n it affected his
revelations. She excited the envy of the other wives because of her
privileges, and in spite of intrigue, was able to hold her own. She
was extremely sarcastic in regard to some of the revelations, and even
went so far on one occasion as to jeer the prophet on his faithfulness
in recording them. This sarcasm was prompted by jealousy, because of
Mohammed's marriage with Zainab, which was so illegal as to cause him
to throw the responsibility on God. Zainab was the wife of the
prophet's adopted son Zaid, who, having discovered his foster-father's
love, thought it wise to divorce her in his favour. The revelation
Mohammed produced seems to have been held over until his critics had
been mollified by some victory--hence the sarcasm!

During the raiding of the Jews, Mohammed was considerably disturbed by
the desire of the wives to accompany him on the expeditions. He eased
the difficulty by arranging that one only should go with him on each
expedition, and should obtain the favour by lot. Ayesha got into
difficulty on one of these expeditions. She dropped a necklace and
remained behind the returning party in order to seek for it. A youth
who, too, had loitered behind, found it, and accompanied her back to
the camp. Her enemies were not slow to take advantage of this incident
to prejudice her before the prophet. He was deeply hurt, and in face
of the surge of public opinion, sent her back to her parents. The
complications arising out of the divorce would probably have alienated
the sympathies of Abu Bakr, her father, so with his usual diplomacy,
Mohammed produced a revelation, in which God declared Ayesha innocent
of any cause for divorce! It was through Ayesha, too, that the prophet
conceived the idea of praying for deliverance from the torment of the
grave, for she casually remarked one day that she had heard a Jewish
woman speaking about torment after death. Through all her life with
the prophet she proved herself to be strong in character, and a
fitting mate for a man of Mohammed's type.

Other wives did not play such an important part in the prophet's life
work. He seems to have exhibited his taste for beauty in all his
selections. Keud was the daughter of a man of considerable wealth and
influence, and, like Zainab, was one of the Abyssinian refugees. In
the expedition against Khaibah, Mohammed's greed was excited by the
sight of some valuable ornaments belonging to one of his vanquished
enemies. He s