The Massacre of the Banu Qurayzah: Difference between revisions

According to the traditional Islamic sources, in 627 AD as a result of the [[Battle of the Trench]] and the betrayal of the Muslims by the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, the Muslims under the direct military command of the prophet [[Muhammad]] laid siege to the Banu Qurayza compound. After a siege of around 2 weeks, depending on the source, the Jews of Banu Qurayza surrendered and entrusted their fate to a trusted intermediary from the Muslims of the tribe of 'Aws, Sa'ad bin Mu'adh. Sa'a'd bin Mu'adh, however, claiming to be following the law of the Torah itself, advised Muhammad to slaughter the men folk of the tribe and sell the women and children into slavery. Muhammad took this advice and as a consequence over 900 prisoners of the tribe were slaughtered, many in front of their families, and the rest of the tribe were sold into slavery. Although later Muslim historians such as Tabari and ibn Kathir attest to and provide details of this event, the lack of attestation to this event in any primary sources for over 100 years after the event and the lack of attestation of the existence of the Banu Qurayza in early documents such as the [[Constitution of Medina]], as well as evidence of continued Jewish-Arab (Muhaajir) cooperation well into the period of the early Arab conquests, has caused critical historians to call into question the historicity of the entire event.  

Muhammad’s problems with the Jews had not started here. Before the Abu Qurayza, the Jews of the tribes of the Banu Nadir and Banu Qaynuqaa’ had already been assaulted, stripped of their goods including their precious palm trees and exiled. The Banu Qurayzah had retained their position in Medinah through an alliance with the prophet. All was not well with them, tho, as Muhammad continued to press on them to accept him as the messenger off [[Allah]]. As Muhammad had lost the battle of [[Uhud]] this had become difficult for him, and there was already doubt in the minds of some Muslims (mostly muhaajiruun) as to their loyalty to the prophet.

Compounding matters, the Meccans pagans under the leadership of Abu Sufyan had entered into an alliance with the banished Jewish tribes of Medinah, furthering the suspicion of the Jews of Qurayzah whose fortress lay in the rear of the Muslims’ positions vis-à-vis the attack route of the Meccans. When the Meccans and their Jewish allies advanced with a huge army upon Medinah, at the suggestion of the Persian Salman the prophet ordered his numerically inferior forces to dig a trench between two pools of lava and the mountains in front of the city to cut off the advance of the Meccans and their confederates. For this reason the battle is traditionally known as the “Battle of Trench” or the “Battle of the Confederates.”

Unable to break the defenses of the Medinian Muslims, the Meccans sent an emissary, “the enemy of Allah, Huyayy bin Akhtab An-Nadri”, to the Banu Qurayzah in an attempt to bring their aide and end the stalemate with the massacre of Muhammad and the Muslims. Ibn Ishaq does not make it clear how he knows this however he claims that the negotiation came to nought due to the Qurayzah’s insistence that the Meccans offer hostages in order to assure they would not leave the field of battle till Muhammad was defeated (which is exactly what they did). Ibn Ishaq offers as evidence of the Banu Qurayzah’s perfidy an Isnad chain from Yahya bin ‘Abbaad bin ‘Abdullah bin Az-Zubayr with a story that a Muslim woman, Safiyah bint ‘AbdulMuttalib saw a Jewish scout of the Banu Qurayzah reconnoitering a Muslim fort in preparation for an attack. She told the forts commander Hassan of this and asked him to kill the scout, and when he refused she took a club and went out and beat the man to death. Other than this ibn Ishaq relates that Allah “sowed discord” between the confederates and the Banu Qurayzah, which resulted in the Meccans retreating without having defeated Muhammad or engaged in a coordinated attack upon the Muslims with the Banu Qurayzah.