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Banu Zafar

بنو ظفر

Medina

A clan of the Aws, Banu Zafar — Ka'b ibn al-Khazraj the Younger — who settled their quarter east of al-Baqi' by their mosque known as the Mosque of the Baghla, next to Banu Abd al-Ashhal, whom they backed in the war against Banu Haritha 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
Pre-Islamic Arabia · The Prophetic Era
Region
Arabia
Review
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In space

Medina

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Overview

Banu Zafar, a branch of al-Aws. According to al-Samhudi their lineage is Zafar, who is Ka'b al-Khazraj al-Asghar ibn Amr ibn Malik ibn al-Aws ibn Haritha. 2

They settled their homes east of al-Baqi' in Medina, near their mosque known as the Mosque of the Mule, beside Banu Abd al-Ashhal. They sided with Banu Abd al-Ashhal in their war with Banu Haritha. 2

Connections

Explore the connections

Part of
al-Aws
Lived in
Medina

People and things also explored

The day of Bu'ath· Banu Abd al-Ashhal· Banu Haritha ibn al-Harith· Banu Khatma· Mosque of the Two Qiblas· Prophet's Mosque· The Sanctuary of Medina· Judaism in Arabia before Islam

Sources

  1. Wafa al-Wafa bi-akhbar dar al-Mustafa — al-Samhudi (older print), p. 202-204
  2. Wafa al-Wafa bi-akhbar dar al-Mustafa — al-Samhudi (older print), p.202-204
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Banu Zafar”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/group/banu-zafar-al-aws/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.

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Related

The day of Bu'ath

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. 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. 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'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', a report al-Samhudi also transmits in her chapter.