name	Al-Walid I
reign	705 – 715
full name	Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik
titles	Amir Walid
predecessor	Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
successor	Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik
royal house	Banu Abd Shams
dynasty	Umayyad
father	Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
birth date	668
death date	715

Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik () or Al-Walid I (668 - 715) was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 705 - 715.

Biography

He was born to Abdul Malik Ibn marwan and his wife who was from the central Arabian region Najd. Al walid continued the expansion of the Islamic empire that was sparked by his father, and was an effective ruler. His father Abd al-Malik had taken the oath of allegiance for Walid I during his lifetime.. As such the succession of Al-Walid I was not contested. His reign was marked by endless successions of conquests east and west.

Al-Walid I (705-715 AD/86-96 AH), began the Islamic conquests and took the early Islamic empire to its farthest extents. He reconquered parts of Egypt from the Byzantine Empire and moved on into Carthage and across to the west of North Africa. Then, in 711, Muslim armies crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and began to conquer the Iberian Peninsula using North African Berber armies. By 716, the Visigoths of Iberia had been defeated and Iberia was under Muslim control. This would be the farthest extent of Islamic control of Europe (in 736, they were stopped in their expansion into Europe south of Tours, France). In the east, Islamic armies made it as far as the Indus River in 712—under Al-Walid, the caliphate empire stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to India. Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef played a crucial role in the organization and selection of military commanders.

Al-Walid paid great attention to the expansion of an organized military, building the strongest navy in Ummayad era, it was this tactic that supported the ultimate expansion to Iberia. His reign is considered as the apex of Islamic power.

Al-Walid also began the first great building projects of Islam, the most famous of which is the mosque at Damascus. The long history of Islamic architecture really begins with al-Walid. This is also the period, however, in which Islamic court culture begins to germinate. With the caliph as a patron, artists and writers begin to develop a new, partly secular culture based on Islamic ideas.

It was also Al-Walid that coupled Islamicization with Arabicization. Conversion was not forced on conquered peoples; however, since non-believers had to pay an extra tax , many people did convert for religious and non-religious reasons. This created several problems, particularly since Islam was so closely connected with being Arab. Being Arab, of course, was more than an ethnic identity, it was a tribal identity based on kinship and descent. As more and more Muslims were non-Arabs, the status of Arabs and their culture became threatened. In particular, large numbers of Coptic-speaking (Egypt) and Persian-speaking Muslims threatened the primacy of the very language that Islam is based on. In part to alleviate that threat, al-Walid instituted Arabic as the only official language of the empire. He decreed that all administration was to be done only in Arabic. It was this move that cemented the primacy of Arabic language and culture in the Islamic world.

Like his father, Al-Walid continued to allow Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef free rein, and his trust in Al-Hajjaj paid off with the successful conquests of Transoxiana and Sindh. Musa ibn Nusayr and his retainer Tariq ibn Ziyad conquered Al-Andalus. Al-Hajjaj was responsible for picking the generals who led the successful eastern campaigns, and was well known from his own successful campaign against Ibn Zubayr during the reign of Al-Walid's father. Others, such as al-Walid's brother Salamah, advanced against the Byzantines and into Adharbayjan.

Valladolid is an industrial city and it is a municipality in north-central Spain, upon the Rio Pisuerga and within the Ribera del Duero region. It is the capital of the province of Valladolid and of the autonomous community of Castile and Leon, therefore is part of the historical region of Castile. The name "Valladolid" is linked with the Arabic name for the city بلد الوليد meaning The City of Al- Walid,but a more likely suggestion is a conjunction of the Latin: VALLIS, "Valley", and Celtic: TOLITUM, "place of confluence of waters",and indeed their inhabitants are still called by the archaic form closer to its possible original name,"Vallisoletanian" .

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari describes how Qutayba ibn Muslim, Khurasan's governor, led forces extending the caliphate to the east. Qutayba campaigned in most, if not all, years of this reign, conquering Samarkand, advancing into Farghana and sending envoys to China. (v. 23)

Al-Tabari records how al-Hajjaj tortured Yazid ibn al-Muhallab. Yazid escaped and made his way to al-Walid's brother Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik who granted him refuge. Al-Hajjaj pressed al-Walid about this and al-Walid commanded Suleiman to send him Yazid in chains. Suleiman had his own son approach al-Walid chained to Yazid and speak in favour of Yazid's safety. Al-Walid accepted this and told al-Hajjaj to desist. (v. 23, p. 156f)

Al-Walid himself continued the effective rule that was characteristic of his father, he developed a welfare system, built hospitals, educational institutions and measures for the appreciation of art. In 691, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ordered that the Dome of the Rock be built on the site where the Islamic Prophet Muhammad begun his journey to heaven (Meraj) on the Temple Mount. About a decade afterward, Caliph Al-Walid I ordered the building of Al-Aqsa Mosque.[73] It was under Umayyad rule of Al-Walid and his father Abd al-Malik that Christians and Jews were granted the official title of "Peoples of the Book" to underline the common monotheistic roots they shared with Islam.

Al-Walid himself was an enthusiast of architecture and he repaired and refurbished Masjid al Nabawi in Medina. He also improved mountain passes and wells in Hijaz (al-Tabari v. 23, p. 144). In addition, he demolished the Christian Basilica of St. John the Baptist to build a great mosque, now known as the Great Mosque of Damascus or simply the Umayyad Mosque (John the Baptist is considered a Prophet of Islam and is known as Yahya).

The Grand Mosque of Damascus, also known as the Umayyad Mosque (Arabic: جامع بني أمية الكبير, transl. Ğām' Banī 'Umayyah al-Kabīr), is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. Located in one of the holiest sites in the old city of Damascus, it is of great architectural importance.

The mosque holds a shrine which is said to contain the head of John the Baptist, honoured as a prophet by Muslims and Christians alike. The head was supposedly found during the excavations for the building of the mosque. The tomb of Saladin stands in a small garden adjoining the north wall of the mosque.

Initially, the Muslim conquest of Damascus in 636 did not affect the church, as the building was shared by Muslim and Christian worshippers. It remained a church although the Muslims built a mud brick structure against the southern wall so that they could pray.

Under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I, however, the church was demolished and between 706 and 715 the current mosque built in its place. According to the legend, Al-Walid I himself initiated the demolition by driving a golden spike into the church. At that point in time, Damascus was one of the most important cities in the Middle East and would later become the capital of the Umayyad caliphate.

He was also known for his own personal piety, and many stories tell of his continual reciting of the Qur'an and the large feasts he hosted for those fasting during Ramadan. He was married to Umm Banin bint Abdul Aziz ibn Marwan ibn Hakam.

Al-Walid was succeeded by his brother Suleiman and was buried in Bab-us-saghir cemetery in Damascus. His grave is still present to this date.

Sources

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, v. 23 ''The Zenith of the Marwanid House'', transl. Martin Hinds, Suny, Albany, 1990

References

Category:668 births Category:715 deaths Category:Umayyad caliphs Category:8th-century caliphs

ar:الوليد بن عبد الملك ca:Al-Walid I da:Al-Walid 1. de:Al-Walid I. es:Walid I fa:ولید پسر عبدالملک fr:Al-Walīd Ier gl:Al-Walid I id:Al-Walid bin Abdul-Malik it:Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik he:וליד הראשון hu:I. al-Valíd kalifa ms:Al-Walid bin Abdul Malik nl:Al-Walid I ja:ワリード1世 pnb:ولید بن عبدالملک pl:Al-Walid I ru:Валид I fi:Walid I th:อัล-วาลิดที่ 1 tr:I. Velid ur:ولید بن عبدالملک

honorific prefix	Prophet
name	Muhammad
honorific suffix	Prophet, Messenger, Apostle, Witness, Bearer of Good Tidings, Warner, Reminder, Caller, Announcer
birth name	Muḥammad ibn `Abd Allāh
birth date	c. April 26, 570
birth place	Makkah, Arabia (present day Mecca, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia)
death date	June 08, 632
death place	Yathrib, Arabia (present day Medina, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia)
death cause	Illness (high fever)
resting place	Tomb under the Green Dome of Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia
other names	See ''Names of Muhammad''
ethnicity	Arab
religion	Islam
spouse	Wives: Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (595-619)Sawda bint Zamʿa (619-632)Aisha bint Abi Bakr (619-632)Hafsa bint Umar (624-632)Zaynab bint Khuzayma (625-627)Hind bint Abi Umayya (629-632)Zaynab bint Jahsh (627-632)Juwayriya bint al-Harith (628-632)Ramlah bint Abi Sufyan (628-632)Rayhana bint Zayd (629-631)Safiyya bint Huyayy (629-632)Maymuna bint al-Harith (630-632)Maria al-Qibtiyya (630-632)
parents	Father: `Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-MuttalibMother: Aminah bint Wahb
children	Sons: al-Qasim, `Abd-Allah, IbrahimDaughters: Zainab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthoom, Fatimah Zahra
relatives	Ahl al-Bayt }}

Muhammad ( or ; , '''' ; 26 April 570 – 8 June 632; Monday, 12th Rabi' al-Awwal, Year 11 A.H.; also transliterated Mohammed or ), sometimes called Muhammad ibn Abdullah, was the founder of the religion of Islam, and is considered by Muslims to be a messenger and prophet of God, the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets, and, by most Muslims, the last prophet of God as taught by the Quran. Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith (''islām'') of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets. He was also active as a social reformer, diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, military leader, humanitarian and philanthropist.

Born in 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. ''islām'') is the only way (''dīn'') acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.

Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes; he and his followers were treated harshly. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia before he and his remaining followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which is also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, conquered Mecca. In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his Farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.

The revelations (or ''Ayah'', lit. "Signs of God")—which Muhammad reported receiving until his death—form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (''sira'') and traditions (''sunnah'') are also upheld by Muslims. They discuss Muhammad and other prophets of Islam with reverence, adding the phrase ''peace be upon him'' whenever their names are mentioned. While conceptions of Muhammad in medieval Christendom and premodern times were largely negative, appraisals in modern history have been far less so. His life and deeds have been debated and criticized by followers and opponents over the centuries.

Names and appellations in the Quran

The name ''Muhammad'' means "Praiseworthy" and occurs four times in the Quran. The Quran addresses Muhammad in the second person not by his name but by the appellations prophet, messenger, servant of God ('''abd''), announcer (''bashir''), witness (''shahid''), bearer of good tidings (''mubashshir''), warner (''nathir''), reminder (''mudhakkir''), one who calls [unto God] (''dā‘ī''), light personified (''noor''), and the light-giving lamp (''siraj munir''). Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address: thus he is referred to as the enwrapped (''al-muzzammil'') in Qur'an and the shrouded (''al-muddaththir'') in Qur'an . In the Qur'an, believers are not to distinguish between the messengers of God and are to believe in all of them (Sura Al-Baqara ). God has caused some messengers to excel above others and in Sura Al-Ahzab He singles out Muhammad as the "Seal of the Prophets". The Qur'an also refers to Muhammad as ''Aḥmad'' "more praiseworthy" (, Sura As-Saff ).

Sources for Muhammad's life

Being a highly influential historical figure, Muhammad's life, deeds, and thoughts have been debated by followers and opponents over the centuries, which makes a biography of him difficult to write.

Quran

The Quran is the primary source of information for Islam. It is the central religious text of Islam and Muslims believe it represents the words of God revealed to Muhammad through Gabriel. Although it mentions Muhammad directly only four times, verses can be interpreted as allusions to Muhammad's life.

Early biographies

Next in importance are historical works by writers of the 3rd and 4th centuries of the Muslim era. These include the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad (the ''sira'' literature), which provide further information on Muhammad's life.

The earliest surviving written ''sira'' (biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him) is Ibn Ishaq's ''Life of God's Messenger'' written ca. 767 (150 AH). The work is lost, but was used verbatim at great length by Ibn Hisham and Al-Tabari. Another early source is the history of Muhammad's campaigns by al-Waqidi (death 207 of Muslim era), and the work of his secretary Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi (death 230 of Muslim era).

Many scholars accept the accuracy of the earliest biographies, though their accuracy is unascertainable. Recent studies have led scholars to distinguish between the traditions touching legal matters and the purely historical ones. In the former sphere, traditions could have been subject to invention while in the latter sphere, aside from exceptional cases, the material may have been only subject to "tendential shaping".

Hadith

In addition, the hadith collections are accounts of the verbal and physical traditions of Muhammad that date from several generations after his death. Hadith compilations are records of the traditions or sayings of Muhammad. They might be defined as the biography of Muhammad perpetuated by the long memory of his community for their exemplification and obedience.

Western academics view the hadith collections with caution as accurate historical sources. Although usually discounted by historians, oral tradition plays a major role in the Islamic understanding of Muhammad.

Non-Arabic sources

The earliest documented Christian knowledge of Muhammad stems from Byzantine sources. They indicate that both Jews and Christians saw Muhammad as a deceiving prophet, or at least certain circles did. In the ''Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati'' of 634, Muhammad is portrayed as being "deceiving[,] for do prophets come with sword and chariot?, [...] you will discover nothing true from the said prophet except human bloodshed." Another Greek source for Muhammad is the 9th-century writer Theophanes. The earliest Syriac source is the 7th-century writer John bar Penkaye.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

The Arabian Peninsula was largely arid and volcanic, making agriculture difficult except near oases or springs. The landscape was thus dotted with towns and cities, two prominent ones being Mecca and Medina. Medina was a large flourishing agricultural settlement, while Mecca was an important financial center for many surrounding tribes. Communal life was essential for survival in the desert conditions, as people needed support against the harsh environment and lifestyle. Tribal grouping was encouraged by the need to act as a unit, this unity being based on the bond of kinship by blood. Indigenous Arabs were either nomadic or sedentary, the former constantly travelling from one place to another seeking water and pasture for their flocks, while the latter settled and focused on trade and agriculture. Nomadic survival was also dependent on raiding caravans or oases, the nomads not viewing this as a crime.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, gods or goddesses were viewed as protectors of individual tribes, their spirits being associated with sacred trees, stones, springs and wells. As well as being the site of an annual pilgrimage, the Kaaba shrine in Mecca housed 360 idol statues of tribal patron deities. Aside from these gods, the Arabs shared a common belief in a supreme deity called Allah (literally "the god"), who was remote from their everyday concerns and thus not the object of cult or ritual. Three goddesses were associated with Allah as his daughters: Allāt, Manāt and al-‘Uzzá. Monotheistic communities existed in Arabia, including Christians and Jews. Hanifs – native pre-Islamic Arab monotheists – are also sometimes listed alongside Jews and Christians in pre-Islamic Arabia, although their historicity is disputed amongst scholars. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself was a Hanif and one of the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham.

Life

Life in Mecca

Muhammad was born and lived in Mecca for the first 52 years of his life (570–622) which was divided into two phases, that is before and after declaring the prophecy.

Childhood and early life

Muhammad was born in the month of Rabi' al-awwal in 570. He belonged to the Banu Hashim, one of the prominent families of Mecca, although it seems not to have been prosperous during Muhammad's early lifetime. Tradition places the year of Muhammad's birth as corresponding with the Year of the Elephant, which is named after the failed destruction of Mecca that year by the Aksumite king Abraha who had in his army a number of elephants. Recent scholarship has suggested alternative dates for this event, such as 568 or 569.

Muhammad's father, Abdullah, died almost six months before he was born. According to the tradition, soon after Muhammad's birth he was sent to live with a Bedouin family in the desert, as the desert-life was considered healthier for infants. Muhammad stayed with his foster-mother, Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, and her husband until he was two years old. Some western scholars of Islam have rejected the historicity of this tradition. At the age of six Muhammad lost his mother Amina to illness and he became fully orphaned. He was subsequently brought up for two years under the guardianship of his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, of the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. When Muhammad was eight, his grandfather also died. He now came under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, the new leader of Banu Hashim. According to Watt, because of the general disregard of the guardians in taking care of weak members of the tribes in Mecca in the 6th century, "Muhammad's guardians saw that he did not starve to death, but it was hard for them to do more for him, especially as the fortunes of the clan of Hashim seem to have been declining at that time."

While still in his teens, Muhammad accompanied his uncle on trading journeys to Syria gaining experience in the commercial trade, the only career open to Muhammad as an orphan. According to tradition, when Muhammad was either nine or twelve while accompanying the Meccans' caravan to Syria, he met a Christian monk or hermit named Bahira who is said to have foreseen Muhammed's career as a prophet of God.

Little is known of Muhammad during his later youth, and from the fragmentary information that is available, it is hard to separate history from legend. It is known that he became a merchant and "was involved in trade between the Indian ocean and the Mediterranean Sea." Due to his upright character he acquired the nickname "al-Amin" (Arabic: الامين), meaning "faithful, trustworthy" and "al-Sadiq" meaning "truthful" and was sought out as an impartial arbitrator. His reputation attracted a proposal from Khadijah, a forty-year-old widow in 595. Muhammad consented to the marriage, which by all accounts was a happy one.

According to a narration collected by Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad set the Black Stone in place in the wall of the Kaaba in 605 C.E. The Black Stone had been removed to facilitate renovations to the Kaaba. The leaders of Mecca could not agree on which clan should have the honour of setting the Black Stone back in its place. They agreed to wait for the next man to come through the gate and ask him to choose. That man was the 35-year-old Muhammad, five years before his first revelation. He asked for a cloth and put the Black Stone in its centre. The clan leaders held the corners of the cloth and carried the Black Stone to the right spot, then Muhammad set the stone in place, satisfying the honour of all.

Beginnings of the Quran

At some point Muhammad adopted the practice of meditating alone for several weeks every year in a cave on Mount Hira near Mecca. Islamic tradition holds that during one of his visits to Mount Hira, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the year 610 and commanded Muhammad to recite the following verses: }} After returning home, Muhammad was consoled and reassured by Khadijah and her Christian cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. Upon receiving his first revelations, he was deeply distressed and resolved to commit suicide. He also feared that others would dismiss his claims as being possessed. Shi'a tradition maintains that Muhammad was neither surprised nor frightened at the appearance of Gabriel but rather welcomed him as if he had been expecting him. The initial revelation was followed by a pause of three years during which Muhammad further gave himself to prayers and spiritual practices. When the revelations resumed he was reassured and commanded to begin preaching: "Thy Guardian-Lord hath not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased.".

Sahih Bukhari narrates Muhammad describing the revelations as, "Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell" and Aisha reported, "I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over)". According to Welch these revelations were accompanied by mysterious seizures, and the reports are unlikely to have been forged by later Muslims. Muhammad was confident that he could distinguish his own thoughts from these messages. According to the Quran, one of the main roles of Muhammad is to warn the unbelievers of their eschatological punishment (Quran , Quran ). Sometimes the Quran does not explicitly refer to the Judgment day but provides examples from the history of some extinct communities and warns Muhammad's contemporaries of similar calamities (Quran ). Muhammad is not only a warner to those who reject God's revelation, but also a bearer of good news for those who abandon evil, listen to the divine word and serve God. Muhammad's mission also involves preaching monotheism: The Quran demands Muhammad to proclaim and praise the name of his Lord and instructs him not to worship idols or associate other deities with God.

The key themes of the early Quranic verses included the responsibility of man towards his creator; the resurrection of dead, God's final judgment followed by vivid descriptions of the tortures in hell and pleasures in Paradise; and the signs of God in all aspects of life. Religious duties required of the believers at this time were few: belief in God, asking for forgiveness of sins, offering frequent prayers, assisting others particularly those in need, rejecting cheating and the love of wealth (considered to be significant in the commercial life of Mecca), being chaste and not to kill newborn girls.

Opposition

According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad's wife Khadija was the first to believe he was a prophet. She was soon followed by Muhammad's ten-year-old cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, close friend Abu Bakr, and adopted son Zaid. Around 613, Muhammad began his public preaching (Qur'an ). Most Meccans ignored him and mocked him, while a few others became his followers. There were three main groups of early converts to Islam: younger brothers and sons of great merchants; people who had fallen out of the first rank in their tribe or failed to attain it; and the weak, mostly unprotected foreigners.

According to Ibn Sad, the opposition in Mecca started when Muhammad delivered verses that condemned idol worship and the Meccan forefathers who engaged in polytheism. However, the Qur'anic exegesis maintains that it began as soon as Muhammad started public preaching. As the number of followers increased, he became a threat to the local tribes and the rulers of the city, whose wealth rested upon the Kaaba, the focal point of Meccan religious life, which Muhammad threatened to overthrow. Muhammad’s denunciation of the Meccan traditional religion was especially offensive to his own tribe, the Quraysh, as they were the guardians of the Ka'aba. The powerful merchants tried to convince Muhammad to abandon his preaching by offering him admission into the inner circle of merchants, and establishing his position therein by an advantageous marriage. However, he refused.

Tradition records at great length the persecution and ill-treatment of Muhammad and his followers. Sumayyah bint Khabbab, a slave of a prominent Meccan leader Abu Jahl, is famous as the first martyr of Islam, having been killed with a spear by her master when she refused to give up her faith. Bilal, another Muslim slave, was tortured by Umayyah ibn Khalaf who placed a heavy rock on his chest to force his conversion. Apart from insults, Muhammad was protected from physical harm as he belonged to the Banu Hashim clan.

In 615, some of Muhammad's followers emigrated to the Ethiopian Aksumite Empire and founded a small colony there under the protection of the Christian Ethiopian emperor Aṣḥama ibn Abjar.

An early hadith known as "The Story of the Cranes" (translation: قصة الغرانيق, transliteration: Qissat al Gharaneeq) was propagated by two Islamic scholars, Ibn Kathir al Dimashqi and Ibn Hijir al Masri, where the former has strengthened it and the latter called it fabricated (see Science of hadith). The hadith describes Muhammad's involvement at the time of migration in an episode which historian William Muir called the "Satanic Verses". The account holds that Muhammad pronounced a verse acknowledging the existence of three Meccan goddesses considered to be the daughters of Allah, praising them, and appealing for their intercession. According to this account, Muhammad later retracted the verses at the behest of Gabriel, claiming that the verses were whispered by the devil himself. Islamic scholars have weakened the hadith and have denied the historicity of the incident as early as the tenth century. In any event, relations between the Muslims and their pagan fellow-tribesmen were already deteriorated and worsening.

In 617, the leaders of Makhzum and Banu Abd-Shams, two important Quraysh clans, declared a public boycott against Banu Hashim, their commercial rival, to pressurize it into withdrawing its protection of Muhammad. The boycott lasted three years but eventually collapsed as it failed in its objective. During this, Muhammad was only able to preach during the holy pilgrimage months in which all hostilities between Arabs were suspended.

Isra and Mi'raj

Islamic tradition relates that in 620, Muhammad experienced the ''Isra and Mi'raj'', a miraculous journey said to have occurred with the angel Gabriel in one night. In the first part of the journey, the ''Isra'', he is said to have travelled from Mecca on a winged horse to "the farthest mosque" (in Arabic: ''masjid al-aqsa''), which Muslims usually identify with the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. In the second part, the ''Mi'raj'', Muhammad is said to have toured heaven and hell, and spoken with earlier prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Ibn Ishaq, author of the first biography of Muhammad, presents this event as a spiritual experience whereas later historians like Al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir present it as a physical journey.

When he was transported to Heaven, he reported seeing an angel with "''70,000 heads, each head having 70,000 mouths, each mouth having 70,000 tongues, each tongue speaking 70,000 languages; and every one involved in singing God's (Allah's) praises.''" After calculation this would mean the angel spoke 24 quintillion (2.401 × 10¹⁹) languages for the praise of Allah. This description is similar word for word to the description of an angel seen by Moses in "The Revelation of Moses".

Some western scholars of Islam hold that the oldest Muslim tradition identified the journey as one traveled through the heavens from the sacred enclosure at Mecca to the celestial ''al-Baytu l-Maʿmur'' (heavenly prototype of the Kaaba); but later tradition identified Muhammad's journey from Mecca to Jerusalem.

Last years in Mecca before Hijra

Muhammad's wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib both died in 619, the year thus being known as the "year of sorrow". With the death of Abu Talib, the leadership of the Banu Hashim clan was passed to Abu Lahab, an inveterate enemy of Muhammad. Soon afterwards, Abu Lahab withdrew the clan's protection from Muhammad. This placed Muhammad in danger of death since the withdrawal of clan protection implied that the blood revenge for his killing would not be exacted. Muhammad then visited Ta'if, another important city in Arabia, and tried to find a protector for himself there, but his effort failed and further brought him into physical danger. Muhammad was forced to return to Mecca. A Meccan man named Mut'im b. Adi (and the protection of the tribe of Banu Nawfal) made it possible for him safely to re-enter his native city.

Many people were visiting Mecca on business or as pilgrims to the Kaaba. Muhammad took this opportunity to look for a new home for himself and his followers. After several unsuccessful negotiations, he found hope with some men from Yathrib (later called Medina). The Arab population of Yathrib were familiar with monotheism and prepared for the appearance of a prophet because a Jewish community existed there. They also hoped by the means of Muhammad and the new faith to gain supremacy over Mecca, as they were jealous of its importance as the place of pilgrimage. Converts to Islam came from nearly all Arab tribes in Medina, such that by June of the subsequent year there were seventy-five Muslims coming to Mecca for pilgrimage and to meet Muhammad. Meeting him secretly by night, the group made what was known as the "''Second Pledge of al-`Aqaba''", or the "''Pledge of War''" Following the pledges at Aqabah, Muhammad encouraged his followers to emigrate to Yathrib. As with the migration to Abyssinia, the Quraysh attempted to stop the emigration. However, almost all Muslims managed to leave.

Hijra

The Hijra is the migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. In September 622, warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly slipped out of Mecca, moving with his followers to Medina, 320 kilometres (200 mi) north of Mecca. The Hijra is celebrated annually on the first day of the Muslim year.

Migration to Medina

A delegation consisting of the representatives of the twelve important clans of Medina, invited Muhammad as a neutral outsider to Medina to serve as chief arbitrator for the entire community. There was fighting in Yathrib mainly involving its Arab and Jewish inhabitants for around a hundred years before 620. The recurring slaughters and disagreements over the resulting claims, especially after the Battle of Bu'ath in which all clans were involved, made it obvious to them that the tribal conceptions of blood-feud and an eye for an eye were no longer workable unless there was one man with authority to adjudicate in disputed cases. The delegation from Medina pledged themselves and their fellow-citizens to accept Muhammad into their community and physically protect him as one of themselves.

Muhammad instructed his followers to emigrate to Medina until virtually all his followers left Mecca. Being alarmed at the departure of Muslims, according to the tradition, the Meccans plotted to assassinate Muhammad. With the help of Ali, Muhammad fooled the Meccans who were watching him, and secretly slipped away from the town with Abu Bakr. By 622, Muhammad emigrated to Medina, a large agricultural oasis. Those who migrated from Mecca along with Muhammad became known as ''muhajirun'' (emigrants).

Establishment of a new polity

Among the first things Muhammad did in order to settle down the longstanding grievances among the tribes of Medina was drafting a document known as the Constitution of Medina, "establishing a kind of alliance or federation" among the eight Medinan tribes and Muslim emigrants from Mecca, which specified the rights and duties of all citizens and the relationship of the different communities in Medina (including that of the Muslim community to other communities, specifically the Jews and other "Peoples of the Book"). The community defined in the Constitution of Medina, ''Ummah'', had a religious outlook but was also shaped by practical considerations and substantially preserved the legal forms of the old Arab tribes. It effectively established the first Islamic state.

Several ordinances were proclaimed in order to win over the numerous and wealthy Jewish population. But these were soon rescinded as the Jews insisted on preserving the entire Mosaic law, and did not recognize him as a prophet because he was not of the race of David.

The first group of pagan converts to Islam in Medina were the clans who had not produced great leaders for themselves but had suffered from warlike leaders from other clans. This was followed by the general acceptance of Islam by the pagan population of Medina, apart from some exceptions. According to Ibn Ishaq, this was influenced by the conversion of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh (a prominent Medinan leader) to Islam. Those Medinans who converted to Islam and helped the Muslim emigrants find shelter became known as the ''ansar'' (supporters). Then Muhammad instituted brotherhood between the emigrants and the supporters and he chose Ali as his own brother.

Beginning of armed conflict

Following the emigration, the Meccans seized the properties of the Muslim emigrants in Mecca. Economically uprooted and with no available profession, the Muslim migrants turned to raiding Meccan caravans as an act of war, deliberately initiating armed conflict between the Muslims and Mecca. Muhammad delivered Qur'anic verses permitting the Muslims to fight the Meccans (see sura Al-Hajj, Qur'an ). These attacks pressured Mecca by interfering with trade, and allowed the Muslims to acquire wealth, power and prestige while working towards their ultimate goal of inducing Mecca's submission to the new faith.

In March of 624, Muhammad led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Muslims set an ambush for them at Badr. Aware of the plan, the Meccan caravan eluded the Muslims. Meanwhile, a force from Mecca was sent to protect the caravan, continuing forward to confront the Muslims upon hearing that the caravan was safe. The Battle of Badr began in March of 624. Though outnumbered more than three to one, the Muslims won the battle, killing at least forty-five Meccans with only fourteen Muslims dead. They also succeeded in killing many Meccan leaders, including Abu Jahl. Seventy prisoners had been acquired, many of whom were soon ransomed in return for wealth or freed. Muhammad and his followers saw in the victory a confirmation of their faith as Muhammad ascribed the victory to the assistance of an invisible host of angels. The Qur'anic verses of this period, unlike the Meccan ones, dealt with practical problems of government and issues like the distribution of spoils.

The victory strengthened Muhammad's position in Medina and dispelled earlier doubts among his followers. As a result the opposition to him became less vocal. Pagans who had not yet converted were very bitter about the advance of Islam. Two pagans, Asma bint Marwan and Abu 'Afak, had composed verses taunting and insulting the Muslims. They were killed by people belonging to their own or related clans, and no blood-feud followed.

Muhammad expelled from Medina the Banu Qaynuqa, one of three main Jewish tribes. Although Muhammad wanted them executed, Abd-Allah ibn Ubaiy chief of the Khazraj tribe did not agree and they were expelled to Syria but without their property. Following the Battle of Badr, Muhammad also made mutual-aid alliances with a number of Bedouin tribes to protect his community from attacks from the northern part of Hijaz.

Conflict with Mecca

The attack at Badr committed Muhammad to total war with Meccans, who were now anxious to avenge their defeat. To maintain their economic prosperity, the Meccans needed to restore their prestige, which had been lost at Badr. In the ensuing months, Muhammad led expeditions on tribes allied with Mecca and sent out a raid on a Meccan caravan. Abu Sufyan subsequently gathered an army of three thousand men and set out for an attack on Medina.

A scout alerted Muhammad of the Meccan army's presence and numbers a day later. The next morning, at the Muslim conference of war, there was dispute over how best to repel the Meccans. Muhammad and many senior figures suggested that it would be safer to fight within Medina and take advantage of its heavily fortified strongholds. Younger Muslims argued that the Meccans were destroying their crops, and that huddling in the strongholds would destroy Muslim prestige. Muhammad eventually conceded to the wishes of the latter, and readied the Muslim force for battle. Thus, Muhammad led his force outside to the mountain of Uhud (where the Meccans had camped) and fought the Battle of Uhud on March 23. Although the Muslim army had the best of the early encounters, indiscipline on the part of strategically placed archers led to a Muslim defeat, with 75 Muslims killed including Hamza, Muhammad's uncle and one of the best known martyrs in the Muslim tradition. The Meccans did not pursue the Muslims further, but marched back to Mecca declaring victory. This is probably because Muhammad was wounded and thought to be dead. When they knew this on their way back, they did not return back because of false information about new forces coming to his aid. They were not entirely successful, however, as they had failed to achieve their aim of completely destroying the Muslims. The Muslims buried the dead, and returned to Medina that evening. Questions accumulated as to the reasons for the loss, and Muhammad subsequently delivered Qur'anic verses which indicated that their defeat was partly a punishment for disobedience and partly a test for steadfastness.

Abu Sufyan now directed his efforts towards another attack on Medina. He attracted the support of nomadic tribes to the north and east of Medina, using propaganda about Muhammad's weakness, promises of booty, memories of the prestige of the Quraysh and use of bribes. Muhammad's policy was now to prevent alliances against him as much as he could. Whenever alliances of tribesmen against Medina were formed, he sent out an expedition to break them up. When Muhammad heard of men massing with hostile intentions against Medina, he reacted with severity. One example is the assassination of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, a chieftain of the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir who had gone to Mecca and written poems that helped rouse the Meccans' grief, anger and desire for revenge after the Battle of Badr. Around a year later, Muhammad expelled the Banu Nadir from Medina to Syria allowing them to take some of their possessions because he was unable to subdue them in their strongholds. The rest of their property was claimed by Muhammad in the name of God because it was not gained with bloodshed. Muhammad surprised various Arab tribes, one by one, with overwhelming force which caused his enemies to unite in order to annihilate him. Muhammad's attempts to prevent formation of a confederation against him were unsuccessful, though he was able to increase his own forces and stop many potential tribes from joining his enemies.

Siege of Medina

With the help of the exiled Banu Nadir, the Quraysh military leader Abu Sufyan had mustered a force of 10,000 men. Muhammad prepared a force of about 3000 men and adopted a new form of defense unknown in Arabia at that time: the Muslims dug a trench wherever Medina lay open to cavalry attack. The idea is credited to a Persian convert to Islam, Salman the Persian. The siege of Medina began on March 31 627 and lasted for two weeks. Abu Sufyan's troops were unprepared for the fortifications they were confronted with, and after an ineffectual siege lasting several weeks, the coalition decided to go home. The Qur'an discusses this battle in sura Al-Ahzab, ayat (verses) 9-27, . During the battle, the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, located at the south of Medina, had entered into negotiations with Meccan forces to revolt against Muhammad. Although they were swayed by suggestions that Muhammad was sure to be overwhelmed, they desired reassurance in case the confederacy was unable to destroy him. No agreement was reached after the prolonged negotiations, in part due to sabotage attempts by Muhammad's scouts. After the coalition's retreat, the Muslims accused the Banu Qurayza of treachery and besieged them in their forts for 25 days. The Banu Qurayza eventually surrendered and all the men, apart from a few who converted to Islam, were beheaded, while the women and children were enslaved. Walid N. Arafat and Barakat Ahmad have disputed that the Banu Qurayza were killed on quite such a large scale. Arafat disputes large-scale killings and argued that Ibn Ishaq gathered information from descendants of the Qurayza Jews, who embellished or manufactured the details of the incident. Arafat relates the testimony of Ibn Hajar, who denounced this and other accounts as "odd tales" and quoted Malik ibn Anas, a contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, whom he rejected as a "liar", an "impostor" and for seeking out the Jewish descendants for gathering information about Muhammad's campaign with their forefathers. Ahmad argues that only some of the tribe were killed, while some of the fighters were merely enslaved. Watt finds Arafat's arguments "not entirely convincing", while Meir J. Kister has contradicted the arguments of Arafat and Ahmad.

In the siege of Medina, the Meccans exerted their utmost strength towards the destruction of the Muslim community. Their failure resulted in a significant loss of prestige; their trade with Syria was gone. Following the Battle of the Trench, due to the disgrace Muhammad brought upon himself by seeking protection behind a ditch instead of the his sword and the help of God, he made two expeditions to the north which ended without any fighting. While returning from one of these (or some years earlier according to other early accounts), an accusation of adultery was made against Aisha, Muhammad's wife. Aisha was exonerated from the accusations when Muhammad announced that he had received a revelation confirming Aisha's innocence and directing that charges of adultery be supported by four eyewitnesses.

Truce of Hudaybiyyah

Although Muhammad had already delivered Qur'anic verses commanding the Hajj, the Muslims had not performed it due to the enmity of the Quraysh. In the month of Shawwal 628, Muhammad ordered his followers to obtain sacrificial animals and to make preparations for a pilgrimage (''umrah'') to Mecca, saying that God had promised him the fulfillment of this goal in a vision where he was shaving his head after the completion of the Hajj. Upon hearing of the approaching 1,400 Muslims, the Quraysh sent out a force of 200 cavalry to halt them. Muhammad evaded them by taking a more difficult route, thereby reaching al-Hudaybiyya, just outside of Mecca. According to Watt, although Muhammad's decision to make the pilgrimage was based on his dream, he was at the same time demonstrating to the pagan Meccans that Islam does not threaten the prestige of their sanctuary, and that Islam was an Arabian religion.

Negotiations commenced with emissaries going to and from Mecca. While these continued, rumors spread that one of the Muslim negotiators, Uthman bin al-Affan, had been killed by the Quraysh. Muhammad responded by calling upon the pilgrims to make a pledge not to flee (or to stick with Muhammad, whatever decision he made) if the situation descended into war with Mecca. This pledge became known as the "Pledge of Acceptance" () or the "Pledge under the Tree". News of Uthman's safety, however, allowed for negotiations to continue, and a treaty scheduled to last ten years was eventually signed between the Muslims and Quraysh. The main points of the treaty included the cessation of hostilities; the deferral of Muhammad's pilgrimage to the following year; and an agreement to send back any Meccan who had gone to Medina without the permission of their protector.

Many Muslims were not satisfied with the terms of the treaty. However, the Qur'anic sura "Al-Fath" (The Victory) (Qur'an ) assured the Muslims that the expedition from which they were now returning must be considered a victorious one. It was only later that Muhammad's followers would realise the benefit behind this treaty. These benefits included the inducing of the Meccans to recognise Muhammad as an equal; a cessation of military activity posing well for the future; and gaining the admiration of Meccans who were impressed by the incorporation of the pilgrimage rituals.

After signing the truce, Muhammad made an expedition against the Jewish oasis of Khaybar, known as the Battle of Khaybar. This was possibly due to it housing the Banu Nadir, who were inciting hostilities against Muhammad, or to regain some prestige to deflect from what appeared to some Muslims as the inconclusive result of the truce of Hudaybiyya. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad also sent letters to many rulers of the world, asking them to convert to Islam (the exact date is given variously in the sources). Hence he sent messengers (with letters) to Heraclius of the Byzantine Empire (the eastern Roman Empire), Khosrau of Persia, the chief of Yemen and to some others. In the years following the truce of Hudaybiyya, Muhammad sent his forces against the Arabs on Transjordanian Byzantine soil in the Battle of Mu'tah, in which the Muslims were defeated.

Final years

Conquest of Mecca

The truce of Hudaybiyyah had been enforced for two years. The tribe of Banu Khuza'a had good relations with Muhammad, whereas their enemies, the Banu Bakr, had an alliance with the Meccans. A clan of the Bakr made a night raid against the Khuza'a, killing a few of them. The Meccans helped the Banu Bakr with weapons and, according to some sources, a few Meccans also took part in the fighting. After this event, Muhammad sent a message to Mecca with three conditions, asking them to accept one of them. These were that either the Meccans paid blood money for those slain among the Khuza'ah tribe; or, that they should disavow themselves of the Banu Bakr; or, that they should declare the truce of Hudaybiyyah null.

The Meccans replied that they would accept only the last condition. However, soon they realized their mistake and sent Abu Sufyan to renew the Hudaybiyyah treaty, but now his request was declined by Muhammad.

Muhammad began to prepare for a campaign. In 630, Muhammad marched on Mecca with an enormous force, said to number more than ten thousand men. With minimal casualties, Muhammad took control of Mecca. He declared an amnesty for past offences, except for ten men and women who had mocked and ridiculed him in songs and verses. Some of these were later pardoned. Most Meccans converted to Islam and Muhammad subsequently destroyed all the statues of Arabian gods in and around the Kaaba. The Qur'an discusses the conquest of Mecca.

Conquest of Arabia

Soon after the conquest of Mecca, Muhammad was alarmed by a military threat from the confederate tribes of Hawazin who were collecting an army twice the size of Muhammad's. The Banu Hawazin were old enemies of the Meccans. They were joined by the Banu Thaqif (inhabiting the city of Ta'if) who adopted an anti-Meccan policy due to the decline of the prestige of Meccans. Muhammad defeated the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes in the Battle of Hunayn.

In the same year, Muhammad made the expedition of Tabuk against northern Arabia because of their previous defeat at the Battle of Mu'tah as well as reports of the hostile attitude adopted against Muslims. With the greatest difficulty he collected thirty thousand men, half of whom, however, on the second day after their departure from Mecca, returned with Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy, untroubled by the damning verses which Muhammad hurled at them. Although Muhammad did not make contact with hostile forces at Tabuk, he received the submission of some local chiefs of the region.

A year after the Battle of Tabuk, the Banu Thaqif sent emissaries to Medina to surrender to Muhammad and adopt Islam. Many bedouins submitted to Muhammad in order to be safe against his attacks and to benefit from the booties of the wars. However, the bedouins were alien to the system of Islam and wanted to maintain their independence, their established code of virtue and their ancestral traditions. Muhammad thus required of them a military and political agreement according to which they "acknowledge the suzerainty of Medina, to refrain from attack on the Muslims and their allies, and to pay the Zakat, the Muslim religious levy."

Farewell pilgrimage and death

At the end of the tenth year after the migration to Medina, Muhammad carried through his first truly Islamic pilgrimage, thereby teaching his followers the rites of the annual Great Pilgrimage (Hajj). After completing the pilgrimage, Muhammad delivered a famous speech known as The Farewell Sermon. In this sermon, Muhammad advised his followers not to follow certain pre-Islamic customs such as adding intercalary months to align the lunar calendar with the solar calendar. Muhammad abolished all old blood feuds and disputes based on the former tribal system and asked for all old pledges to be returned as implications of the creation of the new Islamic community. Commenting on the vulnerability of women in his society, Muhammed asked his male followers to “Be good to women; for they are powerless captives (awan) in your households. You took them in God’s trust, and legitimated your sexual relations with the Word of God, so come to your senses people, and hear my words ...”. He also told them that they were entitled to discipline their wives but should do so with kindness. Muhammad also addressed the issue of inheritance by forbidding false claims of paternity or of a client relationship to the deceased and also forbidding his followers to leave their wealth to a testamentary heir. He also upheld the sacredness of four lunar months in each year. According to Sunni tafsir, the following Qur'anic verse was delivered in this incident: “Today I have perfected your religion, and completed my favours for you and chosen Islam as a religion for you.”(Qur'an 5:3) According to Shia tafsir, it refers to appointment of Ali ibn Abi Talib at the pond of Khumm as Muhammad's successor, this occurring a few days later when Muslims were returning from Mecca to Medina.

A few months after the farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and suffered for several days with a fever, head pain and weakness. He died on Monday, June 8, 632, in Medina, at the age of 63. With his head resting on Aisha's lap he murmured his final words soon after asking her to dispose of his last worldly goods, which were seven coins: He is buried where he died, which was in Aisha's house and is now housed within the Mosque of the Prophet in the city of Medina. Next to Muhammad's tomb, there is another empty tomb that Muslims believe awaits Jesus.

Aftermath

Muhammad united the tribes of Arabia into a single Arab Muslim religious polity in the last years of his life. With Muhammad's death, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community. Umar ibn al-Khattab, a prominent companion of Muhammad, nominated Abu Bakr, Muhammad's friend and collaborator. Others added their support and Abu Bakr was made the first caliph. This choice was disputed by some of Muhammad's companions, who held that Ali ibn Abi Talib, his cousin and son-in-law, had been designated the successor by Muhammad at Ghadir Khumm. Abu Bakr's immediate task was to make an expedition against the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) forces because of the previous defeat, although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an episode referred to by later Muslim historians as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy".

The pre-Islamic Middle East was dominated by the Byzantine and Sassanian empires. The Roman-Persian Wars between the two had devastated the region, making the empires unpopular amongst local tribes. Furthermore, in the lands that would be conquered by Muslims many Christians (Nestorians, Monophysites, Jacobites and Copts) were disaffected from the Christian Orthodoxy which deemed them heretics. Within only a decade, Muslims conquered Mesopotamia and Persia, Roman Syria and Roman Egypt. and established the Rashidun empire.

Early reforms under Islam

According to William Montgomery Watt, for Muhammad, religion was not a private and individual matter but rather “the total response of his personality to the total situation in which he found himself. He was responding [not only]… to the religious and intellectual aspects of the situation but also to the economic, social, and political pressures to which contemporary Mecca was subject." Bernard Lewis says that there are two important political traditions in Islam – one that views Muhammad as a statesman in Medina, and another that views him as a rebel in Mecca. He sees Islam itself as a type of revolution that greatly changed the societies into which the new religion was brought.

Historians generally agree that Islamic social reforms in areas such as social security, family structure, slavery and the rights of women and children improved on the status quo of Arab society. For example, according to Lewis, Islam "from the first denounced aristocratic privilege, rejected hierarchy, and adopted a formula of the career open to the talents". Muhammad's message transformed the society and moral order of life in the Arabian Peninsula through reorientation of society as regards to identity, world view, and the hierarchy of values. Economic reforms addressed the plight of the poor, which was becoming an issue in pre-Islamic Mecca. The Qur'an requires payment of an alms tax (zakat) for the benefit of the poor, and as Muhammad's position grew in power he demanded that those tribes who wanted to ally with him implement the zakat in particular.

Appearance

Ali gave the following description of Muhammad's physical appearance:

The "seal of prophecy" between the Prophet's shoulders is generally described as having been a type of raised mole the size of a pigeon's egg. Another description of Muhammad was provided by Umm Ma'bad, a woman he met on his journey to Medina:

Descriptions like these were often reproduced in calligraphic panels (''hilya'' or, in Turkish, ''hilye''), which in the 17th century developed into an art form of their own in the Ottoman Empire.

Wives and children

Muhammad's life is traditionally defined into two periods: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca (from 570 to 622), and post-hijra in Medina (from 622 until 632). Muhammad is said to have had thirteen wives or concubines. (There are differing accounts on the status of some of them as wife or concubine.) All but two of his marriages were contracted after the migration to Medina.

At the age of 25, Muhammad married the wealthy Khadijah bint Khuwaylid who was 40 years old at that time. The marriage lasted for 25 years and was a happy one. Muhammad relied upon Khadija in many ways and did not enter into marriage with another woman during this marriage. After the death of Khadija, it was suggested to Muhammad by Khawla bint Hakim that he should marry Sawda bint Zama, a Muslim widow, or Aisha, daughter of Um Ruman and Abu Bakr of Mecca. Muhammad is said to have asked her to arrange for him to marry both.

Traditional sources dictate that Aisha was six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad, but the marriage was not consummated until she was nine or ten years old. While the majority of traditional sources indicate Aisha was 9 (and therefore a virgin) at the time of marriage, a small number of more recent writers have variously estimated her age at 15 to 24.

After migration to Medina, Muhammad (who was now in his fifties) married several women. These marriages were contracted mostly for political or humanitarian reasons. The women were either widows of Muslims who had been killed in battle and had been left without a protector, or belonging to important families or clans whom it was necessary to honor and strengthen alliances with.

Muhammad did his own household chores and helped with housework, such as preparing food, sewing clothes and repairing shoes. He is also said to have had accustomed his wives to dialogue; he listened to their advice, and the wives debated and even argued with him.

Khadijah is said to have borne Muhammad four daughters—(Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad, Zainab bint Muhammad, Fatimah Zahra)—and two sons—(Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad and Qasim ibn Muhammad)—who both died in childhood. All except two of his daughters, Fatimah and Zainab, died before him. Some Shi'a scholars contend that Fatimah was Muhammad's only daughter. Maria al-Qibtiyya bore him a son named Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, but the child died when he was two years old.

Nine of Muhammad's wives survived him. Aisha, who became known as Muhammad's favourite wife in Sunni tradition, survived him by many decades and was instrumental in helping bring together the scattered sayings of Muhammad that would form the Hadith literature for the Sunni branch of Islam.

Muhammad's descendants through Fatimah are known as ''sharifs'', ''syeds'' or ''sayyids''. These are honorific titles in Arabic, ''sharif'' meaning 'noble' and ''sayed'' or ''sayyid'' meaning 'lord' or 'sir'. As Muhammad's only descendants, they are respected by both Sunni and Shi'a, though the Shi'as place much more emphasis and value on their distinction.

Islamic depictions of Muhammad

No depictions of the Prophet dating from his lifetime survive, and the earliest extant images come from Ilkhanid Persian miniatures of around 1300, early in the history of that tradition. Later images were produced in Ottoman Turkey and elsewhere, but mosques and copies of the Quran were never decorated with images of Muhammad. Muslims generally avoid depictions of Muhammad, a feeling that today is much stronger in Sunni Islam (85%–90% of Muslims) than among Shias (10%–15%). Islamic depictions of Muhammad have until recently mostly been limited to the private and elite medium of the miniature, and since about 1500 most show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame. Today images are also found in popular Shia iconography.

Slaves

The Qur'an considers emancipation of a slave to be a highly meritorious deed, or as a condition of repentance for many sins. Therefore Muhammad was the owner of slaves, whom he bought usually to free, including concubines (although this claim is disputed), a wetnurse, and one slave he bought, freed and adopted as his son (Zayd).

Legacy

Muslim views

Following the attestation to the oneness of God, the belief in Muhammad's prophethood is the main aspect of the Islamic faith. Every Muslim proclaims in the ''Shahadah'' that "I testify that there is none worthy of worship except God, and I testify that Muhammad is a Messenger of God". The Shahadah is the basic creed or tenet of Islam. Ideally, it is the first words a newborn will hear, and children are taught as soon as they are able to understand it and it will be recited when they die. Muslims must repeat the shahadah in the call to prayer (''adhan'') and the prayer itself. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam are required to recite the creed.

According to the Qur'an, Muhammad is only the last of a series of Prophets sent by God for the benefit of mankind, and commands Muslims to make no distinction between them. states that "...it (the Qur'an) is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it, and a fuller explanation of the Book - wherein there is no doubt - from The Lord of the Worlds.". Similarly states "...And before this was the book of Moses, as a guide and a mercy. And this Book confirms (it)...", while commands the believers of Islam to "Say: we believe in God and that which is revealed unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered."

Historian Denis Gril believes that the Qur'an does not overtly describe Muhammad performing miracles, and the supreme miracle of Muhammad is finally identified with the Qur'an itself. However, Muslim tradition credits Muhammad with several miracles or supernatural events. For example, many Muslim commentators and some Western scholars have interpreted the Surah as referring to Muhammad splitting the Moon in view of the Quraysh when they began persecuting his followers.

The Sunnah represents the actions and sayings of Muhammad (preserved in reports known as Hadith), and covers a broad array of activities and beliefs ranging from religious rituals, personal hygiene, burial of the dead to the mystical questions involving the love between humans and God. The Sunnah is considered a model of emulation for pious Muslims and has to a great degree influenced the Muslim culture. The greeting that Muhammad taught Muslims to offer each other, “may peace be upon you” (Arabic: ''as-salamu `alaykum'') is used by Muslims throughout the world. Many details of major Islamic rituals such as daily prayers, the fasting and the annual pilgrimage are only found in the Sunnah and not the Qur'an.

The Sunnah also played a major role in the development of the Islamic sciences. It contributed much to the development of Islamic law, particularly from the end of the first Islamic century. Muslim mystics, known as sufis, who were seeking for the inner meaning of the Qur'an and the inner nature of Muhammad, viewed the prophet of Islam not only as a prophet but also as a perfect saint. Sufi orders trace their chain of spiritual descent back to Muhammad.

Muslims have traditionally expressed love and veneration for Muhammad. Stories of Muhammad's life, his intercession and of his miracles (particularly "Splitting of the moon") have permeated popular Muslim thought and poetry. The Qur'an refers to Muhammad as "a mercy (''rahmat'') to the worlds" (Qur'an ). The association of rain with mercy in Oriental countries has led to imagining Muhammad as a rain cloud dispensing blessings and stretching over lands, reviving the dead hearts, just as rain revives the seemingly dead earth (see, for example, the Sindhi poem of Shah ʿAbd al-Latif). Muhammad's birthday is celebrated as a major feast throughout the Islamic world, excluding Wahhabi-dominated Saudi Arabia where these public celebrations are discouraged. When Muslims say or write the name of Muhammad or any other prophet in Islam, they usually follow it with ''Peace be upon him'' (Arabic: ''sallAllahu `alayhi wa sallam'') like "Muhammad (Peace be upon him)". In printed matter, a calligraphic symbol is frequently used instead of printing the phrase.

Other views

Non-Muslim views regarding Muhammad have ranged across a large spectrum of responses and beliefs, many of which have changed over time.

Non-western views

Mahatma Gandhi stated: "I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind.... I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life".

European and Western views

A few learned circles of Middle Ages Europe—primarily Latin-literate scholars—had access to fairly extensive biographical material about Muhammad. They interpreted that information through a Christian religious filter that viewed Muhammad as a charlatan driven by ambition and eagerness for power, and who seduced the Saracens into his submission under a religious guise. Popular European literature of the time portrayed Muhammad as though he were worshipped by Muslims in the manner of an idol or a heathen god. Some medieval Christians believed he died in 666, alluding to the number of the beast, instead of his actual death date in 632; others changed his name from Muhammad to Mahound, the "devil incarnate". Bernard Lewis writes "The development of the concept of Mahound started with considering Muhammad as a kind of demon or false god worshipped with Apollyon and Termagant in an unholy trinity." A later medieval work, ''Livre dou Tresor'' represents Muhammad as a former monk and cardinal. Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' (Canto XXVIII), puts Muhammad, together with Ali, in Hell "among the sowers of discord and the schismatics, being lacerated by devils again and again." Cultural critic and author Edward Said wrote in ''Orientalism'' regarding Dante's depiction of Muhammad:

Empirical data about the Orient...count for very little; ... What ... Dante tried to do in the ''Inferno'', is ... to characterize the Orient as alien and to incorporate it schematically on a theatrical stage whose audience, manager, and actors are ... only for Europe. Hence the vacillation between the familiar and the alien; Mohammed is always the imposter (familiar, because he pretends to be like the Jesus we know) and always the Oriental (alien, because although he is in some ways "like" Jesus, he is after all not like him).

After the reformation, Muhammad was no longer viewed by Christians as a god or idol, but as a cunning, ambitious, and self-seeking impostor. Guillaume Postel was among the first to present a more positive view of Muhammad. Boulainvilliers described Muhammad as a gifted political leader and a just lawmaker. Gottfried Leibniz praised Muhammad because "he did not deviate from the natural religion". Thomas Carlyle in his book ''Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History'' (1840) defines Muhammed as "A silent great soul, one of that who cannot but be earnest". Edward Gibbon in his book ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' observes that "the good sense of Mohammad despised the pomp of royalty." Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt (1851) described Muhammad as "an ominous destroyer and a prophet of murder." Many of the later Western works, from the 18th century onward, distanced themselves from the polemical histories of earlier Christian authors. These more historically oriented treatments, which generally reject the prophethood of Muhammad, are coloured by the Western philosophical and theological framework of their authors. Many of these studies reflect much historical research, and most pay more attention to human, social, economic, and political factors than to religious, theological, and spiritual matters.

Simon Ockley wrote in his book ''The History of the Saracen Empires'' (1718);

The greatest success of Mohammad’s life was effected by sheer moral force...It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our wonder, the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran. . . The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man. 'I believe in One God and Mahomet the Apostle of God' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honours of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion.

Reverend Benjamin Bosworth Smith in his book ''Muhammad and Muhammadanism'' (1874) commented that;

...if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life...In Mohammadanism every thing is different here. Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history….We know of the external history of Muhammad….while for his internal history after his mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its preservation….on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt.

Alphonse de Lamartine quoted in Histoire de la Turquie (1854) on Muhammad;

If greatness of purpose, smallness of means and outstanding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad.

Never has a man proposed for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a goal more sublime, since this goal was beyond measure: undermine the superstitions placed between the creature and the Creator, give back God to man and man to God, reinstate the rational and saintly idea of divinity in the midst of this prevailing chaos of material and disfigured gods of idolatry.... The most famous have only moved weapons, laws, empires; they founded, when they founded anything, only material powers, often crumbling before them. This one not only moved armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, millions of men over a third of the inhabited globe; but he also moved ideas, beliefs, souls. He founded upon a book, of which each letter has become a law, a spiritual nationality embracing people of all languages and races; and made an indelible imprint upon this Muslim world, for the hatred of false gods and the passion for the God, One and Immaterial....Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of a rational dogma for a cult without imagery, founder of twenty earthly empires and of a spiritual empire, this is Muhammad.

It was not until the latter part of the 20th century that Western authors combined rigorous scholarship as understood in the modern West with empathy toward the subject at hand and, especially, awareness of the religious and spiritual realities involved in the study of the life of the founder of a major world religion.

Annie Besant in ''The Life and Teachings of Muhammad'' (1932) wrote

It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme...

According to William Montgomery Watt and Richard Bell, recent writers have generally dismissed the idea that Muhammad deliberately deceived his followers, arguing that Muhammad "was absolutely sincere and acted in complete good faith" and that Muhammad’s readiness to endure hardship for his cause when there seemed to be no rational basis for hope shows his sincerity. Watt says that sincerity does not directly imply correctness: In contemporary terms, Muhammad might have mistaken his own subconscious for divine revelation. Watt and Bernard Lewis argue that viewing Muhammad as a self-seeking impostor makes it impossible to understand the development of Islam. Alford T. Welch holds that Muhammad was able to be so influential and successful because of his firm belief in his vocation. Michael H. Hart in his first book ''The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History'' (1978), a ranking of the 100 people who most influenced human history, chose Muhammad as the first person on his list, attributing this to the fact that Muhammad was "supremely successful" in both the religious and secular realms. He also credits the authorship of the Qur'an to Muhammad, making his role in the development of Islam an unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.

Other religious traditions

Bahá'ís venerate Muhammad as one of a number of prophets or "Manifestations of God", but consider his teachings to have been superseded by those of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahai faith.

Muhammad is regarded as one of the Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints neither regards Muhammad as a prophet nor accepts the Qur'an as a book of scripture. However, it does respect Muhammad as one who taught moral truths which can enlighten nations and bring a higher level of understanding to individuals. Guru Nanak, a founder of Sikhism, viewed Muhammad as an agent of the Hindu Brahman.

Criticism

Muslims consider Muhammad to be the final prophet, the messenger of the final revelation that was called the Qur'an. Non-Muslims have viewed him with less favor. Criticism of Muhammad has existed since the 7th century, for his marriages, military expeditions and the laws he established, such as those concerning slavery.

Internal links

Achtiname of Muhammad

Arabian tribes that interacted with Muhammad

Depictions of Muhammad

List of films about Muhammad

Military career of Muhammad

''Mohammad, Messenger of God'' (''aka'' The Message)

''Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet'' (documentary)

Diplomatic career of Muhammad

See also

Glossary of Islamic terms in Arabic

List of founders of religious traditions

Muhammad in Islam

Paraclete in Islam

Relics of Muhammad

Early social changes under Islam

Prophets of Islam

Islamic philosophy

Sharia

Islamic economics in the world

Notes

References

Bibliography

Al-Hibri, Azizah Y. (2003). "An Islamic Perspective on Domestic Violence". ''27 Fordham International Law Journal'' 195.

(New edition 1974)

Encyclopedias

Further reading

Musa, A. Y. ''Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on The Authority Of Prophetic Traditions in Islam'', New York: Palgrave, 2008

External links

What Non-Muslims Say About Prophet Muhammad (Mohammed)

Non-Muslim biographies

Muhammad, article on ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online''

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet — PBS Site

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet — UPF (Producer's Site)

Muslim biographies

Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum

The Life of Muhammad by Muhammad Husayn Haykal

About the Prophet Muhammad (MSA West)

Category:570s births Category:632 deaths Category:7th-century rulers Category:Arab politicians Category:Founders of religions Category:Islam Category:People from Mecca Category:Quraish Category:Medina Category:Prophets of Islam

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Name	Khālid ibn al-Walīd
Birth date	592
Death date	642
Birth place	Mecca, Arabia ( Saudi Arabia )
Death place	Homs, Syria. Buried in Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque.
Nickname	Sword of Allah
Allegiance	23px Rashidun Caliphate.
Branch	Rashidun army
Serviceyears	632–638
Rank	Commander-in-chief (632–634)Field commander (634–638)Commander of Mobile guard (634–638)Military governor of Iraq (633–634)Governor of Chalcis (637–638)
Commands	Muslim conquest of Arabia Muslim conquest of Persian Mesopotamia Muslim conquest of Roman Syria
Unit	Mobile guard
Laterwork	}}

Khālid ibn al-Walīd (; 592–642) also known as Sayf Allāh al-Maslūl (''the Drawn Sword of God''), was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is noted for his military tactics and prowess, commanding the forces of Medina and those of his immediate successors of the Rashidun Caliphate; Abu Bakr and Umar. It was under his military leadership that Arabia, for the first time in history, was united under a single political entity, the Caliphate. He was victorious in over a hundred battles, against the numerically superior forces of the Byzantine-Roman Empire, Sassanid-Persian Empire, and their allies, in addition to other Arab tribes. His strategic achievements include the conquest of Arabia, Persian Mesopotamia and Roman Syria within several years from 632 to 636. He is also remembered for his decisive victories at Yamamah, Ullais, and Firaz, and his tactical successes at Walaja and Yarmouk. He is also one of the two military commanders, the other being Hannibal, who have successfully executed the pincer movement against a numerically superior opponent.

Khalid ibn al-Walid (''Khalid son of al-Walid'') was from the Meccan tribe of Quraysh, from a clan that initially opposed Muhammad. He played a vital role in the Meccan victory at the Battle of Uhud. He converted to Islam, however, and joined Muhammad after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and participated in various expeditions for him, such as the Battle of Mu'tah. After Muhammad's death, he played a key role in commanding Medinan forces for Abu Bakr in the Ridda wars, conquering central Arabia and subduing Arab tribes. He captured the Sassanid Arab client Kingdom of Al-Hirah, and defeated the Sassanid Persian forces during his conquest of Iraq (Mesopotamia). He was later transferred to the western front to capture Roman Syria and the Byzantine Arab client state of the Ghassanids. Even though Umar later relieved him of high command, he nevertheless remained the effective leader of the forces arrayed against the Byzantines during the early stages of the Byzantine–Arab Wars. Under his command, Damascus was captured in 634 and the key Arab victory against the Byzantine forces was achieved at the Battle of Yarmouk (636), which led to the conquest of the Bilad al-Sham (Levant). In 638, at the zenith of his career, he was dismissed from military services - possibly because of his growing fame.

Early life

Khalid was born around c. 592 in Mecca to Walid ibn al-Mughira, the chief of the Banu Makhzum, a clan of the Arab tribe of Quraysh. His father was known in Mecca by the title of Al-Wahid- ''the Unique''. The three leading clans of Quraysh at that time were, Banu Hashim, Banu Abd-al-dar, and Banu Makhzum. The Banu Makhzum was responsible for the matters of war. Soon after his birth, and in accordance with the traditions of the Quraysh, Khalid was sent to a Bedouin tribe in the desert, where a foster mother would nurse him and bring him up in the clear, dry and unpolluted air of the desert. At the age of five or six, he returned to his parents in Mecca. Khalid during his childhood also had a mild attack of smallpox which he survived, but it left some pockmarks on his left cheek.

Khalid and Umar the second Caliph, were cousins and had very close facial resemblance. Khalid and Umar were both very ''tall'', Khalid had a well-built body with broad shoulders. He had a beard which appeared full and thick on his face. He was also one of the champion wrestlers of his time. As a member of the tribe of Makhzum, who had specialized in warfare, and were amongst the best horsemen in Arabia, Khalid, as a child, learned to ride and use weapons like the spear, the lance, the bow, and the sword. Lance is said to be his favorite among the weapons. In youth he was admired as a renowned warrior and wrestler among the Quraysh.

Muhammad's era (610–632)

Not much is known about Khalid during the early days of the preaching of Muhammad. His father was known for his hostility against Muhammad. Following the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, many battles were fought between the new Muslim community at Medina and the confederacy of the Quraysh. Khalid did not participate in the Battle of Badr—the first battle fought between Muslims and Qurayshites—but his brother Walid ibn Walid was caught and made a prisoner. Khalid and his elder brother Hasham ibn Walid went to Medina to ransom Walid, but soon after he was ransomed, Walid, amidst the journey back to Mecca, escaped and went back to Muhammad and converted to Islam. Khalid's leadership was instrumental in turning the tables and ensuring a Meccan victory during the Battle of Uhud (625). In 627 AD he was a part of Quraysh's campaign against the Muslims, resulting in the Battle of the Trench, Khalid's last battle against Muslims.

Conversion to Islam

A peace agreement of ten years was concluded between the Muslims and Quraysh of Mecca at the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in 628. It has been recorded that Muhammad told Khalid's brother, Walid bin Walid, that: "''A man like Khalid, can't keep himself away from Islam for long"''. Walid wrote letters to Khalid persuading him to convert. Khalid, who was not unduly drawn towards the idols of the Kaaba, decided to convert to Islam and is said to have shared this matter with his childhood friend Ikrimah ibn Abi-Jahl who opposed him. Khalid was threatened by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb with dire consequences, but was restrained by Ikrimah who is reported to have said: "''Steady, O Abu Sufyan! Your anger may well lead me also to join Muhammad. Khalid is free to follow whatever religion he chooses"''. In May 629, Khalid set out for Medina. On the way he met 'Amr ibn al-'As and Uthman ibn Talha, who were also going to Medina to convert to Islam. They arrived at Medina on 31 May 629 and went to the house of Muhammad. Khalid was received by his elder brother Walid bin Walid and was first among the three men to enter Islam.

Military Campaigns during Muhammad's era

Battle of Mutah

Three months after Khalid's arrival at Medina, Muhammad sent an envoy to the Ghassanid ruler of Syria, a vassal of Byzantine empire, with a letter inviting him to convert to Islam. While passing through Mu'tah, this envoy was intercepted and killed by a local Ghassanid chieftain by the name of Shurahbil ibn Amr. Traditionally, diplomatic envoys held immunity from attack, and the news of this act enraged Medina.

An expedition was immediately prepared to take punitive action against the Ghassanids. Muhammad appointed Zayd ibn Harithah as the commander of the force. In the event of Zayd's death, the command was to be taken over by Ja`far ibn Abī Tālib, and if Jafar were to be killed, the command would be in the hands of `Abd Allah ibn Rawahah. In the event that all three were killed, the men of the expedition were to select a commander from amongst themselves.

All three named commanders were slain during the battle, and Khalid was selected as the commander. He was able to maintain his heavily outnumbered army of 3,000 men against a massive army of the Byzantine Empire and Ghassanid Arabs in what would be known as the Battle of Mu'tah. Khalid assumed command of the Muslim army at the crucial moment, and turned what would have been a bloody slaughter into a strategic retreat and saved the Muslim army from total annihilation.

During nightfall, Khalid sent some columns behind the main army, and the next morning prior to the battle they were instructed to join the Muslim army in small bands, one after the other, giving an impression of a fresh reinforcement, thus lowering the opponent's morale. Khalid somehow stabilized the battle lines for that day, and during the night his men retreated back to Arabia. Believing a trap was waiting for them, the Byzantine troops did not pursue. Khalid is said to have fought valiantly at the Battle of Mu'tah and to have broken nine swords during the battle. After the Battle of Mu'tah, Khalid was given the title ''Sword of Allah'' for bringing back his army to fight another day.

Later military campaigns

A year later, in 630 AD, the Muslims advanced from Medina to conquer Mecca. In the Conquest of Mecca Khalid commanded one of the four Muslims armies that entered Mecca from four different routes, and routed the Qurayshi cavalry. Later that year, he participated in the Battle of Hunayn and the Siege of Ta'if.

He was part of the Tabuk campaign under the command of Muhammad, and from there he was sent to Daumat-ul-Jandal where he fought and captured the Arab Prince of Daumat-ul-Jandal, forcing Daumat-ul-Jandal to submit.

In 631 A.D he participated in the farewell hajj of Muhammad. During which is said to have collected few hairs of Muhammad, as a holy relic, that would help him winning the battles.

Military campaigns as commander

On January 630 AD, 8AH, 9th month, of the Islamic Calendar. Khalid ibn al-Walid was sent to destroy the Idol Goddess al-Uzza, worshipped by polytheists, he did this successfully, and 1 woman was also killed, who Muhammad claimed was the real al-Uzza.

Khalid ibn al-Walid was also sent to invite the Banu Jadhimah tribe to Islam. They accepted the invitation, but Khalid took all of them prisoners and executed a portion of the tribe anyway (before he was stopped), due to severe misunderstanding.

Muhammad also sent Khalid on an expedition to Dumatul Jandal, to attack the Christian Prince who lived in a castle there. This took place in March 631 AD, 9AH,11th month of the Islamic Calendar. In this campaign, Khaled took the Prince hostage and threatened to kill him until the door of the castle was opened. Muhammad then later ransomed him in exchange for 2000 camels, 800 sheep, 400 armours and 400 lances, as well as a requirement to pay Jizyah.

In April 631 AD, Muhammad again sent Khalid on an 2nd expedition to Dumatul Jandal to destroy the pagan Idol, Wadd. Khalid destroyed the statue as well as the shrine and killed those who resisted.

Abu Bakr's era (632–634)

Conquest of Arabia

After the death of Muhammad, many powerful Arab tribes broke away in open revolt against the rule of Medina. Caliph Abu Bakr sent his armies to counter the rebels and apostates. Khalid was one of Abu Bakr’s main advisers and an architect of the strategic planning of the Riddah wars. He was given the command over the strongest Muslim army and was sent towards central Arabia, the most strategically sensitive area where the most powerful rebel tribes resided. The region was closest to the Muslim stronghold of Medina and was the greatest threat to the city. Khalid first set out for the rebel tribes of Tayy and Jalida, where Adi ibn Hatim—a prominent companion of Muhammad, and a chieftain of the Tayy tribe—arbitrated, and the tribes submitted to the Caliphate.

In mid-September 632 AD, Khalid defeated Tulaiha, a main rebel leader who claimed prophethood as a means to draw support for himself. Tulaiha's power was crushed after his remaining followers were defeated at the Battle of Ghamra. Khalid next marched to Naqra and defeated the rebel tribe of Banu Saleem at the Battle of Naqra. The region was secured after the Battle of Zafar in October 632 with the defeat of a tribal mistress, Salma.

Once the region around Medina, the Islamic capital, was recaptured, Khalid entered Nejd, a stronghold of the Banu Tamim tribes. Many of the clans hastened to visit Khalid and submit to the rule of the Caliphate. But the Banu Yarbu' tribe, under Sheikh Malik ibn Nuwayrah, hung back. Malik avoided direct contact with Khalid's army and ordered his followers to scatter, and he and his family apparently moved away across the desert. He also collected taxes and sent his men to Medina to deliver them. Nevertheless, Malik was accused of rebelling against the state of Medina and charged for entering into an anti-Caliphate alliance with Sajjah, a self-proclaimed prophetess. Malik was arrested along with his clansmen, and asked by Khalid about his crimes. Upon hearing Malik's response: "your master said this, your master said that" referring to Abu Bakr, Khalid declared Malik a rebel apostate and ordered his execution.

After the incident of Malik, Abu Bakr sent Khalid to crush the most powerful threat to the nascent Islamic state of Medina: Musaylimah, a claimant to prophethood, who had already defeated two Muslim armies. In the third week of December 632, Khalid won a decisive victory against Musaylimah at the Battle of Yamama. Musaylimah died in the battle, and nearly all resistance from rebelling tribes collapsed.

Invasion of Persian Empire

With the collapse of the rebellion, and Arabia united under the central authority of the caliph at Medina, Abu Bakr decided to expand his empire. It is unclear what his intentions were, whether it was a full scale expansion plan or pre-emptive attacks to secure more territory to create a buffer zone between Islamic state and powerful Sassanid and Byzantine empires. Khalid was sent to the Persian Empire with an army consisting of 18,000 volunteers to conquer the richest province of the Persian empire, Euphrates region of lower Mesopotamia, (''present day Iraq''). Khalid entered lower Mesopotamia with this force.

He won quick victories in four consecutive battles: the Battle of Chains, fought in April 633; the Battle of River, fought in the third week of April 633; the Battle of Walaja, fought in May 633 (where he successfully used a double envelopment manoeuvre), and Battle of Ullais, fought in the mid-May 633. In the last week of May 633, al-Hira, the regional capital city of lower Mesopotamia, fell to Khalid. The inhabitants were given peace on the terms of annual payment of ''jizya'' (''tribute'') and agreed to provide intelligence for Muslims. After resting his armies, in June 633, Khalid laid siege to Anbar which despite fierce resistance fell in July 633 as a result of the siege imposed on the town. Khalid then moved towards the south, and captured Ein ul Tamr in the last week of July, 633.

By then, nearly all of lower Mesopotamia, (the northern Euphrates region), was under Khalid's control. Meanwhile, Khalid received a call for relief from northern Arabia at Daumat-ul-Jandal, where another Muslim Arab general, Ayaz bin Ghanam, was being surrounded by rebel tribes. August 633, Khalid went to Daumat-ul-jandal and defeated the rebels in the Battle of Daumat-ul-jandal, capturing the city fortress. On his journey back to Mesopotamia, Khalid is said to have made a secret trip to Mecca to participate in Hajj.

On his return from Arabia, Khalid received intelligence entailing a concentration of a large Persian army and Christian Arab auxiliaries. These forces were based in four different camps in the Euphrates region at Hanafiz, Zumail, Saniyy and the largest being at Muzayyah. Khalid avoided a pitch battle with a large united Persian force and decided to attack and destroy each of the camps in a separate night attacks from three sides. He divided his army in three units, and attacked the Persian forces in coordinated assaults from three different directions during the night, starting from the Battle of Muzayyah, then the Battle of Saniyy, and finally the Battle of Zumail in November 633 AD.

This string of Muslim victories curtailed Persian efforts to recapture lower Mesopotamia and left the Persian capital Ctesiphon unguarded and vulnerable to Muslim attack. Before assaulting the Persian capital, Khalid decided to eliminate all Persian forces from the south and west, and thus marched against the border city of Firaz, where he defeated a combined force of Sassanid Persians, Byzantine Romans and Christian Arabs and captured the city's fortress during the Battle of Firaz in December 633. This was the last battle in his conquest of lower Mesopotamia. While Khalid was on his way to attack Qadissiyah, a key fort on the way to Ctesiphon, he received a letter from Abu Bakr and was sent to the Byzantine front in Syria to assume the command of Muslim armies with the intent of conquering Roman Syria. During his stay in Iraq, Khalid was also installed as military governor of the conquered territory.

Invasion of Eastern Roman Empire

After the successful invasion of the Sassanid Persian province of Iraq, Caliph Abu Bakr’s sent an expedition to invade the Levant (''Roman Syria''). The invasion was to be carried out by four corps, each with its own assigned targets. The Byzantines responded to this threat by concentrating their units at Ajnadyn (a place in Palestine, probably al-Lajjun) from different garrisons. This move tied down the Muslim troops at border regions, as with this large force at their rear, Muslim armies were no longer free to march to central or northern Syria. Muslim forces apparently were too small in numbers to counter the Byzantine threat, and Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, the chief Muslim commander of the Syrian front, requested reinforcements from Abu Bakr. The latter responded by sending reinforcements led by Khalid, from Iraq. Khalid suspected it was Umar who advised Abu Bakr to send him away from the Persian front in order for him not to be recognized as the conqueror of Iraq.

There were two routes towards Syria from Iraq, one was via Daumat-ul-Jandal (Now known as ''Skaka'') and the other was through Mesopotamia passing though Ar-Raqqah. Since the Muslim forces in Syria were in need of urgent reinforcement, Khalid avoided the conventional route to Syria via Daumat-ul-Jandal because it was a long and would take weeks to reach Syria. He also avoided the Mesopotamian route because of the presence of Roman garrisons in northern Syria and Mesopotamia. Engaging them at the time when Muslim armies were being outflanked in Syria, was also ruled out since it would mean fighting on two fronts. Khalid selected a rather shorter route to Syria which unconventionally passed though the Syrian Desert. He marched his army though the desert, where traditions tells that his soldiers marched for two days without a single drop of water, before reaching a pre-decided water source at an oasis. Khalid is said to have solved the water shortage issue using a Bedouin method. Camels were made to drink water after intentionally denying them water for a lengthy time period, encouraging the camels to drink a lot of water at one time. Camels have the ability to store water in their stomach which in turn could be obtained by slaughtering them when necessary. Muslim troops rode entirely on camels and this method became an effective one for the Muslim army.

Khalid entered Syria in June 634 and quickly captured the border forts of Sawa, Arak, Palmyra, al-Sukhnah (Qaryatayn and Hawarin were captured after the Battle of Qarteen and the Battle of Hawarin). After subduing these cities, Khalid moved towards Bosra, a town near Syria-Arabian border and the capital of the Ghassanid Arab kingdom, a vassal of the eastern Roman Empire. He bypassed Damascus while passing though a mountain pass which is now known as "Sanita-al-Uqab" ("the Uqab pass") after the name of Khalid's army standard. On his way at Maraj-al-Rahat, Khalid routed a Ghassanid army of Christian Arabs in the brief Battle of Marj-al-Rahit.

With the news of Khalid's arrival, Abu Ubaidah ordered Shurhabil ibn Hasana, one of the four corps commanders, to attack the city of Bosra. The latter laid siege to Bosra with his army of 4,000 men. The Byzantine and Christian Arab garrison which outnumbered the Shurhabil's force, made a sally and were likely to annihilate them when Khalid's cavalry arrived from the desert and attacked the rear of the Byzantine forces, relieving Shurhabil. The garrison retreated to the city's fortress. Abu Ubaidah joined Khalid at Bosra and Khalid, as per the caliph's instructions, took over the supreme command. The fortress of Bosra surrendered in mid-July 634, effectively ending the Ghassanid dynasty. After capturing Bosra, Khalid instructed all the corps to join him at Ajnadayn where they fought a decisive battle against the Byzantines on 30 July 634. Modern historians consider this battle to have been the key in breaking Byzantine power in Syria.

Defeat at the Battle of Ajnadayn, left Syria vulnerable to the Muslim army. Khalid decided to capture Damascus, the Byzantine stronghold. At Damascus, Thomas, son-in-law of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, was in charge of the city's defense. Receiving intelligence of Khalid’s march towards Damascus he prepared the city's defences. He wrote to Emperor Heraclius, who was at Emesa that time, for reinforcement. Moreover, Thomas, in order to delay or halt Khalid's advance and to attain time to prepare for a siege, sent his armies to move forward. Two of his armies were routed first at Yaqusa in mid-August and the other at Maraj as-Saffer on 19 August. Meanwhile, Heraclius' reinforcements reached Damascus before the other column of Heraclius reached the city which Khalid laid siege to on 20 August. To isolate Damascus from the rest of the region, Khalid placed the detachments south on the road to Palestine and in north at the Damascus-Emesa route, and several other smaller detachments on routes towards Damascus. Heraclius' reinforcements were intercepted and routed by Khalid at the Battle of Sanita-al-Uqab 30 km from Damascus.

Khalid led an assault and conquered Damascus on 18 September 634 after a 30-day siege. According to some sources, the siege is purported to have lasted some four or six months. Emperor Heraclius having received the news of the fall of Damascus, left for Antioch from Emesa. Muslim cavalry under Khalid attacked the Byzantine garrison of Damascus which was also heading towards Antioch, catching up to them using an unknown shortcut, at the Battle of Maraj-al-Debaj, 150 km north of Damascus. Abu Bakr died during the siege of Damascus and Umar became the new Caliph. He dismissed his cousin Khalid from his command and appointed Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah the new commander in chief of Islamic forces in Syria. Abu Ubaidah got the letter of his appointment and Khalid's dismissal during the siege, but he delayed the announcement until the city was conquered.

Caliph Umar's era (634–642)

Dismissal of Khalid from command

On 22 August 634, Abu Bakr died, having made Umar, Khalid's cousin, his successor. Umar's first move was to relieve Khalid from supreme command of Muslim Forces and appoint Abu Ubaidah as the new commander in chief of the Islamic army. The relationship between Khalid and Umar had been tense since the incident of Malik ibn Nuwayrah. Khalid had become a trial of disbelief (because of his undefeated wars) for the Muslims as they had attributed the wins of battles to the personality and figure of Khalid; Umar was reported as saying:"I did not fire Khalid ibn al Waleed because I am angry with him or because of betrayal of trust or responsibility but the reason was just that I wanted people to know that it is Allah who gives victory". This resulted in the dismissal of Khalid from supreme command and later in 638, from military services. Khalid, gave a pledge of loyalty to the new caliph and continued service as an ordinary commander under Abu Ubaidah. He is reported to have said: "''If Abu Bakr is dead and Umar is Caliph, then we hear and obey''". There was inevitably a slowdown in the pace of military operations, as Abu Ubaidah would move slowly and steadily and was a more cautious commander. The conquest of Syria continued under his Generalship and, Abu Ubaidah being an admirer of Khalid, gave him command of the cavalry and used him as a military advisor.

Conquest of Central Levant

Soon after the appointment of Abu-Ubaidah as commander in chief, he sent a small detachment to the annual fair held at Abu-al-Quds, modern day Abla, near Zahlé 50 km east of Beirut. There was a Byzantine and Christian Arab garrison guarding that fair, however the size of the garrison was miscalculated by the Muslim informants. The garrison quickly encircled the small Muslim force. Before it would have been completely destroyed, Abu Ubaidah, having received new intelligence, sent Khalid to rescue the Muslim army. Khalid engaged and defeated them in the Battle of Abu-al-Quds on 15 October 634 and returned with tons of looted booty from the fair and hundreds of Roman prisoners.

With Central Syria captured, the Muslims had dealt a decisive blow to the Byzantines. The communication between Northern Syria and Palestine was now cut off. Abu Ubaidah decided to march to Fahl (Pella), which is about below sea level, and where a strong Byzantine garrison and survivors of Battle of Ajnadayn were present. The region was crucial because from here the Byzantine army could strike eastwards and cut the supply lines and communications to Arabia. Moreover with this large garrison at the rear, Palestine could not be invaded. The Muslim army moved to Fahl with Khalid leading the advance guard, only to find the plain being flooded by Byzantines engineers blocking the Jordan River. The Byzantine army was eventually defeated at the Battle of Fahl on the night 23 January 635.

Battle for Emesa and 2nd Battle of Damascus

With the victory at Fahl, the Muslim army split, Amr ibn al-Aas and Shurhabil ibn Hasana moved south to capture Palestine, while Abu Ubaidah and Khalid moved north to capture Northern Syria. While the Muslims were occupied at Fahl, Heraclius, sensing the opportunity, quickly sent an army under General Theodras to recapture Damascus. Shortly after Heraclius dispatched this new army, the Muslims having finished the business at Fahl, were on their way to Emesa. The Byzantine army met the Muslims half way to Emesa, at Maraj-al-Rome. During the night Theodras sent half of his army towards Damascus to launch a surprise attack on the Muslim garrison. Khalid's spy informed him about the move, Khalid having received permission from Abu Ubaidah, quickly moved towards Damascus with his mobile guard. While Abu Ubaidah fought and defeated the Roman army in the Battle of Maraj-al-Rome, Khalid moved to Damascus with his Mobile guard attacking and routing General Theodras in the 2nd battle of Damascus. A week later, Abu Ubaida capture Baalbek (Heliopolis), where the great Temple of Jupiter stood, and sent Khalid straight towards Emesa.

Emesa and Chalcis asked for peace for a year. Abu Ubaidah, accepted the offer and rather than invading the districts of Emesa and Chalcis, he consolidated his rule in conquered land and captured Hama, Ma’arrat an Nu’man. However, the peace treaties were on Heraclius' instructions to lull the Muslims and to secure time for preparation of defenses of Northern Syria. Having mustered sizable armies at Antioch, Heraclius sent them to reinforce strategically important areas of Northern Syria, most importantly the strong fortress of Chalcis. With the arrival of Byzantine army in the city, the peace treaty was violated. Abu Ubadiah and Khalid then marched to Emesa, and a Byzantine army that halted Khalid’s advance guard was routed and the Muslims besieged Emesa which was finally completed in March 636 after two months of siege.

Battle of Yarmouk

After capturing Emesa, the Muslims moved north to capture the whole of the Northern Syria. Meanwhile Heraclius had concentrated a large army at Antioch to roll back Syria. Khalid got the news from Roman prisoners in Northern Syria. After his past experiences Heraclius had been avoiding pitch battles with the Muslims. He planned to isolate the Muslim corps from each other, and separately encircle and destroy the Muslim armies. Five massive armies were launched in Syria from different routes in June 636 to recapture it. Khalid, sensing Heraclius' plan, feared that the Muslim armies would indeed be isolated and destroyed. In a council of war he suggested that Abu Ubaidah draw all the Muslim armies to one place so as to fight a decisive battle with the Byzantines. As per Khalid's suggestion, Abu Ubaidah ordered all the Muslim armies in Syria to evacuate the conquered land and concentrate at Jabiya. This maneuver gave a decisive blow to Heraclius' plan, as he did not wish to engage his troops in an open battle with the Muslims, where the Muslim light cavalry could be effectively used against Heavy and less mobile Byzantine cavalry. From Jabiya, on Khalid’s suggestion, Abu Ubaidah ordered the Muslim army to withdraw to the plain of the Yarmouk River, which had a good supply of pasture and water and where cavalry could be used more effectively. Abu Ubaidah, in a council of war, transferred the supreme command of the Muslim forces to Khalid, who acted as a field commander in the battle and was the mastermind of the annihilation of the Byzantine army.

On 15 August, the Battle of Yarmouk was fought, it lasted for 6 days and ended in a devastating defeat for the Byzantines. The Battle of Yarmouk is considered to be one of the most decisive battles of history. It was a historic defeat that sealed the fate of Byzantium in the Levant, the magnitude of the defeat was so intense that Byzantine forces were unable to recover from it for some time. It left the whole of the Byzantine Empire vulnerable to the Muslim Arab invaders, who failed, however, in every attempt to exterminate it. The battle was the greatest battle ever fought on Syrian soil up to that point, and is believed to be the tactical marvel of Khalid.

Capturing Jerusalem

With the Byzantine army shattered and routed, the Muslims quickly recaptured the territory that they conquered prior to Yarmouk. The Muslim forces moved south to a last Byzantine stronghold, Jerusalem, where many of the Byzantine survivors of the disaster at Yarmouk took shelter. The Siege of Jerusalem lasted four months after which the city agreed to surrender, but only to the caliph in person. Amr ibn al-Aas, one of the four corps commander, suggested that Khalid should be sent as caliph, because of his very strong resemblance with Caliph Umar. Khalid was recognized and eventually, Umar came and Jerusalem surrendered in April 637. After Jerusalem, the Muslim armies broke up once again. Yazid’s corps came to Damascus and captured Beirut. Amr and Shurhabil’s corps went on to conquer the rest of Palestine, while Abu Ubaidah and Khalid, at the head of a 17,000 strong army moved north to conquer whole of the Northern Syria.

Conquest of Northern Syria

With Emesa already in hand, Abu Ubaidah and Khalid moved towards Chalcis, which was strategically the most significant fort of Byzantines. Through Chalcis, the Byzantines would guard Anatolia, Heraclius' homeland Armenia and the Asian zone's capital Antioch. Abu Ubaidah sent Khalid with his elite mobile guard towards Chalcis. The fort was guarded by the Greek troops under their commander, Menas, who was reported to be of high prestige, second only to the emperor himself. Menas, diverting from conventional Byzantine tactics, decided to face Khalid and destroy the leading elements of the Muslim army before the main body could join them at Hazir, 5 km east of Chalcis. The Roman army was totally annihilated at the Battle of Hazir, which even forced Umar to praise Khalid's military genius. Umar is reported to have said: "''Khalid is truly the commander, May Allah have mercy upon Abu Bakr. He was a better judge of men than I have been''".

Abu Ubaidah soon joined Khalid at the virtually impregnable fort of Chalcis, which surrendered in June 637. With this strategic victory, the territory north of Chalcis lay open to the Muslims. Khalid and Abu Ubaidah next captured Aleppo from desperate Byzantine troops in October 637. The next objective was the splendid city of Antioch, the capital of the Asian zone of the Byzantine Empire. Before marching towards Antioch, Khalid and Abu Ubaidah decided to isolate the city from Anatolia; this was done by capturing all the fortresses that were providing strategic defense to Antioch, most importantly A'zāz at north east of Antioch. In order to save the empire from annihilation, a desperate battle was fought between the Muslim army and that of the defenders of Antioch outside the city near Orontes river, popularly known as Battle of Iron bridge. The Byzantine army was composed of the survivors of Yarmouk and other Syrian campaigns. After being defeated, the Byzantines retreated to Antioch and the Muslims besieged the city. Having little hope of help from emperor, Antioch surrendered on 30 October 637, with the terms that all Byzantine troops would be given safe passage to Constantinople. Abu Ubaidah sent Khalid northwards, while he marched south and captured Lazkia, Jabla, Tartus and the coastal areas west of Anti-Lebanon mountains. Khalid moved north and raided territory up to the Kızıl River (Kızılırmak) in Anatolia. Emperor Heraclius had already left Antioch for Edessa before the arrival of the Muslims. He arranged for the necessary defenses in Jazira and Armenia and left for his capital Constantinople. On his way to Constantinople he had a narrow escape when Khalid, after the capturing Marash, was heading south towards Munbij. Heraclius hastily took the mountainous path and, passing though the Cilician Gates, is reported to have said:|Emperor Heraclius}}

With the devastating defeat at Yarmouk his empire was extremely vulnerable to Muslim invasion. With few military resources left he was no longer in a position to attempt a military come back in Syria. To gain time for the preparations of the defense of the rest of his empire, Heraclius needed the Muslims occupied in Syria. He sought help of the Christian Arabs of Jazira who mustered up a large army and marched against Emesa, Abu Ubaidah’s headquarters. Abu Ubaidah withdrew all his forces from Northern Syria to Emesa, and Christian Arabs laid siege to Emesa. Khalid was in favor of an open battle outside fort, but Abu Ubaidah rather sent the matter to Umar, who brilliantly handled it. Umar sent detachment of Muslim armies from Iraq to invade Jazira, homeland of the invading Christian Arabs, from three different routes. Moreover, another detachment was sent to Emesa from Iraq under Qa’qa ibn Amr, a veteran of Yarmouk who was sent to Iraq for the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. Umar himself marched from Medina ahead of 1,000 men. The Christian Arabs, under this overwhelming response, abandoned the siege and hastily withdrew to Jazira. At this point Khalid and his mobile guard came out of Emesa and devastated their army, attacking them from rear. This was Heraclius' last attempt to achieve a comeback on the Syrian front.

Campaigns in Armenia and Anatolia

After the battle, Umar ordered the conquest of Jazira which was completed by late summer 638. After the conquest of Jazira Abu Ubaidah sent Khalid and Ayaz ibn Ghanam (conqueror of Jazira) to invade the Byzantine territory north of Jazira. They marched independently and captured Edessa, Amida (Diyarbakır), Malatya and raided Byzantine Armenia up to Ararat region and also reportedly raided central Anatolia. Heraclius had already abandoned all the forts between Antioch and Tartus to create a buffer zone or no man's land between Muslim controlled areas and main land Anatolia. Umar for the time stopped his armies from advancing further into Anatolia, and instead ordered Abu Ubaidah, now governor of Syria, to consolidate his rule in conquered land of the Levant. At this point Umar is reported to have said: "''I wish there was a wall of fire between us and Romans, so that they could not enter our territory nor we could enter theirs''". Due to the dismissal of Khalid from the army and a famine and plague the next year, the Muslim armies were kept from invading Anatolia. The expedition to Anatolia and Armenia marked the end of the military career of Khalid.

Dismissal from army

Khalid, by now, was at the height of his career, he was famous and loved by his men, for Muslim community he was a national hero, and was publicly known as ''Sayf-ullah'' ("Sword of Allah".) He found one such excuse when Khalid, during his stay at Emesa had a special bath with a certain substance prepared with alcoholic mixture. Umar's spies informed him of the incident, as alcohol is forbidden in Islam, and Umar took notice of it asking Khalid to explain himself. Khalid felt that this was carrying the Muslim ban on alcohol a bit too far, which dealt only with the drinking of Alcohol not its external applications, and the excuse was apparently enough for Umar and the senate at Madina to be satisfied. Another such opportunity for Umar stuck when shortly after Khalid's capture of Marash (Kahramanmaraş), in the autumn of 638, he came to know of Ash'as, a famous poet and warrior on Persian front, reciting a poem in praise of Khalid and receiving a gift of 10,000 dirhams from him, apparently from the state treasury.

Umar and his senate identified this act as misuse of state treasure, though not as punishing as to lose one's office, but in case of Khalid this was the excuse what Umar apparently needed. He immediately wrote a letter to Abu Ubaidah asking him to bring Khalid in front of the congregation, his turban, and take off his cap. Umar wanted Abu Ubaida to ask Khalid from what funds he gave to Ash'as: from his own pocket or from the state treasury? If he confessed to having used the spoils, he was guilty of misappropriation. If he claimed that he gave from his own pocket, he was guilty of extravagance. In either case he would be dismissed, and Abu Ubaida would take charge of his duties. Abu Ubaida was himself an admirer of Khalid and loved him as his younger brother, and so said that he was not capable of doing it. Instead, Bilal ibn Ribah was appointed for this task and called back Khalid from Chalcis to Emessa, where he was charged publicly. Khalid stated that he gave money from his own pocket and thus was declared innocent in that charge. However, when he went to Abu Ubaida, he told him that he had been dismissed on the order of Umar and is required to go back to Medina. Khalid went to Chalcis and said good bye to his mobile guard. He then went to Medina to meet Umar. He protested about what he considered to be injustice. Umar is said to have praised him in these words: "''You have done; And no man has done as you have done. But it is not people who do; It is Allah who does...''" Later Umar explained his dismissal of Khalid:|Caliph Umar.}} It was in this way that Khalid's successful military career came to an end.

Death

Although it is believed that relations between Umar and Khalid, cousins, were always something short of cordial, both of them apparently harboured no ill-will towards each other. Upon his death, he bequeathed his property to Umar and made him the executor of his will and estate. Within less than four years of his dismissal, Khalid died and was buried in 642 in Emesa, where he lived since his dismissal from military services. His tomb is now part of a mosque called Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque. Khalid's tombstone depicts a list of over 50 victorious battles that he commanded without defeat (not including small battles). It is said that he had wanted to die as a martyr in the field of battle, and was apparently disappointed when he knew that he would die in bed. Khalid expressed the pain of this sadness through one last, anguished sentence: |Khalid ibn Walid}}

The wife of Khalid, upon feeling such a pain of her husband told Khalid: "You were given the title of 'Saif-ullah' meaning, 'The Sword of Allah' and, the sword of Allah is not meant to be broken and hence, it is not your destiny to be a 'martyr' but to die like a conqueror."

Legacy

Military

Khalid is said to have fought around a hundred battles, both major battles and minor skirmishes as well as single duels, during his military career. Having remained undefeated, this fact makes him one of the finest military generals in history.

Khalid was the architect of most of the early Muslim military doctrines, he was pioneer of almost every major tactic that Muslims used during Early Islamic conquest. One of Khalid's major achievements in this context was utilizing the individual skills of Arab Bedouin warriors to a larger scale. He is believed to have developed them into an almost regular unit called ''Mubarizun'' ("champions"), who would issue personal challenges to the enemy officers. These were highly trained and skilled swordsmen, whom Khalid utilized effectively to slay as many enemy officers as possible, giving a psychological blow to enemy morale. The Battle of Ajnadayn is perhaps the best example of this form of psychological warfare. Moreover his biggest achievement was the conversion of Arab tactical doctrine into a strategic system. Until Khalid, the Arabs were basically raiders and skirmishers. Khalid turned those skirmishing tactics into something that could be used anywhere. Thus he would skirmish the enemy to death: he would bring his army in front of his enemies and wait until the whole battle degenerated into a skirmishing affair between small units. Then, after exhausting the enemy units, he would launch his cavalry at their flanks employing Hammer and Anvil tactics.

Much of Khalid's strategic and tactical genius lies in his use of extreme methods. He apparently put more emphasis on annihilating enemy troops, rather than achieving victory by simply defeating them. For instance his employment of the double envelopment maneuver against the numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Walaja, and his brilliant maneuver at the Battle of Yarmouk where he virtually trapped the Byzantine army between three steep ravines by stealthily capturing their only escape route, a bridge, at their rear.

Khalid utilized his better understanding of terrain in every possible way to gain strategic superiority over his enemies. During his Persian campaigns, he initially never entered deep into Persian territory and always kept the Arabian desert at his rear, allowing his forces to retreat there in case of a defeat. It was only after all the strong Persian and Persian-allied forces were routed that he penetrated deep into Euphrates region and captured the regional capital of Iraq, Al-Hira. Again, at Yarmouk, the terrain would help him in executing his grand strategy of annihilating the Byzantines.

In their mobility, Khalid's troops had no match until the Mongol hordes of the 13th century. In fact the tactics of the desert Arabs and steppe Mongols were somewhat identical. Entire troops of Khalid would ride on camels while on march, whereas the Mongols used horses, with the difference that the Arabs did not make use of mounted archers. His most commonly used maneuver was surprise attack, also apparently his favorite one. Some of the most brilliant surprise attacks of Khalid were his night attacks from three different sides on Persian camps at Zumail, Muzayyah and Saniyy, his highly mobile army successfully maneuvering in a 100 km area, quickly destroying encampments of the Persians and their Arab allies. The Battle of Maraj-al-Debaj being no exception, where once again his highly mobile army maneuvered around a Byzantine army, appearing from four directions and opening several fronts at a time, a maneuver which later in 13th century became one of the Mongol armies' principal maneuvers.

An example of Khalid's strategic maneuverability was his advance into Roman Syria. Emperor Heraclius had sent all his available garrisoned troops into Syria, towards Ajnadayn, to hold the Muslim troops at the Syria-Arabia border region. The possible route of any Muslim reinforcement was expected to be the conventional Syria-Arabia road in the south, but Khalid, who was then in Iraq, took the most unexpected route: marching through the waterless Syrian desert, to the surprise of the Byzantines, he appeared in northern Syria. Catching the Byzantines off guard, he quickly captured several towns, virtually cutting off the communications of the Byzantine army at Ajnadayn with its high command at Emesa, where emperor Heraclius himself resided.

Khalid's elite light cavalry, the Mobile guard, acted as the core of the Muslim cavalry during the invasion of Syria. It was composed of highly trained and seasoned soldiers, the majority of whom had been under Khalid's standard during his Arabian and Persian campaigns. Muslim cavalry was a light cavalry force armed with 5 meter long lances. They could charge at an incredible speed and would usually employ a common tactic of ''Kar wa far'' literary meaning "engage-disengage", or in modern term: “hit-and-run.” They would charge on enemy flanks and rear, their maneuverability making them very effective against heavily armored Byzantine and Sassanid cataphracts. Khalid's famous flanking charge on the final day of the Battle of Yarmouk stands as testimony to just how well he understood the potentials and strengths of his mounted troops.

Arabs soldiers were far more lightly armored then their Roman and Persian contemporaries, which made them vulnerable in close combat at set-piece battles and to missile fire of enemy archers. Khalid therefore never blundered in the battle and would rely on intelligence reports from spies that he would hire from local population on liberal rewards. Persian Historian Al-Tabari said: |Al-Tabari|History of the Prophets and Kings}}

Political

Khalid also remained military Governor of Iraq from 632–633 and Governor of Chalcis, the most strategic cantonment in Northern Syria. Though he was never active politically but his fame alarmed Umar, who then recalled him from army.

Umar is said to have later regret to this decision. It is said that after the Hajj of 642, Umar had decided to re-appoint Khalid to the military services apparently to command the Muslim conquest of Persia that was to begin shortly. But fate had decided otherwise, as when he reached Medina, news of Khalid's death reached him. The news of Khalid's death broke like a storm over Medina. The women took to the streets, led by the women of the Banu Makhzum (Khalid's tribe), wailing and beating their chests. Though Umar, from the very first day had given orders that there would be no wailing for departed Muslims, as forbidden in Islam, in this one case he made an exception. Umar said: |Caliph Umar}} It is also recorded that once Umar was sitting with his companions, someone recalled Khalid, Umar reportedly said: "By God, he was Islam's shield against the enemies, his heart was pure from every animosity". Ali, who was there, reportedly said: "Then why did you dismiss him from military services?" Umar replied flatly: "I was wrong". According to some narrations, on Umar’s death bed, Umar named people who he would have appointed as successors to the Caliphate if they had been alive, and amongst those he named was Khalid.

Religious standing

Khalid ibn Walid was a Sahabi (''a companion of Muhammad''), a fact which makes him a very respectable figure among the Sunni Muslims. Shia Muslims, however have a negative view of Khalid. According to Shia Muslims, Khalid helped Abu Bakr in suppressing the supporters of their Imam Ali. Who, according to them, was appointed by Muhammad as his political successor.

In popular culture

Khalid's reputation as a formidable general led to his inclusion as a ''Great General'' in the ''Warlords'' expansion to the ''Civilization IV'' video game, which attempts to include real historical people into its gameplay.

Pakistan Army's main battle tank (MBT), Al-Khalid or MBT 2000, is named after Khalid ibn al-Walid.

Pakistan Navy's Agosta 90B class submarine, PNS/M ''Khalid'' (S137)

The Bangladesh Navy's frigate ''BNS Khalid Bin Walid'' is named after him.

Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote a popular poem named "Khaled" while he was suffering from malaria, showing his respect to Khaled and grief for his colonized countrymen.

The troops sent by the Pakistan Army in the Gulf War in Operation Desert Storm was named "Khalid Bin Walid Independent Armoured Brigade Group." It has been in active service in Saudi Arabia since.

Family

Khalid's father name was Walid ibn al-Mughira and his mother name was Lubabah as-Saghirah. Walid reportedly had many wives and many children from them. Only the names of his following children are recorded in history. :Walid's sons were: (Khalid's brothers)

Hisham ibn Walid

Walid ibn Walid

Ammarah ibn Walid

Abdul Shams ibn Walid.

:Walid's daughters were: (Khalid's sisters)

Faktah bint Walid

Fatimah bint Walid. Najiyah bint al-Walid(''Disputed'').

It is unknown how many children Khalid ibn al-Walid had, but names of his three sons and one known daughter are mentioned in history which are as follows:

Sulaiman bin Khalid

Abdulrehman ibn Khalid

Muhajir bin Khalid.

Sulaiman, Khalid's eldest son, was killed during the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Muhajir bin Khalid died in the Battle of Siffin while fighting from Caliph Ali's side and Abdulreman ibn Khalid remained Governor of Emesa during the time of third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan and participated in the Battle of Siffin as one of the generals of Muawiyah I, he was also the part of Umayyad army that besieged Constantinople in 664. Abdulreman was later to be appointed the successor of Caliph Muawiyah but according to some narration (Most likely from Shia Sources) he was poisoned by Muawiyah, because Muawiyah wanted to make his son Yazid I to be his successor. The male line of descent from Khalid is believed to have ended with his grandson, Khalid bin Abdur-Rahman bin Khalid.

See also

:Category:Battles of Khalid ibn Walid

List of famous Arabs

Sunni view of the Sahaba

Notes

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

External links

Sword of Allah Biography of Khalid bin Al-Waleed Book by A.I. Akram

Map of Khalid bin Al-Waleed's Conquests

Darul Ishaat UK

Khalid bin Al-Waleed Biography

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:592 births Category:642 deaths Category:Banu Makhzum Category:Converts to Islam Category:Muslim conquest of Persia Category:Muslim conquest of Syria Category:Islamic conquests Category:Muslim generals Category:Sahaba Category:Byzantine–Arab Wars

ar:خالد بن الوليد bn:খালিদ বিন ওয়ালিদ ca:Khàlid ibn al-Walid cs:Chálid ibn al-Valíd de:Chalid ibn al-Walid et:Khālid ibn al-Walīd fa:خالد بن ولید fr:Khalid ibn al-Walid hr:Halid ibn Valid id:Khalid bin Walid it:Khalid ibn al-Walid he:ח'אלד בן אל-וליד ka:ხალიდ იბნ ალ-ვალიდი ms:Khalid bin al-Walid nl:Khalid ibn Walid ja:ハーリド・イブン＝アル＝ワリード no:Khalid ibn al-Walid pnb:خالد بن ولید pl:Chalid ibn al-Walid pt:Khalid ibn al-Walid ru:Халид ибн Валид sq:Halid Bin al-Velidi simple:Khalid ibn al-Walid so:Khaalid bin Waliid sh:Halid ibn Valid sv:Chalid ibn al-Walid tt:Хәлид ибнел-Вәлид tr:Halid bin Velid ur:خالد بن ولید zh:哈立德·伊本·瓦利德

Name	Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid Urdu: سید زید الزمان حامد
Birth date	March 14, 1964
Residence	Rawalpindi
Nationality	Pakistan
Other names	Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid
Known for	BrassTacks TV Series & Leader: Takmeel-e-Pakistan Movement
Occupation	Security Consultant & Political commentator
Religion	Islam
Website	Official Site Profile Page }}

Syed Zaiduzzaman Hamid, better known as Zaid Hamid, is a Pakistani security consultant and political commentator. His byline in newspaper articles has been Zaid Zaman.

Early life and education

Zaid was born in Karachi, in 1964. His father, Col. Zaman Hamid (Retd), served in the Pakistan Army. Zaid spent his early life in Karachi. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in Computer Systems Engineering from NED University, Karachi in 1980's.

Political views

Through his TV programmes, Hamid has claimed that a nexus between India's RAW, the CIA and is responsible for the destabilization of Pakistan. He also claims that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, were part of a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists"", and that it was an attempt by the Indians to stage an attack just like the Americans executed the September 11 attacks.

He has stated that the 2010 Pakistan floods were caused by India releasing water from its rivers flowing into Pakistan this was based on the fact On August 21st, Pakistani media reported that India released 18000 caused water into the river Ravi. India has release 18000-cusec water in river Ravi that could cause flood in five drainage of Narowal and Shaker Garh, He further went on to ask India for compensation for the floods and the damage caused.

Criticism

A number of noted Pakistani journalists, writers and Islamic scholars have criticized Hamid and have described his views on politics and security as conspiracy theories.

Some of his conspiracy theories include:

1. The adoption of the gold standard was a Zionist and International Bankers plot

2. Militants fighting the Army during the Swat during 2009 Military Operation because they are uncircumcised.

3. The flag of Pakistan will fly atop Delhi Fort one day

4. The 2008 Mumbai attacks were hatched by “Hindu Zionists” and to assinate senior Mumbai police officers investigating Hindu Extremist

5. 9/11 was inside job

References

External links

BrassTacks website

Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid

Category:9/11 conspiracy theorists Category:Conspiracy theorists Category:Living people Category:Pashtun people Category:Pakistani scholars Category:International relations scholars Category:1964 births Category:People from Karachi Category:NED University of Engineering and Technology alumni Category:Pakistani political consultants Category:Pakistani political scientists

ur:زید حامد

Name	Imád-uddín Muhammad bin Qasim bin Yusuf Sakifi
Battles	Conquest of Sindh and West Punjab for the Umayyads.
Allegiance	Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, Governor to the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I
Rank	Emir
Birth date	31 December 695
Death date	18 July 715
Birth place	Ta’if

Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi () (c. 31 December 695–18 July 715) was a Syrian Umayyad general who, at the age of 17, began the conquest of the Sindh and Punjab regions along the Indus River (now a part of Pakistan) for the Umayyad Caliphate. He was born in the city of Taif (in modern day Saudi Arabia). Qasim's conquest of Sindh and Punjab laid the foundations of Islamic rule in the Indian subcontinent.

A member of the Thaqeef tribe, which is still settled in and around the city of Taif, Muhammad bin Qasim's father was Qasim bin Yusuf who died when Muhammad bin Qasim was young, leaving his mother in charge of his education. Umayyad governor Al-Hajjaj Ibn Yusuf Al-Thaqafi, Muhammad bin Qasim's paternal uncle, was instrumental in teaching Muhammad bin Qasim about warfare and governance. Muhammad bin Qasim married his cousin Zubaidah, Hajjaj's daughter, shortly before going to Sindh. Another paternal uncle of Muhammad bin Qasim was Muhammad bin Yusuf, governor of Yemen. Under Hajjaj's patronage, Muhammad bin Qasim was made governor of Persia, where he succeeded in putting down a rebellion.

Umayyad interest in Sindh

According to Berzin, Umayyad interest in the region stemmed from their desire to control the trade route down the Indus River valley to the seaports of Sindh, an important link in the ancient Silk Road. They had earlier unsuccessfully sought to gain control of the route, via the Khyber Pass, from the Turki-Shahis of Gandhara. But by taking Sindh, Gandhara's southern neighbor, they were able to open a second front against Gandhara; a feat they had, on occasion, attempted before.

According to Wink, Umayyad interest in the region was galvanized by the operation of the ''Mids'' and others. Mids(a tribe of Scythians living in Sindh) had preyed upon Sassanid shipping in the past, from the mouth of the Tigris to the Sri Lankan coast, in their ''bawarij'' and now were able to prey on Arab shipping from their bases at Kutch, Debal and Kathiawar. At the time, Sindh was the wild frontier region of al-Hind, inhabited mostly by semi-nomadic tribes whose activities disturbed much of the Western Indian Ocean. Muslim sources insist that it was these persistent activities along increasingly important Indian trade routes by Debal pirates and others which forced the Arabs to subjugate the area, in order to control the seaports and maritime routes of which Sindh was the nucleus, as well as, the overland passage. During Hajjaj's governorship, the ''Mids'' of Debal in one of their raids had kidnapped Muslim women travelling from Sri Lanka to Arabia, thus providing a ''casus belli'' to the rising power of the Umayyad Caliphate that enabled them to gain a foothold in the Makran, Balochistan and Sindh regions.

Also cited as a reason for this campaign was the policy of providing refuge to Sassanids fleeing the Arab advance and to Arab rebels from the Umayyad consolidation of their rule.

All the above reason have their own importance for attack on sindh. But Immediate causes of the conquest of the Sindh was the plunder of the gifts of Ceylon’s ruler to Hijjaj and attack on ships of Arab that were carring the orphans and widows of Muslim soldiers who died in Jihaad against Africa. These arab were imprisoned later on by the Governor Deebal Partaab Raye. A letter written by the an escaped girl from the arab that are put in the prison of the Partab Raye. She asked Hajjab Bin Yousaf for help. When Hijjaj asked Dahir for release of prisoners and compensation, the later refused on the ground that he had no control over those. Hajjaj sent Muhammad Bin Qasim for this great exepidation in 711 A.D. It was during this time when Spain and many parts of Africa and Central Asia were brought under the Muslim rule and war was continue and muslims were not in position to start a new expidation. The only reason of this conquest was to rescue pilgrims that were taken captive by Hindu governor.

The mawali; new non-Arab converts; who were usually allied with Hajjaj's political opponents and thus were frequently forced to participate in the Jihads on the frontier - such as Kabul, Sindh and Transoxania. Through conquest, the Umayyads intended to protect its maritime interest, while also cutting off refuge for fleeing rebel chieftains as well as Sindhi military support to the Sassanid rump state; akin to those received at several prior major battles during the their conquest of Persia - such as those at Salasal and Qādisiyyah and the finally at the Battle of Rasil. An actual push into the region had been out of favor as an Arab policy since the time of the Rashidun Caliph Umar bin Khattab, who upon receipt of reports of it being an inhostipable and poor land had stopped further expeditionary ventures into the region.

The campaign

Muhammad bin Qasim's expedition was actually the third attempt, the first having failed due to stiffer-than-expected opposition as well as heat, exhaustion.

Hajjaj had put more care and planning into this campaign than the first campaign under Badil bin Tuhfa. Hajjaj superintended this campaign from Kufa by maintaining close contact with Muhammad bin Qasim in the form of regular reports and then regularly issuing orders. The army which departed from Shiraz in 710 CE under Muhammad bin Qasim was 6,000 Syrian cavalry and detachments of ''mawali'' from Iraq. At the borders of Sindh he was joined by an advance guard and six thousand camel riders and later reinforcements from the governor of Makran transferred directly to Debal by sea along with five catapults. The army that eventually captured Sindh would later be swelled by the Jats and Mids as well as other irregulars that heard of successes in Sindh. When Muhammad bin Qasim passed through Makran while raising forces, he had to re-subdue the restive Umayyad towns of Fannazbur and Arman Belah (Lasbela) The first town assaulted was Debal and upon the orders of Al-Hajjaj, he exacted a bloody retribution on Debal by giving no quarter to its residents or priests and destroying its great temple.

From Debal the Arab army then marched north taking towns such as Nerun and Sadusan (Sehwan) peacefully. Again the main temples were razed and masjid were built to replace them, often using their components; additionally one-fifth of the booty including slaves were dispatched to Hajjaj and the Caliph. The conquest of these towns was accomplished easily; however, Raja Dahir's armies being prepared on the other side of the Indus were yet to be fought. In preparation to meet them, Muhammad bin Qasim moved back to Nerun to resupply and receive reinforcements sent by Hajjaj. Camped on the east bank of the Indus, Qasim sent emissaries and bargained with the river Jats and boatmen. Upon securing the aid of Mokah Basayah, "the King of the island of Bet", Muhammad bin Qasim crossed over the river where he was joined by the forces of the Thakore of Bhatta and the western Jats.

At Ar-rur (Rohri) he was met by Dahir's forces and the eastern Jats in battle. Dahir died in the battle, his forces were defeated and a triumphant Muhammad bin Qasim took control of Sind. In the wake of the battle enemy soldiers were put to death - but not artisans, merchants or farmers - and Dahir and his chiefs, the "daughters of princes" and the usual fifth of the booty and slaves was sent on to Hajjaj. Soon the capitals of the other provinces, Brahmanabad, Alor (Aror) and Multan, were captured alongside other in-between towns with only light Muslim casualties. Usually after a siege of a few weeks or months the Arabs gained a city through the intervention of heads of mercantile houses with whom subsequent treaties and agreements would be settled. After battles all fighting men were executed and their wives and children enslaved in considerable numbers and the usual fifth of the booty and slaves were sent to Hajjaj. The general populace was encouraged to carry on with their trades and taxes and tributes settled.

With Sindh secured Qasim sent expeditions to Surashtra, where his generals made peaceful treaty settlements with the Rashtrakuta. Muhammad bin Qasim wrote out letters to "kings of Hind" to surrender and accept Islam, and subsequently 10,000 cavalry were sent to Kannauj asking them to submit and pay tribute before his recall ended the campaign.

Military and political strategy

The military strategy had been outlined by Hajjaj in a letter sent to Muhammad bin Qasim:

The Arabs' first concern was to facilitate the conquest of Sindh with the fewest casualties while also trying to preserve the economic infrastructure. Towns were given two options: submit to Islamic authority peacefully or be attacked by force (''anwattan''), with the choice governing their treatment upon capture. The capture of towns was usually accomplished by means of a treaty with a party from among the enemy, who were then extended special privileges and material rewards. There were two types of such treaties, "''Sulh''" or "''ahd-e-wasiq'' (capitulation)" and "''aman'' (surrender/ peace)". Among towns and fortresses that were captured through force of arms, Muhammad bin Qasim performed executions as part of his military strategy, but they were limited to the ''ahl-i-harb'' (fighting men), whose surviving dependents were also enslaved.

Where resistance was strong, prolonged and intensive, often resulting in considerable Arab casualties, Muhammad bin Qasim's response was dramatic, inflicting 6,000 deaths at Rawar, between 6,000 and 26,000 at Brahmanabad, 4,000 at Iskalandah and 6,000 at Multan. Conversely, in areas taken by ''sulh'', such as Armabil, Nirun, and Aror, resistance was light and few casualties occurred. Sulh appeared to be Muhammad bin Qasim's preferred mode of conquest, the method used for more than 60% of the towns and tribes recorded by Baladhuri or the Chachnama. At one point, he was actually berated by Hajjaj for being too lenient. Meanwhile, the common folk were often pardoned and encouraged to continue working; Hajajj ordered that this option not be granted to any inhabitant of Daybul, yet Qasim still bestowed it upon certain groups and individuals.

After each major phase of his conquest, Muhammad bin Qasim attempted to establish law and order in the newly-conquered territory by showing religious tolerance and incorporating the ruling class – the Brahmins and Shramanas – into his administration.

Reasons for success

Muhammad bin Qasim's success has been partly ascribed to Dahir being an unpopular Hindu king ruling over a Buddhist majority who saw Chach of Alor and his kin as usurpers of the Rai Dynasty. This is attributed to having resulted in support being provided by Buddhists and inclusion of rebel soldiers serving as valuable infantry in his cavalry-heavy force from the Jat and Meds. Brahman, Buddhist, Greek, and Arab testimony however can be found that attests towards amicable relations between the adherents of the two religions up to the 7th century.

Along with this were: # Superior military equipment; such as siege engines and the Mongol bow. # Troop discipline and leadership. # The concept of Jihad as a morale booster. # Religion; the widespread belief in the prophecy of Muslim success. # The Samanis being persuaded to submit and not take up arms because the majority of the population was Buddhist who were dissatisfied with their rulers, who were Hindu. # The laboring under disabilities of the Lohana Jats. # Defections from among Dahirs chiefs and nobles.

Administration by Muhammad bin Qasim

After the conquest, Muhammad bin Qasim's task was to set up an administrative structure for a stable Muslim state that incorporated a newly conquered alien land, inhabited by non-Muslims. He adopted a conciliatory policy, asking for acceptance of Muslim rule by the natives in return for non-interference in their religious practice, so long as the natives paid their taxes and tribute. He established Islamic Sharia law over the people of the region; however, Hindus were allowed to rule their villages and settle their disputes according to their own laws, and traditional hierarchical institutions, including the Village Headmen (''Rais'') and Chieftains (''dihqans'') were maintained. A Muslim officer called an ''amil'' was stationed with a troop of cavalry to manage each town on a hereditary basis

Everywhere taxes (''mal'') and tribute (''kharaj'') were settled and hostages taken - occasionally this also meant the custodians of temples. Non-Muslim natives were excused from military service and from payment of the religiously mandated tax system levied upon Muslims called Zakat, the tax system levied upon them instead was the jizya - a progressive tax, being heavier on the upper classes and light for the poor. In addition, three percent of government revenue was allocated to the Brahmins.

Incorporation of ruling elite into administration

During his administration, Hindus and Buddhists were inducted into the administration as trusted advisors and governors. A Hindu, Kaksa, was at one point the second most important member of his administration. Dahir's prime minister and various chieftains were also incorporated into the administration.

Jat clashes with Muhammad bin Qasim

Significant medieval Muslim chronicles such as the Chachnama, Zainul-Akhbar and Tarikh-I-Baihaqi have recorded battles between the Jats and forces of Muhammad bin Qasim .

Passage from the Chachnama

Treatment of Jats

The narrative in the Chach Nama conveys that Chach humiliated the sdJats and Lohanas. Denzil Ibbetson records that "Muhammad bin Qasim maintained these regulations, declaring that the jats resembled the savages of Persia " According to Wink "While the Jats were also granted ''(aman)'' a considerable number of Jats were also captured as prisoners of war and deported to Iraq and elsewhere as slaves.

Religion

No mass conversions were attempted and the destruction of temples such as the Sun Temple at Multan was forbidden.Lane-Poole writes that, " as a rule Muslim government was at once tolerant and economic".

A small minority who converted to Islam were granted exemption from Jizya in lieu fo paying the Muslim mandated Zakat. Hindus and Buddhists were given the status of Dhimmi (protected people).

An eccelastical office, "''sadru-I-Islam al affal"'', was created to oversee the secular governors. While some proslytization occurred, the social dynamics of Sind were no different from other regions newly conquered by Muslim forces such as Egypt, where conversion to Islam was slow and took centuries.

Death

Muhammad bin Qasim had begun preparations for further expansions when Hajjaj died, as did Caliph Al-Walid I, who was succeeded by Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, who then took revenge against all who had been close to Hajjaj. Sulayman owed political support to opponents of Hajjaj and so recalled both of Hajjaj's successful generals Qutaibah bin Muslim and Qasim. He also appointed Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, once tortured by Hajjaj and a son of Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah, as the governor of Fars, Kirman, Makran, and Sindh; he immediately placed Qasim in chains.

There are two different accounts regarding the details of Qasim's fate:

# The account from the Chachnama narrates a tale in which Qasims demise is attributed to the daughters of King Dahir who had been taken captive during the campaign. Upon capture they had been sent on as presents to the Khalifa for his harem. The account relates that they then tricked the Khalifa into believing that Muhammad bin Qasim had violated them before sending them on and as a result of this subterfuge, Muhammad bin Qasim was wrapped in oxen hides, and returned to Syria, which resulted in his death en route from suffocation. This narrative attributes their motive for this subterfuge to securing vengeance for their father's death. Upon discovering this subterfuge, the Khalifa is recorded to have been filled with remorse and ordered the sisters buried alive in a wall.

2. The Persian historian Baladhuri, however, states that the new Khalifa was a political enemy of Umayyad ex-governor Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, Muhammad bin Qasim’s paternal uncle and thus persecuted all those who were considered close to Hajjaj. Muhammad bin Qasim was therefore recalled in the midst of a campaign of capturing more territory up north. Upon arrival, he was howevere promptly imprisoned in Mosul, (in modern day Iraq) and subjected to torture, resulting in his death.

Whichever account is true, is unknown. What is known however is that he was 20 years old when he was killed by his own Caliph. None have read the tombstone marking his grave for none know where he lies.

Muhammad bin Qasim had a son named Umro bin Muhammad who later became governor of Sindh.

Controversy

There is controversy regarding the conquest and subsequent conversion of Sindh. This is usually voiced in two antagonistic perspectives viewing Qasim's actions:

His conquest, as described by Stanley Lane-Poole, in Medieval India (Published in 1970 by Haskell House Publishers Ltd), was "liberal". He imposed the customary poll tax, took hostages for good conduct and spared peoples' lives and lands. He even left their shrines undesecrated: 'The temples;, he proclaimed, 'shall be inviolate, like the churches of the Christians, the synagogues of the Jews and altars of the Magians'. In the same text, however, it is mentioned that "Occasional desecration of Hindu fanes took place...but such demonstrations were probably rare sops to the official conscience..".

#''Coercive conversion'' has been attributed to early historians such as Elliot, Cousens, Majumdar and Vaidya. They hold the view that the conversion of Sindh was necessitated. Qasim's numerical inferiority is said to explain any instances of apparent religious toleration, with the destruction of temples seen as a reflection of the more basic, religiously motivated intolerance. #''Voluntary conversion'' has been attributed to Thomas W. Arnold and modern Muslim historians such as Habib and Qureishi. They believe that the conquest was largely peaceful, and the conversion entirely so, and that the Arab forces enacted liberal, generous and tolerant policies. These historians mention the "praiseworthy conduct of Arab Muslims" and attribute their actions to a "superior civilizational complex".

Various polemical perceptions of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are also reflected in this debate. Elliot perceived Islam as a religion of "terror, devastation, murder and rapine" where the conquering Arabs were characterized as "ruthless bigots" and "furious zealots" motivated by "plunder and proselytism". The period of Qasim's rule has been called by U.T. Thakkur "the darkest period in Sind history", with the records speaking of massive forced conversions, temple destruction, slaughters and genocides; the people of Sindh, described as inherently pacifist due to their Hindu/Buddhist religious inclinations, had to adjust to the conditions of "barbarian inroad". On one extreme, the Arab Muslims are seen as being compelled by religious stricture to conquer and forcibly convert Sindh, but on the other hand, they can be seen as being respectful and tolerant of non-Muslims as part of their religious duty, with conversion being facilitated by the vitality, equality and morals of the Islamic religion. Citations of towns taken either violently or bloodlessly, reading back into Arab Sindh information belonging to a later date and dubious accounts such as those of the forcible circumcision of Brahmins at Deybul or Qasims consideration of Hindu sentiment in forbidding the slaughter of cows are used as examples for one particular view or the other.

Some historians strike a middle ground, saying that Qasim was torn between the political expediency of making peace with the Hindus and Buddhists; having to call upon non-Muslims to serve under him as part of his mandate to administer newly conquered land; and orthodoxy by refraining from seeking the co-operation of "infidels". It is contended that Qasim may have struck a middle ground, conferring the status of Dhimmi upon the native Sindhis and permitting them to participate in his administration, but treating them as "noncitizens" (i.e. in the Khilafat, but not of it).

Legacy

Qasim's presence and rule was very brief. His conquest for the Umayyads brought Sindh into the orbit of the Muslim world.

The next Arab governor died on arrival. Dahir's son Jaisiah recaptured Brahmanabad and c. 720, he was granted pardon and included in the administration in return for converting to Islam. Soon, however, he recanted and split off when the Umayyads were embroiled in a succession crisis. Later, Junaid Ibn Abdur Rahman al-Marri killed Jaisiah and recaptured the territory before his successors once again struggled to hold and keep it. During the Abassid period, c. 870, the local emirs shook off all allegiance to the caliphs and by the 10th century the region was split into two weak states, Mansurah on the lower Indus and Multan on the upper Indus, which were soon captured by Ismailis who set up an independent Fatimid state. These successor states did not achieve much and shrank in size. The Arab conquest remained checked in what is now the south of Pakistan for three centuries by powerful Hindu monarchs to the north and east until the arrival of Mahmud of Ghazni.

Coastal trade and a Muslim colony in Sindh allowed for cultural exchanges and the arrival of Sufi missionaries to expand Muslim influence. From Debal, which remained an important port until the 12th century, commercial links with the Persian Gulf and the Middle East intensified as Sindh became the "hinge of the Indian Ocean Trade and overland passway."

Port Qasim, Pakistan's second major port is named in honor of Muhammad bin Qasim.

Yom-e-Babul Islam is observed in Pakistan, in honor of Muhammad bin Qasim.

See also

Jat people in Islamic history

Battle of Rajasthan

Qutaibah bin Muslim

Muslim conquests

Abdullah Shah Ghazi

Al-Hajjaj Ibn Yusuf Al-Thaqafi

Footnotes

References

Alexander Berzin, ''"Part I: The Umayyad Caliphate (661 - 750 CE), The First Muslim Incursion into the Indian Subcontinent"'', The Historical Interaction between the Buddhist and Islamic Cultures before the Mongol Empire

The Chach-Nama. English translation by Mirza Kalichbeg Fredunbeg. Delhi Reprint, 1979.

Nicholas F. Gier, ''FROM MONGOLS TO MUGHALS: RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IN INDIA 9TH-18TH CENTURIES'', Presented at the Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting American Academy of Religion, Gonzaga University, May, 2006

Stanley Lane-Poole, ''Medieval India under Mohammedan Rule, 712-1764'', G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York, 1970

Schimmel, Annemarie Schimmel, ''Religionen - Islam in the Indian Subcontinent'', Brill Academic Publishers, Jan 1, 1980, ISBN 90-04-06117-7

Appleby, R Scott & Martin E Marty, ''Fundamentalisms Comprehended'', University of Chicago Press, May 1, 2004, ISBN 0-226-50888-9

Wink, Andre, ''Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World'', Brill Academic Publishers, August 1, 2002, ISBN 0-391-04173-8

Wink, Andre, ''Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World'', Brill Academic Publishers, 2004, ISBN 90-04-09249-8

Keay, John, ''India: A History'', Grove Press, May 1, 2001, ISBN 0-8021-3797-0

Maclean, Derryl N. ''Religion and Society in Arab Sind'', Brill Academic Publishers, 1989 ISBN 90-04-08551-3

External links

Online Version of the Chach Nama, Last accessed 3 September 2007

Online Version of the History of the Rise of Mahommedan Power in India by Ferishta, ''"MAHOMED KASIM."'', Last accessed 12 September 2007

Religion and Society in Arab Sind By Derryl N. Maclean

Category:695 births Category:715 deaths Category:History of Islam in Pakistan Category:History of Sindh Category:Umayyad Caliphate Category:Umayyad generals

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