well as frequently adverted to in the Koran; for, though fought on a small scale, several miraculous circumstances were feigned to have attended it, the belief of which was of essential service to his cause. Mohammed's forces were said to have consisted of no more than 319 men[1], whilst the Koreish were nearly a thousand strong, yet, notwithstanding such a disparity of numbers, he routed and vanquished them, killing seventy, and taking an equal number of prisoners, with the loss to himself of only fourteen individuals.
The Koran points out three things as miraculous in this engagement.
1st. Mohammed, by the direction of Gabriel, at a crisis of danger, took a handful of gravel, and threw it towards the enemy, exclaiming, "May their faces be confounded." But though apparently the Prophet cast it at them himself, the Koran gravely affirms
- ↑ Koran, chap. 3. 8.
