Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/73



. When the Prophet departed from Khaibar, he came to Wâdi-l-Ḳura and invited its people to Islam. They refused and started hostilities. The Prophet reduced the place by force; and Allah gave him as booty the possessions of its inhabitants. To the lot of the Moslems fell pieces of furniture and other commodities of which the Prophet took away one-fifth. The Prophet left the land with its palm-trees in the hands of certain Jews on the same rent terms which he had made with the people of Khaibar. Some say that ʿUmar expelled its Jews and divided it among those who fought for its conquest. Others, however, say that ʿUmar did not expel them, for it is not included in al-Ḥijâz. Today it is annexed to the administrative district of al-Madînah and is included among its suburbs.

. I was informed by certain scholars that the Prophet had a slave, named Midʿam, whom Rifâʿah ibn-Zaid al-Judhâmi had presented to him. During the invasion of Wâdi-l-Ḳura, Midʿam was shot by an arrow from an unknown quarter as he was putting down the saddle of the Prophet's camel. When someone remarked, "Blessed, O prophet of Allah, is thy slave, for he was shot by an arrow and suffered martyrdom," the

57