Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/344

316 improved. In particular, he condemned the practice of "inheriting women against their will," that is, of treating widows as chattels to be appropriated by the dead man's heir. He also made every effort to secure the rights of orphans and in general to protect the weak against the strong. The ancient rule of blood-revenge he recognised in principle, but confined it within narrow limits. A startling innovation, from the point of view of the Arabs, was the punishment of fornication by scourging. It may be mentioned that, according to tradition, the Koran once contained a passage which ordered that fornicators should be put to death by stoning; and Omar, when he was Caliph, is said to have maintained that this law was still in force.

In describing the Prophet's sojourn at Medina, it is necessary to say something of his domestic history, to which several passages of the Koran explicitly refer. Before he left Mecca, he had already taken to himself a second wife, named Sauda, and during the years which followed the number of his wives steadily increased. The most celebrated of them was 'Ā'isha (daughter of Abū Bakr), whose marriage to Mahomet took place a few months after his arrival at Medina; she was then only about nine years old, but in spite of her tender age she rapidly acquired great influence. When, some five years later, she was accused of misconduct, a passage of the Koran was specially revealed for the purpose of clearing her character. The ascendancy which she gained during the Prophet's lifetime continued long after his death and enabled her to play a prominent but by no means an honourable part in the politics of that period. In the books of Muslim tradition 'Ā'isha is one of the authorities most frequently cited.

For more than a year after the Emigration Mahomet and his Meccan disciples were in a condition of great economic distress. The attempts which they made to relieve their necessities by means of pillage did not at first prove successful. In these earliest raids the natives of Medina took no part, for the general principle that it is the duty of Muslims to engage in aggressive warfare against unbelievers had not yet been announced. Moreover it is to be noticed that Mahomet did not at once venture to shock the feelings of his countrymen by violating the sanctity of the four sacred months during which, according to ancient custom, no raids were permitted. At length, towards the end of the year 623, he sanctioned an attack, in the sacred month of Rajab, upon a caravan belonging to the Ḳuraish, at Nakhla near Mecca. The caravan was taken by surprise and the raiders came back with a considerable amount of booty to Medina. But so strongly was this expedition