y told him he might, if he wished,
make his circuits round the Kaaba. But upon his replying he would not do
so until the apostle of God had first performed his vow to make the holy
circuits, they were so greatly provoked that they laid him in irons. In
the Mussulman army it was reported that he was killed, at which Mahomet
was much afflicted and said aloud, "We will not stir from hence till we
have given battle to the enemy." Thereupon the whole army took an oath
of obedience and fealty to the prophet, who, on his part, by the
ceremony of clapping his hands one against the other, took an oath to
stand by them as long as there was one of them left.

The Koreishites sent a party of eighty men toward the camp of the
Mussulmans to beat up their quarters. Being discovered, by the
sentinels, they were surrounded, taken prisoners, and brought before
Mahomet; who, thinking it proper at that time to be generous, released
them. In return, Sohail son of Amru was sent to him with proposals of
peace, which he agreed to accept.

Mahomet, pretending he had a divine promise of a great booty, returned
to Medina and, having concluded a peace for ten years with the
Koreishites, was the better enabled to attack the Jews, his
irreconcilable enemies. Accordingly, he went to Khaibar, a strong town
about six days' journey northeast of Medina, and took that and several
other strong places, whereto the Jews had retired, and carried a vast
deal of treasure; this all fell into the hands of the Mussulmans. Being
entertained at Khaibar, a young Jewess, to try, as she afterward said,
whether he were a prophet or not, poisoned a shoulder of mutton, a joint
Mahomet was particularly fond of. One of those who partook of it at the
table, named Basher, died upon the spot; but Mahomet, finding it taste
disagreeable, spat it out, saying, "This mutton tells me it is
poisoned." The miracle-mongers improve this story, by making the
shoulder of mutton speak to him; but if it did, it spoke too late, for
he had already swallowed some of it; and of the effects of that morsel
he complained in his last illness, of which he died three years after.

In this year, Jannabi mentions Mahomet's being bewitched by the Jews.
Having made a waxen image of him, they hid it in a well, together with a
comb and a tuft of hair tied in eleven knots. The prophet fell into a
very wasting condition, till he had a dream that informed him where
these implements of witchcraft were, and a