Wars and campaigns

Family: War, peace and the conduct of conflict · 140 entries

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Polity

• The Kingdom of Saba (Sheba)

  c. 1100 BCEThe oldest named power of Yemen in the sira’s prologue: its traces reach twenty-five centuries before the Common Era in the excavations of Ur, its flourish begins in the eleventh century BCE, and it passed through the Mukarrib era at Sirwah and the kingdom era at Maʾrib before Himyar absorbed it around 115 BCE.

• The Himyarite Kingdom

  c. 115 BCEThe Himyarite power that took over Saba around 115 BCE and ruled from Zafar; its last centuries saw decline, the Abyssinian occupations after Dhu Nuwas’s massacre of Najran’s Christians, then Persian control until Badhan’s conversion in 638 CE.

• The Ghassanid Kingdom

  c. 220 CEThe Arab client kingdom of Rome in al-Sham: the house of Jafna of the Azd displaced the Salihid Dajaʾima and ruled as Rome’s wardens of the desert frontier until Yarmuk, when their last king Jabala ibn al-Ayham entered Islam in Umar’s reign.

• The Lakhmid Kingdom of al-Hira

  c. 268 CEThe Arab client kingdom at al-Hira on Persia’s border: from Amr ibn Adi under Shapur until the last Lakhmid al-Mundhir (al-Maʾrur) in 632, serving the Sasanians as a buffer against Arab raiders and Rome’s own Arab clients.

• The Aksumite Kingdom (Abyssinia)

  The Ethiopian power across the Red Sea which twice occupied Yemen — first 340–378 exploiting Himyarite rivalries, then in 525 under Aryat with Roman ships, in revenge for Dhu Nuwas’s trenches of fire — and whose commander Abraha led the elephant campaign on Mecca.

• The Byzantine Empire

  The Roman power that ruled Egypt and Syria, controlled the sea trade routes that strangled Yemen’s caravan economy, set up client kings among the Arabs of al-Sham, and armed Abyssinia’s fleet for the second occupation of Yemen.

• The Nabataean Kingdom

  The strong north-Hijazi kingdom of the sons of Nabit ibn Ismail in the traditional account, capital at Petra, which dominated the peninsula’s fringes until Rome broke it.

• The Sasanian Empire

  The Persian power rebuilt by Ardashir from 226 CE: it ruled Iraq and the Gulf, kept the Lakhmid kings of al-Hira as frontier wardens, and absorbed Yemen as a province after expelling the Abyssinians until Badhan’s conversion.

Event

• The Expulsion of Jurhum from Mecca

  c. 150 CEAfter some twenty centuries of Jurhumite rule over Mecca, their tyranny over pilgrims and appropriation of the Kaaba’s wealth turns the Adnani clans against them; Khuzaʾa, with Banu Bakr ibn Abd Manaf, expels them in the mid-second century CE — and the departing Jurhumites bury Zamzam and carry off the two golden gazelles and the Black Stone.

• The First Abyssinian Occupation of Yemen

  340 CEIn the age of disorder after 300 CE the Romans entered Aden and with their help the Abyssinians occupied Yemen for the first time in 340 CE, exploiting the rivalry of Hamdan and Himyar; the occupation lasted until 378 CE and brought Christian missions into Yemen, in al-Raheeq al-Makhtum's account.

• Qusayy ibn Kilab Takes Mecca

  440 CEAround 440 CE Qusayy wrests the custody of the Kaaba and the rule of Mecca from Khuzaʾa — by alliance and, in one account, purchase from Abu Ghubshan — the two sides fight, then accept the arbitration of Yaʾmar ibn Awf who rules for Qusayy; Qusayy then gathers Quraysh into Mecca’s quarters, founds Dar al-Nadwa, and assumes the five offices of Meccan leadership.

• The Flood of al-Arim (the Bursting of Maʾrib Dam)

  c. 450 CEThe great breach of the Maʾrib dam around 450–451 CE which the Quran recalls as Sayl al-Arim; in the sira’s account it ruins Yemen’s settled life and sends the Qahtani tribes scattering across the peninsula.

• The Massacre of Najran (Ashab al-Ukhdud)

  October 523 CEIn October 523 the Himyarite king Dhu Nuwas, a convert to Judaism, marched on the Christians of Najran demanding they renounce their faith; on their refusal he dug the great trench and burned them — men, women, children and elders, twenty to forty thousand by report — the Ashab al-Ukhdud of Surat al-Buruj, whose blood summoned the Abyssinian occupation.

• The Second Abyssinian Occupation of Yemen

  525 CEIn 525, answering the Najran atrocity, the Roman emperors equipped an Abyssinian fleet which landed seventy thousand under Aryat; Aryat governed until his general Abraha killed him and ruled in his place — the Abraha of the elephant campaign against the Kaaba.

• Liberation and Persian Rule of Yemen

  575 CEIn 575 the Yemenis under Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, aided by Persia, expelled the Abyssinians and won independence; but Sayf’s assassination by his own Abyssinian guard ended the royal house, and Khosrow made Yemen a Persian province whose governors ruled until the last, Badhan, embraced Islam in 638.

• The Battle of Dhu Qar

  c. 604 CEKhosrow’s marzabans and the governor Iyas ibn Qabisa marched to wrest al-Nuʾman’s deposited family and wealth from Hani ibn Masʾud; Banu Shayban met them at Dhu Qar and routed the Persians utterly — the first day the Arabs defeated the Persians, shortly after the Prophet’s birth.

• The Battle of the Trench (al-Ahzab)

  c. February 627 CE · Shawwal 5 AHIn Shawwal 5 AH (February-March 627 CE), a confederate army of 10,000 Meccans and Bedouin allies besieged Medina; upon Salman al-Farisi's advice the Muslims dug a protective trench on their northern boundary; the siege endured for nearly a month amidst cold, hunger, and the treachery of Banu Qurayza, until broken by Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud's stratagem and a violent night windstorm.

• The Siege and Judgment of Banu Qurayza

  c. March 627 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 5 AHIn Dhu al-Qa'da 5 AH (March 627 CE), immediately after the confederates withdrew, the Prophet marched on Banu Qurayza for breaking their treaty during the siege of Medina; after twenty-five nights of siege they surrendered unconditionally and accepted the arbitration of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, who decreed the execution of the combatants and captivity of women and children.

• The Expedition of Banu al-Mustaliq (al-Muraysi')

  c. December 627 CE · Sha'ban 6 AHIn Sha'ban 6 AH (December 627 CE), the Prophet led an expedition against Banu al-Mustaliq at the watering-place of al-Muraysi' after intelligence revealed their mobilization; following a brief exchange, their forces scattered, their camp was taken, and the Prophet married Juwayriyya bint al-Harith, prompting the Muslims to free a hundred families of her clan.

• The Conquest of Khaybar

  c. May 628 CE · Muharram 7 AHIn Muharram 7 AH (May-June 628 CE), the Prophet marched with 1,400 companions of Hudaybiyya against the formidable Jewish oasis of Khaybar; following fierce assaults and the capture of eight major fortresses (including Na'im, al-Sa'b ibn Mu'adh, al-Zubayr, Ubayy, and al-Qamus), the Jewish leaders surrendered and agreed to cultivate the land for half of its produce.

• Ali's expedition to Fals to destroy the idol of Tayy

  between 630 and 631 CE · 8 AH

• The siege of Ta'if

  January 630 CE · Shawwal 8 AHAfter Hunayn, the Muslims besieged the fortified town of Ta'if, home of the Thaqif; the siege was lifted without taking it, and the Thaqif accepted Islam the next year.

• The Conquest of Mecca (Fath Makka)

  c. 11 January 630 CE · 20 Ramadan 8 AHIn Ramadan 8 AH (January 630 CE), following Banu Bakr and Quraysh's breach of the Hudaybiyya peace at al-Watir, the Prophet mobilized 10,000 Muslims and entered Mecca in triumphant humility; dividing the army into four columns, the city was taken almost without resistance; the 360 idols around the Kaaba were shattered, and the Prophet announced a general amnesty to the populace: 'Go, for you are free'. وخطب يوم الفتح فأعلن حرمة البلد إلى يوم القيامة «لم يحل القتال فيه لأحد قبلي ولم يحل لي إلا ساعة من نهار» واستثنى الإذخر لقينهم وبيوتهم.

• The death of Abdullah ibn Ubayy and the Prophet's prayer over him

  c. 631 CE · 9 AHSoon after the return from Tabuk in 9 AH, Abdullah ibn Ubayy — chief of the hypocrites — died; the Prophet sought forgiveness for him and prayed over him despite Umar's attempt to dissuade him, and the revelation afterwards sided with Umar's objection, forbidding prayer over such people or standing at their graves.

• The hypocrites' ambush at the pass on the return from Tabuk

  c. January 631 CE · Ramadan 9 AHOn the return from Tabuk, twelve hypocrites — faces veiled — attempted to frighten the Prophet's camel at a steep pass; Ammar was holding its halter and Hudhayfa driving it, and Hudhayfa struck the ambushers' mounts with his staff until God terrified them into flight; the Prophet told Hudhayfa their names and their plot, whence Hudhayfa was called 'keeper of the Prophet's secret'.

• The expedition of Usama ibn Zayd

  c. May 632 CE · Safar 11 AHIn Safar 11 AH the Prophet equipped a great army under the young Usama ibn Zayd to strike the Byzantine marches of al-Balqa' and al-Darum in Palestine — answering the empire's killing of Muslim converts; the troops camped at al-Jurf until the Prophet's illness delayed them, and the campaign was carried out under Abu Bakr.

• The Battle of Dhat al-Sawari (31 AH)

  c. 651 CE · 31 AHDhat al-Sawari, 'the Battle of the Masts' (AH 31): the first great naval armament of Islam — Constans sailed in five or six hundred ships, the Muslims under Abdullah ibn Sa'd lashed their hulls together and fought sword to sword until the Byzantines broke and their emperor fled wounded, in the Arabic telling to be killed in a Sicilian bath; Ibn al-Athir notes the victory field was also where talk against Uthman began.

• The Defeat at Balanjar (32 AH)

  c. 652 CE · 32 AHThe Balanjar disaster (AH 32): against Uthman's written warning not to plunge the army in, Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabi'a marched on Balanjar beyond Derbent and was killed — the Khazars kept his body in a coffin for rain-prayers; Salman ibn Rabi'a's relief column gathered the fugitives, among them Salman al-Farisi and Abu Hurayra, in the first Khazar triumph over the Muslim frontier.

• Qarin's revolt in Khurasan (32 AH)

  c. 653 CE · 32 AHQarin's rising in Khurasan (AH 32): forty thousand from Tabasayn, Badghis, Herat and Quhistan — against them Abdallah ibn Khazim marched with four thousand, wrapping spearheads in oiled cotton and firing them in a midnight feint until the host broke; the ruse won him Ibn Amir's confirmation over all Khurasan.

• Battle of al-Junayd at al-Sha'b

  c. 731 CE · 113 AHIn 113 AH al-Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman set out on a raid towards Tokharistan and halted at the river of Balkh. He sent Umara ibn Huraym towards Tokharistan with eighteen thousand men, and Ibrahim ibn Bassam al-Laythi with ten thousand in another direction. The Turks rose in force and came to Samarqand, which was held by Sura ibn al-Hurr; Sura wrote to al-Junayd, and he ordered the men to cross. Al-Mujashshir ibn Muzahim al-Sulami and Ibn Bistam al-Azdi stood before him and said: the Turks are not like others; they will not meet you in formed ranks or in a charge; you have divided your army; and the commander of Khurasan will not cross the river with fewer than fifty thousand. Write to Umara to come to you, and wait, and do not hurry. He said: then what of Sura and the Muslims with him? He crossed and camped at Kas. The Turks had filled in the wells on his route, so he asked which of the two roads to Samarqand was the better; al-Mujashshir said: take the road of the pass, which is equally distant between us and them. Al-Junayd took the pass road and spent the night at its foot, then went on with the men until he entered the defile (al-Sha'b), four farsakhs from Samarqand. Khaqan fell upon them with a great host, and the people of Sughd, Shash and Ferghana and a body of Turks advanced upon them. Khaqan charged the vanguard, and they broke back toward the army, with the Turks pursuing and coming at them from every side. The people held and fought until they were spent; swords would no longer cut, so they fought with cut wood, until both sides tired and they came to close grappling. The Azd banner passed through eighteen men, all of whom were killed, and eighty men of the Azd fell that day. Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Hawdhan, on a chestnut horse wearing armour, charged seven times and killed a man on each charge, until those on his flank feared him. The enemy's interpreter called to him: the king says, do not fight; turn to us and we will abandon our idol and worship you. He answered: I fight you only so that you abandon the worship of idols and worship God alone; and he fought until he was killed. Yazid ibn al-Mufaddal had carried a hundred camel-loads of sawiq for the Muslims; he kept asking after the men, and whenever he asked after someone he was told that he had been killed. He advanced saying 'there is no god but God' until he was killed.

• Majus landing at Seville, 230 AH

  c. 844 CE · 230 AHThe great Majus raid of AH 230: the northern sea-raiders entered Seville itself; Córdoba's army fought them 'after a hard stand,' burnt some of their ships, and the raiders withdrew down the coast through Sidonia, Niebla, Beja and Lisbon before vanishing — Abd al-Rahman II then repaired what they had wrecked and reinforced the garrisons.

• Appearance of Majus ships in al-Andalus, 245

  c. 859 CE · 245 AHIn 245 the Majus ships — the northern sea-raiders — appeared and ravaged in al-Andalus; the amir Muhammad's fleet met them, fought them, took two ships as prize, and a number of Muslims were martyred: the first recorded descent of the Vikings' ships on the Umayyad coast.

• The Defeat of the Byzantines at Tarsus

  883 CE · 270 AHIn Rabi I 270 some hundred thousand Byzantines under the patrician Andrias camped near Tarsus; Zamman al-Khadim struck by night, killed their chief and — it was said — seventy thousand men, and took seven crosses of gold and silver, the great jewelled cross, fifteen thousand mounts, gold-hilted swords, four gold chairs and two hundred gold collars.

• The killing of Mardawij ibn Ziyad

  935 CE · 323 AHIn 323 the Daylamite ruler Mardawij ibn Ziyad was killed at Isfahan by his own Turkish ghilman. He had staged a Zoroastrian-style festival for the winter night — mountains ringed with bonfires, two thousand birds released with oil-soaked legs, a banquet of a hundred whole roasted horses — then humiliated his Turks, who seized the moment and killed him.

• The Siege of al-Mahdiyya by Abu Yazid

  945 CE · 333 AHIn 333, Abu Yazid Makhlad ibn Kaydad — 'the man of the donkey' — besieged the Ubaydid caliph al-Qa'im in al-Mahdiyya. Four assaults followed through the year; famine inside the walls grew so severe that the people ate beasts and carrion, and al-Qa'im opened the Mahdi's granaries to his men.

• al-Mansur's Raid on Shant Ya'qub (Santiago de Compostela)

  997 CE · 387 AHAl-Mansur's forty-eighth raid and his deepest: from Cordoba, 6 Jumada II 387, to Santiago de Compostela — the Christians' Kaaba — reached empty on Wednesday 2 Sha'ban; its church, walls and factories demolished, the apostle's tomb guarded and the lone monk 'Ones of James' spared, then the army pushed to Santi Mankish island, 'a limit no Muslim had reached before them', and he wrote his victory dispatch from Baliquiya.

• The Cordoba Strife and the Rising of Ibn Abd al-Jabbar

  1009 CE · 399 AHThe Cordoba fitna of 399–400: the Umayyad Muhammad ibn Hisham rose as 'al-Mahdi', hid the caliph Hisham al-Mu'ayyad and buried a Christian lookalike in his name; his uncle Hisham's counter-revolt failed, then Sulayman al-Musta'in marched in with Christian allies, won the great battle (35,000 dead), and took the bay'a while Berbers and Christians sacked the city.

• Mahmud of Ghazna Enters Rayy, 420

  c. April 1029 CE · Jumada I 420 AHA letter from Mahmud ibn Sabuktakin reached the caliph in Baghdad, dated the first of Jumada II 420 from his camp in the Rayy countryside. In it he describes leaving Isfahan in Muharram and entering Rayy on the morning of Monday, the sixteenth of Jumada I, with a dense army. He mentions that the people of Rayy had been tormented by the injustice of the Daylam and had called on him for aid, and that he gave them his protection. Abu Talib Rustam ibn Ali ibn Fakhr al-Dawla surrendered on terms of reconciliation. The leaders of the Batiniyya were seized; the Daylam testified to what they held; the jurists ruled their blood forfeit, and they were crucified on the roadside. Their property was divided, and their books were brought out: from one city alone fifty camel-loads of books of the Mu'tazila, the philosophers and the Rafida were burned beneath the afflicted. The valuables taken came to nearly five hundred thousand dinars and two hundred and sixty thousand dirhams. Abu Talib, his son and the senior amirs set out for Khurasan. The letter contains his prayer: 'May God remove from this land the hands of the wrongdoers and purify it of the call of the Batiniyya.' This is the conqueror's own account of himself and his reasons.

• The sack of al-Ahwaz, 421

  c. March 1030 CE · Rabi' I 421 AHJalal al-Dawla entered al-Ahwaz and let his troops loose in it for sixteen days. His letter reached Baghdad on 11 Rabi' II 421 describing what had been taken: the letter claimed that the booty exceeded five million dinars and that two thousand slave-girls were taken captive, along with what the victorious king's own account gives of himself and of their number.

• The ghilman's expulsion of Jalal al-Dawla from Baghdad, 423

  c. February 1032 CE · Safar 423 AHThe ghilman swore to depose Jalal al-Dawla and cancelled the khutba in his name on Friday, 3 Rabi' I 423. They dismissed his concubines and demanded that he go down to Wasit; 100 ghilman went down with him, then only 20. He fled on the night of Monday, 6 Rabi' I, to Akbara, and the royal residence was plundered. He wrote to the isfahsalar Abu Kalijar, inviting him, but Abu Kalijar replied cautiously, asking for 500 ghilman. Jalal went to al-Hilla, prostrated himself before Kamal al-Dawla Abu Sinan, gave him his daughter in marriage and promised him treasures. Abu Sinan interceded for him, and his khutba was restored on 17 Rabi' I in the congregational mosques of the city and al-Rusafa, and then in the caliph's mosque on the third Friday. In Shawwal he drank wine in a garden of the caliph's residence; al-Qa'im reproached him, and he apologised.

• The Ghuzz enter Mosul and plunder Qarwash's palace

  c. 1043 CE · 435 AHIn 435 the Ghuzz entered Mosul, seized Qarwash ibn al-Muqallad's harem quarters and ruined them; after his appeal reached the caliph, Qarwash and Dubays ibn Ali ibn Mazyad combined and inflicted a great slaughter on the Ghuzz — and the khutba at Baghdad went to the Buyid Abu Kalijar. The Ghuzz had plundered over 200,000 dinars from Qarwash's palace.

• Ibrahim Inal's raid toward Constantinople

  c. 1048 CE · 440 AHIn 440 masses of Ghuzz from beyond the Oxus came to Ibrahim Inal, Tughril Beg's brother; he told them the land could not hold them and the right course was to raid the Byzantines, so they marched with him in their rear until only fifteen days remained between him and Constantinople. He returned with more than a hundred thousand captives, four thousand coats of mail, and booty carried on ten thousand wagons.

• Tughril Beg takes Isfahan and finds its buried treasures

  c. 1051 CE · 443 AHIn 443 came the news that Tughril Beg had taken and entered Isfahan — he who had rebuilt Rayy handsomely — and in demolishing a house he found gem-set vessels, buried hoards of dinars, two Chinese jars filled with precious jewels, a great treasure, and a green jar containing twenty thousand dinars in a split-open hoard.

• The Barbastro incident

  1064 CE · 456 AHIbn Hayyan's account of the Barbastro catastrophe of 456: the Nordmanni host besieged the town forty days, its underground water channel collapsed, the people surrendered on safe-conduct for their lives alone — then the aman was broken, over six thousand killed, fifty to a hundred thousand reckoned dead or captive, virgins apportioned house by house. He closes with the Jewish merchant's eyewitness scene of a Frankish soldier seated in a Muslim's own bed while the householder's daughter sang to him, tears on her cheeks.

• The Franks' taking of Toledo

  1085 CE · 478 AHThe first of al-Andalus's great cities retaken by the Franks: Toledo, from al-Qadir ibn Dhi-l-Nun in 478 — Tuesday 1 Safar in Ibn Khallikan, Wednesday 10 Muharram in Ibn Alqama — after a siege some stretched to seven years. Ibn Bassam records the fifty-year stored wheat spoiling that very year; Ibn Dhi-l-Nun left astrolabe in hand; the mosque became a church in Rabi I 496; Alfonso refused the crown 'until we take their Cordoba' — a vow unfulfilled; Ibn al-Asal's lament 'hasten your mounts, people of al-Andalus' — and Zallaqa followed the next year.

• The Almoravid seizure of Seville

  1091 CE · 484 AHIn 484 the Almoravids entered Seville; al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad charged them at the palace square, then yielded 'by my hand, not Amr's' — dragged to captivity and exiled to Aghmat, ending the sixty-year Abbadid kingdom, Andalus's most celebrated taifa.

• Capture of Valencia by al-Qanbiyatur (the Campeador)

  c. 1094 CE · c. 488 AHValencia's fall to Rodrigo el Campeador in 488 (some say 487): raised by Ibn Hud of Zaragoza, he took the city after a twenty-month siege, burned the qadi Ibn Jahhaf over the concealed treasury, and destroyed it — the poet Ibn al-Banna among the burned — until the Almoravid amir Mazdali retook it for Yusuf ibn Tashfin in 495.

• The battle of al-Arak (Alarcos)

  1195 CE · 9 Sha'ban 591 AHThe famous Battle of al-Arak (Alarcos): after the truce lapsed and the Franks raided, the Almohad sultan Ya'qub al-Mansur crossed to al-Andalus in 591; the armies met north of Cordoba near Qal'at Rabah on Thursday 9 Sha'ban, the Franks charged the sultan's flags held by Abu Yahya ibn Abi Hafs — a decoy — then al-Mansur broke them utterly; sixty thousand Frankish mail-coats entered the treasury and chroniclers ranked it with or above Zallaqa.

• Taj al-Din Abu Bakr's conquest of Kirman, Makran and Sind for the Khwarazmshah (c. 611 AH)

  c. 1214 CE · c. 611 AHA camel-hirer turned Khwarazmshah's most trusted amir, Taj al-Din Abu Bakr of Zuzan took Kirman 'in the quickest time', swept Makran to Sind's borders by Kabul, and received Hormuz's tribute — the great entrepôt whose protection merchants from India, China and Yemen bought with obedience — raising the Khwarazmian khutba at Qalhat and parts of Oman; Ibn al-Athir heard the story from a Mosul soldier who marched in the conquest.

• The fall and death of Mangli (612 AH)

  September 1215 CE · Jumada I 612 AHJumada I 612: Mangli — master of Hamadan, Isfahan and Rayy — fell to the coalition al-Nasir built around his killer's ambition: Uzbek of Azerbaijan, the Ismaili Jalal al-Din of the castles, and the grand army under Kukburi of Irbil with Mosul, Jazira and Aleppo contingents. Trapped in the mountains he had the caliphal army near starvation — then gambled on a downhill charge, won the first day over Uzbek, lost the second, fled and was killed; his mamluk Aghlamish inherited the kingdoms.

• Siege of Malaga and the captivity of its people

  1487 CE · 892 AHIn 892 the Christians besieged Malaga by land and sea; its people fought with cannon, horse and foot until the food ran out and they ate beasts, horses and donkeys, wrote to both shores for relief and got none — promised safety, they surrendered the citadel keys in late Sha'ban and were taken captive, a deception the chronicler calls the infidels' trickery.

• The surrender of Granada and the Christian entry into the Alhambra

  c. 2 January 1492 CE · 897 AHOn 2 Rabi I 897 the Christians took the Alhambra: Granada's sultan Abu Abdallah surrendered on sixty-seven conditions — safety of life, family and property, the shari'a kept, mosques and waqfs untouched, free passage to North Africa — then withdrew to the Alpujarras and crossed to Fez; the Christians broke the treaty clause by clause until forced conversion followed in 904.

• Ali spares Amr ibn al-As after he was exposed

  37 AHAt Siffin Ali got the upper hand over Amr ibn al-As, who had fallen with his private parts exposed, and turned away without killing him, in the author's account of Ali's chivalry. Al-Aqqad counts this among the rarest acts of generosity, since Amr was more dangerous to Ali than an army.

• The battle of Samura (327 AH)

  Shawwal 327 AHal-Nasir's hundred-thousand-strong expedition against king Rudhmir of the Jalaliqa at Samura in Shawwal 327, three days after the month's eclipse — initially a Muslim victory, it turned when the besieged sortied and killed some fifty thousand after they had crossed the ditch; Umayya ibn Ishaq supposedly dissuaded Rudhmir from pursuing the survivors.

• The destruction of Jadis

  Hassan's march on Jadis: the carried-tree ruse foiling Zarqa' al-Yamama's sight, the dawn massacre at Jaww, king al-Aswad ibn Ghaffar's flight to Tayy', and the seeress crucified on the town's gate — renaming it al-Yamama.

• Jadhima's death and al-Zabba's fall

  al-Zabba's killing of Jadhima and her own fall to Qusayr's tunnel beneath the throne — dying by a poisoned ring (some say) with the famous cry; her city razed and her children captive, after Mard and al-Ablaq had defied her.

• Shapur's siege of al-Hadra

  Shapur I's month-long investment of al-Dayzan's Hatra — broken only when the lovesick al-Nadira told him to track thrown straw up the Tharthar's hidden channel into the fortress; its king slain, Hadra razed, the tale became poetry.

Person

• Abraha

  c. 520 CEThe Aksumite governor who made himself ruler of Yemen, built the great church of San'a, and marched on Mecca with an elephant — the invader of the 'Year of the Elephant' remembered in Qur'an 105.

• Khosrow II

  c. 570 CEThe last great Sasanian shah (590–628), whose armies took Jerusalem and reached Constantinople's walls before Heraclius broke his empire. The tradition records that he tore up the Prophet's letter — and died within months.

• Amr ibn al-As

  c. 573 CEA Meccan diplomat who opposed the Muslims until 629–630, then converted and became the commander who conquered Egypt — and later Mu'awiya's chief ally in the first civil war.

• Heraclius

  c. 575 CEByzantine emperor (610–641) who reconquered Jerusalem from Persia and then watched the Muslim conquest of Syria. The tradition preserves a letter from the Prophet and an audience in which Heraclius questioned Abu Sufyan.

• Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah

  c. 583 CEAn early Qurayshi convert the Prophet called the trustworthy man of this community; he commanded the armies in Syria at the height of the conquest and died in the plague of Amwas.

• Umar ibn al-Khattab

  c. 584 CESecond caliph (634–644); under his rule the early community conquered Syria, Egypt and much of the Sasanian Empire. Remembered in Sunni tradition as al-Faruq, the model of just rule. ومن مناقبه في الصحيح القصر الذي رآه له النبي في الجنة فأخلى النظر إليه حياءً لغيرته ، ولبن الرؤيا الذي أوله النبي بالعلم فناوله إياه. ويروي هو صعوده إلى مشربة النبي حين اعتزل أزواجه فرأى أثر الحصير في جنبه فبكى فقال له «أما ترضى أن تكون لهم الدنيا ولنا الآخرة». ورأى حلة سيراء عند باب المسجد فعرضها على النبي ليلبسها يوم الجمعة وللوفد فقال «إنما يلبسها من لا خلاق له في الآخرة» ثم أهداها إليه بعد فكساها أخاً له مشركاً بمكة.

• Khalid ibn al-Walid

  c. 585 CEThe great commander on both sides of the early wars: the cavalry leader who turned the day at Uhud for the Meccans, then converted in 629 and led the Muslim armies at Mu'ta, in the Ridda wars and at the Yarmuk.

• Nusayba bint Ka'b (Umm Umara)

  c. 590 CEAn Ansari woman of Medina who pledged at Aqaba and fought at Uhud shielding the Prophet with sword and shield — the tradition's most famous woman warrior of the first generation.

• Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas

  c. 595 CEOne of the earliest converts, an archer at Badr, and the commander who broke the Sasanian army at al-Qadisiyya about 636; founder of the garrison city of Kufa.

• Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Kufi (Ibn A'tham)

  The historian Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Kufi, known as Ibn A'tham, author of 'al-Futuh', which arranges Islamic history from the Prophet's death and the Saqifa of Banu Sa'ida onward and records its personalities.

• Akbar the Great

  1542 CE · 949 AH†Akbar the Great.

• Amir Khan (Pathan chief, founder of the state of Tonk, 1768–1834)

  1768 CE · 1182 AH†Amir Khan, a Pathan predatory chief born at Sambhal in Rohilkhand, who began as a sihbandi soldier for zamindars and Maratha officials, became a leader of bandits, and was given the title nawab in 1798 by Jaswant Rao Holkar. By his treaty of 1817 with Lord Hastings he kept his territories, and so founded the state of Tonk.

• al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri

  He proclaimed the caliphate of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in Syria and was at the head of his army there. At Marj Rahit near Damascus he met Marwan ibn al-Hakam, and he was killed there at the hands of a man of Taym al-Lat, and many of Qays fell with him.

• al-Mundhir al-Ma'rur

  The last Lakhmid king of al-Hira: in 632 the kingship returned to the house of Lakhm in al-Mundhir called al-Ma'rur, whose rule lasted no more than eight months before Khalid ibn al-Walid arrived with the Muslim armies, in al-Raheeq al-Makhtum's account after al-Khudari.

• al-Mundhir ibn Maʾ al-Samaʾ

  The Lakhmid king deposed by Qubadh for refusing the Mazdakite creed, replaced by al-Harith ibn Amr al-Kindi, then restored by Khosrow Anushirwan who destroyed Mazdak and his followers.

• al-Nuʾman ibn al-Mundhir

  The Lakhmid king of al-Hira whom Khosrow summoned after the courtier Zayd ibn Adi’s intrigue; he entrusted his family and wealth to Hani ibn Masʾud of Banu Shayban, then went to Khosrow who imprisoned him until death — the refusal to surrender that deposit ignited Dhu Qar.

• Amr ibn Adi ibn Nasr al-Lakhmi

  The first Lakhmid king of al-Hira, appointed after Jadhima al-Abrash’s death in the reign of Shapur son of Ardashir; from him the Lakhmid kings succeeded each other until Khosrow replaced them with Persian governors.

• Aryat (Abraha’s predecessor in Yemen)

  The commander of the seventy-thousand Abyssinian force which, armed with a Roman fleet, occupied Yemen in 525 CE; he governed for the Negus until Abraha, one of his own generals, assassinated him and ruled in his place.

• Badhan (last Persian governor of Yemen)

  The last Persian governor (marzban) of Sanaa; his conversion to Islam in 638 CE ended Persian rule over Yemen.

• Nebuchadnezzar (Bukhtanasar)

  The king of Babylon who attacked the Arabs at Dhat Irq, where the Arabs' commander was no Jurhumite; the Adnanis scattered to Yemen at his second campaign in 587 BCE and the prophet Jeremiah took Ma'add to al-Sham; he also laid waste Palestine, destroyed the Temple in 587 BCE and carried the Jews to Babylon, after which some migrated to northern Hijaz, in al-Raheeq al-Makhtum's account.

• Dhu Nuwas (Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar)

  The last Himyarite king before the second Abyssinian occupation: a convert to Judaism who in October 523 tried to force the Christians of Najran to apostatize and, on their refusal, dug the trench of fire — the event the Quran recalls in Surat al-Buruj.

• Hani ibn Masʾud al-Shaybani

  The chief of Banu Shayban who kept al-Nuʾman’s family and deposit out of honor, refused to surrender them to Iyas ibn Qabisa and Khosrow, and led his tribe to victory over the Persians at Dhu Qar — the first day the Arabs routed the Persians.

• Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar

  Led a rising alongside al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd. After Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad's death he brought Ibn Ziyad's head to al-Mukhtar, who sent it on to Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca.

• Iyas ibn Qabisa al-Taʾi

  The Tayyi governor Khosrow set over al-Hira after imprisoning al-Nuʾman; ordered to extract the deposit from Hani ibn Masʾud, his expedition with Khosrow’s marzabans was broken by Banu Shayban at Dhu Qar; the Prophet was born in the eighth month of his governorship.

• Jabala ibn al-Ayham

  The last Ghassanid king: after the Yarmuk defeat his dynasty’s role as Rome’s Arab wardens ended, and he entered Islam in the caliphate of Umar, later leaving it for Byzantine territory.

• Jadhima al-Abrash

  The Arab warden appointed by Ardashir over al-Hira and the desert Arabs of Iraq and the Jazira — the Persian experiment of ruling the nomads through one of their own, which became the Lakhmid system; he died around 268 CE.

• Ka'b ibn Asad

  The paramount leader of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza in Medina; bound by treaty to the Prophet, he resisted Huyayy ibn Akhtab's persuasion before finally consenting to tear up the pact during the Battle of the Trench; he was judged and executed following the tribe's surrender.

• Ma'n ibn Yazid ibn al-Akhnas (Companion)

  Ma'n ibn Yazid ibn al-Akhnas al-Sulami, Abu Yazid, a Companion from the clan of Banu Malik ibn Khafaf. He narrated from the Prophet, and Abu al-Juwayriya al-Jarmi, Suhayl ibn Dharr and Utba ibn Rafi' narrated from him. He held a standing with Umar ibn al-Khattab, fought at Badr and at the conquest of Damascus, lived in Kufa, entered Egypt and then settled in Syria, and fought at Siffin with Mu'awiya.

• Marhab of Khaybar

  The formidable warrior-chieftain of the Jewish community of Khaybar; renowned for his strength and poetry; advanced in double armor challenging the Muslim army before the fortress of Na'im, where he was slain in single combat by Ali ibn Abi Talib.

• Qusayy ibn Kilab

  The Qahtani-raised Qurashi who returned to Mecca, married Hulayl’s daughter Hubba, took the custody of the Kaaba from Khuzaʾa around 440 CE after the arbitration of Yaʾmar ibn Awf, gathered Quraysh into the town’s quarters, founded Dar al-Nadwa, and held the five offices: riyasa, liwa, hijaba, siqaya and rifada.

• Sallam ibn Abi al-Huqayq (Abu Rafi')

  A wealthy Jewish merchant of Banu al-Nadir settled in Khaybar; one of the primary instigators and financiers who traveled to Mecca and Ghatafan to forge the confederate alliance (al-Ahzab) against Medina; assassinated in his fortified residence by a Muslim covert squad led by Abdullah ibn Atik.

• Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan (Maʾdikarib)

  The Himyarite noble who led Yemen’s liberation from Abyssinian rule with Persian help in 575 CE and was made king; his assassination by his own Abyssinian bodyguard ended the royal house of Dhu Yazan and opened direct Persian rule.

• Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi

  A horseman of the Banu Kilab who fought with al-Dahhak ibn Qays at Marj Rahit. When his side broke he fled and left two Banu Sulaym companions, who were killed; he later wrote verses about it.

Concept

• Ahl al-Harb (the people at war with the Muslims, their status and the rules that govern dealings with them)

  Ahl al-harb are non-Muslims who have not entered a covenant of protection and enjoy neither the safe-conduct nor the treaty of the Muslims. They are distinguished from the protected people, the rebels, those with a treaty and those under safe-conduct; a protected person, a treaty-holder or a holder of safe-conduct becomes a combatant by joining the land of war or by breaking the covenant. Their blood and property are lawful to take where there is no covenant, and are protected where there is one. The Muslim may not betray them once they have granted him safe-conduct; the destruction of their property is allowed by agreement where it serves the Muslims, and the jurists differ where it serves no purpose. Gifts and alms to them are allowed by the majority, a will in favour of a named person is allowed by the Shafi'is and Hanbalis but not by the Hanafis and Malikis, and an endowment in their favour is void by agreement. Food and similar goods may be exported to them; arms may not be exported in war. A Muslim man may marry a Christian or Jewish woman of the land of war, as of the protected people.

• Anfal (spoils and the other gains taken from the enemy, and their divisions)

  Nafl, in lexical sense, is spoil (ghanima), and its root sense is increase. The term has five definitions in usage: the spoils, the fay', the fifth, the tanfil (an extra grant), and the salab (a horseman's extra share). The anfal in general are the properties of the enemy that came to the Muslims by fighting or without it, and so include both spoils and fay'. Radkh is a grant from the spoils not exceeding one share, fixed by the ruler, to those who helped in the fighting, such as women, children, protected non-Muslims and slaves. The ruling varies with each part, and each is treated under its own term.

• The angels at Badr

  Rida says the verifiers held that the angels did not fight at Badr; that the command given to them was to cast the message into the hearts of the believers by inspiration. He quotes Ibn Kathir's transmission of al-Rabi' ibn Anas about marks on the slain angels, and holds that the reports of angelic fighting are weak and that al-Tabari did not accept them.

• Dissuading others from fighting

  In language, takhdhil means to make someone let down a companion and hold back from helping him; as a term it means turning people away from raiding and making them indifferent to going out. Dissuading the fighters is forbidden by any means, speech or act. A commander should not take a dissuader or a rumour-spreader with him, and such a person gets no share of the spoils.

• Ghanima (spoils of war)

  In Rida's account, ghanima is what the Muslims take in movable property from war against unbelievers by force; a fifth is set aside for God, the Messenger and the others named in Q. 8:41, and the rest goes to the fighters. Rida distinguishes it from fay', which he takes to be what is gained without the force of war.

• Hudna (truce with non-Muslims)

  Hudna, in the lexical sense, is calm; as a technical term it is an agreement to refrain from fighting with the enemy for a period. The Hanafis call it a settlement for money or without money when the imam sees benefit; the Hanbalis define it as a contract by the imam or his deputy to cease fighting non-Muslims for a known period matching the need. It differs from aman, the lifting of the licence to kill a belligerent and take his property for a time, and from the dhimma contract, which is a permanent safe-conduct while hudna is temporary. Its legitimacy rests on the Qur'an (Surat al-Tawba, and Surat al-Anfal 61), on the Prophet's truce with Quraysh at Hudaybiyya for ten years, and on consensus that it is permitted in general, and may be obligatory in necessity.

• Hujna (hybridness, in the fiqh sense: spoils shares and speech)

  Hujna is defect and ugliness in the lexical sense; the hajin among horses is the foal of a non-Arab mare by a stallion, and among people the one born of an Arab father and a non-Arab mother. Good speech avoids naming disgusting defects directly and uses euphemism. On the share of a hybrid horse in the spoils, the Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi'is give it the same share as an Arab horse; the Hanbalis distinguish: an Arab horse (ateeq) earns its rider three shares, while a hajin, a muqraf and a birdhawn earn two shares, one for the rider and one for the horse. The Hanbali position relies on a report from Khalid ibn Ma'dan, transmitted as mursal in Abu Dawud's Marasil.

• The fifth of spoils (khums)

  Rida reports that Mujahid, Ikrima and al-Suddi held that the first Anfal verse is abrogated by the verse of the fifth, and prefers the view of Ibn Zayd that the verse is muhkam (not abrogated): the fifth verse gives its destinations, and the imam may grant a share to whom he wills before the division into fifths.

• Sabq (contests and races)

• Sayf (the sword) and its rulings

  The sayf is a known kind of weapon, plural asyaf, suyuf or asif; it is used figuratively for a sharp tongue. The rulings on the sword concern cleaning it of impurity, a preacher leaning on it at the Friday sermon, carrying it in pilgrimage garb, decorating it with silver or gold, and carrying out retaliation with it. The Hanafis hold that retaliation may be carried out only by the sword, while the Malikis, Shafi'is and a Hanbali report hold that the victim's kin may do to the offender as he did.

• Tadhfif (finishing off a wounded person)

  Tadhfif is finishing off a wounded person to kill him, and its rule varies with the setting. In war it is allowed on wounded unbelievers. Against wounded rebels the jurists differ: the Hanafis allow it if the rebels have a group to return to, the Malikis by the interest of the fight, the Shafi'is by whether a group is near, and the Hanbalis not after the fight is over. In hunting, most jurists allow an animal whose life is only in its movement to be lawful without finishing it off.

• Tadmir (training horses for a race or a campaign)

  Tadmir is feeding a horse until it is fat and strong, then cutting its feed, stabling it, covering it with cloths until it sweats, so its flesh is lighter and it can run; the Arabs gave it forty days. Most jurists allow it, and recommend it for horses kept for war; the Prophet raced horses that had been trained against untrained ones, and this answers the objection of hardship. The conditions and the difference of racing distances are in the entry on racing.

• Takhyir (choice left to the obligated person)

  Takhyir is leaving to the obligated person's choice one of several options fixed by the law. It has its own rules in many places: the choice of the time for prayer within its broad window, the collector's choice of zakat type, the choice of ransom for a violation of ihram, the expiation for hunting in the sacred precinct and for an oath, the choice of a husband who converts with more than four wives, a child's choice in custody, the imam's choice over captives and the penalty for brigandage, the finder's choice over a lost item, and the victim's choice among retaliation, blood-money and pardon.

• Wathani (the idolater: his status, rights and obligations)

  A wathan is an idol with a body of wood, stone or other material; the wathani is the worshipper of idols and one who follows that religion. The idolater differs from the associator (mushrik), the unbeliever (kafir), the apostate, the Zoroastrian and the atheist; idolatry is one kind of unbelief. Scholars agree that the idolater is an unbeliever; Muslims must call him to Islam, and war is not declared before the call. Idolaters acknowledge the Creator but deny God's oneness; one who dies in idolatry is held to abide in the Fire with the unbelievers. In war, the fighting men may be killed after the call, while women, children, the insane and the hermaphrodite may not, by agreement; most jurists exempt the old. The women and children of a conquered people may be enslaved. Most jurists accept the jizya from a non-Arab idolater but not from an Arab. On conversion, the profession of the two testimonies suffices in the four schools. Marriages among idolaters are valid for most jurists, while a Muslim may not marry an idolatress. The flesh of an idolater's slaughter is not lawful, nor his game, except fish and locusts.

Group

• Bakr ibn Wa'il

  A Rabi'a tribe of Adnan, one of Wa'il's two sons with Taghlib; branches settled Bahrayn and the rest stretched from al-Yamama to Bahrayn, Kazima, the edge of the Iraqi sawad, al-Ubulla and Hit; Banu Shayban of Dhu Qar and Banu Hanifa of al-Yamama belong to it, and its wars with Taghlib are the textbook case of kin rivalry.

• Ghatafan

  A Mudari tribe of Qays Aylan ibn Mudar, parent of Abs, Dhubyan, Ashja and Ghani ibn A'sur; Dhubyan dwelt near Tayma up to Hawran, and the wars of Abs and Dhubyan are cited as an example of rivalry between tribes of one father.

Object

• Sancak-ı Şerif

  The banner traditionally held to be the Prophet's standard, kept at Topkapı and carried with Ottoman armies on campaign and pilgrimage.

Screening Room

• Black Gold

  2011 CE · 1432 AH†Jean-Jacques Annaud's film on the oil struggle among Arabian rulers in the 1930s; a Qatari production based on Hans Ruesch's novel.

• The 13th Warrior

  1999 CE · 1420 AH†John McTiernan's adventure film starring Antonio Banderas as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, the Abbasid envoy thrown in with Viking warriors — adapted from Crichton's novel drawn on Ibn Fadlan's risala.

• Saladin the Victorious

  1963 CE · 1383 AH†Youssef Chahine's Egyptian epic starring Ahmed Mazhar as Saladin and the liberation of Jerusalem — the most famous Arabic film on the Crusades.

• Al-Qadisiyya

  1981 CE · 1401 AH†Salah Abu Seif's Egyptian epic on the Battle of al-Qadisiyya and the fall of the Sasanian empire — a classic of Egyptian conquest-era drama.

• The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors

  Rageh Omaar's three-part BBC documentary on the Ottoman empire and its relationship with Europe.

• Al-Zahir Baybars

  A Syrian-Emirati series on Sultan al-Zahir Baybars — from the Mamluk ranks to the defeat of the Mongols at Ain Jalut; among the largest Arabic productions on the Mamluk era.

• Amina

  2021 CE · 1442 AH†Amina.

• Days of Glory

  2006 CE · 1427 AH†Days of Glory.

• Bajirao Mastani

  2015 CE · 1436 AH†Bajirao Mastani.

• Theeb

  2014 CE · 1435 AH†Jordanian film about a Bedouin boy lost in the desert during WWI; Jordan's first Oscar nomination.

• Farha

  2021 CE · 1442 AH†Darin Sallam's film about a Palestinian girl locked in a cellar during the 1948 events; Jordan's Oscar entry, it stirred controversy in Israel.

• Fetih 1453

  2012 CE · 1433 AH†Fetih 1453.

• Çanakkale 1915

  2012 CE · 1433 AH†Çanakkale 1915.

• Karbala

  2015 CE · 1436 AH†Karbala.

• Saladin: The Conqueror of Jerusalem

  A Turkish–Pakistani co-production on Saladin's rise in Egypt and the recapture of Jerusalem — the largest recent screen production on the Crusades leader.

• Lawrence of Arabia

  1962 CE · 1382 AH†Lawrence of Arabia.

• Kingdoms of Fire

  2019 CE · 1440 AH†Kingdoms of Fire.

• Muawiya

  An MBC series on Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan and the first fitna; its broadcast drew wide controversy over the depiction of Companions and early Islamic civil strife.

• Muawiya, Hassan and Hussein

  A major Arabic co-production dramatising the first fitna — from Hasan's caliphate and abdication to Muawiya's rule and Karbala; contested for depicting the Prophet's household.

• Mehmed: Fetihler Sultanı

  2024 CE · 1445 AH†Mehmed: Fetihler Sultanı.

• Desert Warrior

  2025 CE · 1446 AH†Rupert Wyatt's Saudi-backed epic set in seventh-century Arabia on the eve of Islam, starring Anthony Mackie and Aiysha Hart — among the first major Hollywood-scale productions shot at NEOM.

• Mokhtarnameh

  Davoud Mirbagheri's Iranian series on al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd's uprising in Kufa to avenge Karbala; members of the Prophet's family are depicted on screen per Shia convention.

• Muluk al-Tawa'if

  Hatem Ali's Syrian series on the taifa kings of al-Andalus after Cordoba's fall — al-Mu'tamid, Ibn Zaydun and Wallada — and the cities' struggle against the Almoravids.

• Padmaavat

  2018 CE · 1439 AH†Padmaavat.

• Payitaht: Abdülhamid

  A TRT series on Sultan Abdülhamid II's final years ruling from Yıldız Palace — a prominent modern dramatisation of the late Ottoman period.

• Resurrection: Ertuğrul

  The TRT series about Ertuğrul, father of Ottoman founder Osman I; dubbed and broadcast to mass audiences across the Arab world, Pakistan, India and beyond.

• Kuruluş: Osman

  The sequel series to Ertuğrul, following Osman I and the founding of the Ottoman state — among the most-watched Turkish historical series worldwide.

• Saqr Quraish

  An Arabic series on Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil — 'the falcon of Quraysh' — and his escape from the Abbasid massacre to found Umayyad rule in al-Andalus.

• Rise of Empires: Ottoman

  A Netflix docudrama series on Mehmed II's conquest of Constantinople and its aftermath, blending Turkish dramatic scenes with historians' commentary.

• Omar

  An MBC historical series following the life of Umar ibn al-Khattab from the Jahiliya to his assassination as caliph; the Prophet is neither shown nor heard.

• Omar

  2013 CE · 1434 AH†Hany Abu-Assad's Palestinian film about a young man scaling the separation wall and drawn into the conflict; Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film.

• Oh Islam

  1961 CE · 1381 AH†Salah Abu Seif's Egyptian classic on Mamluk Egypt's resistance to the Mongol invasion after the fall of Baghdad.

• Damascus Time

  2018 CE · 1439 AH†Ebrahim Hatamikia's Iranian film about pilots flying aid into besieged Syria under ISIS attack — a major contemporary Iranian war production.

What is missing? Tell us · A theme is open when it has a reviewed guide, 10 questions, 25 entries across 5 classes, and voices from several traditions and regions.

Controversial topics

• Sexuality and gender diversity
• Converts and those who leave
• Images and figural art
• Takfir and its critics
• Dissent, heresy and freethought
• Conquest and its debates
• Violent extremism and the Muslim response
• Islam and atheism or secular thought