Complex sentence: For the Muslims, the battle was a significant setback: although they had been close to routing the Meccans a second time, their breach of Muhammad's orders in favor of collecting Meccan spoils reaped severe consequences.
Split into simpler sentences: For the Muslims, the battle was a significant setback. Although they had been close to routing the Meccans a second time, their breach of Muhammad's orders in favor of collecting Meccan spoils reaped severe consequences.