CIIAPTER EJ..LVENTricks and Treason
The situation had become difficult for the Muslim community in Mcdina.
The defeat at UhuJ had had manifold consequences, not the least of
which was their loss of prestige in the sight of the neighboring tribes,
who now "jewett them differcndy and thought them vulnerable. The
~'fuslims wefC seen as weakened, and many expeditions wcre being organ-
ized against them to tr y to take advantage of that siruation. As for [vlu-
hammad, who was sometimes warned of planned attacks on Medina, he
would send his men-in groups of 100 to 150---[0 the various tribes to
pacify them or prevent an aggression. The fourth rear after hijraJJ ( 626
CE) was largely taken up with such low-intensity local conflicts, which
nevertheless served to modify (and sometimes maintain) the alliances or
the balance of power in the area. This amounted to a kind of chess game
benveen the Quraysh and the Medina Muslims, and both parties knew
that a full-s cale confrontation lay ahead. The people of Mecca did not
conceal their desire to eradicate the Muslim community from the Pen-
insula, and to that end, they kept making pactS with the neighboring
tribes. Their situation was all the morc difficult because the mOSt direct
commercial routes to the north, leading to Syria and I raq by the coast,
Were still watched over and controlled by J\kdina. The Quraysh therefore
felt that they had to take swift and radical action in o rder both to take
advantage of the Muslims' frn~>ility after defeat and to liberate the ro utes
that their caravans needed to take to go north.