eleased
afterwards; some ransomed themselves, others went off with their
freedom. But nobody was ever sold in slavery. The assertion of Hishamee,
quoted by Sir W. Muir, that the women and children were sent to be sold
among the Bedouin tribes of Najd in exchange for horses and arms (Vol.
III, page 279), is void of all authority, and is in direct contradiction
of what Abul Mo'tamar Soleiman bin Tarkhan (died 143 A.H. and was prior
to Hishamee) says, and whose account seems to be more probable. His
version is that the horses of Bani Koreiza were sent by Mohammad to
Syria and Najd for the purpose of breeding, and that they got big
horses. _Vide_ Wakidi Campaigns of Mohammad, page 374, Calcutta, 1855.
This shows that only horses, and not women and children, were sent to
Najd. The words of Hishamee (page 693) are "_sabaya min sabaya Bani
Koreiza_." _Sabaya_, plural of _sabi_, applies to both person and
property, as they say _sabal aduvva vaghairohu_, he made captive,
captured or took prisoner the enemy, and other than an enemy. (_Vide_
Lane's Arabic Dictionary, page 1303, col. 1.) So probably Hishamee had
in view only the horses captured of the Bani Koreiza and sent to Najd,
but not the women and children of the captives of Koreiza.

[Sidenote: Rihana.]

5. Rihana, a woman of the captives of Koreiza, is said by Sir W. Muir to
have been taken by Mohammad "for his concubine." He always confounds
prisoners with slaves, and female captives as well as slaves with
concubines. There are several conflicting and contradictory traditions
regarding Rihana. Mohammad bin Sad Katib Wakidi has related various
traditions from Omar-bin-al Hakam, Mohammad bin Kab, and from other
various sources that Mohammad had married Rihana. The Katib says "this
tradition is held by learned men. But he has also heard some one
relating that she was his concubine."[348] But Sir W. Muir chooses the
latter uncertain and unauthentic traditions. He writes in a footnote:--

"She is represented as saying, when he offered her marriage and the
same privileges as his other wives: 'Nay, O Prophet! But let me
remain as thy slave; this will be easier both for me and for
thee.'"[349]

Even if this tradition be a genuine one, he is not authorized in his
remarks in the text, where he says--

"He invited her to be his wife, but she declined; and chose to
remain (as indeed, having refused marriage, she had no alternative)
his slave or