Muhammad and The Jews — Page 81
THE FAILURE OF THE CONFEDERACY Ka"b b. al-Ashraf, was Ka"b's foster brother. 1 "A~mii bint Marwan who was married to a man of B. Khatmah was killed by "Umayr b. "Adiy al-Kha!mi2 and Abfi "Afak who belonged to the B. "'Amr b. "'A wf of the B. "'Ubaydah clan was killed by Siilim b. "'Umayr of the B. "'Amr b. "'Awf. 3 All these three were killed by their own kinsmen, with the approval of the Apostle, for fomenting trouble between the Muslims and the pagans and for whipping up hatred against the Apostle. It would therefore have been natural that if the B. Quray¥lh were to be judged they should be judged by a man from their {ialif, the Aws. Ibn Sa"d with his usual caution has dropped lbn Is. l:iiiq's and al-Wiiqidi's story of Sa"'d's remarks that the time had come for him in the cause of Alliih not to care for any man's censure, Sa"'d's ceremonial request for a pledge from the Aws and the Apostle to abide by his ruling, and the story of the Aws' intercession with Sa"d on behalf of the B. Quray~ah. Obviously they added ornament to the narrative of a story-teller, but divested it of the reliability of a historian's account. Now the actual sentencing. According to Ibn Is. l:iiiq, Sa"'d said "the men should be killed". 4 In another report Ibn Isl. 1iiq says that "the Apostle had ordered that every adult of theirs should be killed. 5 This report rests on the authority of "Atiyah al-Qura:?i, who was a boy at the time of the B. Quray7,ah's surrender. Both of these reports are of doubtful authority. According to al-Waqidi "those should be killed over whom the razor had passed". 6 lbn Sa"d has given two reports; in one he has followed al-Wiiqidi's wording 7 and in the second he says, "their fighting men should be killed". 8 Al-Bukhari has given two reports of the incident. In both of them Sa""d b. Muc. adh is reported to have used the word "fighting men"g 1 lbn Hishiim, p. 551. ~ Ibid. , p. 996. 3 Ibid. , p. 995. , Jl':" )I j::. A;. JI r- 1. . J ~j ~l; Ibn Hisham, p. 698. 5. . ::. . . ,;\ 0- Jf •l. ;;. ) ,);; 0- j::. Q. ~. Ji _,. 1. . . . ; ~. <iii J_,~_,. )~ Ibid. ,p. 69. 6 <. . $~_,. JI <::k U. J':" u• J:. i;. <. ii ('""f':;. . . -<::~1 Jl; Al-Waqidi, Vol. II, p. 512. 7 Ibn Saed, Vol. II, p. 75. 8 Ibid. , p. 77. ('""f':. l. ;Li. J:. <;. Ji r--1"=; ~,. . ; 9 j;l. i. Raghib al-hfahani, Al-Muf-radiit fi Gharib al-Qur 0 iin (Cairo, n. d. ), see under J:i pp. 593-94; Ibn Man;i:iir, Lisiin al- e Arab, (Beyrouth, 1956) Vol. II, pp. 547-52, 81