so tell the
Chronicles, only fourteen were killed, but of the Kureisch the dead
numbered forty-nine, with a like haul of prisoners. Abu Jahl was among
those sorely wounded; but when Abdallah saw him lying helpless, he
recognised him, and slew him without a word. Then having cut off his
head, he brought the prize to Mahomet.

"It is the head of God's enemy," cried the Prophet as he gazed on it in
exaltation; "it is more acceptable to me than the choicest camel in all
Arabia."

The broken remnants of the Kureisch army journeyed slowly back to Mecca
through the same desert that had seen all the bravery and splendour of
their advance, and the news of their terrible fate preceded them. All the
city was draped in cloths of mourning, for there was no distinguished
house that did not bewail its dead. One alone did not weep--Hind, wife of
Abu Sofian, went forth to meet her husband.

"What doest thou with unrent garments? Knowest thou not the affliction
that hath fallen on this thy city?"

"I will not weep," replied Hind, "until this wrong has been avenged. When
thou hast gone forth, hast conquered this accursed, then will I mourn for
those who are slain this day. Nay, my lord, I will not deck myself, nor
perfume my hair, nor come near thy couch until I see the avenging of this
humiliation."

Then Abu Sofian swore a great oath that he would immediately collect men
and take the field once more against Islam.

There remained now for the victors but the distribution of the spoil and
the decision of the fate of the prisoners. The less valuable of these
were put to death, their bodies cast into a pit, but the Muslim took the
rest with them, hoping for ransom. The spoil was taken up in haste, and
the Prophet repaired joyfully to Safra, where he proposed to divide
it. But there contention arose, as was almost inevitable, over the
distribution of the wealth, and so acute did the disaffection become that
Mahomet revealed the will of Allah concerning it:

"And know ye, when ye have taken any booty, a fifth part belongeth to God
and to the Apostle, and to the near of kin and to orphans and to the
poor, and to the wayfarer, if ye believe in God, and in that which we
have sent down to our servant on the day of the victory, the day of the
meeting of the Hosts." As part of his due, Mahomet took the famous sword
Dhul Ficar, which has gathered around it as many legends as the weapons
of classical heroes, and which hereafter never left hi