If Muslims had lacked the required military forces...

If Muslims had lacked the required military forces, they would have been completely wiped out by their enemies.[^85] Military Maneuvers With the small number of the armed forces which the Holy Prophet had at his disposal, he prepared for a series of military operations which could not be considered full-fledged wars. In none of these maneuvers did any military confrontation occur.

Examples of such expeditions were the following: The 30-man strong expedition called Hamzah ibn `Abd al-Muttalib in the eighth month of Hegira chased the caravan of Quraysh on their return to Mecca. The 60-man strong expedition called `Ubaydah ibn al-Harith in the eighth month of Hegira prosecuted Abu-Sufyan.

The 20-man strong expedition called Sa`d Ibn Abi-Waqqas in the ninth month of Hegira prosecuted the caravan of Quraysh but did not reach it.[^86] In the eleventh month of Hegira, the Holy Prophet, accompanied by a group of Muslims, chased the caravan of Quraysh up to the land of Abwa but no confrontation took place. During this expedition, he convened a treaty with the tribe of Banu-®amrah according to which they promised to remain impartial and not to cooperate with the enemies of Islam.

In Rabi` al-Awwal (the twelfth month), the Holy Prophet chased Kurz ibn Jabir al-Fahri, who had plundered a Medinan flock, up to the land of Badr but missed him. In the month of Jumada al-akhir, the Holy Prophet, accompanied by one hundred and fifty (or two hundred) troops, chased the trade caravan of Quraysh, headed by Abu-Sufyan on his journey to Damascus, but this time, he could not reach the caravan.

However, during this time, he convened a treaty with the tribe Banu-Mudlij and returned to Medina.[^87] These kinds of small military operations could be called military maneuvers and strength show, but not real wars.

The Prophet's Objectives of Military Maneuvers According to several documents and pieces of evidence, the Holy Prophet's purpose behind these wars was neither plundering the enemies nor creating wars and conflicts, because, as we have already seen, the number of the Islamic troops was small if compared with the enemies.

In some of these wars, Ansar took part although they had promised, in the course of the treaty of the second `Aqabah, to protect the Holy Prophet at Medina and not to be involved in wars outside it. Furthermore, the citizens of Medina were farmers and gardeners; they were not in the habit of plundering as the nomad tribes were.