was no human being at all, but the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of Truth.

It is plain that neither the personal character of Mohammed, nor the prophecies he wrongly invoked in his behalf, could ever have produced amongst his countrymen a general opinion in his favour, strong enough to make his religion dominant in Arabia. This result was only accomplished by an arm of flesh, by a warfare which was not spiritual but carnal; and history leaves no doubt that the halo of victory and triumph with which Islam figures on its pages, is owing mainly, if not solely, to the fact that it was the religion of the sword.

(5.) Mohammed engages in a number of warlike expeditions against the Koreish, for the purposes of revenge and plunder, which culminate in the victorious battle at Bedr.

We have now, in following the example of the Mohammedan biographers, to turn to those incessant marauding expeditions, wars, and conquests by which Mohammed's biography, after the Hegira, appears less that of a prophet than of a warrior. As an unscrupulous conqueror, he sheds men's blood and coolly seizes the property of those weaker than himself. With regard to the earlier of those warlike expeditions, it was especially clear that their direct and main object was by no means the propagation of Islam, though this also followed, as a necessary consequence, wherever Mohammed could gain a footing for his power. The aim with which the martial enterprises against the Koreish were undertaken in such quick succession, for the space of about a year, was rather the double one of plundering Meccan caravans, with whose booty Mohammed and his fellow-fugitives might supply the wants of their poverty, and of avenging themselves for the hostility of Mecca, which had forced them from home, to seek a place of refuge abroad.

Mohammedan historians themselves are not quite agreed as to the exact order in which these first martial attempts of the Moslems took place; but they inform us that in some of them Mohammed personally took the lead, whilst for others he appointed a commander who acted under his instruction

and in his name. Ibn Ishak states that the Meccan refugees had hardly recovered from the attacks of fever which befell them in the unaccustomed climate of Medina, when Mohammed 'prepared for war against his enemies, the Arab idolaters, according to the command of God.'

Scarcely twelve months after his arrival in Medina, he started on his first war expedition, that to Waddan and Abwa. He was in search of the Koreish, but returned home without having encountered them. The only thing he accomplished was the conclusion of a treaty of peace with the Beni Dhamra, by which he detached them from the Koreishites, their former allies. In a second expedition against the same enemy, he reached as far as Bowat, and returned, as Ibn Ishak informs us, 'without having met with anything untoward.' The third enterprise he undertook with nearly 200 followers and 30 camels, against a rich caravan proceeding from Mecca to Syria, under the leadership of Abu Sofyan. He hoped to intercept the caravan at Osheira, in the plain of Yembo; but on arriving there, he found that it had already safely passed on towards Syria. This same caravan was again pursued, but with no better success, during its return journey the following spring; when, however, the pursuers were fortunate enough to defeat, in the celebrated battle of Bedr, the Meccan army, sent forth for its protection. Mohammed remained a month in Osheira, and utilised his time by concluding a treaty of amity with the Beni Modlij and that branch of the Beni Dhamra living under their protection. Then he returned to Medina, with out meeting an enemy. After his return from Osheira, he remained not quite ten nights in Medina, before he marched forth again. This time it was in pursuit of Kurz Ibn Jabir, who had made a raid on Medinan territory and carried away some flocks. Kurz belonged to the Fihri tribe, which was allied with the Koreish, and Mohammed pursued him as far the valley of Safwan, near Bedr (wherefore this expedition is called 'the first of Bedr'), but without being able to overtake him. These four expeditions, all of them unsuccessful, the prophet had headed in person.

The earliest of the expeditions against the Koreish which Mohammed despatched under the command of one of his