The expedition to Kheibar saw the promulgation of several ordinances dealing with the personal and social life of his followers.  The dietary laws were put into stricter practice; the flesh of carnivorous animals was forbidden, and a severer embargo was laid upon the drinking of wine—­the result of Mahomet’s knowledge of the havoc it made among men in that fierce country and among those wild and passionate souls.  Henceforward also the most careful count was kept of all the booty taken in warfare, and those who were discovered in the possession of spoil fraudulently obtained were subject to extreme penalties.  All spoil was inviolate until the formal division of it, which usually took place upon the battlefield itself or less frequently within Medina.  The Prophet’s share was one-fifth, and the rest was distributed equally among the warriors and companions.  Since Islam derived its temporal wealth chiefly by spoliation, the destiny of its plunder was an important question and gave rise to frequent disputes between the Disaffected and the Believers which are mentioned in the Kuran.  By now, however, the malcontents were for the most part silenced, and we hear little disputation after this as to the apportionment of wealth.

With the return to Medina came the inaugury of Mahomet’s extension of diplomacy—­the dream which had filled his mind since the tide of his fortunes had turned with the Kureisch failure to capture his city.  The year 628, the first year of embassies, saw his couriers journeying to the princes and emperors of his immediate world to demand or cajole acknowledgment of his mission.  A great seal was engraved, having for its sign “Mahomet, the Prophet of God,” and this was appended to the strange and incoherent documents which spread abroad his creed and pretensions.

The first embassy to Heraclius was sent in this year summoning him to follow the religion of God’s Prophet and to acknowledge his supremacy.  At the same time the Prophet sent a like missive to the Ghassanide prince Harith, ally of Heraclius and a great soldier.  The envoys were treated with the contempt inevitable before so strange a request from an unknown fanatic, and Heraclius dismissed the whole matter as the idle word of a barbarian dreamer.  But Harith, with the quick resentment harboured by smaller men, asked permission of the Emperor to chastise the impostor.  Heraclius refused; the embassy was not worthy of his notice, and he was certainly determined not to lose good fighting men in a useless journey through the desert.  So Mahomet received no message in return from the Emperor, but the omission made no difference to his determination to proceed upon his course of diplomacy.

He then sent to Siroes of Persia a similar letter, but here he was treated more rudely.  The envoy was received in audience by the king, who read the extraordinary letter and in a flash of anger tore it up.  He did not ill-treat the messenger, however, and suffered him to return to his own land.