The expedition of Zayd: the caravan, the fifth, and Umm Kulthum’s marriage

Yunus ibn Bukayr said, from Ibn Ishaq: it was six months after the encounter of Badr. Ibn Ishaq said: of its story is that Quraysh feared the route they took to Syria when there occurred what occurred of the encounter of Badr, so they took the route of Iraq, and merchants went out of them, among them Abu Sufyan, with much silver, which was the bulk of their trade; and they hired a man of Bakr ibn Wa’il called Furat ibn Hayyan, meaning the Ijli, ally of the Banu Sahm, to guide them upon that route. Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah sent Zayd ibn Haritha, who met them at a water called al-Qarada, of the waters of Najd, and seized that caravan and what was in it, and the men were powerless against him, and he brought it to the Messenger of Allah. Hassan ibn Thabit said thereupon: ’Leave the caravans of Syria, for guides like the mouths of deep wells have barred their way, by the hands of men who emigrated toward their Lord and of their Ansar, truly, and of the hands of the angels.

When it strikes toward the valley from the belly of Alij, it will be said to it: the road is not here.’ Ibn Hisham said: these verses are in a qasida of Hassan, and Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith answered him in it. Al-Waqidi said:

the going out of Zayd ibn Haritha in this expedition was at the beginning of Jumada al-Ula, twenty-eight months of the Hijra, and the chief of that caravan was Safwan ibn Umayya. The cause of sending Zayd ibn Haritha was that Nu’aym ibn Mas’ud arrived in Medina with news of that caravan, and he was upon the religion of his people, and he met Kinana ibn Abi l-Haqiq among the Banu an-Nadir, and with them was Salit ibn an-Nu’man, who had accepted Islam; and they drank, and that was before wine was forbidden. Nu’aym ibn Mas’ud began speaking of the affair of the caravan and the going out of Safwan ibn Umayya in it and of the wealth with him, and Salit left at once and informed the Messenger of Allah, who sent Zayd ibn Haritha straightaway; they met them, took the wealth, and the men were powerless, and they captured only one man or two, and came with the caravan. The Messenger of Allah took its fifth, and its fifth came to twenty thousand, and divided its four fifths among the expedition, and among the captives was the guide Furat ibn Hayyan, who accepted Islam.

Ibn Jarir said: al-Waqidi claims that in Rabi’ of this year Uthman ibn Affan married Umm Kulthum bint of the Messenger of Allah, and she was brought in to him in Jumada al-Akhira of it.