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[edit] Battle of the Trench
In 627, a Meccan army under the command of Abu Sufyan, together with contingents from the Bedouin tribe of Ghatafan and the exiled Banu Nadir, marched against Medina and laid siege to it. According to Al-Waqidi, the Banu Qurayza helped the defense effort by supplying spades, picks, and baskets for the excavation of the defensive trench.[1] There are reports about their negotiations with the Meccans.
Ibn Ishaq writes that during the siege Huyayy ibn Akhtab, the chief of the exiled Banu Nadir, came to the Qurayza chief Ka'b ibn Asad and persuaded him to help the Meccans conquer Medina. Ka'b was, according to Al-Waqidi's account, initially reluctant to break the contract and argued that Muhammad never broke any contract with them or exposed them to any shame, but decided to support the Meccans after Huyayy had promised to join the Qurayza in Medina if the besieging army would return to Mecca without having killed Muhammad.[2] Ibn Kathir and al-Waqidi report that Huyayy tore into pieces the agreement between Ka'b and Muhammad.[3][4]
Muhammad sent some of the leading Muslims to talk to the tribe and considered the result disquieting.[3] According to Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad ordered a man from the Ghatafan who had secretly converted to Islam to go to Muhammad's enemies and sow discord among them. The man went to the Banu Qurayza and advised them to join the hostilities against Muhammad only if the besiegers provide hostages from among their chiefs. When the representatives of the Quraysh and the Ghatafan came to the Qurayza, asking for support in the planned decisive battle with Muhammad, the Qurayza indeed demanded hostages, breaking down the negotiations.[5] As a result, the Banu Qurayza did not take any action in support of the besieging army until Abu Sufyan's forces retreated.[6]
[edit] Siege and massacre
On the day of the Meccans' withdrawal, Muhammad led his forces against the Banu Qurayza neighborhood. According to the Muslim tradition, he was visited by the angel Gabriel, who asked Muhammad if he had abandoned fighting. When Muhammad answered that he had, the angel urged to attack the Qurayza: "God commands you, Muhammad, to go to Banu Qurayza. I am about to go to them to shake their stronghold!" The Banu Qurayza retreated into their stronghold and endured the siege for 25 days. As the Banu Qurayza morale waned, Ka'b ibn Asad made a speech to them, suggesting three alternative ways out of their predicament: embrace Islam; kill their own children and women, then rush out for a "kamikaze" charge to either win or die; or make a surprise attack on Saturday (the Sabbath, when by mutual understanding no fighting would take place). None of these alternatives were accepted. Instead the Qurayza asked that Abu Lubaba ibn Abd al-Mundhir, an ally of the Aws, come to them for a council. When they asked him if they should surrender to Muhammad, Abu Lubaba answered affirmatively, but, as Ibn Ishaq puts it, Abu Lubaba "made a sign with his hand toward his throat, indicating that it would be slaughter".[7]
The next morning, the Banu Qurayza unconditionally surrendered and the Muslims seized their stronghold and the weapons found: 1,500 swords, 2,000 lances, 300 suits of armor, and 500 shields.[8]. Some among the tribe of Aws wanted to honor their old alliance with Qurayza, are said to asked Muhammad to treat the Qurayza leniently as he had previously treated the Qaynuqa for the sake of Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy (Arab custom required support of an ally, independent of the ally's conduct to a third party.[9] ). Muhammad then suggested that one of the Aws would be an arbitrator, and when they agreed, he appointed Sa'd ibn Mua'dh, a leading man among Aws who was dying from a wound suffered during the siege of the Qurayza, to decide the fate of the Jewish tribe. Sa'd ibn Mua'dh pronounced that "the men should be killed, the property divided, and the women and children taken as captives", dismissing the pleas of the Aws. Muhammad approved the ruling, calling it similar to God's judgment.[10]
Ibn Ishaq describes the killing of the Banu Qurayza men as follows:
| “ | Then they surrendered, and the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka`b b. Asad their chief. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900. As they were being taken out in batches to the apostle they asked Ka`b what he thought would be done with them. He replied, 'Will you never understand? Don't you see that the summoner never stops and those who are taken away do not return? By Allah it is death!' This went on until the apostle made an end of them. Huyayy was brought out wearing a flowered robe in which he had made holes about the size of the finger-tips in every part so that it should not be taken from him as spoil, with his hands bound to his neck by a rope. When he saw the apostle he said, 'By God, I do not blame myself for opposing you, but he who forsakes God will be forsaken.' Then he went to the men and said, 'God's command is right. A book and a decree, and massacre have been written against the Sons of Israel.' Then he sat down and his head was struck off.[11] | ” |
It is also reported, that alongside all the men, one woman who had thrown a millstone from the battlements during the siege and killed one of the Muslim besiegers, was put to death.[12]
Three boys of the clan of Hadl, who had been with Qurayza in the strongholds, slipped out before the surrender and converted to Islam. The son of one of them, Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi, gained distinction as a scholar. One or two other men also escaped. The spoils of battle, including the enslaved women and children of the tribe, were divided up among Muhammad's followers, with Muhammad himself receiving a fifth of the value. As part of his share of the booty, Muhammad received one of the women, Rayhana, and took her as a Ma malakat aymanukum, and she is said to have later become a Muslim.[3]
[edit] Scholarly views
According to the Qurayza did not commit any act overtly hostile to Muhammad,[3]
Watt writes that Sa'ad's decision was motivated by what he considered "his duty to God and the "Muslim community".[9]
According to Norman Stillman, Muhammad chose Sa'd ibn Mua'dh so as not to pronounce the judgment himself and avoid being accused of double standards given the precedents he had set with the Banu Qaynuqa and the Banu Nadir. Furthermore, Stillman infers from Abu Lubaba's gesture that Muhammad had decided the fate of the Qurayza even before their surrender.[13]
W. N. Arafat rejects the historicity of the massacre, claiming that Ibn Ishaq gathered information from descendants of the Qurayza Jews, who embellished or manufactured the details of the incident. [14] and Barakat Ahmad holds that only the leaders of the Qurayza were killed. [15] Watt, however, finds such arguments "not entirely convincing."[16]
Muslim scholars justified the treatment of the Banu Qurayza with reference to the verses 8:55-58 of the Qur'an.[17] The Muslim jurists argued that the Qurayza broke the pact with Muhammad by assisting the Meccans, and thus Muhammad was justified in repudiating his side of the pact and declaring war on the Qurayza[18]
Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and Mahdi Puya argue that the judgement of Sa'd ibn Mua'dh was conducted according to laws of Torah.[19][20] No contemporaneous source says explicitly that Sa'd based his judgment on the Torah. Moreover, the respective verses of the Torah make no mention of treason or breach of faith, and the Jewish law as it existed at the time and as it is still understood today applies these Torah verses only to the situation of the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, and not to any other period of history.[21]
The massacre of the Banu Qurayza became the subject of Shaul Tchernichovsky's Hebrew poem Ha-aharon li-Venei Kuraita (The Last of the Banu Qurayza).[22]
