The Battle of Badr

The battle of Badr, the first great battle between the Muslims of Medina and Quraysh, was fought on Friday 17 Ramadan 2 AH (March 624 CE) at the wells of Badr ¹. It began as a pursuit of a trade caravan and ended in a clash of two armies, from which the Muslims emerged with a victory that changed the balance of power in the Hijaz ².

The Quraysh caravan was returning from al-Sham carrying the wealth of the people of Mecca — nearly a thousand camels worth no less than fifty thousand dinars, with about forty men — and the Prophet called his Companions out to intercept it ³. He marched out with three hundred and a few men (related as 313, 314 and 317), unprepared for battle: only horsemen and seventy camels ⁴. Abu Sufyan sensed the danger, diverted the caravan to the coast and sent to Mecca for help; the Quraysh army — about thirteen hundred at first — stayed on its march to Badr even after the caravan escaped, at the insistence of its commander Abu Jahl, though al-Akhnas ibn Shariq turned back with Banu Zuhra (about three hundred), leaving its strength near a thousand ⁵.

At Wadi Dhi Afran news of both armies reached the Prophet, and he held a consultative council; Abu Bakr, Umar and al-Miqdad ibn Amr answered for the Muhajirun, and for the Ansar — the majority of the army — Sa'd ibn Mu'adh answered: "march with us upon the blessing of God" ⁶. The Muslims reached the water of Badr first and, on the counsel of al-Hubab ibn al-Mundhir, halted at the water nearest the enemy; they built a cistern, blocked the other wells, and set up the bower as headquarters on a rise ⁷.

The fighting opened with a duel: Utba and Shayba the sons of Rabi'a and al-Walid ibn Utba came out, met by Ubayda ibn al-Harith, Hamza and Ali — the accounts differ over each one's opponent — and the three Qurashis were killed while Ubayda was wounded and died at al-Safra on the way back ⁸. The Muslims then stood fast against the polytheist assaults until ordered into the general charge; tradition reports of that day the descent of angels in aid ⁹. Quraysh's ranks collapsed; Mu'adh ibn Amr ibn al-Jamuh and Mu'awwidh ibn Afra struck Abu Jahl and brought him down, and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud took his head ¹⁰.

Fourteen Muslims were martyred — six Muhajirun and eight Ansar — while seventy polytheists were killed and seventy taken captive, most of them leaders and champions ¹¹. The polytheist dead were thrown into a well, and the bodies of Quraysh's champions laid in one of the pits of Badr ¹². On the way back two captives were executed: al-Nadr ibn al-Harith at al-Safra and Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt at Irq al-Zibya, both among the most hostile to the call in Mecca ¹³.

In Medina the Prophet consulted his Companions about the captives: Abu Bakr favoured ransom and Umar favoured execution; it settled on ransom — from four thousand dirhams down to a thousand, and whoever found no ransom taught ten Medinan boys to write — and a rebuke came down on it in Sura al-Anfal ¹⁴.

Sura al-Anfal came down in large part as comment on Badr: on the reluctance of those who hated marching out, the rain that cleansed the Muslims and steadied their feet, the sending of angels, "you did not throw when you threw, but God threw", the division of the spoils after the quarrel over them, and the rebuke for taking ransom before thorough victory ¹⁵. In that second year the fast of Ramadan and zakat al-fitr were ordained, and the Muslims' first festival was the eid al-fitr of Shawwal 2 AH ¹⁶.

The book describes Badr as Islam's first decisive battle: it broke the Quraysh leadership that had brought it about; after it Abdullah ibn Ubayy and those with him entered Islam outwardly, and the tribes around Medina were awed by it ¹⁷. Historians outside the tradition see Badr as the turning point from a persecuted community to a regional power that negotiates and fights ¹⁸.