The day of Bu'ath

يوم بُعاث

c. 617 CE · 6 BH

Medina

The last and greatest of the Aws–Khazraj wars before Islam, about five years before the Hijra on the soundest view; before it ran the war of Mutaymir, the war of Ka'b ibn 'Amr, the day of al-Sarara and the day of al-Dayk — al-Samhudi adds the day of Fari', the two Fijar wars, and the wars of Hudayr ibn al-Aslat and Hatib ibn Qays — until al-Khattabi reports a tradition that war stood between them a hundred and twenty years to Islam ¹. They fought at Bu'ath, a site at the head of Qawra, after the long-bested Aws allied with Qurayza and al-Nadir — its earlier bid for a Quraysh pact at Mecca having been dissolved by a ruse Ibn Shabba ascribes to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira — and some of its clans withdrew about a year to Khaybar ². When the Khazraj boasted of victory and seized the Jews' hostages, the war was joined. Both chiefs fell: Hudayr 'al-Kata'ib', father of Usayd, for the Aws, and 'Amr ibn al-Nu'man al-Bayadi for the Khazraj — 'Abdallah ibn Ubayy had warned him he would be borne off slain, and four men carried him in as foretold; the rout first fell on the Khazraj until Hudayr rallied the Aws to victory, and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh escaped under 'Amr ibn al-Jamuh (may God be pleased with him)'s protection; in the Sahih 'A'isha says 'the day of Bu'ath was a day God sent ahead of His Messenger for their entering Islam — he came when their assembly had scattered and their chiefs been slain' ³, a report al-Samhudi also transmits in her chapter ⁴.