Abashed at his first failure, Rabi'a followed this piece of advice and the famous warrior rolled dead in the dust.
Urged on by the spur of victory, the Prophet pursued the fugitives to the foot of the ramparts of Taif and tried to take the town. After a useless siege of twenty days, he preferred to give up all ideas of an attack in favour of other means, slower but more sure, and instead of invoking the wrath of the Divinity against the inhabitants, he said: 'O Allah! enlighten the people of Taif and inspire them with a desire to come to Thy Apostle of their own free will!'
Despite the disappointment of his troops, he retook the road to Makkah, camping at Al-Ji'rana where all the prisoners were collected, as well as all the booty to be divided.
When the Prophet arrived, a female captive, Ash-Shayma, of the Banu Sad, which was a fraction of the Hawazin, was struggling to escape from the brutality of the soldiery. On perceiving Mohammad, she cried out: 'O Prophet of Allah, I am thy foster-sister!'—'Prove it!'—'See the scar on my shoulder where thou didst bite me when I carried thee, a baby boy, on my back.'
The Prophet recognised the cicatrice. Much moved, he shed tears, spread his mantle on the ground, and asked Ash-Shayma to sit down on it. 'According to thy wish,' he said, 'thou wilt find generous friendship by my side; or thou canst return to thy tribe with all the gifts I'll lavish on thee.'—'Send me back to my people in the desert, O Prophet! Such is my sole desire.' Mohammad set her free, after having loaded her with presents.
A deputation of the Hawazin was presented to the Prophet, and Abu Sorada, an old man belonging to the division of the Banu Sa's, spoke in their name: 'O Prophet! among thy prisoners are thine aunts, sisters of the wet-nurses who suckled thee. As for the male captives, they were the companions of thy childhood—almost of thy race! In the great misfortune which crusheth us, we implore thee in the name of Allah! If, for the same reasons, we were forced to implore Al-Harith ibn Abi Chammar, or Nu'man ibnu'l Mundhir, they would surely take pity on us! Now thou art the best of nurslings!'—'Which do ye prefer: your families or your property?' asked Mohammad, scarcely able to hide his tender feelings.—' O Prophet! give our wives and children back to us. We love them quite otherwise to our property.'—'I restore to you all male and female captives belonging to the Banui Muttalib,' declared Mohammad loudly.—'But those who are ours belong to the Apostle of Allah!' cried the Mohadjirun and the Ansars immediately. Thus all the prisoners, numbering about six thousand, were given up to the delegates of the Hawazin.
The family of Malik ibn Awf formed an exception to this ruling. Mohammad, however, charged those he had just liberated to make him the following proposal: 'If Malik cometh to me and becometh a convert to Islam, I will give him back his property. Nay, more—I will make him a present of a hundred camels.'
Malik accepted. He left Taif secretly, and when converted, gave such tokens of sincerity, that the Prophet appointed him as commander over all the Mussulmans of the country. It was the best way to curb the resistance of the inhabitants of Taif.
And so it turned out indeed, for this able leader, proud of the investiture, at the head of troops stirred by faith, continued to war against the Saquifs. By pitilessly raiding their flocks and caravans, blocking them by hunger behind the ramparts of their city, he soon compelled them to come in their turn and implore the Prophet's mercy, when they were converted to Islam. The booty was considerable, consisting of about twenty-four thousand camels and forty thousand sheep. After the emotions of the affair of the prisoners, Mohammad resolved to postpone the division of the plunder until another day, and he mounted his she-camel. But his soldiers were so impatient to share the spoils that they followed and importuned him. By accident, they pushed his animal against a thorny shrub, and its branches tore the mantle of Allah's Chosen One. 'Now, you men, give me back my mantle!' he told them, and yielding to their entreaties, he returned to see the booty shared among them.
He tried, above all, to ingratiate himself definitively with the nobles of the city, by favouring them in all ways; and afterwards, they were called "Al-mu'allafa qulubuhum," "those whose hearts have been won over." Abu Sufyan and Mu'awiya his son; Hakim ibn Hizam, An-Nadr ibn Al-Harith, Suhayl, Ikrimah Uyayna, Al-Ajra, and Safwan, all received fifty camels each. This difference of treatment gave rise to protestations. Ibn Mirdas manifested his dissatisfaction in a piece of poetry: 'My share of the booty and that of Al-Ubayd have been distributed to Oyama and Al-Ajra. And yet their fathers, Al-Hasan and Al-Habis, never took precedence of my father in any assembly whatsoever!'