The campaign of Dhi Qarad: Uyayna’s raid and Salama’s pursuit

Ibn Ishaq said: then the Messenger of Allah returned to Medina and stayed there only a few nights until Uyayna ibn Hisn ibn Hudhayfa ibn Badr al-Fazari made a raid with horsemen of Ghatafan upon the grazing flocks of the Prophet at al-Ghaba, where there was a man of the Banu Ghifar with his wife, and they killed the man and carried off the woman upon the she-ass. Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada, and Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr, and one whom I do not suspect, related to me, from Abdallah ibn Ka’b ibn Malik, each relating part of the hadith of the campaign of Dhi Qarad: that the first to give warning against them was Salama ibn Amr ibn al-Akwa’ al-Aslami, who went out in the morning intending al-Ghaba, wrapped in his bow and arrows, and with him was a lad of Talha ibn Ubaydallah with a horse which he led, until when he climbed the pass of al-Wada’ he looked at some of their horses appearing in the direction of Sal’. Then he cried out: O companions of the morning!

Then he went out speeding upon their tracks, and he was like a panther until he caught up with the people, and he began turning them back with arrows, saying whenever he shot: ’Take this, I am the son of al-Akwa’; today is the day of the teat.’ When the horses were turned toward him he would run, then face them, and when shooting was possible he shot, then said: ’Take this, I am the son of al-Akwa’; today is the day of the teat.’ One of them would say: this is what you deserve, he is at the start of the day.

And the cry of the son of al-Akwa’ reached the Messenger of Allah, and he cried in Medina: alarm! Alarm! The horses raced toward the Messenger of Allah, and the first of the horsemen to reach him was al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad, then Abbad ibn Bishr, and Sa’d ibn Zayd, and Usayd ibn Dhuhayr, who is doubted, and Uqqa sha ibn Mihsan, and Muh riz ibn Nadla, brother of the Banu Asad ibn Khuzayma, and Abu Qatada al-Harith ibn Ribi’y, brother of the Banu Salama, and Abu Ayyash Ubayd ibn Zayd ibn Samit, brother of the Banu Zurayq. When they gathered to the Messenger of Allah he appointed Sa’d ibn Zayd over them, then said: go out in pursuit of the people until I catch up with you among the people.

The Prophet had said to Abu Ayyash, as has reached me from men of the Banu Zurayq: O Abu Ayyash, if you gave this horse to a man more skilled than you, he would catch the people. Abu Ayyash said: O Messenger of Allah, I am the most skilled of the people. Then he struck the horse, and by Allah it ran with him not fifty cubits before throwing him, and he marveled at that; and men of the Banu Zurayq claimed that the Messenger of Allah gave the horse of Abu Ayyash to Mu’adh ibn Ma’is, or A’idh ibn Ma’is ibn Qays ibn Khalda, who was the eighth. Some people count Salama ibn al-Akwa’ as the eighth and exclude Usayd ibn Dhuhayr; and Allah knows best which it was.

Salama ibn al-Akwa’ was not that day a horseman, though he was the first to catch the people on foot. The horsemen went out,

chasing one another; Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada related to me that the first horseman to catch the people was Muh riz ibn Nadla, called al-Akhram, and it is said Qumayr, and the horse under him belonged to Mahmud ibn Maslama, and the horse was called Dhu l-Limma. When he reached the enemy he said to them: halt, O people of the Banu Laki’a, until there join you from behind you the Muhajirun and the Ansar. A man of them charged him and killed him, and the horse wheeled and none could master it until it stood at its tether, meaning it returned to its stable which was in Medina. None of the Muslims was slain that day but him, though Ibn Hisham said more than one man of knowledge mentioned that there was killed with him also Waqqas ibn Mujazziz al-Mudliji.

Ibn Ishaq said: one whom I do not suspect related to me, from Abdallah ibn Ka’b ibn Malik, that Muh riz was upon a horse of Uqqa sha ibn Mihsan called al-Janah, and Muh riz was killed and al-Janah seized; and Allah knows best. When the horses had caught up, Abu Qatada killed Habib ibn Uyayna and covered him with his cloak, then joined the people, and the Messenger of Allah came forward with the Muslims, Ibn Hisham saying he had appointed over Medina Ibn Umm Maktum, and there was Habib wrapped in the cloak of Abu Qatada, and the people made the call of return and said: Abu Qatada has been killed. The Messenger of Allah said: ’It is not Abu Qatada; it is a slain man of Abu Qatada’s,

and he has placed upon him his cloak that you may know he is his man.’ Uqqa sha ibn Mihsan caught Awbar and his son Amr ibn Awbar upon one camel, and transfixed them both with the lance, killing them together, and they rescued part of the she-ass. The Messenger of Allah marched until he alighted at the mountain of Dhi Qarad, and the people caught up with him, and he stayed there a day and a night. Salama ibn al-Akwa’ said to him: O Messenger of Allah, if you gave me command of a hundred men I would rescue the rest of the herd and seize the necks of the people. The Messenger of Allah said, as has reached me: they are at this moment deep in Ghatafan.

The Messenger of Allah divided among his companions for each hundred men a slaughter beast, and they stayed there, then returned in caravan until they reached Medina. And the wife of the Ghifari came upon a she-camel of the Prophet’s camels until she arrived in Medina and told him the news; and when she finished she said: O Messenger of Allah, I have vowed to Allah to slaughter it if Allah grants me victory over it by it. The Messenger of Allah smiled and said: ’What an ill reward you give it, that Allah mounted you upon it and delivered you by it, and you slaughter it! There is no vow in disobedience of Allah, nor in what you do not possess; it is but a she-camel of my camels.

Return to your family with the blessing of Allah.’ Ibn Ishaq said: the hadith of that is from Abu az-Zubayr al-Makki, from al-Hasan al-Basri; thus Ibn Ishaq reports this story with the chain and account he mentioned.