ed
to Mohammad while addressing Sofia, the widow of Kinana, copied by Abul
Mo'tamar Soleiman (died A.H. 143) in his "Campaigns of Mohammad."
Mohammad addressed her thus:--"I give thee choice either of Islam, or of
Judaism. If thou acceptest Islam, perhaps I may keep thee for myself.
But if thou preferest Judaism, I may perhaps liberate thee, and join
thee to thy family." _Vide_ Wakidi's "Campaigns of Mohammad," page 393,
Calcutta, 1856. This speech shows amply that Mohammad had no intention
of enslaving Sofia.

The story of Mohammad's marriage with Sofia after her being given to and
purchased from Dihya, emanates from Anas, who cannot be relied upon.
Anas had very recently been associated with Mohammad. He entered
Mohammad's service only the other day when he started for the expedition
of Khyber, and was but a boy only a dozen-years old at that time. It is
related by Bokhari from Anas himself, who said that the Prophet had
asked Abu Tulhah to get him a boy to serve him during the Khyber
expedition. So he took me to him, and I was a boy close to maturity
(_Bokhari-Kitabul Jihad_). Anas has given two contradictory accounts
about Sofia; in one he says, "Dihya asked Mohammad's permission for a
captive girl, and took Sofia. When Mohammad heard about Sofia, he asked
Dihya to take another one; and having liberated Sofia married her, and
her freedom was her dower." In another tradition, Anas relates that
"Sofia fell to the lot of Dihya, and Mohammad purchased her from him for
seven camels." He says:--"The people did not know whether he had married
her, or had made her a concubine-slave, but when she rode on a camel,
and Mohammad put veil round her, the people knew from this that she was
his wife." Both these traditions are narrated from Anas by Moslem in his
_Saheeh_ (Book on Marriage).

The idea that Mohammad married Sofia under the circumstances noted above
is not satisfactorily established. It was only the fancy of the people,
or was a conjecture of Anas. Yet Sir W. Muir has the effrontery to
remark against Mohammad that: "Indeed, he is not free from the suspicion
of being influenced in the destruction of Kinana by the desire of
obtaining his wife." (The Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, page 68,
_footnote_.) Kinana was executed for killing Mahmood bin Muslama, and
Sofia was neither enslaved nor married by Mohammad. Even if it be shown
that Mohammad married her afterwards under some other circumstances, it
(Sir W. Muir's presumpti