This exhortation is followed by a description of the wars of Moses and of Saul. Muhammad shows his ignorance of Old Testament history by confusing Saul and Gideon together. Still these examples of men of old served now to inflame the zeal of his followers.

The antipathy thus excited against the Jews increased after the battle of Badr, when, flushed with victory, Muhammad called upon the Jews of the Bani Qainuqa' tribe to believe in Islam, lest God should visit them as he had done the Quraish in the recent battle.¹ They had boasted that in their case defeat would not have been so easy and that they could successfully have resisted the Muslims. So the revelation came:—

If thou fear treachery from any people throw back their treaty to them as thou fairly mayest for God loveth not the treacherous.
And think not that the infidels shall escape us. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 60-1.

They refused, and were all expelled from the country and their goods and property were confiscated. The Bani Nadir were a wealthy people, one of whose chief Rabbis, Ka'b ibn Ashraf, had been friendly

with Muhammad until the change of the Qibla was made, when he became his opponent. He was assassinated in July A.D. 624 with the connivance of Muhammad. A few months after the battle of Uhud, the whole tribe, in June 625, was thus addressed: 'Thus saith the Prophet of the Lord, ye shall go out of my country within the space of seven days; whosoever shall remain behind after that shall be put to death.' They declined, and said, 'We will not go.' The Jews unfortunately did not maintain this courageous spirit. They made no attempt at mutual resistance, and so were subjugated in detail. This is referred to in the verse:—

They (the Jews) will not fight against you in a body, except in fenced towns, or behind walls. Mighty is their valour amongst themselves, but their hearts are divided. Sura Al-Hashr (lix) 14.

The Muslims justly showed contempt for their boasting and as they themselves were now powerful these Jews were exiled and their fertile fields and property were divided amongst the Muhajirun. The divine sanction for this proceeding is found in Sura Al-Hashr (lix) thus:—

He it is who caused the unbelievers among the people of the Book to quit their homes and join those who had emigrated previously.¹
And were it not that God had decreed their exile, surely in this world would He have chastised them; but in the next the chastisement of fire awaiteth them.
Your cutting down some of the palm trees and sparing others was by God's permission and to put the wicked to shame. Sura Al-Hashr 2, 3, 5.