store in great measure
Mahomet's reputation, so that he had less trouble hereafter with the
Disaffected within Medina and with the maraudings of desert tribes. For
the moment his position within the city was comparatively secure;
moreover, in exterminating the Koreitza he had removed the last of the
hated Hebrew race from the precincts of his adopted city, and could
regard himself as master of all its neighbouring territory. The
Disaffected, it is true, remained sufficiently at variance with him to
resent, though impotently, his severity towards the Koreitza, and to
declare that Sa'ad ibn Muadh's death, which occurred soon after, was the
direct result of his bloody judgment. But their resentment was confined
to speech. The Meccans had retired discredited, and were unlikely to
attack again for some time at least.

For a little space Mahomet seemed secure in his city, whence active
opposition had been driven out.

The period after the War of the Ditch shows him definitely the ruler of a
rival city to Mecca. The Kureisch have made their last concerted attack
and are now forced to recognise him as a permanent factor in their
political world, though they would not name him equal until he had made
further displays of strength. He takes his place now among the city
chieftains of Western Arabia, and has next to reckon with the nomad
Bedouin tribes of the interior, in which position he is akin to the ruler
of Mecca himself. He is still never at rest from warfare. One expedition
succeeds another, until there is some chance of the realisation of his
dream, whose splendour even now beats with insistence upon his spirit,
the establishment of his mighty faith within the mother-city which gave
it birth, whence, purged of its idolatries and aflame with devotion, it
shall make of that city the goal of its followers' prayers, the crown of
its earthly sovereignty.

CHAPTER XVI

THE PILGRIMAGE TO HODEIBIA

"And He it was who held their hands from you and your hands
from them in the valley of Mecca, after that He had given you the
victory over them; for God saw what ye did."--_The Kuran._

Mahomet, now secure from immediate attack, counted himself permanently
rid of the Meccan menace and devoted his care to the strengthening of his
position among the surrounding desert tribes. The year 627-628 is filled
with minor expeditions to chastise or conquer his numerous enemies in the
interior. His ceaseless vigilance, made effe