Muhammad and The Jews — Page 43
THE PEOPLE OF THE $a1Jifalz were even half of these three, although there is no such indication in our sources, the total male population of the Medinan Jews was six thousand. At the time of the Apostle, as Smith has pointed out, only patronymic tribes were possible. l The Jews with their consan- guinal families comprising six to seven dependent members, therefore, formed a population of 36,000 to 42,000. After the expulsion of the B. al-Nagir and the reported execution of the B. Qurayzah twelve to fourteen thousand Jews left Medina, which leaves the number of Jews in Medina at the signing of the $abifah between 24,000 to 28,000. 2 This is not a small number and did require the Apostle's attention. The second pointer to the probable date of the $abifah is the declaration of Yathrib as J;aram. As Gil points out "the J;aram clause is one of the identifying points which oral tradition has preserved in reference to the document kept in the sheath of DhfJ'lfaqiir". 3 The treatment of a territory as sacred presupposes either a strong tradition and unbroken custom, as was the case with Mecca, or the military strength to enforce and protect that sacredness from external threat and internal strife". In the first years of the Hijrah, specially up to the Battle of the Abziib (A. H. 5), the Apostle and his followers were not secure, and were certainly not sure if they could successfully protect the town. The peace within Medina, as we shall see, was not secure either. The B. Qaynuqii" tried to provoke at least one if not two riots. The B. al-Na<,iir were in touch with the Meccans and the B. Quray?ah's attitude during the battle of the Al;ziib was a source of great anxiety to the defenders of Medina. An open conflict between the Muhiijiriin and An~iir after the battle of B. al-Mu$taliq was averted by the Apostle with considerable restraint. It was on this occasion that "Abd Allah b. Ubayy had said, "By Allah when we return to Medina the stronger will drive out the weaker". 4 During the battle of Badr (2/624) the Apostle could muster 313 fighters. This was hardly the strength with which approximately more than 36,000 Jews and a large number of muniifiqiin could be forced to respect the J;aram obligations. . The 1 W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia; p. 40: 2 Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. XI, Col. 1212 puts the number of Jews in Medina between 8,000 to 10,000, which is an understatement and not supported by our sources. 3 Moshe Gil, "The constitution of Medina: a reconsideration", Israel Oriental Studies (Tel Aviv, 1974), Vol. IV, p. 57. 4 Ibn Hisham, p. 726. The Qur'an, Al-Muniifiqun, 8. 43