spies returned from the hostile camp, reporting that he had heard Abu Sofyan making this address to his people, 'We cannot remain here any longer. Cattle and camels are dying. The Beni Koreiza have deserted us and we have heard evil tidings of them. The wind troubles us, so that, as you see, no pot and no tent remains standing, and no fire burns. Up! I remain here no longer.' To depict Abu Sofyan's haste, the Mohammedan historian says, 'He mounted his camel and urged it on by blows, even before it was untied.' The Bedouins were but too glad to recap their camels and march in front of the soldiers. The whole army left in good order, having its rear protected by the cavalry.

Mohammed also was greatly relieved by the turn events had taken. Not to have been defeated in combat, not to have his stronghold wrested from him by force, despite the number and formidable appearance of the enemy opposed to him, could not but raise his prestige almost as much as if he had gained an actual victory. But he did not think it prudent, this time, to quit the shelter of his rampart, and risk an encounter with the retreating enemy's cavalry by another pretence at pursuit, as he had done at the close of the Ohod affair. He now saw a nearer and an easier road to the promotion of his prestige and power. The Jews of Medina were to be entirely crushed, and thus every vestige of danger, threatening his capital through their neutrality or hostility, removed for ever. Accordingly, the final consummation of his anti-Jewish policy will now have to occupy our attention for a while.

(8.) Mohammed's anti-Jewish policy leads to the heartless overthrow of the Jewish tribes of Medina and the unjust conquest of Khaibar with other Jewish communities.

We have already traced the growth of the complete rupture which took place between Mohammed and the Jews, owing to their determined refusal to recognise in him the promised Messiah, the long-expected prophet of God (p. 131-4); and we have also surveyed his equally antagonistic position towards Christianity and the Christians (p. 135-9). Now we can give a consecutive account of the arbitrary measures

which he adopted against the Jews, as soon as he dared to do so, and which he persistently carried through to the bitter end, by his heartless massacre of the Beni Koreiza and by his no less brutal conquest of the Jewish colony at Khaibar. We therefore now turn back a couple of years, to about the time of the battle of Bedr, and take up the thread of our narrative where we then left it.

The three Jewish tribes who lived in Medina formed a very important portion of the population of that place. They were distinguished for their learning, their industry, and even their warlike ability. Had they combined, they could have presented a formidable front to Mohammed which he would not have found easy to break through. But being disunited, and even, at times, fighting against each other, as allies of mutually opposed Arab factions, they were doomed to succumb.

The first to fall as victims of Mohammed's vengeance, were some individuals of the Jewish persuasion who had made themselves obnoxious above others, by attacking him in verse. He managed to produce an impression amongst the people that he would like to be rid of them. The hint was readily taken up by persons anxious to ingratiate themselves in the Prophet's favour. The gifted woman Asma and the hoary poet Abu Afak were both murdered in their sleep the former while slumbering on her bed, with an infant in her arms; the latter whilst lying, for coolness' sake, in an open verandah. No one dared to molest the assassin of either of these victims; for it was no secret that the foul deeds had been approved of by the Prophet, and that he had treated the perpetrators with marked favour.

Finding that the public thus quietly accepted and tacitly indorsed the murder of individual Jews, Mohammed considered the way open for taking another and a more decisive step towards the execution of his anti-Jewish projects. An entire Jewish tribe was now to be got rid off, and this despite the defensive and offensive treaty-engagements which existed between Mohammed and the Jews, since the early part of his residence in Medina.

In selecting the tribe which was to fall as the first victim of his avarice and cruelty, the calculating Prophet showed