98 THE MADINA PERIOD

This exhortation is followed by a description of the wars of Moses and of Saul. Muhammad shows his ignorance of Old Testament history by confusing Saul and Gideon together. Still these examples of men of old served now to inflame the zeal of his followers.

The antipathy thus excited against the Jews increased after the battle of Badr, when, flushed with victory, Muhammad called upon the Jews of the Bani Qainuqa' tribe to believe in Islam, lest God should visit them as he had done the Quraish in the recent battle.1 They had boasted that in their case defeat would not have been so easy and that they could successfully have resisted the Muslims. So the revelation came:—

If thou fear treachery from any people throw back their treaty to them as thou fairly mayest for God loveth not the treacherous.
And think not that the infidels shall escape us. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 60-1.

They refused, and were all expelled from the country and their goods and property were confiscated. The Bani Nadir were a wealthy people, one of whose chief Rabbis, Ka'b ibn Ashraf, had been friendly
1 Margoliouth (Mohammed, p. 231) states that the Tradition (referred to ante p. 86) records that Abu Bakr wished to get a loan from these Jews, saying, 'Who will lend God a good loan?' 'if God wants a loan,' replied Pinehas, son of Azariah, 'He must be poor'. This was met by a blow. The Jew complained to Muhammad, apparently denying that he said these words. Muhammad seized the opportunity of justifying his conduct to the Jews, for Gabriel now conveniently brought the revelation:—

Now hath God heard the saying of those who said, 'Aye, God is poor and we are rich.' We will surely write down their sayings, and their unjust slaughter of the prophets; and we will say, ' Taste ye the torment of the burning.' Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 177.
PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS 99

with Muhammad until the change of the Qibla was made, when he became his opponent. He was assassinated in July A.D. 624 with the connivance of Muhammad. A few months after the battle of Uhud, the whole tribe, in June 625, was thus addressed: 'Thus saith the Prophet of the Lord, ye shall go out of my country within the space of seven days; whosoever shall remain behind after that shall be put to death.' They declined, and said, 'We will not go.' The Jews unfortunately did not maintain this courageous spirit. They made no attempt at mutual resistance, and so were subjugated in detail. This is referred to in the verse:—

They (the Jews) will not fight against you in a body, except in fenced towns, or behind walls. Mighty is their valour amongst themselves, but their hearts are divided. Sura Al-Hashr (lix) 14.

The Muslims justly showed contempt for their boasting and as they themselves were now powerful these Jews were exiled and their fertile fields and property were divided amongst the Muhajirun. The divine sanction for this proceeding is found in Sura Al-Hashr (lix) thus:—

He it is who caused the unbelievers among the people of the Book to quit their homes and join those who had emigrated previously.1
And were it not that God had decreed their exile, surely in this world would He have chastised them; but in the next the chastisement of fire awaiteth them.
Your cutting down some of the palm trees and sparing others was by God's permission and to put the wicked to shame. Sura Al-Hashr 2, 3, 5.
1 The Bani Qainuqa'.