tack, or inroad from without, and treachery, conspiracy and
treason from within. They either had to encounter superior numbers or to
disperse hostile gathering or to chastise sometimes marauding tribes. So
Mohammad could scarcely breathe freely at Medina, but much less could he
find time and opportunity to mature a scheme of attacking the Koreish at
Mecca in order to revenge himself and his refugees for the persecutions
which the Koreish had inflicted on the Moslems, to redress their wrongs,
and to re-establish their rights of civil and religious liberty, or to
make converts of them or any other tribes at the point of sword.

[Footnote 11: Bani Ashja, Murra Fezara, Suleim, Sad, Asad, and several
clans of Ghatafan, the Jews of Wady-al-Koraa and Khyber.]

[Footnote 12: A party of Moslems at Zil Kassa was slain, and Dihya, sent
by Mohammad to the Roman Emperor, on his return, was robbed of every
thing by the Bani Juzam beyond Wady-al-Kora.]

[Footnote 13: The Jews at Khyber were enticing the Bani Fezara and Bani
Sad-bin-Bakr and other Bedouin tribes to make depredations upon Medina.]

[Sidenote: Armed opposition of the Koreish to the Moslem pilgrims in the
vicinity of Mecca.]

[Sidenote: Mohammad proclaimed war against the opposing Koreish to
obtain the right of civil and religious liberty at Mecca.]

10. It was only when the Moslems, unarmed as they were in pilgrim's
garb, were opposed by the armed Koreish, who had encamped at Zu Towa,
clothed in panther's skin, or, in other words, with a firm resolution to
fight to the last, and when Osman, the Moslem envoy to Mecca, was
actually placed in confinement,[14] of whom the rumour was constantly
rife that he was murdered at Mecca, and when a party of the Koreish had
actually attacked the camp of Mohammad,[15] that excitement, alarm and
anxiety prevailed in the Moslem camp, and Mohammad took a solemn oath
from the Faithful to stand by their cause even unto death. (Sura
XLVIII.[16]) In the meantime appeals were received from the Moslems
detained in confinement at Mecca, and otherwise oppressed for
deliverance. _Vide_ Sura IV, verses 77, 99, 100; Sura VIII, verses 72,
73. He, on this occasion, proclaimed a war with the Koreish in the event
of their attacking first, and enjoining the believers to redress their
earlier and later wrongs, to establish their civil and religious
liberty, to have free access to their native city, to have the free
exercise of their religion, and t