"The early Arabic sources quite plainly and frankly describe the expeditions as military expeditions, and it would never have occurred to anyone at that day to interpret them as anything else for such Holy War was an ancient tradition in the lands of the Near East. It was the god Enlil who sent out Naram-Sin the mighty to conquer nine armies in one year and bring their three kings bound before Enlil, that Enlil's kingdom might be increased. So , and campaigned in the name of and for the glory of their national god, and it was the word of Jehovah of Hosts that sent out to go "and smite , and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not: but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." To the folk of his day there would thus be nothing strange in Muhammad, as the head of the community of those who served Allah, taking the sword to extend the kingdom of Allah, and taking measures to insure the subjection of all who lived within the borders of what he made the kingdom of Allah."