Muhammad and The Jews — Page 86
Under these conditions it is almost impossible that the people of Medina should have escaped typhoid, typhus, both epidemic and endemic, influenza, diarrhoea and above all cholera. As regards the dead bodies the infection would depend on the animals and birds having access to the remains. But even if there were only flies, and the people whose corpses were lying there had all been healthy, the proliferation of agents, especially bacterial agents, after death would have been a health hazard, since the healthy may be carriers of dangerous diseases such as meningococcus. Discussing the mass execution of the B. Quray?:ah under "the alleged moral failures" of the Apostle, Watt has remarked : This may seem incredible to the European, but that is in itself a measure of remoteness of the moral ideals of ancient Arabia from our own. 1 But the effect of such a mass execution on the spectators and executioners is not related to moral values-ancient or modern. The human psyche, as is well known to students of psychology, may have nothing to do with a sense of duty, or political and religious obligations. Executioners, grave diggers, undertakers deal with death in the ordinary course of life as an honest and moral profession, nevertheless this continuous association with death creates suffering and terror of blood guilt. 2 No one could come out of such a holocaust-600 to 900 killed in cold blood in one day-without damage to his personality. e Ali and Zubayr's holocaust legacy of massive deadness would not have left them in peace. Though Zubayr's life is not fully known to us, we do know well enough about the life of the fourth Caliph of Islam. His sermons, letters, political discourses and sayings collected in Nahj al-Balaghah do not reflect experience of such a mass execution. His scruples in "retaliation", among other aspects of his personality, "cannot be disregarded for the understanding that it affords of his psychology". 3 After his victory at 'the camel', "he tried to relieve the distress of the vanquished by preventing the enslavement of their women and children, in face of the protests of a group of his partisans ; when battles ended, he showed his grief, wept for the dead, and even prayed over his enemies". 4 e. AH was a brave soldier, not a 1 Watt, Muhammad at Medina, p. 327. 2 Barbara Levy, Legacy of Death (Englewood Cliffs, N. J. , 1974). 3 L Veccia Vaglieri, """Ali b. Abi Talib", Encyclopaedia of Islam (2) Vol. I, p. 385. 4 Ibid. 86 ,