What Islam's sources say about violence and jihad
Muhammad's wars, as the sources record them
The earliest biography counts 27 expeditions Muhammad took part in personally. It records the expulsion of two Jewish tribes of Medina, the execution of the men of the third, and the conquest of Khaybar.
Medina, 622-632
After the hijra the sources record raids on Meccan caravans and the battles of Badr (624), Uhud (625) and the Trench (627). The Jewish tribe of Banu Qaynuqa was expelled (624) and Banu al-Nadir expelled (625; the Quran's Surah 59 refers to this exile). After the Trench, the men of Banu Qurayza were executed and their women and children enslaved; Ibn Ishaq gives 600 or 700 men, some say 800 or 900.
In 628 Muhammad conquered the Jewish oasis of Khaybar; the inhabitants were allowed to stay as cultivators giving half their harvest. Sahih al-Bukhari records that Safiyya bint Huyayy was taken captive there, and that the Prophet freed and married her.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَخْرَجَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ مِن دِيَٰرِهِمْ لِأَوَّلِ ٱلْحَشْرِ مَا ظَنَنتُمْ أَن يَخْرُجُوا۟ وَظَنُّوٓا۟ أَنَّهُم مَّانِعَتُهُمْ حُصُونُهُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ فَأَتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَمْ يَحْتَسِبُوا۟ وَقَذَفَ فِى قُلُوبِهِمُ ٱلرُّعْبَ يُخْرِبُونَ بُيُوتَهُم بِأَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَيْدِى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَٱعْتَبِرُوا۟ يَٰٓأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَبْصَٰرِ 2
2He it is Who hath caused those of the People of the Scripture who disbelieved to go forth from their homes unto the first exile. Ye deemed not that they would go forth, while they deemed that their strongholds would protect them from Allah. But Allah reached them from a place whereof they recked not, and cast terror in their hearts so that they ruined their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers. So learn a lesson, O ye who have eyes!
Quran 59:2 (Pickthall) · context
Sahih al-Bukhari 3043 Summary, not a quotation
Sa'd ibn Mu'adh judges that the fighting men of Banu Qurayza be killed and their families taken captive; the Prophet approves.
Read the full text on sunnah.comSahih al-Bukhari 4037 Summary, not a quotation
The killing of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf at Muhammad's request.
Read the full text on sunnah.comSahih al-Bukhari 371 Summary, not a quotation
Khaybar: Safiyya is among the captives; the Prophet frees and marries her.
Read the full text on sunnah.comWho wrote it down, and when
The battle accounts come from Ibn Ishaq (died about 767), preserved by Ibn Hisham (died about 833), from al-Waqidi (died 823) and from al-Tabari (died 923): 130 to 290 years after the events. The hadith collections are from the 850s-870s.
Where scholars disagree
- The numbers at Banu Qurayza rest on Ibn Ishaq; some Muslim and Western historians (e.g. W. N. Arafat, 1976) have questioned the account.
Sources
- Earliest source Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, ed. Ibn Hisham; A. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (OUP, 1955).
- Sahih al-Bukhari 371, 3043, 4037.
- W. N. Arafat, "New Light on the Story of Banu Qurayza and the Jews of Medina", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1976).