which they had set out having been secured, the army should at once
retrace its steps. Others demanded that the army should advance. Two
tribes returned to Mecca, the rest marched onwards; but it is not fair
to allege that Mohammad had set forth to attack the caravan. Had he any
such intention, the people of Medina, who had pledged themselves only to
defend him against personal attack, would not have accompanied him. The
presence of a large number of the _Ansars_, the people of Medina, more
than double that of the _Mohajirins_, the refugees, is a strong proof
that they had come out only in their defence.

Mohammad, on receiving intelligence of the advancing force of the
Koreish, set out from Medina to check the advance of the Meccan force,
and encountered it at Badr, three days' journey from Medina. The Meccan
army had advanced nine days' journey from Mecca towards Medina. The
forces met at Badr on the 17th of Ramzan (13th January 623), the Meccans
had left Mecca on the 8th of Ramzan (4th January), and Mohammad started
only on the 12th of Ramzan (8th January), about four days after the
Meccan army had actually set out to attack him. Supposing Abu Sofian had
some reason for apprehending an attack from Medina, and sent for succour
from Mecca, but the object of the Meccan army of the Koreish for which
they had set out having been secured, the caravan having passed
unmolested, they ought at once to have retraced their steps. The fact
that Mohammad left Medina four days after the Koreish had left Mecca
with a large army advancing towards Medina, is strongly in his favour.

[Sidenote: 26. The first aggressions after the Hegira, if from Mohammad,
might fairly be looked upon as retaliation.]

Even taking it for granted that the first aggressions after the Hegira
were solely on the part of the Moslems, and that several of the caravans
of the Koreish had been waylaid and plundered, and blood had been shed,
it would be unfair to condemn Mohammad. Such attacks, had they been
made, might fairly be looked upon as a retaliation for the ill-treatment
of the Moslems before the flight from Mecca. "Public war is a state of
armed hostility between sovereign nations or governments. It is a law
and requisite of civilized existence that men live in political
continuous societies, forming organized units called states or nations,
whose constituents bear, enjoy and suffer, advance and retrograde
together, in peace and in war. The citizen or n