No retrospective effect here! We may conclude from this that, up to the time of Mahomet, the sons inherited the harem of their father, as is still the case in a number of little despotic states of negro Africa. The holy book also commands respect for the feminine property of others, save in the case of capture by war or of religious infidelity of the husband. “You are forbidden to take to wife free women who are married, except those women whom your right hand shall possess as slaves: such is the law of God.”[396] “O believers! when believing women come unto you as refugees, try them. And if you know them to be true believers, send them not back to their infidel husbands; but give their husbands back what they have expended for their dower.”[397] In the Koran the respect for money is already much greater than for females. The wife must be purchased. “It is permitted unto you to procure wives with money, and you shall keep them in virtuous ways, avoiding debauchery. Give unto her with whom thou dost cohabit the dower thou hast promised.”[398] The prophet counsels the faithful, without however commanding it, to have a small number of wives: “But if ye fear that ye cannot act equitably towards the orphans, take in marriage of such other women as please you, two, or three, or four, and not more.” The text ends with a permission to the man merely to pay a fictitious dowry to the wives: “Assign dowries freely to your wives, and if it pleases them to give you back a part, enjoy it conveniently at your ease.”[399] As for the prophet himself, he was to be above most of the restrictions which he imposed on others: “O prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives unto whom thou hast given their dower, and also the slaves which thy right hand possesseth of the booty which God hath granted thee, and the daughters of thy uncle, and the daughters of thy aunts, both on thy father’s side and on thy mother’s side, who have fled with thee from Mecca, and any other believing woman, if she give herself unto the prophet.”[400] “O prophet, if believing women come to thee for an asylum, having promised thee that they will flee idolatry, that they will not steal, nor commit fornication, nor kill their children, and will not disobey thee in anything that is just: believe them and pray for them: God is indulgent and merciful.”[401] This last text gives a sad enough idea of the morality of the Arab women before the time of Mahomet; but taken together with the preceding one, it shows how convenient and even agreeable it is to be the interpreter of the Divine will. With such facilities for recruiting, the harem of the prophet must have been richly furnished; therefore he has taken care to free himself from one duty which he recommends to others, of _debitum conjugale_: “Thou mayest,” he says to himself, “either grant or refuse thy embraces to thy wives.”[402]