The expeditions after Khaybar: the word of tawhid

The Bayhaqi summarizes here the chapters of the expeditions mentioned after the conquest of Khaybar and before the Umra of Fulfilment, though the dating of some is unclear among the scholars of the campaigns. The expedition of Abou Bakr the Truthful was sent against the Banu Fazaré. Imam Ahmad reports through Iyas ibn Salama, from his father: "We went out with Abou Bakr ibn Abi Kouhafa, whom the Messenger of Allah had placed over us, and we made war upon the Banu Fazaré. When we drew near the water, Abou Bakr ordered us and we camped; when we had prayed the dawn prayer, he ordered us and we launched the raid, and we slew by the water those whom we slew. I saw a column of people, with children and women, toward the mountain; I ran upon their tracks and shot an arrow that fell between them and the mountain, and I drove them along toward Abou Bakr.

Among them a woman of Fazaré wore a lizard skin, and with her was her daughter, among the fairest of the Arabs. Abou Bakr gave me the girl. On my return to Medina I met the Messenger of Allah in the market, and he said to me: O Salama, give me the woman. I said: by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, she has charmed me, and I have not uncovered a garment of hers. He was silent and left me. The next day he met me in the market and said: O Salama, give me the woman, and may your father redeem you. I said: O Messenger of Allah, she has charmed me, and I have not uncovered a garment of hers, and she is yours, O Messenger of Allah. The Messenger of Allah sent her to the people of Mecca, in whose hands were captives of the Muslims, and he ransomed them with this woman." Mouslim and the Bayhaqi report this hadith.

The Waqidi reports that Oumar ibn al-Khattab was sent with thirty horsemen toward Turba, a district of Hawazin lying four miles beyond Mecca, marching by night and hiding by day; when they reached the district, the people fled and Oumar returned to Medina. It was said to him: have you to fight Khath’am? He said: the Messenger of Allah ordered me only to fight Hawazin on their own land.

The Messenger of Allah also sent Abdallah ibn Rawaha with thirty horsemen against Yassir ibn Rizam, the Jew of Khaybar who was gathering Ghatafan to make war upon him. When they reached Qarqarat Thibar, six miles from Khaybar, Yassir had second thoughts and moved his hand toward the sword of Abdallah ibn Unays, who scenting it cried to his mule, charged, and drove him before him to the people until he gained the mastery and struck his leg, cutting it off. Yassir charged with a branch of chouhata and struck the face of Abdallah ibn Unays, wounding him a mortal wound. Every Muslim threw himself upon his rider and killed him, except one Jew who extricated himself; none of the Muslims was touched.

The Messenger of Allah spat upon the wound of Abdallah ibn Unays, and it neither opened nor pained him until his death. The Waqidi likewise mentions the sending of Bachir ibn Sa’d with thirty horsemen against the Banu Murra in the district of Fadak: their camels were carried off, then they fought him and killed most of those with him; he endured, fought fiercely, then took refuge at Fadak, spent the night with a Jew there, and returned to Medina.