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.

[Sidenote: Omar, the second Khalif, liberated all the Arab slaves.]

6. During the sovereignty of Omar, the second Khalif, in accordance with
the injunctions of Mohammad to abolish slavery, all the existing Arab
slaves were set free. It will appear that the wishes of Mohammad to that
effect were but partially carried out. In ages that succeeded the death
of Mohammad, they were altogether lost sight of, and even Arabs were
allowed to be enslaved by the later jurists. Sir W. Muir, in his latest
work, entitled "The Annals of the Early Caliphate," says:--

"Yet great numbers of the Arabs themselves were slaves, taken
prisoner during the apostasy, or in the previous intertribal
warfare, and held in captivity by their fellow-countrymen. Omar
felt the inconsistency. It was not fit that any of the noble race
should remain in bondage. When, therefore, he succeeded to the
Caliphate, he decreed: 'The Lord,' he said, 'hath given to us of
Arab blood the victory, and great conquests without. It is not meet
that any one of us, taken in the days of Ignorance,[350] or in the
wars against the apostate tribes, should be holden in slavery.' All
slaves of the Arab descent were accordingly ransomed, excepting
only such bondmaids as had borne their masters' children. Men who
had lost wives or children now set out in search, if haply they
might find and claim them. Strange tales are told of some of the
disconsolate journeys. Ashath recovered two of his wives taken
captive in Nojeir. But some of the women who had been carried
prisoners to Medina preferred remaining with their captors."[351]

Even this speech of Omar shows that no one was enslaved during the wars
of Mohammad, as he only refers to the captives of the days of Ignorance
before the Prophet, and those taken in wars against the apostate tribes
after him having been enslaved.

[Sidenote: Concubinage.]

7. The Koran has never allowed concubinage with female captives. And
after the abolition of future slavery enjoined in the Koran, there is no
good in discussing the subject of concubinage, which depends on the
legality or otherwise of slavery. The Koran had taken early measures for
preventing the evil directly and indirectly, posi