The First Jihad (Repost)

A military history of Islam

First published 22 February 2022, when I had forty-five subscribers.

In 624 AD, two years after the followers of the prophet left Mecca, they defeated an army of their former home city at the Battle of Badr despite being outnumbered three to one.

Historian Richard Bell tells us that this victory was the moment when the Qur’an came together as a collectio…