he people to
embrace Islam, of which only one person escaped. Mohammad's messenger
despatched to the Ghassanide Prince at Bostra was murdered by the chief
of Muta. His army sent to avenge the treachery of the chief was
defeated. All these mishaps and reverses dangerously affected the
prestige of Mohammad, and encouraged the Meccans to violate the truce.]

_The defensive character of the wars._

[Sidenote: 17. Verses from the Koran in support of the defensive
character of the wars.]

This brief sketch of the defensive wars of Mohammad with the Koreish
will fully show, that those who assert that Mohammad was aggressive or
revengeful in his wars, or that he made war to force his religion upon
the people, are altogether in the wrong.

I will now quote some verses of the Koran, showing that all the wars of
Mohammad with the Koreish were defensive wars.

39. "Verily, God will ward off[162] _mischief_ from believers: lo, God
loveth not the false, the unbeliever."

40. "A sanction is given to those who have been fought,[163] because
they have suffered outrages, and verily, God is well able to succour
them"--

41. "Those who have been driven forth from their homes wrongfully, only
because they say, 'Our Lord is the God.' And if God had not repelled
some men by others, cloisters and churches and oratories and mosques
wherein the name of God is ever commemorated, would surely have been
destroyed! And him who helpeth God will God surely help: Verily, God is
Strong, Mighty."

42. "They who, if We established them in _this_ land, will observe
prayer and pay the alms of obligation and enjoin what is recognized _as
right_--and forbid what is unlawful. And the final issue of all things
is unto God."--Sura, xxii.

186. "And fight for the cause of God against those who fight against
you: but commit not the injustice of _attacking them first_: verily, God
loveth not the unjust."

187. "And kill them wherever ye find them, and eject them from whatever
place they have ejected you, for (_fitnah_)[164] persecution is worse
than slaughter: yet attack them not at the sacred mosque, until they
attack you therein; but if they attack you, then slay them--Such is the
recompense of the infidels!"--

188. "But if they desist,[165] then verily God is Gracious, Merciful!"

189. "And do battle against them until there be no more (_fitnah_)
persecution, and the worship be that of God: but if they desist, then
let there be no hostility, s