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43 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

43

among the ancient Arab poets. Of other Jewcontemporaneous poets the best known is Al Rabi ibn Abu al-Hukaik, who competed in poetic improvisation with another prominent Arab minplace

ish

strel.

The second

Arabia

mak. Finally, the Banu Kuraiza were besieged, and on their surrender were put to death by Mohammed. They numbered upward of seven hundred, and included the chiefs Ka'ab b. Asad and Hukaik; their women and children were distributed

period in the the rise of Islam and its effect on their fate, may now be conWhen the news spread that a Meccan sidered. prophet had arisen who endeavored to replace paganism by a monotheistic belief, the cureosity of Their own politthe Jews was naturally aroused. ical prestige had by that time declined to such an extent that they were daily exposed to acts of vioThey looked lence from their pagan neighbors. forward to the advent of a Messiah; and Moslem historians, chronicling these hopes, point vaguely to Mohammed. About this time, ambassadors from Mecca arrived in order to learn the Medinian Jews' opinion of the new prophet. The report which they are supposed to have brought throws very On the other hand, the little light on this subject. curiosity of the Jews was so great that they could not rest, but sent one of their chiefs to Mecca to ascertain what they had to hope for or to fear. Mohammed was plied, directly or through an intermediary, with questions; but with no satisfactory Probably, as long as he lived in Mecca, the results. Jews thought but little of the whole movement indeed, there was little prospect of Islam ever assuming large proportions in Medina. Notwithstanding all that is related about Mohammed's having used the Medinian Jews as a source of information, their share in the actual building-up of Islam was but small. When Mohammed came to live among them, the essential portions of the faith had already been created. Such learning as he owed to Jews he had acquired at a much earlier period, probably in Syria. It was only natural, however, that Mohammed should be anxious to win the Jews over; but, being afraid of their intellectual superiority, he wished to accomplish this by intimidation rather than by persuasion. His first step was to advise the Medinians, who invited him to take up his abode with them, and dissolve their alliances with the Jews. The seemingly friendly attitude toward the

among the Moslems. Mohammedan authors have much to say about the Jewish apostate, Abd Allah ben Salam, who is

Jews, that he at first assumed, and to which he gave expression in the treaty that he concluded with the Medinians, was but a stratagem. As soon as he perceived that they did not feel inclined to make advances, he covered them with abuse; this can be seen in the Medinian portions of the Koran. Observing that they remained obstinate, he Mohammed proceeded to crush them as soon as Crushes his political power had become strong the Jews, enough to enable him to do so with impunity. He commenced by expelling the Banu Kainuka, who retired to Adraat in the north. Subsequently he ordered the assassination of the poet, Ka'ab b. al-Ashraf, chief of the Banu al-Nadhir, who, by his verses, had incited the Meccans to revenge the defeat they had suffered at Badr. In the following year, to retrieve the disas-

data extant concerning the pre-Islamic Arabians. The Arabians are designated by the Jews UIV. and more rarely i^Nyw, the latter name being used principally to indicate the inhabitants of the desert (M. K. 24a) to emphasize their kinship to the Jews (Shah. 1 la). In Babylonia the Arabians were also known by the name of Ky«t3 (" Tayite "), after the great Arabian tribe of the Tayites and the Hebrew transliteration with j; is based upon a popular etymology which connected this Arabic name with nytD and ,-|J>n ("to wander," "to wander about"). By the term "Arabians" the Jewish sources sometimes also indicate the Nabatseans, the Aramaized Arabians, although the word "Nabataean " is also found. Arabian It is impossible to tell to what extent the peninsula was known to the Jews during the first five centuries of the common era. With the exception of a passage in 'Erubin 19a, the Talmud and the Midrash speak of Arabia in a general way,

Mohammed's Lifetime

history of the

Jews



in Arabia,

viz.,



ter of the

Moslem arms

at

Uhud, the whole

tribe

Al-Nadhir was expelled. Their expulsion formed the burden of an elegy by the Jewish poet Al-Sam-

supposed

to have become a follower of the prophet soon after the entry of the latter into Medina but from more reliable sources it is gathered that the apostasy did not take place till shortly before Mohammed's death. Only a little of what Mohammed learned from this man appears in the Koran but much more is given in the "Hadith," the traditional



supplement

to this book. Lastly came the turn of the Jews of Khaibar to be attacked. After an unsuccessful fight they, as well as those of Fadak, Taima, and Wadi-al-Kura, surrendered. Being more skilled agriculturists than the Arabs, Mohammed permitted them to stay on the condition- that they hand over one-half of their harvests to the Moslem authorities. But they lived in dread of ultimate expulsion and this state lasted till Mohammed's death. His successor, Abu Bakr, also found it well to continue the same policy, from which the Moslem commonwealth derived considerable benefit. Omar, however, fearing that the danger Islam might undergo through continual contact with Jews would be greater than their material usefulness, drove them out of the country, and they left for Syria. For the history of the Jews in Arabia after Mohammed see Aden, San'aa, Yemen. Bibliography Hirschfeld, Essai sur VHistoire des Juifs de



Medine.

in Rev. Et. Juives, yii. 167 et seq.; ib. x. 10 et seq.; idem, New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Qoran, London, 1902 Wellhausen, Juden und Christen in Arahien, in Skizzenund Vorarbeitsn, iii. 197 et seq. (compare Noldeke's criticism, Z. D. M. Q. xli. 720) Grimme,



Mohammed, 118 et seq.

i.

66 et seq.



ib. 90 et seq.

See also articles Islam,

Du Nuwas,



ib. 109 et seg.



ib.

Mohammed, Himyarites,

etc.

H. Hie.

g.

In Rabbinical Literature Both the land and the people of Arabia were familiar to the Jews of Palestine and Babylonia and the notices of the Arabians, as given in the Talmuds and the Midrashim, are among the most valuable and reliable