The siege of Ta'if

A siege the Muslim army laid on al-Ta'if's fortress after the battle of Hunayn in Shawwal of year 8 AH (630 CE); Thaqif's fugitives took refuge behind its strong walls. Advanced siege engines were used — the mangonel and the wooden "dabbaba" — and it lasted some twenty-odd nights before the siege was lifted and the army departed to al-Ji'rrana ¹.

The Prophet marched from Hunayn by way of Bahrat al-Rugha', where he established the first retaliation exacted in Islam, demolished Malik ibn Awf's fortress at Bulaya and took the al-Yusra road, until he encamped at Wadi Nakhub beneath the Sidrat al-Sadira near al-Ta'if's garden ². The fortress's people shot them with pelting arrows and some Muslims were martyred, so the camp shifted to the site of al-Ta'if's mosque ².

The Muslims set a mangonel against al-Ta'if's fortress — the first mangonel shot in Islam's history — and a party crept under a wooden dabbaba to burn the fortress wall; Thaqif hurled iron rods heated in the fire, burned the dabbaba and shot them with arrows, and fighters were martyred ³.

The Prophet ordered Thaqif's vineyards cut down to press them; they adjured him by kinship and he desisted. Then safety was proclaimed to every slave who came down from the fortress — some twenty men came down, among them Abu Bakra, and he freed them ⁴.

After a dream he had seen — the bowl of butter pecked by a cock — the Prophet consulted Abu Bakr, who said: I do not think you will win of them this day what you want. The Prophet ordered departure after twelve Muslims were martyred, and prayed for Thaqif: "O God, guide Thaqif and bring them" — and Thaqif became Muslim willingly the following year ⁵.

In al-Rahiq's account the Prophet consulted Nawfal ibn Mu'awiya al-Dili, who said: they are a fox in its burrow — if you stay on it you will take it, and if you leave it it will not harm you. He resolved to lift the siege and ordered Umar to announce departure among the people ⁶. It weighed on them and they said: we go without taking it? He said: go out to fight in the morning — and they went out and suffered wounds. He said: we are returning home tomorrow, God willing — and they rejoiced at that, setting off while the Prophet laughed ⁶. It was said to him: pray against Thaqif — and he said: "O God, guide Thaqif and bring them" ⁶.

The sira authorities differ on the siege's length: Anas's account in Muslim makes it forty days; twenty is said, fifteen-odd, eighteen, and fifteen ⁷.