Advice for the Muslim

if you want to save your lives,” said the envoy. All their
possessions were gathered with the effort of a Muslim named
Ibrâhîm. “This is not enough!” said the envoy, “We cannot forgive
you for this much. You should bring more!” He gave them a
notebook and said, “List the names of those who do not give! The
men are free to go wherever they wish. The women and children
will be put in chains.” Although they begged him to be a little bit
softer, he increased his aggression and harshness. Ibrâhîm, unable
to be patient any more, hit him on the chest with a stone and killed
him. During this confusion, the Wahhâbîs attacked the fortress,
thus they escaped from being hit by cannon balls and bullets. They
broke the gates and entered the fortress. They killed every woman,
man and child they saw, cutting even the babies in cradles. The
streets turned into floods of blood. They raided the houses and
plundered everywhere, attacking outrageously and madly till
sunset. They could not capture the stone houses in the eastern part
of the fortress, so they besieged and put those houses under a
shower of bullets. A Wahhâbite scoundrel shouted: “We forgive
you! You may go wherever you want with your wives and
children,” but they did not yield. Meanwhile, the Wahhâbîs
gathered the people, who had set out to migrate, on a hill and
encircled those pure Muslim families, who had grown up amid
fondling and affection and most of whom were women and
children, and held them to die of hunger and thirst for twelve days,
and tortured them by slandering, stoning and cudgelling. The
Wahhâbîs called them one by one and beat them and said, “Tell us
where you hid your possessions!” and howled, “Your day of death
is coming!” to those who begged for mercy.
Ibn Shakbân, after pressing the stone houses violently for
twelve days and being unable to make them yield, promised that
those who would come out of the houses and give up arms would
be forgiven. Muslims believed him and came out, but, with their
hands tied behind their backs, they were drawn by Ibn Shakbân to
the hill where the other Muslims were encircled. Three hundred
and sixty-seven men, together with women and children, were put
to the sword on the hill (rahmat-Allâhi ’alaihim ajma’în). They
made animals trample on the bodies of the martyrs and left them
unburied to be eaten by beasts and birds of prey for sixteen
days. They plundered Muslims’ houses and gathered all they
took into a big heap in front of the gateway of the fortress and sent
one fifth of the goods and the money they collected to Sa’ûd,
sharing the remainder among themselves. The traitors and
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