A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Introduction/22

[Sidenote: Disturbed state of the public peace among the tribes surrounding Medina. Internecine wars an obstacle to the propagation of Islam.]

22. Irrespective of the wars prosecuted by the Koreish from the South against Mohammad at Medina, and the constant danger of inroad and attack upon Medina from the neighbouring tribes&mdash;a great obstacle in the propagation of Islam which could only be successfully accomplished in a state of peace and tranquility of both parties,&mdash;the most important and great tribes in the North and Centre of Arabia were at war against each other during the life of Mohammad, either before his mission from 570 to 610 A.D. or during his public mission from 610 to 632 A.D. The disastrous internecine wars were kept up for scores of years and the evils necessarily inflicted in their progress were not confined to the belligerents only. It required years to remove the evils of war and to efface the traces of misery and sorrow the wars had brought.