Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

The Life of Muhammad
The apostle said, 'For this reason the angels washed him.'
about his killing !;lan,,"la:
I protect my friend and myself
\Vith a thrust that pierces like the rays of the sun.
Shaddad said
Abu Sufyan, mentioning his hardihood on that day and the help that Ibn
Sha'ub gave him against I:Ian?ala, said:
Had I wished it my swift bay could have saved me,
And I should owe no thanks to Ibn Shaub.
It remained but a stone's throw off
From early morn till set of sun;
I fought them and cried, 'On, Ghalib!'
I beat them from me with firm strength;
Heed not the remonstrance of others,
Grow not weary of tears and sighs,
Weep for thy father and his brothers who have passed away,
Their fate deserves thy tears;
My former sorrow is relieved
Because I killed the best men of Najjar,
And Hashim's noble stallion and Mu~'ab
\Vho was not cowardly in war.
Had I not slaked my vengeance on them,
My heart had been seared and scarred.
569 They retired their (Meccan) vagabonds dead'
Thrust through, bleeding, prostrate. 2
Those not their eguals in blood smote them
And those who were beneath them in rank (593).'
Ibn Sha'ub, mentioning the way he helped Abu Sufyan and defended him,
said:
Had I not been there and defended you, Ibn !;larb,
You would have been left speechless for ever at the mountain foot.
I Jaldbib is said to mean 'leather aprons or coverings', as though it were the plural of
jilbdb. Though Meccans exported leather, that can hard~y have been matter for reproach
because leather was sent to the Negus as a gift known to be highly prized in Abyssinia.
Moreover, why should Abu S.ufyan reproach his fellow townsmen for wearing garments
which rresumably differed in no way from those worn by other Meccans? It is clear that
the word is an insult, and the question is why? I;Iassan's poem (W. 738, Diwdn exl) attacking
the muhdjirs begins:
The ]aIabib have become powerful and numerous
and I. Salul (\V. 726) uses the same words to express his anger and dislike of the emigrants.
Therefore it seems that the origin of the insult is to be sought in jalab 'a thing driven or
brought from one town to another' and/or jalib 'an imported slave'; and so some such word
as 'vagabonds' is as near as one can get to the meaning. See \"1. Arafat, The Poems ascribed
to I:Iamin ibn Thdbit, 146, where he adopts the rendering 'tramps'.
: Reading kabibu.
J The meaning would appear to be that the muhdjirs were killed by negroes and brigand
mercenaries, though there may be a reference to the killing of I;Iarnza by Vla!;lshi.
The Life of Muhammad
Had I not brought my horse back there,
Hyaenas or jackals would have devoured your flesh (594).
AI-I:Hirith b. Hisham, answering Abu Sufyan, said:
Had you seen what they did at Badr's pool
You would have returned with fear in your heart as long as you live;
(Or you would have been killed and I should have caused
'Veeping women to weep for you,
And you would not have felt sorrow for the loss of a dear one).
I paid them back in kind for Badr
On a spirited galloping prancing horse (595).
Then God sent down His help to the Muslims and fulfilled Hi.
promise. They slew the enemy with the sword until they cut them off from
their camp and there was an obvious rout.
Ya~ya b. 'Abbad b. 'Abdullah b. al-Zubayr from his father from 'Ab- 570
dullah b. al-Zubyr from Zubayr said: I found myself looking at the anklets
of Hind d. 'Utba and her companions, tucking up their garments as they
fled. There was nothing at all to prevent anyone seizing' them when the
archers turned aside to the camp when the enemy had been cut off from it
(1'. making for the spoil). Thus they opened our rear to the cavalry and
we were attacked from behind. Someone called out 'Ha, Muhammad has
been killed.' We turned back and the enemy turned back on us after we
had killed the standardbearers so that none of the enemy could come near
it (596).
A traditionist told me that the standard lay on the ground until 'Amra
the !;larithite d. 'Algama took it up and raised it aloft for Quraysh so that
they gathered round it. It had been \vith $u'ab, a slave of B. Abii Tal~a,
an Abyssinian. He \vas the last of them to take it. He fought until his
hands were cut off; then he knelt upon it and held the flag bet\veen his
breast and throat until he was killed over it, saying the while '0 God, have
I done my duty I" He could not pronounce the dhdl.
!;lassan b. Thiibit said about that:
You boasted of your flag, the worst (ground for) boasting
Is a flag handed over to 9u'ab.
You have made a slave your boast,
The most miserable creature that walks the earth.
You supposed (and only a fool so thinks,
For it is anything but the truth)
That fighting us the day we met
",ras like your selling red leather sacks in I'v1ccca.
It gladdened the eye to see his hands reddened,
Though they were not reddened by dye (597).
I
Lit. 'Am I excused:'
379