Defection of Medina’s Jewish tribes to Mecca triggered Muhammad’s punitive expeditions

Evidence

The Medina period was also marked with the continued—and indeed increased—hostility of the Meccans. War broke out between Mecca (led by the Quraysh) and Medina, piecemeal at first: Meccans attacked and persecuted Muslims, and the Muslims retaliated by attacking Meccan caravans. In 624 Muslims defeated the Meccans in a full-fledged battle at Badr. The following year, the Meccans defeated the Muslims in battle of Uhud; the Prophet himself was wounded and the situation looked bleak for the Muslims. In the wake of Uhud, the carefully constructed alliance in Medina began to crumble at the edges: in particular, some of the surrounding Bedouins, as well as the Jewish tribes of Medina, went over to the Meccan side; against them, Muhammad staged a series of punitive expeditions. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 226

Categorization

• XREF: Provides the political-military context (alliance defection) behind the anti-Jewish episodes later seized on by medieval polemicists — connects to the reader’s genealogy of medieval Judeo-Muslim relations.