“Muhammed b. Maslamah said to K’ab: “Now, we hope that you will lend us a camel-load
or two (of food). K’ab answered: I will do so (but) you shall pledge something with me. [The
Muslims] retorted: What do you want? - (K’ab) replied, “Pledge your women with me”. Then
they responded, “How can we pledge our women with you, the most beautiful of the Arabs?
K’ab parried, “Then pledge your sons with me. [The Muslims] countered, “How can we
pledge our sons with thee, when later they would be abused on this account, and people
would say: “They have been pledged for a camel-load or two (of food)! This would disgrace
us! We shall, however, pledge our armor with you.
Such transactions produced naturally, enough hatred and repugnance between the mort-
gagees and the mortgagors, particularly since the Arabs were known to be sensitive where
the honor of their womenfolk is concerned.
Concentration of capital in the hands of the Jews had given them power to exercise eco-
nomic pressure on the social economy of the city. The markets were at their mercy. They
rigged the market through hoarding, thereby creating artificial shortages and causing the
rise and fall in prices. Most of the people in Madinah detested the Jews owing to such mal-
practices of usury and profiteering, which were against the substance of the common Arabs.
(Banu Israel Fil-Qur'an wal-Sunnah, p. 79)
The Jews, in their social transactions with the Arab tribes, Aus and Khazraj, spent lavishly,
though judiciously, in creating a rift between the two tribes. On a number of occasions in
the past, they had successfully pitted one tribe against the other, leaving both tribes worn
out and economically ruined in the end. The only objective Jews had set before themselves
was how to maintain their economic dominion over Medinah.
An incident related by Ibn Hisham that took place after Madinah became Muslim sheds
light upon this strategy. Sh’ath b. Qays was an old jewish man and he felt bitter against the
Muslims. He passed by a place where a number of the Prophet’s companions from Aus and
Khazraj were talking together. He was filled with rage seeing their amity and unity. So he
asked the Jewish youth who were friendly with the Ansaars to join them and mention the
battle of Bu’ath and the preceding battles, and to recite some of the poems concerning
those events in order to stir up their tribal sentiments.
The cunning device of Sh’ath was not in vain, for a few years before Islam, the two tribes
had been at daggers with each other. Their passions were aroused and they started brag-
ging and quarreling until they were about to unsheathe their swords when the Prophet (r)
came with some of the Muslim emigrants from Mecca. He pacified them and appealed to
the bonds of harmony brought about by Islam. Then the Ansaars realized that the enemy
had duped them. The Aus and Khazraj wept, embraced and welcomed back one another as
if nothing had happened. (Ibn Hisham, Vol. I, pp. 555-6)
For many centuries, the Jews had been waiting for a redeemer. This belief of the Jews in
the coming Prophet (r), about which they used to talk with the Arabs, had prepared the Aus