The count of the campaigns and the envoys

Ibn Ishaq relates that all that the Messenger of Allah undertook in his own noble person was twenty-seven campaigns: Waddan, which is al-Abwa’; Bouwat toward Radwa; al-Ouchayra in the valley of Yanbo’; the first Badr, pursuing Kurz ibn Jabir; the great Badr in which Allah slew the champions of Quraysh; the Banu Sulaym as far as al-Koudr; the army of sawiq pursuing Abou Soufyan; Ghatafan, which is Dhou Amr; Najran, a mine of the Hijaz; Ouhoud; Hamra’ al-Asad; the Banu an-Nadir; Dhat ar-Riqa’ at Nakhla; the latter Badr; Doumat al-Jandal; the Trench; the Banu Qurayza; the Banu Lihyan of Hudhayl; Dhou Qarad; the Banu al-Moustaliq of Khouza’a; Houdaybiya, intending no fight, barred by the polytheists; Khaybar; the Umra of Fulfilment; the conquest; Hunayn; Ta’if; and Tabouk. He fought in nine of them: Badr, Ouhoud, the Trench, Qurayza, al-Moustaliq, Khaybar, the conquest, Hunayn and Ta’if. And his companies and expeditions were thirty-eight in number.

Among the sendings Ibn Ishaq details, several carry stories of their own: Dihya ibn Khalifa, returning from César with gifts, was robbed at the valley of Chanar by al-Hounayd ibn Aws and his son; converts of Jouzam rescued the property, and the Prophet sent Zayd ibn Haritha, who killed the two aggressors; Rifa’a ibn Zayd, having received a letter from the Prophet, brought part of his people to Islam, and when Zayd asked: what shall I do with the slain? three times, they answered: release those who live! Ali rejoined them bearing the Prophet’s marked sword and returned all that had been taken. And Zayd, sent a second time to Wadi al-Qoura after his wound, captured Oum Qirfa Fatima bint Rabi’a: Qays ibn al-Mousahhar killed her and spared her daughter, whom the Prophet gave to his maternal uncle Hazn ibn Abi Wahb, and she bore him a son, Abd ar-Rahman.

Ibn Ishaq mentions also the sending of Abdallah ibn Rawaha to Khaybar against al-Yousayr ibn Rizam, that of Abdallah ibn Atik against Abou Rafi’, of Abdallah ibn Unays against Khalid ibn Soufyan, of Ouyayna ibn Hisn against the Banu al-’Anbar, and the three envoys of Mouta.

He relates further the sending of Salim ibn Oumayr, one of the weepers, against Abou Afak of the Banu Amr ibn Awf, who had displayed his hypocrisy in satires against the Prophet after the death of al-Harith ibn Souwayd: the Prophet said: "Who will rid me of this wicked one?" and Salim killed him. Then the sending of Oumayr ibn Adi al-Khatmi against Asma bint Marwan, who satirized Islam and its people: "Is there none to take me the daughter of Marwan?" He killed her by night and said at morning: O Messenger of Allah, I have killed her! He said: "You have helped Allah and His messenger, O Oumayr." And he added: "Two goats shall not clash over her." That was the first day Islam became mighty among the Banu Khatma: many of them embraced Islam at that proof of its strength. Hassan ibn Thabit answered in verses the elegies her death had raised.

He finally mentions the story of Thoumama ibn Uthal al-Hanafi, taken captive then freed, who barred the grain caravans to Mecca until the Prophet wrote him to release them; he is thought to be the man of the hadith: "The believer eats in one gut, and the unbeliever in seven"; and the account of al-Alqama ibn Mujazziz sent to avenge his brother; that of Abdallah ibn Hudhafa, some of whose men were ready to enter the fire their commander kindled as a test: the Prophet said: "Whoever commands you to disobey Allah, obey him not!"; and the affair of the men of Bajila who drugged themselves on camel milk and urine, killed the shepherd Yasar and seared his eyes: the Prophet had their hands and feet cut and their eyes seared, and they are, apparently, the men of Oukl or Ourayna of the concordant hadith of Anas. And Ali was sent to the Yemen with Khalid, being told: "If you gather, the commander is Ali ibn Abi Talib": he campaigned there twice.