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2. The second motive was the fear that their daughters would be taken
captive and thus bring disgrace and ignominy to their family. As
Nicholson remarked: "Fathers feared that they should have useless mouths
to feed. or lest they should incur disgrace in consequence of their
daughters being made prisoners of war. " Moreover, wars between
Arabs before Islam were broadly of two kinds, as we said, The first
was motivated by the desire to plunder. The second. by revenge.
As Smith affirms, "That in plundering excursion. not much blood was
shed. women were captured often and (as some contemporary poems indicate)
were simply taken to the slave market of some such trading place as
Mecca and sold out of the country. " 2
In the war of revenge, on the
other hand, the men were Immediate victims; the women were. as a rule.
taken captives. So, together "With the idea that it was humiliating to
beget daughters, there ran the thought in that in a society where
marriage by capture was common, girls might be carried off in wars
to become the wives or concubines of enemies, 11 3
and bring disgrace
on their parents, clans and tribes. It was reported that "when al-Aýnaf
bin Qays was told about his daughter's birth, he wept. When he was
asked why. he said, "How can I not weepT' She is shame. Her presence
is theft. Her weapon is crying and her good is not for me but for
another. 11 4
Burying daughters alive was reported in more than one Arab source
to have started with a chieftain of Tamim al-NumMi b. Mundhir (the king
of Hirah). It is narrated that his troops made a foray against the tribe
It
Tamim and carried off all the women. but the king ordered that the
captives should choose to return to their husbands or to stay. if they
Ibid
Smith. op. cit.. P. 294
3. Le yP p cit., P. 92
*op.
4. Alzfý,
cit., P. 292
52