Remarkable characters give consequence to insignificant places; Richard
Cœur de Lion, who had filled two continents with his fame, was killed
at the siege of a paltry castle, and the name of Chaluze is preserved
in history. But Kaibar, a city of Arabia, is associated with, and saved
from oblivion by, the name of even a greater man than Richard.
The Jews spread throughout Arabia attempted to cross the ambitious
projects of Mahomet. They took up arms, and shut themselves up in
the strongly fortified city of Kaibar. Although he had beaten them
several times, Mahomet knew that he must not lose his _prestige_, and
at once marched to attack them. Kaibar was carried, but the conquest
proved fatal to the conqueror. He lodged at the house of one of the
principal inhabitants, whose daughter, named Zainab, gave him for
supper a poisoned shoulder of mutton. Mahomet vomited the meat; but
such was the activity of the poison that from that moment he became
a valetudinarian: he died from the effects of the poison three years
after. When questioned as to what could lead her to the commission of
such a crime, Zainab coolly replied, “_I wished to know if Mahomet
were really a prophet._” Notwithstanding such a death would discredit
the holiness of his mission, the followers of Mahomet do not deny this
poisoning.