A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Appendix B/5
[Sidenote: Rihána.]
5. Rihána, a woman of the captives of Koreiza, is said by Sir W. Muir to have been taken by Mohammad "for his concubine." He always confounds prisoners with slaves, and female captives as well as slaves with concubines. There are several conflicting and contradictory traditions regarding Rihána. Mohammad bin Sád Kátib Wakidi has related various traditions from Omar-bin-al Hakam, Mohammad bin Káb, and from other various sources that Mohammad had married Rihána. The Kátib says "this tradition is held by learned men. But he has also heard some one relating that she was his concubine."[1] But Sir W. Muir chooses the latter uncertain and unauthentic traditions. He writes in a footnote:—
- "She is represented as saying, when he offered her marriage and the same privileges as his other wives: 'Nay, O Prophet! But let me remain as thy slave; this will be easier both for me and for thee.'"[2]
Even if this tradition be a genuine one, he is not authorized in his remarks in the text, where he says—
- "He invited her to be his wife, but she declined; and chose to remain (as indeed, having refused marriage, she had no alternative) his slave or concubine."
She was neither enslaved, nor made a concubine. It is to be regretted that the writer of the "Life of Mahomet" most absurdly confounds slavery and concubinage.