Note 190 — Chapter XIII · SICKNESS AND DEATH OF ABU BEKR. Jumâd II., A.H. XIII. August, A.D. 634.

It was opposite the house of Othmân, which adjoined the apartments of Ayesha and the other widows of Mahomet. The cortège would thus pass across the open court of the mosque. The grave was dug after the same fashion as Mahomet’s (Life, p. 517). Talha, and Abd al Rahmân the Caliph’s son, were the two who descended to adjust the body in the grave.

A curious incident illustrates the rude manners of the time. When her father died, Ayesha, with her sister Omm Farwa (Asháth’s wife), and a party of female friends, began to wail. Omar forbade it, as a work of Satan, but they persisted. Omar, on this, ordered Hishâm to bring forth Omm Farwa. Ayesha screamed and said, ‘Who is Omar? I forbid thee my house.’ But Omm Farwa was brought forth and beaten with a whip, on which the mourning women dispersed. The story is probably exaggerated; but that it should have been preserved at all is a proof of the rough notions prevalent as to the treatment of ladies of rank and birth at this early period.