[^53] In the sixth year (A.

[^53] In the sixth year (A.H.) during the month of Rabi `u ' lAwwal, the Messenger of Allah sent `Ukkashah ibn Mahsan with forty men to a place called al-Ghamrah (on the road to Mecca). Seeing them come so early, the inhabitants of the place fled. `Ukkashah took two hundred camels which they had left behind as spoils and led them into Medina. During that year also the Prophet sent Abu `Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah to a place called Dhu'l-Qassah, with forty men.

Abu `Ubaydah raided the people, who fled into the mountains. One man was captured and became a Muslim. In the same year, there was a detachment led by Zayd ibn al-Harithah to a place called al-Jamum (a piece of land belonging to the tribe of Banu Sulaym). In this raid, the Muslims took cattle and sheep as booty and captured some men. In Jumada 'l-Ula of the same year, Zayd also led another raid against al-`Is tribe.

In yet another raid which he led against the tribe of Banu Tha'labah, with twenty-five men, he captured twenty-five camels after the people were put to flight. In the same year, `Ali ibn Abi Talib led a raid against a Jewish settlement called Fadak belonging to the people of `Abdullah ibn Sa'd. This action was prompted by information which the Messenger of Allah had received concerning the plan of the people of Fadak to send armed men to aid the Jews of Khaybar.

Another Companion, `Abdu'r-Rahman ibn `Awf, was sent with a detachment in the same year against the people of a place called Dumatu'l-Jandal. This took place in the month of Sha'ban. The Messenger of Allah said to `Abdu'rRahman: "If they yield without fighting, marry the daughter of their king." The people did in fact accept Islam, and `Abdu'r-Rahman married Tumadir, daughter of al-Asbagh, whose father was their king and chief.

Al-Waqidi, the famous historian of the wars (maghazi) of the Prophet, reported that in the same year the Messenger of Allah sent a detachment against the `Arniyyin, a tribe living near Medina. This was a reprisal for their killing the Messenger of Allah's shepherd. Both men and camels were captured, and twenty horsemen were brought leading camels as booty to the Prophet. He ordered that their hands and feet be severed and that their eyes be put out.

They were thus left in al-harrah until they died. Jabir ibn `Abdillah al-Ansari related that the Messenger of Allah invoked Allah against them saying: "O Allah, make them blind, unable to find their way," and it was as he prayed.