(Tyrants or "giants") of Syria, as
well as the Farainah (Pharaohs) of Egypt.[FN#5] Under these Amalik such
[p.345]was the age of man that during the space of four hundred years a
bier would not be seen, nor "keening" be heard, in their cities.
The last king of the Amalik, "Arkam bin al-Arkam,[FN#6]" was, according
to most authors, slain by an army of the children of Israel sent by
Moses after the Exodus,[FN#7] with orders thoroughly to purge Meccah
and Al-Madinah of their Infidel inhabitants. All the tribe was
destroyed, with the exception of the women, the children, and a youth
of the royal family, whose extraordinary beauty persuaded the invaders
to spare him pending a reference to the Prophet. When the army
returned, they found that Moses had died during the expedition, and
they were received with reproaches by the people for having violated
his express command. The soldiers, unwilling to live with their own
nation under this reproach, returned to Al-Hijaz, and settled there.
Moslem authors are agreed that after the Amalik the Benu Israel ruled
in the Holy Land of Arabia, but the learned in history are not agreed
upon the cause of their emigration. According to some, when Moses was
returning from a pilgrimage to Meccah, a multitude of his followers,
seeing in Al-Madinah the signs of the city which, according to the
Taurat, or Pentateuch, should hear the preaching of the last Prophet,
settled there, and were joined by many Badawin of the neighbourhood who
[p.346]conformed to the law of Moses. Ibn Shaybah also informs us that
when Moses and Aaron were wending northwards from Meccah, they, being
in fear of certain Jews settled at Al-Madinah, did not enter the
city,[FN#8] but pitched their tents on Mount Ohod. Aaron being about to
die, Moses dug his tomb, and said, "Brother, thine hour is come! turn
thy face to the next world!" Aaron entered the grave, lay at full
length, and immediately expired; upon which the Jewish lawgiver covered
him with earth, and went his way towards the Promised Land.[FN#9]
Abu Hurayrah asserted that the Benu Israel, after long searching,
settled in Al-Madinah, because, when driven from Palestine by the
invasion of Bukht al-Nasr (Nebuchadnezzar), they found in their books
that the last Prophet would manifest himself in a town of the towns of
Arabiyah,[FN#10] called Zat Nakhl, or the "Place of Palm trees." Some
of the sons of Aaron occupied the city; other tribes settled at
Khaybar,[FN#11] and in the neighbourhood,
[p.347]building "Utum," or square, flat-roofed, stone castles for
habitation and defence. They left an order to their descendants that
Mohammed should be favourably received, but Allah hardened their hearts
unto their own destruction. Like asses they turned their backs upon
Allah's mercy,[FN#12] and the consequence is, that they have been
rooted out of the land.
The Tarikh Tabari declares that when Bukht al-Nasr,[FN#13] after
destroying Jerusalem, attacked and slew the king of Egypt, who had
given an asylum to a remnant of the house of Israel, the persecuted
fugitives made their way into Al-Hijaz, settled near Yasrib
(Al-Madinah), where they founded several towns, Khaybar, Fadak, Wady
al-Subu, Wady al-Kura, Kurayzah, and many others. It appears, then, by
the concurrence of historians, that the Jews at an early time either
colonised, or supplanted the Amalik at, Al-Madinah.
At length the Israelites fell away from the worship of the one God, who
raised up against them the Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj, the
progenitors of modern Ansar. Both these tribes claimed a kindred
origin, and
[p.348]Al-Yaman as the land of their nativity. The circumstances of
their emigration are thus described. The descendants of Yarab bin
Kahtan bin Shalik bin Arkfakhshad bin Sam bin Nuh, kinsmen to the
Amalik, inhabited in prosperity the land of Saba.[FN#14] Their sway
extended two months' journey from the dyke of Mareb,[FN#15] near the
modern capital of Al-Yaman, as far as Syria, and incredible tales are
told of their hospitality and of the fertility of their land. As usual,
their hearts were perverted by prosperity. They begged Allah to relieve
them from the troubles of extended empire and the duties of hospitality
by diminishing their possessions. The consequence of their impious
supplications was the well-known Flood of Iram.
The chief of the descendants of Kahtan bin Saba, one of the ruling
families in Al-Yaman, was one Amru bin Amin Ma al-Sama,[FN#16] called
"Al-Muzaykayh" from his rending in pieces every garment once worn. His
wife Tarikah Himyariah, being skilled in divination, foresaw the fatal
event, and warned her husband, who, unwilling to break from his tribe
without an excuse, contrived the following stratagem. He privily
ordered his adopted son, an orphan
[p.349]to dispute with him, and to strike him in the face at a feast
composed of the principal persons in the kingdom. The disgrace of such
a scene afforded him a pretext for selling off his property, and,
followed by his thirteen sons,-all borne to him by his wife
Tarikah,-and others of the tribe, Amru emigrated Northwards. The little
party, thus preserved from the Yamanian Deluge, was destined by Allah
to become the forefathers of the Auxiliaries of his chosen Apostle.
All the children of Amru thus dispersed into different parts of Arabia.
His eldest son, Salabah bin Amru, chose Al-Hijaz, settled at
Al-Madinah, then in the hands of the impious Benu Israel, and became
the father of the Aus and Khazraj. In course of time, the new comers
were made by Allah an instrument of vengeance against the disobedient
Jews.
