172 In the FoofJf~P! of the Prophttto Syria for their trade. Fifteen men were sent out, but fourteen of them were
killed; at the same rime another envoy, who had been sent to B usra, was also
stopped and killed by a leader of the Ghassan tribe. The threat from Syria was
clearly intensifying, and those murders of peaceful envoys had to be
redressed. The Prophet decided to send an army o f three thousand men, and
he placed the former slave Zayd ibn Harithah in command-which g reatly
surprised many Companions. H e added tbat if Zayd was killed, Jafar, who
had recently returned from Abyssinia, would take over the command, and if
Jafa! d.ied too, he would be replaced by Abdullah ibn Rawahah.
They marched out, and when they arrived near Syria, they heard that a
majority of Arab tribes had banded together and that they had managed
to obtain the support of the Byzantine imperial troops, which made them
more than a hundred thousand strong. H aving only three thousand men,
the Muslims had no chance: a meeting took place to decide whether they
should return to Medina, send an envoy to ask for reinforcements, or ~im
ply go ahead and fight in spite o f the vast disparity between the two
armies. Driven by the confidence and ardor of some Companions (in-
cluding especially Abdullah ibn Rawahah, who o n the way had disclosed
that he sensed he was going to die as a marryr) , they decided to go ahead
according to the initial plans and say nothing to the P rophet. They arrived
near the enemy, spent a while observing them, then suddenly shifted their
route toward Mutah; the Arab and Byzantine troops pursued them, think-
ing they were retreating. Once the)' reached Mutah, where the topography
was more favorable, Zayd ordered his troops to launch a sudden attack,
seeking to create a surprise. The strategy momentarily staggered the
enemy, but it was not sufficient to tip the scales in favor of the Muslims,
who were so heavily outnumbered. Zayd was killed, then J afar, his succes-
sor, then Abdullah; the Muslim troops were in disarray llntil eventually
Khalid ibn al-\X1alid took command, gathered the men, and enabled them
to protect themselves from a new attack. They had lost only eight men,
but they had had to retreat, and trus was plainJy a defeat; hO\vever, Khalid
ibn al-\Xlalid had managed to avoid a confrontation that could have ended
up in a slaughter.ll
A[ that point, the Companions who had stayed in Medina with the
Prophet underwent a most peculiar experience. T hey knew the Prophet
had dreams and visions that very often came true; they knew he was
inspired, and they had followed mm as Revelations came to him in frag-