A.H. XIV., XV. A.D. 635, 636. [Sidenote: Domestic events. A.H. XIV., XV.] I must now revert to one or two matters of domestic interest, which, not to break the story of external conquest, I have refrained from noticing before. [Sidenote: Expulsion of Jews and Christians from Arabia.] Arabia, as the nursery of the legions destined to wage the wars of Islam, must be purged of strange religions. And accordingly, so soon as victory was secured in Syria and Irâc, Omar proceeded to signalise his reign by an act of harshness, if not of questionable equity. [Sidenote: Christians removed from Najrân,] In the centre of Arabia lies the province of Najrân, inhabited from of old by a Christian people. Mahomet had concluded a treaty with their chiefs and bishops, by which the annual tribute of 2,000 suits of raiment secured them safety in the undisturbed profession of their ancestral faith. Throughout the rebellion they remained loyal to their engagements, and Abu Bekr renewed the treaty. Worthy descendants of a martyr race, they resisted the blandishments of Islam; and as a penalty they must now quit their native soil, consecrated, in the persecution of Dzu Nowâs, by the ashes of their forefathers.[345] They were ordered to depart and receive lands in exchange elsewhere. Some migrated to Syria; but the greater part settled in the vicinity of Kûfa, where the colony of Najrânia long maintained the memory of Mahometan intolerance. The rights, however, conferred upon them by the Prophet’s treaty, so far as their expatriation might admit, were respected by successive rulers; and their tribute, with decreasing numbers, lightened sensibly from time to time. [Sidenote: and Jews from Kheibar.]After their removal, no long time elapsed before the Jews of Kheibar, a rich vale two or three days’ journey north of Medîna, met a similar fate. Their claim was not so strong as the Christians’; for, conquered by Mahomet, they had been left on sufferance in possession of their fields at a rent of half the produce. In return for this partial right from which they now were ousted, they received a money payment, and then departed for Syria. Various pretexts are urged for the expatriation in either case. But behind them all we find the dogma--supposed dying behest of Mahomet--_In Arabia there shall be but one religion_. The recruiting field of Islam must be sacred ground.[346] [Sidenote: The Arabs as a nation share the spoils of war.]