Note 399 — Chapter XXVII · THE LATER YEARS OF OMAR’S REIGN—DOMESTIC EVENTS. A.H. XVII.-XXIII. A.D. 638–644.

We have met Moghîra in the lifetime of the Prophet. First at Hodeibia, where the murder was cast in his teeth by his uncle, and subsequently at the demolition of the great idol of Tâyif, &c. (Life of Mahomet, pp. 370, 467.) He was red-haired, one-eyed, obese and repulsive in appearance, but insinuating in manner and speech. One of his eighty concubines, when his ill looks were mentioned, said, ‘Yes, he is a sweet conserve but on a beggarly dish.’

The aged princess whom he demanded in marriage on the fall of Hîra, was Hind, daughter of Nómân V. Some threescore years before she had been married to Adi, who, when tutor to her father, had caught a glimpse of her in the church at Hîra. Adi was executed for some offence by the Chosroes, and Hind then retired into a convent near Hîra, called, after her, Dâira Hind. See the strange story of Moghîra’s coarse conduct towards her as related by M. Caussin de Perceval, vol. ii. p. 150; and Life of Mahomet (1st edition), vol. i. pp. clxxix. et seq.

For the law of evidence on the charge of adultery, see Life of Mahomet, p. 313. The whole story is significant as manifesting the deterioration of Arab life from the ancient spirit and customs, which, amongst the Bedouins, admitted of social intercourse between the sexes without such scandals. The lady’s name was Omm Jamîl, of the Beni Aámir ibn Sassâá, and is said by Tabari to have been a widow. ‘This lady used openly to visit Moghîra and other chief men of Bussora, a custom common amongst some of the ladies of that time.’ But the old Arab chivalry towards the sex was rapidly disappearing under the system which raised the slave-girl giving issue to her lord to the position of Omm Walad, or freed-wife, and her children to the same legitimacy as the children of the noble-born. This, coupled with the laxity of divorce and re-marriage, was speedily lowering the position of the sex, and rendered the strict use of ‘the Veil’ an absolute necessity for the decent observances of social life; and gradually, but surely, bringing about the wretched condition of women, together with the seclusion of the harem, as we now find it in Moslem lands.