Muhammad and The Jews — Page 30
MUHAMMAD ANO THE JEWS Gaonate documents he established the contact of Arab Jews with the Gaonate in Babylon. He observes : It is characteristic of the central position of the Gaonate in Jewish life that even in its last representatives it was able to exert its influence over the distant half-mythical Jews in free Arabia and shape their professional and civil life. It shows at the same time that the Arabian Jews, however far removed from the centre of Jewish learning, recognized the authority of the Talmud and were not in any way guilty of those anti-Talmudic sentiments which Graetz is prone to ascribe to their fore- fathers. 1 The Banii Quran;ah and the Banii al-Na~iir called themselves Kahiniin and so presumably claimed to be of the house of Aaron. 2 The Banii Qaynuqiic. -who practised crafts such as that of the goldsmith- manufactured arms and conducted a market and were possibly "north Arab, Idumaean or such like"3. They possessed no agricultural lands, but had a compact settlement in the suburbs of Medina. 4 The Banii Qurayiah and the Banii al-Nac;lir were the owners of some of the richest lands towards the south of Medina on higher ground. Other Jewish clans were dispersed. In total the Jewish clans of Medina owned almost sixty afam. 5 These afiim, (singular, ufum) which formed a prominent feature of Yathrib, were in fact forts stocked with provisions, provided with water, strong enough to withstand attacks and big enough to stand long sieges. There were schools and syna- gogues and council halls. The second most important settlement of the Jews was Khay bar. Approximately ninety miles from Yathrib, it is located on a very high mountainous plateau entirely composed of lava deposits and covered by malarial swamps. The valleys, though uninhabitable, are very fertile. The Jews cultivated grapes, vegetables and grain, and raised sheep, cattle, camels, horses and donkeys. They also had palm groves. They traded with Syria and benefited from the caravan trade between Arabia, Syria and Iraq. They also manufactured metal implements such as battering rams and catapults. 6 They owned several groups 1 Israel Friedlaender, "The Jews of Arabia and the Gaonate", The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. I, 1910-11, p. 252. 2 De Lacy O'Leary, Arabia Before Muhammad (London, 1927), p. 173. See the Apostle's reference to his Jewish wife :;>afiyah's ancestry going back to Aaron, Tirmidhi (Lahore, 1963), Vol. II, p. 727, cf. al-Yac. qlibi, supra p. 27. 3 O;Leary, p. 173. 4 Saleh Ahmad AI-Ali, "Studies in the Topography of Medina",Is/amic Culture, Vol. XXXV, No. 2, April 1961, pp. 71-72. 5 Al-Samhiidi, I, p. 116. 6 Joseph Braslavi, "Khaibar", Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. X, Column 942. 30