D'Herbelot
Makes It To Mean A Pact Or Association Of The Jews Against The Moslems.
This Fort Appears To Be One Of The Latest As Well As The Earliest Of
The Hebrew Settlements In Al-Hijaz.
Benjamin of Tudela asserts that
there were 50,000 Jews resident at their old colony, Bartema in A.D.
1703 found remnants of the people there, but his account of them is
disfigured by fable.
In Niebuhr's time the Beni Khaybar had independent
Shaykhs, and were divided into three tribes, viz., the Benu Masad, the
Benu Shahan, and the Benu Anizah (this latter, however, is a Moslem
name), who were isolated and hated by the other Jews, and therefore the
traveller supposes them to have been Karaites. In Burckhardt's day the
race seems to have been entirely rooted out. I made many inquiries, and
all assured me that there is not a single Jewish family now in Khaybar.
It is indeed the popular boast in Al-Hijaz, that, with the exception of
Jeddah (and perhaps Yambu', where the Prophet never set his foot),
there is not a town in the country harbouring an Infidel. This has now
become a point of fanatic honour; but if history may be trusted, it has
become so only lately.
[FN#12] When the Arabs see the ass turn tail to the wind and rain, they
exclaim, "Lo! he turneth his back upon the mercy of Allah!"
[FN#13] M.C. de Perceval quotes Judith, ii. 13, 26, and Jeremiah, xlix.
28, to prove that Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar the First,
laid waste the land of Midian and other parts of Northern Arabia.
[FN#14] Saba in Southern Arabia.
[FN#15] The erection of this dyke is variously attributed to Lukman the
Elder (of the tribe of Ad) and to Saba bin Yashjab. It burst according
to some, beneath the weight of a flood; according to others, it was
miraculously undermined by rats. A learned Indian Shaykh has mistaken
the Arabic word "Jurad," a large kind of mouse or rat, for "Jarad," a
locust, and he makes the wall to have sunk under a "bar i Malakh," or
weight of locusts! No event is more celebrated in the history of pagan
Arabia than this, or more trustworthy, despite the exaggeration of the
details-the dyke is said to have been four miles long by four broad-and
the fantastic marvels which are said to have accompanied its bursting.
The ruins have lately been visited by M. Arnaud, a French traveller,
who communicated his discovery to the French Asiatic Society in 1845.
[FN#16] Ma al-Sama, "the water (or "the splendour") of heaven," is,
generally speaking, a feminine name amongst the pagan Arabs; possibly
it is here intended as a matronymic.
[FN#17] This expedition to Al-Madinah is mentioned by all the
pre-Islamatic historians, but persons and dates are involved in the
greatest confusion. Some authors mention two different expeditions by
different Tobbas; others only one, attributing it differently, however,
to two Tobbas,-Abu Karb in the 3rd century of the Christian era, and
Tobba al-Asghar, the last of that dynasty, who reigned, according to
some, in A.D. 300, according to others in A.D. 448. M.C. de Perceval
places the event about A.D. 206, and asserts that the Aus and Khazraj
did not emigrate to Al-Madinah before A.D. 300. The word Tobba or
Tubba, I have been informed by some of the modern Arabs, is still used
in the Himyaritic dialect of Arabic to signify "the Great" or "the
Chief."
[FN#18] Nothing is more remarkable in the annals of the Arabs than
their efforts to prove the Ishmaelitic descent of Mohammed; at the same
time no historic question is more open to doubt.
[FN#19] If this be true it proves that the Jews of Al-Hijaz had in
those days superstitious reverence for the Ka'abah; otherwise the
Tobba, after conforming to the law of Moses, would not have shown it
this mark of respect. Moreover there is a legend that the same Rabbis
dissuaded the Tobba from plundering the sacred place when he was
treacherously advised so to do by the Benu Hudayl Arabs. I have lately
perused "The Worship of Ba'alim in Israel," based upon the work of Dr.
R. Dozy, "The Israelites in Mecca." By Dr. H. Oort. Translated from the
Dutch, and enlarged, with Notes and Appendices, by the Right Rev. John
William Colenso, D.D. (Longmans.) I see no reason why Meccah or Beccah
should be made to mean "A Slaughter"; why the Ka'abah should be founded
by the Simeonites; why the Hajj should be the Feast of Trumpets; and
other assertions in which everything seems to be taken for granted
except etymology, which is tortured into confession. If Meccah had been
founded by the Simeonites, why did the Persians and the Hindus respect
it?
[FN#20] It is curious that Abdullah, Mohammed's father, died and was
buried at Al-Madinah, and that his mother Aminah's tomb is at Abwa, on
the Madinah road. Here, too, his great-grandfather Hashim married Salma
Al-Mutadalliyah, before him espoused to Uhayhah, of the Aus tribe.
Shaybah, generally called Abd al-Muttalib, the Prophet's grandfather,
was the son of Salma, and was bred at Al-Madinah.
[FN#21] Ayyas bin Ma'az died, it is said, a Moslem.
[FN#22] "Bayat al-Akabat al-ula." It is so called because this oath was
sworn at a place called Al-Akabah (the Mountain-road), near Muna. A
Mosque was afterwards built there to commemorate the event.
[FN#23] Some Moslem writers suppose that Mohammed singled out twelve
men as apostles, and called them Nakil, in imitation of the example of
our Saviour. Other Moslems ignore both the fact and the intention. M.C.
de Perceval gives the names of these Nakils in vol. iii. p. 8.
[FN#24] Orthodox Moslems do not fail to quote this circumstance in
honour of the first Caliph, upon whom moreover they bestow the title of
"Friend of the Cave." The Shi'ahs, on the other hand, hating Abu Bakr,
see in it a symptom of treachery, and declare that the Prophet feared
to let the "Old Hyena," as they opprobriously term the venerable
successor, out of his sight for fear lest he should act as spy to the
Kuraysh.
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