The order went forth from Mahomet to spare as much as possible his own house of Hashim, but otherwise the slaughter was as remorseless as the temper of the Muslim ensured.  Of the Prophet’s army, 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 him whenever he took command of his followers in battle.  So the Muslim, flushed with victory, laden with spoil, returned to Medina, whose entire population assembled to accord them triumphal entry.

“Abu Jahl, the sinner, is slain,” cried the little children, catching the phrase from their parents’ lips.