Uyayna ibn Hisn's raid on Banu Tamim

A raid the Prophet sent in Muharram of year 9 AH, under the leadership of Uyayna ibn Hisn al-Fazari with fifty horsemen, none of them Muhajirun or Ansar, against Banu Tamim, who had incited the tribes and prevented them from paying the jizya. ¹

Uyayna set out travelling by night and hiding by day, until he fell upon them in the desert. They turned and fled, and he took from them eleven men, twenty-one women and thirty boys, and drove them to Medina, where they were lodged in the house of Ramla bint al-Harith. ¹

Ten of their chiefs came, called out to the Prophet and spoke with him, and showed their wish for a contest of boasting. They put forward their orator Utarid ibn Hajib, and the orator of Islam, Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas, answered him. Then they put forward their poet al-Zibriqan ibn Badr, who recited his boasts, and the poet of Islam, Hassan ibn Thabit, answered him extempore. ²

When the two orators and the two poets had finished, al-Aqra' ibn Habis said: "Their orator is more eloquent than ours, their poet more poetic than ours, their voices louder than ours, and their words loftier than ours." They then embraced Islam. The Prophet rewarded them and gave them generous gifts, and returned their women and children to them. ³

Ibn Ishaq summarises this raid among the expeditions under the name "the expedition of Uyayna ibn Hisn ibn Hudhayfa ibn Badr against Banu al-Anbar of Banu Tamim": the Prophet sent him against them, he raided them, took some people and captured others. ⁴ He relates, on the authority of Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada, that Aisha said to the Prophet: "I have a slave-woman from the descendants of Isma'il." He said: "This is the captive of Banu al-Anbar, which is arriving now; we will give you one of them, and you may free her." ⁴ When the captives were brought in, a delegation of Banu Tamim rode out to him about them: Rabi'a ibn Rafi', Sabra ibn Amr, al-Qa'qa' ibn Ma'bad, Wardan ibn Muhriz, Qays ibn Asim, Malik ibn Amr, al-Aqra' ibn Habis and Faras ibn Habis. They spoke to the Prophet on their behalf, and he freed some of them and ransomed others. ⁵

Ibn Ishaq names those of Banu al-Anbar who were killed that day: Abdullah and his two brothers, the sons of Wahb; Shaddad ibn Faras; and Hanzala ibn Darim. Among their women taken captive were Asma' bint Malik, Kas bint Ari, Najwa bint Nahd, Jumay'a bint Qays and Amra bint Matar. ⁵ On that day Salma bint Attab recited two verses lamenting what befell Adi ibn Jandab. Ibn Hisham adds verses by al-Farazdaq about al-Aqra's standing before the Prophet and the release of the captives. Adi ibn Jandab was of Banu al-Anbar, and al-Anbar was the son of Amr ibn Tamim. ⁵

Ibn Ishaq's account does not give the number of horsemen, the captives or the contest of boasting. It does not date the raid, and it makes the attack specifically on Banu al-Anbar rather than on all of Tamim. The detail of the fifty horsemen, the figures for the captives and the contest of boasting come from later writers on the campaigns, as the Sealed Nectar summarises them. ⁴ Ibn Ishaq mentions the large delegation of Banu Tamim at another point in the book, so linking the two events as the Sealed Nectar does is not something Ibn Ishaq's text confirms. ⁵

• The report about Aisha is transmitted by the isnad of Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada. The list of the delegation, the dead and the captives is Ibn Ishaq's own, without an isnad. ⁵
• In al-Farazdaq's verse the word "al-Khalifin" is from Abu Dharr's version; in three manuscripts it reads "al-Khaifin". ⁵
• The phrase "the raids are complete; we return to the account of the expeditions" is missing from one manuscript. ⁴