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 Eurymedon with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon. Between the two invasions, Darius died, and responsibility for the war passed to his son Xerxes I. Xerxes then led the second invasion personally in 480 BC, taking an enormous (although oft-exaggerated) army and navy to Greece. Those Greeks who chose to resist (the 'Allies') were defeated in the twin battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium on land and at sea respectively. All of Greece except the Peloponnesus thus fell into Persian hands, but then seeking to finally destroy the Allied navy, the Persians suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle