Muhammad and The Jews — Page 61
THE JEWISH SUPPORT TO MEDINAN OPPOSITION as it refers to "those with whom thou didst make a covenant, then they break their covenant everytime and they do not fear God". The B. Qaynuqac. were not the ones who repeatedly broke their cove- nant. It was barely two years that the Apostle had been in Medina, and there had been no occasion for repeated breaches. Ibn ls]J. aq reports on the authority of c. Asim b. c. umar b. Qatadah that the B. Qaynuqac. were the first of the Jews to break their agreement with the Apostle and go to war, between Badr and Ul;iud 1. They were the first and not the repeaters. According to the commentators both these verses refer to the B. Quranah and not to the B. Qaynuqac. 2 Since lbn Isl;iaq does not report their expulsion, he does not refer to the disposal of their property either. They had two iifam and a market near the bridge of Batl;ian and another market at I;Iubashah. 3 Kister in his brief but learned article has collected all the available traditions showing that the Apostle wished to establish a market in Medina. 4 The MuhiJ. jirun, who were mostly merchants and traders needed such a place badly; the An~ar were, as is well- known, agriculturists. If the B. Qaynuqac were expelled, their pro- perties and especially the market would have been the first to go to the Meccan Muhiijirun rather than those of the B. al-Na<;lir, which were farms and palm groves. But there is no mention of such a distribution either to the Muhiijirun or to the An~iir. It seems rather odd that the Apostle should have waited for four years to distribute properties to the Muhaj1run on the expulsion of the B. al-Na<;lir, though he could have given them properties more suitable to their profession two years earlier on the supposed expulsion of the B. Qaynuqac. Even al-Waqidi does nottell us what happened to their market. Since Muslims used the market established in the cemetery of the B. Sac. idah,5 it is obvious that· the B. Qaynuqa"' market remained in their possession. The other alternative is that it was not used, which is not tenable; such a property right in Medina could not be wasted. 1 Ibn Hishiim, p. 545. See also al-Waqidi, Vol. I, p. 177. 2 Al-Tabari, Tafsir (Cairo, 1958) Vol. XIV, pp. 21-26. Al-Zamakhshari, Al-Kashshiif. Vol. II, pp. 164-65. Al-BayQiiwi, Vol. I, p. 371. 3 Saleh Ahmad al-Ali, "Studies in the Topography of Medina", Islamic Culture, Vol. XXXV. No. 2, April 1961, pp. 71-72. ~ M. J. Kister, "The Market of the Prophet", The Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. VIII, Part II (December 1965) pp. 272-276. . 5 Ibid. , pp. 275-276. 61