The Con­quest of Khay­bar and of the Remain­ing Jew­ish Strong­holds in al-Hijaz

Excerpt­ed from Mad­i­nan Soci­ety At the Time of the Prophet, Inter­na­tion­al Islam­ic Pub­lish­ing House & IIIT, 19911

Khay­bar is an agri­cul­tur­al oasis sit­u­at­ed approx­i­mate­ly 165 kilo­me­ters to the north of Mad­i­nah2, at an alti­tude of 850 m above sea lev­el. It is the sec­ond largest Har­rah in Ara­bia, after the Har­rah Banu Sal­im3. Khay­bar enjoys fer­tile land and abun­dant water, hence it was famous for hav­ing many palm trees, apart from the corn and fruits it pro­duced. For this rea­son it was known as the gar­den of the Hijaz, because of its fer­til­i­ty, impreg­nabil­i­ty, and live­stock. There was a mar­ket place in Khay­bar called Suq al Natah, which was guard­ed by the tribe of Ghatafan, who con­sid­ered Khay­bar to be with­in their bor­ders.4 Because of its eco­nom­ic posi­tion, many mer­chants and crafts­men lived there, and there was much mon­ey-chang­ing activity.

Before the con­quest, Khay­bar was inhab­it­ed by a mix­ture of Arabs and Jews. The num­ber of Jews increased after the expul­sion of the Jews from Mad­i­nah at the time of the Prophet.4

The Jews of Khay­bar did not show any hos­til­i­ty toward the Mus­lims until the lead­ers of Banu al Nadir set­tled among them. These lead­ers had been deeply hurt by their expul­sion from their homes. The expul­sion had not destroyed their pow­er, because they had left Mad­i­nah with their wives and chil­dren and their wealth, fol­lowed by singers beat­ing drums and play­ing wind-instru­ments in an act of con­ceit and pride, the like of which had nev­er been seen among any peo­ple at that time.5

The most promi­nent lead­ers of Banu al Nadir who set­tled in Khay­bar were Salam ibn Abu al Haqiq, Kinanah ibn Abu al Haqiq, and Huyayy ibn Akhtab. When they came to Khay­bar, the peo­ple accept­ed their lead­er­ship.4

The lead­er­ship of these three men was enough to drag the Jews of Khay­bar into con­flict aimed at retal­i­a­tion against the Mus­lims. They were dri­ven by an inner hatred and strong desire to return to their homes in Madinah.

Their first move against the Mus­lims came in the Bat­tle of the Ditch, when the Jews of Khay­bar, led by the lead­ers of Banu al Nadir, played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the incite­ment of Quraysh and the desert Arabs against the Mus­lims, and spent their own mon­ey for that pur­pose. Then they suc­ceed­ed in per­suad­ing Banu Qurayzah to betray the Mus­lims and coöper­ate with their ene­mies.6

After God had aid­ed the Mus­lims in defend­ing Mad­i­nah and defeat­ing the tribes, the Mes­sen­ger felt that it was impor­tant to deal with the sit­u­a­tion in Khay­bar, which had become a source of great dan­ger for the Muslims.

Ibn Ishaq reports with an isnad con­tain­ing a majhul nar­ra­tor” that the Mes­sen­ger sent a let­ter to them, call­ing them to Islam and remind­ing them of what their own Scrip­tures said about his com­ing.7 Of course, the Jews did not accept his invi­ta­tion, nor did they apol­o­gize for incit­ing the ene­mies of the Mus­lims. The Mes­sen­ger there­fore decid­ed to liq­ui­date their lead­ers who had played a part in the incite­ment against him, includ­ing Salam ibn Abd al Haqiq. The Mes­sen­ger sent Abd Allah ibn Atik and some of the Ansar, and they killed him.

Al Bukhari gave the sto­ry of his killing in detail : Abd Allah ibn Atik found and inge­nious way to enter his house, which was with­in his strong­hold and sur­round­ed by his body­guard, and killed him in his bed­room.8 This indi­cates that Abd Allah ibn Atik was coura­geous, eager and ready to make sac­ri­fices for the sake of his beliefs.

But elim­i­nat­ing some of the Jew­ish lead­ers was not suf­fi­cient to remove the dan­ger to the Mus­lims. The treaty of al Huday­biyah, between the Mus­lims and Quraysh, which took place in the sixth year of the Hijrah, gave the Mus­lims the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devote them­selves to the con­quest of Khay­bar. Many of the Qur’an­ic com­men­ta­tors sug­gest that God promised the Mus­lims that they would con­quer Khay­bar and take booty from it, in Surat al Fath, which was revealed on the way back from al Hudaybiyah :

God’s good plea­sure was on the believ­ers when they swore feal­ty to thee under the tree : He knew what was in their hearts, and He sent down tran­quil­i­ty to them ; and He reward­ed them with a speedy vic­to­ry ; and many gains will they acquire (besides): and God is exalt­ed in pow­er, full of wis­dom. God has promised you many gains that you shall acquire, and He has giv­en you these before­hand ; and He has restrained the hands of men from you ; that it may be a sign for the believ­ers, and that He may guide you to a straight path ; and oth­er gains (there are), which are not with­in your pow­er, but which God has com­passed : and God has pow­er over all things.” (Al Fath, 48:18 – 21)

The Date of the Campaign

Ibn Ishaq sug­gest­ed that it took place in Muhar­ram of the sev­enth year. Al Waqi­di sug­gest­ed that it took place in Safar or Rabi al Aww­al of the sev­enth year, after the return from al Huday­biyah in Dhu al Hij­jah of the sixth year.[11] Al Zuhri and Imam Malik sug­gest­ed that it took place in Muhar­ram of the sixth year.[12] The his­to­ri­ans fol­lowed these pio­neers in estab­lish­ing the date of the cam­paign, so their sug­ges­tions also dif­fer. There is no great dif­fer­ence between Ibn Ishaq and al Waqi­di ; it is less than three months. The dif­fer­ence between them and al Zuhri and Imam Malik stem from the dif­fer­ences in defin­ing the begin­ning of the hijrah cal­en­dar. Some of them includ­ed the months pre­ced­ing Rabi’ al Aww­al, the month in which the hijrah took place, so they added a year to the dates of the events which took place at the time of the Prophet ; oth­ers ignored those months, and con­sid­ered Rabi’ al Aww­al as the begin­ning of the cal­en­dar, so they dropped a year from the dates of the events. Ibn Hajar pre­ferred Ibn Ishaq’s sug­ges­tion to that of al Waqidi.[13]

On the Way to Khaybar

When the Mus­lims set off for Khay­bar under the lead­er­ship of the Prophet, they were shout­ing Allahu Akbar” (God is Most Great) and La Ila­ha illa Allah” (There is no god but Allah) in loud voic­es, and he asked them to calm down, say­ing : You are call­ing One who is All-hear­ing and Close, and He is with you.”[14]

This gives a clear pic­ture of the spir­it which was con­trol­ling the Islam­ic army. They were moti­vat­ed by strong faith and their morale for fight­ing was high, while they were march­ing towards strong­holds full of men, weapons, pro­vi­sions and sup­plies. None of these could pre­vent the believ­ers from achiev­ing their noble aims.

Al Waqi­di is the only one who gives a detailed descrip­tion of the Prophet’s route to Khay­bar. Al Waqi­di is an expert in describ­ing routes and in defin­ing the places where the events of the Sir­ah took place. He used to fol­low the routes him­self and ask ques­tions about them. He explained that the Prophet left Mad­i­nah and went through Thiny­at al Wada, Zaghabah, Nuq­ma, al Mus­tanah, al Watih, Asr, Sah­ba, and al Kha­rasah ; he then passed between al Shiqq and al Natah, went through al Manzi­lah and al Raji’, from where he set off to con­quer Khaybar.[15] Since al Raji ? lies to the north­east of Khay­bar, it seems that the Prophet want­ed to cut Khay­bar off from Syr­ia and its allies in Ghatafan.

Descrip­tion of the Con­quest of Khaybar

The Prophet con­quered al Natah first, and its two strong­holds, Na’im and al Sa’b, fell to the Mus­lims. Then he con­quered al Shiqq, and its two strong­holds, Abi and al Nizar, fell. Al Natah and al Shiqq lie to the north­east of Khay­bar. Then he con­quered al Kat­i­bah, and its strong­hold, al Mani (or al Qamus), fell. This was the strong­hold of Ibn Abu al Haqiq. Then he con­quered al Watil, and then al Salal­im, and their strong­holds fell. This is the sequence of the con­quest areas around Khay­bar accord­ing to al Waqidi’s description.[16] Ibn Ishaq’s descrip­tion dif­fers in the order of events. He agrees with al Waqi­di that the con­quest began with the cap­ture of the strong­hold of Na’im in the region of al Natah, but he dif­fers in that he puts the cap­ture of al Qamus before the cap­ture of al Sa’b.[17]

The authen­tic hadith indi­cate that the Prophet reached Khay­bar before dawn and prayed Fajr in its vicin­i­ty. Then he attacked it before the sun rose. The Jew­ish peas­ants who came out to work with their cat­tle, hoes and bas­kets were sur­prised to see the Mus­lims there and exclaimed : Muham­mad and his army!” The Mes­sen­ger answered : Allahu Akbar ! Khay­bar is destroyed. When we descend into the open space of peo­ple, evil will be the morn­ing for those who were warned (and heed­ed not)!”[18]

The Jews took refuge in their strong­holds, and the Mus­lims besieged the strong­hold of al Na’im. Ghatafan quick­ly came to the aid of the Jews of Khay­bar, who were their allies, but they did not join in the fight­ing for fear that the Mus­lims might attack their homes. Al Waqi­di states that Ghatafan reached the strong­holds of Khay­bar, but Ibn Ishaq states that they returned to their homes before reach­ing Khay­bar. Al Waqi­di is the only one who says that the Prophet offered Ghatafan a year’s date har­vest from Khay­bar in return for their with­draw­al, and that they refused. This report can­not be relied upon because al Waqi­di is weak and he is the only one who report­ed it.[19]

Abu Bakr car­ried the flag of the Mus­lims for the first two days of the siege of Na’im, but it did not fall to him, and stress and exhaus­tion over­took them. The Prophet said : Tomor­row I will give the flag to a man whom Allah and His Mes­sen­ger love, and who loves Allah and His Mes­sen­ger. He will not return until the strong­hold has fall­en to him.” The Mus­lims’ spir­its revived. After the Prophet had prayed Fajr the fol­low­ing morn­ing, he called Ali and gave him the flag. Ali car­ried it on the third day, and he achieved the conquest.[20]

One report indi­cates that the flag-bear­er before Ali was Umar ibn al Khat­tab, not Abu Bakr, but this is a weak report rely­ing on May­mun al Bas­ri who is daif.[21] Anoth­er report tells that Abu Bakr, Umar and Ali took turns in car­ry­ing the flag on the third day. This is also a weak report because its nar­ra­tor, Bari­dah ibn Sufyan, is weak.[22]

The Prophet com­mand­ed Ali to call the Jews of Khay­bar to Islam, and to tell them what their duties towards God were. He said to him : By God, if God guides one man (to Islam) through you, it is bet­ter for you than the most valu­able camels.”[23] This shows that the Prophet was not eager for the booty of Khay­bar ; rather he was con­cerned about spread­ing the mes­sage of Islam and remov­ing obsta­cles from the path of its preparation.

When Ali asked him : O Mes­sen­ger of God, on what basis shall I fight?” he said : Fight them until they say There is no god but Allah and Muham­mad is the Mes­sen­ger of Allah If they do so, their blood and wealth will be pro­tect­ed from you, except what is due from it (i.e., zakah, etc.) and Allah knows their intentions.”[24]

Mah­mud ibn Maslamah al Ansari was mar­tyred in the siege of the strong­hold of Na’im, when Marhab threw a mill­stone onto him from the heights of the stronghold.[25] Ali met Marhab in com­bat and killed him.[26] Marhab was one of the heroes of the Jews, and his death affect­ed their morale.

Sev­er­al reports tell that Ali car­ried a gate of the fortress of Na’im as a shield after a Jew had knocked his shield from his arm, but these are all unsub­stan­ti­at­ed reports.[27] Reject­ing these reports is not a denial of Ali’s strength and courage. There are many oth­er reports which estab­lish this beyond doubt.

The con­quest of Na’im took ten days.[28] After­ward, the Mus­lims set off toward the strong­hold of al Sa’b ibn Mu’adh in the region of al Natah, where there were 500 war­riors with food and pro­vi­sions. The Mus­lims were suf­fer­ing from lack of food. Al Hab­bab ibn al Mund­hir car­ried the flag at the con­quest, and he did well and fought the Jews brave­ly. The con­quest took three days. Then the Mus­lims con­quered the strong­hold of Qal’at al Zubayr, which was the last strong­hold of al Natah. The fugi­tives from Na’im, al Sa’b, and the oth­er Jew­ish strong­holds con­quered by the Mus­lims had gath­ered in Qal’at al Zubayr, and it was a high and impreg­nable strong­hold. The Mus­lims cut off the water sup­ply, and forced the Jews to come down and fight ; they killed ten of the Jews and con­quered the strong­hold after a siege last­ing three days. After they had dealt with the peo­ple of al Natah, who were strongest of the Jews, the Mus­lims moved from al Raji’ to al Manzilah.

Undoubt­ed­ly, the posi­tion of the Mus­lims was much stronger after they had defeat­ed the peo­ple of al Natah and seized their food and pro­vi­sions, and the rest of the Jews of Khay­bar were alarmed by the fall of al Natah.

The Mus­lims set off to con­quer al Shiqq. This area con­tained many strong­holds, includ­ing Abi and al Nizar. The Mus­lims began by con­quer­ing Abi ; some of the Jew­ish war­riors were killed in sin­gle com­bat in front of the strong­hold. Then the Mus­lims stormed the fortress and gained the food and pro­vi­sions inside. Some of the Jew­ish war­riors man­aged to escape and bar­ri­cade them­selves in the fortress of al Nizar, where they fought the Mus­lims with arrows and stones. Their resis­tance col­lapsed before the siege of the Mus­lims, who con­quered the fortress. The rest of the peo­ple of al Shiqq fled from their strong­holds to the area of al Kat­i­bah, to the south­west of Khay­bar, and bar­ri­cad­ed them­selves in the strong­hold of al Qamus (al Mani’). Some of the defeat­ed bar­ri­cad­ed them­selves with the peo­ple of the strong­holds of al Watih and al Salal­im. The Mus­lims besieged them for 14 days, before they asked for peace with­out there hav­ing been any fight­ing. Al Nizar was the last strong­hold in which there was fight­ing. After­wards the Jew­ish resis­tance col­lapsed and the Jews lim­it­ed them­selves to bar­ri­cad­ing them­selves inside their strong­holds, and this bar­ri­cad­ing always end­ed with their ask­ing for peace.

The descrip­tion of the con­quest of the strong­holds of al Sa’b and al Zubayr, and of the regions of al Shiqq and al Kat­i­bah, is based on al Waqidi.[29] He is the only one who gives a clear pic­ture of the con­quest of these areas. He is an his­to­ri­an (akhbari) who has abun­dant infor­ma­tion, despite his being weak in the opin­ion of the hadith schol­ars. His report is of the kind which is allowable.

Ibn Ishaq’s reports about the con­quest of Khay­bar are con­fused and lack pre­ci­sion when com­pared with the loca­tion of the strong­holds of Khay­bar. An authen­tic report men­tions that the Prophet fought the peo­ple of Khay­bar, then seized their land and palm trees, and forced them back to their citadel. They agreed that the gold and sil­ver, weapons and armor were for the Mes­sen­ger of God, and that they could have what­ev­er their mounts could car­ry, on con­di­tion that they restrained them­selves and did not con­ceal any­thing. If they did so, there would be no pro­tec­tion for them and no treaty with them. They con­cealed some musk belong­ing to Huyayy ibn Akhtab, who had been killed before Khay­bar, and who had brought it with him on the day Banu al Nadir were expelled. Sayah[30] was asked : Where is the musk of Huyayy ibn Akhtab?” He answered : It was spent on war and oth­er expens­es.” Then the Mus­lims found the musk, and killed the two sons of Abu al Haqiq, and took their women and chil­dren as prisoners.[31]

Ibn Ishaq men­tions with­out isnad, that the one who con­cealed the trea­sure and was asked about it was Kinanah ibn al Rabi’.[32] Ibn Sa’d men­tions Kinanah and his broth­er al Rabi’.[33] Ibn Sa’d’s isnad includes Muham­mad ibn Abd al Rah­man ibn Abu Lay­la, who is saduq, but he has a very bad memory.[34]

It has been proved that the Jews of the strong­hold of al Qamus asked the Prophet for peace, but after­ward broke the treaty, so he took their wealth.

The peo­ple of al Watih and al Salal­im real­ized, after the fall of al Natah, al Shiqq and al Qamus, that their resis­tance was futile. They asked the Prophet to let them go and to spare their lives, and he did so.[35]

The rest of Khay­bar fell to the Mus­lims. The peo­ple of Fidak, to the north of Khay­bar, has­tened to ask for peace, and to be allowed to leave in safe­ty, and leave their wealth in return for that. The Prophet agreed to their request.[36]

Fidak was exclu­sive­ly for the Mes­sen­ger of Allah, because he had not made an expe­di­tion to it with either cav­al­ry or camel­ry. The Mus­lims then besieged Wadi al Qura, a group of vil­lages a few days’ trav­el between Khay­bar and Tayma.[37] The vil­lages sur­ren­dered, and the Mus­lims took much wealth as booty, but they left the land and palm trees to the Jews, and treat­ed them as they had treat­ed Khay­bar. Tay­ma made a peace treaty sim­i­lar to the treaties of Khay­bar and Wadi al Qura.[38]

Thus the rest of the Jew­ish strong­holds fell before the Mus­lims. The report of the request for a peace treaty on the part of the peo­ple of al Watih and al Salal­im, and of Fidak, was trans­mit­ted by Ibn Ishaq with a munqati isnad which is not valid evi­dence for the rules of Islam­ic jurispru­dence. It is valid for describ­ing his­tor­i­cal events. Its nar­ra­tor, Abd Allah ibn Abu Bakr ibn Amr ibn Hazm is famous for trans­mit­ting infor­ma­tion of the Maghazi.

The num­ber of Jew­ish men killed in the bat­tle of Khay­bar was 93[39] and their women and chil­dren were tak­en pris­on­ers. Among the pris­on­ers was Safiyah bint Huyayy ibn Akhtab. The Prophet freed and mar­ried her.[40]

Twen­ty Mus­lims were mar­tyred, accord­ing to Ibn Ishaq[41], al Waqi­di said that there were 15. It is a sign of Allah’s aban­don­ing the Jews that the num­ber of their men killed while defend­ing well-for­ti­fied strong­holds was far greater than the num­ber of Mus­lims who were mar­tyred while fight­ing on open ground. There is a sahih report that a Jew­ish woman gave the Prophet a roast­ed sheep she had poi­soned ; she had put the most poi­son into the shoul­der when she learned that this was the part he pre­ferred. When he tast­ed some of the shoul­der, he real­ized that it had been poi­soned, so he spat out the mouth­ful. The woman con­fessed, and he did not pun­ish her[42] but lat­er he killed her when Bishr ibn Ma’rur died as a result of hav­ing eat­en poi­son in his food.[43]

What helped the Mus­lims to con­quer Khay­bar was the fact that after the treaty of al Huday­biyah they were free to fight the Jews with­out Quraysh help­ing them (the Jews), and that the tribe of Ghatafan aban­doned the alliance with the Jews of Khay­bar out of fear for their own homes. Quraysh became deject­ed and angry when they heard the news of the Mus­lims’ vic­to­ry over the Jews of Khaybar.[44] The vic­to­ry was unex­pect­ed, because the impreg­nabil­i­ty of the forts and strong­holds of the Jews in Khay­bar, and the great num­bers of war­riors and weapons, were well-known. Sim­i­lar­ly, the vic­to­ry at Khay­bar had a resound­ing effect on the oth­er Arab tribes who were aston­ished by the news and so pan­ic-strick­en by the vic­to­ry, that they held back their hos­til­i­ty and turned to rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. Thus new hori­zons opened up for the spread of Islam.

The Jews were not expelled from Khay­bar at the time of the Prophet. There is an authen­tic report that the Prophet allowed the Jews to stay in Khay­bar on the con­di­tion that they work in agri­cul­ture and spend their own mon­ey on it, and that the Mus­lims would receive one half of their crops. This was in spite of the fact that the Mus­lims had the right to expel them if they want­ed to. The Jews has­tened to make this offer to the Prophet, say­ing, We know the land bet­ter than you do.” He agreed to this although he had intend­ed to expel them.[45] This does not con­tra­dict the report in the Sunan of Abu Dawud[46] which says : When the Prophet and the Mus­lims gained the wealth (i.e., of Khay­bar, includ­ing the land), they did not have enough work­ers to work the land for them, so the Mes­sen­ger of Allah called the Jews, and made an agree­ment with them.” 

It is pos­si­ble to rec­on­cile the two reports by explain­ing that the Jews made this offer to the Mes­sen­ger and that he accept­ed after he had thought about it and seen that it was in the inter­ests of the Mus­lims. Sub­se­quent­ly, he called the Jews and made an agree­ment with them. The fact that he intend­ed to expel them is an indi­ca­tion that all of Khay­bar was con­quered by force, because those who made peace did so on con­di­tion that their lives would be spared and they would be able to leave.

The Jews set­tled in Khay­bar, and the Prophet sent a man on his behalf to eval­u­ate the crops and take the Mus­lims’ share. On one occa­sion he sent Abd Allah ibn Rawa­hah, who eval­u­at­ed half the crop as being 20,000 camel-loads (wisq) of dates. He gave the Jews the choice of tak­ing this half, or of leav­ing it for him (and tak­ing the oth­er half). They admired his fair­ness and said : This is jus­tice, upon which the heav­ens and the earth are estab­lished. We agree to take it, as you said”.[47]

But there is anoth­er authen­tic report which says that he eval­u­at­ed the crop at 40,000 camel-loads ; they accept­ed his eval­u­a­tion and had to pay 20,000 camel-loads.[48] The two authen­tic reports may be rec­on­ciled by explain­ing that by 40’ was meant the share of both the Jews and the Mus­lims, and by 20’ was meant the share of only one of the two groups.

The Effects of the Con­quest of Khaybar

Undoubt­ed­ly, the con­quest of Khay­bar brought great ben­e­fits to the Mus­lims, and improved their eco­nom­ic pos­si­bil­i­ties with a con­tin­u­al eco­nom­ic income. Aishah said, com­ment­ing upon the con­quest of Khay­bar, Now we can eat our fill of dates”. Ibn Umar added, We did not eat our fill until we con­quered Khaybar”.[49]

Undoubt­ed­ly, these reports give a clear pic­ture of the ben­e­fits of the con­quest of Khay­bar in strength­en­ing the eco­nom­ic posi­tion of the Mus­lims and of the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion before the con­quest. In spite of the Mus­lims’ des­per­ate need before Khay­bar, the Mes­sen­ger would have pre­ferred the Jews’ becom­ing Mus­lim to receiv­ing the booty, as is made clear by his com­mand to Ali. Nor did he want to destroy or expel the Jews ; for this rea­son he accept­ed the peace agree­ment which the Jews of al Qamus, al Watih and Salal­im offered. After the agree­ment — accord­ing to which the Jews accept­ed expul­sion from Khay­bar — had been made, he agreed to let them stay in Khay­bar accord­ing to their request, an indi­ca­tion of tol­er­ance and jus­tice. This action served the eco­nom­ic and mil­i­tary inter­ests of the Islam­ic state, in that it con­served the mil­i­tary ener­gies which could then be direct­ed towards con­tin­u­al strug­gle aimed at uni­fy­ing the Arab penin­su­la under the suzerain­ty of Islam. The Mus­lims did not turn to agri­cul­ture, which needs con­tin­u­al work in cul­ti­vat­ing the land and tend­ing plants and palms, and would use their time and ener­gy. They also ben­e­fit­ed from the expe­ri­ence and ener­gies of the Jew­ish pres­ence who main­tained the lev­el of agri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion in Khay­bar because of their expe­ri­ence with the land and its cul­ti­va­tion. The Mus­lims were pro­vid­ed with a large share (of the pro­duce) which the state could use to equip the army and cov­er oth­er expenses.

The Mus­lims gained move­able wealth ; each man took what­ev­er food he need­ed, with­out shar­ing it with the Mus­lims or giv­ing 15 (khums) of it to the state, because it was lit­tle. This con­tra­dicts Al Waqidi’s report that there was much wealth and it was suf­fi­cient for the Mus­lims to feed them­selves for a month or more.

[11] Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 2130 ; al Waqi­di, al Mag­hazi, 2634

[12] Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Mad­i­nat Dimashq (The His­to­ry of the City of Dam­as­cus), 133

[13] Fath al Bari, 7464

[14] al Bukhari, al Sahih, Kitab al Mag­hazi, Bab Ghazwat Khay­bar, 7470

[15] Al Waqi­di, al Mag­hazi, 2639

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 3438

[18] Al Bukhari, al Sahih, Kitab al Salah, 1478 ; Kitab al Adhan, 289 ; Mus­lim, al Sahih, Kitab al Jihad wa al Siyar, Bab Ghazwat Khay­bar, 3426

[19] Al Waqi­di, al Mag­hazi, 3650 ; Ibn Hisham, al Sira, 3438

[20] Ahmad, al Mus­nad, 5353 ; al Hakim, al Mus­tadrak, 337 ; al Haytha­mi, Maj­ma al Zawa’id, 6150. Al Hakim judged that its isnad was sahih, and both al Dha­habi and al Haytha­mi agreed with him.

[21] Ahmad, al Mus­nad, 5358 ; al Haytha­mi, Kashf al Astar an Zawa’id Mus­nad al Bazar, 2338 ; al Tabari, Tarikh al Rusul, 2300 ; lbn Hajar, Taqrib al Tahd­hib, 2292

[22] Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 3455 ; al Tabari, Tarikh al Rusul, 2300 ; al Hakim, al Mus­tadrak, 237 ; see also Ibn Hajar, Tahd­hib, 1433. Al Haytha­mi (Maj­ma al Zawa’id, 9124) and al Bazar. Ibn Kathir, Al Sir­ah al Nabawiyah, 3353) report­ed it with anoth­er isnad, which includes Hakim ibn Jubayr, who is daif, as men­tioned in Ibn Hajar’s Taqrib al Tahd­hib, 1292

[23] Mus­lim, al Sahih, Kitab Fada’il al Sahabah, 4/​1872

[24] Sharh al Nawawi ala Mus­lim, 15177

[25] Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 3438 ; al Waqi­di, al Mag­hazi, 2645

[26] Mus­lim, al Sahih, Kitab at Jihad wa al Siyar, Bab Ghazwat Dhu Qarad, 3/​1433

[27] Al Sa’ati, al Fath al Rab­bani, 21120 ; Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 3446 ; Ibn Kathir, al Sir­ah al Nabawiyyah, 3359 ; Ibn Hajar, al Isabah, 2509

[28] Al Waqi­di, al Mag­hazi, 2657

[29] Ibid., 2259670

[30] The pater­nal uncle of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, Awn al Ma’bud (The Help of God), 8241

[31] Abu Dawud, al Sunan, Kitab al Kharaj wa al Imarah wa al Fay Bab Ma Ja’a fi Hukm Ard Khay­bar, 3408

[32] Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 3449

[33] Ibn Sa’d, al Tabaqat, 2112

[34] Ibn Hajar, Taqrib al Tahd­hib, 2184

[35] Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 32449

[36] Ibid.

[37] Khal­i­fah, Tarikh, 85, trans­mit­ted from Ibn Ishaq

[38] Ibn al Qayy­im, Zad al Ma’ad, 1405

[39] Al Waqi­di, al Mag­hazi, 2699

[40] Mus­lim, al Sahih, Kitab al Nikah, 2/​1645

[41] Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 2÷8045, where he gives a list of their names.

[42] Al Waqi­di, al Mag­hazi, 2700

[43] Al Bukhari, al Sahih, 5176 ; Mus­lim, al Sahih, 7÷1415

[44] Ahmad, al Mus­nad, 3138 ; Mawa’rid al Zaman, 413

[45] Al Bukhari, al Sahih, Kitab al Mag­hazi, Bab Mu’a­malat al Nabi Ahl Khay­bar, 7496 ; Mus­lim, al Sahih, Kitab Musaqah, Bab al Musaqah wa al Mua­malah bi Juz’ min al Tamr wa al Zar 3÷11861187 ; Abu Dawud, Sunan, Bab fi al Musaqah, 3697

[46] Kitab al Kharaj, Bab Ma Ja’a fi Hukm Ard Khay­bar, 3412

[47] Al Sa’ati, al Fath al Rab­bani, 2125 ; it is a Sahih hadith.

[48] Abu Da’ud, Sunan, Kitab al Buyu ; Bab al Khuras ; Abu Ubayd, al Amw­al, 198

[49] Al Bukhari, al Sahih, Kitab al Mag­hazi, Bab Ghazwat Khay­bar, 7495Endmark

  1. In col­lect­ing reports on this top­ic and select­ing those which are authen­tic, I referred to the the­sis by al Shaykh Awad Ahmad al Shahri, enti­tled Mar­wiy­at Ghazwat Khay­bar (Reports of the Khay­bar Cam­paign), which he has sub­mit­ted for a Mas­ter’s Degree in the Depart­ment of Post­grad­u­ate Stud­ies in the Islam­ic Uni­ver­si­ty of Mad­i­nah al Munawwarah. I was a mem­ber of the exam­in­ing pan­el.[]
  2. This is the dis­tance by mod­ern road, which is dif­fer­ent from the route which was fol­lowed by the Mes­sen­ger to Khay­bar.[]
  3. See al Maw­su’ah al Ara­biyyah al Muyas­sarah (The Sim­pli­fied Ara­bic Ency­clo­pe­dia), p. 770. Hamad at Jasir, Fi Shi­mal Gharb al Jazi­rah, 236 – 8[]
  4. Ibid.[][][]
  5. Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 3272[]
  6. Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 3253, trans­mit­ted it from the Sir­ah author­i­ties, join­ing their isnads togeth­er. The isnads con­tain a majhul nar­ra­tor, who is inval­i­dat­ed by being mur­sal, but this report is accept­able, because sound­ness from a hadith point of view is not a con­di­tion for accept­ing akhbar.[]
  7. Ibn Hisham, al Sir­ah, 2195[]
  8. Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, Kitab al Mag­hazi, Bab Qatal Abu Rafiq, 7340[]

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *