Page:History of Mahomet, that grand impostor.pdf/23

 which remained a long time desperate and doubtful, at the length fell to the side ot Mahomet; but the caravan made so good a retreat, that they saved a good part of their baggage. However Mahomet’s troops gained a very considerable booty, which had like to have been the occasion of breeding a fatal quarrel among them: for the army consisting of two parties, the men of Medina, who had given him so kind a reception, and those of Mecca, who had been the companions of his flight, the former insisting on a larger share than the latter. In order to put an end to this controversy, Mahomet thought proper to compose the eighth chapter of his Alcoran; whereby he allots the fifth part of the spoil to himself, and the rest to be equally divided between the contending parties.

The very extraordinary success of this action, against an enemy so much superior as to numbers, gave Mahomet and his followers great encouragement. He frequently boasts of it in his Alcoran, and would have it to be believed that two miracles were wrought for him on that occasion. The first, says Mahomet, was, “That God made his army appear much more numerous to his enemies than it was in reality, which much damp'd their courage:” And the second was, “That he sent troops of angels to his assistance, which contributed greatly towards his victory.” To make his success to look the more miraculous, Mahomet multiplies the forces that he fought against to three thousand men, besides the drivers: but the credit of this great odds stands upon no other foundation than that of his own single testimony.

In the year, (A. D. 624) Mahomet made war upon