_"Even though thou shouldst bring every kind of sign to those who have
received the Scriptures, yet Thy Kibla they will not adopt; nor shalt
thou adopt their Kibla; nor will one part of them adopt the Kibla of the
other."--The Kuran_.

Mahomet realised the position of affairs at Medina too acutely to allow
of his undertaking in person any predatory expeditions against the
Kureisch during the autumn and winter of 623. The Jews were chafing under
his tacit assumption of State control, and although their murmurings had
not reached the recklessness of strife, still both their leaders and the
Muslim perceived that their disaffection was inevitable. Insecurity at
home, however, did not prevent him from sending out an expedition in
Rajab (October) of that year under Abdallah. Rajab is a sacred month in
the Mohamedan calendar, one in which war is forbidden. Strictly,
therefore, in sending out an expedition at all just then Mahomet was
transgressing against the laws of that religion which, purged of its
idolatries, he claimed as his own. But it was a favourable opportunity to
attack the Kureischite caravan on its way to Taif, and therefore Mahomet
recked nothing of the prohibition.

Taif was a very distant objective for an expeditionary band from Medina,
and that Mahomet contemplated attack upon his enemy by a company so far
removed from its base is convincing proof, should any be needed, of his
confidence in his followers' prowess and his conciliation of the tribes
lying between the two hostile cities.

Sealed orders were given to Abdallah, with instructions not to open the
parchment until he was two days south of Medina. At sunset on the second
day he came with his eight followers to a well in the midst of the