2 These houses were capable of resisting the attack of troops;
they were called Otum.
3 See pp. clxv and clxxxv. Of the numerous tribes into which they were
soon divided, the names of Aws Monat, and Taym Allat, are siginificant of the maintenance of the same idolatrous worship as that of the Maaddite tribes. Mahomet changed their names into Aws Allah and Teym Allah.
4 See Katib at Wackidi, p. 287.
5 The poetical remains descriptive of the siege give the invader only the title of Abu Karib. Historians and traditionists insist that he is identical with Abu Karib Tibban Asad, King or Yemen, who flourished in the beginning of the third century, or nearly two hundred years before the era of this expedition. From the sketch of the history of Yemen (p. clxii), it is evident that the incursion must have taken place about the reign of Dzu Nowas; and as he was so bigoted a Jew, its object was perhaps to punish the Aws and Khazraj for their cruel and treacherous attacks upon his co-religionists. This, however, is merely a conjecture; and the only hint given by native authority which at all confirms it is a tradition that Dzu Nowas embraced Judaism in consequence of a visit to Yathreb.
It is elsewhere said thnt the Ghityun, or head of the Jews, was the cousin and representative of the king whose authority the Hejaz recognized; but who this king can have been does not appear. Procopius mentions an
6 Among these were the three Zeids," chiefs or the Awaites, and all called
by that name.
7 He pitched below the hill of Ohod, where he dug a well; but its water did not agree with him. It was long after known as "the Tobba's well." Vide Journal Asiatique, Nov. 1938, p. 439. Burton says that the present tradition of Medina represents this well to be the Bir Ramah, which lies about three miles N.W. of the town; it p. 220.
8 There is a paper worthy of perusal on Ohaiha by M. Perron, in the Journal Asiatique, Nov. 1838, p. 443. One of the houses at Medina so bristled with the arrows then shot into it that it received and retained the name of al Ashar, "the hairy." It belonged to the Bani Adi, and was situated near the spot where Mahomet afterwards built his mosque.
9 See Journal Asiatique, Nov. 1838, p.447; and C. de Perceval, vol. ii. p. 656. The latter suggests with probability that, instead of the rise of Islam, the birth of the Prophet of Islam is meant.
This expedition has been strangely confounded by Mahometan writers with that or Tibban Asad at the least two centuries earlier; see above, p. clvii. Yet the names of the Medina actors are clearly those or persons who flourished in the sixth century, and the memory and marks of the events were still fresh at the Hegira. The reason assigned for the departure or the invader from Medina is the same as in that of the ancient invasion, i.e., that two Rabbins informed him that Medina would be the refuge of the coming Prophet, &C. It is curious that neither the annals of Medina nor of Mecca throw any satisfactory light on this later invasion; though Abu Karib, if a king of Yemen, most heave passed near Mecca to get to Medina. As the event occurred within three quarters of a century before the birth of Mahomet, the confusion and uncertainty connected with it cannot but affect our confidence in the ancient general history of the Hejaz altogether.
10 It was during this period that Ohaiha, who had gained much riches and power by merchandise, planned an attack upon the Bani Najjar, a Khazraj family to which his wife Solma belonged. Solma gave secret intimation to her parents, and Ohaiha found them prepared for his attack. He afterwards divorced her, and then she married Hashim, and became the great-grandmother of Mahomet. Katib al Wackidi p. 14.
11 One of the conditions or this peace was security of domicile, which even in war was never to be violated. Every murder within a private enclosure was to bear the usual blood-fine. Mahomet did not much respect this right.
12 The mode in which the satirists abused each other was peculiar. Thus Hassan addressed amorous poetry to the sister of his enemy Cays, extolling her beauty; and Cays sang in praise of the daughter of Hassan's wife. A similar practice was one of the charges brought against Kab, the Jew, who was assassinated by order of Mahomet.
Amr, a Khazrajite, repaired at this period to Hira, and obtained from that Court (the supremacy of which was now acknowledged in the Hejaz), the title of Prince, in order to put a stop to the discord; but the attempt was unsuccessful.
13 This man had a conversation with Mahomet at Mecca, when he was urging there publicly the claims of his faith, and is said to have died a Moslem. Hishami, p. 141; Tabari, p. 158; Katib al Wackidi, p.287 1/2. He was killed by a Codhaaite, and his son (who with the murder; both became Mussulmans,) took the opportunity of revenging his father's death by a blow aimed while both he and his victim were fighting together side by side at Ohod. It was proved, and Mahomet put him to death, as the slayer of a believer, at the gate of the mosque at Coba.
14 Abdallah ibn Obey, afterwards Mahomet's great opponent at Medina, rejected with horror the proposal to murder his hostages, and persuaded several other chiefs to do likewise. Hie was dissatisfied with the conduct of his tribe, and took no part in their subsequent proceedings, nor in the battle or Boath.
15 Mahomet took occasion to address this embassy, and pressed upon them the claims of his mission, but with little success.
16 See this tribe noticed in Burkhardt's Travels in Arabia, p. 458, as living N.E. of Medina. They were of the Bani Modhar stock, somewhat distant from the Coreish. See table, p. cxcv.
17 This tribe is also noticed by Burkhardt as still inhabiting the vicinity of Yenbo, and being able to furnish good matchlock men. Notes on the Bedouins, p. 229.
18 See Katib al Wackidi, p. 296, where the era is given as six years prior
to the Hegira.
19 Boath was situated in the possession. of the Bani Coreitza Burton describes the spot as a depression, "an hour's slow march" to the N.N.E. of Medina, now called Al Ghadir; "the basin;" iii. 3.
20 This spot is mentioned by Burkhardt as one hour's walk N.E. of Medina in the direction of Ohod. Travels, p. 458.
21 Wackidi p. 296. Al Ketaib was an honorary title of supremacy.
22 The most prominent instance or Roman interference Is the alleged appointment of Othman ibn al Huweirith, as king of Mecca; but the details of this transaction are doubtful if not apocryphal. At any rate, the authority of Othman was but short-lived. See Sprenger p. 44. There are very few other allusions to Roman influence within Arabia. The Emperor made a treaty with the marauder Harith, the Kindaite chief; but it was in consequence of his invasion of Syria. See above, p. clxxiii. Hashim, Mahomet's great-grandfather, concluded a mercantile treaty with the Emperor. Wackidi, p. 13. And there were, no doubt, international arrangements on the border for the security of the commerce and regulation of the customs clues. But these influences hardly crossed the boudary. So also with the Roman legions at Duma the Equites Saraceni Thamudeni, referred to at p. cxxxviii. of the previous chapter. Occasionally at refugee,. such as Imrul Cays or Mundzir, repaired to the Court of Constantinople; but that Court was never able to turn such events to any profitable account.
23 Gibbon thus marks the importance of the fall of the Christian Government of the Abyssinians in Yemen. "This narrative of obscure and remote events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. If a Christian power had been maintained in Arabia Mahomet must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a revolution, which has changed the civil and religious stats of the world." Decline and Fall; close of chap. xlii.
The conclusion here drawn is very doubtful. It is questionable whether Mahomet would not himself have looked to the continuance of a Christian power in Yemen, as a contingency the most favourable to this great scheme.
There is no point more remarkable in the character of the Prophet than the adroitness with which he at first represented himself as the adherent and supporter of opposing systems, and by so doing won over their partizans to his own cause. It was thus that he treated the Christians of Arabia, making them believe that he would secure to them their Christianity intact; it was thus he treated, and was welcomed by, the Christian king of Abyssinia; and he would no doubt have played the same game with any Christian government in Yemen. It was not from Christianity, but from idolatry and Judaism, that opposition to Mahomet's system first emanated.
24 Dr. Sprenger goes even farther, and supposes that Mahomet was not only borne forward by the irresistible spirit of the age, but was actually preceded by many of his followers in the discovery and adoption of Islam. See references above in the note at p. lxix. of the first chapter.
who was at this time master of the northern Hejaz, and offered the sovereignty of it to Justinian. see above, p. clxxxvii. The name and date afford some presumption of identity with the inivader of Medina.