out-marshalled. As soon as the latter had received tidings of the mischief done, he hotly pursued the party some distance, but failed to overtake them. It seems that the Koreish, in order to facilitate their retreat, had thrown away sacks of crushed wheat, called sawik, which they were carrying with them for food, and that the Moslems picked them up, on their way back. This is the reason why the expedition became known by the name of that of Sawik.

During the same year, 624 A.D., Mohammed had to undertake three more expeditions, likewise on a small scale, to avert dangers, threatening him from the side of the confederates of Mecca. Two powerful Bedouin tribes, the Beni Ghatafan and the Beni Soleim, occupied the extensive highlands to the east of Medina, but were allied to the Koreish of Mecca, and consequently participated in the hostile feelings against the rising Moslem power of Medina. The Beni Soleim first concentrated their fighting men near El Kadr, one of their water wells, and Mohammed no sooner heard of it than he suspected that the measure was directed against himself. He started with a body of 200 men, but, on arriving at El Kadr, learnt that the enemy had received tidings of his approach and withdrawn. The Moslems could only seize 500 camels, with which they had to content themselves for their spoil. Mohammed had not returned long, when he received intelligence of a similar concentration of troops by the Beni Ghatafan. On this occasion he set out with more than double the previous number of warriors. But on reaching Amarr, he found the place deserted, the Bedouins having retired, with their families and flocks, to the mountain fastnesses, where he could not venture to attack them. This time he had to return empty-handed. In the autumn, information reached him that the Beni Soleim were again assembling. He set out with 300 followers and advanced as far as the mines of Bahran, near Foro; but the enemy once more eluded him by a timely retreat.

Perhaps it was to compensate himself for all this unsuccessful trouble, that Mohammed now reverted to his former tactics of waylaying and pillaging Meccan caravans. It must have been during his last return journey, or soon after, that

he despatched his adopted son Zeid with a hundred chosen men, for that purpose. The season for the departure of the great caravan from Mecca to Syria had come round. But the affair of Bedr having closed the usual route alongside the Red Sea coast to the merchants of Mecca, they had now to make a long detour eastward, in the direction of the Persian Gulf, hoping thus to avoid the Moslem marauders. Mohammed knew this and was not minded to leave the new route undisturbed. He had ascertained that the caravan was going to pass by Karada; and thither Zeid was ordered to direct his march. He was more successful than his master. For whilst all Mohammed's efforts to seize and plunder Meccan caravans had hitherto failed, Zeid arrived in good time. The Koreish not suspecting any danger in this direction, had sent no extra guard with their caravan, though one of great value, chiefly in precious metals. The men in charge of the caravan seeing no chance of resisting such an armed force, took to flight, without striking a blow, and the whole rich booty fell into Zeid's hands. The value was so great that each warrior received a thousand dirhems for his portion and Mohammed's fifth amounted to 20,000 or, according to others, 25,000 dirhems. This was the first Meccan caravan falling as a prize into the hands of the Moslems; and it was a most costly one. No wonder that Zeid's fame as a successful leader was at once established, and that in the following wars he was often intrusted with the supreme command.

The blow thus inflicted by Zeid upon Mecca was not restricted to the loss of an entire caravan, though this was a very serious disaster by itself. What the Koreish must have felt still more acutely was the conviction, thus forced upon them, that as their western, so also their eastern, route to Syria, was actually at the mercy of their Moslem adversaries; and that, in fact, their very existence was threatened, which to a great extent depended on their trade and the safety of the roads for their mercantile expeditions. Seeing that they were now hemmed in, and that their most vital interests were at stake, they could no longer postpone a supreme military effort. The trading interests themselves, though as a rule opposed to war, now loudly demanded the punishment of the daring Moslem marauders, by an immediate attack upon their terri-