fast of Ramadan is little more than turning day into night, and night into day. As the Arabic year is lunar, each month in a period of thirty-three years, falls into all the different seasons of the solar year, and consequently the observance of the fast, when the month of Ramadan occurs in summer, is rendered, by the length and heat of the days, extremely rigorous and trying; especially as the poor are still compelled to labour during the day; and yet are forbidden, upon pain of death, to assuage their thirst by a drop of water.

L 2

CHAPTER XI.

The Koreish undertake a new Expedition against the Prophet-The Battle of Ohod-Mohammed and his Army entirely defeated-His followers murmur-The Prophet's poor devices to retrieve the disgrace incurred in this action-Resolves it mainly into the doctrine of Predestination-Wine and Games of chance forbidden-Sophyan, son of Caled, slain-War of the Ditch.

THE resentment of Abu Sophyan and the citizens of Mecca, for the loss and the disgrace sustained the preceding year, stimulated them to undertake a new expedition against the warlike apostle. The Koreish accordingly assembled an army of three thousand men under the command of Abu Sophyan, and proceeded to besiege their enemy in the city of Medina. Mohammed, being much inferior in numbers to the invading army, determined at first to await and receive their attack within the walls of the city. But the ardour of his men, enkindled by the recollection of their former success, could not brook restraint; they clamorously demanded to be led out to battle; and he unwisely yielded to their request. Impelled, also, himself, by the same spirit of rash confidence, he unwarily promised them certain victory. The prophetic powers of the apostle were to be estimated by the event. Mohammed, in every encounter, seems to have manifested, in a high degree, the talents of a general. In the present instance his army, con

sisting of about one thousand men, was advantageously posted on the declivity of the mountain Ohod, four miles to the north of Medina. Three standards were confided each one to a separate tribe, while the great standard was carried before the prophet, and a chosen band of fifty archers were stationed in the rear, with peremptory orders to remain there till commanded to the attack by Mohammed himself. The Koreish advanced in the form of a crescent; Caled, the fiercest of the Arabian warriors, led the right wing of the cavalry; while Hinda, the wife of Abu Sophyan, accompanied by fifteen matrons of Mecca, incessantly sounded timbrels to animate the troops to the approaching conflict. The action commenced by the Moslems charging down the hill, and breaking through the enemy's ranks. Victory or paradise was the reward promised by Mohammed to his soldiers, and they strove with frantic enthusiasm to gain the expected recompense. The line of the enemy was quickly disordered, and an easy victory seemed about to crown the spirit and valour of the Moslem troops. At this moment, the archers in the rear, impelled by the hope of plunder, deserted their station and scattered themselves over the field. The intrepid Caled, seizing the favourable opportunity, wheeled his cavalry on their flank and rear, and exclaiming aloud, "Mohammed is slain!" charged with such fury upon the disordered ranks of the Moslems, as speedily to turn the fate of the day. The flying report of the death of their leader so dispirited the faithful, that they gave way

in every direction, and the rout soon became general. Mohammed endeavoured in vain to rally his broken troops; he fought with desperate valour; exposed his person where the danger appeared greatest; was wounded in the face by a javelin ; had two of his teeth shattered by a stone; was thrown from his horse; and would in all probability have been slain, but for the determined bravery of a few chosen adherents, who rescued their leader from the throng, and bore him away to a place of safety. The day was utterly lost; seventy of his soldiers were slain, among whom was his uncle Hamza; and his reputation as a prophet and apostle was in imminent peril. His followers murmured at the disastrous issue of the conflict, and had the hardihood to affirm that the prophet had deceived them; that the will of the Lord had not been revealed to him, since his confident prediction of success had been followed by a signal defeat. The prophet, on the other hand, threw the blame on the sins of the people; the anger of the Lord had fallen upon them in consequence of an overweening conceit of their security, and because he had determined to make trial of their sincerity. "After a misfortune hath befilen you at Ohod, do ye say, Whence cometh this? Answer, This is from yourselves: for God is almighty, and what happened unto you was certainly by the permission of God, that he might know the faithful and that he might know the ungodly.And we cause these days of different success interchangeably to succeed each other among men, that God

might prove those who believe, and might destroy the infidels.Did ye imagine that ye should enter paradise, when as yet God knew not those among you who fought strenuously in his cause; nor knew those who persevered with patience?-Verily, they among you who turned their backs on the day whereon the two armies met each other at Ohod, Satan caused them to slip for some crime which they had committed.”* In order to stifle the mur murs of those who were overwhelmed with grief at the loss of their friends and relatives, he represented to them, that the time of every man's death is distinctly fixed by the divine decree, and that those who fell in battle could not have avoided their predetermined fate even if they had staid at home; whereas now they had obtained the glorious privilege of dying martyrs for the faith, and were consequently translated to the bliss of paradise. "O true believers, be not as they who believe not, and said of their brethren when they had journeyed in the land, or had been at war, If they had been with us, those had not died, nor had these been slain: whereas, what befell them was so ordained.-No soul can die unless by the permission of God, according to what is written in the book containing the determination of things.Thou shalt in no wise reckon those who have been slain at Ohod, in the cause of God, dead: nay, they are sustained alive with their Lord, rejoicing for what God of his favour hath granted them."† With these miserable evasions did he excuse the *Koran, ch. iii.

† Ibid.