Page:The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930).pdf/20

 went out ready to resist attack. It is noteworthy that in those expeditions only fugitives from Mecca were employed, never natives of Yathrib; the reason being (if we accept Ibn Khaldûn's theory, and there is no other explanation) that the command to wage war had been revealed to the Prophet at Mecca after the Yathrib men had sworn their oath of allegiance at Al-'Aqabah, and in their absence. Their oath foresaw fighting in mere defence, not fighting in the field. Blood was shed and booty taken in only one of those early expeditions, and then it was against the Prophet's orders. One purpose of those expeditions may have been to accustom the Meccan Muslims to going out in warlike trim. For thirteen years they had been strict pacifists, and it is clear, from several passages of the Koran, that many of them, including, it may be, the Prophet himself, hated the idea of fighting even in self-defence and had to be inured to it.

In the second year of the Hijrah the Meccan merchants' caravan was returning from Syria as usual by a road which passed not far from Yathrib. As its leader Abû Sufyân approached the territory of Yathrib he heard of the Prophet's design to capture the caravan. At once he sent a camel-rider on to Mecca, who arrived in a worn-out state and shouted frantically from the valley to Qureysh to hasten to the rescue unless they wished to lose both wealth and honour. A force a thousand strong was soon on its way to Yathrib; less, it would seem, with the hope of saving the caravan than with the idea of punishing the raiders, since the Prophet might have taken the caravan before the relief force started from Mecca. Did the Prophet ever intend to raid the caravan? In Ibn Hishâm, in the account of the Tabûk expedition, it is stated that the Prophet on that one occasion did not hide his real objective as had been his custom in other campaigns. The caravan was the pretext in the campaign of Badr, the real objective was the Meccan army. He had received command to fight his persecutors, and promise of victory; he was prepared to venture against any odds, as was well seen at Badr. But the Muslims, disinclined and ill-equipped for war, would have despaired if they had known from the first that they were to face a well-armed force three times their number.

The army of Qureysh had advanced more than half-way to Yathrib before the Prophet set out. All three parties&mdash;the army of Qureysh,