This thesis represents the result of a close study of the early Arabic sources concerning the long and violent conflict between Muhammad and the three Jewish tribes of Medina: the B. Qaynuqa, B. al-Nadir and B. Qurayzah. It is discovered that in his actions against these tribes the Prophet was not acting from a simple anti-Jewish bias but in order to protect himself and his community from these potentially very dangerous centers of opposition. Thus the elimination of the Jewish tribes from the oasis is the result of Muhammad's efforts to break up centers of opposition and thereby make secure his own community. In his long struggle with the Jewish tribes Muhammad skillfully isolated the three tribes--from each other as well as from their Arab allies-- and eliminated their dangerous presence one by one, beginning with the weakest of the three tribes. The justifications set forth by Muhammad for actions against the Jews are almost without exception political in nature (although the Jewish opposition was primarily religious in nature), and redress was usually called for under the traditional tribal law. On the rare occasions when the tribal law would not support his actions, Muhammad used revelation as justification.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.108235 |
| Date | January 1970 |
| Creators | Watters, John F. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Institute of Islamic Studies) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 003487509, proquestno: AAIMK09838, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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