[170] It is not meant that they should be forced to observe prayer or pay obligatory alms, or in other words be converted to Islam; the context and general scope of the Koran would not allow such a meaning. The next verse clearly enjoins toleration.
[171] The Bani Kinana and Bani Zamara had not violated the truce of Hodeibia while the Koreish and Bani Bakr had done so.
[172] This is the same as verse 5. It only means, if meanwhile they become converts to Islam, they are to be treated as brethren in religion. But it cannot mean that it was the sole motive of making war with them to convert them. Such an interpretation is quite contrary to the general style of the Koran.
[173] The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, Vol. VI, p. 245.
[174] Archbishop Secker's Works, III, p. 271.
[175] Sir W. Muir, II, p. 265.
[176] Life of Mahomet, Vol. III, p. 79.
[177] Remarks on the character of Mohammad (suggested by Voltaire's Tragedy of Mahomet) by Major Vans Kennedy. Vide Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay for 1821, Vol. III, p. 453, reprint Bombay, 1877.
[178] "Mahomet did not send the Medina converts on any hostile expedition against the Koreish, until they had warred with him at Badr, and the reason is, that they had pledged themselves to protect him only at their homes."—K. Wackidi, 48; Muir's Life of Mahomet, Vol. III, p. 64, note.
[179] "K. Wackidi, 98-1/2. The provisions are noted only generally, "that neither party would levy war against the other, nor help their enemies." The version quoted by Weil binding the Bani Dhumra to fight for the faith, &c., is evidently anticipatory and apocryphal. It is not given by the Secretary of Wackidi in his chapter of treaties."—Muir's Life of Mahomet, III, p. 67, note.