26 Preface وَأَنزَلَ الَّذينَ ظاهَروهُم مِن أَهلِ الكِتابِ مِن صَياصيهِم وَقَذَفَ في قُلوبِهِمُ الرُّعبَ فَريقًا تَقتُلونَ وَتَأسِرونَ فَريقًاYusuf AliAnd those of the people1 of the Book who aided them—God did take them down from their strongholds2 and cast terror into their hearts. (So that)3 some ye slew, and some4 ye made prisoners.The reference is to the Jewish tribe of the Banū Quraiẓa. They counted among the citizens of Medīna and were bound by solemn engagements to help in the defence of the city. But on the occasion of the Confederate siege by the Quraish and their allies, they intrigued with the enemies and treacherously aided them. Immediately after the siege was raised and the Confederates had fled in hot haste, the Prophet turned his attention to the treacherous “friends” who had betrayed his City in the hour of danger.The Banū Quraiẓa (see last note) were filled with terror and dismay when Medīna was free from the Quraish danger. They shut themselves up in their castles about three or four miles to the east (or north east) of Medīna, and sustained a siege of 25 days, after which they surrendered, stipulating that they would abide by the decision of their fate at the hands of Saʿd ibn Muʿāẓ, chief of the Aus tribe, with which they had been in alliance.Saʿd applied to them the Jewish Law of the Old Testament, not as strictly as the case warranted. In Deut. 20:10-18, the treatment of a city “which is very far off from thee” is prescribed to be comparatively more lenient than the treatment of a city “of the people, which the Lord thy God does give thee for an inheritance,” i.e., which is near enough to corrupt the religion of the Jewish people. The punishment for these is total annihilation: “thou shall save alive nothing that breatheth” (Deut. 20:16). The more lenient treatment for far-off cities is described in the next note. According to the Jewish standard, then, the Quraiẓa deserved total extermination—of men, women, and children. They were in the territory of Medīna itself, and further they had broken their engagements and helped the enemy.Saʿd adjudged them the mildest treatment of the “far-off” cities which is thus described in the Jewish Law: “Thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: but the women and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself, and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee” (Deut. 20:13-14). The men of the Quraiẓa were slain: the women were sold as captives of war: and their lands and properties were divided among the Muhājirs.