Seven hundred Jews paid for their unjustifiable treachery with their lives. The wish for which Sa'b had lived was fulfilled. His old wound burst open, causing the last drops of his blood to flow away, and he earned the crown of martyrdom. [Sidenote: EXPEDITION AGAINST THE JEWS OF KHAIBAR (_Year VI of the Hegira, A.D. 628_)] Notwithstanding these grave defeats, the power of the Jews in Arabia was not definitively crushed. The land of Khaibar, about ninety-six miles north of Al-Madinah, still belonged to them and it was richer and more important than the territory they had lost. Many Jews, driven from the neighbourhood of Al-Madinah, had taken refuge there; and by their thirst for revenge, they rekindled the hatred which the inhabitants already felt towards Islam. The Jews of Khaibar, fancying themselves safe from any attack of the Mussulmans, never let an opportunity escape to do them harm; and copying the manner in which Mohammad had proceeded against the Makkans, the Jews found out a good way to satisfy their rancour. The region between Khaibar and the sea was inhabited by the tribe of the Ghatafans, their allies, and they had come to an agreement to block the road and stop all Mussulman caravans leaving Al-Madinah to travel to Syria. The damage inflicted from these tactics had often made the Prophet think about sending an expedition against the Jews of Khaibar, but he was too busy round about Makkah, to carry out this plan. On returning from Al-Hudaibiyah, the ten years' truce, signed with the Quraish, freed him from all anxiety as regarded them, and the Revelation he received at that moment: "_He rewarded them with a speedy victory. * And with a rich booty,_" (THE QUR'AN, XLVIII, 18-19), seeming to him to apply to Khaibar, and nothing else, he hesitated no longer, and decided to march against this fortress, the last stronghold of the Jews in Arabia. The Ghatafans, secretly forewarned by Abdullah, the "Hypocrite," rushed to the aid of the Jews, their allies, but on arriving at the Wadi'r Raji, they found that the Mussulman forces had outstripped them and thus they were cut off from the road to Khaibar. Whilst brought to a dead stop, disagreeably surprised, they heard noises behind them, near their tents, and imagining that part of the Mussulman "qawm" had been diverted to take them in the rear, they turned back in great haste.