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Dûmat al-Jandal
97

a watering-place [ḥâḍir]. It was this daughter of al-Jûdi whom ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmân ibn-abi-Bakr aṣ-Ṣiddiḳ had fallen in love with, and the one whom he meant when he said:

"I thought of Laila with as-Samâwah[1] intervening between;
and what has the daughter of al-Jûdi to do with me?"

Thus did he win her hand and marry her. But such a hold had she on him that he gave up all his other wives. At last, however, she was affected with such a severe disease that her looks were changed and he no more liked her. He was advised to give her what is usually given at divorce[2] and send her to her own people, which he did.

Al-Wâḳidi's version of the conquest. According to al-Wâḳidi, the Prophet led the invasion against Dûmat al-Jandal in the year 5 and met no resistance. In Shauwâl, year 9, he sent Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd to Ukaidir, twenty months after the former had embraced Islam.

The reconstruction of Dûmat al-Jandal. I heard it said by someone from al-Ḥîrah that Ukaidir and his brothers used to go to Dûmat al-Ḥîrah and visit their uncles of the Kalb tribe and spend some time with them. One day as they were together on a hunting trip, there arose before their view a city in ruins with only few walls standing. The city was built of stones [Ar. jandal] . This city they rebuilt, planted in it olive- and other trees, and called it Dûmat al-Jandal in distinction from Dûmat al-Ḥîrah.[3]

Az-Zuhri's version of the conquest. ʿAmr ibn-Muḥammad an-Nâḳid from az-Zuhri:—The Prophet sent Kḥâlid ibn-al-Walîd ibn-al-Mughîrah to the people of Dûmat al-Jandal who were some of the Christians of al-Kûfah. Khâlid captured Ukaidir, their chief, and arranged to receive poll-tax from him.

  1. A desert from Dûmat to ʿAin at-Tamr; Iṣṭakhri, p. 23.
  2. Ar. mutʿah. Muwaṭṭa, p. 208.
  3. Caetani, vol. ii, p. 263.