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List of expeditions of Muhammad: Difference between revisions
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List of expeditions of Muhammad (view source)
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The hadith and sῑra-maghāzī literature speak frequently of the dominion (mulk) of the prophet and his community (ummah). This triumphalist view of the emergence of the early Islamic community "served to sustain and legitimize that community's hegemony, the supremacy of its ruling elite, and the expansionist policy of the burgeoning polity."<ref>Sean Anthony, ''Muhammad and the Empires of Faith'', p. 177</ref> | The hadith and sῑra-maghāzī literature speak frequently of the dominion (mulk) of the prophet and his community (ummah). This triumphalist view of the emergence of the early Islamic community "served to sustain and legitimize that community's hegemony, the supremacy of its ruling elite, and the expansionist policy of the burgeoning polity."<ref>Sean Anthony, ''Muhammad and the Empires of Faith'', p. 177</ref> | ||
A source which stands out as more significant are the letters of 'Urwa b. Zubayr, the nephew of Aisha. A series of letters from 'Urwa to the late Umayyad court in answer to various historical queries are preserved in the work of al-Tabari, while some narratives therefrom also appear in other sources. More information and a summary of the relevant letters is given in the article [[Jihad in Islamic Law]] and they are translated in full in chapter four of Anthony's book. For a number of reasons these letters are considered more credible than later sources, and detail a small number of raids and battles: the raid on Nakhlah, the battle of Badr, the conquest of Mecca, the battle of Hunayn and the seige of al-Ta'if. Other conflicts which | A source which stands out as more significant are the letters of 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr, the nephew of Aisha. A series of letters from 'Urwa to the late Umayyad court in answer to various historical queries are preserved in the work of al-Tabari, while some narratives therefrom also appear in other sources. More information and a summary of the relevant letters is given in the article [[Jihad in Islamic Law]] and they are translated in full in chapter four of Anthony's book. For a number of reasons these letters are considered more credible than later sources, and detail a small number of raids and battles: the raid on Nakhlah, the battle of Badr, the conquest of Mecca, the battle of Hunayn and the seige of al-Ta'if. Other significant conflicts which many academic scholars consider to credibly have some historicity but which are not mentioned by 'Urwa are Uhud, Banu Mustaliq, the Ditch, Banu Qurayza, and Khaybar. It may be noted that 'Urwa's letters respond to specific questions about historical events, so we should not expect them to be a comprehensive list of all expeditions undertaken or ordered by Muhammad. | ||
'Urwa also narrates in his first letter the two forced migrations from Mecca faced by the believers following persecutions known as the first and second fitnas, in the first case to Abyssinia, and the second time to Medina. Bearing in mind this context, Islamic modernist scholars argue that the most well evidenced expeditions are in line with the Quranic principles that fighting is in self-defense or pre-emptive (or more specifically, for proportionate retaliation or to stop religious persecution - see the discussion in the article [[Jihad in Islamic Law]]). This view is of course contested by other Islamic and academic scholars. | 'Urwa also narrates in his first letter the two forced migrations from Mecca faced by the believers following persecutions known as the first and second fitnas, in the first case to Abyssinia, and the second time to Medina. Bearing in mind this context, Islamic modernist scholars argue that the most well evidenced expeditions are in line with the Quranic principles that fighting is in self-defense or pre-emptive (or more specifically, for proportionate retaliation or to stop religious persecution - see the discussion in the article [[Jihad in Islamic Law]]). This view is of course contested by other Islamic and academic scholars. | ||