Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/175



must now revert to one or two matters of domestic interest.

Arabia, as the nursery of legions devoted to fight for Islām, must be purged of strange religions. So soon therefore as victory was secured in Syria and Chaldæa, ʿOmar proceeded to execute an act of harshness, as well as of breach of faith.

In the centre of Arabia lies the province of Nejrān, inhabited from of old by a Christian people. Moḥammad concluded a treaty with their Chiefs and Bishops, which on payment of a tribute of 2000 pieces of cloth, valued at 40 dirhems each, secured them in the undisturbed profession of their ancestral faith. Throughout the rebellion they remained loyal to their: engagements, and Abu Bekr renewed the treaty. Worthy descendants of a persecuted race, they resisted the blandishments of Islām; and as a penalty they must now quit their native soil, consecrated by the ashes of their martyred forefathers. They were ordered to depart and take land in exchange elsewhere, or accept a money payment. Some migrated to Syria; but the greater part settled in the vicinity of Al-Kūfa, where the colony of Nejrānia long maintained the memory of their expatriation. The rights conferred by the Prophet, so far as the altered circumstances

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