Note 30 — Chapter I

It was at the time of the expedition against Chaibar that Mohammed prohibited the eating of pork, and of the flesh of the ass, and also the cutting down of fruit-trees, more especially of palms. “Revere your aunt, the palm-tree,” says the Koran, “for it is made of the remainder of the clay of which Adam was formed.” Here in Chaibar, a Jewish female, named Zainab, avenged the cruelties inflicted by Mohammed upon her nation, by administering a slow poison to the pretended apostle, whose prophetic knowledge was in this instance lamentably at fault. To the effects of this poison he himself attributed the gradual decline of his health from this time, and his increasing infirmities; and both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi, zealous votaries of Islam though they are, frankly admit the humiliating fact. The hatred which he bore to the Jews, did not, however, prevent his adding to the number of his wives the fair Jewess Shafiya, who, upon the capitulation of Chaibar, was presented to him as worthy his acceptance.