mans, rather than to their ordinary condition. No
ban was issued against the Jews and Christians, as unfit for the sacred
rites and holy precincts of the Meccan temple. On the contrary, the
Christians of Najran, when arrived at Medina, were accommodated by the
Prophet in his Mosque, and they used to say their prayers there.]

[Footnote 184: Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, p. 61.]

_The Christians or Romans._

[Sidenote: 32. Tabuk, the last expedition.]

The last expedition of Mohammad was that of Tabuk, and it was also
purely defensive. The travellers and traders arriving from Syria brought
news of the gathering of a large army on the borders of Syria. A year's
pay, they said, had been advanced by the Greek or Roman Emperor, who was
then at Hims, in order that the soldiers might be well-furnished for a
long campaign; the tribes of the Syrian desert, the Bani Lakhm, Judzam,
Amila, and Ghussan were flocking around the Roman Eagles, and the
vanguard was already at Balca. Mohammad at once resolved to meet this
danger. When he arrived in the vicinity of the Syrian border at Tabuk,
he found no troops to oppose him. There were no signs of impending
danger, and he therefore returned with his army to Medina. This was in
the ninth year of the Hegira.

[Sidenote: 33. The conclusion.]

This concludes the description of all the wars of the Prophet. I hope I
have shown, on good and reasonable grounds, and from the surest and most
authentic sources, that the wars were not of an offensive and aggressive
character; but, on the contrary, they were wars of defence and
protection. The early Moslems were wronged, because they believed in the
faith of Mohammad; they were deprived of their civil and religious
rights, were driven forth from their homes and their properties, and
after all were attacked first, by the Koreish and their confederates,
the Jews and other Arabian tribes. They fought neither for revenge, nor
to impose the faith of Mohammad by force of arms, nor for the plunder of
the caravans which passed in proximity to their city. The permission to
fight was only given to the believers because they were fought against
or were attacked first, and had been wronged and driven from their homes
without just cause. They therefore took up arms against those who first
compelled them to fly from their homes, and then attacked them. This was
in full accordance, therefore, with the law of nations and the sacred
law of nature. The people of M