In Memoriam: Banu Qurayza

In Memoriam: Banu Qurayza*

It’s evening in Medina and the market is astir.
The children play among the stalls of wood and cloth and fur.
Was that a mother’s voice I heard, a-saying “Now, be brave.”
“We have our lives, thank God for that, no matter free or slave.”

I turned to listen more to this, but there was no-one there.
A death-filled hush foreshadowed night, becalmed the stifling air.
I only saw a carcase dripping blood into the sand;
Its spreading path resembled murdered patterns of a hand.

A hand I see in dreams of captured men in fours and fives;
Self-righteous executioners removing Jewish lives.
And there beneath unwitting, laughing, stamping feet, I see:
Nine hundred headless corpses ask for final dignity.

*For those not familiar with the poem’s context, the Banu Qurayza was a Jewish tribe living in the city of Yathrib (now called Medina). In 627 AD, the Banu Qurayza were besieged for 25 days, then they surrendered. The women and children were sold into slavery, and the 600-1000 men (and one woman) were placed into small groups, executed by decapitation, and their bodies thrown into pits in the area that is now the market of Medina. For a more detailed description of the historical events see the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banu_Qurayza

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