pliance with this stipulation, Abu-l-Aas sent Zeinab to Medina. She remained there separated from him, till later on he fell into the hands of Mohammed's soldiers, whilst he was returning from a mercantile journey. He begged Zeinab's and her father's pardon, had his goods restored to him, and embraced Islam. His wife rejoined him, by virtue of the first marriage, or, according to another account, by a fresh marriage.

Zeinab had two children by Abu-l-Aas: a boy called Ali, who died when he was nearly grown up; and a girl called Imama, whom the Prophet loved so much that once he kept her on his shoulder whilst performing his prayers, putting her on the ground at the prostration and taking her up again, when he raised his blessed head from the ground. She was afterwards married to Ali Ibn Abu Talib, after Fatima's death, who had counselled the marriage. Zeinab died A.H. 8. The Prophet ordered that she should be washed three or five or seven times, the last time with camphor; and that his own bathing-towel should be tied on to her winding-sheets.

Rakaia, Mohammed's second daughter, was born during the time of ignorance, in the thirty-third year of the Elephant, and was married by her father to Atiba Ibn Abu Lahab. But before the marriage was consummated, a verse was revealed against Abu Lahab, wherefore he insisted on his son divorcing Rakaia. It is also recorded that after Mohammed had received his apostolic mission, the Koreish, from their enmity to him, said to his sons-inlaw Abu-l-Aas and Atiba, ' You have taken Mohammed's daughters and freed him from this care: if you desire our goodwill, you must divorce them, so that he may be occupied with his daughters and not with other matters; and we will give you instead any one of our daughters whom you may choose.' Abu-l-Aas declined; but Atiba said, ' If you give me Saad's daughter, I will divorce Rakaia.'

Accordingly, Atiba, about to start on a mercantile journey to Syria, with his father, first went to Mohammed, speaking against his God, and then called out, 'I have divorced Rakaia.' The Prophet replied, 'O God, set thou one of thy dogs at him.' When they had reached the Zarka station on their journey to Syria, a monk came from a neighbouring monastery and told them, 'This station is an abode of wild beasts: be on your guard!' Therefore Abu Lahab went round to all the people of the caravan, saying, 'Help us this night; for I fear for my son on account of Mohammed's curse.' So they brought all their merchandise together on a heap, and pre-

pared a place on its top for Atiba to sleep in. But in the night God sent a heavy sleep upon them. A lion came, first smelled at each one of them, without doing them any harm, and then, flinging itself upon the heap of merchandise, gave Atiba a blow with its paw which tore asunder his body and killed him.

Afterwards the Prophet gave Rakaia to Othman Ibn Afan, and they twice emigrated to Abyssinia. Rakaia being with child during the first emigration, suffered a miscarriage. Then she bore Othman a son, named Abd Allah, who died two years old, from the effects of his eye being picked out by a cock. Rakaia died A.H. 2, during the absence of her father at the battle of Bedr. When the ladies wept for her, Omar Ibn Khattab came and struck them with his fist, saying, 'Why do you weep?' The Apostle of God, seizing his hand, said to him, 'Beat them not, let them weep: but they must refrain from wailing and beating themselves.' When Fatima sat on her grave, by the side of the Prophet, and wept, he dried her tears with the end of his sleeve. As most narrators agree that the Prophet was from home when Rakaia died, the last-mentioned circumstance must either have happened at the death of another of his daughters, or else during one of his visits to the tomb, after his return from Bedr. But God knows best.

Om Kolthum or Amina was Mohammed's third daughter. She was at first married to Otba, Atiba's brother, who soon divorced her at the instigation of his father Abu Lahab. A year after Rakaia's death, the Prophet gave her to Othman Ibn Afan. According to some historians she bore him no children; and according to others, the children she bore died in infancy. She herself died A.H. 9. When her body had been brought to the grave, the Prophet asked, 'Which of you men did not approach last night?' and on Abu Talha answering, he did not, he commanded him to descend into the grave and bury her. He also ordered the grave to be smoothed down, but said, 'Know, that the dead derives no benefit from this; only it is more gratifying to the living.'

Fatima the brilliant, surnamed Om Mohammed, and also called the blessed, the pure, the intelligent, the content, the contenting, and the virgin, was Mohammed's fourth daughter. She was born in the thirty-fifth or the forty-first year of the Elephant, and is generally regarded as the Prophet's youngest daughter, though some say that Rakaia or Om Kolthum was the youngest. Ali Ibn Abu Talib married her A. H. 2, on his return from the battle of Bedr. At