Then the third year after the Hijrah began, marked by two campaigns: the Expedition of Dhi Amr and the Expedition of Bahran.

The Expedition of Dhi Amr:
In Muharram the Prophet ﷺ marched toward Najd with the objective of Ghatafan, leaving ʿUthmān in charge of Madinah. He remained in Najd for the entire month of Safar and returned without fighting—so reports Ibn Isḥāq.

Al-Wāqidī, however, says the expedition took place in Rabīʿ al-Awwal and that the Prophet’s absence lasted eleven days. He transmits from his teachers among the Successors—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ḥazm and others—that word reached the Prophet that a contingent of Ghatafan, from the clan of Thaʿlabah, had gathered at Dhi Amr intending to raid the outskirts of the Muslim community. Allah knows best.

The Expedition of Bahran:
Ibn Isḥāq relates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stayed in Madinah throughout Rabīʿ al-Awwal and then set out against Quraysh. ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām adds that he reached Bahran, a mining district in the Ḥijāz, and remained there for all of Rabīʿ al-Thānī and Jumādā al-Ūlā. Bahran lies in the direction of al-Furʿ. He then returned without encountering any hostile force.