Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/66

 632–3] established. Al-Muhājir elected to remain in the Yemen, where he shared the government with Feirūz, Ziyād continued to administer Ḥaḍramaut.

A curious story is told of a lady whom ʿIkrima married at Aden, and carried with him in his camp. She had been betrothed to Moḥammad, but the marriage had not been Moḥammad completed. The soldiers murmured, and questioned the propriety of ʿIkrima's marriage. Al-Muhājir referred the matter to Abu Bekr, who decided that there was nothing wrong in the proceeding, as Moḥammad had never fulfilled his contract with the damsel.

I should not here omit to mention the fate of two songstresses in the Yemen, who were accused, one of satirising the Prophet, the other of ridiculing the Muslims, in their songs. Al-Muhājir had the hands of both cut off, and also (to stay their singing for the future) their front teeth pulled out. The Caliph, on hearing of it, approved the punishment of the first; for, said he, "Crime against the Prophet is not as crime against a common man; and, indeed, had the case been first referred to me, I should, as a warning to others, have directed her execution." But he disapproved the mutilation of the other.

As a rule Abu Bekr was mild in his judgments, and even generous to a fallen and submissive foe. But there were, as we have seen, exceptions. On one occasion the treachery of a rebel chief irritated him to an act of barbarous cruelty. Al-Fujāʾa, a leader of some note, under pretence of fighting against the insurgents in his neighbourhood, obtained from the Caliph arms and accoutrements for his band. Thus equipped, he abused the trust, and becoming a freebooter, attacked and plundered alike Muslim and apostate. Abu Bekr thereupon wrote letters to a loyal chief in that quarter to go against the brigand. Hard pressed, Al-Fujāʾa challenged his adversary to a parley, and asserted that he held a commission as good as his. "If thou speakest true," answered the other, "lay aside thy weapons and accompany me to Abu Bekr." He did so, but no sooner did he appear at Medīna, than the Caliph, enraged at his treachery, cried aloud: "Go forth with this traitor to the