Qurayzah.
A Jewish tribe of Medina that betrayed the Muslims during the Battle of
the Trench (see BATTLE of the TRENCH). When the Quraysh abandoned the
siege of the city, Gabriel commanded the Prophet not to lay down arms
until the Qurayzah were subdued. Their hands freed by the departure of
the Quraysh and their confederates, the Muslims turned upon the Banu
Qurayzah and besieged their defensive towers for twenty-five days.
When the Banu Qurayzah
surrendered, they were judged, as a concession, by Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, a
chief of their former allies, the Aws; lying on his deathbed, in pain
from a wound inflicted during the fighting with he Quraysh, he passed a
rigorous jugdement: the adult men should be put to death and the women
and children into slavery.
And He brought down
those of the People of the Book who supported them from their
fortresses and cast terror in their hearts; some you slew, some you
made captive. (33: 25-27)
In
books written in the West, this episode has been the occasion for
criticism as an example of extreme cruelty. But it was not an unusual
event; similar punishment was meted out elsewhere, as in the destruction
of the Albigensians in France, for example, and for much the same
reason. It is a case of the final judgement overtaking a people while
still in this world. In the Bible there are numerous comparable cases
Jewish law itself prescribes such treatment for the conquest of a city
as a matter of course, even when betrayal is not in question: "When
the Lord thy God hath delivered it unto they hands, thou shalt smite
every male therein with the edge of the sword: but the women, and the
little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the
spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself" (Deutoronomy 20:12)
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