Tactical Deployment of the Muslim Army at Uhud

On reaching Mount Uhud, the Prophet took up a strategic defensive position — his back to the mountain's slopes, so that the enemy army stood between the Muslims and Medina ¹.

The defence rested on sealing the single gap through which the polytheist horsemen could slip for outflanking and encirclement. To that end the Prophet selected a detachment of skilled archers — fifty fighters under Abdullah ibn Jubayr ibn al-Nu'man al-Awsi — and ordered them to hold a hill southeast of the camp, later known as the Archers' Hill ¹.

The Prophet gave these archers strict orders, telling their leader: "keep the cavalry off us with arrows so they do not come on us from behind; whether it goes for us or against us, hold your place — we must not be taken from your quarter" ¹. He charged them not to leave their post whatever the outcome, whether the Muslims won or were defeated, until he sent them a signal ¹.

The rest of the army he divided between the right and left wings:

• Right wing: under al-Mundhir ibn Amr ².
• Left wing: under al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, supported by al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad — its main task to stand firm against Khalid ibn al-Walid's cavalry ².

At the front of the ranks the Prophet placed an elite of the bravest Muslims — foremost Abu Dujana Simak ibn Kharasha, who took the Prophet's sword after pledging to strike the enemy's faces with it until it bent, binding his head with the red headband that marked he would fight to the death, strutting between the ranks in a gait the Prophet described as one God hates — except in such a spot ².