Page:The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930).pdf/22

 he was slain, till someone recognised him and shouted that he was still living, a shout to which the Muslims rallied. Gathering round the Prophet, they retreated, leaving many dead on the hillside.

On the following day the Prophet again sallied forth with what remained of the army, that Qureysh might hear that he was in the field and so might perhaps be deterred from attacking the city. The stratagem succeeded, thanks to the behaviour of a friendly Bedawi, who met the Muslims and conversed with them and afterwards met the army of Qureysh. Questioned by Abû Sufyân, he said that Muhammad was in the field, stronger than ever, and thirsting for revenge for yesterday's affair. On that information, Abû Sufyân decided to return to Mecca.

The reverse which they had suffered on Mt. Uḥud lowered the prestige of the Muslims with the Arab tribes and also with the Jews of Yathrib. Tribes which had inclined toward the Muslims now inclined toward Qureysh. The Prophet's followers were attacked and murdered when they went abroad in little companies. Khubeyb, one of his envoys, was captured by a desert tribe and sold to Qureysh, who tortured him to death in Mecca publicly. And the Jews, despite their treaty, now hardly concealed their hostility. They even went so far in flattery of Qureysh as to declare the religion of the pagan Arabs superior to Al-Islâm. The Prophet was obliged to take punitive action against some of them. The tribe of Banî Naḍîr were besieged in their strong towers, subdued and forced to emigrate. The Hypocrites had sympathised with the Jews and secretly egged them on.

In the fifth year of the Hijrah the idolaters made a great effort to destroy Al-Islâm in the War of the Clans or War of the Trench, as it is variously called; when Qureysh with all their clans and the great desert tribe of Ghatafân with all their clans, an army of ten thousand men rode against Al-Madînah (Yathrib). The Prophet (by the advice of Salman the Persian, it is said) caused a deep trench to be dug before the city, and himself led the work of digging it. The army of the clans was stopped by the trench, a novelty in Arab warfare. It seemed impassable for cavalry, which formed their strength. They camped in sight of it and daily showered their arrows on its defenders. While the Muslims were awaiting the assault, news came that Banî Qureyẓah, a Jewish tribe of Yathrib which had till then been loyal,