Note [original edition] : Ye have already had a miracle shewn you in two armies, &c.]
The sign or miracle here meant, was the victory gained by
Mohammed in
the second year of the
Hejra, over the idolatrous
Meccans, headed by
Abu
Sofiân, in the valley of
Bedr, which is situate near the sea, between
Mecca
and
Medina.
Mohammed’s forces consisted of no more than three hundred and
nineteen men, but the enemy’s army of near a thousand, notwithstanding which
odds he put them to flight, having killed seventy of the principal
Koreish,
and taken as many prisoners, with the loss of only fourteen of his own men
1.
This was the first victory obtained by the prophet, and tho’ it may seem no
very considerable action, yet it was of great advantage to him, and the foundation of all his future power and
success. For which reason it is famous in the
Arabian history, and more than
once vaunted in the
Korân
2, as an effect of the divine assistance. The
miracle, it is said, consisted in three things; 1.
Mohammed, by the direction
of the angel
Gabriel, took a handful of gravel and threw it toward the enemy
in the attack, saying,
May their faces be confounded; whereupon they
immediately turned their backs and fled. But tho’ the prophet seemingly
threw the gravel himself, yet it is told in the
Korân
3, that it was not he,
but God, who threw it, that is to say, by the ministry of his angel. 2. The
Mohammedan troops seemed to the infidels to be twice as many in number as
themselves, which greatly discouraged them. And, 3.
God sent down to their
assistance first a thousand and afterwards three thousand angels, led by
Gabriel, mounted on his horse
Haizûm; and, according to the
Korân
4, these
celestial auxiliaries really did all the execution, tho’
Mohammed’s men
imagined themselves did it, and fought stoutly at the same time
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1
See Elmacin. p. 5. Hottinger. Hist. Orient. l. 2, c. 4.
Abulfed. vit. Moham. p. 56, &c. Prideaux’s Life of
Mahom. p. 71, &c.
-
2
See this chap. below, & chap. 8 & 32.
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3
Chap. 8, not far from the beginning.
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4
Ibid.