while still an unbeliever, and he was succeeded by Jablah b. al-Ayham.

Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. Ḥamzah related—through Ibn ʿĀʾidh, al-Wāqidī, ʿUmar b. ʿUthmān al-Jahshī, and his father—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched Shujāʿ b. Wahb to al-Ḥārith b. Abī Shamir while the latter was in the Ghūṭa. Shujāʿ left Medina in Dhu al-Ḥijjah of the year 6 AH. He says: “I reached him and found him preparing quarters for Caesar, who was coming from Ḥimṣ to Aelia (Jerusalem) after God had repelled the Persian armies from him—praise be to God.

“When al-Ḥārith read the Prophet’s letter he threw it aside and said, ‘Who can strip me of my kingdom? I shall march against him with my people.’ He reviewed his forces until nightfall, ordered the horses to be shod, and said, ‘Inform your master of what you have witnessed.’

“As I departed I encountered Caesar at Aelia. With him was Dihyah al-Kalbī, bearing another letter from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Caesar wrote to al-Ḥārith telling him not to march against the Prophet, to leave him alone, and to come meet him in Aelia instead.

“I returned and informed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he said, ‘His kingdom is doomed.’”

Some report that ʿAttāb b. Asīd, the governor of Mecca, led the people in pilgrimage that year; others maintain that the pilgrims went out in scattered groups. Both accounts were recorded by al-Wāqidī, and Allah knows best.