lived by plunder or by war, and
who he knew might be deterred by such prohibition from joining him.
'Let us make one more expedition against the Temim,' said a tribe
that was almost, but not altogether, persuaded to embrace the
faith, 'and then we will become Musalmans.'"[26]

"In avenging my injuries," said he (Mohammad), "molest not the
harmless votaries of domestic seclusion; spare the weakness of the
softer sex, the infant at the breast, and those who in the course
of nature are hastening from this scene of mortality. Abstain from
demolishing the dwellings of the unresisting inhabitants; destroy
not their means of subsistence, respect their fruit trees, and
touch not the palm, so useful to the Syrians for its shade, and
delightful for its verdure."[27]

"The Bani Bakr," writes Sir W. Muir, "meanwhile, foreseeing from
the practice of the Prophet that, under the new faith, their mutual
enmities would be stifled, resolved upon a last passage of arms
with their foes. The battle of _Shaitain_ fought at the close of
630 A.D. was a bloody and fatal one to the Bani Tamim."[28]

[Footnote 23: "Decline and Fall, Chap. 1."]

[Footnote 24: The Life of Mahomet, founder of the religion of Islamism
and of the Empire of the Saracens, by the Rev. Samuel Green, page 126:
London, 1877.]

[Footnote 25: Mohammad's instruction to Abdal-Rahman was--"In no case
shalt thou use deceit or perfidy, nor shalt thou kill any child."--Muir,
Vol. IV, p. 11.]

[Footnote 26: 'Quoted by Dr. Cazenove,' "Christian Remembrancer,"
January, 1855, page 71, from Caussin de Perceval. Mohammed &
Mohammedanism. By R. Bosworth Smith, Second Edn., pp. 257 & 258. London,
1876.]

[Footnote 27: An History of Mohammedanism; comprising the Life and
Character of the Arabian Prophet; by Charles Mills, page 27. London
1818.]

[Footnote 28: The Life of Mahomet, Vol. I, Intro., p. ccxxvii. London,
1861.]

[Sidenote: Another view of the wars of Mohammad.]

16. There is another view of the wars of Mohammad held by some of the
European and American writers that he commenced hostilities on the
caravans of the Koreish which passed from Medina by way of reprisal and
retaliation,[29] and that he at first took up arms in his self-defence,
but at last he proclaimed, and waged, offensive wars against the
Koreish.[30] I have already shown how improbable the line of action was
on the p