Banu Qaynuqa'

Banu Qaynuqa' — the craftsmen and market of Yathrib's Jews, the first of its tribes expelled — the first open confrontation between Medina's state and its Jews after Badr.

Qaynuqa' were the boldest of the Jews in the covenant, companions of the Khazraj Ansar. After Badr came the "market of Qaynuqa'" incident — an affray over a headdress that ended in deaths — and the state besieged them a fortnight until they surrendered ¹. In the Sunni account Abdullah ibn Ubayy intercedes for their release — the Prophet accepting ransom in the form of their expulsion with their wealth, but not their weapons' iron — and they emigrated north to Adhri'at ².

Historians see in the event the internal siege applied to those who refused the Charter of Medina after Badr shifted the balance, more than punishment for the affray itself ³.

Qaynuqa' is the first of the three models (Qaynuqa', then al-Nadir, then Qurayza) in the treatment of Medina's Jews — a sequence the Sunni tradition reads as graduated treachery and punishment, and historians read as the gradual dismantling of the independent tribes ³.