_remember_ when God promised you that one of the two
troops should fall to you, and ye desired that they who had no arms
should fall to you: but God purposed to prove true the truth of his
words, and to cut off the uttermost part of the infidels."]

[Footnote 9: "But if they seek to deal treacherously with thee--they
have already dealt treacherously with God before! Therefore hath He
given you power over them."]

[Footnote 10: "Will ye not do battle with a people who have broken their
covenant and aimed to expel your Apostle and attacked you first? Will
you dread them?"]

[Sidenote: Mohammad, owing to the attacks, inroads and threatening
gatherings from the Koreish and other Arab tribes, had hardly time to
think of offensive measures.]

9. But Mohammad, harassed and attacked every year by the Koreish and
other hostile Arab tribes, had hardly any time to wage an aggressive war
against his Koreshite foes, to establish his imperilled rights, or to
redress the injuries of the Moslems or his own wrong; much less of
taking up arms to compel them to renounce idolatry and believe in his
Divine mission. During the first year after their expulsion from Mecca,
the Moslems were in constant danger from the ferocity of the Koreish,
and when Mohammad was contracting treaties of neutrality with the
neighbouring tribes, Kurz-bin-Jabir, a Koreish of the desert, committed
a raid upon Medina. In the course of the second year the Koreish fought
the battle of Badr, followed by a petty inroad of theirs upon Medina at
the end of the year. The Bani Nazeer treasoned against Medina by giving
intelligence to, and entertaining, the enemy. In the beginning of the
third year, the nomad tribes of Suleim and Ghatafan, inhabitants of the
plains of Najd, and descendants of a stock common with the Koreish,
twice projected a plundering attack upon Medina. At the same time the
Moslems were defeated at the battle of Ohad, near Medina, by the
Koreish, which circumstance greatly affected the prestige of the
Prophet, who was threatened with a similar fate the next year by his
victorious enemies. With the opening of the fourth year, the inimical
spirit of many of the Bedouins, as well as that of the Jews of Bani
Nazeer, was perceptible, and in various quarters large masses were
organized to act against Mohammad and to take advantage of the defeat at
Medina. The tribes of Bani Asad and Bani Lahyan were brought together to
follow the victory of the Koreish