Hawazin

Hawazin, a great Adnani tribal confederacy of the western Hijaz — Quraysh's old rival at al-Afaq — fought Islam at Hunayn, then entered its noblest sons in the Companions' register.

Hawazin with Thaqif led the answer at Hunayn in 630 CE to the conquest allegiance, under Malik ibn Awf's banner, and the confederacy broke after the volley of arrows in the valley ¹. In the Sunni tradition it is related that on the day of division the Prophet chose Hawazin's captives' land over Quraysh's "for they are nearer in nursing" — Halima al-Sa'diyya, his wet-nurse, was of them ².

Malik and its leaders became Muslim thereafter, and in Abu Bakr's reign they were among the knights of the Ridda and the conquests ³.

Hunayn — the battle most mentioned in Surat al-Tawba — became in Islamic edification the example of pride in numbers before victory, and for historians the last serious military attempt of the Bedouin tribes against the new state ².