Note 37 — Chapter X

Fedak, according to Abulfeda (I. 133. 273), is a castle near the town of Khaibar; this is a place fertile in palm-trees in the Arabian province of Hejaz, four days’ journey distant from Mecca. It was given to Muhammed by the faithful, under the name of alms. After the prophet’s death, Fátima claimed it as a patrimony: but Abubekr refused it to her, setting forth the above mentioned saying of the prophet. Abulfeda, whom I follow, gives it as follows:

نحن معاشر الانبیاء لانورث ماتر کناہ صدقة

The words لانورث are not in the quotation of the Dabistán, edit. of Calcutta, nor in the manuscript of Oude. Thus was Fedak taken from the race of Alí and fell into the hands of Mervan, in whose family it remained until Omar declared it again to belong to alms, and assigned the usufruct of it to the Alides. But Mamun, the seventh khalif of the Abbasides, who reigned from Hejira 198 to 218 (A. D. 813-833), gave it formally over to Muhammed, son of Yahia, son of Hassan, son of Zaid, son of Ali, son of Hassan, son of Ali, son of Abu Taleb.—(Abulfeda, II. p. 167).