . . lay dead

Vengeance for liim is not to be expected.’

480 The Life of Muhammad

Hass an also said mourning Sa'd and the prophet’s companions who were
martyred and mentioning their merits:

0 my people, is there any defence against what is decreed ?

And can the good old days return?

When I call to mind an age that is passed
My heart is troubled and my tears flow;

Yearning sorrow reminds me of friends

Now dead, among them Tufayl and Rafi' and Sa'd.

They have gone to paradise

And their houses are empty and the earth is a desert without them.

They were loyal to the apostle on the day of Badr

While over them swords flashed amid the shades of death.

When he called them they answered loyally,

All of them obeyed him utterly.

They gave no ground till all were dead.

(Only battles cut short the allotted span.)

7 12 Because they hoped for his intercession

Since none but prophets can intercede.

That, O best of men, is what we did,

Our response to God while death is certain.

Ours was the first step to thee, and the last of us
Will follow the first in God’s religion.

We know that the kingdom is God’s alone
And that the decree of God must come to pass. 1

Hassin also said about B. Qurayza:

Qurayza met their misfortune
And in humiliation found no helper.

A calamity worse than that which fell B. al-Nadlr befell them
The day that God’s apostle came to them like a brilliant moon,

With fresh horses bearing horsemen like hawks.

We left them with the blood upon them like a pool
They having accomplished nothing.

They lay prostrate with vultures circling round them.

Thus are the obstinate and impious rewarded.

Warn Quraysh of a like punishment from God
If they will take my warning.

Hassan also said:

Qurayza met their misfortune

And shameful humiliation befell their castles.

Sa'd had warned them, saying
Your God is a majestic Lord,

1 Ditodn cxxxii. Obviously this dates from a later age. ‘The good old days’ are idealized.

481

The Life of Muhammad

They soon broke their treaty so that
The apostle slew them in their town.

With our troops he surrounded their fort
Which resounded with cries from the heat of the battle.

Hassan also said:

May the people who helped Quraysh miss one another, 1
For in their land they have no helper.

They were given the scripture and wasted it,

Being blind, straying from the Torah.

You disbelieved in the Quran and yet 7*3

You had been given confirmation of what the wamer said.

The nobles of B. Lu’ayy took lightly
The great conflagration in al-Buwayra. 2

Abu Sufyan b. al-Harith b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib answered him:

May God make that deed immortal,

May fire burn in its quarters I

You shall know which of us is far (from the fire)

And which of our lands will be harmed.

Had the palms therein been horsemen

They would have said, ‘You have no place here, be off!’ 3

Jabal b. Jawwal al-Tha'labl also answered him, mourning al-Nadlr and
Qurayza:

O Sa'd, Sa'd of B. Mu'adh,

For what befell Qurayza and al-Nadlr.

By thy life, Sa'd of B. Mu'adh

The day they departed was indeed steadfast.

As for al-Khazraji Abu Hubab 4
He told Qaynuqa* not to go.

The allies got Usayd in exchange for Hudayr
(For circumstances sometimes change.) 5

1 This is the reading of C. W. has ta'aqada against tafdqada.

• A place belonging to B. al-Na^ir (not Qurayza) according to Yaqut, s.v. It was their
  tree* which Muhammad destroyed.

J The meaning of this poem is that the fact that B. al-Nadir were able to withdraw with all
their effects deserves to be immortalized and may the site they left be destroyed by fire.

The last line means ‘could the trees have been made to walk you Muslims would have got
rid of them tool’ Yftqut gives a different turn to all this and the preceding poem. I^assan'a
line above is put into the mouth of Abti Sufy&n in the form:

‘The B. Lu’ayy took hardly the great conflagration at al-Buwayra’,
and the first line of Abu SufySn’s poem is given to Hassan in the form:

‘May God make that conflagration permanent!’

But 1 , 1 . was right. Later writers thought that the ‘deed’ must be the-burning of the trees
and therefore the line must have been spoken by a Muslim. See further W. Arafat, op. jyi.,
pp. 277-81,

• A reference to ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy’s interference in favour of B. Qaynuqi’.

5 In the time of Hudayr, chief of Aus, the Jews were secure; but they suffered when his
8 on Usayd came to power.

i i

B 4080

482

The Life of Muhammad

Al-Buwayra perished and was deprived of
Sallam and Sa'ya and Ibn Akhtab.

Yet in their land they were weighty men
Like the ponderous rocks of Maytan. 1 2
Though Sallam Abu Hakam is dead
His weapons were not useless or rusty.

And both the tribes of Kahin too, among them
Hawklike men, albeit kindly and generous.

We found their glory established on glory
Which time cannot obscure.

Dwell there, ye chiefs of Aus,

As though you were blind to shame.

You left"your pot with nothing in it,

The pot of a people worth mentioning is ever on the boil.

7H the killing of sallam ibn abu’l-huqayq

When the fight at the trench and the affair of the B. Qurayza were over, the
matter of Sallam b. Abu’l-Huqayq known as Abu Rafi came up in co -
nexion with those who had collected the mixed tribes together against the
apostle Now Aus had killed Ka'b b. al-Ashraf before Uhud because of
hil enmity towards the apostle and because he instigated men a g a,n« him
so Khazraj asked and obtained the apostle s permission to kill ballam who

W Muhfmma b d a b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhri from 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b,
Malik told me: One of the things which God did for His apos e w
these two tribes of the Ansar, Aus and Khazraj, competed the one wrth
the other like two stallions: if Aus did anything to the apostle s ad ' a " 1 ^
Khazraj would say, 'They shall not have this superiority over us m the
apostle’s eyes and in Islam’ and they would not rest until they cou d

something similar. If Khazraj did anything Aus wou ' Khazrai

When Aus had killed Ka'b for his enmity towards the apostle, khazraj
used these words and asked themselves what man was as hostile to th
apostle as Ka'b ? And then they remembered Sallam who was in Khay
and asked and obtained the apostle’s permission to kill him.

Five men of B. Salima of Khazraj went to him: Abdullah b Atik
Mas'ud b. Sinan; 'Abdullah b. Unays; Abu Qatada al-Hanth b. Rib 1; and
Khuza'T b. Aswad, an ally from Aslam. As they left, the apostle a PP°‘" ,e
'Abdullah b. 'Atik as their leader, and he forbade them to ki w ° m
children. When they got to Khaybar they went to Sallam s house byn.ghg
having locked every door in the settlement on the inhabitants Now he was
T I37 8 in an upper chamber of his to which a (T- Roman) ladder led up. They

1 One of the mountains of Medina. _ ... Oavnuaa': Aus

2 A metaphor for burning anger. Khazraj rescued their J i
abandoned their allies.

The Life of Muhammad 483

mounted this until they came to the door and asked to be allowed to come
in. His wife came out and asked who they were and they told her that they
were Arabs in search of supplies. She told them that their man was here 715
and that they could come in. When we entered 1 we bolted the door of the
room on her and ourselves fearing lest something should come between us
and him. His wife shrieked and warned him of us, so we ran at him with
our swords as he was on his bed. The only thing that guided us in the
darkness of the night was his whiteness like an Egyptian blanket. When
his wife shrieked one of our number would lift his sword against her; then
he would remember the apostle’s ban on killing women and withdraw his
hand; but for that we would have made an end of her that night. When
we had smitten him with our swords 'Abdullah b. Unays bore down with
his sw r ord into his belly until it went right through him, as he was saying
Qatni, qatni, i.e. It’s enough.

We went out. Now 'Abdullah b. 'Atik had poor sight, and fell from the
ladder and sprained his arm (729) severely, so we carried him until we
brought him to one of their water channels and went into it. The people
lit lamps and went in search of us in all directions until, despairing of find¬
ing us, they returned to their master and gathered round him as he was
dying. We asked each other how we could know that the enemy of God
was dead, and one of us volunteered to go and see; so off he went and
mingled with the people. He said, ‘I found his wife and some Jews gathered
round him. She had a lamp in her hand and was peering into his face and
saying to them ‘Bv God, I certainly heard the voice of 'Abdullah b. 'Atik.
Then I decided I must be wrong and thought “How can Ibn 'Atik be in
this country?” ’ Then she turned towards him, looking into his face, and
said, ‘By the God of the Jews he is dead!’ Never have I heard sweeter
words than those.

Then he came to us and told us the new T s, and we picked up our com¬
panion and took him to the apostle and told him that we had killed God’s
enemy. W ,r e disputed before him as to who had killed him, each of us laying
claim to the deed. The apostle demanded to see our swords and when he
looked at them he said, ‘It is the sword of 'Abdullah b. Unays that killed
him; I can see traces of food on it.’

Hassan b. Thabit mentioning the killing of Ka'b and Sallam said: 716

God, what a fine band you met,

O Ibnu’l-Huqayq and Ibnu’l-Ashraf!

They went to you with sharp swords,

Brisk as lions in a tangled thicket,

Until they came on you in your dwelling

1 The change into the first person without any mention of the speaker’s authority is
significant. Doubtless there are occasions when the actual words used at a particular time
and place have been carefully stored in a hearer’s memory; but it should always be borne
in mind that oratio obliqua is abhorrent to Semitic writers who escape into the oratio recta
at the first opportunity.

484

The Life of Muhammad

And made you drink death with their swift-slaying swords,
Looking for the victory of their prophet’s religion
Despising ever} 7 risk of hurt.

'AMR B. AL-'AS AND KHALID B, AL-WALlD ACCEPT ISLAM

Yazid b. Abu Habib from Rashid client of Habib b. Abu Aus al-Thaqafl
from Habib told me that 'Amr b. al-'As told him from his own mouth:
When we came away from the trench with the mixed tribes I gathered
some of Quraysh together, men who shared my opinion and would listen
to me, and said: ‘You know that in my opinion this affair of Muhammad
will go to unheard-of lengths and I should like to know what you think of
my opinion. I think that we ought to go to the Negus and stay with him.
If Muhammad conquers our people we shall be with the Negus and we
should prefer to be subject to his authority rather than to Muhammad; on
the other hand, if our people get the upper hand they know us and will
treat us well.’ They thought that mj 7 suggestion was excellent so I told
them to collect something that we could take as a present to him; as leather
was the product of our land which he most valued we collected a large
quantity and took it to him.

While we were with him who should come to him but f Amr b. Umayya
al-Qamri whom the apostle had sent concerning Ja‘far and his companions.
He had an audience with the Negus, and when he came out I said to my
717 companions that if I were to go to the Negus and ask him to let me have
him, he would give him to me and we could cut off his head; and when I
had done that Quraysh would see that I had served them well in killing
Muhammad’s messenger. So I went in to the Negus and did obeisance as
■was my wont. He welcomed me as a friend and asked if I had brought
anything from our country, and when I told him that I had brought a large
quantity of leather and produced it he was greatly pleased and coveted it.
Then I said, ‘O King, I have just seen a man leave your presence. He is
the messenger of an enemy of ours, so let me have him that I may kill him,
for he has killed some of our chiefs and best men.’ He was enraged, and
stretching out his hand he gave his nose such a blow that I thought he
would have broken it. If the earth had opened I would have gone into it to
escape his anger. I said that had I known that my request would have been
distasteful to him I would not have made it. He said, ‘Would you ask me
to give you the messenger of a man to whom the great Namus comes as he
used to come to Moses, so that you might kill him!’ When I asked if he
were really so great he said: ‘Woe to you, ‘Amr, obey me and follow 7 him,
for by Allah he is right and will triumph over his adversaries as Moses
triumphed over Pharaoh and his armies.’ I asked him if he w r ould accept
my allegiance to Muhammad in Islam, and he stretched out his hand and
I gave my allegiance. When I W'ent out to my companions I had entirely
changed my mind, but I concealed my Islam from my companions.

The Life of Muhammad ³

b IT*' ° ff T k ‘ ng f ° r Muhammad t0 ad opt Islam, and met Khalid

t on™ c rj n lid m v^ CCa ' ™ S ^ 3 ,ittk Wh ‘ k b3fore

iion or Mecca I said, Where are you going, Abu Sulayman?’ He said-

e way as ecome clear. The man is certainly a prophet, and by Allah

that T torf t0 / 3 ^ ushm ’ How much lon ger should I delay?’ I told him

o the apostle KM 7 Z h z*™ °f C ' “ ™ W ' S ° We Went t0 Medi “
the apostle. Khalid got there first and accepted Islam and gave his a He-

gtance Then I came up and said, 'O apostle, I will give you mv allegiance

ofZ n Z tha l7 P ? St J aU,tS are “<• ■» mention isZde

away with all tL e r 0r ^ t ‘ GiVe al,egiance <Amr ' f ° r d «s

andLnt away (730! “ d ° eS ^ S ° 1 gave ^

Tan. 16 T h ° m 1 d °, n ? t SUSpect to,d me that 'Uthman b. Talha b Abu
Lk who was with them accepted Islam at the same time. ’

Ibn al-Ziba ra al-Sahml said:

I adjure 'Uthman b. Talha by our oath of friendship
And by the casting of the sandals at the stone of kissing
And by every alliance our fathers made,

Khalid not being exempt from such,

Do you want the key of a house other than yours 1

Trustnot Slid 3 ^ ^ “ ““ h ° use?

After this; they have brought a great disaster.

DhM e ffiT Ue Tb° f B .' ? Uray?a W3S “ Dhirl -Q a ' da and the beginning of
Dhu 1 -Hijja. The polytheists were in charge of that pilgrimage *

THE ATTACK ON B. LIHYAN

The apostle stayed in Medina during Dhu’l-Hijja, Muharram, Safar and

ouestTf O T k ’ and in six months after the'con-

at al Raii^KE hT‘ 3 ?i nSt B - Li ' y3n t0 avenge his ki “« d

al-Raji, Khubayb b. Adty and hts companions. He made as though he

was going to Syria in order to take the people by surprise (731). Hewent

past Ghurab, a mountain near Medina on the road to Syria, then by

BTn^ t’h k" s y . a !' Batra - then he tuf ned off to the left and^ came out by
n then by Sukhayratu l-Yamam, 4 then the track went by the Meccan
h,ghroad He quickened the pace until he came down to Ghuran “he
haunts of B. Lihyan (Ghuran is a wadi between Amaj and 'Usfan extending
as far as a village called Saya.) He found that the people had been warned
and taken up strong positions on the tops of the mountains. When the
apostle got there and saw that he had faded ,0 take them by surprise as he

• ™ th T n W3S the ^ ee P er of Key of the Ka'ba. See W. 821
  1 he place is wrongly given as Makhid in W
  A wadi near Medina. 4 n ^

Between al-Sayala and Farah,

4 86 The Life of Muhammad

719 had intended, he said, ‘Were we to come down to 'Usfan the Meccans
would think that we intend to come to Mecca.’ So he went out with two
hundred riders until he came to 'Usfan, when he sent two horsemen from
his companions who went as far as Kura u l-Ghamlm. en e turne

and went back. . , . t •

Jabir b. 'Abdullah used to say, ‘I heard the apostle say when he set his

face towards Medina “Returning repentant if God will, giving thanks to
out Lord. I take refuge in God from the difficulties of the journey and its
unhappy ending, and the evil appearance of man and beast.

The tradition about the raid on B. Lihyan is from Asim b. Umar b.
Qatada and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr from 'Abdullah b. Ka b b. Malik.
Ka'b b. Malik said:

If B. Libyan had waited

They would have met bands in their settlements, fine fighters.

They would have met audacious warriors whose terror fills the way
In front of an irresistible force glittering like stars.

But they were as weasels w r ho stick to the

Clefts of the rocks 3 , which have no means of escape.

THE ATTACK ON DHU QARAD

The apostle had spent only a few nights in Medina when 'Uyayna b. Hi?n
b Hudhayfa b. Badr al-Fazarl with the cavalry of Ghatafan raided the
apostle’s milch-camels in al-Ghaba.* A man of B Ghifar who had his
wife with him, was in charge of the camels. Him they killed and carried
off his wife with the camels.

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr and a man I do
not suspect from 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik contributed to the story which
follows. The first to know of them was Salama b. Amr b. al-Akwa al-
Aslami. That morning he was making for al-Ghaba armed with bow and
arrows accompanied by a slave belonging to Talha b. Ubaydullah with a
horse which he was leading. When he got to the pass of al-VVada he saw
72o some of their cavalry and looked down in the direction of Sal. and cried
aloud, ‘O (what a) morning!’ Then he hurried off after the raiding party
like a lion. When he came up with them he began to keep them at bay
with arrows, saying as he shot:

Take that, al-Akwa'’s son am I.

Today, mean crowd, you die!

Whenever the horsemen made for him he fled from them; then back he
would come and take a shot at them when he could, saying the same words.
One of them said, ‘Our little Akwa' comes early in the morning!’

1 Between Mecca and Medina, a wadi some eight miles from Usfan.

2 Or, with a different vowel, ‘the heart’. . _ „ .

J A variant is 'passes of Hijaz’. 4 Near Medina in the direction of Syria.

The Life of Muhammad 487

Ibnu’l-Akwa'’s call for aid reached the apostle and he ordered the alarm
to be sounded in Medina and the cavalry rallied to him. The first horse¬
man to arrive was al-Miqdad b. 'Amr called b. al-Aswad, ally of B. Zuhra.

The next to arrive from the Ansar were 'Abbad b. Bishr b. Waqsh b.
Zughba b. Za'ura’, one of B. 'Abdu’I-Ashhal; Sa'd b. Zayd, one of B. Ka'b
b. 'Abdu’I-Ashhal; Usayd b. Zuhayr, brother of B. Haritha b. al-Harith,
though there is some doubt about him; 'Ukasha b. Mihsan, brother of B.
Asad b. Khuzayma; Muhriz b. Nadia, brother of B. Asad b. Khuzayma;

Abu Qatada al-Harith b. Rib'i, brother of B. Salima; and Abu 'Ayyash
who was 'Ubayd b. Zayd b. al-Samit, brother of B. Zurayq. When they
had gathered to the apostle, he set Sa'd b. Zayd over them according to my
information and told them to go in pursuit of the band until he himself
overtook them with the army.

I have heard from some men of B. Zurayq that the apostle had said to
Abu 'Ayyash: ‘How would it be if you were to give this horse to a man
who is a better rider than you and he caught up with the band ?’ He
replied: ‘I am the best horseman of the people! Then I beat the horse,
and by Allah he had not taken me fifty cubits before he threw me. I w r as
.astonished that the apostle should say that he washed that I had given him
to a better horseman and that I should have said that I w r as the best horse¬
man.’ Men of B. Zurayq allege that the apostle gave Abu 'Ayyash’s horse 721
to Mu'adh b. Ma'is, or to 'A’idh b. Ma'is b. Qays b. Khalada who was the
eighth. Some people count Salama b. 'Amr b. al-Akwa' as one of the eight
and exclude Usayd b. Zuhayr, but God knows what happened, seeing that
Salama was not riding that day but was the first to catch up with the band
on foot. The horsemen went in pursuit of the band until they overtook them.

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that the first horseman to catch up
with the band was Muhriz b. Nadia who was called ‘al-Akhram’ and
‘Qumayr’, and that when the alarm sounded a horse belonging to Mahmud
b. Maslama ran round the plantation when it heard the neighing of the
horses, for it was a treasured animal not put to work. When some women
of B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal saw the horse running round the plantation with the
stump of wood to which it was tied they said: ‘How would you like to ride
this horse, Qumayr? You can see what it is like. Then you could overtake
the apostle and the Muslims.’ He agreed and they handed it over to him,
and he soon outstripped the rest of them because it was full of spirit. When
he overtook the band and came to a halt in front of them he said: ‘Stop,
you rascals, until the emigrants and Ansar who are behind you catch up
with you.’ One of them attacked and killed him. The horse wheeled and
they could not stop him until it stood by its stable among B. 'Abdu’l-
Ashhal. This man was the only Muslim to be killed (732).

Mahmud’s horse was called Dhu’l-Limma (733).

One whom I do not suspect told me from 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik
that Muhriz rode a horse of 'Ukasha’s called al-Janah. Muhriz 1 was killed 722

1 C. has Mujazziz, but gives no authority for the reading.

488 The Life of Muhammad

,*-and al-Janah was captured. When the cavalry engaged, Abu Qatada al-
Harith b. Rib'I killed Habib b. 'Uyayna b. Hisn and covered him with his
mantle; then he joined his force. The apostle advanced with the Muslims
(734) and there was Habib covered with Abu Qatada’s mantle. The men
exclaimed, ‘We are God’s and to Him must we return! Abu Qatada has
been killed.’ The apostle said that it was not Abu Qatada but a man he
had killed and covered with his mantle so that they might know that he
was his prey. 'Ukasha overtook Aubar and his son 'Amr who were riding
the same camel, and ran them through with his lance, killing the two of
them at one stroke. They recovered some of the milch-camels. The
apostle went fonvard until he halted at the mountain of Dhu Qarad, and
the men joined him there, and he stopped there for a day and a night.
Salama b. al-Akwa' asked if he might go with a hundred men and recover
the rest of the herd and cut off the heads of the band. I have heard that
the apostle said, ‘By this time they are being served with their evening
drink among Ghatafan.’ The apostle divided a butchered camel among
every hundred men, and after a while he returned to Medina. The wife of
the Ghifari 1 came upon one of the apostle’s she-camels and told him what
had happened. Having done so she said, ‘I vowed to Allah that I would
slaughter her if Allah let me escape on her.’ The apostle smiled and said:
‘You would repay her badly when God mounted you on her and delivered
you by her and then you would slaughter her! No vow in disobedience to
God nor concerning property that is not your own is valid. She is one of
my camels, so go back to your family with God’s blessing.’ This story of
723 the Ghifari’s wife comes from Abu’l-Zubayr al-Makkl from al-Hasan b.
Abu’l-Hasan al-Basri.

Among the verse composed about Dhu Qarad is the following from
Hassan b. Thabit:

Were it not for what our horses suffered and what hurt their frogs
As they were led to the south of Saya last night,

They would have met you as they carried well-armed warriors
Noble in ancestry protecting their standard,

And the bastards would have rejoiced that we
Did not fight when Miqdad’s horsemen came.

We were eight; they were a great force

Loud-voiced yet pricked by (our) lances (and) scattered.

We were of the people who followed them
And we gave free rein to every noble steed.

Yea, by the Lord of the camels that go to Mina
Traversing the great mountain passes (we will pursue you)

Till we make the horses stale 2 in the midst of your dwellings
And come back with your women and children,

Walking gently with every swift horse and mare

1 V.J.

Heading nubtla with C. and Dtwdn cxxxvii.

489

The Life of Muhammad

That turns swiftly in every battle.

A day in which they are led and a day of charges

Has worn out their quarters and altered the appearance of their backs.
Uur horses are fed on milk
While war is kindled by passing winds.

Our sharp swords glittering cut through
Iron shields and pugnacious heads.

Allah put obstacles in their way to protect His sacred property
And to protect His dignity. 1 1

They lived happily in their home, but

On the days of Dhu Qarad they were given the faces of slaves (735).
Hassan also said:

724

Did ‘Uyayna think when he visited it 2
That he would destroy its castles ?

In what you said you were made a liar.

You said, ‘We will take great spoil.’

^ ou loathed Medina when you visited it
And met roaring lions there.

Back they turned running-fast like ostriches
Without getting near a single camel.

God’s apostle was our amir,

What a beloved amir to us!

An apostle whose message we believe
Who recites a luminous light-bringing book.

Ka'b b. Malik said concerning the day of Dhu Qarad with reference to
the horsemen:

Do the bastards think that we

Are not their equals in horsemanship ?

We are men who think killing no shame,

We turn not from the piercing lances.

We feed the guest with choicest camels’ meat
And smite the heads of the haughty.

We turn back the conspicuous warriors in their pride
With blows that quash the zeal of the unyielding.

With heroes who protect their standard,

Noble, generous, fierce as jungle wolves.

They preserve their honour and their goods

With swords that smash the heads beneath the helms.

Ask the Banu Badr if you meet them
What the brethren did on the day of battle.

.ibl verb i.°. b „“„p r ,''.iv'. rh ‘ PS ' h ' Pr ° P '" y ' m " n! ,h ' pr0ph '' ,< P °-

• i.e. Medina.

490

The Life of Muhammad

Tell the truth 1 to those you meet whenever you come out.
Conceal not the news in assemblies.

Say, We slipped away from the claws of the angry lion
With rage in his heart which he could not work off ( 73 ^)*

Shaddad b. 'Arid said concerning the day of Dhu Qarad with reference
to 'Uyayna who was surnamed Abu Malik:

Why, O Abu Malik, did you not return to the fight
When your cavalry were in flight and being slain ?

725 You mentioned going back to 'Asjar. 2
Nonsense! it was too late to return.

You trusted yourself to a spirited horse
Quickly covering the ground when given free rein.

When your left hand reined him in

He reared like a flaming cauldron.

And when you saw that God’s servants
Did not wait for those behind to come up
You knew that horsemen had been trained
To chase warriors when they took to the plain.

When they chase the cavalry they bring disgrace on them,

And if they are pursued they dismount

And protect themselves in evil case

With swords which the polisher has made bright.

THE RAID ON B. A L-M U S J A LI Q

The apostle stayed in Medina during the latter part of Jumada’l-Akhira
and Rajab; then he attacked B. al-Mustaliq of Khuza'a in Sha'ban a.h. 6

(737).

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr and Muhammad
b. Yahya b. Habban each told me a part of the following story: The apostle
received news that B. al-Mustaliq were gathering together against him,
their leader being al-Harith b. Abu Dirar, the father of Juwayriya d. al-
Harith (afterwards) wife of the apostle. W hen the apostle heard about
them he went out and met them at a watering place of theirs called al-
Muraysi' in the direction of Qudayd towards the shore. There was a fight
and God put the B. al-Mustaliq to flight and killed some of them and gave
the apostle their wives, children, and property as booty. A Muslim of B.

726 Kalb b. 'Auf b. 'Amir b. Layth b. Bakr called Hisham b. Subaba was killed
by a man of the Ansar of the family of Ubada b. al-Samit who thought he
was an enemy and killed him in error.

While the apostle was by this water a party came down to it. 'Umar had
a hired servant from B. Ghifar called Jahjah b. Masud who was leading
his horse. This Jahjah and Sinan b. Wabar al-Juham, an ally of B. 'Auf b.

1 Reading/a*rf«<?u with C. against W.’s faklxivtu. 1 A place near Mecca.

The Life of Muhammad 491

al-Khazraj, thrust one another away from the water and fell to fighting.

The JuhanI called out ‘Men of al-Ansar!’ and Jahjah called out ‘Men of the
Muhajirun!’. 'Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul was enraged. With him was a
number of his people including Zayd b. Arqam, a young boy. He said,
‘Have they actually done this ? They dispute our priority, they outnumber
us in our own country, and nothing so fits us and the vagabonds of Quraysh
as the ancient saying “Feed a dog and it will devour you”. By Allah when
we return to Medina the stronger will drive out the weaker.’ Then he went
to his people who were there and said: ‘This is what you have done to
yourselves. You have let them occupy your country, and you have divided
your property among them. Had you but kept your property from them
they would have gone elsewhere.’ Zayd b. Arqam heard this and went and
told the apostle when he had disposed of his enemies. 'Umar, who was with
him, said, ‘Tell 'Abbad b. Bishr to go and kill him.’ The apostle answered,

‘But what if men should say Muhammad kills his own companions? No,
but give orders to set off.’ Now this was at a time when the apostle was not
accustomed to travel. The men duly moved off.

When Abdullah b. Ubayy heard that Zayd had told the apostle what he
had said he went to him and swore that he had not said what he did say.

He was a great man among his own people and the Ansar who were present
with the apostle said: ‘It may well be that the boy was mistaken in what
he said, and did not remember the man’s words,’ sympathizing with Ibn
Ubayy and protecting him.

When the apostle had begun his journey Usayd b. Hudayr met him and 727
saluted him as a prophet, saying, ‘You are travelling at a disagreeable time,
a thing you have never done before.’ The apostle said: ‘Have you not heard
of what your friend said ? He asserted that if he returns to Medina the
stronger will drive out the weaker.’ He answered: ‘But you will drive him
out if you want to; he is the weak and you are the strong.’ He added:
‘Treat him kindly, for Allah brought you to us w'hen his people were string¬
ing beads to make him a crown, and he thinks that you have deprived him
of a kingdom.’

Then the apostle walked with the men all that day till nightfall, and
through the night until morning and during the following day until the
sun distressed them. Then he halted them, and as soon as they touched
the ground they fell asleep. He did this to distract their minds from what
'Abdullah b. Ubayy had said the day before. He continued his journey
through the Hijaz as far as w r ater a little above al-Naqi' called Baq'ah As
he travelled at night a violent wind distressed the men and they dreaded it.

He told them not to be afraid because the wind announced the death of
one of the greatest of the unbelievers, and w'hen they got to Medina they
found that Rifa'a b. Zayd b. al-Tabut of B. Qaynuqa', one of the most
important Jews and a secret shelterer of the disaffected, had died that day.

The sura came down in which God mentioned the disaffected w'ith Ibn
Ubayy and those like-minded with him. When it came down the apostle

492 The Life of Muhammad

took hold of Zayd b. Arqam’s ear, saying, ‘This is he who devoted his ear
to Allah.’ 1 'Abdullah, 'Abdullah b. Ubayy’s son, heard about his father’s
affair.

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that 'Abdullah came to the apostle,
saying, ‘I have heard that you want to kill 'Abdullah b. Ubayy for what you
have heard about him. If you must do it, then order me to do it and I will
728 bring you his head, for al-Khazraj know that they have no man more
dutiful to his father than I, and I am afraid that if you order someone else
to kill him my soul will not permit me to see his slayer walking among
men and I shall kill him, thus killing a believer for an unbeliever, and so I
should go to hell.’ The apostle said: ‘Nay, but let us deal kindly with him
and make much of his companionship while he is with us. After that it
happened that if any misfortune befell it was his own people who re¬
proached and upbraided him roughly. The apostle said to Umar when he
heard of this state of things: ‘Now what do you think, Umar? Had I
killed him on the day you wanted me to kill him the leading men would
have trembled with rage. If I ordered them to kill him today they would
kill him.’ 'Umar replied, ‘I know that the apostle’s order is more blessed
than mine.*

Miqyas b. Subaba came from Mecca as a Muslim, so he professed, say¬
ing, ‘I come to you as a Muslim seeking the bloodwit for my brother who
was killed in error.’ The apostle ordered that he should have the bloodwit
for his brother Hisham and he stopped a short while with the apostle.
Then he attacked his brother’s slayer and killed him and went off to Mecca
an apostate. He spoke the following lines:

It eased my soul that he died in the lowland,

The blood of his neck veins dyeing his garments.

Before I killed him I was beset by cares
Which prevented-me from seeking my couch.

I gave free vent to my vengeance
And was the first to return to the idols.

I avenged Fihr on him and laid his bloodwit
On the chiefs of B. al-Najjar, the lords of Fari'. z

He also said:

I fetched him a stroke in vengeance
Which drew blood that ebbed and flowed.

I said as the wrinkles of death covered him

‘You can’t be safe from B. Bakr when they are wronged’ (738).

729 Of B. Mustaliq who were slain that day 'All killed two—Malik and his
son. 'Abdu’I-Rahman b. 'Auf killed one of their horsemen called Ahmar

1 This anecdote is related by Zayd in the first person in WaqidI (B.M. MS. 1617, 95 a )-
It is a good example of the way in which early traditions preserved the general sense and
were comparatively indifferent to the form of words. One of their castles.

The Life of Muhammad 493

or Uhaymir. The apostle took many captives and they were distributed
among the Muslims. One of those taken was Juwayriya d. al-Harith b.

Abu Dirar, the apostle’s wife.

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr from 'A’isha
said: When the apostle distributed the captives of B. al-Mustaliq, Juway¬
riya fell to the lot of Thabit b. Qays b. al-Shammas, or to a cousin of his,
and she gave him a deed for her redemption. She was a most beautiful
woman. She captivated every man who saw her. She came to the apostle
to ask his help in the matter. As soon as I saw' her at the door of my room
I took a dislike to her, for I knew that he would see her as I saw her. She
went in and told him w r ho she w'as—d. of al-Harith b. Abu Dirar, the chief
of his people. ‘You can see the state to W'hich I have been brought. I have
fallen to the lot of Thabit or his cousin and have given him a deed for my
ransom and have come to ask your help in the matter.’ He said, ‘Would you
like something better than that ? I will discharge your debt and marry
you,’ and she accepted him.

The news that the apostle had married Juwayriya was blazed abroad
and now that B. Mustaliq were the prophet’s relations by marriage the
men released those they held. When he married her a hundred families
were released. I do not know a woman who was a greater blessing to her
people than she (739).

Yazld b. Ruman told me that the apostle sent al-Walid b. 'Uqba b. 730
Abu Mu'ayt to them after they had accepted Islam. When they heard of
him they rode out to meet him, but when he heard of them he was afraid
and went back to the apostle and told him that the people had determined
to kill him and had withheld their due poor tax. The Muslims talked a lot
about raiding them until the apostle himself meditated doing so. While
this was going on an embassy of theirs came to the apostle, saying: ‘We
heard about your messenger w r hen you sent him to us and we went out to
meet him to show him respect and to pay the poor tax that was due, and
he went back as fast as he could. Now we hear that he has alleged that we
went out to kill him. By Allah we did not go out with such intent.’ So
God sent down concerning him and them: ‘O you who believe if an evil 73 1

man comes to you with a report examine it closely lest you do ill to a people
in ignorance and be sorry for what you have done. Know that the apostle
of God is among you. If he were to obey you in much of the government
you would be in trouble.’ 1

THE LIE THAT WAS UTTERED ON THE RAID OF B. AL-MUSJALIQ

According to what a man I do not suspect told me from al-Zuhrl from
*Urwa from 'A’isha the apostle had gone forward on that journey of his
until he was near Medina, 'A’isha having been with him on the journey,
when the liars spoke about her.

1 Sura 49. 6 -

494 The Life of Muhammad

Al-Zuhri told us from 'Alqama b. Waqqas, and from Sa'Id b. Jubayr
and from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr, and from Ubaydullah b. Abdullah b. 'Utba,
each contributing a part of the story, one remembering more of it than
another, and I (Zuhri) have put together for you what the people told me.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. Abdullah b. al-Zubayr told me from his father from
'A’isha; and Abdullah b. Abu Bakr from 'Amra d. 'Abdu’l-Rahman from
'A’isha from her own words when the liars said what they did. The whole
of her story rests on these men as a whole. One relates what another does
not. All of them are trustworthy witnesses, and all of them related wdiat
they heard from her. She said: ‘When the apostle intended to go on an
expedition he cast lots between his wives which of them should accompany
him. He did this on the occasion of the raid on B. al-Mustaliq and the lot
fell on me, so the apostle took me out. The wives on these occasions used
to eat light rations; meat did not fill them up so that they w 7 ere heavy.
When the camel was being saddled for me I used to sit in my howdah;
then the men who saddled it for me would come and pick me up and take
hold of the lower part of the how'dah and lift it up and put it on the camel’s
back and fasten it with a rope. Then they would take hold of the camel’s
head and walk with it.

‘When the apostle finished his journey on this occasion he started back
and halted when he was near Medina and passed a part of the night there.

732 Then he gave permission to start and the men moved off. I went out for a
certain purpose having a string of Zafar beads on my neck. When I had
finished, it slipped from my neck without my knowledge, and when I
returned to the camel I went feeling my neck for it but could not find it.
Meanwhile the main body had already moved off. I went back to the
place where I had been and looked for the necklace until I found it. The
men who were saddling the camel for me came up to the place I had just
left and having finished the saddling they took hold of the howdah thinking
that I was in it as I normally was, picked it up and bound it on the camel,
not doubting that I was in it. Then they took the camel by the head and
went off with it. I returned to the place and there was not a soul there.
The men had gone. So I wrapped myself in my smock and then lay down
where I was, knowing that if I were missed they would come back for me,
and by Allah I had but just lain down when Safwan b. al-Mu'attal al-
Sulaml passed me; he had fallen behind the main body for some purpose
and had not spent the night with the troops. He saw my form and came
and stood over me. He used to see me before the veil was prescribed for us,
so when he saw me he exclaimed in astonishment “The apostle’s wdfe” 1
while I was wrapped in my garments. He asked me what had kept me
behind but I did not speak to him. Then he brought up his camel and
told me to ride it while he kept behind. So I rode it and he took the camel’s
head going forward quickly in search of the army, and by Allah we did not
overtake them and I was not missed until the morning. The men had

1 za'ina, a woman carried in a howdah.

The Life of Muhammad 495

halted and when they were rested up came the man leading me and the
liars spread their reports and the army was much disturbed. But by
Allah I knew nothing about it.

‘Then we came to Medina and immediately I became very ill and so
heard nothing of the matter. The story had reached the apostle and my
parents, yet they told me nothing of it though 1 missed the apostle’s accus¬
tomed kindness to me. When I was ill he used to show compassion and
kindness to me, but in this illness he did not and I missed his attentions.

When he came in to see me when my mother was nursing me {740), all he 733
said was, “How 7 is she?” 1 so that 1 was pained and asked him to let me be
taken to my mother so that she could nurse me. “Do what you like,” he
said, and so I was taken to my mother, knowing nothing of what had hap¬
pened until I recovered from my illness some twenty days later. Now we
W'ere an Arab people: w'e did not have those privies which foreigners have
in their houses; we loathe and detest them. Our practice was to go out into
the open spaces of Medina. The women used to go out every night, and
one night I went out with Umm Mistah d. Abu Ruhm b. al-Muttalib b.

\Abdu Manaf. Her mother w 7 as d. Sakhr b. 'Amir b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Taym
aunt of Abu Bakr. As she W'as walking with me she stuihbled over her
gown and exclaimed, “May Mistah stumble,” Mistah being the nickname
of 'Auf. I said, “That is a bad thing to say about one of the emigrants who
fought at Badr.” She replied, “Haven’t you heard the news, O daughter
of Abu Bakr?” and when I said that I had not heard she went on to tell me
of what the liars had said, and when I showed my astonishment she told
me that all this really had happened. By Allah, I w r as unabie to do what I
had to do and went back. I could not stop crying until I thought that the
weeping would burst my liver. I said to my mother, “God forgive you!

Men have spoken ill of me (T. and you have known of it) and have not told T- 1521
me a thing about it.” She replied “My little daughter, don’t let the matter
weigh on you. Seldom is there a beautiful woman married to a man w’ho
loves her but her rival wives gossip about her and men do the same.”

‘The apostle had got up and addressed the men, though I knew 7 nothing
about it. After praising God he said: “What do certain men mean by worry¬
ing me about my family and saying false things about them ? By Allah, I
know only good of them, and they say these things of a man of whom I 734
know naught but good, w r ho never enters a house of mine but in my
company.”

‘The greatest offenders were 'Abdullah b. Ubayy among the Khazraj
and Mistah and Hamna d. jahsh, for the reason that her sister Zaynab d.

Jahsh was one of the apostle’s wives and only she could rival me in his
favour. As for Zaynab, Allah protected her by her religion and she spoke
nothing but good. But Hamna spread the report far and wide opposing me
(T. rivalling me) for the sake of her sister, and I suffered 2 much from that.

1 The form used indicates the plural and, to some extent, the speaker’s indifference.

2 Or 'she (Zaynab) suffered'.

496 The Life of Muhammad

‘When the apostle made this speech Usayd b. Hudayr said: “If they are
of Aus let us rid you of them; and if they are of the Khazraj give us your
orders, for they ought to have their heads cut off.” Sa'd b. 'Ubada got up—
before that he had been thought a pious man—and said, “By Allah, you
lie. They shall not be beheaded. You would not have said this had you
not known that they were of Khazraj. Had they been your own people you
would not have said it.” Usayd answered, “Liar yourself! You are a dis¬
affected person arguing on behalf of the disaffected.” 1 Feeling ran so high
that there was almost fighting between these two clans of Aus and Khazraj.
The apostle left and came in to see me. He called ‘All and Usama b. Zayd
and asked their advice. Usama spoke highly of me and said “They are
your family 2 and we and you know only good of them, and this is a lie and
a falsehood.

‘As for 'All he said; “Women are plentiful, and you can easily change
one for another. Ask the slave girl, for she will tell you the truth.” So the
apostle called Burayra to ask her, and 'All got up and gave her a violent
beating, saying, “Tell the apostle the truth,” to which she replied, “I know
only good of her. The only fault I have to find with 'A’isha is that when I
am kneading dough and tell her to watch it she neglects it and falls asleep
735 and the sheep (T. ‘pet lamb’) comes and eats it!”

‘Then the apostle came in to me. My parents and a woman of the
Ansar were with me and both of us were weeping. He sat down and after
praising God he said, “'A’isha, you know what people say about you. Fear
God and if you have done wrong as men say then repent towards God, for
He accepts repentance from His slaves.” As he said this my tears ceased
and I could not feel them. I waited for my parents to answer the apostle
but they said nothing. By Allah I thought myself too insignificant for God
to send down concerning me a Quran which could be read in the mosques
and used in prayer, but I was hoping that the apostle would see something
in a dream by which God would clear away the lie from me, because He
knew my innocence, or that there would be some communication. As for
a Quran coming down about me by Allah I thought far too little of myself
for that. When I saw that my parents would not speak I asked them why,
and they replied that they did not know r what to answer, and by Allah I do
not know a household which suffered as did the family of Abu Bakr in
those days. When they remained silent my weeping broke out afresh and
then I said: “Never will I repent towards God of what you mention. By
Allah, I know' that if I were to confess what men say of me, God knowing
that I am innocent of it, I should admit what did not happen; and if I
denied what they said you would not believe me.” Then I racked my
brains for the name of Jacob and could not remember it, so I said, “I will
say what the father of Joseph said: ‘My duty is to show becoming patience
and God’s aid is to be asked against what you describe.’ ” 3

1 Cf. Sura 4. 107.

2 Care is taken to avoid the use of 'A’isha’s name. 3 Sura 12. 18.

The Life of Muhammad 497

And, by God, the apostle had not moved from where he was sitting when
there came over him from God what used to come over him and he was wrapped
in his garment and a leather cushion was put under his head. As for me, when
I saw this I felt no fear or alarm, for I knew that I was innocent and that God
would not treat me unjustly. As for my parents, as soon as the apostle re- 736
covered I thought that they would die from fear that confirmation would come
from God of what men had said. Then the apostle recovered and sat up and
there fell from him as it were drops of water on a winter day, and he began
to wipe the sweat from his brow, saying, “Good news, 'A’isha! God has
sent down (word) about your innocence.” I said, “Praise be to God,” and
he went out to the men and addressed them and recited to them what God
had sent down concerning that (T. “me”). Then he gave orders about
Mistah b. Uthatha and Hassan b. Thabit and Hamna d. Jahsh who were
the most explicit in their slander and they were flogged with the prescribed
number of stripes. 1

‘My father Ishaq b. Yasar told me from some of the men of B. al-Najjar
that the wife of Abu Ayyub Khalid b. Zayd said to him, “Have you heard
what people are saying about 'A’isha?” “Certainly, but it is a lie,” he said.
“Would you do such a thing?” 2 She answered “No, by Allah, I would
not.” He said, “Well, 'A’isha is a better woman than you.’”

'A’isha continued: When the Quran came down with the mention of
those of the slanderers who repeated what the liars had said, God said:
‘Those who bring the lie are a band among you. Do not regard it as a bad
thing for you; nay it is good for you. Every man of them will get what he
has earned from the sin, and he who had the greater share therein will have
a painful punishment,’ 3 meaning Hassan b. Thabit and his companions
who said what they said (741).

Then God said, ‘Why did not the believing men and women when you
heard it think good of themselves?’ i.e. say what Abu Ayyub and his wife
said. Then He said, ‘When you welcomed it w'ith your tongues and spoke
with your mouths that of which you had no knowledge you thought it a
light thing, yet with God it is grave.’

When this came down about 'A’isha and about those who spoke about
her, Abu Bakr who used to make an allowance to Mistah because he was of
his kin and needy said, ‘Never will I give anything to Mistah again, nor
will I ever help him in any way after what he said about 'A’isha and brought
evil on us.’ She continued: ‘So God sent down concerning that “And let 737
not those who possess dignity and ease among you swear not to give to
kinsmen and the poor and those who emigrate for God’s sake. Let them
forgive and show forbearance. Do you not wish that God should forgive
you? And God is forgiving, merciful”’ (742).

Abu Bakr said, ‘Yes, by Allah, I want God to forgive me,’ so he con¬
tinued the allowance that he was accustomed to give to Mistah, saying, ‘I
will never withdraw it from him.’

1 i.c. eighty. 2 sc. what 'A’isha was accused of. 3 Sura 24. 11.

K k

E 4080

498 The Life of Muhammad

738 Then Safwan b. al-Mu'attal met Hassan b. Thabit with a sword when
he heard what he was saying about him, for Hassan had also uttered some
verse alluding to him and the Arabs of Mudar who had accepted Islam:

The vagabond immigrants have become powerful and numerous
And Ibnu’l-Furay'a has become solitary in the land. 1
As good as bereaved is the mother of the man I fight
Or caught in the claws of a lion.

The man I kill will not be paid for
By money or by blood.

When the wind blows in the north and the sea rides high
And bespatters the shore with foam
’Tis no more violent than I when you see me in a rage
Devastating as a cloud of hail.

As for Quraysh, I will never make peace with them

Until they leave error for righteousness

And abandon al-Lat and al-'Uzza

And all bow down to the One, The Eternal,

And testify that what the apostle said to them is true,

And faithfully fulfil the solemn oath w r ith God. 2

Safwan met him and smote him with his sw'ord, saying according to what
Ya'qub b. 'Utba told me:

Here’s the edge of my sw'ord for you!

When you lampoon a man like me you don’t get a poem in return!

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Tayml told me that Thabit b.
Qays b. al-Shammas leapt upon Safw r an when he smote Hassan and tied
his hands to his neck and took him to the quarter of B. al-Harith b. al-
Khazraj. Abdullah b. Rawaha met him and asked what had happened, and
he said: ‘Do I surprise you? He smote Hassan with the sword and by
Allah he must have killed him.’ Abdullah asked if the apostle knew about
what he had done, and when he said that he did not he told him that he
had been very ddring and that he must free the man. He did so. Then
they came to the apostle and told him of the affair and he summoned
Hassan and Safwan. The latter said, ‘He insulted and satirized me and
739 rage so overcame me that I smote him.’ The apostle said to Hassan, ‘Do
you look with an evil eye on my people because God has guiddd them to
Islam?’ He added, ‘Be charitable about what has befallen you.’ Hassan
said, ‘It is yours, O apostle’ (743).

The same informant told me that the apostle gave him in compensation
Blr Ha, today the castle of B. Hudayla in Medina. It w'as a property
belonging to Abu Talha b. Sahl which he had given as alms to the apostle

1 Here in a bad sense. He is speaking of himself submerged in a sea of refugees,

2 The language is reminiscent of the Quran. The point of the reference to §afwan is not
clear to me.

The Life of Muhammad 499

who S ave t0 Hassan for his blow'. He also gave him Sirin a Copt slave-
girl, and she bare him 'Abdu’l-Rahman.

'A’isha used to say, ‘Questions were asked about Ibnu’l-Mu'attal and
they found that he was impotent; he never touched women. He w r as killed
as a martyr after this.’

Hassan b. Thabit said, excusing himself for what he had said about
'A’isha:

Chaste, keeping to her house, above suspicion,

Never thinking of reviling innocent women;

A noble woman of the clan of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib,

Seekers of honour whose glory passes not away.

Pure, God having purified her nature
And cleansed her from all evil and falsehood.

If I said what you allege that I said
Let not my hands perform their office.

How could I, wdth my lifelong affection and support

For the family of the apostle w : ho lends splendour to all gatherings,

His rank so high above all others that
The highest leap w'ould fall short of it ?

What has been said w r ill not hold

But is the W'ord of one w r ho w'ould slander me (744).

A Muslim said about the flogging of Hassan and his companions for 740
slandering 'A’isha (745):

Hassan, Hamna, and Mistah tasted w'hat they deserved
For uttering unseemly slander;

They slandered w'ith ill-founded accusations their prophet’s wife;

They angered the Lord of the glorious throne and were chastised!

They injured God’s apostle through her
And were made a public and lasting disgrace.

Lashes rained upon them like
Raindrops falling from the highest clouds.

THE AFFAIR O.F AL-IIUDA YB IY A, A.H. 6. THE WILLING
HOMAGE AND THE PEACE BETWEEN THE APOSTLE AND
SUHAYL B. 'AMR

Then the apostle stayed in Medina during the months of Ramadan and
Shawwal and went out on the little pilgrimage in Dhu’l-Qa'da with no
intention of making w'ar (746). He called together the Arabs and neigh¬
bouring Bedoum to march with him, fearing that Quraysh would oppose
im with arms or prevent him from visiting the temple, as they actually did.

Many of the Arabs held back from him, and he went out with the emi¬
grants and Ansar and such of the Arabs as stuck to him. He took the

500 The Life of Muhammad

sacrificial victims with him and donned the pilgrim garb so that all would
know that he did not intend war and that his purpose was to visit the
temple and to venerate it.

Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhrl from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr
from Miswar b. Makhrama and Marwan b. al-Hakam told me: The
apostle went out in the year of al-Hudaybiya with peaceful intent meaning
to visit the temple, and took with him seventy camels for sacrifice. There
were seven hundred men so that each camel w r as on behalf of ten men.
Jabir b. 'Abdullah, so I have heard, used to say, ‘We, the men of al-Huday¬
biya, were fourteen hundred.’

741 Al-Zuhrl continued: When the apostle was in 'Usfan, Bishr b. Sufyan
al-Ka'bi met him (747) and said: ‘There are Quraysh who have heard of
your coming and have come out with their milch-camels and have put on
leopards’ skins, 1 and have encamped at Dhu Tuwa swearing that you will
never enter Mecca in defiance of them. This man Khalid b. al-Walid is
with their cavalry which they have sent in advance to Kura'u’l-Ghamlm.’ 2
The apostle said: ‘Alas, Quraysh, war has devoured them! What harm
would they have suffered if they had left me and the rest of the Arabs to
go our own ways ? If they should kill me that is what they desire, and if
God should give me the victory over them they would enter Islam in flocks.
If they do not do that they will fight while they have the strength, so what
are Quraysh thinking of? By Allah, I will not cease to fight for the mission
with which God has entrusted me until He makes it victorious or I perish.’
Then he said, ‘Who will take us out by a way in ’which we shall not meet
them ?’

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that a man of Aslam volunteered to do
so and he took them by a rugged, rocky track between passes which was
very hard on the Muslims, and when they emerged from it on to the easy
ground at the end of the wadi the apostle said to the men, ‘Say, We ask
God’s forgiveness and we repent towards Him.’ They did so and he said,
‘That is the “putting away” 3 that was enjoined on the children of Israel;
but they did not say the words.’

The apostle ordered the force to turn to the right through the salty
growth 4 on the road which leads by the pass of al-Murar to the declivity of
al-Hudaybiya below Mecca. They did so, and when the Quraysh cavalry
saw from the dust of the army that they had turned aside from their path
they returned at a gallop to Quraysh. The apostle went as far as the pass
of al-Murar and when his camel knelt and the men said, ‘The camel won’t
get up,’ he said: ‘It has not refused and such is not its nature, but the One

1 This passage and 744, line 5, imply that leopard skins were actually worn. The language
in Hamdsa 82. 13 and Mufad. 640. 6 appears to be figurative. For ‘milch-camels’ some
substitute ‘women and children’.

2 A wadi about 8 miles from 'Usfan.

3 hiffa is said to mean ‘take away our sins’. Cf. Suras 2. 55 and 7. 161.

4 Hamd here may be a place-name, but the place of this name in Yaq. ii. 339 is muchtoo

far away from Mecca.

The Life of Muhammad ^ 0I

who restrained the elephant from Mecca is keeping it back. Today what-

kindred "?''Tu ^ ” U ich thep ask me t0 show kindness to

. . , , ii agreC t0 ’ r ‘ en hc told the P eo Ple to dismount. They 742

° bj * r 7 d l 3t th ' re WaS no water therc b y whlch they could halt, so he took
an arrotv from h.s quiver and gave it to one of his companions and he took

wn mto one of the waterholes and prodded the middle of it and the

do™ there. Untl m “’ S CamdS Satlsfied with drinkin g and W

One of the B. Aslam told me that the man who went into the hole with

b 'Am°r S f wW 1 ? ! un<,ub b ’ <>. Y.W b. Dirim

b._ Amr b. Wa ila b. Sahm b. Mazin b. Salaman b, Aslam b. Afsa b. Abu

■ a 5 ltl ’ a , w b° drove the apostle’s camels to sacrifice (748)

, alleged to me that al-Bara’ b. ’Azib used ’to say that it was

he who went down with the apostle’s arrow, and God knows which it was

thalk«. r T V 7 eS fr ° m thC lbeS Whkh N5 J i y a ™de. We think

of the 4 n h Wh ° Went d r: n WIth the arr0W - Aslam a hege that a slave-girl

W?L^ 5ar , Cam UP W,th he f buCket Whik N W a i" 'he well supply-
mg the people with water and said: 3

O you down below, my bucket is here.

I can hear all our men who wish you good cheer
Praising the one who draws water here (749).

Naj iy a said as he was in the hole getting the water:

The 1 amani slave-girl knows

That I m Najiya down below getting water.

Many a wide bloody wound I’ve made
In the breasts of advancing foes.

W a I r n a a--arK d hn^- aI ' ZUhr k Said: ™ e " the apostk had «sted Budayl b.
arqa al-Khuza i came to him wtth some men of Khuza’a and asked'him

potwsts The? 11 ? a n tIe ’ S C ? nfidantS ’ b ° th ' heir Muslims and tbeir
polytheists. They kept him informed of everything that happened in

Lu T avv n ,0 Q h,7 yS Wh m T knZ ui Waf? b - a, - Mh P af broth - of B. ’Amir b.

treacherous fdiowl’ e \Vh e e Sa h ™ appr0ac , hin S the a P° stl e said. ‘This is a
ireacnerous fellow! When he came up and spoke to him the apostle gave

returned S an r d e to r id P the a b he ^ 7“ ? Udayl 3nd his com Panions, and he
eturned and told the Quraysh what the apostle had said.

502 The Life of Muhammad

Then they sent to him al-Hulays b. ‘Alqama or Ibn Zabban, who was at
that time chief of the black troops, being one of B. al-Harith b. ‘Abdu
Manat b. Kinana. When he saw him the apostle said, ‘This is one of the
devout people, so send the sacrificial animals to meet him so that he can
see them! When he saw them going past him from the side of the w ? adi with
their festive collars round their necks and how they had eaten their hair 1
because they had been so long kept back from the place of sacrifice, he
went back to Quraysh and did not come to the apostle, so greatly was he
impressed by what he had seen. When he told them that, they said, ‘Sit
down! You are only a Bedouin, utterly ignorant.’

‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that this enraged al-Hulays, w r ho said:
‘You men of Quraysh, it was not for this that we made an alliance and
agreement with you. Is a man who comes to do honour to God’s house to
be excluded from it ? By him who holds my life in his hand, either you let
Muhammad do what he has come to do or I shall take aw r ay the black troops
to the last man.’ They said, ‘Be quiet, Hulays! until we obtain for ourselves
acceptable terms.’

In his narrative al-Zuhrl said: Then they sent ‘Urwa b. Mas'ud al-
Thaqafi to the apostle and he said: ‘You men of Quraysh, I have seen the
744 harshness and rude words wfith which you have received those you sent to
Muhammad when they returned to you. You know' that you are the father
and I am the son—for ‘Urwa w r as the son of Subay'a d. ‘Abdu Shams—I
heard of what befell you and I collected those of my people who obeyed
me; then I came to you to help you.’ They agreed and said that they
did not suspect him. So he came to the apostle and sat before him and said:
‘Muhammad, have you collected a mixed people together and then brought
them to your own people to destroy them ? Quraysh have come out with
their milch-camels 2 clad in leopard skins swearing that you shall never
enter Mecca by force. By God I think I see you deserted by these people
(here) tomorrow.* Now Abu Bakr was sitting behind the apostle and he
said, ‘Suck al-Lat’s nipples! Should we desert him?’ He asked who had
spoken, and when he heard it was Ibn Abu Quhafa he said, ‘By Allah, did
I not owe you a favour I would pay you back for that, but now we are
quits.’ Then he began to take hold of the apostle’s beard as he talked to
him. Al-Mughira b. Shu'ba w r as standing by the apostle’s head clad in
mail and he began to hit his hand as he held the apostle’s beard saying,
‘Take your hand away from the apostle’s face before you lose it.’ 'Urwa
said, ‘Confound you, how rough and rude you are!’ The apostle smiled
and when 'Urwa asked who the man was he told him that it was his
brother’s son, al-Mughira b. Shu’ba and he said, ‘O wretch, it was only
yesterday that I washed your dirty parts!’ (750).

The apostle told him w'hat he had told the others, namely that he had
not come out for war. He got up from the apostle’s presence having seen

1 It is just possible that anbar is the pi. of ivibdr, a bitter salty herb with thorns (hamitfa).
In that case it would support the rendering of Ham^ on p. 741. z v.s.

The Life of Muhammad 503

how his companions treated him. Whenever he performed his ablutions
they ran to get the water he had used; if he spat they ran to it; if a hair of 745
his head fell they ran to pick it up. So he returned to Quraysh and said,

‘I have been to Chosroes in his kingdom, and Caesar in his kingdom and
the Negus in his kingdom, but never have I seen a king among a people
like Muhammad among his companions. I have seen a people who will
never abandon him for any reason, so form your own opinion.’

A traditionist told me that the apostle called Khirash b. Umayya al-
Khuza I and sent him to Quraysh in Mecca, mounting him on one of his
camels called al-Tha'lab to tell their chiefs from him what he had come
for. They hamstrung the apostle’s camel and wanted to kill the man, but
the black troops protected him and let him go his way so that he came
back to the apostle.

One whom I do not suspect from 'Ikrima client of Ibn ‘Abbas from the
latter told me that Quraysh had sent forty or fifty men with ©rders to
surround the apostle s camp and get hold of one of his companions for
them, but they W'ere caught and brought to the apostle, who forgave them
and let them go their way. They had attacked the camp with stones and
arrows. Then he called 'Umar to send him to Mecca with the same mes¬
sage, but ‘Umar told him that he feared for his life with Quraysh, because
there were none of B. 'Adiy b. Ka'b in Mecca to protect him, and Quraysh
knew of his enmity and his rough treatment of them. He recommended
that a man more prized there than himself should be sent, namely 'Uthman.

The apostle summoned ‘Uthman and sent him to Abu Sufyan and the
chiefs of Quraysh to tell them that he had not come for war but merely to
visit the house and to venerate its sanctity.

As 'Uthman entered or was about to enter Mecca Aban b. Sa'Id b. al-
‘As met him and carried him in front of him. Then he gave him his protec¬
tion until he could convey the apostle’s message to them. Having heard
what ‘Uthman had to say, they said: ‘If you want to go round the temple, 746
go round it.’ He said that he could not do so until Muhammad did so, and
Quraysh kept him a prisoner with them. The apostle and the Muslims
were informed that 'Uthman had been killed.

THE WILLING HOMAGE

Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that when the apostle heard that 'Uthman
had been killed he said that they would not leave until they fought the
enemy, and he summoned the men to give their undertaking. The pledge
of al-Ridwan took place under a tree. Men used to say that the apostle took
their pledge unto death. Jabir b. 'Abdullah used to say that the apostle did
not take their pledge unto death, but rather their undertaking that they
w r ould not run away. Not one of the Muslims who were present failed to
give his hand except al-Jadd b- Qays, brother of B. Salima. Jabir used to
say: ‘By Allah, I can almost see him now sticking to his camel’s side

504 The Life of Muhammad

cringing as he tried to hide himself from the men.’ Then the apostle heard
that the news about 'Uthman was false (751).

THE ARMISTICE

Al-Zuhrl said: Then Quraysh sent Suhayl b, 'Amr brother of B. 'Amir b.
Lu’ayy to the apostle with instructions to make peace with him on condi¬
tion that he went back this year, so that none of the Arabs could say that
he made a forcible entry. When the apostle saw him coming he said, ‘The

747 People want to make peace seeing that they have sent this man.’ After a
long discussion peace w^as made and nothing remained but to write an
agreement. 'Umar jumped up and went to Abu Bakr saying, ‘Is he not
God’s apostle, and are we not Muslims, and are they not polytheists?’ to
which Abu Bakr agreed, and he went on: ‘Then why should we agree to
what is demeaning to our religion ?’ He replied, ‘Stick to what he says, for
I testify that he is God’s apostle.’ 'Umar said, ‘And so do I.’ Then he went
to the apostle and put the same questions to which the apostle answered,
‘I am God’s slave and His apostle. I will not go against His commandment
and He will not make me the loser.’ 'Umar used to say, T have not ceased
giving alms and fasting and praying and freeing slaves because of what I
did that day out of fear for what I had said, when I hoped that (my plan)
would be better.’

Then the apostle summoned 'All and told him to write ‘In the name of
Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful.’ Suhayl said ‘I do not recognize
this; but write “In thy name, O Allah.’” The apostle told him to write
the latter and he did so. Then he said: ‘Write “This is what Muhammad,
the apostle of God has agreed with Suhayl b. ‘Amr.’” Suhayl said, ‘If I
witnessed that you were God’s apostle I would not have fought you. Write
your own name and the name of your father.’ The apostle said: ‘Write
“This is what Muhammad b. 'Abdullah has agreed with Suhayl b. 'Amr:
they have agreed to lay aside war for ten years during which men can be
safe and refrain from hostilities on condition that if anyone comes to
Muhammad without the permission of his guardian he will return him to
them; and if anyone of those with Muhammad comes to Quraysh they will
not return him to him. We will not show enmity one to another and there
shall be no secret reservation or bad faith. He who wishes to enter into a
bond and agreement with Muhammad may do so and he who wishes to
enter into a bond and agreement with Quraysh may do so.’” Here
Khuza'a leapt up and said, ‘We are in a bond and agreement with

748 Muhammad,’ and B. Bakr leapt up and said the same with regard to
Quraysh, adding ‘You must retire from us this year and not enter Mecca
against our will, and next year w^e will make way for you and you can
enter it with your companions, and stay there three nights. You may
carry a rider’s weapons, the sw r ords in their sheaths. You can bring in
nothing more.’

The Life of Muhammad 505

While the apostle and Suhayl were writing the document, suddenly Abu
Jandal b. Suhayl appeared walking in fetters, having escaped to the apostle.
The apostle’s companions had gone out without any doubt of occupying
Mecca because of the vision which the apostle had seen, and when they saw
the negotiations for peace and a withdrawal going on and what the apostle
had taken on himself they felt depressed almost to the point of death.
When Suhayl saw Abu Jandal he got up and hit him in the face and took
hold of his collar, saying, ‘Muhammad, the agreement between us was
concluded before this man came to you.’ He replied, ‘You are right.’ He
began to pull him roughly by his collar and to drag him away to return
him to Quraysh, while Abu Jandal shrieked at the top of his voice, ‘Am I to
be returned to the polytheists that they may entice me from my religion O
Muslims?’ and that increased the people’s dejection. The apostle said,

‘O Abu Jandal, be patient and control yourself, for God will provide relief
and a means of escape for you and those of you who are helpless. W£ have
made peace with them and we and they have invoked God in our agree¬
ment and we cannot deal falsely with them.’ 'Umar jumped up and walked
alongside Abu Jandal saying, ‘Be patient for they are only polytheists; the
blood of one of them is but the blood of a dog,’ and he brought the hilt of
his sword close up to him. 'Umar used to say, ‘I hoped that he would take
the sword and kill his father with it, but the man spared his father and so
the matter ended.’

When the apostle had finished the document he summoned representa¬
tives of the Muslims and polytheists to witness to the peace, namely Abu
Bakr, 'Umar, and 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf, 'Abdullah b. Suhayl b. 'Amr, 749
and Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas, Mahmud b. Maslama, Mikraz b. Hafs who was
a polytheist at the time, and 'All who was the writer of the document.

The apostle was encamped in the profane country, and he used to pray
in the sacred area. When the peace was concluded he slaughtered his vic¬
tims and sat down and shaved his head. I have heard that it was Khirash b.
Umayya b. al-Fadl al-Khuza'i who shaved him then. When the men saw
what the apostle had done they leapt up and did the same.

'Abdullah b. Abu Najlh from Mujahid from Ibn 'Abbas told me, ‘Some
men shaved their heads on the day of al-Hudaybiya while others cut their
hair.’ The apostle said,‘May God have mercy on the shavers.’ They said,

‘The cutters, too, O apostle?’ Three times they had to put this question
until finally he added ‘and the cutters’. When they asked him why he had
repeatedly confined the invocation of God’s mercy to the shavers he
replied, ‘Because they did not doubt.’

The same authorities told me that the apostle sacrificed in the year of
al-Hudaybiya among his victims a camel belonging to Abu Jahl which had
a silver nose-ring, thus enraging the polytheists.

Zuhrl continued: The apostle then went on his way back and when he
was half-way back the stir a al-Fath came down: ‘We have given you a
plain victory that God may forgive you your past sin and the sin which is

506 The Life of Muhammad

to come and may complete his favour upon you and guide you on an
upright path.’ 1 Then the account goes on about him and his companions
until he comes to mention the oath of allegiance and He said: ‘Those who
swear allegiance to you really swear allegiance to God, the hand of God
being above their hands; so he who breaks his oath breaks it to his own
hurt; while he who is faithful to what he has covenanted with God, to him
will He give a great reward.’

Then He mentioned the Bedouin who held back from him. Then He
said when he urged them to take the field with him and they procrastinated,
‘The Bedouin who were left behind will say to you: Our possessions and
750 our families preoccupied us!’ Then follows an account of them until the
words ‘Those who were left behind will say when you go out to capture
spoil, Let us follow you, wishing to change what God has said. Say, You
shall not follow us. Thus has God said beforehand.’ Then follows an
account of them and how it was explained to them that they must fight
a people of great prowess.

'Abdullah b. Abu Najlh from 'Ata’ b. Abu Rabah from Ibn 'Abbas said
(That means) Persia. One whom I do not suspect from al-Zuhrl told me
that ‘a people of great prow r ess’ meant Hanifa with the arch-liar.

Then He said: ‘God was pleased with the believers when they swore
allegiance to you under the tree and He knew what was in their hearts,
and He sent down the Saktna 2 upon them and rewarded them with a recent
victory and much spoil which they will take. God is mighty, wise. God
has promised you much spoil which you will capture and has given you
this in advance, and kept men’s hands from you, that it may be a sign to
the believers and that He may guide you on an upright path, and other
(things) which you have not been able to get. God encompasses them, and
God is almighty.’

Then He mentioned how He had kept him away from battle after the
victory over them, meaning those He had kept from him. Then He said:
‘He it is who has kept their hands from you and your hands from them in
the vale of Mecca, after He had given you victory over them. God is a seer
of what you do.’ Then He said: ‘They are those who disbelieved and
debarred you from the sacred mosque and the offering from reaching its
goal’ (752). ‘And had it not been for the believing men and women whom
you did not know lest you should tread them under foot and thus incur
guilt for them unwittingly.’ Ma'arra means ‘a fine’, i.e. lest you should
suffer loss for them unwittingly and pay its bloodwit; as for real guilt he
did not fear it on their account (753).

Then he said, ‘When those who disbelieve had set in their hearts zealotry,
751 the zealotry of paganism,’ i.e. Suhayl b. 'Amr when he scorned to write ‘In
the name of Allah the Compassionate the Merciful’ and that Muhammad is
God’s apostle. Then He said ‘God sent down His sakina 2 upon His apostle

1 Sura 48.

2 This is (a) a genuine Arabic word meaning ‘tranquillity’, ‘calm’; and { b) a borrowing

The Life of Muhammad 507

and the believers and imposed on them the word of piety, for they were meet
and worthy of it,’ i.e. the declaration of God’s unity, the witness that there
is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and His apostle.

Then He said: ‘God has fulfilled the vision to His apostle in truth. You
shall enter the sacred mosque if God will, safely with heads shaved and hair
cut short fearing not. For He knows what you do not know,’ i.e. the vision
which the apostle saw that he would enter Mecca safely without fear. He
says ‘with your heads shaved and hair cut short’ along with him without
fear, for He know r s what you do not know of that, and more than that He
has wrought a near victory, the peace of al-Hudaybiya.

No previous victory in Islam was greater than this. There was nothing
but battle when men met; but when there was an armistice and war w r as
abolished and men met in safety and consulted together none talked about
Islam intelligently without entering it. In those two years double as many
or more than double as many entered Islam as ever before (754).

THE CASE OF THOSE LEFT HELPLESS AFTER THE PEACE

When the apostle arrived in Medina Abii Baslr 'Utba b. Asld b. Jariya,
one of those imprisoned in Mecca, came to him. Azhar S. 'Abdu 'Auf b.
'Abd b. al-Harith b. Zuhra and al-Akhnas b. Shaffq b. 'Amr b. Wahb al-
Thaqafi wrote to the apostle about him, and they sent a man of B. 'Amir b. 752
Lu’ayy with a freed slave of theirs. When they came to the apostle with
the letter he said, ‘You know the undertaking we gave these people and it
ill becomes us that treachery should enter our religion. God will bring
relief and a way of escape to those helpless like you, so go back to your
people.’ He said, ‘Would you return me to the polytheists who will seduce
me from my religion ?’ He said, ‘Go, for God will bring relief and a way of
escape for you and the helpless ones with you.’ So he went with them as
far as Dhu’l-Hulayfa 1 where he and the two men sat against a wall. Abu
Baslr said, ‘Is your sword sharp, O brother of B. 'Amir?’ When he said
that it was he said that he would like to look at it. ‘Look at it if you want
to,’ he replied. Abu Baslr unsheathed it and dealt him a blow that killed
him. The freedman ran off to the apostle w r ho was sitting in the mosque,
and when the apostle saw him coming he said, ‘This man has seen some¬
thing frightful.’ When he came up the apostle said, ‘What’s the matter,
woe to you?’ He said: ‘Your man has killed my man,’ and almost at once
Abu Baslr came up girt with the sword, and standing by the apostle he
said, ‘Your obligation is over and God has removed it from you. You duly
handed me over to the men and I have protected myself in my religion lest
I should be seduced therein or scoffed at.’ The apostle said, ‘Woe is his
mother, he would have kindled a war had there been others with him .’ 2

from the Hebrew shekinah, possibly through the medium of Syriac. A summary of what has
been said about it with a bibliography is given by A. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the
Quran, 174. 1 About six or seven miles from Medina.

2 Or, ‘The firebrand 1 Would that others had been with him!’

5°8 The Life of Muhammad

Then Abu Basir went off until he halted at al-'Is in the region of Dhu’l-
Marwa by the sea-shore on the road which Quraysh were accustomed to
take to Syria. The Muslims who were confined in Mecca heard what the
apostle had said of Abu Basir so they went out to join him in al-'Is. About
seventy men attached themselves to him, and they so harried Quraysh,
killing everyone they could get hold of and cutting to pieces every caravan
that passed them, that Quraysh wrote to the apostle begging him by the
753 ties of kinship to take these men in, for they had no use for them; so the
apostle took them in and they came to him in Medina (755).

When Suhayl heard that Abu Basir had killed his 'Amiri guard he leant
his back against the Ka'ba and swore that he would not remove it until this
man s bloodwit was paid. Abu Sufyan b. Harb said, 'By God, this is sheer
folly. It will not be paid.’ Three times he said it.

Mauhab b. Riyah Abu Unays, an ally of B. Zuhra, said (756):

A brief word from Suhayl reached me
And woke me from my sleep.

If you wish to reproach me

Then reproach me, for you are not far from me.

Would you threaten me when 'Abdu Manaf is round me
With Makhzum? Alas, whom are you attacking?

If you put me to the test you will not find me
A weak support in grave misfortunes.

I can rival in birth the best of my people.

When the weak are ill-treated I protect them.

They defend the heights of Mecca without doubt
As far as the valleys and the wadi sides
With every blood mare and fiery horse
Grown thin from long fighting.

Ma'add know they have in al-Khayf 1
A pavilion of glory exalted high.

'Abdullah b. al-Ziba'ra answered him:

Mauhab has become like a poor donkey

Braying in a village as he passes through it.

A man like you cannot attack Suhayl.

Vain is your effort. Whom are you attacking?

Shut up, you son of a blacksmith,

And stop talking nonsense in the land.

Don’t mention the blame of Abu Yazld.

There’s a great difference between oceans and puddles.

1 A place in Mina.

The Life of Muhammad

5°9

THE WOMEN WHO EMIGRATED AFTER THE ARMISTICE 75.

Umm Kulthum d. 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'ayt migrated to the apostle during
this period. Her two brothers 'Umara and al-Walld sons of 'Uqba came
and asked the apostle to return her to them in accordance with the agree¬
ment between him and Quraysh at Hudaybiya, but he would not. God
forbade it.

Al-Zuhrl from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr told me: I came in to him as he was
writing a letter to Ibn Abu Hunayda, the friend of al-Walld b. Abdu’l-
Malik who had written to ask him about the word of God: ‘O you who
believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants test them. God
knows best about their faith. If you know that they are believers do not
send them back to the unbelievers. They are not lawful to them nor vice
versa. And give them (the unbelievers) what they have spent on them. It
is no sin for you to marry them when you have given them their dues, and
hold not to the ties of unbelieving women’ 1 (757). Ask for what you have
spent and let them ask for what they have spent. That is the judgement of
Allah w r ho judges between you. God is a knower, wise.’

'Urwa b. al-Zubayr 2 wrote to him: The apostle made peace with Quraysh
on the day of al-Hudaybiya on condition that he should return to them
those who came without the permission of their guardians. But when
women migrated to the apostle and to Islam God refused to allow them to
be returned to the polytheists if they had been tested by the test of Islam,
and they knew that they came only out of desire for Islam, and He ordered
that their dowries should be returned to Quraysh if their women were
withheld from them if they returned to the Muslims the dowries of the
women they had withheld from them. ‘That is the judgement of God which
He judges between you, and Allah is knowing, wise.’ So the apostle with¬
held the women and returned the men, and he asked what God ordered 755
him to ask of the dowries of the women who were withheld from them,
and that they should return what was due if the other side did the same.

Had it not been for this judgement of God’s the apostle would have re¬
turned the women as he returned the men. And had it not been for the
armistice and covenant between them on the day of al-Hudaybiya he would
have kept the women and not returned the dowries, for that is what he used
to do with the Muslim women who came to him before the covenant.

I asked al-Zuhrf about this passage: ‘And if any of your wives have gone
to the unbelievers and you have your turn of triumph, then give those
whose wives have gone the like of what they spent, and fear Allah in W'hom
you believe.’ He said, If one of you loses his family to the unbelievers and
a woman does not come to you you may take for her the like of what they

1 Sura 60. 10.

2 He was the principal authority on apostolic tradition. His father was a cousin of the
prophet, his mother Asraa’ was a daughter of Abu Bakr, and his brother was a candidate for
the caliphate, and he was closely associated with 'A’isha, who was his aunt. He was born in
a.h. 23 and died in 94.

510 The Life of Muhammad

take from you, then compensate them from any booty that you secure.
When this verse came down, ‘O you who believe when believing women
come to you asemigrants,’ as far as the words ‘and hold not to the cords of
disbelieving women’ it referred to 'Umar’s divorcing his wife Qurayba d.
Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira. Mu'awiya b. Abu Sufyan married her after¬
wards while they were both polytheists in Mecca; and Umm Kulthum the
Khuza'ite woman d. Jarwal mother of Ubaydullah b. 'Umar whom Abu
Jahm b. Hudhayfa b. Ghanim a man of 'Umar’s people married while
they both were polytheists (758).

THE EXPEDITION TO KHAYBAR, A.H. J

After his return from al-Hudaybiya the apostle stayed in Medina during
Dhu’l-Hijja and part of al-Muharram, the polytheists superintending the

756 pilgrimage. Then he marched against Khaybar (759).

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Tayml from Abu’I-Haytham b.
Nasr b. Duhr al-Aslami from his father who said that he heard the apostle
as he journeyed say to 'Amir b. al-Akwa' who was the uncle of Salama b.
'Amr b. al-Akwa' who was named Sinan: ‘Dismount, Ibn al-Akwa', and
chant one of your camel-songs for us’; so he got down and recited this rough
rhyme:

But for Allah we should not have been guided
Nor given alms nor prayed.

If people treat us unjustly

And if they wish to seduce us we resist.

Send down Saklna 1 upon us

And make our feet firm when we meet our enemies.

The apostle said, ‘May God have mercy on you!’ 'Umar said, ‘You have
made his death inevitable, O apostle of God. Would that you had let us
enjoy him longer.’ He was killed at Khaybar as a martyr. I have heard
that his sword turned upon him as he was fighting and gave him such a
grievous wound that he died of it. The Muslims were in doubt as to
whether he died a martyr, saying that he had died by his own weapon. But
his nephew Salama b. 'Amr b. al-Akwa' asked the apostle about it, telling
him what men were saying, and he said, ‘Certainly he is a martyr,’ and he
and the Muslims prayed over him.

One whom I do not suspect told me from ‘Ata’ b. Abu Marwan al-
Aslami from his father from Abu Mu'attib b. 'Amr that when the apostle
looked down on Khaybar he told his companions, among whom I was one,
to stop. Then he said:

‘O God, Lord of the heavens and what they o’ershadow

757 And Lord of the lands and what they make to grow
And Lord of the devils and what into error they throw
And Lord of the winds and what they winnow,

1 V.*.

The Life of Muhammad 511

We ask Thee for the good of this town and the good of its people and the
good of what is in it, and we take refuge in Thee from its evil and the evil
of its people and the evil that is in it. Forward in the name of Allah.’ He
used to say that of every town he entered.

One whom I do not suspect told me from Anas b. Malik: When the
apostle raided a people he waited until the morning. If he heard a call to
prayer 1 he held back; if he did not hear it he attacked. We came to Khaybar
by night, and the apostle passed the night there; and when morning came
he did not hear the call to prayer, 1 so he rode and we rode with him, and I
rode behind Abu Talha with my foot touching the apostle’s foot. We met
the workers of Khaybar coming out in the morning with their spades and
baskets. When they saw the apostle and the army they cried, ‘Muhammad
with his force,’ and turned tail and fled. The apostle said, ‘Allah akbar!
Khaybar is destroyed. When we arrive in a people’s square it is a bad
morning for those who have been warned.’ Harun told us from Humayd
from Anas similarly.

When the apostle marched from Medina to Khaybar he went by way of
'Isr, 2 and a mosque was built for him there; then by way of al-Sahba’. 3
Then he went forward with the army until he halted in a wadi called al-
Rajl', halting between the men of Khaybar and Ghatafan so as to prevent
the latter reinforcing Khaybar, for they were on their side against the apostle.

I have heard that when Ghatafan heard about the apostle’s attack on
Khaybar they gathered together and marched out to help the Jew's against
him; but after a day’s journey, hearing a rumour about their property and
families, they thought that they had been attacked during their absence, so
they went back on their tracks and left the way to Khaybar open to the apostle. 758

The apostle seized the property piece by piece and conquered the forts
one by one as he came to them. The first to fall was the fort of Na'im;
there Mahmud b. Maslama was killed by a millstone which was thrown on
him from it; then al-Qamus the fort of B. Abu’l-Huqayq. The apostle
took captives from them among whom was Safiya d. Huyayy b. Akhtab
who had been the vrife of Kinana b. al-Rabi' b. Abu’l-Huqayq, and two
cousins of hers. The apostle chose Safiya foj himself.

Dihya b. Khalifa al-Kalbl had asked the apostle for Safiya, and when he
chose her for himself he gave him her two cousins. The women of Khaybar
were distributed among the Muslims. The Muslims ate the meat of the
domestic donkeys and the apostle got up and forbade the people to do a
number of things which he enumerated.

'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Damra al-Fazarl told me from 'Abdullah b. Abu
Salit from his father: The apostle’s prohibition of the flesh of domestic
donkeys reached us as the pots were boiling with it, so we turned them
upside down.

1 This is the usual meaning of adhdn, but probably here a more genera! term is indicated:

'a call to get up and work’. 2 A mountain between Medina and Wadi’l-Fur'

3 An evening’s journey from Khaybar.

512 The Life of Muhammad

'Abdullah b. Abu Najih told me from Makhul that the apostle prohibited
four things that day: carnal intercourse with pregnant women who were
captured; eating the flesh of domestic donkeys; eating any carnivorous
animal; and selling booty before it had been duly allotted.

Sallam b. Kirkira told me from 'Amr b. Dinar from Jabir b. 'Abdullah
al-Ansar! (Jabir had not been present at Khaybar) that when the apostle
forbade the flesh of donkeys he allowed them to eat horseflesh.

759 Yazld b. Abu Habib told me from Abu Marzuq client of Tujib from
Hanash al-San'ani: With Ruwayfi' b. Thabit al-Ansari we attacked the
Maghrib, and one of its towns called Jirba 1 was conquered. A man arose
as a preacher and said, ‘Let me tell you what I heard the apostle say on the
day of Khaybar. He got up among us and said: “It is not lawful for a man
who believes in Allah and the last day to mingle his seed with another man’s
(meaning to approach carnally a pregnant woman among the captives), nor
is it lawful for him to take her until he has made sure that she is in a state
of cleanness; nor is it lawful for him to sell booty until it has been properly
divided; nor is it lawful for him to ride an animal belonging to the booty of
the Muslims with the intention of returning it to the pool when he has
worn it out; nor is it lawful for him to wear a garment belonging to the
booty of the Muslims with the intention of returning it to the pool when
he has reduced it to rags.”’

Yazid b. 'Abdullah b. Qusayt told me that he was told from 'Ubada b.
al-Samit: On the day of Khaybar the apostle forbade us to buy or sell gold
ore for gold coin or silver ore for silver coin. He said, ‘Buy gold ore with
silver coin and silver ore with gold coin.’ Then the apostle began to take
the forts and the property one by one.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that one of Aslam told him that B. Sahm
of Aslam came to the apostle and complained that they had fought and got
nothing and found nothing with the apostle which he could give them. He
said: !0 God, You know their condition and that they have no strength,
and that I have nothing to give them, so conquer for them the wealthiest
of the enemy’s forts with the richest food.’ The follpwing day God con¬
quered the fort of al-Sa'b b. Mu'adh which contained the richest food in
Khaybar.

760 When the apostle had conquered some of their forts and got possession
of some of their property he came to their two forts al-Watlh and al-Sula-
lim, the last to be taken, and the apostle besieged them for some ten nights
(760).

'Abdullah b. Sahl b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Sahl, brother of B. Haritha,
told me from Jabir b. 'Abdullah: Marhab the Jew came out from their fort
carrying his weapons and saying:

Khaybar knows that I am Marhab,

An experienced warrior armed from head to foot,

1 An island near Qabis.

5 l 3

The Life of Muhammad

Now piercing, now slashing,

As when lions advance in their rage.

The hardened warrior gives way before my onslaught;

My himd 1 cannot be approached.

With these words he challenged all to single combat and Ka'b b. Mslik
answered him thus:

Khaybar knows that I am Ka'b,

The smoother of difficulties, bold and dour.

When war is stirred up another follows.

I carry a sharp sword that glitters like lightning—

We will tread you down till the strong are humbled;

We will make you pay till the spoil is divided—

In the hand of a warrior sans reproche (761).*

The apostle said, ‘Who will deal with this fellow?’ Muhammad b.
Maslama said that he would, for he was bound to take revenge on the man 761
who had killed his brother the day before. The apostle told him to go and
prayed Allah to help him. When they approached the one the other an
old tree with soft wpod 3 lay between them and they began to hide behind
it. Each took shelter from the other. When one hid behind the tree the
other slashed at it with his sword so that the intervening branches were
cut away 4 and they came face to face. The tree remained bereft of its
branches like a man standing upright. Then Marhab attacked Muhammad
b. Maslama and struck him. He took the blow on his shield and the sword
bit into it and remained fast. Muhammad then gave Marhab a fatal wound.

After Marhab’s death his brother Yasir came out with his challenge:

(Khaybar knows that I am Yasir, T* 1578

Fully armed, a doughty warrior.

As when lions advance at a rush

The enemy give way before my onslaught.)

Hisham b. ‘Urwa alleged that al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam went out to fight
Yasir. His mother Saflya d. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib said, ‘Will he kill my son, O
apostle?’ He replied, ‘Nay, your son will kill him, if God will.’ So al-
Zubayr went out saying (T.

Khaybar know that I am Zabbar,

Chief of a people no cowardly runaways,

The son of those who defend their glory, the son of princes.

1 The sacred territory of an idol or a sanctuary and so any place that a man is bound to
protect from violation. ....

• The obvious break in the sense is corrected in I.H.’s version. ‘Lightning { aqiq) in 1. 4
  may mean ‘a jewel.

3 Said by Lane, 2051 c, to be the Asclepias gig an tea or great swallow-wort.

• T-’s text (1576) is clearer here.

B 4080 L 1

The Life of Muhammad

O Yasir, let not all the unbelievers deceive you,

For all of them are like a slowly moving mirage).

When the two met al-Zubayr killed Yasir.

Hisham b. 'Urwa told me that it was said to al-Zubayr, ‘By God, you
must have had a sharp sword that day/ to which he replied that it was not

sharp, but he used it with great force.

Burayda b. Sufyan b. Farwa al-AsIaml told me from his father Sufyan
from Salama b. 'Amr b. al-Akwa : The apostle sent Abu Bakr with his
banner (762) against one of the forts of Khaybar. He fought but returne
having suffered losses and not taken it. On the morrow he sent 'Umar and
the same thing happened. The apostle said, Tomorrow I will give the flag
to a man who loves Allah and his apostle. Allah will conquer it by his
762 means; he is no runaway.’ So he called 'All who was suffering from oph¬
thalmia at the time and spat in his eye, saying, ‘Take this flag and go with it
until God gives victory through you.’ So 'Ali went off with it, gasping as
he hurried, while we followed behind in his tracks until he stuck the flag
in a pile of rocks under the fort. A Jew looked at him from the top of the
fort and asked who he was, and when he told him he said, You have won,
by what was revealed to Moses!’ 1 or words to that effect. He did not return
until God had conquered by his hands.

'Abdullah b. al-Hasan told me from one of his family from Abu Raff,
freed slave of the apostle: We went with 'Ali when the apostle sent him
with his flag and when he got near the fort the garrison came out and he
fought them. A Jew struck him so that his shield fell from his hand, so
'All laid hold of a door by the fort and used it as a shield. He kept it in his
hand as he fought until God gave victory, throwing it away when all was
over. I can see myself with seven others trying to turn that door over, but
we could not.

Burayda b. Sufyan al-Aslami told me from one of B. Salima from Abu I-
Yasar Ka'b b. 'Amr: We were with the apostle one evening at Khaybar
when along came some sheep belonging to a Jew, making for their fort
while we were besieging them. The apostle asked who would get this food
for us and Abu 1 -Yasar volunteered to go. He said, ‘I went out running like
an ostrich, and when the apostle saw me coming back he said O God, may
we long enjoy him.” I had overtaken the flock as the first sheep entered the
fort and I seized the two last and carried them off under my arms, bringing
them back at a run as though I carried nothing until I cast them down
before the apostle. They were duly killed and eaten. ’ Abu’l-Yasar was
the last of the apostle’s companions to die. Whenever he told this story he
763 used to weep, saying, ‘They did enjoy me a long time; indeed I am the last
of them.’

When the apostle had conquered al-Qamus the fort of B. Abu 1 -Huqayq,
Saflya d. Huyayy b. Akhtab was brought to him along with another woman.

1 Apparently the Jew takes the name ‘Ali as an omen when he says alautum.

The Life of Muhammad 515

Bilal who was bringing them led them past the Jews who were slain; and
when the woman who was with Saflya saw them she shrieked and slapped
her face and poured dust on her head. When the apostle saw her he said,

‘Take this she-devil away from me.’ He gave orders that Saflya was to be
put behind him and threw his mantle over her, so that the Muslims knew
that he had chosen her for himself. I have heard that the apostle said to
Bilal when he saw this Jewess behaving in that way, ‘Had you no compas¬
sion, Bilal, when you brought two women past their dead husbands ?’ Now
Saflya had seen in a dream when she was the wife of Kinana b. al-Rabi' b.
Abu’l-Huqayq that the moon would fall into her lap. When she told her
husband he said, ‘This simply means that you covet the king of the Hijaz,
Muhammad.’ He gave her such a blow in the face that he blacked her eye.

When she was brought to the apostle the mark was still there, and when he
asked the cause of it she told him this story.

THE REST OF THE AFFAIR OF KHAYBAR

Kinana b. al-Rabi', who had the custody of the treasure of B. al-Nadlr, was
brought to the apostle who asked him about it. He denied that he knew
where it was. A Jew came (T. was brought) to the apostle and said that he T> 1582
had seen Kinana going round a certain ruin every morning early. When
the apostle said to Kinana, ‘Do you know that if we find you have it I shall
kill you?’ he said Yes. The apostle gave orders that the ruin was to be
excavated and some of the treasure was found. When he asked him about
the rest he refused to produce it, so the apostle gave orders to al-Zubayr b.
al-'Awwam, ‘Torture him until you extract what he has,’ so he kindled a 764
fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Then the
apostle delivered him to Muhammad b. Maslama and he struck off his head,
in revenge for his brother Mahmud.

The apostle besieged the people of Khaybar in their two forts al-Watih
and al-Sulalim until when they could hold out no longer they asked him to
let them go, and spare their lives, and he did so. Now the apostle had
taken possession of all their property—al-Shaqq, Nata, and al-Katlba and
all their forts—except what appertained to these two. When the people
of Fadak heard of what had happened they sent to the apostle asking him
to let them go and to spare their lives and they would leave him their
property, and he did so. The one who acted as intermediary was Muhay-
yisa b. Mas'ud, brother of B. Haritha. 1 When the people of Khaybar sur¬
rendered on these conditions they asked the apostle to employ them on the
property with half share in the produce, saying, ‘We know more about it -
than you and we are better farmers.’ The apostle agreed to this arrange¬
ment on the condition that ‘if we wish to expel you we will expel you.’ He
made a similar arrangement with the men of Fadak. So Khaybar became

• . . .* Cf. Baladhuri, p. 25. He quotes ‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr as I.I.’s authority.

1 Cf. Bal. 29 f.

516 The Life of Muhammad

the prey of the Muslims, while Fadak was the personal property of the
apostle because they had not driven horses or camels against it. 1

When the apostle had rested Zaynab d. al-Harith, the wife of Sallam b.
Mishkam prepared for him a roast lamb, having first inquired what joint
he preferred. When she learned that it was the shoulder she put a lot of
poison in it and poisoned the whole lamb. Then she brought it in and
placed it before him. He took hold of the shoulder and chewed a morsel of
it, but he did not swallow it. Bishr b. al-Bara’ b. Ma'rur wffio was with him

765 took some of it as the apostle had done, but he swallowed it, while the
apostle spat it out, saying, ‘This bone tells me that it is poisoned.’ Then he
called for the woman and she confessed, and when he asked her what had
induced her to do this she answered: ‘You know what you have done to my
people. I said to myself, If he is a king I shall ease myself of him and if he
is a prophet he will be informed (of what I have done).’ So the apostle let
her off. Bishr died from what he had eaten.

Marwan b. 'Uthman b. Abu Sa'id b. al-Mu'alla told me: The apostle
had said in his illness of which he was to die when Umm Bishr d. al-Bara’
came to visit him, ‘O Umm Bishr, this is the time in which I feel a deadly
pain from what I ate with your brother at Khaybar.’ The Muslims con¬
sidered that the apostle died as a martyr in addition to the prophetic office
with which God had honoured him.

Having finished with Khaybar, the apostle went to Wadi’l-Qura and
besieged its people for some nights, then he left to return to Medina.

Thaur b. Zayd told me from Salim, freed slave of 'Abdullah b. Mutf
from Abu Hurayra, who said: When we left Khaybar to go to Wadi’l-Qura
with the apostle we halted there in the evening as the sun was setting. The
apostle had a slave which Rifa'a b. Zayd al-Judhaml, of the clan al-
Qubaybi, had given him (763). He was laying down the apostle’s saddle
when suddenly a random arrow hit him and killed him. We congratulated
him on paradise, but the apostle said, ‘Certainly not. His cloak is even now
burning on him in Hell. He had surreptitiously stolen it on the day of
Khaybar from the spoil of the Muslims.’ One of his companions heard this
and came to him saying, ‘I took two sandal thongs.’ He said, ‘Two thongs
of fire will be cut for you like them.’

766 One I do not suspect told me from 'Abdullah b. Mughaffal al-Muzani:
‘I took a bag of lard from the booty of Khaybar and carried it off on my
shoulder to my companions, when the man who had been put over the
spoil met me and'laid hold of the end of it, saying, “Hie! This we must
divide among the Muslims.” I said that I would not give him it and he
began to try and pull the bag away from me. The apostle saw what was
happening and laughed. Then he said to the officer in charge of the spoil
“Let him have it, confound you,” so he let go of it and I went off to my
companions and we ate it.’

When the apostle married Safiya in Khaybar or on the way, she having
1 Cf. Sura 17. 66, i.e. captured it by force of arms.

The Life of Muhammad 5x7

been beautified and combed, and got in a fit state for the apostle by Umm
Sulaym d. Milhan mother of Anas b. Malik, the apostle passed the night
with^her in a tent of his. Abu Ayyub, Khalid b. Zayd brother of B. al-
■^ a jj^ r passed the night girt with his sword, guarding the apostle and going
round the tent until in the morning the apostle saw him there and asked
him what he meant by his action. He replied, ‘I was afraid for you with this
woman for you have killed her father, her husband, and her people, and till
recently she was in unbelief, so I was afraid for you on her account.’ They
allege that the apostle said ‘O God, preserve Abu Ayyub as he spent the
night preserving me.’

Al-Zuhri told me from Sa'id b. al-Musayyab: When the apostle left
Khaybar and was on the way he said towards the end of the night: ‘Who
will watch over us till the dawn so that we may sleep?’ Bilal volunteered
to do so, so all lay down and slept. Bilal got up and prayed as long as God
willed that he should; then he propped himself against his camel, and there
was the dawn as he was looking at it, and his eyes were heavy and he slept.
The first thing to wake the others was the feel of the sun. The apostle was
the first to wake up and he asked Bilal what he had done to them. He said
that the same thing had happened to him as had happened to the apostle
and he admitted that he was right. Then the apostle let himself be taken a
short distance; then he made his camel kneel, and he and the men per¬
formed their ablutions. Then he ordered Bilal to call to prayer, and the
apostle led them in prayer. Having finished he went to them and said ‘If
you forget your prayers, pray them when you remember them, for Godhas
said, Perform prayer for My remembrance.’” 1

I have heard that the apostle gave Ibn Luqaym al-'Absi the hens and
domestic animals which were in Khaybar. The conquest took place in
oafar. Ibn Luqaym said:

Nata was stormed by the apostle’s squadron
Fully armed, powerful, and strong.

It was certain of humiliation when it was split up
With the men of Aslam and Ghifar in its midst.

They attacked B. ‘Amr b. Zur'a in the morning
And Shaqq’s people met a day of gloom.

They trailed their cloaks 2 in their plains
And left only hens cackling among the trees. 3
Every fort had a man of 'Abdu’l-Ashhal or B. al-Najjar
Busy with their horses,

And Emigrants who had displayed their badges
Above their helms, never thinking of flight.

I knew that Muhammad would conquer
And would stay there many Safars.

1 Sura 20. 14.

3 r 5 reading ‘They made the cocks run’ may be right.

518 The Life of Muhammad

The Jews in the fighting that day
Opened their eyes in the dust (764). 1

Some Muslim women were with the apostle at Khaybar, and the apostle
allowed them a small portion of the booty. He did not give them a definite
share.

768 Sulayman b. Suhaym told me from Umayya b. Abu’l-Salt from a
woman of B. Ghifar whom he named to me: She said, ‘I came to the
apostle with some women of B. Ghifar and we told the apostle, as he was
going to Khaybar, that we wanted to go with him where he went, to tend
the wounded and to help the Muslims as far as we could. He told us to go
with God’s blessing, and so we went with him. I was a young girl and the
apostle took me on the back of his saddle. When the apostle dismounted
for morning prayer and I got off the back of his saddle, lo, some of my
blood w r as on it. It was the first time that this had happened to me. I
rushed to the camel in my shame. When the apostle saw my distress and
the blood he guessed the reason and told me to cleanse myself; then to take
water and put some salt in it, and then to wash the back of the saddle and
go back to my mount.’

She added: ‘When the apostle conquered Khaybar he gave us a small
part of the booty. He took this necklace which you see on my neck and
gave it to me and hung it round my neck with his own hand, and by God it
will never leave me.’ It was on her neck until she died when she gave
instructions that it was to be buried with her. She never cleansed herself
but she put salt in the purifying water, and gave instructions that it should
be put in the water with which she was w^ashed when she was dead.

The names of the Muslims who met martyrdom at Khaybar are: of

769 Quraysh of the clan of B. Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams of their allies: Rabl'a b.
Aktham b. Sakhbara b. 'Arar, and Rifa'a b. 'Amir b. Ghanm b. Dudan b.
Asad, and Thaqif b. 'Amr and Rifa'a b. Masruh. Of B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-
'Uzza: 'Abdullah b. al Hubayb (765). Of the Ansar of B. Salima: Bishr b.
al-Bara’ b. Ma'rur who died of the mutton with which the apostle was
poisoned, and Fudayl b. al-Nu'man, 2 men. Of B. Zurayq: Mas'ud b. Sa'd
b. Qays b. Khalada b. 'Amir b. Zurayq. Of Aus of B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal:
Mahmud b. Maslama b. Khalid b. 'Ad!y b. Majda'a b. Haritha b. al-
Harith, an ally of theirs from B. Haritha. Of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf: Abu Dayyah
b. Thabit b. al-Nu'man b. Umayya b. Imru’ul-Qays b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b.
‘Auf; al-Harith b. Hapb; 'Urwa b. Murra b. Suraqa; Aus b. al-Qa’id;
Unayf b. Habib; Thabit b. Athla, and Talha. Of B. Ghifar: 'Umara b.
'Uqba, shot by an arrow. Of Aslam: 'Amir b. al-Akwa', and al-Aswad the
shepherd whose name was Aslam (766).

Of those who found martyrdom at Khaybar according to what Ibn
Shihab al-Zuhri said was Mas'ud b. Rabl'a, an ally of B. Zuhra from al-
Qara; and from the Ansar of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf, Aus b. Qatada.

1 The glassy eyes of the dead are meant. The reading *amd 'ima l-anfdr with farra t
understood as ‘fled’ seems much inferior.

The Life of Muhammad 519

THE AFFAIR OF AL-ASWAD THE SHEPHERD
According to what I have heard al-Aswad came to the apostle with his
flock of sheep as he was besieging Khaybar. He was the hired servant of a
Jew there. He asked the apostle to explain Islam to him, and when he did
so he accepted it, for the apostle never thought too little of anyone to invite
him to accept Islam. Having become a Muslim he told the apostle that he
was the hired servant of the owner of the sheep which were entrusted to
his care, and what was he to do with them ? He told him to hit them in the
face and they w'ould go back to their owner. So al-Aswad got up and took 770
a handful of pebbles and threw them in their faces, saying, ‘Go back to
your master, for I will look after you no more.’ They went off in a body as
though someone were driving them, until they went into the fort. After¬
wards he advanced to the fort with the Muslims and was struck by a stone
and killed, never having prayed a single prayer. He was brought to the
apostle and laid behind him and covered by his shepherd’s cloak. The
apostle, who was accompanied by a number of his companions, turned
towards him and then turned away. When they asked him why, he said,

‘He has with him now his two wives from the dark-eyed houris.’

'Abdullah b. Abu Najlh told me that he was told that, when a martyr is
slain, his two wives from the dark-eyed houris pet him, wiping the dust from
his face, saying the while, ‘May God put dust on the face of the man who
put dust on your face, and slay him who slew you!’

THE AFFAIR OF AL-HAJJAJ B. 'ilA? AL-SULAMl

When Kaybar had been conquered al-Hajjaj b. 'Hat al-Sulami of the clan
al-Bahz said to the apostle, ‘I have money with my wife Umm Shayba d.

Abu Talha—when they had lived together he had a son called Mu'rid by
her—and money scattered among the Meccan merchants, so give me per¬
mission to go and get it.’ Having got his permission he said, ‘I must tell
lies, O apostle.’ He said, ‘Tell them.’ ‘Al-Hajjaj said, ‘When I came to
Mecca I found in the pass of al-Bayda’ 1 some men of Quraysh trying to get
news and asking how the apostle fared because they had heard that he had
gone to Khaybar. They knew that it was the principal town of the Hijaz
in fertility, fortifications, and population, and they were searching for news
and interrogating passing riders. They did not know that I was a Muslim
and when they saw me they said, “It is al-Hajjaj b. Tlat. He is sure to
have news. Tell us, O Abu Muhammad, for we have heard that the high¬
wayman has gone to Khaybar which is the town of the Jews and the garden
of the Hijaz.” I said, “I have heard that and I have some news that will
please you.” They came up eagerly on either side of my camel, saying,

“Out with it, Hajjaj!” I said, “He has suffered a defeat such as you have 771
never heard of and his companions have been slaughtered; you have never
heard the like, and Muhammad has been captured.” The men of Khaybar
1 The pass of ai-Tan'lm in Mecca.

520 The Life of Muhammad

said, “We will not kill him until we send him to the Meccans and let them
kill him among themselves in revenge for their men whom he has killed.”
They got up and shouted in Mecca, “Here’s news for you! You have only
to wait for this fellow Muhammad to be sent to you to be killed in your
midst.” I said, “Help me to collect my money in Mecca and to get in the
money owed to me, for I want to go to Khaybar to get hold of the fugitives
from Muhammad and his companions 1 before the merchants get there”
(767). They got up and collected my money for me quicker than I could
have supposed possible. I went to my wife and asked her for the money
which she had by her, telling her that I should probably go to Khaybar
and seize the opportunity to buy before the merchants got there first.
When 'Abbas heard the news and heard about me he came and stood at
my side as I was in one of the merchants’ tents, asking about the new r s
which I had brought. I asked him if he could keep a secret if I entrusted it
to him. He said he could, anti I said, “Then wait until I can meet you
T 1587 privately, for I am collecting my money as you see, so leave me (T. and he
left me) until I have finished”; and so, when I had collected everything I
had in Mecca and decided to leave, I met 'Abbas and said, “Keep my story
secret for three nights, then say what you- will for I am afraid of being pur¬
sued.” When he said that he would, I said, “I left your brother’s son
married to the daughter of their king, meaning Saftya, and Khaybar has
been conquered and all that is in it removed and become the property of
Muhammad and his companions.” He said, “What are you saying, Haj-
jaj ?” I said, “Yes, by Allah, but keep my secret. I have become a Muslim
and have come only to get my money fearing that I may be deprived of it.
When three nights have passed publish the news as you will.” When the
third day came 'Abbas put on a robe of his and scented himself and took
77 * his stick, and went to the Ka'ba and went round it. When the people
saw him they said, “O Abu’l-Fadl, this is indeed steadfastness in a great
misfortune!” He answered, “By no means, by Allah by whom you swear,
Muhammad has conquered Khaybar and was left married to the daughter
of their king. He has seized all that they possess and it is now his property
and the property of his companions.” They asked, “Who brought you
this news ?” He said, “The man who brought you your news. He came in
to you as a Muslim and has taken his money and gone off to join Muham¬
mad and his companions and to be with him.” They said “O men of Allah,
the enemy of Allah has escaped. Had we known we would have dealt with
him.” Almost at once the true news reached them.’

Among the verses about the day of Khaybar are the following from
Hassan b. Thabit:

How badly the Khaybarls fought

To preserve their crops and dates!

1 The word fall, for which I.H. quotes the variant fay', ‘spoil’, may possibly mean the
tame thing: more often it means a defeated force. Perhaps we could render ‘to get some
advantage from the defeat of Muhammad and his companions’.

The Life of Muhammad 521

They disliked the thought of death and so their preserve became a

spoil

And they behaved like miserable cowards.

Would they flee from death ?

The death of the starved is not seemly.

Hassan also said, excusing Ay man b. Umm Ayman b. 'Ubayd who had
stayed behind from Khaybar (he was of B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj. His
mother Umm Ayman was a freed slave of the apostle, the mother of Usama
b. Zayd who was thus brother to Ayman by his mother):

At the time when Ayman’s mother said to him

You are a coward and were not with the horsemen of Khaybar

Ayman was no coward, but his horse

Was sick from drinking fermented barley-water.

Had it not been for the state of his horse

He would have fought with them as a horseman with his right hand.

What stopped him was the behaviour of his horse

And what had happened to it seemed to him more serious (768).

Najiya b. Jundub al-Aslaml said:

O servants of Allah, why do you prize 773

What is nothing but food and drink
When Paradise has amazing joy ?

He also said:

I am Ibn Jundub to one who does not know me.

How many an adversary when I charged turned aside.

He perished in the feeding-place of vultures and jackals (769).

THE ACCOUNT OF THE DIVISION OF THE SPOIL OF
KHAYBAR

When the spoil of Khaybar was divided, al-Shaqq and Nata fell to the
Muslims while al-Katlba was divided into five sections: God’s fifth; the
prophet’s share (T. fifth); the share of kindred, orphans, the poor (T. and T- 158
wayfarers); maintenance of the prophet’s wives; and maintenance of the
men who acted as intermediaries in the peace negotiations with the men of
Fadak. To Muhayyisa, who was one of these men, the apostle gave thirty 774
loads of barley and thirty loads of dates. Khaybar was apportioned among
the men of al-Hudaybiya without regard to whether they w r ere present at
Khaybar or not. Only Jabir b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. Haram was absent
and the apostle gave him the same share as the others. Its two wadis, al-
Surayr and Khass, formed the territory into which Khaybar w r as divided.

Nata and al-Shaqq formed 18 shares of which Nata formed 5 and al-Shaqq
13. These two places w f ere divided into 1,800 shares.

5 22 The Life of Muhammad

The number of the companions among whom Khaybar was divided was
1,800 with shares for horse and foot; 1,400 men and 200 horses; every
horse got two shares and his rider one; every footman got one share. There
was a chief over every allotment for every too men, i.e. 18 blocks of shares

( 77 °)-

The chiefs were 'All; al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam; Talha b. 'Ubaydullah;
'Umar; 'Abdu’l-Rahman; 'Asim b. 'Adiy; Usayd b. Hudayr. Then the
share of al-Harith b. al-Khazraj; then the share in Na'im; then the share of
B. Bayada, B. 'Ubayd, B. Haram of B. Salima, and 'Ubayd ‘of the shares’
( 77 1 ), Saida, Ghifar and Aslam, al-Najjar, Haritha, and Aus.

The first lot in Nata fell to al-Zubayr, namely al-Khau', and al-Surayr
775 followed it; the second to B. Bayada; the third to Usayd; the fourth to
B. al-Harith; the fifth in Na'im to B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj and Muzayna
and their partners. In it Mahmud b. Maslama was killed. So much for
Nata.

Then they went down to al-Shaqq: the first lot fell to 'Asim b. 'Adiy
brother of B. al-'Ajlan and with it the apostle’s share; then the shares of
Abdu 1 -Rahman, Sa ida, al-Najjar, 'All, Talha, Ghifar and Aslam, 'Umar,
Salama b. 'Ubayd and B. Haram, Haritha, 'Ubayd ‘of the shares’; then the
share of Aus which was the share of al-Laflf to which Juhayna and the rest
of the Arabs who were at Khaybar was joined; opposite it was the apostle’s
share which he got with 'Asim’s share. 1

Then the apostle distributed al-Katlba which is Wadi Khass between
his kindred and wives and to other men and women. He gave his daughter
Fatima 200 loads; 'Ali 100; Usama b. Zayd 200 and 50 loads of dates;
A isha 200; Abu Bakr 100; Aqll b. Abu Talib 140; B. Ja'far 30; Rabi'a b.
al-Harith 100; al-Salt b. Makhrama and his tw T o sons 100, 40 of them for
al-Salt himself; Abu Nabiqa 50; Rukana b. 'Abdu Yazid 50; Qays b.
Makhrama 30; his brother Abu’l-Qasim 40; the daughters of 'Ubayda b.
al-Harith and the daughter of al-Husayn b. al-Harith 100; B. 'Ubayd b.
'Abdu Yazid 60; Ibn Aus b. Makhrama 30; Mistah b. Uthatha and Ibn
Ilyas 50; Umm Rumaytha 40; Nu'aym b. Hind 30; Buhayna d. al-Harith
30; 'Ujayr b. 'Abdu Yazid 30; Umm Hakim d. al-Zubayr b. 'Abdu’l-
776 Muttalib 30; Jumana d. Abu Talib 30; I. al-Arqam 50; 'Abdu’l-Rahman
b. Abu Bakr 40; Hamna d. Jahsh 30; Ummu’l-Zubayr 40; Duba'a d. al-
Zubayr 40; I. Abu Khunaysh 30; Umm Talib 40; Abu Basra 20; Numayla
al-Kalbi 50; Abdullah b. Wahb and his two daughters 90 of which 40 were

1 This complicated and unsystematic account can be understood thus: the 18,000 shares
were divided into 18 which were allotted

(a) to the chief distributors, viz. 'All, al-Zubayr, Talha, 'Umar, 'Abdu’l-Rahman,

'Asim and Usayd . . . , . 4 _

(b) to tribal ‘shareholders’, viz. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj, B. Bayada, B. 'Ubayd, B.

Haram, B. Sa ida, B. Uhifar and Aslam, B. al-Najjar, B, Haritha, B. Aus, and
other elements o

(c) By the name of the property itself, Na'im ....... 1

(d) By the name of the owner Ubayd, who bought up the shares . . . t

Total 18

The Life of Muhammad 523

for his two sons; Umm Habib d. Jahsh 30; Malku 1 b. 'Abda 30; and to his
own wives 700 (772).

In the Name of Allah the Compassionate the Merciful. A memorandum
of what Muhammad the apostle of Allah gave his wives from the wheat of
Khaybar. He distributed to them 180 loads. He gave his daughter Fatima
85, Usama b. Zayd 40, al-Miqdad b. al-Aswad 15, Umm Rumaytha 5.
'Uthman b. 'Affan was witness and 'Abbas wrote the document.

Salih b. Kaysan told me from Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from 'Ubaydullah b.
'Abdullah b. 'Utba b. Mas'ud: The only dispositions that the apostle made
at his death were three: He bequeathed to the Rahawis land which pro¬
duced a hundred loads in Khaybar, to the Dariyls, the Saba’is, and the
Ash'aris the same. He also gave instructions that the mission of Usama b.
Zayd b. Haritha should be carried through 2 and that two religions should
not be allowed to remain in the peninsula of the Arabs.

THE AFFAIR OF FADAK

When the apostle had finished with Khaybar, God struck terror to the
hearts of the men of Fadak when they heard what the apostle had done to
the men of Khaybar. They sent to him an offer of peace on condition that
they should keep half of their produce. Their messengers came to him in
Khaybar or on the road 3 or after he came to Medina, and he accepted their
terms. Thus Fadak became his private property, because it had not been 777
attacked by horse or camel. 4

THE NAMES OF THE DARIYUN

They were B. al-Dar b. Hani’ b. Habib b. Numara b. Lakhm who had
come to the’ apostle from Syria, namely, Tamim b. Aus and Nu'aym his
brother, Yazid b. Qays, and 'Arafa b. Malik whom the apostle named
'Abdu’l-Rahman (773), and his brother Murran b. Malik, and Fakih b.
Nu'man, Jabala b. Malik, and Abu Hind b. Barr and his brother al-Tayyib
whom the apostle named 'Abdullah.

According to what 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me the apostle used to
send to Khaybar 'Abdullah b. Rawaha to act as assessor between the Mus¬
lims and the Jews. When he made his assessment they would say, ‘You
have wronged us,’ and he would say, ‘If you wish it is yours and if you like
it is ours,’ and the Jews would say, ‘On this (foundation) Heaven and earth
stand. s But 'Abdullah acted as assessor for one year only before he was

1 Proper names with final icaw written out instead of nunation are common in Nabataean
and Palmyrene inscriptions, but are rarely met with in classical Arabic.

2 The reading of W. tanfil should be corrected to tanfidh with C. See Mus 5 b. 'Uqba,

Nos. 13 and 14.

3 The reading of W. bil-Taif should be corrected to bil-fariq with MSS. and T-

4 Cf. Sura 7. 66 and supra, p. 764 of W.’s text.

5 This is a characteristically Jewish expression and if one compares the Arabic bihddha

5 2 4 The Life of Muhammad

killed at Mu’ta. After him Jabbar b. Sakhr b. Umayya b. Khansa’ brother
of B. Salima took over the work. All went well and the Muslims found no
fault in their behaviour until they attacked 'Abdullah b. Sahl brother of B.
Haritha and killed him in violation of their agreement with the apostle,
and the apostle and the Muslims suspected them on that account.

Al-Zuhrl and Bushayr b. Yasar told me from Sahl b. Abu Hathma:
Abdullah b. Sahl was killed in Khaybar. He had gone there with friends
of his to take away the dates and was found in a pool with his neck broken,
having been thrown there. So they took him and buried him and then
778 came to the apostle and told him about the affair. His brother 'Abdu’l-
Rahman came to him accompanied by his two cousins Huwayyisa and
Muhayyisa the sons of Mas'ud. Now 'Abdu’l-Rahman was the youngest of
them and the avenger of blood and a prominent man among his people and
when he spoke before his two cousins the apostle said, ‘The eldest first, the
eldest first 1 ( 774 ) became silent. The two cousins then spoke and he

spoke after them. They told the apostle of the killing of their relative and
he said, ‘Can you name the killer, then swear fifty oaths against him that
we should deliver him up to you ?’ They said that they could not swear to
what they did not know. He said, ‘If they swear fifty oaths that they did
not kill him and do not know the slayer, will they be free from the guilt of
his blood ?’ They answered, ‘We cannot accept the oaths of Jews. Their
infidelity is so great that they would swear falsely/ The apostle paid the
bloodwit of a hundred she-camels from his own property. Sahl said, 1 ‘By
Allah, I shall not forget a young red camel who kicked me as I was leading
her/

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Taymi told me from 'Abdu’l-
Rahman b. Bujayd b. Qayzl brother of B. Haritha. Muhammad b, Ibrahim
said: By God, Sahl did not know more than he, but he w'as the elder. He
said to him, ‘By Allah, the affair was not thus but Sahl misunderstood. The
apostle did not say “Swear to something you have no knowledge of,” but
he wrote to the Jews of Khaybar when the Ansar spoke to him: “A dead
man has been found among your dwellings. Pay his bloodwit.” The Jews
wrote back swearing by Allah that they had not killed him and did not
know who had, so the apostle paid the blood-money/

Amr b. Shu'ayb told me the same story as 'Abdu’l-Rahman except that
he said, Pay the blood-money or be prepared for war/

779 I asked Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl, 2 ‘How was it that the apostle gave the Jews
of Khaybar their palms when he gave them on a tax basis ? Did he assign
that to them until he was taken or did he give them them for some other
necessary reason?* He told me that the apostle took Khaybar by force

qdmat . . . al-ar 4 with Pirqe Abhoth j. 19 ‘on three things the world stands (qaim) : on
justice, truth, and peace' one can hardly doubt that 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr has preserved
an accurate account of what took place.

I ® ahl *? the transmitter of the story. The avenger of blood was 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Sahl.

_ This incident is reported by al-Baladburi from I,I. via al-Bakka 1 ! in an abbreviated
iorm. There is no significant difference*

The Life of Muhammad 525

after fighting and Khaybar was part of what God gave to him as booty.
The apostle divided it into five parts and distributed it among the Muslims,
and after the fighting the population surrendered on condition that they
should migrate. The apostle called them and said that if they wished he
would let them have the property on condition that they worked it and the
produce was equally divided between both parties and he would leave them
there as long as God let them stay. They accepted the terms and used to
work the property on those conditions. The apostle used to send ‘Abdullah
b. Rawaha and he would divide the produce and make a just assessment.
When God took away His prophet, Abu Bakr continued the arrangement
until his death, and so did Umar for the beginning of his amlrate. Then
he heard that the apostle had said in his last illness, ‘Two religions shall not
remain together in the peninsula of the Arabs* and he made inquiries until
he got confirmation. Then he sent to the Jews saying, ‘God has given
permission for you to emigrate,’ quoting the apostle’s words. ‘If anyone
has an agreement with the apostle let him bring it to me and I will carry it
out; he who has no such agreement let him get ready to emigrate.’ Thus
‘Umar expelled those who had no agreement with the apostle.

Nafi‘ client of ‘Abdullah b. 'Umar told me from ‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar:
With al-Zubayr and al-Miqdad b. al-Aswad I went out to our property in
Khaybar to inspect it, and when we got there we separated to see to our
individual affairs. In the night I was attacked as I was asleep on my bed
and my arms were dislocated at the elbows. In the morning I called my
companions to my aid and when they came and asked me who had done
this I had to say that I did not know. They reset my arms and then took
me to 'Umar who said, ‘This is the work of the Jews.’ Then he got up
and addressed those present saying that the apostle had arranged with the
Jews of Khaybar that we could expel them if we wished; that they had
attacked Abdullah b. Umar and dislocated his arms, as they had heard,
in addition to their attack on the Ansar! previously. There was no doubt
that they were the authors of these outrages because there was no other
enemy on the spot. Therefore if anyone had property in Khaybar he
should go to it, for he was on the point of expelling the Jews. And he did
expel them.

Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me from Abdullah b. Mhknaf brother of B.
Haritha: When 'Umar expelled the Jews from Khaybar he rode with the
Muhajirln and Ansar and Jabbar b. Sakhr b, Umayya b. Khansa’ brother
of B. Salima who was the assessor and accountant of the Medinans and
Yazld b. Thabit; and these two divided Khaybar among its owners accord¬
ing to the original agreement of the lots.

'Umar divided Wadi’l-Qura into shares: 1 one each to 'Uthman, 'Abdu’l-

1 Khapftr. I.H. (note 777) says that the word means ‘share*. My colleague, Dr. R. B
Sergeant, Le Must on, lxvi, 1953, p . I3 o, writes of the Hadramaut: ‘The main bund or
channel leading the flood water from the wadi to the fields is called khatar (pi. khutur), a
word known to Ibn HishSm, Sira , p. 780.’ If 1 . 1 , meant ‘irrigation channel’, as is very

526 The Life of Muhammad

Rahman, 'Amr b. Abu Salama, 'Amir b. Abu Rabl'a, 'Amr b. Suraqa,
Ushaym (775), Mu'ayqib and Abdullah b. al-Arqam; two shares each to
'Abdullah and 'Ubaydullah; one share each to the son of Abdullah b.
Jahsh, Ibnu’I-Bukayr, Mu'tamir, Zayd b. Thabit, Ubayy b. Ka'b, Mu'adh
b. 'Afra Abu Talha and Hasan, Jabbar b. Sakhr, Jabir b. 'Abdullah b.
Ri’ab, Malik b. Sa'sa'a, Jabir b. ‘Abdullah b. 'Amr, the son of Hudayr,
the son of Sa'd b. Mu'adh, Salama b. Salama, 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Thabit,

781 Abu Shank, Abu 'Abs b. Jabr, Muhammad b. Maslama and 'Ubada b.
Tariq (776); half a share each to Jabr b. 'Atik and the two sons of al-Harith
b. Qays; one share to Ibn Hazama. Such is our information about the
allocation of Khaybar and Wadi’I-Qura (777).

THE RETURN OF THOSE WHO HAD MIGRATED TO
ABYSSINIA (778)

These are the names of the prophet’s companions who stayed in Abyssinia
until he sent 'Amr b. Umayya al-j)amrl to the Negus to fetch them back in
two boats and who ultimately rejoined him in Khaybar after al-Hudaybiya:

From B. Hashim: Ja'far b. Abu Talib with his wife Asma’d. 'Umays; 1
and his son 'Abdullah who was born to him in Abyssinia. Ja'far was killed
at Mu’ta in Syria when acting as the apostle’s amir. 1 man.

From B. 'Abdu Shams: Khalid b. Sa'Id b. al-'As b. Umayya with his
wife Umayna d. Khalaf b. As'ad (779); his two children Sa'Id and Ama
begotten in Abyssinia (Khalid was killed at Marj al-Suffar 2 in the caliphate
of Abu Bakr); his brother 'Amr whose wife, Fatima d. Safwan b. Umayya

782 b. Muharrith al-Kinanl, died in Abyssinia ('Amr was killed at Ajnadayn in
Syria during the caliphate of Abu Bakr).

With reference to 'Amr b. Sa'Id his father Sa'Id b. al-'As b. Umayya
Abu Uhayha said:

O 'Amr, I wish that I knew about you whether
When you carry arms when your arms have grown strong
Will you leave your people’s affairs in such disorder
As will disclose the rage they retain in their breasts?

With reference to 'Amr and Khalid, their brother Aban said when the
former had become Muslims, and their father Sa'Id had died in al-Zurayba
in the region of Ta’if:

Would that a dead man in Zurayba could see

What 'Amr and Khalid are falsely introducing into religion!

probable, then the channels would mark out the limits of each man’s property or ‘share’. It
is difficult to escape the conclusion that such an unusual word was used in a technical sense.
It is not astonishing that a word of external origin should be used in this context because the
Arabs of the Hijaz in this epoch looked down on agriculture, and most of the terms they
used were borrow r ed from their neighbours.

1 The genealogies I have drastically shortened. Full details have already been given.

• A place in Damascus.

The Life of Muhammad 527

They obeyed the commands of women concerning us
And assisted the very enemies we were fighting.

Khalid answered him and said:

I do not insult my brother’s honour since he is my brother

Though he does not refrain from evil words.

When affairs went ill with him he said,

‘Would that a man dead in Zurayba would rise from the grave!’

Leave the dead in peace, for he has gone his way,

And deal with the man at hand who has more need of you.

And Mu'ayqib b. Abu Fatima w r ho became 'Umar’s guardian of the
public purse; he belonged to the family of Sa'Id b. al-'As; and Abu Musa
al-Ash'arl 'Abdullah b. Qays, an ally of the family of 'Utba b. Rabl'a b.
'Abdu Shams. 4.

From B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza: Al-Aswad b. Naufal. 1.

From B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: Jahm b. Qays with his t^o sons 'Amr and
Khuzayma. His wife Umm Harmala d. 'Abdu’l-Aswad (she died in
Abyssinia) with her two children. 1.

From B. Zuhra b. Kilab: 'Amirb. Abu Waqqas and 'Utba b. Mas'ud an
ally of theirs from Hudhayl. 2.

From B. Taym b. Murra: Al-Harith b. Khalid whose wife Rayta d. al- 783
Harith b. Jubayla died in Abyssinia 1.

From B. Jumah b. 'Amr: 'Uthman b. Rabl'a b. Uhban. 1.

From B. Sahm b. 'Amr: Mahmlya b. al Jaz an ally of theirs from B.
Zubayd. The apostle put him in charge of the fifths of the Muslims. 1.

From B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: Ma'mar b. 'Abdullah. 1.

From B. 'Amir: Abu Hatib b. 'Amr; Malik b. Rabl'a with his wife
'Amra d. al-Sa'dl b. Waqdan. 2.

From B. al-Harith b. Fihr: Al-Harith b. 'Abdu Qays. 1.

The widows of those who had died in Abyssinia were also brought in the
two boats.

The total number of the men whom the Negus sent in the two boats
with 'Amr b. Umayya was 16.

Of those who migrated to Abyssinia and did not return until after Badr
and the Negus did not send in the two boats to the apostle; and those who
came afterwards and those who died in Abyssinia were:

From B. Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams: 'Ubaydullah b. Jahsh, an ally from
Asad of Khuzayma w T ith his wife Umm Hablba d. Abu Sufyan and his
daughter Hablba from whom Abu Sufyan’s daughter got her kunya , her
own name being Ramla. 'Ubaydullah had migrated with the Muslims,
but when he got to Abyssinia he turned Christian and died there as such
having abandoned IsHm. The apostle afterwards married his wife.

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr from 'Urwa told me about Ubay- 784
dullah’s turning Christian and said: When he passed by the apostle’s
companions he used to say, ‘Our eyes are opened but yours veiled,’ i.e.

528 The Life of Muhammad

We can see clearly but you are only trying to see: you can’t yet see clearly,
the metaphor being taken from a puppy who tries to open its eyes and
flutters them before he can do so, i.e. We have opened our eyes and we see,
but you have not opened your eyes to see though you are trying to do so.

And Qays b. 'Abdullah of B. Asad b. Khuzayma who was father of
Umayya d. Qays w r ho was with Umm Habiba, and his wife Baraka d.
Yasar, the freed slave of Abu Sufyan. They were the two foster-mothers
of 'Ubaydullah b. Jahsh and Umm Habiba d. Abu Sufyan. They took
them with them when he migrated to Abyssinia. 2 men.

From B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza: Yazld b. Zama'a who was killed a
martyr with the apostle at Hunayn; and 'Amr b. Umayya b. al-Harith who
died in Abyssinia. 2 men.

From B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: Abu’l-Rum b. 'Umayr and Firas b. al-Nadr. 2.

From B. Zuhra b. Kilab: Al-Muttalib b. Azhar with his wife Ramla d.
Abu 'Auf b. Qubayra who died in Abyssinia. She bare him there 'Abdullah
b. al-Muttalib. It was said that he was the first man in Islam to inherit his
father’s property. 1.

From B. Taym b. Murra: 'Amr b. 'Uthman who was killed at Qadisiya
with Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas. 1.

From B, Makhzum b. Yaqaza: Habbar b. Sufyan b. 'Abdu’l-Asad killed
at Ajnadayn in Abu Bakr’s caliphate; and his brother 'Abdullah killed in

785 the year of al-Yarmuk in 'Umar’s caliphate. (There is doubt as to whether
he w 7 as killed there or not); and Hisham b. Abu Hudhayfa. 3.

From B. Jumah b. 'Amr: Hatib b. al-Harith and his two sons Muham¬
mad and al-Harith with his wife Fatima d. al-Mujallal. Hatib died in
Abyssinia as a Muslim and his wife and his two sons came in one of the
boats; and his brother Hattab with his wife Fukayha d. Yasar. He died
there as a Muslim and his wife Fukayha came in one of the boats; and
Sufyan b. Ma'tnar b. Habib and his two sons Junada and Jabir with their
mother Hasana, and their half-brother by their mother Shurahbll b.
Hasana. Sufyan and his two sons Junada and Jabir died in the caliphate of
'Umar. 6.

From B. Sahm b. 'Amr: 'Abdullah b. al-Harith who died in Abyssinia;
and Qays b. Hudhafa; and Abu Qays b. al-Harith who was killed at al-
Yamama in the caliphate of Abu Bakr; and 'Abdullah b. Hudhafa who was
the apostle’s envoy to Chosroes; and al-Harith b. al-Harith b. Qays; and
Ma'rnar b. al-Harith; and Bishr b. al-Harith and a son of his mother from
B. Tamlm called Sa'id b. 'Amr who was killed at Ajnadayn in the cali¬
phate of Abu Bakr; and Sa'id b. al-Harith who was killed in the year of
al-Yarmuk in the caliphate of 'Umar; and al-Sa'ib b. al-Harith who was
wounded at al-Ta’if with the apostle and killed in the battle of Fihl 1 in the
caliphate of 'Umar—others say in the fight at Khaybar; and 'Umayr b.
Ri’ab who was killed at 'Ayn al-Tamr with Khalid b. al-Walld when he

786 came from al-Yamama in the caliphate of Abu Bakr. 11 men.

1 In Syria. Cf. Yaq. 853.

The Life of Muhammad 529

From B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: 'Urwa b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza who died in Abyssinia;
and 'Adly b. Nadia who also died there, 2.

Adly had a son called al-Nu'man who returned with the Muslims. In
the caliphate of 'Umar he was put over Maysan in the district of Basra.

He composed some verses:

Hasn’t al-Hasna’ 1 heard that her husband in Maysan
Is drinking from glasses and jars ?

If I washed, the chief men of the city would sing to me
And dancing-girls pirouette on tiptoe.

If you’re my friend, give me a drink in the largest cup,

Don’t give me the smallest half broken!

Perhaps the commander of the faithful will take it amiss
That we’re drinking together in a tumbledown castle!

When 'Umar heard of these verses he said: ‘He’s right, by God, I do
take it amiss! Anyone who sees him can tell him that I have deposed him.’
After his deposition he came to 'Umar and pleaded that he had never
acted in the way that his verses implied, but that he was a poet who
wrote in their exaggerated way. 'Umar replied that as long as he lived he
would never act as his governor after having used such words.

From B. Amir b. Ghalib: Salit b. Amr who was the apostle’s envoy to
Haudha b. All al-Hanafl in al-Yamama. 1.

From B. al-Harith b. Fihr: 'Uthman b. 'Abdu Ghanm; and Sa'd b.
'Abdu Qays; and Tyad-b. Zuhayr. 3.

The total number of those who were not at Badr and did not come to the
apostle in Mecca, and those who came afterwards, and those whom the 787
Negus did not send in the two boats was 34 men.

The names of those who died in Abyssinia and their children were:

From B. Abdu Shams: Tbaydullah b. Jahsh who died a Christian.

From B. Asad b. Abdu’l-'Uzza: 'Amr b. Umayya b. al-Harith.

From B. Jumah; Hatib b. al-Harith and his brother Hattab.

From B. Sahm b. Amr: 'Abdullah b. al-Harith.

From B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: 'Urwa b. 'Abdu’I-' Uzza and 'Adly b. Nadia. 7 men.

Of their children. Musa b. al-Harith b. Khalid b. Sakhr b. 'Amir from
B. Taym b. Murra. 1 man.

The total number of women who migrated to Abyssinia, those who came
back and those who died there was 16 women besides their daughters
whom they bore there who came back and who died there and who went
along with them:

From Quraysh of B. Hashim: Ruqayya d. of the apostle.

From B. Umayya: Umm Habiba d. Abu Sufyan with her daughter
Habiba. She took her with her from Mecca and they returned together.

From B. Makhzum: Umm Salama d. Abu Umayya. She brought back
her daughter Zaynab whom she bore there.

1 Or ‘the beauty’.

M m

B 4080

530 The Life of Muhammad

From B. Taym b. Murra: Rayta d. al-Harith b. Jubayla who died on
the journey and her two daughters 'A’isha and Zaynab by al-Harith born
in Abyssinia. They all, together with their brother Musa b. al-Harith, died
on the journey from drinking foul water. Only her daughter Fatima, born
there, survived to return.

From B. Sahm b. 'Amr: Ramla d. Abu 'Auf b. Dubayra.

From B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: Layla d. Abu Hathma b. Ghanim.

From B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: Sauda d. Zama'a b. Qays; and Sahla d,

788 Suhayl b. 'Amr and his daughter al-Mujallal; and 'Amra d. al-Sa'dl b.
Waqdan; and Umm Kulthum d. Suhayl b. 'Amr.

From distant Arab tribes: Asma’d. 'Umays b. al-Nu'man al-Khath'amiya;
and Fatima d. Safwan b. Umayyab. Muharrith al-Kinaniya; and Fukayha
d. Yasar; and Baraka d. Yasar; and Hasana Umm Shurahbll b. Hasana.

These are the names of the children who were born to them in Abyssinia:

From B. Hashim: 'Abdullah b. Ja'far b. Abu Talib.

From B. 'Abdu Shams: Muhammad b. Abu Hudhayfa; and Sa'Id b.
Khalid b. Sa'Id and his sister Ama.

From B. Makhzum: Zaynab d. Abu Salama b. al-Asad.

From B. Zuhra: 'Abdullah b. al-Muttalib b. Azhar.

From B. Taym: Musa b. al-Harith b. Khalid and his sisters 'A’isha and
Fatima and Zaynab. 5 boys and 5 girls.

THE FULFILLED PILGRIMAGE, 1 A.H. J

When the apostle returned from Khaybar to Medina he stayed there from
the first Rabf until Shawwal, sending out raiding parties and expeditions.
Then in Dhu’I-Qa'da—the month in which the polytheists had prevented
him from pilgrimage—he went out to make the ‘fulfilled pilgrimage’ (780)
in place of the ’umra from which they had excluded him.

789 Those Muslims who had been excluded with him went out in A.H. 7, and
when the Meccans heard of it they got out of his way. Quraysh said among
themselves, ‘Muhammad and his companions are in destitution, want,
and privation.’

A man I have no reason to suspect told me that Ibn 'Abbas said: ‘They
gathered at the door of the assembly house to look at him and his com¬
panions, and when the apostle entered the mosque he threw the end of his
cloak over his left shoulder leaving his right upper arm free. Th^n he said:
“God have mercy on a man who shows them today that he is strong.”
Then he kissed 2 the stone, and w r ent out trotting 3 as did his companions
until when the temple concealed him from them and he had kissed 2 the
southern comer he walked to kiss 2 the black stone. Then he trotted 3 simi-

1 The 'umra which can be performed at any time during the year, not the hajj which
must include a visit to 'Arafat.

2 istalama means to embrace with outstretched arms; to stroke with the hand; and to kiss.

3 harwala, says Burton, Pilgrimage (London, 1919, 167), is ‘very similar to the French pas
gymnastique, or tarammul, that is to say, "moving the shoulders as if walking in sand'”

The Life of Muhammad 531

larly three circuits and walked the rest.’ Ibn 'Abbas used to say, ‘People
used to think that this practice w r as not incumbent on them because the
apostle only did it for this clan of Quraysh because of what he had heard
about them until when he made the farewell pilgrimage he adhered to it 1
and the sunna carried it on.’

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that when the apostle entered Mecca on
that pilgrimage 'Abdullah b. Rawaha w r as holding the halter of his camel
and saying:

Get out of his way, you unbelievers, make w'ay. 2
Every good thing goes with His apostle.

O Lord I believe in his word,

I know God’s truth in accepting it.

We will fight you about its interpretation 3
As we have fought you about its revelation
With strokes that will remove heads from shoulders
And make friend unmindful of friend (781).

Aban b. Salih and 'Abdullah b. Abu Najih from 'Ata* b. Abu Rabah and 790
Mujahid Abu’l-Hajjaj from Ibn 'Abbas told me that the apostle married
Maymunad. al-Harith in that journey of his when he was hardm. Al-'Abbas
b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib married him to her (782). 4

The apostle remained three days in Mecca. Hmvaytib b. 'Abdu’l-
'Uzza b. Abu Qays b. 'Abdu Wudd b. Nasr b. Malik b. Hisl w r ith a few
Quraysh came to him on the third day because Quraysh had entrusted him
with the duty of sending the apostle out of Mecca. They said: ‘Your time
is up, so get out from us.’ The apostle answered: ‘How would it harm you
if you were to let me stay and I gave a wedding feast among you and we
prepared food and you came too?’ They replied, ‘We don’t need your
food, so get out.’ So the apostle w r ent out and left Abu Rafi' his client in
charge of Mavmuna until he brought her to him in Sarif. 5 (T. The apostle
ordered them to change the (normal) sacrificial animal and did so himself.
Camels were hard to come by so he allowed them to offer oxen.) The
apostle consummated his marriage w r ith her there, and then w'ent on to
Medina in Dhu’l-Hijja (783).

THE RAID ON MU’TA IN A.H. 8 791

He remained there for the rest of Dhu’l-Hijja, w r hile the polytheists super¬
vised the pilgrimage, and throughout al-Muharram and Safar and the tw'o

1 Here, for falaximahd, T has faramalaha. See n. 3 above.

2 T- adds a spurious hemistich which destroys the balance of the poem.

3 I.H.’s comment is cogent. S. says the occasion of the poem was ijiffln: in other words it
belongs to Shi'ite polemic.

4 This is a tradition which is a bone of contention among Muslim lawyers. Of. J. Schacht,

The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, Oxford, 1950, p. E53.

5 A plact. near al-Tan'im.

532 The Life of Muhammad

Rabi's. In Jumada’l-tlla he sent to Syria his force which met with disaster
in Mu’ta.

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr said: The
apostle sent his expedition to Mu’ta in Jumada’l-Ola in the year 8 and put
Zayd b. Haritha in command; if Zayd were slain then Ja'far b. Abu Talib
was to take command, and if he were killed then 'Abdullah b. Rawaha.
The expedition got ready to the number of 3,000 and prepared to start.
When they were about to set off they bade farewell to the apostle’s chiefs
and saluted them. When 'Abdullah b. Rawaha took his leave of the chiefs
he wept and when they asked him the reason he said, ‘By God, it is not that
I love the world and am inordinately attached to you, but I heard the
apostle read a verse from God’s book in which he mentioned hell; “There
is not one of you but shall come to it; that is a determined decree of your
Lord,” 1 and I do not know how I can return after I have been to it.’ The
Muslims said, ‘ God be with you and protect you and bring you back to us
safe and sound.’ 'Abdullah said:

But I ask the Merciful’s pardon

And a wide open wound discharging blood,

Or a deadly lance-thrust from a zealous warrior
That will pierce the bowels and liver;

So that men will say when they pass my grave,

‘God guide him, fine raider that he was, he did well!’

79Z Then, when the people were about to start, 'Abdullah came to the apostle

to bid him farewell and said:

May God confirm the good things He gave you
As he confirmed them to Moses with victory. 2
I perceived goodness in you by a natural gift.

God knows that I can see deeply.

You are the apostle and he who is deprived of his gifts
And the sight of him has no real worth (784).

Then the people marched forth, the apostle accompanying them until he
said farewell and returned. 'Abdullah said:

May peace remain on the best companion and friend,

The man I said good-bye to amid the palms.

They went on their way as far as Ma'an in Syria where they heard that
Heraclius had come down to Ma’ab in the Balqa’ with 100,000 Greeks
joined by 100,000 men from Lakhm and Judham and al-Qayn and Bahra’
and Ball commanded by a man of Bali of Irasha called Malik b. Zafila.
When the Muslims heard this they spent two nights at Ma'an pondering
what to do. They were in favour of writing to the apostle to tell him of

1 Sura 19. 72.

• The dubious syntax and faulty rhyme in these lines is rightly corrected by I.H.

The Life of Muhammad 533

the enemy’s numbers; if he sent reinforcements well and good, otherwise
they would await his orders. 'Abdullah b. Rawaha encouraged the men
saying, ‘Men, what you dislike is that which you have come out in search
of, viz. martyrdom. We are not fighting the enemy with numbers, or
strength or multitude, but we are confronting (T. fighting) them with this
religion with which God has honoured us. So come on! Both prospects 793
are fine: victory or martyrdom.’ The men said, ‘By God, Ibn Rawaha is
right.’ So they went forward and 'Abdullah said concerning their holding
back:

We urged on our horses from Aja’ and Far', 1
Their bellies gorged with the grass they had eaten.

We gave them as shoes the smooth hard ground,

Its surface smooth as leather.

They stayed two nights at Ma'an;

After their rest they were full of spirit.

We went forward, our horses given free rein,

The hot wind blowing in their nostrils.

I swear that we will come to Ma’ab
Though Arabs and Greeks be there.

We arranged their bridles and they came furiously,

Their dust arose in streamers

With an army whose helmets as their points appeared
Seemed to shine like stars.

The woman who enjoys life our spears divorced.

She can remarry or remain a widow (785).

Then the army went forward, and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that
he was told that Zayd b. Arqam said: I was an orphan child of 'Abdullah
b. Rawaha and he took me with him on this expedition riding on the back
of his saddle, and as he journeyed by night I heard him reciting these
verses of his: 2

When you have brought me and carried my gear
A four nights’ journey from the swampy ground,

Then enjoy life and bear no blame

And may I never return to my people at home. (And when)

The Muslims have gone and left me
In Syria where I wish to be,

And a near relative of mine in God,

Though no blood relation, has brought you back,

There I shall not care for fruit that depends on rain
Or palms whose roots are watered by man.

I wept on hearing these words and he flicked me with his whip and said,

1 Two mountains of T a yyf-

2 He addresses his camel.

534 The Life of Muhammad

794 ‘Why worry, wretched fellow, if God grants me martyrdom and you return
firmly in the saddle?’ Then in one of his rajaz poems he said:

O Zayd, Zayd of the swift lean camels,

Long is the night you have been led, so dismount.

The people went forward until when they were on the borders of the
Balqa’ the Greek and Arab forces of Heraclius met them in a village called
Masharif. When the enemy approached, the Muslims withdrew to a village
called Mu’ta. There the forces met and the Muslims made their disposi¬
tions, putting over the right wing Qutba b. Qatada of the B. 'Udhra, and
over the left wing an Ansar! called 'Ubaya b. Malik (786).

When fighting began Zayd b. Haritha fought holding the apostle’s stan¬
dard, until he died from loss of blood among the spears of the enemy. Then
Ja'far took it and fought with it until when the battle hemmed him in he
jumped off his roan and hamstrung her and fought till he was killed. Ja'far
was the first man in Islam to hamstring his horse.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father who said,
‘My foster-father, who was of the B. Murra b. 'Auf, and was in the Mu’ta
raid said, “I seem to see Ja'far when he got off his sorrel and hamstrung
her and then fought until he was killed as he said:

Welcome Paradise so near,

Sweet and cool to drink its cheer.

Greeks will soon have much to fear

Infidels, of descent unclear

When we meet their necks I’ll shear.”’ (787)

795 Yahya b. 'Abbad on the same authority told me that when Ja'far was
killed 'Abdullah b. Rawaha took the standard and advanced with it riding
his horse. He had to put pressure on himself as he felt reluctant to go
forward. Then he said:

I swear, my soul, you shall come to the battle;

You shall fight or be made to fight.

Though men shout and scream aloud,

Why should you spurn Paradise ?

Long have you been at ease.

You are nothing but a drop in a worn-out skin!

He also said:

O soul, if you are not killed you will die.

This is the fate of death which you suffer. 1

You have been given what you hoped for.

If you do what those two did you will have been guided aright—
meaning his two companions Zayd and Ja'far. Then he dismounted and a

1 There is a play on the words here.

The Life of Muhammad 535

cousin of his came up with a meat bone, saying, ‘Strengthen yourself with
this, for you have met in these battles of yours difficult days.’ He took it
and ate a little. Then he heard the sounds of confusion in the force and
threw it away, saying, ‘And you are still living ?’ He seized his sword and
died fighting. Then Thabit b. Aqram took the standard. He was brother
of B. al-'Ajlan. He called on the Muslims to rally round one man, and
when they wanted to rally to him he demurred and they rallied to Khalid
b. al-Walld. When he took the standard he tried to keep the enemy off and
to avoid an engagement. 1 Then he retreated and the enemy turned aside
from him until he got away with the men.

According to what I have been told, when the army was smitten the 796
apostle said: ‘Zayd took the standard and fought with it until he was killed
as a martyr; then Ja'far took it and fought until he was killed as a martyr.’

Then he was silent until the faces of the Ansar fell and they thought that
something disastrous had happened to 'Abdullah b. Rawaha. Then he said:
“Abdullah took it and fought by it until he was killed as a martyr. I saw in
a vision that they were carried up to me in Paradise upon beds of gold. I
saw 'Abdullah’s bed turning away from the beds of the other two, and
when I asked why, I was told that they had gone on but he hesitated before
he went forward.’

(T. 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that when the news of Ja'far’s death T- 1617
reached the apostle he said, ‘Ja'far went by yesterday with a company of
angels making for Btsha in the Yaman. He had two wings whose fore¬
feathers were stained with blood.’)

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr from Umm 'Isa al-Khuza lya from Umm Ja'far
d. Muhammad b. Ja'far b. Abu Talib from her grandmother Asma’ d.

'Umays said: When Ja'far and his companions were killed, the apostle came
in to me when I had just tanned forty skins (788) and kneaded my dough
and washed and oiled and cleaned my children. He asked me to bring him
Ja'far’s sons and when I did so he smelt them and his eyes filled with tears.

I asked him whether he had heard bad news about Ja'far and his com¬
panions, and he said that he had and that they had been killed that day.

I got up and cried aloud and the women gathered to me. The apostle
went out to his family saying, ‘Do not neglect Ja'far’s family so as not to
provide them with food, for they are occupied with the disaster that has
happened to their head.’ 2

'Abdu’l-Rahman b. al-Qasim b. Muhammad told me from his father
from 'A’isha the prophet’s wife -who said: When news of Ja'far’s death
came we saw sorrow on the apostle’s face. A man w r ent to him and said,

‘The women trouble us and disturb us.’ He told him to go back and
quieten them. He w r ent but came back again saying the same words.

1 Some MSS. have ivakhdshd bihim ‘took precautions for their safety’, a reading which is
supported by 798. 10, and may well be right.

2 A reference to the practice of sending cooked food to a bereaved family to provide a
meal for the mourners and their visitors.

536 The Life of Muhammad

797 'A’isha here commented, ‘Meddling often injures the meddler.’ The
apostle said, ‘Go and tell them to be quiet, and if they refuse throw dust
in their mouths.’ 'A’isha added: ‘I said to myself, God curse you, for
you have neither spared yourself the indignity of a snub nor are you able
to do what the apostle said. I knew he could not throw dust in their
mouths.’

Qutba b. Qatada al-'Udhri who was over the right wing had attacked
Malik b. Zafila (T, leader of the mixed Arabs) and killed him, and said:

I pierced Ibn Zafila b. al-Irash with a spear
Which went through him and then broke.

I gave his neck a blow

So that he bent like a bough of mimosa.

We led off the wives of his cousins
On the day of Raquqayn as sheep (789).

A kahina of Hadas who heard about the advance of the apostle’s army
had said to her people who were a clan called B. Ghanm:

I warn you of a proud people
Who are hostile in their gaze.

They lead their horses in single file
And shed turgid blood.

They took heed to her words and separated themselves from Lakhm,
Afterwards Hadas remained a large and prosperous tribe. Those who
took part in the war that day, the B. Tha'Iaba a clan of Hadas, remained
insignificant. When Khalid went off with the men he took the homeward
road.

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr

798 that when they got near Medina the apostle and the Muslims met them
and the boys came running while the apostle came with the people on his
beast. He said, ‘Take the boys and carry them and give me Ja'far’s son.’
They gave him 'Abdullah and he took him and carried him in front of him.
The men began to throw dirt at the army, saying, ‘You runaways, you fled
in the way of God!’ The apostle said, ‘They are not runaways but come-
agains if God will.’

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me from 'Amir b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr
from one of the family of al-Harith b. Hisham who were his maternal
uncles, from Umm Salama the prophet’s wife who said to the wife of
Salama b. Hisham b. al-'As b. al-Mughira, ‘Why is it that I do not see
Salama at prayers "with the apostle with the rest of the Muslims?’ She
replied, ‘By God, he can’t go out. Whenever he goes out the men call out
“Runaway! You ran away when in the path of God!” until he has taken
to sitting in his house and not going out at all.’

Qays b. al-Musahhar al-Ya'muri composed the following verses in
which he made excuses for what he and the other men did that day and

The Life of Muhammad 537

shows how Khalid took precautions for their safety and got away with
them:

By God, I never cease to blame myself for stopping
When the horses were leaping forward 1 with bolting eyes.

I stopped there neither asking help nor acting decisively
Nor protecting those for whom death was decreed.

However, I did but imitate Khalid
And Khalid has no equal in the army.

My heart was moved for Ja'far in Mu’ta
When an arrow was no good to an archer.

And he linked up their two wings to us
Muhajirs not polytheists nor unarmed.

Thus Qays made clear in his verses the facts which people dispute, namely
that the army kept their distance and were afraid of death, and established
the fact that Khalid and his men avoided battle (790).

Among the lamentations over the apostle’s companions who died at 799
Mu’ta are the lines of Hassan b. Thabit:

A miserable night I had in Yathrib,

Anxiety that robbed me of sleep when others slept soundly.

At the thought of a friend my tears ran fast.

(Memory is oft the cause of weeping.

Nay, the loss of a friend is a calamity,

And how many a noble soul is afflicted and endures patiently.)

I saw the best of the believers follow one another to death,

Though some held back behind them. 2

May God receive the slain at Mu’ta who went one after another.

Among them Ja'far now borne on wings,

And Zayd and 'Abdullah when they too followed
When the cords of death were active
On the day they wenron with the believers,

The fortunate radiant one leading them to death.

Bright as the full moon—of Hashim’s sons,

Haughty against wrong, daringly bold,

He fought till he fell unpillowed

On the battlefield, a broken shaft in his body.

He has his reward with the martyrs,

Gardens and green spreading trees.

We saw in Ja'far a man loyal to Muhammad,

One who gave decisive orders.

May there ever be in Islam of Hashim’s line
Pillars of strength and an endless source of pride;

1 The readings vary: qaia leaping; naia lifting up their heads; qabi'a panting.

1 This is banal. The Diwan (xxi) 'for I had been kept back with those who were left
behind’ is better.

538

The Life of Muhammad

In Islam they are a mountain and the people round them
Are rocks piled up to a mount majestic and lofty.

Splendid leaders: of them Ja'far and his brother 'All
And of them Ahmad the chosen one.

And Hamza and al-'Abbas and 'Aqil
And the sap of the wood from which he was squeezed. 1
By them relief comes in every hard dusty fight
Whenever men are in a tight corner.

They are the friends of God Who sent down His wisdom to them
And among them is the purified bringer of the Book. 2

Ka'b b. Malik said:

Wfflile the eyes of others slept my eye shed tears
Like the dripping of a faulty water-skin.

800 In the night when sorrows came upon me

When I was not sobbing 3 I turned restlessly on my couch.

Grief came repeatedly and I passed the night
As though I had to shepherd Ursa and Pisces. 4
’Twas as though between my ribs and bowels
A burning piercing pain afflicted me,

Sorrowing for those who one after another
Were left lying that day in Mu’ta.

God bless them, the heroes,

And may plenteous rains refresh their bones!

They forced themselves for God’s sake
To ignore the fear of death and cowardly failure.

They went in front of the Muslims
Like stallion foals, clad in long mail
When they were led by Ja'far and his flag
In front of their leader, and what a fine leader.

Until the ranks were breached and Ja'far
Where the ranks were trapped lay prostrate.

The moon lost its radiance at his death,

The sun eclipsed and wellnigh dark.

A chief of high lineage from Hashim,

In lofty eminence and authority immovable,

A people by whom God protected His servants,

To them was sent down the revealed book.

They excelled other tribes in glory and honour

And their enlightened minds covered up the ignorance of others.

They would not embark on a vicious enterprise,

You could see their speaker deciding justly.

1 In popular language: a chip of the old block.

2 All this reads like Alide propaganda.

3 Or, reading ahinnu ‘yearning’ or ‘moaning’.

4 i.e. he watched the stars in their passage across the sky while others slept. A cliche.

539

The Life of Muhammad

Their faces welcomed, their hands gave freely
When days of famine would excuse parsimony.

God was pleased with their guidance of His creation,

And by their good fortune the apostolic prophet was victorious.

Hassan b. Thabit mourning Ja'far:

I wept, and the death of Ja'far the prophet’s friend
Was grievous to the whole world.

I was distressed, and when I heard of your death said,

Who is for fighting by the flag Hawk and its shadow
With swords drawn from scabbards
Striking and lances piercing again and again ?

Now Ja'far, Fatima’s blessed son, is dead, 801

The best of all creatures, most heavy is his loss,

Noblest of all in origin, and most powerful
When wronged, most submissive to right
When it was indubitably true;

Most open-handed, least in unseemliness;

Most lavish in generosity and kindness,

Always excepting Muhammad,

Whom no living being can equal.

Mourning Zayd b. Haritha and 'Abdullah b. Rawaha he said:

O eye, be generous with the last drop of thy tears
And remember in thy ease those in their graves.

Remember Mu’ta and what happened there
When they went to their defeat,

When they returned leaving Zayd there.

Happy be the abode of the poor one, imprisoned (in the grave), 1
The friend of the best of all creatures,

The lord of men whose love fills their breasts.

Ahmad who has no equal,

My sorrow and my joy are for him.

Zayd’s position with us

Was not that of a man deceived.

Be generous with thy tears for the Khazrajite, 2
He was a chief who gave freely there.

We have suffered enough by their death
And pass the night in joyless grief.

A Muslim poet who returned from Mu’ta said:

Enough cause for grief that I have returned while Ja'far
And Zayd and 'Abdullah are in the dust of the grave!

1 Or ‘That fair refuge of the poor and the captive’.

2 i.e. 'Abdullah b. Rawaha.

54 °

The Life of Muhammad

They met their end when they went their way
And I with the survivors am left to life’s sorrows.

Three men were sent forward and advanced
To death’s loathed pool of blood.

The names of those who died a martyr’s death at Mu’ta:

Of Quraysh: of the clan of B. Hashim, Ja'far and Zayd.

Of B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: Mas'ud b. al-Aswad b. Haritha b. Nadia.

802 Of B. Malik b. HisI: Wahb b. Sa'd b. Abu Sarh.

Of the Ansar: of the clan of B. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj, 'Abdullah b.
Rawaha and 'Abbad b. Qays.

Of B. Ghanam b. Malik b. al-Najjar, al-Harith b. Nu'man b. Usaf b.
Nadia b. 'Abd b. 'Auf b. Ghanam.

Of B. Mazin b. al-Najjar, Suraqa b. 'Amr b. 'Atlya b. Khansa’ (791).

THE CAUSES THAT LED TO THE OCCUPATION OF
MECCA, A.H. 8

After he had sent his force to Mu’ta the apostle stayed in Medina during
the latter Jumada and Rajab. Then the B. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana
attacked Khuza'a while they were at a well of theirs in the lower region of
Mecca called al-Watir. The cause of the quarrel was that a man of B.
al-Hadrami called Malik b. 'Abbad—the HadramI being at that time allies
of al-Aswad b. Razn—had gone out on a trading journey; and when he
reached the middle of the Khuza'a country they attacked and killed him
and took his possessions. So B. Bakr attacked a man of Khuza'a and killed
him; and just before Islam Khuza'a attacked the sons of al-Aswad b. Razn
al-Dill who were the most prominent chiefs of B. Kinana—Salma, Kul-
thum, and Dhu’ayb—and killed them in 'Arafa at the boundary stones of
the sacred area.

803 One of the B. al-Dil told me that B. al-Aswad during the pagan era were
paid double bloodwit because of their position among them, while they
only got a single bloodwit.

While B. Bakr and Khuza'a were thus at enmity Islam intervened and
occupied men’s minds. When the peace of Hudaybiya was concluded
between the apostle and Quraysh one of the conditions—according to what
al-Zuhrl told me from 'tJrwa b. al-Zubayr from al-Miswar b. Makhrama
and Marvvan b. al-Hakam and other traditionists—was that anyone who
wanted to enter into a treaty relationship with either party could do so; the
B. Bakr joined Quraysh and Khuza'a joined the apostle. When the armis¬
tice was established B. al-Dll of B. Bakr took advantage of it against
Khuza'a in their desire to revenge themselves on them for the sons of
Aswad whom they had killed. So Naufal b. Mu'awiya al-Dill, who was
their leader at the time, went out with the B. al-Dil, though all the B. Bakr
did not follow him, and attacked Khuza'a by night while they were at al-

The Life of Muhammad 541

Watir their well, killing one of their men. Both parties fell back and con¬
tinued the fight. Quraysh helped B. Bakr with weapons and some of them
fought with them secretly under cover of the night until they drove Khu¬
za'a into the sacred area. When they reached it the B. Bakr said, ‘O
Naufal, we are in the sacred area. Remember your God, remember your
God!’ He replied in blasphemous words that he had no god that day.
‘Take your revenge, ye sons of Bakr. By my life, if you used to steal in the
sacred area, won’t you take vengeance in it?’ Now on the night they
attacked .them in al-Watir they killed a man called Munabbih who had
gone out with one of his tribesmen called Tamlm b. Asad. Munabbih had
a weak heart and he told Tamlm to escape for he was as good as dead
whether they killed him or let him go, for his heart had given out. So
Tamlm made off and escaped and Munabbih was overtaken and killed.
When Khuza'a entered Mecca they took refuge in the house of Budayl b.
Warqa’ and the house of a freed slave of theirs called Rafi'.

Tamlm in excusing himself for running away from Munabbih said: 804

When I saw the B. Nufatha had advanced
Covering every plain and hill,

Rock and upland, no one else in sight,

Leading their swift wide-nostrilled horses

And I remembered the old blood feud between us,

A legacy of years gone by;

And I smelt the odour of death coming from them
And feared the stroke of a sharp sword
And knew that they would leave him they smote
Meat for mother lions and carrion for crows,

I set my feet firmly not fearing stumbling
And threw my garments on the bare ground.

I ran—no wild ass strong, lean-flanked, ran as I ran.

She may blame me, but had she been there

Her disapproval would have been urine wetting her.

Men well know that I did not leave Munabbih willingly.

Ask my companions (if you do not believe me) (792).

Al-Akhzar b. Lu't al-Dlli describing the fight between Kinana and
Khuza'a said:

Have not the most distant Ahabish 1 heard

That we repulsed B. Ka'b in impotent disgrace? 2

We made them keep to the dwelling of the slave Rafi'

And they were confined helpless with Budayl
In the house of a low person who accepts humiliation
After we had slaked our vengeance on them with the sword.

We held them there for many a day

1 Possibly the Abyssinians are meant.

2 ‘with arrows snapped off near the feathered end*.

54 2

The Life of Muhammad

Until from every pass we charged down on them.

We slaughtered them like goats,

We were like lions racing to get our teeth in them.

They had wronged us and behaved as enemies
And were the first to shed blood at the sacred boundary. ^

80s When they pursued them with their vanguard in the wadi s bend
They were like young ostriches in full flight.

Budayl b. 'Abdu Manat b. Salama b. 'Amr b. al-Ajabb who was called
Budayl b. Umm As ram answered him thus:

Mav those people lose one another who boast

Since we left them no chief to call them to assembly save Nafl .

Was it for fear of a people you scorn

That you went past al-Watir fearful, never to return.

Every day we give to others to pay bloodwit for those they have killed
While we take no help in paying our bloodwit.

We came to your home in al-Tala a,

Our swords silenced all complaints.

From Bayd and 'Itwad 3 to the slopes of Radwa
We held off the attacks of horsemen.

On the day of al-Ghamlm 4 Ubays ran away.

We terrified him with a doughty leader. ,

Was it because the mother of one of you defecated in her house in er

trepidation . ,

While you were leaping about that we met no opposition.

By God’s house you lie, you did not fight
But w'e left you in utter confusion (793).

When Quraysh and B. Bakr had combined against Khuza'a and killed
some of them, thereby breaking their covenanted word with the apostle in
violating Khuza'a who were in treaty with him 'Amr b. Salim al-Khuzai
of the clan of B. Ka'b went to the apostle in Medina. (This led to the
8o 6 conquest of Mecca.) He stood by him as he was sitting among the men in
the mosque and said:

O Lord, I come to remind Muhammad
Of the old alliance between our fathers.

You are sons for whom we provided the mother,

Then w r e made peace 5 and have not changed our minds.

« Fathur is a place in Najd as A.Dh. says; but unless the action referred t° occurred
before they reached the haram it is hard to see what the combatants were doing. A
means the contingent that leads the pursuit of a fleeing enemy it is to be preferred here to

W VwelI belonging to B. Kinana. The second hemistich is a reference to the proverb

‘The sword comes before recrimination’.

, * . , • „ _ i^ iri5ria 4 Between Mecca and Medina.

3 Places belonging to Kinana. ... f vl,,.;'.

3 S insists on this meaning for adamnd, despite the last verse, on the ground that hhu .
had not yet become Muslims. The poem is a later invention and the natural translation
‘Then we became Muslims’ is to be preferred.

543

The Life of Muhammad

Help us, now God guide you,

And call God’s servants to our aid.

Among them the apostle of God prepared for w ? ar. z
When he is W’ronged his face becomes black with anger
With a great army foaming like the sea.

Yerily Quraysh have broken their promise to you,

They have violated their pledged w>ord,

And they set men to watch out for me in Kada. 1
They claim that I can get no one to help us
And they but a miserable few.

They attacked us at night in al-Watir
And killed us as we performed the ritual prayers (794).

The apostle said, 'May you be helped O 'Amr b. Salim!’ 3 Then as a
cloud appeared in the sky he said, ‘This cloud will provide help for the B.
Ka'b.’

Then Budayl b. Warqa’ came with a number of Khuza'a to the apostle
in Medina and told him of their misfortune and how Quraysh had helped
B. Bakr against them. Having done so they returned to Mecca. The
apostle said, ‘I think you will see Abu Sufyan coming to strengthen the
agreement and to ask for more time.’ When Budayl and his companions
had got as far as 'Usfan 4 they met Abu Sufyan who had been sent by
Quraysh to strengthen the agreement with the apostle and to ask for an
extension, for they were afraid of the consequences of what they had done.

Abu Sufyan asked Budayl whence he had come because he suspected him 807
of having visited the apostle. He replied that he had come along the shore
and the bottom of this valley with the Khuza'a, and denied that he had
been to Muhammad. When Budayl had gone off to Mecca Abu Sufyan
said, 'If Budayl came to Medina he will have given his camels dates to eat
there,’ so he went to where the camels had knelt and split up their dung
and looked at the stones. 'By God, I swear Budayl has come from Muham¬
mad,’ he said.

Having arrived at Medina he went in to his daughter Umm Habiba, and
as he went to sit on the apostle’s carpet she folded it up so that he could not
sit on it. ‘My dear daughter,’ he said, ‘I hardly know if you think that the
carpet is too good for me or that I am too good for the carpet!’ She replied:

‘It is the apostle’s carpet and you are an unclean polytheist. I do not want
you to sit on the apostle’s carpet.’ ‘By God,’ he said, ‘since you left me you
have gone to the bad.’ Then he went to the apostle, who would not speak
to him; he then went to Abu Bakr and asked him to speak to the apostle
for him; he refused to do so. Then he went to 'Umar who said, ‘Should I
intercede for you with the apostle! If I had only an ant I would fight you
with it.* Then he went in to see 'All with whom was Fatima the apostle’s

1 Or, reading taharrada, ‘enraged’. 2 A place on the heights above Mecca.

3 Or perhaps nusirta here means ‘You shall be helped’.

4 Two days’journey on the road from Mecca to Medina.

544 The Life of Muhammad

daughter who had with her 'All’s little son Hasan crawling in front of her.
He appealed to 'All on the ground of their close relationship to intercede
with the apostle so that he would not have to return disappointed; but he
answered that if the apostle had determined on a thing it was useless for
anyone to talk to him about it; so he turned to Fatima and said, ‘O daughter
of Muhammad, will you let your little son here act as a protector between
men so that he may become lord of the Arabs for ever ?’ She replied that
her little boy was not old enough to undertake such a task and in any case

808 none could give protection against God’s apostle. He then asked for 'All’s
advice in the desperate situation. He said, ‘I do not see anything that can
really help you, but you are the chief of B. Kinana, so get up and grant
protection between men and then go back home.’ When he asked if he
thought that that w r ould do any good he replied that he did not, but that
he could see nothing else. Thereupon Abu Sufyan got up in the mosque
and said, ‘O men, I grant protection between men.’ He then mounted his
camel and rode off to Quraysh who asked for his news. He said that
Muhammad would not speak to him, that he got no good from Abu
Quhafa’s son, and that he found 'Umar an implacable enemy (795). He had
found 'All the most helpful and he had done what he recommended, though
he did not know r whether it would do any good. He told them what he had
done and when they asked whether Muhammad had endorsed his words,
he had to admit that he had not. They complained that 'All had made a
fool of him and that his pronouncement was valueless, and he said that he
could find nothing else to do or say.

The apostle ordered preparations to be made for a foray and Abu Bakr
came in to see his daughter 'A’isha as she was moving some of the apostle’s
equipment. He asked if the apostle had ordered her to get things ready,
and she said that he had, and that her father had better get ready also. She
told him that she did not know where the troops were going. Later the
apostle informed the men that he was going to Mecca and ordered them to
make careful preparations. He said, ‘O God, take eyes and ears 1 from
Quraysh so that w'e may take them by surprise in their land,’ and the men
got themselves ready.

Hassan b. Thabit, inciting the men and mentioning the killing of the
men of Khuza'a, said:

It pained me though I did not see in Mecca’s valley
The men of Banu Ka'b w r ith their heads cut off
By men w r ho had not drawn their swords
And the many dead who w'ere left unburied. 2

809 Would that I knew r if my help w r ith its biting satire 3
Would injure Suhayl b. 'Amr, and Safwan

1 i.c. reports from travellers and others who have seen the Muslims assembling.

2 He means that Quraysh were really responsible for the death of these men in the sacred
territory. This is implied in the v.l. in the Ditvdn which has qatld bi-haqqin.

3 Hassan was no fighter. He relied on his tongue to hurt the enemy.

545

The Life of Muhammad

That old camel w r ho groans from his arse.

This is the time for war—its girths are tightened. 1
Don’t feel safe from us, son of Umm Mujalid,

When its pure milk is extracted and its teeth are crooked.

Don’t be disappointed, for our swords
Will open the door to death (796).

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr and another
of our traditionists said that w^hen the apostle decided to go to Mecca
Hatib b. Abu Balta'a wrote a letter to Quraysh telling them that the apostle
intended to come at them. He gave it to a woman whom Muhammad b.
Ja'far alleged was from Muzayna while my other informant said she was
Sara, a freed woman of one of the B. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib. He paid her some
money to carry it to Quraysh. She put the letter on her .head and then
plaited her locks over it and went off. The apostle received news from
heaven of Hatib’s action and sent 'All and al-Zubayr b, al-'Awnvam with
instructions to go after her. They overtook her in al-Khulayqa of B. Abu
Ahmad. They made her dismount and searched her baggage but found
nothing. 'All swore that the apostle could not be mistaken nor could they,
and that if she did not produce the letter they would strip her. When she
saw that he was in earnest she told him to turn aside, and then she let down
her locks and drew out the letter and gave it to him and he took it to the
apostle. The apostle summoned Hatib and asked him w r hat induced him
to act thus. He replied that he believed in God and His apostle and had 810
never ceased to do so, but that he was not a man of standing among
Quraysh and he had a son and a family there and that he had to deal
prudently with them for their sakes. ‘Umar wanted to cut off his head as
a hypocrite but the apostle said, ‘How do you know, 'Umar; perhaps God
looked favourably on those who were at Badr and said, “Do as you please,
for I have forgiven you.” ’ Then God sent down concerning Hatib: ‘O you
who believe, choose not My enemies and yours as friends so as to show them
kindness’ as far as the words ‘You have a good example in Abraham and
those with him when they said to their people: We are quit of you and
what you worship beside God; we renounce you and between us and you
enmity and hatred will ever endure until you believe in God alone.’ 2

Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhri from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdul¬
lah b. 'Utba b. Mas'ud from 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas told me: Then the apostle
went on his journey and put over Medina Abu Ruhm Kulthum b. Husayn
b. 'Utba b. Khalaf al-Ghifarl. He went out on the 10th of Ramadan and
he and the army fasted until when he reached al-Kudayd between 'Usfan
and Amaj he broke his fast. He went on until he came to Marr al-Zahran
with 10,000 Muslims; Sulaym numbered 700 and some say 1,000; and
Muzayna 1,000; and in every tribe there was a considerable number and
Islam. The Muhajirs and Helpers went as one man; not one stayed behind.

1 War is compared to a camel. 2 Sura 60. 1-4.

B 4080

N n

II

54 5 The Life of Muhammad

When the apostle had reached Marr al-Zahran Quraysh were completely
ignorant of the fact and did not even know what he was doing. On those
nights Abu Sufyan b. Harb and Hakim b. Hizam and Budayl b Warqa
went out searching for news by eye or ear when al-'Abbas had met the

apostle in the way (797}. -

Abu Sufyan b. al-Harith b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib and Abdullah b. Abu
Umayya b. al-Mughira had met the apostle also in Nlqu’I- Uqab between
Mecca and Medina and tried to get in to him. Umm Salama spoke to
him about them, calling them his cousin and his brother-in-law. He
replied: ‘I have no use for them. As for my cousin he has wounded my
pride; and as for my aunt’s son and my brother-in-law he spoke,insultingly
of me in Mecca.’ When this was conveyed to them Abu Sufyan who had
his little son with him said, ‘By God, he must let me in or I will take this
little boy of mine and we will wander through the land until we die of
hunger and thirst.’ When he heard this the apostle felt sorry for them and
let them come in and they accepted Islam. Abu Sufyan recited the o ow¬
ing verses about his Islam in which he* excused himself for what had gone

before:

By thy life when I carried a banner

To give al-Lat’s cavalry the victory over Muhammad

I was like one going astray in the darkness of the night,

But now I am led on the right track.

I could not guide myself, and he who with God overcame me
Was he whom I had driven away with all my might.

I used to do all I could to keep men from Muhammad
And I was called a relative of his, though I did not claim the relation.
They are what they are. He who does not hold with them
Though he be a man of sense is blamed and given the lie.

812 I wanted to be on good terms with them (Muslims)

But I could not join them while I was not guided.

Say to Thaqlf I do not want to fight them;

Say, too, ‘Threaten somebody else!’

I was not in the army that attacked 'Amir,

I had no part with hand or tongue.

’Tw'as tribes that came from a distant land,

Strangers from Saham and Surdad (798)•

They allege that when he recited his words ‘He who with God overcame
me was he whom I had driven away with all my might’ the apostle
punched him in the chest and said, ‘You did indeed!’

When the apostle camped at Marr al-Zahran 'Abbas said , 1 'Alas, Qur-
aysh, if the apostle enters Mecca by force before they come and ask for
protection that will be the end of Quraysh for ever.’ I sat upon the apostle s

1 T. 1630 f. following Yunus’s version of 1 . 1 . has a slightly longer text. Only significant
differences will be noted.

The Life of Muhammad 547

white mule and went out on it until I came to the arak trees, thinking that
I might find some woodcutters or milkers or someone who could go to
Mecca and tell them where the apostle was so that they could come out
and ask for safety before he entered the town by assault. As I was going
along with this intent suddenly I heard the sound of Abu Sufyan (T. and
Hakim b. Hazam) and Budayl talking together. Abu Sufyan was saying,

‘I have never seen such fires and such a camp before.’ Budayl w r as saying,
‘These, by God, are (the fires of) Khuza'a which war has kindled.’ Abu
Sufyan was saying, ‘Khuza'a are too poor and few to have fires and camps
like these.’ I recognized his voice and called to him and he recognized my
voice. I told him that the apostle was here with his army and expressed 813
concern for him and for Quraysh: ‘If he takes you he will behead you, so
ride on the back of this mule so that I can take you to him and ask for you
his protection.’ So he rode behind me and his two companions returned.
Whenever we passed a Muslim fire we were challenged, and when they
saw the apostle’s mule with me riding it they said it was the prophet’s uncle
riding his mule until I passed by 'Umar’s fire. He challenged me and got
up and came to me, and when he saw Abu Sufyan on the back of the beast
he cried: ‘Abu Sufyan, the enemy of God! Thanks be to God who has
delivered you up without agreement or word.’ Then he ran towards the
apostle and I made the mule gallop, and the mule won by the distance a
slow beast will outrun a slow man. I dismounted and went in to the
apostle and 'Umar came in saying the same words and adding, ‘Let me
take off his head.’ I told the apostle that I had promised him my protec¬
tion; then I sat by him and took hold of his head and said, ‘By God, none
shall talk confidentially to him this night without my being present’; and
when 'Umar continued to remonstrate I said, ‘Gently, 'Umar! If he had
been one of the B. 'Adly b, Ka'b you would not have said this; but you
know that he is one of the B. 'Abdu Manaf.’ He replied,. ‘Gently, 'Abbas!
for by God your Islam the day you accepted it was dearer to me than the
Islam of al-Khattab would have been had he become a Muslim. One thing
I surely know is that your Islam was dearer to the apostle than my father’s
would have been.’ The apostle told me to take him away to my quarters
and bring him back in the morning. He stayed the night with me and I took
him in to see the apostle early in the morning and when he saw* him he
said, ‘Isn’t it time that you should recognize that there is no God but
Allah ?’ He answered, ‘You are dearer to me than father and mother. How
great is your clemency, honour, and kindness! By God, I thought that had
there been another God with God he would have continued to help me.’

He said: ‘Woe to you, Abu Sufyan, isn’t it time that you recognize that I 814
am God’s apostle?’ He answered, ‘As to that I still have some doubt.’

I said to him, ‘Submit and testify that there is no God but Allah and that
Muhammad is the apostle of God before you lose your head,’ so he did so.

I pointed out to the apostle that Abu Sufyan was a man who liked to have
some cause for pride and asked him to do something for him. He said, ‘He

548 The Life of Muhammad

who enters Abu Sufyan’s house is safe, and he who locks his door is safe, and
he who enters the mosque is safe.’ When he went off to go back the apostle
told me to detain him in the narrow part of the wadi where the mountain
projected 1 so that God’s armies would pass by and he would see them; so
I went and detained him where the prophet had ordered.

The squadrons passed him with their standards, and he asked who they
were. When I said Sulaym he would say, ‘What have I to do with Sulaym?’
and so with Muzayna until all had passed, he asking the same question and
making the same response to the reply. Finally the apostle passed with his
greenish-black squadron (799) io which were Muhajirs and Ansar whose

815 eyes alone were visible because of their armour. He said, Good heavens,
'Abbas, who are these ?’ and when I told him he said that none could with¬
stand them. ‘By God, O Abu Fadl, the authority of your brother’s son has
become great.’ I told him that it was due to his prophetic office, and he
said that in that case he had nothing to say against it.

I told him to hurry to his people. When he came to them he cried at the
top of his voice: ‘O Quraysh, this is Muhammad who has come to you with
a force you cannot resist. He who enters Abu Sufyan s house is safe.
Hind d. 'Utba went up to him, and seizing his moustaches cried, ‘Kill this
fat greasy bladder of lard! What a rotten protector of the people!’ He
said, ‘Woe to you, don’t let this woman deceive you, for you cannot resist
what has come. He who enters Abu Sufyan’s house will be safe.’ ‘God
slay you,’ they said, ‘what good will your house be to us ?’ 2 He added, ‘And
he who shuts his door upon himself will be safe and he who enters the
mosque will be safe.’ Thereupon the people dispersed to their houses and
the mosque.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that when the apostle came to Dhu Tuwa
he halted on his beast turbaned with a piece of red YamanI cloth and that
he lowered his head in submission to God, when he saw how God had
honoured him with victory, so that his beard almost touched the middle of
the saddle.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father from his
grandmother Asma’d. Abu Bakr said: When the apostle stopped in Dhu
Tuwa Abu Quhafa said to a daughter of his, one of his youngest children,
‘Take me up to Abu Qubays,’ for his sight had almost gone. When they
got there he asked her what she could see and she told him ‘a mass of
black.’ ‘Those are the horses,’ he said. Then she told him that she could
see a man running up and down in front of them and he said that that was
the adjutant, meaning the man who carries and transmits the orders to the

816 cavalry. Then she said, ‘By God, the black mass has spread.’ He said, ‘In
that case the cavalry have been released, so bring me quickly to my house.
She took him down and the cavalry encountered him before he could get
to his house. The girl had a silver necklace and a man who met her tore

1 IJt. ‘at the nose of the mountain’.

2 i.e. it could not provide cover for them all.

The Life of Muhammad 549

it from her neck. When the apostle came in and entered the mosque Abu
Bakr came leading his father. On seeing him the apostle said, ‘Why did
you not leave the old man in his house so that I could come to him there ?’
Abu Bakr replied that it was more fitting that he should come to him than
vice versa. He made him sit before him and stroked his chest and asked
him to accept Islam and he did so. When Abu Bakr brought his father in
his head was as white as edelweiss, and the apostle told them to dye it.
Then Abu Bakr got up and taking his sister’s hand said, ‘I ask in the name
of God and Islam for my sister’s necklace’ and none answered him, and he
said, ‘Sister, regard your necklace as taken by God (and look to Him to
requite you) for there is not much honesty among people nowadays.’

'Abdullah b. Abu Najih told me that the apostle divided his force at
Dhu Tuwa ordering al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam to go in with some of the
men from Kuda. Al-Zubayr commanded the left wing; Sa'd b. 'Ubada he
ordered to go in with some of the men from Kada’.

Some traditionists allege that when Sa'd started off he said,

Today is a day of war,

Sanctuary is no more,

and one of the muhajirs (800) heard him and told the apostle that it was to
be feared that he would resort to violence. The apostle ordered 'All to go
after him and take the flag from him and enter with it himself.

'Abdullah b. Abu Najih in his story told me that the apostle ordered 81
Khalid to enter from al-Lit, the lower part of Mecca, with some men. Kha-
fid was in command of the right wing with Aslam, Sulaym, Ghifar, Muz¬
ayna, Juhayna, and other Arab tribes. Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah advanced
with the troops pouring into Mecca in front of the apostle who entered
from Adhakhir 1 until he halted above Mecca and his tent was pitched
there.

'Abdullah b. Abu Najih and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that Safwan
b. Umayya and Tkrima b. Abu Jahl and Suhayl b. 'Amr had collected
some men in al-Khandama 2 to fight. Himas b. Qays b. Khalid brother of
B. Bakr was sharpening his sword before the apostle entered Mecca, and
his wife asked him why he was doing so. When he told her it was for
Muhammad and his companions she said that she did not think that it
would do them any harm. He answered that he hoped to give her one of
them as a slave and said:

I have no excuse if today they advance.

Here is my weapon, a long-bladed lance,

A two-edged sword in their faces will dance!

Then he went to al-Khandama with Safwan, Suhayl, and Tkrima and
when the Muslims under Khalid arrived a skirmish followed in which

1 Yaquf knows nothing of this place, but it is mentioned frequently by al-Azraqi, Mecca,
1352, ii. 232 ff. as a pass near Mecca.

2 Not mentioned by Yaquf. Azr. i. 146 says it is a peak on Abu Qubays.

55© The Life of Muhammad

Kurz b. Jabir, one of the B. Muharib b. Fihr, and Khunays b. Khalid b.
Rabl'a b. Asram, an ally of B. Munqidh, who were in Khalid’s cavalry,
were killed. They had taken a road of their own apart from Khalid and
were killed together. Khunays was killed first and Kurz put him between
his feet and fought in his defence until he was slain, saying meanwhile:

Safra’ of the B. Fihr knows
The pure of face and heart

818 That I fight today in defence of Abu Sakhr.

Khunays was surnamed Abu Sakhr (8oi).

Salama b. al-Mayla’, one of Khalid’s horsemen, was killed, and the
polytheists lost about 12 or 13 men-; then they took to flight. Himas ran off
and went into his house and told his wife to bolt the door. When she asked
what had become of his former words he said:

If you had witnessed the battle of Khandama
When Safwan and Tkrima fled
And Abu Yazld was standing like a pillar 1
And the Muslims met them with their swords
Which cut through arms and skulls,

Only confused cries being heard
Behind us their cries and groans,

You would not have uttered the least word of blame (802)

The apostle had instructed his commanders when they entered Mecca
only to fight those who resisted them, except a small number who were to
be killed even if they were found beneath the curtains of the Ka'ba.
Among them was ‘Abdullah b. Sa'd, brother of the B. ‘Amir b. Lu’ayy.
The reason he ordered him to be killed was that he had been a Muslim and
used to write down revelation; then he apostatized and returned to Quraysh
and fled to 'Uthman b. 'Affan whose foster-brother he was; The latter hid

819 him until he brought him to the apostle after the situation in Mecca was
tranquil, and asked that he might be granted immunity. They allege that
the apostle remained silent for a long time till finally he said yes. When
'Uthman had left he said to his companions who were sitting around him,
‘I kept silent so that one of you might get up and strike off his head!’ One
of the Ansar said, ‘Then why didn’t you give me a sign, O apostle of God ?’
He answered that a prophet does not kill by pointing (803).

Another was 'Abdullah b. Khatal of B. Taym b. Ghalib. He had become
a Muslim and the apostle sent him to collect the poor tax in company with
one of the Ansar. He had with him a freed slave who served him, (He was
a Muslim.) When they halted he ordered the latter to kill a goat for him
and prepare some food, and went to sleep. When he woke up the man had

1 This explanation of mutima is based on S.’s statement that elsewhere 1 . 1 . says that
such is the meaning. The alternative ‘A widow left with fatherless children* is supported
by Azraq:, 47 kal'ajuzi'l-mu tima (quoted by Nttldeke, Glos. 103 and T.’s kal-matama).

The Life of Muhammad 551

done nothing, so he attacked and killed him and apostatized. He had two
singing-girls Fartana and her friend who used to sing satirical songs about
the apostle, so he ordered that they should be killed with him.

Another was al-Huvvayrith b. Nuqaydh b. Wahb b. 'Abd b. Qusayy, one
of those who used to insult him in Mecca (804).

Another was Miqyas b. Hubaba 1 because he had killed an Ansar] who
had killed his brother accidentally, and returned to Quraysh as a polytheist.

And Sara, freed slave of one of the B. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib; and 'Ikrima b.

Abu Jahl. Sara had insulted him in Mecca. As for Tkrima, he fled to the
Yaman. His wife Umm Hakim d. al-Harith b. Hisham became a Muslim
and asked immunity for him and the apostle gave it. She went to the
Yaman in search of him and brought him to the apostle and he accepted
Islam. (T. Tkrima used to relate, according to what they say, that what T- 1640
turned him to Islam when he had gone to the Yaman was that he had deter¬
mined to cross the sea to Abyssinia and when he found a ship the master
said, ‘O servant of God, you cannot travel in my ship until you acknow¬
ledge that God is one and disavow any rival to Him, for I fear that if you
do not do so we should perish.’ When I asked if none but such persons
was allowed to travel in his ship he replied, ‘Yes, and he must be sincere.’

So I thought: Why should I leave Muhammad when this is what he has
brought us ? Truly our God on the sea is our God on the dry land. There¬
upon I recognized Islam and it entered into my heart.) ‘Abdullah b.

Khatal was killed by Sa'id b. Hurayth al-Makhzuml and Abu Barza al-
Aslami acting together. Miqyas was killed by Numayla b. 'Abdullah, one 820
of his own people. Miqyas’s sister said of his killing:

By my life, Numayla shamed his people

And distressed the winter guests w'hen he slew Miqyas.

Whoever has seen a man like Miqyas

Who provided food for young mothers in hard times.

As for Ibn Khatal’s two singing-girls,‘one was killed and the other ran
away until the apostle, asked for immunity, gave it her. Similarly Sara,
who lived until in the time of ‘Umar a mounted soldier trod her down in
the valley of Mecca and killed her. Al-Huwayrith was killed by ‘All.

Sa'id b. Abu Hind from Abu Murra, freed slave of‘Aqil b. Abu Talib,
told me that Umm Hani’d. Abu Talib said: When the apostle halted in the
upper part of Mecca two of my brothers-in-law f from B. Makhzum fled to
me. (She w^as the wife of Hubayra b. Abu Wahb al-Makhzuml.) ‘All came
in swearing that he w'ould kill them, so I bolted the door of my house on
them and went to the apostle and found him washing in a large bowl in
which w'as the remains of dough while his daughter Fatima was screening
him with his garment. When he had washed he took his garment and
wrapped himself in it and prayed eight bendings of the morning prayer.

1 W. £>ubaba, On p, 728 he writes $ubaba which may well be right in spite of C. which
follows the Qamus.

55 2 The Life of Muhammad

Then he came forward and welcomed me and asked me why I had come.
When I told him about the two men and ‘All he said: ‘We give protec¬
tion to whomsoever you give protection and we give safety to those you
protect. He must not kill them’ (805).

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdullah b.
Abu Thaur from Saflya d. Shayba told me that the apostle after arriving in
Mecca when the populace had settled down went to the temple and en¬
compassed it seven times on his camel touching the black stone with a
821 stick which he had in his hand. This done he summoned ‘Uthman b.
Talha and took the key of the Ka'ba from him, and when the door was
opened for him he went in. There he found a dove made of wood. He
broke it in his hands and threw it away. Then he stood by the door of the
Ka'ba while the men in the mosque gathered to him, 1
Azr. i. 70 [I.I. from 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr from 'Ali b. 'Abdullah b. 'AbbSs: The

apostle entered Mecca on the day of the conquest and it contained 360
idols which Iblls 2 had strengthened with lead. The apostle was standing
by them with a stick in his hand, saying, ‘The truth has come and false¬
hood has passed away; verily falsehood is sure to pass away’ (Sura 17. 82).
Then he pointed at them with his stick and they collapsed on their backs
one after the other.

When the apostle prayed the noon prayer on the day of the conquest he
ordered that all the idols which were round the Ka'ba should be collected
and burned with fire and broken up. Fadala b. al-Mulawwih al-Laythi
said commemorating the day of the conquest:

Had you seen Muhammad and his troops

The day the idols were smashed when he entered,

You would have seen God’s light become manifest
And darkness covering the face of idolatry.

Azr. I.I. from Hakim b. 'Abbad b. Hanif and other traditionists : Quraysh
u 107 had put pictures in the Ka'ba including two of Jesus son of Mary and
Mary (on both of whom be peace!). I. Shihab said: Asma’d. Shaqr said
that a woman of Ghassan joined in the pilgrimage of the Arabs and when
she saw the picture of Mary in the Ka'ba she said, ‘My father and my
mother be your ransom! You are surely an Arab woman!’ The apostle
ordered that the pictures should be erased except those of Jesus and Mary. 3 ]

A traditionist 4 told me that the apostle stood at the door of the Ka'ba
and said: ‘There is no God but Allah alone; He has no associate. He has
made good His promise and helped His servant. He has put to flight the

1 Other explanations given for the word istakaffa are ‘fixed their gaze on’ and ‘sur¬
rounded’.

1 A parallel tradition on the authority of I. 'Abbas via al-Zuhrl simply says that the idols
were strengthened by lead.

3 Apparently I.H. has cut out what I.I. wrote and adopted the later tradition that all the
pictures were obliterated. A more detailed account of these pictures will be found in Azr.
104-6.

4 T• here names the informants as 'Umar b, Mus'ab al-Wajifi from QatSda al-Sadusi.

The Life of Muhammad 553

confederates alone. Every claim of privilege 1 or blood or property are
abolished by me except the custody of the temple and the watering of the
pilgrims. The unintentionally slain in a quasi-intentional way by club or
whip, 2 for him the bloodwit is most severe: a hundred camels, forty of
them to be pregnant. O Quraysh, God has taken from you the haughtiness
of paganism and its veneration of ancestors. Man springs from Adam
and Adam sprang from dust.’ Then he read to them this verse: ‘O men,

We created you from male and female and made you into peoples and
tribes that you may know one another: of a truth the most noble of you in
God’s sight is the most pious’ to the end of the passage. 3 Then he added,

‘O Quraysh, what do you think that I am about to do with you?’ They
replied, ‘Good. You are a noble brother, son of a noble brother.’ He
said, ‘Go your way for you are the freed ones.’

[T. Thus the apostle let them go though God had given him power over T* 1642
their lives and they were his spoil. For this reason the Meccans were
called ‘the freed ones’. Then the populace gathered together in Mecca
to do homage to the apostle in Islam. As I have heard, he sat (waiting)
for them on al-Safa while ‘Umar remained below him imposing condi¬
tions on the people who paid homage to the apostle promising to hear and
obey God and His apostle to the best of their ability. This applied to the
men; when they had finished he dealt with the women. Among the
Quraysh women who came was Hind d. 'Utba who came veiled and dis¬
guised because of what she had done especially in regard to Hamza, for she
was afraid that the apostle would punish her. According to what I heard,
when they approached him he asked if they gave their word not to associate
anything with God, and Hind said, ‘By God, you lay on us something that
you have not laid on the men and we will carry it out.’ He said, ‘And you
shall not steal.’ She said, ‘By God, I used to take a little of Abu Sufyan’s
money and I do not know whether that is lawful for me or not.’ Abu
Sufyan who was present when she said this told her that so far as the past
was concerned it was lawful. The apostle said, ‘Then you are Hind d.

‘Utba?’ and she said ‘I am; forgive me what is past and God will forgive
you.’ He said, ‘And do not commit adultery.’ She answered, ‘Does a free
woman commit adultery, O apostle of God ?’ He said, ‘And you shall not
kill your children.’ She said, ‘I brought them up when they were little and
you killed them on the day of Badr when they were grown up, so you are
the one to know about them!’ 'Umar laughed immoderately at her reply.

He said,‘You shall not invent slanderous tales.’ She said, ‘By God, slander
is disgraceful, but it is sometimes better to ignore it.’ He said, ‘You shall
not disobey me in carrying out orders to do good,’ She said, ‘We should
not have sat all this time if we wanted to disobey you in such orders.’ The
apostle said to ‘Umar, ‘Accept,their troth,’ and he asked God’s forgiveness
for them while 'Umar accepted their homage on his behalf. The apostle
never used to take the women’s hands; he did not touch a woman nor did

1 Specially inherited authority. 1 i.e. manslaughter. 3 Sura 49. 13.

554 The Life of Muhammad

one touch him except one whom God had made law'ful to him or was one
of his harim. Ibn Ishaq from Abban b. Salih said that the women’s homage
according to what some traditionists had told him was in this wise: a vessel
containing water was put in front of the apostle and when he laid the
conditions upon them and they accepted them he plunged his hand into
the vessel and then withdrew it and the women did the same. Then after
that he would impose conditions on them and when they accepted them he
said, ‘Go, I have accepted your homage,’ and added nothing further.] 1

Then the apostle sat in the mosque and ‘All came to him with the key of
the Ka'ba in his hand asking him to grant his family the right of guarding
the temple as w r ell as the watering of the pilgrims, but the apostle called for
'Uthman b. Talha and said, ‘Here is your key; today is a day of good
faith’ (806).

822 Sa'id b. Abu Sandar al-Aslaml from one of his tribesmen said: We had
with us a brave man called Ahmar Ba’san. 2 When he slept he snored so
loudly that everyone knew where he was. When he spent the night with
his clan he slept apart. If the clan was attacked at night they would call
his name and he would leap up like a lion and nothing could withstand
him. It happened that a party of raiders from Hudhayl came, making for
the people at their water; and W'hen they drew near Ibn al-Athwa' al-
Hudhali told them not to hurry him until he had looked round; for if
Ahmar was among the group there was no way to get at them. He snored
so loudly that one could tell where he was. So he listened and when he

823 heard his snoring he w r alked up to him and thrust his sw r ord into his breast
pressing on it so that he killed him. Then they rushed upon the party who
cried ‘AhmarI’ But they had no Ahmar.

On the morrow of the conquest of Mecca Ibn al-Athwa' came into
Mecca to look round and find out what the situation was. Now he was still
a polytheist, and Khuza'a saw' and recognized him, and they surrounded
him as he was at the side of one of the walls of Mecca, saying, ‘Are you the
man w'ho killed Ahmar?’ ‘Yes’, he said, ‘and what about it?’ Thereupon
Khirash b. Umayya advanced on him with drawn sword saying, ‘Get away
from the man.’ We supposed that he wanted to get the people away from
him; but when we drew' away he ran at him and thrust his sword in his
belly. By God, I can almost see him now with his entrails flowing forth
from his belly and his eyes two mere slits in his head the while he said,
‘Have you done it, you men of Khuza'a?’ until he collapsed and fell. The
apostle said, ‘Stop this killing, Khuza'a; there has been too much killing
even if there were profit in it. I will pay the bloodwit for the man you
have killed.’

'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Harmala al-Aslaml from Sa'id b. al-Musayyib told
me that when the apostle heard w'hat Khirash had done he said, ‘Khirash is
too prone to kill,’ thereby rebuking him.

1 pp. 1642 (ult.) to 1644. 13.

2 Or Ifrmarra Ba’san. A strange nickname. ‘Red in power’, ‘Ruddybold’, or the like.

The Life of Muhammad 555

Sa'id b. Abu Sa'id al-Maqburl from Abu Shurayh al-Khuza'I said:
When 'Amr b. al-Zubayr 1 came to Mecca to fight his brother 'Abdullah I
came to him and said, ‘Listen! When we were with the apostle the day
after the conquest of Mecca, Khuza'a attacked a man of Hudhayl and
killed him, he being a polytheist. The apostle arose and addressed us,
saying, “God made Mecca holy the day He created heaven and earth, and
it is the holy of holies until the resurrection day. It is not lawful for anyone
who believes in God and the last day to shed blood therein, nor to cut
down trees therein. It was not lawful to anyone before me and it will not
be lawful to anyone after me. Indeed, it is not lawful for me except at this 824
time because of (God’s) anger against its people. Now it has regained its
former holiness. Let those here now tell those that are not here. If anyone
should say, The apostle killed men in Mecca, say God permitted His
apostle to do so but He does not permit you. Refrain from killing, you men
of Khuza'a, for there has been too much killing even if there were profit in
it. Since you have killed a man I will pay his bloodwit. If anyone is killed
after my sojourn here his people have a choice: they can have his killer’s life
or the blood-money.” Then the apostle paid the bloodwit for the man
whom Khuza'a had slain.* 'Amr replied, ‘Be off with you, old man! We
know more about its sanctity than you. It does not protect the shedder of
blood, nor the man who casts off his allegiance nor him who withholds tax.

Abu Shurayh answered, ‘I was there and you w'ere not. The apostle ordered
us who were present to tell those who were absent. I have told you and the
responsibility now rests with you’ (807).

Muhammad b. Ja'far from 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr told me that Safwan b. 825
Umayya went out to Judda to take ship to the it aman. Umayr b. Wahb 826
told the prophet that Safwan, who was a chief among his people, had fled
from him to cast himself into the sea, and asked him to grant him immu¬
nity. The prophet agreed to do so, and 'Umayr asked him for a sign to
prove it, and he gave him the turban with which he had entered Mecca.
'Umayr took it and overtook Safwan just as he was about to embark. He
begged him not to commit suicide and produced the token of his safety.
Safwan told him to be off and not to speak to him. He replied, ‘My parents
be your ransom! He is the most virtuous, most pious, most clement, and
best of men, your very cousin. His honour is your honour.’ He replied,

‘I go in fear of my life because of him.’ He answered, ‘He is too clement
and too honourable to kill you.’ So he went back with him to the apostle
and told him that 'Umayr had said that he had promised him immunity.

He said that that was true. Safwan asked for two months in which to make
up his mind, and he gave him four months (808).

Al-Zuhrl told me that Umm Hakim d. al-Harith b. Hisham and Fakhita
d. al-Walid (w'ho was married to Safwan, while Umm Hakim’s husband

1 S. here points out that this is a mistake on the part of I.H. and that the man was 'Amr
b. Sa'id b. al-'A$ b. Umayya; that the mistake is due either to I.H. or to al-Bakka i; and
that the true tradition is given by Yunus.

556 The Life of Muhammad

was 'Ikrima b. Abu Jahl) had become Muslims. The latter asked immunity
for her husband and the apostle granted it and she joined him in the
Yaman and brought him back. When Tkrima and Safwan became Muslims
the apostle confirmed their first marriages.

Sa'Id b. Abdu’I-Rahman b. Hassan b. Thabit told me that Hassan
directed a single verse and no more at I. al-Ziba f ra who was in Najran at
the time: 1

Do not be without a man, hatred of whom
Has made you live in Najran in utmost misery!

827 When this reached I. al-Ziba'ra he went to the apostle and accepted
Islam. Then he said:

O apostle of God, my tongue is repairing
The mischief I did when a perishing (sinner)

When I followed Satan in going astray.

(He who turns aside with him must perish.)

My flesh and my bones believe in my Lord.

My heart bears witness that you are the wamer.

I will drive the clan of Lu’ayy from you there,

All of them being deceived.

When he became a Muslim he said also:

Cares and anxieties withheld sleep from me
And night pitch black was agitated above me
Because I heard that Ahmad had blamed me;

I passed the night like a man with fever.

O best of those, a swift light-footed
Straight-running camel ever carried,

Forgive me for what I said and did
When I went wandering in error,

What time Sahm gave me most misleading orders,

And Makhzum did the same;

When I supported evil courses

Led by those who erred, whose way was ill omened.

Today my heart believes in the prophet Muhammad.

He who misses this is a loser.

Enmity has passed, its ties are ended;

Kinship and reason call us together.

Forgive my mistakes—my parents be thy ransom,

For you are compassionate having found mercy.

Upon you is the sign of God’s knowledge,

A light most bright and a seal imprinted.

1 The point is interesting because the Dttvan (H. cxlii) adds two more verses which fit the
context poorly. It looks almost as though Hassan’s grandson knew that they had been
grafted on to I^assan’s line and resented the impertinence.

The Life of Muhammad 557

After His love He gave you His proof to honour you
And God’s proof is great.

I testify that your religion is true
And that you are great among men.

And God testifies that Ahmad is the chosen,

The noble one, cynosure of the righteous,

A prince whose lofty house is from Hashim,

Strong from top to bottom (809).

As for Hubayra b. Abu Wahb al-Makhzumi, he lived there until he died 828
an unbeliever. His wife was Umm Hani’d. Abu Talib whose name was
Hind. When he heard that she had become a Muslim he said:

Does Hind long for you or do you know that she has asked about you ?
Thus distance produces many changes.

On a high inaccessible fort in Najran she has banished my sleep.

When night falls her phantom roams abroad.

O that reproacher who wakes me at night and blames me!

She reproaches me by night—may her error err utterly!

Asserting that if I obey my familyj shall perish,

But will anything but the loss of her kill me ?

But I am of a people who if they do their utmost
They attain their end forthwith.

I protect the rear of my tribe

When they wheel beneath the spear points

And the swords in their hands become like

The sticks boys play with, no shade but the swords. 1

I loathe the envious and their works:

God will provide food for myself and my family.

Words spoken without truth
Are like an arrow without a head.

If you have followed Muhammad’s religion
And the ties of kinship draw you to your kin,

Then stay far distant on a high round rock,

Dry dust its only moisture (810). 2

The Muslims who were present at the conquest of Mecca numbered
10,000: of B. Sulaym 700 (some say 1,000); of B. Ghifar 400; of Aslam

400; of Muzayna 1,003; ^ the rest of them were fr ? m Ql J r * ysh j
the Ansar and their allies and parties of Arabs from Tamim and Qays and

Asad.

1 This line is an imitation of I. 41 in the Muallaqa of 'Amr b. Kulthum:

kaattna myufand minna tvaminhum
makha.rlqu.n bi'aydt la ibina .

Some lexicographers favour a rendering ‘knotted rags’. In either case the meaning is that
they regarded the swords as mere toys.

• The poet apostrophizes himself.

558 The Life of Muhammad

Among the poems about the conquest is the following from Hassan b.
Thabit:

From Dhatu’l-Asabi' and al-Jiwa’ 1 to 'Adhra’ 2

Traces have disappeared, their camping-ground is empty.

The camps of B. al-Hashas 3 are a desert
Obliterated by w r ind and rain.

829 There used always to be a friend there;

Its pastures held choice camels and sheep.

But leave that! Who will rid me of the night vision

Which keeps me from sleep when night's first hours have gone,

Of Sha'tha’ 4 who fills me with longing
So that my heart cannot be cured of it ?

She is like the wine of Bayt RaV
Mixed with honey and water.-
All draughts that could be mentioned
Cannot be compared with that wine.

We blame it for what we do amiss

If we are quarrelsome or insulting to others.

When we drink it we are as kings and lions,

Nothing can keep us from the fray.

May we lose our horses if you do not see them 6
Raising the dust-clouds, their rendezvous Kadak
They tug at the reins turning their necks to one side,

The thirsty lances couched above their shoulders.

As our horses raced along, 7

The women flapped their veils in their faces.

If you don't oppose us we shall celebrate the ‘Umra,

The conquest will be completed and the covering removed.

But if you do, expect a fight on the day
When God helps those He pleases.

Gabriel, God's messenger, is with us and
The holy spirit has no equal.

God said, ‘I have sent a man

Who speaks the truth if you will profit by experience.

1 These places are in Syria; the latter was the camp of al-Harith b. Abu Shamr the
Ghas 9 anid whom IJassan used to visit.

2 One post distant from Damascus.

3 A clan of B. Asad.

4 Who this woman was is not certain: some say she was d. Sallamb. Mishkam the Jew;
others say a woman of Khuza’a; others someone else.

5 A place in Jordan noted for its wine.

6 From this point the poem begins its theme.

7 Tamattara in this sense is supported by T. 1650,. 12.V. Gloss. ‘Rain-bespattered’, sug¬
gested by A.Dh., gives a poor sense unless it is a poetical way of saying that the sides of the
horses were covered with foam. The Lisdn explains that the women flapped their veils to
hinder them. The reading in Diu'iin and in some MSS. yubarina’l-asinnata may be right:
‘they try to catch up with the points of the lances whose thirsty shafts were couched above
their shoulders’. The horses could see the lance tips on their right front. Cf. W. 707. 15.

559

The Life of Muhammad

I bear witness to him, so arise 1 confess him truthful.’

But you said, ‘We will not and we do not wish to.’

And God said, ‘ I have sent an army,

The Ansar accustomed to the fray.’

Every day we get from Ma'add 2
Cursing, battle, or lampooning.

We will repulse with verses those who lampoon us
And smite them when war breaks out.

Give Abu Sufyan a message from me,

For what was hidden has become clear,

Namely that our swords have left you a slave,

The heads of the 'Abdu’l-Dar mere bondwomen.

You lampooned Muhammad and I answered for him: 830

There is a reward for that with God.

Would you lampoon him whom you cannot equal?

(The worse of you be a ransom for the better of you!)

You have lampooned the pure blessed hanif
God’s trusted one whose nature is loyalty.

Is he who lampoons God’s apostle
And he who praises and helps him equal ?

My father, my grandfather, and my honour
Protect Muhammad’s honour against you.

My tongue is a sharp sword without a flaw,

My verse a sea which the buckets cannot make turbid (8 ii). 3

Anas b. Zunaym al-Dill apologizing to the apostle tor what 'Amr b.
Salim al-Khuza'I said about them said:

Was it you by whose orders Ma'add was led ?

Nay God guided them and said to you, Testify!

No camel ever carried a purer man
More true to his promise than Muhammad;

Swifter to do good, more lavish in giving
When he went forth like a polished Indian sword;

More generous in giving a rich Yamani robe hardly worn
And the horse that was easily first in the race.

Know, O apostle of God, that you will get me
And that a threat from you is as good as fulfilled.

Know, O apostle, that you have power
Over them that dwell in highland and plain.

Know that the riders, the riders of 'Uwaymir,

Are liars which break every promise.

They told the apostle that I satirized him.

1 The Diwdn has ‘and my people confessed’, &c.

2 i.e. Quraysb who were descended from Adnan.

3 i.e. however many verses he composes from his inexhaustible stock the well of poesy
will not be fouled by bad and ineffectual lines.

5&o

The Life of Muhammad

Were it true may my hand never lift a whip!

I merely said, Woe is the mother of the heroes
Who were slain in unhappy unlucky days!

Those not their equal in blood killed them
And great was my weeping and dismay.

831 You would break the covenant if you slandered
'Abd b. 'Abdullah and the daughter of Mahwad.

Dhu’ayb and Kulthum and Salma went successively to death,

So if my eye does not weep let me grieve.

There is no clan like Salma and his brothers;

Are kings the same as slaves ?

I have not broken with custom or shed blood.

Consider, you who know the truth, and act!

Budayl b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Umm Asram answered him:

Anas wept Razn, how loud was his cry.

He should have wept for 'Adly unavenged and destroyed.

You wept, Abu 'Abs, because they were blood relations
That you might have an excuse if none started a war.

Noble warriors killed them on the day of Khandama, 1
Nufayl and Ma'bad among them if you inquire.

If your tears flow for them you will not be blamed
And if the eye does not weep then be sad (812).

Bujayr b. Zuhayr b. Abu Sulma said concerning the day of the conquest:

Muzayna and the Banu Khufaf that day

Expelled the people of al-Haballaq 2 from every ravine.

We smote them with our sharp swords
The day the good prophet entered Mecca.

We came on them with seven hundred from Sulaym
And a full thousand from Banu 'Uthman.

We smote 3 their shoulders with cut and thrust
And shot them with our feathered shafts.

You could hear among the ranks their whisper
As if the notched end were split from its binding. 4
We went with lances straight levelled

1 A mountain in Mecca.

2 I cannot understand this verse. If ‘the people of al-plaballaq’ were, as S. says, the tribes
of Muzayna and Qays, B. Khufaf being a clan of Sulaym, then we have the extraordinary
statement that Muzayna expelled their own tribesmen. We can take ‘every ravine’ as the
subject of the sentence, as C. does, and take nafd in the sense of ‘sent out’; but then we
must take Muzayna as an accusative and read BanI Kh. A.Dh. says that haballaq means
‘small sheep’ but that gives little help. What one would expect is some reference to the
Meccans, but they were not expelled from the town.

3 Lit. ‘trod’. For aktdjahum some MSS. have aknafahum ‘their flanks’.

4 After long hesitation I have adopted this rendering; but it might be that the poet is
thinking of the arrows of the opposing forces passing one another in the air.

561

The Life of Muhammad

While our horses wheeled among them.

We came back plundering as we W'ould
While they went back discomfited.

We pledged our faith to the apostle
In sincere friendship.

They heard what we said and determined
l To depart from us that day of fear (813).

KHALId’s EXPEDITION AFTER THE CONQUEST TO THE 833
B. JADHlMA OF KIN AN A AND 'ATI’s EXPEDITION TO
REPAIR KHALID’S ERROR

The apostle sent out troops in the district round Mecca inviting men to
God: he did not order them to fight. Among those he sent was Khalid b.
al-Walld whom he ordered to go to the lower part of the flat country as a
missionary; he did not send him to fight. He subdued the B. Jadhima and
killed some of them (814). 1

Hakim b. Hakim b. 'Abbad b. Hunayf from Abu Ja'far Muhammad b.

‘All said: When he took possession of Mecca the apostle sent Khalid forth
as a missionary. He did not send him to fight. He had with him the Arab
tribes of Sulaym b. Mansur and Mudlij b. Murra, and they subdued B.
Jadhima b. 'Amir b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana. When the people saw him
they grasped their weapons, and Khalid said, ‘Lay down your arms, for
everybody has accepted Islam.’

A traditionist of B. Jadhima who was one of our companions told me:
‘When Khalid ordered us to lay down our arms one of our men called 834
Jahdam said, “Woe to you, B. Jadhima! This is Khalid. If you lay down
your arms you will be bound, and after you have been bound you will be
beheaded. By God, I’ll never lay down my arms.” Some of his people laid
hold of him saying “Do you want to shed our blood? Everyone else has
accepted Islam and laid down their arms; war is over and everybody is
safe.” They persisted to the point of taking away his arms, and they them¬
selves laid down their arms at Khalid’s word.’

Hakim b. Hakim from Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. ‘All told me: As soon
as they had laid down their arms Khalid ordered their hands to be tied
behind their backs and put them to the sword, killing a number of them.
When the news reached the apostle he raised his hands to heaven and said,

‘O God, I am innocent before Thee of what Khalid has done’ (815).

Hakim on the same authority told me that the apostle summoned 'All
and told him to go to these people and look into the affair, and abolish the
practices of the pagan era. So 'All went to them with the money the apostle 835
had sent and paid the bloodwit and made good their monetary loss even for

1 T-’s history (1649) is better arranged. It shows that I.J.’s narrative recorded that the
3t al - Ghuma >’Sa a well belonging to Jadhima, and records the latter’s killing
of Khalid s uncle. I.H. has disturbed the natural flow of events.

O O

B 4080

562 The Life of Muhammad

a dog’s bowl. When all blood and property had been paid for he still had
some money over. He asked if any compensation was still due and when
they said it was not he gave them the rest of the money on behalf of the
apostle in case claims of which neither he nor they knew at the time should
arise. Then he returned and reported to the apostle what he had done and
he commended him. Then the apostle arose and faced the Qibla and raised
his arms so that his armpits could be seen and said: ‘O God, I am innocent
before Thee of what Khalid has done.’ This he said three times.

Some who would excuse Khalid said that he said: ‘I did not fight until
'Abdullah b. Hudhafa al-Sahml ordered me to do so and he said, “The
apostle has ordered you to fight them because they keep back from Islam” ’
(816).

Jahdam had said to them when they laid down their arms and he saw
what Khalid was doing with the B. Jadhima: ‘O B. Jadhima, the battle is
lost. I gave you full warning of the disaster into w r hich you have fallen.’
I have heard that Khalid and Abu’l-Rahman b. ‘Auf had words about this.
The latter said to him, ‘You have done a pagan act in Islam,’ to which he
replied that he had only avenged 'Abdu’I-Rahman’s father. He answered
that he was a liar because he himself had killed his father’s slayer; but
Khalid had taken vengeance for his uncle al-Fakih b. al-Mughira so that
there was bad feeling between them. Hearing of this the apostle said,
‘Gently, Khalid, leave my companions alone, for by God if you had a
mountain 1 of gold and spent it for God’s sake you would not approach the
merit of my companions.’

836 Now al-Fakih b. al-Mughira b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum, and
'Auf b. 'Abdu 'Auf b. 'Abdu’l-Harith b. Zuhra, and 'Affan b. Abu’l-'As b.
Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams had gone out trading to the Yaman. 'Affan took
his son 'Uthman and 'Auf took his son 'Abdu’l-Rahman. When they
returned they carried the money ot a man of B. Jadhima b, 'Amir, who had
died in the Yaman, to his heirs. One of their men called Khalid b. Hisham
claimed it and met them in the Jadhima territory before they could get to
the dead man’s family. They refused to give it up. A fight for the posses¬
sion of the money took place during which 'Auf and al-Fakih were killed,
'Affan and his son escaping. They seized the property of al-Fakih and
'Auf and took it away and 'Abdu’l-Rahman killed Khalid b. Hisham the
slayer of his father. Quraysh meditated an attack on B. Jadhima, but they
declared that the assault had not been planned by them and that they did
not know of it until afterwards. They offered to pay compensation for
blood and property and Quraysh agreed, and so war was avoided.

One of the B. Jadhima said, though some say it was a woman called
Salma:

Had not one tribe said to another. Be Muslims,

Sulaym, that day, would have met a strong opponent.

1 Lit. Uhud.

The Life of Muhammad ⁵

Busr and the men of Jahdam and Murra would have smitten them
Until they left the camels groaning in pain.

How many warriors did you see on the day of Ghumaysa’

Dead, never wounded before, always giving the wounds? 1
(War) made husbandless women remain with the marriagemakers
And separated the men who were married from their wives {817).

'Abbas b. Mirdas answered her; some say it was al-Jahhaf b. Hakim al-
Sulami:

Stop this idle talk: sufficient opponent
Are we always to the hero of the battle.

Khalid was more to be excused than you
The day he took the plain way in the affair.

Helped by God’s command driving towards you
(Horses) which stumble not going left and right.

They brought the news of Malik’s death in the plain when they went 837
down to it J

Stern visaged showing their teeth in clouds of dust.

If we have bereaved you, Salma,

You have left 2 men and women to bewail Malik.

Al-Jahhaf b. Hakim al-Sulami said:

Horses given free rein were with the prophet at Hunayn
Bleeding from their wounds;

In Khalid’s raid too their hooves
Galloped in the sacred area.

We set our faces against the spears
Faces never given to be slapped.

I am not one to throw my garments from me 3
Whenever a warrior shakes his lance,

But my colt beneath me bears me
To the heights 4 with my sharp sword.

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughira b. al-Akhnas from al-Zuhri from Ibn
Abu Hadrad al-Aslaml told me: I W'as with Khalid’s cavalry that day when
a young man of the B. Jadhima who was about my own age spoke to me.

. is hands were tied to his neck by an old rope and the women were stand¬
ing in a group a short distance away. He asked me to take hold of the rope
and lead him to the women so that he might say what he had to say and
then bring him back and do what w^e liked with him. I said that that was a

t J U JT yajr °t fea , d herC ’ the meaning would 'Dead, having wounded no one
though they could have done so (had they had the chance)/ 9

haVe b r/ ft ’- In the absence of further information one can only adopt what
seems the more probable sense: you were the aggressors when you killed Malik

. -I. -0 ' t0 experae himself so as to obtain quarter from his opponent; or, if thiydb here means

mad , to reduce his weight so that his mount could run away the faster.

Perhaps meaning ‘to the heights of glory’.

s 5 4 The Life of Muhammad

small thing to ask and I led him to them. As he stood by them he said,

' Fare you well, Hubaysha, though life is at an end.

Tell me when I sought and found you in Halya
Or came on you in al-Khawaniq,

Was I not a lover worthy to be given what he asked.

Who undertook journeys by night and noonday?

I did no wrong when I said when our people were together,
Reward me with love before some misfortune befalls!

Reward me with love before distance divides
And the chief goes off with a dear one thus parted.

For I was never disloyal to our secret troth
And my eye never looked admiringly at another.

When the tribe’s troubles distracted me from love
Even then the attraction of love was there (818).

The same authority told me that she said: 'May your life be prolonged
seven and ten continuous years and eight thereafter. Then I too tm

awav and he was beheaded. „ . , ,, c

Abu Firas b. Abu Sunbula al-Aslami from some of their shaykhs from

one who was present said: She went to him when he was beheaded and
bent over him and kept on kissing him until she died at his side.

One of the B. Jadhima said:

God requite Mudlij for the evil they did us
Wherever they go or rest.

They took our goods and divided them;

The spears came at us not once nor twice. ^

Were it not for the religion of Muhammad s people
Their cavalry 1 would have fled and been driven off.

What hindered them from helping a squadron
Like a swarm of locusts loose and scattered abroad ?

If they repent or return to their (right) way
We will not repay them for what the squadron lost. 2

Wahb of the B. Layth answered him:

We called 'Amir to Islam and the truth.

It is not our fault if 'Amir turned their backs.

What happened to 'Amir, confound them, is not our fault
Because their minds were foolish and went astray.

One of the B. Jadhima said:

Congratulate B. Ka'b on the coming of Khalid and his companions
The mom when the squadrons came on us.

Ibn Khuwaylid showed no desire for revenge.

1 Reading with C. khuyul. . . , „ ,

2 Or, reading the passive with W„ ‘for the squadron having been led astray .

The Life of Muhammad 565

You would have been content had vou not been there.

Our men do not keep their fools from us,

Nor is the malady of the day of al-Ghumaysa’ cured.

A young man of B. Jadhima who was leading his mother and his two 839
sisters in their flight from Khalid’s force said:

Set free your skirts, let your garments trail;

Walk as chaste women who do not quail.

We guard our women, we will not fail.

Young men of B. Jadhima known as B. Musahiq were composing rough
verse when they heard of Khalid, and one of them said:

Safra’ white of flanks whom a man with flocks and camels
Possesses, knows that I will do all a man can do this day.

And another said:

Safra’ who diverts her husband well knows,

She who eats but a morsel of meat,

That today I will deliver a swift blow

As one leaving the sacred area hits sluggish pregnant camels.

And another said:

No long-maned lion with ponderous paws,

Ferocious mien, and tawny whiskers, 1

Roaring ’twixt jungle and thicket when the morn is cold,

Whose only food is man,

Is bolder than I was that day, I swear.

khalid’s journey to destroy al-'uzzA

Then the apostle sent Khalid to al-'Uzza which was in Nakhla. It was a
temple which this tribe of Quraysh and Kinana and all Mudar used to
venerate. Its guardians and wardens were B. Shayban of B. Sulaym, allies
of B. Hashim. When the Sulami guardian heard of Khalid’s coming he
hung his sword on her, climbed the mountain on which she stood, and said:

O ‘Uzza, make an annihilating attack on Khalid,

Throw aside your veil and gird up your train.

O 'Uzza, if you do not kill this man Khalid

Then bear a swift punishment or become a Christian. 2

When Khalid arrived he destroyed her and returned to the apostle.

1 I prefer this reading to W.’s shibal, 'cubs’.

1 For bu see Lane, 270c; ithm can stand both for crime and punishment. TanOffari really
means ‘become a Muslim’, because the speaker at that date saw no difference between the
two religions.

566 The Life of Muhammad

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdullah b. 'Utba b. Mas'ud
said: The apostle stayed in Mecca after he had occupied it for fifteen
nights, shortening prayers. The occupation of Mecca took place on the
20th Ramadan a.h. 8.

THE BATTLE OF HUNAYN, A.H. 8

When Hawazin heard how God had given the apostle possession of Mecca,
Malik b. 'Auf al-Nasri collected them together. There assembled to him
also all Thaqif and all Nasr and Jusham; and Sa'd b. Bakr, and a few men
from B. Hilal. There were no others present from Qays 'Aylan. Ka'b and
Kilab of Hawazin kept away and no one of any importance from them was
present. Among the B. Jusham was Durayd b. al-Simma, a very old man
whose sole remaining use was his valuable advice and his knowledge of war,
for he was an experienced leader. Thaqif had tw r o leaders: Qarib b. al-
Aswad b. Mas'ud b. Mu'attib commanded the Ahlaf, and Dhu’l-Khimar
Subay' b. al-Harith b. Malik and his brother Ahmar commanded the B.
Malik. The general direction of affairs lay with Malik b. *Auf al-Nasri.
When he decided to attack the apostle he placed with the men their cattle,
wives, and children. When he halted at Autas the men assembled to him,
among them Durayd b. al-Simma in a sort of howdah in which he was
carried. As soon as he arrived he inquired what wadi they were in and
when he was told that it was Autas he said that it was a fine place for
cavalry. ‘Not a hill with jagged rocks, nor a plain full of dust; but w'hy do
I hear the groaning of camels and the braying of asses, and the crying of
children and the bleating of sheep ? M They told him that Malik had brought
them with the men, and he immediately inquired for him and said, ‘O
Malik, you have become the chief of your people and this is a day which
will be followed by great events.’ He then inquired about the cattle and the
women and children, and Malik explained that his purpose in bringing
them and putting them behind the men was to make them fight to the
death in their defence. He made a sound indicative of dismay 2 and said:
‘You sheep-tender, do you suppose that anything will turn back a man that
runs away? If all goes well nothing will help you but sword and lance; if
it goes ill you will be disgraced with your family and property.’ Then he
asked what had happened to Ka'b and Kilab; and wdien he heard that they
were not there he said, ‘Bravery and force are not here; were it a day of
lofty deeds Ka'b and Kilab would not have stayed away. I wish that you
had done what they have done. What clans have you got ?’ They told him
'Amr b. 'Amir and 'Auf b. 'Amir and he said, ‘Those two sprigs of 'Amir
can do nothing either way. You’ve done no good, Malik, by sending for¬
ward the mainbody, the mainbody of Hawazin, to meet the cavalry. Send
them up to the high and inaccessible part of their land and meet the

1 The language is the oracular style of saj'.

2 Lit. ‘said Tchk'; other authorities say it means snapping the fingers.

The Life of Muhammad 567

apostates 1 on horseback. If all goes well those behind can join you, and if
the battle goes against you you wall have saved your families and stock.’

Malik answered, ‘I won’t do it. You are an old dotard. You will either
obey me, O Hawazin, or I will lean on my sword until it comes out from my
back.’ He could not bear Durayd’s having any credit in the matter. Hawa¬
zin said that they would obey him and Durayd said, ‘This is a day which
I did not witness (as a warrior) and did not altogether miss.’

Would that I were young again!

I would ride forward gently
Leading long-haired steeds
Like young antelopes (819).

(T. Durayd was the chief of the B. Jusham and their leader and greatest T- 1657
man, but old age had overtaken him so that he was feeble. His full name
was Durayd b. al-Simma b. Bakr b. 'Alqama b. Judaa b. Ghazlya b.

Jusham b. Muawiya b. Bakr b. Hawazin. Then Malik said to the men,

‘As soon as you see them, break your scabbards and attack them as one
man.’)

Umayya b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. 'Uthman informed me that he was told 842
that Malik sent out spies who came back with their joints dislocated. When
he asked what on earth had happened to them they said, ‘We saw white
men on piebald horses and immediately we suffered as you see.’ And, by
God, even that did not turn him back from the course he intended.

When the prophet heard about them he sent 'Abdullah b. Abu Hadrad
al-Aslaml to them and ordered him to go among them and stay with them
until he learned all about them, and then bring him back the news. 'Abdul¬
lah went and stayed with them until he learned that they had decided to
fight the apostle and the dispositions of Hawazin, and then came back to
tell the apostle. (T. The apostle called for Umar and told him w r hat Ibn
Abu Hadrad had said. 'Umar said that he was a liar. He replied, ‘You
may call me a liar, 'Umar, but for a long time you denied the truth.’ 'Umar
said, ‘Do you not hear what he says, O apostle?’ and the apostle answered,

‘You were in error and God guided you, 'Umar.’)

When the apostle decided to go out against Hawazin he was told that
Safwan b. Umayya had some armour and weapons, so he sent to him
though he was at that time a polytheist, saying, ‘Lend us these weapons of
yours so that we may fight our enemy tomorrow,’ Safwan asked, ‘Are you
demanding them by force, Muhammad?’ He said, ‘No, they are a loan
and a trust until we return them to you.’ He said that in that case there was
no objection and he gave him a hundred coats of mail with sufficient arms
to go with them. They allege that the apostle asked for transport to carry’
them and he provided it.

Then the apostle marched with 2,000 Meccans and 10,000 of his com¬
panions who had gone out with him when he conquered Mecca, 12,000 in

The fabi was one who changed his religion; in this case the newly converted Muslims.

5^8 The Life of Muhammad

843 all. The apostle left in charge of Mecca 'Attab b. Asid b. Abu’l-'Is b.
Umayya b. Abdu Shams to look after the men who had stayed behind.
Then he went forward to meet Hawazin.

'Abbas b. Mirdas al-SuIaml said:

This year the ghoul of their people has smitten RiT
In the midst of their tents, for the ghoul has many forms.

Alas for the mother of Kilab when the cavalry of Ibn Haudha
And Insan 2 came on them unopposed.

Deny not your kindred, strengthen the bonds with your proteges,
Your cousins are Sa'd and Duhman. 3

You will not return them though it is a flagrant disgrace (not to do so),
As long as milk is in the captured camels.

It is a disgrace by whose shame Hadan 4 has been covered
And Dhu Shaughar and Silwan 4 flow with it.

It is no better than what Hadhaf roasted

When he said, ‘All roasted wild ass is inedible.’ s

Hawazin are a good tribe save that they have a Yamanl disease:

If they arc not treacherous they are deceitful.

They have a brother—had they been true to their covenant
And had w'e reduced them by w’ar they would have been kindly.
Take to Hawazin one and all
A plain message of advice from me.

I think God’s apostle will attack you in the morning
With an army extending over all the plain;

Among them your brother Sulaym who will not let you go.

And the Muslims, God’s servants, Ghassan.

On his right are the Banu Asad

And the redoubtable Banu 'Abs and Dhubyan.

The earth almost quaked in fear,

And in the van are Aus and 'Uthman.

Aus and 'Uthman are two tribes of Muzayna (820).

844 Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from Sinan b. Abu Sinan al-Du’alt from Abu
Waqid al-Laythl told me that al-Harith b. Malik said: We went forth with
the apostle to Hunayn fresh from paganism. The heathen Quraysh and
other Arabs had a great green tree called Dhatu Anwat to which they used
to come every year and hang their weapons on it and sacrifice beside it and
devote themselves to it for a day. As we w r ere going with the apostle we
saw a great lote tree and wt called out to the apostle from the sides of the
way, 'Make us a tree to hang things on such as they have.’ He said, ‘Allah

1 A tribe of Sulaym, Hawazin and Sulaym were brother tribes.

1 A tribe of Qays of the clan of B. Na$r; or from B, Jusham b. Bakr. According to A. Dh.
they were a tribe of Hawazin.

3 Two sons of Na?r b. Mu'awiya b. Bakr of Hawazin.

4 Hadan is a mountain in Najd. Dhu Shaughar and Silwan are wadis.

5 A paraphrase of the somewhat coarse original.

The Life of Muhammad 569

akbar! By Him who holds my life in His hand, You have said what Moses’
people said to him: ‘ “Make us a god even as they have gods.’’ He said,
“You are an ignorant people. You would follow the customs of those
who were before you.”

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada from 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Jabir from his
father Jabir b. 'Abdullah told me: When we approached Wadi Hunayn we
came down through a wadi wide and sloping. We were descending gradu¬
ally in the morning twilight. The enemy had got there before us and had
hidden themselves in its bypaths and side tracks, and narrow places. They
had collected and were fully prepared, and by God we were terrified when,
as we were coming down, the squadrons attacked us as one man. The
people broke and fled none heeding the other. The apostle withdrew to
the right and said, ‘Where are you going, men ? Come to me. I am God’s
apostle. I am Muhammad the son of 'Abdullah.’ And not for nothing did
the camels bump one into the other. The men ran away except that a 845
number of Muhajirs and Ansar and men of his family remained with the
apostle. Of the Muhajirs who stood firm were Abu Bakr and 'Umar; of
his family 'All and al-'Abbas and Abu Sufyan b. al-Harith and his son; and
al-Fadl b. 'Abbas, and Rabi'a b. al-Harith and Usama b. Zayd and Ayman
b. Umm Ayman b. 'Ubayd who w r as killed that day (821).

There was a man of Hawazin on a red camel carrying a black banner at
the end of a long spear leading Hawazin. When he overtook a man he
thrust him with his spear. When people moved out of his reach he lifted
his spear to those behind him and they went after them.

When the men fled and the rude fellows from Mecca who were with the
apostle saw the flight some of them spoke in such a W'ay as to disclose their
enmity. Abu Sufyan b. Harb said, ‘Their flight will not stop before they
get to the sea!’ He had his divining arrows with him in his quiver. Jabala
b. al-Hanbal cried (822) (he together with his brother Safwan b. Umayya
was a polytheist during the respite which the apostle had given him):
‘Surely sorcery is vain today,’ Safwan said, ‘Shut up! God smash your
mouth! I w'ould rather be ruled by a man of Quraysh than a man of
Hawazin’ (823).

Shayba b. 'Uthman b. Abu Talha, brother of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar, said: I
said, Today I will get my revenge on Muhammad (for his father had been
killed at Uhud). Today I will kill Muhammad. I went round him to kill
him and something happened to stay my purpose so that I could not do it
and I knew that he was protected from me.

One of the Meccans told me that when the apostle left Mecca for Hunayn
and saw the great number of God’s armies that w r ere 'with him he said, ‘We 846
shall not be worsted today for want of numbers.’ Some people allege that
a man of B. Bakr said this.

Al-Zuhri from Kathlr b. al-'Abbas from his father told me: I was w'ith
the apostle holding the ring of the bridle which I had put between the jaws

1 Sura 7. 134.

57 ° The Life of Muhammad

of his white mule. I was a big man with a powerful voice. The apostle was
saying when he saw the army in confusion, ‘Where are you going, men?’
And not one of them paid heed, and he said, ‘O ‘Abbas cry loudly, “O
Ansar, O comrades of the acacia tree”’ and they answered ‘Here we are 1 ;
and a man would try to turn his beast and could not do it; and he would
take his mail and throw it on its neck, and take his sword and shield and get
off his mount and let it go its way and make for the voice until he came to
the apostle. Finally a hundred were gathered by him and they went
forward and fought. At first the cry was ‘To me, Ansar!' and finally ‘To
me, Khazraj!' They were steadfast in the fight and the apostle standing in
his stirrups looked down at the melee as they were fighting and said, ‘Now
the oven is hot. 11

Asim b. Umar b. Qatada from ‘Abdu’l-Rahman from his father Jabir
b. Abdullah said, While that man with the Hawazin standard on his camel
was doing as he did All and one of the Ansar turned aside making for him.
All came on him from behind and hamstrung his camel and it fell upon its
rump; and the Ansari leapt upon him and struck him a blow which sent his
foot flying with half his shank and he fell from his saddle. The men went
on fighting and, by God, when those who had run away returned they
found only prisoners handcuffed with the apostle.

847 The apostle turned to Abu Sufyan who was one of those who stood firm
with the apostle that day and was an excellent Muslim when he accepted
the faith, as he was holding on to the back of the saddle of his mule and
asked who it was. He replied, ‘I am your mother’s son, O apostle of
God.’ 2

Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that the apostle turned and saw Umm
Sulaym d. Milhan who was with her husband Abu Talha. She was wearing
a striped girdle and was pregnant with her son ‘Abdullah b. Abu Talha.
She had her husband’s camel with her and was afraid that it would be too
much for her, so she brought its head near to her and put her hand in the
nose ring of hair along with the nose rein. After telling the apostle who
she was in response to his question she said, ‘Kill those who run away from
you as you kill those who fight you, for they are> worthy of death! 1 The
apostle said, ‘Rather God will save (me the need), O Umm Sulaym! 1 She
had a knife with her and Abu Talha asked why, and she said, ‘I took the
knife so that if a polytheist came near me I could rip him up with it! 1 He
said, ‘Do you hear what Umm Sulaym al-Rumaysa 1 says, O apostle? 1

When he set out for Hunayn the apostle had joined B. Sulaym to al-
QahhSq b. Sufyan al-Kil 5 bI so that they went along with him. And w r hen
the men fled Mslik b. 'Auf said, addressing his horse:

Forward, Muhaj! 3 This is a difficult day
Such as I on such as thee turns ever to the fight.

1 Wafts, a play on the name Autas.

• £[ e wa8 ac tually his cousin. Mother here stands for grandmother.

5 The name of his horse.

The Life of Muhammad 571

If the front and rear ranks are lost
Still they come band after band,

Squadrons the eyes tire in counting.

I used to thrust with a spear dripping with blood.

When the lurking craven tvas blamed
I would make a wide gash whence blood gushed audibly;

Blood spurting from its midst, 848

Sometimes in spouts, sometimes quietly flowing,

The spear shaft broken in it.

O Zayd, O Ibn Hamham, where are you fleeing?

Now teeth are gone, old age has come.

The white long-veiled women know

That I am no tyro in such affairs

When the chaste wife is sent out from the curtains. 1

Malik also said:

Forward, Muhaj! They are fine horsemen.

Do not think that the enemy have gone (824).

‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that he was told from Abu Qatada al-
Ansarl; and one of our companions whom I have no reason to suspect told
me from Nafi', client of B. Ghifar Abu Muhammad from Abu Qatada, that
the latter said: On the day of Hunayn I saw two men fighting, a Muslim
and a polytheist. A friend of the latter was making to help him against the
Muslim, so I went up to him and struck off his hand, and he throttled me
with the other; and by God he did not let me go until I smelt the reek of
blood (825). He had all but killed me and had not loss of blood weakened
him he would have done so. But he fell and I struck and killed him, and
was too occupied with the fighting to pay any more attention to him. One
of the Meccans passed by and stripped him, and when the fighting was
over and we had finished with the enemy the apostle said that anyone who
had killed a foe could have his spoil. I told the apostle that I had killed a
man who was worth stripping and had been too occupied with fighting at
the time and that I did not know who had spoiled him. One of the Meccans 849
admitted that I had spoken the truth and that the spoil was in his posses¬
sion. ‘So pay him to his satisfaction on my behalf from his spoil. 1 Abu
Bakr said, ‘No, by Allah, he shall not “give him satisfaction’ 1 from it. Are
you going to make one of God’s lions w r ho fought for His religion go shares
with you in his prey ? Return the spoil of the man he killed to him!’ The
apostle confirmed Abu Bakr’s words, so I took the spoil from him and sold
it and bought with the money a small palm-grove. It is the first property
I ever held.

One I do not suspect told me from Abu Salama from Ishaq b. 'Abdullah
b. Abu Talha from Anas b. Malik: Abu Talha alone took the spoil of
twenty men.

1 i.e. when the enemy attack the encampment and the women cannot be protected.

573

572 The Life of Muhammad

My father Ishaq b. Yasar told me that he was told from Jubayr b.
Mut'im: Before the people fled and men were fighting one another I saw
the like of a black garment coming from heaven until it fell between us and
the enemy. I looked, and lo black ants everywhere filled the wadi. I had
no doubt that they were the angels. Then the enemy fled.

When God put to flight the polytheists of Hunayn and gave his apostle
power over them a Muslim woman said:

Allah’s cavalry have beaten Al-Lat’s cavalry
And Allah best deserves to hold fast (826).

When Hawazin were put to flight the killing of Thaqlf among the B.
Malik w r as severe and seventy of them were killed beneath their flag, among
whom were 'Uthman b. 'Abdullah b. Rabl'a b. al-Harith b. Habib. Their
flag was with Dhu’l-Khimar. When he was killed 'Uthman b. 'Abdullah
took it and fought by it until he was killed.

'Amir b. Wahb b. al-Aswad told me that when news of his death reached
the apostle he said, ‘God curse him! He used to hate Quraysh.’

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughira b. al-Akhnas told me that a young un¬
circumcised Christian slave was killed w r ith 'Uthman, and while one of the
Ansaris w'as plundering the slain of Thaqlf he stripped the slave to plunder
him and found that he was uncircumcised. He called out at the top of his
voice, ‘Look, you Arabs, God knows that Thaqlf are uncircumcised.’
Mughira b. Shu'ba took hold of his hand, for he was afraid that this report
would go out from them among the Arabs, and told him not to say that,
for the man concerned was only a Christian slave. Then he began to un¬
cover the slain and showed that they were circumcised.

The flag of the Ahlaf was with Qarib b. al-Aswad, and when the men
were routed he leant it against a tree, and he and his cousins and his people
fled. Only two men of the Ahlaf were killed and one of the B. Ghiyara
called Wahb and another of B. Kubba called al-Julah. When the apostle
heard of the killing of al-Julah he said, ‘The chief of the young men of
Thaqlf except Ibn Hunayda has been killed today, meaning by him al-
Harith b. Uways.

'Abbas b. Mirdas al-Sulaml, mentioning Qarib b. al-Aswad and his
flight from his father’s sons, and Dhu’l-Khimar and his shutting up his
people to death, said:

Who will tell Ghaylan and 'Urwa from me
(I think one who knows will come to him).

I send to tell you something

Which is different from what you say which will go round
That Muhammad is a man, an apostle to my Lord
Who errs not, neither does he sin.

We have found him a prophet like Moses,

Any who would rival him in goodness must fail.

The Life of Muhammad

Evil was the state of the B. Qasly in Wajj 1
When each one’s affairs were decreed.

They lost the day (and every f people has a ruler
And fortunes change).

We came on them like lions of the thickets,

The armies of God came openly.

We came at the main body of B. Qasly
Almost flying at them in our rage.

Had they stayed I swear we would have come at them
With armies and they would not have got away.

We were as lions of Liya 2 there until we destroyed them
And al-Nusur 3 were forced to surrender.

There was a day before that day at Hunayn which is past
And blood then flowed freely.

In former days there was no battle like this;

Men of long memories have never heard of such.

We slew B. Hutayt in the dust by their flags
While the cavalry turned away.

Dhu’l-Khimar was not the chief of a people
Who possessed intelligence to blame or disapprove.

He led them on the road to death
As everyone could see.

Those who escaped were choked with terror,

A multitude of them were slain.

The languid man could not help in such a case
Nor he who was too shy and hesitant to attack.

He destroyed them and he perished himself.

They had given him the leadership and the leaders fled.

Banu 'Auf’s horses went at a fair pace
Fed on fresh grass and barley.

But for Qarib and his father’s sons
The fields and castles would have been divided,

But they attained prominence
By the lucky advice they were given.

They obeyed Qarib and they had good fortune
And good sense that brought them glory.

If they are guided to Islam they will be found
Leaders of men while time lasts.

If they do not accept it they call
For God’s war in which they will have no helper.

As war destroyed the B. Sa'd
And fate the clan of B. Ghazlya.

The B. Mu'awiya b. Bakr

s QasI is a name of Thaqlf and Wajj is a wadi in al-'Pa’if.

1 A place near al-Ta’if. 3 The family of Malik b. 'Auf a!-Na?ri.

574

The Life of Muhammad

Were like a flock of sleep coming bleating to Islam.

We said, ‘Be Muslims; we are your brethren,

For our breasts are free from enmity.’

852 When the people came to us they seemed
Blind to hatred after peace had come (827).

When the polytheists were routed they came to al-Ta’if. Malik b. 'Auf
was with them and others were encamped in Autas. Some of them made
for Nakhla, but only the B. Ghiyara of Thaqif. The apostle’s cavalry fol¬
lowed those who took the road to Nakhla, but not those who went to the
passes.

Rabl'a b. Rufay' b. Ubiban b. Tha'Iaba b. Rabl'a b. Yarbu' b. Sammal b.
'Auf b. Imru’ul-Qays who was called after his mother Ibn Dughunna more
often (828) overtook Durayd b. al-Simma and took hold of his camel’s
halter, thinking that he was a woman because he was in his howdah. And
lo, it was a man; he made the camel kneel and it was a very old man—
Durayd b. al-Simma. The young man did not know him and Durayd
asked him what he wanted and what was his name. He told him and said
that he wanted to kill him, and struck him with his sword to no effect.
Durayd said, ‘What a poor weapon your mother has given you! Take this
sword of mine that is behind the saddle in the howdah and strike me with
that above the spine and below the head, for that is the way I used to strike
men. Then when you come to your mother tell her that you have killed
Durayd b. al-Simma, for many’s the day I have protected your women.’ 1
The B. Sulaym allege that Rabl'a said, ‘When I smote him he fell and
exposed himself, and lo his crotch and the inside of his thighs were like
paper from riding horses bareback. When Rabl'a returned to his mother
he told her that he had killed him and she said, ‘By God, he set free
three mothers and grandmothers of yours.

853 'Amra d. Durayd said of Rabl'a’s killing him:

I’ faith I did not fear the army of fate
On Durayd’s account in the valley of Sumayra.

God repay the B. Sulaym for him

And may ingratitude rend them for what they have done.

May He give us the blood of their best men to drink
When we lead an army against them.

Many a calamity did you avert from them
When they were at the point of death.

Many a noble woman of theirs did you free
And others you loosed from bonds.

Many a man of Sulaym named you noble
As he died when you had answered his call.

Our reward from them is ingratitude and grief

1 Maw. 68 quotes two lines of verse attributed to Durayd which may have been in the
Maghazt. Cf. FJamdsa, 377.

575

The Life of Muhammad

Which melts our very bones.

May the traces of your cavalry after hard travel
In Dhu Baqar as far as the desert of al-Nuhaq be effaced!

'Amra also said:

They said, ‘We have killed Durayd.’ ‘True,’ I said,

And my tears flowed down my garment.

Were it not for Him who has conquered all the tribes
Sulaym and Ka'b would have seen what counsel to follow.

A great army of pungent smell 1
Would have attacked them continuously wherever they were (829).

The apostle sent Abu Amir al-Ash ari on the track of those who had
gone towards Autas and he overtook some of the fugitives. In the skir¬
mishes which followed Abu 'Amir was killed by an arrow' and Abu Musa
al-Ash'arl, his cousin, took the standard. He continued the fight and God
gave him the victory and routed the enemy. It is alleged that Salama b.
Durayd shot Abu 'Amir in the knee and the w'ound proved fatal. He said:

If you ask about me I am Salama, g 54

The son of Samadlr to one who asks further.

I smite with my sword the heads of the Muslims.

Samadlr was his mother.

The B. Nasr killed many of B. Ri’ab and they allege that 'Abdullah b.
Qays, called b. al-'Aura , one of B. Wahb b. Ri’ab, said to the apostle,

‘B. Ri’ab have perished,’ and they allege that the apostle said, ‘0 God,
make good their losses.’

Malik b. 'Auf during the flight stopped with some of his horsemen at a
pass on the road and told them to wait until the weak ones passed and
those in the rear had caught up, and they did so. Malik said of that:

Were it not for two charges on Muhaj

The way would be difficult for the camp followers.

But for the charge of Duhman b. Nasr

At the palms where al-Shadiq 2 flows

Ja'far and Banu Hilal w'ould have returned discomfited

Riding two on a camel in their distress (830).

Salama b. Durayd who was conducting his wife until he escaped them said: 855

You would have me forget though you are unhurt

And though you know that day at the foot of al-Azrub

That I protected you and walked behind you

Watching on all sides when to ride would have been a boon,

When every well--trained warrior with flowing locks

Fled from his mother and did not return to his friend (831).

1 Accoutrements were often polished with dung.

2 A wadi in the suburbs of al- r pa if.

576 The Life of Muhammad

856 One of our companions told us that the apostle that day passed by a
woman whom Khalid b. al-Walld had killed while men had gathered round
her. When he heard what had happened he sent word to Khalid and for¬
bade him to kill child, or woman, or hired slave.

One of B. Sa'd b. Bakr told me that the apostle said that day, ‘If you get
hold of Bijad, a man of B. Sa'd b. Bakr, don’t let him escape you,’ for he
had done great wrong. When the Muslims took him they led him away
with his family and with him (T. his sister) al-Shayma’d. al-Harith (T. b.
Abdullah) b. Abdu’l-'Uzza, foster-sister of the apostle. They treated her
roughly as they brought her along and she told the Muslims that she was
the foster-sister of the apostle, but they did not believe her until they had
brought her to the apostle.

Yazid b. 'Ubayd al-Sa'd! told me that when she was brought to the
apostle she claimed to be his foster-sister, and when he asked for proof she

857 said, ‘The bite you gave me in my back when I carried you at my hip.’ The
apostle acknowledged the proof and stretched out his robe for her to sit on
and treated her kindly. He gave her the choice of living with him in affec¬
tion and honour or going back to her people with presents, and she chose
the latter. The B. Sa'd allege that he gave her a slave called Makhul and a
slave girl; the one married the other and their progeny still exists (832).

The names of those martyred at Hunayn were:

From Quraysh of B. Hashim: Ayman b. 'Ubayd.

From B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza: Yazid b. Zama'a b. al-Aswad b.
al-Muttalib b. Asad. A horse of his called al-Janah threw him and
killed him.

From the Ansar: Suraqa b. al-Harith b. 'Adiy from B. 'Ajlan.

From the Ash'arlyun: Abu 'Amir al-Ash'ari.

The captives of Hunayn were brought to the apostle with their property.
Mas'ud b. *Amr al-Ghifari (T. al-Qari) was over the spoils and the apostle
ordered that the captives and the animals should be brought to al-Ji'rana
and be kept in w r ard there.

Bujayr b. Zuhayr b. Abu Sulma said about Hunayn:

But for God and His servant you would have turned back
When fear overwhelmed every coward 1
On the slope the day our opponents met us
While the horses galloped at full stretch,

Some running clutching their garments,

Others knocked sideways by hooves and chests.

858 God honoured us and made our religion victorious
And glorified us in the worship of the Compassionate.

God destroyed them and dispersed them all

And humiliated them in the worship of Satan (833).

1 Or with some authorities, ‘heart* ( jandn ).

The Life of Muhammad 577

'Abbas b. Mirdas said about the battle of Hunayn:

By the swift horses on the day of Muzdalifa

And by what the apostle recites from the Book

I liked the punishment Thaqlf got yesterday on the side of the valley.

They were the chief of the enemies from Najd

And their killing was sweeter than drink.

We put to flight all the army of B. Qasly.

The full weight fell on B. Ri’ab.

The tents of Hilal in Autas
Were left covered with dust.

If our horses had met B. Kilab’s army

Their women would have got up as the dust arose. 1

We galloped among them from Buss to al-Aural 2

Panting after the spoil

With a loud-voiced army, among them

The apostle’s squadron advancing to the fray (834).

'Atiya b. 'Ufayyif al-Nasri answered him:

Does Rifa'a boast about Hunayn?

And 'Abbas son of her who sucks milkless sheep!

For you to boast is like a maid who struts about
In her mistress’s robes while the rest of her is bare! 3

’Atiya spoke these two verses because of 'Abbas’s vehemence against
Hawazin. Rifa'a was of Juhayna.

'Abbas b. Mirdas also said:

O Seal of the Prophets, you are sen with the truth 859

With all guidance for the way.

God has built up love upon you

In His creation and named you Muhammad.

Then those who were faithful to your agreement with them,

An army over whom you set al-Pahhak,

A man with sharp weapons as though
When the enemy surrounded him he saw you. 4
He attacked those of (his) kith and kin
Seeking only to please God and you.

• Sc. ‘to wail over the dead.’

2 A place in Jusham country. The Aural are three black mountains near water belonging
to 'Abdullah b. Darim.

1 ihdb generally means a hide or skin but can be applied to the skin of a human being.

4 This is what the commentators propose, but the line seems impossibly bad. If we
understand dharab to mean ‘wound’ and treat yaraka as a by-form of ardka wdth hamza
softened to ya (cf. Suyuti’s Muzhtr, Cairo, i. 463) we could render:

A man scarred by weapons,

When the enemy surrounded him he was like an arak tree.

I owe this suggestion to Dr. Arafat. The arak is a thorny tree. The use of the accusative
for the nominative is not without parallel. Cf. W’right ii, 83.B.

P P

B 4080

578

The Life of Muhammad

I tell you I saw him charging in clouds of dust
Crushing the heads of the polytheists;

Now throttling with bare hands,

Now splitting their skulls with his sharp sword. 1
The B. Sulaym hastened before him
With continual cuts and thrusts at the enemy.

They walked beneath his banner there
Like lions with a haunt they mean to defend.

They did not hope for consideration of kinship
But obedience to their Lord and your love.

These were our doings for which we are renowned.

And our Helper is your Lord.

He said also:

If you saw, O Umm Farwa, our horses
Some led riderless and lame!

The battle had reduced their fitness,

Blood gushed from deep wounds.

Many a woman whom our prowess protected

From the hardship of war so that she 2 had no fear, said,

‘There are none like those who came to make an agreement
Which forged an inseparable link with Muhammad.*

A deputation among them Abu Qatan, Huzaba
And Abu’l-Ghuyuth and Wasi* and al-Miqna'

And he who led the hundred which brought
The nine hundred to a complete thousand.

Banu 'Auf and the clan of Mukhashin collected six hundred
And four hundred were brought from Khufaf
There when the prophet was helped by our thousand
He handed us a fluttering standard.

860 We conquered with his flag and his commission bequeathed 3
A glorious life and authority that will not cease.

The day that we formed the prophet’s flank

In the vale of Mecca when spears were quivering ’twas

Our answer to him who called us to our Lord in truth:

We went helmeted and unmailed alike,

With long mail whose mesh David chose
When he weaved iron, and Tubba' too.

By Hunayn’s two wells we had a train

Which slew the hypocrites—an immovable army.

By us the prophet gained victory; we are the people who
1 C. adds here:

Smiting the heads of the warriors with it

If you had seen as I saw his prowess you would have been satisfied.

3 Or ‘her people’ { sirbuhd ).

3 The choice of words brings out the double meaning of ‘tying’ and making an agreement.

579

The Life of Muhammad

In any emergency inflict loss and do well.

We drove off Hawazin that day with spears.

Our cavalry was submerged in rising dust
When even the prophet feared their bravery, and as they came en masse
The sun all but ceased to shine thereat.

Banu Jusham were summoned and the hordes of Nasr
In the midst while the spears w r ere thrusting
Until the apostle Muhammad said,

‘O Banu Sulaym, you have kept your word, now desist.’

We went off and but for us their bravery

Would have injured the believers and they would have kept what they
had gained.

He also said:

Mijdal is deserted by its people and Mutali' 1
And the plain of Arlk, and its cisterns are empty.

We had homes, O Juml, when all life was pleasant
And the change of abode 2 brought the tribe together.

Long absence afar has changed my beloved,

But can a happy past ever return ?

If you seek the unbelievers I do not blame you,

But I am a helper and follower of the prophet.

The best of embassies I know summoned us to them,

Khuzayma, and al-Marrar and Wasi',

So w’e came with a thousand of Sulaym finely clad
In armour woven by David.

We hailed him lord at the two mountains of Mecca
And it was to God that we paid homage.

We entered Mecca publicly with the guided one by force of arms,

While the dust arose in all directions.

Sweat covered the backs of the horses 861

And warm blood from within grew hotter.

On the day of Hunayn when Hawazin came against us
And we could scarcely breathe
We stood steadfast with al-Dahhak;

Struggle and combat did not dismay us.

In front of the apostle a banner fluttered above us
Like the rapid movement of a cloud.

The night that Dahhak b. Sufyan fought with the apostle’s sword
And death was near

We defended our brother from our brother. 3

1 Mutali* is a mountain in Najd.

2 One MS. has dahri 'time’s changes’ which is a cliche that is often used bv the poets and
may well be right here.

3 The point is that he is of Sulaym who was from Qays to whom Hawazin belonged. The
line runs: 'Aylan Qays—Khasafa—'Ikrima—Mansur, the ‘father’ of Hawazin and Sulaym.

580 The Life of Muhammad

Had we a choice we would have followed our own kin,

But God’s religion is the religion of Muhammad.

We are satisfied with it; it contains guidance and laws.

By it he set our affairs right after we had erred
And none can avert the decree of God.

He also said:

The last link with Umm Mu’ammal is broken,

She has changed her mind contrary to her promise;

She had sworn by God she would not break the link,

But she did not keep her word or fulfil her oath.

She is of Banu Khufaf who summer in the vale of al-'Aqlq 1
And occupy Wajra and 'Urf in the deserts.

Though Umm Mu’ammal follows the unbelievers

She has made me love her more despite her distance from me.

Someone will tell her that we refuse to do so

And seek only our Lord in alliance;

And that we are on the side of the guide, the prophet Muhammad,
And number a thousand which (number) no (other) tribe reached.

With strong warriors of Sulaym
Who obey his orders to the letter,

Khufaf and Dhakwan and 'Auf whom you would think
Were black stallions walking among the she-camels
As though our reddish-white mail and helmets 2
Clothed long-eared lions which meet one another in their lairs.

By us God’s religion is undeniably strong.

We added a like number to the clan that was with him.

When we came to Mecca, our banner
Was like an eagle soaring to dart on its prey
862 (Riding) on horses which gazed upwards.

You would think when they gallop in their bits there is a sound of
jinn among them, 3

The day we trod down the unbelievers

And found no deviation or turning from the apostle’s order.

In a battle mid which the people heard only
Our exhortations to fight and the smashing of skulls
By swords that sent heads flying from their base
And severed the necks of warriors at a blow.

Often have we left the slain cut to pieces

1 A wadi in the Hijaz.

2 The reading here should be bayda ‘helmets’, not btda ‘swords’ as in C. The word is left
unpointed in W. The poet is comparing the chain flaps depending from the helmets to the
long ears of lions.

3 This line is difficult. A.Dh. says marawidiha means its pegs or pins ( ivatid) while S.
suggests that it means'‘where animals pasture’, i.e. go to and fro. I am indebted to Dr. W.
Arafat for the rendering given above.

The Life of Muhammad 581

And a widow crying Alas! over her husband.

’Tis God not man we seek to please;

To Him belongs the seen and the unseen.

He also said:

What ails thine eye painful and sleepless,

Its lash feeling like a piece of chaff?

Sorrow brings sleeplessness to the eye
And tears now cover it, now flow down
Like a string of pearls with the stringer
The thread breaks and they are scattered.

How far off is the home of her you long for,

Al-Samman and al-Hafar stand in the way!

Talk no more of the days of youth.

Youth is gone and scant white locks have come,

And remember the fighting of Sulaym in their settlements;

And Sulaym have something to boast about:

They are the people who helped God

And followed the apostle’s religion while men’s affairs were confused.
They do not plant young palms in their midst
And cows do not low in their winter quarters.

But steeds like eagles are kept near them
Surrounded by multitudes of camels.

Khufaf and 'Auf were summoned on their flanks
And the clan of Dhakwan armed and keen to fight.

They smote the armies of the polytheists openly
In Mecca’s vale, and killed them quickly,

Until we departed, and their dead

Were like uprooted palms in the open valley.

On Hunayn’s day our stand strengthened religion
And with God that is stored up.

Then we risked death in the gloom

As the black scattered dust cleared away from the horses
Under the banner with al-Dahhak leading us
As a lion walks when he enters his thicket
In a narrow place where war pressed hard. 1
Sun and moon were almost blotted out by it.

We devoted our lances to God in Autas,

We helped whom we would and w r e became victorious
Until certain people returned to their dwellings, who
But for us and God would not have returned.

You will see no tribe great or small
But we have left our mark upon them.

1 Bevan queried this hemistich. Reckendorff, Ar. Syntax, 173 reads kalkalaha and ren¬
ders: ‘in einer Enge wo der Kampf seine Brust hin und her zerrt’; and refers to Noldeke,
Z. Gramm. 75 and Fleischer, i, 184 f.

582 The Life of Muhammad

He also said:

O rider with whom there hastens
A strong, sturdy, firm footed she-camel,

If you come to the prophet say to him as you should
When the assembly is quiet,

‘O best that ever rode a camel
Or walked the earth, if souls are weighed,

We were faithful to our covenant with you

When the cavalry were driven off by warriors and wounded

When there flowed from all the sides of Buhtha 1

A multitude which shook the mountain paths

Until W’e came on the people of Mecca with a squadron

Glittering with steel, led by a proud chief

Composed of Sulaym’s sturdiest men

Capped in strong iron mesh with iron top

Blooding their shafts when they dashed into battle.

You would think them glowering lions.

They engaged the squadron wearing their badges,

Sword and spear in hand.

At Hunayn we were a thousand strong
By which the apostle was reinforced.

They defended the believers in the vanguard.

The sun w'as reflected a thousand times from their steel.

We went forward, God guarding us,

And God does not lose those He guards.

We made a stand in Manaqib, 2

Which pleased God, w r hat a fine stand it was!

On the day of Autas we fought so fiercely
That the enemy had enough and cried Stop!

Hawazin appealed to the brotherhood between us—

The breast that supplied them with milk, is dry—

Until we left them like wild asses

Which wild beasts have continually preyed upon (835).

He also said:

We helped God’s apostle, angry on his account,

With a thousand warriors apart from unarmed men,

We carried his flag on the end of our lances,

His helper protecting it in deadly combat.

We dyed it with blood, for that w r as its colour,

The day of Hunayn when Safwan thrust with his spear.

We were his right w r ing in Islam,

We had charge of the flag and displayed it.

1 A clan of Sulaym. 1 On the Mecca-Ta’if road.

The Life of Muhammad 5 S 3

We were his bodyguard before other troops,

He consulted us and we consulted him.

He summoned us and named us intimates first of all
And we helped him against his opponents.

God richly rew r ard that fine prophet Muhammad

And strengthen him with victory, for God is his helper! (836)

He also said:

Who will tell the peoples that Muhammad, God’s apostle,

Is rightly guided wherever he goes ?

He prayed to his Lord and asked His help alone.

He gave it graciously fulfilling His promise.

We journeyed and met Muhammad at Qudayd,

He intending to do with us what God had determined.

They doubted about us in the dawn and then

They saw clearly warriors on horseback with levelled lances,

Firmly clad in mail, our infantry
A strong force like a rushing torrent.

The best of the tribe if you must ask

Were Sulaym and those who claimed to be Sulaym,

And an army of Helpers who did not leave him
Obeying what he said unquestioningly.

Since you have made Khalid chief of the army
And promoted him he has become a chief indeed
In an army guided by God whose commander you are
By which you smite the wicked with every right.

I sw r ore a true oath to Muhammad

And I fulfilled it with a thousand bridled horses.

The prophet of the believers said, Advance!

And we rejoiced that we were the vanguard.

We passed the night at the pool of Mustadlr;

There was no fear in us but desire and preparedness (for war).

We obeyed you till all the enemy surrendered

And until in the morning we overtook the crowd, the people of
Yalamlam. 1

The piebald steed with reddish barrel went astray 2
And the chief was not content till it was marked.

We attacked them like a flock of grouse the morning affrights.
Everyone was too concerned to see to his fellow,

From morn till eve till we left Hunayn
With its watercourses streaming with blood.

Wherever you looked you could see a fine mare

1 A halt two marches distant from Mecca for pilgrims coming from the Yaman

2 Even such a conspicuous animal was lost in the great crowd. The meaning of the next
line may be: ‘The old man was not content until he wore a distinguishing mark.

86 S

5§4

The Life of Muhammad

And its rider lying beside a broken lance.

Hawazin had recovered their herds from us

And it pleased them that we should be disappointed and deprived (of
them).

Damdam b. al-Harith b. Jusham b. 'Abd b. Habib b. Malik b. 'Auf b.
Yaqaza b. 'Usayya al-Sulami said concerning Hunayn (Thaqif had killed
Kinana b. al-Hakam b. Khalid b. al-Sharid, so he killed Mihjan and a
nephew of his, both of Thaqif):

We brought our horses without overdriving them
To Jurash 1 from the people of Zayyan and al-Fam,

Killing the young lions and making for the temples
Built before our day and not yet destroyed.

If you boast of the killing of Ibn al-Sharid
I have left many widows in Wajj. 2

866 I killed the two of them avenging Ibn al-Sharid

Whom your promise of protection deceived and he blameless.

Our spears slew the men of Thaqif
And our swords inflicted grievous wounds.

He also said:

Tell the men with you who have wives,

Never trust a woman

After what a woman said to her neighbour,

‘Had the raiders not returned I should have been in the house.’ 3
When she saw a man whom the fierce heat of a torrid land
Had left with blackened face and fleshless bones.

You could see his leanness at the end of the night
As he was clad in his mail for a raid.

I am always in the saddle of a thick short-haired mare,

My garment touching my belt ; 4
One day in quest of booty,

Another, fighting along with the Ansar.

How much fertile land have I travelled,

How much rough uneven ground at gentle pace
That I might change her state of poverty,

And she did not want me to return, the baggage! (837)

867 Malik b. 'Auf excusing his flight said:

Slit-eared camels straying from the track
Prevented sleep for even an hour.

Ask Hawazin do I not injure their enemy

1 In the Yaman. 2 A place in al-Ta’if.

3 i.e. at the disposal of callers.

4 As the horse rushed forward sword and belt and garments would face the same
direction. The husband is speaking at this point.

585

The Life of Muhammad

And help any of them who suffers a loss ?

Many a squadron did I meet with a squadron
Half of them mailed, half of them without armour.

Many a place w'hich would appal the bold
Did I occupy first, as my people well know.

I came down to it and left brothers coming down
To its waters—waters of blood; 1
When its waters rolled away they bequeathed to me
The glory of life and spoil to be divided.

You charged me with the fault of Muhammad’s people,

But God knows who is more’ungrateful and unjust.

You forsook me when I fought alone
You forsook me when Khath'am fought.

When I built up glory one of you pulled it down.

Builder and destroyer are not equal.

Many a man who becomes thin in winter, hasting to glory,

Generous, devoted to lofty aims,

I stabbed with a black shaft of Yazan’s work"

Headed by a long blade.

I left his wife turning back his friend 868

And saying, You cannot come at so-and-so.

Fully armed I opposed the spears
Like a target which is pierced and split.

An. anonymous poet also said about Hawazin mentioning their expedi¬
tion against the apostle with Malik b. 'Auf after he had acccepted Islam.

Recall their march against the enemy when they assembled
When the flags fluttered over Malik.

None was above Malik on the day of Hunayn 3
When the crown glittered on his head
Until they met courage when courage led them
Wearing their helmets, mail, and shields.

They smote the men till they saw none
Round the prophet and until dust hid him.

Then Gabriel was sent down from heaven to help them
And we were routed and captured.

If any other but Gabriel had fought us
Our noble swords would have protected us.

‘Umar al-Faruq escaped me when they were put to flight
With a thrust that soaked his saddle in blood. 4

1 Ghamra sometimes, as here, means ‘the thick of the fight .

2 Dhu Yazan, one of the kings of Himyar; v - s -

3 Or ‘Malik was a king, none above him’. j

4 This is the natural translation of the line, but as there is no record of ‘Umar having
been wounded in this battle the meaning may be that he escaped a thrust which would have
soaked his saddle in blood.

586 The Life of Muhammad

A woman of B. Jusham lamenting two of her brothers who were slain
at Hunayn said:

0 eyes, be generous with your tears
For Malik and al-'Ala’; be not niggardly.

They were the slayers of Abu ‘Amir
Who held a sword with streaky marks.

They left him a bleeding lump 1
Staggering, feebly unsupported.

Abu Thawab Zayd b. Suhar, one of B. Sa'd b. Bakr, said:

Have you not heard that Quraysh conquered Hawazin
(Misfortunes have their causes).

There was a time, Quraysh, when if we were angry
Red blood flowed because of our rage.

There was a time, Quraysh, when if we were angry
It seemed as though snuff were in our nostrils.

And now Quraysh drive us
Like camels urged on by peasants.

I am not in a position to refuse humiliation
Nor am I disposed to give in to them (838).

'Abdullah b. Wahb, one of B. Tamlm of the clan of Usayyid, answered
him:

By God’s command we smote those we met
In accordance with the best command.

When we met, O Hawazin,

We were saturating heads with fresh blood.

When you and B. Qasfy assembled
We crushed opposition like beaten leaves.

Some of your chiefs we slew

And we turned to kill both fugitive and standfast.

Al-Multath lay with outstretched hands,

His dying breath sounding like a gasping young camel.

If Qays 'Aylan be angry

My snuff has always subdued them.

Khadij b. al-'Auja’al-Nasrl said:

When we drew near to the waters of Hunayn
We saw repellent black and white shapes
In a dense well-armed throng; if they had thrown them
At the peaks of ‘Uzwa they would have become flat.

If my people’s chiefs had obeyed me
We should not then have met the thick 2 cloud

1 Cf - 8 * 6 - 4 .

2 I conjecture mutakaththif for mutakashshif which gives a poor sense. On p. 870. 7 the
MSS. vacillate between kathifan and kashifan, and again the former is the better reading.
However, some such meaning as ‘looming’ might be ascribed to mutakashshif. C. says it
means zahir.

The Life of Muhammad 587

Nor should we have met the army of Muhammad’s people,

Eighty thousand reinforced by Khindif.

THE CAPTURE OF AL-TA’iF, A.H. 8

When the fugitives of Thaqif came to al-Ta’if they shut the gates of the
city and made preparations for war. Neither 'Unva b. Mas'ud nor Ghay-
lan b. Salama were present at Hunayn or at the siege of al-Ta’if; they were
in Jurash learning the use of the testudo, the catapult, and other instru¬
ments. 1 When he had finished at Hunayn the apostle went to al-Ta’if.
Ka'b b. Malik when the apostle came to this decision said:

We put an end to doubt in the lowlands and Khaybar,

Then we gave our swords a rest.

We gave them the choice and could they have spoken
Their blades w'ould have said, Give us Daus or Thaqif.

May I be motherless if you do not see
Thousands of us in your courts.

We will tear off the roofs in the valley of Wajj
And we w r ill make your houses desolate.

Our swiftest cavalry will come on you
Leaving behind a tangled mass.

When they come dowm on your courts
You will hear a cry of alarm

With sharp cutting sw r ords in their hands like flashes of lightning
By which they bring death to those wdio would fight them
Tempered by Indian smiths—not beaten into plates.

You W’ould think that the flowing blood of the warriors
Was mingled w’ith saffron the morn the forces met.

Good God, had they no adviser
From the peoples who knew about us
To tell them that we had gathered

The finest blood horses and that we had brought an army
To surround the w r alls of their fort w'ith troops?

Our leader the prophet, firm,

Pure of heart, steadfast, continent,

Straightforward, full of wisdom, knowledge, and clemency;

Not frivolous nor light minded.

We obey our prophet and we obey a Lord
Who is the Compassionate, most kind to us.

If you offer peace we will accept it
And make you partners in peace and war.

If you refuse we will fight you doggedly,

’Twill be no weak faltering affair.

We shall fight as long as we live

1 Dubiir, a sort of testudo.

588

The Life of Muhammad

Till you turn to Islam, humbly seeking refuge.

We will fight not caring whom we meet
Whether we destroy ancient holdings or newly gotten gains.

How many tribes assembled against us
Their finest stock and allies!

They came at us thinking they had no equal
And we cut off their noses and ears
With our fine polished Indian swords,

Driving them violently before us
To the command of God and Islam,

Until religion is established, just and straight, and
Al-Lat and al-'Uzza and Wudd are forgotten
And we plunder them of their necklaces and earrings.

For they had become established and confident, 1
And he who cannot protect himself must suffer disgrace.

Kinana b. 'Abdu Yalll b. 'Amr b. 'Umayr answered him:

Hevvho covets us wishing to fight us (let him come).

We are in a w r ell-known home which we never leave.

Our fathers w'ere here long since
And we hold its wells and vineyards.

‘Amr b. 'Amir put us to the test aforetime 2
And the wise and intelligent told them about it.

They know if they speak the truth that we

Bring down the high looks of the proud. 3

We force the strong to become meek

And the w T rongdoer to become known to the discerning.

We wear light mail the legacy of one who burned men 4
Gleaming like stars in the sky.

•We drive them from us with sharp swords,

When they are draw'n from the scabbard we do not sheathe them.

Shaddad b. 'Arid al-Jushami said about the apostle’s expedition to al-
Ta’if:

Don’t help al-Lat for God is about to destroy her.

How can one who cannot help herself be helped ?

She that was burned in black smoke and caught fire.

None fighting before her stones, is an outcast. 5
When the apostle descends on your land
None of her people will be left wiien he leaves.

1 The meaning of this hemistich may be: ‘And then they professed (Islam) and had
peace’.

2 This is a hit at the Ansar through their common descent.

3 Twist into position the head turned aside in disdain.

4 i.e. ‘Amr b. 'Amir.

5 Lit. ‘not one for whom bloodwit must be paid’.

The Life of Muhammad 589

The apostle journeyed by Nakhlatu’l-Yamamya, and Qarn, and al-
Mulayh and Buhratu’I-Rugha’ of Liya, 1 A mosque was built there and he 872
prayed in it.

'Amr b. Shu'ayb told me that when he came there that day he allowed
retaliation for homicide, and that was the first time such a thing happened
in Islam. A man of B. Layth had killed a man of Hudhayl and he killed
him in retaliation. When he was in Liya the apostle ordered that the fort
of Malik b. 'Auf should be destroyed. Then he went on a road called
al-ipayqa. 2 As he was passing along it he asked its name. W’hen he was told
that it was ‘the strait’ he said, ‘No, it is the easy.’ 3 Then he went by Nakhb
till he halted under a lote tree called al-Sadira near the property of a man
of Thaqif. The apostle sent word to him, ‘Either come out or we will
destroy your wall.’ 4 He refused to come out so the apostle ordered his wall
to be destroyed.

He went on until he halted near al-Ta’if and pitched his camp there.
Some of his companions were killed by arrows there because the camp had
come too close to the wall of al-Ta’if and the arrows were reaching them.

The Muslims could not get through their wall for they had fastened the
gate. When these men w’ere killed by arrows he (T. withdrew and) pitched
his camp near where his mosque stands today. He besieged them for some
twenty days (839).

He had two of his wives with him: Umm Salama d. Abu Umayya (T.
and another with her). He struck two tents for them and prayed between
the tents. Then he stayed there. When Thaqif surrendered 'Amr b.
Umayya b. Wahb b. Mu'attib b. Malik built a mosque over the place
where he prayed. There was a pillar in the mosque. Some allege that the
sun never rises over it any day but a creaking noise 5 is heard from it. The
apostle besieged them and fought them bitterly and the two sides exchanged
arrows (840), until when the day of storming came at the w r all of al-Ta’if a 873
number of his companions went under a testudo and advanced up to the
wall to breach it. Thaqif let loose on them scraps of hot iron so they came
.out from under it and Thaqif shot them with arrows and killed some of
them. The apostle ordered that the vineyards of Thaqif should be cut
dow r n and the men fell upon them cutting them down.

Abu Sufyan b. Harb and al-Mughlra b. Shu'ba went up to al-Ta’if and
called to Thaqif to grant them safety so that they could speak to them.
When they agreed they called on the women of Quraysh and B. Kinana to
come out to them for they were afraid that they would be captured, but
they refused to come. They were Amina d. Abu Sufyan who was married
to *Urwa b. Mas'ud by whom she gave birth to Da’ud b. 'Urwa (844); and

1 These are places in the area of q’a’if.

1 As we should pay ‘a tight corner’ and therefore an inauspicious name which has to be
altered. 3 al-Yusra,

4 ha if means a wall and also the garden which it surrounds.

s naqtd. I. al-Athir, Nihaya, sub voce , explains this word from the creaking of a camel’s
litter and the noise given out by a roof when the wood moves (expands in the heat?).

590 The Life of Muhammad

al-Firasiya d. Suwayd b. 'Amr b. Tha'laba whose son was 'Abdu’l-Rahman
b. Qarib; and al-Fuqaymlya Umayma d. the intercalator Umayya b. Qal'.
When they refused to come out Ibn al-Aswad b. Mas'ud said to the two
men, ‘Let me tell you of something better than that which you have come
about. You know where the property of B. Aswad is.’ (The apostle was
between it and al-Ta’if in a valley called al-'Aqiq.) ‘There is no property in
al-Ta’if more laborious to water, harder to cultivate, and more difficult to
maintain than this property of B. Aswad. If Muhammad cuts down its
trees it will never be cultivated again, so speak to him and let him take it for
himself or leave it to God and kinsmen, for there is a well-known relation¬
ship between us.’ They allege that the apostle left it to them.

I have heard that the apostle said to Abu Bakr while he was besieging
al-Ta’if, ‘I saw (in a dream) that I was given a bowl of butter and a cock
pecked at it and spilt it.’ Abu Bakr said, ‘I don’t think that you will attain
874 your desire from them today.’ The apostle said that he did not think so
either.

Then Khuwayla d. Hakim b. Umayya b. Haritha b. al-Auqas al-Sula-
miya, wife of ‘Uthman b. Maz'un, asked the apostle to give her the
jewellery of Badiya d. Ghaylan b. Salama, or the jewellery of al-Fari'a d.
'Aqil if God gave him victory over al-Ta’if, for they were the best be¬
jewelled women of Thaqif. I have been told that the apostle said to her,
‘And if Thaqif is not permitted to me, O Khuwayla?’ She left him and
went and told 'Umar, who came and asked the apostle if he had really said
that. On hearing that he had, he asked if he should give the order to break
camp, and receiving his permission he did so.

When the army moved off Sa'id b. 'Ubayd b. Asid b. Abu 'Amr b.
'Allaj called out, ‘The tribe is holding out.’ f Uyayna b. Hisn said, ‘Yes,
nobly and gloriously.’ One of the Muslims said to him, ‘God smite you,
'Uyayna! Do you praise the polytheists for holding out against the apostle
when you have come to help him?’ ‘I did not come to fight Thaqif with
you,’ he answered, ‘but I wanted Muhammad to get possession of al-Ta’if
so that I might get a girl 'from Thaqif whom I might tread (T, make
pregnant) so that she might bear me a son, for Thaqif are a people who
produce intelligent children.’

During his session there some of the slaves besieged in al-Ta’if came
to him and accepted Islam and he freed them. One whom I do not suspect
from ‘Abdullah b. Mukaddam from men of Thaqif said that when al-
Ta’if surrendered some of them talked about these slaves, but the apostle
refused to do anything saying that they were God’s free men. One of those
who spoke about them was al-Harith b. Kalada (842).

Now Thaqif had seized the family of Marwan b. Qays al-Dausi, he
8?S having become a Muslim and helped the apostle against Thaqif. Thaqif
allege—and Thaqif is the ancestor on whom the tribe’s claim to be of Qays
is based—that the apostle said to Marwan b. Qays, ‘Seize in revenge for
your family the first man of Qays that you meet.’ He met Ubayy b. Malik

The Life of Muhammad 591

al-Qushayri and took him until they should return his family to him.
AI-Dahhak b. Sufyan al-Kilabi took the matter in hand and spoke to Thaqif
until they let Marwan’s family go, and he freed Ubayy. Al-Dahhak in
reference to what passed between him and Ubayy said:

Will you forget my kindness, O Ubayy b. Malik,

The day the apostle looked away from you ?

Marwan b. Qays led you by his rope
Submissive as a well-trained beast.

Some of Thaqif behaved badly to you,

(If anyone comes to them asking for trouble they get it!)

Yet they were your relatives and their minds turned to you
When you were almost in despair (843).

These are the names of the Muslims who were martyred at al-Ta’if:

From Quraysh: the clan of B. Umayya b. 'Abdu Shams: Sa'id b. Sa'id
b. al-'As b. Umayya; and 'Urfuta b. Jannab, an ally from al-Asd b. al-
Ghauth (844); the clan of B. Taym b. Murra: 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr was
shot by an arrow and died of it in Medina after the death of the apostle;
the clan of Makhzum: 'Abdullah b. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira from an
arrow that day; the clan of B. 'Adiy b. Ka'b: 'Abdullah b. 'Amir b. Rabi'a
an ally; the clan of B. Sahm b. 'Amr; Al-Saib b. al-Harith b. Qays b.
'Adiy and his brother 'Abdullah; the clan of B. Sa'd b. Layth: Julayha b
'Abdullah.

From the Ansar: from B. Salima: Thabit b. al-Jadha'; from B. Mazin 876
b. al-Najjar: al-Harith b. Sahl b. Abu Sa'sa'a; from B. Sa'ida: al-Mundhir
b. 'Abdullah; from al-Aus: Ruqaym b. Thabit b. Tha'laba b. Zayd b.
Laudhan b. Mu'awiya.

Twelve of the apostle’s companions were martyred at al-Ta’if, seven
from Quraysh, four from the Ansar, and a man from B. Layth.

When the apostle left al-Ta’if after the fighting and the siege Bujayr b.
Zuhayr b. Abu Sulma said commemorating Hunayn and al-Ta’if:

(Al-Ta’if) was a sequel to the battle of Hunayn
And Autas and al-Abraq when
Hawazin gathered their force in their folly
And were dispersed like scattered birds.

The (men of al-Ta’if) could not hold a single place against us
Except their wall and the bottom of the trench.

We showed ourselves that they might come forth,

But they shut themselves in behind a barred gate.

Our unmailed men returned 1 to a strong surging force
Fully armed glittering with death-dealing weapons;

Compact, dark green, (if one threw them at Hadan 2
It would become as though it had not been created) 3

1 The alternative 'wearied men' (pi. of hasir) seems less fitting. Hasra is pi. of hasir.

A mountain in Najd. 3 j. e _ as ncvcr th cre at all.

592

The Life of Muhammad

With the gait of lions 1 walking on thorns, as though we were horses 2
Now separated now coming together as they are led,

In long armour which whenever it is donned
Is like a shimmering pool ruffled by the wind;

Well-woven armour which reaches to our sandals
Woven by David and the family of Muharriq. 3

DIVISION OF THE SPOIL OF HAWAZIN AND GIFTS TO
GAIN MEN'S HEARTS

When he left al-Ta’if the apostle went by way of Dahna until he stopped at
al-Ji'rana with his men, having a large number of Hawazin captives. One
of his companions on the day he left Thaqlf asked him to curse them but
877 he said, ‘O God, guide Thaqlf and bring them (to Islam).’

Then a deputation from Hawazin came to him in al-Ji'rana where he
held 6,000 women and children, and sheep and camels innumerable which
had been captured from them. 'Amr b. Shu'ayb from his father from his
grandfather 'Abdullah b. 'Amr said that the deputation from Hawazin came
to the apostle after they had accepted Islam, saying that the disaster which
had befallen them was well known and asking him to have pity on them for
God’s sake. One of the Hawazin of the clan B. Sa'd b. Bakr (T. it was they
who had provided the fostermother for the apostle) called Zuhayr Abu
Surad said: ‘O Apostle of God, in the enclosures are your paternal and
maternal aunts and the women who suckled you who used to look after
you. Had we acted as fosterparents for al-Harith b. Abu Shimr or al-
Nu'man b. al-Mundhir and then got into the position in which you hold
us we could hope for his kindness and favour, and you are the best of trust¬
worthy men’ (845).

(T. Then he said:

Have pity on us, apostle of God, generously,

For you are the man from whom we hope and expect pity.

Have pity on a people whom fate has frustrated,

Their well-being shattered by time’s misfortunes.)

The apostle said, ‘Which are dearest to you ? Your sons and your wives or
your cattle?’ They replied, ‘Do you give us the choice between our cattle
and our honour? Nay, give us back our wives and our sons, for that is
what we most desire.’ He said, ‘So far as concerns what I and the B.
'Abdu’l-Muttalib have they are yours. When I have prayed the noon
prayer with the men then get up and say, “We ask the apostle’s intercession
w r ith the Muslims, and the Muslims’ intercession with the apostle for our

1 Or ‘hounds’.

2 Following C. qudur which the commentators say means ‘horses that put the hind leg

where the foreleg has trod’. W. has fudur ‘camels’ or ‘wild goats’. It may be that camels are
meant. 1 i.e. 'Amr b. Hind, King of Hira.

The Life of Muhammad 593

sons and our wives.” I will then give them to you and make application on
your behalf.’ When the apostle had ended the noon prayers they did as he
had ordered them, and he said what he had promised to say. Then the
Muhajirs said that what was theirs was the apostle’s, and the Ansar said
the same. But al-Aqra b. Habis said, So far as I and B. Tamlm are con- 878
cerned, No.’ 'Uyayna b. Hisn said No on behalf of himself and B. Fazara
and so did 'Abbas b. Mirdas for himself and B. Sulaym; but B. Sulaym
said, ‘Not so; what is ours is the apostle’s.’ 'Abbas said to B. Sulaym, ‘You
have put me to shame.’ Then the apostle said, ‘He who holds to his right
to these captives shall have six camels for every man from the first booty I
(T. we) take.’ Then the women and children were returned to their men.

AbQ W'ajza Yazld b. 'Ubayd al-Sa'di told me that the apostle gave 'All
a girl called Rayta d. Hilal b. Hayyan b. 'Umayra b. Hilal b. Nasira b.
Qusayya b. Nasr b. Sa'd b. Bakr; and he gave 'Uthman a girl called Zaynab
d. Hayyan; and he gave 'Umar a girl whom 'Umar gave to his son 'Abdul¬
lah.

Nafi, a client of Abdullah b. Umar from 'Abdullah b. 'Umar, told me:

I sent her to my aunts of B. Jumah to prepare and get her ready for me until
I had circumambulated the temple and could come to them, wanting to
take her when I returned. When I had finished I came out of the mosque
and lo the men were running about, and when I asked why they told me
that the apostle had returned their wives and children to them, so I told
them that their woman was with B. Jumah and they could go and take her,
and they did so. 'Uyayna b. Hisn took an old woman of Hawazin and said
as he took her, ‘I see that she is a person of standing in the tribe and her
ransom may well be high.’ When the apostle returned the captives at a
price of six camels each he refused to give her back. Zuhayr Abu Surad
told him to let her go, for her mouth was cold and her breasts flat; she
could not conceive and her husband would not care and her milk was not
rich. So he let her go for the six camels when Zuhayr said this. They
allege that when 'Uyayna met al-Aqra' b. Habis he complained to him
about the matter and he said: By God, you didn’t take her as a virgin in 879
her prime nor even a plump middle age!’

The apostle asked the Hawazin deputation about Malik b. 'Auf and
they said that he was in al-Ta’if with Thaqlf. The apostle told them to tell
Malik that if he came to him as a Muslim he would return his family and
property to him and give him a hundred camels. On hearing this Malik
came out from al-Ta’if. He had been afraid that Thaqlf would get to know
what the apostle had said and imprison him, so he ordered that his camel
should be got ready for him and that a horse should be brought to him in
al-Ta’if. He came out by night, mounted his horse, and rode hard until he
got to the place where his camel was tethered, and rode off to join the
apostle, overtaking him in al-Ji'rana or Mecca. He gave him back his
family and property and gave him a hundred camels. He became an
excellent Muslim and at the time he said:

Qq

B 4080

594

The Life of Muhammad

I have never seen or heard of a man
Like Muhammad in the whole world;

Faithful to his word and generous when asked for a gift,

And when you wish he will tell you of the future.

When the squadron shows its strength
With spears and swords that strike,

In the dust of war he is like a lion
Guarding its cubs in its den.

The apostle put him in command of those of his people who had
accepted Islam, and those tribes (T. round al-Ta’if) were Thumala,
Salima, and Fahm. He began to fight Thaqlf with them: none of their
flocks could come out but he raided them until they were in sore straits
Abu Mihjan b. Habib b. 'Amr b. 'Umayr al-Thaqafi said:

Enemies have always dreaded our neighbourhood.

And now the Banu Salima raid us!

Malik brought them on us

Breaking his covenant and solemn word.

They attacked us in our settlements

And we have always been men who take revenge.

880 When the apostle had returned the captives of Hunayn to their people
he rode away and the men followed him, saying, ‘O apostle, divide our
spoil of camels and herds among us’ until they forced him back against a
tree and his mantle was torn from him and he cried, ‘Give me back my
mantle, men, for by God if you had (T. I had) as many sheep as the trees
of Tihama I would distribute them among you; you have not found me
niggardly or cowardly or false.’ Then he went to his camel and took a hair
from its hump and held it aloft in his fingers, saying, ‘Men, I have nothing
but a fifth of your booty even to this hair, and the fifth I will return to you;
so give back the needle and the thread; for dishonesty will be a shame and a
flame and utter ignominy to a man on the resurrection day.’ One of the
Ansar came with a ball of camel hair, saying, ‘O apostle, I took this ball to
make a pad for a sore camel of mine.’ He answered, ‘As for my share in
that you can keep it!’ ‘If it has come to that,’ he said, ‘I do not want it,’
and he threw it away (846).

The apostle gave gifts to those whose hearts were to be won over, notably
the chiefs of the army, to win them and through them their people. He

881 gave to the following 100 camels: Abu Sufyan b. Harb; his son Mu'awiya;
Hakim b. Hizam; al-Harith b. al-Harith b. Kalada brother of B. ‘Abdu’l-
Dar (847); al-Harith b. Hisham; Suhayl b. ‘Amr; Huwaytib b. 'Abdu’l-
*Uzza b. Abu Qays; al-'Ala’ b. Jariya al-Thaqafi an ally of B. Zuhra; ‘Uyay-
na b. Hisn b. Hudhayfa b. Badr; aI-Aqra‘ b. Habis al-Tamlml; Malik b.
‘Auf al-Nasri; and Safwan b. Umayya.

He gave less than 100 camels to the following men of Quraysh: Makh-
rama b. Naufal al-Zuhrt; ‘Umayr b. Wahb Jal-umahl; Hisham b. ‘Amr

The Life of Muhammad 595

brother of B. ‘Amir b. Lu’ayy and others. He gave 50 to Sa'Id b. Yarbu'

b. Ankatha b. ‘Amir b. Makhzum and to al-Sahml (848)

He gave Abbas b. Mirdas some camels and he was dissatisfied with them

and blamed the apostle in the following verses:

It was spoil that I gained

When I charged on my horse in the plain

And kept the people awake lest they should sleep

And when they slept kept watch.

My spoil and that of ‘Ubayd my horse
Is shared by ‘Uyayna and al-Aqra'.

Though I protected my people in the battle,

Myself unprotected I was given nothing

But a few small camels

To the number of their four legs!

Yet neither Habis nor Hisn 1
Surpass my father in the assembly,

And I am not inferior to either of them. 882

And he whom you demean today will not be exalted (849).

The apostle said, ‘Get him away and cut off his tongue from me,’ so they
gave him (camels) until he was satisfied, this being what the apostle meant
by his order (850)4

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Tayml told me that a companion 883
said to the apostle: ‘You have given ‘Uyayna and al-Aqra' a hundred camels
each and left out Ju‘ayl b. Suraqa al-Damr!!’ He answered, ‘By Him in
whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, Ju'ayl is better than the whole world
full of men like those two; but I have treated them generously so that they
may become Muslims, and I have entrusted Ju'ayl to his Islam.’

Abu 'Ubayda b. Muhammad b. 'Ammar b. Yasir from Miqsam Abu’l- 884
Qasim, freed slave of 'Abdullah b. al-Harith b. Naufal, told me: I went in
company with Talid b. Kilab al-Laythfto ‘Abdullah b. ‘Amr b. al-'As as he
was going round the temple with his sandals in his hand, and we asked him
whether he was with the apostle when the Tamlmlte spoke to him on the
day of Hunayn. He said that he was and that a man of Tamlm called
Dhu’l-Khuwaysira came and stood by the apostle as he was making gifts to
the men and said, ‘Muhammad, I’ve seen what you have done today.’
‘Well, and what do you think?’ he answered. He said, ‘I don’t think you
have been just.’ The prophet was angry and said, ‘If justice is not to be

1 They were the fathers of the two men mentioned in line 6.

2 I.H.’s note in which Sura 36. 69 is quoted rests on the absurd statement of an anony¬
mous traditionist that Muhammad was so ignorant of verse that he could not recognize
rhyme when he heard it, a poor compliment to the greatest Arab of all time. Here, for want
of a better place, I cite 1 . 1 . from al-Zuhri via Yunus (Sura 3b. 69): * ‘‘We have not taught him
verse. That does not befit him.” The meaning is ‘‘What We have taught him is not verse. It
is not fitting that he should bring verse from Us.” The apostle only uttered verse which had
been spoken by others before him.’ Akhbdru’-l-Nahtotytn al-Bafriyin, by al-Sirafi, ed. F.
Krenkow, Beyrut, 1936, pp. 72 f.

596 ' The Life of Muhammad

found with me then where will you find it ?’ Umar asked to be allowed to
kill him, but he said, ‘Let him alone, for he will have a following that will
go so deeply into religion that they will come out of it as an arrow comes
out of the target; you look at the head and there is nothing on it; you look
at the butt end and there is nothing on it; then at the notch and there is
nothing on it. It went through before flesh and blood could adhere to it/
Muhammad b. 'All b. al-Husayn, Abu Ja far, told me a similar story
and named the man Dhu’l-Khuwaysira. ‘Abdullah b. Abu Najlh told me
the same from his father (851).

T- 1683 (T. ‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that one of the apostle’s companions

who was at Hunayn with him said, ‘I was riding my camel by the side of the
apostle, wearing a rough sandal, when my camel jostled his and the toe of
my sandal hit the apostle’s shank and hurt him. He hit my foot with his
whip, saying, “You hurt me. Get behind!” so I went behind him. The
next morning the apostle was looking for me and I thought it was because
I had hurt his leg, so I came expecting (punishment); but he said, “You
hurt my leg yesterday and I struck yoqr foot with my whip. Now I have
summoned you to compensate you for it,” and he gave me eighty she-
camels for the one blow he struck me.’ 1

885 *Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada from Mahmud b. Labid from Abu Said al-
Khudri told me: When the apostle had distributed these gifts among
Quraysh and the Bedouin tribes, and the Ansar got nothing, this tribe of
Ansar took the matter to heart and talked a great deal about it, until one
of them said, ‘By God, the apostle has met his own people/ Sa'd b. 'Ubada
went to the apostle and told him what had happened. He asked, ‘Where do
you stand in this matter, Sa'd ?’ He said, ‘I stand with my people. Then
gather your people in this enclosure,’ he said. He did so, and when some

886 of the^Muhajirs came, he let them come, while others he sent back. When
he v had got them altogether he went and told the apostle, and he came to
them, and after praising and thanking God he addressed them thus: ‘O
men of Ansar, what is this I hear of you ? Do you think ill of me in your
hearts? Did I not come to you when you were erring and God guided
you; poor and God made you rich; enemies and God softened your hearts ?’
They answered* ‘Yes indeed, God and His apostle are most kind and
generous.’ He continued: ‘Why don’t you answer me, O Ansar?’ They
said, ‘How shall we answer you ? Kindness and generosity belong to God
and His apostle/ He said, ‘Had you so wished you could have said—and
you would have spoken the truth and have been believed—You came to us
discredited and we believed you; deserted and we helped you; a fugitive
and we took you in; poor and we comforted you. Are you disturbed in
mind because of the good things of this life by which I win over a people
that they may become Muslims while I entrust you to your Islam ? Are
you not satisfied that men should take away flocks and herds while you take

1 Some MSS. have here a gloss in which I.H. takes up the narrative of 1 . 1 . which he
broke off when he cut out the passage from 'J’abari that contains what 1.1. wrote.

The Life of Muhammad 597

back with you the apostle of God ? By Him in whose hand is the soul of
Muhammad, but for the migration 1 I should be one of the Ansar myself.

If all men went one way and the Ansar another I should take the way of the
Ansar. God have mercy on the Ansar, their sons and their sons’ sons.’ 2
The people wept until the tears ran down their beards as they said: ‘We are
satisfied with the apostle of God as our lot and portion’. Then the apostle
went off and they dispersed.

THE APOSTLE MAKES THE LESSER PILGRIMAGE FROM

al-ji'rana

Then the apostle left al-Ji'rana to make the lesser pilgrimage. He gave
orders that the rest of the spoil should be kept back in Majanna near
Marru’l-Zahran. Having completed the pilgrimage he returned to Medina.

He left 'Attab b. Asid in charge of Mecca. He also left behind with him
Mu'adh b, Jabal to instruct the people in religion and to teach them the 887
Quran. He himself was followed by the rest of the spoil (852).

The apostle’s pilgrimage was in Dhu’l-Qa'da, and he arrived in Medina
towards the end of that month or in Dhu’l-Hijja (853).

.... The people made the pilgrimage that year in the way the (pagan) Arabs
used to do. 'Attab made the pilgrimage with the Muslims tfiat year, A.H, 8.

The people of al-Ta’if continued in their polytheism and obstinacy in their
city from the time the apostle left in Dhu’l-Qa'da of the year 8 until Rama¬
dan of the following year.

THE AFFAIR OF KA'b B. ZUHAYR AFTER THE DEPARTURE
FROM AL-pA’lF

When the apostle arrived (at Medina) after his departure from al-Ta’if
Bujayr b. Zuhayr b. Abu Sulma wrote to his brother Ka'b telling him that
the apostle had killed some of the men in Mecca who had satirized and
insulted him and that the Quraysh poets who were left—Ibn al-Ziba'ra and
Hubayra b. Abu Wahb—had fled in all directions. ‘If you have any use for
your life then come quickly to the apostle, for he does not kill anyone who
comes to him in repentance. If you do not do that, then get to some safe
place/ Ka'b had said:

Give Bujayr a message from me:

Do you accept what I said, confound you ?

Tell us plainly if you don’t accept what I say

For what reason other than that has he led you

To a religion I cannot find his fathers ever held 888

And you cannot find that your father followed ?

1 Had he not been joined by the Muhajirs from Mecca who had remained faithful to him,
he would have severed his connexion with Quraysh altogether and joined the community of
Medina. * Similarly Musa b. 'Uqba, No. 10.

598 The Life of Muhammad

If you don’t accept what I say I shall not grieve
Nor say if you stumble God help you!

Al-Ma’mun has given you a full cup to drink
And added a second draught of the same (854).

Bujayr said to Ka'b:

Who will tell Ka'b that that for which you wrongly blame me
Is the better course ?

To God alone not al-'Uzza and al-Lat

You will escape and be safe while escape is possible,

On a day when none will escape
Except a Muslim pure of heart.

Zuhayr’s religion is a thing of naught

And the religion of Abu Sulma is forbidden to me.

Ka'b used the title al-Ma’mun (855) simply for the reason that Quraysh
used to name the apostle thus.

When Ka'b received the missive he was deeply distressed and anxious
for his life. His enemies in the neighbourhood spread alarming reports
about him saying that he was as good as slain. Finding no way out, he
wrote his ode in which he praised the apostle and mentioned his fear and
the slanderous reports of his enemies. Then he set out for Medina and
stayed with a man of Juhayna whom he knew, according to my informa¬
tion. He took him to the apostle when he was praying morning prayers,
and he prayed with him. The man pointed out the apostle to him and told
him to go and ask for his life. He got up and went and sat by the apostle
and placed his hand in his, the apostle not knowing who he was. He said,
‘O apostle, Ka'b b. Zuhayr has come to ask security from you as a repentant
Muslim. Would you accept him as such if he came to you? 1 When the
apostle said that he would, he confessed that he was Ka'b b. Zuhayr.

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that one of the Ansar leapt upon him
asking to be allowed to behead the enemy of God, but the apostle told him
to let him alone because he had come repentant breaking away from his
past. Ka'b was angry at this tribe of the Ansar because of what this man
had done and moreover the men of the Muhajirln spoke only tvell of him.
In his ode which he recited w r hen he came to the apostle he said:

Su'ad is gone, and today my heart is love-sick, in thrall to her, un¬
requited, bound with chains;

And Su'ad, when she came forth on the morn of departure, was but as
a gazelle with bright black downcast eyes.

When she smiles, she lays bare a shining row of side-teeth that seems
to have been bathed once and twice in (fragrant) wine—

Wine mixed with pure cold water from a pebbly hollow where the
north-wind blow's, in a bend of the valley,

From which the winds drive away every speck of dust, and it brims

The Life of Muhammad 599

over with white-foamed torrents fed by showers gushing from a
cloud of morn.

Oh, what a rare mistress were she, if only she were true to her promise
and would hearken to good advice!

But hers is a love in whose blood are mingled paining and lying and 890
faithlessness and inconstancy.

She is not stable in her affection—even as ghouls change the hue of
their garments—

And she does not hold to her plighted w r ord otherwise than as sieves
hold water.

The promises of 'Urqub were a parable of her, and his promises were
naught but vanity.

I hope and expect that women will ever be ready to keep their word;
but never, methinks, are they ready.

Let not the wishes she inspired and the promises she made beguile
thee: lo, these wishes and dreams are a delusion.

In the evening Su'ad came to a land whither none is brought save by
camels that are excellent and noble and fleet.

To bring him there, he wants a stout she-camel which, though
fatigued, loses not her wonted speed and pace;

One that largely bedews the bone behind her ear when she sweats, one
that sets herself to cross a trackless unknown wilderness;

Scanning the high grounds with eyes keen as those of a solitary white
oryx, when stony levels and sand-hills are kindled (by the sun);

Big in the neck, fleshy in the hock, surpassing in her make the other
daughters of the sire;

Thick-necked, full-cheeked, robust, male-like, her flanks wide, her
front (tall) as a milestone;

Whose tortoise-shell skin is not pierced at last even by a lean (hungry)
tick on the outside of her back;

A hardy beast whose brother is her sire by a noble dam, and her sire's
brother is her dam’s brother; a long-necked one and nimble.

The qurdd 1 crawls over her: then her smooth breast and flanks cause
it to slip off.

Onager-like is she; her side slabbed with firm flesh, her elbow-joint 2
far removed from the ribs;

Her nose aquiline; in her generous ears are signs of breeding plain for
the expert to see, and in her cheeks smoothness.

Her muzzle juts out from her eyes and throat, as though it were a
pick-axe.

She lets a tail like a leafless palm-branch with small tufts of hair hang
down over a sharp-edged (unrounded) udder from which its teats
do not take away (milk) little by little. 3

1 A large species of tick. 2 Le, the middle joint of the foreleg.

3 i.e. she is a camel for riding, not for milking.

6oo

The Life of Muhammad

Though she be not trying, she races along on light slender feet that
skim the ground as they fall,

With tawny hock-tendons—feet that leave the gravel scattered and are
not shod so that they should be kept safe from the blackness o t e

heaped stones, , ,

The swift movement of her forelegs, when she sweats and the mirage

enfolds the hills— ,

On a day when the chameleon basks in some high spot until its exposed

part is baked as in fire,

And, the grey cicalas having begun to hop on the gravel, the camel-
driver bids his companions take the siesta—

Resembles the beating of hand on hand by a bereaved grey-haire
woman who rises to lament and is answered by those who have lost

many a child, ,

One wailing shrilly, her arms weak, who had no understanding when

news was brought of the death of her firstborn son:

She tears her breast with her hands, while her tunic is rent in pieces

from her collar-bones. ,

The fools walk on both sides of my camel, saying, Y enly, O grandson
of Abu Sulma, thou art as good as slain’ ; x
And every friend of whom I was hopeful said, ‘I will not help thee out:

I am too busy to mind thee.’

I said, ‘Let me go my way, may ye have no father! for whatever the

Merciful hath decreed shall be done.

Every son of woman, long though his safety be, one day is borne upon

a gibbous bier.’ . , , . ,

I was told that the Messenger of Allah threatened me (with death), but
with the Messenger of Allah I have hope of finding pardon.
Gently! mayst thou be guided by Him who gave thee the gift of the
Koran, wherein are warnings and a plain setting-out (ofthe mat er).
Do not punish me, when I have not sinned, on account of what is said
by the informers, even should the (false) sayings about me be many.
Ay, I stand in such a place that if an elephant stood there, seeing

(what I see) and hearing what I hear,

The sides of his neck would be shaken with terror if there be no

forgiveness from the Messenger of Allah. t , .

I did not cease to cross the desert, plunging betimes into the darkness

when the mantle of Night is fallen, < ,

Till I laid my right hand, not to withdraw it, in the hand of the
avenger whose word is the word of truth.

For indeed he is more feared by me when I speak to him—and they

told me I should be asked of my lineage—

Than a lion of the jungle, one whose lair is amidst dense thickets in e

lowland of'Aththar;

1 Referring to his journey to the Prophet, who had already given the order for hia defcth.

The Life of Muhammad 601

He goes in the morning to feed two cubs, whose victual is human flesh 892
rolled in the dust and torn to pieces;

When he springs on his adversary, ’tis against his law that he should
leave the adversary ere he is broken;

From him the asses of the broad dale flee in affright, and men do not
walk in his wadi,

Albeit ever in his wadi is a trusty fere, his armour and hardworn
raiment smeared with blood—ready to be devoured.

Truly the Messenger is a light whence illumination is sought—a drawn
Indian sword, one of the swords of Allah,

Amongst a band of Kuraish, whose spokesman said when they pro¬
fessed Islam in the valley of Mecca, ‘Depart ye!’

They departed, but no weaklings were they or shieldless in battle or
without weapons and courage;

They march like splendid camels and defend themselves with blows
when the short black men take to flight; 1
Warriors with noses high and straight, clad for the fray in mail-coats
of David’s weaving, 2

Bright, ample, with pierced rings strung together like the rings of the
qaf'a?

They are not exultant if their spears overtake an enemy or apt to
despair if they be themselves overtaken.

The spear-thrust falls not but on their throats: for them there is no
shrinking from the ponds of death (856). 4

'Asim b. ‘Umar b. Qatada said: When Ka'b said, ‘When the short black
men take to flight,’ he meant us, the Ansar, because of the way one of us
had treated him. He singled out the Muhajirin among the apostle’s com¬
panions for praise. This excited the Ansar’s anger against him. After he
had become a Muslim he spoke in praise of the Ansar and mentioned their
trials with the apostle and their position among the Yaman tribes:

He who loves a glorious life 893

Let him ever be with the horsemen of the righteous Ansar,

Who transmit glorious deeds from father to son.

The best men are they, sons of the best men
Who launch with their arms spears
Like long Indian swords,

Who peer forward unweariedly
With eyes red as burning coals.

1 Probably a hit at the people of Medina, some of whom had urged Muhammad to show
the poet no mercy,

• David is described in the Quran (xii. 80) as a maker of coats of mail.

3 Name of a plant.

4 i.e. places where draughts of death are drunk. By the courtesy of the Cambridge
University Press I take this translation from Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose
by my old friend R. A. Nicholson.

602 The Life of Muhammad

Who devote their lives to their prophet

On the day of hand-to-hand fighting and cavalry attacks.

They purify themselves with the blood of infidels;

They consider that an act of piety.

Their habit is that of thick-necked lions

Accustomed to hunt in a valleyed thicket.

If you come to them for protection

You are as it were in the inaccessible haunts of mountain goats.

They smote 'All 1 such a blow on the day of Badr

As brought the downfall of all Nizar.

If people knew all that I know about them

Those that dispute with me would recognize the truth of what I say.

They are a people who richly feed the night-travellers,

Who arrive in a time of dearth (857).

THE RAID ON TABUK, A.H. 9

The apostle stayed in Medina from Dhu’l-Hijja to Rajab, and then gave
orders to prepare to raid the Byzantines. The following account is based
on what al-Zuhr! and Yazid b. Rtiman and 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr and
894 'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada and other authorities told me; some supplied
information which others lacked.

The apostle ordered his companions to prepare to raid the Byzantines at
a time when men were hard pressed; the heat was oppressive and there was
T. 1692 a drought; fruit was ripe (T. and shade was eagerly sought) and the men
wanted to stay in the shade with their fruit and disliked travelling at that
season. Now' the apostle nearly always referred allusively to the destination
of a raid and announced that he was making for a place other than that
which he actually intended. This was the sole exception, for he said
plainly that he was making for the Byzantines because the journey w'as
long, the season difficult, and the enemy in great strength, so that the men
could make suitable preparations. He ordered them to get ready and told
them that he was making for the Byzantines. (T, So the men got ready in
spite of their dislike for the journey in itself to say nothing of their respect
for the reputation of the Byzantines.)

One day when he was making his arrangements the apostle said to Jadd
b. Qays of B. Salima: ‘Would you like to fight the B. Asfar, 2 Jadd?’ He
replied, ‘Will you allow me to stay behind and not tempt me, for everyone
knows that I am strongly addicted to women and I am afraid that if I see
the Byzantine women I shall not be able to control myself.’ The apostle
gave him permission to remain behind and turned away from him. It was

1 S. ii. 315 explains that Quraysh is meant by ’All because B. 'All = B. Kinana —
Quraysh. On the authorship of these verses see Introduction, xxviii,

2 i.e. ‘the sallow men’. A.Dh. says they are the descendants of Esau who is said to have
been of a sallow countenance. He distinguishes between the Byzantines (Riim) and the old
Greeks (Yunan).

The Life of Muhammad 603

about him that the verse came down, ‘There are some who say Give me
leave (to stay behind) and do not tempt me. Surely they have fallen into
temptation already and hell encompasses the unbelievers,’ 1 i.e. it was not
that he feared temptation from the Byzantine women: the temptation he
had fallen ‘into was greater in that he hung back from the apostle and
sought to please himself rather than the apostle. God said, ‘Verily hell is
behind him.’ 2

The disaffected said one to another, ‘Don’t go forth in the heat,’ disliking
strenuous war, doubting the truth, and creating misgivings about the
apostle. So God sent down concerning them: ‘And they said, Go not forth
in the heat. Say: The fire of hell is hotter did they but understand. Let
them laugh a little and let them weep much as a reward for what they were
earning’ (858). 3

The apostle went forward energetically with his preparations and ordered 895
the men to get ready with all speed. He urged the men of means to help in
providing money and mounts for God’s work (T. and persuaded them).

The wealthy men provided mounts and stored up a reward with God.
'Uthman b. 'Affan spent a larger sum than any had ever done (859).

Then seven Muslims known as The Weepers, Ansar, and others from
B. Amr b. 'Auf came to the apostle and asked him to provide them with
mounts for they were without means. Their names were: Salim b. ‘Umayr;
Ulba b. Zayd, brother of B. Haritha; Abu Layla 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Ka'b, 896
brother of B. Mazin b. al-Najj 3 r; 'Amr b. Humam b. al-Jamuh, brother of
B. Salima; Abdullah b. al-Mughaffal al Muzani (or b. 'Amr); Haramly b.
'Abdullah, brother of B. Waqif; and Trbad b. Sariya al-Fazari. He said
that he had no mount to give them and they turned back, their eyes flowing
with tears for grief that they had not the wherewithal to meet the expense
of the raid.

I have heard that Ibn Yamin b. 'Umayr b. Ka'b al-Nadrl met Abu
Layla and 'Abdullah b. Mughaffal as they w'ere weeping, and when he
asked what they were crying for they told him that they had applied to the
apostle for a mount, but that he had none to give them and they had
nothing. Thereupon he gave them a watering camel, and they saddled it
and he provided them with some dates and so they went off with the
apostle.

Some Bedouin came to apologize for not going, but God would not
accept their excuse. I have been told that they were from B. Ghifar.

(T. One of them was Khufaf b. Ima’ b. Rahda.)

When the apostle’s road was clear he determined to set off. Now there
was a number of Muslims who were slow to make up their minds so
that they lagged behind without any doubt or misgivings. They were
Ka'b b. Malik b. Abu Ka'b, brother of B. Salima; Murara b. al-Rabl',
brother of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf; Hilal b. Umayya, brother of B. Waqif; Abu

1 Sura 9. 49. 2 SQra j. ig

J Sura 9. 82.

604 The Life of Muhammad

Khaythama, brother of B. Salim b. *Auf; they were loyal men whose Islam
was above suspicion.

When the apostle had set out he pitched his camp by- Thaniyatu’l-
Wada' (860). 1

'Abdullah b. Ubayy (T. b. Salul) pitched his camp separately below him
t in the direction of Dhubab (T. a mountain in al-Jabbana below Thaniyat-
u’l-Wada'.) It is alleged that it was not the smaller camp. When the
apostle went on, 'Abdullah b. Ubayy separated from him and stayed
behind with the hypocrites and doubters. (T. 'Abdullah was brother of
B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj, and 'Abdullah b. Nabtal was brother of B. 'Amr b.
*Auf; and Rifa'ab. Zayd b. al-Tabut was brother of B. Qaynuqa . These
were the principal men among the hypocrites and wished ill to Islam and
its people. Concerning them God sent down; They sought rebellion
aforetime and upset things for you.’) 2

The apostle left 'All behind to look after his family, and ordered him to
stay with them. The hypocrites spoke evil of him, saying that he had been
left behind because he was a burden to the apostle and he wanted to get rid
of him. On hearing this 'Ali seized his weapons and caught up with the
apostle when he was halting in al-Jurf and repeated to him what the hypo¬
crites were saying. He replied; 'They lie. I left you behind because of
what I had left behind, so go back and represent me in my family and
yours. Are you not content, 'All, to stand to me as Aaron stood to Moses,
except that there will be no prophet after me?’ So All returned to Medina
and the apostle went on his way. Muhammad b. Talha b. It azid b. Rukana
from Ibrahim b. Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas from his father Sa'd told me that he
heard the apostle saying these words to Ali.

Then 'All returned to Medina and the apostle went his way. Abu Khay¬
thama (T. brother of B. Salim) returned to his family on a hot day some
days after the apostle had set out. He found two wives of his in huts in his
garden. Each had sprinkled her hut and cooled it with water and got ready
food for him. When he arrived he stood at the door of the hut and looked
at his wives and what they had done for him and said. The apostle is out
in the sun and the wind and the heat and Abu Khaythama is in a cool
shade, food prepared for him, resting in his property with a fair woman.
This is not just. By God, I will not enter either of your huts, but join the
apostle; so get ready some food for me.’ They did so and he went to his
camel and saddled it and went out in search of the apostle until he overtook
him in Tabuk. 'Umayr b. Wahb al-Jumahl had overtaken Abu Khaythama
on the road as he came to find the apostle, and they joined forces. When
they approached Tabuk Abu Khaythama said to Umayr, I have done
wrong. You can stay behind me if you like until I come to the apostle, and
he did so. When he approached the apostle as he was stopping in Tabuk,
the army called attention to a man riding on the way and the apostle said it
would be Abu Khaythama, and so it was. Having dismounted he came

J A pass overlooking Medina. * Sura 9-48.

The Life of Muhammad 605

and saluted the apostle, who said, 'Woe to you, Abu Khaythama!’ Then
he told the apostle what had happened, and he spoke him well and blessed
him (861).

When the apostle passed al-Hijr 1 he stopped, and the men got water
from its well. When they went the apostle said, ‘Do not drink any of its
water nor use it for ablutions. If you have used any of it for dough, then
feed it to the camels and eat none of it. Let none of you go out at night
alone but take a companion.’ The men did as they were told except two of
them of B. Saida: one went out to relieve himself and the other to look for
a camel of his. The first was half choked on his way 2 and the second was 899
carried away by a wind which cast him on the two mountains of Tayyi’.

The apostle was told of this and reminded the men that he had forbidden
them to go out alone. Then he prayed for the man who was choked on
the way and he recovered; the other man was brought to the apostle in
Medina by a man of Tayyi’. This story comes from 'Abdullah b. Abu
Bakr from'Abbas b. Sahl b. Sa'd al-Sa'idl. 'Abdullah told me that 'Abbas
had told him who they were, but confidentially, so he refused to name them
to me (862).

In the morning when the men had no water they complained to the
apostle, so he prayed, and God sent a cloud, and so much rain fell that
they were satisfied and carried away all the water they needed.

Asim b. Umar b. Qatadah from Mahmud b. Labld from men of B.
Abdu 1 -Ashhal told me that he said to Mahmud, ‘Do the men know the
hypocrites among them?’ He replied that a man would know that hypo¬
crisy existed in his brother, his father, his uncle, and his family, yet they
would cover up each other. Then Mahmud said: Some of my tribesmen
told me of a man whose hypocrisy was notorious. He used to go wherever
the apostle went and when the affair at al-Hijr happened and the apostle
prayed as he did and God sent a cloud which brought a heavy rain they
said, ‘We went to him saying “Woe to you! Have you anything more to
say after this?’’ He said, “It is a passing cloud!’”

During the course of the journey the apostle’s camel strayed and his
companions went in search of it. The apostle had with him a man called 900
'Umara b. Hazm who had been at al-'Aqaba and Badr, uncle of B. 'Amr b.
Hazm. He had in his company Zayd al-Lusayt al-Qaynuqa'I who was a
hypocrite (863). Zayd said while he was in 'Umara’s camp and 'Umara
was with the apostle, Does Muhammad allege that he is a prophet and can
tell you news from heaven when he doesn’t know where his camel is?’

The apostle said while 'Umara was with him: 'A man has said; Now
Muhammad tells you that he is a prophet and alleges that he tells you of
heavenly things and yet doesn’t know where his camel is. By God, I know

1 Often called Mada’in $alih. Doughty’s account of this place in Arabia Deserta, passim,
is still the most interesting.

3 The lexicologists say that khunaqiya is a disease which attacks men and horses (and
sometimes birds) in the throat.

606 The Life of Muhammad

only what God has told me and God has shown me where it is. It is in
this wadi in such-and-such a glen. A tree has caught it by its halter; so go
and bring it to me.’ They went and brought it. 'Umara returned to his
camp and said: ‘By God, the apostle has just told us a wonderful thing
about something someone has said which God has told him of. Then he
repeated the words. One of his company who had not been present with
the apostle exclaimed, ‘Why, Zayd said this before you came. Umara
advanced on Zayd pricking him in the neck and saying, To me, you ser¬
vants of God! I had a misfortune in my company and knew nothing of it.
Get out, you enemy of God, and do not associate with me. Some people
allege that Zayd subsequently repented; others say that he was suspected
of evil until the day of his death.

Then the apostle continued his journey and men began to drop behind.
When the apostle was told that So-and-so had dropped behind he said,
‘Let him be; for if there is any good in him God will join him to you; if not
God has rid you of him.’ Finally it w^as reported that Abu Dharr had
901 dropped behind and his camel had delayed him. The apostle said the same
words. Abu Dharr waited on his camel and when it walked slowly with
him he took his gear and loaded it on his back and went off walking in the
track of the apostle. The apostle stopped at one of his halting-places when
a man called his attention to someone walking on the way alone. The
apostle said that he hoped it was Abu Dharr, and when the people had
looked carefully they said that it was he. The apostle said, ‘God have mercy
on Abu Dharr. He walks alone and he will die alone and be raised alone.

Burayda b. Sufyan al-Aslarm from Muhammad b. Ka'b al-Quraz! from
‘Abdullah b. Mas'ud told me that when 'Uthman exiled Abu Dharr to al-
Rabadha 1 and his appointed time came there was none with him but his
wife and his slave. He instructed them to wash him and wind him m his
shroud and lay him on the surface of the road and to tell the first caravan
that passed who he was and ask them to help in burying him. When he
died they did this. 'Abdullah b. Masud came up with a number of men
from Iraq on pilgrimage when suddenly they saw the bier on the top of the
road: the camels had almost trodden on it. The slave got up and said,
‘This is Abu Dharr the apostle’s companion. Help us to bury him.’ 'Abdul¬
lah b. Mas'ud broke out into loud weeping saying, The apostle was right.
You walked alone, and you died alone, and you will be raised alone.’ Then
he and his companions alighted and buried him and he told them his story
and what the apostle had said on the road to TabQk.

A band of hypocrites, among them Wadi'a b. Thabit, brother of B.
'Amr b. 'Auf, and a man of Ashja' an ally of B. Salima called Mukhashshin
b. Humayyir (864) were pointing at (T. going with) the apostle as he was
002 journeying to Tabuk saying one to another, ‘Do you think that fighting t e
Byzantines is like a war between Arabs ? By God we (T. I) seem to see
you bound with ropes tomorrow’ so as to cause alarm and dismay to the

1 A place near Medina.

The Life of Muhammad 607

believers. Mukhashshin said, ‘I would rather that every one of us were
sentenced to a hundred lashes than that a verse should come down about
us concerning what you have said.’

The apostle-—so I have heard—told 'Ammar b. Yasir to join the men,
for they had uttered lies, and ask them what they had said. If they refused
to answer, tell them that they said so-and-so. 'Ammar did as he was
ordered and they came to the apostle making excuses. Wadi'a said as the
apostle had halted on his camel, and as he spoke he laid hold of its girth,
‘We were merely chatting and joking, O apostle.’ Then God sent down,

‘If you ask them they will say, We were merely chatting and joking.’ 1
Mukhashshin b. Humayyir said, ‘O apostle, my name and my father’s name
disgrace me.’ 2 The man who was pardoned in this verse was Mukhash¬
shin and he was named 'Abdu’l-Rahman. He asked God to kill him as a
martyr with none to know the place of his death. He was killed on the
day of al-Yamama and no trace of him was found.

When the apostle reached Tabuk Yuhanna b. Ru’ba governor of Ayla
came and made a treaty with him and paid him the poll tax. The people of
Jarba’ and Adhruh also came and paid the poll tax. The apostle wrote for
them a document which they still have. He wrote to Yuhanna b. Ru’ba
thus: ‘In the name of God the Compassionate and Merciful. This is a
guarantee from God and Muhammad the prophet, the apostle of God, to
Yuhanna b. Ru’ba and the people of Ayla, for their ships and their caravans
by land and sea. They and all that are with them, men of Syria, and the
Yaman, and seamen, all have the protection of God and the protection of
Muhammad the prophet. Should any one of them break the treaty by
introducing some new factor then his wealth shall not save him; it is the
fair prize of him who takes it. It is not permitted that they shall be re¬
strained from going down to their wells or using their roads by land or sea.’

Then the apostle summoned Khalid b. al-Walid and sent him to Ukaydir 903
at Duma. Ukaydir b. 'Abdu’l-Malik was a man of Kinda who was ruler of
Duma; he was a Christian. The apostle told Khalid that he would find him
hunting wild cows. Khalid went off until he came within sight of his fort.

It was a summer night with a bright moon and Ukaydir was on the roof
with his wife. The cows were rubbing their horns against the gate of the
fort all the night. His wife asked him if he had ever known anything of the
kind in the past, and urged him to go after them. He called for his horse,
and w'hen it was saddled he rode off with a number of his family, among
them a brother called Hassan. As they were riding the apostle’s cavalry fell
in with them and seized him and killed his brother. Ukaydir was wearing
a gown of brocade covered with gold, Khalid stripped him of this and
sent it to the apostle before he brought him to him.

'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada from Anas b. Malik said: I saw Ukaydir’s
gown when it w'as brought to the apostle. The Muslims were feeling it

1 Sura 9. 66.

2 Mukhashshin implies harshness and rudeness, and humayyir means a little donkey.

6 0 8 The Life of Muhammad

and admiring it, and the apostle said, ‘Do you admire this? By Him in
whose hand is my life the napkins of Sa'd b. Mu'adh in Paradise are better

^ThenKhalid brought Ukaydir to the apostle who spared his life and
made peace with him on condition that he paid the poll tax. Then he
released him and he returned to his town. A man of Tayyi called Bujayr
b. Bujara remembering the words of the apostle to Khalid, You will find
him hunting wild cows,’ said that what the cows did that night in bringing
him out of his fort was to confirm what the apostle had said:

Blessed is He who drove out the cows.

I see God guiding every leader.

Those who turn aside from yonder Tabuk, (let them)

For we have been ordered to fight.

904 The apostle stayed in Tabuk some ten nights, not more. Then he
returned to Medina.

On the way there was water issuing from a rock—enough to water two
or three riders. It was in a wadi called al-Mushaqqaq. The apostle ordered
anyone who should get there before him not to take water from it until he
came. A number of the disaffected got there first and drew water from it.
When the apostle arrived he halted and saw no water there. He asked who
had got there first and was told their names. He exclaimed, Did I not
forbid you to take water from it until I came?’ Then he cursed them an
called down God’s vengeance on them. Then he alighted and placed his
hand under the rock, and water began to flow into his hand as God willed.
Then he sprinkled the rock with the water and rubbed it with his hand and
prayed as God willed him to pray. Then water burst forth, as one who
heard it said, with a sound like thunder. The men drank and satisfied their
need from it, and the apostle said, ‘If you live, or those of you who live, will
hear of this wadi that it is more fertile than its neighbours.’

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Taymi told me that ‘Abdullah b.
Mas'ud used to say: I got up in the middle of the night when I was with
the apostle in the raid on Tabuk when I saw a light near the camp. I went
after it to look at it and lo it was the apostle with Abu Bakr and Umar; and
‘Abdullah Dhu 1 -Bijadayn had just died and they had dug a grave for him.
The apostle was in the grave and Abu Bakr and Umar were letting him
905 down to him as he was saying, ‘Bring your brother near to me, so they let
him down and as he arranged him for his niche he said, O God, I am
pleased with him; be Thou pleased with himl’ Abdullah b. Mas*ud used
to say, ‘Would that I had been the man in the grave’ (865).

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl reported from Ibn Ukayma al-Laythi from Ibn
Akhi Abi Ruhm al-Ghifari that he heard Abu Ruhm Kulthum b. al-
Husayn, who was one of the companions who did homage to the apostle
beneath the tree, say: When I made the raid on Tabuk with the apostle I
journeyed the night with him. While we were at al-Akhdar near the

The Life of Muhammad '609

apostle God cast a heavy sleep on us and I began to wake up when my
camel had come near the apostle’s camel. I was afraid that if it came too
near his foot would be hurt in the stirrup. I began to move my camel away
from him until sleep overcame me on the way. Then during the night my
camel jostled against his while his foot was in the stirrup and I was wakened
by his voice saying, ‘Look out.’ I asked his pardon and he told me to carry
on. The apostle began to ask me about those who had dropped out from
B. Ghifar and I told him. He asked me about the people with long
straggling red beards and I told him that they had dropped out. Then he
asked about the men "with short curly hair and I confessed that I did not
know that they were of us. ‘But yes,’ he said, ‘they are those who own 906
camels in Shabakatu Shadakh.’ Then I remembered that they were
among B. Ghifar, but I did not remember them until I recalled that they
were a clan of Aslam who were allies of ours. When I told him this he said,
‘What prevented one of these when he fell out from mounting a zealous
man in the way of God on one of his camels ? The most painful thing to
me is that muhajirun from Quraysh and the Ansar and Ghifar and Aslam
should stay behind.’

THE OPPOSITION MOSQUE

The apostle went on until he stopped in Dhu Awan a town an hour’s day¬
light journey from Medina. The owners of the mosque of opposition had
come to the apostle as he was preparing for Tabuk, saying, ‘We have built
a mosque for the sick and needy and for nights of bad weather, and we
should like you to come to us and pray for us there.’ He said that he was
on the point of travelling, and was preoccupied, or words to that effect,
and that when he came back if God willed he would come to them and
pray for them in it.

When he stopped in Dhu Awan news of the mosque came to him, and he
summoned Malik b. al-Dukhshum, brother of B. Salim b. ‘Auf, and Ma'n
b. 'Adiy (or his brother 'Asim) brother of B. al-‘Ajlan, and told them to go
to the mosque of those evil men and destroy and burn it. They went
quickly to B. Salim b. 'Auf who were Malik’s clan, and Malik said to Ma'n,
‘Wait for me until I can bring fire from my people.’ So he went in and
took a palm-branch and lighted it, and then the two of them ran into the
mosque where its people were and burned and destroyed it and the people
ran away from it. A portion of the Quran came do\yj concerning them:
‘Those who chose a mosque in opposition and unbelief and to cause divi¬
sion among believers’ to the end of the passage. 1

The twelve men who built it were: Khidham b. Khalid of B. ‘Ubayd b. 907
Zayd, one of B. ‘Amr b. ‘Auf; his house opened on to the schismatic
mosque; Tha'laba b. Hatib of B. Umayya b. Zayd; Mu'attib b. Qushayr;

Abu Hablba b. al-Az'ar, both of B. Qubay'a b. Zayd; ‘Abbad b. Hunayf,

1 Sura 9. 108.

R r

B 4080

T- i 7°5

908

6 IO The Life of Muhammad

brother of Sahl of B. 'Ar b. 'Auf; Jarmiya b. 'Amir and his two sons
Mujammi' and Zayd; Nabtal b. al-Harith; Bahzaj; and Bijad b. 'Uthman,
all of B. Dubay'a; and Wadl'a b. Thabit of B. Umayya b. Zayd, the clan of
Abu Lubaba b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir.

The apostle’s mosques between Tabuk and Medina are well known and
named. They are the mosques in Tabuk; Thanlyatu Mid ran; Dhatu I-
Zirab; al-Akhdar; Dhatu’l-Khitmi; Ala ; beside al-Batra’ at the end. of
Kawakib; 1 Shiqq, Shiqq Tara; Dhu’l-JIfa; Sadr Hauda; al-Hijr; al-Sa id;
the wadi known today as Wadi’l-Qura; al-Ruq a of Shiqqa, the S iqqa o
B. 'Udhra; Dhu’l-Marwa; Fayfa’; and Dhu Kliushub.

THE THREE MEN WHO ABSTAINED FROM THE RAID
ON TABUK

When the apostle came to Medina he found that some disaffected persons
had stayed behind. Among them were three Muslims who hadnot held
back through doubt or disaffection, namely Ka'b b. Malik, Murara b. al-
Rabi' and Hilal b. Umayya. The apostle told his companions not to speak
to these three. The disaffected who had stayed behind came and made
excuses with oaths and he forgave them, but neither God nor His apostle
accepted their excuse. The Muslims withdrew from these three and would
not speak to them (T. until God sent down His word concerning them)
Muhammad b. Muslim b. Shihab al-Zuhrl from 'Abdu’l-Rahman b.
'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik said that his father, whom he used to lead
about when his sight failed, said: I heard my father Ka'b telling his story
of how he held back from the apostle in his raid on Tabuk, and the story of
his two companions:

I had never held back from any raid the apostle had undertaken except
the battle of Badr, and that was an engagement which none was blamed
either by God or His apostle for missing because the apostle had gone out
only to find the Quraysh caravan when God brought him and his enemies
together without previous intent. I was present with the apostle at al-
'Aqaba when we pledged our faith in Islam, and I should not prefer to
have been at Badr rather than there even if the battle of Badr is more
famous. The fact was that when I stayed behind in the raid on 1 abuk 1
had never been stronger and wealthier. Never before had I possessed two
camels. Seldom did the apostle intend a raid but he pretended that he had
another objective except on this occasion. He raided it in violent heat an
faced a long journey and a powerful enemy and told men what they had to
do so that they might make adequate provision, and he told them the direc¬
tion he intended to take. The Muslims who followed him were many and
he did not enrol them in a book. (He meant by that a register; he did not
enrol them in a written register). The few who wanted to absent themselves

2 Sura 9. 118-20.

The Life of Muhammad 611

thought that they could conceal it from him as long as no revelation came
down from God about it. The apostle made that raid when the fruits were
ripe and shade was desirable so that men were averse from it. The apostle
made his preparations and the Muslims likewise, and I would go to get ready
with them and come back not having done what was necessary, saying to
myself, ‘I can do that when I want to,’ and I continued procrastinating
until the men had acted with energy and in the morning they and the 909
apostle had gone while I had made no preparation. I thought that I could
get ready a day or two later and then join them. Day after day passed and
I had done nothing until the raiders had gone far ahead and still I thought
of going and overtaking and I wish that I had done so but I did not. After
the apostle had gone when I went about among the men it pained me to see
only those who were accused of disaffection or a man whom God had
excused because of his helpless women. The apostle did not remember me
until he reached Tabuk w'hen he asked, as he w'as sitting among the men,
what had become of me. One of the B. Salima said that my fine clothes
and conceit of my appearance kept me at home. Mu'adh b. Jabal said that
that w'as an evil thing to say and that they knew' nothing but good of me.

But the apostle was silent.

When I heard that the apostle w'as on his way back from Tabuk I was
smitten with remorse and began to think of a lie I could tell to escape from
his anger and get some of my people to support me in it; but when I heard
that he w'as near at hand falsehood left me and I knew that I could only
escape by telling the truth, so I determined to do so. In the morning the
apostle entered Medina and went into the mosque and after performing two
rak'as he sat dowm to await the men. Those who had stayed behind came
and began to make excuses with oaths—there were about eighty of them—
and the apostle accepted their public declarations and oaths and asked the
divine forgiveness for them, referring their secret thoughts to God. Last
of all I came and saluted him and he smiled as one who is angry. He told
me to come near, and when I sat before him he asked me what had kept
me back, and had I not bought my mount. I said, ‘O apostle of God, were
I sitting with anyone else in the world I should count on escaping his
anger by an excuse, for I am astute in argument. But I know that if I tell 910
you a lie today you will accept it and that God will soon excite your anger
against me; and yet if I tell you the truth which will make you angry w'ith
me, I have hopes that God will reward me for it in the end. Indeed, I have
no excuse. I was never stronger and richer than when I stayed behind.’

The apostle said, ‘So far as that goes you have told the truth, but get up
until God. decides about you.’ So I got up and some of B. Salima rose in
annoyance and followed me, saying, ‘We have never knowm you do wrong
before, and you w'ere unable to excuse yourself to the apostle as the others
w'ho stayed behind did. It would have sufficed if the apostle had asked
pardon for your sin.’ They kept at me until I w'anted to ^o back to the
apostle and give the lie to myself. Then I asked them if any others w'ere in

Ir. Yaqut ‘ai-Kawakib’.

612 The Life of Muhammad

the same case and they said that there were two men who had said what I
had said, and they got the same answer. They were Murara b. ai-RabI f
al-'Amri of B. 'Amr b. ‘Auf, and Hilal b. Abu Umayya al-Waqift, two
honest men of exemplary character. When they mentioned them I was
silent. The apostle forbade anyone to speak to us three out of those who
had stayed behind, so men avoided us and showed an altered demeanour,
until I hated myself and the whole world as never before. We endured this
for fifty nights. As for my two companions in misfortune they were humi¬
liated and stayed in their houses, but I was younger and hardier, so I used
to go out and attend prayers with the Muslims, and go round the markets
while no one spoke to me; and I would go to the apostle and salute him
while he sat after prayers, asking myself if his lips had moved in returning
the salutation or not; then I would pray near him and steal a look at him.
When I performed my prayer he looked at me, and when I turned towards
him he turned away from me. When I had endured much from the harsh¬
ness of the Muslims I walked off and climbed over the wall of Abu Qatada’s
91 x orchard. He was my cousin and the dearest of men to me. I saluted him
and by God he did not return my salam so I said, ‘O Abu Qatada, I adjure
you by God, do you not know that I love God and His apostle?’; but he
answered me not a word. Again I adjured him and he was silent; again,
and he said, ‘God and His apostle know best.’ At that my eyes swam with
tears and I jumped up and climbed over the wall.

In the morning I walked in the market and there was one of the Nabati
traders from Syria who came to sell food in Medina asking for me. When
he asked for me the people pointed me out to him, and he came and gave
me a letter from the king of Ghassan which he had written on a piece of
silk which read as follows: ‘We hear that your master has treated you
badly. God has not put you in a house of humiliation and loss, so come to
us and we will provide for you.’ When I read it I thought that this too was
part of the ordeal. My situation was such that a polytheist hoped to win
me over; so I took the letter to the oven and burned it.

Thus we went on until forty of the fifty nights had passed and then the
apostle’s messenger came to me and told me that the apostle ordered that
I should separate myself from my wife. I asked whether this meant that I
was to divorce her, but he said No, I was to separate myself and not
approach her. My two companions received similar orders. I told my wife
to rejoin her family until such time as God should give a decision in the
matter. The wife of Hilal came to the apostle and told him that he was an
old man, lost without a servant, was there any objection to her serving
him? He said there was not provided that he did not approach her. She
told the apostle that he never made a movement towards her and that his
weeping was so prolonged that she feared that he would lose his sight.
One of my family suggested that I should ask for similar permission from
the apostle, but I declined to do so because I did not know what he would
912 say in reply since I was a young man. Ten more nights passed until fifty

The Life of Muhammad 613

nights since the apostle had forbidden men to speak to us were complete,

I prayed the morning prayer on the top of one of our houses on the mom
of the fiftieth night in the way that God had prescribed. The world,
spacious as it is, closed in on us and my soul was deep distressed. 1 I had
set up a tent on the top of a crag and I used to stay there when suddenly I
heard the voice of a crier coming over the top of the crag shouting at the
top of his voice Good news, Ka b b. Malik!’ I fell down prostrate, knowing
that relief had come at last.

The apostle announced God’s forgiveness when he prayed the dawn
prayer and men went off to tell us the good news. They went to my two
fellows with the news and a man galloped off to me on a horse, and a runner
from Aslam ran until he came over the mountain, and the voice was quicker
than the horse. When the man whom I had heard shouting the good news
came, I tore off my clothes and gave them to him as a reward for good
tidings, and by God at the time I had no others and had'to borrow more
and put them on. Then I set off towards the apostle and men met me and
told me the good news and congratulated me on God’s having forgiven me.

I went into the mosque and there was the apostle surrounded by men.
Jalha 5, ‘Ubaydullah got up and greeted me and congratulated me, but no
other muhajir did so. (Ka'b never forgot this action of Talha’s.)

When I saluted the apostle he said as his face shone with joy, ‘This is
the best day of your life. Good news to you!’ I said, ‘From you or from
God?’ ‘From God, of course,’ he said. When he told good news his face
used to be like the moon, and we used to recognize it. When I sat before
him I told him that as an act of penitence I would give away my property
as alms to God and His apostle. He told me to keep some of it for that 913
would be better for me. I told him that I would keep my share in Khaybar
booty, and I said, ‘God has saved me through truthfulness, and part of my
repentance towards God is that I will not speak anything but the truth so
long as I live; and by God I do not know any man whom God has favoured 2
in speaking the truth since I told the apostle that more graciously than He
favoured me. From the day I told the apostle that to the present day I
never even purposed a lie, and I hope that God will preserve me for the
time that remains.’

God sent down: ‘God has forgiven the prophet and the emigrants and
the helpers who followed him in the hour of difficulty after the hearts of a
party of them had almost swerved; then He forgave them. He is kind and
merciful to them and to the three who were left behind’ as far as the words
‘And be with the truthful.’ 3

Ka'b said: ‘God never showed me a greater favour after He had guided
me to Islam than when I told the apostle the truth that day so that I did not
lie and perish like those who lied; for God said about those who lied to him
when He sent down the revelation “They will swear to you by God when

1 The language is borrowed from Sura 9. 119 v.i.

1 Cf. 518. 4. 'tested’ is a possible alternative.

3 Sura 9. 118.

614 The Life of Muhammad

you return to them that you may turn from them. Do turn from them for
they are unclean and their resting place is hell, in reward for what they
have earned. They swear to you that you may be satisfied with them, and
if you are satisfied with them God is not satisfied with an evil people.’” 1

We three were kept back from the affair of those from whom the apostle
accepted an apology when they swore an oath to him and he asked forgive¬
ness for them. And the apostle postponed our affair until God gave His
judgement, and about that God said, ‘And to the three who were left
behind.’ 2

When God used the word khullifu it had nothing to do with our holding
back from the raid, but to his holding us back and postponing our affair
from those who swore to him and made excuses which he accepted.

914 THE ENVOYS OF THAQlF ACCEPT ISLAM, A.H. 9

The apostle returned from Tabuk in Ramadan and in that month the
deputation of Thaqif came to him.

When the apostle came away from them 'Urwa b. Mas'ud al-Thaqafl
followed him until he caught up with him before he got to Medina, and
accepted Islam. He asked that he might go back to his people as- a Muslim,
but the apostle said—so his people say—‘They will kill you,’ for the
apostle knew the proud spirit of opposition that was in them. 'Urwa said
that he was dearer to them than their firstborn (866).

He was a man who was loved and obeyed and he went out calling his
people to Islam and hoping that they would not oppose him because of his
position among them. When he went up to an upper room and showed
himself to them after he had invited them to Islam and shown his religion
to them they shot arrows at him from all directions, and one hit him and
killed him. The B. Malik allege that one of their men killed him; his name
was Aus b. 'Auf, brother of B. Salim b. Malik. The Ahlaf allege that one
of their men from B. 'Attab b. Malik called Wahb b. Jabir killed him. It
was said to 'Urwa, ‘What do you think about your death?’ He said, ‘It is
a gift which God has honoured me with and a martyrdom which God has
led me to. I am like the martyrs who were killed with the apostle before
he went away from you; so bury me with them.’ They did bury him with
them and they allege that the apostle said about him, ‘Among his people
he is like the hero of Ya Sin among his people.’ 3

Thaqif delayed some months after the killing of 'Urwa. Then they took
counsel among themselves and decided that they could not fight the Arabs
all around them, who had paid homage and accepted Islam.

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughlra b. al-Akhnas told me that 'Amr b.
Umayya, brother of B. Tlaj, was not on speaking terms with 'Abdu Yalll b.
'Amr and there was bad feeling between them. 'Amr was a most crafty
man and he walked to ‘Abdu Yalll and entered his dwelling and sent word
1 Sura 9. 96. 2 Sura 9. 119. 3 Cf. Sura 36. 19.

The Life of Muhammad 615

to him to come out to him. 'Abdu Yalll expressed great surprise that 'Amr 915
who was so carefid of his life should come to him, so he came out, and
when he saw him he welcomed him. 'Amr said to him: ‘We are in an
impasse. You have seen how the affair of this man has progressed. All
the Arabs have accepted Islam and you lack the power to fight them, so
look to your case.’ Thereupon Thaqif took counsel and said one to
another, ‘Don’t you see that your herds are not safe; none of you can go out
without being cut off.’ So after conferring together they decided to send a
man to the apostle as they had sent 'Urwa. They spoke to 'Abdu Yalll,
who was a contemporary of 'Urwa, and laid the plan before him, but he
refused to act, fearing that on his return he would be treated as 'Urwa w r as.

He said that he would not go unless they sent some men with him. They
decided to send two men from al-Ahlaf and three from B. Malik, six in all.
They sent with 'Abdu Yalll, al-Hakam b. 'Amr b. Wahb b. Mu'attib, and
Shurahbll b. Ghaylan b. Salima b. Mu'attib; and from B. Malik, 'Uthman
b. Abu’I-'As b. Bishr b. 'Abdu Duhman, brother of B. Yasar, and Aus b.

'Auf, brother of B. Salim b. 'Auf, and Numayr b. Kharasha b. Rabi'a,
brother of B. al-Harith. 'Abdu Yalll went with them as leader in charge of
the affair. He took them with him only out of fear of meeting the same
fate as 'Urwa and in order that each man on his return could secure the
attention of his clan.

When they approached Medina and halted at Qanat they met there al-
Mughlra b. Shu'ba whose turn it was to pasture the camels of the apostle’s
companions, for the companions took this duty in turn. When he saw
them he left the camels with the Thaqafis and jumped up to run to give the
apostle the good new r s of their coining. Abu Bakr met him before he could
get to the apostle and he told him that riders of Thaqif had come to make 916
their submission and accept Islam on the apostle’s conditions provided
that they could get a document guaranteeing their people and their land
and animals. Abu Bakr implored al-Mughlra to let him be the first to tell
the apostle the news and he agreed, so Abu Bakr went in and told the
apostle while al-Mughlra rejoined his companions and brought the camels
back. He taught them how to salute the apostle, for they were used to the
salutation of paganism. When they came to the apostle he pitched a tent
for them near his mosque, so they allege. Khalid b. Sa'Id b. al-'As acted
as intermediary between them and the apostle until they got their docu¬
ment; it was he who actually wrote it. They would not eat the food which
came to them from the apostle until Khalid ate some and until they
had accepted Islam and had got their document.

Among the things they asked the apostle was that they should be
allowed to retain their idol AI-Lat undestroyed for three years. The
apostle refused, and they continued to ask him for a year or two, and he
refused; finally they asked for a month after their return home; but he
refused to agree to any set time. All that they wanted as they were trying
to show was to be safe from their fanatics and women and children by

616 The Life of Muhammad

leaving her, and they did not want to frighten their people by destroying
her until they had accepted Islam. The apostle refused this, but he sent
Abu Sufyan b. Harb and al-Mughira b. Shu'ba to destroy her. They had
also asked that he would excuse them from prayer and that they should not
have to break their idols with their own hands. The apostle said: ‘We
excuse you from breaking your idols with your own hands, but as for
prayer there is no good in a religion which has no prayers.’ They said that
they would perform them though it was demeaning.

When they had accepted Islam and the apostle had given them their
9 J 7 document he appointed 'Uthman b. Abu’l- f As over them although he was
the youngest of them. This was because he was the most zealous in study¬
ing Islam and learning the Quran. Abu Bakr had told the apostle this.

Tsa b. ‘Abdullah b. 'Atlya b. Sufyan b. Rabi'a al-Thaqafi from one of
the deputation told me: Bilal used to come to us when we had become
Muslims and we fasted with the apostle for the rest of Ramadan, and bring,
our supper and our breakfast from the apostle. He would come to us in
the morning twilight and we would say ‘We see that the dawn has risen.’
He would say, ‘I left the apostle eating at daybreak, so as to make the dawn
meal later’and he would bring our evening meal and we would say, ‘We
see that the sun has not entirely vanished,’ and he would say, ‘I did not
come to you until the apostle had eaten.’ Then he would put his hand in
the dish and eat from it (867).

Sa'id b. Abu Hind from Mutarrif b. 'Abdullah b. al-Shakhkhir from
'Uthman b. Abu’l-'As said: The last thing the apostle enjoined on me
when he sent me to Thaqif was to be brief in prayer, to measure men by
their weakest members; for there were old and young, sick and infirm
among them.

When they had accomplished their task and had set out to return to their
country the apostle sent with them Abu Sufyan and al-Mughira to destroy
the idol. They travelled with the deputation and when they neared al-
Ta’if, al-Mughira wanted to send on Abu Sufyan in advance. The latter
refused and told him to go to his people while he stayed in his property in
Dhu’l-Haram. 2 When al-Mughira entered he went up to the idol and
struck it with a pickaxe. His people the B. Mu'attib stood in front of him
fearing that he would be shot or killed as 'Urwa had been. The women of
918 Thaqif came out with their heads uncovered bewailing her and saying:

O weep for our protector
Poltroons would neglect her
Whose swords need a corrector (868).

Abu Sufyan, as al-Mughira smote her with the axe, said ‘Alas for you,
alas!’ When al-Mughira had destroyed her and taken what was on her and

• The last clause may be an explanatory gloss from 1 . 1 .

2 I.H. here has bidhi'l-hadam, but the true reading given above is in T- 1692. 1. There is
no doubt about this because the rhyming word of the saj' given in Yaq. iv. 969 requires the
letter r.

The Life of Muhammad 617

her jewels he sent for Abu Sufyan when her jewellery and gold and beads
had been collected.

Now Abu Mulayh b. 'Urwa and Qarib b. al-Aswad had come to the
apostle before the Thaqif deputation when 'Urwa was killed, desiring to
separate themselves from Thaqif and to have nothing to do with them.
When they became Muslims the apostle said to them, ‘Take as friends
whom you will,’ and they said, ‘We choose God and His apostle.’ The
apostle said, ‘and your maternal uncle Abu Sufyan b. Harb,’ and they said,
‘Even so.’

When the people of al-Ta’if had accepted Islam and the apostle had sent
Abu Sufyan and al-Mughira to destroy the idol, Abu Mulayh b. 'Urwa
asked the apostle to settle a debt his father had incurred from the property
of the idol. The apostle agreed and Qarib b. al-Aswad asked for the same
privilege for his father. Now 'Urwa and al-Aswad were full brothers. The
apostle said, ‘But al-Aswad died a polytheist.’ He answered, ‘But you will
be doing a favour to a Muslim a near relation,’ meaning himself; ‘the debt
is only incumbent on me and from me it is required.’ The apostle ordered
Abu Sufyan to satisfy the debts of 'Urwa and al-Aswad from the property
of the idol, and when al-Mughira had collected its money he told Abu
Sufyan that the apostle had ordered him to satisfy these debts thus, and he
did so.

The text of the document the apostle wrote for them runs: ‘In the name
of God the Compassionate the Merciful. From Muhammad the prophet,
the apostle of God, to the believers: The acacia trees of Wajj 1 and its game
are not to be injured. Anyone found doing this will be scourged and his
garments confiscated. If he repeats the offence he will be seized and
brought to the prophet Muhammad. This is the order of the prophet
Muhammad, the apostle of God.’ Khalid b. Sa'id has written by the order
of the apostle Muhammad b. Abdullah, so let none repeat the offence to his 919
own injury in what the apostle of God Muhammad has ordered,

ABU BAKR LEADS THE PILGRIMAGE, A.H. 9

The apostle remained there for the rest of the month of Ramadan and
Shawwal and Dhu’l-Qa'da. Then he sent Abu Bakr in command of the
hajj in the year 9 to enable the Muslims to perform their hajj while the
polytheists were at their pilgrimage stations. Abu Bakr and the Muslims
duly departed.

A discharge came down permitting the breaking of the agreement
between the apostle and the polytheists that none should be kept back from
the temple when he came to it, and that none need fear during the sacred
month. That was a general agreement between him and the polytheists;
meanwhile there were particular agreements between the apostle and the
Arab tribes for specified terms. And there came down about it and about

1 A place in al-'J’a’if.

618

The Life of Muhammad

the disaffected who held back from him in the raid on Tabuk, and about
what they said (revelations) in which God uncovered the secret thoughts
of people who were dissembling. We know the names of some of them, of
others we do not. He said: 1 ‘A discharge from God and His apostle
towards those polytheists with whom you made a treaty,’ i.e. those poly¬
theists with whom you made a general agreement. ‘So travel through the
land for four months and know that you cannot escape God and that God
will put the unbelievers to shame. And a proclamation from God and His
apostle to men on the day of the greater pilgrimage that God and His
9 2o apostle are free from obligation to the polytheists,’ i.e. after this pilgrimage.
‘So if you repent it will be better for you; and if you turn back know that
you cannot escape God. Inform those who disbelieve, about a painful
punishment except those polytheists with whom you have made a treaty,’
i.e. the special treaty for a specified term, ‘since they have not come short
in anything in regard to you and have not helped anyone against you. So
fulfil your treaty with them to their allotted time. God loves the pious.
And when the sacred months are passed,’ He means the four which he fixed
as their time, ‘then kill the polytheists wherever you find them, and seize
them and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush. But if
they repent and perform prayer and pay the poor-tax, then let them go
their way. God is forgiving, merciful. If one of the polytheists,’ i.e. one
of those whom I have ordered you to kill, ‘asks your protection, give it him
so that he may hear the word of God; then convey him to his place of
safety. That is because they are a people who do not know.’

Then He said: ‘How can there be for the polytheists’ with whom you had
a general agreement that they should not put you in fear and that you
would not put them in fear neither in the holy places nor in the holy
months ‘a treaty with God and His apostle except for those with whom you
made a treaty at the sacred mosque?’ They were the tribes of B. Bakr who
had entered into an agreement with Quraysh on the day of al-Hudaybiya
up to the time agreed between the apostle and Quraysh. It was only this
clan of Quraysh who had broken it. They were al-Dll of B. Bakr b. Wa’il
who had entered into the agreement of Quraysh. So he was ordered to
fulfil the agreement with those of B. Bakr who had not broken it, up to their
allotted time. ‘So long as they are true to you be true to them. God loves
the pious.’

Then He said: ‘And how, if when they have the upper hand of you,’ i.e.
the polytheists who have no agreement up to a time under the general
agreement with the polytheists ‘they regard not pact or compact in regard
to you’ (869).

92.1 ‘They satisfy you with their lips while their hearts refuse. Most of them
are wrongdoers. They have sold the revelations of God for a low price
and debarred (men) from His way. Evil is that which they are wont to do.
They observe neither pact nor compact with a believer. Those are the
1 Sura 9. This- chapter is a commentary on it.

The Life of Muhammad 619

transgressors,’ i.e. they have transgressed against you. ‘But if they repent
and perform prayer and pay the poor tax, then they are your brothers in
religion. We make clear the revelations for a people who have knowledge.’

Hakim b. Hakim b. 'Abbad b. Hunayf from Abu Ja'far Muhammad b.

‘AH told me that when the discharge came down to the apostle after he had
sent Abu Bakr to superintend the hajj, someone expressed the wish that he
would send news of it to Abu Bakr. He said, ‘None shall transmit it from
me but a man of my own house.’ Then he summoned 'All and said: ‘Take
this section from the beginning of “The Discharge” and proclaim it to the
people on the day of sacrifice when they assemble at Mina. No unbeliever
shall enter Paradise, and no polytheist shall make pilgrimage after this
year, and no naked person shall circumambulate the temple. He who has 922
an agreement with the apostle has it for his appointed time (only). 'All
went forth on the apostle’s slit-eared camel and overtook Abu Bakr on the
way. When Abu Bakr saw him he asked whether he had come to give
orders or to convey them. He said ‘to convey them.’ They went on
together and Abu Bakr superintended the hajj , the Arabs in that year doing
as they had done in the heathen period. When the day of sacrifice came
All arose and proclaimed what the apostle had ordered him to say, and he
gave the men a period of four months from the date of the proclamation to
return to their place of safety or their country; afterwards there was to be
no treaty or compact except for one with whom the apostle had an agree¬
ment for a period, and he could have it for that period. After that year no
polytheist went on pilgrimage or circumambulated the temple naked.
Then the two of them returned to the apostle. This was the Discharge in
regard to the polytheists who had a general agreement, and those who had
a respite for the specified time.

Then the apostle gave orders to fight the polytheists who had broken the
special agreement as well as those who had a general agreement after the
four months which had been given them as a fixed time, save that if any one
of them showed hostility he should be killed for it. And He said, ‘Will you
not fight a people who broke their oaths and thought to drive out the
apostle and attacked you first ? Do you fear them when God is more worthy
to be feared if you are believers? Fight them! God will punish them by
your hands, and put them to shame and give you the victory" over them and
will heal the breasts of a believing people, and He will remove the anger of
their hearts and God will relent,’ i.e. after that ‘towards whom He will, for
God is knowing, wise.’ ‘Or do you think that you will be left (idle) when
God does not yet know those of you who bestir yourselves and choose none
for friend but God and His apostle and the believers ? God is informed
about what you do’ (870).

Then He mentioned the words of Quraysh, ‘We are the people of the
sanctuary, the waterers of the pilgrims, and the tenders of this temple and
none is superior to us,’ and He said: ‘He only shall tend God’s sanctuaries 923
who believes in God and the last day,’ i.e. your tending was not thus. Only

620

The Life of Muhammad

those who tend God's sanctuaries means tend them as they ought to be
tended ‘who believes in God and the last day and performs prayer and pay£
the poor tax and fears only God,’ i.e. those are its tenders, ‘perhaps those
may be the rightly guided.' ‘Perhaps' coming from God means a fact. Then
he said: ‘ Would you make the watering of the pilgrims and the tending of the
sacred mosque equal to one who believes in God and the last day and
fights in the way of God ? They are not equal with God.’

Then comes the story of their enemy until he arrives at the mention of
Hunayn and what happened there and their turning back from their
enemy and how God sent down help after they had abandoned one
another. Then He said (v. 28): ‘The polytheists are nothing but unclean,
so let them not approach the sacred mosque after this year of theirs, and if
you fear poverty’ that was because the people said ‘the markets will be cut
off from us, trade will be destroyed, and w r e shall lose the good things we
used to enjoy,’ and God said, ‘If you fear poverty God will enrich you
from His bounty,’ i.e. in some other way, ‘if He will. He is knowing, wise.
Fight those who do not believe in God and the last day and forbid not that
which God and His apostle have forbidden and follow not the religion of
truth from among those who have been given the scripture until they pay,
the poll tax out of hand being humbled,’ i.e. as a compensation for w r hat you
fear to lose by the closing of the markets. God gave them compensation
for what He cut off from them in their former polytheism by what He gave
them by way of poll tax from the people of scripture.

Then He mentioned the two peoples of scripture with their evil and their
lies against Him until the words ‘Many of the rabbis and monks devour
men’s wealth wickedly and turn men from the way of God. Those who
hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of God, announce
to them a painful punishment.’

Then He mentioned the fixing of the sacred months and the innovations
of the Arabs in the matter. Nasi' means making profane months which
God has’declared holy and vice versa. ‘The number of the months with
924 God is twelve in the book of God on the day He created heaven and earth.
Four of them are sacred; that is the standing religion, so wrong not your¬
selves therein,’ i.e. do not make the sacred profane or the profane sacred
as the polytheists did. ‘Postponement (of a sacred month)’ which they
used to practise ‘is excess of infidelity whereby those who disbelieve are
misled; they allow it one year and forbid it another year that they may
make up the number of the months which God has made sacred so that
they allow that "which God has forbidden, the evil of their deeds seeming
good to them. But God does not guide a disbelieving people.’

Then He mentioned Tabuk and how the Muslims were weighed down
by it and exaggerated the difficulty of attacking the Byzantines when the
apostle called them to fight them; and the disaffection of some; then how
the apostle upbraided them for their behaviour in Islam. God said, ‘O you
who believe, what was the matter with you that when it was said to you,

621

The Life of Muhammad

Go forth in the way of God you were weighed down to the earth’ then as
far as His words ‘ He will punish you with a painful punishment and choose
a people other than you’ to the words ‘if you do not help him still God
helped him when those w r ho disbelieve drove him out the second of two
when the twain were in the cave.’

Then He said to His prophet, mentioning the disaffected: ‘Had it been
a near adventure and a short journey they would have followed you, but
the long distance weighed upon them. And they will swear by God, Had
we been able w T e would have set forth with you. They destroy themselves,

God knowing that they are liars,’ i.e. that they were able. ‘May God forgive
you. Why did you give them leave (to stay behind) before those who told
the truth were plain to you and you knew the liars?’ as far as the words
‘Had they gone forth with you they would have contributed naught but
trouble and have hurried about among you seeking to cause sedition among
you there being among you some who would have listened to them’ (871).

Among the men of high standing who asked his permission (to stay be¬
hind) according to my information were ‘Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul and
al-Jadd b. Qays. They were nobles among their people and God kept them 925
back because He knew that if they went forth with him they would cause
disorder in his army, for in the army were men who loved them and would
obey them in anything they asked because of their high standing among
them. God said: ‘And among them are some who would have listened to
them, and God knows about the evil-doers. In the past they sought to
cause sedition,’ i.e. before they asked your permission, ‘and overturned
your affairs,’ i.e. to draw away your companions from you and to frustrate
your affair ‘until the truth came and God’s command became manifest
though they were averse’. Of them is he who said, Give me permission
(to stay behind) and tempt me not. Have they not fallen into temptation
already ?’ The one who said that according to what we were told was al-
Jadd b. Qays, brother of B. Salima, when the apostle called him to war
with the Byzantines. Then the account goes on to the words ‘If they were
to find a refuge or caverns or a place to enter they would have turned to it
with all speed. And of them is he who defamed you in the matter of alms.

If they are given some they are content; but if they are not given some they
are enraged,’ i.e. their whole aim, their satisfaction, and their anger, are
concerned with their worldly life.

Then He explained and specified to whom alms should be given: ‘Alms
are only for the poor and needy and the collectors of it and for those whose
hearts are to be won, and to free captives and debtors, and for the way of
God and for the wayfarer as an ordinance from God and God is knowing,
wise.’

Then He mentioned their duplicity and their vexing the apostle and
said: ‘And of them are those who vex the prophet and say, He is an ear.

Say: an ear of good for you, who believes in God and is faithful to the
believers and a mercy for those of you who believe. There is a painful

622 The Life of Muhammad

punishment for those who vex God’s apostle.’ According to my informa¬
tion the man who said those words was Nabtal b. al-Harith, brother of B.
'Amr b. 'Auf, and this verse came down about him because he used to say
‘Muhammad is only an ear. If anyone tells him a thing he believes it.’
God said, ‘Say: An ear of good to you,’ i.e. he hears good and believes it.

Then He said, ‘They swear by God to you to please you, but God and
His apostle have more right that they should please Him if they are be¬
lievers.’ 1 Then He said, ‘If you ask them they will say We were but talking
and jesting. Say: Do you scoff at God and His signs and His apostle?* as

926 far as the w r ords ‘If We pardon a party of you We will punish a party.’ The
one who said these words was Wadi'a b. Thabit, brother of B. Umayya b.
Zayd of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf. The one who was pardoned, according to my
information, was Mukhashshin b. Humayyir al-Ashja'I, an ally of B.
Salima, because he disapproved of what he heard them saying.

The description of them continues to the words, ‘O prophet, fight the
unbelievers and disaffected, and deal roughly with them. Their abode is
hell, an evil resting-place. They sw r ear by God that they did not say it but
they did say the word of unbelief and disbelieved after their Islam and
planned what they could not attain. They sought revenge only because
God and His apostle had enriched them from His bounty' to the words ‘no
friend and no helper.’ The one who said those words was al-Julas b.
Suwayd b. Samit, and a man of his family called 'Umayr b. Sa'd reported
them and he denied that he had said them and swore an oath by God. But
when the Quran came dowm concerning them he repented and changed
his mind. His repentance and his state became excellent as I have heard.

Then He said, ‘And of them is he who made a covenant w'ith God: If He
gives us of His bounty we will give alms and become of the righteous.’
The ones who made a covenant with God were Tha'laba b. Hatib and
Mu'attib b. Qushayr, both of B. 'Amr b. 'Auf.

Then He said, ‘Those who defame such of the believers as give freely in
alms and such as can only give their efforts and scoff at them, God will
scoff at them and they will have a painful punishment,’ The believers who
freely gave alms w r ere 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf and 'Asim b. 'Adly, brother
of B. 'Ajlan, because the apostle incited and urged men to almsgiving.
'Abdu’l-Rahman arose and gave 4,000 dirhams, and 'Asim arose and gave
100 loads of dates, and they defamed them and said, ‘This is nothing
but ostentation.’ The man who gave in alms all he could was Abu 'Aqil,
brother of B. Unayf, who brought a measure of dates and cast it all into
the alms. They laughed at him saying, ‘God can do without Abu 'Aqil’s
paltry measure.’

Then He mentioned what they said one to another when the apostle
ordered war and the expedition to Tabuk in great heat and sterile condi-

927 tions. ‘They said, Go not forth in the heat. Say: The fire of hell is much

1 The syntax of this verse is forced and it is probable that some early scribe wrote r varasu-
luhu mechanically.

The Life of Muhammad 623

hotter did you but understand. But let them laugh a little and weep much’
as far as the words ‘and let not their wealth and children astonish you.’

Al-Zuhri from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdullah b. 'Utba from b. 'Abbas said:
I heard 'Umar saying, ‘When 'Abdullah b. Ubayy died the apostle was
called to pray over him; and when he went and stood by him about to
pray I changed my position so as to confront him and said “Are you going
to pray over God's enemy 'Abdullah b. Ubayy, the man who said so-and-so
on such-and-such occasions ?” The apostle smiled w'hen I had made a long
story and said, “Get behind me, 'Umar. I have been given the choice and
I have chosen. It was said to me, ‘Ask pardon for them or ask it not. If
you ask pardon for them seventy times God will not pardon them.’ Did
I know that if I added to the seventy he would be forgiven I would add
thereto.” Then he prayed over him and walked with him till he stood over
his grave until he was disposed of. I was astonished at myself and my bold¬
ness when God and His apostle know best. It was not long before these
two verses came down “And never pray for any one of them who dies
and do not stand by his grave for they disbelieved in God and His apostle
and died as evil-doers.” Afterwards the apostle never prayed over a
disaffected person until the day of his death.’

Then He said: ‘And when a sura is sent down: Believe in God and
strive along with His apostle, men of wealth among them asked your
permission (to stay behind).’ Ibn Ubayy was one of them and God
upbraided him for it, then He said: ‘But the apostle and those who believe
with him strive with their wealth and their lives; for them are the good
things; they are the successful. God has prepared for them gardens
beneath which rivers flow wherein they shall abide for ever; that is the
great triumph. And the excuse-offering Bedouin came to ask leave and those
who disbelieved God and His apostle stayed at home’ to the end of the
account. The men with excuses so I have heard were a number of B.
Ghifar among whom was Khufaf b. Ayma’ b. Rahada; He goes on with the
story of these to the words ‘nor to those w r ho when they came to you to
mount them you said I cannot find a beast on which to mount you, turned
back, their eyes flowing with tears for grief that they could not find the
wherewithal to spend.’ Those were the weepers.

Then He said: ‘The way (of blame) is only against those who asked
leave, they being rich. They wanted to be with the women. God sealed
their hearts and they do not know.’ The khawdiif were the women. Then
He mentioned their oath and their excuse to the Muslims and said,
‘Turn away from them’ to His words ‘And if you are satisfied with them
God will not be satisfied with an evil people.’

Then He mentioned the Bedouin and the disaffected among them and
how they waited for (the discomfiture of) the apostle and the believers:
‘And of the Bedouin there is he who regards what is spent,’ i.e. of the alms
or expenses in the way of God ‘as a tax and awaits evil fortune for you.
The evil fortune will be theirs and God is hearing, knowing.’

624 The Life of Muhammad

Then He mentioned the sincere and faithful Bedouin among them and
said: ‘And of the Bedouin there is he who believes in God and the last
day and regards what he spends and the prayers of the apostle as accep¬
table offerings with God. It is an acceptable offering for them.’

Then He mentioned the first emigrants and helpers and their merit and
the goodly reward which God promised them. Then he joined with them
their later followers in goodness and He said, ‘God is pleased with them
and they are pleased with Him.’ Then He said: ‘And of the Bedouin
round you there are the disaffected and of the people of Medina there are
those who are stubborn in disaffection,’ i.e. persist in it and refuse to be
otherwise; ‘we shall punish them twice.’ The punishment with which
God threatened them twice according to my information is their grief
over their position in Islam and their inward rage at not getting a (heavenly)
reward; then their punishment in the grave when they get there; then the
great punishment to which they will be brought, the punishment of hell
eternally. Then He said: ‘And there are others who acknowledged their
faults. They mixed a good deed with another that was bad; perhaps God
will relent towards them, for He is forgiving, merciful.’

Then He said, ‘Take alms from their wealth wherewith to purify and
cleanse them’ to the end of the passage. Then He said: ‘And there are
others who are postponed to God’s decree; either He will punish them or
relent towards them.’ They are the three who were left in abeyance and
the apostle postponed their case until their forgiveness came from God.

929 Then He said, ‘And as for those who chose a mosque out of opposition’
to the end of the passage. Then He said: ‘God has bought from the
believers their lives and their wealth for the Garden that will be theirs.’
Then comes the narrative dealing with Tabuk to the end of the chapter.

In the time of the prophet and afterwards Bara’a was called al-Muba-
'thira 1 because it laid bare the secret thoughts of men. Tabuk was the last
raid that the apostle made.

THE POETRY OF HASSAN ENUMERATING THE BATTLES

Hassan b. Thabit, enumerating the battles and campaigns in which the
Ansar fought in company with the apostle, said: (872)

Am I not the best of Ma'add in family and tribe 2
If all of them be reckoned and counted ?

A people all of whom witnessed Badr with the apostle
Neither falling short nor deserting.

They gave him their fealty, not one betrayed it,

And there was no deceit in their plighted word.

On the day when in the glen of Uhud

1 Cf. Suras 82. 4 and 100. 9.

2 S. explains that Hassan who was not of Ma'add means men in general and says ‘Ma'add*
because of their great number.

625

The Life of Muhammad

Well-aimed blows blazing like a hot fire met them

And the day of Dhu Qarad when dust rose above them as they rode
They did not flinch nor fear.

At Dhu 1 - Ushayra they overrode them with the apostle
Armed with sword and spear.

At Waddan they drove out its people
Galloping along till hill and mountain stopped us.

And the night when they sought their enemy for God’s sake
(And God will reward them for what they did).

And the raid on Najd, where with the apostle
They gained much spoil and booty.

And the night in Hunayn when they fought with him
He gave them a second taste of combat.

And the raid of al-Qa' when we scattered the enemy
As camels are scattered before their drinking-place.

They were the people who paid him homage

To the point of war—they succoured him and left him not. o 10

In the raid on Mecca they were on guard among his troops
Neither light-minded nor hasty.

At Khaybar they were in his squadron
Each man walking like a hero facing death
With swords quivering in their right hands
Sometimes bent through striking, sometimes straight.

The day the apostle went to Tabuk seeking God’s reward
They were his first standard-bearers.

They had the conduct of war if it seemed good to them
Until advance or retreat seemed the best.

Those are the people, the prophet’s Ansar,

And they are my people-to them I belong when my descent is
searched.

They died honourably, faith unbroken,

And when they were killed it was for God’s sake (873).

Hassan also said:

We were kings of men before Muhammad
And when Islam came we had the superiority.

God the only God honoured us with

Bygone days that have no parallel

In our help to God and His apostle and His religion,

And God has given us a name which has no equal.

Those people of mine are the best of all people.

Whatever is counted good my people are worthy of it.

They surpass all their predecessors in generosity
And the way to their generosity is never barred.

When men come to their assemblies they do not behave unseemly

B 4080 ss

626

The Life of Muhammad

Nor are they mean when asked for a gift.

They are inimitable in war and peace.

To fight them is death; to make peace ease.

Their sojourner’s house is high and inaccessible.

While staying with us he enjoys respect and hospitality.

If one of them assumes a debt he pays it
Without defaulting or running into debt.

He who speaks speaks the truth,

Their clemency is constant, their judgement just.

He whom the Muslims trusted while he lived 1
And he whom the angels 2 washed of his impurity were of us (874).

Hassan also said:

These are my people if you ask,

Generous when a guest arrives.

Large are the cooking-pots for the gamesters
Wherein they cook the fat-humped camels.

They give the sojourner a life of plenty
And protect their friend when he is wronged.

They were kings in their lands,

They call for the sword when injustice is flagrant. 3
They -were kings over men—never by others
Have they been ruled even for a short time.

Tell 4 about 'Ad and its peoples:

Of Thamud and the survivors of Iram,

Of Yathrib where they had built forts among the palms
And cattle were housed there,

Watering camels which the Jews trained
Saying, Off with you, and Come!

They had what they wanted of wine and pleasure,

An easy life free of care.

We came to them with our equipment
On our white war-loving camels;

Beside them we led war-horses
Covered with thick leather.

When we halted on the sides of Sirar 5
And made fast the saddles with twisted ropes
They were scared by the speed of the horses
And the sudden attack from the rear.

They fled swiftly in terror

As we came on them like lions of the jungle

1 Sa'd b. Mu’idh according to A.Dh.

1 The word generally rendered ‘apostles’. The story of Han?ala has been given above,
p. 377 -

• Another reading is ‘they display anger’.

• Or, ‘They told’, &c.

5 A mountain at Medina.-

627

The Life of Muhammad-

On our long, carefully tended mares

nu L. were out of condition from long stabling
Dark bays, spirited, 6 ' g '

Strong jointed like arrows,

Carrying horsemen accustomed to fighting warriors
And to smiting down brave foes;

Kings when (others) behaved as tyrants in the land
Never retreating but always advancing. ’ 932

W e came back with their leading men

And their women and children also were divided among the victors
We inherited their houses when they had gone g

And remained there as owners.

!”!f r 'vf " ght ' y g , uided a P° stk br °ught us the truth
And light after darkness

We said,‘You speak the truth, 0 God’s apostle;

Come and dwell with us.

We bear witness that you are the slave of God
oent in light with an upright religion.

We and our children are a protection for you
And our wealth is at your disposal. 1
Such are we if others give you the lie,

So shrink not from proclaiming aloud,

Proclaim what you have hidden
Openly without concealing it,’

The erring ones came with their swords
Thinking that he would be slain.

We attacked them with our swords,

Fighting the miscreants of the peoples in his defence
With our brightly polished swords
Fme-edged, biting, cutting.

When they encountered hard bones
They did not recoil or become blunted.

Such have our nobles bequeathed us
In ancestral glory and proud fame.

When one passes another takes his place
And he leaves a scion when he dies.

There is none who is not indebted to us,

Though he may have been disloyal (875).

THE YEAR OF THE DEPUTATIONS, A.H. 9
Tab e u n k th a e nH P Tb le -f d f P ossession of Mecca, and had finished with

Act as a judge in our affairs (or property).

62B The Life of Muhammad

In deciding their attitude to Islam the Arabs were only waiting to see
what happened to this clan of Quraysh and the apostle. For Quraysh
were the leaders and guides of men, the people of the sacred temple,
and the pure stock of Ishmael son of Abraham; and the leading Arabs
did not contest this. It was Quraysh who had declared war on the apostle
and opposed him; and when Mecca was occupied and Quraysh became
subject to him and he subdued it to Islam, and the Arabs knew that they
could not fight the apostle or display enmity towards him they entered
into God’s religion ‘in batches’ as God said, coming to him from all
directions. God said to His prophet: ‘When God’s help came and the
victory, and you saw men entering into God’s religion in batches, then
glorify God with praise and ask His pardon for He is most forgiving,
i.e. praise God for His having made your religion victorious, and ask His
pardon, for He is most forgiving.

THE COMING OF THE DEPUTATION OF BANtj TAMIM

Then deputations of Arabs came to the apostle. There came to him
'Utarid b. Hajib b. Zurara b. ‘Udus al-Tamiml among the nobles of B.
Tamlm including al-Aqra' b. Habis and al-Zibriqan b. Badr one of B.
Sa'd, and 'Amr b. al Ahtam and al-Habhab b. Zayd (877).

934 And in the deputation of B. Tamim were Nu'aym b. Yazid and Qays b.
al-Harith and Qays b. ‘Asirn brother of B. Sa’d with a great deputation
from B. Tamim (878). With them was ‘Uyayna b. Hisn b. Hudhayfa b.
Badr al-Fazari.

Al-Aqra’ and 'Uyayna had been with the apostle at the occupation of
Mecca and Hunayn and al-Ta if, and when the deputation came they were
among them. When the deputation entered the mosque they called out to
the apostle who was behind in his private apartments, ‘Come out to us,
Muhammad!’ This loud call annoyed the apostle and he came out to them,
and they said, ‘Muhammad, we have come to compete with you in boast¬
ing, so give permission to our poet and our orator.’ The apostle did so,
and ‘Utarid b.‘Hajib got up and said:

935 ‘Praise belongs to God for His favour to us and He is worthy to be
praised, who has made us kings and given us great wealth wherewith we are
generous, and has made us the strongest people of the east and the greatest
in number, and the best equipped, so who among mankind is our equal ?
Are we not the princes of men and their superiors ? He who would compete
with us let him enumerate what we have enumerated. If we wished we
could say more, but we are too modest to say much of what He has given
us and are well known for that. I say this that you may bring forward the
like and anything better.’ Then he sat down. The apostle said to Thabit

1 Sura no. For a criticism of this translation (demanded by I.I.’s exegesia) and of 1 . 1 . »
explanation see Suhayli in loc.

The Life of Muhammad 629

b. Qays b. al-Shammas, brother of B. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj, ‘Get up and
answer the man’s speech’; so Thabit got up and said:

‘Praise belongs to God Who created heaven and earth and established
His rule therein, and His knowledge includes His throne; nothing exists
but by His bounty. By His power He made us kings and chose the best of
His creation as an apostle, and honoured him with lineage, made him
truthful in speech, and favoured him with reputation, and sent down to
him His book and entrusted him with it above (all) that He had created.

He was God’s choice from the worlds. Then He summoned men to
believe in him, and the emigrants from his people and his kinsmen
believed in God’s apostle; the most noble men in reputation, the highest
in dignity, and the best in deeds. The first of creatures to answer and
respond to God when the apostle called them were ourselves. We are
God’s helpers and the assistants of His apostle, and will fight men until
they believe in God; and he who believes in God and His apostle has
protected his life and property from us; and he who disbelieves we will
fight in God unceasingly and killing him will be a small matter to us.
These are my words and I ask God’s pardon for myself and the believers
both men and women. Peace upon you.’

(T. Then they said, ‘Give permission to our poet to speak’ and he did
so,) and al-Zibriqan got up and said:

We are the nobles, no tribe can equal us.

From us kings are born and in our midst churches are built.

How many tribes have we plundered,

For excellence in glory is to be sought after.

In time of dearth we feed our meat to the hungry
When no rain cloud can be seen.

You can see chiefs coming to us from every land,

And we feed them lavishly.

We slaughter fat-humped young camels as a matter of course; 936

Guests when they come are satisfied with food.

You will see whenever we challenge a tribe’s superiority
They yield and abandon leadership. 1
He who challenges us we know the result:

His people withdraw and the news is noised abroad.

We forbid others but none forbid us.

Thus we are justly exalted in pride (879).

Hassan was absent at the time and the apostle sent a messenger to tell
him to come and answer the B. Tamlm’s poet. Hassan said, As I went to
the apostle I was saying:

We protected God’s apostle when he dwelt among us
Whether Ma'add liked it or not.

1 Lit. 'become as a head that is cut off’.

630 The Life of Muhammad

We protected him when he dwelt among our houses
With our swords against every evil wretch
In a unique house whose glory and wealth
Is in Jabiyatu’l-Jaulan among the foreigners.

Is glory aught but ancient lordship and generosity,

The dignity of kings and the bearing of great burdens ?

When I came to the apostle and the tribal poet had said his say, I made
allusions to what he had said on the same pattern. When al-Zibriqan had
finished the apostle said to Hassan, ‘Get up and answer the man,’ and
Hassan arose and said:

The leaders of Fihr and their brothers
Have shown a way of life to be followed.

Everyone whose heart is devout

And does all manner of good approves them.

Such a people when they fight injure their enemies
Or gain the advantage of their adherents which they seek.

Such is their nature—no recent habit.

(The worst of characteristics is innovation.)

937 If there are men who surpass those who come after them
Then they would be behind the last of them.

Men do not repair what their hands have destroyed in fighting.

Nor destroy what they have repaired.

If they compete with others they take the lead.

If weighed against men famous for liberality they send down the scale.
Chaste men whose chastity is mentioned in revelation,

Undefiled, no impurity can injure them.

Not mean with their wealth towards the sojourner
And no stain of covetousness touches them.

When we attack a tribe we do not go softly to them
Like a calf running to the wild cow.

We rise up when the claws of war reach us
When good-for-naughts are humbled by its nails.

They do not boast when they overcome their enemy,*

And if they are beaten they are not weak nor despairing.

In battle when death is at hand

They are like lions in Halya with crooked claws.

Take what you can get if they are enraged
And seek not what they have forbidden.

To fight them is to meet poison and bane
So do not antagonize them.

How noble the people who have God’s apostle with them 1
When sects and parties differ!

My heart sings their praises

1 Rasulu’llahi shi'atuhum.

631

The Life of Muhammad

Aided in its beloved task by an eloquent and ready tongue,

For they are the best of all creatures
In matters grave and gay (S80).

When Hassan had ended al-Aqra' said: ‘By my father, this man has a 938
ready helper. His orator and his poet are better than ours and their
voices are sweeter 1 than ours,’ In the end they accepted Islam and the
apostle gave them valuable gifts.

They had left 'Amr b. al-Ahtam behind with their camels, he being
the youngest of them. Qays b. 'Asim, who hated ‘Amr, said, ‘O apostle
of God, there is one of our men with the camels, a mere youngster,’ and
he spoke disparagingly of him. But the apostle gave him the same as he
gave the others. When 'Amr heard that Qays had said that, he satirized 030
him thus:

You exposed yourself to contempt when you defamed me to the
apostle.

You were a liar and spoke not the truth.

(T. A ou may hate us, for Roman is your origin

But Rome does not hold hatred for the Arabs.)

We ruled you with a wide authority, but your authority

Is that of one sitting on his behind and showing his teeth! 2 (881)

Concerning them the Quran came down: ‘Those who call you from
behind the private apartments most of them have no sense.’ 3

THE STORY OF 'AMIR B. AL-TUFAYL AND ARBAD B. QAYS

Among the deputation from B. 'Amir was 'Amir b. al-Tufayl and Arbad
b.^ Qays b. Jaz’ b. Khalid b. Ja'far, and Jabbar b. Salma b. Malik b.

Ja'far. These three were the chiefs and leaders of the tribe.

'Amir, the enemy of God, 4 came to the apostle intending to kill him
treacherously. His people had urged him to accept Islam because others
had done so, but he said: ‘I have sworn that I wall not stop until the Arabs
follow me. Am I to follow in the steps of this fellow from Quraysh ?’ Then
he said to Arbad: ‘When we get to the man I will distract his attention
from you, and when I do that smite him with your sword.’ When they
got to the apostle 'Amir said, ‘Muhammad, come apart with me.’ 5 He

1 So C. ( ahla ). W. has a Id 'rise above ours’.

2 i.e. a dog. In T 1717 the verse runs:

We ruled and our authority is ancient, but your authority
Is behind at the root of the rump and the tail.

If we may suppose that there is a play on the word 'aud which should be read as 'lid and
understood as a synonym of qadxb (cf. Ibn Jufayl, ffayy b. Yaqzan , 85), it is easy to see why
I.H. cut out one verse and bowdlerized the next.

T. has Those of the Banu Tamim who call you from behind the private apartments
have no sense” and that is the preferable reading.’ Sura 49. 4. Cf. Wellhausen, Muhammed
m Medina, 3 87. 4 T- omits the label.

A less likely meaning, as the commentators point out, is ‘make friends with me’.

632 The Life of Muhammad

replied, ‘No, I will not until you believe in God alone.’ He repeated the
request and went on talking to him expecting that Arbad would do as
he had told him but he remained inactive. He again repeated his request
and got the same answer. When the apostle refused he said, ‘By God I will

940 fill the land against you with horses and men.’ When they went away the
apostle said, ‘O God, rid me of 'Amir b. al-Tufayl.’ On their way back
'Amir said to Arbad, ‘Confound you, Arbad, why didn’t you do what I
ordered ? By God there is no man on the face of the earth whom I fear more
than you, but by God I shall never fear you after today.’ He answered,
‘Don’t be hasty with me. Whenever I tried to get at him as you ordered,
you got in the way so that I could see only you. Was I to smite you with the
sword?’

T- 1747 (T. 'Amir b. al-Tufayl said:

The apostle sent word about what you know and it w r as as though
We were making a planned raid on the squadrons
And our worn-out horses had brought us to Medina
And we had killed the Ansar in its midst.)

As they were on their way back God sent a bubonic plague in 'Amir’s
neck, and God killed him in the house of a woman of B. Salul. He began
to say, ‘O Banu 'Amir, A boil like the boil of a young carriel in the house
of a woman of Banu Salul!’ (882) 1

Wben they had buried him his companions returned to the B. 'Amir
country to winter and the people asked Arbad what had happened.
‘Nothing, by God,’ he said; ‘he asked us to worship something. I wish
he were here now and I would kill him with an arrow'.’ A day or two after
saying this he went out with his camel behind him and God sent on him
and his camel a thunderbolt which consumed them. Arbad was brother
of Labid b. Rabl'a by the same mother (883).

Labid said, weeping Arbad:

The fates spare none,

Neither anxious father nor son.

I feared a violent death for Arbad

But I did not fear the blow of Pisces and Leo.

941 O eye, why do you not weep for Arbad
Since we and the women rise in sorrow ?

If men blustered he took no notice,

If they were moderate in judgement he showed moderation.

Sweet, astute, w'ithal in his sweetness bitter,

Gentle in bowels and liver.

O eye, why do you not weep for Arbad

When the winter winds strip the leaves from the trees

And make pregnant camels milkless

1 These words are proverbial; see Freytag, Prov. ii. 172.

633

The Life of Muhammad

Until the last few drops appear? (He was)

Bolder than a man-eating lion in his thicket.

Eager for fame and far-seeing.

The eye could not see as far as it wished
The night the horses came weak from the battle.

ho sent the mourning-women among his mourners
Like young gazelles in a barren land.

The lightning and thunderbolts distressed me
For the brave knight on the day of misfortune.

Who spoiled the spoiler to repay the spoiled
Who came to him distressed and if he asked for more he gave it;
Liberal when times were bad
As the gentle spring rain that waters the grass.

All sons of a freewoman must become few
However many she bare.

Envied though they be, they must fall;

Though they hold authority one day they must perish and die (884).
Labid also said:

Gone is the guard and protector

Who saved her from shame on the day of battle.

I was sure wc had parted (for ever) the day they said,

‘Arbad’s property is being divided by lot.’

The shares of the heirs fly off in double and single lots
And authority 1 goes to the young man.

Bid farewell to Abu Hurayz with a blessing,

Though farewell to Arbad brings little of that.

ou were our leader and organizer,

For beads must be held together by a string;

And Arbad was a warlike knight 942

When the howdahs w : ith their coverings w r ere overthrown;

W hen in the morning the women were carried pillion
With faces unveiled and legs bare;

On that day men fled to him for safety
As a man at large flees to the sanctuary.

He who came to Arbad’s cooking-pot praised it
And thos£,wvho had much meat were not reproached.

If a woman were his guest

She had gifts and a share of the best meat;

If she stayed she was honoured and respected;

If she went forth ’twas wdth a kind farew ell.

Have you ever heard of two brothers who endured for ever
Save the two^ons of Shamam? 2

Another explanation of za ama is ‘the best of the inheritance'.

2 Two mountains.

634

The Life of Muhammad

Or the two stars of the polar region and the Great Bear
Everlasting, their destruction unthinkable. 1

Labid also said:

Announce to the noble the death of noble Arbad,

Announce the death of the chief, the kind-hearted,

Giving away his wealth that he might gam praise,

Camels like wild untamed cows,

Abundant in virtues if they were reckoned,

Who filled the platter again and again.

Whenever a poor man came he ate at will
As when a lion finds water in a dry land.

The more he is threatened the nearer he comes.

You have left us no paltry inheritance,

And wealth newly acquired and sons,

Youths like hawks, young men, and beardless boys.

Labid also said:

You will never exhaust the good deeds of Arbad, so weep for him
continually.

Say, He was the protecting warrior when armour was donned.

He kept wrong-doers from us when we met insolent enemies.

The Lord of creation took him away since He saw there was no long
stay on earth.

943 He died painlessly without hurt and he is sorely missed.

Labid also said:

Every bitter opponent whose way seemed harmful reminds me of

Arbad. . ,

If they were fair, then he was nobly fair: if they were unfair so was he.
He guided the people carefully when their guide went astray in the
desert (885).

Labid also said:

I went walking after (the death of) Salma b. Malik
And Abu Qays and 'Urwa like a camel whose hump is cut off. 2
When it sees the shadow of a raven it shoos it away
Anxious for the rest of its spine and sinews (886).

THE COMING OF DIMAM B. THA LA BA AS A DEPUTY
FROM BANU Sa'd B. BAKR

The B Sa'd b. Bakr sent one of their men called Dimam b. Tha'laba to the
apostle. Muhammad b. al-Walld b. Nuwayfi’ from Kurayb client of

1 In Brockelmann’s edn. the poem (xviii) has 31 verses. The text in Chalidi, p. 17 . lb m
better sequence. 2 B >' its starving owners m them hunger.

The Life of Muhammad 635

'Abdullah b. 'Abbas from Ibn 'Abbas told me: When the B. Sa'd sent
Dimam to the apostle he came and made his camel kneel at the door of the
mosque, hobbled it, and went into the mosque where the apostle was sitting
with his companions. Now Dimam was a thickset hairy man with two fore¬
locks. He came forward until he stood over the apostle and said, ‘Which of
you is the son of 'AbduTMuttalib ?’ The apostle said that he was. ‘Are you
Muhammad ?’he asked. When he said thathewashe said ,‘0 son of‘Abdu’l-
Muttalib, I am going to ask you a hard question, so don’t take it amiss.’ The
apostle told him to ask what he liked and he would not take it amiss and he
said, ‘I adjure you by God your God and the God of those before you and
the God of those who will come after you, has God sent you to us as an
apostle ?’ ‘Yes, by God He has,’ he replied. He then adjured him to answer
the questions. ‘Has He ordered you to order us to serve Him alone and not
to associate anything with Him and to discard those rival deities which our 944
fathers used to worship along with Him; and to pray these five prayers;
then the ordinances of Islam one by one, alms, fasting, pilgrimage, and all
the laws of Islam?’ At the end he said: ‘I testify that there is no God but
Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the apostle of God, and I will carry
out these ordinances, and I will avoid what you have forbidden me to do;

I will neither add to, nor diminish from them.’ Then he went back to his
camel. The apostle said, ‘If this man with the two forelocks is sincere he
will go to Paradise.’

The man went to his camel, freed it from its hobble, and went off to his
people, and when they gathered to him the first thing he said was, ‘How
evil are al-Lat and al-'Uzza!’ 1 ‘Heavens above, Dimam,’ they said, ‘beware
of leprosy and elephantiasis and madness!’ He said: ‘Woe to you, they can
neither hurt nor heal. God has sent an apostle and sent down to him a
book, so seek deliverance thereby from your present state; as for me, I
bear witness that there is no God but the one God who is without associate,
and that Muhammad is His slave and apostle. I have brought you what
He has commanded you to do and what He has ordered you not to do.’

And by God before the night was over there was not a man or woman in the
tribe who had not become a Muslim. ‘Abdullah b. 'Abbas said: We have
never heard of a representative of a tribe finer than Dimam b. Tha'laba.

THE COMING OF AL-JARUD IN THE DEPUTATION FROM

'abdu’l-qays

Al-Jarud b. 'Amr b. Hanash, brother of ‘Abdu’l-Qays, came to the apostle
(887).

One of whom I have no suspicion told me from al-Hasan that when he 945
came to the apostle he spoke to him, and the apostle explained Islam to him
and invited him to enter it with kindly words. He replied: ‘Muhammad,

1 The expression may have a coarser meaning.

636 The Life of Muhammad

I owe a debt. If I leave my religion for yours will you guarantee my
debt?’ The apostle said, ‘Yes, I guarantee that what God has guided you
to is better than that’, so he and his companions accepted Islam. Then he
asked the apostle for some mounts, but he told him that he had none
available. Al-Jarud pointed out that there were some stray beasts lying
between Medina and his country and could he not ride away on them?
He replied, ‘No, beware of them, for that would lead to hell fire.’

Al-Jarud went off to his own tribe, a good Muslim, firm in his religion
until his death, having lived to the time of the Apostasy. And when some
of his people who had become Muslims returned to their former religion
with al-Gharur 1 b. al-Mundhir b. al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir, al-Jarud got
up and spoke and confessed his faith and called them to Islam. He pro¬
nounced the shahada and declared that he would regard anyone who
refused to do likewise as an infidel (888).

The apostle had sent al-'Ala’ b. al-Hadraml to al-Mundhir b. Sawa
al-'Abdi before the conquest of Mecca, and he became a good Muslim.
He died after the apostle but before the apostasy of the people of al-Bah-
rayn. Al-'Ala’ was with him as governor for the apostle over al-Bahrayn.

THE DEPUTATION FROM BANU HANIFA WITH WHOM
WAS MUSAY LIMA

The deputation of B. Hanifa came to the apostle bringing with them
Musaylima b, Habib al-Hanafi, the arch liar (889). They lodged in the
house of d. al-Harith, a woman of the Ansar of B. al-Najjar. One of the
scholars of Medina told me that B. Hanifa brought him to the apostle
946 hiding him in garments. The apostle was sitting among his companions
having a palm-branch with some leaves on its upper end. When he came
to the apostle as they were covering him with garments he spoke to him
and asked him (for a gift). The apostle answered: ‘If you were to ask me
for this palm branch (T. which I hold) I would not give it to you.’

A shaykh of B. Hanifa from the people of al-Yamama told me that the
incident happened otherwise. He alleged that the deputation came to the
apostle having left Musaylima behind with the camels and the baggage.
When they had accepted Islam they remembered where he was, and told
the apostle that they had left a companion of theirs to guard their stuff.
The apostle ordered that he should be given the same as the rest, saying,
‘His position is no worse than yours,’ i.e. in minding the property of his
companions. That is what the apostle meant.

Then they left the apostle and brought him what he had given him.
When they reached al-Yamama the enemy of God apostatized, gave
himself out as a prophet, and played the liar. He said, ‘I am a partner with
him in the affair,’ and then he said to the deputation who had been with

1 According to S. his name was al-Mundhir and he got the name of ‘The Deceiver’
because he misled ( gharra ) his people in the apostate rising,

The Life of Muhammad 63-7

him, ‘Did he not say to you when you mentioned me to him “His position
is no worse than yours” ? What can that mean but mat he knows that I am
a partner with him in the affair?’ Then he began to utter rhymes in sat'
and speak in imitation of the style of the Quran: ‘God has been gracious
to the pregnant woman; He has brought forth from her a living being that
can move; from her very midst.’ He permitted them to drink wine and
fornicate, and let them dispense with prayer, yet he was acknowledging
the apostle as a prophet, and Hanifa agreed with him on that. But God
knows what the truth was.

zaydu’l-khayl comes with the deputation from

Tayyi*

The deputation of Tayyi’ containing Zaydu’l-Khayl who was their chief
came to the apostle, and after some conversation he explained Islam to
them and they became good Muslims. A man of Tayyi’ whom I have no
reason to suspect told me that the apostle said, ‘No Arab has ever been 947
spoken of in the highest terms but when I have met him I have found that
he falls below what was said of him except Zaydu’I-Khayl, and he exceeds
all that has been said about him.’ Then the apostle named him Zaydu’l-
Khayr and allotted to him Fayd and some lands with it and gave him a
deed accordingly.

As Zayd went back to his tribe the apostle said that he hoped he would
escape the Medina fever. The apostle did not call it Humma or Umm
Maldam; my informant could not say what. When he reached one
of the watering-places of Najd called Farda the fever overcame him and
he died. When he felt his end coming he said:

Are my people to travel eastwards tomorrow
While I’m to be left in a house in Farda in Najd?

How often if I were sick would women visit me
If not worn out by the journey at least tired.

When he was dead his wife got the deeds which the apostle had given
him and burnt them in the fire.

'adIy B. hatim

I have been told that ‘AdIy b. Hatim used to say, ‘No Arab disliked the
apostle when he first heard of him more than I. Now I was a chief of
noble birth, a Christian, and I used to travel about among my people to
collect a quarter of their stock. I was my own master in religious matters
and was a king among my people and treated as such. When I heard of the
apostle I disliked him and said to an Arab servant of mine who was looking
after my camels, “Prepare some of my well-trained, well-fed camels, and
keep them near me, and when you hear of Muhammad’s army coming

638 The Life of Muhammad

into this country bring me word.” One morning he came to me and said,
“Whatever you are going to do when Muhammad’s cavalry comes upon

948 you, do it now, for I have seen flags and I learn that they are the troops of
Muhammad.” I ordered him to bring my camels and I put my family
and children on them and decided to join my fellow Christians in Syria.
I went as far as al-Jaushiya (890) and I left one of Hatim’s daughters in the
settlement. When I reached Syria I stopped there.

In my absence the apostle’s cavalry came and among the captives they
took was Hatim’s daughter, and she was brought to the apostle among the
captives of Tayyi’. The apostle had heard of my flight to Syria. Hatim’s
daughter was put in the enclosure by the door of the mosque in which the
captives were imprisoned and the apostle passed by her. She got up to meet
him, for she was a courteous woman, and said, ‘O apostle of God, my father
is dead and the man who should act for me 1 has gone. If you spare me
God will spare you.’ He asked her who her man was and when she told
him it was 'Adiy b. Hatim he exclaimed, ‘The man who runs away from
God and His apostle.’ Then he w 7 ent on and left her. Exactly the same
thing happened the next day, and on the following day she w r as in despair.
Then a man behind him motioned to her to get up and speak to him. She
said the same words as before and he replied, “I have done so, but do not
hurry away until you find one of your people whom you can trust who can
take you to your country, then let me know'.” I asked the name of the man
who had beckoned to me to speak and was told that it was 'All. I stayed
until some riders came from Ball or Quda'a. All I wanted was to go to
my brother in Syria. I went to the apostle and told him that some trust¬
worthy man of reputation from my people had come for me. The apostle
gave me clothing and put me on a camel and gave me money and I w r ent
away with them until I came to Syria.

'AdTy said: ‘ I w r as sitting among my people when I saw a howdah making
for us and I said “It is Hatim’s daughter” and so it was, and when she got

949 to me she reviled me, saying, ‘You evil rascal, you carried away your family
and children and abandoned your father’s daughter.’ I said, “Do not say
anything that is bad, little sister, for by God I have no excuse. I did do
what you say.” Then she alighted and stayed with me; and as she was a
discreet woman I asked her what she thought of this man and she said,
“I think that you should join him quickly, for if the man is a prophet then
those w'ho get to him first will be preferred; and if he is a king you will
not be shamed in the glory of al-Yaman, you being the man you are.”

I said that this was a sound judgement so I went to the apostle when he
was in his mosque in Medina and saluted him and told him my name and
he got up to take me to his house. As we were making for it there met him
an old feeble woman w r ho asked him to stop and he stopped for a long time

1 I doubt if viafid means ‘visitor’ as A.Dh., followed by C., asserts, or ‘clan’ as Qdmus, s.v.,

. Uyun, ii, 239, quoted in T. 1708, reports that some scholars find the word meaningless and
its explanation far-fetched. See Tab. Gloss.

The Life of Muhammad 6^^

while she told him of her needs. I said to myself “This is no king.” Then
he took me into his house and took hold of a leather cushion stuffed with
palm leaves and threw it to me saying, “Sit on that.” I said, “No, you sit on
it,” and he said “No, you!” So I sat on it and he sat on the ground. I said to
myself, “This is not the way a king behaves.” Then he said, “Now 'Adiy, are
you not half a Christian ?”' When I said that I was he said, “Don’t you go
among your people collecting a quarter of their stock?” When I admitted
that he said: But that is not permitted to you in your religion.” “Quite
true,” I said, and I knew that he was a prophet sent by God knowing what
is not generally known. Then he said, “It may well be that the poverty
you see prevents you from joining this religion but, by God, wealth will
soon flow so copiously among them that there will not be the people to
take it. But perhaps it is that you see how many are their enemies and how
few they are? But, by God, you will hear of a woman coming on her camel
from Qadisiya to visit this temple 2 unafraid. But perhaps it is that you see
that others have the power and sovereignty, but by God you will soon 950
hear that the white castles of Babylon have been opened to them.” Then
I became a Muslim.’

'Adiy used to say that the two things happened and the third remained
to be fulfilled. I saw the white castles of Babylon laid open and I saw
women coming from Qadisiya on camels unafraid to make the pilgrimage
to this temple; and, by God, the third will come to pass: wealth will flow
until there will not be the people to take it.

THE COMING OF FARWA B. MUSAYK AL-MURADI

Farwa b. Musayk al-Muradl came to the apostle, separating himself from
the kings of ICinda. Shortly before Islam there had been a battle between
Murad and Hamdan in which the former suffered a severe defeat, losing
many men in the engagement called al-Radm (T. al-Razm). The leader of
Hamdan was al-Ajda' b. Malik (891).

Farwa said about the battle:

They passed by Lufat 3 with sunken eyes

Tugging at the reins as they turned to one side.

If we conquer we were conquerors of old

And if W'e are conquered we were not often conquered.

Cowardice is not our habit,

But our fate and the fortune of others (caused our defeat).

Thus fate’s wheel turns

1 Rafalsi is defined as a man midway between a Christian and a $abi’ which latter, as we
have seen, means a man who changes his religion. Thus 'Adiy would seem to he, like so
many of the Arabs at this time, a convert but not a practising Christian in the full sense.

The words imply the Ka ba at Mecca and the next paragraph makes this certain. As
the conversation is said to have taken place in Medina the authenticity of the tradition is
suspect, unless hadha means no more than ‘yon’.

3 In Murad territory.

640

The Life of Muhammad

Now for and now against a man.

While we are happy and rejoice in it,

Though we have enjoyed its favour for years,

Suddenly fate’s wheel is turned

And you find those who were envied ground to pieces.

Those whom men envy for fate’s favours
Will find time’s changes deceitful.

If kings were immortal we should be so;

And if the noble persisted so should we;

951 But the chiefs of my people are swept away
Like the generations before them (892).

When Farwa set out to go to the apostle, leaving the kings of Kinda, he
said:

When I saw the kings of Kinda had failed to go right,

Like a man whose leg sinew lets him down,

I brought up my camel to go to Muhammad
Hoping for its welfare and good ground (893).

When he reached the apostle he asked him, so I have been told, ‘Are
you upset at what befell your people on the day of al-Radm? He
answered that such a tribal defeat as that would distress any man, and t e
apostle said that if that were so Islam could bring them only good. The
prophet appointed him governor over Murad and Zubayd and Madh.ij
and sent with him Khalid b. Sa'ld b. al-'As in charge of the poor tax;
he remained with him in his land until the death of the apostle.

THE COMING OF MA'DIKARIB FROM THE BANU ZUBAYD

’Amr b. Ma'dlkarib came to the apostle with some men of B. Zubayd and
accepted Islam. He had said to Qays b. Makshuh al-Muradl when news
of the apostle reached them, ‘You are the chief of your tribe, Qays. We
have heard that a man of Quraysh called Muhammad has appeared in the
Hijaz claiming to be a prophet, so come with us so that we may find out the
facts. If he is a prophet as he says, it will be apparent to you and when we
meet him we will follow him. If he is not a prophet we shall know.’ But
Qays refused and declared his advice to be folly. Thereupon 'Amr rode
952 off to the apostle and accepted Islam. When Qays heard of this he was
enraged and threatened 'Amr, saying that he had gone against him and
rejected his advice. 'Amr said concerning that:

I gave you an order on the day of Dhu San a ,

An order that was plainly right.

I ordered you to fear God and to practise goodness.

You went off after pleasure like a young ass
Whose lust beguiled him.

641

The Life of Muhammad

He wished to meet me on a horse on which I sat as a lion
Wearing a loose coat of mail glittering like a pool
On hard ground which makes the water clear.

Mail that turns back the lances with bent points
With broken shafts flying apart.

Had you met me you would have met a lion with flowing mane.

You would meet a ravening beast
With mighty paws and lofty shoulders
Matching his adversary whom he overthrows if he makes for him:
Seizes him, picks him up, throws him down and kills him;

Dashes out his brains and shatters him;

Tears him in pieces and devours him,

Admitting none a share in the prey his teeth and claws hold fast (894),

Amr stayed with his people the B. Zubayd while Farwa b. Musayk
was over them. When the apostle died 'Amr revolted, and said:

We have found Farwa’s rule the worst of rules,

An ass sniffing at a female ass.

If you were to look at Abu 'Umayr

You would think he was a caul with its filthy discharge (895).

al-ash'ath b. qays comes with the deputation

OF KINDA

Al-Ash'ath b. Qays came to the apostle with the deputation of Kinda.
Ai-Zuhrl told me that he came with eighty riders from Kinda and they
went in to the apostle in the mosque. They had combed their locks and
blackened their eyes with kohl, and they wore striped robes bordered with
silk. The apostle asked them if they had accepted Islam and when they
said that they had he asked why this silk was round their necks. So they
tore it off and threw it away.

Then al-Ash'ath said, ‘We are the sons of the eater of bitter herbs and
so are you.’ The apostle smiled and said that to al-'Abbas b. 'Abdu’l-
Muftalib and Rabl'a b. al-Harith that ancestry was attributed. These two
men were merchants and when they went about among the Arabs and were
asked who they were they would say that they were sons of the eater of
bitter herbs, taking pride in that because Kinda were kings. Then he
said to them, ‘Nay, we are the sons of al-Nadr b. Kinana: we do not follow
our mother’s line and disown our father.’ 1 Al-Ash'ath said ‘Have you
finished (T. Do you know), O men of Kinda? By God if I hear a man
saying that (T. after today) I will give him eighty strokes’ (896).

1 This throws light on Robertson Smith's theory of a primitive matriarchy in ancient'
Arabia.

T t

B 4080

6 4 2 The Life of Muhammad

THE COMING OF SURAD B. 'ABDULLAH AL-AZDI

Surad came to the apostle and became a good Muslim with the deputation
from al-Azd. The apostle put him in command of those of his people
who had accepted Islam and ordered him to fight the neighbouring
polytheists from the tribes of the Yaman with them. Sura we ^ awa Y
to carry out the apostle’s orders and stopped at Jurash, which at that ime
was a closed town containing some of the tribes of the Yaman. Khath am
had taken refuge with them and entered it when they heard of the approac
of the Muslims. The latter besieged them for about a month, but they
could not force an entry. Surad withdrew as far as one of their mountains
(now) called Shakar, and the inhabitants of Jurash, thinking that he had
fied from them, went out in pursuit of him, and when they overtoo im
he turned on them and killed a large number of them. .

Now the people of Jurash had sent two of their men to t e apost ^ in
Medina to look about them and see (what was happening), and while they
were with the apostle after the afternoon prayer he asked where Shakar
was. The two men got up and told him that there was a mountain in their
country called Kashar by the people of Jurash, to which he replied that it
was not Kashar but Shakar. ‘Then what is the news of it?'they asked.
‘Victims offered to God are being killed there now,’ he said. The two
men went and sat with Abu Bakr or it may have been TJthman and he
said, ‘Woe to you! the apostle has just announced to you the death
your people, so get up and ask him to pray to God to spare your people.
They did so, and he did so pray. They left the apostle and returned to
their people and found that they had been smitten on the day that Surad
attacked them on the very day and at the very hour in which the apostle

said these words. ,

The deputation of Jurash came to the apostle and accepted Islam and

he gave them a special reserve 1 round their town with definite marks tor
horses, riding camels, and ploughing oxen. The cattle of any ( ot k er )
man who pastured it could be seized with impunity. One of the Azd in
reference to that raid said: (Khath'am used to assail Azd in pagan times and
attack them in the sacred month):

What a successful raid we had! Mules, and horses and asses.

Until we came to Himyar with its forts

Where Khath'am had been given full warning.

If I could satisfy the rancour I feel

I should not care whether they were Muslims or heathen.

THE DEPUTATION OF THE KINGS OF HIMYAR

On his return from Tabuk a messenger brought a letter from the kings
of Himyar with their acceptance of Islam: al-Harith b. 'Abdu Kulal, and
1 The old word hirnd, meaning a sacred area, has lost its force here.

The Life of Muhammad 643

Nu'aym b. 'Abdu Kulal, and al-Nu'man prince of Dhii Ru'ayn and
Ma'afir and Hamdan. Zur'a Dhu Yazan sent Malik b. Murra al-RahawI
with their submission to Islam and abandonment of polytheism and its
adherents. Then the apostle wrote to them: ‘In the name of God the
Compassionate, the Merciful, from Muhammad the apostle of God, the 956
prophet, to al-Harith b. 'Abdu Kulal and to Nu'aym b. 'Abdu Kulal 1 and
to al-Nu'man prince of Dhu Ru'ayn and Ma'afir and Hamdan. I praise
God the only God unto you. Your messenger reached me on my
return from the land of the Byzantines and he met us in Medina and con¬
veyed your message and your news and informed us of your Islam and of
your killing the polytheists. God has guided you with His guidance.

If you do well and obey God and His apostle and perform prayer, and pay
alms, and God’s fifth of booty and the apostle’s share and selected part, 2
and the poor tax which is incumbent on believers from land, namely a
tithe of that watered by fountains and rain; of that watered by the bucket
a twentieth; for ever)' forty camels a milch camel; for every thirty camels
a young male camel; for every five camels a sheep; for ever)' ten camels two
sheep; for every forty cows one cow; for every thirty cow's a bull calf or a
cow calf; for every forty sheep at pasture one sheep. This is what God has
laid upon the believers. Anyone who does more it is to his merit. He who
fulfils this and bears witness to his Islam and helps the believers against
the polytheists he is a believer with a believer’s rights and obligations and
he has the guarantee of God and His apostle. If a Jew or a Christian
becomes a Muslim he is a believer with his rights and obligations. He who
holds fast to his religion, Jew' or Christian, is not to be turned (T. seduced)
from it. He must pay the poll tax—for every adult, male or female, free
or slave, one full dinar calculated on the valuation of Ma'afir (T. or its
value) or its equivalent in clothes. He w r ho pays that to God’s apostle has
the guarantee of God and His apostle, and he w r ho withholds it is the enemy
of God and His apostle.

‘The apostle of God, Muhammad the prophet, has sent to Zur'a Dhu
Yazan: When my messenger Mu'adh b. Jabal, and 'Abdullah b. Zayd,
and Malik b. 'Ubada, and 'Uqba b. Nimr, and Malik b. Murra and their
companions come to you I commend them to your good offices. Collect the 957
alms and the poll tax from your provinces and hand them over to my
messengers-. Their leader is Mu'adh b. Jabal, and let him not return unless
satisfied. Muhammad witnesses that there is no God but Allah and that
he is His servant and apostle.

‘Malik b. Murra al-RahawI has told me that you were the first of
Himyar to accept Islam and have killed the polytheists, and I congratulate
you and order you to treat Himyar w r ell and not to be false and treacherous,
for the apostle of God is the friend both of your poor and your rich. The

1 Bal. 71 adds ‘and to Sharh b. 'Abdu Kulal* and omits all words after' Hamdan’ as far as
‘polytheists’.

3 i.e. the part he chooses as his before the property is divided.

644 The Life of Muhammad

alms tax is not lawful to Muhammad or his household; it is alms to be
given to the poor Muslims and the wayfarer. Malik has brought the news
and kept secret what is confidential, and I order you to treat him well.
I have sent to you some of the best of my people, religious and learned men,
and I order you to treat them well, for they must be respected. 1 Peace
upon you and the mercy and blessings of God.’

THE APOSTLE’S INSTRUCTIONS TO MU'ADH WHEN HE
SENT HIM TO THE YAMAN

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that he was told that when the apostle sent
Mu'adh he gave him instructions and orders and then said: Deal gently
and not harshly; announce good news and do not repel people. You are
going to one of the people with scripture who will ask you about the key
of heaven. Say to them it is the witness that there is no God but Allah,
Who has no partner. Mu'adh went off to the Yaman and did as he was
ordered and a woman came to him and said, ‘O companion of God’s
apostle, what rights has a husband over his wife ?’ He said, ‘Woe to you, a
woman can never fulfil her husband’s rights, so do your utmost to fulfil
his claims as best you can.’ She said, ‘By God, if you are the companion
of God’s apostle you must know what rights a husband has over his wife!’
He said, ‘If you were to go back and find him with his nostrils running
with pus and blood and sucked until you got rid of them you would not
have fulfilled your obligation.’ 2

958 FARWA B. 'AMR AL-JUDHAmT BECOMES A MUSLIM

Fanva b. 'Amr b. al-Nafira al-Judhami of the clan of Nufatha sent to the
apostle that he had accepted Islam, and gave him a white mule. Farwa
was governor for the Byzantines of the Arabs lying near the Byzantine
border based on Ma'an and the surrounding land of Syria. When the
news reached the Byzantines they went after him, taught him, and im¬
prisoned him. In his imprisonment he said:

Sulayma came to my companions by night

When the Romans were between the door and the water troughs.

The spectre shrank away sad at what it saw,

And I thought to sleep but it had made me weep.

Paint not thine eye with kohl , Salma, after I am dead

And do not approach for intercourse.

You know, Abu Kubaysha, that among the great ones

My tongue is not silent.

1 A difficult expression. Perhaps 'they are people of importance’, or even ‘they will be
watched’, i.e. to see how they fare.

1 Suhayll offers no comment.

645

The Life of Muhammad

If I perish you will miss your brother
And if I live you will recognize my rank,

For I possess the noblest qualities a man can have:

Generosity, bravery, and eloquence.

^ e .A f th By2antine8 determined to crucify him by a pool in Palestine
called Afra he said:

Has Salma heard that her husband

Is by the water of 'Afra raised on a riding camel, 1

A camel whose mother no stallion e’er mounted,*

Its branches shorn with sickles ?

Al-Zuhri alleged that when they brought him to crucify him he said:

Tell the chiefs of the Muslims that I
Surrender to my Lord my body and my bones.

Then they beheaded him and hung him up by that water. May God have
mercy on him!

THE BANU*L-HARITH ACCEPT ISLAM
Then the apostle sent Khalid b. al-Walid in the month of Rabi'u’l-Akhir

0r j u r u * l ' Cia lnthe y ear 10 to the B. al-H 5 rith b. Ka'b in NairSn and «,«
ordered him to invite them to Islam three days before he attacked them
It they accepted then he was to accept it from them ; 2 and if they declined
he was to fight them. So Khalid set out and came to them, and sen, out
riders ,n all directions inviting the people to Islam, saving, ‘If you accept

KMmTa W H Sa i e ' 50 th ! men acCe P* ed Islam as the y were invited.
Khahd stayed with them teaching them Islam and the book of God and

he sunna of His prophet, for that was what the apostle of God had ordered
him to do if they accepted Islam and did not fighf 1
Then Khalid wrote to the apostle: In the name of God the compassion-
Km'r'nv 1 , To Muhammad the prophet the apostle of God ? From
hald b , a ‘ Waid - Peace be upon you, O apostle of God, and God's

the B al H- ibTV P ra,Se J God the on 'y God u "'° you. You sent me ,0
fithr tia a b a a d ° rdered me when 1 came to them not ,0
itto „ f0r ‘ h r days and to invi,e them ,0 Islam 1 and if they accepted
t to stay w,th them, and to accept it from them and teach’,hem the

solutions of Islam, the book of God, and the sunna of His prophet.

• The following line makes the point clear

beginning‘for that’which T omits rie i c an< ^ ^ at wrote in the clause

not by W. y th them ,n K hahd s letter are given by C.,

646 The Life of Muhammad

And if they did not surrender I was to fight them. I duly came to them and
invited them to Islam three days as the apostle ordered me, and I sent
riders among them with your message. They have surrendered and have
not fought and I am staying among them instructing them in the apostle s
positive and negative commands and teaching them the institutions of
Islam and the prophet’s sunna until the apostle writes to me. Peace upon
you &c.

The apostle wrote to him with the same preamble as before, saying;
‘I have received your letter which came with your messenger telling me
that the B. al-Harith surrendered before you fought them and responded
to your invitation to Islam and pronounced the shahada, and that God had
guided them with His guidance. So promise them good and warn them

960 and come. And let their deputation come with you. Peace upon you &c.

So Khalid came to the apostle with the deputation of B. al-Harith,
among whom were Qays b. al-Husayn Dhu 1 -Ghussa, and Yazid b.
'Abdu’l-Madan, and Yazid b. al-Muhajjal, and 'Abdullah b. Qurad al-
Ziyadi, and Shaddad b. 'Abdullah al-Qanani, and 'Amr b. 'Abdullah

al-Pibabl. , , . ,

When they came to the apostle he asked who these people who looked

like Indians were, and was told that they were the B. al-Harith b. Ka'b.
When they came to the apostle they said, ‘We testify that you are the
apostle of God and that there is no God but Allah.’ But he said, And I
testify that there is no God but Allah and that I am the apostle of Allah.’ 1
Then he said, ‘You are the people who when they were driven away
pushed forward,’ and they remained silent, and none of them answered
him. He repeated the w r ords th'ree times without getting an answer, and
the fourth time Yazid b. Abdu’l-Madan said, ‘Yes, we are,’ and said it
four times. The apostle said, ‘If Khalid had not written to me that you
had accepted Islam and had not fought I would throw your heads beneath
your feet.’ Yazid answered, ‘We do not praise you and we do not praise
Khalid.’ ‘Then whom do you praise?’ he asked. He said: ‘We praise
God who guided us by you.’ ‘You are right,’ he said, and asked them how
they used to conquer those they fought in the pagan period. They said
that they never conquered anyone. ‘Nay, but you did conquer those who
fought you,’ he said. They replied, ‘We used to conquer those we fought
because we were united and had no dissentients, and never began an
injustice.’ He said, ‘You are right,’ and he appointed Qays b. al-Husayn

as their leader. . ou

The deputation returned to their people towards the end of bhawwal
or at the beginning of Dhu’l-Qa'da, and some four months after their

return the apostle died. . ,

961 Now the apostle had sent to them after their deputation had returned
'Amr b. Hazm to instruct them in religion and to teach them the sunna
and the institutions of Islam and to collect their alms; and he wrote him a

1 They had placed man before God.

The Life of Muhammad 647

letter in which he gave him his orders and injunctions as follows: In the
name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful. This is a clear announce¬
ment from God and His apostle. O you who believe, be faithful to your
agreements. 1 The instructions of Muhammad the prophet the apostle of
God to 'Amr b. Hazm when he sent him to the Yaman. He orders him
to observe piety to God in all his doings for God is with those who are
pious and who do well; 2 and he commanded him to behave with truth as
God commanded him; and that he should give people the good news and
command them to follow it and to teach men the Quran and instruct
them in it and to forbid men to do wrong so that none but the pure should
touch the Quran and should instruct men in their privileges and obliga¬
tions and be lenient to them when they behave aright and severe on in¬
justice, for God hates injustice and has forbidden it. ‘The curse of God is
on the evildoers.’ 3 Give men the good new's of paradise and the way to
earn it, and warn them of hell and the way to earn it, and make friends with
men so that they may be instructed in religion, and teach men the rites of
the hajj, its customs and its obligation and what God has ordered about it;
the greater hajj is the greater hajj and the lesser hajj is the ' umra and
prohibit men from praying in one small garment unless it be a garment
whose ends are double over their shoulders, and forbid men from squatting
in one garment w'hich exposes their person to the air, and forbid them to
twist the hair of the head (T. if it is long) on the back of the neck; 4 and
if there is a quarrel between men forbid them to appeal to tribes and
families, and let their appeal be to God; they who do not appeal to God
but to tribes and families let them be smitten wath the sword until their
appeal is made to God; and command men to perform the ablutions, their
faces, and their hands to the elbows and their feet to the ankles, and let
them wipe their heads as God has ordered; and command prayer at the
proper time with bowing, prostration, and humble reverence; prayer at 96a
daybreak, at noon when the sun declines, in the afternoon w'hen the sun
is descending, at even when the night Approaches not delaying it until the
stars appear in the sky; later at the beginning of the night; order them to
run to the mosques when they are summoned, and to wash when they go to
them, and order them to take from the booty God’s fifth and what alms are
enjoined on the Muslims from land—a tithe of what the fountains w r ater
(T. the ba'al waters) 5 and the sky waters, and a twentieth of what the
bucket waters; and for every ten camels two sheep; and for ever} 7 twenty

camels four sheep; for ever}" forty cows one cow; for every thirty cows a

bull or cow calf; for every forty sheep at grass one sheep; this is what God
has enjoined on the believers in the matter of alms. He who adds thereto
it is a merit to him. A Jew' or a Christian w'ho becomes a sincere Muslim

1 Sura 5. I. 2 Sura 16. 128.

3 Sura 5. 1. 4 i.e. to wear a pigtail.

s Here undoubtedly T- and Bal, 70 retain the original text. For the original sense of
Baal’s land see W, Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 98 f. Probably it means
land watered by underground streams.

648 The Life of Muhammad

of his own accord and obeys the religion of Islam is a believer with the
same rights and the same obligations. If one of them holds fast to his
religion he is not to be turned (T. seduced) from it. Every adult, male or
female, bond or free, must pay a golden dinar or its equivalent in clothes.
He who performs this has the guarantee of God and His apostle; he who
withholds it is the enemy of God and His apostle and all believers.

THE COMING OF RIFA'A B. ZAYD AL-JUDHAMl

Rifa'a b. Zayd al-judh 5 ml of the clan of al-Qubayb came to the apostle
during the armistice of al-Hudaybiya before Khaybar. He gave the apostle
a slave and he became a good Muslim. The apostle gave him a letter to
his people in which he wrote: 1

To Rifa'a b. Zayd whom I have sent to his people and those who have
joined them to invite them to God and His apostle. Whosoever comes
forward is of the party of God and His apostle, and whosoever turns back

963 has two months’ grace.

When Rifa'a came to his people they responded and accepted Islam;
then they went to al-Harra, the Harra of al-Rajla’, and stopped there (897).

964 THE LIARS MUSAYLIMA AL-HANAFl AND AL-ASWAD

AL-‘ANSI

Now the two arch-liars Musaylima b. Habib and al-Aswad b. Ka'b al-'AnsI
had spoken during the apostle's lifetime, the first in al-Yamama among the
B. Hanlfa, and the second in San'a Yazid b. 'Abdullah b. Qusay$ told
me from 'At 5 ’ b. Yasar, or his brother Sulayman, from Abu Sa'id al-
Khudri, saying: ‘I heard the apostle as he was addressing the people from
his pulpit say “I saw the night of al-qadr and then I was made to
forget it; and I saw on my arms two bracelets of gold which I disliked
so I blew on them and they flew away. I interpreted it to mean these
two liars, the man of al-Yamama and the man of al-Yaman.” ’

One whom I do not suspect on the authority of Abu Hurayra said:
‘I heard the apostle say: The hour will not come until thirty antichrists
come forth, each of them claiming to be a prophet.’

965 THE SENDING OUT OF COLLECTORS OF THE POOR-TAX

The apostle sent out his officials and representatives to every district
subject to Islam to collect the poor-tax. He sent al-Muhajir b. Abu
Umayya b. al-Mughira to San'a’, and al-'Ansi came crut against him while
he was there. Ziyad b. Labid, brother of B. Bayada al-Ansarl, he sent to
Idadramaut. 'Adiy b. Hatim he sent to Tayyi’ and B. Asad; Malik b.
Nuwayra (898)^0 B. Hanzala. The poor-tax of B. Sa'd he divided between

1 I have omitted the introductory formula.

The Life of Muhammad 64^

two men: Zibriqan b. Badr and Qays b. 'Asim each to be in charge of a
section; al-Ala b. al-Hadrami to al-Bahrayn, and 'All b. Abu Talib to
the people of Najran, to collect the poor-tax and to superintend the
collection of the poll-tax.

MUSAYLIMA’S LETTER AND THE APOSTLE’S ANSWER
THERETO

Musaylima had written to the apostle: ‘From Musaylima the apostle of
God to Muhammad the apostle of God. Peace upon you. I have been
made partner with you in authority. To us belongs half the land and to

Quraysh half, but Quraysh are a hostile people.’ Two messengers brought
this letter. b

A^shaykh of Ashja' told me on the authority of Salama b. Nu'aym b
Mas ud al-Ashja'I from his father Nu'aym: I heard the apostle saying to
them when he read his letter ‘What do you say about it ?’ They said that
they said the same as Musaylima. He replied, ‘By God, were it not that
heralds are not to be killed I would behead the pair of you!’ Then he wrote
to Musaylima: ‘From Muhammad the apostle of God to Musaylima the
liar. Peace be upon him who follows the guidance. 1 The earth is God’s
He lets whom He will of His creatures inherit it and the result is to the
pious. 2 This was at the end of the year 10.

THE FAREWELL PILGRIMAGE 9 66

In the beginning of Dhu’l-Qa'da the apostle prepared to make the pil¬
grimage and ordered the men to get ready.

Abdu 1 -Rahman b. al-Qasim from his father al-Qasim b. Muhammad
from A’isha the prophet’s wife told me that the apostle went on pil¬
grimage on the 25th Dhu’l-Qa'da (899).

Neither he nor the men spoke of anything but the pilgrimage, until
w en he was in Sarif and had brought the victims with him as also some
dignitaries had done, he ordered the people to remove their pilgrim gar¬
ments except those who brought victims. That day my menses were upon
me and he came in to me as I was weeping and asked me what ailed me
guessing correctly what was the matter. I told him he was right and said I
wished to God that I had not come out with him on the journey this year.

He said (T. Don’t do that) ‘Don’t say that, for you can do all that the
pilgrims do except go round the temple.’ The apostle entered Mecca and
everyone who had no sacrificial victim, and his wives, took off the pilgrim
garment. When the day of sacrifice came I was sent a lot of beef and it
was put in my house. When I asked what it was they said that the apostle
had sacrificed cows on behalf of his wives. When the night that the pebbles

1 Cf. Sura 20. 49,

2 Cf. Sura 7. 125.

650 The Life of Muhammad

were thrown duly came the apostle sent me along with my brother
'Abdu’l-Rahman and let me perform the 'umra from al-Tan'im in place
of the 'umra which I had missed.

Nafi', client of 'Abdullah b. 'Umar from 'Abdullah, fromHafsa d. 'Umar,
said that when the apostle ordered his wives to remove the pilgrim gar¬
ments they asked him what prevented him from doing the same and he
said: 'I have sent on my victims and have matted 1 my hair, but I shall not
be free of the ihrdm until I slaughter my victims.’

967 'Abdullah b. Abu Najlh told me that the apostle had sent 'All to Najran
and met him in Mecca when he was still in a state of ihram. He went in to
Fatima the apostle’s daughter and found her dressed in her ordinary
clothes. When he asked why, she told him that the apostle had ordered
his wives so to do. Then he went to the apostle and reported the result of
his journey and he told him to go and circumambulate the temple and
remove the pilgrim garb as the others had done. He said that he wanted
to slaughter a victim as the apostle did. The apostle again told him to
remove the pilgrim garb. He replied: ‘I said when I put on the pilgrim
garb, “O God, I will invoke thy name over a victim as your prophet and
your slave and your apostle Muhammad does.” ’ When he asked him if he
had a victim he said that he had not, and the apostle gave him a share
in his, so he retained the pilgrim garb with the apostle until both of them
had completed the pilgrimage and the apostle slaughtered the victim on
behalf of them both.

Yahya b. 'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Abu 'Amra from Yazld b.
Talha b. Yazid b. Rukana told me that when 'All came from the Yaman to
meet; the apostle in Mecca he hurried to him and left in charge of his army
one of his companions who went and covered every man in the force with
clothes from the linen 'All had. When the army approached he went
out to meet them and found them dressed in the clothes. When he asked
what on earth had happened the man said that he had dressed the men so
that they might appear seemly when they mingled with the people. He
told him to take off the clothes before they came to the apostle and they
did so and put them back among the spoil. The army showed resentment
at their treatment.

'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Ma'mar b. Hazm from Sulayman b.
Muhammad b. Ka'b b. 'Ujra from his aunt Zaynab d. Ka'b who was

968 married to Abu Sa'Id al-Khudri, on the authority of the latter told me that
when the men complained of 'All the apostle arose to address them and he
heard him say: 'Do not blame All, for he is too scrupulous in the things
of God, or in the way of God, to be blamed.’

Then the apostle continued his pilgrimage and showed the men the
rites and taught them the customs of their hajj . 2 He made a speech in

1 labbadtu is explained in the Nihaya of Ibnu’J-Athir as a sort of gum that is put on the
hair to prevent it becoming dishevelled and lousy.

1 Cf. Musi b. 'Uqba, No. 17.

The Life of Muhammad 651

which he made things clear. He praised and glorified God, then he said:

‘O men, listen to my words. I do not know whether I shall ever meet you
in this place again after this year. Your blood and your property are
sacrosanct until you meet your Lord, as this day and this month are holy.

You will surely meet your Lord and He will ask you of your works. I have
told you. He who has a pledge let him return it to him who entrusted him
with it; all usury is abolished, but you have your capital. Wrong not and
you shall not be wronged. God has decreed that there is to be no usury
and the usury of 'Abbas b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib is abolished, all of it. All
blood shed in the pagan period is to be left unavenged. The first claim on
blood I abolish is that of b. Rabi'a b. al-Harith b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib (who
was fostered among the B. Layth and whom Hudhayl killed). It is the
first blood shed in the pagan period which I deal with. Satan despairs
of ever being worshipped in your land, but if he can be obeyed in anything
short of worship he will be pleased in matters you may be disposed to
think of little account, so beware of him in your religion. “Postponement of
a sacred month is only an excess of disbelief whereby those who disbelieve
are misled; they allow it one year and forbid it another year that they may
make up the number of the months w r hich God has hallowed, so that they
permit what God has forbidden, and forbid what God has allowed.” 1
Time has completed its cycle and is as it was on the day that God created
the heavens and the earth. The number of months with God is twelve; 969
four of them are sacred, three consecutive and the Rajab of Mudar, 2
which is between Jumada and Sha'ban.

You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You
have the right that they should not defile your bed and that they should
not behave with open unseemliness. If they do, God allows you to put
them in separate rooms and to beat them but not with severity. If they
refrain from these things they have the right to their food and clothing
with kindness. Lay injunctions on women kindly, for they are prisoners
w r ith you having no control- of their persons. You have taken them only
as a trust from God, 3 and you have the enjoyment of their persons by the
words of God, so understand (T. and listen to) my words, O men, for
I have told you. I have left with you something which if you will hold
fast to it you will never fall into error—a plain indication, the book of
God and the practice of His prophet, so give good heed to what I say.

Know that every Muslim is a Muslim’s brother, and that the Muslims
are brethren. It is only law’ful to take from a brother what he gives you
willingly, so wrong not yourselves. O God, have I not told you ?

. 1 Sura 9. 37,

1 A.Dh. explains that it was so called because Mudar used to treat it as sacred while
other Arabs did not. (I suspect that in Bronnle's edition, p. 449, takhdumuhu is a mistake

for tuharrimuhu.)

3 bi amanatf Hah, This is a difficult phrase. It is probably to be understood in the sense
of Sura 8. 27 and more particularly 33. 72 where the Quranic commentators differ widely.

See Tane, 102a.

652 The Life of Muhammad

I was told that the men said ‘0 God, yes,’ and the apostle said ‘O God,
bear witness.’

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father told me that
the man who used to act as crier for the apostle when he was on 'Arafa
was Rabl'a b. Umayya b. Khalaf. The apostle said to him, ‘Say: O men,
the apostle of God says, Do you know what month this is?’ and they
would say the holy month. Then he said, ‘Say to them: God has hallowed
your blood and your property until you meet your Lord like the sanctity
of this month. Do you know what country this is?’ And they said ‘The
holy land’ and he said the same as before. Do you know what day this is ?

970 and they said the day of the great hajj, and he said the same again.

Layth b. Abu Sulaym from Shahr b. Haushab al-Ash'ari from 'Amr
b. Kharija told me: 'Attab b. Usayd sent me to the apostle on a matter
while the apostle was standing on 'Arafa. I came to him and stood beneath
his camel and its foam was falling on my head. I heard him say: ‘God
has assigned to everyone his due. Testamentary bequests to an heir are
not lawful. The child belongs to the bed and the adulterer must be
stoned. He who claims as father him who is not his father, or a client a
master who is not his master, on him rests the curse of God, the angels,
and men everyw here. God will not receive from him compensatory atone¬
ment, however great.’

‘Abdullah b. Abu Najih told me that when the apostle stood on 'Arafa
he said, ‘This station goes with the mountain that is above it and all
'Arafa is a station.’ When he stood on Quzah on the morning of al-
Muzdalifa he said, ‘This is the station and all al-Muzdalifa is a station.’
Then when he had slaughtered in the slaughtering place in Mina he said,
‘This is the slaughtering place and all Mina is a slaughtering place.’ The
apostle completed the hajj and showed men the rites, and taught them
what God had prescribed as to their hajj, the station, the throwing of
stones, the circumambulation of the temple, and what He had permitted
and forbidden. It “was the pilgrimage of completion and the pilgrimage
of farewell because the apostle did not go on pilgrimage after that.

THE SENDING OF USAMA B. ZAYD TO PALESTINE

Then the apostle returned and stopped in Medina for the rest of Dhu’l-
Idijja, Muharram, and Safar. He ordered the people to make an expedition
to Syria and put over them Usama b. Zayd b. Haritha, his freed slave.
He ordered him to lead his cavalry into the territory of the Balqa’ and
al-Darum in the land of Palestine. The men got ready and all the first
emigrants went with Usama (900).

MESSENGERS SENT TO THE VARIOUS KINGDOMS

T- 1560 (T. As to 1 . 1 . according to what I. Hamid alleged and told us saying

that Salama had it from him, he said: The apostle had sent out some of

The Life of Muhammad 653

his companions in different directions to the kings of the Arabs and the
non-Arabs inviting them to Islam in the period between al-Hudaybiya
and his death.)

Yazid b. Abu Habib al-Misri told me that he found a document in 97a
which was a memorandum (T. the names) of those the apostle sent to the
countries and kings of the Arabs and non-Arabs and what he said to his
companions when he sent them. I sent it to Muhammad b. Shihab
al-Zuhrl (T. with a trusty countryman of his) and he recognized it. It
contained the statement that the apostle went out to his companions and
said: ‘God has sent me as a mercy to all men, so take a message from me,

God have mercy on you. Do not hang back from me 1 as the disciples
hung back from Jesus son of Mary.’ They asked how they had hung back
and he said, ‘He called them to a task similar to that to which I have called
you. Those who had to go a short journey were pleased and accepted;
those who had a long journey before them were displeased and refused to
go, and Jesus complained of them to God. (T. From that very night)
every one of them was able to speak the language of the people to whom he
was sent.’ (T. Jesus said ‘This is a thing which God has determined that
you should do, so go.’)

Those whom Jesus son of Mary sent, both disciples and those who
came after them, in the land were: Peter the disciple and Paul with him,

(Paul belonged to the followers and was not a disciple) to Rome; Andrew
and Matthew to the land of the cannibals; Thomas to the land of Babel
which is in the land of the east; Philip to Carthage which is Africa; John
to Ephesus the city of the young men of the cave; James to Jerusalem which
is Aelia the city of the sanctuary; Bartholomew to Arabia which is the
land of the Hijaz; Simon to the land of the Berbers; Judah who was not
one of the disciples was put in the place of Judas. 2

(T. Then the apostle divided his companions and sent Salit b. 'Amr b. T- 156c
Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Wudd, brother of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy, to Haudha
b. All ruler of al-Yamama; al-'Ala’ b. al-Hadramt to al-Mundhir b.

Sawa, brother of B. 'Abdu’I-Qays, ruler of al-Bahrayn; 'Amr b. al-'As to
Jayfar b. Julanda and 'Abbad his brother the Asdls, rulers of ’Uman;

Hatib b. Abu Balta'a to the Muqauqis ruler of Alexandria. He handed
over to him the apostle’s letter and the Muqauqis gave to the apostle
four slave girls, one of whom was Mary mother of Ibrahim the apostle’s
son; Dihya b. Khalifa al-Kalbl al-Khazrajl he sent to Caesar, who was
Heraclius king of Rome. When he came to him with the apostle’s letter
he looked at it and then put it between his thighs and his ribs.) 3

(T. Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdullah b. 'Utba b. T- 1561

1 Or, perhaps, ‘differ in your response to me’.

The forms of the names shows that the source was Greek. It probably came to 1.1,
through Syriac.

3 From this point to the summary of the prophet’s raids X-’ s extracts, pp. 1560 f. ( from
the lost work of 1 . 1 . are given. Doubtless I.H. omitted them for the reasons given in his
Introduction.

654 The Life of Muhammad

Mas'ud from 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas from Abu Sufyan b. Harb told me,
saying, ‘We were a merchant people and the war between us and the
apostle had shut us in until our goods were stale. When there was an
armistice between us we felt sure that we should be safe. So I went out
with a number of Quraysh merchants to Syria making for Gaza. We got
there when Heraclius had conquered the Persians who were in his territory
and driven them out and recaptured from them his great cross which they
had plundered. When he had thus got the better of them and heard that
his cross had been recovered he came out from Hims, which was his
headquarters, walking on foot in thanks to God for what He had restored to
him, so that he could pray in the holy city. 1 Carpets were spread for him
and aromatic herbs w r ere thrown on them. When he came to Aelia and had
finished praying there with his patricians and the Roman nobles he became
sorrowful, turning his eyes to heaven; and his patricians said, “You have
become very sorrowful this morning, O king.” He said, “Yes, in a vision
of the night I saw the kingdom of a circumcised man victorious.” They
said that they did not know a people w T ho circumcised themselves except
the Jews and they were under his sovereignty. They recommended him
to send orders to everyone of authority in his dominions to behead every
Jew and thus rid himself of his anxiety. And by God as they were trying
to induce him to do this, lo the messenger of the governor of Busra came
in leading a man 'while the princes were exchanging new r s, and said, “This
man, O king, is from the Arabs, people of sheep and camels. He speaks
of something wonderful that has happened in his country, so ask him
about it.” Accordingly the king asked his interpreter to inquire what had
happened and the man said, “A man appeared among us alleging that he
was a prophet. Some followed and believed him; others opposed him.
Fights between them occurred in many places, and I left them thus.”
When he had given his news the king told them to strip him; they did so,
and lo he was circumcised. Heraclius said, “This, by God, is the vision
I saw; not w r hat you say. Give him his clothes. Be off with you.” Then
T. 1563 he summoned his chief of police and told him to turn Syria upside down
until he brought him a man of the people of that man, meaning the pro¬
phet. We were in Gaza when the chief of police came down upon us
asking if we were of the people of this man in the Hijaz; and learning that
we were he told us to come to the king, and when we came to him he asked
if we were of the clan of this man and which was the nearest of kin to him.
I said that I was, and by God I have never seen a man whom I consider
more shrewd than that uncircumcised man, meaning Heraclius. He told
me to approach and sat me in front of him with my companions behind me.
Then he said, “I will interrogate him, and if he lies confute him.” But,
by God, if I were to lie they could not confute me. But I am a man of
high birth too honourable to lie and I knew that it was only too easy for
them, if I lied to him, to remember it against me and to repeat it in my
1 The cross was recovered from the Persians by Heraclius in a.d. 628.

The Life of Muhammad 655

name, so I did not lie to him. He said, “Tell me about this man who has
appeared among you making these claims,” I began to belittle him and to
speak disparagingly of his affair and to say, “Don’t let him cause you
anxiety; his importance is less than you have heard,” but he took no heed.

Then he said, Tell me what I ask you about him.” I told him to ask
what he liked and he asked about his lineage among us. I told him it was
pure; our best lineage. Then he asked if any of his house had made the
same claims which he was copying. When I said No he asked if he possessed
any sovereignty among us which we had robbed him of and had he made
this claim so that we might return it to him ? Again I said No. Then he
asked about the character of his followers. I told him that they were the
weak and poor and young slaves and young women; not one of the elders
and nobles of his people followed him. Then he asked whether those who
followed him loved him and stuck to him or despised him and left him,
and I told him that none of his followers had left him. Then he asked T- 1564
about the war between us and him. I said that its fortunes varied. Then
he asked if he was treacherous. This was the only question of his which I
found fault with. I said No, and that while we had an armistice with
him we did not fear treachery; but he paid no attention to what I said.

Then he summed up and said: “I asked you about his lineage and you
alleged that it was pure and of your best and God chooses only a man of
the noblest lineage as a prophet. Then I asked if any man of his family
made similar claims and you said No. Then I asked if he had been robbed
of dominion and made this claim to recover it, and you said No. Then
I asked you about his followers and you said that they were the weak and
poor and young slaves and women, and such have been the followers of the
prophets in all ages. Then I asked if his followers left him and you said
None. Thus is the sweetness of faith: it does not enter the heart and
depart. Then I asked if he was treacherous and you said No; and truly
if you have told me the truth about him he will conquer me on the ground
that is beneath my feet, and I wish that I were with him that I might wash
his feeL Go about your business.’ So I got up rubbing my hands together T- 1565
and saying that the affair of I bn Abu Kabsha had become great in that the
kings of the Greeks dreaded him in their sovereignty in Syria. The
apostle s letter with Dihya b. Khalifa al-Kalbi came to him saying, “If you
accept Islam you will be safe; if you accept Islam God w T ill give you a
double reward; if you turn back the sin of the husbandmen 1 w T ill be upon
you,” i.e. the burden of it/

From al-Zuhri from 'Ubaydullah from 'Abdullah b. 'Utba from Ibn
Abbas, who said: Abu Sufyan b. Harb told me practically the same story.

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri told me that he met a Christian bishop in the time
of ‘Abdu’l-Malik b. Marwan who told him that he knew about the affair
of the apostle and Heraclius and understood it. When the apostle’s letter
by Dihya came to him he took it and put it between his thighs and his

1 This appears to be an allusion to Matt. xxi. 33 f.

656 The Life of Muhammad

ribs. Then he wrote to a man in Rome 1 who used to read in Hebrew what
T- 1566 they read telling him about his affair and describing his circumstances
and telling him about what had come from him. The man in Rome
replied that he is the prophet whom we expect: there is no doubt about it,
so follow him and believe in him. So Heraclius ordered the Roman generals
to assemble in a room and commanded that the doors should be fastened.
Then he looked down on them from an upper chamber (for he was afraid
of them) and said: ‘O Romans, I have brought you together for a good
purpose. This man has written me a letter summoning me to his religion.
By God, he is truly the prophet whom we expect and find in our books, so
come and let us follow him and believe in him that it may be well with us in
this world and the next.’ As one man they uttered cries of disgust and
ran to the doors to get out, but found them bolted. He ordered that they
should be brought back to him, fearing for his life, and said: T spoke these
words that I might see the firmness of your religion in face of what has
happened, and I am delighted with what I have seen of your behaviour.’
They fell down in obeisance and he ordered that the doors should be
opened and they went off.

A traditionist said that Heraclius said to Dihya b. Khalifa when he
brought the apostle’s letter: ‘Alas, I know that your master is a prophet
sent (by God) and that it is he whom we expect and find in our book, but
I go in fear of my life from the Romans; but for that I would follow him.
Go to Paghatir the bishop and tell him about your master, for he is
greater among the Romans than I, and his word counts for more than
T- 1567 mine. See what he says to you.’ So Dihya went and told him about
what he had brought from the apostle and of his invitation to Heraclius.
iPaghafir said: ‘Your master is a prophet who has been sent; we know
him by his description, and we find him mentioned by name in our
scriptures.’ Then he went and discarded his black clothes and put on
white garments and took his staff and went out to the Romans who were in
church and said: ‘O Romans, a letter has come to us from Ahmad in
which he calls us to God and I bear witness that there is no God but
Allah and that Ahmad is his slave and apostle.’ They leapt upon him
with one accord and beat him until he was dead. When Dihya returned to
Heraclius and told him the news he said: ‘I told you that we feared death
at their hands and Daghatir was greater among them and his word counted
for more than mine.’

From Khalid b. Yasar from one of the first people of Syria: When
Heraclius wanted to go from Syria to Constantinople when he heard
about the apostle he gathered the Romans together and said: ‘I am laying
before you some matters which I want to carry out. You know that this
man is a prophet who has been sent; w r e find him in our book; we know
him by his description, so come and let us follow him that it may be well
with us in this world and the next.’ They said, ‘Are we to be under the

1 i.e. Constantinople.

The Life oj Muhammad ^

a < a J

poll-tax every year and aver, his onslaul ,er e ,T W T ^

money I pay him.’ They replied ‘Are we to V Iu>t fl0m war by the

Arabs a tax when we are mor^ numerous IT , ^ **“““« T '

stronger country ? By God, we will never do i, - HehTd"'T h r ° lgnty “ d *
let me make peace with him on condition that I give’ him'the°iT f

0f ft’. Syria with them mean"

land of Syria,- while what wait beyond "he P^s meamTha'm Th °‘

Are we to give him the Ian A of q ■ v , eant m ‘ They said,

of Sha’m? By God, we will never do it"’ 1“! IT ” is the ,lavcl

see that you will be conquered when you' protm vnf f ^ Y ° U WiH

lhe apostle sent Shuja b. Wahb brother of P a„ a t^i

wSm bOUt 'Fro far M ^ ^ h ‘ S --P-onshnd'^'a'lefr T ' ' 569

king of AbyssIr pfce ar T; ; he JSf ‘> f ' Godl »a,-A ? ham
the Peace, the Faithful ,'he Washer "^"fb ' V ° U ' hC K ' ng ’ ,he Holy -

of Mary is the spirit of God ,S d / bear w,tness th at Jesus son
. y u,e spirit ot Crod and His word which He at

v.rgm the good, the pure, so that she conceived Jesus God , T

from His spirit and His breathing *,« u„ , „ , { ! , Lreated him

His breathing. I caU you rn God rb n" d ™ by H ‘ S ha,,d and

His obedience, and » d *>

for I am the apostle of Tort ti . etieve m that which came to me,

number of Muslims and when th^ ^ '° U my nephew J a ' far with a
haughtiness, for I ^ TT‘

(my work) and mv admonition* • 1 I have accomplished

-hose that follow true g™,a‘ce ’ ’ “ “ "’ y ^ Pea “ -P°n all

upInSyS'f AliafaO thC abA?bam b ’ Abjar. Peace

Whom there is no God who’ } ” and blessm g from Allah beside

S,,:; s:r;r. ',s“ r , T ” ~rar

• • • a®

V^Jhdd’d “ rly days ° f ,he Arab -on-lu-t.

Taurus or the Cilician Gates ^ b) may T’ C2n that over Amanus or the

• An extract from Sura 59. 23

B 4080

U U

658 The Life of Muhammad

worlds. I have sent to you my son Arha. I have control only over myself
and if you wish me to come to you, O apostle of God, I will do so. I bear
witness that what you say is true’.

I was told that the Negus sent his son with sixty Abyssinians by boat,
and when they were in the middle of the sea the boat foundered and they
all perished .) 1

T- 1572 (T. via Salama. From 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr from al-Zuhrl from Abu

Salama from 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf. 'Abdullah b. Hudhafa brought the
apostle’s letter to Chosroes and when he had read it he tore it up. When
the apostle heard that he had torn his letter up he said, ‘His kingdom will
be torn in pieces.’)

(T. via Yazid b. Abu Habib. Then Chosroes wrote to Badhan, who was
governor of the Yaman, ‘Send two stout fellows to this man in the Hijaz
and tell them to bring him to me.* So Badhan sent his steward Babawayh
T- 1573 who was a skilled scribe with a Persian called Kharkhasrah to carry a
letter to the apostle ordering him to go with them to Chosroes. He told
Babawayh to go to this man’s country and speak to him and then come back
and report. When they got as far as al-Ta’if they found some men of
Quraysh in (wadi) Nakhb and inquired about him. They told them that he
was in Medina. They rejoiced at meeting these men, saying, ‘This is
good news, for Chosroes king of kings is moved against the man and you
will be rid of him.’

The two men came to the apostle and Babawayh told him that Shahan¬
shah king of kings Chosroes had written to the governor 2 Badhan ordering
him to send men to bring him to him and that they had been sent to take
him away. If he obeyed, Badhan would write to the king of kings on his
behalf and keep him from him; but if he refused to come he knew what
sort of man he was: he would destroy his people and lay waste his country.
They had come in to the apostle’s presence with shaven beards and long
moustaches, so that he could not bear to look at them. He advanced on
them and said, ‘Who ordered you to do this?’ To which they replied,
‘Our Lord’ meaning Chosroes. The apostle answered, ‘But my Lord
has ordered me to let my beard grow long and to cut my moustache.’
Then he told them to come back in the morning.

News came from heaven to the apostle to the effect that God had given
Shirawayh power over his father Chosroes and he had killed him on a
T- 1574 certain night of a certain month at a certain hour. Thereupon he sum¬
moned them and told them. They said: ‘ Do you know what you are saying ?
We can take revenge on you. What is easier? Shall we write this as from
you and tell the king of it?’ He said, ‘Yes, tell him that from me and tell
him that my religion and my sovereignty will reach limits which the king-

1 It will be seen that there is no isnad for this tradition. I.H. has dealt with it in his
summary to this section. I have omitted X- I 574-.4-1575. 5 because it is unintelligible
without the preceding story from Yazid b. Abu Habib which evidently ran parallel with
what 1.1. had said.

2 malik.

The Life of Muhammad ,

dom of Chosroes never attained. Say to him “If vm, • k • t • 59

you what you already hold and aonnint ?’• ^ submit I will give

Yaman.” ■ Then he gave KharkhSV y ° Ur P eo P le in the

wh.ch one of the kings had given him. ' COnt31mn S 8 oId “d silver

. They ’ eft hlm and came to Badhan and reported H , •
ls n °t the speech of a king T„ mv T ‘ He exda ™ed, ‘This

We will see what happens If ^ 18 3 pr0 P het as he =>ays.

has been sent by God; T it !s not wet “ t he " 3 P r0 P h « "ho
Hardly had he finished speaking when therefame Lt e™"" further ’’
saying that he had killed Chosroes l„. r , , T a , lctter fr,,ln Shirawayh

by killing their nobles and keeping them'n the Persians

that his men pledged their obedience to the new w"h H * ^ Se °
man about whom Chosroes had writtPn k . k g * He must see th e
until further instructions came. ’ Ut n0t provoke him to war

When Badhan received this letter he said { w+k j
apostle,’ and he became a Muslin as dd’tiTp' U doubt ,h « man is an
Yaman. SIlm 33 dld the Persians with him in the T. .575

S»58s ZS 2.Vtr *-»«

a ifir? iisSwKi-as

A SUMMARY OF THE APOSTLE’S FIGHTS
The apostle ,00k part personally in twenty-seven (T. six)' raids:

Vvaddan which was the raid of al-Abwa*

Buwat m the direction of Radwa.

Ushayra in the valley of Yanbu'

The first fight at Badr in pursuit'of Kurz b. Jsbir.

and their nobfealdtaptuL^mS) ^ ^ ChiefS ° f ° Ur3ysh ^

Banu Sulaym until he reached al-Kudr

Al-bawiq m pursuit of Abu Sufyan b Harh IT , 573

Qarqara al-Kudr) y b (■ ■ unt1 ^ he reached

Hamra’u’I-Asad.

Banu Nadir.

Dhatu’l-Riqa' of Nakhl.

The last battle of Badr.

Dumatu’l-Jandal.

1 I I. has counted the pilgrimage as a raid.

66o

The Life of Muhammad

Al-Khandaq.

Banu Qurayza.

Banu Libyan of Hudhayl.

Dhu Qarad.

Banu’ 1 -Mustaliq of Khuza a.

Al-Hudaybiya not intending to fight where the polytheists oppose is
passage.

Khaybar. ...

Then he went on the accomplished pilgrimage.

The occupation of Mecca.

Hunayn.

Al-Ta’if.

Tabuk.

He actually fought in nine engagements: Bade; Uhud; al-Khandaq;
Qurayza; al-Mustaliq; Khaybar; the occupation; Hunayn; and al -1 a it.

A SUMMARY OF THE EXPEDITIONS AND RAIDING
PARTIES

These were thirty-eight (T. thirty-five) in number (T. between the time
of h s coming to Medina and his death). 'Ubayda b. al-Harith was sent
“ the lower part (T. to the tribes) of Thaniyatu'l-Mara (f . which is a
well in the Hijaz); Hamza b. ‘Abdu’l-Muttalib to the coast in the direction
of al-'Is (Some people date Hamza’s raid before that of Ubayda); Sa d
b Aba Waqq* to ahKharrar (T. in the Hijaz); ’Abdullah b Jahsh to
Nakhla • Zayd b. Haritha to al-Qarda (T. a well in Najd), Muhamma b.
Maslama’s attack on Ka’b b. al-Ashraf; Marthad b. Abu Marthad al-
Ghanawl to al-Raji’; al-Mundhir b. ’Amr to Bi’r Ma Qtia; Abu Ubayda b
al-Jarrah to Dhu’l-Qassa on the Iraq road; Umar b al-Khattab to Turba
in the B. 'Amir country; 'All b. Abu Tall) to the Yaman, Ghal.b b.
'Abdullah al-Kalbi, the Kalb of Layth, to al-Kadid where he smote B.

al-Mulawwah.

GHALIB’s RAID ON THE B. AL-MULAWWAH
Ya'qub b. ‘Utba b. al-Mughira b. al-Akhnas from Muslim b- 'Abdullah
974 b. Khubayb al-Juhani from al-Mundhir from Jundab b Makith aLJuham
told me that the latter said: The apostle sent Ghalib b. Abdulla a-
Kalb! Kalb of B. 'Auf b. Layth, on a night raid in which I took part.
He ordered him to make a cavalry raid on B. al-Mulawwah who were m
al-Kadid We went out and when we reached Qudayd we fell in with
al-Harith b. Malik b. al-Barsa’ al-Laythl and seized him He saidl that he
had come to be a Muslim and was going to the apostle. We told him that
if he was a Muslim it would not hurt him to be tied up for a night, and it

The Life of Muhammad 661

he were not we should make sure of him; so we bound him tightly and
left him in charge of a young negro and told him to cut off his head if he
tried to attack him.

We went on until we came to (T. the valley of) al-Kadid at sunset. We
were in the wadi and my companions sent me on to scout for them. So
I left them and went on until I came to a hill overlooking the enemy’s
camp. I went up to the top and looked down at the camp; and by God as
I was lying on the hill out came a man from his tent and said to his wife,

T see something black on the hill which I didn’t see at the beginning of the
day. Look and see if any of your gear is missing; perhaps the dogs have
dragged off something.’ She w r ent to look and told him that nothing was
missing. He then told her to fetch him his bow and a couple of arrows and
he shot me in the side. I pulled out the arrow and laid it aside and kept
my place (T. did not move). Then he shot me again in my shoulder.
Again I pulled it out and kept my place. He said to his wife, ‘If this had
been a scout of some party he would have moved, for both my arrows hit
him; in the morning go and get them. Don’t let the dogs gnaw them.’
Then he went inside his tent.

We^gave them time until they quietened down and went to sleep (T.
until their cattle returned in the evening and they milked them and lay
down quietly, and a third of the night passed) and towards dawn we
attacked them and killed some and drove off the cattle. They cried out to
one another for aid, and a multitude that we could not resist came at us
(T. omits and has ‘and we went on quickly until we passed by al-Harith’)
and we went on with the cattle and passed lbn al-Barsa’ and his companion
and carried them along with us. The enemy were hard on our heels and only
the Wadi Qudayd was between us, when God sent a flood in the wadi
from whence He pleased, for there veere no clouds that we could see and 975
no rain. It brought such w^ater that none could resist it and none could
pass over. And there they stood looking at us as we drove off their cattle.

Not one of them could cross to us as we hurried off with them until we
got away; they could not pursue us, and we brought them to the apostle.

A man of Aslam on the authority of another of them told me that the
war-cry of the apostle’s companions that night was Slay! Slay! A rajiz
of the Muslims who was driving the cattle rhymed:

Abii’I-Qasim refused to let you graze
On luscious herbs which you amaze
With yellow tops the colour of maize (901).

I will now continue the summary of the night raids and raiding parties: 1
'Ali to B, 'Abdullah b. Sa'd of Fadak; Abu’l-'Auja’ al-Sulaml to B;
Sulaym country where he and all his companions were killed; 'Ukkasha
b. Mihsan to al-Ghamra; Abu Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Asad to Qatan, a well

1 From C. The whole passage in T. 1598 f. differs in phraseology though not in content
from I.H. who has apparently edited the text freely.

662 The Life of Muhammad

of B. Asad in the direction of Najd. Mas'ud b. 'Urwa was killed there;
Muhammad b. Maslama, brother of b. Haritha, to al-Qurata’ of Hawazin;
Bashir b. Sa'd to B. Murra in Fadak; Bashir b. Sa'd in the direction of
Khaybar; Zayd b. Haritha to al-Jamum in B. Sulaym country; Zayd also
to Judham in Khushayn country. So says Ibn Hisham, but al-Shafi'I
from 'Amr b. Habib from Ibn Ishaq say ‘in Hisma country’.

THE RAID OF ZAYD B. HARITHA AGAINST JUDHAM

One whom I can trust told me from some men of Judham who knew about
the affair that Rifa'a b. Zayd al-Judhami when he came to his people with
the apostle’s letter inviting them to Islam and they accepted it, was soon
followed by Dihya b. Khalifa al-Kalbi who came from Caesar, king of the
976 Greeks, whom the apostle had sent having with him some merchandise
of his. When he reached one of their wadis called Shanar, al-Hunayd b.
'Os and his son 'Os of Dulay' a clan of Judham attacked Dihya and seized
everything he had with him. News of this reached some of al-Dubayb of
the kin of Rifa'a b. Zayd who had become Muslims and they went after
al-Hunayd and his son; al-Nu'man b. Abu Ji'al of B. al-Dubayb was
among them. They fell in with them and a skirmish took place. On that
day Qurra b. Ashqar aLDifari of the clan al-Dulay' proclaimed his
origin and said, ‘I am the son of Lubna,’ and shot al-Nu'man b. Abu
Ji'al with an arrow, hitting him in the knee, saying, ‘Take that! I am the
son of Lubna.’ Lubna was his mother. Now Hassan b. Milla al-Dubaybl
had been a friend of Dihya before that and he had taught him the first
sura of the Quran (902). They recovered what Hunayd and his son had
taken and restored it to Dihya, and Dihya went off and told the apostle
what had happened and asked him to let him kill al-Hunayd and his son.
The apostle sent Zayd b. Haritha against them and that was what provoked
the raid of Zayd on Judham. He sent a force with him. Ghatafan of
Judham and Wa’il and they of Salaman and Sa'd b. Hudhaym set off when
Rifa'a b. Zayd came to them with the apostle’s letter and halted in the
lava belt of al-Bajla’, while Rifa'a was in Kura' Rabba, knowing nothing,
with some of the B. al-Dubayb v'hile the rest of B. Dubayb were in
Wadi Madan in the region of the lava belt where it flows to the east.
Zayd’s force came up from the direction of al-Aulaj and attacked al-Maqis
from the harra. They rounded up the cattle and men they found and killed
al-Hunayd and his son and two men of B. al-Ahnaf (903), and one of B.
qyj al-Khasib. When B. al-Dubayb and the force in Fayfa’u Madan heard of
this some of them went off, among those who rode with them being
Hassan b. Milla on a horse belonging to Suwayd b. Zayd called al-'Ajaja,
and Unayf b. Milla on a horse of Milla’s called Righal, and Abu Zayd b.
'Amr on a horse called Shamir. They went on until they came near the
army when Abu Zayd and Hassan said to Unayf b. Milla, ‘Leave us and go,
for we are afraid of your tongue.’ (T. So he withdrew 7 ) and stopped near

The Life of Muhammad 663

them. Hardly had they left him when his horse began to paw the ground
and rear and he said (to it), ‘I am more tnteres.ed in the two men than you
in the two horses. He let her go until he overtook them and they said to
djh ‘' eU K g J h , at bavc , behaved thus ' spare us your tongue and don’t

HalSn h b M lud toda >’’ , Thc 3 ' a S reed among themselves that only
Hassan should speak. Now they had a word which they used in the pagan

period Which they learned one from another: if one wanted to smiteLdth
his sword he said Bun or Thuri. When they came near the army the men
came running to them and Hassan said to them, ‘We are Muslims ’ The
first man to meet them was on a black horse (T. with lance outstretched T -
the man who displayed it had as it were fixed it on the withers of his horse ''

n h 'r Cr ‘j < !n- FO , I y ard ’ outstri P them! ’) and he advanced driving them
Lnayf said Bun, but Hassan said ‘Gently.’ When they stopped by Zavd

b. Haritha Hassan said, We are Muslims.’ Zayd said, ‘Then recite the

, TL When h f dld 80 Za >’ d ordered that it should be proclaimed
hrough the aimy that God had declared their land sacrosanct except as
regards those who had broken their covenant P

Hassan’s sister, the wife of Abu Wabr b. 'Adiy b. Umayya b al-Dubavb
was among the prisoners and Zayd told him to take her and she'clasped

dluvhm 'h' H T 3 '' • UmmU '' F ' Zr ° f Pulay ' S3id ’ ‘ Are you ,akin R your
foH H a?n b T ng , T- r m ° thers? ’ 0ne o f B - al-Khasib said, ‘She is
(of) B. al-Dubayb and their tongue utters spells all the day long.’ Some

of the army heard this and told Zayd and he gave orders th* the hands of
assan s sister should be loosed from his waist and told her to sit with the
daughters of her uncle until God should decide what should be done with

t" 1 ’ ' ? * 7 " ent back - He forbade the army to go down into the vallev mS

whence they had come and they passed the night with their people. They
soug t their night draught of milk from a herd belonging to Suwavd b
Zayd and when they had drunk it they rode off to Rifa'a b'.' Zayd. Among
those who went were Abu Zayd b. 'Amr; Abu Shammas b. 'Amr; Smvayd

•Adl y UnavfV n M n ardha ^ S °" S ° f *** Mukh'arriba t

Adiy, Unayf b. Milla; and Hassan b. Milla, until in the morning they

of Harra”Lavp h K , Ur5 ' k Rab f> a behind ' the harra by a well there

o Harra Layla Hassan said to him, ‘Here you sit milking goats while the

women of Judham (T are dragged as) prisoners. The lefter winch you

ought has deceived them. Rifa'a called for his camel, and as he began

^tltrr Ar AT aUVC0 ^ 0y ° UCanthellvin ® ? ' W henmorrlg

came they and he with l mayya b. Dafara, the brother of the slain
Khaflbite, departed early from behind 1 the harra ; they journeyed for three
Ig ts to Medina and when they entered it and came to the mosque a
man looked at them and told them not to make their camels kneeUest
fiheir legs should be cut off. So they dismounted, leaving them standing
hen they entered the mosque and the apostle saw them he beckoned to
them ,0 advance; and as Rifa'a began to speak a man said, ’Apostle, these

Or ‘on the top of’.

664 The Life of Muhammad

men are sorcerers,’ and repeated the accusation twice. Rifa a said, God
be gracious to him who treats us well today.’ Then he handed the apostle
the letter which he had written to him, saying, Take it, O apostle, it was
written long since but its violation is recent.’ I he apostle told a young
man to read it openly, and when he had done so he asked what had
happened, and they told him. Three times he said, W'hat am I to do about
the slain?’ Rifa'a answered, ‘You know best, O apostle. We do not regard
as wrong what you think is right or the converse.’ Abu Zayd b. Amr
said, ‘Give us back those who are alive and those who are dead I dis-

979 regard.’ The apostle said that Abu Zayd was right and told 'All to ride
with them. 'All objected that Zayd would not obey him, whereupon the
apostle told him to take his sword and gave it to him. 'All then said that
he had no beast to ride, so they (T. the apostle) mounted him on a beast
belonging to Tha'laba b. 'Amr called al-Mikhal and they went off, when
lo a messenger from Zayd b. Haritha came on a camel ol Abu \ abr called
al-Shamir. They made him dismount and he asked 'All how he stood. He
said that they knew their property and they took it. They went on and
fell in with the army in Fayfa’ul-Fahlatayn and took their property wdiich
they held even to the smallest pad from a woman’s saddle. When they had
finished their task Abu Ji'al said:

There’s many a woman who scolds unkindly,

Who but for us would be feeding her captor’s fire
Pushed about with her two daughters among the captives
With no hope of an easy release.

Had she been entrusted to 'Os and Aus
Circumstances w r ould have prevented her release.

Had she seen our camels in Misr

She would have dreaded a repetition of the journey.

We came to the waters of Yathrib in anger
(After four nights, search for water is painful)

With every hardened warrior like a wolf
Dour on the saddle of his swift camel.

May every force 1 in Yathrib be a ransom

For Abu Sulayman when they meet breast to breast

The day you see the experienced warrior humbled,

His head turning as he flees away (904).

Zayd b. Haritha also raided al-Taraf in the region of Nakhl on the road
to Iraq.

ZAYD B. HARITHA’S RAID ON B. FAZARA AND THE
DEATH OF UMM QIRFA

Zayd also raided Wadi’l-Qura, where he met B. Fazara and some of his

980 companions were killed; he himself was carried wounded from the field.

1 A.Dh. in Bronnle’s text has jibs with the explanation ‘rascal’.

The Life of Muhammad 66<;

Ward b. 'Amr b. Madash, one of B. Sa'd b. Hudhayl, was killed by one of
B. Badr (whose name was Sa'd b. Hudhaym— 1 T. and I.H.). When Zayd
came he swore that he would use no ablution 1 until he raided B. Fazara;
and when he recovered from his wounds the apostle sent him against them
with a force. He fought (T. he met) them in Wadi’l-Qura and killed
some of them. Qays b. al-Musahhar al-Ya'muri killed Mas'ada b. Hakama
b. Malik b. Hudhayfa b. Badr, and Umm Qirfa Fatima d. Rabi'a b. Badr
was taken prisoner. She was a very old woman, wife of Malik. Her
daughter and 'Abdullah b. Mas'ada were also taken. Zayd ordered Qays
b. al-Musahhar to kill Umm Qirfa and he killed her cruelly (T. by putting
a rope to her two legs and to two camels and driving them until they rent
her in two). Then they brought Umm Qirfa’s daughter and Mas'ada’s
son to the apostle. The daughter of Umm Qirfa belonged to Salama b.
'Amr b. al-Akwa' who had taken her. She held a position of honour
among her people, and the Arabs used to say, ‘Had you been more power¬
ful than Umm Qirfa you could have done no more.’ Salama asked the
apostle to let him have her and he gave her to him and he presented her
to his uncle Hazn b. Abu Wahb and she bare him 'Abdu’l-Rahman b.
Hazn.

Qays b. al-Musahhar said about the k-illing of Mas'ada:

I tried as his mother’s son would to get revenge for Ward.

As long as I live I will avenge Ward.

When I saw him I attacked him on my steed,

That doughty warrior of the family of Badr.

I impaled him on my lance of Qa'dabI make
Which seemed to flash like a fire in an open space.

'ABDULLAH B. RAWAHA’S RAID TO KILL AL-YUSAYR

B. rizAm

'Abdullah b. Rawaha raided Khaybar twice; on one occasion he killed
al-Yusayr b. Rizam (905). Now al-Yusayr (T. the Jew) was in Khaybar
collecting Ghatafan to attack the apostle. The latter sent 'Abdullah b. 981
Rawaha with a number of his companions, among whom were ‘Abdullah
b. Unays, an ally of B. Salima. When they came to him they spoke to
him (T. and made him promises) and treated him well, saving that if he
would come to the apostle he would give him an appointment and honour
him. They kept on at him until he went with them with a number of
Jews. 'Abdullah b. Unays mounted him on his beast (T. and he rode
behind him) until when he was in al-Qarqara, about six miles from
Khaybar, al-Yusayr changed his mind about going to the apostle. 'Abdullah

1 i.e. abstain from sexual intercourse. The Semites, like other ancient peoples, tabooed
intercourse during war. Cf. 1 Sam. 21. 5, 6 and Robertson Smith, Religion of thv Semite^

454 et passim .

666 The Life of Muhammad

perceived his intention as he was preparing to draw his sword, so he
rushed at him and struck him with his sword cutting off his leg. AI-
Yusayr hit him with a stick of shauhat wood which he had in his hand and
wounded his head (T. and God killed Yusayr). All the apostle’s com¬
panions fell upon their Jewish companions and killed them except one
man who escaped on his feet (T. his beast). When 'Abdullah b. Unays
came to the apostle he spat on his wound and it did not suppurate or
cause him pain.

On the second occasion 'Abdullah b. 'Atlk raided Khaybar and killed
Rafi' b. Abu’l-Huqayq.

‘ABDULLAH B. UNAYS’S RAID TO KILL KHALID B.

SUFYAN B. NUBAYH

The apostle sent him against Khalid, who was in Nakhla or 'Urana
collecting men to attack the apostle, and he killed him.

Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me that 'Abdullah b. Unays
said: The apostle called me and said that he had heard that Ibn Sufyan
b. Nubayh al-Hudhall was collecting a force to attack him, and that he
was in Nakhla or 'Urana and that I was to go and kill him. I asked him
to describe him so that I might know him, and he said, ‘If you see him he
will remind you of Satan. A sure sign is that when you see him you will
feel a shudder.’ I went out girding on my sword until I came on him with
a number of women in a how'dah seeking a halting-place for them. It
was the time for afternoon prayer, and when I saw' him I felt a shuddering
as the apostle had said. I advanced towards him fearing that something

982 would prevent my praying, so I prayed as I walked towards him bowing
my head. When I came to him he asked w r ho I was and I answ’ered, ‘An
Arab who has heard of you and your gathering a force against this fellow
and has come to you.’ He said, ‘Yes, I am doing so.’ I walked a short
distance with him and when my chance came I struck him with my sw'ord
and killed him, and went off leaving his women bending over him. When
I came to the apostle he saw me and said, ‘The aim is accomplished.’
I said, ‘I have killed him, O Apostle,’ and he said, ‘You are right.’

Then he took me into his house and gave me a stick telling me to keep
it by me. When I w r ent out with it the people asked me what I was doing
with a stick. I told them that the apostle had given it to me and told me to
keep it, and they said, ‘Why don’t you go back to the apostle and ask him
why?’ So I did so, and he said, ‘It is a sign between you and me on the
resurrection day. There are few men who will be carrying sticks then.’
So 'Abdullah b. Unays fastened it to his sword and it remained with him
until his death, wdien he ordered that it should be put in his winding
sheet and it w r as buried with him (906).

983 To return to the expeditions: The raid of Zayd b. Haritha and Ja'far
b. Abu Talib and 'Abdullah b. Rawaha to Mu’ta in Syria in which all

The Life of Muhammad 667

were killed; and the raid of Ka'b b. 'Umayr al-Ghifarl to Dhatu Atlah in
Syria in which he and all his companions w r ere killed; and the raid of
'Uyayna b. Hisn on B. al-'Anbar of B. Tamim.

THE RAID OF ‘UYAYNA B. HISN ON B. AL-'ANBAR OF B.

TAMIM

The apostle sent him to raid them, and he killed some and captured others.
'Asim b. 'Umar b. Qatada told me that 'A’isha said to the apostle that she
must free a slave of the sons of Ismail, and he said, ‘The captives of B.
al- Anbar are coming now. We will give you one whom you can set free.’
When they were brought to the apostle a deputation from B. Tamim
rode with them until they reached the apostle. Among them were Rabi'a
b. Rufay'; Sahara b. 'Amr; al-Qa'qa' b. Ma'bad; Wardan b. Muhriz;
Qays b. Asim; Malik b. 'Amr; al-Aqra' b. Habis; and Firas b. Habis.
They spoke to the apostle on their behalf and he liberated some and
accepted ransom for others.

Among the B. al-'Anbar who were killed that day were 'Abdullah and
two brothers of his, sons of Wahb; Shaddad b. Firas; and Hanzala b.
Darim. Among the women who were captured were Asma’ d. Malik;
Ka’s d. Arly; Najwa d. Nahd; Jumay'a d. Qays; and 'Amra d. Matar.
Salma d. 'Attab said about that day:

'Adiy b. Jundab had a serious fall
From which it w^as hard to rise.

Enemies surrounded them on every side

And their glory and prosperity disappeared (907).

GHALIB B. ABDULLAH’S RAID ON THE LAND OF
B. MURRA

The raid of Ghalib b. 'Abdullah al-Kalbl, the Kalb of Layth, was on the
country of B. Murra in which he slew Mirdas b. Nahik, an ally of theirs
from al-Hurqa of Juhayna. Usama b. Zayd and a man of the Ansar killed
him (908). Usama b. Zayd said: ‘When I and a man of the Ansar overtook
him and attacked him wdth our weapons he pronounced the shahada,
but we did not stay our hands and killed him. When we came to the apostle
we told him what had happened and he said, “Who will absolve you,
Usama, from ignoring the confession of faith ?’’ I told him that the man had
pronounced the words merely to escape death; but he repeated his ques¬
tion and continued to do so until I wished that I had not been a Muslim
heretofore and had only become one that day and that I had not killed the
man, I asked him to forgive me and promised that I would never kill a
man who pronounced the shahada. He said, “You will say it after me, 1
Usama?” and I said that I would.’

1 i.e. after the prophet’s death.

668 The Life of Muhammad

'AMR B. AL-'AS RAIDS DHATU’L-SALASIL

The raid of 'Amr on Dhatu’l-Salasil in the country of (T. Bali and the
raid on) B. 'Udhra. The apostle sent him to convoke the Arabs to war on
Syria. The mother of al-'As b. Wa’il was a woman of Bali, so the apostle
sent him to them to claim their help. When 'Amr came to water in the
985 country of Judham called al-Salsal (T. Salasil), from which the raid took
its name, he took alarm and sent to the apostle for reinforcements. The
apostle sent him Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah with the first Muhajirs among
whom were Abu Bakr and 'Umar. He told Abu 'Ubayda when he sent him
not to quarrel. Now when he reached 'Amr the latter said, ‘You have
come only to reinforce me.’ ‘No,’ said Abu 'Ubayda, ‘but I have my sphere
of command and you have yours’; for he was a man of easy gentle disposi¬
tion on whom the affairs of this world sat lightly. So when 'Amr insisted
that he had come to reinforce him he said, ‘The apostle told us not to
quarrel, and though you disobey me I will obey you,’ to which he replied,
‘I am your superior officer and you are here only to reinforce me.’ ‘Have
it your own way,’ said he, and 'Amr took the lead in the prayers.

An informant who had it from Raff' b. Abu Raff' al-Ta’iy who was
Raff' b. 'Umayra told me that the latter said: I was a Christian called
Sarjis, the surest and best guide in the sandy desert. During the pagan
period I used to bury water which I had put in ostrich shells in various
places in the desert and then raid men’s camels. When I had got them into
the sand I was safely in possession of them and none dare follow me thither.
Then I would go to the places where I had concealed the water and drink
it. When I became a Muslim I went on the raid on which the apostle
sent 'Amr b. al-'As to Dhatu’l-Salasil, and I made up my mind to choose
a companion, and selected Abu Bakr with whom I rode. He wore a
Fadak cloak and whenever we halted he spread it out, and put it on when
we rode. Then he fastened it on him with a packing-needle. That was
the reason why the people of Najd when they apostatized said, ‘Are we to
accept as ruler the man with the cloak?’ When we approached Medina
986 on our return I told Abu Bakr that I had joined him so that God might
profit me by him, and I asked for his advice and instruction. He told me
that he would have given this even if I had not asked, and told me to pro¬
claim the unity of God and not to associate anything with Him; to perform
prayer; to pay the poor-tax; to fast in Ramadan; to go on pilgrimage;
to wash after impurity; and never to assume authority over tw r o Muslims.

I told him that I hoped that I should never associate anyone with God;
that I would never abandon prayer if God so willed; that if I had the means
I would always pay the poor-tax; that I would never neglect Ramadan;
that I would go on pilgrimage if I were able; and w’ould w r ash after impu¬
rity; but as to leadership I observed that only those w r ho exercised it were
held in honour with the apostle and the people, so why should he exclude
me from it? He answered, ‘You asked me for the best advice that I could

The Life of Muhammad 669

give you, and I will tell you. God sent Muhammad with this religion and
he strove for it until men accepted it voluntarily or by force. Once they had
entered it they were God’s proteges and neighbours under His protection.
Beware that you do not betray God’s trust in regard to His neighbours so
that He pursue you relentlessly on behalf of His protege. For if one of you
were wronged in this w r ay his muscles would sw r ell with anger if the sheep
or camels of his protege had been seized, and God is more angry on behalf
of those under His protection.’ Thereupon w'e parted.

When the apostle died and Abu Bakr was set over men I went to him
and reminded him that he had forbidden me to assume authority over
two Muslims. He said that he still forbade me to do so, and when I asked
him what had induced him to assume authority over every one he said that
he had no alternative; he was afraid that Muhammad’s community would
split up.

Yazid b. Abu Habib told me that he was informed on the authority of
'Auf b. Malik al-Ashja'i that he said: I was in the raid on which the apostle
sent 'Amr b. al-'As to Dhatu’l-Salasil, in company with Abu Bakr and
'Umar. I passed by some people who were butchering a camel they had
slaughtered. They could not dismember it, while I w T as a skilled butcher; 987
so I asked them if they would give me a share if I divided it between them,
and when they agreed I took a couple of knives and cut it up on the spot.

I took my share and carried it to my companions and w r e cooked and ate it.

Abu Bakr and 'Umar asked me where I had got the meat, and when I told
them they said that I had done wrong in giving it to them to eat, and they
got up and forced themselves to exgurgitate what they had swallowed.
When the army returned from that expedition I was the first to come to the
apostle as he was at prayer in his house. When I saluted him he asked if
I were 'Auf b. Malik the butcher of that camel, and he would say nothing
more.

THE RAID OF IBN ABU HADRAD ON THE VALLEY OF
I DAM AND THE KILLING OF 'AMIR B. AL-ADBAT
AL-ASHJA'I

Yazid b. 'Abdullah b. Qusayt from al-Qa'qa' b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Hadrad
from his father said: The apostle sent us to Idam with a number of Muslims
among whom were Abu Qatada al-Harith b. Rib'iy; and Muhallim b.
Jaththama b. Qays. We set forth until when w r e were in the valley of
Idam (T. this was before the conquest of Mecca) 'Amir b. al-Adbat
al-Ashja'i passed by us on a camel of his with a meagre supply of provi¬
sions and a skin of laban. As he passed us he saluted us as a Muslim and
we held off from him. But Muhallim b. Jaththama attacked and killed
him on account of a quarrel they had had, and took his camel and provi¬
sions. When we came to the apostle and told him the news there came down
concerning us: ‘O you who believe, wiien you go forth in the w r ay of God

670 The Life of Muhammad

act circumspectly and do not say to one who salutes you, “You are no
believer,’' coveting the gain of this world,’ &c. (909). 1

988 Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me that he heard Ziyad b.
Dumayra b. Sa'd al-Sulaml relating from 'Unva b. al-Zubayr from his
father from his grandfather who were both present at Hunayn with the
apostle: The apostle prayed the noon prayer with us, then he sought the
shelter of a tree and sat beneath it in Hunayn. Al-Aqra' b. Habis and
'Uyayna b. Hisn b. Hudhayfa b. Badr w 7 ent up to him quarrelling about
'Amir b. al-Adbat al-Ashja'i, 'Uyayna, who was at that time chief of
Ghatafan, demanding vengeance for the blood of 'Amir and al-Aqra'
protecting Muhallim b. Jaththama because of his position among Khindif.
The quarrel w*ent on a long time in the apostle’s presence and as we
listened we heard 'Uyayna say, ‘O apostle, I w r on’t let him off until I
make his women taste the burning grief he made my women taste’;
wdiile the apostle said, ‘No, but you will accept fifty camels as blood-
money on this journey and fifty on our return.’ He went on refusing the
offer when up got a man of B. Layth called Mukaythir, a short compact
fellow 7 {910), and said, ‘O apostle, the only thing to which I can compare
this man w 7 ho has been slain in the beginning of Islam is sheep who come
with their leaders shot and the ones behind run away. Let the law of blood
stand today and accept bloodwit later.’ The apostle lifted up his hand
and said, ‘No, you must take fifty camels as blood-money on this expedi¬
tion and fifty more when we return,’ and they accepted them. Then they
said, ‘Where is this fellow of yours that the apostle may ask God’s pardon
for him?’ Thereupon a tall thin man wearing a garment which he had taken
to fight 2 in got up and sat in front of the apostle. He admitted that he w 7 as
Muhallim b. Jaththama and the apostle said three times, ‘O God, pardon
not Muhallim b. Jaththama.’ He got up wiping away his tears with the
end of his garment. As for us, we still hoped that the apostle asked for the
divine forgiveness for him, but wdiat we saw him do was what has just
been said.

One whom I have no reason to suspect told me from al-Hasan al-Basri
989 that the apostle said when he sat before him, ‘You gave him security in
God and then you killed him!’ Then he said the words which have been
quoted, and by God Muhallim died within a week, and the earth I swear
rejected him. They buried him again, but the earth rejected him, and yet a
third time the same thing happened. Worn out, his people made for two
heights (forming a narrow gap) and laid him out between them and then
rolled rocks on him until they had covered him. When the apostle heard
about this he said, ‘The earth has covered worse than he, but God wants
to give you a warning of what you must not do by what He has shown you.’

Salim Abu’l-Nadr told us that he was informed that 'Uyayna b. Hisn
and Qays were addressed privately by al-Aqra' thus: ‘You men of Qays,
you have opposed the apostle about a man slain when he wanted to make

1 Sura 4. 96. 2 Or, perhap^, ‘die in’.

The Life of Muhammad 671

peace between people. Are you sure that the apostle will not curse you so
that God will curse you with his curse, or that he will not be angry with
you so that God will also be angry with you? I swear that unless you
submit him to the apostle and let him do with him as he pleases I will
bring fifty men of the B. Tamim who will all call God to wdtness that your
friend who was slain was an unbeliever who never prayed at all and thus
cause his blood to be disregarded.’ 1 When they heard that they agreed to
take the bloodwit (911).

THE RAID OF IBN ABU HADRAD AL-ASLAMl ON

AL-GHABA TO KILL RIFA'a B. QAYS AL-JUSHAMI

One whom I have no reason to suspect told me from Ibn IJadrad as
follow r s: I had married a woman of my tribe and promised her tw ; o hundred
dirhams as a dowry. I came to the apostle and asked him to help me in the
matter and when I told him the amount that I had promised he said,
‘Good gracious, if you could get dirhams from the bottom of a valley you
could not have offered more! I haven’t the money to help you.’ I waited
for some days when a man of B. Jusham b. Mu'awiya called Rifa'a b. 990
Qays or Qays b. Rifa'a came with a numerous clan of B. Jusham and
encamped with them in al-Ghaba intending to gather Qays to fight the
apostle, he being a man of high reputation among Jusham. The apostle
summoned me and tw'O other Muslims and told us to go to this man (T.
and bring him to him or) bring new r s of him, and sent us an old thin she-
camel. One of us mounted her, but she was so w r eak that she could not
get up until men pushed her up from behind, and even then she hardly
managed to do so. Then he said, ‘Make the best of her and ride her in
turn.’

We set forth taking our arrow's and sw r ords until we arrived near the
settlement in the evening as the sun was setting. I hid at one end and
ordered my companions to'hide at the other end of the camp and told
them that when they heard me cry 'Allah akbar’ as I ran to the camp they
were to do the same and run with me. There w r e were waiting to take the
enemy by surprise or to get something from them until much of the night
had passed. Now they had a shepherd who had gone out with the animals
and was so late in returning that they became alarmed on his behal/. Their
chief this Rifa'a b. Qays got up and took his sword and hung it round his
neck, saying that he would go on the track of the shepherd, for some harm
must have befallen him; whereupon some of his company begged him not
to go alone for they ■would protect him, but he insisted on going alone.

As he went he passed by me, and when he came in range I shot him in the
heart with an arrow, and he died without uttering a w'ord. I leapt upon
him and cut off his head and ran in the direction of the camp shouting
‘Allah akbar’ and my two companions did likewise, and by God, shouting

1 i.e. not to be wiped out by the blood of his slayer or tribesmen or to be paid for.

672 The Life of Muhammad-

out to one another they all fled at once with their wives and children and
such of their property as they could lay hands on easily. We drove off
a large number of camels and sheep and brought them to the apostle and

991 I took Rifa'a’s head to the apostle, who gave me thirteen of the camels to
hejp me with the woman’s dowry, and I consummated my marriage.

'abdu’l-rahman b. 'auf’s raid on dumatu’l-jandal

One whom I have no reason to suspect told me from 'Ata’ b. Abu Ribah
that he said that he heard a man of Basra ask 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b.
al-Khattab about wearing the turban flying loosely behind one. He said
that he would give them information on the point. 'I was’, he said, ‘the
tenth of ten of the apostle’s companions in his mosque, namely Abu
Bakr, ‘Umar, 'Uthman, 'All, 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf, Ibn Mas'ud,
Mu'adh b. Jabal, Hudhayfa b. al-Yaman, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, and myself.
Suddenly one of the Ansar came and saluted the apostle and sat down and
asked the apostle who was the most excellent of the believers. “The best
in character,” he replied. “And who is the wisest?” “The one who most
often remembers death and makes the best preparation for it before it
comes to him. Such men are the wise.” The man remained silent, and
the apostle said to us, “O Muhajirs, there are five things which may befall
you and I pray God that you may escape them: moral decay never openly
shows itself among a people but they suffer from pestilence and disease
such as their fathers have never known; they do not use light weights and
measures but they are smitten by famine and the injustice of rulers; they
do not hold back the poor-tax from their herds but rain is withheld, for but
for the beasts there would be no rain sent; they do not break the covenant
with God and His apostle but an enemy is given power over them and takes
much of their possessions; and their imams do not give judgement about
God’s book and behave arrogantly 1 in regard to what God has sent down
but God brings upon them the calamity they have engendered.”

‘Then he ordered Wbdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf to make his preparations for

992 the expedition. In the morning he wore a black turban of cotton. The
apostle told him to approach and unwound it and then rewound it leaving
four fingers or so loose behind him, saying, “Turban yourself thus, Ibn
'Auf, for thus it is better and neater .” 2 Then he ordered Bilal to give him
the standard and he did so. Then he gave praise to God and prayed for
himself. He then said, “Take it, Ibn 'Auf; fight everyone in the way of
God and kill those who disbelieve in God. Do not be deceitful with the
spoil; do not be treacherous, nor mutilate, nor kill children. This is
God’s ordinance and the practice 3 of his prophet among you.” Thereupon
'Abdu’l-Rahman took the standard’ (912).

1 \V. «.■atahayyarii ‘become perplexed’.

2 a raj perhaps means ‘more in keeping with accepted practice’.

2 lira.

The Life of Muhammad 673

abu'ubayda b. al-jarrah’s raid to the coast

Ubada b. al-W ahd b. 'Ubada b. al-Samit from his father from his grand¬
father Ubada b. al-Samit told me: The apostle sent a force to the coast
commanded by Abu 'Ubayda and furnished them with a supply of dates.

He “ e S an t0 ration them until the day came when he had to count them,
and finally he could give each man but one date a day. One day he divided
them among us and a man lacked even a date and we felt the loss of them
that day. When we were exhausted by hunger God brought us a whale
from the sea, and we fell upon its flesh and fat and stayed by it for twenty
nights until we grew' fat and recovered our strength. Our leader took one
of its ribs and set it in the way; then he sent for our largest camel and
mounted our largest man upon it; he sat on it and came out from under it
without lowering his head. When we came to the apostle we gave him the
news and asked him what he thought about our having eaten the whale.

He said, It was food which God provided for you’ (913).

(Ibn Hamid told us from Salama b. ai-Fadl from Muhammad b. T- 1437
Ishaq from Ja far b. al-Fadl b. al-Hasan b. 'Amr b. Umayya al-Damri
from his father from his grandfather 'Amr b. Umayya that the last-named T- 1438
said: After the killing of Khubayb and his companions the apostle sent an
Ansan with me telling us to go and kill Abu Sufyan, so we set out. My
companion had no camel and his leg was injured, so I carried him on my
beast as far as the valley of Ya jaj where we tethered our beast in the
corner of a pass and rested there. I suggested to my companion that we
should go to Abu Sufyan’s house and I would try to kill him while he
kept watch. If there was a commotion or he feared danger he should take
to his camel and go to Medina and tell the prophet the news; he could leave
me because I knew the country well and was fleet-footed. When we
entered Mecca I had a small dagger like an eagle’s feather which I held in
readiness: if anyone laid hold of me I could kill him with it. My com¬
panion asked that we might begin by going round the Ka'ba seven times
and pray a couple of rak'as. I told him that I knew more about the Meccans
than he: in the evening their courts are sprinkled with water and they sit
there, and I am more easily recognizable than a piebald horse. However,
he kept on at me until we did as he wanted, and as we came out of the
Ka ba we passed by one of their groups and a man recognized me and
caffed out at the top of his voice, ‘This is 'Amr b. Umayya!’ Thereupon
the Meccans rushed at us, saying, ‘By God, 'Amr has come for no good

He has never brought anything but evil,’ for 'Amr was a violent unruly
fellow in heathen days.

They got up to pursue us and I told my companion to escape, for the T. 1439
very thing I feared had happened, and as to Abu Sufyan there was no
means of getting at him. So we made off with all speed and climbed the
mountain and went into a cave where we spent the night, having successfully
eluded them so that they returned to Mecca. When we entered the cave

B 4080 X x

674 The Life of Muhammad

I put some rocks at the entrance as a screen and told my companion to
keep quiet until the pursuit should die down, for they would search for us
that night and the following day until the evening. While we were in the
cave up came 'Uthman b. Malik b. 'Ubaydullah al-Tayml cutting grass
for a horse of his. He kept coming nearer until he was at the very entrance
of the cave. I told my friend who he was and that he would give us away
to the Meccans, and I went out and stabbed him under the breast with the
dagger. He shrieked so loud that the Meccans heard him and came to¬
wards him. I went back to the cave and told-my friend to stay w'here he was.
The Meccans hastened in the direction of the sound and found him at the
last gasp. They asked him who had stabbed him and he told them that
it was I, and died. They did not get to know where w'e were and said,
‘By God, we knew 'Amr was up to no good.’ They were so occupied with
the dead man whom they carried off that they could not look for us, and
we stayed a couple of days in the cave until the pursuit died down. Then
we went to al-Tan'im, and lo, Khubayb’s cross. 1 My friend asked if we
T- 1440 should take him down from the cross, for there he was. I told him to leave
the matter to me and to get away from me for guards w r ere posted round
it. If he was afraid of anything he must go to his camel and tell the apostle
what had happened. I ran up to Khubayb’s cross, freed him from it, and
carried him on my back. Hardly had I taken forty steps when they
became aware of me and I threw him down and I cannot forget the thud
when he dropped. They ran after me and I took the way to al-Safra’
and when they wearied of the pursuit they went back and my friend rode
to the prophet and told him our new^s. I continued on foot until I looked
down on the valley of Dajnan. I went into a cave there taking my bow and
arrows, and while I was there in came a one-eyed man of B. al-Dil driving
a sheep of his. When he asked who I was I told him that I w r as one of B.
Bakr. He said that he was also, adding of B. al-Dil clan. Then he hay
down beside me and lifting up his voice began to sing:

I won’t be a Muslim as long as I live,

Nor heed to their religion give.

I said (to myself), ‘You will soon know!’ and as soon as the badu was
asleep and snoring I got up and killed him in a more horrible way than
any man has been killed. I put the end of my bow in his sound eye, then
I bore down on it until I forced it out at the back of his neck. Then I
came out like a beast of prey and took the highroad like an eagle hastening
until I came out at a village which, (said the narrator), he described; then
to Rakiiba and al-Naqi' where suddenly there appeared tw r o Meccans whom
T- 1441 Quraysh had sent to spy on the apostle. I recognized them and called on
them to surrender, and when they refused I shot one and killed him, and
the other surrendered. I bound him and took him to the apostle.

Ibn Ishaq from Sulayman b. Wardan from his father from 'Amr b.

1 Sec W. 641 supra.

The Life of Muhammad g

andwvhen Ifmed^e » 1 ^ S ° me shaykhs ° f the AmSr

to tell the apostle. Now I had bounTmy plw’s thu^T "T “k
string, and when the apostle looked at hh/L i l ? Wlth m Y bow-

his back teeth. He asked my news and when I taldh^ & ° C ° Uld 866

he blessed me’) (914)4 7 h 1 d ^ what had happened

^salim b. 'umayr’s expedition to kill ABU 'AFAK
Abu'Afakwas oneof B.'Amr b 'Anfnfth^n ‘ttu j ,
disaffection when the apostle killed al-Harith b. Suwayd' W

Long have I lived but never have I seen

An assembly or collection of people

More faithful to their undertaking

And their allies when called upon

Than the sons of Qayla 2 when they assembled

Men who overthrew mountains and never submitted

A rider who came to them split them in two (saying)

Permitted Forbidden’^ of all sorts of things. J 8
Had you believed in glory or kingship
1 ou would have followed Tubba'. 4

B^ withes rascal for me?' whereupon

---

Bv hi §aVe K he llC t0 G0d, ‘ S rell S ion and the m an Ahmad'

!i 0 was y° u / tather - evil is the son he produced!
bamf 'gave you a thrust in the night saying
ake that Abu 'Afak in spite of your age'’

Though I knew whether it was man or jinn w .

Who slew you in the dead of night (I would say naught).* ^

UMAYR B. ADIy’s JOURNEY TOKiri 'asyaa’

J 1U KILL ASM A D. MARWAN

fiZ'ZSSZr SSL TZSLT X T, (*“ *

father said that she was married to a man'A R vu _Fud ^ from his
Zayd. Blaming Islam and its fo.wHhelf d Calkd Ya * d »•

I despise B. Malik and al-Nabit
And 'Auf and B. al-Khazraj.

i ve^ancMtre&g 1 of an^Khazrsj * addlti ° nS '

4 A at the language of the Quran. J ‘

sp why believe in Mohammad ^claims "" 3 *** ^ faCt 8nd 8 man of reputation,

This Iine^noTmw!' Pr ° P ° Sed “ emendatlon ° f the text which hardly seems necessary.

676 The Life of Muhammad

You obey a stranger who is none of yours,

One not of Murad or Madhhij. 1

Do you expect good from him after the killing of your chiefs
Like a hungry man waiting for a cook’s broth ?

Is there no man of pride who would attack him by surprise
And cut off the hopes of those who expect aught from him ?

996 Hassan b. Thabit answered her:

Banu Wa’il and B. Waqif and Khatma
Are inferior to B. al-Khazraj.

When she called for folly woe to her in her weeping,

For death is coming.

She stirred up a man of glorious origin,

Noble in his going out and his coming in.

Before midnight he dyed her in her blood
And incurred no guilt thereby.

When the apostle heard what she hacl said he said, ‘Who will rid me of
Marwan’s daughter?’ 'Umayr b. 'Adly al-Khatmi who w r as with him heard
him, and that very night he went to her house and killed her. In the morn¬
ing he came to the apostle and told him what he had done and he said,
‘You have helped God and His apostle, O 'Umayr!* When he asked if he
would have to bear any evil consequences the apostle said, ‘Two goats
won’t butt their heads about her,’ so 'Umayr went back to his people.

Now there was a great commotion among B. Khatma that day about the
affair of Bint Marwan. She had five sons, and when 'Umayr went to them
from the apostle he said, ‘I have killed Bint Marwan, O sons of Khatma.
Withstand me if you can; don’t keep me waiting.’ 2 That was the first
day that Islam became powerful among B. Khatma; before that those who
were Muslims concealed the fact. The first of them to accept Islam was
'Umayr b. 'Adiy who was called ‘the Reader’, and 'Abdullah b. Aus and
Khuzayma b. Thabit. The day after Bint Marwan was killed the men of B.
Khatma became Muslims because they saw the pow'er of Islam.

THE CAPTURE OF THUMAMA B. ATHAL AL-HANAFl

I heard on the authority of Abu Sa'Id al-Maqburi from Abu Hurayra
that the latter said: The apostle’s cavalry went out and captured a man of

997 B. Hanifa not knowing who he was until they brought him to the apostle
w r ho told them that he w r as Thumama b. Athal al-Hanafl and that they
must treat him honourably in his captivity. The apostle went back to his
house and told them to send what food they had to him, and ordered that
his milch-camel should be taken to him night and morning; but this
failed to satisfy Thumama. The apostle went to him and urged him to

1 Two tribes of YamanI origin.

2 Cf. Sura 11, 58.

The Life of Muhammad 677

acce P t Islam. He said, ‘Enough, Muhammad; if you kill me you kill one
ose blood must be paid for; if you want a ransom, ask what you like ’
Matters remained thus so long as God willed and then the apostle said

^ BaTp U wK ma T* ‘° c r !‘f Sed - Whe " lhe >' Iet him 8° he «’ent as far as
al-Baqi, where he purified himself and then returned and paid homage

“ , P ™1 het ln u T VV ; hen evenin « came brought him food L

camel's milk' Th* M^r Y 3 ° f “ and onI >' a sma “ quantity of the

heard offt he I H astomshed at lhis i but when the apostle

heard of it he said, Why are you astonished ? At a man who at the begin-

whh f M C f ayat , e r a ? “ nbellever ’ s stomach and at the end of the day

witLnfo U n1™ S 9 , 5 ) n KVer eatS W “ h SeVe " S “ S; the

THE EXPEDITION OF 'ALQAMA B. MUJAZZIZ 99 g

When Waqqas b Mujazziz al-Mudlijl was killed on the day of Dhu
Oarad, Alqama b Mujazziz asked the apostle to send him on the track
of the people so that he might take vengeance on them. 'Abdu’l-'Aziz b
Muhammad from Muhammad b. 'Amr b. 'Alqama from 'Umar b. al-
yakam b Thauban from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said: The apostle seat
Alqama b. Mujazziz, I being with the force, and when we were on the way
e summoned a part of the force and appointed 'Abdullah b. Hudhafa
a -Sahmi their leader. He was one of the apostle’s companions—a facetious
fellow, and when they were on the way he kindled a fire an’d said to the
men. Have I not claim on your obedience so that if I order you to do
something you must do it?’ and when they agreed he said, ‘Then by
virtue of my claim on your obedience I order you to leap into this fire •
borne ot them began to gird up their loins so that he thought that they
would leap into the fire, and then he said, ‘Sit down, I was only laughing
at you! When the apostle was told of this after they had returned he said

obe> n him e ’° rderS y ° U *° d ° something which I’ 01 - 1 ought not to do, do not

Muhammad b. Talha said that ‘Alqama and his companions returned
without fighting.

KURZ B. JABIR’S EXPEDITION TO KILL THE BAJILIS
WHO HAD KILLED YASAR

A traditionist told me from one who had told him from Muhammad b.

• f ™ m Uthman b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman that in the raid of Muharib
  and B. I ha laba the apostle had captured a slave called Yasar, and he put
  him in charge of his milch-camels to shepherd them in the neighbourhood
  of al-Jamma . Some men of Qays of Kubba of Bajlla came to the apostle 999
  suffering from an epidemic and enlarged spleens, and the apostle told them
  that if they went to the milch-camels and drank their milk and urine they

6 7 8 The Life of Muhammad

would recover, so off they went. When they recovered their health and their
bellies contracted to their normal size they fell upon the apostle s shepherd
Yasar and killed him and stuck thorns in his eyes and drove away his
camels. The apostle sent Kurz b. Jabir in pursuit and he overtook them
and brought them to the apostle as he returned from the raid of Dhu
Qarad. He cut off their hands and feet and gouged out their eyes.

'ALl’S RAID ON THE YAMAN
‘Ali raided the Yaman twice (916).

USAMA B. ZAYD’S MISSION TO PALESTINE

The apostle sent Usama to Syria and commanded him to take the cavalry
into the borders of the Balqa’ and al-Darhm in the land of Palestine. So
the men got ready and all the first emigrants went with Usama (917)*

THE BEGINNING OF THE APOSTLE’S ILLNESS

While matters were thus the apostle began to suffer from the illness by
which God took him to what honour and compassion He intended
for him shortly before the end of Safar or in the beginning of Rablu’l-
000 awwal. It began, so I have been told, when he went to Baqi'u’l-Gharqad
in the middle of the night and prayed for the dead. Then he returned to
his family and in the morning his sufferings began.

'Abdullah b. 'Umar from 'Ubayd b, Jubayr, a freedman of al-Hakam
b. Abu’I-'As, from 'Abdullah b. 'Amr b. al-'As from Abu Muwayhiba, a
freedman of the apostle, said: In the middle of the night the apostle sent
for me and told me that he was ordered to pray for the dead in this cemetery
and that I was to go with him. I went; and when he stood among them he
said, ‘Peace upon you, O people of the graves! Happy are you that you are
so much better off than men here. Dissensions have come like waves of
darkness one after the other, the last being worse than the first.’ Then he
turned to me and said, ‘ I have been given the choice between the keys of the
treasuries of this world and long life here followed by Paradise, and meeting
my Lord and Paradise (at once).’ I urged him to choose the former, but
he said that he had chosen the latter. Then he prayed for the dead there
and went away. Then it was that the illness through which God took him
began.

Ya'qub b. 'Utba from Muhammad b. Muslim al-Zuhri from Ubay-
dullah b. 'Abdullah b. 'Utba b. Mas'ud from 'A’isha, the prophet’s wife,
said: The apostle returned from the cemetery to find me suffering from
a severe headache and I was saying, ‘O my head! He said, Nay, A isha,
O my head!’ Then he said, ‘Would it distress you if you were to die before
me so that I might wrap you in your shroud and pray over you and bury

The Life of Muhammad ftyg

you?’ I said, ‘Methinks I see you if you had done that returning to my
house and spending a bridal night therein with one of your wives.’ The
apostle smiled and then his pain overcame him as he was going the round
of his wives, until he was overpowered in the house of Maymuna. He
called his wives and asked their permission to be nursed in my house
and they agreed (918).

THE APOSTLE’S ILLNESS IN THE HOUSE OF 'A’lSHA. 1 I005

The apostle went out walking between two men of his family, one of
whom was al-Fadl b. al-'Abbas. His head was bound in a cloth and his
feet were dragging as he came to my house. 'Ubaydullah told this tradi¬
tion to 'Abdullah b. al-'Abbas who told him that the other man was 'Ali
(T. but that 'A’isha could not bring herself to speak well of him though
she was able to do so). 5

Then the apostle’s illness worsened and he suffered much pain He IO ° 6
said, ‘Pour seven skins of water from different wells over me so that I may
go out to the men and instruct them.’ We made him sit down in a tub
belonging to Hafsa d. 'Umar and we poured water over him until he cried
‘Enough, enough!’

Al-Zuhri said that Ayyub b. Bashir told him that the apostle went out
with his head bound up and sat in the pulpit. The first thing he uttered
was a prayer over the men of Uhud asking God’s forgiveness for them and
praying for them a long time; then he said, ‘God has given one of his
servants the choice between this world and that which is with God and he
has chosen the latter.’ Abu Bakr perceived that he meant himself and he
wept, saying, ‘Nay, we and our children will be your ransom.’ He replied,
Gently, Abu Bakr,’ adding, ‘See to these doors that open on to the mosque
and shut them except one from Abu Bakr’s house, for I know no one who is
a better friend to me than he’ (919).

Abdu 1 -Rahman b. 'Abdullah told me from one of the family of Sa'Td
b, al-Mu alia that the apostle said in his speech that day, ‘If I were able
to choose a friend on earth I would choose Abu Bakr, but comradeship
and brotherhood in the faith remain until God unites us in His presence.’

Muhammad b. Ja far b. al-Zubayr told me from 'Urwa b. al-Zubavr and
other learned men that the apostle found the people tardy in joining the
expedition of Usama b. Zayd while he was suffering, so he went out with
his head bound up until he sat in the pulpit. Now people had criticized the
leadership of Usama, saying, ‘He has put a young man in command of the
best of the emigrants and the helpers.’ After praising God as is His due he
sai , O men, dispatch Usama’s force, for though you criticize his leadership
as you criticized the leadership of his father before him, he is just as worthy
of the command as his father was.’ Then he came down and the people 1007
hurried on with their preparations. The apostle’s pain became severe and
LI. 3 tradition from 'A’isha continues.

68o

The Life of Muhammad

Usama and his army went out as far as al-Jurf, about a stage from Medina,
and encamped there and men gathered to him. When the apostle became
seriously ill Usama and his men stayed there to see what God would
decide about the apostle.

Zuhrl said that 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik told him that the apostle said
on the day that he asked God’s forgiveness for the men of Uhud, ‘O
Muhajirs, behave kindly to the Ansar, for other men increase but they in the
nature of things cannot grow more numerous. They were my constant
comfort and support. So treat their good men well and forgive those of them
who are remiss.’ Then he came down and entered his house and his pain
increased until he was exhausted. Then some of his wives gathered to
him, Umm Salama and Maymuna and some of the wives of the Muslims,
among them Asma’d. 'Umays while his uncle 'Abbas was with him, and
they agreed to force him to take medicine. 'Abbas said, ‘Let me force
him,’ but they did it. When he recovered he asked who had treated him
thus. When they told him it was his uncle he said, ‘This is a medicine
which women have brought from that country,’ and he pointed in the
direction of Abyssinia. When he asked why they had done that his uncle
said, ‘We were afraid that you would get pleurisy;’ he replied, ‘That is a
disease which God would not afflict me with. Let no one stop in the house
until they have been forced to take this medicine, except my uncle.’

1008 Maymuna was forced to take it although she was fasting because of the
apostle’s oath, as a punishment for what they had done to him.

T* 1809 (T. Muhammad b. Ja'far b. al-Zubayr told me from 'Urwa b. al-

Zubayr that 'A’isha told him that when they said that they were afraid
that he would get pleurisy he said, ‘That is something which comes from
the devil, and God would not let it have power over me.’)

Sa'Id b. 'Ubayd b. al-Sabbaq from Muhammad b. Usama from his
father told me that when the apostle’s illness became severe he and the men
came down to Medina and he went in to the apostle who was unable to
speak. He began to lift his hand towards heaven and then bring it down
upon him, from which he knew that he was blessing him.

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl told me from 'Ubayd b. 'Abdullah b. 'Utba from
'A’isha that she used to hear the apostle say, ‘God never takes a prophet
to Himself without giving him the choice.’ When he was at the point of
death the last word I heard the apostle saying was, ‘Nay, rather the Exalted
Companion of paradise.’ 1 I said (to myself), Then by God he is not choosing
us! And I knew that that was what he used to tell us, namely that a prophet
does not die without being given the choice.

Al-Zuhrl said, Hamza b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar told me that 'A’isha said:
‘When the prophet became seriously ill he ordered the people to tell
Abu Bakr to superintend the prayers. 'A’isha told him that Abu Bakr was
a delicate man with a weak voice who wept much when he read the Quran.
He repeated his order nevertheless, and I repeated my objection. He said,

1 Cf. Sura 4. 71.

The Life of Muhammad 6g r

\ou are like Joseph s companions; tell him to preside at prayers.” My
only reason for saying what I did was that I wanted Abu Bakr to be spared
this task, because I knew that people would never like a man who occupied
the apostle s place, and would blame him for everv misfortune that occurred
and I wanted Abu Bakr to be spared this.’

Ibn Shihab said, 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. 'Abdu’l-RahmSn b. al- 1009
■ anth b. Hisham told me from his father from 'Abdullah b. Zama'a b.
al Aswad b. al-Muttalib b. Asad that when the apostle was seriously ill
and I with a number of Muslims was with him Bilal called him to prayer,
and he told us to order someone to preside at prayers. So I went out and
there was 'Umar with the people, but Abu Bakr was not there. I told

f AV, n f^u get 1 Up and lead the P rayers > so he did so, and when he shouted
Allah Akbar the apostle heard his voice, for he had a powerful voice, and he

W 1 her f Ab ° Bakr Was ’ sayin S twice over > <God and the Muslims
lorbid that. So I was sent to Abu Bakr and he came after 'Umar had
finished that prayer and presided. 'Umar asked me what on earth I had
done, saying, When you told me to take the prayers I thought that the
apostle had given you orders to that effect; but for that I would not haw
done so.’ I replied that he had not ordered me to do so, but when I could
not see Abu Bakr I thought that he was most worthy of those present to
preside at prayers.

Al-Zuhri said that Anas b. Malik told him that on the Monday (T.
the day) on which God took His apostle he went out to the people as they
were praying the morning prayer. The curtain was lifted and the door
opened and out came the apostle and stood at 'A’isha’s door. The Muslims
were almost seduced from their prayers for joy at seeing him, and he
motioned to them (T. with his hand) that they should continue their
prayers. The apostle smiled with joy when he marked their mien in prayer,
and I never saw him with a nobler expression than he had that day. Then
he went back and the people went away thinking that the apostle had
recovered from his illness. Abu Bakr returned to his wife in al-Sunh.

Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith told me from aLQasim b. Muham- 1010
mad that when the apostle heard 'Umar saving Allah Akbar in the prayer

he asked where Abu Bakr was. ‘God and the Muslims forbid this.’ Had

it not been for what 'Umar said when he died, the Muslims would not
have doubted that the apostle had appointed Abu Bakr his successor; but
he said when he died, ‘If I appoint a successor, one better than I did so;
and if I leave them (to elect my successor) one better than I did so.’ So
the people knew that the apostle had not appointed a successor and 'Umar
was not suspected of hostility towards Abu Bakr. 1

Abu Bakr b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Mulayka told me that when the Mondav
came the apostle went out to morning prayer with his head wrapped up
while Abu Bakr was leading the prayers. When the apostle went out the
peop e s attention \a ered, and Abu Bakr knew that the people would not
1 Abu Bakr appointed 'Umar to succeed him; the prophet made no appointment.

682

The Life of Muhammad

behave thus unless the apostle had come, so he withdrew from his place;
but the apostle pushed him in the back, saying, ‘Lead the men in prayer,’
and the apostle sat at his side praying in a sitting posture on the right of
Abu Bakr. When he had ended prayer he turned to the men and spoke
to them with a loud voice which could be heard outside the mosque:
‘0 men, the fire is kindled, and rebellions come like the darkness of the
night. By God, you can lay nothing to my charge. I allow only what the
Quran allows and forbid only what the Quran forbids.’

When he had ended these words Abu Bakr said to him: ‘O prophet
of God, I see that this morning you enjoy the favour and goodness of God
as we desire; today is the day of Bint Kharija. May I go to her?’ The
apostle agreed and went indoors and Abu Bakr went to his wife in al-Sunh.

Al-Zuhrl said, and 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. Malik from 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas
told me: That day 'All went out from the apostle and the men asked him
ioi i how the apostle was and he replied that thanks be to God he had recovered.
'Abbas took him by the hand and said, “All, three nights hence you will be
a slave, I swear by God that I recognized death in the apostle’s face as I
used to recognize it in the faces of the sons of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib. So let
us go to the apostle; if authority is to be with us, we shall know it, and if it
is to be with others w r e will request him to enjoin the people to treat us
well.’ 'All answered: ‘By God, I will not. If it is withheld from us none
after him wall give it to us.’ The apostle died with the heat of noon that day.

Ya'qub b. 'Utba from al-Zuhrl from 'Urw r a from 'A’isha said: The
apostle came back to me from the mosque that day and lay in my bosom.
A man of Abu Bakr’s family came in to me with a toothpick in his hand
and the apostle looked at it in such a w r ay that I knew he wanted it, and
w'hen I asked him if he w anted me to give it him he said Yes; so I took it
and chewed it for him to soften it and gave it to him. He rubbed his teeth
w r ith it more energetically than I had ever seen him rub before; then he
laid it down. I found him heavy in my bosom and as I looked into his
face, lo his eyes were fixed and he was saying, ‘Nay, the most Exalted Com¬
panion is of paradise.’ I said, ‘You were given the choice and you have
chosen, by Him Who sent you with the truth!’ And so the apostle was taken.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father told me
that he heard 'A’isha say: The apostle died in my bosom during my turn:

I had WTonged none in regard to him. It was due to my ignorance and
extreme youth that the apostle died in my arms. Then I laid his head on a
pillow r and got up beating my breast and slapping my face along with the
1012 other women.

Al-Zuhrl said, and Sa'ld b. al-Musayyib from Abu Hurayra told me:
When the apostle w r as dead 'Umar got up and said: ‘Some of the dis¬
affected will allege that the apostle is dead, but by God he is not dead: he
has gone to his Lord as Moses b. 'Imran went and was hidden from his
people for forty days, returning to them after it was said that he had died.
By God, the apostle will return as Moses returned and w r ill cut off the

The Life of Muhammad 683

hands and feet of men who allege that the apostle is dead.’ When Abu
Bakr heard what was happening he came to the door of the mosque as

Elmar was speaking to the people. He paid no attention but went in to
'A’isha’s house to the apostle, who was lying covered by a mantle of
YamanI cloth. He went and uncovered his face and kissed him, saying,

‘You are dearer than my father and mother. You have tasted the death
which God had decreed: a second death will never overtake you.’ Then he
replaced the mantle on the apostle’s face and went out. 'Umar was still
speaking and he said, ‘Gently, 'Umar, be quiet.’ But 'Umar refused and
went on talking, and when Abu Bakr saw that he w T ould not be silent he
went forward to the people who, when they heard his words, came to him
and left 'Umar. Giving thanks and praise to God he said: ‘O men, if
anyone worships Muhammad, Muhammad is dead: if anyone worships
God, God is alive, immortal.’ Then he recited this verse: ‘Muhammad is
nothing but an apostle. Apostles have passed away before him. Can it
be that if he were to die or be killed you would turn back on your heels?

He who turns back does no harm to God and God will reward the grateful.’ 1
By God, it was as though the people did not know that this verse (T.
concerning the apostle) had come down until Abu Bakr recited it that day.

The people took it from him and it was (constantly) in their mouths. 1013
Umar said, ‘By God, when I heard Abu Bakr recite these words I was
dumbfounded so that my legs would not bear me and I fell to the ground
knowing that the apostle was indeed dead.’

THE MEETING IN THE HALL OF B. SATDA

When the apostle was taken this clan of the Ansar gathered round Sa'd
b. 'Ubada in the hall of B. Saida, and 'All and al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam
and Talha b. 'Ubaydullah separated themselves in Fatima’s house while
the rest of the Muhajirin gathered round Abu Bakr accompanied by
EJsayd b. Hudayr with the B. 'Abdu’l-Ashhal. Then someone came to
Abu Bakr and 'Umar telling them that this clan of the Ansar had gathered
round Sa d in the hall of B. Sa'ida. ‘If you want to have command of the
people, then take it before their action becomes serious.’ Now the apostle
was still in his house, the burial arrangements not having been completed,
and his family had locked the door of the house. 'Elmar said, ‘I said to
Abu Bakr, Let us go to these our brothers of the Ansar to see what they
are doing.’

In connexion with these events 'Abdullah b. 'Abu Bakr told me from
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdullah b. 'Utba b. Mas'ud
from 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas who said, I was waiting for 'Abdu’l-Rahman
b. Auf in his station in Mina while he was with 'Umar in the last pil¬
grimage W'hich C T mar performed. When he returned he found me waiting,
for I was teaching him to read the Quran. 'Abdu’l -Rahman said to me:

1 Sura 3. 138.

684 The Life of Muhammad

‘I wish you could have seen a man who came to the commander of the
faithful and said, “O commander of the faithful, would you like a man
1014 who said, By God, if 'Umar were dead I would hail So-and-so. Fealty
given to Abu Bakr was a hasty mistake and was ratified.” * 'Umar was
angry and said, ‘God willing, I shall get up among the men tonight and
warn them against those who want to usurp power over them.’ X said,
‘Don’t do it, commander of the faithful, for the festival brings together
the riff-raff and the lowest of the people; they are the ones who will be in
T. 1820 the majority in your proximity (T. your assembly) when you stand among
the people. And I am afraid lest you should get up and say something
which they will repeat everywhere, not understanding what you say or
interpreting it aright; so wait until you come to Medina, for it is the home
of the surma and you can confer privately with the lawyers and the nobles
of the people. (T. you will come to the home of the hijra and the surma and
you can confer privately with the apostle’s companions both muhdjirin and
ansar .) 1 You can say what you will and the lawyers (T. they) will under¬
stand what you say and interpret it properly.’ 'Umar replied, ‘By God, if
He will I will do so as soon as I get to Medina.’

We came to Medina at the end of Dhu’l-Hijja and on the Friday I
returned quickly when the sun had set and found Sa'Id b. Zayd b. 'Amr
b. Nufayl sitting by the support of the pulpit and I sat opposite him knee
to knee. Immediately 'Umar came out and when I saw him coming I said
to Sa'Id, ‘He will say something tonight on this pulpit which he has never
said since he was made caliph.’ Sa'Id was annoyed and asked, ‘What do
you suppose that he is going to say that he has never said before?’ 'Umar
sat in the pulpit, and when the muezzins were silent he praised God as
was fitting and said: ‘I am about to say to you today something which God
has walled that I should say and I do not know whether perhaps it is my
last utterance. He who understands and heeds it let him take it with him
whithersoever he goes; and as for him who fears that he wall not heed it,
he may not deny that I said it. God sent Muhammad and sent dow r n the
scripture to him. Part of what he sent down was the passage on stoning;
we read it, we w r ere taught it, and we heeded it. The apostl stoned
(adulterers) and w'e stoned them after him. I fear that in time to come men
will say that they find no mention of stoning in God’s book and thereby
1015 go astray by neglecting an ordinance which God has sent down. Verily
stoning in the book of God is a penalty laid on married men and women
who commit adultery, if proof stands or pregnancy is clear or confession
is made. Then we read in what we read from God’s book: “Do not desire
to have ancestors other than your own for it is infidelity so to do.” ’ 2

1 The difference between the two reports of what f.I. said is interesting. Ziyad makes the
lawyers and the sharifs the ultimate authority while has nothing to say about them and
regards the prophet’s companions as the real authorities. If the tradition is genuine r JYs
version must be authentic because there can hardly have been lawyers in 'Umar’s day.
However, it is possible that at that tim e fiqh did not bear its later meaning.

• This citation, which on the face of it has nothing to do with adultery, shows that the

The Life of Muhammad 685

Did not the apostle say, ‘Do not praise me extravagantly as Jesus son
of Mary was praised and say The servant and the apostle of God?’ I
have heard that someone said, ‘If 'Umar were dead I would hail So-and-so.’
Don’t let a man deceive himself by saying that the acceptance of Abu
Bakr was an unpremeditated affair 1 which was ratified. Admittedly it was
that, but God averted the evil of it. There is none among you to whom
people would devote themselves as they did to Abu Bakr. He who accepts
a man as ruler without consulting the Muslims, such acceptance has no
validity for either of them: they are in danger of being killed. What
happened was that when God took away His apostle the Ansar opposed us
and gathered with their chiefs in the hall of B. Saida; and 'All and
al-Zubayr and their companions withdrew from us; while the Muhajirin
gathered to Abu Bakr.

I told Abu Bakr that we should go to our brothers the Ansar, so we went
off to go to them when two honest fellows met us and told us of the con¬
clusion the people had come to. They asked us where we were going, and
when we told them they said that there was no need for us to approach
them and we must make our own decision. I said, ‘By God, we will go
to them,’ and we found them in the hall of B. Sa'ida. In the middle of
them was a man wrapped up. In answer to my inquiries they said that he
was Sa d b. Ubada and that he was ill. When we sat down their speaker
pronounced the shahada and praised God as was fitting and then con¬
tinued: ‘We are God’s Helpers and the squadron of Islam. You, O
Muhajirin, are a family of ours and a company of your people have come
to settle.’ ('Umar) said, ‘And lo, they were trying to cut us off from our
origin and wrest authority from us.’ 2 When he had finished I wanted to

aya of which it is the beginning was well known in I.I.’s time, it continues: 'If an adult
man or woman commit adultery stone them without exception as a punishment from God
God is mighty and wise.' See Ndldeke-Schwally, Gesch. d. Qorans, i. 248, where the
authorities are given. If it was part of the Quran it is difficult to see where it stood originally
Muslim authorities suggest Sura 33, but the rhyme forbids this; and Sura 24, but there the
punishment is scourging. Most commentators hold that the verse is one of those that was
afterwards abrogated, while others say that it was accidentally lost owing to a domestic
animal eating the part of the page on which the revelation was written. Cf. Zamakhshari
on Sura 33, and others. This tradition which is carried back to 'A’isha is condemned as the
invention of sectarians. There is a real problem which can hardly be satisfactorily solved ■
on the one hand, the Quran teaches that adulterers must be scourged; on the other hand,

this exceeding early tradition—much older than the later canonical collections of hadith _

that they must be stoned is evidently the authority which lies behind the penalty prescribed
by Muslim lawbooks to this day. See the authorities quoted op, cit., p. 251

Since the words shaykha and albatta occur nowhere in the Quran and’since the first part
of )he verse appears in a slightly different form as a saying of Muhammad in Muslim’s
ifahih (lman 27), the probability is that it never formed part of the Quran. However if the
traditional form of ‘Umar’s speech as given by I.I. (and by q on another authority) ls
authentic, it remains to be explained why 'Umar, who was a most truthful man, should have
stated publicly in the strongest possible terms that the verse was to be read in the Quran

falta. I have translated this ‘hasty mistake’ on p. 684. The exact meaning is some-
what elusive.

The crucial word gala indicating that 'Umar was the speaker is missing from W T
1822 makes the passage perfectly clear. ‘He said When I saw that they wanted to cut us off
from (yakJitaztlu) our origin and wrest authority from us and I had prepared,’ &c. The

686 The Life of Muhammad

ioib speak, for I had prepared a speech in my mind which pleased me much.
I wanted to produce it before Abu Bakr and I was trying to soften a certain
asperity of his; but Abu Bakr said, ‘Gently, ‘Umar!’ I did not like to
anger him and so he spoke. He was a man with more knowledge and dignity
than I, and by God he did not omit a single word which I had thought of
and he uttered it in his inimitable way better than I could have done.

He said: ‘All the good that you have said about yourselves is deserved.
But the Arabs will recognize authority only in this clan of Quraysh, they
being the best of the Arabs in blood and country. I offer you one of these
two men: accept which you please.' Thus saying he took hold of my hand
and that of Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah who was sitting between us. Nothing
he said displeased me more than that. By God, I would rather have come
forward and have had my head struck off—if that were no sin—than rule
over a people of whom Abu Bakr was one.

One of the Ansar said: ‘I am the rubbing post and the fruitful propped-up
palm. 1 Let us have one ruler and you another, O Quraysh.’ Altercation
waxed hotter and voices were raised until when a complete breach was to
be feared I said, ‘Stretch out your hand, Abu Bakr.' He did so and I
paid him homage; the Muhajirin followed and then the Ansar. (In doing
so) we jumped on Sa‘d b. 'Ubada and someone said that we had killed him.
I said, ‘God kill him.'

Al-Zuhrl said that 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr told him that one of the two
men whom they met on the way to the hall was 'Uwaym b. Sa'ida and the
other was Man b. *Adiy, brother of B. al-'Ajlan. Concerning 'Uwaym we
have heard that when the apostle was asked who were those of whom God
said ‘In it are men who love to purify themselves and God loves those who
purify themselves’, 2 the apostle said that the best man of them was Uw'aym
b. Sa'ida. As to Man, we have heard that when mdn wept over the apostle’s
death and said that they wished that they had died before him because
they feared that they would split up into factions, he said that he did not
1017 want to die before him so that he could bear witness to his truth when he
was dead as he had done when he was alive. Man was killed on the day
of al-Yamama as a martyr in the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the day of
Musaylima the arch-liar.

Al-Zuhrl told me on the authority of Anas b. Malik: On the morrow of
Abu Bakr’s acceptance in the hall he sat in the pulpit and ‘Umar got up
and spoke before him, and after praising God as was meet he said, ‘O
T- 1828 men, yesterday I said something (T. based on my own opinion and)
which I do not find in God’s book nor was it something which the apostle
entrusted to me; but I thought that the apostle would order our affairs
(T. until) he was the last of us (alive). God has left His book with you,

passage is of great importance in that it shows how the Emigrants were then the dominating
party and henceforth the Ansar would have to take a subordinate place.

1 i.e. a man who can cure people’s ills and is held in high esteem because of his great ex¬
perience. 2 Sura 9. 109,

The Life of Muhammad 687

that by which He guided His apostle, and if you hold fast to that God will
guide you as He guided him. God has placed your affairs in the hands of
the best one among you, the companion of the apostle, “the second of the
two when they were in the cave”, 1 so arise and swear fealty to him.’
Thereupon the people swore fealty to Abu Bakr as a body after the pledge
in the hall.

Abu Bakr said after praising God: ‘I have been given authority over you
but I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me, and if I do ill, then put
me right. Truth consists in loyalty and falsehood in treachery. The weak
among you shall be strong in my eyes until I secure his right if God will;
and the strong among you shall be weak in my eyes until I wrest the right
from him. If a people refrain from fighting in the way of God, God will
smite them with disgrace. Wickedness is never widespread in a people
but God brings calamity upon them all. Obey me as long as I obey God
and His apostle, and if I disobey them you owe me no obedience. Arise
to prayer. God have mercy on you.’

Husayn b. ‘Abdullah told me from Tkrima from Ibn ‘Abbas who said:
‘When 'Umar was caliph I was walking with him while he was intent on 1018
business of his. We were alone and he had a whip in his Hand, and as he
talked to himself he swished the side of his legs with his whip. As he
turned to me he asked me if I knew what induced him to speak as he did
when the apostle died. I said that only he could know that, and he w^ent on;

“It was because I used to read ‘thus we have made you a middle people
that you may be witnesses against men and that the apostle may be a
witness against you,’ 2 and by God I thought that the apostle would remain
among his people until he could witness against them as to the last things
they did. That was what induced me to say what I did.” ’

THE BURIAL PREPARATIONS

When fealty had been sworn to Abu Bakr men came to prepare the apostle
for burial on the Tuesday. ‘Abdullah b. Abu Bakr and Husayn b. 'Abdullah
and others of our companions told me that 'All and ‘Abbas and his sons
al-Fadl and Qutham, and Usama b. Zayd, and Shuqran freedman of the
apostle were those who took charge of the washing of him; and that Aus
b. KhaulT, one of B. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj, said, ‘I adjure you by God, 'All, and
by our share in the apostle.’ 3 Aus w'as one of the apostle’s companions who
had been at Badr. ‘AH gave him permission to enter and he came in and
sat down and was present at the washing of the apostle. ‘All drew him
on to his breast and 'Abbas and al-Fadl and Qutham turned him over
along with him. Usama and Shuqran poured the water over him, while
'All washed him, having drawn him towards his breast. He still wore his
shirt with which he rubbed him from the outside without touching the

1 Sura 9. 40.

3 sc. ‘that you will let me take part’ or some such apodosis.

Sura 2. 137.

688

The Life of Muhammad

1019 apostle’s body with his hand the while he said, ‘Dearer than my father
and my mother, how sweet you are alive and dead!’ The apostle’s body
did not present the appearance of an ordinary corpse.

Yahya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father 'Abbad
from 'A’isha: When they wanted to wash the apostle dispute arose. They
did not know whether they were to strip him of his clothes as they stripped
their dead or to wash him with his clothes on. As they disputed God cast
a deep sleep upon them so that every man’s chin was sunk on his chest.
Then a voice came from the direction of the house, none knowing who it
was: ‘Wash the apostle with his clothes on.’ So they got up and went
to the apostle and washed him with his shirt on, pouring water on the
T- 1831 shirt, and rubbing him with the shirt between him and them (T. 'A’isha
used to say, ‘Had I known at the beginning of my affair what I knew at the
end of it none but his wives would have washed him’).

Ja'far b. Muhammad b. 'All b. al-Husayn from his father from his
grandfather 'All b. al-Husayn, and al-Zuhrl from 'All b. al-Husayn, said
that when the apostle had been washed he was wrapped in three garments,
two of Suhar make 1 and a striped mantle wrapped the one over the other.

Husayn b. 'Abdullah told me from Tkrima from Ibn 'Abbas: Now
Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah used to open the ground as the Meccans dig,
and Abu Talha Zayd b. Sahl used to dig graves for the Medinans and to
make a niche in them and when they wanted to bury the apostle al-'Abbas
called two men and told one to go to Abu ‘Ubayda and the other to Abu
Talha saying, ‘O God, choose for (T. thy) the apostle.’ The one sent to
Abu Talha found his man and brought him and he dug the grave with the
niche for the apostle. 2

When the preparations for burial had been completed on the Tuesday
he was laid upon his bed in his house. The Muslims had disputed over the
place of burial. Some were in favour of burying him in his mosque, while
others wanted to bury him with his companions. Abu Bakr said, ‘I heard
the apostle say, “No prophet dies but he is buried where he died”’; so

1020 the bed on which he died was taken up and they made a grave beneath it.
Then the people came to visit the apostle praying over him by companies:
first came the men, then the women, then the children (T. then the
slaves). No man acted as imam in the prayers over the apostle. The
apostle was buried in the middle of the night of the Wednesday.

'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me from his wife Fatima d. (T. Muhammad
b.) 'Umara from 'Amra d. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Sa'd b. Zurara that 'A’isha
said: We knew nothing about the burial of the apostle until we heard the
sound of the pickaxes in the middle of the Wednesday night. Ibn Ishaq
said: Fatima told me this tradition.

Those who descended into the grave were 'All and al-Fadl and Qutham

1 There are two towns of this name, one in the Yaman and the other in al-Yamama in B.
Tamim territory.

2 All Muslim graves contain this niche or recess.

Ihe Life of Muhammad

the sons of Abbas, and Shuqran. Aus implored 'All in the name of God
and his share in the apostle to let him descend, and he let him go with the
others When the apostle was laid in his grave and the earth was laid over
him Shuqran his freedman took a garment which the apostle used to wear
and use as a rug and buried (T. cast) it in the grave saying, ‘By God, none
shall ever wear it after you,’ so it was buried with the apostle.

Al-Mughira b. Shu'ba used to claim that he was the last man to be with
the apostle. He used to say, ‘I took my ring and let it fall into the grave
and said, My ring has dropped. But I threw it in purposely that I might
touch the apostle and be the last man to be with him.’

My father Ishaq b. Yasar told me from Miqsam, freedman of 'Abdullah
b. al-Harith b. Naufal, from his freedman ‘Abdullah b. al-Harith; I went
on the little pilgrimage with 'All in the time of 'Umar or 'Uthman and he 1021
visited his sister Umm Hani’ d. Abu Talib. When he had finished his
pilgrimage (T. I poured out) ablution water was poured out for him and he
washed. When he had finished some Iraqis came in saying that they had
come to ask him about a matter on which they would like him to give them
some information. He said, ‘I suppose that al-Mughlra tells you that he was
the last person to be with the apostle?’ When they said that that was so,
he said, ‘He lies. The last man to be with the apostle was Qutham b!
'Abbas.’

?ahh b. Kaysan told me from al-Zuhrl from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdullah
b. Ltba that A isha told him: The apostle wore a black cloak when he
suffered severe pain. Sometimes he w'ould put it over his face, at others he
would take it off, saying the while, ‘God slay a people w'ho choose the graves
of their prophets as mosques,’ warning his community against such a
practice.

On the same authority I was told that the last injunction the apostle
gave was in his words ‘Let not two religions be left in the Arabian peninsula.’

(T. The apostle died on the 12th Rabl'u-I-awwal on the very day that he T- 1834
came to Medina as an emigrant, having completed exactly twelve years
m his migration.) When the apostle was dead the Muslims were sore
stricken. I have heard that A’isha used to say, ‘When the apostle died the
Arabs apostatized and Christianity and Judaism raised their heads and
disaffection appeared. The Muslims became as sheep exposed to rain on a
winter’s night through the loss of their prophet until God united them
under Abu Bakr’ (920).

Hassan said mourning the apostle: IQ25

Tell the poor that plenty has left them
W ith the prophet who departed from them this morning.

Who w r as it who has a saddle and a camel for me,

My family’s sustenance when rain fails ?

Or with whom can we argue without anxiety
W'hen the tongue runs away with a man ?

Yy

B 4080

690 The Life of Muhammad

He was the light and the brilliance we followed.

He was sight and hearing second only to God.

The day they laid him in the grave

And cast the earth upon him

Would that God had not left one of us

And neither man nor woman had survived him!

The BanuTNajjar were utterly abased,

But it was a thing decreed by God.

The booty was divided to the exclusion of all the people
And they scattered it openly and uselessly among themselves. 1

1026 Hassan also said:

I swear that no man is more careful than I
In swearing an oath true and without falsehood.

By God, no woman has conceived and given birth

To one like the apostle the prophet and guide of his people;

Nor has God created among his creatures
One more faithful to his sojourner or his promise
Than he who was the source of our light,

Blessed in his deeds, just, and upright.

Your wives stripped the tents in mourning
And did hot strike the pegs behind the curtains.

Like nuns they put on garments of hair
Certain of misery after happiness.

O best of men, I was as it were in a river

Without which I have become lonely in my thirst (921).

1 Apparently ‘the people’ are the Ansar and ‘they’ are the Quraysh. The connexion of
this line with the preceding is obscure. This and the following poem come via 1 . 1 .

IBN HISHAM’S NOTES

1. What I have just written about the prophet’s genealogy back to Adam
   and about Idris and others I was told by Zivad b. 'Abdullah al-Bakka’I on
   the authority of Muhammad b. Ishaq.

Khallad b. Qurra b. Khalid al-SadusI on the authority of Shayban b.
Zuhayr b. Shaqlq from Qatada b. Di'ama gave a slightly different version
from Ismail upwards, namely: Asragh-Arghu-Falikh-'Abir and (later)
Mahla’ll b. Qayin b. Anush.

God willing I shall begin this book with Isma’il son of Ibrahim and men¬
tion those of his offspring who were the ancestors of God’s apostle one by one
with what is known about them, taking no account of Isma’ll’s other children,
for the sake of brevity, confining myself to the prophet’s biography and
omitting some of the things which 1.1. has recorded in this book in which
there is no mention of the apostle and about which the Quran says nothing
and which are not relevant to anything in this book or an explanation of it or
evidence for it; poems which he quotes that no authority on poetry whom I
have met knows of; things which it is disgraceful to discuss; matters which
would distress certain people; and such reports as al-Bakka’I told me he
could not accept as trustworthy—all these things I have omitted. But God
willing I shall give a full account of everything else so far as it is known and
trustworthy tradition is available.

1. Some say Midad. Jurhum was the son of Qahtan from whom all the
   people of the Yaman are descended, the son of 'Abir b. Shalikh h. Arfakh-
   shadh b. Sam b. Nuh.

2. The Arabs say Hajar and Ajar, changing the h into a as in the verb
   haraqa and araqa ‘to pour out’. Hajar was an Egyptian. 'Abdullah b.
   Wahb from 'Abdullah b. Lahl'a on the authority of Umar client of Ghufra
   told me that the apostle said: ‘Show piety in dealing with the protected
   peoples, those of the settled lands, the black, the crinkly haired, for they
   have a noble ancestor and marriage ties (with us).’ The said Umar explained
   that by ancestry the prophet referred to the fact that the prophet Isma’il’s
   mother came from them, and the marriage tie was contracted when the apostle
   took one of them as concubine.

I bn Lahia said: Isma’H’s mother Hagar, the mother of the Arabs, 1 came
from a town in Egypt facing Farama; 2 and Ibrahim’s mother Maria, the
prophet’s concubine whom the Muqauqis gave him, came from Hafn 3 in
the province of Angina.

1. All the Arabs are descended from Isma’il and Qahtan. Some of the
   people of the Yaman claim that Qahtan was a son of Isma il and so according
   to them Isma’il is the father of all the Arabs.

1 The text (both W, and C.) has ‘came from Umm al-'Arab’, but I have followed the
reading of W.’s MS. D. Yaq. i, 356, who agrees with W. and C., adds: ‘Others say Umm
al-'Arik; and it is said that she came from a town called Yaq near Umm Dunavn.’

2 Said to he the ancient Pelusium.

3 In the Sa'id on the east bank of the Nile.

692 The Life of Muhammad

1. 'Akk dwelt in the Yaman because he took a wife among the Ash'arites
   and lived with them and adopted their language. The Ash'arites are
   descended from Ash r ar b. Nabt b. Udad b. Zayd b. Humaysa' b. 'Amr b.
   'Arib b. Yashjub b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’ b. Yashjub b- Ya r rub b.
   Qahtan. Others say Ash'ar is Nabt b. Udad; or that Ash'ar was the son
   of Malik who was Madhhij b. Udad b. Zayd b. Humaysa'; or Ash'ar is the
   son of Saba’ b. Yashjub.

Abu Muhriz Khalaf al-Ahmar and Abu 'Ubayda quoted to me the follow¬
ing verse of 'Abbas b. Mirdas who belonged to B. Sulaym b. Mansur b.
Tkrima b. Kha$afa b. Qays b. 'Aylan b. Mudar b. Nizar b, Ma'add b.
'Adnan in which he boasted of his descent from 'Akk:

And 'Akk b. 'Adnan who made a mock of 1 Ghassan
Until they were driven out completely.

Ghassan is the name of the water got from the dam at Marib 2 in the Yaman
which was drunk by the descendants of Mazin b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth and
they were named after it. Others say that Ghassan is the name of water at
al-Mushallal near al-Juhfa, 3 and those who drink of it and take their name
from it are the tribes descended from Mazin b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth b. Nabt
b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’ b. Yashjub b. Ya'rub b. Qahtan. Among
the verses of Hassan b. Thabit al-Ansari—the An?ar being the tribes of Aus
and Khazraj, the two sons of Haritha b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. 'Amir b. Haritha
b. Imru’ul-Qays b. Tha'laba b. Mazin b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth—is this:.

If you ask about us we are a noble people.

Al-Asd is our forefather and Ghassan our water.

The Yamanites and some of the 'Akk who live in Khurasan report their
descent from 'Akk b. 'Adnan b. 'Abdullah b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth. Others say
'Udthan in the place of 'Adnan.

1. The Yamanites say Quda'a was the son of Malik b. Himyar. 'Amr b.
   Murra al-Juhanl—Juhayna b. Zayd b. Layth b. Sud b. Aslam b. al-Haf b.
   Qudaa—said:

Sons of the noble renowned shakyh w'e are,

Quda'a son of Malik son of Himyar.

Our descent is famous and undisputed,

It is engraved on stone beneath the pulpit. 4

1. The name is also written Qana§.

2. Lakhm was the son of 'Adiy b. al-Harith b. Murra b. Udad b. Zayd b.
   Humaysa' b. 'Amr b. 'Arlb b. Yashjub b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’. Others
   say of 'Adiy b. 'Amr b. Saba’. According to others Rabl'a b. Na§r b. Abu
   Haritha b. 'Amr b. 'Amir. He remained behind in the Yaman after 'Amr b.
   'Amir’s migration thence.

1 A reading talaqqahu ‘got the name of’ yields a better sense.

2 Or Ma’rib here and hereunder.

3 Mushallal is a mountain near Medina. Al-Juhfa lies on the Medina-Mecca road.

4 The second hemistich is missing in W.’s edition and the first is taken as a chapter¬
heading. Yaqut describes Juhfa as the ruin of an old city that once was of considerable size
possessing a pulpit.

Ibn His ham's Notes 693

HOW AMR B. AMIR LEFT THE YAMAN AND THE STORY OF
THE DAM OF MARIB

The cause of 'Arm’s migration from the Yaman as it was told me by Abu
Zayd al-An^art is as follows: 'Amr saw a rat burrowing in the dam at
Marib where they used to hold back the water and then direct it where it was
most needed. He perceived that the dam could not last and he determined
to leave the Yaman. He proposed to deceive his people in this wise. He
ordered his youngest son to get up and hit him in retaliation for his rough
treatment; and when he did so 'Amr said publicly that he would not go on
living in a land where the youngest son could slap his father’s face. He offered
his goods for sale and the principal men of the Yaman took advantage, as
they thought, of his rage, and bought his property, and he went off with his
sons and grandchildren. The Azdites said that they would not remain if
'Amr left the country so they sold their property and went with him. They
travelled until they came to the land of the 'Akk tribe which they penetrated,
desiring to find settlements. 'Akk took up arms against them, but the fighting
w r as indecisive. It was of this that Abbas b, Mirdas composed the verse on
p. 6. After this they moved on and went their several ways in the lands.
The family of Jafna b. 'Amr b. 'Amir settled in Syria; Aus and Khazraj in
Yathrib; Khuza'a in Marr; 1 Azd al-Sarat in Al-Sarat 2 and Azd 'Uman in
'Uman.

Then God sent a torrent against the dam and destroyed it. Concerning
this event God revealed to his prophet Muhammad: ‘Saba’ in their dwelling-
place had a sign: two gardens one to the right and another to the left; (they
were commanded) Eat from what your Lord has furnished and be grateful
to Him. It is a goodly land and a forgiving Lord. But they turned away and
We sent against them the torrent of al-'Arim.’ 3 This latter word means ‘dams’;
its singular is ' arima according to what Abu 'Ubayda told me.

Al-A'sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba b. 'Ukaba b. Sa'b b. 'Aly b. Bakr b.
Wa’il b. Hinb b. Afsa b. Jadila b. Asad b. Rabl'a b. Nizar b. Ma'add.
(Others say Afsa b. Du'mi b. Jadila.) AI-A'sha’ (Maymun b. Qays b. Jandal
b. Sharahil b. 'Auf b. Sa'd b. Dubay'a b. Qays b. Tha'laba) wrote the
following lines:

Herein is a moral for him who looks for it.

The dams (that were breached) destroyed Marib.

(Himyar had built them of marble for them.

When the floods rose high they stood fast.

When their water was sent out in channels

It watered the crops and the vines).

Then they became wanderers unable

To give drink to their tender babes. 4

2 ^ arr ’ ca ^ e d Marr al-Zaharan (and Marr Zaharan), is a day’s journey from Mecca.

Said to be a mountain overlooking 'Arafa. See further Yaqut, Mu jam.

3 Sura 34. 14.

4 This poem occurs in several rival forms in Hamdani's Iklil, viii, ed. D. H. Miiller in

’h Vie r nna ’ l8Sl ’ VoL xcvil > P- I0 37 - Yaqut, Mu jam al-Bulddn, iv, 387, and the
Mbb. ot Ibn Hisham differ considerably. I have followed the text of the Cairo edition
which agrees with Wustenfeld’s text. A better text with full critical notes is Gedichte von
Abu Basir Maymun ibn Qais al-A'shd . . . ed. Rudolf Geyer (Gibb Memorial Trustees),
-London, 1928, p. 34.

694 The Life of Muhammad

Umayva b. Abu al-Salt the Thaqafite—the name of Thaqif is Qasiy b.
Munabbih b. Bakr b. Hawazin b. Mansur b. 'Ikrirna b. Khasafa b. Qays b.
'Aylan b. Mudar b. Nizar b. Ma'add b. 'Adnan—recited:

From Saba’ who dwelt in Marib when
They built dams against its torrent.

This verse occurs in a poem of his, but it is also attributed to al-Nabigah
al-Ja'dl whose name was Qays b. 'Abdullah, one of B. Ja'da b. Ka'b b.
Rabfa b. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a b. Mu'awiya b. Bakr b. Hawazin. But this is a
long story w'hich I am compelled to cut short for the reasons I have already
given. 1

T 909 (Before that a soothsayer Shaft' b. Kulayb al-Sadafl had come to Tubba'
and lived with him and when he wished to bid him farewell Tubba' asked
him whether he had anything of importance to communicate, and in the
customary rhymes of saj ' he told him in reply to the question whether any
king would fight with Tubba', ‘No, but the king of Ghassan had a son whose
kingdom would be surpassed by a man of great piety, helped by the Almighty,
described in the psalms; his people would be favoured by revelation, he
would dispel darkness by light, Ahmad the prophet. How blessed his people
when he comes, one of the sons of Lu’ayy of B. Qusayy!’ Tubba' sent for a
copy of the psalms, examined them, and found the description of the prophet.

Ibn Ishaq gleaned and assembled the following traditions from what
Sa'Id b. Jubayr told him from I. 'Abbas and some learned Yaman! tradi-
tionist: A Lakhmid king was in Yaman in the territory of the Tubba's
of Himyar called Rabfa b. Nasr. Before him there had reigned in the
Yaman Tubba' I, Zayd b. Sahl. 2 With him came Shamir Yur'ish b. Yasir
Yun'im b. 'Amr Dhu’l-Adh'ar his cousin and Shamir Yur'ish who raided
China and built Samarqand and discomfited al-Hlra. 3 He it was who said:

I am Shamir Abu Karib al-YamanI.

I imported horses from Yaman and Syria

That I might send the slaves who rebelled against us

In 'Athm and Yam beyond China. 4

We rule in their land by a just law

That no creature can transgress.)

1. The Yamanites and Bajlla say the B. Anmar b. Irash b. Lihyan b. 'Amr
   b. al-Ghauth b. Nabt b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’. Another version
   is Irash b. 'Amr b. Lihyan b. al-Ghauth. The home of the Bajlla and Khath'am
   is the Yaman.

2. amd means ‘doubt’ in the Himyarl tongue. Abu 'Amr said it meant
   ‘false’. ’

3. According to Khalaf al-Ahmar his name was al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir
   b. al-Mundhir.

4. Some say al-Ra’ish.

1 As I.H. has obviously cut out much of what 1 . 1 . had written and so the following
extract from Tabari's version of I,I. is left in the air, I have included it here.

1 Here follows his genealogy which is given by I,I. when he deals with Abu Karib.

3 A poor pun.

4 Yam is in the Yaman. The name 'Athm is unknown and the reading is not certain.

Ibn Hishams Notes

695

1. The order should be Yashjub b. Ya'rub b. Qahfan.

2. Of him it was said:

Would that it were my lot to get from Abu Karib
The exclusion of his evil by the good he has!

1. 'Amr b. Talla was 'Amr b. Mu'awiya b. ’Amr b. 'Amir b. Malik b.
   al-Najjar; Talla, his mother, was d. 'Amir b. Zurayq b. 'Abdu Haritha b.
   Malik b. Ghadb b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj.

2. The poem in which this line occurs is a later invention and therefore
   we have not recorded it.

3. The rhyming words are not inflected.

4. In Bahrayn according to w r hat a scholar told me.

5. Another reading is libabi libabi.

6. Nakhmas is a Himyarl word meaning ‘head’.

7. Ukhdud means a long trench such as a ditch or a brook and so on. The
   plural is akhadid. Dhu’l-Rumma whose name was Ghaylan b. 'Uqba, one
   of B. 'Adiy b. 'Abdu Manaf b. Udd b. Tabikha b. Ilyas b. Mudar, uses the
   word in one of his odes:

From the 'Iraqi land which an ukhdud waters
Between the desert and the palm.

Here the word means a canal. The mark of a sword or a knife in the skin is
called ukhdud and so is the weal from the cut of a whip,

1. His mother was al-Dhi’ba and his name was Rabfa b. 'Abdu Yalil b.
   Salim b. Malik b. Hutayt b. Jusham b. Qasiy.

2. Zubayd b. Salama b. Mazin b. Munabbih b. $a'b b. Sa'd al-'Ashlra
   b. Madhhij; others say Zubayd b. Munabbih b. $a'b b. Sa'd al-'Ashlra; or
   Zubayd b. §a'b; and Murad is Yuhabir b. Madhhij. Abu 'Ubayda told me
   the following: 'Umar b. al-Khattab wrote to Salman b. Rabfa al-Bahili—
   Bahila being the son of Ya'sur b. Sa'd b. Qays b. 'Aylan—when he was in
   Armenia ordering him to show preference to those who possessed pure
   Arab horses, as against those who owned mixed breeds, when distributing
   spoils. Accordingly he mustered the cavalry and as he passed by 'Amr b.
   Ma'dI Karib’s horse he said: ‘This horse of yours is of mixed breed.’
   'Amr was furious and said: ‘A mongrel knows a mongrel like himself!’
   Qays sprang at him and threatened him, whereupon 'Amr recited the
   verses just quoted.

This is what Satih the soothsayer meant when he said (v.s.):

The Ethiopians on your land shall bear
Ruling from Abyan to Jurash everywhere.

And what Shiqq the soothsayer meant when he said:

The blacks on your land shall bear,

Pluck your little ones from your care,

Ruling from Abyan to Najran everywhere.

696 The Life of Muhammad

1. The expression liyuivatiu. means ‘make to coincide’ and muwdtd a
   means ‘agreement’. The Arabs say zvata tuka 'ala hadhal-amr, meaning
   ‘I agree with you in that’.

ltd in poetry means ‘coincidence’, i.e. the repetition of the same rhyming
word with the same form, as in the lines of al-'Ajjaj whose full name was
'Abdullah b. Ru’ba, one of the B. Sa'd b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim b. Murr b.
Udd b. Tabikha b. Ilyas b. Mudar b. Nizar.

In the current of the water-wheel set free ( mursal )

The stream rises in the stream set free {mursal).

1. The first of the sacred months is al-Muharram.

2. i.e. he defecated in it.

3. qitt is a document, cf. Sura 38. 15 ‘Bring us our written fate quickly’.
   [This comment is omitted in C., but it certainly belongs to the text because

A. Dh. in his commentary explicitly refers to it.]

1. Thaqlf is Qasly b. Munabbih b. Bakr b. Hawazin b. Tkrima b. Khasafa
   b. Qays b. 'Aylan b. Mudar b. Nizar b. Ma'add b. 'Adnan.

2. Abu 'Ubayda the grammarian quoted to me the verses of Dirar b.
   al-Khattab al-Fihrl:

Thaqlf fled to their Lat temple
Returning frustrated utterly hopeless.

Cf. Sura 3. 132.

1. Al-Waqidi added:

If you are going to abandon them and our place of prayer, then some¬
thing (we do not understand) seemeth best to Thee.

This is as far as the genuine text goes.

1. This is as far as the genuine text goes. Tamdtim means ‘barbarians’.

2. The words ‘not the conqueror’ do not come from 1 . 1 .

3. Ababll means ‘flocks’; so far as we know the Arabs do not use the noun
   in the singular. As to al-sijjil Yunus the grammarian and Abu 'Ubayda told
   me that among the Arabs it means strong and hard. Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj
   said:

They were smitten as the owners of the elephant were smitten.

Stones of sijjtl fell upon them

And birds, Ababll, sported w'ith them.

These words occur in one of his rajaz poems. Some commentators say that
sijjtl is really two Persian words which the Arabs have made into one,
namely sanj and jill sanj means stone and jill means clay, and so a pebble
made of stone and clay. 'Asf means leaves (or shoots) of herbage which have
not been cut; its singular is 'asfa. Abu 'Ubayda told me it is also called
'usafa and 'asifa. He quoted to me the lines of 'Alqama b. 'Abada, one of

B. Rabi'a b. Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim:

It waters torrents whose herbage droops.

The bed of the stream is raised by the rush of water.

Ibn Hi sham’s Notes 697

These words occur in one of his odes. The rajaz poet says:

And they were made as blades of corn that have been devoured.

An explanation of the idiom employed here is to be found in w'orks on
grammar.

The words Ildfu Quraysh mean ‘their assembling the party to go to
Syria for trade’. They had two expeditions; one in winter and one in summer.
Abu Zayd al-Ansari told me that the Arabs use the first and fourth forms of
’alaf in the same sense and he quoted to me the words of Dhu 1 -Rumma:

Of the sand-dwellers are the tawny-backed white-bellied (gazelles)

In whose colouring the rays of the sun become clearly seen.

[This man was Sa'id b. Aus b. Thabit. Cf. ^aq. 4 > P- 2 35 -l
Matrud b. Ka'b al-Khuza'i said:

Who are generous when the stars fail to bring rain
And who set out upon their accustomed w^ay.

I shall mention this and other verses of his later on if God will. Ilaf is also
used of a man who has a thousand camels, cattle, or sheep, or other posses¬
sions. In one of his odes al-Kumayt b. Zayd, one of B. Asd b. Khuzayma
b. Mudrika b. Ilyas b. Mudar b. Nizar b. Ma add, said:

In a year of which the owner of a thousand camels says
This makes the man who longs for milk walk on foot.

Ildf is also used when a people become a thousand in number. In one of his
odes al-Kumayt b. Zayd said:

The family of Muzayqiya’ on the morn they met
The Banu Sa'd b. Dabba were a thousand strong.

Ildf also means the joining of one thing to another so that it adheres and
sticks to it. It also means to complete the thousand.

1. Sayfi b. al-Aslat b. Jusham b. Wa’il b. Zayd b. Qays b. 'Amira b. Marra
   b. Malik b. al-Aus.

2. This ode is also attributed to Umayya b. Abu’l-Salt.

3. Abu Zayd al-Ansari quoted me his words ‘Upon the passes’, &c., which
   occur in an ode of Abu Qays which I shall refer to later, God willing. The
   kunya Abu Yaksum applies to Abraha.

4. These lines of his occur in an ode on the Battle of Badr which I shall
   refer to later, God willing.

5. The lines are ascribed to Umayya b. Abu’l-Salt b. Abu Rabi'a al-
   Thaqafl.

6. Al-Farazdaq—his name was Hammam b. Ghalib, one of B. Mujashi'
   b. Darim b. Malik b. Hanzala b. Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim—-
   eulogizing Sulayman b. 'Abdu’l-Malik b. Marwan and satirizing al-Hajjaj 4 *
   b, Yusuf and mentioning the elephant and his army, said:

When al-Hajjaj’s presumption led him to excess
He said ‘I will mount to the skies’ 1
1 Literally, ‘on ladders’. Cf. Bevan’s editiori, Leiden, 1905-7, p. 348f,

698 The Life of Muhammad

As Noah’s son said ‘I will climb
A lofty mountain to escape the waters.’

God smote him 1 in his body as he smote
In defence of His holy Temple
The armies leading the elephant until
He turned them to dust haughty as they were.

May you be preserved as the temple was when

The leader of the foreign polytheists brought his elephant!

'Abdullah b. Qays al-Ruqayyat, one of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib
mentioning Abraha the split-nosed and his elephant, said:

Split-nose bringing his elephant drew near
But retreated, his army overthrown;

Birds with pebbles hovered over them

So that they were as though they had been stoned.

Whosoever shall attack it will withdraw
Defeated and covered with shame.

1. Abu 'Ubayda told me that when Sayf. b. Dhu Yazan entered his pre¬
   sence he bow r ed his head and the king said: ‘Does this fool come in to me
   by a high door and then bow his head ?’ When Sayf w'as told of this he said:
   ‘1 did this only because of my anxiety', for everything presses on me!’

2. Khallad b. Qurra al-SadusI quoted to me the last of these verses as
   coming from an ode of A'sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba, but other authorities
   on poetry' deny that he wrote it. 2

3. Others say Umayya b. Abu’l-$alt.

4. These lines which Ibn Ishaq reported are genuine except the last verse
   which belongs to al-Nabigha al-Ja'di w r hose name was Hibban b. 'Abdullah
   b. Qays, one of B. Ja'da b. Ka'b b. Rabi'a b. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a b. Mu'awiya b.
   Bakr b. Hawazin.

5. i.e. one of the sons of Jmru’u’l-Qays b. Zayd Manat b. Tarnim, or as
   others say, 'Adiy one of the 'Ibad of al-Hlra.

6. Abu Zayd al-An$ari quoted to me the verse ‘The day that the barbarians,
   &c.’ as from al-Mufaddal al-Dabbl.

This is w r hat Satlh meant when he said that Iram b. Dhu Yazan w r ould
come against them from Aden and not leave one of them in the Yaman;
and it is what Shiqq meant by his w'ords:

‘A young man neither remiss nor base
Coming against them from Dhu Yazan’s house.’

1. When Wahriz died, Chosroes appointed his son al-Marzuban ruler
   of the Yaman. When Marzuban died, Chosroes appointed his son al-
   Taynujan 3 ruler over the Yaman, and when he died he appointed his son,

1 Or, ‘May God smite him’, &c.

2 Nevertheless the reader will find it on p. 205 of Geyer’s edition of al-A'sha’s Ditvdn
cited above.

3 Probably an error for Baynujan. See Noldeke’s footnote ( d) t ’J'ab. 958.

Ibn Hisham s Notes 699

afterwards deposing him and appointing Badhan. This man continued in
office until God sent Muhammed the prophet.

I was told on the authority of al-Zuhrl that he said that Chosroes wrote to
Badhan the following letter:

‘I have been told that a man of the Quraysh has come forth in Mecca

asserting that he is a prophet. Go to him and invite him to withdraw.

If he withdraws, well and good, if not, send his head to me.’

Badhan sent Chosroes’ letter to the apostle of God, who replied, ‘God has
promised me that Chosroes will be killed on such-and-such a date.’ Now
when Badhan got this letter he waited to see what would happen, saying that
if he were a prophet, what he said would come to pass. God killed Chosroes
on the day which the prophet had named. He was killed by his son Shirawayh.
Khalid b. Hiqq al-Shaybanl said:

And Chosroes, when his sons cut him in pieces
With swords as the butcher cuts up joints,

The fates were hatching an evil day for him.

It came, for every child must come to the birth.

Al-Zuhrl said: When the news reached Badhan, he sent word to the apostle
of God that he and the Persians with him accepted Islam. His messengers
said to the apostle of God, ‘To whom db we belong?’ He replied, ‘You are
of us and related to us, the people of the house.’

I have been told that al-Zuhri said, It was then the apostle of God said,
‘Salman is of us, the people of the house.’

This is what Satih meant when he said: ‘A pure prophet to whom revela¬
tion will come from on high’, and w'hat Shiqq meant when he said: (his
kingdom) would be ended by an apostle who would bring truth and justice
from 1 a people of religion and virtue. Dominion shall rest among his people
until the Day of Separation.

1. Dhimar should be spelt Dhamar according to what Yunus told me.

2. THE STORY OF THE KING OF AL-HADR

Khallad b. Qurra b. Khalid al-SadusI on the authority' of Jannad, or of
one of the learned genealogists in al-Kufa, told me that al-Nu'man b. al-
Mundhir was descended from Satirun 2 king of al-Hadr, a great fortress built
like a town on the bank of the Euphrates. It is he to whom 'Adiy b. Zayd
refers in his lines:

When the master of al-Hadr built it

When the Tigris and Khabur w'ere brought to it 3

He constructed it of marble and plastered it with gypsum,

Birds nested in its roof.

Yet the fates did not respect it.

Its lordship departed, its gate is forsaken.

1 On p. 6 bayn for min here.

2 According to Noldeke, Gesch. d. Perser u. Araber , p. 33, al-Radr was in ruins by 363
and so Shapur (II) cannot have been its destroyer. The point is made by the Cairo editors
of Ibn Hisham.

3 I.e. the income arising from the land they watered.

yoo The Life of Muhammad

He it is to whom Abu Duwad al-Iyadi refers in his line:

I saw that death had descended from al-Hadr,

Upon al-Satirun lord of its people.

This verse occurs in one of his odes, but it is also attributed to Khalaf
al-Ahmar; others say to Hammad the reciter.

Now Chosroes Sabur Dhu’l-Aktaf 1 had attacked Satirun, king of al-Hadr,
and besieged the town for two years. One day the latter’s daughter, looking
down from the castle, had seen Sabur in his silk brocade with his golden
crown inset with topazes, rubies, and pearls on his head, a fine figure of a
man, and she sent secretly to ask him if he would marry her if she opened
the gate to him. He agreed to do so. Night came and Satirun became drunk,
for he never went to bed sober. She took the keys of the castle from beneath
his head and sent them with one of her freedmen who opened the gate and
Sabur came in and killed Satirun and gave al-Hadr to the soldiery and
destroyed it. He took away the girl and married her.

At night as she was sleeping upon her bed she began to toss about restlessly
and could not sleep, so he called for a lamp and the bed was searched and a
myrtle leaf was found in it. Sabur asked if that was the cause of her waking,
and when she said that it was, he asked how her father had brought her up.
She answered that he had given her a bed of brocade, clothed her in silk,
fed her on marrow, and given her wine to drink. ‘If this is the way you
reward your father you will soon betray me,’ he said, and ordered that her
hair should be tied to a horse’s tail; the horse galloped away with her until
she was killed. Here are some lines of A"sha of B. Qays b. Tha'Iaba:

Have you thought of al-Hadr when its people prospered,

But does prosperity ever endure ?

For two years Shahbur kept his armies there
Smiting it with axes.

When he prayed to his Lord

He turned to him and took no vengeance. 2

Here are some lines of ‘Adiy b. Zayd on the subject:

Fate descended on al-Hadr from above,

A grievous disaster.

A spoilt darling did not protect her father

When her watchman gave up hope because of her treachery 3

When she made his evening cup of unmixed wine

(For w-ine destroys the mind of the drinker).

She betrayed her people for a night of love,

Thinking that the prince would marry her.

1 He of the shoulders.

2 A poor sense. Evidently Abu Dharr was not satisfied as he adds to his gloss the phrase
which refers difficulties to the divine omniscience.

3 This line has given much trouble to commentators. The first word can be read as
rabt'a, meaning ‘watcher’, and would then refer to the girl looking down from the wall.
Likhabbihcl, the reading adopted above, is taken from the variant given by the Cairo editors
in place of the lihaymhn of their and W.’s text. Mas'udi, Afuruju’l-Dhakab , iv. 86, has
lihubbiha. However, lihaynihd ‘to her own destruction’ is the reading first given by Abu
Dharr and ‘to her own destruction’ yields a good sense.

I bn Hishdm’s Notes 701

But the bride’s lot was that at the light of dawn
Her locks ran red with blood.

Al-Hadr was destroyed and given up to plunder.

The clothes-racks of her chamber did not escape the fire.

1. Also Iyad, as the following verse from one of the poems of al-Harith
   b. Daus al-Iyadi shows. (It is also attributed to Abu Duwad al-Ivadi whose
   name was Jariya b. al-Hajjaj)’

Young men handsome in face
Of Iyad b. Nizar b. Ma"add.

The mother of Mudar and Iyad was Sauda d. "Akk b. "Adnan. The mother
of Rabfa and Anmar was Shuqayqa, another of his daughters; others say it
was a third daughter named JurcTa.

1. The Yamanites and Bajila say Anmar is the son of Irash b. Lihyan b.
   r Amr b. al-Ghauth b. Nabt b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’. Others
   say Irash b. r Amr b. Lihyan b. al-Ghauth. The home of Bajila and Khath'am
   is the Yaman.

2. Their mother was a Jurhumite.

3. Khindif was the daughter of "Imran b. al-Haf b. Qudd a.

4. His name was "Abdullah b. "Amir; others say "Abd al-Rahman b.
   Sakhr. 1

5. A certain learned person told me that "Amr b. Luhayy went from Mecca
   to Syria on a certain matter, and when he reached Moab in the Balqa’—
   the 'Amallq were there at the time, the sons of Tmlaq, or as some say of "Imllq
   b. Lawadh b. Sam b. Nuh—he saw the people worshipping idols, and asked
   what they were. They replied that they were idols which they were wor¬
   shipping, and when they prayed for rain they got it and when they asked for
   help they received it. He asked them to spare him an idol to take away to the
   land of the Arabs and they gave him one called Hubal. So he took it to
   Mecca and set it up and ordered the people to serve it and to venerate it.

6. I shall say more about'the poem from which this line is taken later on,
   God willing. Kalb is Ibn Wabra b. Taghlib b. Hulwan b. 'Imran b. al-Haf
   b. Quda"a.

7. The name is also spelt An'am. Tayyi’ 3S Ibn Udad b. Malik. And
   Malik is Madhhij b. Udad; others say Tayyi’ is the son of Udad b. Zayd
   b. Kahlan b. Saba’.

66- Said Malik b. Namat al-Hamdanl:

Allah brings well-being and misfortune in the world.

Ya'uq can neither hurt nor heal.

Hamdan’s name was Ausaia b. Malik b. Zayd b. Rabi"a b. Ausala b.
al-Khiyar b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’. Some say Ausala was son
of Zayd b. Ausala b. al-Khiyar; others, Hamdan is the son of Ausala b.
Rabfa b. Malik b. al-Khiyar b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’.

1 It is noteworthy that even the name of this prolific putative father of tradition is un¬
certain.

702 The Life of Muhammad

1. Khaulan was Ibn 'Amr b. al-Haf b. Quda'a; others say Ibn 'Amr b.
   Murra b. Udad b. Zayd b. Mihsa' b. 'Amr b. 'Arib b. Zayd b. Kahlan b.
   Saba’; others say Ibn 'Amr b. Sa'd al-'Ashlra b. Madhhij.

2. I shall say more about him later on, God willing. Daus was the son of
   'Udthan b. 'Abdullah b. Zahran b. Ka'b b. al-Harith b. Ka'b b. 'Abdullah
   b. Malik b. Na?r b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth. Others say Daus b. 'Abdullah b.
   Zahran b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth.

3. I shall have more to say about this later on, God willing.

4. Allies of the sons of Abu Talib especially. Sulaym was b. Mansur b.
   'Ikrima b. Khasafa b. Qays b. 'Aylan.

5. These two verses were composed by Abu Khirash al-Hudhall whose
   name was Khuwaylid b. Murra, and are taken from a longer poem. Guar¬
   dians 1 means those in charge of the affairs of the Ka ba- Cf. the lines of
   Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj in one of his rajaz poems which I shall say more about
   later on God willing:

Nay, by the lord of the birds who rest safely
In the victims’ enclosure and the overseer’s 2 house.

1. Al-Kumayt b. Zayd, one of B. Asad b. Khuzayma b. Mudrika, said in one
   of his odes:

Tribes swore they would not flee
Turning their backs on Manat.

The apostle of God sent Abu Sufyan b. Harb—others say 'Aly b. Abu
Talib—with orders to destroy it.

1. The name is also spelt Dhu’f-Khulusa. A certain Arab said:

If you, Dhu’l-Khulusa, were the avenger of blood
As I, and your father had been slain,

You would not forbid the killing of enemies!

Ilis father had'been killed and he wanted to take vengeance; but first he
went to Dhu’l-Khalasa to get an oracle from the arrows. When the arrow
forbidding him to proceed came out he spoke the verses quoted above.
Some attribute them to Imru’u’l-Qays b. Hujr al-Kindl. 'I he apostle of
God dispatched Jarir b. 'Abdullah al-Bajali to destroy the idol.

1. I was told by a traditionist that the apostle of God sent 'All b. Abu
   Talib to destroy it, and he found there two swords called al-Rasub and al-
   Mikhdham. When he brought them to the apostle of God he gave them
   back to him. They are in fact the two swords which 'All had.

2. I have given an account of it in the preceding pages.

3. The second half of the verse was uttered by a man of B. Sa'd. It is
   said that al-Mustaughir b. Rabl'a b. Ka'b b. Sa'd lived 330 years. He, who
   lived longer than any man of Mudar, said:

I ani weary of life and its length.

I have lived for hundreds of years.

1 Sadana.

2 Masdan.

Ibn Hishdm's Notes

703

A century was followed by two more.

From countless months I have added to my years.

What remains is as what went before.

Days pass and nights follow them.

However, some people ascribe these verses to Zuhayr b. Janab al-Kalbi. 1

1. This is really a verse of al-Aswad b. Ya'fur al-Nahshali, Nahshal being
   the son of Darim b. Malik b. Hanzala b. Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamlm.
   Abu Muhriz Khalaf al-Ahmar quoted the verse to me in the form:

The people of al-Khawarnaq and al-Sadir and Bariq
And the temple Dhu’l-Shurufat of Sindad. 2

1. It is said that anything that she gives birth to after that belongs to their
   sons and not their daughters.

2. AH this information according to the Bedouin is wrong, except so far
   as concerns the Harm; there Ibn Ishaq is right. Among the Arabs the Bahira
   is the she-camel "whose ear is slit and who is not ridden, "whose hair is not
   shorn and whose milk is only drunk by the guest or given in alms, or left to
   their gods. The Sa’iba is a she-camel which a man vows that he will set free
   if he recovers from his sickness or if he gains an object which he seeks; and
   when he has freed a she-camel or a camel for one of their gods, then it runs
   free and pastures, no profit being made from it. The Waslla means a ewe
   whose mother has twins at every birth. Its owner gives the ewes to his gods
   and keeps the males for himself. If her mother gives birth to a male lamb
   with her, they say Wasalat (she has joined) her brother, and her brother is
   freed with her, no profit being made from him. I was given this information
   by Yunus b. Habib the grammarian and others, each contributing his part
   thereto.

3. The poet says:

Round the Waslla in Shurayf is a three-vear-old camel,

And those whose backs are taboo and those who are set free. 3

Tamlm b. Ubayy b. Muqbil, one of B. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a, said:

Therein is the rumbling of the young onager stallion

Like the grumbling of the DiyafI camel in the midst of the Bahlras.

This verse belongs to one of his odes and the plural of Bahira is Bahair
and BuJiur. The plural of Waslla is Wasail and Wusul. The plural of
multitude of Saiba is Saivaib and Suyyab, and the plural of multitude of
Hami is Hawami.

1. And the Khuza'a say we are the sons of 'Amr b. Rabl'a b. Haritha b.
   'Amr b. 'Amir b. Haritha b. Imru’u’l-Qays b. Tha'laba b. Mazin b. al-Asd b.
   al-Ghauth; and Khindif is their mother, according to what Abu 'Ubayda
   and other learned traditionists told me. Others say Khuza'a are the sons of

1 These verses (with unimportant variants) are in K, al-Mu anifnarin, ed. Goldziher,
Leiden, 1899, No. X and p. 7.

2 One’s confidence in Ibn Hisham is not strengthened bv this quotation. However,
it is to be noted that he. does not claim that this notorious forger’s version is to be preferred.

3 These lines contain all three terms.

704 The Life of Muhammad

Haritha b. r Amr b. 'Amir. They were called Khuza'a because they separated 1
from the descendants of 'Amr b. 'Amir when they left the Yaman on their
way to Syria. They settled in Marr al-Zahran 2 and dwelt there. 'Aun b.
Ayyub al-Ansarl, one of B. 'Amr b. Saw'ad b. Ghanm b. Ka'b b. Salama of
al-Khazraj in Muslim times, said:

When we dropped down to the vale of Marr
Khuza'a separated from us with troops of horsemen.

They protected every valley of Tihama

And they were protected by their firm lances and sharp swords.

Abu’l-Mutahhar Isma'il b. Rafi' al-An^ari, one of B. Haritha b. al-Harith
b. al-Khazraj b. 'Amr b. Malik b. al-Aus, said:

When we dropped down to the vale of Mecca, Khuza'a
Found the home of the tyrant agreeable.

They settled in hordes and sent their horses far afield
Over every tribe between hill and lowland.

They drove Jurhum from the vale of Mecca and
Wrapped themselves in Khuza'a’s power and glory.

These verses occur in one of his odes. God willing, I shall refer to the
expulsion of Jurhum later on.

1. Others say the name should be spelt al-Haun.

2. The mother of al-Nadr and Malik and Milkan was Barra d. Murr. The
   mother of 'Abdu Manat was Hala d. Suwayd b. al-Ghitrlf b. Azd Shanu’a.
   Shanu’a was 'Abdullah b. Ka'b b. 'Abdullah b. Malik b. Nasr b. al-Asd b.
   al-Ghauth. They were called Shanu’a because of the hatred between them.
   Shan an means hatred.

Al-Nadr is Quraysh, one born of his line is a Qurayshitc, but those outside
his line are not. Jarir b. 'Atiyya, one of B. Kulavb b. Yarbu' b. Hanzala
b. Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim, in a eulogy of Hisham b. 'Abdu’l-
Mallk b. Marwan, said:

The mother w r ho bore Quraysh
Is of no mean lineage nor sterile,

No sire is nobler than your ancestor,

No maternal uncle nobler than Tamim.

He meant Barra d. Murr sister of Tamim b. Murr, the mother of al-Nadr.
It is said that Fihr b. Malik is Quraysh, and the line of Quraysh is in his
descendants alone. The name Quraysh is derived from taqarrush, meaning
merchandise and profit. Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj said:

Fat meat and pure milk
Make them despise poor wheat
And the fallings of the doom-palm. 3

Shughush means ‘wheat’; and khashl means the knobs of anklets and

1 Takhazza a, to separate or remain behind; in this case both meanings apply.

2 This place is an easy day’s journey from Mecca in the direction of Medina.

3 The rendering given above is based on Abu Dharr’s commentary. He rightly abandons
Ibn Hisham’s opinion in favour of the view of al-Waqashi which suits the context better.

Ibn Hisham s Notes

705

bracelets and the like: and qurush means trade and profit. The poet means
that fat and milk used to make them independent of this. Mahd means pure
milk. ' '

Abu Jilda al-Yashkurl, Yashkur being Ibn Bakr b. Wa’il, said:

Brethren have slandered us 1
In our early days and of late.

1. Al-$alt too was a son of al-Nadr according to Abu 'Amr al-Madani; the
   mother of all three was d. Sa d b. Zarib al-'Adwani. 'Adwan was the son
   of 'Amr b. Qays b. 'Aylan. Kuthayyir b. 'Abd al-Rahman, namely Kuthayyir
   of 'Azza one of B. Mulayh b. 'Amr of Khuza'a, said:

Is not my father al-Salt or are not my brethren
The best known to the nobles of the Banu al-Nadr?

You can see the same Yamani warp in us and them,

The same HadramI sandals of peculiar design.

If you are not of the Banu Nadr then leave
The green arak trees at the ends of the valleys.

f 0f thoSe who are related to al-Salt b. al-Nadr of Khuza'a are B. Mulavh b
Amr the tribe of Kuthayyir of 'Azza.

1. He was not the eldest son of Mudad.

2. Jandala was the d. Fihr, and the mother of Yarbu' b. Hanzala b. Malik
   b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim, her mother being Layla d. Sa'd.' Jarir b. 'Atiyya
   b. al-Khafafi, the latter’s name being Hudhayfa b. Badr b. Salama b. 'Auf
   b. Kulayb b. Yarbu' b. Hanzala, said:

When I was angry the sons of Jandala

In my defence threw stones which were like rocks. 2

^third son was Qays whose mother was Salma d. Ka'b b. 'Amr al-
Khuza I. She was the mother of the two sons just mentioned.

1. Some say that al-Harith was a son of Lu’ayy. They are the Jusham b.
   al-Hanth among Hizzan of Rabi'a. Jarir said:

Sons of Jusham, you belong not to Hizzan. Relate
Yourselves to the nobles of Lu’ayy b. Ghalib.

Give not your daughters to the tribe of Qaur

Nor to Shukays: 3 they are bad dwellings for strange women.

the Bundna who belong to Shayban b. Tha'laba b.
Ukaba b. Sa b b. Ah b Bakr b. Wa’il of Rabi'a. Bunana was a nurse from
B. al-Qayn b. Jasr b Shay'uHah ( or Say'ullah) b. al-Asd b. Wabara b.
Tha laba b tfulwan b Imran b. al-Haf b. Quda'a. Some sav d. of al-Namir
b. Qasit of Rabi a; others say d. Jarm b. Rabban b. Hulwan b. 'Imran b.

1 qarrashu. Like all words of this kind, which originally meant some form of physical
from",he ' n “ h ' he b °“ S ' ThC Q “ r ^ sh is

,h ' ,ar8e sto “- F ‘> r * h « Wiom ,« Lammens, L'Arable

Two clans of the Anaza; see Cairo edition, p. ioo.

B 4080 z z

7 q 6 The Life of Muhammad

al-Haf b. Quda'a. Also Khuzayma. They are the 'A’idha among Shayban
b. Tha'laba. ' 'A’idha was a Yamanite woman, the mother ot B. Abid b.

Kt The > mother^f aUthe sons of Lu’ayy except 'Amir was Mawiya d. Ka b
b. al-Qayn b. Jasr. 'Amir’s mother was Makhshiya d. Shayban b. Muhanb
b. Fihr. Others say Layla d. Shayban b. Muhanb b. Fihr.

8o I have heard that one of his sons came to the apostle of God, claiming
descent from Sama. The apostle said ‘The poet?; and one of his companions
said: ‘I think, apostle of God, you mean the saying

Many a cup hast thou spilt, O b. Lu’ayy,

For fear of death which otherwise would not have been spilt.

He answered, ‘Yes.’

1. This is what Abu 'Ubayda quoted to me from the poem.

9 r. Abu 'Ubayda recited these verses to me as from 'Amir b. al-Khasafi,
i.e. Khasafa b.’Qays b. 'Aylan, adding a line

His spear bereaved women of their sons.

He also told me that Hashim said to 'Amir: ‘Compose a good verse about
me and I will pay you for it.’ Thereupon 'Amir composed the hrst verse
which did not please Hashim; he added the second which likewise failed
to please him, and so with the third; but when he added the fourth, As he
slew the guilty and the innocent’, he was satisfied and rewarded him.

This is what al-Kumayt b. Zayd meant when he said:

Hashim of Murra who destroyed kings
Whether they had wronged him or not.

This verse occurs in one of his odes. 'Amir’s words ‘Day of al-Haba at’
have not Abu 'Ubayda’s authority.

„ 2 Zuhayr was one of B. Muzayna b. Udd b. Tabikha b. al-Yas b. Mujar.
Others say he was the son of Abu Sulma of Ghatafan, or an ally of Ghatafan.

Bariq are B. 'Adiy b.Haritha b. 'Amr b. 'Amir b Haritha b. ImruVl-
Qays b. Tha'laba b. Mazin b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth who are among Shanu a.
Al-Kumayt b. Zayd in one of his odes said:

Azd Shanu’a came out against us with
A crowd of hornless rams they thought were horned.

We did not say to Bariq, ‘You have done wrong,’

Nor did we say, ‘Give us satisfaction.

They got the name Bariq because they went about in quest of herbage.

04 Ju'thuma al-Asd is also spoken of as Ju'thuma al-Azd. He was the son
of Yashkur b. Mubashshirb. ?a'b b .DuhmOn b. Nasr b. Zahran b. al-Hanth .ft.
Ka'b ft ' Abdullah ft. Malik ft. Nasr b. al-Asd b. al-Ghauth. Some omit the
names italicized.

■ Indicating that soma of I.I.’s quotation has been cm out i For the full poem see M«S<44.
N °' Brn^me'inu'ghming'which indicates rain; where rain falls there is pasture.

Ibn Hishmris Notes 707

They were called Jadara because 'Amir b. 'Amr b. Ju'thuma married d.
al-Harith b. Mudad al-Jurhumi, Jurhum being lords of the Ka'ba, and built
a wall for the Ka'ba and so was called al-Jadir, while the name in the plural
attached itself to his offspring.

g5> Nu'm d. Kilab was the mother of Sa'd and Su'ayd sons of Sahm b.
'Amr b. Husays b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy. Her mother was Fatima d. Sa'd b.
Sayal.

1. The name is also written Hubshlya b. Salul.

2. In this genealogy 'Utba b. Ghazwan b. Jabir b. Wahb b. Nusayb b.
   Malik b. al-Harith b. Mazin b. Man$ur b. 'Ikrima differed from them.

Other children of 'Abdu Manaf were Abu 'Amr, Tumadir, Qilaba,
Hayya, Rayta, Umm al-Akhtham, Umm Sufyan. The mother of Abu 'Amr
was Rayta, a woman of Thaqlf; the mother of the rest of the girls was
'Atika d. Murra b. Hilal, mother of Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf; her mother was
Safiya d. Hauza b. 'Amr b. Salul b. Sa'sa'a b. Mu'awiya b. Bakr b. Hawazin;
$aflya’s mother was d. 'A’idh Allah b. Sa'd al-'Ashlra b. Madhhij.

Hashim b. 'Abdu Manaf had four sons and five daughters: 'Abdu’l-
Muttalib, Asd, Abu Sayfi, Nadia, Shifa’, Khalida, Da'Ifa, Ruqayya, Hayy a -
The mother of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib and Ruqayya was Salma d. '.Amr b. Zayd
b. Labld b. Haram b. Khidash b. 'Amir b. Ghanm b. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar
whose name was Taymu’llah b, Tha'laba b. 'Amr b. al-Khazraj b. Haritha
b. 'Amr b. 'Amir. Her mother was 'Amlra d. Sakhr b. al-Harith b. Tha'laba
b. Mazin b. al-Najjar, and 'Amlra’s mother was Salma d. ‘Abdu’l-Ashhal
al-Najjarlya. Asd’s mother was Qayla d. 'Amir b. Malik al-Khuza'i. The
mother of Abu Sayfi and Hayya was Hind d. 'Amr b. Tha'laba al-Khazrajlya.
The mother of Nadia and Shifa’ was a woman of Quda'a; and the mother of
Khalida and Da'Ifa was Waqida d. Abu 'Adiy al-Mazinlya.

THE CHILDREN OF 'ABDU’L-MUTTALIB B. HASHIM

'Abdu’l-Muttalib had ten sons and six daughters: al-'Abbas, Hamza,
'Abdullah, Abu Talib (whose name was 'Abdu Manaf), al-Zubayr, al-
Harith, Hajl, al-Muqawwim, Dirar, and Abu Lahab (whose name was
'Abdu’l-'Uzza), Safiya, Umm Hakim al-Bayda’, 'Atika, Umayma, Arwa,
and Barra.

The mother of al-'Abbas and Dirar was Nutayla d. Janab b. Kulayb b.
Malik b. 'Amr b. 'Amir b. Zayd Manat b. 'Amir (who was al-Qahyan) b.
Sa'd b. al-Khazraj b. Taymu’l-Lat b. al-Namir b. Qasit b. Hinb b. Afsa
b. Jadlia b. Asad b. Rabl'a b. Nizar. Some say Afsa’ b. Du'ml b. Jadlla.

The mother of Hamza, al-Muqawwim, and Hajl (who was nicknamed
al-Ghaydaq because of his great liberality and his wealth) and Safiya, was
Hala d. Wuhayb b. 'Abdu Manat b. Zuhra b. Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b.
Lu’ayy.

The mother of 'Abdullah, Abu Talib, al-Zubayr, and all the girls other
than Safiya was Fatima d. 'Amr b. 'A’idh b. 'Imran b. Makhzum b. Yaqaza
b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b. Fihr b. Malik b. al-Nadr. Her mother
was Sakhra d. 'Abd b. 'Imran of the same line. Sakhra’s mother was
Takhmur d. 'Abd b. Qu§ayy b. Kilab b. Murra, See.

708 The Life of Muhammad

The mother of al-Harith was Samra’ d. jundub b. Hujayr b. Ri’ab b,
Habib b. Suwa’a b. 'Amir b. $a'sa'a b. Mu'awiya b. Bakr b, Hawazin b.
Mansur b. 'Ikrima,

The mother of Abu Lahab was Lubna d. Hajir b. 'Abdu Manaf b.
£)apr b. Hubshiya b. Salul, See.

'Abdullah b. 'Abdu’l-Muftalib begat the apostle of God (may God bless
and preserve him), lord of the children of Adam, Muhammad b. Abdullah
b. 'Abdu’l-Muttaiib. May the blessing of God, His peace. His mercy, and
His grace be upon him and his family. His mother was Amina d. Wahb b.
'Abdu Manaf b. Zuhra b. Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib b.
Fihr b. Malik b. al-Nadr. Her mother was Barra d. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b.
'Uthman b. 'Abdu’l-Dar b, Qusayy b. Kilab b. Murra, &c. Barra’s mother
was Umm Habib d. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qusayy, Sec. Umm Habib’s
mother was Barra d. 'Auf b. 'Ubayd b. 'Uwayj b. 'Adfy b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b.
Ghalib, &c.

Thus the apostle of God was the most noble of the sons of Adam in respect
of his descent both from his father’s and his mother’s side.

1. Others spell the name MidacJ.

2. Abu 'Ubavda told me that Bakka is the name of the valley of Mecca
   because it is thickly populated 1 and quoted to me the verse:

When great heat overtakes him who waters his camels with- yours,
Leave him alone until his camels are rounded up.

i.e. leave him until he gets his camels together, i.e. until he brings them to
the water and they crowd upon it. Bacca is the place of the temple and the
mosque. These lines are from 'Aman b. Ka'b b. 'Amr b. Sa'd b. Zayd
Manat b. Tamlm.

1. The words ‘his sons are ours* are not from 1 . 1 .

2. This is as far as the genuine poetry goes. Some learned authorities
   told me that these verses are the first poetry spoken among the Arabs and
   that they were found inscribed on stone in the Yaman. I was not told who
   their author was.

3. Others say Hubshiya b. Salul.

4. $afwan was the son of Janab b. Shijna b. 'Ufarid b. 'Auf b. Ka'b b.
   Sa'd b. Zayd Manat b. Tamlm.

5. The name is sometimes written Shuddakh.

6. A poet has said:

By my life Qusayy was called ‘uniter’

Because Allah united the tribes of Fihr by him.

1. These verses are attributed to Zuhayr b. Janab al-Kalbl.

2. One of the authorities on poetry in the Hijaz gave me the line ‘A people
   in Mecca’, Sec. [The point of this comment is that the line exists in another
   form which violates one of the canons of poetry.]

1 Tabakku, ‘they came together in crowds’.

I bn Hi sham’s Notes

709

1. The meaning of fajar is ‘gift’, as in the lines of Abu Khirash al-
   Hudhall:

Jamil b. Ma mar has starved my guests

By killing a generous man to whom widows resort. 1

1. This speech and the preceding one from a tradition of 'All about the
   digging of Zamzam are saj' and not poetry in my opinion.

2. A poet has said:

God send rain to the wells whose site I know’,

Jurab and Malkum and Badhdhar and al-Ghamr.

1. He was the father of Abu Jahm b. Hudhayfa,

2. He means Abdu’l-Muttalib. I shall mention this ode later if God
   will. [See p. 112 W.]

1 13* A idh was b. Imran b. Makhzum.

1. Another reading is ‘man or beast’. [This is T.’s reading.] Inserted in
   this story is a rajaz poem which no authority on poetry’ regards as genuine.

2. Mar add are mentioned in the sura of Moses, ‘We made foster-mothers
   unlawful for him’. [The point is that ruda a in the text means ‘children at
   the breast’ whereas we should expect ‘foster-mothers’. Therefore either
   we must suppose that dhawat is to be mentally supplied or we must take the
   word literally: where there are babes at the breast there must needs be
   women to suckle them.]

3. Some say Hilal b. Nasira.

4. The mother of 'Abdu’l-Muttalib was Salma, d. 'Amr, the Najjarite,
   and this is the maternal relationship which 1.1. mentions in linking the
   apostle with them.

5. I have never met any authority on poetry who know’s these verses,
   but since they are quoted on the authority of Muhammad b. Sa'Id b. al-
   Musayyib I have included them here.

6. Al-Musayyib was the son of Hazn b. Abu Wahb b. 'Amr b. 'A’idh b.
   'Imran b. Makhzum.

7. ‘Thy mother was a pure pearl of Khuza'a’ refers to Abu Lahab wFose
   mother was Lubna d. Hajir the Khuza'ite. The words ‘In the path of his
   forefathers’ come from a source other than 1.1.

8. 'A’idh b. 'Imran b. Makhzum.

9. Lihb belong to Azd Shanu’a.

10. It was like the mark of a cupping-glass.

11. When the apostle was 14 or 15 years old according to what Abu 'Ubayda
    the grammarian told me on the authority of Abu 'Amrb. al-'Ala a sacrilegious

1 For ajjafa the reading in ash'dr al-Hudhaliyin is fajja'a, 'was pained at the state of',
ror the full text of the lament v.i. note 837.

7io The Life of Muhammad

war broke out between the Quraysh and their allies the Kinana and Qays
'Aylan. The cause of it was that 'Urwa al-Rahhal b. 'Utba b. Ja'far b. Kilab
b. Rabl'a b. 'Amir b. §a'sa'a b. Mu'awiya b. Bakr b. Hawazin had given safe
conduct to a caravan of al-Nu'man b. al-Mundhir. Al-Barrad b. Qays, one
of B. Damra b. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana, said to him, ‘Did you give it
safe conduct against Kinana? to which he replied, ‘Yes, and against every¬
body else.’ So 'Urwa al-Rahhal went out with the caravan and al-Barrad
also went out with the object of taking him off his guard. When he was in
Tayman Dhu Tilal in the high ground 'Urw'a failed to post a guard and
al-Barrad leapt upon him and killed him in the sacred month: that is why
the war was called sacrilegious. Al-Barrad composed the following lines
about it:

Many a calamity' which has disquieted men before me
Have I met with determination, O Banu Bakr. 1
I destroyed thereby' the houses of the Banu Kilab
And I reduced the clients to their proper place.

I lifted my hand against him in Dhu Tilal
And he fell dizzily like a hewn down tree.

Labld b. Rabfa b. Malik b. Ja'far b. Kilab said:

Tell the Banu Kilab and 'Amir if you meet them
Great events have those who can deal with them.*

Tell the Banu Numayr if you meet them
And the uncles of the slain, Banu Hilal,

That the traveller al-Rahhal is dead
Lying by Tayman Dhu Tilal.

A messenger came to Quraysh saying that al-Barrad had killed 'Urwa
while they were in 'Ukaz 3 in the sacred month, and they rode off without
the knowledge of Hawazin. When the latter heard of it they pursued them
and overtook them before they reached the sacred territory, and they fought
till nightfall. When they entered the sacred territory Hawazin gave up the
fight. Sporadic encounters took place on the following days, but the people
had no commander-in-chief, each tribe being commanded by its head. The
apostle was present at some of these encounters, his uncles having taken him
with them. He used to say that he picked up the arrows which the enemy
had shot and gave them to his uncles to shoot.

1. The story of the struggle is too long to be mentioned here. I cannot
   allow it to interrupt the prophet’s biography.

1 The line occurs in a different form in al-lqd al-Farid. Cf. Yaq. iii. 579 and Agh.
Xix- 75 ‘

2 The text, metre, and translation in Brockelmann’s edition (p. 57 Arabic and p. 61
German) are at fault here. There is a play on the word mawdli rendered ‘clients’ in the first
poem; here it means ‘masters’. Mould is one of those elusive terms whose meaning can be
determined only by the context. Originally it meant a relative pure and simple without
differentiating between a tribesman by birth or by sworn alliance. Already in the poetry
of the Sira the mould is lower than the famim or forth, the pure-blooded tribesman. Cf.
528. 15 hilfuha tva-famimuha. In the Quran mould means ‘lord’ and also ‘helper’. After the
Arab conquests the word meant ‘client’, ‘freed slave’.

3 On the site of ’Uka? cf. the excellent article with map by ffaniad al-Jasir in the Majalla
of the Arab Academy of Damascus, 1951, iii- 377 f-, where 1 . 1 . is cited from Shifd'ul -
gharam bi-akhbari’l-baladi l-hardm as saying that it lay between Nakhla and T^’if.

Ibn His ham's Notes 711

1. At the age of 25 the apostle married Khadija d. Khuwaylid b. Asad b.
   'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Qu§ayy b. Kilab b. Murra b. Ka'b b. Lu’ayy b. Ghalib as
   more than one learned person told me from Abu 'Amr of Medina.

2. The apostle gave her as a dowry twenty she-camels. She w r as the first
   woman that the apostle married, and he took no other tvife during her life¬
   time. May God be pleased with her!

3. His sons came in the order: al-Qasim, al-Tayyib, and al-Tahir; and
   his daughters in the order: Ruqayya, Zaynab, Umm Kulthum, and Fatima.
   [Commentators point out that these are not names but epithets applied to the
   one son 'Abdullah.]

4. Ibrahim’s mother was Mariya the Copt. Abdullah b. Wahb from I.
   Lahl'a told me that Mariya was the prophet’s concubine. The Muqauqis
   presented her to him from Hafn in the province of Ansina.

5. Quraysh cut his hand off. They allege that the people who stole the
   treasure deposited it with Duwayk. [One can see from I.I.’s words in T.
   how I.H. abbreviated his author’s account.]

6. 'A’idh b. 'Imran b. Makhzum.

7. According to another account, ‘we are not going astray .

8. Another reading is ‘our pudenda were not covered . The Ka ba at the
   time of the apostle was 18 cubits high. It %vas covered with white Egyptian
   cloth, later with YamanI stuff. The first to cover it with brocade was al-
   Hajjaj b. Yusuf.

9. Abu 'Ubayda the grammarian told me that B. 'Amir b. Sa sa a b.
   Mu'awiya b. Bakr b. Hawazin entered into this with them, and he quoted to
   me the lines of 'Amr b. Ma'dikarib:

O 'Abbas, if our horses had been in good fettle

In Tathlith you would not have vied with the Hums in my absence.

Tathllth is a place in their country and shiyar means fat and well formed.
By Hums he means B. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a; and by 'Abbas he means 'Abbas b.
Mirdas al-Sulaml who had raided B. Zubayd in Tathllth. He quoted to me
the verse of Laqlt b. Zurara al-Dariml about the battle of Jabala:

Speed, O my horse, the Banu 'Abs are a great people 1 among the Hums
because B. 'Abs were allies of B. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a at the battle of Jabala.
This battle was between B. Hanzala b. Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim
and B. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a. The victory went to B. 'Amir, and Laqlt was killed,
and Hajib b. Zurara b. 'Uds was taken prisoner. 'Amr b. 'Amr b. 'Uds b.
Zayd b. 'Abdullah b. Darim b. Malik b. Hanzala fled, and Jarir said to
al-Farazdaq in reference to him:

’Tis as though you had not seen Laqlt and Hajib
And 'Amr b. 'Amr when they cried, Help, O Darim!

Then they met at the battle of Dhu Najab when Hanzala had the better of
1 The variant hilla is noteworthy, cf. Naq. 666, 17.

7 12 The Life of Muhammad

B. Amir and Hassan b. Mu'awiya al-Kindl was slain. He was known as
Ibn Kabsha. azid b. aI~Sa aq al-Kilabl was taken prisoner and al- r fufayl
b. Malik b. Ja'far b. Kilab the father of 'Amir b. al-Tufayl fled. About him
al-Farazdaq said:

Of them was Tufayl b. Malik w'ho delivered
On his horse Qurzul a man swift to flee.

We smote the head of Ibn Khuwaylid,

Adding to the owls that haunt a man’s grave. 1
To this Jarir replied:

We dyed the crown of Ibn Kabsha.

When the cavalry met he encountered a man who shattered his skull. 2

The story of the battles of Jabala and Dhu Najab is too long to be dealt
with here for the reasons given when the Sacrilegious War was discussed.

1. Rahaq means rebellion and folly, as in the line of Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj:
   When fever makes the vicious camel mad. [Cf. Dlzvdn xli. 4.]

This verse occurs in one of his rajaz poems. Rahaq also means seeking a
thing until you get near it whether you take it or not. The same poet,
describing wild asses, says:

Their tails flick and they shudder w'hen they fear they will be overtaken.

The word is also used as a masdar. ‘I have borne ( rahiqtu ) a crime or hard¬
ship which you have laid upon me as a heavy burden.’ It is used in the
Quran in the same sense: ‘We feared that he would press hardly upon them
in rebellion and unbelief’ (18. 79); also, ‘Do not treat me harshly for what I
have done* (18. 72).

1. Al-Ghaytala was of B. Murra b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana, brothers
   of Mudlij b. Murra. She was the mother of the Ghayatil whom Abu Talib
   mentions in his lines:

Foolish are the minds of the people who exchanged us
For the Banu Khalaf and the Ghayatil.

Ghayatil is the name given to her sons among B. Sahm b. 'Amr b. Husays.

1. This is saj r , not poetry.

2. Another version is ‘A man will cry in eloquent language, saying, There
   is no God but Allah.’

An authority on poetry recited to me the following lines:

I was amazed at the jinn and their dumbfounding,

As they saddled their beasts with their cloths,

Making for Mecca, seeking guidance.

Believing jinn are not like impure jinn.

1 A reference to the ancient belief that owls came forth from the skulls of the slain and
remained by their graves. The text in Naq. 386. 3 is superior.

2 This is the meaning given to mi$qa by A. Dh. (cf. Naq. 835. 4). The rendering given
by Weil is rightly rejected by the Arabic commentators, though the alteration of damma
‘meeting’ to dajja ‘clamour’ seems to be due to someone who gave the more usual meaning
of ‘loud-voiced’ or ‘eloquent’ to mifqa'.

Ihn Hishdms Notes 713

1. Yastaftihun means ‘they asked for help’. It also means ‘they arbitrated’
   as in the verse of the Quran, ‘O our Lord judge between us and our people
   rightly, thou being the best of judges’ (7. 87).

2. Qayla was d. Kahil b. 'Udhra b. Sa'd b. Zayd b. Layth b. Sud b. Aslum
   b. al-Haf b. Quda'a, the mother of al-Aus and al-Khazraj. AI-Nu'man b.
   Bashir al-Ansar! praising al-Aus and al-Khazraj said:

Noble sons of Qayla! None who mingled with them
Found fault with their company;

Generous, heroes, rejoicing in hospitality',

Following the traditions of their fathers as a duty.

1. 'Urawa means trembling from cold, and shuddering fits; if accom¬
   panied by sweating it is the sweat of fever.

2. There is a story about 'Uthman which I cannot repeat for reasons
   given above. [See Suhayll.]

3. These verses really belong to an ode of Umayya b. Abu’l-Salt, except for
   the first tw'O, the fifth, and the last verse. The second half of the first verse
   does not come via 1.1.

4. AI-HadramI was 'Abdullah b. 'Imad b. Akbar, one of the Sadif whose
   name was 'Amr b. Malik, one of the Sakun b. Ashras b. Kindi (some say
   Kinda) b. Thaur b, Marta' b. 'Aflr b. 'Adly b. al-Harith b. Murra b. Udad b.
   Zayd b. Mihsa' b. 'Amr b. 'Arib b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’. Others say
   Marta' b. Malik b. Zayd b. Kahlan b. Saba’.

5. Another reading is: ‘Piety preserves, not pride.’ The words ‘facing the
   Ka'ba’ are from a traditionist.

6. The first two verses of this poem are attributed to Umayya b. Abu
   al-Salt and the last verse occurs in one of his odes. The words ‘vain idols’
   have not I.I.’s authority.

7. The Arabs say tahannuth and tahannuj meaning the Ilanifite religion,
   substituting / for th , just as they say jadath and jadaf meaning a grave.
   Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj said:

If my stones were with the other gravestones ( ajdaf ), meaning ajdath.

This verse belongs to a rajaz poem of his, and the verse of Abu Talib to an
ode by him which I will mention, please God, in the proper place. Abu
'Ubayda told me that the Arabs say famma instead of thurnma.

1. Qasb here means a hollow pearl. One in whom I have confidence told
   me that Gabriel came to the apostle and said, ‘Give Khadija greetings from
   her Lord,’ The apostle said, ‘O Khadija, Gabriel proclaims peace to you
   from your Lord.’ She replied, ‘God is peace, from Him comes peace, and
   peace be upon Gabriel.’

2. Saja means ‘to be quiet’. Umayya b. Abu’l-Salt the Thaqafite {Duean
   xviii) said:

When he came by night my friend was asleep
And the night was quiet in blackest gloom.

714 The Life of Muhammad

You can say of the eye when its glance is fixed it is sdjia.

Jarir said;

They shot you as they went with quiet eyes
Slaying you from between the howdah curtains.

'A'il means ‘poor’.

Abu Khirash al-Hudhali said:

The destitute went to his house in winter

A poor man clad in two garments finding his way by the barking of the
dogs. 1

The plural is 'ala and 'uyyal. 'A'il also means one who has a large family
and one who is afraid; and in the Quran ‘That is more likely that you will
not be unjust’ (4. 3).

Abu Talib said;

In a just balance he gives full weight of barley.

He is in himself an unerring witness. (See further 175. 17.)

'A'il also means a tiresome, wearisome thing; you can say, ‘this thing has
exhausted me’ alani , i.e. oppressed and wearied me.
al-Farazdaq said:

You see the most prominent chiefs of Quraysh
Whenever a great misfortune occurs.

1. Some add ‘and Talib’.

2. Zayd b. Haritha b. Sharahll b. Ka'b b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Imru’u’l-
   Qays b. "Amir b. al-Nu'man b. 'Amir b. 'Abdu Wudd b. 'Auf b. Kinana b.
   Bakr b. 'Auf b. 'Udhra b. Zayd Aliat b. Rufayda b. Thaur b. Kalb b.
   Wabra. Hakim b. Hizam b. Khuwaylid had come from Syria with a party
   of slaves among whom was Zayd, then a young man. His aunt, who by that
   time was the apostle’s wife, came to see him and he invited her. to choose
   anyone of the young slaves she liked. She chose Zayd and took him away
   with her. When the apostle saw him he asked her to give him to him. She
   did so and he freed him and adopted him as his son. This was before revela¬
   tion came to him.

His father Haritha was exceeding sorrowful at his loss and mourned him
in the following verse:

I wept over Zayd, not knowing what had happened—

W'hether I could hope to see him again or whether he was dead.

By God I do not know, often though I ask,

Whether he lies dead on hill or plain.

Would that I knew if thou wouldst ever return!

All that I ask of the world is that thou return to me.

Sunrise reminds me of him; the sunset brings his memory before me. 2
When the winds blow they stir up thoughts of him.

1 The word mustanbih means the man who at night imitates the barking of dogs so that
if an encampment is near the dogs will take Up his challenge and he can find his way to food
and warmth from the direction their barking gives him. The two ragged garments are the
gown and the waistband, tire indispensable minimum.

2 Cf. al-Khansa, ed. Bcyrout, p. 55.

Ibn Hisham’s Notes

. 7 1 5

Long will I grieve and fear for him!

I shall use the best camels in scouring the land
Nor weary of searching though the camels tire,

So long as I live till death comes to me.

For all must die, though hope deceives men.

Then he came to him while he was with the apostle, who told Zayd that
he could stay with him or if he preferred go away with his father. He replied
that he would certainly stay with him, and he remained with the apostle until
God made him His prophet, when he believed in him, prayed with him, and
became a Muslim. When God revealed ‘name them after their fathers’
(Sura 33. 5) he said, ‘I am Zayd b. Haritha.’

1. Abu Bakr’s name was 'Abdullah. He was called 'Atlq because of his
   fine handsome face.

2. The words ‘at his invitation’ are not from 1 . 1 . 'akama ‘hold back’
   means talabbuth ‘delay’, as in the line of Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj:

Waththab took her away and delayed not {'akama).

1. This latter was of B. Tamlm; others say of Khuza'a.

2. Al-Qara was their nickname; it is said of them

Those who challenged the Qara at shooting played them fair.

They were a tribe of archers.

1. 'Anz b. Wa’il was the brother of Bakr of Rabfa b. Nizar.

I57> The reason he was called al-Nahham was because the apostle said,
‘I heard his singing in Paradise.’ His nahm means his voice.

1. He had been born a slave among al-Asd; he was a black and Abu Bakr
   bought him from them.

2. Or Humayna.

3. His name was Mihsham b. 'Utba b. Rabfa . . . b. Lu’ayy.

4. Bahila brought him and sold him to al-Khattab b. Nufayl who adopted
   him; but w'hen God revealed, ‘Call them after their fathers’ names,’ he said,
   ‘I am Waqid b. 'Abdullah/ according to what Abu 'Amr al-Madanl said.

5. 'Ammar was an 'Ansi from Madhhij.

6. Namir was the son of Qasif b. Hinb b. Af?a b. Jadila b. Asad b. Rabfa
   b. NizSr; some say of Afsa b. Du'mi b. Jadila. It is said that \(uhayb was the freedman of 'Abdullah b. Jud'an b. Amr b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Taym. It is also said that he was a Greek. One of those who maintain that he w'as from al-Namir b. Qasit said that he was a prisoner in Byzantine territory and was bought from them. There is a tradition of the prophet which runs: ‘\)uhayb
   is the first of the Greeks’ (sc. to accept Islam).

7. $ada' means ‘distinguish between truth and falsehood’. Abu Dhu’ayb

yi6 The Life of Muhammad

al-Hudhall whose name was Khuwaylid b. Khalid, describing wild asses and
their mates, said:

It was as though they were a bundle of gaming arrows
And a shuffler thereof dealing out the arrows and proclaiming what he
produced.

i.e. distinguishing the arrows and making their shares clear. [The allusion
is to the game of maystr which w r as popular among the ancient Arabs. See
Mufad. 863. 17.]

Ru’ba al-'Ajjaj said:

You are the clement and the avenging prince
Declaring the truth and driving away the wrongdoer.

1. Abu Sufyan’s name was §akhr.

2. Al-’As b. Wa’il b. Hashim b. Su’ayd b. Sahm b. 'Amr b. Husay?.

3. I have left out two verses in which he violently insulted him.

4. A variant reading is ‘his root is in copious water’.

5. r Antd means ‘obstinate opponent’ as in the line of Ru ba b. al- Ajj&j.

We were smiting the head of the obstinate (’ unnad ).

1. basara means ‘he had an angry expression’ as in the words of al- AjjSj:

Firm in jaw, angry in visage, a biter,
describing a forbidding face.

1 71. The singular of idin is ’ ida . \ou say addauhu , meaning they divided
it’ as in the line of Ru’ba

The religion of God is not divided.

1. This is as much of the ode as seems to me to be genuine; many com¬
   petent authorities on verse deny the authenticity of most of it.

A man I can trust told me that in a year of drought the people of Medina
came to the apostle and complained of their trouble. He mounted the pulpit
and prayed for rain. Hardly had the rain begun than the people living in
exposed districts came to complain that they were inundated. The apostle
said: ‘O God, round us, not on us!’ Thereupon the clouds moved away
from the town itself and encircled it like a crown. The apostle said, If
Abu Talib could but have- seen this day how he would have rejoiced!’ One
of his companions said, ‘I suppose you refer to his line:

A noble man for whose sake the clouds drop rain,

The support of orphans and the defence of widows,’

and he said ‘Quite so.’

The expression ‘its bushes’ is not from 1 . 1 .

1. He was called al-Akhnas because he withdrew ( khanasa ) with the people
   at the battle of Badr. Of course his name was Ubayy; he came from B.
   f Ilaj b. Abu Salma b. ’Auf b. ’Uqba.

Ibn Hisham’s Notes

7 l 7

1. The words ‘allied themselves with treacherous people against us’ refer
   to B. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana. These arc the Arabs whom Abu
   'falib mentions in his verse above. [See p. 127, n. 4.]

2. 1 . 1 , relates Abu Qays here to B, Waqif, whereas in the story of the
   elephant he is related to Khatma. The reason is that the Arabs often relate
   a man to the brother of his grandfather if he happens to be better known.

Abu ’Ubayda told me that al-Hakam b. ’Amr al-Ghifari was of the sons
of Nu’ayla, brother of Ghifar b. Mulayl. Nu’ayla was the son of Mulayl
b. Damra b. Bakr b. ’Abdu Manat. They had said that 'Utba w r as the son
of Ghazwan al-Sulami, he being of the sons of Mazin b. Mansur; Sulaym was
I. Mansur. Abu Qays was of B. Wa’il; Wa’il, Waqif, and Khatma are
brothers of al-Aus.

1. The line *’tis as water poured at random’, and the verse ‘if you buy
   spears’, &c., and ‘men’s Lord has chosen a religion’ and ‘his cavalry was in
   the plains’ were quoted to me by Abu Zayd al-Ansari and others. As to his
   words ‘Know you not what happened in the war of Dahis?’ Abu ’Ubayda
   told me that Dahis was a horse belonging to Qays b. Zuhayr b. Jadhlma b.
   Rawaha b. Rabfa b. al-Harith b. Mazin b. Qutay’a b. 'Abs b. Baghid b.
   Rayth b. Ghatafan which he raced against a mare of Hudhayfa b. Badr
   b. ’Amr b. Zayd b. Ju’ayya b. Laudhan b. Tha’laba b. 'Adiy b. Fazara b.
   Dhubyan b. Baghid b. Rayth b. Ghatafan called al-Ghabra’. Hudhayfa hid
   some of his men in ambush and ordered them to hit Dahis in the face if they
   saw him taking the lead. This is precisely what happened, and so Ghabra’
   came in first. When the rider of Dahis came in he told Qays what had
   happened, and his brother Malik b. Zuhayr got up and slapped al-Ghabra
   in the face, whereupon Hamal b. Badr got up and slapped Malik’s face.
   Afterwards Abu’l-Junaydib al-’Absi fell in w r ith ’Auf b. Hudhayfa and killed
   him; then a man of the B. Fazara met Malik and killed him, and Hamal,
   Hudhayfa’s brother, said:

We have killed Malik in revenge for ’Auf.

If you try to get more than your due from us you will be sorry.

Al-Rabf b. Ziyad al-’Absi said:

After Malik b. Zuhayr has been killed,

Can women hope for carnal delights P 1

Thus war broke out between 'Abs and Fazara, and Hudhayfa b. Badr and
his brother Hamal were killed. Qays b. Zuhayr was grieved and composed
an elegy on him:

How many a knight who is no knight is called (to war)

But at al-Haba’a there was a true knight.

So weep for Hudhayfa; you will not mourn his like
Until tribes not yet born shall have perished.

He also said:

The young man Hamal b. Badr did wrong,

And injustice is an evil food.

1 i.e. War will break out and then sexual relations will be taboo.

y 18 The Life of Muhammad

Al-Harith b. Zuhayr the brother of Qays said:

I left at al-Haba’a without pride
Hudhayfa’s body ’mid the broken spears.

Some say that Qays raced the horses Dahl's and al-Ghabra’, while Hud-
hayfa raced al-Khattar and al-Hanfa’; but the first account is the sounder.
I cannot go into the story further because it interrupts the apostle’s biography.

As to the words ‘war of Hafib’ the reference is to Hapb b. al-Harith b.
Qays b. Haysha b. al-Harith b. Umayya b. Mu'awiya b. Malik b. 'Auf b.
'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik b. al-Aus who had killed a Jew under the protection
of al-Khazraj. So Yazid b. al-Harith b. Qays b. Malik b. Ahmar b. Haritha
b. Tha'Iaba b. Ka'b b. al-Khazraj b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj known as Ibn
Fushum from his mother Fushum, a woman of al-Qayn b. Jasr, went out by
night with a number of B. Harith b. al-Khazraj and killed Hatib. Thus war
broke out between al-Aus and al-Khazraj and was waged bitterly until
victory' went to al-Khazraj. Suwayd b. §amit b. Khalid b. 'Atiyya b. Hau{
b. Habib b. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik b. al-Aus was killed by al-Mujadhdhir
b. Dhiyad al-BalawI whose name was 'Abdullah, an ally of B. 'Auf b.
al-Khazraj. Al-Mujadhdhir went out with the apostle to the battle of
Uhud and al-Harith b. Suwayd went out with him. Al-Harith took al-
Mujadhdhir off his guard and killed him in revenge for his father. (I shall
mention the story in its proper place if God will.) I cannot go into the
details of the war which followed for the reasons which have been given
already.

1. A learned traditionist told me that the worst treatment that the apostle
   met from Quraysh was one day when he went out and everyone that met him,
   free or slave, called him a liar and insulted him. He returned to his house
   and wrapped himself up because of the violence of the shock. Then God
   revealed to him, ‘O thou that art enwrapped, Rise and warn’ (Sura 74).

2. Others put 'Alqama and Kalada in reverse order.

3. He it is who according to my information said, T will send down some¬
   thing like what God has sent down.’

4. bakhi'un nafsak means ‘committing suicide’ according to what Abu
   ‘Ubayda told me. Dhu’l-Rumma said:

O thou that destroyest thyself

In longing for that which fate has taken from thee.

The plural is bakhi'un and bakha'a. The Arabs say ‘I have impressed
{bakha'a) my advice upon him’, i.e. I have laboured so to do.

1. Sa'id means ‘the ground’; pi. suud. Dhu’l-Rumma, describing a
   little gazelle, said:

In the morning it leapt gaily over the ground

As though wine coursed through the very bones of its head.

Sa'id also means ‘the way’, as you find in the tradition ‘Beware of sitting by
the wayside’ meaning the road. The word juruz means ‘barren land’, pi.
ajrdz. You can say sana juruz, ‘a barren year’, and sinuna ajraz, i.e. years in

Ibn Hishdm's Notes

719

which no rain falls, and drought, desolation, and hardship result. The same
poet describing camels wrote:

Their bellies contain naught but disease and barrenness.

They are nothing but inflated bones.

1. Raqlm is the book in which their story was inscribed ( ruqima ), pi.
   ruqum. AI-'Ajjaj said:

The place of the inscribed volume ( muraqqam ).

1. Shafap means ‘exaggeration and going beyond what is right’. A'shS
   of B. Qays b. Tha'laba said:

They will not cease, nothing will halt the wicked
But a thrust in which the oil and the wick perish.

[i.e. a deadly wound. Dizvdn, ed. R. Geyer, xlviii. 1. 1, beginning hal not la
as here].

1. Tazazvara means ‘to incline’ from zur . Imru’ul-Qays b. Hujr said:

I am a chief; if I return a king

Twill be in such a way as to make the guide appear to be going astray.
Abu’l-Zahf al-Kulaybi describing a district said:

The coarse salt herbage is not what we want.

To do without water for five days makes the camels thin.

Taqridukum dhdta l-shimdli means passing them and leaving them on the
left. Dhu’l-Rumma said:

To howdahs which passed by the sand-dunes of Mushrif
To the left while on their right are the horsemen.

[A.Dh. says that fazvaris means sandhills.]

Fajwa means ‘space’, pi. fijd as the poet says:

You clothed your people with shame and debasement
Until they became outlaws and forsook the space where their dwelling
was.

1. Wasid means ‘a door’. 'Ubayd b. Wahb al-'Absi said:

In a desert land its door wide open to me
In which my merits are not unknown.

Wasid also means ‘courtyard’. Plurals tvasd'id, wusud, uusddn, and usud and
usdan.

1. His name was Alexander. He built Alexandria and it was named after
   him.

2. Yanbu means ‘water which bursts forth from the earth’. The plural is
   yandbi. Ibn Harma, whose name was Ibrahim b. 'All al-Fihri, said:

If you shed a tear in every dwelling

Their source would dry, but your tears w-ould be a spring {yanbu).

720 The Life of Muhammad

Kisaf means ‘portions of punishment’. The singular is kisfa, like sidra ; it is
also the singular of kisf. Qabll is that which is opposite before the eyes;
compare God’s saying, ‘Punishment will come to them straight in their
faces’, i.e. visibly (Sura 18. 53).

Abu ‘Ubayda quoted to me the lines jo( A'sha of the Banu Qays:

I will befriend you until you do the same again,

Like the cry of the woman in travail, whom her midwife helps. 1

She is thus called because she faces her and receives her child. Qabll
with the plural qubul means ‘gathering’, as in the Quran, ‘We will gather
to them everything in groups’ (Sura 6. 111). The plural is like subid
and surur and qumus, all of the fa'll form. Qabll also occurs in a proverb:
‘He does not know the comer from the goer’, i.e. he does not know how to
distinguish what is coming forward from what is going back. Al-Kumayt b.
Zayd said, ‘Affairs were so divided in their view that they could not tell the
comer from the goer.’ It is said that by this word qabll is meant ‘a thread’.
What is twisted towards the forearm is the qabll, and what is twisted towards
the ends of the fingers is the dablr, so called because it comes forward and
goes back, as I have explained. It is said that the thread of the spindle when
it is twisted towards the knee is the qabll, and when it is twisted towards the
thigh it is the dablr. Qabll also is used of a man’s tribe. Zukhruf means
‘gold’. Muzakhraf means ‘adorned with gold’. Al-‘Ajjaj said: ‘A ruined
house, whose outlines you would think was a book, gilded and illuminated.’
You can call any ornamented thing muzakhraf.

1. Nasfa'an means ‘we will seize and drag’, as the poet said:

A people, who when they hear a cry for help,

You see them bridling their mares or taking hold of their forelocks.

The nddl means ‘the meeting place in which people gather together and
settle their affairs’ as in the book of God, ‘And commit not wickedness in
your assembly’. Another form of the word is nadt. ‘Abid b. al-Abra$ said:

Look to your own affairs, for I belong to the Banu Asad,

A people of assemblies, generosity, and meetings.

And in the book of God, ‘and the best as a company’ (19. 74). The plural is
andiya. ‘Let him call his gang’ is like the expression ‘ask the city’ (12. 82),
meaning, of course, the people of the city.

Salama b. Jandal, one of B. Sa‘d b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim said:

There were two days, one a day of conference and meetings,

And a day given up to a foray against the enemy.

And Al-Kumayt b. Zayd said:

No verbose prattlers in the assembly
And none silent under duress. 2

1 So A.Dh. But cf. Geyer’s Diwan of al-A'sha (Gibb Memorial Series), 124, where the
reading is qabul (not qabll) and where the unknown expositor (cf. pp. xviii f.) shows that
the context demands an oath: 'I will not befriend you'; tabuu , he says, means tdtarifu.

% Inasmuch as afmata is both transitive and intransitive it would be possible to translate
by ‘nor silencing others by violence

Ibn His ham's Notes

721

Nadi means ‘those sitting together’ and zabdniya means ‘rough, violent
people’, and in this context ‘the guardians of Hell’. In reference to this world
it means the troops who act as a man s bodyguard’, and the singular is
zibniya.

Ibn al-Ziba‘ra said in reference to them:

Lavish in hospitality, thrusting in battle,

Zabdniya, violent, coarse are their minds.

He means ‘violent’. §akhr b. ‘Abdullah al-Hudhali, the ‘erring §akhr’, said :

And of Kablr is a number of dare-devils. 1

1. Others say of ‘Anaza b. Asad b. Rabfa.

2. ‘Uthman b. Ma?un was in charge of them according to the information
   a traditionist gave me.

19J. Humayna.

1. Mu‘ayqlb belonged to Daus.

2. According to others Hazal b. Fas b. Dharr and Dahir b. Thaur.

194- Shammas’s name was ‘Uthman. He was called Shammas for the reason
that a deacon came to Mecca in pagan times, a man so handsome as to excite
general admiration. ‘Utba b. Rabfa, who was the maternal uncle of Sham-
mas, said, ‘I will bring you a Shammas more handsome than he,’ and he
fetched his sister’s son ‘Uthman b. ‘Uthman, and so he was called Shammas
according to what I. Shihab and others said.

1. Others say Hubshlya b. Salul who was called Mu'attib b. Hamra’.

2. Shurahbll b. Abdullah, one of the Ghauth b. Murr, brother of Tamim
   b. Murr.

197 * Al- A$ b. Wa’il b. Hashim b. Sa‘d b. Sahm.

1. Sa‘d b. Khaula was from the Yaman.

2. 99 - Another reading is dibran ‘great wealth’, and suyum ‘you may pasture
   at will’. Dabr in Abyssinian means ‘mountain’.

3. A traditionist told me that his son added, ‘May God reward him well,’
   to which he replied, May God not reward him well’ [presumably because
   he was not a Muslim].

4. And, it is said, al-Nadr b. al-Harith.

5. Tabbat means ‘be lost’ and tabab means ‘loss’.

Habib b. Khudra al-Khariji, one of B. Hilal b. ‘Amir b. §a‘sa‘a, said:

O Tib, we are among a people

Whose glory has departed in death and destruction {tabab).

B 4080

1 Kablr was a clan of Hudhayl. Cf. Kosegarten 10. 2.
3 A

722 The Life of Muhammad

1. Jid means ‘neck’, as in the verse of A'sha of B. Qays:

The day that Qutayla showed us a lovely neck
Which necklaces adorned

[Diwan , p. 140. 6 (with unimportant variants)]. The plural is ajydd. Masad
is fibre crushed like cotton, and rope is twisted from it. Al-Nabigha al-
Dhubyani whose name was Ziyad b. 'Amr b. Mu'awiya said:

Many a fat young mare has a tooth

Which has a sound like the waterwheel and the rope. 1

The singular is masada.

1. The words ‘his religion we loathe and hate’ are not from 1 . 1 .

2. Humaza is one who insults a man publicly. He shuts his eyes upon him
   and winks at him. Hassan b. Thabit said:

I bit into you with a rhyme that burnt like fire
And you grovelled in humiliation. 2

Plural humazdt. Lumaza is one who insults a man secretly. Ru’ba b.
al-Hajjaj said:

In the shadow of him who oppresses, despises, and slanders me.
Plural lumaza.

1. Affak means ‘liar’. Cf. ‘Lo, it is of their lying that they say God has
   begotten. Verily they tell a lie’ (Sura 37. 151). Ru’ba said:

Not of a man who uttered a lying speech.

1. The hasab of Gehenna is everything that is kindled in it. Abu Dhu’ayb
   al-Hudhall whose name was Khuwaylid b. Khalid said:

Quench, do not kindle, and do not feed the flame
Of war lest its horrors hasten on you.

Another reading is ‘And do not be the firestick’ [the equivalent of our poker.
Diwan xxx, C. 6]. As the poet says:

I stirred up my fire for him and he saw the blaze.

Unless I had stirred it he would have missed the way.

1. Muhl means molten bronze or lead or any other metal, according to
   what Abu ‘‘Ubayda told me. We were told that al-Hasan b. Abu’l-Hasan
   al-Basri said: “Abdullah b. Mas r ud was put in charge of the treasury of
   Kufa by ‘Umar. One day he ordered silver to be melted down, and it began
   to change its colour, so he ordered everyone who was near the door to come

1 ‘This constant screaming and squealing of the draw-wheels was a characteristic feature
of the otherwise silent oasis, rather irritating at first to the new-comer.’ Douglas Carruthers,
Arabian Adventure , London, 1935, p. 91.

2 The circle of ideas is magical. It will be found that all words of cursing, slandering,

and backbiting originally indicate stome sort of physical injury and the sense is still apparent

here. By I.H.’s time it was neglected and all but forgotten. The proper reading must be

fakhtada ta not . . . tu as in C. The text in Ditudn lii. 6 differs widely and is useless for

comparison.

Ibn Hisham’s Notes y 23

3t ir ’ Say,ng ’ “ The nearest thin £ to muhl which you will ever see
The poet said:

M y Lord will give him molten metal to swallow at a draught.

It will shrivel the faces while it is molten in his belly.

It is said that muhl also means pus. I have been told that Abu Bakr when he

andtha heT nt ,d°l death ° rd f red th3t ° Id be washed

and that he should be wrapped in them. 'A’isha said to him. 'My dear father

A ah has so enriched you that you do not need them, so buy a shroud ’ He’

answered:'It will be only an hour until it becomes pus.'

1 he poet said:

He mingled loathsome pus from it with water
Then he drank death draught after draught. 1

? AbduliahT a Mak !T 7 “ °" e « a -Amir b - Lu ’^ •»«* name was
/iDaulJan, or, according to some, Amr.

1. Nubzi means ‘plunder’. I have omitted the last verse.

211 They were all confederates and were called Ahabish because thev had
made an alliance in a valley called al-Ahbash below Mecca.

1. A traditiomst told me that the apostle said to Abu Talib, O uncle
   Allah my Lord has given worms power over the Quraysh document. Thev

mXrr 17 ;^/ G ° d r m k and destr ° yed the injustice, boycott, and

malice. He said, Did your Lord tell you of this ?’ and when he said that He

had, he was amazed because none had come to see him.. Immediately he
“ H QUraySH S'* Muhammad had ^ d and enjoined them to

and v! heir T ent ‘ lf cv 18 as my ne P hew says, then end your boycott
nd >our course of action ; if he is lying I hand him over to you ’ The peoDle

were sahsfied with this offer and bound themselves accordingly. On inspect
ion they found that the apostle was right; but this but increased their malice

t?de r Zrth a e n boy^ 0f QUraySH ,0 ° k S “ P *' Whi ° h jUS ' ^

2 ' 3 * ,, The "y d ; b °«h' (in v *) is not from 1 . 1 . As to the words ‘you protected

f?nm S * r^ OS - ft. m 'rT, P ° int “ this: When ,he a P°«‘« departed
from al-Ta if having failed to convert its people, he went to Hirah Then

sent to al-Akhnas b. Shanq to ask his protection. He replied that he was

m q {’ fn 8 f°' Uld ? 0t 8rant P rotect ‘on. The apostle then appealed

to Suhayl b. .tar, who replied that B. 'Amir did not give protection against
K “ f ,nall >' he sent to al-Mufim b. 'Adly, who agreed. Thereupon
he armed himself and his household and went out to the mosque Then
he invited the apostle to enter. He did so and walked round the temple and

' The JT.‘d-i'iuliina, "hich means ‘the sides of the back’. This seems to yield s

P 1 /?' L haVe •‘•'‘Pled the reading suggested to me by Professor Affifi: of-mamitto

so rhT,1 ■ ■ , re " der f d , ?" y .‘ W “ a " { ^ cc b v • solemn covenant a“h'

» as ° f, f" » W. A refugee, though admitted to a tribe, could not act in the
ame of the tnbe and give a protection which would be upheld by every other member
Thus al-Akhnas s reply was perfectly correct. 7 hCr member -

724 The Life of Muhammad

prayed there. Then he went to his house. That is what Hassan is referring
to. [This is an abbreviation of I.I.’s account in T. 1203.]

1. Hisham was one of Suham or Sukham.

2. Or

3. al-a'sha of the banu qays b. tha'laba

Khallad b. Qurra b. Khalid al-Sadusi and other shaykhs of Bakr b. Wa’il
from scholars told me that al-A’sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba b. 'Ukaba b.
§a’b b. 'Ali b. Bakr b. Wa’il went to the apostle desiring to accept Islam and
composed the following poem in praise of the apostle: 1

Did your sore eyes not close the night

You lay sleepless as though a snake had bitten you?

’Twas not for desire of women, for before this
You had forgotten the society of Mahdad.

But I see that Time the deceiver

Destroys again what my hands have repaired.

Youth, maturity, and wealth I’ve lost.

In God’s name, how this Time does change!

Ever since I was young have I sought wealth
In all four stages of man’s growth.

I made full use of the swift tawny camels

Racing across the land between al-Nujayr and §arkhad.

If you ask about me (and many an importunate
Asks about A’sha) whither he has gone
O you who ask me whither they are going,

I tell you they have a meeting with the people of Medina.

She urges forward her swift hindlegs,

Folding back her forelegs but not as though hobbled.

In the noonday’s savage heat she’s frisky
When you’d think the chameleon would sink his head. 2
I swore I would not spare her fatigue
Or footsoreness till we met Muhammad.

When she kneels at the door of Hashim’s son
She may rest and partake of his bounty.

A prophet who sees what you cannot see,

Whose reputation has reached the lowlands and the hills.

His gifts and presents are not intermittent:

If he gives today it does not stop him giving tomorrow.

I adjure thee, did you not hear the counsel of Muhammad
The prophet of God when he counselled and witnessed!

If you do not travel with provision of piety

And ^fter death meet one who has taken such provision

You will regret that you are not like him

1 See Gedichte von Abu Ba$ir Maimiin b. Qays al-A'shd . . ., ed. Rudolf Geyer (Gibb
Memorial Series), London, 1928, pp. 101 f. I have transposed verses 7 and 8 in the text
of the Sira, as the order of the Diwdn is obviously right. The text will repay collation.

2 This creature is said to face the sun throughout its daily course, and so at noon it would
(and should!) peer up at the sky.

725

Ibn Hisham's Notes

With preparation such as he has made.

Beware of the bodies of animals—touch them not,

Bleed them not with an iron arrow.

Do not venerate standing stones
Nor worship idols, but worship God.

Come not near a free woman—she is unlawful to you.

Marry or remain celibate.

Wrong not your kinsman
Nor the prisoner in bonds.

Glorify God night and morning.

Praise God and not Satan.

Mock not the poor man in his need,

Nor think that wealth can make a man immortal. 1

When he was near Mecca or actually in it one of the heathen Quraysh met
him and he told him that he was making for the apostle of God to adopt
Islam. He said to him, ‘O Abu Ba?ir, he prohibits fornication!’ Al-A’sh5
replied, But that’s something I’ve no desire for.’ ‘Ah, but he forbids wine!’
Now that’s something that I still take pleasure in. I will go away and drink
long and deeply for a year and then return and accept Islam.’ So he went
away and died in the year, so that he did not return to the apostle.

1. Some say Irasha.

2. Yulhiduna ilayhi means ‘incline to’ and ilhad is ‘inclining away from
   the truth’. Ru’ba b. al-’Ajjaj said:

When every heretic ( mulhid) followed al-Pahhak.

Al-Pahhak the Kharijite.

2ig. The owner of Malhub was ’Auf b. al-Ahwas b. Ja’far b. Kilab who died
in Malhub. When he says ‘at al-Rida is the house of another great man’
he means Shurayh b. al-Ahwas who died in al-Rida’. By Kauthar he means
kathir, for the former is derived from the latter. Al-Kumayt b. Zayd said
in praise of Hisham b. ’Abdu’l-Malik b. Marwan:

You are kathir, O Ibn Marwan, good;

And your father, the son of noble women, was great {kauthar).
Umayya b. Abu ’A’idh al-Hudhall describing a wild ass said:

He protects his females when they run

And bray in clouds of dust as though covered with a cloth.

By kauthar he means a cloud of dust which he likens to horsecloths because
of its denseness.

1. i.e. Ja’far b. ’Amr b. Umayya al-Pamrl.

2. The following description of the apostle comes from 'Umar, freedman
   of Ghufra from Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. 'All b. Abu Talib. ‘All used to

1 It will be observed that Ibn Ishaq knows nothing about this poem which, especially
in its later verses, falls below the high standard of Arabic verse. For enlightened Arab
criticism see T* Ha Husayn, Fi'l-Adabi'l-Jahili, p. 258.

726 The Life of Muhammad

say when he described the apostle: ‘He was neither too tall nor unduly short
but of normal height; his hair was not too curly nor lank, but definitely curly;
his face was not fat nor rounded; it was white tinged with red; his eyes were
black, fringed with long lashes; he was firmly knit and broad shouldered;
the hair on his body was fine, thick on hands and feet. When he walked he
picked his feet up smartly as though he were going down hill, when he
turned he turned his whole body; between his shoulders was the seal of
prophecy, he being the seal of the prophets., He was the most generous of
men, the boldest, most veracious, most faithful to his undertaking; the
gentlest, with easy manners, the noblest in social intercourse. Those who
saw him for the first time were overcome with awe; those who knew him
well loved him. Neither before nor after him have I seen his like. God bless
and preserve himP

1. Add I. Su'ayd b. Sahm.

2. I have omitted a verse which is obscene.

3. Abu 'Ubayda told me that the woman who stood up in defence of
   Pirar was Umm Jamil; and since others say it was Umm Ghaylan, it may
   well be that both played their part with the other women who were there.
   When 'Umar came to power Umm Jamil came to him, for she thought that
   he was his brother and when her genealogy had been given he knew her
   story and said to her, ‘I am not his brother except in Islam. He is now on
   active service. I know how much he owes you.’ So he made her a gift as
   though she were a traveller. The narrator says: I.H. said, Dirar had met
   'Umar at the battle of Badr when he began to beat him with the flat of his
   sword saying, ‘Be off with you, I. al-Kha{tab, I will not kill you!’ 'Umar
   remembered this in his favour after he had become a Muslim. [This is a
   passage which W. relegated to his critical notes, but C. prints it without
   comment. The expression ‘The narrator ( rawi) said’ is unique in the Sira
   and therefore to be suspected; on the other hand, the story rings true.]

4. 'Abld b. al-Abras said:

News came to me from Tamlm that they

Were indignant and wrathful at the slain of 'Amir.

See Diwan of Abid, ed. Sir Charles Lyall, 1913, p. 16. Considerable un¬
certainty about the word dhairu prevails. [Commentators, ancient and
modem, differ. The reading of the Diwan and T. taghaddabu seems preferable
to C.’s ta'assabu .] W. has tas'a'abu, ‘found it hard to bear’.

1. Rabi'a b. 'Abbad is the correct form.

2. Al-Nabigha said:

As though you were a camel of the Banu Uqaysh
With an old skin rattling behind your legs

(to scare it into movement).

1. Firas b. 'Abdullah b. Salama b. Qushayr b. Ka'b b. Rabi'a b. 'Amir b.
   Sa'§a'a.

Ibn Hisham’s Notes

727

1. Afra’ was d. 'Ubayd b. Tha'laba b. Ghanm b. Malik b. al-Najjar.

2. Others say 'Amir b. al-Azraq.

3. Amr was Ibn Sawad. He had no son called Ghanm.

4. Dhakwan was an emigrant and a helper.

5. They were called Qawaqil because whenever anvone asked for their
   protection they used to say as they handed him an arrow, ‘Walk where
   you like in A athrib with it.’ Qauqala means a way of walking.

6. Tayyihan can be spelt Tayhan like mayyit and mayt.

7. Zafar’s name was Ka'b b. al-Harith b. al-Khazrai b. 'Amr b Malik
   b. al-Aus.

8. The two verses beginning ‘were it not’ and the last line were quoted
   to me by a man of the Ansar or a man of Khuza'a.

237 - Aun b. Ayyub al-Ansar! said:

To us belongs the man who was the first to pray
Facing the Rahman s Ka ba between the sacred sites,
meaning al-Bara’ b. Ma'rur.

1. Hadm can be read hadam, meaning sanctity; i.e. what is sacred to you
   is sacred to me and your ‘blood’ is my blood.

2. He was Ghanm b. 'Auf, brother of Salim b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf.

3. Though some say the last name should be b. Khunays.

24r. The learned number among them Abu’I-Haytham b. al-Tavyahan but
they do not include Rifa'a.

Kab b. Malik mentions them in the poem which Abu Zayd al-Ansarl
quoted to me:

Tell Ubayy that his opinion was false.

He died on the morning of the gully 1 and death is inevitable.

May God refuse what your soul desires.

He sees and hears as He watches the affairs of men.

Tell Abu Sufyan that there appeared to us
A shining light of God’s guidance in Ahmad.

Don t be too eager in gathering what you want,

But gather whatever you can.

Beware! Know that when the tribe gave their allegiance 2
They refused to allow you to break our covenant.

Both al-Bara and Ibn 'Amr refused,

As did also As'ad and Rafi'.

Sa'd al-Sa'idi refused and Mundhir
Would cut off your nose if you attempted it.

i.e. where fealty was sworn; t».r.

word?!' ''" h “ ' hCy f °"° W ' d af '“ ‘ he This is °f the forger's favourite

728

The Life of Muhammad

Ibn Rabf if you got his word

Would not surrender him. Let none hope for that.

Likewise Ibn Rawaha would not give him up to you.

He would rather drink deadly poison than perjure himself
In loyalty to him. And al-Qauqili b. $amit
Is far from doing what you propose.

Abu Haytham also was faithful,

Bound by his word.

You cannot hope to get Ibn Hudayr’s help.

Why don’t you abandon your foolish error?

Sa'd the brother of 'Amr b. 'Auf
Is utterly opposed to your suggestion.

These are stars which will bring you ill fortune
When they rise in the darkness of the night.

Thus Ka’b mentions Abu’l-Haytham among them, but he passes over
Rifa'a.

1. Salul was a woman of Khuza’a named Umm Ubayy b. Malik b. al-
   Harith b. 'Ubayd b. Malik b. Salim b. Ghanm b. 'Auf b. al-Khazraj.

2. The name is also written I. Uzayb.

3. The man who took pity on him w r as Abu’l-Bakhtari b. Hisham.

244a. For kdnat hariyyan some say kdna haqlqan.

1. The name is sometimes spelt Za’aura’.

2. 1 . 1 . relates him to B. 'Amr b. c Auf, but he was of B. Ghanm b. al-
   Salm. It often happens that when a man lives among a tribe he is supposed
   to be related to them.

3. Or Umayya b. al-Bark.

4. Or Rifa’a b. al-Harith b. Sawad.

5. Hudayla was d, Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Habib b. Abdu Haritha b.
   Malik b. Ghadb b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj.

6. The genealogy of Ghaziya should be Ghazlya b. Amr b. Atiya b.
   Khansa’.

7. Some say Wadfa.

8. Some spell the name Jabbar.

9. $ayfl was I. Asw^ad b. 'Abbad b. ’Amr b. Ghanm b. Sawad. Sawad had
   no son called Ghanm.

10. 'Umayr was the son of al-Harith b. Labda b. Tha Iaba.

11. The Aus referred to above was I. ’Abbad b. ’Adly b. Ka b b. Amr b.
    Udhan b. Sa’d. (For Udhan W. has Udayy.)

12. His ancestor Ghanm b. ’Auf was the brother of Salim b. ’Auf b. 'Amr
    b. 'Auf.

Ibn Hisham’s Notes

729

1. al-Hubla was Salim b. Ghanm b. 'Auf and he got the name from his
   big belly. [See S. in loci]

2. Rifa’a was the son of Malik b. al-Walld b. ’Abdullah b. Malik b.
   Tha’laba b. Jusham b. Malik b. Salim.

3. al-Mundhir was the son of ’Amr b. Khanash.

4. This verse really comes from an ode of Abu Du’ad al-Iyadi. The
   word hub means ‘painful distress’. Some manuscripts add ‘in another context
   “need” is the meaning; the word also means “sin”’.

5. The word quit means ‘one’, as in the line of Labid b. Rabi’a:

The fate of every freeborn man is one
However many they be.

{Dxwdn, Chalidi, 19.)

1. Others say Humayra.

2. The words ‘anywhere but to Yathrib’ and ‘when friendship is lacking’
   are not from I,I. By idh he means idha ‘when’ as in the word of Allah
   (Sura 34. 30) ‘Idh the sinners are stationed before their Lord’. Abu Najm
   al-’Ijll said:

Then may God reward him for us when He awards
The gardens of Eden in highest heaven.

1. One I can trust told me that the apostle said when he was in Medina: ‘Who
   will bring me ‘Ayyash and Hisham?’ Al-Walld b. al-Walld b. a!-Mughira
   volunteered to do so and came to Mecca secretly. He met a woman carrying
   some food and asked her w r here she was going. She said that she was going
   to two prisoners, and he followed her so that he could learn where they were.
   He found that they were in a house which had no roof, and when night fell
   he climbed the wall; then he took a stone and put it under their fetters and
   cut them through with a stroke of his sword. For this reason his sword was
   called ‘the stone-cutter’. Then he mounted them on his camel and led them
   away. He stumbled and cut his toe and said:

You are naught but a toe that bled.

This has happened to you in the way of Allah.

Then he took them to the apostle in Medina. [W. ascribes this passage to
1.1. himself.]

1. Abu Khauli belonged to B, ’Ijl b. Lujaym b. Sa’b b. ’All b. Bakr b.
   Wa’il.

2. It was mentioned to me that Abu 'Lehman al-Nahdi said that he had
   heard that when Suhayb wanted to emigrate the unbelieving Quraysh said,
   ‘You came to us a penniless beggar and have acquired wealth among us,
   and then you think that you can go off with your money. By God, that shall
   not be!’ However, Suhayb was so eager to be off that he made his money
   over to them, and when the apostle heard of it he exclaimed twice: ‘Suhayb
   has made a profit!’

The Life of Muhammad

73 °

1. Or Hu$ayn.

268 Salim was the former slave of Thubayta d. Ya ar b. Zayd b. 'Ubayd b.
Zayd b. Malik b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf b. Malik b. al-Aus. When she freed
him he was attached to Abu Hudhayfa, who adopted him. Others call him
Salim freedman of Abu Hudhayfa; and it is said that Thubayta was the
wife of the latter and that she freed him and so he got the name of Abu
•Hudhayfa s freedman.

1. Manun means ‘death’; raybu'l-manun means its dread and its occurrence
   as in the line of Abu Dhu’ayb al-Hudhall:

Are you distressed at the thought of death and its occurrence?

Fate does not excuse those who fear.

1. A learned traditionist told me that al-Hasan b. Abu’l-Hasan al-Basri
   said that when they came to the cave at night Abu Bakr went in and searched
   it to see if it harboured wild beasts or snakes, guarding the apostle with his
   own life.

Z l 1 '. I , have heard more than one learned traditionist say ‘She of the two
girdles , the explanation being that when she wanted to fasten on the bag

she tore her girdle in two, using one piece as a rope and the other as her
girdle.

1. Umm Ma r bad belonged to B. Ka'b of Khuza'a. The words ‘who

m ? e UVO tCntS ’ and ‘ they came with g°od intent and went off at
nightfall do not come from 1.1 [However, T. (1240-1) who often ignores
. . s verses quotes these lines with a few variations as does I.S. 156. 17.]

273 • Others say Abdullah b. Urayqrf,

1. 'Abdu’l-Rahman was I. al-Harith b. Malik b. Ju'shum.

2. Others say Lift, as in the line of Ma r qil b. Khuwaylid al-Hudhall:

A stranger from the people of Lift drawing milk
For a clan between Athla and Niham.

1. Or Mijaj.

2. Or al-'Adwayn.

3. Or al-'Ababib or al-Tthyana which means al-'Ababib.

279- Or al-Qaha.

1. Or al-Gha’ir.

2. This is no rajaz but bald prose. [Few will be found to dispute this
   statement!]

3. I asked more than one authority on poetry about this rajaz and all they
   would say was that they had heard that 'AH composed it, but it was not
   known whether he had or not.

Ibn Hisham’s Notes 731

1. The mufrah is one burdened with debt and a large family as the poet
   says:

If you never return what has been left in your care
And take charge of more property the trust-money will make you a
pauper.

1. Another version is ‘in beneficent loyalty’. Yutigh means ‘to destroy’ or
   ‘ruin’.

2. Ja'far at that time was absent in Abyssinia.

3. I have heard more than one learned person say that Abu Dharr was
   Jundub b. Junada.

4. Some say 'Uwaymir was the son of 'Amir or of Zayd.

5. I. Jurayj mentioned that 'Ata’ said to him: ‘I heard 'Ubayd b. 'Umayr
   al-Laythl say: The prophet and his companions had conferred about a
   clapper for summoning to prayer and while 'Umar was intending to buy
   two pieces of wood for the clapper he heard in his sleep a voice saying,
   “Don’t make a clapper but call to prayer’’. So he went to the apostle to tell
   him of what he had seen and the prophet himself had actually had a revela¬
   tion of it. 'Umar had hardly got back to his house when Bilal was calling.
   When he told the apostle of this he said, “Revelation got before you!” ’

6. His full name was Abu Qays $irma b. Abu Anas b. §irma b. Malik
   b. 'Adly b. 'Amir b. Ghanm b. 'Adiy b. al-Najjar.

7. There is a variant farfuduhumu for farfiquhumu.

8. The line beginning ‘Go where you will’ and the following verse are the
   work of LTfnun al-Taghlibl who was §uraym b. Ma'shar. 1

9. Or Lusayt.

10. Or I. £)ayf.

11. Or Azar b. Azar.

12. Alim means ‘painful’. Describing camels Dhu’l-Rumma said:

We urge on the tall camels

While the painful heat of noon smites them in the face. [Ditvan lxxvi. 16.]

1. al-Mujadhdhar had killed Suwayd b. $amit in one of the engagements
   between Aus and Khazraj, and at Uhud al-Harith sought to take al-Mujadh-
   dhar unawares to kill him in revenge for his father. It was only this man
   that he killed. I have heard more than one learned traditionist say this. The
   proof that he did not kill Qays b. Zayd is that 1 . 1 . does not mention him
   among those that died at Uhud.

2. Mu'attib b. Qushayr and Tha'laba and al-Harith, the two sons of
   Hapb of B. Umayya b. Zayd, were at Badr and were not hypocrites, according

1 Hirschfeld included this poem in fiassan’s Diwan. Cf. No. xix and H.’s note on p. 41.

73 2 The Life of Muhammad

to what a trustworthy traditionist told me. 1 . 1 . himself includes Tha'laba
and al-Harith among the B. Umayya who were at Badr.

1. i.e. 'Amr b. Malik b. al-Aus.

2. 'Aura means ‘open to the enemy and abandoned’, plural 'aurdt. Al-
   Nabigha al-Dhubyanl said:

When you meet them you don’t find a house exposed to attack.

The guest is not forbidden and nothing is neglected.

'Aura also means a man’s wife, and also the pudenda.

1. Adrajak means ‘Go back by the way you came’, as in the words of the
   poet:

He went back and retraced his steps
And he who was there behaved unjustly.

1. Ladm means ‘a blow with the clenched fist’. Tamlm b. Ubayy b.
   Muqbil said:

The heart pounded beneath its arteries

Like the thump of a stone which a boy throws into soft ground.

Ghayb means ‘low ground’. Abhar are the arteries of the heart.

1. Sa'ida b. Ju'ayya al-Hudhall said:

They said, We saw people standing round him.

There was no doubt that a man had been killed there.

Rayb also means ‘suspicion’, as in the line of Khalid b. Zuhayr al-
HudhalT:

As though I suspected him.

He was the son of the brother of Abu Dhu'ayb al-Hudhall.

1. ' Amiha means ‘bewildered’. The Arabs say a man is 'amih and 'dmih.
   Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj describing a country said:

The blindest guidance is from the ignorant in perplexity.

Plural of ' amih is 'ummah, and plural of 'amih is r amihun fern. ' amiha and
'amhd

1. Sayyib means rain from sdba, yasubu, like sayyid from sada, yasudu
   and mayyit from mata, yamutu. Plural saya’ib. 'Alqama b. 'Abada, one of
   B. Rabi'a b. Malik b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim, said:

When the clouds poured down on them

They were like birds creeping about in terror of the thunder,
and the line:

Do not think me an inexperienced wight.

May rains refresh you wherever they fall.

1. Andad means ‘the like things’; singular nidd. Labld b. Rabi'a said:

Praise God who has no rival.

In His hands is good: what He walls He does.

Jbn Hishdm's Notes 733

1. Jahra means ‘so that we can see clearly with nothing to conceal Him
   from us’. Abu’l-Akhzar al-Humanl, named Qutryba, said:

Making plainly visible the midst of the w-aters w hich w as covered w ith
sand.

Here yajharu means ‘bringing the water to light and clearing away from it
the sand and other matter which was hiding it’.

1. Mann is something which fell on their trees in the early morning and
   they used to gather it; it is sweet like honey. They both ate and drank of it.
   al-A'sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba said:

If they were given manna and quails to eat on the ground
A man would never see good food among them!

Salzva are birds, singular salwat ; another name for them is sumdrta. Honey,
too, is called salzva. Khalid b. Zuhayr al-Hudhall said:

He swore to them, By God it’s true,

You’re sweeter than honey fresh from the comb.

Hitfa means 'Remove our sins from us’.

1. The tradition appears in a slightly different form w'ith hinta for hint
   and sha'tra for shalr.

2. Fum is wheat. Umayya b. Abu’l-§alt al-Thaqafl said:

On large dishes like cisterns there w'ere
Pieces like silver among the pure w r heat.

Wadhil means pieces of silver and fum is flour; singular fuma.

1. Ilia amdnlya means ‘except reciting’ because the ummi is one who
   can recite but cannot write. He says that they do not know how to write but
   they can read a book. I.H. said on the authority of Abu 'Ubayda and Yunus
   that they interpreted what God says to refer to the Arabs. Abu 'Ubayda
   told me about that. Yunus b. Habib the grammarian and Abu 'Ubayda told
   me that the Arabs say tamanna in the sense of ‘he recited’ and in the Quran
   w r e find ‘We never sent an apostle or a prophet before thee but when he
   recited Satan cast (something) into his recitations’ (Sura 22. 51). [As the
   sequel shows, this could mean: ‘w'hen he desired something Satan cast
   something into his desire.’] Abu 'Ubayda the grammarian quoted to me;

He recited God’s book at the beginning of the night
And at the end of it death claimed him.

and also:

He recited God’s book at night alone
As David recited the psalms at his ease.

The singular of amdni is umniya; amdni can also mean a man’s desire for
wealth and other things. [There is no real distinction between reading and
reciting. Right down to the Middle Ages it w ; as a matter of surprise if a
man was able to read a text without forming the words with his lips and so
reciting it.]

734 77 ze Life of Muhammad

1. Safaka means ‘pour out’. The Arabs say ‘he shed his blood’ and ‘he
   poured out wine’. The poet says:

Whenever a guest comes into our land

We shed the blood of the victims in the dusty earth.

By fyal is meant clay mingled with sand which the Arabs call sahla. The
word occurs in a hadith : when Pharaoh said ‘I believe that there is no God
but He in whom the children of Israel believe’ Gabriel took some river mud
and slime and threw it in his face. Hal is like ham a.

1. Bau bi-ghadabin means ‘they admitted it and bore it’. A'sha of B.
   Qays b. Tha'laba said:

I will befriend you until you do the same again

Like the cry of the woman in travail whom the midwife helps.

[This line has been quoted on W. 199, q.v.] Yassaratha means ‘made
her sit down to bring forth’.

1. Shafun means ‘shoots’, singular shafatun. The Arabs say qad ashfa'a
   al-zaru, ‘the seed has sprouted’ when it has put forth its shoots. Azara
   means ‘strengthened’. That which preceded it is like mothers. [Because he
   has explained ‘shoots’ by firakh which could mean ‘chicks’.] Imru’ul-Qays
   b. Hujr al-Kindl said:

On a slope whose herbage equalled 1 the lote trees
The track of conquering and defeated armies.

Humayd b. Malik b. al-Arqat one of B. Rabfa b. Malik said:

Seed produce and clover whose herbage is matted and strong.

Suq without hamza is plural of saq, the stem of a plant.

1. Sazvaun means the middle (of the path), as in the lines of Hassan b.
   Thabit:

Alas for the prophet’s helpers and family
After he was concealed in the middle of the grave!

1. Shatra means ‘towards’. 'Amr b. Ahmar al-Bahill (Bahila was the son
   of Ya r sur b. Sa'd b. Qays b. 'Aylan) describing his camel, said:

She takes us towards Jam' tucking her tail between her legs,

Her tail nearly reaches her girth.

Qays b. Khuwaylid al-Hudhali, also describing his camel, said:

The sluggish ( v.l. untrained) camel has an all-pervading disease
One looks at her with a tired eye.

Na'us is his camel; she had a disease and he looked at her with a tired eye
The word occurs in Sura 67. 4.

1. Rabbdmyun are the learned, the lawyers, and the chiefs. The singular
   is rabbdnl. A poet said:

Were I living as a monk in a cell

Her voice would have enticed me forth and the most learned of them
too!

1 Lane, 52 b, c, indicates that ‘engirdled’ is a possible meaning.

I bn Hisham's Notes

735

Qus means a monk’s cell; aftanani is the dialect of Tamfm, fatanani being
the dialect of Qays. Jarir said:

There’s no union when Hind departs. Had she stayed

She would have entertained me and the cassocked one within his cell.

i.e. the monk’s cell. Rabbdni is derived from rabb which means ‘master’.
In God s book you find ‘He gave his master wine to drink’ (12. 41), -where
rabb means ‘master’.

1. Abu Qays b. al-Aslat said:

I was pained at the loss of a doughty defender.

A permanent grief afflicted me.

Though you killed him, a

Sharp sword has bitten into 'Amr’s head.

The story of Bu ath is too long to go into here for the reasons which I have
given above. Sanln is the same as masnun from sannahu, ‘he sharpened it’.

^e ana of the night are the hours, the singular being inyun. Al-
Mutanakhkhil al-Hudhali whose name was Malik b. 'Uwaymir said be¬
wailing the loss of his son Uthayla:

Sweet and bitter was his nature like the shuffling of gaming arrows.

At any hour the night demanded he stood ready shod.

Labid b. Rabfa describing a wild ass said:

Throughout the day he is as excited as though he were a misguided
fellow

Whom a boon-companion had given wine among the wine sellers.

According to what Yunus told me you can say inan with alif maqsura.
[S. points out that inan is used in the Quran.]

3 I 9 - means to rub off and make level so that eye, nose, mouth, and

everything that made up the face is no more to be seen; similarly ‘We
blotted out their eyes’ (Sura 54. 37), the effaced of eye with no gap between
his eyelids; and you can say ‘t erased the writing and the mark’ so that nothing
can be seen of it. Al-Akh^al whose name was al-Ghauth b. Hubayra b.
al-§alt al-Taghlibi, describing a camel he had tried hardly, said:

We gave her the hard task of going to every distant well whose mark was
obliterated

Where you can see the chameleons writhing in the heat. (Akhtal 7. 5.)

Smva in the singular is stiwzva, which means a mark to indicate a road or a
waterhole. He says that it was rubbed off and made level with the ground so
that there was nothing showing above the soil.

1. al-Jibt among the Arabs means whatever is worshipped other than
   God. faghut means everything that leads away from the truth; plural
   jubut and fawdghit. I was told that Abu Najlh said that jibt means sorcery
   and faghut Satan.

2. This paragraph is what 1 .1. said: w r hat follows continues the preceding
   hadith.

736 The Life of Muhammad

1. Ayydna means ‘when’, as in the line of Qays b. al-Hudadlya al-
   Khuza'i:

With a secret that we shared I came

To ask her when he who was away would return.

Mursaha means ‘end’ and the plural is mardsin. Al-Kumayt b. Zayd al-
Asadl said:

And those who found the door w'hich others missed
The haven of the principles of Islam. ( Agh . xv. 123. 26.)

The mursa of a ship is where it comes to rest. Hafiyun 'anhd comes in a
sentence in which the order is inverted. He says: ‘They will ask you about it
as though you would favour them,’ i.e. tell them what you will not tell any¬
one else. Al-liafiy means ‘the kind, the considerate’, and in God’s book
‘Verily He is gracious to me’ (19. 48). The plural is ahfiya. A'sha of B.
Qays b. Tha'laba said:

If you ask about me, many a one asks about A'sha,

Where has he gone ? Good friends that they are.

Hafiy also means al-mustahfi, the one who exceeds all bounds in asking
questions.

1. Yudahuna means they imitate their speech, the speech of the infidels.
   If you say something and someone says the same thing he copies ( yuddhi )
   you.

2. %ahir means ‘help’. The Arabs say tazaharu 'alayhi, i.e. they helped
   one another against him. The poet said:

O namesake of the prophet, you were a support to religion
And a help to the imam.

The plural is zuhara ’.

1. al-samad means one on whom one depends and in whom one takes
   refuge. Hind d. Ma'bad b. Nadia mourning 'Amr b. Mas'ud and Khalid
   b. Nadia her two uncles the Asadites (they were killed by al-Nu'man b.
   al-Mundhir al-Lakhmi and he built the two standing stones which are in
   Kufa over them) said:

One came early to tell me of the death of the two best of Asad,

'Amr b. Mas'ud and the dependable chief {al-samad),

[The meaning of this word is most obscure and commentators on the
Quran differ widely. The Ghariyan were two standing stones which were
smeared with the blood of the victims sacrificed there. See W. R. Smith,
RS. 157, 201, 210 and the literature cited there. For the present-day
survival of the rite see Frey a Stark, A Winter in Arabia, London, 1940, 153.]

1. Others say Kurz.

2. I have heard that the chiefs of Najrah used to inherit books from their
   predecessors. Whenever one chief died and authority passed to his successor
   he would seal those books with the seals that were before his time and not

I bn Hishdm’s Notes

737

andsturruJledand'his’sons^d GM^ 7 ^n 7 so s b umble’ bet, T ^

became a good Muslim and went on pilgrima^Twaf htwho^d: ° “

To you she runs with loosened girth,

Her foal ’tis clear soon comes to birth.

The Christians’ faith she scorns its worth.

Wadin means a camel’s girth. Hisham b. 'Urwa said that the aa j

the second line; but Abu 'Ubayda quoted i, " L pface ^ $

1. Kajfalahd means ‘he topk her to himself’.

129 Aqtamahum means their arrows by which they cast lots for her
Abu-l.«asa S na;.Ba7rts°aW. and * t0 ° k “'«> what al-PIasan b!

33 °. al-akmah is one who is born blind. Ru'ba b. al-'Ajjaj said:

I cried out and it withdrew as a blind man does.

Plural kumh. Harrajtu means 'I cried out at the lion and threatened it'.

Qaystdd: Ubayda ^ meanS ' let us invoke a curse ’- A'sha «f B.

Don t sit down when you have kindled the fire of war

Praying for protection from its evil when it comes and cursing loudly.

He means "\v‘ & ri bu * context < see D ‘ u ' dn «■ Sa) shows that W. is right 1

"iThTcuZ ZNZ “ Tke i 4rabs sa y God someone i.e

T . h,m ■ and on him be the bahla of God' or buhla, i e the curse

t N h "'J h0 means 7 be earnest in prayer ' [•' w °uld seem more natural
to adopt this meaning here in spite of I.H.] 1

332 . There is a variant reading mdlun for nakhlun.

333 - Muzaham is the name of a fort.

334 - The second verse has not I.I.’s authority.

335 - By his tauq he means his pdqa (might).

336 ‘ Shama and Tafil are two mountains in Mecca.

337 - He left Sa d b, 'Ubada in charge of Medina.

338 . This was the first of his raids.

Mfkrazb 4 H a fi 5 A h lr i b Al. a i!T lr fr ° m Ab ° Amr a| -Madani told me that
‘kraz b. Hafs b. al-Akhyaf, one of B. Ma'is b. 'Amir b. Lu'ayy b Ghalib
b. Fihr, was in command of them. ^natib

340 . Most authorities on poetry deny that this ode is from Abu Bakr.

3 B

B 4080

The Life of Muhammad

34,. I have omitted one verse. Most authorities on poetry deny that I.
Ziba'ra was the author of this ode.

342 . Most authorities on poetry deny that Sa'd wrote this verse.

343 Most authorities deny that this is Hamza's verse.

1. Most authorities deny that Abu Jah. was the author.

2. He put al-Sa'ib b. 'Uthman b. Ma ? 'un m eharge of Medina.

34 6 He put Abu Salama 'Abdu'l-Asad in charge of Medina.

347 . Some traditions say that this took place after Hamza was sent.

1. He left Zayd b. Haritha in charge of Medina.

'Ahdnllah b 'Abbad or according to others Mali •
■Tbbator^T-Stdr. name was 'Amr b. Malik, one of al-
Sakun b. Ashras b. Kinda or Kindi.

and al-Hakam b. Kaysan were their first prisoners.

1. The verses come from 'Abdullah b. Jahsh.

2. Or Hashim.

353 . Furafir elsewhere means ‘a ^ ete ™ in ^ n ^applied to a buck or the

'Ayhab means ‘without intelligence , an ^ wea k t o exact vengeance.

^{^’“e}en ZyHab and Most of this useful

note is lacking in W.]

Lubkba from al-Rauha to take command in Medina.

1. It was w r hite.

2. The Ansar’s flag was with Sad b. Mu adh.

3. Dhatu’l-Jaysh.

4. The word ?abya is not from 1 . 1 .

5. Said to be Abu Bakr.

6. The old man’s name was Sufyan al-Pamn.

7. The last two lines come from more than one razvl.

NahTllt

Zayd Manat b. Tamim.

1. Getting it ready.

Ihn Hi sham's Notes

739

1. Sakr is the lungs together with the parts above the navel adjoining
   the windpipe; w r hat is below the navel is called qusb, as in the prophet’s
   saying related to me by Abu 'Ubayda: I saw 'Amr b. Luhayy dragging his
   guts (qusb) in hell fire.

2. According to some Sawwad. Sawad of the Ansar was another man.

3. Another reading is mustansil.

4. Others read la uljimannahu, T will strike his jaw with my sword’.

5. al-mari is not from 1 . 1 . It means a camel whose milk is drawn with
   difficulty.

6. Abu’l-Bakhtarl was al-'As b. Hisham b. al-Harith b. Asad.

7. By ‘milk’ he meant ‘I shall redeem myself from my captors with camels
   rich in milk’.

8. A learned traditionist told me that 'Al! said: ‘Turbans are the crowns
   of the Arabs. The mark of the angels at-Badr was white turbans flowing
   freely behind them except Gabriel who wore a yellow turban,’

9. The war-cry of the apostle’s companions that day was ‘One! One!’

10. Haraja means ‘thickly matted growth’. There is a tradition that
    'Umar asked a Badu what the word meant and he said that it was a kind of
    growth which could not be penetrated.

11. Dabatha means ‘to clutch and hold someone’. Dabi’ b. al-Harith
    al-Burjuml said:

Because of the love between me and you

I’ve become like one who holds water in his hand,

Others said that he said: ‘Is it a disgrace for a man to be killed by you?’
Then he asked for tidings of the battle.

1. Abu 'Ubayda and others of those learned in the wars told me that
   'Umar said to Sa'id b. al-'As when he passed him: ‘Methinks you’ve some¬
   thing on your mind. You are thinking that I killed your father. Had I
   killed him I should not apologize to you for having done so. As a matter of
   fact I killed my maternal uncle al-'As b. Hisham b. al-Mughlra. I passed
   by your father as he w r as tearing up the ground as an ox does with his horn
   and I turned to one side. It was his cousin 'All who went for him and killed
   him.’

2. Hibal b. Tulayha and Thabit b. Aqrarrt al-An$ari.

3. Abu Bakr called his son 'Abdu’l-Rahman who was at that time among
   the polytheists saying, ‘Where is my property' you rascal?’ And he replied:

Save weapons and horses nothing is left
But a sword to slay a senseless old dolt!

1. His name was fjudayy b. 'Ajlan.

740 The Life of Muhammad

1. Said to have been 'Adiy b. Abu’I-Zaghba’.

2. al-mald means the nobles and chiefs.

3. The name of this place is not mentioned by 1 . 1 .

4. It is said that "All killed him. Al-Zuhri and other traditionists told
   me so.

5. Hamit means a ziqq.

6. Abu f AzIz was the standard-bearer of the polytheists at Badr after
   al-Nadr, and when his brother Mu$'ab said these words to Abu’l-Yasar
   who bad captured him he said, ‘Brother, is this the sort of advice you give
   about me?’ Mus'ab answered, ‘He is now my brother in your place.’ His
   mother asked what was the most that was paid to redeem a QurashI, and
   when she was told that it w T as 4,000 dirhams she sent the money and re¬
   deemed him.

7. Abu Sufyan’s name was al-Mughfra.

8. Here is an example of faulty rhyming known as iqwa which is often
   found in their verse. We call it ikfa. I have omitted some better known
   lines that occur in I.I.’s narrative.

9. Some authorities on poetry deny that these lines are Ibn Dukhshum’s.

10. I shall mention the tradition about that stand later, God willing.

11. Some authorities on poetry deny the authenticity of these lines.

12. 'Amr’s mother was d. Abu f Amr and the sister of Abu Mu'ayt b.
    Abu 'Amr.

13. 'All had captured him.

14. Khirash b. al-§imma, one of B, Haram, had captured him.

15. It was Abu Khaythama.

16. Another reading is ‘a shirt of fire’.

17. Abu Sufyan’s sworn friend who is referred to here was 'Uqba b.
    'Abdu’ldHarith b. al-Hadrami. As for 'Amir b. al-Hadrami, he w r as slain
    at Badr.

18. 1 . 1 . has named the man in his account as Nafi' b. 'Abdu Qays.

19. Abu 'Ubayda told me that when Abu’l-'As came from Syria with the
    property of the polytheists he was asked if he would like to become a Muslim
    and take the property because it belonged to polytheists. He answered: ‘It
    would be a bad beginning to my Islam if I were to betray my trust.’ 'Abdu’l-
    Warith b. Sa'id al-Tannuri from Da’ud b. Abu Hind from 'Amir al-Sha'bl
    told me the same thing as Abu 'Ubayda about Abu’l-'As.

20. Khalid b. Zayd Abu Ayyub al-Ansarf, brother of B. al-Najjar, had
    captured him.

Ibn His ham’s Notes

74 1

399 . The ransom of the polytheists was fixed at 4,000 dirhams per man
freely h ^ ° ff Wlth I,00 °- Those who had nothing the apostle released

1. Rifa'a b. Rafi', one of B. Zurayq, captured him.

401- Nakasa means ‘returned’. Aus b. Hajar, one of B. Usayd b 'Amr b
iamim, said:

You turned on your heels the day you came
Leading away the spoils of a large army.

[In W.’s text this line reads:

Y °u turned on your heels then you came (on)

Hoping for the spoils &c.]

1. Abu Zayd a!-An ? ari quoted to me the line ‘When he came to them
   noble or race .

2. Others say al-Nadr b. al-Harith b. 'Alqama b. Kalda.

404- the names of The horses of the Muslims at badr

A learned person told me that at Badr the Muslims had the following horses:
AT belongmg to Marthad . . . al-GhanawI; Ba'zaja belonging to al-
iq a b. Amr al-Bah rani (others say its name was Sabha); al-Ya'sub

horses *° 3 ’ Zubayr b ’ The polytheists had one hundred

1. Muka means whistling and tasdiya means clapping.

Antara b. 'Amr b. Shaddad al-'AbsI said:

Many an equal have I left on the ground

His blood whistling in his throat like a camel’s breath

A.!£Z^ * *>“ — 1 ^ whistling.

When it is frightened it stamps its feet and stands listening
In a safe distant refuge of the two mountains of Ibna Shamam.

He is speaking of the mountain goat which when frightened stamps on the
rock with its feet, and then stands still and listens. Its stamping on the rock
a -es a noise like clapping. Musddn means a safe refuge. Ibna Shamam are
two mountains. [No. 47, line 3 8, in Krenkow’s edition.]

1. Ankal means fetters, singular nikl. Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj said;

My fetters will keep you from wanting any other fetters.

1. is an alteration of the word that I.I. wrote which I have

waw wit r htt! R <th f L WOrd Whavwafa) is written ta, kha,

T H ’ J at h a - It is said that takhawwaftu was written originally and that

' H K C M rC K d U be . CaUSe 11 1S the wron £ way to speak of God.’ This seems

the mout^Trod in , ^ SeCtl ° n LL VCntUreS t0 P Ut word s into

e mouth of God when explaining the meaning of this sura. W. reads

yatakhaivzvafu (or the corresponding passive); C.’s reading seems preferable ]

Ibn Hishdms Notes

742 The Life of Muhammad

1. The explanation of this passage has already been given.

2. jfanahu lilsalm. means ‘they inclined to peace’. Al-junuh is ‘declining’.
   Labld b. Rabfa said:

The bending of the polisher over his hands
Stooping to find the rust on the arrow-heads.

He means the polisher who bends over his work. Nuqab means ‘rust’ on a
sword; yajtali means polishing a sword. Salm also means ‘peace’, and in
the book of God ‘Be not weak and call to peace when you have the upper
hand’. 1 It is also read as silm with the same meaning. Zuhayr b. Abu Sulma
said:

You said if we can possibly attain peace
By money and good words we will make peace. 2

I was told that al-Hasan b. Abu’l-Hasan al-Basri said that ‘and if they incline
to salm' meant Islam; and in the book of God ‘O you who believe enter into
silm all of you’ can be read as ‘into salm' which is Islam. Umayya b. Abu’l-
$alt said:

They did not come back to salm when God’s apostles
Warned them, and they were not supporters of it.

The Arabs call a long bucket a salm . Tarafa b. al-‘Abd, one of B. Qays b.
Tha'laba, describing a she-camel of his, said:

Her two forelegs are splayed as though

She was borne down by the weight of two buckets.

There is a variant reading dalijd

1. Zayd b. Haritha b. Shurahbll b. Ka‘b b. ‘Abdu’l-'Uzza b. Imru’u’l-
   Qays b. ‘Amir b. al-Nu‘man b. ‘Amir b. ‘Abdu Wudd b. ‘Auf b. Kinana b.
   Bakr b. ‘Auf b. ‘Udhra b. Zaydullah b. Rufayda b. Thaur b. Ka'b b.
   Wabra.

2. Anasa was an Abyssinian and Abu Kabsha a Persian.

3. Kannaz b. Husayn.

4. Abu Hudhayfa’s name was Mihsham; and Salim a freed slave of
   Thubayta d. Ya'ar b. Zayd b. ‘Ubayd b. Zayd b. Malik b. ‘Auf b. 'Amr b.
   ‘Auf b. Malik b. Aus. She set him free and he was attached to Abu Hudhayfa,
   who adopted him as a son. It is said that Thubayta d. Ya‘ar was the wife of
   Abu Hudhayfa and she freed Salim. Others say he was Abu Hudhayfa’s
   freedman.

5. Midlaj.

6. Abu MakhshI was a Ta’iy, his name being Suwayd b. Makhshi.

1 2. 204.

2 Lyall, Ten Ancient Arabic Poems , Calcutta, 1894, p. 58, 1 . 9,

3 Op. cit., p. 35, 1 . 21, shows that this is the true reading. The dalij is the man who
carries two large buckets from well to cistern holding them away from his body to avoid
wetting his clothes. In this attitude his arms remind the poet of the widespread legs of his
camel.

743

1. Abu Balta‘a’s name was ‘Amr, a Lakhmite; his freedman Sa'd was a
   Kalbite.

2. Others say Hazl b. Qas b. Dharr.

3. Al-Qara is their nickname as in the line:

Those who compete in archery with the Qara will have been fair to them.
They were great bowmen.

1. He was called Dhu’I-Shimalayn because he was ambidextrous; his
   name was ‘Umavr,

2. Khabbab belonged to B. Tamlm and has descendants in Kufa; others
   say that he belonged to Khuza'a.

3. His real name was ‘Abdullah; he was nicknamed ‘Atiq because he was
   so handsome.

4. He too was born a slave among the Asd. He was a black whom Abu
   Bakr bought from them.

5. Al-Namr was the son of Qasit b. Hinb b. Af$a b, Jadlla b. Asad b.
   Rabfa b. Nizar; others say Afsa b. Du‘rru b. Jadila b. Asad b. Rabfa b.
   Nizar. It is said that $uhayb was the freedman of ‘Abdullah b. Jud'an b.
   'Amr b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Taym and that he was a Ruml. Those who say that
   he belonged to al-Namr maintain that he was merely a prisoner among the
   Byzantines and that he was bought from them (i.e. ransomed). However,
   there is a tradition that the prophet said ‘Suhayb is the first-fruits of Byzan¬
   tium’.

6. Shammas’s name was ‘Uthman; he was called Shammas for the reason
   that a Shammas came to Mecca in pagan times, a man so handsome as to
   excite general admiration. ‘Utba b. Rabfa, who was the maternal uncle of
   Shammas, said, ‘I will bring you a Shammas who is more handsome than
   he’, and he brought his nephew ‘Uthman b. ‘Uthman. Thus he was called
   Shammas according to what Ibn Shihab and others told me. [This is a
   repetition of what I.H. has already said on W., p. 212.]

7. The latter was an ‘Ansi of Madhhij.

8. Mihja‘ was from ‘Akk b. ‘Adnan.

9. Abu Khauli was of B. 'Ijl b. Lujaym b. §a'b b. ‘All b. Bakr b. Wa’il.

10. ‘Anaz b. Wa’il was b. Qasit b. Hinb b. Afsa b. Jadlla b. Asad b. Rabfa
    b. Nizar; others say Afsa was b. Du'ml b. Jadila.

11. Sa'd b. Khaula came from the Yaman.

12. Many learned men other than 1 . 1 . mention among the emigrants at
    Badr: of B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy, Wahb b. Sa'd b. Abu Sarh and Hapb b. ‘Amr;
    and of B. al-Harith b. Fihr, ‘Iyad b. Abu Zuhayr.

13. Or Za'wara.

744 The Life of Muhammad

1. Aslam was the son of Haris b. 'Adiy.

2. Others say 'Atlk b. al-Tayyahan.

3. 'Abdullah b. Sahl was the brother of B. Za'ura. Others say he belonged
   to Ghassan.

4. £afar was b. al-Khazraj b. 'Amr b. Malik b. al-Aus.

5. 'Ubayd w r as called Muqarrin because he bound four prisoners to¬
   gether at Badr. It was he who captured 'Aqil b. Abu Xalib.

6. Others say his name was Mas'ud b. 'Abdu Sa'd.

7. 'Umayr b. Ma'bad is correct.

8. The latter was his mother’s name.

9. He sent them back from al-Rauha’. Hafib was b. 'Amr b. 'Ubayd b.
   Umayya, and Abu Lubaba’s name was Bashir.

10. He was b. Thabit b. al-Nu'man b. Umayya b. Imru’ul-Qays b.
    Tha'laba.

11. He was Abu Payyah’s brother, and it is said that his name was Abu
    Habba'. It is said that it was Imru’ul-Qays who was called al-Burak b.
    Tha'laba.

12. Others say Thabit was b. 'Amr b. Tha'laba.

13. Others say al-Haris b. Jahjaba.

14. Others say Tamim b. Irasha and Qismll b. Faran.

15. 'Arfaja was b. Ka'b b. al-Nahhat b. Ka'b b. Haritha b. Ghanm.

16. Tamim was the freedman of Sa'd b. Khaythama.

17. Others say Julas, but I regard that as wrong.

18. Others say Qays was b. 'Abasa b. Umayya.

450.. Fushum was his mother, wife of al-Qayn b. Jasr.

1. Sufyan b. Nasr b. 'Amr b. al-Harith b. Ka'b b. Zayd.

2. Others say 'Abdullah b. 'Umayr b. 'Adly b. Umayya b. Jidara.

3. Zayd was b. al-Murayy.

4. Salim b. Ghanm b. 'Auf got the name of Hubla from his big belly.
   455 - Others say 'Amr b. Salama. He was of Baliy of Qu<Ja'a.

5. Ma'bad was b. 'Ubada b. Qashghar b. al-Muqaddam; and it is said
   that 'Ubada was b. Qays b. al-Qudm.

6. 'Amir b. al-'Ukayr; others say 'A§im b. al-'Ukayr.

7. This is Ghanm b. 'Auf, brother of Salim b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b, 'Auf b.
   al-Khazraj, and Ghanm b. Salim preceded him according to 1 . 1 .

I bn Hisham's Notes

745

1. Another form of the name is Quryus.

2. His full name was Malik b. al-Dukhsham b. Malik b. al-Dukhsham b.
   Mardakha.

3. It is said that 'Amr b. Iyas was the brother of Rabi' and Waraqa,

4. She was their mother, their father being 'Amr b. 'Umara.

5. Others say Qasrb. Tamim b. Irasha and Qismil b. Faran. al-Mujadh-
   dhar’s name w r as 'Abdullah.

6. Others say Bahhath b. Tha'laba.

7. 'Utba b. Bahz from B. Sulaym.

8. He was Simak b. Aus b. Kharasha b. Laudhan b. 'Abdu Wudd b.
   Zayd b. Tha'laba.

9. It is said that al-Mundhir was b. 'Amr b. Khanbash.

10. Malik b. Mas'ud was b. al-Badiy according to some learned authorities.

11. It is said that Ka'b was b. Jammaz and was from Ghubshan.

12. Pamra and Ziyad were the sons of Bishr.

13. In all the above cases it was al-Jamuh b. Zayd b. Haram except for the
    grandfather of al-$imma b. 'Amr, w'ho was al-Jamuh b. Haram. 'Umayr b.
    al-Harith was b. Labda b. Tha'laba (is the name of the twelfth on the list).

14. It is said that Jabbar was b. §akhr b. Umayya b. Khunas.

15. Others say Buldhuma or Bulduma.

16. Others say Sawad was b. Rizn b. Zayd b. Tha'laba.

17. Others say Ma'bad b. Qays was b. $ayfl b. $akhr b. Haram b. Rabl'a.

18. Sawad had no son with the name Ghanm.

19. 'Antara was from B. Sulaym b. Mansur, then of B. Dhakwan.

20. Aus was b. 'Abbad b. 'Adly b. Ka'b b. 'Amr b. Udayy b. Sa'd. 1 . 1 .
    relates Mu'adh b. Jabal to B. Sawad because he lived with them; he was not
    of their stock.

21. 'Amir is said to be the son of al-Azraq.

22. Others say Qays b. Hisn.

23. His name should be spelt Busr.

24. OrWadfa.

25. Or Rukhayla.

26. Others say 'Ulayfa.

27. Others say 'Usayr or 'Ushayra.

-746 The Life of Muhammad

1. Haritha b. al-Nu'man was the son of Naf' b. Zayd.

2. Or r Abid.

3. She was d. 'Ubayd b. Tha'laba b. r Ubayd b. Tha'laba b. Ghanm b.
   Malik b. al-Najjar. It is said that Rifa'a was b. al-Harith b. Sawad.

4. Or Nu'ayman.

5. Abu’l-Hamra’ was the freedman of al-fjarith b. Rifa'a.

6. Hudayla was d. Malik b. Zaydullah b. Habib b. Abdu Haritha b. Malik
   b, Ghadb b. Jusham b. al-Khazraj and the mother of Mu'awiya b. 'Amr b.
   Malik b. al-Najjar and the B. Mu'awiya are named after her.

7. They are the B. Maghala d. Auf b. Abdu Manat b. Amr b. Malik b.
   Kinana b. Khuzayma. Others say that they are of B. Zurayq. Maghala
   was the mother of r AdIy b. 'Amr b. Malik b. al-Najjar and the B. Adly trace
   their descent from her.

8. AbQ Shaykh was Ubayy b. Thabit, brother of Hassan b. Thabit.

9. Others say Sawwad.

10. Others say Abu’l-ANvar was al-Harith b. Zalim.

11. Bujayr w ? as from 'Abs b. Baghid b. Rayth b. Gha^afan of the clan of B.
    Jadhima b. Rawaha.

12. Most traditionists mention among the Khazraj who were at Badr:
    Of the B. al-'Ajlan b. Zayd b. Ghanm b. Salim b. 'Auf b. 'Amr b. 'Auf:
    Ttban b. Malik b. Amr, and Mulayl b. Wabara b. Khalid, and Isma b.
    al-Husayn b. Wabara. Of the B. Habib b. 'Abdu Haritha b. Malik b. Ghadb
    b. Jusham who are among the B. Zurayq: Hilal b. al-Mu alia b. Laudhan b.
    Haritha b. 'Adly b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. Zaydu Manat b. Habib.

13. Brother of Sa'd b. Abu Waqqa? according to I.H.

14. Zayd b. Haritha killed him; others say Hamza, 'All, and Zayd killed
    him between them.

15. 'Ammar b. Yasir killed 'Amir and al-Nu'man b. 'A$r killed al-Harith.
    He was an ally of al-Aus.

16. Salim, freedman of Abu Hudhayfa, killed Umayr.

17. Others say 'All killed him.

18. Hamza and 'All shared in the killing of him.

19. Thabit b. al-Jidh', brother of B. Haram, killed him; others say
    Hamza, 'All, and Thabit did.

20. 'Ammar b. Yasir killed him.

21. Hamza and 'All killed him.

22. Abu’l-Bakhtari w as al-'As b. Hashim.

I bn Hisham's Notes 747

5°8. Others say at al-Athll; it is said that his name was al-Nadr b. al-Harith
b. 'Alqama b. Kalada b. 'Abdu Manaf.

1. Bilal killed Zayd, w-ho was an ally of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar from B. Mazin.
   Others say that al-Miqdad killed him.

2. 'All, or according to others 'Abdu’I-Rahman b. 'Auf, killed him.

3. He w^as one of B. Amr b. Tamlm, a stout warrior whom 'Ammar b.
   Yasir killed.

4. Abu Dujana killed him.

513- Kharija b. Zayd killed him, though others say 'All did. Harmala was
of Asd.

1. 'All killed him.

2. Hamza killed him.

3. 'All, or according to others 'Ammar, killed him.

4. Sa'd b. al-Rabl' killed him.

5. Ma'n b. 'Adly, an ally of B. 'Ubayd, killed him.

6. All killed him.

7. Al-Sa’ib b. Abu’l-Sa’ib was a partner of the apostle; and there is a
   tradition that the prophet said that he was an excellent partner who was never
   ill tempered or obstinate. According to our information he became an
   excellent Muslim, but God knows the truth. Ibn Shihab al-Zuhrl men¬
   tioned from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Utba from Ibn 'Abbas that al-Sa’ib b. Abu’I-
   Sa ib b. Abid b. Abdullah b. 'Umar b. Makhzum w r as one of the Quraysh
   who swore fealty to the apostle, and on the day of al-Ji'rana he gave him his
   share of the booty of Hunayn. Someone other than Ibn Ishaq said that
   al-Zubayr b. al- Awwam killed him. (This explanation of yushdrl is in
   accordance with the Lisan under sharra.)

8. Others say Hajiz. 'All.killed Hajib.

9. al-Nu man b. Malik killed him in single combat.

10. Yazid b. Ruqaysh killed Amr and Abu Burda killed Jabir.

11. 'All killed him.

12. Hamza killed him with the help of Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas.

13. All, or al-Nu man b. Malik, or Abu Dujana killed him.

14. Abu’l-Yasar killed him.

15. Others say it w^as Mu'adh b. 'Afra and Kharija b. Zayd and Khubayb
    b. Isaf jointly.

16. 'All killed him, or according to others al-Husayn b. al-Harith and
    'Uthman b. Maz'un together.

17. Others say 'Ukkasha b. Mihsan did so.

Ibn Hishams Notes

748 The Life of Muhammad

1. Others say Abu Dujana did so.

2. Abu 'Ubayda from Abu 'Amr told me that the polytheists lost 70
   killed and an equal number of prisoners. This agrees with what Ibn 'Abbas
   and Sa'id b. al-Musayyab said; and in God’s book (we read) ‘and is it not a
   fact that when a disaster befell you you had brought twice as great a disaster on
   them’; this He said in reference to those who took part in the battle of Badr.
   Those of them who were martyred number 70 men. He says: ‘You brought
   disaster at Badr on twice as many as you lost as martyrs at Uhud, 70 dead
   and 70 prisoners.’ Abu Zayd al-Ansari quoted to me the line of Ka'b b.
   Malik:

There remained where the camels rest (by the trough)

Seventy dead, among them 'Utba and al-Aswad.

He means the slain at Badr. God willing, I shall mention this ode of his
later on.

Here are some of the names which 1 . 1 . does not mention of the slain at
Badr:

Of B. 'Abdu Shams: Wahb b. al-Harith of B. Anmar: an ally; and 'Amir
b. Zayd an ally from the Yaman. Total 2.

Of B. Asad b. Abdu’l-'Uzza: 'Uqba b. Zayd an ally from the Yaman and
'Umayr a freedman of theirs. Total 2.

Of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: Nubayh b. Zayd and 'Ubayd b. Salif an ally from
Qays. Total 2.

From B. Taym b. Murra: Malik b. 'Ubaydullah, brother of Talha, who
was taken prisoner and died in captivity’ and so is counted among the
slain; and some add 'Amr b. 'Abdullah b. Jud'an. Total 2.

Of B. Makhzum: Hudhayfa b. Abu Hudhayfa whom Sa'd b. Abu
Waqqas killed; and Hisham b. Abu Hudhayfa W’hom $uhayb killed;
and Zuhayr b. Abu Rifa'a whom Abu Usayd killed; and Al-Sa’ib b.
Abu Rifa'a w’hom 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf killed; and 'A’idh b. al-
Sa’ib who was taken prisoner, then redeemed, and then died on the way
home from a wound which Hamza had given him; and 'Umayr an ally
from Tayyi’; and Khiyar an ally from al-Qara. Total 7.

Of B. Jumah b. 'Amr: Sabra b. Malik an ally. Total 1.

Of B. Sahm b. 'Amr: al-Harith b. Munabbih whom $uhayb killed;
'Amir b. Abu 'Auf b. Dubayra whom 'Abdullah b. Salama al-'Ajlani
killed; others say Abu Dujana. Total 2.

1. Others say Ibn Abu Wahra.

2. He was al-Harith b. 'A’idh b. 'Uthman.

3. There is a variant reading for backs, namely ‘heels’. Khalid was from
   Khuza'a; according to others an 'Uqayli.

4. One name is missing from I.I.’s list to make up the total number he
   gives. 1 Among the prisoners he does not mention are the following:

From B. Hashim b. ‘Abdu Manaf: 'Utba, an ally of theirs from B.
Fihr. 1.

1 This remark is interesting for more than one reason. Abu Dharr says of the Hashimite
list: ‘He does not mention al-'Abbas b. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib with the other two because he had

749

From B. al-Muttalib: 'Aqll b. 'Amr, an ally, and his brother Tamim,
and his son. 3.

From B. 'Abdu Shams: Khalid b. Asld b. Abu’I-'Is; and Abu’l-'Arld
Yasar, freedman of al-'As b. Umayya. 2.

From B. Naufal: Nabhan, one of their freedmen. 1.

From B. Asad b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza: 'Abdullah b. Humayd b. Zuhayr b.
al-Harith. 1.

From B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: 'Aqil, an ally of theirs from the Yaman. 1.

From B. Taym b. Murra: Musafi' b. 'Iyad b. $akhr b. 'Amir b. Ka'b b.

Sa'd b. Taym; and Jabir b. al-Zubayr, an ally. 2.

From B. Makhzum: Qays b. al-Sa’ib. 1.

From B. Jumah: 'Amr b. Ubayy b. Khalaf; and Abu Ruhm b. 'Abdullah
an ally; and an ally of theirs whose name escapes me; and two freedmen
of Umayya b. Khalaf, one of them Nistas, and Abu Raft' a slave of
Umayya b. Khalaf. 6.

From B. Sahm: Aslam freedman of Nubayh b. al-Hajjaj. 1.

From B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: Habib b. Jabir; and al-Sa’ib b. Malik. 2.
From B. al-Harith b. Fihr: Shaft' and Shaft', two allies of theirs from the
Yaman. 2.

1. Most authorities on poetry refuse to accept it and its counterblast a6
   authentic.

2. We have changed two words in I.I.’s version of this ode, namely,
   ‘boastful’ 1 at the end of line 20 and ‘kindly’ at the beginning of line 23,
   because he casts aspersions on the prophet in them.

The following verses w'hich 1 . 1 . attributes to 'All b. Abu Talib are not
recognized by any authority on poetry, nor is the counterblast. We have
included them only because they mention that 'Amr b. 'Abdullah b. Jud'an
was killed at Badr, although 1 . 1 . does not mention him among the slain as
these verses do.

1. Others say the author was al-A'sha b. Zurara b. al-Nabbash one of the
   B. Usayd b. 'Amr b. Tamim an ally of B. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf.

2. We have omitted three verses of Hassan’s poem because they are
   obscene.

3. We have left out one verse which is obscene.

4. Some say that 'Abdullah b. al-Harith al-Sahml was the composer.

5. The fifth verse comes from Abu Zayd al-Ansari.

become a Muslim and was concealing his faith out of fear of his people.’ The writer is
concerned with 'Abbas’s orthodoxy; but we may be confident that political reasons and
concern for personal safety led to the excision of the name of the ancestor of the new dynasty.
It is perfectly clear that 1.1. originally wrote his name and put the total at the end of the
section ‘3 men’. Every other clan contains the names and the total numbers of its men
taken prisoner except the clan of Hashim. Whether he himself struck out the offending
words when he gave his copy to the caliph al-Man$ur, or whether a later copyist did so, is
unimportant. Clearly the change came about when the sons of 'Abbas replaced the sons of
Umayya. »•

1 For al-fakhri a simple restoration would be al-fajri ‘villainous’.

75 ° The Life of Muhammad

1. Abu Zayd al-Ansari quoted to me the verse about Abu Jahl.

545 - The last line is not from 1 . 1 .

1. Some authorities on poetry deny that these verses are 'Ubayda’s.

547 - When 'Ubayda’s foot was smitten he said, ‘By God, if AbQ Talib
tosay Ved t0 866 ^ hC W ° Uld kn ° W that 1 have a better right than he

You lie, by God’s house,

Muhammad shall not be maltreated,

Before we have used our swords and bows in his defence.

We will not betray him until we lie dead around him,

And be unmindful of our children and wives.’

quI t ed e (p™° 7 ^ rSeS ^ ” thC ^ ° f AW TiUib WhiCh WC haVe a ' ready

lmt S ° me aUtll ° ritieS °" poetry dcn >' th « Pirar was the author of these

S4 9 Some authorities on poetry deny ysrith’s authorship of these lines
and the second line is not from 1.1. ’

flu M b ^yu da> tHe grammarian > Quoted to me the last line, saying that
(Shaddad) had become a Muslim and then apostatized, thus:

The apostle tells us that we shall live again.

But what sort of life have corpses and wraiths?

1. We have omitted two verses in which he spoke disparagingly of the
   apostle s companions. Another learned authority on poetry recited to me

fohowfng l^e ^ ^ ^ ^ beginning <givers of hundreds’ and the

552 . This ode has been handed down in a confused state which cannot be
considered satisfactory. Abu Muhriz Khalaf al-Ahmar and another person
recited it to me, one quoting what the other left out. 1

553 - He was a polytheist.

554 - (which are the most authentic of the poetry about the men of Badr).

555 - Abu Muhriz Khalaf al-Ahmar recited to me the line, ‘We left the way

and they overtook us as swift as the tides of the sea’, thus. The line, ‘no lion
from his lair , is not from 1.1. 1

, 1 ha ',T dr ° PP ? d ‘ he ode of Ab “ rhyming in L because it only

wiZ bounds r . S * “ Se ° 0nd V£rSeS> !n ° lder *° keep the ™ve

557 - Some authorities on poetry deny that Hind was the author.

558- Some authorities on poetry deny that Hind wrote this.

3 significance i. that line

Jbn Hisham s Notes

75 1

1. The last line was cited to me by some authorities on poetry.

2. One tradition of this poetry separates the line, ‘no lion of the jungle’,
   &c., from the two preceding verses.

3. Most authorities on poetry deny that Hind said this.

4. It is said (though only God knows the truth) that when the apostle
   heard this poetry he said, ‘If I had heard this before he was killed I would have
   spared him.’

5. He put in charge of Medina Siba' b. 'Urfuta al-Ghifari or Ibn Umm
   Maktum.

6. He put Bashir b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir who was Abu Lubaba in charge of
   Medina.

7. It was called the raid of al-SawTq because most of the provisions which
   the raiders threw away was saiviq, i.e. parched corn, and the Muslims seized
   a great deal of it. This is what Abu 'Ubayda told me.

8. He put 'Uthman b. 'Affan in charge of Medina.

9. He put I. Umm Maktum in charge of Medina.

10. 'Abdullah b. Ja'far b. al-Miswar b. Makhrama from Abu 'Aun said,
    ‘The affair of the B. Qaynuqa' arose thus: An Arab woman brought some
    goods and sold them in the market of the B. Qaynuqa'. She sat down by a
    goldsmith, and the people tried to get her to uncover her face but she refused.
    The goldsmith took hold of the end of her skirt and fastened it to her back
    so when she got up she was immodestly exposed, and they laughed at her.
    She uttered a loud cry and one of the Muslims leapt upon the goldsmith and
    killed him. He was a Jew, and the Jews fell upon the Muslim and killed him,
    whereupon the Muslim’s family called on the Muslims for help against the
    Jews. The Muslims were enraged, and bad feeling sprang up between the
    two parties.’

11. This was called dhdtu'l-fudul.

12. He besieged them for fifteen nights and put Bashir b. 'Abdu’l-Mundhir
    in charge of Medina.

13. Furat belonged to B. 'Ijl, an ally of B. Sahm.

14. Abu Sufyan b. al-Harith b. 'Abdu’l-Mut^alib wrote a counterblast
    which we shall mention together with the verses of Hassan in their proper
    place, God willing. [See p. 449.]

15. The words tubba' and usarru bisukhpihtm do not come from I.I.

16. Most authorities on poetry deny Hassan’s authorship. The first two
    words are not from I.I.

17. Her name was Maymuna d. 'Abdullah. Most authorities on poetry
    deny that she wrote these verses and that Ka'b composed the counterblast
    to them.

Ibn His ham's Notes

75 2 The Life of Muhammad

1. Another version is: ‘Will you give me your wives as a pledge?’ He
   answered: ‘How can w r e give our wives to you as a pledge when you are the
   most amorous, highly scented man in Medina ?’ He retorted, ‘Then will you
   give your sons as a pledge ?’

2. These verses occur in an ode of his on the battle with B. Nadir which
   I shall mention in its proper place, God willing. [See p. 441.]

3. I shall mention the killing of Sallam in its proper place, God willing.
   The word ‘deadly’ does not come from 1. 1 .

4. Or Subayna. His full name w'as Muhayyisa b. Mas'ud b. Ka'b b.
   'Amir b. 'Adiy b. Majda'a b. Idaritha b. al-ffarith b. al-Khazraj b. 'Amr b.
   M 3 lik b. al-Aus.

5. Abu 'Ubayda told me on the authority of Abu 'Amr, the Medinan,
   when the apostle got the better of the B. Qurayza he seized about four
   hundred men from the Jew's w r ho had been allies of Aus against Khazraj,
   and ordered that they should be beheaded. Accordingly Khazraj began to
   cut off their heads with great satisfaction. The apostle saw r that the faces of
   Khazraj showed their pleasure, but there was no such indication on the part of
   Aus, and he suspected that that w'as because of the alliance that had existed
   between them and the B. Qurayza. When there w : ere only twelve of them
   left he gave them over to Aus, assigning one Jew to every two of Aus, saying,
   ‘Let so-and-so strike him and so-and-so finish him off.’ One of those w r ho
   was so handed over to them w'as Ka'b b. Yahudha, who w r as an important
   man among them. He gave him to Muhayyisa and Abu Burda b. Niyar
   (it W'as Abu Burda to whom the apostle had given permission to sacrifice
   a young goat on the feast of Adha). He said, ‘Let Muhayyisa strike him and
   Abu Burda finish him off.’ So Muhayyisa fetched him a blow, which did not
   cut in properly, and Abu Burda dispatched him and gave him the finishing
   stroke. Huwayyisa, who w r as still an unbeliever, said to his brother, Muhay¬
   yisa, ‘Did you kill Ka'b b. Yahudha?’, and when he said he did, he said,
   ‘By God, much of the flesh on your belly comes from his wealth; you are a
   miserable fellow, Muhayyisa.’ He replied, ‘If the one who ordered me to
   kill him had ordered me to kill you, I w'ould have done so.’ He w r as amazed
   at this remark and went aw'ay astounded. They say that he used to wake up
   in the night astonished at his brother’s words, until in the morning he said,
   ‘By God, this is indeed a religion.’ Then he came to the prophet and accepted
   Islam. Muhayyisa then spoke the lines which we have written above.

6. Others say Ruqayya.

7. A traditionist told me that the apostle said: ‘I saw' some cows of mine
   being slaughtered; they are those of my companions who will be killed.
   As to the dent W'hich I saw in my sw'ord, that is one of my family who will
   be killed.’

8. He put I. Umm Maktum in charge of the public prayers.

9. For kullab some say kilab. [A small hook or peg on the hilt of the
   sw r ord is meant.]

753

1. The apostle allowed Samura b. J undub al-Fazarl and Rafi' b. Khadlj
   brother of B. Haritha to go to battle, although they were but fifteen years of
   age and he had sent them back at first. But he was told that Rafi' w r as a
   good archer so he let him go, and after having given him permission he was
   told that Samura could throw Rafi' in wrestling so he let him go too. The
   following he turned back: Usama b. Zayd; 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b. al-Khaftab;
   Zayd b. Thabit, one of B. Malik b. al-Najjar; al-Bara’ b. 'Azib, one of B.
   Haritha; 'Amr b. Hazm, one of B. Malik b. al-Najjar; Usayd b. £uhayr, one
   of B. Haritha. He let them fight at the Trench w'hen they w'ere fifteen
   years of age.

2. The companions’ war-cry that day was ‘Kill, Kill!’

3. More than one traditionist has told me that Al-Zubayr b. al-'Aw'wam
   said, ‘I was annoyed when I asked the apostle for the sword and he refused
   me and gave it to Abu Dujana. I thought, “I am the son of $aflya, his
   aunt, and belong to Quraysh, and I went and asked him for it before this
   man, yet he gave it to him and left me. By God, I will see what he is doing.”
   So I followed him. The man drew out his red turban and wrapped his head
   in it. The Ansar said, ‘‘Abu Dujana has donned the turban of death.”
   This is w'hat they used to say w'hen he put it on. As he went forth he was
   saying,

Among the palms of that mountain side,

In solemn w'ords my comrade cried,

Behind the ranks I’ll never bide,

With God’s own sword their ranks divide.’

There is a reading kubul for kayyul.

1. Others say Sharlq b. al-Akhnas b. Sharlq.

2. A kind of bird inclining to black in colour.

3. I have heard that Wahshf was always being punished for drinking
   wine until he was struck off the pension list. 'Umar used to say: ‘I knew
   that God would not leave the slayer of Hamza unpunished.’

4. Maslama b. 'Alqama al-Mazinl told me: When the fighting w'as fierce
   on the day of Uhud the apostle sat under the flag of the Ansar and sent a
   message to ‘All to tell him to bring the flag forward, which he did, saying,
   ‘I am Abu’l-Qusam’ or ‘Abu’l-Fusam’ according to I.H. Abu Sa’d b. Abfl
   Talha, who was in charge of the standard of the polytheists, called to him,
   ‘Would you like to meet my challenge, Abu’l-Qusam?’ When 'All accepted
   the challenge they fought between the ranks and exchanged two blow's until
   'All smote him and laid him on the ground. Then he left him without dis¬
   patching him. When his companions asked why he did not finish him off he
   said: ‘He exposed his person to me (as a sign of abject surrender) and the
   tie of kindred made me pity him and I knew that God would certainly
   kill him.’

It is said that Abu Sa’d w r ent out between the ranks and cried, ‘I will
break in pieces anyone who fights me,’ and none went out against him.
Then he cried: ‘O you companions of Muhammad, you allege that your

3 c

B 4080

754 TAe Life of Muhammad

dead are in paradise and our dead are in hell. By al-Lat you lie. If you
knew that was true one of you would come out to me.’ So 'All went forth
and after exchanging a couple of blows 'All smote him and killed him.

1. Some say that he heard a cry for help. You find this expression in the
   hadith: ‘The best man is he who takes hold of his horse’s bridle: whenever
   he hears a cry of fear he flies towards it.’ Al-Tirimmah b. Hakim al-Xa’Iy
   (^irimmah means ‘a tall man’) said:

I am of the family of Malik, glorious champions
Whenever the timorous cry for help.

1. yassan b. Thabit, according to Ibn Hisham, answered him thus:

You mention the proud stallions of Hashim’s line
And there you lie not but speak the truth.

Are you pleased that you killed Hamza
The noble one whom you yourself call noble ?

Did they not kill 'Amr and 'Utba
And his son and Shayba and al-Hajjaj and Ibn Habib
The day that al-'As challenged 'All who frightened him
With a blow of his sword dripping with blood ?

1. The words ‘or jackals’ do not come from 1 . 1 . [This is an interesting
   note from I.H., because it indicates that he know r s that the text of the poem
   has been tampered with. In this case we are able to recover the true text
   from Tab. 1414 which reads: ‘hyaenas and jackals w r ould have crunched his
   bones’, with farfarat for qarqarat. The alteration consists of one dot; but
   one would have expected that I.H., knowing the true text, would have
   followed it.

2. al-Harith answered Abu Sufyan thus because he suspected that he
   w 7 as hinting at him when he said ‘my horse remained but a stone’s throw off’,
   for he had fled on the day of Badr.

3. The one who cried aloud was the spirit of the hill, i.e. Satan.

4. The last verse is ascribed to Abu Khirash al-Hudhali. Khalaf al-
   Ahmar quoted it to me as his with the reading ‘her hands’, meaning his
   w'ife’s, with no connexion with Uhud. The verses are also ascribed to
   Ma'qil b. Khuwaylid al-Hudhali.

5. Rubayh b. 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. Abu Sa'Id al-Khudrl from his father
   from Abu Sa'Id al-Khudrl said that 'Utba b. Abu Waqqas pelted the apostle
   that day and broke his right lower incisor and wounded his lower lip, and
   that 'Abdullah b. Shihab al-Zuhrl wounded him in the forehehd, and that
   Ibn Qami’a wounded his cheekbone. Two rings from his helmet were
   forced into his cheek, and the apostle fell in a hole which Abu 'Amir had
   made so that the Muslims might fall into it unawares. 'All took hold of the
   apostle’s hand and Talha b. 'Ubaydullah lifted him until he stood upright.
   Malik b. Sinan, the father of Abu Sa'Id al-Khudri, sucked the blood from
   the apostle’s face. Then he swallowed it. The apostle said, ‘He whose blood
   mingles with mine will not be touched by the fire of hell.’ 'Abdu’l-'AzIz b.
   Muhammad al-Darawardi said that the prophet said, ‘He who wishes

Ibn Hisham's Notes y^

to see a martyr walking on the face of the earth, let him look at Talha
b. 'Ubaydullah.’

'Abdu’l-'AzIz from Ishaq b. Yahya b. Talha from 'Isa b. Talha from
'A’isha from Abu Bakr said that Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah pulled out one of
the rings from the apostle’s face and his front tooth fell out. He pulled out
another ring and the other incisor fell out. So Abu 'Ubayda was short of his
two front teeth.

599 > We have omitted two obscene verses.

1. Umara s mother, Nusayba d. of Ka'b al-Mazinlya, fought on the day
   of Uhud. 7

Sa'Id b. Abu Zayd al-Ansari said that Umm Sa'd d. of Sa'd b. al-Rabf
used to say: ‘I went in to see Umm 'Umara and said, “O aunt, tell me your
story,” and she answered: ‘‘I went out at the beginning of the day to see
what the men were doing, carrying a skin with water in it, and I came up to
the apostle who was with his companions while the battle was in their favour
When the Moslems were defeated, I betook myself to the apostle and stood
up joining in the fight and protecting him with my sword and shooting with
my bow until I suffered many wounds.” ’ Umm Sa'd said, ‘I saw on her
shoulder a deep gash and asked who was responsible for it. She said ‘‘Ibn
Qami’a, God curse him! When the men fell back from the apostle he came
forward saying ‘Lead me to Muhammad; let me not survive if he does.’
Mus ab b. Umayr and I and some men who held their ground w'ith the
apostle blocked his path. It was he w'ho gave me this wound, but I struck
him several times for that. However, the enemy of God was wearing two
coats of mail”.’

1. A learned traditiomst told me that 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf was injured
   in the mouth and his teeth were broken and he had twenty wounds or
   more, one of them in his foot so that he became lame.

2. The shara is a fly that stings.

3. Tada'da a means ‘he began to roll off his horse’.

4. Usra means ‘tribe’.

5. Khalid b. al-Walld was commanding the cavalry.

6. I heard on the authority of 'Ikrima from I. 'Abbas that the apostle
   id not reach the step cut in the glen. 'Umar, the client of Ghufra said

that the prophet prayed the noon prayer on the day of Uhud sitting, because
of the wounds he had suffered; and the Muslims prayed sitting behind him.

^ trad ^ omst In whom I have confidence told me that al-Harith killed
al-Mujadhdhar but did not kill Qays. An indication of the same fact is that
Ibn Ishaq does not mention him among those w r ho wore slain at Uhud. The
reason that he killed al-Mujadhdhar was because he had killed his father
buwayd in one of the skirmishes between Aus and Khazraj. We have
mentioned that m an earlier passage of this book. While the apostle was with
a number of his companions, suddenly al-Harith appeared from one of the
gardens of Medina wearing two blood-stained garments. The apostle

75 6 The Life of Muhammad

ordered 'Uthman to cut his head off. Others say it was one of the Ansar
who did so. v.s. p. 242.

1. We have omitted three obscene verses.

2. She was d. Khalid b. Khunays, who was I. Haritha b. Laudhan b.
   'Abdu Wudd b. Zayd b. Tha'laba b. al-Khazraj b. Sa'ida b. Ka'b b. al-
   Khazraj.

3. This is only one of the verses he composed; others also he wrote
   rhyming in d and dh which I have omitted because of their obscenity. [T.
   gives them. I commend I.H.’s reticence.]

4. I. Qami’a’s name was 'Abdullah.

5. Abu Bakr al-Zubayri told me that a man went into Abu Bakr while
   Sa d’s little daughter was in his arms and he was kissing her. The man said
   to him, ’Who is this?’ and he replied it is the daughter of,a better man than
   I, Sa d b. al-Rabf, who was one of the chiefs on the day of al-'Aqaba who
   was present at Badr and found martyrdom at Uhud.’

6. When the apostle stood over Hamza’s body he said, ‘I have never
   been so hurt before. Never have I been more angry.’ Then he said:
   ‘Gabriel came to me and told me that Hamza was written among the people
   of the seven heavens: “Hamza b. r Abdu 1 -Muttalib, the lion of God and the
   lion of his apostle.’’ ’ The apostle and Hamza and Abu Salamab. Abdu 1 -Asad
   were foster-brothers whom a freedwoman of Abu Lahab had fostered.

7. On that day he forbade lamentation. Abu Ubayda told me that w T hen
   the apostle heard their weeping he said: ‘God have mercy on the Ansar;
   for it has long been their custom to provide consolation. Tell the women
   to go away.’ (I read 'atamat with C. for W.’s 'alimtu or ' alimta .)

8. Jalal may mean little or much; here it means ‘little’, as in the verse
   of Imru’u’l-Qays:

Now that the Banu Asad have killed their chief
Everything else is of no account.

and in the verse of al-Haffth b. Wa la al-Jarmi it means much .

If I pardon I shall pardon a great crime.

If I punish I shall weaken my own bone.

1. The apostle’s sword used to be called Dhu 1 -Faqar, A traditionist told
   me that I. Abu Najih said: ‘Someone called out on the day of Uhud:

There is no sword but Dhu’l-Faqar
And no hero but 'All.’

A traditionist also told me that the apostle said to 'All: ‘The polytheists
will not inflict another defeat like this on us before God gives us the victory.’

1. He put I. Umm Maktum in charge of Medina.

2. Abu 'Ubayda told us that when Abu Sufyan went away on the day of
   Uhud he wanted to go back to Medina to exterminate the rest of the prophet’s

I bn Hisham’s Notes

757

companions. $afwan b. Umayya said to them: ‘Do not do it, for the enemy
are infuriated and we fear that they may fight as they did not fight before; so
return,’ and they did return. When the prophet who was in Hamra’u’l-Asad
heard that they had decided to return he said: ‘Stones have been marked for
them. 1 Had they been pelted with them that morning they would have been
like yesterday that is past.’

Abu ’Ubayda said: ‘On that journey of his before he returned to Medina,
the apostle seized Mu'awiya b. al-Mughlra, who was the grandfather of
'Abdu’l-Malik b. Marwan, the father of his mother 'A’isha, and Abu 'Azza
al-Jumahi. The apostle had taken him prisoner at Badr and then released
him. He asked the apostle to forgive him, but he said “You shall not stroke
your cheeks in Mecca after this and say‘I have deceived Muhammad twice.’
Strike off his head, Zubayr,” and he did so.’

I have heard that Sa'id b. al-Musayyab said that the apostle said to him:
‘The believer should not be bitten twice by the same* snake. Cut off his
head, O 'Asim b. Thabit’, and he did so.

It is said Zayd b. Haritha and Ammar b. Yasir killed Mu'awiya b. al-
Mughlra after Hamra’u’l-Asad. He had taken refuge with 'Uthman b.
'Affan, who asked the apostle to give him sanctuary, and he did so on the
condition that if he were found after three days he should be killed. He
stayed there more than three days and hid himself. The prophet sent the
two of them and said, ‘You will find him in such-and-such a place.’ They
found him there and killed him.

1. Tubawwi u means ‘you chose positions and sites for them.’ Al-Kumayt
   b. Zayd said:

Would that I before him
Had chosen a place to sleep in.

1. A traditionist from al-Asd said: The two parties said ‘We do not wish
   that we had not thought as we did because God took us in hand.’

2. Musawwamln means ‘plainly marked’. We have heard that al-Hasan
   b. Abu’i-Hasan al-Basri said: ‘They had marked the tails and forelocks of
   their horses with white wool.’ As for Ibn Ishaq he said: Their distinguishing
   mark on the day of Badr was white turbans, which I have recorded in the
   story of Badr. Sima means ‘distinguishing mark’. In the book of God you
   read: ‘Their mark is on their faces (it is) the result of prostration’ (48. 29),
   i.e. their distinguishing mark. ‘And stones of clay massed, marked’ (11. 84),
   i.e. ‘plainly marked’. We have heard that al-Hasan said ‘A mark upon
   them? It was not a mark of the stones of this world, but of the stones of
   punishment’. Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj said:

Proud steeds now' meet their match in me.

They cannot keep up with me though marked out (as the finest).

Their eyes look up helplessly as they gallop full speed,

Ajdkamu with dhdl means ‘run fast’ and ajdamu with dal means ‘give up’.
These verses occur in a rajaz poem of his. Musazvzvama also means ‘at
pasture’; and in the book of God ‘and horses at pasture’ (3. 12) and ‘trees

1 i.e. stones had been ‘earmarked’ for them.

I bn Hisham's Notes

759

758 The Life of Muhammad

on which you send beasts to pasture* (16. 10). The Arabs say sawwama and
asdma when a man pastures his horses and camels. Al-Kumayt said:

He was a gentle shepherd and we lost him.

The loss of the pastor is the loss of the pastured.

The word musjih means ‘gently leading, kind to the flock*.

1. Yakbitahum means ‘afflict them to the utmost and prevent them from
   attaining their desires’. Dhu’l-Rumma said:

While I forget past sorrow I shall not forget our perplexity.

Poised between pleasure and frustration.

The word also means ‘that he may throw them on their faces’.

1. Ribbtyun, singular ribbi, and al-ribab is applied to the sons of ‘Abdu
   Manat b. Udd b. Tabikha b. Ilyas and to Dabba because they gathered
   together and made alliances; by this they mean multitudes. Singular of
   ribab is ribba and ribdba w r hich mean large numbers of sticks and arrows and
   such-like and they compare them to them. Umayya b. Abu’l-§alt said:

Round their leaders are swarms, myriads,

Clad in nailed armour.

Ribdba also means the cloth in which arrows are wrapped. Sanawwar means
armour, and dusur are the nails in coats of mail. God says: ‘We carried him
on a thing of planks and nails’ (54. 13). Abu’l-Akhzar al-Himmani of
Tamim said:

Nails on the ends of a straightened shaft.

1. Hass means rooting out. You can say hasastu something when you
   exterminate it by the sword or such-like. Jarir said:

The swords exterminated them as when
A flame rose high among felled trees.

And Ru’ba b. al-‘Ajjaj said in a rajaz poem:

When we complained of a year that blasted (by cold)

Devouring the dry after the green.

1. al-Sakan was I. Raff b. Imru*ul-Qays, or al-Sakn.

2. Others say ‘Atlk b. al-Tayyahan.

3. Qays was b. Zayd b. J)ubay‘a and Malik was b. Ama b. £)ubay a.

4. Abu Hayya was b. ‘Amr b. Thabit.

5. And, it is said, Suwaybiq b. al-Harith b. Hapb b. Haysha.

6. ‘Amr b. Qays was b. Zayd b. Sawad.

7. Aus was the brother of Hassan b. Thabit.

8. Anas b. al-Na<Jr was the uncle of Anas b. Malik, the apostle’s servant.

9. Abu Sa'Id’s name was Sinan, or as others say Sa‘d.

10. ‘Ubayd belonged to B. Habib.

635' We have been told of five others whom 1 . 1 . does not mention, namely:

Of al-Aus of B. Mu'awiya b. Malik: Malik b. Numayta an ally of theirs
from Muzayna.

Of B. Khatma—Khatma’s name was ‘Abdullah b. Jusham b. Malik b.

al-Aus—al-Harith b. 'Adiy b. Kharasha b. Umayya b. ‘Amir b. Khatma.
Of B. Amr b. Malik b. al-Najjar: Iyas b. Adiy.

Of al-Khazraj of B. Sawad b. Malik: Malik b. Iyas.

Of B. Salim b. Auf: ‘Amr b. Iyas.

Thus bringing the total to 70.

1. It is said that ‘All killed him.

2. It is said that 'Abdu’I-Rahman b. ‘Auf killed Kilab.

3. ‘All, Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas and Abu Dujana have also been claimed as
   his slayer.

4. It is said that ‘Abdullah b. Mas'ud killed ‘Ubayda.

5. ‘A’idh was b. ‘Imran b. Makhzum.

6. Abu Zayd quoted these lines to me as from Ka'b b. Malik and the
   verse of Hubayra, ‘many a night w'hen the host warms his hands,’ &c., is
   credited to Janub sister of 'Amr Dhu’l-Kalb al-Hudhali in some verses
   of hers about some other fight. [Cf. Diivan der Hudhailiten , ed. Kosegarten,
   p. 243.]

7. Ka'b had said, ‘Our fighting is on behalf of our stock,’ and the apostle
   asked, ‘Would it do to say our fighting is on behalf of our religion ?’ Ka'b
   said ‘Yes,’ and the apostle said: ‘Then it is better,’ and so Ka'b phrased it
   thus.

8. Abu Zayd quoted me the words ‘an example to be talked of’ and the
   verses preceding and the words ‘Among Quraysh’, &c., as from a source
   other than 1.1.

9. Some authorities on poetry deny that ipirar w r as the author. Ka'b’s
   words ‘light-giving straight way’ were quoted by Abu Zayd al-Ansari.

10. Some authorities on poetry deny the authenticity of these last two
    poems. The words madVl-shabati and zva}aymn yajufna are not from 1 . 1 .

11. Ka'b b. Malik answered him according to I.H.:

Tell Fihr in spite of the distance between us
(For they have true news of us today)

That we were steadfast while death’s standards fluttered
That morn on the floor of Yathrib’s valley.

We stood firm against them, for steadfastness is our nature:

When poltroons flee we rise to the occasion.

’Tis our wont to go forward firmly.

Of old w r e did so and gained the first place.

760 The Life of Muhammad

We have an unconquerable band led by a prophet

Who has brought the truth, is clement, and acclaimed as true.

Can it be that the mixed tribes of Fihr have not heard
Of the maiming of bodies and the splitting of skulls ?

1. Some authorities on poetry deny that 'Amr said this.

2. This poem is the best that has been written on the subject. Hassan
   composed it at night and summoned his people, saying: ‘I am afraid that
   death may overtake me before the morning and it may not be recited in my
   name.’

Abu 'Ubayda quoted to me the verse of al-Hajjaj b. 'Ilat al-Sulami in
praise of 'All in which he mentioned his killing Talha b. Abu Talha b.
'Abdu’l-'Uzza, the standard-bearer of the polytheists, on the day of Uhud:

By God, what a fine protector of women is Fatima’s son
Whose paternal and maternal uncles were noble!

You quickly dealt him a deadly thrust

Which left Talha with his forehead cleaving to the dust;

You attacked them like a hero and made them retreat
At the mountain foot, where they fell one after another.

1. Most authorities on poetry deny Hassan’s authorship. The verses
   ‘Who in the winter’, ‘Who leapt to their bridles’, and ‘By one who suffered
   time’s misfortunes’ are not from LI.

2. Abu Zayd quoted to me the verse ‘How we behave’ and the next
   verse and the third verse from it and the beginning of the fourth and the
   words ‘We grow up and our fathers perish’ and the next verse and the third
   verse from it.

3. Abu Zayd quoted me the poem from the words ‘Advancing and
   encouraging us’ to the end.

4. Abu Zayd recited it to me as from Ka^b b. Malik.

5. Abu Zayd quoted me the words ‘you have not won’ and ‘of Him who
   grants the best favours’.

6. Some authorities on poetry deny pirar’s authorship.

7. An authority on poetry told me that 'All did not utter these words,
   and I have never met anyone who recognized them as 'All’s. They were
   spoken by an unknown Muslim. The phrase ‘as night* has not I.I.’s
   authority.

8. The words ‘all of us’ and ‘they w'ould have a morning draught’ have
   not I.I.’s authority.

9. An authority on poetry quoted to me her words ‘In sorrow and tears,’
   &c.

10. An authority on poetry quoted to me her line ‘Some from whom I
    sought vengeance,’ &c. Some authorities deny that Hind uttered it, and
    only God knows the truth.

Ibn Hisham's Notes 761

1. 'Adal and al-Qara belonged to al-Haun or al-Hun b. Khuzayma b.
   Mudrika.

2. Hdbil means ‘bereaved’.

3. They sold them to Quraysh for two prisoners of Hudhayl who were
   in Mecca.

4. al-Harith b. 'Amir was the maternal uncle of Abu Ihab. The latter
   was one of B. Usayd b. 'Amr b. Tamlm; others say one of B. 'Udas b. Zayd
   b. 'Abdullah b. Darim of B. Tamlm.

5. It is said that the youngster was her son.

6. Khubayb remained imprisoned until the sacred months had passed
   and then they killed him.

7. al-aladd means one who makes mischief with violent opposition,
   plural ludd, as in God’s book: ‘that you may warn thereby a contumacious
   people’ (19. 97). Al-Muhalhil b. Rabi'a al-Taghlibi whose name was
   Imru’ul-Qays (others say 'Adly b. Rabi'a [S. shows conclusively that it was
   r Adiy] said:

Beneath the stones lies one a menace to his enemies, a boon to his friends,
A doughty adversary, great in argument.

Others report ‘with an argument that silences his opponents’.
mighl&q here means alandad as in the line of al- r {’irimmah b. Hakim describ¬
ing the chameleon:

He looks down on tree stumps as though

He were an adversary who had overcome his contumacious rivals.
\Dlwdn, ed. Krenkow, 141, 1 . 16.]

1. Yashri nafsahu means ‘selling himself’. Sharau means ‘they sold’.
   Yazid b. Rabi'a b. Mufarrigh al-Himyari said:

And I sold Burd. Would that I had died
Before I sold him.

Burd was a slave whom he sold. Shard also means ‘he bought’, as in the
poet’s words:

I said.to her, Grieve not, Umm Malik, over your sons
Though a mean fellow has bought them.

1. Some authorities on poetry deny his authorship.

2. For rufaq there is a variant puruq. We have omitted the rest of the poem
   because he used obscene language.

3. This poem resembles the preceding. Some authorities on poetry deny
   that Hassan composed it. I have omitted some words of Hassan about the
   affair of Khubayb for reasons I have given.

4. Anas w r as al-A?amm al-Sulami, maternal uncle of Mut'im b. 'Adly
   b. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf. When he says “Udas expelled’ he means

762 The Life of Muhammad

Hujayr b. Abu Ihab; others say al-A'sha b. Zurara b. al-Nabbash al-Asadl,
who was an ally of B. Naufal b. 'Abdu Manaf.

1. £uhayr b. al-Agharr and Jami' were the Hudhaylls who sold Khubayb.

2. Abu Zayd quoted the last line to me.

3. The last verse is on the authority of Abu Zayd.

4. Most authorities on poetry deny Hassan’s authorship. A variant in the
   last line is yujaddila. So C. W. has tujuddila.

5. The Ansari was al-Mundhir b. Muhammad b. 'Uqba b. Uhayha b.
   al-Julah.

6. Of B. Kilab. Abu 'Amr al-Madani said that they were of B. Sulaym.

7. Hakam b. Sa'd was of al-Qayn b. Jasr; Ummu’I-Banin was d. 'Amr b.
   r Amir b. Rabfa b. 'Amir b. §a'sa'a and the mother of Abu Bara’.

8. The last verse was quoted to me by Abu Zayd. He quoted to me the
   following as from Ka'b b. Malik pouring scorn on B. Ja'far b. Kilab:

You abandoned your prot£g6 to the B. Sulaym
In your impotence and poltroonery fearing to fight.

Had there been a covenant with 'Uqayl,

That agreement would have stood firm.

Or with al-Qurata’—they would not have betrayed him.

They have ever kept their faith though you have not been loyal.

The Qurata’ are a tribe of Hawazin. There is another reading ‘with
Nufayl’ for ‘with 'Uqayl’ and this is correct because al-Qura{a’ are near to
Nufayl.

1. He left I. Umm Maktum in charge of Medina.

2. This was in Rabf u’l-awwal. He besieged them for six nights and the
   prohibition of wine came down.

3. Lina are of different kinds. Palms neither fruitful nor bearing good dates
   according to what Abu 'Ubayda told me. [This explanation, which is also
   that of S. ii. 177, who says that the prophet did not cut down palms that bore
   edible dates, should be compared with the lexicons which state that the
   'ajwa, the best kind of date, grows on the Una. See Lane, 1969a.]

The saddle-frames above it looked like a bird’s nest
On the thick-trunked palm as its sides oscillated.

1. Aujaftum means ‘You drove them fast and wearied them in running
   Tamlm b. Ubayy b. Muqbil, one of B. 'Amir b. $a'sa'a, said:

Protectors with swords newly polished
From riders when they urged their steeds at a gallop,
i.e. ‘running’.

Abu Zayd al-X^’Iy whose name was Harmala b. al-Mundhir said:

Their girths tightened like Indian lances

Because of the length of the run ( wajif ) through land bare of pasture.

I bn Hisham’s Notes 763

Sinaf means ‘girth’. Wajif means ‘throbbing of the heart and the liver’,
i.e. the beat. Qays b. al-Kha{Im al-£afari said:

Though they brought what they know,

Our livers palpitate behind them.

1. Qays b. Bahr al-Ashja'i.

2. 'Amr b. Buhtha was of Ghatafan. The words ‘in a distant place’ are
   not from 1.1.

684K Some of our traditionists tell me that some anonymous Muslim recited
the verses. I have never met anyone who knew them as 'All’s.

1. Or 'Abdullah b. Rawaha.

2. Abu 'Amr al-Madani said: After B. Na^llr the apostle attacked B.
   al-Mustaliq. I shall relate their story in the place in which 1 . 1 . related it.

3. He put Abu Dharr al-Ghifari in charge of Medina, or according to
   others 'Uthman b. 'Affan. It was called Dhatu’l-Riqa' because they patched
   their flags there. Others say because there was a tree of that name there.
   [Cf. W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, 185.]

4. 'Abdu’l-Warith b. Sa'id al-Tannuri, sumamed Abu 'Ubayda, told us
   from Yunus b. 'Ubayd from al-Hasan b, Abu’l-Hasan from Jabir b. 'Ab¬
   dullah concerning the prayer of fear: the apostle prayed two bows with one
   section, then he ended with the invocation of peace, while the other section
   were facing the enemy. Then they came and he prayed two other bows with
   them, ending with the invocation of peace.

'Abdu’l-Warith from Ayyub from Abu’l-Zubayr from Jabir: The apostle
ranged us in two ranks and bowed with us all. Then the apostle prostrated
himself and the front rank prostrated. When they raised their heads those
next to them prostrated themselves. Then the front rank went back and the
rear rank advanced until they occupied their place. Then the prophet bowed
with them all; then he prostrated and those next him did likewise. When they
raised their heads those behind prostrated themselves. The prophet bowed
with them all and each one of them prostrated twice.

'Abdu’l-Warith b. Sa'id al-Tannuri from Ayyub from Nafi' from Ibn
'Umar said: The imam stands and one section stands with him while another
section are near the enemy. The imam bows and prostrates with them. Then
they withdraw and become those nearest the enemy. The others advance
and the imam performs one bow and one prostration with them. Then each
section prays with one bow. They have one bow with the imam and one by
themselves,

1. It was plated with silver.

2. The two men w r ere Ammar b. Yasir and 'Abbad b, Bishr.

3. Another reading is unfidhaha.

4. He left 'Abdullah b. 'Abdullah b. Ubayy b. Salul aI-An§arI in charge of
   Medina.

I bn Hi sham's Notes

764 The Life of Muhammad

1. Abu Zayd quoted it to me as from Ka‘b b. Malik.

2. We have omitted the remaining verses because the rhyme is faulty.
   Abu Zayd quoted to me the line ‘that young gazelles', &c., and the following
   verse as coming from Hassan in connexion with the line ‘You can say good¬
   bye to Syria', &c. He also quoted his line ‘Take Abu Sufyan a message’.

3. In Rabfu’l-awwal, leaving Siba‘ b. 'Urfu^a al-Ghifarl in charge of
   Medina.

4. Liwadh means ‘concealing something in flight’. Hassan b. Thabit said:

Quraysh fled from us to hide themselves

So that they stood not firm, their minds unstable.

This is a verse w'hich we have mentioned in the poetry about Badr (p. 626).

1. He put I. Umm Maktum in charge of Medina.

2. A traditionist whom I trust told me that Mu‘attib was not one of the
   disaffected; his argument was that he was at Badr.

3. Or 'Amr b. r Abd b. Abu Qays [apparently a laterattempt to remove the
   heathen name of Wudd].

4. It is said that Salman the Persian advised the apostle to make it. A
   traditionist told me that on this day the Muhajirs claimed that Salman
   belonged to them, while the Ansar said that he was their man; but the apostle
   said, ‘Salman belongs to us, the people of the house.*

5. Most authorities on poetry doubt c Ali’s authorship.

6. Furul is a young hyaena. At the battles of the Trench and B. Qurayza
   the cry of the apostle’s companions was Ha Mim [the letters prefixed to
   suras 40, 41, 43, 45, and 46] ‘They will not be helped!’

7. It is said that the man who shot Sa‘d was Khafaja b. 'Asim b. Hibban.

8. Marajil is a kind of Yaman cloth.

9. He left I. Umm Maktum in charge of Medina.

10. Others say AnnI.

11. God sent down concerning Abu Lubaba according to what Sufyan b.
    ‘Uyayna from Isma'Il b. Abu Khalid from '’Abdullah b. Abu Qatada said,
    ‘O ye who believe, do not betray God and the apostle and be false to your
    engagements w’hile you know 7 what you are doing (8. 27).

12. He remained tied to a stump for six nights. His wife used to come to
    him at every time of prayer and untie him for prayer. Then he would return
    and tie himself to the stump according to what a traditionist told me, and the
    verse which came dow 7 n about his repentance is the word of God: ‘And others
    who confess their sins have mingled good actions with bad; it may be that
    God will forgive them: God is forgiving, merciful’ (9. 103).

13. A traditionist whom I trust told me that ‘All cried as they were

7 6 5

besieging B. Qurayza, ‘O squadron of the Faith’; and he and al-Zubayr b.
al-'Awwam advanced and he said, ‘Either I will taste w r hat Hamza tasted or I
will conquer their fort.’ They said, ‘O Muhammad, we will submit to the
judgement of Sa'd b. Mu'adh.’

1. fuqqahiya means a kind of brocade.

2. This was the woman who threw the millstone on Khallad b. Suwayd
   and killed him.

3. Qabla is the receiving of the bucket of the camel drawing w 7 ater.
   Zuhayr b. Abu Sulma said concerning qabla :

Whenever his hands get hold of the bottom of the bucket
He sings as he stands pouring out the water.

Another reading is waqabilin yatalaqqd, meaning ‘the receiver of the bucket
takes hold of it’. The nadih is the camel that draws the water to irrigate.
Cf. Shark Diwan Zuhayr , Cairo, 1944, p. 40. [Here I.H. is explaining the
variant qabla for fatla.]

1. Aqtar means ‘sides’, singular qitr. Qatr , plural aqtdr, has the same
   meaning. Al-Farazdaq said:

What wealth did God open to them
As the horses rolled on their sides

[i.e. to get to their feet]. Aqtdr and aqtar are variant readings.

1. Salaqukum means ‘they injured you with talk, burned and distressed
   you’. The Beduin say ‘an eloquent ( salldq) speaker and khatib mislaq and
   misldq.' A‘sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba said:

Among them is glory, tolerance, and nobility,

Among them is the sharp eloquent orator.

1. Qadd nahbahu means ‘died’; nahb means ‘breath’, according to what
   Abu ‘Ubayda told me; its plural is nuhub. Dhu’l-Rumma said:

The night that the Idarithis fled

After Haubar died (qadd nahbahu) in the cavalry charge.

Haubar was one of B. al-Harith b. Ka‘b. He means Yazid b. Haubar. Nahb
also means ‘vow’. Jarir b. al-Khatafl said:

In Tikhfa we fought the kings, and our cavalry
Went on the night of Bistam to fulfil their vow.

He means the vow they had sworn to kill him and they did kill him. Bist&m
was Bisfam b. Qays b. Mas‘ud al-Shaybanl, who was Ibn Dhu’l-Jaddayn.
Abu 'Ubayda told me that he was the knight of Rabf a b. Nizar. Tikhfa is a
place on the Basra road. Nahb also means ‘wagers’, i.e. ‘bets’. Al-Farazdaq
said

When Kalb bet against people which of us
Is more generous and liberal ?

I bn His ham’s Notes

766 The Life of Muhammad

Another meaning is ‘weeping’. Nahb also means ‘necessity and need’. You
can say ‘They have nothing I want.’ Malik b. Buwayra al-Yarbu'i said:

They have nothing I want except that I

Seek the red-eyed camels of Shudun that you want.

Nahar b. Tausi'a, one of B. Taymu’l-Lat b. Tha'laba b. 'Ukaba b. E?a'b b.
'All b. Bakr b. Wa’il, who were clients of B. Hanifa, said:

A long gallop saved Yusuf al-Thaqafi
After the standard had fallen.

Had they overtaken him they would have fulfilled their need of him.
There is a protector for every (victim) missed.

Nahb also means ‘a gentle rapid gait’.

1. Suhaym slave of B. al-Hashas who are of B. Asad b. Khuzayma said:

The chiefs 1 lay dead on the ground
And Tamim’s women hastened to the forts.

\(aya\)i also means ‘horns’. AI-Nabigha al-Ja'di said:

(Death smote the) chiefs of my tribe so that I was alone
Like the horn of a bull whose other horn is broken off.

Abu Duwad al-Iyadi said:

The blackness of their horns scared us.

Their feet as it were sprinkled with pitch and tar.

$ayd§i also means the weaver’s implement according to what Abu 'Ubayda
told me, and he quoted me the line of Durayd b. al-§imma al-Jushaml,
Jusham b. Mu'awiya b. Bakr b. Hawazin:

I looked at him as the spears 2 went through him
As the sayasi go through the outstretched web.

§ayasi also means the protuberances on the feet of cocks like little horns.
It also means Toots’. He told me that the Arabs say, ‘May God cut off his
ftfiya, i.e. his root’.

1. The metaphorical meaning of this tradition is (explained in) the words
   of 'Aisha: ‘The apostle said, The grave has a hold on people; if anyone were
   to escape from it it would be Sa'd b. Mu'adh.*

2. She was Kubaysha d. Rafi' b. Mu'awiya b. 'Ubayd b. Tha'laba b.
   'Abdu* 1 -Abjar, who was Khudra b. 'Auf b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj.

3. You can say sahmu gharbin and sahmun gharbun with or without ufifa.
   It is not known whence the arrow comes or who shot it.

4. He was 'Uthman b. Umayya b. Munabbih b. 'Ubayd b. al-Sabbaq.

5. I have heard from al-Zuhrl that they gave 3 the apostle 10,000 dirhams
   for his body.

1 The poet is speaking of mountain goats.

2 W.’s tval-rthu makes no sense and violates the metre. It is one of his very few mistakes.

3 Perhaps the sense here is merely ‘they offered to give’.

767

1. A trustworthy person told me that he was told on the authority of
   al-Zuhrl that that day 'All killed 'Amr b. 'Abdu Wudd and his son Hisl.
   Others say 'Amr b. 'Abd. [Presumably the name of the heathen deity has
   been dropped.]

2. One whom I can trust told me from 'Abdu’l-Malik b. Yahya b. 'Abbad
   b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr: When Ka'b said, ‘Quraysh came to contend with
   their Lord’, &c., the apostle said: ‘God thanks you, Ka'b, for saying that.’

3. Abu Zayd quoted to me verses 8 and 20; and v. 11 with the variant
   ‘as though to the top of Quds al-Mashriq’.

4. The verses ‘We kept every fine . . . courser’ and the following verse
   and the third and fourth and the verse ‘Haughty as an angry lion’ and the
   following verse are from Abu Zayd.

5. Some authorities on poetry deny his authorship. The words "Amr to
   dismount’ are not from I, I.

6. Some authorities on poetry deny Hassan’s authorship.

7. These verses are credited to Rabfa b. Umaya al-DllI, whose last verse
   runs:

You brought the KhazrajI to his knees
And so I saw my desire on him.

The verses are also credited to Abu Usama al-Jushaml.

1. Or his leg.

2. Another reading is yahuttu, ‘annuls*.

3. He left I. Umm Maktum in charge of Medina.

4. More than one traditionist asserted that Waqqa$ b. Muhriz al-Mudliji
   was also killed that day

5. Sa'd’s horse was Lahiq; Miqdad’s was Ba'zaja or Sabha; 'Ukasha’s was
   Dhu’l-Limma; Abu Qatada’s was Hazwa; 'Abbad’s was Lamma'; Usayd’s
   was Masnun; and Abu 'Ayyash’s was Julwa.

6. He left I. Umm Maktum in charge of Medina.

73 5• When Hassan said this Sa'd b. Zayd was enraged against him and swore
that he would never speak to him again. He said: ‘He has actually attributed
my horses and my horsemen to al-Miqdad!’ Hassan excused himself, saying,
‘That was not my intention, I swear. But al-Miqdad’s name suited the
rhyme’. Hassan composed other verses to placate Sa'd:

If you seek the stoutest warrior
Or an able man, go to Sa'd,

Sa'd b. Zayd the dauntless.

But Sa'd would not accept the apology and it availed him naught.

1. Abu Zayd quoted me the line ‘We feed the guest’.

768 The Life of Muhammad

1. He put Abu Dharr al-Ghifari or Numayla b. 'Abdullah al-Laythi in
   charge of Medina.

2. The war-cry of the Muslims on the day of B. Mu§taliq was ‘0 victorious
   one, slay, slay!’

3. It is said that when the apostle departed from the raid with Juwayriya
   and was at Dhatu’l-Jaysh he entrusted her to one of the Ansar and went
   forward to Medina. Her father al-Harith came bringing his daughter’s
   ransom. When he was in al-'Aqlq he looked at the camels he had brought as
   her ransom and admired two of them greatly, so he hid them in one of the
   passes of al-'Aqiq. Then he came to the prophet and told him that he had
   brought his daughter’s ransom. He said: ‘Where are the two camels which
   you have hidden in al-'Aqlq in such-and-such a pass?’ Al-Idarith exclaimed:
   ‘I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that you, Muhammad, are
   the apostle of Allah; for none could have known of this but God.’ He and
   his two sons who were with him and some of his men accepted Islam and he
   sent for the two camels and brought them and handed all of them over to the
   prophet. His daughter was handed over to him and became an excellent
   Muslim. The apostle asked her father to let him marry her and when he
   agreed he gave her 400 dirhams as dowry.

4. She was Umm Ruman, Zaynab d. 'Abdu Duhman, one of B. Firas b.
   Ghanam b. Malik b. Kinana.

5. Others say it was 'Abdullah b. Ubayy and his companions. The one
   who had the greater share therein was 'Abdullah, as I.I. has shown above.
   [Presumably I.H.’s note ends at this point.]

6. In the tradition kibrahu and kubrahu occur, but the Quran has kibrahu
   with kasr. ‘Let not those who possess dignity among you.’ yd tali means ‘be
   remiss', as in the line of Imru’ul-Qays al-Kindl:

Many a troublesome opponent have I repelled for love of you,

One who advised and reproved me without ceasing {mu tali)

{Mu'all. v. 41). It is said that the Quranic words mean ‘Let not those who
possess dignity take an oath’, which according to what we have heard is what
al-Hasan Abu’l-Hasan al-Basrl said. And in God’s book ‘Those who forswear
their wives’ ( yuluna ) is from aliya and aliya means an oath. Hassan b.
Thabit said:

I swear that no man is more careful than I
In swearing an oath true and free from falsehood.

I shall mention this verse, in its context later {v.i., W. p. 1026, 1. 2). The
meaning of an yu tu in this case is an la yutu; and in God’s book we read:
‘God makes it plain to you an tadillu, meaning an la tadillu; He holds back
the sky lest {an) it should fall on the earth, meaning an la.' I. Mufarrigh al-
Idimyarl said:

May I never frighten the camels at dawn.

May I not be called Yazld

If, fearing death, I make my shame public

While the fates watch me lest I should turn aside.

i.e. /a ahida.

769

I bn Hisham’s Notes

743- Another version is ‘. . . after God has guided you to Islam’.

744- The verse ‘a noble woman’ and the one after, and ‘His rank’ are on th*

daughter Tn ^ilha’ ^ ' Ubayda toId me that a woman P™sed Hassan’s
udugnrer in a isha s presence, saying:

Chaste, keeping to her house, above suspicion,

Never thinking of reviling innocent women;

and ‘A’isha said, ‘But her father did!’

745- Hassan and his two companions.

1. He put Numayla b. 'Abdullah in charge of Medina.

747* Others say Busr.

748 . Afsa b. Haritha.

749- For yahmadunaka some say yamdahunaka.

75°. In saymg this 'Urwa meant that al-Mughira before he became a
, uslim had kdled thirteen men of B. Malik of Thaqlf. The two clans of

of amuThi ' tH f famiIy ° f the Slain > and the alhes the family

settled thfaSir Pi ” d ‘ he bIoodwi ' f ° r the thirteen “d the,

firs, oZZ Z? 'T 4 '' 1 b ’ Ab ° Kb5Iid from “ 1 -Sha'bI mentioned that the
f F edge the apostle was Abu Sinan al-Asadi. One whom I trust

amTl°Abfi HLImar told "’T N" ° f witnesses * oin 8 ba <* «° Abu Mulavka
e ITt , ’ Umar, told me that the apostle gave himself a pledge on behalf of

Uthman, striking one of his hands on the other. * *

752 . Ma'kuf means ‘bound’. A'sha of B. Qays b. Tha'laba said:

Twas as though the thread kept the beads from scattering
On either side of Umm Ghazal’s graceful neck.

IVwlNNNN. Z'if'T"' 1 ' ' This l—*e came down concerning

Abu Rahr. '] V A - a Z Ughira and Salama b - Hisham and 'Ayyash b
Abu Rabi a and Abu Jandal b. Suhayl and others like them.’

754- The proof of al-Zuhri’s assertion that the apostle went to al-Hudaybiya

conquZ'ofMZ”V W ° rdS °I mr h ' Abdullah: ‘ Th “ in the year of the
q st of Mecca two years afterwards the apostle marched with 10 , 000 .’

755- Abu Basir was of Thaqlf.

756 . Abu Unays was an Ash'arl.

Qays Taid. S ‘ nSUlar ° f ’ kam iS kma WhiCh mcans a COrd ° r r °P e - a, -A’sha b.

To Imru ul-Qays we make long journeys

And we take ropes from every tribe. {Dizvan iv. 20 .)

HIT ' Ub fy da t0ld ^ s ^ at who were with the apostle when he came
ma said to him, Did you not say that you would enter Mecca safely f!

3 D

B 4080

7?0 The Life of Muhammad

H ‘Ortainlv but (lid I say that it would be this year?’ They said
Nc ist accordance with wha, Gabriel said «o me.’

759 . He put Nuntayla b. 'Abdullah in charge of Medina and gave the standard
to 'All. It was white.

1. The war-cry of the companions at Khaybar was 'O victorious one. slay
   slay 1 .’

2. Abu Zayd quoted the lines thus:

Khaybar knows that I am Ka b
And that when war breaks out
I advance against terrors, bold and doun
I carry a sharp sword that glitters like lightning
In the hand of a warrior sans reproche.

We will crush you till the strong is humbled.

Marhab was from Himyar.

1. It was white.

763 Judham is the brother of Lakhm.

7 6 4 . means ‘the

it: — g ** ^ -

Jews must be referred to here.]

7 6 5 . Or b. al-Habib: I. Uhayb b. Suhaym b. Ghiyara of B. Sad b. Layt .
an ally of B. Asad and the son of their sister.

,66. Al-Aswad the shepherd was one of the people of Khaybar.

7 6 7 . Another reading is ‘.he spoil of Muhammad’, &c.

6B. AbO Zayd quoted these verses ,0 me from Ka'b b. Malilt and he quoted:
What stopped him was the behaviour of h.s horse.

But for that he would not have been remiss.

769 . A rhapsodist quoted to me his words ‘when I charged’ and ‘perished
in Ka‘b e b ed Malt said, according to Ibn Hisham on the authority of AbQ

We came down to Khaybar and its drinking places ,

With every strong warrior whose veins showed in his hand.

Brave in dangers, no weaklings.

Bold against the enemy in every battle,

Generous with food every winter

Smiting with the blade of an^ndian sword

Thev think death praiseworthy if they get tne manv

They hope for from God and victory through Ahmad.

They protect and defend Muhammad s protegih
They fight for him with hand and.tongue.

1 Because he gripped his sword so firmly.

Ibn Hishdm's Notes

771

They help him in every’ matter that troubles him
Endangering their lives in defence of Muhammad’s,

Sincerely believing in the news of the unseen,

Aiming thereby at glory’ and honour in the time to come.

1. On the day of Khaybar the apostle decided which were Arab horses and
   which were of mixed blood.

2. He was called “Ubayd al-Siham’ because he bought the shares. He was
   'Ubayd b. Aus, one of B. Haritha b. al-Harith b. al-Khazraj b. r Amr b. Malik
   b. Aus.

3. (Loads refer to) wheat, barley, dates, and datestones, &c. He distri¬
   buted them according to their needs. [This useful explanatory note from
   I.H. is not in W.’s text and there is no mention of the reading in his critical
   notes in vol. iii. C. notes that it is missing in W. but does not state what
   manuscripts contain it. Datestones were pounded up and used for camel
   food.] The need of B. 'Abdu’l-Muttalib was greater and so he gave them
   more.

4. Some say ‘Azza b. Malik and his brother Murran or Marwan b. Malik.
   [This latter divergence obviously shows that the tradition rested on manu¬
   scripts which could not be read with certainty.]

5. According to Malik b. Anas he said Kabbir Kabbir! [There is no
   difference in the meaning.]

6. Or Aslam.

7. Some say ‘to Qatadah

8. The word khatar means ‘share’. You can say akhtara ll fuldn khafaran,
   ‘someone gave me a share’.

9. Sufyan b. 'Uyayna from al-Ajlah from al-Sha r bI said that Ja'far b.
   Abu Talib came to the apostle the day he conquered Khaybar. The apostle
   kissed his forehead and taking hold of him said: ‘I don’t know which gives
   me the greater pleasure—the conquest of Khaybar or the arrival of Ja'fard

10. Others say her name was Humayna.

11. He put 'Uwayf b. al-Adbat al-DUl in charge of Medina. This is also
    called the ‘Pilgrimage of Retaliation’ because they prevented him from pil¬
    grimage in Dhu’l-Qa r da in the holy month in A.H. 6; and the apostle retaliated
    and entered Mecca in the very month in which they had shut him out, in
    a.h. 7. We have heard that I. 'Abbas said: ‘God revealed concerning that,
    “And forbidden things are subject to retaliation” ’ ( 2 . 190).

12. The words ‘We will fight you about its interpretation’ to the end of the
    verses were spoken by r Ammar b. Yasir about another battle. The proof of
    that is that I. Rawaha referred only to the polytheists. They did not believe
    in the revelation and only those who did would fight for an interpretation .of
    it. [S. says the occasion w T as the battle of Siffln, and this certainly gives point
    to the verses which are to be found in the K. Siffln.]

772 The Life of Muhammad

1. She had entrusted her sister Umm al-Fadl with her affairs; she, being
   married to al-'Abbas, confided the matter to him, and he married her to the
   apostle in Mecca and gave her as dowry on the apostle’s behalf 400 dirhams.

2. God sent dowm to him—so Abu r Ubayda told me—‘God has fulfilled
   the vision in reality to His apostle, “You shall enter the sacred mosque if God
   will in safety with heads shaved and (hair) shorn, not fearing’’. He knows
   what you do not know, and He has wrought besides that a victory near by’
   (48. 27), i.e. Khaybar.

3. Some authorities on poetry quoted the verses to me thus:

You are the apostle and he who is deprived of his gifts
And the sight of him has no real worth.

May God confirm the good things He gave you
Among the apostles, and the victory as they were helped.

I perceived goodness in you by a natural gift,

An intuition which is contrary to what they think of you,

meaning the polytheists.

1. Another reading is:

We urged on our horses from the thickets of Qurh.

[This is the reading of T. 1212, 1. 9 and Yaq. iv. 53, 1. 22, who says that
Qurh is in the Wadi’l-Qura. I.I.’s reading is given in Yaq. iv. 571.] The
words ‘We arranged their bridles’ are not from 1 . 1 .

1. Others say 'Ubada b. Malik.

2. A traditionist whom I trust told me that JaTar took the flag in his right
   hand and it w'as cut off; then he held it in his left hand and that w'as cut off;
   then he held it to his breast with his arms until he was slain. He was 33
   years old. For that God rewarded him with a pair of wings in Paradise with
   which he flew whither he would. It is said' that a Greek gave him a blow
   which cut him asunder.

3. Another reading is 40 skins (mam a ).

4. The words I. al-Irash are not from 1 . 1 . The third verse is from Khallad
   b. Qurra: others say Malik b. Rafila.

5. Al-Zuhrl according to our information said that the Muslims made
   Khalid their chief and God helped them, and he was in charge of them until
   he came back to the prophet.

6. To these I. Shihab added: From B. Mazin; Abu Kulayb and Jabir,
   sons of 'Amr b. Zayd b. r Auf b. Mabdhul, full brothers. From B. Malik b.
   Af$a: ‘Amr and 'Amir, sons of Sa'd b. al-Harith b. 'Abbad b. Sa'd b. 'Amir
   b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. Afsa. Others say, Abu Kilab and Jabir sons of
   'Amr.

7. The poem is ascribed to Habib b. 'Abdullah al-A'lam al-Hudhall, and
   the verse 'I remembered the ancient blood-feud’ is from Abu 'Ubayda, also
   the words ‘wide-nostriiled’ and ‘strong, lean-flanked’, &c.

I bn Hisham's Notes 773

793 - The words except Isafil and to the slopes of Radw'a’ are not from 1.1.
Concerning him Hassan b. Thabit said:

God curse the tribe w r e left deprived of their best men
With none but Naqib to call them together.

O Naufal, testicles of a donkey who died last night.

When have you ever been successful, you enemy of baggage!

[The last insult means ‘you never equip yourself for a foray’, or, perhaps,
‘you thief!’]

794 * Another reading is Help us, God guide you, w'ith strong aid’; and
‘We provided the mother and you are the son’.

1. Another reading is ‘the worst enemy’.

2. By the words ‘By men who had not drawn their swords’ he means
   Quraysh, and by ‘the son of Umm Mujalid’ he means Tkrima b. Abu Jahl. 1

797 - He met him in al-Juhfa migrating with his family; before that he had
lived in Mecca in charge of the watering with the goodwill of the apostle,
according to what al-Zuhri told me.

1. Another reading is ‘And one whom I had driven out led me to the truth’.

2. It w^s called greenish-black because of the large amount of steel in it.
   Al-Harith b. Hilizza al-Yashkurl said:

Then Hujr, I mean Ibn Umm Qatam,

With his greenish-black horsemen

meaning the squadron; and Hassan b. Thabit said:

When he saw Badr’s valley walls

Swarming with the blackmailed squadrons of Khazraj

in his poem on Badr [v.s. 525].

1. Said to be 'Umar.

2. He w'as of Khuza'a.

3. An authority on poetry quoted me his saying ‘like a pillar’ which is
   credited to al-Ri ash al-Hudhali. On the day of Mecca, Hunayn, and al-
   Ta if the battle-cry of the muhajirs was ‘O Banu 'Abdu ’ 1 -RahmSn’; of the
   Khazraj, ‘O Banu 'Abdullah’; of the Aus, ‘O Banu 'Ubaydullah’.

4. Afterwards he became a Muslim and 'Umar gave him a governorship
   and so did 'Uthman after him.

5. Al-'Abbas had put Fatima and Umm Kulthum, the two daughters of
   the apostle, on a camel to take them from Mecca to Medina and al-FIuway-
   rith goaded the beast so that it threw them to the ground.

6. They were al-Idarith b. Hisham and Zuhayr b. Abu Umayya b. al-
   Mughlra.

1 W, leaves this sentence under I.I.'s name.

774 The Life of Muhammad

1. Sufyan b. 'Uyayna mentioned that the apostle said to 'All, ‘I give you
   only that which you have lost; not that which you will cause others to lose.’

A traditionist told me that the apostle entered the temple on the day of the
occupation, and saw the figures of angels and other beings and a picture of
Abraham with divining arrows in his hand. ‘God slay them,’ he said, ‘they
have pictured our shaykh as a man divining with arrows. What has Abraham
to do with such things ? “Abraham was not a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a
franif, a Muslim, and was not a polytheist” ' (3. 60). Then he gave orders that
all those pictures should be erased. [Azraqi, Mecca, 1352, 104 ult., records
a tradition that the picture of Jesus and Mary was retained by the prophet.]

He also told me that the apostle and Bilal entered the Ka'ba, and when the
former came out Bilal remained behind. Abdullah b. ‘Umar went in to him
and asked him where the apostle had prayed, but he did not ask how many
times. When Ibn 'Umar went into the temple he "walked straightforward until
there was a space of about three cubits between the wall and the door behind
him; then he w r ould pray, making for the place which Bilal had told him of.

He also said that when the apostle entered the Ka'ba in the year of the
conquest in company with Bilal he ordered him to call the people to prayer.
Now Abu Sufyan b. Harb and 'Attab b. Asld and al-Harith b. Hisham were
sitting in the courtyard of the Ka'ba. 'Attab b. Asld said, ‘God has honoured
Asid in not letting him hear this, for it w'ould have enraged him.’ Al-Harith
said, ‘-If I knew that he w r as right I would follow him.’ Abu Sufyan said,
‘I say nothing. If I were to speak the very stones would tell him of it.’
Thereupon the prophet came out to them and said, ‘I know what you said,’
and repeated their words. Al-Harith and 'Attab said, ‘We bear witness that
you are the apostle of God. There was none with us who could have known
this so that we could say that it was he who told you.’

1. I heard that the first man for whom the apostle paid the bloodwit was
   Junaydib b. al-Akwa'. The B. Ka'b killed him and the apostle paid a hundred
   she-camels for him.

I heard from Yahya b. Sa'id that when the prophet entered Mecca he
stood on al-§afa praying to God. The Ansar were all round him and were
saying among themselves, ‘Do you think that now that God has given him
power over his land and his towm that he will remain in it?’ When he had
ended his prayers he asked them what they had been saying. At first they
would not say, but finally they told him and he said: ‘God forbid! The place
where I live will be your place, and the place where I die will be yours.’

A traditionist in whom I have confidence with a chain going back to
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from 'Ubaydullah b. 'Abdullah from Ibn 'Abbas said:
The apostle entered Mecca on the day of conquest riding his camel, and went
round the Ka'ba on it. All round the temple were images set in lead, and the
apostle was pointing at them with a stick in his hand, saying, ‘Truth has
come and falsehood has passed away: falsehood is bound to pass away’
(17. 82). If he pointed at the image’s face it fell backwards; if he pointed at
its back it fell on its face, until there was not one of them standing. Tamlm
b. Asad al-Khuza'i said concerning that:

In the idols there is an instructive lesson

To one who hopes for reward or punishment.

Ibn Hisham’s Notes 775

He told me that Fadala b. 'Umayr b. al-Mulawwah al-Laythl wanted to
kill the prophet as he was going round the temple in the year of the conquest.
When he drew near, the apostle asked him what he was muttering. He replied
that he was only mentioning the name of God. The prophet laughed and
said, ‘Ask God’s forgiveness,’ and he put his hand on his chest and his heart
became at rest. Fadala used to say, ‘As soon as he took his hand from my
chest none of God’s creatures was dearer to me than he; so I w r ent back to
my people. I passed by a woman with whom I used to have converse, and
when she asked me to join her I refused.’ He used to say,

She said, Come and talk! and I said,

God and Islam make it unlawful.

If you had seen Muhammad and his victorious entry
The day the idols were smashed
You would have seen God’s religion shining plainly
And darlmess covering the face of idolatry.

1. A traditionist of Quraysh told me that Safwan said to 'Umayr, ‘Con¬
   found you, get away and do not speak to me, for you are a liar,’ because of
   what he himself had done, We have mentioned the latter in the end of the
   account of the battle of Badr.

2. Some authorities on poetry deny his authorship of this poem.

3. Another version is ‘And kinship’s cords were severed from you.’

4. Hassan said this on the day of the occupation. For 'ayba some recite
   'atba, Al-Zuhri is reported to have said: ‘When the apostle saw the women
   flapping their veils at the horses he looked at Abu Bakr with a smile.’

5. This is part of a longer ode of his.

6. 'Abbas b. Mirdas al-Sulami said:

With us on the day Muhammad entered Mecca

Were a thousand marked men 1 —the valleys flowed with them.

They had helped the apostle and been present at his battles,

Their mark on the day of battle being to the fore.

In a strait place their feet were firm.

They split the enemies’ heads like colocynths.

Their hooves had traversed Najd beforehand
Till at last black Hijaz became subject to them.

God gave him the mastery of it.

The judgment of the sword and victorious fortune subdued it to us.
One old in authority, proud in mien,

Seeking the bounds of glory, exceeding generous.

ABBAS B. MIRDAS BECOMES A MUSLIM

According to what an authority on poetry told me the father of 'Abbas had
an idol which he used to worship. It was a stone called Ipamari. One day

1 i.e. with a distinguishing turban or emblem; or the word might mean ‘released’
‘let go’.

77 ^ The Life of Muhammad

Mirdas said to his son, ‘Worship Daman, for it can both help and hurt you.’
When 'Abbas was by Damari he heard a voice saying from within it:

Say to all the tribes of Sulaym,

Damari is dead and the people of the mosque do live.

He of Quraysh who has inherited prophecy and guidance
After the Son of Mary is the rightly guided one.

Damari is dead though once he was worshipped
Before scripture came to the prophet Muhammad.

At that 'Abbas burned Damari and joining the prophet became a Muslim.

Ja'da b. 'Abdullah al-Khuza'i on the day Mecca was entered said:

O Ka'b b. 'Amr, hear a claim that is true
Of death decreed for him on the day of battle,

Decreed for him from everywhere, 1
That he should die by night weaponless.

We are they whose horses closed up Ghazal,

And Lift and Fajju Tilah we closed up.

We brandished our spears behind the Muslims
In a great army supported by our horses.

Bujayd b. 'Imran al-Khuza'i said:

God created the clouds to help us,

Heaps of low-lying clouds one above another.

Our migration is in our country where we have
A book which comes from the best of dictators and writers.

For our sakes Mecca’s sanctuary was profaned
That we might get revenge w r ith our sharp swords.

1. 'Abbas b. Mirdas said concerning this:

Since you have made Khalid chief of the army
And promoted him he has become chief indeed
In an army guided by God whose commander you are
By which we smite the wicked with every right.

These two verses belong to an ode of his about the battle of Hunayn which
I shall mention later, God willing. [See p. 583.]

1. A traditionist who had it from Ibrahim b. Ja'far al-Mahmudi told me
   that the apostle said: ‘In a dream I swallowed a morsel of dates mixed with
   butter and enjoyed the taste of it; but some of it stuck in my gullet when I was
   trying to swallow it and 'All thrust in his hand and pulled it out.’ Abu Bakr
   said: ‘This is one of the parties you sent out. You will hear tidings which
   you will like and dislike, and you will send 'All to put matters right.’

He told me that one of the men escaped and came to the apostle to tell
him the news. The apostle asked if anyone opposed Khalid, and he replied
that a fair man of medium height had done so but Khalid drove him away.
Another man tall and of clumsy figure argued with him until the dispute

1 Lit. ‘from his earth and his sky’. Cf. Werner Caskell, Das Schicksal in der altarabiscken
Poesie, Leipzig, 1926, 16 f.

Ibn Hishdm’s Notes 777

became hot. 'Umar said that the first was his son 'Abdullah and the other
was Salim, a client of Abu Hudhayfa.

1. Abu 'Amr al-Madani said: When Khalid came to them they said,
   ‘We have changed our religion, we have changed our religion.’

2. The word Busr and ‘remained with the marriage-makers’ are not
   from 1.1.

3. Most authorities on poetry deny the authenticity of the last two lines.

4. More than one authority on poetry recited the first line to me.

5. The words ‘Take to Hawazin’ to the end of the poem deal with this
   battle. What goes before has reference to something else. They are quite
   distinct, but 1.1. has made them into one poem.

6. Abu Sufyan’s son was named Ja'far, his own name being al-Mugihlra.
   Some people count Qutham b. al-'Abbas among them and omit Abu
   Sufyan’s son.

7. Kalada b. al-Hanbal.

8. Hassan b. Thabit lampooning Kalada said:

I saw a black man afar off and he scared me.

’Twas Abu Hanbal leaping on Umm Hanbal.

’Twas as though that with which he leapt upon her belly
Was the foreleg of a camel sired by a mighty stallion!

Abu Zayd quoted these two verses to us, and said that in them he lampooned
§afwan b. Umayya who was half-brother to Kalada on his mother’s side.
(This passage is not in W.)

1. These two verses were not spoken by Malik and were about another
   battle.

2. Or ‘the smell of death’.

3. An authority on the oral tradition of poetry quoted to me the second
   hemistich in the form:

And His cavalry has the best claim to constancy.

827 * Ghaylan is b. Salama al-Thaqafi, and 'Urwa is b. Mas'ud al-Thaqafi.

1. Some say I. Ladh'a.

2. The name of the man who killed Durayd was 'Abdullah b. Qunay' b.
   Uhban b. Tha'laba b. Rabl'a.

3. These verses of Malik have nothing to do with this battle. You can
   see that from the words of Durayd at the beginning of this account, ‘What
   of Ka'b and Kilab?’ to which they replied, ‘Not one of them is here.’ Now
   Ja'far was the son of Kilab and in these verses Malik says ‘Ja'far and B.
   Hilal would have returned.’

I have heard that cavalry came up while Malik and his party were at the

778 The Life of Muhammad

pass and when he asked his men what they could see they said that they saw
a force who lay their lances between the ears of their long-flanked steeds.
He said that they were B. Sulaym and they had nothing to fear from them.
When they came near they took the road at the bottom of the wadi. Next
came men with no distinguishing mark carrying their lances at the side.
He said that there was nothing to fear: they were Aus and Khazraj. When
they came to the bottom of the pass they took the same road as B. Sulaym.
Then they said that they saw a horseman long of thigh carrying his lance on
his shoulder, his head wrapped in a red cloth. ‘That is al-Zubayr b. al-
'Awwam, 1 he said. ‘I swear by al-Lat that he will fight you, so stand firm/
When al-Zubayr came to the foot of the pass he saw them and made for them
and kept thrusting at them until he drove them from it.

1. An authority on poetry whom I do not suspect told me that Abu
   'Amir al-Ash'arl met ten polytheists, all brothers, on the day of Autas.
   One of them attacked and Abu 'Amir fell upon him calling him to Islam,
   saying, ‘O God, testify against him,’ and he killed him. They began to
   attack him one by one until he killed nine of them and then he began to
   fight the tenth calling on God as before. The man cried, ‘O God, do not
   testify against me,’ and Abu 'Amir let him go and he escaped and afterwards
   became a good Muslim. When the apostle saw him he said, ‘This is the
   survivor of Abu 'Amir’s onslaught.’ Two brothers shot Abu 'Amir, al-'Ala’
   and Aufa sons of al-Harith of B. Jusham b. Mu'awiya; one of them hit
   his heart and the other his knee and so he died. Abu Musa assumed com¬
   mand and attacked and killed the pair of them. One of the B. Jusham lament¬
   ing them said:

The killing of al-'Ala’ and Aufa was a calamity,

They could not be touched while life was in them.

They were the ones who killed Abu 'Amir
Who was a sharp sword with wavy marks.

They left him on the battlefield
As though wrapped in a crimson robe.

You have not seen their like among men,

Less likely to stumble or better shots.

1. God sent down concerning the day of Hunayn: ‘God gave you victory
   in many places and on the day of Hunayn when you exulted in your multi¬
   tude’ to the words ‘That is the reward of the unbelievers’ (9. 25).

2. One of the rhapsodists said about it:

When your prophet’s uncle and friends arose
They cried, Help, O squadron of the faith!

Where are those who answered their Lord

On the day of al-'Urayd and the homage of al-Ridwan?

1. The words ‘covered with dust’ are not from 1 . 1 .

2. Khalaf al-Ahmar quoted to me the words ‘And cried Stop!’.

3. An authority on poetry recited to me ‘w r e w r ere his right w r ing’, &c.,
   but he knew nothing of the verse beginning ‘we carried his banner’. After

Ibn Hishams Notes

779

the line ‘We had charge of the flag’ he recited the line ‘We dyed it with
blood’.

837* Abu Ubavda told me that Zuhayr b. al- Ajwa al-Hudhali was taken
prisoner at Hunayn and handcuffed. Jamil b. Ma'mar al-Jumahi saw him
and said, Are you the man w'ho has been acting offensively against us ?’,
and he struck off his head. Abu Khirash, w r ho was his nephew, said in
lamenting him:

Jamil b. Ma'mar has half-starved my guests
By killing a generous man to whom widows resorted.

The belt of his sword was long, no short one when he brandished it.

And the cord was loose upon him . 1

So generous he would almost give away his girdle

When the cold north w'inds were fierce.

To his tent the poor man went in winter
And the poor night traveller in his worn-out rags
Who goes half-frozen when the night winds blow
Driving him to seek refuge.

What ails the people of the camp that they did not separate
When the eloquent chief had gone ?

I swear if you had met him when he was not bound
Hyaenas would have visited you at the mountain foot.

If you had faced him when you met him

And fought him if you are a fighter

Jamil would have met the most ignominious end;

But a man whose hands are bound cannot defend himself . 2
We were not as we used to be at home, O Umm Thabit,

But chains were round our necks.

The young man like the old man does naught but what is right,

And the women blamers have nothing to say.

Sincere brethren have become as though
One had poured on them the dust of the grave.

But don t think that I have forgotten the nights in Mecca
When we could not be held back from what we took in hand,

When men were men and the country was famous
And doors were not shut in our faces.

1. It is said that his name was Abu Thawab Ziyad b. Thawab. Khalaf
   al-Ahmar quoted me the words ‘Red blood flowed because of our rage’ and
   the last verse as not from I.I.

2. Some say 17 days.

3. The apostle shot at them with catapults. One I can trust told me that
   the apostle was the first to use a catapult in Islam when he fired at the men
   of 4a if.

4. It is said that the mother of Da ud w'as Maymuna d. Abu Sufyan who

was married to Abu Murra b. 'Urwa b. Mas'ud, and she bore to him
Ua ud.

1 A frequent cliche for a tall man.

2 S. misses the point here.

780 The Life of Muhammad

1. 1.1. gave the names of those slaves who came.

2. The word yuqbisu is not from 1 . 1 .

3. Others say I. Hubab.

4. Another tradition is ‘had we shared our salt with’, &c.

5. Zayd b. Aslam from his father said that 'Aqll b. Abu Bakr went in to
   his wife Fatima d. Shayba b. Rabf a on the day of Hunayn with his sword
   dripping with blood. She said, ‘I see that you have been fighting, and what
   plunder have you got from the polytheists?’ He said ‘Take this needle to
   make your clothes with’ and handed it to her. Then he heard the apostle’s
   crier ordering men to return anything they had taken even to a needle and
   thread; so he came back and said ‘I’m afraid you have lost your needle’ and
   took it and threw it into the common stock.

6. Nusayr b. al-Harith b. Kalada, and it may be that his name was al-
   Harith also.

7. His name was 'Adiy b. Qays.

8. Yunus al-Nahwi quoted me the verse with the word ‘Mirdas’ in place
   of ‘my father’. [This is T.’s reading. Another reading of 1 . 1 . is ‘my father
   and my grandfather’.]

9. A traditionist told me that 'Abbas b. Mirdas came to the apostle who
   said to him, ‘So you are the one who said:

My spoil and that of ‘Ubayd my horse
Is shared by al-Aqra' and 'Uyayna.’

Abu Bakr said, ‘Between 'Uyayna and al-Aqra’.’ The apostle said, ‘It’s
the same thing.’ Abu Bakr said, ‘I testify that you are as God said, “We have
not taught him poetry and that is not fitting for him” ’ (Sura 36. 69).

A traditionist in whom I have confidence from al-Zuhri—'Ubaydullah b.
'Abdullah b.'Utba-Ibn'Abbas—said: The apostle accepted the homage of
Quraysh and others and gave them on the day of al-Ji'rana some of the spoil
of I^unayn, thus:

B. Umayya: Abu Sufyan b. Harb; 'faliq b. Sufyan; and Khalid b. Asld.
B. 'Abdu’l-Dar: Shayba b. 'Uthman b. Abu Talha; Abu Sanabil b.
Ba'kak b. al-Harith b. 'Umayla b. al-Sabbaq; 'Ikrima b. 'Amir b.
Hashim.

B. Makhzum: Zuhayr b. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughira; al-Harith b.
Hisham b. al-Mughira and Khalid his brother; Hisham b. al-Walid b.
al-Mughira; Sufyan b. 'Abdu’l-Asad b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr; and al-Sa ib
b. 'A’idh b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr.

B. 'Adly b. Ka'b: Mu{i* b. al-Aswad b. Haritha b. Natela, and Abu Jahm b.
Hudhayfa b. Ghanim.

B. Jumah b. 'Amr: $afwan b. Umayya b. Khalaf; Uhayha b. Umayya his
brother, and 'Umayr b. Wahb b. Khalaf.

B. Sahm: 'Adly b. Qays b. Hudhafa.

B. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy: Huwayfib b. 'Abdu’l-'Uzza and Hisham b. 'Amr b.
Rabi'a b. al-Uarith b. Hubayyib.

Ibn Hisham's Notes 781

From mixed tribes:

B. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana: Naufal b. Mu'awiya b. 'Urwa b.

Sakhr b. Razn b. Ya'mar b. Nufatha b. 'Adly b. al-Dll.

B. Qays of the B. 'Amir b. §a'sa'a clan of the sub-division B. Kilab
b. Rabi'a b. 'Amir b. §a'sa'a: 'Alqama b. 'Ulatha b. 'Auf b. al-Ahwa?
b. Ja'far b. Kilab and Labld b. Rabi'a b. Malik b. Ja'far b. Kilab.

B. 'Amir b. Rabi'a: Khalid b. Haudha b. Rabi'a b. 'Amr b. 'Amir b.

Rabi'a b. 'Amir b. $a'sa'a and Harmala b. Haudha his brother.

B. Nasr b. Mu'awiya: Malik b. 'Auf b. Sa'Id b. Yarbu'.

B. Sulaym b. Mansur: 'Abbas b. Mirdas b. Abu 'Amir brother of B.
al-Harith b. Buhtha b. Sulaym.

B. Ghafafan, of the clan of B. Fazara: 'Uyayna b. Hisn b. Hudhayfa b.
Badr.

B. Tamim of the clan of B. Hanzala: al-Aqra' b. Habis b. 'Iqal of B.
Mujashi' b. Darim.

1. When the apostle made these gifts to Quraysh and the Beduin tribes
   and gave nothing to the Ansar, Hassan b. Thabit reproached him in the
   following verse:

Anxieties increased and tears flowed copiously

While I wept continuously

In longing for Shamma’ the lovely, the slender,

Without impurity or weakness.

Speak no more of Shamma’ since her love has waned,

(When love has grown cold there is no joy in meeting),

And come to the apostle and say, O thou most trusted
By believers from all mankind.

Why were Sulaym invited—mere outsiders,

Before a people who gave you shelter and help ?

God called them Helpers because they helped true religion
While repeated wars broke out

And they vied in running in the way of God, enduring hardship,
Showing neither cowardice nor alarm.

And when men gathered against us for your sake
And we had but our swords and lances as a refuge
We fought them, sparing none
And abandoned nothing revealed in the suras.

Those who love war do not shun our assembly
And when its fire blazed we were the kindlers.

As we repelled the hypocrites at Badr their hopes unrealized
And through us victory was sent down. 1
We were your army at the mountain slope of Uhud
When Mudar insolently gathered their adherents.

We were not remiss or cow'ardly,

And they did not find us stumblers though all others were.

1. I have heard that Zayd b. Aslam said that when the apostle appointed
   'Attab as governor in Mecca his allowance was a dirham a day. He got up

1 Or perhaps 'Concerning us the verse about “victory” was sent down’.

7S2 The Life of Muhammad

and addressed the people in these words: ‘God make hungry the liver of a
man who is hungry on a dirham a day! The apostle has allowed me a dirham
every day and I have no need of any one.’

1. The apostle arrived in Medina on 24th Dhu’l-Qa'da according to what
   'Amr al-Madanl alleged.

2. Another version is Al-Ma’mur (the one under orders). The words
   ‘Tell me plainly’ are not from Ibn Ishaq. An authority on poetry quoted me
   the lines thus:

Who will give Bujayr a message from me:

Do you accept what I said at the mountain foot ?

You have drunk w r ith al-Ma’mun a full cup
And he has added a second draught of the same.

You have gone against true guidance and followed him.

Woe to you, to what has he led you?

To a religion your parents knew naught of
And your brother has naught to do with.

If you don’t accept what I say I shall not grieve
Nor say if you stumble God help you!

He sent this to Bujayr, and when he received it he did not like to hide it
from the apostle so he recited it to him. When he heard the W'ords ‘Al-
Ma’mun has given you a full cup* he said, ‘That is true and he is the liar!
I am al-Ma’mun’; and w r hen he heard the words ‘A religion your parents
knew naught of’ he said, ‘Certainly, his father and mother did not follow it.’

1. Or al-Ma’mur.

2. Ka r b composed this ode after he came to the apostle at Medina. His
   verses ‘The qurad crawls over her’ and ‘Onagerlike is she’ and ‘She lets a
   tail’ and ‘When he springs on his adversary’ and ‘Albeit ever in his wadi’
   are not on the authority of 1.1.

3. It is said that the apostle said to him when he recited to him ‘Su'ad is
   gone’, ‘Why didn’t you speak well of the Ansar, for they deserve such
   mention ?’ So Ka‘b spoke these words in an ode of his. I was told that ‘All
   b. Zayd b. Jud'an said that Ka‘b recited ‘Su r ad has gone’ to the apostle in
   the mosque.

4. A trustworthy person told me on the authority of Muhammad b.
   Talha b. ‘Abdu’l-Rahman from Ishaq b. Ibrahim b. ‘Abdullah b. Haritha
   from his father from his grandfather: The apostle heard that the hypocrites
   were assembling in the house of Suwaylim the Jew (his house was by Jasum)
   keeping men back from the apostle in the raid on Tabuk. So the prophet
   sent Talha b. ‘Ubaydullah w T ith a number of his friends to them with orders
   to bum Suwaylim’s house down on them. Talha did so, and al-Dahhak b.
   Khalifa threw himself from the top of the house and broke his leg, and his
   friends rushed out and escaped. Al-Dahhak said concerning that:

By God’s temple Muhammad’s fire
Almost burnt Dahhak and Ibn Ubayriq.

Ibn Hi sham's Notes

783

I had gone to the top of Suwaylim’s house

And I crawled away on one w'hole leg and my elbow.

My salaams to you, I’ll ne’er do the like again
I’m afraid. He whom fire surrounds is burned.

1. A trustworthy person told me that ‘Uthman spent on the raiding force
   a thousand dinars. The apostle said, ‘O God, be pleased with‘Uthman for
   I am pleased with him.’

2. He put Muhammad b. Maslama al-Ansarl in charge of Medina.
   Abdu’l- Aziz b. Muhammad al-Darawardl from his father told me that
   he put Siba b. ‘Urfuta (T. brother of B. Ghifar) over Medina when he
   set out for Tabuk.

3. Abu Khaythama (his name was Malik b. Qays) said:

When I saw men hypocritical in religion
I undertook that which is more chaste and nobler.

And I pledged my fealty to Muhammad.

And did no sin or wrong.

I left the dyed one in the hut

Where dates had ripened and camels were full of milk.

When the hypocrite doubted my soul

Flowed gently to the religion following wherever it led.

1. I have heard that al-Zuhrl said: When the apostle passed by al-Hijr
   he covered his face with his cloak and urged his camel on saying, ‘Do not go
   among the houses of those who sinned unless you are riding fast for fear that
   you may meet with the fate that befell them.’

2. Others say I. Lusayb. [T. also has this reading, so that an early
   scribe is probably at fault.]

3. Some say Makhshly.

4. He was called Dhu’l-Bijadayn because when he broke away to Islam
   his people tried to stop him and so persecuted him that they left him with
   only one garment upon him. (The bijad is a coarse rough wrapper.) He fled
   from them to the apostle, and when he came near he rent his bijad into two
   parts, girding his middle with one and wrapping himself in the other. Then
   he came to the apostle and was called ‘He of the two garments’. Bijad also
   means a cloak of black hair, as in the words of Imru’u’l-Qays:

And when at first its misty shroud bore dow r n on Aban’s top
He stood like an ancient man in a grey-streaked mantle wrapped.

1. Or ‘than their eyesight’.

2. BLfatrina is the same as bi-faturina.

3. Latubkayanna is not from 1 . 1 . [This is a most interesting note.
   Obviously I.H. is querying only the one word, and in T. we have ala'bkiyan
   which must be right. The doggerel is in the familiar ‘ I’m the king of the castle*
   mould which seems to have been frequently used by women when uttering
   taunts. The translation is no worse than the original!]

784 The Life of Muhammad

1. Ill means hilf (treaty or oath). Aus b. Hajar, one of B. Usayyid b.
   'Amr b. Tamlm, said:

Were it not for Banu Malik who respect a treaty,

For Malik are an honourable people who respect treaties.

This verse occurs in an ode of his. Plural dial . The poet says:

There is no treaty whatever between me and you,

So do not relax your effort.

Dhimma means ’ahd (compact). Al-Ajda r b. Malik al-Hamdanl, who was
the father of Masruq b. al-Ajdai the lawyer, said:

There is an agreement binding on us

That you should not overstep our boundary near or far.

This is one of three verses of his. Plural dhimam.

1. Wallja means dakhil (friend), plural zvala’ij from walaja, yaliju, he
   entered; and in God’s book ‘until a camel goes through the eye of a needle’
   (7. 38). He says they have not chosen a friend other than him, concealing
   feelings towards him other than they show, like the disaffected do displaying
   faith to those who believe ‘and w r hen they go apart to their devils they say:
   We are with you’ (2. 13). The poet says:

Know that you have been made a friend
To whom they bring undiluted death.

1. Auda'u khilalakum means ‘hurried among your lines’. Ida is a way
   of moving, faster than walking. Al-Ajda' b. Malik al-Hamdanl said:

My gallant horse wall catch a wild bull for you
By outrunning it at a pace between a gallop and a trot.

[Perhaps the wild bull itself is addressed.]

1. Some ascribe the poem to his son 'Abdu’l-Rahman.

2. The last hemistich is not from 1 . 1 .

3. The words ‘and he has given us a name’ are not from 1 . 1 .

4. Abu Zayd al-Ansari quoted to me the verses ‘They were kings, &c.,’
   and ‘In Yathrib they had built forts’ and ‘Dark bays, spirited’ as from him.

5. Abu 'Ubayda told me that that was in the year 9 and that it was called
   the year of the deputations.

6. (Not Habhab but) al-Hutat. The apostle established brotherhood
   between him and Mu'awiya b. Abu Sufyan. The apostle did this between
   a number of his companions, ,e.g. between Abu Bakr and 'Umar; 'Uthman
   and 'Abdu’l-Rahman b. 'Auf; Talha b. ‘Ubaydullah and al~Zubayr b. al-
   'Awwam; Abu Dharr al-Ghifari and al-Miqdad b. ‘Amr al-Bahrani; and
   Mu'awiya b. Abu Sufyan and al-Hutat b. Yazld al-Mujashi'I. Al-Hutat died
   in the presence of Mu'awiya during his caliphate and by virtue of this

I bn Hishdm’s Notes <78-

brotherhood Mu'awiya took what he left as his heir. AI-Farazdaq said to
Mu'aw'iya:

Your father and my uncle, O Mu'awiya, left an inheritance
So that his next of kin might inherit it.

But how come you to devour the estate of al-Hutat
When the solid estate of Harb was melting in your hand ?

1. And 'Utarid b. Hajib, one of B. Darim b. Malik b. Hanzala b. Malik
   b. Zayd Manat b. Tamlm; and ai-Aqra' b. Habis, one of B. Darim b
   Malik; and al-Hutat b. Yazld of the same; and al-Zibriqan b. Badr, one of
   B. Bahdala b. 'Auf b. Ka'b b. Sa'd b. Zayd Manat b. Tamlm; and 'Amr b.
   al-Ahtam, one of B. Mirtqar b. 'Ubayd b. al-Harith b. 'Amr b. Ka'b- b.
   Sa'd b. Zayd Manat b. Tamlm; and Qays b. 'A?im, one of B. Minqar.

2. Another version is:

From us kings are born and we take the fourth

and

From every land submissively, so we are obeyed.

One of the B. Tamlm recited it to me, but most authorities on poetry deny
al-Zibriqan’s authorship.

1. Abu Zayd quoted the verse thus:

Everyone whose heart is devout

Approves of it and the thing they have begun.

An authority on poetry among B. Tamim told me that when al-Zibriqan
came with the deputation to the apostle he got up and said:

We have come to you that men may know our superiority
Whenever they gather at the fairs
That we are the foremost in every field
And that none in al-Hijaz are like Darim.

That we put champions to flight in their arrogance
And smite the heads of the proud and powerful.

Ours is the fourth part in every raid
In Najd or in foreign lands.

Then Hassan got up and answered him saying:

Is glory aught but ancient lordship and generosity,

The dignity of kings and the bearing of great burdens ?

We helped and sheltered the prophet iVIuhammad
Whether Ma'add liked it or not
In a unique tribe whose root and wealth
Is in Jabiyatu’l-Jaulan among the foreigners.

W e helped him when he dwelt among us
Against every -wrongful aggressor.

We put our sons and daughters before him

And we were pleased to forgo the spoils for his sake. 1

n 4080

At Hunayn.

3 E

786

The Life of Muhammad

We smote men with our sharp swords
Until they flocked to his religion
And we begat the greatest of Quraysh. 1
We begat the prophet of good of Hashim’s line.

Do not boast, O Banu Darirn, for your boast
Will turn to shame when noble deeds are mentioned.

Curse you, would you boast against us

When you are our servants, half wet-nurses and half slaves?

If you’ve come to save your lives and property
Lest they be divided as booty,

Then give not God an equal and embrace Islam
And do not dress like foreigners.

1. There is another verse which we have omitted because it is obscene.

2. Another version is ‘O boil like the boils of a camel and death in the
   house of a Saluli woman!’

3. Zayd b. Aslam from "Ata’ b. Yasar from I. "Abbas said: God sent down
   concerning 'Amir and Arbad: ‘God knows what every female carries, what
   the wombs keep small and what grows larger’ as far as the words ‘and they
   have no friend against Him.’ He said, ‘The mu'aqqibat are those who “by
   God’s order” protect Muhammad.’ Then He mentioned Arbad and how
   God killed him and said ‘And He sends thunderbolts and He smites whom
   He will’ as far as the words ‘powerful in device’ (13. 9-14).

4. His verse ‘Who spoiled the spoiler’ is on the authority of Abu "Ubayda
   and his verse ‘Liberal when times were bad’ has not I.L’s authority.

5. The last verse has not I.L’s authority. [It is to be found in Die Gedichte
   des Labid , ed. C. Brockelmann, Leiden, 1891, p. 2, with some variants.]

6. These two verses are part of a larger poem of his [ed. Chalidi, pp. 15 f.]

7. al-Jarud b. Bishr b. al-Mu'alla was in the deputation. He w*as a
   Christian.

8. Another report is that he said, ‘I am done with him who does not
   pronounce the shahada.’

9. Musaylima b. Thumama surnamed Abu Thumama.

10. Or al-Haushiya [in Najd],

11. Malik b. Harlm al-Hamdam was the leader on that day.

12. The first verse and the words ‘If we conquer’ are from someone other
    than 1 . 1 . [It is not cited by T., a fact which might perhaps indicate that it
    was added by an interpolator.]

13. Abu 'Ubayda quoted me the line thus: ‘Hoping for its welfare and the
    praise of it.’

• 1 Through the prophet’s great-grandmother, v.s.

787

Ibn Hishdm's Notes

1. Abu "Ubayda recited the verse to me thus:

I gave you an order on the day of Dhu Sana’.

I ordered you to fear God, to come to Him and accept His promise,
But you were like a little donkey H

Whose lust beguiled him away.

0733 ^ A 01 kn<>W ^ rCSt ° f thC P0Cm ' *- FiVe m ° re VerSCS are given h V T-

^ 95 - The word bithafn is on Abu 'Ubayda’s authority.

8 ?, 6 ' T ASh i " h " aS 3 SOn 0f ‘ the cater of bitter herbs' on his mother’s

S | d o- Th 1 Tt* 1 ?- WCre , a 'd ,5nth b - ' Amr b ' t fu i r h - 'Amr b. Mu'awiva b
al-Harith b. Mu awiya b. Thaur b. Muratti’ b. Mu'awiya b. Kindi or Kinda

8 l 7u h '?" because ' Amr b al -Habula al-Ghassani raided
m when al-Harith was away and plundered and took captives. Among the

hW 'o\b U f S d -j Auf b ' al-Shaybani. wife of al-Harith b.

Amr. °„ the way she sard to 'Amr: 'Methmks I see a black man with blubber

al HarithT °l “ Cam e ,f a g b '* ,er herbs who haS Seizcd ,h y neck >' meaning
Ti lu- S w,r called the eater of bitter herbs'. Murar are plants

JT r’ m W1 ] h B - Bakr b ' Wa ° Vertook him and killed
V “? d ! llve J red b,s Wlfe . and what he had seized. Al-tfarith b. Hilizza
al-Yashkuri said to a\mr b. al-Mundhir who was "Amr b. Hind al-Lakhmi:

\Ve forced you, lord of Ghassan, to pay for (killing) Mundhir
Vvhiie the blood that was shed could not be measured;

because al-Harith al-ATaj al-Ghassani had killed his father al-Mundhir
e verse occurs m an ode of his. This story is too long for me to relate as
1 have avoided prolixity. Some say the eater of bitter herbs was Huir b
Amr b. M u awiya who is the subject of this story, and got the name because
he and his companions ate this herb on this raid.

1. the coming of the deputation of hamda.n

According to what a trustworthy authority told me from 'Amr b • Abdullah
b. Udhayna al-'Abdi from Abu Ishaq al-Subay’f a deputation from Hamdin
among whom were Mahk b. Nam*, and Abu Thaur Dhu'l-.Mish'ar, and
Mal,k b Ayfa. and Dimim b. Malik al-Salmani, and 'Amira b. Mahk
al-Khanfi came and met the apostle on his return from Tabuk, wearing
robes ofV aman cloth, and turbans of Aden, with wooden saddles on Mahri
and ArhabI camels. Malik b. Namat and another man were the rajaz
singers or the people, one of them saying i

Hamdan has the best of princes and of subjects;

It has no equal in the universe.

High is its position, and from it come
Warriors and chiefs 1 with goodly wealth therein.

»ubj£,?. h SeZ “ Sa> ' ,ng ,ha ' ,WS "° rd <**> means , " h “ t W"8S take from their

788 The Life of Muhammad

While the other responded:

Camels haltered with ropes of palm

Pass through land knowing water’s balm.

The dust of summer does no harm.

This Malik stood before the apostle and said, ‘O apostle of God, the
choicest of Hamdan’s settled and nomad folk have come to you on fine
swift camels, linked by the cords of Islam. No blame so far as God is con¬
cerned attaches to them from the district of Kharif and Yam and Shakir
the camel and horse folk. They have answered the apostle’s call and have
withdrawn from the goddesses and sacrificial stones. Their word will not be
broken while stands mount La‘la r and while the young hart runs on SalaV

The apostle wrote a letter for them: ‘To the district of Kharif and the
people of the high country and the sand hills with their envoy Dhu’l-Mish'ar
Malik b. Nama{ and those of his people who are Muslims. Theirs is the high
ground and the low ground so long as they perform prayer and pay alms;
they may eat its fodder and pasture on its herbage. For this they have God’s
promise and the guarantee of His apostle and their witnesses are the emigrants
and the helpers.’

Malik b. Nama{ said concerning this:

I remembered the apostle in the darkness of the night
When we were above Rahrahan and Saldad
While the camels tired with sunken eyes
Carried their riders on a far-stretching road.

Strong, long-striding camels

Carried us along like well-fed ostriches.

I swear by the Lord of the camels that run to Mina
Returning with riders from a lofty height
That the apostle of God is held true among us,

An apostle who comes with guidance from the Lord of the throne.

No camel has ever carried one more fierce
Against his enemies than Muhammad,

Nor more generous to one who comes asking for kindness,

Nor more effective with the edge of his sharp sword.

1. Al-Yarbu i.

2. He put Abu Dujana al-Sa r jdi—others say Siba' b. ‘Urfuta al-Ghifar!—
   in charge of Medina.

3. The apostle had sent some of his companions as messengers carrying
   letters to the kings inviting them to Islam. One in whom I have confidence
   on the authority of Abu Bakr al-Hudhali told me: ‘It reached me that the
   apostle went out one day after his 'umra from which he had been excluded
   on the day of al-Hudaybiya and said “God has sent me as a mercy to all
   men, so do not hang back from me as the disciples hung back from Jesus
   son of Mary.” ’ They asked how they had hung back and he said: ‘He called
   them to that to which I have called you. Those who were sent on a near
   mission were satisfied and content; those who w'ere sent on a distant mission
   showed their displeasure and took it as a burden, and Jesus complained of

Ihn His ham's Notes 8

language of the peT p °rto°who e m the^wereTem” 8 abk *° SpMk ,he

inviting them to the k,, ’ gs

ofROm^{Abdullahh.HuStMal}o ^

al-Damn to the Neeus kin* nf ak,» • • T f- . a ’ Amr b - Umayya
Muqauqis, king of Alexandria’;' “ -

lyadh, sons of al-Julunda the Azdis, kings of 'Un^n SaPt' h" 1 * ““l

• . mir b. Lu’ayy to Thumama b. Uthal and Haudh'a b 'All the 0°°',°
kings of al-Yamama; al-'Ala* b i vf jc • , ’ the ^ anafls >

kin, of Bahtayn Sh UJ r b. &£

Ghassam, king of the Roman border ‘ b Shimr aI "

.-a ■- *

1. Another version is ‘the colour of gold’.

Mdia SOme S3y thC nam “ Were ° Urra b ' Ashf “ “ 1 -Pifirt and Hayyan b.
9 ° 3 * Or al-Ajnaf.

1. The words ‘with no hope of an easv releW * •

her release’ are not from I.I. * ** and <CI ' r ^nistances . . .

9 °S- Or b. Razim.

1. ‘Abdullah b. Unays said about that:

I left I bn Thaur like a young camel

W h T,he ed by m ° Uming W ° men cuttin , their shirts into strips
T f , tbt W ° mcn Wcre behind me and behind him
I fetched hima stroke with a sharp Indian sword

™ch could bite into the heads of armoured men
As a flame burns up the tinder.

I said to him as the sword bit into his head:

I am Ibn Unays, no mean horseman;

I am the son of one who never removed his cooking-pot
No niggard he—wide was the space before his door
said to him, ‘Take that with the blow of a noble man
! tUrnS *° the ^ligion of the prophet Muhammad ’

Whenever the prophet gave thought to an unbeliever
1 got to him first with tongue and hand.

1. About that al-Farazdaq said:

Ibn Habis in the presence of the apostle took the high place
Of One who is resolved on gaining glory. P

Why^{.Rshoul?have'distuTbe}d 1 .^ account an^nuf in a dlfferent order.

As has been explained in a footnote to W 0*72 t i,„ pU I” ^ ls own , name ls obscure.

‘do not differ in your response to me'. ’ P ress ion la takhtali/u alayya may mean

79o The Life of Muhammad

For him (Muhammad) released the prisoners in his ropes
Whose necks were encircled by halters.

He spared the mothers who feared for their sons

The high price of ransom or the division of the captives into shares.

These verses are in one of his odes. 'Adiy b. Jundab was of B. al-'Anbar.
Al-'Anbar was b. f Amr b. Tamim.

1. According to Abu 'Ubayda the name w r as al-Huraqa.

2. Abu r Amr b. al-'Ala’ read this passage with a slight orthographical
   addition.

3. Mukaytil.

4. Muhallim in all this story is not on I.I.’s authority. He was Muhallim
   b. Jaththama b. Qays al-Laythl. Mulajjam, according to what Ziyad told us
   from 1.1.

5. And he set forth for DumatuTJandal.

6. THE SENDING OF 'AMR B. UMAYYA AL-PAMRI TO KILL
   ABU SUFYAN B. HARB AND WHAT HE DID ON THE WAY

Among the missions and expeditions which the apostle sent out which Ibn
Ishaq does not record 1 is the mission of 'Amr b. Umayya al-Damn, whom the
apostle sent to Mecca—according to what a trustworthy traditionist told me—
after the killing of Khubayb b. c AdTy and his companions, ordering him to
kill Abu Sufyan b. Harb. With him he sent Jabbar b. $akhr al-Ansari.
When they reached Mecca they tied their two camels in one of the narrow
passes of Ya’jaj and entered the town by night. Jabbar suggested to 'Amr
that they should circumambulate the temple and pray two rak'as, to which
r Amr replied that at night the inhabitants were wont to sit in their court¬
yards. ‘God willing they won’t be,’ he replied. 'Amr said: We went round
the temple and prayed and then came away making for Abu Sufyan. As
we were walking in the tow r n a man looked at me and recognized me and
cried, ‘It’s 'Amr b, Umayya. By God, he has come only for some evil
purpose.’ I told my companion to run and we went out quickly and got up a
mountain, and they came out in pursuit of us and did not desist until we had
got to its top. We came back and went into a cave in the mountain and passed
the night there, having piled rocks in front of it. In the morning came a
man of Quraysh leading a horse, cutting grass for it, drawing near to us as
we were in the cave. I said, ‘If he sees us he will give the alarm knd we shall
be taken and killed.’ Now I had a dagger with me which I had got ready for
Abu Sufyan, and I stabbed him in the chest and he gave a cry which reached
the ears of the Meccans, so I went back and entered the cave. The men came
running to him as he was at the last gasp and asked him who had stabbed him

1 This statement implies that the MS. which I.H. had contained no account of these
happenings, but the extract from T a h. 1437 f» which I have restored to the text gives a
graphic description on the authority of 1 . 1 . S. also points out that I.H. is in error in saying
that 1.1. does not report the story.

Ibn Hi sham’s Notes 791

and he said '.Amr b. Umayya, and died on the spot without having revealed
where we were. They carried him away. When night fell I told my com¬
panion that we must get away, so we left Mecca making for Medina. We
passed by some guards who w r ere watching the corpse of Khubayb b.
Adly when one of them said, ‘By God, I have never seen before tonight
anything more like the gait of 'Amr b. Umayya; were it not that he is in
Medina I should have said that it was he.’ When he came in face of the
gallows he ran to it and took it and carried it away, and the two of them
hurried off, while they (the guards) came behind him, until he came to a
hollow in the clifF at the ravine of Ya’jaj where he threw the gallows into the
hollow' and God hid him from them while they could do nothing. I said to my
companion, ‘Escape! Escape! until you get to your camel and mount it
while I occupy the men so that they cannot hinder you’, for the Ansarl
could hardly walk.

I went on until I came out at Dajnan; 1 then I betook me to a mountain
and entered a cave. While I was there suddenly an old man of B. al-Dil, a
one-eyed man, came in with a young sheep and asked who I was. I told him
I w>as of B. Bakr and he said he was too. I said ‘Welcome,’ and as he stretched
himself out he lifted up his voice and said:

I won’t be a Muslim as long as I live
Nor heed to their religion give,

I said to myself ‘You wall soon know!’ I gave him time until when he was
asleep I took my bow- and inserted the end of it in his sound eye and bore
down upon it until it reached the bone. Then I hurried off until I came to
al-'Arj, 2 then Rakuba 3 until I dropped down to al-Naqf 4 where there w ; ere
two polytheists of Quraysh who had been sent as spies to Medina. I called on
them to surrender but they refused, so I shot one and killed him and the
other surrendered. I bound him tightly and took him to Medina.

1. ZAYD B. HARITHA’S EXPEDITION TO MADYAN

This is recorded by 'Abdullah b. Hasan b. Hasan from his mother Fatima d.
al-Husayn b. 'All. Zayd was accompanied by Dumayra, a client of 'All’s,
and a brother of his. They took several captives from the people of Mina’
which is on the shore, a mixed lot among them. They were sold as slaves and
families were separated. The apostle arrived as they were weeping and
inquired the reason. When he was told he said, ‘Sell them onlv in lots’,
meaning the mothers, with the children.

1. I have heard that when he went on the little pilgrimage he uttered the
   cry ‘Labbayka’ in the vale of Mecca. He w T as the first to enter Mecca with the
   cry. Quraysh seized him and exclaimed at his audacity. They were about to
   strike off his head when one of them said, ‘Let him alone, for you have need
   of al-Yamama for your food’ so they let him go his way.

1 A mountain near Mecca.

1 A place on the Mecca road. The name is also given to a wadi in the Hijaz.

3 A pass between the two haraim.

4 In Muzayna country about two nights’ journey from Medina.

Ibn Hisham's Notes

792 The Life of Muhammad

Concerning this al-Hanafi said:

It was our man who said publicly in Mecca

In the sacred months ‘labbayka’ despite Abu Sufyan.

I was told that when he became a Muslim he said to the apostle: ‘Your face
used to be the most hateful to me, but now it is the most beloved.’ He spoke
similarly about (his) religion and country. Then he went on the little pil¬
grimage, and when he came to Mecca they said, ‘Have you changed your
religion, Thumama?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘but I follow the best religion, the
religion of Muhammad; and by God not a grain of corn will reach you from
al-Yamama until the apostle gives permission.’ He went back to al-Yamama
and prevented them from sending anything to Mecca. Then the people
wrote to the apostle: ‘You order that ties of kinship should be observed, yet
you sever those with us; you have killed the fathers with the sword and the
children with hunger.’ So the apostle wrote to him to let the carriage of
food go on.

1. Abu 'Amr al-Madani said: The apostle sent 'All to the Yaman and sent
   Khalid b. al-Walld with another force and ordered that when the forces
   met 'All was to be in supreme command. 1 . 1 . mentioned the sending of
   Khalid in his account, but he did not reckon it among the missions and
   expeditions so that the number of them in his account ought to be 39.

2. This is the last mission which the apostle dispatched.

3. THE APOSTLE’S WIVES

They were nine: 'A’isha d. Abu Bakr; Hafsa d. 'Umar; Umm Idabiba
d. Abu Sufyan; Umm Salama d. Abu Um£yya b. al-Mughlra; Sauda d.
Zama'a b. Qays; Zaynab d. Jahsh b. Ri’ab; Maymuna d. al-Harith b.
Hazn; Juwayriya d. al-Harith b. Abu Dirar; and $aflya d. Huyay b. Akhtab
according to what more than one traditionist has told me.

He married thirteen women: KhadTja d. Khuwaylid, his first wife whom
her father Khuwaylid b. Asad, or according to others her brother 'Amr,
married to him. The apostle gave her as dowry twenty she-camels. She
bare all the apostle’s children except Ibrahim. She had been previously
married to Abu Hala b. Malik, one of B. Usayyid b. 'Amr b. Tamim, an ally
of B. 'Abdu’l-Dar to whom she bore Hind b. Abu Hala and Zaynab. Before
that she had been married to 'Utayyiq b. 'Abid b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar b.
MakhzQm to whom she bore 'Abdullah and Jariya.

He married 'A’isha in Mecca when she was a child of seven and lived with
her in Medina when she was nine or ten. She was the only virgin that he
married. Her father, Abu Bakr, married her to him and the apostle gave her
four hundred dirhams.

He married Sauda d. Zama'a b. Qays b. 'Abdu Shams b. 'Abdu Wudd b.
Na§r b. Malik b. Hisl b. 'Amir b. Lu’ayy. Salit b. 'Amr, or according to
others Abu Hafib b. 'Amr, married her to him, and the apostle gave her
four hundred dirhams.

Ibn Ishaq contradicts this tradition saying that Sallt and Abu Hapb were
absent in Abyssinia at this time. Before that she had been married to al-
Sakran b. 'Amr b, 'Abdu Shams.

793

He married Zaynab d. Jahsh b. Ri’ab al-Asadlya. Her brother Abu Ahmad
married her to him and the apostle gave her four hundred dirhams. She
had been previously married to Zayd b. Haritha, the freed slave of the
apostle, and it was about her that God sent down: ‘So when Zayd had done
as he wished in divorcing her We married her to you.’ 1

He married Umm Salama d. Abu Umayya b. al-Mughlra al-Makh-
zumiya. Her name was Hind. Her son Salama b. Abu Salama married her
to him and the apostle gave her a bed stuffed with palm-leaves, a bowl, a
dish, and a handmill. She had been married to Abu Salama b. 'Abdu’l-Asad
whose name was 'Abdullah. She had borne him Salama, 'Umar, Zaynab,
and Ruqayya.

He married Hafsa d. 'Umar with her father’s consent and the apostle
gave her four hundred dirhams. She had been married to Khunays b.
Hudhafa al-Sahml.

He married Umm Hablba whose name was Ramla d. Abu Sufyan. Khalid
b. Sa'fd b. al-'As married her to him when they were both in Abyssinia and
the Negus gave her on behalf of the apostle four hundred dinars. It was he
who arranged the marriage for the apostle. She had been married to
'Ubaydullah b. Jahsh al-Asadi.

He married Juwayriya d. al-Harith b. Abu Qirar al-Khuza'iya who was
among the captives of B. Mustaliq of Khyza'a. She had fallen to the lot of
Thabit b. Qays b. al-Shammas al-Ansari and he wrote a contract of redemp¬
tion which she brought to the apostle asking his help. He asked her if she
would like something better than that, and when she asked what that could
be he said, ‘Shall I rid you of the contract and marry you myself?’ She said
Yes, and so he married her. This tradition was given us by Ziyad b. 'Ab¬
dullah al-Bakka’i from Muhammad b. Ishaq from Muhammad b. Ja'far
b. al-Zubayr from 'Urwa from 'A’isha. 2

It is said that when the apostle came back from the raid on B. al-Mustaliq
with Juw r ayriya and was in the midst of the army he gave Juwayriya to one
of the Ansar and ordered him to guard her. When the apostle reached Medina
her father al-Harith came to him with his daughter’s ransom. When he was
in al-'Aqiq he had looked at the camels which he had brought for the ransom
and admired two of them greatly, so he hid them in one of the passes of
al-'Aqiq. Then he came to the prophet saying, ‘Here is my daughter’s
ransom.’ The apostle said: ‘But where are the two camels which you hid
in al-'Aqiq in such-and-such a pass ?’ Al-Harith said, ‘I testify that there is no
God but Allah and that you are the apostle of God, for by God none could
have known of that but God most High’; so he became a Muslim, as did two
of his sons who were with him and some of his people. He sent and fetched
the two camels and handed them over to the prophet and his daughter
Juwayriya was given back to him. She became an excellent Muslim. The
apostle asked her father to let him marry her and he agreed and the apostle
gave her four hundred dirhams. She had been previously married to a cousin
of hers called 'Abdullah. It is said that the apostle bought her from Thabit
b. Qays, freed her, married her, and gave her four hundred dirhams.

He married $aflya d. Huyay b. Akhtab whom he had captured at Khaybar

1 Sura 33 . 37 .

2 This comment refers to what 1 . 1 , reported on W., p. 729.

794 The Life of Muhammad

and chosen for himself. The apostle made a feast of gruel and dates: there
was no meat or fat. 1 She had been married to Rinana b. al-Rabi' b. Abu’I-
Huqayq.

He married Maymuna d. al-Harith b. Hazn b. Bahir b. Huzam b. Ruwayba
b. "Abdullah b. Hilal b. 'Amir b. Sa'sa'a, Al-'Abbas b. 'Abdu’ 1 -Muttalib
married her to him and gave her on the apostle’s behalf four hundred
dirhams. She had been married to Abu Ruhm b. "Abdu’l-"Uzza b. \bu
Qays b. "Abdu Wudd b. Nasr b. Malik b. Hisl b. "Amir b. Lu'ayy. It is
said that it was she who gave herself to the prophet because his offer of
marriage came to her when she was on her camel. She said, ‘The camel and
what is on it belongs to God and His apostle.’ So God sent down: ‘And
a believing woman if she gives herself to the prophet.’ 2

It is said that the one who gave herself to the prophet was Zaynab d
Jahsh, or Umm Sharlk Ghaziya d. Jabir b. Wahb of B. Munqidh b. ’Amr
b. Ma is b. Amir b. Lu ayy. Others say it was a woman of B. Sama b.
Lu ayy and the apostle postponed the matter.

He married Zaynab d. Khuzayma b. al-Harith b. "Abdullah b. 'Amr b.
Abdu Manaf b. Hilal b. "Amir b. Sa"sa"a who was called ‘Mother of the
Poor’ because of her kindness to them and her pity for them. Qablsa b.
Amr al-Hilali married her to him and the apostle gave her four hundred
dirhams. She had been married to ‘Ubayda b. al-Harith b. al-Muttalib b
Abdu Manaf; before that to Jahm b. "Amr b. al-Harith who was her cousin.

The apostle consummated his marriage with eleven women, two of whom
died before him, namely Khadija and Zaynab. He died leaving the nine we
have mentioned. With two he had no marital relations, namely Asma d.
al-Nu'man, the Kindite woman, whom he married and found to be suffering
from leprosy and so returned to her people with a suitable gift; and "Amra
d. Yazid the Kilab woman who was recently an unbeliever. When she came to
the apostle she said ‘I seek God’s protection against you,’ and he replied that
one who did that was inviolable so he sent her back to her people. Others
say that the one who said this was a Kindite woman, a cousin of Asma’ d.
aI-Nu"man, and that the apostle summoned her and she said ‘We are a people
to whom others come; we come to none!’ so he returned her to her people.

, There were six Quraysh women among the prophet’s wives, namely,
Khadija, "A’isha, Hafsa, Umm Hablba, Umm Salama, and Sauda. 3

The ^ Arab women and others were seven, namely, Zaynab d. Jahsh,
Maymuna Zaynab d. Khuzayma, Juwayriya, Asma, and "Amra. The
non-Arab woman was Saflya d. Huyay b. Akhtab of B. al-Nadir.

1. Another tradition is ‘except Abu Bakr’s door’,

2. Abu "Ubayda and other traditionists told me that when the apostle was
   dead most of the Meccans meditated withdrawing from Islam and made up
   their minds to do so. Attab b. Asid 4 went in such fear of them that he hid
   himself. Then Suhayl b. "Amr arose and after giving thanks to God mentioned
   the death of the apostle and said, ‘That will increase Islam in force. If

1 Presumably because she was a Jewess and would eat only kosher meat.

Sura 33. 49.

3 The genealogies which have already been given have been omitted.

4 He was governor of Mecca when the prophet died.

I bn Hishains Notes

795

anyone troubles us we will cut off his head.’ Thereupon the people aban¬
doned their intention and "Attab reappeared once more. This is the stand
which the apostle meant w r hen he said to "Umar: ‘It may well be that he will
take a stand for which you cannot blame him’ [z/.s. p. 312].

1. Hassan b. Thabit said, mourning the apostle, according to what Ibn
   Hisham told us on the authority of Abu Zayd al-Ansari: 1

In Tayba 2 there is still the impress and luminous abode of the apostle,
Though elsew'here traces disappear and perish.

The marks of the sacred building that holds

The pulpit w'hich the guide used to ascend will never be obliterated.

Plain are the traces and lasting the marks

And his house with its mosque and place of prayer.

There are the rooms w'here God’s light
Used to come down brilliant and bright,

Memorials for ever indestructible.

If part decay, part is ever renewed.

I know the marks of the apostle and his w r ell-known place
And the grave w'hose digger hid him in the dust.

There I stood weeping the apostle,

My very eyelids ran with tears, 3

Reminding me of. his favours. Methinks my soul

Cannot recount them and halts bewildered.

Ahmad’s loss exhausted my soul with pain
While it recounted the apostle’s favours.

Yet has it failed to recapture a tithe of w'hat he did
But my soul can only report what it feels.

Long did I stand crying bitterly

Over the mound of the grave wffere Ahmad lies.

Be blessed, O grave of the apostle, and be blessed
The land in which the righteous guided one lived,

And blessed the niche that holds the good one
Surmounted by a building of broad stones!

Hands poured dust upon him, eyes their tears,

And the lucky stars set at the sight.

They hid kindness, knowledge, and mercy
The night they laid him unpillowed in the dust
And w'ent away in sorrow without their prophet,

Their arms and backs devoid of strength.

They mourn him whose day the heavens mourn—-
The earth too—yet men grieve more.

Can any day the dead is mourned

Equal the mourning of the day Muhammad died ?

On which the seat of revelation was taken from them
Which had been a source of light everywhere.

1 He died in 215.

2 Tayba is one of the names of Medina. The opening lines are a conscious adaptation of
the old Arabian nasib.

3 So C. reading jafn for W.’s jinn.

79 ^ The Life of Muhammad

He led to the Compassionate those who imitated him,

Delivering from the terror of shame and guiding aright,

Their imam guiding them to the truth with vigour.

A truthful teacher, to obey him was felicity,

Pardoning their lapses, accepting their excuses.

And if they did well God is most generous in recompense.

If misfortune befell too heavy for them to bear
From him came the easing of their difficulty.

And while they enjoyed God’s favour,

Having a guide by which the clear path could be sought,

It pained him that they should go astray from guidance.

He was anxious that they should go on the right path.

He sympathized with them one and all 1
In his kindness he smoothed their path.

But while they enjoyed that light
Suddenly death’s arrow hit its mark
And sent the praised one back to God
While the very angels wept and praised him. 2
The holy land became desolate
At the loss of the revelation it once knew:

Deserts uninhabited save the grave in which our lost one descended
Whom Balat and Gharqad 3 and his mosque mourn.

In those places desolate, now' he is gone,

Are places of prayer devoted to him,

And at the great stoning place there dwellings and open spaces,
Encampment, and birthplace are desolate.

O eye, weep the apostle of God copiously,

May I never find you with your tears dried!

Why do you not weep the kindly one
Whose bounteous robe covered all men?

Be generous with your tears and cries

At the loss of him whose equal will ne’er be found.

Those gone by never lost one like Muhammad

And one like him will not be mourned till Resurrection Day

More gentle and faithful to obligation after obligation;

More prone to give without thought of any return;

More lavish with wealth newly gained and inherited

When a generous man would grudge giving what had long been his.

More noble in reputation when claims are examined;

More noble in princely Meccan ancestry; 4

More inaccessible in height and established in eminence

Founded on enduring supports,

Firmer in root and branch and wood
Which rain nourished making it full of life.

1 Or ‘not preferring one to another’.

2 Another reading is ‘the unseen angels’ (jinn) and yuhmadu. But perhaps jafn should
be read here for haqq. 'The eyes of the angels’, &c.

3 Bala{ lay between the mosque and the market of Medina, while Gharqad was its
cemetery. A.Dh. renders ‘plane and box-tree’.

4 Lit. ‘valley ancestry’. The valley-dwellers of Quraysh were regarded as the aristocracy.

797

Ibn Hishdm’s Notes

A glorious Lord brought him up as a boy
And he became perfect in most virtuous deeds.

To his knowledge the Muslims resorted;

No knowledge was withheld and no opinion was gainsaid.

I say, and none can find fault with me
But one lost to all sense,

I shall never cease to praise him.

It may be for so doing I shall be for ever in Paradise
With the chosen one for whose support in that I hope
And to attain to that day I devote all my efforts.

Hassan also said:

What ails thine eye that it cannot sleep
As though its ducts were painted with the kohl of one suffering from
ophthalmia

In grief for the guided one who lies dead ?

O best man that ever walked the earth, leave us not!

Alas, would that my face might protect thee from the dust,

That I had been buried before thee in Baqfu’I-Gharqad!

Dearer than father and mother is he whose death I saw
On that Monday—the truly guided prophet.

When he died I lost my wits distracted,

Would that I had ne’er been born!

Am I to go on living in Medina without you?

Would that I had been given snake poison to drink;

Or that God’s decree would reach us soon,

Tonight or at least tomorrow;

That our hour might come and we might meet the good,

The pure in nature, the man of noble descent!

O blessed firstborn of Amina

Whom that chaste one bore on the happiest of days!

He shed a light on all creatures,

He who is guided to the blessed light is rightly guided.

O Lord, unite us with our prophet in a garden
That turns away the eyes of the envious,

In the garden of Paradise. Inscribe it for us,

O Lord of Majesty, Loftiness, and Power.

By God as long as I live I shall not hear of the dead
But I shall weep for the prophet Muhammad.

Alas for the prophet’s Helpers and kin

After he has been hidden in the midst of the grave.

The land became too strait for the Ansar,

Their faces were black as antimony.

We gave him his ancestors, 1 his grave is with us,

His overflowing goodness to us is undeniable.

God honoured and guided us his Helpers by him
In every hour that he was present.

1 By way of the mother of 'Abdu’I-Muttalib, Salma d. ‘Am r b. Labfd b. Hallas of B.

798 The Life of Muhammad

God and those who surround His throne and good men
Bless the blessed Ahmad. 1

1. The last half of the first verse has not I.I.’s authority.

1 It is worth noting that the verse

The Christians and Jews of Yathrih rejoiced
When he was laid in his grave

included in I.I.’s Diwdn (cxxxiii) without comment is not to be found in any MS. of I.II.,
nor is it in C. or W. or Suhayll’s text. It may well be condemned as a later addition. W.
(iii, pp. liv-lv) held that I.H.’s text of 1 lassan’s poems w'as superior to the Dlvcan which has
been published several times since his day but never with the care it deserves. W.’s judge¬
ment still stands.

ADDENDA

p. 28, n. r. I have discussed the significance of this story in the The Islamic
Quarterly, 1954, pp. 9 f.

p. 30, 1 . 13. For the text of Sabaean inscriptions recently discovered in
Su'udt Arabia sec G. Ryckmans in Museon, ixvi, 1953, pp. 267-317; and for
an historical commentary on the same ib., pp. 319-42. Professor Sidney
Smith, ‘Events in Arabia in the 6th century a.d.’, in B.S.O.A.S., 1954,
pp. 425-68, has‘discussed all that Greek, Syriac, Sabaean, and Arabic
authorities report. So far as the Arabic -writers are concerned, his verdict is
that their account ‘is not incompatible with the known facts’.

p. 65, n. 3. The Meccan editor of al-Azraql (ii. 176 and 179) throws no light
on the confusion.

p. 88, 1 . 14. I have adopted the reading of C. against W. in spite of the intro¬
duction to the verse.

p. 100, 1 . 13 from end. The last three verses are reminiscent pf the Quran, as
are the lines beginning ‘I submit myself’ on p. 102, 1. 28.

p. 180, pen. Perhaps what 'Umar said was ‘(The birds) must be ostriches’
(na'amci), and the prophet immediately punned on the word by saying anama.

p. 181. I have shown in Al-Andalus , xviii, 1953, pp. 323-36, that the Masjid
al-Aqsa was not at Jerusalem but at al-Ji'rana, a place within the sacred area
of Mecca.

p. 191, 1 . 11. For ‘protection’ read ‘neighbourliness’.

p. 226, 1 . 6 from end. Dhu Kashr is correct. See Yaqut, iv. 276 ult. W, has
Dhu Kashd.

p. 233, II. 16 and 18. The host has only a limited control over his ally ( hallf ),
who is his equal, but the sojourner {jar) is his dependant and he is responsible
for his acts because he has authority over him. Cf. p. 723.

p. 238, 1 . 11. AzraqT, ii. 118, who says that Ibn 'Abbas was frequently seen to
visit $irmaas he repeated this poem, apparently knew no more than seven lines
corresponding roughly to 1-3 and 6-9 in I.I.’s version and to No. XIX in
Hirschfeld’s edition of the Diwan of Hassan b. Thabit. I.H. in his note
No. 291 says that lines 12 and 13 were not composed by $irma but by a
certain Taghlibite called Suraym b. Ma'shar. He accepts lines 4-5 and 10-12
without comment. Azraqi’s version is complete in itself. It falls into the
pattern of An sari propaganda; it shows how the Medinans welcomed
Muhammad when Quraysh (Hirschfeld’s ‘Mecca’ violates the scansion)
spurned him, and how they devoted their lives and their wealth to his service.
Thus the history of this 'p° em illustrates what has been said on pp. xxvi f.
about Ansari propaganda and about poems fathered on Hassan.

p. 384, I. 7 from end. W. has 'Abdullah b. Payf. Authorities differ.

8oo

Addenda

• l >/ hnlad ‘more forlorn than

s n i. Cf. the proverb adhallu min j ’ jts eggs in the sand of

an "(ostrich’s) egg'. The ostrich was sopposed to leave

the desert and never return to t em. ^ b a ,_ sikkit in K ,

P - 577 '"', 4 rZ t n 56 "rexa^ples are YuthriB and AthriM;

Qalb ival-Ibdal, 54"5°. b

yadayhi and adayhi. i : r u Muham-

INDEX OF PROPER NAMES'

(L — locality; P = poet; T = tribe; all others = persons)

Aban b. Sa'Id, 503, 526.

-— b. 'Uthman, xiv, 215.

Abraha, 20-30.

Abraq, a! (L), 591.

Abwa, al (L), 73.

Abyan (L), 6.

Adhruh (L), 607.

Afak, abu (P), 675.

Ahlwardt, W., 404.

Ahabish, 171.

Afimad, abu, b. Jahsh (P), 215-16, 230.
Ajda' al, b. Malik (P), 639, 784.

Akhdar, al (L), 608.

Akhnas, al, b. Sharlq, 142, 158, 164,
194, 296, 429, 507. 723.

Akhfal, al (P), 735.

Aktham b. al-Jaun al-Khuza'I, 35.

Amaj (L), 8, 226, 485, 545.

Amina d. Abu Sufyan, 589.

— d. Wahb, 68-73.

Anas b. 'Abbas al-Sulami (P), ^36.

— b. Rafi', 197.

— b. Zunaym (P), 559.

Aqra' b. Habis, 593, 595, 628, 631, 670.
Arak, al (L), 188.

Arbad b. Qays, 631-4.

Arik (L), 579.

Arwa d. 'Abdul-Muftalib (P), 76.

Aryat, 18; 20.

Asad, B. (T), 568.

— b- 'Ubayd, 94, 262, 463.

As'ad b. Zurara, 199, 200, 205, 346.
A'sha, al, B. Qays b. Tha'Iaba (P), 34,
39, 44, 683, 700, 719, 720, 722, 724,
733 , 734 , 736 , 737 , 765, 7 & 9 -
A'sha, ai, B. Zurara, al-Tamiml (P),
424.

A?ham b. Abjar, 657.

Ash’ath, al, b. Qays, 641, 787.

Asld b. Sa'ya, 94.

Asin, M., xxi.

Asma' d. Marwan (P), 675-6.

— d. 'Umays, 680.

Aswad, al b. 'Abdu Yaghuth, 181, 187.

— B. (T), 590.

— b. Ka'b al-'Ansi, 648.

;— b. al-Mu^alib, 119, 165, 187, 311.

— b. Ya'fur, 703.

Athir, b. al, xxxiii, 589.

Aural, al (L), 577 -

Aus, al (T), 38, 39, 197, 239, 262, 343,
462, 463, 481, 482, 496, 568.

—Allah (T), 230.

1 I am grateful to Dr. J. M. B. Jones
compiling of the Indexes.

3

Aus b. 'Auf, 614-^15.

— b. Hajar (P), 741, 784.

— b. Khauli, 687.

— b. Tamim (P), 50.

Aufa§ (L), 566, 574 - 5 , 577 . 5S1-2, 591.
Ayla (L), 180, 607.

Ayman b. Umm Ayman, 569.

Azd, al (T), 642.

AzraqI, al, xviii, xxxi, 549, 550, 552, 799.

'Abbas b. 'Abdul-Muftalib, 79, 112,
117, 192, 202, 214, 3 0 i,309, 3io, 312,
338, 520, 531, 546-8, 569, 570, 641,
651, 680-2, 687, 748.

— b. Mirdas (P), 443, 444, 563, 568,
572 , 577-82, 593, 595 , 775-6, 780.

— b. 'Ubada, 204, 205.

'Abdul-Asad, B. (T), 212-13.

— Ashhal, B. (T), 197, 200, 205, 245,
373 , 384, 399 ,463,487, 5 t 7 , 605, 683.

'Abdu 'Amr ('Abdul-Rahman), 302-3.
'Abdul-Dar, 48, 345, 374, 559, 569.
'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, 145.

— b. 'Abdul-Asad, 213.

— b. 'AbduI-MuUalib, 57-59, 79.

— b. 'Amr b. al-'A§, 595.

— b. 'Amr b. Haram, 203, 388.

— b. Arqaf, 223, 226.

— b. ‘Atik, 482, 666.

— b. abu Hadrad, 567, 669, 672.

— b. al-Harith, 70, 149.

— b. Hudhafa, 562.

— b. Jahsh, 214, 286—9, 388.

— b. Mas'ud, 141,304, 722.

— b. Muslim, 180.

— b. Qays al-Ruqayyat (P), 698.

— b. abu Rabfa, 150-2, 155, 370.

— b. Rawaha, xxvi, 279, 308, 315, 364,
422, 436, 448, 451,453, 498,523,525,
53 i, 532 , 533 - 9 , 665-6.

— b. Sa'd, 550.

— b. Salam, 240, 262, 267.

— b. al-Thamir, 16-18.

— b. Ubayy, 205, 206, 277-9, 363, 37 ri
372, 437 , 463, 481, 49 1-2 , 495 , 604,
621, 623.

— b. Umayya, 140.

— b. Unays, 482, 666, 789.

— b. abu Umayya b. al-Mughlra (P),
188, 546.

•— b. al-Ziba'ra, 28, 163, 282, 345, 408,
411, 424, 471, 508.

— al-Zubayr, 58, 554.

and Miss Avril Barnett for help in the

B.4080

8o2

Index of Proper Names

'Abdul-Malik (caliph), xiv, xvi, 58, 99 ,
655.

'Abdu Manaf(T), 172, 189, igi, 222.
'Abdul-Muttalib, 24-28, 45, 59, 61, 62-
64, 66-68, 70, 7 2 ~ 74 *

'Abdul-Rahman b. *Auf, xlvi, 49 2 > 5^2,
622, 672, 683, 755 -

— b. Hassan, 416, 499*

'Abdu Yalil b. 'Amr, 614-15.

‘Abid b. al-Abras (P), 720, 726.

'Abs, B. (T), 568.

'Addas, 193.

'Adiy b. Hamra’, 191.

— b. Hatim, 637-9.

— b. Ka'b B. (T), 296, 503. 547 -

— b. al-Najjar (T), 73, 228.

— b. Rabi'a (P), 761.

— b. Zayd (P), 32, 698, 700.

'Adwan (T), 50, 52.

'Affan b. abul-'As, 562.

•Affifi, A. A., 85, 7 2 3*

'A’isha, xix, xxiii, 457, 468, 493 ~ 9 > 5 ° 9 .

544, 678-83, 723, 766, 769.

'Ajjaj, al (P), 696, 719 , 720.

’Ajlan, B. (T), 622.

'Akk (T), 89.

’Ala’, a!, b. al-Hadraml, 636.

'AH b. abu T«>b, ” 7 , 128, 156,

22r, 228, 229, 285-6, 292, 293, 295,
299, 341, 377 , 381, 382, 386, 424, 437 .
441, 455 , 461, 477 , 492, 496. 5 ° 4 , 5 ° 5 ,
543 - 4 . 545 , 549 , 551 , 554 , 561, 569,
570 593, 604, 619, 638, 65°, 664, 07®,
679! 682, 683, 685, 687,688,689, 753 ,

756 , 774 , 77 , 6 , 79 i;

‘Alqama b. Abada, 696, 73 2 *

'Amir b. al-Akwa' (P), 510.

— abul-Ash'ari, 575-6.

— b. Fuhayra, 280.

— b. al-Khasafi, 706.

— b. Lu’ayy (T), 184, 457 , 564*

— b. Malik b. Ja'far, xliv, 433.

— b. Rabi'a, 214.

— b. Sa'sa'a (T), 89, 195 *

— b. al-Tufayl, 631-2.

— b. Zarib, 51. ..

'Ammar b. Yasir (P), xxvn, 229, 607.
'Ammuriya (L), 96, 98-

'Amr b. 'Abdullah abu Uzza, 317-18,

37 °*

— b. 'Abdu Wudd, 455 *

— b. al-Ahtam, 631.

— b. al-'As, 150-2, 155 , 4 * 3 , 414 , 484 ,
668-9-

— b. 'Auf, B. (T), 213, 217, 240, 241,
242, 313, 462, 603-4, 606, 612, 622.

— b. al-Harith (P), 47 , 48 *

— b. al-Jamuh, 207-8, 385, 388.

— b. Jihash, 437, 438, 445 *

— b. Lu’ayy, 35.

— b. Ma'di Karib (P), 20, 646, 711.

— b. Salim (P), 54 2 *

'Amr b. Talla, 7 , 8.
b. Tiban, 12, 13, 695.

— b. Umayya, 99, 164, 265, 434 , 437 ,
484, 526, 589, 614, 615, 657, 673-5,
790-1.

'Amra d. Durayd (P), 574 - 5 *
f Antara b. *Anir al- Absl (P)> 74 T *

'Aqaba (L), 197, 203, 205, 207, 294, 610.
Aqi! b. abu Talib, 69, " 4 , 32.

'Aqlq (L), n, 580, 59°, 768.

"Arafa (L), 3 ^> 49 , 88 , 124, I 73 , 2.07,
540, 652.

‘As, atb* Hisham (Abul-Bakhtari), 118,
133,’ j60-1, 165, 172, 291, 301, 310.

— abul, b. al-Rabi', 3 i 3 ~i 4 , 316.

— b. Wa’il, 119, i 33 » l6z - i7L 180, 181,

• l 8 7 * . .

'Asim b. 'Adiy, 622.

— b. Thabit, 426-33-

— b. 'Umar b. Qatada, xv, xxv.

'Atawda, 20.

'Atika d. 'Abdul-Muttahb (P), 76, 290.

— d. abu Sufyan, 189.

'Atiya b. 'Ufayyif (P), 597 *

'Attab b. Usayd, 568, 652.

‘Auf b. al-Khazraj B. (T), 490, 604.

— b. Lu’ayy, 42, 573, 578 , 580-1, 739.
'Aun b. Ayyub (P), 7 ° 4 -

'Ayyash b. abu Rabi a, 216—17*

'Azzam, M. A., xxvii.

Badr, 289-314, 447 , 6o2 > 6o 5 > 6i 4 , 6z 4 *
Badhan, 658.

Bahira, 79-81.

Bajila (T), 677*

Bakka’i, al, xvii, xli, 524, 555 -
Bakr, abu, 114, I 3 1 , * 44 , * 55 , I ® 1 » lbz >

1 171, 182, 221, 223-5, 227, 263, 281,

288, 293, 300, 381,497, 502, 504, 514,
525, 543-4, 549 , 569, 57 L 59 °, ° o8 >
615, 616, 617, 619, 642, 668, 669, 679,
680-9, 7 i 5 , 723 , 739 , 776.

— B. (T), 5, 54 , 291, 492, 504, 54 °, 569 ,

1. ,

Baladhuri, al, xxxii, 439 , 5 I 5 , 5 2 4 , 943 ,

647 -

Ball (T), 532, 638.

Balqa (L), 103, 652

Baqi'ul-Gharqad (L), 11, 97 , 3 ^ 8 , 79 &.
Bara’, al, b. Ma'rur, 202, 205, 7 Z 7 -
Barquqi, al, 207.

Barra d. 'Abdul-Muttalib (P), 74 -
Barrad, al (P), 710.

Bayada B. (T), 200, 228.

Bayharji b. Firas, 195*

Bevan, A. A., 581,697.

Bilal, xiv, 143 , 235 , 236, 280, 303, 446,
515, 5 i 7 , 6 72, 681, 731, 774 -
Bi’r Ma'una (L), xliv, 433 " 6 *

Braiinlich, E., 4 12 *

Brdnnle, P., 651.

Index of Proper Names 803

Budayl b. 'Abdu Manat (P), 542, 560.

— b. Warqa’, 501, 541, 543, 54 &*
Bujaj'd b. 'Imran (P), 776.

Bujayr b. Zuhayr (P), 560, 576, 591,
597 - 8 -

Bu?ra (L), 69, 79, 654.

Buwat (L), 285.

Buwayra, al (L), 481-2.

Carruthers, D., 722.

Caskell, W-, 776.

Dahhak, al, b. Khalifa, 782.

— b.‘Sufyan, 570, 577, 579, 581, 59i*
Damascus, 657.

Darum, al (L), 652.

Daus Dhu Tha'laban, 18.

De Goeje, xxxii, 439.

Dhakwan (T), 580-1.

Dharr, abu, xli, 149, 170, 229, 237, 282,
355, 357 , 365, 380, 404, 409 , 438, 446,
473, 542, 558, 560, 6o6, 626, 638, 651,
664, 700, 712, 7 J 9 , 7 2 °, 74 L 748 - 9 ,
787, 796.

Dhatul-Riqa' (L), 455-7.

— Salasil (L), 668-9.

Dhi’ba al-Thaqafl, b. (P), 19.

Dhu Amarr (L), 362.

— Awan (L), 605.

— Baqar (L), 575.

1 -Haram, 616.

— Jadan, abu Murra, 19, 21.

— 1 -Khimar, 566, 572, 573.

— 1 -Majaz (L), 189, 190.

— Nafr, 23, 25.

*— Qarad (L), 486-90, 625.

— Ru'ayn, 12, 20, 643.

— 1 -Rumma, 695, 697, 718, 719, 73
758 , 765*

— Shaughar (L), 568.

— Tuwa (L), 217, 315, 500, 548.

— 'Ushayr (L), 625.

— Yazan, 585.

Dhubyan B. (T), 568.

Dihya b. Khalifa, 511, 655-6, 662.

Dil, al (T), 618, 674.

Doughty, C., 605.

Duff, al (L), 11.

Dughunna, al, b., 171, 574.
Dumatul-Jandal, 449, 607.

Durayd b. al-Simma, 566-7, 574 - 5 > 76'
Duwad, abu (P), 700, 729, 766.

pabi’ b. al-Harith (P), 739.

Paghatir, 656.

Pajanan (L), 184, 674.

Pamdam b. 'Amr, 289, 291, 315.

— b. al-Harith (P), 584.

Pamra, B. (T), 285, 448.

Dimam b. Tha'laba, 634-5.

Pirar (L), 244.

— b. ai-Khattab (P), 190, 206, 343, 351
410, 413, 423, 454 , 470 , 696.

Fadak (L), 515-16, 523.

Fadala b. al-Mulawwih al-Laythl, 552.
Fadl, al, b. 'Abbas, 569, 679, 687, 688.
Fahm (T), 594.

Fakhkh (L), 280.

Farazdak, al (P), 697, 712, 704, 765, 785,
789.

Fanva b. Amr, 644.

— b. Musayk (P), 639-41.

Fatima d. al Khattab, 156.

— d. Muhammad, 286, 389, 551, 683.
Fayd (L), 637.

Faymiyun, 14-16.

Fazara, B. (T), 593, 664.

Finba?, 263, 369.

Fischer, A., xii, xv.

Fuck, J., xiii, xiv, xvii, xxx, xxxiv, 453.
Fuqaym, B. b. Adiy (T), 21.
Fuqaymiya d. Umayya, 590.

Furu', al (L), 362.

Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 279.

Geiger, A., 250, 251, 252.

Geyer, R., 693, 698, 719, 720, 724*
Ghaba, al (L), 671.

Ghalib b. 'Abdullah, 660-1, 667.
Ghatafan (T), 42, 265, 362, 445 , 45®,
452, 454, 486, 488, 511, 662, 670.
Ghauth, al, b. Murr, 49.

Ghayatil, 125, 712.

Ghayian b. Salama, 572, 587.

Ghaziya B. (T), 573.

Ghazza (L), 58, 59, 654.

Ghifar, B. (T), 216, 486, 490, 517, 518,
549, 557, 57L 603, 609, 623.
Ghumay?a (L), 561, 563, 565.
Ghumdan (L), 19, 32.

Goldziher, I., xviii, xxxiv, 119, 702.
Guillaume, A., xxx, 104, 161.

Hagar, 4, 691.

Hamdan, 639, 643, 787.

Harun b. abu'Isa, xvii.

Hashim, B. (T), 172, 30 1 *

— b. 'Abdu Manaf, 58.

Hayyaban, al, b. 94.

Hawazin (T), xlvi, 566-93.

Haytham, abul, 205.

Hell, J., xxv.

Heraclius (T), 654-7.

Hilal, B. (T), 566 , 575 , 577*

Hind d. Ma'bad, 736.

— d. Sa'd, 228.

— d. 'Utba, 314, 316, 358-9, 374 , 379 ,
385, 386, 425-6, 548, 553 *

.— d. Uthatha (P), 359, 385*

Hirschfeld, H., 174, 73 L 799 -
Hisham b. 'Amir, 172, 175*

— b. al-'A§, 216.

— b. Subaba, 490, 492.

— b. 'Urwa, xiii.

— b. al-Walid, 145, 189-90.

894

Index of Proper Names

Hopkins, )., 427,

Horovitz, J., xv, xvi, xxiii, xxv, xxxii.
Huart, C., xviii.

Hubayra b. abu Wahb b. 'Arar (P), 404-
5 * 4 ° 7 , 477 , 478 , 557 , 597 -
Hudhayl (T), 8, 9, n, 25, 36, 426-33,

554 , 589 , 651 , 666 .

H&n, al, b. Khuzayma (T), 171.

Habib b. Khudra (P), 721.
ijadas (T), 536.

Ha^an (L), 568.

Ha<Jr, al (L), 699.

Hafar, al (L), 581.

Hafga d. 'Umar, 679.

Hajar b., xv, xxxiii.

Hajjfij, al, b. 'Ila{, 519, 760.

Hijji Khalifa, xv, xxxiv, xlii.

HajOn, al (L), 173-4-
Hakam, abul, b. Sa'd, 425.

Hakim b. 546.

— b. Umayya, 130.

Halima d. abu Dhu’ayb, 70.
Hamidullah, M. } 368, 371.

Hamna d. Jahsh, 495, 497, 499.

HamriP ul-Asad (L), 390, 400, 757.
Hamza b. 'Abdul-Muftalib, 83, 117,

131, 156, 191, 283-5, 299, 303, 340,
371-^7, 385-8, 756.

Hanlfa B. (T), 506, 636, 648.

Hanzala b. abu 'Amir, 377, 626.

Harb b. Umayya, 82.

H&rith, al, B. (T), 171, 386, 615, 629,
64578.

— b. 'Abdu Kulal, 642.

— b. 'Abdu Manat (T), 502.

— b. 'Abdul-'Uzza, 70.

— b. 'Amir b. Naufal, 84.

— b. abu IpirSr, 490.

— b. Hisham, 205, 217, 319, 341, 342,
346, 365, 379, 536, 774-

— b. al-Harb, 206.

— b. H^izza (P), 773, 787.

— b. Kalada, 590.

— abu Qatada b. Rib'I, 488, 669.

— b. Tulafila, 187.

— b. Wa'la (P), 756.

— b. Zuhayr (P), 718.

— b. £alim (P), 43.

Haritha, B. (T), 201, 372, 512, 515, 524,
603.

— b. Sharabil (P), 714.

Harmala b. al-Mundhir (P), 762.
Hassan b. Milla, 662-3.

— b. Thabit, xv, xxv, xxviii, xxix, xxx,
123, 174, 175, 190, 206,238, 245,306,
3i3, 317, 320, 340, 345-9, 364, 365,
369, 379, 380, 382, 386, 405, 408, 412,
415, 417, 218, 425, 430-2, 435, 436,
448, 457, 458, 472, 476, 478-80, 480,
483, 488-9, 497-9, 520-1, 537-8, 539,
544-5, 556, 558, 624, 626, 629 630,

631, 676, 689, 690, 722, 731, 734, 754,
760, 764, 767, 768, 773, 775. 777, ?8o,
785, 795-8, 799.

Hassan b. Tiban abu Karib, 12, 13.

IlStib b. abu Balta'a, 545.

Hijr, al (L), 605, 783.

Himas b. Qays (P), 549-50.

Hims (L), 654.

Himyar, 642-4.

Hudaybiya, al (L), 499, 509, 540, 618,
648.

Hudhayfa b. Abd, 22.

— abu, b. ‘Utba, 301, 306.

— b. al-Yaman, 460.

Hulayl b. Hubshlya, 48, 49.

Hulays al, b. Zabban (or b. 'Alqama),
386, 502.

Humayd b. Malik (P), 734.

Hunayn (L), 124, 566-97, 620, 670.

Husayn, al, b. al-Humam (P), 43.

Huwaytib b. 'Abdul-'Uzza, 531.

Huwayyisa b. Mas'ud, 369, 524.

Huyayy b. Akhtab, 256, 258, 264, 270,
361, 438, 450, 452, 461,464, 465, 482.

Ibrahim b. 'All (b. Harma) (P), 719.

I ram b. Dhu Yazan, 5.

Ishaq b. Yasar, xiii, xxiii.

Imru’ul-Qays (P), 719, 734, 756, 768.

Indians, 646.

Insan (T), 568.

Ishmael, 45, 628, 691.

Iy3d (T), 23.

'Ikrima b. Abu Jahl, 370, 424, 431, 457,
460, 549, 55i, 556.

'Isa b. Maryam, xliii, 17, 72, 98, 163-4,
184, 186, 204, 253, 257, 275-6, 662,
653, 657, 685, 774, 788.

‘1$, al (L), 283, 508.

‘Isr, 511.

Ja'adira, al (P), 366.

Jabal b. Jawwal (P), 464, 481.

Jabbar b. Salma, 631,

— b. $akhr, 524-5, 79°-
Jadd, al, b. Qays, 503, 602, 621.
Jadhima, B. (T), 561-5.

Ja'far b. abujalib, 114,151, 484, 532-9.
Jahdam, 561-3.

Jaljhaf b. Hakim (P), 563.

Jahiz, al, 29, 431.

Jahjab b. Mas'ud, 490.

Jahl, abu, 119, 120, 131, 133, 135, 141,
142, 145, 160, 161, 162, 167, 177-8,
179, 181, 191, 194, 214, 217,222,283,
284, 290, 296, 298, 304, 342, 505.
Jahm, abu, b. H u dhayfa, 510.

Jandal, abu, b. Suhayl, 505.

Jarir b. ‘Atiya (P), 704, 7x1, 712, 714,

Index of Proper Names 805

Jaun, al (P), 188-9.

Jeffery, A., 126, 323, 507.

Jerusalem (Aelia), 181, 654.

Jilda, abu (P), 705.

Ji'al, abu (P), 664.

Ji'rana, 226, 576, 582-3, 597.

Jirba (L), 512.

Jones, J. M. B., xxxii.

Jubayr b. Mupim, 206, 371.

Judda (L), 84, 555.

Judham, B. (T), 66z, 668.

Juhayna, B. (T), 577, 598.

Jumah, B. (T), 171, 192, 349, 593.
Junada b. ‘Auf, 22.

Jurash (L), 584, 587, 642.

Jauf, al (L), 604.

Jurhum (T), 9, 45, 46.

Jusham, B. (T), 566-7, 577, 579, 586,
671.

Juwayria d. al-Harith, 490, 493, 768.

Ka'b B. (T), 60, 92, 188, 542, 544, 564,
566, 575.

— b. Asad al-Qurazi, 452, 461, 464,465.

— b. al-Ashraf, 364-9, 482.

— b. 'Amr, 310.

— b. Malik: (P), 36, 278, 344, 350, 362,
381, 405, 409, 414, 419-22, 423, 435;
(T), 33b 333, 370, 473-6, 486, 489,
513, 538, 5 8 7, 610, 613, 748, 759, 762,
770.

— b. Zuhayr (P), xxviii, 597-601, 782.
Kad5, 543, 549.

Kalbi, al, b., xxxi.

Karbala (L), 354.

Karib, abu, TibSn As'ad, 6, 8.

Kathir, b., xxxiii.

Kennett, A., 10.

Khabbfib b, al-Aratt, 156, 162, 179.
Khadij b. al-'Aujfi’ (P), 586-7.

Khadija, 82-83, 106-13,' 191, 313.
Khalaf, B. (T), 125.

Khalid b. ‘Abdul-'Uzza (P), 7.

— b. al-A'lam, 339.

— b. Sa'id, 526-7, 615, 617, 640.

— b. al-Walid, 190, 373, 484, 500, 535,
536-7, 549, 561-5, 576, 583, 607-8,
645, 646, 776-7, 79b

■— b. Zayd, abu Ayyub, 228, 246, 517.

— b. Zuhayr al-Hudhali (P), 732, 733.
Khallad b. Suwayd, 469, 765.

Khandaq, al (L), 450-60.

Khatim al-Tamlmi (P), 164.

KhattSb, al, 102.

KhallikSn, K, xlii.

Khath'am (Ty, 23, 585, 642.

KhawSniq, al (L), 564.

Khawwit b. Jubayr (P), 443, 453.
Khaybar (L), xlv, 177, 207, 437, 482,
510-19, 530, 587, 613, 625, 648, 665,
666 .

Khayf, al (L), 508.

Khazraj, al (T), 7, 38, 39, 197, 203, 239,
262, 343, 482, 493, 494, 496, 570, 675,
676, 752.

Khindif (T), 587.

Khirash, abu, al-Hudhali (P), 709, 713,
754, 779-

— b. Umayya, 503, 505, 554.

Khubayb b. 'Adiy, 426-33, 453, 485,

673-4-

Khufaf (T), 578, 580-1.

Khuwaylid b. Khalid (abu Dhu’ayb)

(P), 715-16, 722, 730, 732-

Khuza'a (T), 46, 47, 48, 52, 54, 188,
390, 490, 501, 504, 540-3, 547, 554,

Kilab B. (T), 566, 568, 577.

Kinana (T), 46, 52, 292, 452, 540, 541-
2, 544, 561, 565, 589, 602.

— b. 'Abdu Yalll (P), 588.

— b. al-Rabf (P), 316, 511, 515.

Kinda (T), 607, 639, 640, 641-2.
Krenkow, F., xxxiii, 595, 741, 761.
Kulthum b. Hidm, 227.

Kumayt b. Zayd (P), 697, 706, 720, 725,
736, 757, 758-

Kurz b. Jabir, 286, 550, 677-8.
Kuthayyir b. 'Abdul-Rahman (P), 705.

Labid b. Rabi'a (P), 169, 180, 632-4,
710,729,732,735,742.

Lahab, abu, 84, 117, 159, 161, 170, 191,
195,291,310-11.

Lakhm (T), 532, 536, 692.

Lakhni'a Yanuf, 13, 14.

Lammens, H., 67, 174, 234.

Lane, E, W., 149, 232, 304, 362, 413,
513, 565, 651, 734, 787.

Langdon, S. H., 207.

Layth, B. (T), 589, 651.

— b. abu Sulaym, 86.

Uihyan, B. (T), 485,

Liya (L), 573, 589.

Loth, O., xxxii.

Lubaba, abu, b. 'Abdul-Mundhir, 462,
764.

Luqaym, b. al-'Abs! (P), 439, 517.
Luqman, 196.

Lyall, C., 342, 404, 726, 742.

Ma’ab (L), 532.

Ma'afir (L), 643.

Ma'an (L), 53Z“3, 644-
Ma'arri, al, abul-'Alfi’, 553.

Ma'bad al-Khuza'I, 390-1, 448.

Mahmud b. Maslama, 487, 511, 513,

5J5-

Majanna (L), 597.

Makhzum, B. (T), 132, 145, 170, 188,
508, 551.

Makhfll, slave, 576.

Malhub (L), 180.

Mfilik, B. (T), 566, 572, 614, 615.

8 o6

Index of Proper Names

Malik b. Anas, xiii, xvi, xxiv.

— b. 'Auf al-Na§ri (P), 566-7, 570-1,
573-S, 586, 589, 593-4.

— b. Buwayra (P), 766.

— b. Dukhshum (P), 312, 609.

— b. Namat al-Hamdani (P), 701, 787,
788.

— b. Qays (P), 783-

— b. §ayf (or Ipayf), 287.

— b. 'Uwaymir al-Hudhali (P), 735 -

— b. Zafila, 532, 536.

Man b. 'Adiy, 686.

Man§ur, al, caliph, xiv, 70.

Ma'qil b. Khuwaylid al-Hudhali (P),730.
Margoliouth, D. S., 37.

Marhab, Jew, (P), 512-13.

Ma’rib', 693.

Marrul-^ahran (L), 597.

Marthad b. abu Marthad, 426-33.
Mama (L), 180.

Marwan b. Qays al-Dausi, 590-1.
Maryam, 275, 552, 774.

Masjid al-Aq§a (L), 181, 799.

Masnad (L), 11.

Masruq b. Abraha, 21, 31.

Ma^rud b. Ka'b (P), 59, 60, 78, 697.
Mauhab b. Riyalj (P), 508.

Maymuna d. al-Harith, 531, 680.
Maysara, 82.

Maytan (L), 482.

Maz'un, B. (T), 230.

Mecca, 45-51, 561, 566-9, 578-83, 593,
597, box.

M 61 amfede, G., xv.

Mihjan, abu, b. Habib (P), 594.

Mikraz b. liaf$ (P), 292, 312, 501.
Mina (L), 50, 56, 113, 195, 205, 488,
508, 619, 652, 683.

Miqdad b. ’Amr, 281, 293, 487-8, 7^7-
Miqyas b. Subaba, 492, 551.

Mistafr ('Auf) b. Uthatha, 495, 497, 499.
Moberg, A., 18.

Mu'§dh b. 'Afra, 242, 384.

— b. 'Amr, 304.

— b. Jabal, 6 ii,; 643 > 644.

Mu'awiya b. abu Sufyan, 375, 388, 428,

510-

— abu Usama, b. Zubayr (P), 355.
Mu'awwidh b. 'Afra, 304, 309.

Mudlij b. Murra (T), 561, 563-4.
Mufarrigh b. al-Himyari (P), 768.
Mughammas, al (L), 24, 190.

Mughira, al, B. (T), 213.

— b. Shu'ba, 502, 572, 589, 615-17,689.
Muballim b. Jaththama, 669-70.
Muhammad b. Maslama, 367, 515.
Muhayyi§a b. Mas'ud, 369, 515, 524,

752 *.

Mubnz b. Natjla, 487.

Muir, W., 171.

Mujadhdhar b. DhiySd, 242, 301-2,
384, 731 - 75 S-

Mukhashshin b. Humayyir, 607, 622.
Mulawwah, B. (T), 660-1,

Mulayh, al (L), 589.

Muller, D. H., 693.

Munabbihb. al-Hajjaj, 119, 153.
Mundhir, al, b. 'Amr al-Sa'idi, xliv,
206, 434.

Murara b. al-Rabl , 610-12.

Murr b. Udd (P), 50.

Murra B. (T), 667.

Musa b. 'Uqba, xv, xvi, xxv, xliii, 184,
3 ° 5 , 3 i 3 , 434 , 523 , 597 , 650.

Musafi' b. 'Abdu Manat, 370, 477.
Musafir b. abu 'Amr (P), 65.

Mushallal (L), 39.

Musaylima, 212, 377, 636, 648, 649, 686.
Mu$'ab b. 'Umayr, xliii, 199, 200, 373,
377 , 389 , 755 -

Mu$taliq B. (T), 171, 490-3, 494 -
Mustaughir, al, b. Rabi'a (P), 39, 702.
Mu’ta (L), 531-40.

Mut'im b. ‘Adiy, 120-7, 172-4, * 94 -
Muftalib, al, 59.

Muzayna (T), 545, 549, 557 , 568.
Muzdalifa (L), 36, 49, 50, 577 , 652.

Nabigha, al (P), 123, 221, 698, 722, 726,
732, 766.

Nabtal b. al-Harith, 243, 622.

Na<Jir, B. al (T), 7, 2 53 , 265, 267, 3 <>i»
437 - 45 , 45 o, 48 i, 5 i 5 - ,

Na<Jr b. al-Harith, 133, 135-6, 162, 163,
181, 270, 308, 360.

Nahar b. Tausi'a (P), 766.

Nahis (T), 23.

Najiya b. Jundub, 501, 521.

Najjar, B. al (T), 7, 8, 205, 235, 492,
497 1 5 i 7 ,636.

Najm,*abu, al-'Ijll (P), 729.

Najran (L), 6, 14-18, 257, 270, 645, 650,
736 .

Nakhla (L), 38, 193, 287, 565, 574, 666.
Naql', al (L), 491, 674.

Na$ibin (L), 96.

Na?r, B. (T), 566, 575 , 579 *

Naufal b. Mu'awiya al-Dili, 540-1.
Nicholson, R. A., 29, 601.

Noldeke, T., xvii, xxiv, xxxii, xxxiii, xli,
13, 14, 360, 412, 550, 581, 674, 698,
699.

Nu'aym b. 'Abdullah, 156.

— b. Mas'ud, 458, 460.

Nubayh b. al-Hajjaj, 119, 133.

Nufatha, B. (T), 54 1.

Nufayl b. Habib (P), 23, 26, 27.

Nu'm wife of Shammas (P), 425.
Nu'man, al, b. 'Adiy (P), 529.

— b. al-Mundhir, 30, 592.

Qa' (L), 625.

Qadisiya (L), 639.

Qanfit (L), 615.

Index of Proper Names

807

Qarada, al (L), 364.

Qarib b. al-Aswad, 566, 572, 573, 617.
Qarqara, al (L), 665.

Qatan, b. al-Khuza'i, xliii.

Qayla, B. (T), 125, 227, 713.

Qaynuqa' B. (T), 253, 260, 363-4, 4 6 3,
481, 482, 604, 751.

Qays, B. (T), 579, 590, 671.

— abu, b. abu Anas (P), 236-8.

— b. 631.

— 'Aylan (T), 82, 566, 586.

— b. al-Hudadiya (P), 736,

— b. al-Kha{im (P), 763.

— b. Khuwaylid (P), 734.

— b. Makhrama, xiii.

— b. al-Musahhar, 536, 665.

— b. Zuhayr (P), 717.

Quba (L), 213, 217, 227, 240.

Qubays, abu (L), 171.

Quda'a (T), 49, 52, 638, 692.

Quhafa abu, 548-9,

Qutayba, abul Akhzar (P), 54, 733, 758.
Qutba b. Qatada, 534, 536.

Qudayd (L), 490, 583.

Qurayza, B. (T), 7, 11, 97, 265, 267,
458-9, 461-8, 481, 482, 485, 752, 765.
Qusayy b. Kilab (P), 48, 52, 54. 56, 221.
Qutayla d. al-Harith (P), 360.

Qutham b. 'Abbas, 687-8.

Quzah (L), 652.

Quzman, 383.

Rabi' b. Ziyad (P), 717.

Rabi'a b. Haram, 48.

— b. al-Harith, 641, 651.

— b. Na$r, 4, 7.

— b. Umayya (P), 652, 767.

Ratfwa (L), 413, 542.

Raji‘, al (L), 426-33, 485, 511.

Rayhana d. 'Amr, 466,

Ri ab, B. (T), 575, 577.

Ri'ash, al, al-Hudhali (P), 773.

Rida; (L), 180.

Rifa'a b. Qays, 258, 264, 671-2.

— b. Samaw’al, 466.

— b. Zayd, 491, 516, 604, 648, 662.
Righal, abu, 24.

Rizah b. Rabi'a (P), xxvii, 49, 52, 53, 55,
Ru’ba b. al-'Ajjaj, 696, 702, 704, 713,
715, 7i6, 722, 725, 732, 737, 757,
758.

Rukana al-Muttalibi, 178-9.

Rvckmans, G., 14, 37, 799.

Sachau, E P , xiv, xvi, xvii.

Sa'd, B. (T), 573, 576, 628, 635.

• D. XXXII

— b. Bakr, B. (T), 72, 566, 568, 586,
592, 634.

— b. Khaythama, 227.

— b. Mu'adh, 200, 297, 301, 326, 389,
453, 457* 463-4, 468, 608, 626, 766.

Sa'd b. 'Ubada, 206, 279, 453, 496, 549,
596, 683, 685, 686.

— b. Abu Waqqa?, 118, 281, 283, 286,
377, 381.

Sahm, B. (T), 512.

Sahba, al (L), 511.

Sa'id b. 'Amir, 428-9.

— b. al-'As, 526, 739.

— b. Zayd, 156, 486, 684.

Sa'ida, B. (T), 605, 683-7.

— b. Ju'ayya al-Hudhali (P), 732.

Sal' (L), 486.

Salama, abu, 170, 213.

— b. al-Akwa', 488, 510.

— b. 'Amr, 486-7.

— b. FadI, xvii, xxi, xxxi.

— b. Salama b. Waqsh, 93.

Salama b. Jandal (P), 720.

Salim b. 'Auf, iJ. (T), 228, 604, 609, 615.

— b. 'Umayr, 603, 675.

Salima, B. (T), 594, 602, 606, 611, 622.
Sallam b. abul-Huqayq (abu Rafi'), 482-
4'

■— b. Mishkam, 361, 482, 516, 558,
Salma d. 'Amr, 59, 228, 797.

— d. Qays, 466.

Salman the Persian, 95, 452, 764.

Sama b. Lu’ayy (Pj, 41 .

Sammak, 44;, 442.

Sarif (L), 2t6, 531, 649.

Sa^Ih, 5, 695, 698.

Sauda d. Zama'a, 309.

Sawad b. Ghaziya, 300.

Sayf b. Dhu Yazan (P), 30, 32.
Sayyidul-Nas, b., xxxiv, xxxv, 236.
Schacht, J,, 531.

Schultess, W., 23.

Sergeant, R. B., 525.

Shaddad, abu Bakr, b. al-Aswad, 352,
377-9-

— b. 'Arid (P), 490, 588.

Shahran (T), 23.

Shakar (L), 642.

Shayba b. Rabi'a, 118, 133, .191, 193,
296, 299, 306, 340, 342-60.

— b. 'Uthman, 569.

Shayban, B. (T), 565.

Shiqq b. Sa'd b. Nizar, 5, 695, 698.
Shuqran, maula, 687.

Shurahbil b. Sa'd, xv.

Sifah, al (L), 124.

Silwan (L), 568.

Simak, abu Dujana, b. Kharasha, 373-5,
.381,438.

Sirafi, al, xxxii, 595.

Sirin, 499.

Smith, Sidney, 37, 799,

— W. R., 37, 49, 641, 647, 763.

Stark, F., 736.

Subay'a d. al-Ahabb (P), 9.

Sufyan, abu, b. Harb, 118, 133, 142,
189, 190, 191, 230, 289, 293-313,

8 o8

Index of Proper Names

315-16, 325, 361-2, 370, 374, 377-9.
386, 428, 447 - 9 . 450, 459 . 460, 503,
508, 543-4, 545-8, 553, 569, 570, 589,
616, 617, 673, 740, 774.

Sufyan, abu, b. al-hJarith (P), 481, 546,

569-

Suhayl b. 'Amr, 194, 206, 309, 312, 499-
506,507,544,549,794.

Suhayli, a!, xxiii, xxiv, xxxiv, xlii, 81,
129, 167, 207, 223, 229, 233, 240, 305,
306, 311, 312, 319, 359, 428, 456, 458,
550, 551, 560, 624, 628, 636, 644, 713,
729 , 735 , 761, 762, 771 , 790 , 798 .
Suhaym, slave (P), 766,

Sulfifa d. Sa'd, 377, 427.

Sulaym, B. (T), 360, 434, 545 , 548, 549,
557 , 562, 565, 568, 57 °, 574 - 5 , 578 ,
583. 593 , 778 .

Suwayd b. al-§Smit (P), 196.

Suyuti, al, 577.

Jpafiya d. Abdul-Muttalib (P), 74, 387-
8, 458 , 5 i 3 -

— d. Huyayy, 241, 511, 514-17-

— d. Musafir (P), 359.

§afra’ al (L), 308, 359, 565.

$afwan b. al-Mu'attal al-Sulamj, 494,
498 , 499 -

— b. Umayya, 318, 370, 427, 544, 549 ,
555 . 567, 569, 582, 756.

$akhr b. 'Abdullah al-Hudhall, 721.
$&lib, 14-16.

$alt, abu, b. abu Rabl'a (P), 29, 32.
Span's (L), 21, 31, 32, 180, 648.

§ayfi, abu Qays b. al-Aslat (P), 28, 29,
128, 201, 735.

$ufa (L), 49.

$urad b. 'Abdullah, 642.

TabQk (L), 602-8, 609, 610, 611, 614,
620, 622, 624, 625, 627, 642.

Tamlm, B. (T), 586, 593, 595, 628-9,
631, 671.

— b. Asad (P), 541, 774.

— b. Ubayy, 703, 731.

Tan'im, al (L), 184, 213, 427, 5 ^ 9 , 53 *.
650.

Thabir (L), 105, 123.

ThSbit b. Qays, 465, 493, 498, 629.
Tha’iaba b. Sa'd (P), 42, 54.

— b. Sa'ya, 94, 262, 463, 466.

ThSmir, al, 16.

Thaniyatul-Murra (L), 281.

— Wada' (L), 604.

Thaqif (T), 192, 566, 572-4, 577 , 584,
586-7, 589-93, 614-17, 627.

Thaur (L), 105, 123.

ThumSma b. Athl, 676-7,

Tubba*, 7, 9, 578.

Twitchell, K, S., 98.

Xaha Husayn, 725.

Ta’if, al (L), 192, 573 “ 5 , 582, 584, 587-
94, 597, 616-17.

Talha, abu, b. Sahl, 498, 511, 570.

— b. 'Ubaydullah, 486, 613, 683, 782.
Talib, abu (P), 79, 105, 114, 117-21,

122, 150, 160, 170, 173, 191-2, 299,

716, 717, 723, 750 .

— b. Abu Talib (P), 29, 296, 351.
T fl rafa b. al Abd, 742.

Tayyi’ (T)^6os, 608, 638.

Tayyib, al, 'Abdullah, xxvii, 29.
Tirimmah 6* Hakim (P), 741, 754, 761.
Tufayl, al, b. 'Amr, 175.

Tulayha b. Khuwaylid (P), 305.

Ubayy b. Khalaf, 164-5, 181, 381.

— b. Malik, 590-1.

Uhud (L), 370-426, 482, 562, 569, 624,
680,753.

Ukaydir b. ‘Abdul-Malik, 607-8.
Umama b. Muzayriqa (P), 675.
Umayma d. 'Abdul-Muttalib (P), 75.
Umayya b. abu 'A’idh al-Hudhali, 725.

— b. Khalaf, 143, 162, j8i, 191, 291,
302, 305, 306, 427.

— abu, b. al-Mughira, 86.

— b. abu Salt (P), 23, 353, 355, 694,
697, 698, 713, 733 , 742 , 758 .

Umm al-Fadl, 309-12, 366.

— Hani’, 689.

— Habiba d. Abu Sufyan, 543.

— Uakim al-Bay<Ja’ (P), 75.

— Jamil, 161.

— Kulthum d. 'Uqba, 509.

— Mistah d. abu Ruhm, 495.

— Qirfa, 665.

— Salama, 229, 546, 589, 680.

— 'Umara, 755.

Usama, abu, al-Jushami, 457, 750.

— b. Zayd, xliv, xlv, 308, 496, 521, 523,
569, 652, 667, 678, 687.

Usayd b. Hudayr, 200, 389, 468, 481,
491, 496, 683.

Uzayhir, abu, 188-90.

'Ubada b. al-§amit, 363, 490.

'Ubayd b. 'Umayr, 105.

— b. Wahb al-'Absi (P), 719.

'Ubayda, abu, 698, 706, 708, 709, 711,

717, 718, 720, 726, 733, 737, 738, 739,
740, 748, 75o, 752, 756, 760, 762, 769,
772 , 779 , 784, 785, 786, 787, 789.

— b. al-JJarith, 281-3, 299, 349*

— abu, b. al-Jarrah, xlvi, 549, 668, 673-
5, 686, 688, 755.

'Ubaydullah b. Jahsh, 527.

'Udhra, B. (T), 55, 534.

'Ukaz (L), 710.

'UkkSsha b. Mii??an, 305, 487-8.

‘Umar b. al-Khattab, 42, 43, 92, 100,
155-9, 180, 191, 216, 235, 293, 301,

Tabari al, xxxiii.

809

Index of Proper Names

318-19, 386, 428, 490, 492, 504, 505,
510, 5 i 4 , 525 , 529 , 543 - 4 , 547 , 553 ,
567, 569, 590 , 593 , 596, 608, 623, 668,
669, 681, 683-7, 73 i, 739 , 753 , 799 -
'Umar b. Rabl'a, xv.

'Umara b. Hazm, 605-6.

— b. 'Uqba, 509.

— b. al-Walid, 119.

'Umayr b. 'Adiy, 675-6.

— b. al-Humam (P), 300.

— b. Qays (P), 22.

— b. Sa'd, 242.

— b. Wahb, 318-19, 565, 604.

'Uqba b. abu Mu'ayt, 136, 164, 191,

270, 291, 308.

'Urwa b. Mas'ud, 502, 572, 587, 589,
614, 615, 617.

— b. al-Zubayr, xiv.

'U?fSn, 8, 226, 48s, 500, 543, 545.
'UtSrid b. Hajib, 628.

'Utba b. Rabi'a, 118, 132-3, 191, 193,
214, 296, 297, 298, 306, 340, 342-
bo.

'Uthman b. 'Affan, 167, 169, 229, 503,
550 , 562, 593 , 603, 606, 713, 757.

— b, abul-'A§, 616.

— b. Maz'un (P), 149, 169, 590.

— b. Talba, 214, 377 , 485, 552, 554.
'Uyayna b. Hi$n, 486, 590, 593, 595,

628, 667, 670.

WaddSn (L), 625.

Wadil-Fur' (L), 511.

— Qura (L), 96, 516, 525, 664.

Wadi'a b. ThSbit, 606-8, 622.

Wahb of B. Layth (P), 564.

-—■ b. Munabbih, xv, xvii, xviii.

Wahriz, 31, 33.

WabshI, 371, 375-7, 753 -
Wajj (L), 573, 584, 587, 617.

Wajra (L), 580.

Walid, al, b. al-Mughira, 84, 85, 119-21,
133,163,165,166,167,169 171,181,
187.

— b. 'Uqba, 493, 509.

Waqidi, al, xiv, xviii, xxxi, 184, 383,
492, 696.

WaqqS? b. Mujazziz, 677.

Waraqa b. Naufal (P), 73, 83, 99, 103,

107, 144.
WSsi*, 578, 579.
Weil, G., xli.

Wellhausen, J., xxxii, 37, 49, 233.
Wright, W., 577.

Wiistenfeld, F., xiii, xxiv, xli.

Yahuda, A. S., 251.

Yaksum b. Abraha, 30.

Yamama, al (L), 140, 377, 607-8, 636,
648, 791.

Yaman (L), 562, 568, 583-4, 601, 607,
638, 642, 644, 647, 648.

Ya'mar b. 'Auf, 52,

Yamln b. 'Umayr, 438.

Yaqut, xxxvi, 124, 188, 206, 216, 227,
280, 380, 409, 481, 500, 528, 549, 616,
693 , 772 .

Yasir, Jew, 513-14.

Yazid b. yabib, xiii.

— b. Rabl'a al-Himyari, 761.

— b. abu Sufyan, 189.

YOnus b. Bukayr, xvii, xxi, xxxi, xxxiii,
xli, 377, 416, 428, 546, 595.

— b. Habib, 733, 735, 780.

Zabir, al, b. Bata, 465.

Zahf, abul, al-Kulaybi (P), 719.

Zama'a b. al-Aswad, 172, 181.
Zamakhshari, al, 685.

Zamzam (L), 45-46, 53, 62, 65-66.
Za'na, abu, b. 'Abdullab, 424.

Zayd, maula, 114.

— abu, al-An? 5 ri, 697, 698, 727, 741,
750, 760, 764, 768, 769, 770, 777, 784,
785 ;

— b. 'Amr (P), 99, 100, 101, 102, 103.

— b. Arqam, xlv, 491-2, 533.

— b. HSritha, 186, 308, 314, 364, 532-9,
662-5, 738, 79 i.

— al-Khayl, 637.

— b. al-Lu?ayt al-Qaynuqa'i, 605-6.

— b. Suhar (P), 586.

Zaynab d. al-Harith, 516.

— d. Hayyan, 593.

— d. Jahsh, 495.

— d. Muhammad, 314, 316-17.
ZibriqSn, al, 628, 629, 630, 785.
Zubayd, B. (T), 640-1,

Zubayr, al, b. al-'Awwam, xlvii, 153,
295 , 388, 513-14, 515 , 525 , 545, 549 ,
683, 685, 753, 765, 778.

Zuhayr b. abu Sulma (P), 44, 221, 742,

765-

— b. abu §urad (P), 592-3.

— b. abu Umayya, 172.

Zuhri, al, xiii, xvi.

Zur'a Dha Nuwas, 13, 14, 17.

— Dhfl Yazan, 643.

Zahrin (L), 188, 427.

£urayba (L), 526.

ISNAD INDEX

Aban b. Salih, 531, 553.

Ajlah, al, 771 (IH).

Anas b. Malik, xliv, xlv, 180, 306, 380,
381, 434 (T)> 5 11 . 57i> 607, 681, 686.
Asma’d. abu Bakr, 99, 224, 225, 548.

— d. Shaqr, 552.

— d. 'Umays, 535*

Ayyub b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 466.

— b. Bashir, 679, 763 bis (IH).

‘Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr, 50,
311. 3H. 428, 458, 534, 548, 682, 688.
'Abbas, al, b. ‘Abdullah b. Ma'bad, 73,
191, 290, 301, 310.

• b. Sahl, 605.

Abdul-'Aziz b. 'Abdullah, 155.

— b. Muhammad, 677, 754 (IH).
'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, 95, 112, 117, 136,

139, 143, 191, 221, 243, 250, 252, 255,
256 bis, 257, 267, 289, 290, 301, 303
bis, 304, 309, 310 bis, 312, 317, 326,
363, 368, 384, 387, 388, 400 bis, 429,
505, 506, 530, 531, 545, 623, 635, 655,

679, 682, 687, 688, 755 (IH), 774, 786.

— b. 'Abdul-Rahman al-Makki, 255.
-b. Ma'mar, 650.

— b. 'Amr b. al-'As, 130, 280, 592, 678.
-b. Damra, 511.

— b. abu Bakr, xxiii, xxv, xxviii, 18, 28,
35, 37, 73, 88, 200, Z04-5, 206, 235,
241, 289, 297, 302, 303, 304, 309, 313,
314, 3ib, 364, 390, 433, 438, 450, 468,
486 bis, 490, 494, 500, 502, 503, 512,
5 i 5 , 523 , 525 , 53 b 533 , 535 , 53b, 548,
549 , 552 , 57 °, 57 i, 596 , b02, 605, 644,
658, 681, 683, 687, 688.

— b. al-Fadl, xlv, 375, 377.

— b. al-Harith, 117, 689.

— b. Hasan, 107, 514.

-b. Ha?an, 791 (IH).

— b. Ja'far, 70, 111, 751.

— b. Jahsh, 230.

— b. Ka'b b. Malik, xlv, 93, 195, 202,
203, 361, 450, 457, 482, 486 bis, 487,

680, 682.

— b. Kharija, 390.

— b. Mas'ud, 155, 181, 182, 186, 400,
606, 608.

— b. al-Mughaffal, 516.

— b. al-Mughith, 364, 367.

— b. Muhammad b. 'Aqil, 400.

— b. Mukaddam, 590.

— b. abu Najih, xxi, 84, 114, 143, 157,
221, 291, 326, 428, 505, 506, 512, 519,
53 i, 549 bis, 596, 650, 652.

— b. abu Qatada, 764 (IH).

— b. Sahl (abu Layla), 457, 512.

'Abdullah b. abu SalR, 511.

— b. Safwan, 84.

— b. abu T a lba, 570.

— b. Tha'laba, 301, 388.

— b. Unays, 666.

— b. 'Umar b. al-Khattab, xliii, xliv,
xlv, 158, 267, 377, 525, 593 bis , 650,
672, 678, 763 (IH).

— b. 'Utba, 655.

— b. Zama'a, 681.

— b. al-Zubayr, 379, 383.

— b. al-Zurayr, 62, 105.

'Abdul-Malik b. 'Abdullah, 177.

— b. Rashid, 53.

— b. 'Ubaydullah, 103.

— b. 'Umayr, 466.

— b. Yahya, 767 (IH).

'Abdul-Rahman b. 'Abdullah b. Ka'b,

610, 679.

— b. 'Amr, 464.

— b. 'Auf, 302, 303.

— b. Bujayd, 524.

•—b. al-Harith, 155, 159, 307, 681.

— b. Harmala al-Aslami, 554.

— b. Jabir, 569, 570.

— b. Ka'b b. Malik, xliv, xlv, 4, 199,
2 ° 5 .

— b. abu Labiba, 91.

— b. Malik b. Ju'shum, xliii, 225.

— b. al-Qasim, 171, 535, 649.

— b. 'Usayla, 199.

— b. 'Uwaymir, 227.

'Abdul-Wahid b. abu 'Amr, 303, 389.

— Warith b. Sa'Td, abu 'Ubayda, 763
ter (IH).

'A’idhullah b. ‘Abdullah, 199.

'A’isha, 38, 105, 154, 171, 181, 183, 223,
224, 279, 305, 464, 493-7, 535-6, 649,
667, 678, 680 ter, 682 bis, 688 bis,
689 bis, 755 (IH).

'Ali b. 'Abdullah b. 'Abbas, 552.

— b. al-Husayn b. 'All, 91, 688.

— b. Nafi'al-Jurashi, 92.

— b. abu Tahb, 117.

'Alqama b. Waqqa§, 464, 494.

'Amir b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr, 144,
536.

— b. Wahb, 572.

'Ammar b. Yasir, 285.

'Amr b. 'Abdullah, 787 (IH).

— b. al-'A§, 484.

— b. 'Auf, xlvi.

— b. Dinar, 512.

— b. abu Ja'far, 91.

— b. Kharija, 652.

— abu, al-Madani, 792 (IH).

— b. Shu'ayb, 524, 589, 592.

I mad Index 811

'Amr b. ‘Ubayd, 118, 400, 445.

— b. Umayya, 675.

'Amra d. 'Abdul-Rahman, xxiii, 28, 38,
468, 494, 688.

'Aqil b. Jabir, 446.

*A$im b. 'Umar, 93, 94, 95, 98, 196, 197,
204-5, 235, 244, 245, 254, 277, 289,
299. 300, 308, 363, 364, 370, 374, 381,
383 ter, 426, 428, 450, 454, 457, 464,
486 bis, 487, 490, 492, 569, 570, 596,
598, 601, 602, 605, 607, 667.

’Ata’b. abu Marwan al-Aslami, 510,

— b. abu Ribah, 326, 506, 531, 672.

— b. Yasar, 648, 731, 786,

'Atiya al-Qurazi, 466.

'Auf b. Malik, 669.

Bakr, abu, 755 (IH).

— b. 'Abdullah, 681.

— b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 150, 153.

Bukayr b. 'Abdullah, 316.

Burayda b. Sufyan, 387, 514, 606.
Bushayr b. Yasar, 524.

Da’ud b. al-Hu§ayn, 141, 267, 317.

— abu, al-Mazini, 303.

Fatima d. al-Husayn b. Ali, 791 (IH).

— d. 'Umara, 688.

Firas, abu, Sunbula al-Aslami, 564.

G hay tala, 91.

Harun, 511.

Haytham, abul, b. Na§r al-Aslami, 510.
Hisham b. 'Urwa, 99, in, 144, 191,
224, 279, 435, 513, 514, 737.

Hurayra, abu, 35, 250, 266, 270, 316,
384, 388,445 (T), 452, 516, 648, 676,
682.

Habban b. W 3 si', 300.

Habib b. abu Aus, 484.

Hadrad, b. abu, 563, 669.

Haf?a d, 'Umar, 650.
ijakam, al, b. 'Utayba, 310 (T).

Hakim b. 'Abbad, 552.

— b. Hakim b. Abbad, 389, 561, 619.

— b. Jubayr, 145.

IJamza b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar, 680.
Hanash al-§an'ani, 512.

Harith, al, b. al-Fu<Jayl, 400.

— b. Hisham, 681.

— b. Malik, 568.

Hasan, al, b. abul-Hasan, 181, 182, 183,
400, 445, 488, 67b, 730 (IH), 737, 742,
757 , 763.

— b. Muhammad b. 'Ali, 56, 118.

— b. 'Umara, 310 (T).

Hassan b. Thabit, 70.

Humayd al-Tawil, 306, 380, 381, 388,
434 (T), 5 11 *

Husayn b. 'Abdullah, 159, 195, 309,
687 bis, 688.

— b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 197, 370, 380,

384-

Ibrahim b. 'Abdul-Rahman b. 'Auf,
xlvi.

— b. Ja'far al-Mahmudi, 776 (IH).

— b. Muhammad b. T a ^ba, 10.

— b. Sa'd, 604.

Ishaq, abu, al-Dausi, 316.

— b. 'Abdullah, 571.

— b. Ibrahim, 782 (IH).

— abu, al-Subay'l, 787 (IH).

— b. Yahya, 755 (IH).

— b. Yasar, 56, 169, 176, 213, 297, 303,
363, 385, 388, 433, 461, 497, 572, 689.

Isma'il b. abu Hakim, 107.

— b. Ibrahim b. 'Uqba, xliv, xlvi, 267.

— b. Ilyas b. 'Aflf, 113.

— b. abu Khalid, 764 (IH), 769.

— b. Muhammad, 389.

— b. Umayya, 400.

'Ikrima, maula, 133, 141, 252, 255, 256,
257, 267, 290, 304, 317, 363, 368, 429,
503, 687, 688, 755 (IH).

'Isa b. 'Abdullah, 616.

— b. Talha, 755 (IH).

Jabir b! 'Abdullah, 256, 400, 445, 446
bis, 451, 468, 486, 500, 503, 512 bis ,
569, 57 °, 763 bis (IH).

Ja'far b. 'Abdullah b. Aslam, 278, 374.

— b. 'Amr, 186, 375.

— b. al-Fa<JI, 673.

— b. Muhammad, 154, 688.

Jahm b. Abu Jahm, 70.

Jubayr b. Mut'im, 88, 572.

Jundub b. Maklth, 660.

Jurayj, b., 731.

Ka'b b. 'Amr (abul-Yasar), 514.

— b. Malik, 202, 205.

Kalbi, al, 312 (T).

Kathir b. al-'Abbas, 569.

Khalid b. Ma'dan, 72, 139.

— b. Yasar, 656 (T).

Kulthum, abu Ruhm, b. al-Husayn,
608.

Layth b. abu Sulaym, 652.

Ma'bad b. Ka'b, 202, 203, 205.

— b. Malik al-An§ari, 461.

Mahmud b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 468.

— b. 'Amr, 380.

— b. Labid, 95, 197, 383, 400, 596, 605.
Makhul, 307, 512.

Malik b. Anas, 771 (IH).

— b. Rabi'a, 303.

— abu, b. Tha'laba al-Qurazi, 10.

8l2

Jsnad Index

Marthad b. 'Abdullah, 62, 199, 229.
Marwan b. al-Hakam, xlv, 500, 540.

— b. 'Uthm§n, 516.

Marzuq, maula, 512.

Mawiya (Maria?), 428.

Miqsam, maula, 303, 310 (T), 388, 595,
689.

Mis'ar b. Kidam, 155.

Miswar b. Makhrama, xlvi, 500, 540.
Mu'adh b. Rifa'a, xxiii, 468 bis.
Mu'aftib, abu, b. 'Amr, 510.

Mu'awiya b. abu Sufyan, xx, 181, 183.
Mughira, al, b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 433.

— b. abu Labid, 14.

Muhammad b. 'Abdullah (abu 'Atiq),
144.

-b. Zayd, 236.

— b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 42, 19s, 386,
445 (T).

— b. ‘Ali b. Husayn, 99, 299, 326, 561,
596, 619, 688.

— b. 'Amr b. 'Alqama, 677.

— b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith, 35, 57, 236,
498, 510, 524, 595^ 6o8, 681.

— b, Ja'far b. al-Zubayr, 42, 99, 227,
236, 271, 277, 318, 361, 387, 44s, 464,
493 . 527 , 532 . 536 . 545 . 552 , 555 . 666,
670, 679, 680.

— b. Ka'b. al-Qurazi, 16-17, 132, 165,
167, 192, 222, 285, 387, 450, 460, 606.

— b. Khaytham, 285.

— b. Qays, 167.

— b. Sa'id b. al-Musayyib, 73, 176, 291.

— b. $alih, 239.

— b. Talha, 267, 604, 677, 782.

— b. abu Umama, 199, 257.

— b. Usama, 680.

— b. al-Walid, 634.

— b. Yahya, 294, 370, 490.

— b. Zayd b. al-Muhajir, 57.

Mujahid b. Jabr, 114, 143, 221, 505,

5 3 1 * .

Mundhir, al, 660.

Murra, abu, maula, 551.

Must b. Yasar, 388.

Muslim b. 'Abdullah, 660.

Mufarrif b. 'Abdullab, 616.

Mu^alib, al, b. 'Abdullah, 69.
Muwayhiba, abu, 678.

NSfi' b. Jubayr, xliv, xlv, 88, 112.

— maula, 216, 217, 267, 524. 593. 57*.
650, 763 (IH).

Na?r b. Duhr al-Aslami, 510.

Nu'aym b. Mas'ud, 649.

Nubayh b. Wahb, 309,

Qa'qa*, al, b. 'Abdullah, 669,

QSsim, al, b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 381.

— b. Muhammad, 171, 186, 649, 681.
Qatfida, abu, al-An$ari, 571.

•— b. Di'fima, 105, 181, 182, 552.

Qays b. Makhrama, 69.

Rabi'a b. 'Ibad, 195.

Rafi', abu, maula, 309, 514, 668.
Rashid, maula, 484.

Rubayh b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 754 (IH),
Ruhm, b. akhi abi, al-Ghifari, 608.

Sa'd b. Ibrahim, xlvi, 155, 303.

— b. abu Waqqa$, 382, 389.

Sahl b. abu Hathma, 524.

Sa'id b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 70, 556.

— b. abu 'Aruba, 105.

— abu Hind, 551, 616.

— b. Jubayr, 133, 145, 252, 255, 257,
270, 363, 429 . 494 -

— abu, al-Khudrl, 181, 185-6, 596, 648,
650, 677. 754 (IH).

— b. Mina, 451.

— b. al-Musayyib, xlv, xlvi, 183, 266,
517, 554, 682, 757 (IH).

— b. abu Sa'id al-Maqburi, 555, 676.

— b. abu Sandar al-Aslami, 554.

— b. 'Ubayd, 680.

— b. abu Zayd al-An$ari, 755 (IH).
Salama, abu b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 231,

270, 57 i-‘

— b. 'Amr b. al-Akwa ,514.

— b. Nu'aym, 649.

Salim, maula, 516.

— b. 'Abdullah, xliii, xliv, xlv.

— abul-NacJr, 670.

Sall&m b. Kirkira, 512.

Samura b. Jundub, 388.

Sha'bl, al, 239, 769 (IH), 771.

Shahr b. Haushab, 255, 652.

Shu'ba b. al-Hajjaj, 466.

Shurayh, abu, al-Khuza'i, 555.

Sinan b. abu Sinan al-Du’ali, 568.
Sufyan, abu, maula, 384.

— b. Farwa, 514.

— abu, b. Harb, 653, 655.

— b. 'Uyayna, 229, 764 (IH), 771,
774 -

Sulayman b. Muhammad b. Ka'b, 650.

— b. Musa, 307.

— b. §uhaym, 518.

— b. Wardan, 674.

— b. Yasar, 316, 375, 377 , 648.

Suraqa b. Malik b. Ju'shum, xliii, 225.

Sadaqa b. Yasar, 446.

$afiya d. Huyayy, 241.

— d. Shayba, 552.

Salih b. Ibrahim, 70, 93, 169, 381.

— b. Kaysan, 250, 267, 382, 385, 386,
523, 689 bis.

— b. abu Umama b. Sahl, 365.

Thaur b. Yazld, 72, 139, 304, 368, 516.
Talfca b. 'Abdullah, 57.

Isnad Index

813

Ukayma, b. al-Laythi, 608.

Umama, abu, al-Bahilf, 307.

Umayya b. 'Abdullah b. 'Amr, 567.

— b. abul-$alt, 518.

Umm 'Abdullah d. abu Hathma,

J 55 * ,

— Hani, 181, 184, 551.

— 'Isa of Khuza'a, 535.

— Ja'far d. Muhammad, 535.

— Sa'd, 755 (IH).

— Salama, 150, 153, 213, 536,

Us&ma b. Zayd, 279 bis.

'Ubada b. al §amit, 199, 208, 307, 512,

673 -

— b. al-Walid, 208, 363, 673.

'Ubayd b. Jubayr, 678.

— b. ‘Umayr al-Laythi, 731.

'Ubayda, abu, b. Muhammad b. 'Am-

mir, 595.

'Ubaydullah b. Abdullah b. 'Utba, 494,
523, 545. 552, 566, 623, 653,655,678,
679, 680, 683 bis. 689, 774 (IH).

— b. al-Mughira, 200.

'Umar b. 'Abdul-'AzIz, 98.

— b. al-Hakam, 677.

— b. ‘Abdullah b. 'Umar, 279.

— b. Mu$'ab, 552.

'Urwa b. al-Zubayr, xliv, xlv, xlvi, 105,
hi, 153, 154, 171, 187, 212, 223, 227,
236, 279 bis, 289, 290, 292, 305, 318,
445 (T), 464, 493 bis, 494, 500, 509,
527. 532 , 536, 540. 545 . 555 . 670, 679,
680 (T). 682, 686.

'Utba b. Muslim, 112, 270.

'Uthman b. abul-‘A$, 616.

— b. 'Abdul-Rahman, 677.

— b. abu Sulayman, 88.

Wahb b. Kaysan, 105, 446.

— b. Munabbih, 14, 16.

WakT, 769 (IH).

Waqid, abu, al-Laythi, 568.

Yahya b. abul-Ash'ath, 113.

— b. 'Abbad, 50, 79, 225, 302, 311, 314,
379, 383, 428, 458, 534, 548, 652, 682,
688 .

— b. ’Abdullah, 235, 309, 494, 650.

— b. ‘Urwa, 130, 141.

Ya'qub b. 'Utba b. al-Mughira, 4, 27,
91, 119, 183, 498, 563, 572, 614, 660,
678, 682.

Yazid b. 'Abdullah, 57, 58, 512, 648,
669.

— b. abu Habib, 62, 98, 199, 229, 316,
484, 512, 653, 669..

— b. Muhammad b. Khaytham, 285.

— b. Ruman, 154, 187, 289, 290, 292,
305, 308, 316, 361, 437, 445, 450, 493,
662.

— b. falha, 650.

— b. 'Ubayd al-Sa'di, 576, 593.

— b. Ziyad, 16, 143, 165, 192, 222, 460.

Yunus b. 'Ubayd, 763 (IH).

Zakariya, 229.

Zayd b. Aslam, 195, 780 (IH), 781, 786.

Zaynab d. Ka'b, 650.

Zin&d, abul, 195, 224.

Ziyad b. Qumayra, 670.

Zubayr b. ‘Ukkasha, 145.

Zubayr abul, al-Makki, 488.

Zuhri, al, xliii, xliv, xlv, xlvi, 4, 91, 105,
142, 150, 152, 171, 179, 181-4, 195,
199, 225, 239, 266, 279 bis, 280, 289,
301, 370 , 372 . 38r, 388, 391, 450, 454,
465, 482, 495, 500, 501, 502, 504, 505,
506, 509, 517, 518, 523, 524, 540, 545,
552 . 555 , 563, S66, 568, 569, 595, 602,
608, 610, 623, 641, 645, 653 bis, 655,
678, 679, 680 ter, 681 bis, 682, 683,
686 bis, 688, 689 bis, 767 (IH) 772,
773 , 774 , 775 , 783-

INDEX OF BOOKS CITED

INDEX OF SUBJECTS

Aghani, a], xxviii, xxix, 174.
Akhbarul-Nahwiyin al-Basriyin, 595.
Arabia Deserta, 605.

Arabian Adventure, 722.

L’Arabie occidentale, 67, 174, 234.
Arabische Syntax, 581.

Arabiya, 453.

Arabum Proverbia, 632.

A?nam, al, xxxi, 35, 177.

Asrar al-TanzIl, 323.

Bedouin Justice, 10.

Bukhala’, al, 431.

Chalaf al-Ahmar’s Qaside, 404.

Delectus veterum carminum Arabico-
rum, 360, 413.

Diwan of 'Abid, 726.

Fihrist, al, xvii, xxv.

Fil-adab al-Jahili, 725.

Foreign Vocabulary’ of the Quran, 126,
323, 507.

FCinf Mu'allaqat, 189.

Futuhul-Buldan, xxxii, 439, 456.

Gedichte von abu Basir Maymun, 695,
698, 719, 724.

Geschichte d. Perser u. Araber, 699.

— des Qorans, 685.

Hamasa, 500, 574.

Hayawan, 29.

Hayy b. Yaqzan, 631.

'Iqd, al, al-Farid, 710.

Isra’iliyat, al, xviii.

Jamhara, al, 416.

Jami' of Mu'amma: b. Rashid, 240.

Kashshaf, al, 323.

Lisanul-'Arab, 123, 124, 416, 558.

Life of Muhammad, 171.

Ma'arif, al, xxxii.

Maqsura, al, 53.

Monuments of Arabic Philology, see
Abu Dharr (Index of Proper Names).

Mu'ammarin, al, 703.

Milal, al, wal-Nihal (ShahrastanI), 353.
Mubtada’ al, xv, xviii.

Mufaddaliyat, 35, 42, 500, 706,
Muhammad in Medina, xxxii, 631.
Muqaddima of I. Qutayba, 279.
Murujul-Dhahab, 700.

Mustadrak, al, xxxiii.

Muwatta’, al, xl.

,Muzhir, al, xlii, 577.

Naqa’id, 374, 712.

Nihaya, al, fl gharlb al-Hadith, 589, 650.

Origins of Muhammadan Jurispru¬
dence, 541.

Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, 530.
Pirqe Abhoth, 523-4.

Poems of *Amr son of Qami’a, 342.
Prophecy and Divination, 161,

Qamus, al, 638.

Qisasul-Anbiya’, xviii.

al-Raudul-Unuf, xxxiv.

Religion of the Semites, 647, 665, 763.
Risalatul-Ghufran, 353.

Das Schicksal in der altarabischen
Poesie, 776.

Semitic Mythology, 207.

Sharh diwan Zuhayr, 765.
Shifa’ul-gharam bi akhbaril-baladil-
haram, 710.

Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, 233.

al-Tashawwuf ila rijalil-Tasawwuf, 427.
Ten ancient Arabic Poems, 742.

Tljan al, xv, xviii.

Translations of Fastern Poetry and
Prose, 601.

Tabaqatul-Shu *ara’, xxv.

Usdul-Ghaba, xvii.

'Uyunul-atbar, xxxv, 236, 638.

Waq'at Siffin, xxvii, 771.

Was hat Muhammad aus dem Juden-
thum aufgenommen ?, 251.

A Winter in Arabia, 736.

Abyssinians, 18 f., 484, 657-8._

Ascent to heaven (mi ‘raj), xliii, 181-7,
800.

Byzantines, 18, 271,278, 532-6, 602-6,
620-1, 644, 645, 653-7.

Christians, xlv, 14, 73 , 79 , 95“96, i 79 ~
80, 182, 192, 258, 270-7, 637 “ 9 , 643,
653—7.

Chronology, 239, 281.

Curses, 428—9.

Divination, 64, 66—68, 196.

Fire in ordeal, 10.

Genealogies of the tribes, 2—4, 34~35>
40-41, 44-45, 707-8.

Gospel extracts, 103, 655.

Hajj, 49-5L 55, 87-89, 123, 649-52-
Hypocrites, 240, 247-70.

Idols, 24, 35, 39, I 76 “ 7 , 207, 565, 776 .
Intercalation, 21, 52, 620.

Jews, 93, 128, 136-9, 163, 192, 197 , 203,
231-3, 239, 242, 246-7, 247-70, 437-
45, 450, 461-8, 482-4, 510—19, 626,
643, 647, 654, 665, 752.

Ka'ba, 7, 9, 24, 35, 62-64, 84-86, 87-89,
552 , 774 .

Lists:

Abu Bakr’s converts, ri5-i6, 117.
Those fed by Abu Bakr, 140.

First emigrants to Abyssinia, 146.
Those who returned from Abyssinia,
167-9.

Khazrajis at al-‘Aqaba, 197-9.

The Twelve leaders at al-'Aqaba,

97 - 9 -

Those at the second ‘Aqaba, 208-12.
Emigrants to Medina, 215.
Lodgements of the emigrants, 2 <8.
Stages on the hijra to Medina, 226-7.
Emigrants and Helpers who became
brothers, 234-5, 784.

Hostile Jews, 239.

Ansari hypocrites, 242-6.

Jewish hypocrites, 246-70.

Names of Christians of Najran, 271.
Halts between Medina and al-
‘Ushayra, 285; Badr, 293.

Quraysh who fed the pilgrims, 320-1.
Emigrants at Badr, 327-30.

Helpers at Badr, 33°~6.

Martyrs at Badr, 336-7.

Polytheists slain at Badr, 337-8, 748.

Polytheists captured at Badr, 338-9,

748 - 9 .

Women at battle of Uhud, 371.

Martyrs at Uhud, 401-3, 759-

Polytheists slain at Uhud, 403.

Martyrs at al-Khandaq, 469.

The killers of Sallam b. abul-Huqayq,
482.

Places between Medina and ‘Usfan,
485-6.

Witnesses to agreement at Huday-
biya, 505.

Martyrs at Khaybar, 518.

Recipients of spoil of Khaybar, 521-
3; of Wadil-Qura, 525-6.

Those who returned from Abyssinia
(second batch), 526-30.

Martyrs at Mu’ta, 540, 791; at
Hunayn, 576; at al-'J’a’if, 594-6.

Recipients of spoil of Hunayn, 592,
780.

Deputation from B. al-Harith, 646.

Collectors of the poor tax, 648-9.

Destinations of the Twelve Apostles,
653 -

Letters to potentates, 653, 789.

Muhammad’s campaigns, 659-60.

Muhammad’s raiding parties, 660,
661-2, 666-7.

Deputation from B. Tamlm, 667.

Muhammad’s wives, 792-4.

Persians, 30-34, 654, 698-700.

Poetry of the Sira, xxv f.

Prayer: ritual, 112, 186—7, i 99 i ca ^

235 - 6 -

Qibla, 135, 137, 202, 258-9, 269, 289.

Quran:

Interpolations in, 165, 684-5.

Sura of the Cow, 247-70; spoils, 321-
7; family of 'Imran, 391-401;
exile, 438-9; the Confederates,
466-8; the Conquest, 5 ° 5 ~ 7 -

Quraysh, 52-61, 86.

$abi 205, 639.

Sacred months, 286-9.

Soothsayers, &c., go, 121, 135.

Taboos, 40, 87-89, 703.

UmmI, 252.

Witchcraft, 240.

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