The
History
of al-Tabari
The
Victory of Islam
Volume
VIII
Translated
by Michael Fishbein
This volume coven the history of the Muslim community and the
biography of
Muhammad m the middle Medinan yean. It begins with the
unsuccessful last
Meccan attack on Medina, known as the Battle of the Trench.
Events following this battle show the gradual collapse of Meccan
resistance to
Islam. The next year, when Muhammad set out on pilgrimage to
Mecca, the
Meccans at first blocked the toad, but eventually a ten-year truce
was negotiated at al-Hudaybiyah, with Muhammad agreeing to postpone his
pilgrimage until the following year. The Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah was followed
by a senes of Muslim expeditions, climaxing in die important conquest of
Khaybac In the following year Muhammad made the so-called Pilgrimage of
Fulfillment unopposed.
Al-Tabari's account emphasizes Islam's expanding geographical
horizon during
this period. Soon after the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah, Muhammad is
said to have
sent letters to six foreign rulers inviting them to become
Muslims. Another
example of this expanding horizon was the unsuccessful expedition
to Mu'tah in
Jordan.
Shortly afterward the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah broke down, and
Muhammad
marched on Mecca. The Meccans capitulated, and Muhammad entered
the city
on his own terms. He treated the city leniently and most of the
Meccan oligarchy swore allegiance to him as Muslims.
Two events in the personal life of Muhammad during this period caused
controversy in the community. Muhammad fell in love with and married Zaynab bt.
Jahsh, the divorced wife of his adopted son Zayd. Because of Muhammad’s scruples,
the marriage took place only after a Quranic revelation permitting believers to
marry the divorced wives of their adopted sons. In the Affair of the Lie, accusations
against Muhammad's young wife ‘A’ishah were exploited by various factions in
the community and in Muhammad’s household. In the end, a Quranic revelation
proclaimed ‘A’ishah's innocence and the culpability of the rumormongers.
This volume of al-Tabaris Hutory records the collapse of Meccan
resistance to
Islam, the triumphant return of Muhammad to his native city, the
conversion to
Islam of the Meccan oligarchy, and die community’s successful
weathering of a
number of potentially embarrassing events ui Muhammad’s private
life.
SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies
Sard Amir Arjomand, Editor
The State University of New York Press
Visit our web site at hnpAvww.sunypress.edu
THE HISTORY OF AL-TABARI
AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION
VOLUME VIII
The Victory of Islam
Muhammad at Medina
a.d. 626-630/A.H. 5-8
The History of al-Tabari
Editorial Board
Ihsan Abbas, University of Jordan, Amman
C. E. Bosworth, The University of Manchester
Franz Rosenthal, Yale University
Everett K. Rowson, The University of Pennsylvania
Ehsan Yar-Shater, Columbia University ( General Editor )
Estelle Whelan, Editorial Coordinator
Center for Iranian Studies
Columbia University
SUNY
SERIES IN NEAR EASTERN STUDIES
Said Amir Arjomand, Editor
*
The preparation of this volume was made possible in part by
a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities,
an independent federal agency.
Bibliotheca Persica
Edited by Ehsan Yar-Shater
The History of al-Tabari
(Ta’rikh al-msul wa’l-muluk)
Volume viii
The Victory of Islam
translated and annotated
by
Michael Fishbein
University of California, Los Angeles
State University of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 1997 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
For information, contact State University of New York Press,
Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tabari, 8381-923.
[Tarikh al-rusul wa-al-muluk. English. Selections]
The victory of Islam / translated and annotated by Michael
Fishbein.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in Near Eastern studies) (The History
of al-Tabari - Ta’rikh al-rusul wa’l-muluk > v. 8) (Bibliotheca
Persica)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-7914-3149-5 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-7914-3150-9 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Islam — History. 2. Islamic Empire — History — 622-661.
3. Muhammad, Prophet, d. 632. I. Fishbein, Michael. II. Title.
III. Series. IV. Series: Tabari, 838-923. Tarikh al-rusul wa-al
-muluk. English ; v. 8. V. Series: Bibliotheca Persica (Albany,
N.Y.)
DS38.2.T313 1985 vol. 8
[BP 55 ]
909'.09767 i — dc20
10 987654321
96-30872
CIP
Preface
9
The History of Prophets and Kings ( Ta'rikh al-rusul wa’l-
muluk) by Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (839-923 J, here
rendered as The History of al-Tabari, is by common consent the
most important universal history produced in the world of Islam.
It has been translated here in its entirety for the first time for
the
benefit of non- Arabists, with historical and philological notes
for
those interested in the particulars of the text.
In his monumental work al-Tabari explores the history of the
ancient nations, with special emphasis on biblical peoples and
prophets, the legendary and factual history of ancient Iran, and,
in
great detail, the rise of Islam, the life of the Prophet Muhammad,
and the history of the Islamic world down to the year 915. The
first volume of this translation contains a biography of al-Tabari
and a discussion of the method, scope, and value of his work. It
also provides information on some of the technical considerations
that have guided the work of the translators. The thirty-ninth
volume is a compendium of biographies of early members of the
Muslim community, compiled by al-Tabari; although not strictly
a part of his History, it complements it.
The History has been divided here into thirty-nine volumes,
each of which covers about 200 pages of the original Arabic text
in
the Leiden edition. An attempt has been made to draw the dividing
lines between the individual volumes in such a way that each
is to some degree independent and can be read as such. The page
numbers of the Leiden edition appear in the margins of the translated
volumes.
Al-Tabari very often quotes his sources verbatim and traces the
vi
Preface
chain of transmission ( isnad ) to an original source. The chains
of
transmitters are, for the sake of brevity, rendered by only a dash
( — ) between the individual links in the chain. Thus,
"According
to Ibn Humayd — Salamah — Ibn Ishaq" means that al-Tabari received
the report from Ibn Humayd, who said that he was told by
Salamah, who said that he was told by Ibn Ishaq, and so on. The
numerous subtle and important differences in the original Arabic
wording have been disregarded.
The table of contents at the beginning of each volume gives a
brief survey of the topics dealt with in that particular volume.
It
also includes the headings and subheadings as they appear in al-
Tabari's text, as well as those occasionally introduced by the
translator.
Well-known place names, like Mecca, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Damascus,
and the Yemen, are given in their English spellings. Less
common place names, which are the vast majority, are transliterated.
Biblical figures appear in the accepted English spelling.
Iranian names are usually transcribed according to their Arabic
forms, and the presumed Iranian forms are often discussed in the
footnotes.
Technical terms have been translated wherever possible, but
some, such as "dirham," and "imam," have been
retained in Arabic
forms. Others that cannot be translated with sufficient precision
have been retained and italicized, as well as footnoted.
The annotation is aimed chiefly at clarifying difficult passages,
identifying individuals and place names, and discussing textual
difficulties. Much leeway has been left to the translators to include
in the footnotes whatever they consider necessary and
helpful.
The bibliographies list all the sources mentioned in the annotation.
The index in each volume contains all the names of persons and
places referred to in the text, as well as those mentioned in the
notes as far as they refer to the medieval period. It does not
include
the names of modem scholars. A general index, it is hoped, will
appear after all the volumes have been published.
For further details concerning the series and acknowledgments,
see Preface to Volume i.
Ehsan Yar-Shater
Contents
9
Preface / v
Abbreviations / ix
Translator's Foreword / xi
The Events of the Year 5 (626/627) / 1
Muhammad's Marriage to Zaynab bt. falish / 1
The Expedition to Dumat al-Jandal and Other Events / 4
The Battle of the Trench / 5
The Expedition against the Banu Quray^ah / 27
The Events of the Year 6 (627/628) / 42
The Expedition against the Banu Libyan / 42
The Expedition to Dhu Qarad / 43
The Expedition against the Banu al-Mu?^aliq / 5 1
An Account of the Lie / 57
The Prophet's Lesser Pilgrimage from Which the Polytheists
Turned Him Back: The Story of al-Hudaybiyah / 67
A Report That Khalid b. al-Walld Was Already a Muslim / 71
The Missions to Foreign Rulers / 98
viii
Contents
The Events of the Year 7 (628/629) / 1 16
The Expedition to Khaybar / 116
The Expedition of the Messenger of God to Wadi al-Qura / 124
The Affair of al-Hajjaj b. 'Ila{ al-Sulaml / 126
The Division of the Spoils of Khaybar / 128
Various Notices / 13 1
The Lesser Pilgrimage of Fulfillment / 133
The Events of the Year 8 (629/630) / 139
The Expedition against the Banu al-Mulawwih / 139
Other Notices / 142
'Amr b. al-‘A§ and Khalid b. al-Walid Go to Medina as
Muslims / 143
Other Events of the Year 8 of the Hijrah / 146
The Expedition of Dhat al-Salasil / 146
The Expedition Known as al-Khabaf / 147
Expeditions Involving Ibn Abi Hadrad and Abu Qatadah / 149
The Expedition to Mu’tah / 152
The Conquest of Mecca / 160
The Destruction of Idolatrous Shrines / 187
The Expedition against the Banu Jadhimah / 188
Bibliography of Cited Works / 193
Index / 197
Index of Qur’anic Passages / 21s
Abbreviations
$
BSOAS: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
El 1 : Encyclopaedia of Islam, ist edition. Leiden, 1913-42
EP-: Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition. Leiden, 1960-
GAS: F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Leiden,
1967-
IH: Ibn Hisham, Sirat Rasul Allah, ed. M. al-Saqqa et al., Cairo,
1936
W: al-Waqidi, Kitdb abmaghdzi, ed. Marsden Jones, London, 1966
Translator's Foreword
9
This volume deals with the history of the Muslim community
from a.h. 5 to the first part of a.h. 8, roughly the middle of
a.d. 626
to the beginning of 630. During this time, the position of Muhammad
and of the community acknowledging his prophethood and
following the religion embodied in the Qur’an changed dramatically.
At the beginning of the period the Meccan pagans with
their allies mounted a direct attack against Medina; by the end of
the period Mecca itself had capitulated, and most of its
influential
leaders had become at least nominal Muslims. Medina itself had
become a purely Muslim polity. The last remaining Jewish tribe,
the Banu Qurayzah, had been defeated and annihilated, and the
internal Arab opposition (the so-called "hypocrites" led
by 'Abdallah
b. Ubayy) had disintegrated. There were signs that Muhammad
had begun to think about the future of Islam within and
beyond the Arabian peninsula. Although the factual basis of the
stories of Muhammad's letters to the rulers of the Byzantine, Persian,
and Ethiopian empires and their satellites in the Arabian
peninsula during this period cannot be determined, Muslim military
expeditions to destinations in northern Arabia (Dumat al-
Jandal and Khaybar) and the penetration into Byzantine territory
that ended with the battle of Mu’tah give evidence of expanding
political horizons. In short, although Muhammad and Islam at the
beginning of the period could still be seen as a local phenomenon,
by the end of the period Muhammad was, as one of his former
opponents put it, "the king of the Hijaz."
xii
Translator's Foreword
Although the political developments of the period are well-
documented in al-Tabari's account, there is less material about
the doctrinal development of Islam. Some incidents may have
become part of the traditional biography of Muhammad because
of their ramifications for Islamic law. Muhammad's marriage to
the divorced wife of his adoptive son Zayd and the punishment
meted out to those involved in spreading false rumors about the
chastity of Muhammad's young wife 'A’ishah had legal ramifications
and as such merited inclusion, despite the sensitivity of the
subject. The arrangements made concerning the conquered lands
of Khaybar became important precedents for the treatment of conquered
agricultural land in the early years of the caliphate and
beyond. As for the letters to foreign rulers, one can say that
they
document the direction in which later Muslims believed Muhammad's
sense of universal mission developed during this period.
Finally, the text of Muhammad's speech after the conquest of
Mecca contains interesting theological, as well as legal,
material.
Muhammad's Marriages
The marriage to Zaynab bt. Jahsh, with which al-Tabari's account
of the events a.h. 5 begins, was unlike Muhammad's previous
marriages. These had either cemented friendships with leading
Muslims (such were the marriages to 'A’ishah bt. Abi Bakr in a.h.
i and to Haf?ah bt. 'Umar in a.h. 3) or involved Muslim widows in
need of support and protection (such were the marriages to
Sawdah bt. Zam'ah, whom Muhammad married while still at
Mecca, Umm Salamah bt. al-Mughlrah in a.h. 4, and Zaynab bt.
Khuzaymah in a.h. 4). At the time of his marriage to Zaynab bt.
Jahsh, Muhammad was married probably to four women (there is
question about the date of his marriage to Juwayriyah, who was
captured in a raid dated by al-Waqidl in a.h. 5, but which al-
Tabari, following Ibn Ishaq, places in a.h. 6). The account given
by
al-Tabari, drawn from ai-Waqidi (who uses material from 'A’ishah)
and the Egyptian scholar Yunus b. 'Abd al-A'la, but not from Ibn
Ishaq, portrays the marriage as growing out of strong physical
attraction. Zaynab, who was Muhammad's cousin, had been married
by Muhammad's arrangement to Muhammad's freed slave
Zayd b. Harithah, who lived in Muhammad's household and came
Translator's Foreword
xiii
to be regarded as his adoptive son — so that he was regularly addressed
as Zayd, son of Muhammad. Whether the marriage between
Zayd and Zaynab was a mesalliance from the beginning is
speculation, though the account maintains that Zayd was not
reluctant to divorce his wife and allow her to marry Muhammad.
Muhammad is portrayed as reluctant to proceed with the marriage
because of scruples about whether marrying one's adopted son's
former wife violated the prohibited degrees of marriage. Arab customary
practice recognized kinship relations not based on blood
ties: fosterage (having nursed from the same woman) was one such
relationship; the question whether adoption fell into this
category
must have been unclear among Muslims. The marriage did not
take place until after a Qur’anic revelation was received, giving
permission for believers to marry the divorced wives of their
adopted sons. One can see this as part of the development of Islamic
family law — a rejection of the legal fiction that a stepparent
has a blood relationship with his ward that could affect the physical
relationship of marriage. The account presented by al-Tabari
is forthright about the strength of the attraction and its role in
the marriage. Similar frankness appears in the account in a.h. 6
of Muhammad's marriage to Juwayriyah, "a sweet, beautiful
woman, who captivated anyone who looked at her" (the words
are
A'ishah's). She had been captured during a raid on the Banu al-
Mu§$aliq and, in accordance with custom, became the slave of one
of her captors. The latter agreed to free her in exchange for a
sum
of money. Juwayriyah approached Muhammad for help, and the
latter, captivated by her beauty, offered her "something
better"
than payment of the price of her freedom — namely, marriage with
himself. Other marriages during this period were to Rayhanah bt.
‘Amr, captured in the attack on the Banu Quray?ah in a.h. 5 (she
apparently remained a concubine, rather than a full wife); Mariyah
the Copt in a.h. 6 or 7 (she was a gift from the ruler of Egypt);
Umm Habibah bt. Abi Sufyan in a.h. 6 or 7 (she was the widow of a
Muslim emigrant to Ethiopia); §afiyyah bt. Huyayy in a.h. 7 (she
was captured in the conquest of Khaybar); and Maymunah bt. al-
Harith in a.h. 7 (she was a widow and the sister-in-law of Muhammad's
uncle al-‘ Abbas; the marriage, contracted while Muhammad
was in a state of ritual consecration in connection with the
lesser pilgrimage, had legal ramifications).
XIV
Translator's Foreword
The Battle of the Trench ( al-Khandaq )
The previous major engagement between the Muslims and the
Meccan pagans, the battle of Uhud, had ended inconclusively in
Shawwal of a.h. 3 (March 625). The Muslims had suffered heavier
casualties than in any previous engagement (the figure seventy is
given), but the Meccans also had suffered casualties and had returned
home without pressing for a more decisive conclusion.
Muslim morale had been badly shaken. The next major assault by
the Meccans on Medina — it was to be the last — took place two
years later, in Shawwal of a.h. 5 (February 627). According to the
composite account in al-Tabari, the initial stimulus came from a
group of Jews from the expelled Medinan tribe of Banu al-Nadlr.
They went to Mecca and promised to aid Quraysh against their
common enemy, and they also enlisted the help of the north Arabian
tribe of Ghajafan. Because the attack included these Jewish
and north Arabian allies of the Meccans, it came to be known as
the attack of "the Allied Parties" ( al-ahzab ). The
Meccans and
their allies considerably outnumbered the Muslims (the figure of
10,000 attackers against 3,000 Muslim defenders is given), and the
Meccans had come with horses. The Meccan position, however,
was less commanding than it might appear. The remaining Jews of
Medina (the Banu Qurayzah) sided only reluctantly with the attackers;
Muhammad thus was able to trick the Meccans into believing
that the Medinan Jews intended to betray them. The allies
from Ghafcafan proved ready to be bought off by an offer of a
third
of the year's date harvest. Finally, employing a strategy
suggested
by a Persian convert, Salman, the Muslims had constructed a
defensive trench along the northern approaches to Medina (the
southern approach, being mountainous, needed no fortification),
and this trench could not be jumped by the Meccan horsemen.
After nearly a month of standing in position, their provisions low
and the weather taking its toll, the Meccans retreated, their morale
broken. They never again attempted an assault on Medina.
The Attack on the Banu Qurayzah
An immediate consequence of the failure of the Meccan attack
was the extermination of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayzah for
their support of the Meccans, however lukewarm it had been.
Translator's Foreword
xv
Several motives for Muhammad's behavior can be seen. There was
strategic fear that the Banu Qurayzah might continue to be open
to the blandishments of their coreligionists. There was a
religious
element too. Although the Banu Qurayzah were clients of the
Arab tribe of al-Aws, the leader of al-Aws deputed to pass judgment
on them (Sa’d b. Mu'adh) decided to reject the claims of the
Banu Qurayzah as his clients and to act "for the sake of
God." This
seems to indicate a feeling that the continued religious
opposition
of the Jews made coexistence with them within Medina impossible.
The brutality of the punishment (extermination of all adult
males, rather than expulsion or enslavement) points to darker
motives of ethnic hatred and vengeance, and this dark side can be
seen in the fury with which the attack was launched. According to
the account from Ibn Ishaq, the Angel Gabriel himself came to
Muhammad immediately after the withdrawal of Quraysh and
forbade him to lay down his arms: he was to hasten immediately
to attack the Banu Qurayzah, and the angels would fight also. This
supernatural element indicates something beyond political
calculation. It also points to the fact that the treatment of the
Banu Qurayzah was unique and did not become a precedent for
subsequent Muslim treatment of the Jews, which, as demonstrated
by the fate of the Jews of Khaybar in a.h. 7, was more
lenient. Although the Jews of Khaybar had been involved in compromising
relations with the Meccan pagans, they were allowed to
remain on their land and work it as sharecroppers for their new
Muslim overlords. Only in the caliphate of 'Umar were they
forced to leave, and then as free men.
The Slander against 'A'ishah
The events of a.h. 6 included a number of expeditions. The expedition
against the Banu Lihyan, allies of Quraysh, involved a considerable
force of men sent to avenge the murder of a number of
Muslims. The expedition to Dhu Qarad was in reprisal for a raid
by Ghafafan. The expedition to al-Muraysf against the Banu al
Mu’faliq can be seen as a demonstration of Muslim control of the
coastal caravan route to Syria. The military and political aspects
of the raid were, however, overshadowed by an incident involving
Muhammad's young wife 'A’ishah. The first-person narrative by
xvi
Translator's Foreword
'A’ishah of how she accidentally was left behind by the returning
Muslim caravan, her rescue by a young Muslim rider, the rumors
that this generated, and her eventual vindication in a Qur’anic
revelation forms one of the most interesting narratives of this
section of al-Tabari. 'A’ishah, who must have told the story to a
scholar years later (note her asides about how little she weighed
at
the time, how insignificant she felt herself to be, and the
primitive
toilet arrangements in Medina), comes across as a talented racon -
teuse, with a good deal of psychological finesse and a sense of
time's changes. The narrative deserves careful literary, as well
as
historical, attention.
Relations with Mecca from al-Hudaybiyah to the
Conquest
In Dhu al-Qa'dah of a,h. 6 (March- April 628), about a year after
the
Meccan retreat from Medina after the battle of the Trench,
Muhammad decided to set out with a body of his followers to
perform the rites of the lesser pilgrimage ['umrah) in Mecca. The
framework of al-Tabari's account of the episode is drawn from Ibn
Ishaq, with added details from a variety of other sources. For all
its
richness, it says almost nothing about Muhammad's motives or
the political calculations involved. Al-Waqidi's account (W, II,
572) attributes the initial inspiration to a dream, but al-Tabari
does not include this detail. Under customary Arab religious practice
the Meccans should have allowed the pilgrimage. The months
of Dhu al-Qa'dah and Dhu al-IJijjah were sacred months in which
fighting was banned, and Mecca itself was sacred territory
throughout the year. However, the Muslims had been known to
violate the sacred months, and the attitude of the new religion
toward the Meccan sanctuary, bound up as it was with the old
pagan dispensation, must have been a matter of question to the
Meccans. On the other hand, such a pilgrimage implied that Islam
did not intend to do away with Mecca's religious significance and
that a modus vivendi might even be reached between Mecca and
the Muslim community. The extent to which Muhammad expected
the Meccans to come round to his side, now that they had
apparently despaired of conquering Medina, cannot be determined
Translator's Foreword
xvii
from the account. He traveled in pilgrim garb and brought animals
for sacrifice to demonstrate his peaceful intentions, but he also
traveled with a large party of men, which, according to one account,
was armed. The Meccans put up a show of force and
blocked the main road. Muhammad managed to evade them, cross
a difficult pass, and encamp on the border of the Meccan sacred
territory, at al-Hudaybiyah, but he did not attempt to enter. Messengers
came and went between the two sides, and eventually a
compromise was reached, although there were tense moments
when rumors of Meccan treachery against the Muslim negotiators
spread and it seemed that the negotiations would break down. At
one such moment, Muhammad summoned his followers to renew
their allegiance to him in what came to be known as "the
Pledge
of Good Pleasure" (bay' at al-ridwan). The agreement finally
reached at al-Hudaybiyah between Muhammad and the Meccans
contained something for each side. Muhammad agreed to a tenyear
halt to hostilities against Mecca. The Meccans could therefore
resume the caravan trade to Syria on which their economy
was based but were bound not to attack the Muslims. In return,
they agreed to allow Muhammad to make the pilgrimage the following
year, provided that he came unarmed and stayed only three
nights. Muhiammad, for his part, agreed not to accept converts
who came from Mecca without the permission of their guardians.
In return for this concession, the Meccans agreed to allow any
Arab tribes who desired to ally themselves with Muhammad to do
so, even if by implication this meant abandoning a previous alliance
with Quraysh. In effect, Muhammad had extracted recognition
as an equal from Quraysh. Although some members of the
community showed their disappointment at turning back without
entering Mecca, the disappointment gave rise to no organized
opposition. The days of the "hypocrites" were over. In
any case, a
series of expeditions, climaxing in the conquest of the oasis of
Khaybar to the north, diverted the attention of the community. In
the following year, Muhammad made the lesser pilgrimage
unopposed.
According to the sources used by al-Tabari, within a month
after the conclusion of the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah Muhammad
dispatched letters to six foreign rulers, inviting them to become
xviii
Translator's Foreword
Muslims. The implication is that the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah
was the beginning of a period of Muslim diplomatic activity. The
historical basis of this assumption is unclear. While there is
much
to suggest that Muhammad was interested in expanding his
sphere of influence northward, which would place him in contact
with the Byzantine and Persian spheres of influence; that he received
reports of the Byzantine-Persian war then drawing to its
conclusion, just as Byzantine intelligence received reports of
events in the Arabian peninsula,- and that he knew of the usefulness
of Arab tributary states to these empires, the actual letters
are clearly literary fictions. They are comprehensible from the
point of view of Islamic law, in terms of the obligation to summon
non-Muslims to Islam before invading their territory, but in their
laconic wording they would have been incomprehensible to their
recipients. Only one of the letters, that to the Ethiopian negus,
contains significant individuating material; however, that material
(of a christological nature) uses Qur’anic language that would
have been readily available to later Muslims. The reply by the
negus (the only reply quoted), with its offer to come personally,
is
clearly apocryphal.
Another example of Muhammad's interest in the north is the
expedition that set out for Syria and was defeated by Byzantine
troops and their Arab allies at Mu’tah in Jordan during the month
of Jumada I, a.h. 8 (August-September 629). Al-Tabari's account,
which relies almost entirely on Ibn Ishaq, says nothing about the
causes of the expedition. Al-Waqidi (W, II, 755) indicates that
the
immediate occasion was the killing by Shurahbil b. 'Amr al-
Ghassani (the Banu Ghassan were allies of the Byzantines) of a
messenger whom Muhammad had sent to the ruler of Bu$ra in
Syria. Thus, although the motive for this mission to Bu$ra remains
a mystery, the immediate motive for the expedition was
retaliation. The deaths of Muhammad's adoptive son Zayd b.
Harithah, his cousin Ja'far b. Abi Talib, and 'Abdallah b. Rawahah
were a blow, but the total Muslim casualties were extremely light.
Al-Tabari gives no figures, but al-Waqidi lists only eight men.
Shortly after the return of the unsuccessful expedition to Mu’tah,
the truce of al-Hudaybiyah broke down when violence
erupted between the Banu Bakr, allies of Quraysh, and the Banu
Translator's Foreword
xix
Khuza'ah, allies of Muhammad. A group of Quraysh armed and
supported the Banu Bakr, who killed several of the Banu Khuza'ah.
A tribesman of the Khuza’ah then made his way to Medina and
called on the Muslims for aid. He was favorably received. Realizing
the gravity of the situation, Abu Sufyan himself made his way
to Medina to attempt to repair the treaty. He was unsuccessful.
Soon Muhammad had set out with an army for Mecca. Further
negotiations took place near Mecca between Abu Sufyan and
Muhammad, who was poised to enter Mecca by force. In the end,
it was Abu Sufyan who, by accepting Islam and Muhammad's
terms, made it possible for Muhammad to enter Mecca with a
minimum of fighting. The internal politics of Mecca that led Abu
Sufyan to make such a volte-face must be pieced together from
other historical accounts. Muhammad did not demand that the
Meccans convert to Islam. He promised safety to anyone who
entered the area around the Ka'bah, anyone who stayed within the
doors of his house, and anyone who took refuge in Abu Sufyan's
house. A few diehards fought, a few fled the city, but most of the
Meccans accepted the inevitable. Muhammad entered the city
and pronounced a general amnesty, with the exception of six men
and four women who were guilty of particular crimes. After a
sermon delivered by the door of the Ka'bah, he declared the Meccans
"free" (by convention they were legally his slaves as
prisoners
of war). This was followed by a ceremony in which the
Meccans swore allegiance to Muhammad as Muslims.
Thus, in a period of four years, Muhammad had gone from being
besieged in Medina by the Meccans and their allies to being the
master of Mecca. It was a tremendous change of fortune, though
one should not exaggerate the extent of his success. Islam had not
yet made significant inroads into the tribes of central Arabia,
which could pose a threat even to the combined forces of Medina
and Mecca, as they did later in a.h. 8 at the battle of Hunayn.
Muhammad's religious policy was quite cautious at first. There
was no attempt at this date to make the Meccan pilgrimage an
exclusively Islamic rite. Pagans were allowed to make the pilgrimage
this year and the following year. But the victory of Islam
in Arabia, an object of faith alone in a.h. 5, had become a
realistic
possibility in a.h. 8.
XX
Translator's Foreword
Al-Tabari: His Sources and Methods
As in the earlier sections of his History dealing with the life of
the
Prophet, al-Tabari in this section relies mainly on the biography
of
the Prophet composed by Ibn Ishaq (d. 150/767). 1 Al-Tabari, who
was bom in a.h. 224 or 225 (winter of a.d. 839), studied the bulk
of
this material early in his life, when he was a student of Abu
'Abdallah Muhammad b. Humayd in Rayy (near modem Tehran).
Ibn Humayd had studied the work with Salamah b. al-Fadl, also
of Rayy, who in turn had studied it with the author, Ibn Ishaq.
This means that al-Tabari had access to the work in a version
antedating the version that has survived to modem times, the
abridgment and recension made by 'Abd al-Malik b. Hisham
(d. 218/834). The typical isnad for al-Tabari's citations
therefore
runs "Ibn Humayd — Salamah — Ibn Ishaq," to which
al-Tabari
frequently appends the isnad found in Ibn Ishaq. Al-Tabari also
studied other recensions of Ibn Ishaq's work. For example, at page
1630 of the History we find the isnad, "Abu Kurayb — Yunus b.
Bukayr — Muhammad b. Isliaq." This refers to al-Tabari's
study of
Ibn Ishaq's book under the Kufan scholar Abu Kurayb (d. 248/862),
who transmitted the recension made by Yunus b. Bukayr (d.
199/815). Al-Tabari's citations from Ibn Ishaq are extensive and
preserve virtually all the significant material of the original,
as
comparison with the surviving text of the Sir ah will show.
The main other work cited by al-Tabari in this section is the
Kitab al-maghazi by the Medinan historian Muhammad b. 'Umar
al-Waqidi (d. 207/823 in Baghdad). His attitude toward this work
was very different from his attitude toward Ibn Ishaq's. In a
notice
preserved in Yaqut's biographical encyclopedia, Irshad al-arib, 1
al-Tabari is quoted as saying that he considered al-Waqidi unreliable
as a transmitter of hadith and therefore quoted him in his
work on Qur’anic exegesis only when he referred to "history,
biography,
or Arab stories" and only when the material could be found
only in his work; he quoted no legal traditions from al-Waqidi. A
1. The work is commonly known by the title Sirah or
Sirat Rasulallah, which
is the title of the recension of the work prepared by
Ibn Hisham. Ibn Ishaq's original three- volume work was entitled Kit&b
al-maghazi and consisted of three parts: al - Mubtada', al-Mab'ath, and
al-Maghazi. See EP, s.v. Ibn Ishak-
a. Translated in Rosenthal, "General Introduction,"
p. no.
Translator's Foreword
xxi
comparison between the material from al-Waqidi quoted in the
History and the text of the Kitab al-maghazi demonstrates al-
Tabari's cautious use of al-Waqidi. Al-Tabari rarely quotes al-
Waqidi fully. Many details, sometimes crucial ones, are omitted. I
have therefore drawn attention to parallels to al-Waqidi in the
footnotes of my translation. Unfortunately, no English translation
of this text exists at the present time.
To the material derived from these two main sources al-Tabari
added material derived from his studies with many leading
scholars of his time. Franz Rosenthal's "General
Introduction" to
the first volume of this series is the most convenient place for
the
English reader to gain an idea of the scope of this material. The
work of Fuat Sezgin in the first volume of his Geschichte des
arabischen Schrifttums should also be consulted for its thorough
presentation of the Islamic scholarship on which al-Tabari drew.
A Note on the Text
The translation follows the text of the Leiden edition, which appeared
in installments between 1879 and 1898 under the general
editorship of M. J. de Goeje. The section here translated (a.h.
5-8)
appears in Volume I/3, pages 1460-1654, which was edited by the
Dutch scholar Pieter de Jong of Utrecht, after the death in 188 1
of
Professor Otto Loth of Leipzig, to whom the section was originally
assigned. De Jong edited 1 , 1083-201 5 . The following
manuscripts
were available for pages 1460-1654: Istanbul, Kopriilu 1042
(siglum C in the apparatus), part of a three-volume set copied in
Cairo in 65 1 a.h., covering the entire section; Codex Muir
(siglum
M) in the British India Office library, covering the section to
page
1480; and Codex Spitta (siglum SJ in the Deutsche Morgenlandische
Gesellschaf t, covering the entire section. Thus de Jong had
at least two manuscripts for this section, and for the first
twenty
pages he had three with which to work. In addition, he carefully
collated the text with parallel passages in the standard
collections
of fyadith, Ibn Hisham, al-Tabari's Tafsir, the Kitab al-Aghani of
Abu al-Faraj al-I§faham, and later historians such as Ibn
al-Athir.
The result is a text with few real problems.
Al-Tabari's History was reedited in Egypt by Muhammad Abu
al-Fadl Ibrahim (i960), who used the printed Leiden text as a
basis
xxii
Translator's Foreword
but consulted a few additional manuscripts, none of which contained
the text for the section translated here. Nevertheless, I have
consulted the Cairo edition for its useful explanatory notes and
have noted where its text differs from that of ed. Leiden because
of
editorial decision or possible misprint.
I have indicated parallel passages, especially in the works of Ibn
Hisham and al-Waqidl, occasionally in other works. I do not pretend
that this is a complete list of parallels. Given the selective
nature of al-Tabari's work for this period, the historian must supplement
it with readings in other surviving Arabic works. In addition
to Ibn Hisham and al-Waqidl, the material on the life of the
Prophet in Ibn Sa'd's Tabaqat and in al-Baladhuri's Ansab al-
ashidf is particularly rich.
For the conversion of Islamic dates I have used the standard
tables of F. Wustenfeld and E. Mahler. These follow the later Arabic
convention of assuming that the present purely lunar Islamic
calendar with no intercalated months was in force from the first
year of Muhammad's residence in Medina, almost certainly a false
assumption. The custom of intercalating extra months to keep the
lunar months in phase with the seasons was followed by the pre-
Islamic Arabs, as by the Jews, and was forbidden only in the tenth
year of the Hijrah. It is therefore likely that three or four of
the
Islamic years from i to io contained an extra month. As we do not
know in what years such months were added, we have no way of
working out exact correspondences. Furthermore, as the introduction
of dating by the Islamic era occurred during the caliphate of
'Umar, the dating of events of the Prophet's lifetime was often a
matter on which there was disagreement. This was frequently the
case with some of the minor expeditions, which are mentioned by
Ibn Hisham without dates in a separate section at the end of the
Sirah.
I wish to express my appreciation to four previous translators in
this series who blazed a well-marked trail. To use Arabic terminology,
I have used their works through wijadah (finding them)
but without ijazah (license to transmit personally bestowed by a
master on a pupil). To Franz Rosenthal of Yale University, the
translator of Volume I of this series, all English-speaking
students
of al-Tabari owe a great debt of gratitude, especially for his
masterful
"General Introduction." M. V. McDonald and W. Montgomery
Translator's Foreword
xxiii
Watt, who translated and annotated Volume VII, have done much
to clarify the complicated tribal politics of the period. Ismail
K.
Poonawala, my colleague at the University of California at Los
Angeles and the translator of Volume IX, helped especially with
the isnads . For the inevitable errors and shortcomings, I alone
bear
responsibility.
Michael Fishbein
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