Note 79 — Chapter X

This appears an allusion to the following occurrence: Ayeshá, Muhammed’s favorite wife, accompanied the prophet on an expedition against the tribe of the Mostalek, in the sixth year of the Hejira (A. D. 627). During the night-march, according to her own statement, she alighted from her camel, in order to search for a valuable necklace which she had dropped. On account of her light weight, her absence was not perceived by the drivers, who went on and left her alone on the road. There, having laid down and fallen asleep, she was the next morning found by Safwan Ebn al Moattel, and brought, at noon, on his own camel to Muhammed’s next resting-place. This occurrence raised suspicions respecting Ayesha’s virtue; Muhammed found necessary to inveigh against slander in the Koran (chap. XXIV), and to punish the free-speakers as slanderers: but he could not silence the severe reflections of some respectable men, among whom was Alí.—(Hammer’s Gemäldesaal, Iter Band. Sexte, 144-145.