THE WAR OF THE DITCH
"And God drove back the Infidels in their wrath; they won no
advantage; God sufficed the Faithful in the fight, for God is strong,
mighty."--_The Kuran._
The Kureischite plans for the annihilation of Mahomet were now complete.
They had achieved an alliance against him not only among the Bedouin
tribes of the interior, but also among the exiled and bitterly vengeful
Medinan Jews. Now in Schawwal, 627, Mahomet's unresting foes summoned all
their confederates to warfare "against this man." The allied tribes,
chief among whom were the Beni Suleim and Ghatafan, always at feud with
Mahomet, hastened to mass themselves at Mecca, where they were welcomed
confidently by the Kureiseh.
The host was organised in three separate camps, and Abu Sofian was placed
at the head of the entire army. Each leader, however, was to have
alternating command of the campaign; and this primitive arrangement--the
only one, it seems, by which early nations, lacking an indisputable
leader, can surmount the jealousy and self-will displayed by every petty
chief--is responsible in great measure for their ultimate failure. In
such fashion, still with the bravery and splendour of Eastern warfare
wrapped about them, an army of 4000 men, with 300 horses, 1500 camels,
countless stores, spears, arrows, armour and accoutrements, moved forward
upon the small and factious city of the Prophet, whose fighting strength
was hampered by the exhaustion of many campaigns and the disloyalty of
those within his very walls.
The Prophet was outwardly undismayed; whatever fears preyed upon his
inner mind, they were dominated by his unshakable belief in the
protection and favour of Allah. He did not allow the days of respite to
pass him idly by. As soon as he received the news of this fateful
expedition, he called together a meeting of his wisest and bravest, and
explained to them the position. He told them of the hordes massed against
them, and dwelt upon the impossibility of opposing them in the open field
and the necessity of guarding their own city. This time there were no
dissentient voices; both the Disaffected and the Muslim had had a lesson
at Ohod that was not lightly forgotten. Then Salman, a Persian, and one
skilled in war, suggested that their stronghold should be further
defended by a trench dug at the most vulnerable parts of the city's
outposts.
Medina is built upon "an outcropping mass of rock" which renders attack
impossible upon the north-west side. Detached from it, and leaving a
considerable vacant space between, a row of compactly built houses stood,
making a very passable stone wall defence for that portion of the city.
The trench was dug in that level ground between the rocks and the houses,
and continued also upon the unsheltered south and east sides. There are
many legends of the digging of the trench and the desperate haste with
which it was accomplished. Mahomet himself is said to have helped in the
work, and it is almost certain that here tradition has not erred. The
deed coincides so well with his eager and resolute nature, that never
neglected any means, however humble, that would achieve his purpose. The
Faithful worked determinedly, devoting their whole days to the task, and
never resting from their labours until the whole trench was dug. The hard
ground was softened by water, and legendary accounts of Mahomet's powers
in pulverising the rocks are numerous.
The great work was completed in six days, and on the evening of its
achievement the Muslim army encamped between the trench and the city in
the open space thus formed. A tent of red leather was set up for Mahomet,
where Zeinab and Omm Salma, as well as his favourite and companion,
Ayesha, visited him in turn. Around him rested his chief warriors, Ali,
Othman, Zeid, Omar, with his counseller Abu Bekr and his numerous
entourage of heroes and enthusiasts. They were infused with the same
exalted resolve as their leader, and waited undismayed for the Infidel
attack. But with the rest of the citizens, and especially with the
Disaffected, it was otherwise. Ever since the rumour of the onrush of
their foe reached Medina, they had murmured openly against their leader's
rule. They had refused to help in the digging of the ditch, and now
waited in ill-concealed discontent mingled with a base panic fear for
their own safety.
The Meccan host advanced as before by way of Ohod, and pursued their way
to the city rejoicing in the freedom from attack, and convinced thereby
that their conquest of Medina would be rapid and complete. They
penetrated to the rampart wall of houses and marched past them to the
level ground, intending to rush the city and pen the Muslim army within
its narrow streets, there to be crushed at will by the sheer mass of its
foes. Then as the whole army in battle array moved forward, strong in its
might of numbers, the advance was checked and thrown into confusion by
the opposing trench. Abu Sofian, hurrying up, learnt with anger of this
unexpected barrier. Finding he could not cross it, he waxed indignant,
and declared the device was cowardly and "unlike an Arab." The
traditionalist, as usual, was disconcerted by the resourceful man of
action, and the Muslim obstinately remained behind their defence.
The Kureisch discharged a shower of arrows over the ditch among the
entrenched Muslim and then retired a little from their first position, so
as to encamp not far from the city and try to starve it into surrender.
Mahomet was content that he had staved off immediate attack, and set to
work to complete his defences and strengthen his fighting force, when
grave news reached him from the immediate environs of the city.
Successful as he had been in extirpating two of the hated Jewish tribes,
Mahomet was nevertheless forced to submit to the presence of the Beni
Koreitza, whose fortresses were situated near the city on its undefended
side. It is uncertain whether there was ever a treaty between this tribe
and the Prophet, or what its provisions were supposing such a document to
have existed, but it is evident that there must have been some peaceable
relations between the Muslim and the Koreitza, and that the latter were
of some account politically. Now, the Jewish tribe, resentful at the
treatment of their fellow-believers, and seeing the t me ripe for
secession to the probable winning side, cast away even their nominal
allegiance to Mahomet and openly joined his enemies. A Muslim spy was
sent to their territory to discover their true feeling, and his
report was so disquieting that the Prophet immediately set a guard over
his tent, fearing assassination, and ordered patrols to keep the Medinan
streets free from any attempts to disturb the peace and threaten his army
from within the city's confines.
The Muslim were now in parlous state. The trench might avail to stop the
enemy for a time, but an opportunity was sure to occur when they would
attempt a crossing, and once within the city Mahomet knew they would
carry destruction before them, and irretrievable ruin to his cause. His
Jewish enemies made common enmity against him with the Kureisch, and the
Disaffected declared their intention of joining the rest of his foes. But
he would not yield, and continued unabashed to defend the trench and city
with all the skill and energy he could command from his harassed
followers.
The Kureisch remained several days inactive, but at last Abu Jahl
discovered a weak spot in his enemies' line where the trench was narrow
and undefended. He determined on immediate attack, and sent a troop of
horsemen to clear the ditch and give battle on the opposite side. The
move was noticed from within the defence. Ali and a body of picked men
were sent to frustrate it. Ali reached the ground just as the foremost of
the Kureisch cleared the ditch and prepared to advance upon the city.
Swiftly he leapt from his horse, and challenged an aged chief of the
Kureisch to single combat. The gage was accepted, but the chieftain could
stand up to Ali no better than a reed stands upright before the wind that
shakes it. The chief was slain before the eyes of his friend, and
thereupon the general onslaught began. The Muslim fought like those
possessed, until in a little space there remained not one of the defiant
party that had recently crossed the gulf between the armies. But the
Kureisch were undaunted; the order for a general attack upon the trench
was now ordered. The assault began in the early morning and continued
throughout the day. For long weary hours, without respite and with very
little sustenance the Muslin army kept the Kureisch host at bay. The
encounters were sharp and prolonged, and none of the men could be spared
from the strife to make their daily devotions to Allah.
"They have kept us from our prayers," declared Mahomet in wrath, as he
watched the unresting attack, "God fill their bellies and their graves
with fire!"
He cursed the Infidel dogs, while exhorting his men to stand firm, and
before all things keep their lines unbroken. The attack was repulsed, but
not without great loss and misery upon Mahomet's side. His prestige was
now entirely lost among the citizens, only the Faithful still rallied
round him out of their invincible trust in his personality. The
Disaffected began to foment agitation within the narrow streets, the
bazaars and public places. There was great distress among the people of
Medina; scarcity of food mingled with their fears for the future to
create an insecurity wherein crime finds its dwelling-place and brutality
its fostering soil. "Then were the Faithful tried, and with strong
quaking did they quake." Nevertheless, they stood firm, and took no part
in the murmuring of the Disaffected, and presently Allah sent them down
succour for their steadfastness and high courage.
Mahomet, failing in direct warfare to drive back his enemies, resorted to
strategy. He planned to send a secret embassy to buy off the Beni
Ghatafan, and so strive to break up the Kureisch alliance. But the rest
of the city were unwilling to adopt this measure, preferring to trust
more firmly in the strength of their defences. Finally, Mahomet
determined to essay upon his own initiative some means of subtlety
whereby he might force back this encompassing foe that hourly threatened
his whole dominion. He sent an embassy to the Jews outside the city with
intent to sow dissension between them and the Kureisch.
"See now," he commanded his envoy, "whether thou canst not break up this
confederacy, for war, after all, is but a game of deception."
The Muslim pursued his way unchecked to the camp of the Koreitza, just
outside the city, where he whispered his insidious messages into the ears
of the chief, saying the Kureisch were already weary of fighting and were
even now planning a retreat, and would forsake their allies as soon as
was expedient, leaving them to the mercy of a Muslim revenge. He promised
bribes of money, slave girls, and land from the Prophet if they would
betray their new-found allies. Self-interest prevailed; at last the plan
was agreed upon, and the messenger returned to Mahomet with the good news
of the breaking-up of the confederacy.
The treachery of the Koreitza spread discouragement among the Arab
chiefs. Moreover, their supplies were already running short. They ceased
to press the siege so severely; the attacks became weaker, and Mahomet
was easily able to prevent any further incursions beyond the trench. And
now the weather broke up. The sunny country was transformed suddenly into
a dreary, storm-swept wilderness. Blasts of wind came skurrying down upon
the Kureisch camp, driving rain and sleet before them. To Mahomet it was
the wrath of the Lord made manifest upon the presumptuous Meccans. Their
camp-fires were blown out, their tents damp and draggled, their men
dispirited, their forage scarce. Suddenly Abu Sofian, weary of inaction,
thoroughly disheartened by the hardships of his position, broke up the
camp and ordered a retreat.
The vast army faded away as magically as it had come. The morning after
their departure the Muslim awoke to see only a few scattered tents and
the disorderly remains of human occupation as evidences of the presence
of a foe that had accounted itself invincible. The Meccans evidently
accepted defeat, for they returned speedily to their own country,
realising bitterly the impossibility of keeping together so heterogeneous
an army in the face of a prolonged check. Medina was free of its
immediate menace, and great was the rejoicing when the camp was abandoned
and Islam returned in security to its sanctuary within the city. Mahomet
repaired immediately to Ayesha's house, and was cleansing the stains of
conflict from his body when the mandate came from Heaven through the lips
of Gabriel:
"Hast thou laid aside thine arms? Lo, the angels have not yet put down
their weapons, and I am come to bid thee go against the Beni Koreitza to
destroy their citadel."
Mahomet's swift nature, alive to the value of speed, had realised in a
flash that now was the time to strike at the Koreitza, the treacherous
Hebrew dogs, before they could grow strong and gather together any allies
to help them ward off their certain chastisement. The enterprise was
proclaimed at once to the weary Muslim, and the great banner, still
unfurled, placed in the hands of Ali. The Faithful were eager for rest,
but at the command of their leader they forgot their exhaustion and
rallied round him again with the same loving and invincible devotion that
had sustained them during the terrible days of siege.
The expedition marched to the Koreitza fortress, and laid siege to it in
March, 627. For twenty-five days it was besieged by Islam, says the
chronicler, until God put terror into the hearts of the Jews, and they
were reduced to sore straits. Then they offered to depart as the Kainukaa
had departed, empty-handed, with neither gold nor cattle, into a strange
land. But Mahomet had not forgotten their treachery to him under the
suasion of the Kureisch, and he determined on sterner measures. The Jews
were now thoroughly terrified, and sent in haste to crave permission
for a visit from Abu Lubaba, an ally of the Beni Aus, their former
confederates. Mahomet consented, as one who grants the trivial wish of a
doomed man. In sorrow Abu Lubaba went into the camp of the Koreitza,
and when they questioned him he told them openly that they must abandon
hope. Their doom was decreed by the Prophet, sanctioned by Allah; it was
irrevocable.
When the Koreitza heard the sentence they bowed their heads, some in
wrath, some in despair, and charged Abu Lubaba with supplications for
Mahomet's clemency. The messenger returned and told the Prophet what he
had disclosed to the Jews concerning their impending fate.
"Thou hast done ill," declared Mahomet, "for I would not that mine
enemies know their doom before it is accomplished."
Thereupon, says tradition, Abu Lubaba was filled with remorse at having
displeased his master, and entering the Mosque bound himself to one of
its pillars, whence it is called the Pillar of Repentance to this day. At
last the Jews, worn out with the siege, without resources, allies, or any
hope of relief, surrendered at discretion to the Beni Aus. Immediately
their citadel was seized and plundered, while their men were handcuffed
and kept apart, their women and children given into the keeping of a
renegade Jew. Their cattle were driven into Medina before their eyes, and
soon the whole tribe was withdrawn from its ancestral habitation,
awaiting what might come from the hand of their terrible foe.
Then Mahomet pronounced judgment. He sent for Sa'ad ibn Muadh, the chief
of the Beni Aus, and into his hands he gave the fate of all those souls
who belonged to the tribe of Koreitza. Sa'ad was elderly, fat, irritable,
and vindictive. He had a long-standing grudge against this people, and
knew nothing of the mercy which greater men bestow upon the fallen.
"My judgment is that the men shall be put to death, the women and
children sold into slavery, and the spoil divided among the army."
Mahomet was exultant at the sentence.
"Truly the judgment of Sa'ad is the judgment of God pronounced on high
from beyond the seventh Heaven."
It accorded with his mood of angry resentment against the earlier
treachery of the Koreitza, but why he deputed its pronouncement to Sa'ad
instead of taking it upon himself is not easy to discover. Possibly he
may have dreaded to acquire such a reputation for cruelty as this would
bestow upon him, possibly he wished to make clear to the world that the
Jews had been doomed to death by a member of their allied tribe.
Certainly he welcomed the terrible sentence, and ensured its
accomplishment. The Koreitza were dragged pitilessly to Medina, the men
kept together under strict guard, the women and children made ready to be
sold at the marts within the city.
That night the outskirts of Medina became the scene of grim activity. In
the soft darkness of the Arabian night Mahomet's followers laboured with
dreadful haste at the digging of many trenches. The day dawned upon their
uncompleted work, and not until the sun was high did they return to the
heart of the city. Then the men of the Koreitza were divided into
companies and led out in turn to the trenches. The slaughter began. As
they filed to the edge of the pits they were struck down by the waiting
Muslim, so that their bodies fell into the common grave, mingled with the
blood and quivering flesh of those who followed. As one company after
another marched out and did not return, their chief man asked the Muslim
soldier concerning his countrymen's fate:
"Seest thou not that each company departs and is seen no more? Will ye
never understand?"
The doom of the Koreitza was wrought out to its terrible end, which was
not until set of sun. The number of butchered men is variously estimated,
but it cannot have been less than between 700 and 800.
So the Koreitza perished, each moving forward to meet the irremediable
without fear, without supplication, and when the carnage was over,
Mahomet turned to the distribution of the spoil. His eyes lighted upon
Rihana, a beautiful Jewess, and he desired her as solace after this
ruthless but necessary punishment. He offered her marriage; she refused,
and became of necessity and forthwith his concubine. Then he took the
possessions, slaves, and cattle of the vanquished tribe and divided them
among the Faithful, keeping a fifth part himself, and the land he
partitioned also. A few women who had found favour in the eyes of Muslim
were retained, the rest were sent to be sold as slaves among the Bedouin
tribes of Nejd. The Koreitza no longer existed; their treachery had been
visited again upon themselves.
The massacre of the Koreitza and the War of the Ditch cannot be viewed
apart. The ruthlessness of the former is the outcome of the success which
made it possible. Mahomet had defeated a most formidable attempt to
overthrow him, an attempt which would have lost much of its potency if
the Koreitza had remained either friendly or neutral, and in the triumph
which followed he sought to make such treachery henceforth impossible. He
never lost an opportunity; he saw that the Koreitza must be dealt with
instantly after the failure of the Meccan attack, and unhesitatingly he
accomplished his work.
His act is a plain proof of his increasing confidence in his mission and
in himself as ruler and emissary from on high. It speaks not only of his
barbarity and courage in the use of it when occasion arose, but also of
his tireless energy and swift perception of the right moment to strike.
His lack of compunction over the cruelty bears upon it the stamp of his
age and environment. The Koreitza were the enemies of Allah and his
Prophet; they had dared to betray him. Their doom was just. The result of
the failure of the Meccan attack was to restore in great measure
Mahomet's reputation, so that he had less trouble hereafter with the
Disaffected within Medina and with the maraudings of desert tribes. For
the moment his position within the city was comparatively secure;
moreover, in exterminating the Koreitza he had removed the last of the
hated Hebrew race from the precincts of his adopted city, and could
regard himself as master of all its neighbouring territory. The
Disaffected, it is true, remained sufficiently at variance with him to
resent, though impotently, his severity towards the Koreitza, and to
declare that Sa'ad ibn Muadh's death, which occurred soon after, was the
direct result of his bloody judgment. But their resentment was confined
to speech. The Meccans had retired discredited, and were unlikely to
attack again for some time at least.
For a little space Mahomet seemed secure in his city, whence active
opposition had been driven out.
The period after the War of the Ditch shows him definitely the ruler of a
rival city to Mecca. The Kureisch have made their last concerted attack
and are now forced to recognise him as a permanent factor in their
political world, though they would not name him equal until he had made
further displays of strength. He takes his place now among the city
chieftains of Western Arabia, and has next to reckon with the nomad
Bedouin tribes of the interior, in which position he is akin to the ruler
of Mecca himself. He is still never at rest from warfare. One expedition
succeeds another, until there is some chance of the realisation of his
dream, whose splendour even now beats with insistence upon his spirit,
the establishment of his mighty faith within the mother-city which gave
it birth, whence, purged of its idolatries and aflame with devotion, it
shall make of that city the goal of its followers' prayers, the crown of
its earthly sovereignty.