Emperor Heraclius and robbed him. When the Ǧuḏâm, who had gone over to Islâm, heard of this, they immediately prevailed upon al-Hunejd to return the messenger his stolen property, whereupon the latter proceeded to al-Medîna. There he begged Mohammed for revenge. Mohammed equipped against the Ǧuḏâm a band of raiders under the command of Zejd ibn Ḥâreṯa. The culprit, al-Hunejd, was attacked with his clan near al-Mâḳeṣ on the border of the volcanic territory in the district of al-Awlâǧ and was murdered and robbed. In the volcanic territory close by, in the valley of Madân which runs eastward, there was encamped a clan, which had already embraced Islâm, together with Refâʻa, the chief. Hearing about the attack made by the band of Moslems upon the clan to which al-Hunejd belonged, they jumped on their horses, rode up to the Moslems, and after they had ascertained what had happened, returned in the afternoon to their camp in Madân. At night, however, they left Madân and shortly after sunset reached Refâʻa ibn Zejd at the well of Kurâʻ Rabba on the border of the volcanic territory Ḥarra Lajla. Having informed him of what had occurred, they rode with him on camels into the valley of al-Medîna, which they reached after three nights, and reported the matter to the Prophet. Mohammed gave orders that the Ǧuḏâm who had been captured should be released, and sent ʻAli with Refâʻa to meet the returning raiders. These they encountered in the valley of al-Falḥatejn, and the Ǧuḏâm regained everything which had been taken from them.—
Through the territory of the Ǧuḏâm there are three roads leading from Syria: one by way of Ajla along the western border of the chain of granite mountains into Wâdi al-Ǧizel; the second by way of Maʻân, Tebûk, and al-Ḥeǧr; and the third by way of al-Azraḳ, Tejma, and Bird into the volcanic territory Harra Lajla and thence to al-Medîna. As may be inferred from various details, the messenger traveled by the first road. Thus from Palestine he reached Ajla and from there entered the valley of Šinâr, or, as Jâḳût writes, Šinân, where he was attacked and robbed.
Between the attack on the messenger and the punitive expedition of the Moslems certainly no considerable time elapsed. The punitive expedition was directed mainly against the culprit al-Hunejd and was prepared with very great caution. Al-Hunejd must have expected that the Prophet would avenge the humiliation inflicted upon his messenger, and he therefore transferred his camp from the place where he had attacked the messenger, and which was therefore familiar to the latter, to al-Mâḳeṣ on the border of the volcanic territory in the region of al-Awlâǧ. Jâḳût writes that, according to Ibn Isḥâḳ, the Moslem troops attacked al-Hunejd at al-Mâḳeṣ on the border of the volcanic territory of ar-Raǧla, but Ibn Isḥâḳ merely says that the Moslems attacked al-Hunejd at al-Mâḳeṣ on the border, or in front of, the volcanic territory. Neither he nor Ibn Hišâm connects al-Mâḳeṣ with Ḥarrat ar-Raǧla, Jâḳût adding “ar-Raǧla” on his own account and, as it seems, incorrectly. The whole context points rather to the volcanic territory of Lajla than to that of ar-Raǧla. For the Ǧuḏâm, who accepted Islâm, must have been encamped very near to al-Hunejd, if on horseback they could reach the end of the valley of Madân, in which the Moslems of al-Medîna were resting, and return to their camp in the afternoon of the same day.