bishops, as well as the rabbis of former times, have beat the
drum-ecclesiastic with pleasure and success. (Sale's Preliminary
Discourse, p. 142, 143.)]

[Footnote 1241: The editor's opinions on this subject may be read in the
History of the Jews vol. i. p. 137.--M]

[Footnote 125: Abulfeda, in Vit. Moham. p. 156. The private arsenal
of the apostle consisted of nine swords, three lances, seven pikes or
half-pikes, a quiver and three bows, seven cuirasses, three shields,
and two helmets, (Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 328-334,) with a large white
standard, a black banner, (p. 335,) twenty horses, (p. 322, &c.) Two of
his martial sayings are recorded by tradition, (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 88,
334.)]

[Footnote 126: The whole subject de jure belli Mohammedanorum
is exhausted in a separate dissertation by the learned Reland,
(Dissertationes Miscellaneae, tom. iii. Dissertat. x. p. 3-53.)]

[Footnote 127: The doctrine of absolute predestination, on which few
religions can reproach each other, is sternly exposed in the Koran, (c.
3, p. 52, 53, c. 4, p. 70, &c., with the notes of Sale, and c. 17, p.
413, with those of Maracci.) Reland (de Relig. Moham. p. 61-64) and
Sale (Prelim. Discourse, p. 103) represent the opinions of the doctors,
and our modern travellers the confidence, the fading confidence, of the
Turks]

Perhaps the Koreish would have been content with the dight of Mahomet,
had they not been provoked and alarmed by the vengeance of an enemy, who
could intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed through
the territory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, with only thirty or forty
followers, conducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand camels; the fortune
or dexterity of his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but the
chief of the Koreish was informed that the holy robbers were placed in
ambush to await his return. He despatched a messenger to his brethren of
Mecca, and they were roused, by the fear of losing their merchandise and
their provisions, unless they hastened to his relief with the military
force of the city. The sacred band of Mahomet was formed of three
hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom seventy-seven were fugitives, and
the rest auxiliaries; they mounted by turns a train of seventy camels,
(the camels of Yathreb were formidable in war;) but such was the poverty
of his first disciples, that only two could appear on horseback in
the field. [128] In the fertile and famous vale of Beder, [129] three
stat