Muhammad and The Jews — Page 104
and martyrdom. On refusal to accept Judaism they were mercilessly exterminated in the trenches. 1 The news was received with horror in Christendom. An Abyssinian army landed in l:Iimyar and Arabia Felix was once more restored to Christendom. At approximately the same time the Aws and the Khazraj were unified under the able leadership of Malik b. ""Ajlan and eventually achieved parity with the Jews if not dominance over them. 2 The Jewish settlements of the l:Iijaz, which according to Torrey were constituted "primarily as commercial enterprises'',3 had gradually changed into agricultural farms and palm groves, and their ii/am, originally built to stave off Bedouin razzias, lost their utility as strongholds against an opponent whose tactics were very different from those of the raiding Bedouin. When the Aws and the Khazraj came to Yathrib they could manage to build only thirteen strongholds, while the Jews bad fifty-nine atam. 4 But on the eve of the Hijrah, the Aws and the Khazraj and other tribes had more than eighty strongholds. 5 The war of BuGath, which bad ended five years before the Hijrah, had weakened both the Aws and the Khazraj. The dissipation caused by this war had a far reaching effect on the early history of Islam as it helped to encourage the Apostle's refuge in Yatbrib. As GA '-'ishah said : God caused the war of Bu. ,;Hh to take place for the benefit of His Apostle. When the Apostle arrived in Yathrib their (the Anear's) important personalities had been dispersed and their leaders killed; they were in a bad state and God had caused the day of BuGath so that they (the An$ar) may enter Islam. 6 This war had a far more damaging effect on the Jews of Yathrib. First, as the allies of the Aws and the Kbazraj they too suffered in the same proportion as the two Arab factions. But far more important was the loss of their position as a group whose support was sought for by both the Aws and the Khazraj and who played a considerably important role in maintaining a balance of power. 1 The Qur 0 an, Al-Burilj, 5. Richard Bell, The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment, (London, 1926) pp. 36-39. Irfan Shahid, Martyrs of Najrdn, is the latest book on the subject. 2 Al-Samhudi, Vol. I, pp. 177-98 and pp. 190-215. See also supra, Chapter r. 3 Torrey, The Jewish Foundation of Islam, p. 14. 4 Al-SamhUdi, Vol. I, p. 165. 5 Ibid. , Vol. I, pp. 190-215. 6 $al)i/J al-Bukhari, Vol. II, Book V, p. 55. 104.