(Introduction to the Translation of Holy Quran...

(Introduction to the Translation of Holy Quran, 1975) The story of the siege of the Bani Hashim is a stirring chapter in the epic of Islam, and has been depicted by every historian of the subject, among them Muir and Margoliouth: Sir William Muir "...the Coreish entered into a confederacy against the Hashimites - that they would not marry their women, nor would give their own in marriage to them; that they would sell nothing to them, nor buy aught from them; and that dealings with them of every kind should cease.

The ban was carefully committed to writing, and sealed with three seals. When all had bound themselves by it, the record was hung up in the Kaaba, and religious sanction thus given to its provisions. The Hashimites were unable to withstand the tide of public opinion which set in thus violently against them, and apprehensive perhaps that it might be only the prelude of open…