emain perpetually. Almost all European writers, as far as I know,
labour under the delusion that at the end of the ninth year Mohammad
published the opening verses of the ninth Sura, commonly designated
_Sura Barat_. But the fact is that it was published in the eighth year
of the Hegira before the commencement of the sacred months, probably in
the month of Shaban, while Mohammad marched in Ramzan against Mecca, not
with the intention of prosecuting war, for it was to take place after
the lapse of Zikad, Zelhaj and Moharram, but of taking Mecca by
compromise and preconcerted understanding between himself and Abu
Sofian. If it be admitted that the preliminary verses of Sura IX of the
Koran were revealed or published for the first time in the last month of
the ninth year of the Hegira, then they--the verses--become aimless,
without being pregnant of any object in view. They contain injunctions
for carrying hostile operations against those who had broken certain
treaties, had helped others against the Moslems, and themselves had also
attacked them. They proclaimed war against certain tribes, whose people
did not regard ties of blood and good faith, and had been the first
aggressors against the Moslems. Not many such persons were in the whole
of Arabia at and after the time alleged for the promulgation of these
verses, _i.e._, at the last month of the ninth and the whole tenth year.
By this time, almost all Arabia had tendered voluntary submission to the
authority of Mohammad.

Deputations from each tribe of the Arabs continued to reach Medina
during the whole of this period, and were pledged protection and
friendship by the founder of the Islamic faith. From Medina the sound of
drums and the bray of clarions had now died away. Hereupon we are able
to speak with certainty that these verses could not be, and were not,
revealed at the end of the ninth year as it has been asserted by several
writers, both Mohammadan and European. And for the above reasons the
most suitable occasion for the revelation of these verses is the breach
of the truce of Hodeibia by the Koreish and their allies during the
eighth year of the Hegira which caused the reduction of Mecca by
compromise. Several Mohammadan commentators are unanimous in their
opinion as to this point. Consequently the verses, ordaining the
manifestation of arms against the treaty-breakers and aggressors, as
well as putting them to the sword wherever they were to be found,
_i.e.