Roman Religion Challenged. Judaism and Christianity, while posing separate threats to the empire, had one thing in common - they both refused to participate in the worship of the Roman gods and make sacrifices at their temples.
I believe you are refering to the Caravan raids which were done by people of the islamic faith.
In total there were 11 total raids
the purpose of these raids was to plunder these people of all there riches
they were believed to have been told by Allah(the higher power of the Islamic faith) to go forth and plunder these people of there riches
I'm taking a stab at it and say the last one. sorry if I'm wrong! XD
B. Do they could protect their interests from larger states.