ully followed his example.[247] The prisoners
were six thousand in number.[248]

A party of eighty, as related by Moslim in his _Saheeh_, or of forty or
fifty Koreish, as narrated by Ibn Hisham (p. 745), went round about
Mohammad's camp while stationed at Hodeibia in A.H. 6, seeking to cut
off any stray followers, and having attacked the camp itself with stones
and arrows, they were caught and taken prisoners to Mohammad, who, with
his usual generosity, pardoned and released them.

Khalid-Ibn-Waleed, in the year of his victory, A.H. 11, when he was
sent to call the Bani Jazima to embrace Islam, had made them prisoners
and ordered their execution. Some of the better-informed of the Moslems
of the injunctions of the Koran, of releasing prisoners either freely or
by exacting ransom, interposed and accused him of committing an act of
the Time of Ignorance. Mohammad, much displeased, grieved at the
intelligence, and said twice, 'O God! I am innocent of what Khalid hath
done.'[249]

[Footnote 245: Muir's Life of Mahomet, Vol. II, pp. 122 and 123.]

[Footnote 246: _Ibid_, Vol. III, p. 243.]

[Footnote 247: _Ibid_, Vol. IV. pp. 148 and 149.]

[Footnote 248: Ibn Hisham, p. 877.]

[Footnote 249: Ibn Hisham, pp. 833 and 835.]

_The Execution of the Bani Koreiza._

[Sidenote: 68. High treason of the Bani Koreiza against Medina, and
their execution.]

The Bani Koreiza, a Jewish tribe living in the vicinity of Mecca had
entered into an alliance with the Moslem Commonwealth to defend the city
of Medina from the attack of the aggressors. While Medina was besieged
by the ten thousand Koreish and other Bedouin tribes in A.H. 6, they
(the Koreiza), instead of co-operating with the Moslems, defected from
their allegiance and entered into negotiations with the besieging foe.
After the cessation of the siege, they were besieged in their turn, and
a fearful example was made of them, not by Mohammad, but by an arbiter
chosen and appointed by themselves. The execution of some of them was
not on account of their being prisoners of war; they were war-traitors
and rebels, and deserved death according to the international law. Their
crime was high treason against Medina while it was blockaded. There had
no actual fighting taken place between the Bani Koreiza and the Moslems,
after the former had thrown off their allegiance to the latter and had
aided and abetted the enemies of the realm. They were besieged by the
Moslems to punish the