.H., II.]

Still there was no hostile response from Medina, till the aggressors
(the Koreish) brought from Medina an army of 950 strong, mounted on 700
camels and 100 horses, to Badr, nine stages from Mecca, advancing
towards Medina. Then the Prophet set out from Medina at the head of his
small army of 305 to check the advance of his aggressors. This was the
first offensive and defensive war between the Koreish and Mohammad
respectively. The aggressors lost the battle.

[Sidenote: 9. Attack by Abu Sofian upon Medina.--A.H., II.]

After this Abu Sofian, the head of the Koreish, accompanied by 200
mounted followers, alarmed Mohammad and the people of Medina by a raid
upon the cornfields and palm gardens two or three miles north-east of
Medina. The nomad tribes of Suliem and Ghatafan, who were descended from
a common stock with the Koreish, being probably incited by them, or at
least by the example of Abu Sofian, had twice assembled and projected a
plundering attack upon Medina--a task in itself congenial with their
predatory habits.

[Sidenote: 10. The battle of Ohad.]

The Koreish made great preparations for a fresh attack upon Medina. One
year after the battle of Badr, they commenced their march,--three
thousand in number, seven hundred were mailed warriors, and two hundred
well mounted cavalry. Reaching Medina they encamped in an extensive and
fertile plain to the west of Ohad.

Mohammad met Abu Sofian at the head of 700 followers and only two
horsemen, but lost the battle and was wounded.

[Sidenote: 11. Mohammad's prestige affected by the defeat.]

Mohammad's prestige being affected by the defeat at Ohad, many of the
Bedouin tribes began to assume an hostile attitude towards him. The Bani
Asad, a powerful tribe connected with the Koreish in Najd and Bani
Lahyan in the vicinity of Mecca, prepared to make a raid upon Medina.
The Mohammadan missionaries were killed at Raji and Bir Mauna. The
marauding bands of Duma also threatened a raid upon the city. Bani
Mustalik also raised forces to join the Koreish in their threatened
attack upon Medina.

[Sidenote: 12. Abu Sofian threatened the Moslems with another attack
next year.]

Abu Sofian, while retiring from the field, victorious as he was,
threatened the Moslem with a fresh attack the next year as he said to
Omar: "We shall meet again, let it be after a year, at Badr." Medina and
the Moslems, however, enjoyed a long exemption from the threatened
attack of th