Military career of Muhammad Quraysh that a Muslim attack was imminent, a Meccan relief force of 1000 men, many of them wearing mail armour, was sent. Abu Jahl, who led the relief army, pressed northwards to where he expected the Muslim army to be: at Badr. While marching, however, around 200–400 warriors left his army and headed back to Mecca. Muhammad was unaware of the Meccan army until one day before contact, when his men captured two Quraysh waterbearers. The Muslims took up a defensive position. The battle started off with a duel between three Muslim and three Meccan champions, which the Muslims decided
Battle of the Trench many alliances against the Muslim expansion. Nevertheless, he was unable to prevent the Meccan one. As they had in the battles of Badr and Uhud, the Muslim army again used strategic methods against their opponents (at Badr, the Muslims surrounded the wells, but did not deprive their opponents of water since Ali did not want to follow the footsteps of the Meccan army; at the Battle of Uhud, Muslims made strategic use of the hills). In this battle they dug a trench to render the enemy cavalry ineffective. The reason for this battle was to defend Medina from attack, after