A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Chapter 9/44

[Sidenote: 44. Instances of alleged assassinations cited.]

There were certain executions of culprits who had perpetrated the crime of high treason against the Moslem Commonwealth. These executions, and certain other cases of murders not grounded on any credible evidences, are narrated by European biographers of Mohammad as assassinations committed through the countenance and connivance which he lent them. They were about five or six in number, and they are styled assassinations from there being no trials of the prisoners by a judge and a jury, nor by any systematic court-martial. The punishment of death was inflicted upon the persons condemned, either from private enmity or for the unpardonable offence of high treason against the State, but it cannot be said, as I will hereafter show, that these so-called cases of assassinations had received the high sanction of Mohammad, or they were brought about at his direct instigation and assent for their commission. The alleged instances are as follows:&mdash;


 * 1. Asma-bint Marwán.
 * 2. Abú Afak.
 * 3. Káb-ibn Ashraf.
 * 4. Sofian-ibn Khalid.
 * 5. Abú Ráfe.
 * 6. Oseir-ibu Zárim.
 * 7. The attempted assassination of Abú Sofian.