[p.357]maidens of the Benu Najjar tribe sang and beat their kettle-drums.  And all the wives of the Ansar celebrated with shrill cries of joy the auspicious event; whilst the males, young and old, freemen and slaves, shouted with effusion, “Allah’s Messenger is come!  Allah’s Messenger is here!”

Mohammed caused Abu Ayyub and his wife to remove into the upper story, contenting himself with the humbler lower rooms.  This was done for the greater convenience of receiving visitors without troubling the family; but the master of the house was thereby rendered uncomfortable in mind.  His various remarks about the Apostle’s diet and domestic habits, especially his avoiding leeks, onions, and garlic,[FN#28] are gravely chronicled by Moslem authors.

After spending seven months, more or less, at the house of Abu Ayyub, Mohammed, now surrounded by his wives and family, built, close to the Mosque, huts for their reception.  The ground was sold to him by Sahal and Suhayl, two orphans of the Benu Najjar,[FN#29] a noble family of the Khazraj.  Some time afterwards one Harisat bin al-Nu’uman presented to the Prophet all his houses in the vicinity of the temple.  In those days the habitations of the Arabs were made of a framework of Jarid or palm sticks, covered over with a cloth of camel’s hair, a curtain of similar stuff forming the door.  The more splendid had walls of unbaked brick, and roofs of palm fronds plastered

[p.358]over with mud or clay.  Of this description were the abodes of Mohammed’s family.  Most of them were built on the North and East of the Mosque, which had open ground on the Western side; and the doors looked towards the place of prayer.  In course of time, all, except Abu Bakr[FN#30] and Ali, were ordered to close their doors, and even Omar was refused the favour of having a window opening into the temple.

Presently the Jews of Al-Madinah, offended by the conduct of Abdullah bin Salam, their most learned priest and a descendant from the Patriarch Joseph, who had become a convert to the Moslem dispensation, began to plot against Mohammed.[FN#31] They were headed by Hajj bin Akhtah, and his brother Yasir bin Akhtah, and were joined by many of the Aus and the Khazraj.  The events that followed this combination of the Munafikun, or Hypocrites, under their chief, Abdullah, belong to the domain of Arabian history.[FN#32]

Mohammed spent the last ten years of his life at Al-Madinah.  He died on Monday, some say at nine A.M., others at noon, others a little after, on the twelfth of Rabia al-Awwal in the eleventh year of the Hijrah.  When his family and companions debated where he should be buried, Ali advised Al-Madinah, and Abu Bakr, Ayishah’s chamber,