{
 "id": "person/kab-ibn-al-ashraf",
 "class": "person",
 "slug": "kab-ibn-al-ashraf",
 "label": {
  "en": "Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf",
  "ar": "كعب بن الأشرف"
 },
 "summary": {
  "en": "A poet of Banu Nadir — Jewish on his father's side, Arab on his mother's — whose verses mourned the Meccan dead of Badr and satirized the Muslims and their women; assassinated with the Prophet's sanction in the first political killing of the Medinan period.",
  "ar": "شاعر من بني النضير — يهودي لأبيه عربي لأمه — رثت أبياته قتلى مكة ببدر وهجت المسلمين ونساءهم؛ اغتيل بإذن النبي في أول اغتيال سياسي في العهد المدني."
 },
 "stub": false,
 "wings": [
  "people"
 ],
 "regions": [
  "arabia"
 ],
 "periods": [
  "period/prophetic-era"
 ],
 "tags": [],
 "aliases": [],
 "themes": [
  "literature",
  "factions-splits-schisms",
  "polemic-and-apologetic"
 ],
 "span": {
  "earliest": 585.0023614447935,
  "latest": 624.7485574652139
 },
 "display": {
  "start": {
   "edtf": "0585~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "decade",
   "status": "tradition",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
   ]
  },
  "end": {
   "edtf": "0624-09~",
   "hijri": "0003-03~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "month",
   "status": "historical",
   "note": "Assassinated at his stronghold near Medina, Rabi' I 3 AH / ~September 624 CE, by a band led by Muhammad ibn Maslama with the Prophet's sanction.",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
    "source/watt-1956-medina"
   ]
  }
 },
 "data": {
  "names": [
   {
    "kind": "full",
    "lang": "ar",
    "value": "كعب بن الأشرف"
   }
  ],
  "gender": "male",
  "born": {
   "edtf": "0585~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "decade",
   "status": "tradition",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
   ]
  },
  "died": {
   "edtf": "0624-09~",
   "hijri": "0003-03~",
   "calendar": "julian",
   "precision": "month",
   "status": "historical",
   "note": "Assassinated at his stronghold near Medina, Rabi' I 3 AH / ~September 624 CE, by a band led by Muhammad ibn Maslama with the Prophet's sanction.",
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
    "source/watt-1956-medina"
   ]
  },
  "roles": [
   "poet"
  ],
  "traditions": [],
  "story_roles": [
   {
    "role": "opponent",
    "toward": "group/early-muslims",
    "start": {
     "edtf": "0624"
    },
    "end": {
     "edtf": "0624"
    },
    "status": "historical",
    "note": "After Badr he went to Mecca composing elegies that incited Quraysh to revenge, then returned to satirize the Muslims in Medina.",
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
     "source/watt-1956-medina"
    ]
   },
   {
    "role": "victim",
    "start": {
     "edtf": "0624-09~"
    },
    "status": "historical",
    "note": "Killed by a group of the Ansar led by Muhammad ibn Maslama; the sources record the Prophet authorizing the killing.",
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
     "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "faith": [
   {
    "value": "jewish",
    "basis": "documented",
    "note": "Of Banu Nadir through his father; his mother was of the Arab tribe of Banu Nadir's allies.",
    "sources": [
     "source/watt-1956-medina"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "perspectives": [
   {
    "tradition": "sunni",
    "summary": {
     "en": "An enemy poet whose incitement after Badr made him, in the tradition's judgment, a combatant in verse; his killing is narrated as an authorized act of war."
    },
    "sources": [
     "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley"
    ]
   },
   {
    "tradition": "academic",
    "summary": {
     "en": "Historians treat the affair as a political assassination in the factional struggle inside Medina, and note that the sources differ on details and on how far the Prophet directed it."
    },
    "sources": [
     "source/watt-1956-medina"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "sources": [
   "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume",
   "source/ibn-sad-tabaqat-bewley",
   "source/watt-1956-medina"
  ],
  "sensitivity": "contested",
  "status": {
   "review": "draft",
   "completeness": 2,
   "generated_by": "Devin; 2026-10-11"
  }
 },
 "prose": {
  "ar": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "نبذة",
     "markdown": "كعب بن الأشرف شاعر من بني النضير وجّه فنّه إلى الحرب بعد بدر — مراثٍ تبكي مكة وتبعثها، وهجاء لنساء المسلمين يجرح. اغتيل بالمدينة بإذن النبي."
    },
    {
     "heading": "الحياة",
     "markdown": "يهودي لأبيه من بني النضير وعربي لأمه، ركب كعب إلى مكة بعد [[event/battle-of-badr|بدر]] ينظم مراثي قتلاها فتنسب إليها المصادر تحريض قريش على الثأر؛ وعاد إلى المدينة يهجو نساء المسلمين بالشعر {cite:ibn-ishaq-guillaume}.\n\nوفي خريف سنة 624 قتله نفر من الأنصار بقيادة محمد بن مسلمة في حصنه — وتسجل المصادر أن النبي أذن فيه قائلًا «من لكعب بن الأشرف فإنه قد آذى الله ورسوله» {cite:ibn-ishaq-guillaume} {cite:watt-1956-medina}.\n\n:::perspectives\nيروي التراث السني قتله عملًا مأذونًا به في حرب ضد شاعر مقاتل صار تحريضه بعد بدر من القتال.\n\nأما المؤرخون فيعاملونه اغتيالًا سياسيًّا في صراع الفصائل داخل المدينة، ويلاحظون اختلاف المصادر في التفاصيل وفي مقدار ما وجّهه النبي مباشرة.\n:::"
    },
    {
     "heading": "للزوار الصغار",
     "markdown": "حارب كعب بالقصائد لا بالسيوف — وفي تلك الحرب كان ذلك كافيًا ليُقتل."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/kab-ibn-al-ashraf",
    "lang": "ar",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "translators": []
   }
  },
  "en": {
   "sections": [
    {
     "heading": "Brief",
     "markdown": "Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf was a poet of Banu Nadir who turned his craft to war after Badr — elegies to make Mecca weep and rise, satires of Muslim women to wound. He was assassinated at Medina with the Prophet's sanction."
    },
    {
     "heading": "Life",
     "markdown": "A Jew through his father of Banu Nadir and Arab through his mother, Ka'b rode to Mecca after [[event/battle-of-badr|Badr]] and composed elegies for its dead that the sources credit with stoking Quraysh's revenge; back in Medina he satirized Muslim women in verse {cite:ibn-ishaq-guillaume}.\n\nIn the autumn of 624 a band of the Ansar led by Muhammad ibn Maslama killed him at his stronghold — the sources record that the Prophet authorized it, asking \"who will deal with Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, for he has harmed God and His Messenger?\" {cite:ibn-ishaq-guillaume} {cite:watt-1956-medina}.\n\n:::perspectives\nSunni tradition narrates the killing as an authorized act of war against a combatant-poet whose incitement after Badr made him a belligerent.\n\nHistorians treat it as a political assassination in Medina's factional struggle, and note the sources differ on the details and on how directly the Prophet directed it.\n:::"
    },
    {
     "heading": "For young visitors",
     "markdown": "Ka'b fought with poems instead of swords — and in that war it was enough to get him killed."
    }
   ],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "person/kab-ibn-al-ashraf",
    "lang": "en",
    "source_lang": "en",
    "translators": []
   }
  }
 },
 "degree": 6,
 "contemporaries": [
  "person/abbas-ibn-abd-al-muttalib",
  "person/abdullah-ibn-salam",
  "person/abdullah-ibn-ubayy",
  "person/abu-bakr",
  "person/abu-lahab",
  "person/abu-sufyan-ibn-harb",
  "person/abu-ubayda-ibn-al-jarrah",
  "person/al-aswad-al-ansi",
  "person/amr-ibn-al-as",
  "person/bilal-ibn-rabah",
  "person/halima-al-sadiyya",
  "person/hamza"
 ],
 "connections": [
  {
   "to": "place/medina",
   "type": "died_in",
   "inverse": false
  },
  {
   "to": "group/banu-nadir",
   "type": "member_of",
   "inverse": false
  },
  {
   "to": "group/early-muslims",
   "type": "opposed",
   "inverse": false,
   "start": {
    "edtf": "0624"
   },
   "end": {
    "edtf": "0624"
   },
   "sources": [
    "source/ibn-ishaq-guillaume"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  "group/banu-nadir",
  "group/early-muslims",
  "place/medina",
  "event/battle-of-the-trench",
  "event/battle-of-uhud",
  "event/hijra",
  "group/banu-qaynuqa",
  "group/banu-qurayza"
 ],
 "license": {
  "prose": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
  "data": "CC0 1.0"
 }
}