Some biographers have recorded that the Ghazwah of Dhatu-r-raqaa’ took place during the month of Moharram in this year in consequence of the information brought by a man who had come to Madinah with some sheep for sale, that the Bani Athmâr and Tha’labah had collected an army, and were about to attack the professors of Islâm. When the apostle of God had become aware of this intention he appointed Dhu-n-nûryn to be his lieutenant in Madinah, and marched forth with four hundred, or, according to another tradition, with five hundred men on a Sunday night on the 10th of the above-named month, and halted after reaching a place belonging to the professors of idolatry and infidelity called Dhatu-r-raqaa’, where the Musalmâns found only women, because all the men had gone to the mountain. The noble companions were afraid to plunder, lest the idolaters might make use of the opportunity and come out from their ambush. In that place his lordship held the prayer of fear,* which was the first of this kind that had been held. Some assert that the reason for calling this the Ghazwah of Dhatu-r-raqaa’ was because near the habitation of the professors of obstinacy and schism there was a mountain, a portion of which looked like the variegated patches [Raqa] which it is customary to mend garments with. In this expedition that prince was absent from Madinah for a fortnight, and after his return he did not march out with his army till the month Rabii’ the first. Some say that the Ghazwah of Dhâtu-r-raqaa’ took place after the Ghazwah of Khayber.