216 Alfred von Kremer's edition of Wdqidy. [No. 3. 



'Othman and TTakatn gave themselves up as prisoners and Nawfal 

 escaped. Ibn Ja/^sli and his followers went back with the two pri- 

 soners and the booty until they reached Madynah. Some one of 

 the Ja&sh family states, that Ibn JaMi said, the prophet has a claim 

 to one-fifth of the booty, and having set one-fifth aside he divided 

 the rest among his followers. This was before the order regarding 

 "the fifth" was revealed. Ibn IsMq observes, when they came to 

 the prophet he said to them, I did not order you to fight in the 

 sacred month, and he gave no orders regarding the prisoners and 

 the booty, and did not accept any thing of it. When the prophet 

 had thus spoken to them they were very much grieved, and afraid 

 that their souls were lost, and their brethren severely reproached 

 them. The Qorayshites said, Mohammad has abolished the sacred 

 month [of Rajab] and his party sheds blood in it, makes prisoners 

 and kills. The Moslims, who were at Makkah, answered them and 

 maintained that the attack had taken place in Sha'ban. The Jews 

 drew an evil omen for the prophet from the names (see p. 71 note) 

 and said, God has turned this matter to his detriment and not to 

 his advantage. As there was so much talk about the matter, God 

 revealed the verses (see p. 68 supra). This revelation cheered up 

 the Moslims, and the prophet took now the booty and prisoners in 

 hand. The Qorayshites sent men to ransom the two prisoners, but 

 the prophet refused to give them up before his own two men, Sa'd 

 and 'Otbah, who were missing had returned, saying, If you have 

 killed them, I put your men to death. "When Sa'd and 'Otbah had 

 come back he took the ransom for them. Hakam embraced the 

 Islam, and turned a sincere Moslim and remained with the prophet 

 until he fell a martyr at Byr Ma'unah. 'Othman returned to 

 Makkah, and died there as a Kafir. When the first verse was 

 revealed, which absolves Ibn Ja^sh and his party from guilt, they 

 came to the prophet and said, that they would now expect some 

 reward from God for their exploit, and upon this the second verse 

 was revealed, which they conceived, contains a promise of a reward. 

 The account of this affair is taken from Zohry and from Yazyd b. 

 Ruman, who quotes 'Orwah as his authority." 



In the original, the account is not without poetical merit, but it 

 is far from genuine. I might quote a number of similar instances, 



