llude to their own authorities. Jabir-bin Abdullah was a mere
boy at that time. He was not allowed to appear even at the battle of
Ohad, which took place after the alleged execution of Kab, on account of
his tender age.[214] Ibn Abbas was even younger than Jabir, and besides,
was putting up at Mecca at the period in question.[215] Ikrama was a
slave of Ibn Abbas, and was notoriously given to the forging of
fictitious traditions.[216]

4.--_Sofian-bin Khalid._

[Sidenote: 51. Sofian-bin Khalid.]

After the reverse at Medina, in the battle of Ohad, large gatherings
were organized in various quarters of Arabia against the Moslems. The
Bani Lahyan, and other neighbouring tribes, rallied round the standard
of their chief Sofian, the son of Khalid, at Orna with the avowed
purpose of taking this occasion by the forelock when the tables were
turned at Ohad. "Mahomet, knowing that their movements depended solely
upon Sofian, despatched Abdullah ibn Oneis with instructions to
assassinate him."[217] The accredited envoy volunteered himself for the
service, which he accomplished by destroying Sofian by surprise. Neither
Ibn Ishak, nor Ibn Hisham, nor Ibn Sad have anything to say about
'instructions' for assassination. Abdullah-bin Oneis may have been sent
as a spy to reconnoitre the movements of Sofian and his army, or to
bring advices concerning him, but it cannot be affirmed that he was
tutored by Mohammad to assassinate Sofian, even on the supposition that
his mission was to kill the latter.

[Sidenote: 52. Justifications of Sofian's alleged murder.]

Among the Arabs the international law of estates in their hostile
relations, and the military law and usage of former times, not
forgetting to mention the European international law as late as the last
century, maintained the broad principle that "in war everything done
against an enemy is lawful that he may be destroyed, though unarmed and
defenceless; that fraud or even poison may be employed against him; that
a most unlimited right is acquired to his person and property."[218]
Every sort of fraud except perfidy was allowed to be practised towards
an enemy in war. "I allow of any kind of deceit," writes Bynkershoek, a
writer on international law, the successor of Puffendorf and the
predecessor of Wolff and Vattel, "perfidy alone excepted, not because
anything is unlawful against an enemy, but because when our faith had
been pledged to him, so far as the promise extends, he c