Khaibar

Twenty days after the prophet's return from Hudaybeeah he marched against Khyber, a strong and celebrated Yahoodee town. On approaching it he ordered a halt and offered the following prayer:

O Lord, thou supporter of the seven heavens and all they overshadow, and who supportest the seven earths, and the demons, and everything that casts a shade, we entreat thee to deliver us this town and its people, and shield us from all harm it may offer us. He then ordered his men to advance in the name of God the compassionate, the merciful, and invest the town. The siege lasted more than twenty days. In this period Aly suffered a violent attack of ophthalmia, which for the time deprived him of sight. The Yehoodees defended themselves with vigor, being protected by walls and a dry ditch. One day they threw open a gate, and a distinguished champion, named Marhab, at the head of a heavy column made a furious sortie on the Musulmâns. Mohammed sent a detachment of Muhâjerees and Ansàrees under Ahubekr to attack the Yehoodees, but the Musulmâns were repulsed. The next day another sortie was made, and Omar was defeated in an attempt to drive back the enemy.

Mohammed now said, To-morrow I will give the banner to one who loves God and the prophet, and whom they love. He will not flee nor return till God by him conquers the foe. This declaration led every Musulmân to hope that he should be honored with the command the next day. However, when they waited on the prophet the next morning, he inquired where Aly was. They replied that he could not attend because he was suffering so severely from ophthalmia. Mohammed ordered him to be brought, and when he was led to the place he said, O prophet of God, my eyes are so inflamed that I cannot see, and the pain in my head is extreme. Mohammed caused him to lie down and put his head in his lap, when he rubbed saliva from his blessed mouth on Aly's eyes and head, saying, O Lord, protect him from the harm of heat and cold. Aly was then instantly cured, and Mohammed gave him the white standard, assuring him, Jibrâeel attends you on your right, Meekâeel on your left, Azrraeel in your front, and Isràfeel in your rear. Victory advances before you, and fear already fills the hearts of your enemies, whose own books forewarn them that their destroyer will be Ilyâs, and when you announce yourself Aly, they will be over come, inshahlah! Advance deliberately, and, before joining battle, summon them to embrace islam. Verily if God should give religious guidance to a single individual of them through your instrumentality, it will be a more glorious conquest than if you should capture all the red camels of Muhemah.

Aly at the head of the Musulmâns then made an attack on the town, which Marhab came out to defend. He wore a coat of mail, and a helmet upon which was a large stone ring. The two champions, each chanting a boastful ode, engaged furiously, their first blows being mutually parried. Aly's second blow cleft the stone ring, helmet, and head of his adversary, who reeled and fell from his horse. The Yehoodees immediately sought shelter behind their walls, barring after them their gate, which was so massive as to require twenty men, or, according to another tradition, forty men to open and shut~ it. Aided by divine power, Aly seized the outer ring of the gate, and shook it so violently that the whole fortress trembled. The gate broke away, and Aly, using it as a shield, rushed into the town, which he soon overcame. He then hurled the gate forty cubits distance, which seventy men, to satisfy their curiosity, tried in vain to lift.

Some say the conquest of Khyber was in the month of Zeelhejuh, the sixth year of the Hijret; others maintain that it was in the beginning of the seventh year. There were fourteen thousand Yehoodees in Khyber when it was taken. Among the captives was Safeeah, the daughter of Hy, whom Aly sent by Bilâl to Mohammed. Bilâl led her past her slaughtered kindred, which awful sight so overpowered her as almost to deprive her of life. Mohammed reproached him, saying, Perhaps mercy is quite eradicated from your heart, that you drag a woman by her slain relatives! The prophet emancipated and married Safeeah. A few days before, she had been. married to a Yehoodee, named Kenâmah, and subsequently dreamed that the moon fell into her lap. On relating this dream to her husband he struck her a severe blow on the face, saying, Do you want Mohammed king of Hijaz! The prophet noticed the mark on her face and inquired the cause of' it, when she told him the above story. Some say, however, that the mark was caused by her falling from her seat when Aly shook the castle. Safeeah was a perfect beauty.

After Aly had cloven the Yehoodee champion, Jibrâeel appeared before Mohammed in great amazement. The prophet inquired the cause. He replied, The angels of heaven shout, There is no hero but Aly, and no sword but Zoolfakâr; but my wonder is this :-I was once ordered to destroy the people of Loot, and took up seven of their cities from the foundation in the seventh earth, and carried them on a single feather of one of my wings, so high that the inhabitants of heaven heard their cocks crowing. I held them there till morning, awaiting the next order of the Most High, and the weight of the seven cities was not even perceptible by me. But to-day, when Aly shouted Allah akbar! and gave Marhab that Hâshim-like blow, I was commanded of God to sustain the excess of it, lest it should cleave in twain the earth, the ox, and the fish. The blow fell vastly heavier on my wing than the weight of the seven cities, notwithstanding Meekâeel and Isrâfeel both caught Aly's arm in the air to check its force.

While at Khyber, the people of two neighboring places, one of which was called Fadak, submitted to Mohammed and surrendered to him all their property except their wearing apparel. The captives of Khyber represented to the prophet that they understood the cultivation of their fields better than any other people, and begged to remain, promising to give half the produce of their lands to Mohammed. He granted their petition, with the proviso that he should dispossess them whenever he thought proper. The same terms were bestowed on the people of Fadak.

Some say that the citadel of Khyber was taken by Mohammed's signing to the walls with his blessed hand, when they instantly sunk till the top was level with the earth, and the Musulmàns marched over and took the place.

Soon after the conquest of Khyber, when the prophet was quietly seated in the enjoyment of victory, Zaynab, a niece of Marhab the champion, brought a roasted shoulder of mutton powerfully imbued with poison to Mohammed, as a friendly offering. The prophed ate a morsel of it, and Besher-bin-Burau did the same. Mohammed withdrew his hand, saying, Touch it not, for the shoulder tells me it has been imbued with poison. The woman being summoned, acknowledged the fact, but excused herself by saying that she concluded if Mohammed were a prophet he would know the mutton was poisoned, but if he were only a king they should get rid of him in that way. Such was the benevolence of the prophet that ho forgave her, although Besher presently died of the poison. When Mohammed was suffering his last sickness, the mother of Besher visited him, when he said to her, I feel every year more and more the effects of the morsel I ate with your son at Khyber. And at length the prophet died a martyr by that poison.

Jàfer, the brother of Aly, who had been sent to Nejâshy, king of Habeshah, returned to Mohammed on the day Khyber was taken. He advanced twelve paces to meet Jàfer, embraced him, wept and kissed him, and said he knew not at which he ought most to rejoice, the fall of Khyber or the coming of Jafer. He then taught him a prayer entitled the prayer of Jafer, a repetition of which ensured full forgiveness of sin. When the prophet healed Aly of ophthalmia, he prayed that the hero might not suffer again from heat or cold, to both of which he was ever after impassive.