Note 346 — Chapter XXII · EXPULSION OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS FROM ARABIA. THE CIVIL LIST OF OMAR. SLAVES OF ARAB BLOOD MADE FREE. A.H. XIV., XV. A.D. 635, 636.
Reading edition
The expulsion of the Jews is ordinarily assigned to the twentieth year of the Hegira; that of the Christians took place earlier. For the conquest of Kheibar, see Life of Mahomet, p. 395; and for the death-bed saying of the Prophet, ibid. p. 503. That the Peninsula should be wholly and exclusively Moslem was a sentiment so closely connected with the inspiration of Mahomet, when he declared in the Corân that he was ‘sent a prophet to the Arabs,’ and so forth, that it might well have recurred in the feverish delusions of his last illness. But whether or no, the utterance—whatever its purport—was evidently not taken at the time as an obligatory command. Had it been so, we may be sure that Abu Bekr would have made it his first concern to give effect to it, and no other reason would have been required to justify the act. As it is, various reasons are assigned for the expatriation of the Christians. First, we are told that they took usury greedily; next, that they fell to variance among themselves, and asked to be removed; lastly, that they were growing so strong that Omar became afraid of them. As regards the Jews, we are told that they were guilty of murder, and also that they attacked the Caliph’s son.
The governors of the districts to which they emigrated had it in charge to treat them fairly. The Christians received special consideration, and the tale of raiment (which the heads of the community collected by yearly circuits among their people in Irâc and Syria) was reduced by successive Caliphs as the numbers of the tribe diminished by conversion to Islam or other cause.
Fadak, a dependency of Kheibar, was long a source of discontent to the descendants of Fâtima, who, as we have seen, claimed it for her patrimony; but Abu Bekr reserved it for the poor and the kinsmen of the Prophet (Beni Hâshim). Certain of the Omeyyad Caliphs took possession of it as their private property. It was repeatedly released to the claimants as an act of justice or of piety (notably by Omar II., the pietist of the Dynasty); but it was always soon resumed again.