1856.] Alfred von Kremer's edition of Wakidy. 73 



opinions. One author, but as far as I know only one,* states that 

 the booty was returned to its owner, this I conceive to be true, 

 because it is consistent with the payment of the blood-money. I 

 also think that the prisoners received their liberty without payment.f 

 This daring robbery proved to the /forayshites- that their caravans 



* " Ibn Wahb mentions that the prophet returned the booty and paid the price 

 of the blood of the man who was killed." (Nur alnibras p. 719.) The other state- 

 ments contradict each other. They run : 



" During the time of paganism, it was usual that the leader of a successful expedi- 

 tion received one-fourth of the booty. When 'Abd Allah b. JaAsh returned from 

 Nakhlah he took only one-fifth of the bootyand divided the rest among his men. This 

 was the first casein the Islam that a leader took a fifth, subsequently the verse of the 

 .Koran 1, 42 was revealed." (Wakidy p. 10). " Some descendants of 'Abd Allah 

 b. Ja/ish say that he divided the booty when it had been declared lawful. Four-fifths 

 he gave to his men and one-fifth to God and his Messenger. What he did coincided 

 precisely with what God subsequently commanded to be done." (Ibn Ish&k, he 

 allows at least that for some time MoAammad did not consider the booty as lawful). 

 Jbn Sa'd, says 'Abd Allah, divided the booty on his arrival at Madynah without hesi- 

 tation. And Ibn Sayyid alnas states that some authorities maintain that Mohammad 

 divided the booty after the battle of Badr. 



f Though Ibn IsAa& states that they were ransomed, he admits that the prophet 

 did not consider their detention lawful before the Koran verses quoted above were 

 revealed for, until then, he would have nothing to say to the whole matter. He says : 

 " When the verses of the iToran were revealed, the prophet took the booty and pri- 

 soners under his care. The K"orayshites sent men to Madynah to ransom the two 

 prisoners. The prophet said to them, I will not give them up before my two men 

 Sa'd and 'Otbah have made their appearance. I fear you have killed them. If 

 so, I put your two men to death. When Sa'd and 'Otbah had come back, he 

 accepted the ransom for them. Al-iJakarn remained with the prophet and he was 

 subsequently slain in the battle of Byr al-Ma'unab. 'Othman returned to Makkah 

 and died there in his former faith." Wakidy goes so far as to name even the. 

 amount at which they were ransomed, viz. : each of them for forty ounces of 

 gold. One ounce is equal to forty dirhams. The account of Ibn IsMk contains a 

 contradiction. He says that al-.Hak.am was ransomed and also that he then and 

 there embraced the Islam and remained at Madynah. His profession of the Islam 

 would have secured him his liberty without ransom. In the Isabah we find the 

 solution of the contradiction. 'Omar intended to put him to death (probably 

 under the impression that Sa'd and 'Otbah had been killed) and to avert his execu- 

 tion he embraced the Islam. The story about the ramsora falls therefore to 

 the ground. 



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