The
Battle of Badr ( ), fought March 17, 624 AD (17
Ramadan 2
AH in the Islamic calendar)
Hejaz region of western Arabia (present-day Saudi Arabia
), was a key battle in the early days of Islam and a turning point in Muhammad's struggle with his opponents among the
Quraish in Mecca
. The
battle has been passed down in
Islamic
history as a decisive victory attributable to
divine intervention, or by secular sources to the
genius of Muhammad. It is one of the few battles specifically
mentioned in the
Quran, most contemporary
knowledge of the battle at
Badr comes
from traditional Islamic accounts, both
hadiths and biographies of Muhammad, written decades
after the battle.
Prior to the battle, the Muslims and Meccans had fought several
smaller
skirmishes in late 623 and early
624, as the Muslim
ghazawāt had
become more frequent. Badr, however was the first large-scale
engagement between the two forces. Advancing to a strong
defensive position, Muhammad's
well-disciplined force broke the Meccan lines, killing several
important Quraishi leaders including Muhammad's chief antagonist,
'Amr ibn Hishām. For the early
Muslims the battle was the first sign that they might eventually
defeat their enemies in Mecca. Mecca at that time was one of the
richest and most powerful cities in Arabia fielding an army three
times larger than that of the Muslims. The Muslim victory also
signalled other tribes that a new power had arisen in Arabia and
strengthened Muhammad’s position as leader of the often fractious
community in Medina.
Background
Muhammad
At the time of the battle, Arabia was sparsely populated by a
number of Arabic-speaking people.
Some were Bedouin;
pastoral nomads organized in tribes; some were
agriculturalists living either in oases in the north or in the more
fertile and thickly settled areas to the south (now Yemen
and Oman
). The
majority of Arabs were adherents of numerous
polytheistic religions.
There were also tribes that followed
Judaism,
Christianity
(including
Nestorianism),and
Zoroastrianism.
Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570 AD into the
Banū Hāshim clan of the
Quraish tribe. When he was
about forty years old, he is said to have experienced a divine
revelation while he was meditating in a cave outside Mecca. He
began to preach to his kinfolk first privately and then publicly.
Response to his preaching both attracted followers and antagonized
others. During this period Muhammad was protected by his uncle
Abū Tālib. When his uncle died in 619, the
leadership of the Banū Hāshim passed to one of Muhammad's enemies,
'Amr ibn Hishām, who withdrew the protection and stepped up
persecution of the Muslim community. The hatred many Muslims have
towards Hishām can be seen in his nickname, "
Abū Jahl" (Father of
Ignorance), which is how the majority of Muslims know him
today.
In 622,
with open acts of violence being committed between Muslims and the
Quraishi tribesmen, Muhammad and many of his followers migrated to
the neighboring city of Medina
. This
migration is called the
Hijra
and marked the beginning of Muhammad's reign as both a political as
well as a religious leader.
The Battle
A map of the Badr campaign.
In the
spring of 624, Muhammad received word from his intelligence sources
that a trade caravan, commanded by Abu
Sufyan and guarded by thirty to forty men, was traveling from
Syria
back to Mecca. Muhammad gathered an army of
313 men, the largest army the Muslims had put in the field
yet.
The March to Badr
Muhammad commanded the army himself and brought many of his top
lieutenants, including
Hamzah and future
Caliphs Abu Bakr,
Umar, and
Ali. The Muslims also
brought seventy camels and two horses, meaning that they either had
to walk or fit three to four men per camel. However, many early
Muslim sources, including the Qur'an, indicate that no serious
fighting was expected, and the future Caliph
Uthman stayed behind to care for his sick wife.
As the caravan approached Medina, Abu Sufyan began hearing from
travelers and riders about Muhammad's army. He sent a messenger
named Damdam to Mecca to warn the Quraish and get reinforcements.
Alarmed, the Quraish assembled an army of 900-1000 men to rescue
the caravan. Many of the Quraishi nobles, including
Amr ibn Hishām,
Walid ibn Utba, Shaiba, and
Umayah ibn Khalaf, joined the army. Their
reasons varied: some were out to protect their financial interests
in the caravan; others wanted to avenge Ibn al-Hadrami, the guard
killed at Nakhlah; finally, a few must have wanted to take part in
what was expected to be an easy victory against the Muslims. Amr
ibn Hishām is described as shaming at least one noble, Umayah ibn
Khalaf, into joining the expedition.
By this time Muhammad's army was approaching the wells where he
planned to waylay the caravan, at Badr, along the Syrian trade
route where the caravan would be expected to stop.
However, several
Muslim scouts were discovered by scouts from the caravan and Abu
Sufyan made a hasty turn towards Yanbu
.
The Muslim Plan
Around this time word reached the Muslim army about the departure
of the Meccan army. Muhammad immediately called a
council of war, since there was still time to
retreat and because many of the fighters there were recent converts
(Called
Ansar or "Helpers" to
distinguish them from the Quraishi Muslims), who had only pledged
to defend Medina. Under the terms of the
Constitution of Medina, they would
have been within their rights to refuse to fight and leave the
army. However, according to tradition, they pledged to fight as
well, with Sa'd bin 'Ubada declaring, "If you [Muhammad] order us
to plunge our horses into the sea, we would do so." However, the
Muslims still hoped to avoid a pitched battle and continued to
march towards Badr.
By March 15 both armies were about a day's march from Badr. Several
Muslim warriors (including, according to some sources, Ali) who had
ridden ahead of the main column captured two Meccan water carriers
at the Badr wells. Expecting them to say they were with the
caravan, the Muslims were horrified to hear them say they were with
the main Quraishi army. Some traditions also say that, upon hearing
the names of all the Quraishi nobles accompanying the army,
Muhammad exclaimed "Mecca hath thrown unto you the best morsels of
her liver." The next day Muhammad ordered a forced march to Badr
and arrived before the Meccans.
The Badr wells were located on the gentle slope of the eastern side
of a valley called "Yalyal". The western side of the valley was
hemmed in by a large hill called 'Aqanqal. When the Muslim army
arrived from the east, Muhammad initially chose to form his army at
the first well he encountered.
Hubab
ibn al-Muhdir, however, asked him if this choice was divine
instruction or Muhammad's own opinion. When Muhammad responded in
the latter, he suggests the Muslims occupythe well closest to the
Quraishi army, and block off the other ones. Muhammad accepted this
decision and moved right away. According to Tariq Ramadan, this
shows that Muhammad was not an autocratic leader, and allowed his
followers to contradict him without considering this as a sign of
disrespect.
The Meccan Plan
By contrast, while little is known about the progress of the
Quraishi army from the time it left Mecca until its arrival just
outside Badr, several things are worth noting: although many Arab
armies brought their women and children along on campaigns both to
motivate and care for the men, the Meccan army did not. Also, the
Quraish apparently made little or no effort to contact the many
tribes allies they had scattered throughout the Hijaz. Both facts
suggest the Quraish lacked the time to prepare for a proper
campaign in their haste to protect the caravan. Besides it is
believed since they knew they had outnumbered the Muslims by three
to one, they expected an easy victory.
When the Quraishi reached Juhfah, just south of Badr, they received
a message from Abu Sufyan telling them the caravan was safely
behind them, and that they could therefore return to Mecca. At this
point, according to Karen Armstrong, a power struggle broke out in
the Meccan army. Abu Jahl wanted to continue, but several of the
clans present, including
Banu Zuhrah and
Banu Adi, promptly went home. Armstrong
suggests they may have been concerned about the power that Abu Jahl
would gain from crushing the Muslims. A contingent of
Banu Hashim, hesitant to fight their own
clansmen, also left with them. Despite these losses, Abu Jahl was
still determined to fight, boasting "We will not go back until we
have been to Badr." During this period, Abu Sufyan and several
other men from the caravan joined the main army.
The Day of Battle
At midnight on March 17, the Quraish broke camp and marched into
the valley of Badr. It had rained the previous day and they
struggled to move their horses and camels up the hill of 'Aqanqal.
After they descended from 'Aqanqal, the Meccans set up another camp
inside the valley. While they rested, they sent out a scout,
Umayr ibn Wahb to reconnoitre the
Muslim lines. Umayr reported that Muhammad's army was small, and
that there were no other Muslim reinforcements which might join the
battle. However, he also predicted extremely heavy Quraishi
casualties in the event of an attack (One hadith refers to him
seeing "the camels of [Medina] laden with certain death"). This
further demoralized the Quraish, as Arab battles were traditionally
low-casualty affairs, and set off another round of bickering among
the Quraishi leadership. However, according to Arab traditions Amr
ibn Hishām quashed the remaining dissent by appealing to the
Quraishi's sense of honor and demanding that they fulfill their
blood vengeance.
The battle started with champions from both armies emerging to
engage in combat. Three of the Ansar emerged from the Muslim ranks,
only to be shouted back by the Meccans, who were nervous about
starting any unnecessary feuds and only wanted to fight the
Quraishi Muslims. So the Muslims sent out Ali, Ubaydah, and Hamza.
The Muslims dispatched the Meccan champions in a three-on-three
melee, Hamza killed his victim on very first strike although,
Ubaydah was mortally wounded.
Now both armies began firing arrows at each other. Two Muslims and
an unknown number of Quraish were killed. Before the battle
started, Muhammad had given orders for the Muslims to attack with
their ranged weapons, and only engage the Quraish with
melee weapons when they advanced. Now he gave the
order to charge, throwing a handful of pebbles at the Meccans in
what was probably a traditional Arabian gesture while yelling
"Defaced be those faces!" The Muslim army yelled
"Yā manṣūr
amit!" and rushed the Quraishi lines. The Meccans,
understrength and unenthusiastic about fighting, promptly broke and
ran. The battle itself only lasted a few hours and was over by the
early afternoon.. The Qur'an describes the force of the Muslim
attack in many verses, which refer to thousands of angels
descending from Heaven at Badr to slaughter the Quraish. It should
be noted that early Muslim sources take this account literally, and
there are several hadith where Muhammad discusses the Angel
Jibreel and the role he played in the
battle.
Aftermath
Casualties and Prisoners
Al-Bukhari lists Meccan losses as seventy
dead and seventy captured. This would be 15%-16% of the Quraishi
army, unless the actual number of Meccan troops present at Badr was
significantly lower, in which case the percentage of troops lost
would have been higher. 'Ali ibn Abu Talib alone accounted for 18
of the dead Meccans. Muslim losses are commonly listed at fourteen
killed, about 4% of their engaged forces. Sources do not indicate
the number of wounded on either side.
During the course of the fighting, the Muslims took a number of
Meccan Quraish prisoner. Their fate sparked an immediate
controversy in the Muslim army.Qur'an:
Al-Anfal
A similar incident appears in the
Bible
1
Samuel:15, where God punishes Saul for sparing the lives of
prisoners which God had commanded him to slaughter. The Meccan
Quraishi prisoners, were released only on the condition that they
educated ten Muslims how to read. There was no evidence of
imprisonment, and in fact the prisoners were kept safe and catered
for during that period. In the case of Umayyah, his former slave
Bilal was so intent on killing
him that his companions even stabbed one of the Muslims guarding
Umayyah.
Shortly before he departed Badr, Muhammad also gave the order for
over twenty of the dead Quraishis to be buried in the well at Badr.
Multiple hadiths refer to this incident, which was apparently a
major cause for outrage among the Quraish of Mecca. Shortly
thereafter, several Muslims who had been recently captured by
allies of the Meccans were brought into the city of Mecca and
executed in revenge for the defeat.
According to the traditional
blood feud
(similar to
Blood Law) any Meccans related
to those killed at Badr would feel compelled to take vengeance
against members of the tribe who had killed their relatives. On the
Muslim side, there was also a heavy desire for vengeance, as
they had been
persecuted and tortured by the Quraishi Meccans for years.
However, after the initial executions, the surviving prisoners were
quartered with Muslim families in Medina and treated well, either
as kin or as possible sources of ransom revenue.
Implications
The Battle of Badr was extremely influential in the rise of two men
who would determine the course of history on the Arabian peninsula
for the next century. The first was Muhammad, who was transformed
overnight from a Meccan outcast into a major leader. Marshall
Hodgson adds that Badr forced the other Arabs to "regard the
Muslims as challengers and potential inheritors to the prestige and
the political role of the [Quraish]." The victory at Badr also
allowed Muhammad to consolidate his own position at Medina. Shortly
thereafter he expelled the
Banu
Qaynuqa, one of the Jewish tribes at Medina that had been
threatening his political position, and - who had - assaulted a
Muslim woman - which led to their expulsion for breaking the peace
treaty. At the same time
Abd-Allah
ibn Ubayy, Muhammad's chief opponent in Medina and head of the
hypocrites, found his own position seriously weakened. Henceforth,
he would only be able to mount limited challenges to
Muhammad.
The other major beneficiary of the Battle of Badr was
Abu Sufyan. The death of Amr ibn Hashim, as well
as many other Quraishi nobles gave Abu Sufyan the opportunity,
almost by default, to become chief of the
Quraish. As a result, when Muhammad marched into
Mecca six years later, it was Abu Sufyan who helped negotiate its
peaceful surrender. Abu Sufyan subsequently became a high-ranking
official in the Muslim Empire, and his son
Muawiya would later go on to found the
Umayyad Caliphate.
In later days having fought at Badr became so significant that
Ibn Ishaq included a complete name-by-name
roster of the Muslim army in his biography of Muhammad. In many
hadiths, individuals who fought at Badr are identified as such as a
formality, and they may have even received a stipend in later
years. The death of the last of the Badr veterans occurred during
the
First Islamic civil
war.
As Paul K. Davis sums up, "Mohammed’s victory confirmed his
authority as leader of Islam; by impressing local tribes that
joined him, the expansion of Islam began."
Historical sources
Badr in the Qur'an
The Battle of Badr is one of the few battles explicitly discussed
in the
Qur'an. It is even mentioned by name
as part of a comparison with the Battle of Uhud.
Qur'an: Al-i-Imran
According to
Abdullah Yusuf Ali,
the term "gratitude" may be a reference to discipline. At Badr, the
Muslim forces had allegedly maintained firm discipline, whereas at
Uhud they broke ranks to pursue the Meccans, allowing Meccan
cavalry to flank and rout their army. The idea of Badr as a
furqan, an Islamic miracle, is mentioned
again in the same surah.
Qur'an: Al-i-Imran
Badr is also the subject of Sura 8:
Al-Anfal, which details military conduct and
operations. "Al-Anfal" means "the spoils" and is a reference to the
post-battle discussion in the Muslim army over how to divide up the
plunder from the Quraishi army. Though the Sura does not name Badr,
it describes the battle, and several of the verses are commonly
thought to have been from or shortly after the battle.
Traditional Muslim accounts
Most knowledge of the Battle of Badr comes either from the
traditional Islamic accounts,
Quran and
hadiths (records of the life and times of
Muhammad). In the English speaking world, it is not known if there
are earlier written records other than the traditional Islamic
accounts since Arabic at that time in the
hijaz was primarily an oral language. People relied
mostly on oral traditions.
Modern references
Military
Because of its place in Muslim history and connotations of
victory-against-all odds, the name "Badr" has become popular among
both Muslim armies and paramilitary organizations.
"Operation Badr" was used to describe
Egypt
's offensive in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and Pakistan
's actions in
the 1999 Kargil War.
The Message
The Battle of Badr was featured in the 1976 film
The Message. Although
the film was reasonably faithful to the event, it made some notable
changes. The Quraishi army was depicted as having women in tow,
when the women were noticeably absent. It also suffered no
defections before the battle, though in the film Abu Sufyan refused
to take part. The champion combat in front of the wells consisted
of three one-on-one fights, instead of a three-on-three melee.
Also, since neither Muhammad nor Ali were shown (though Ali's sword
was shown) due to religious concerns, Hamza became the nominal
commander of the army. Both Amr ibn Hishām and Umayyah were killed
in the battle, and their deaths marked the climax of the
fighting.
See also
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