Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf · Islam Museum

Depth

At a glance

Roles: Poet
Era: The Prophetic Era
Region: Arabia
Review: Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

In time

al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib · Abdullah ibn Salam · Abdullah ibn Ubayy · Abu Bakr al-Siddiq · Abu Lahab · Abu Sufyan ibn Harb

In space

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

Literature Factions, splits and schisms Polemic and apologetic

Place in the story

OpponenttowardThe early Muslim community · 624 CE · 2 AH† – 624 CE · 2 AH†Historical
Victim · c. September 624 CE · c. Rabi' I 3 AH†Historical

Jewish (documented)

Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

Brief

Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf was a poet of Banu Nadir who turned his craft to war after Badr — elegies to make Mecca weep and rise, satires of Muslim women to wound. He was assassinated at Medina with the Prophet's sanction.

Life

A Jew through his father of Banu Nadir and Arab through his mother, Ka'b rode to Mecca after Badr and composed elegies for its dead that the sources credit with stoking Quraysh's revenge; back in Medina he satirized Muslim women in verse ¹.

In the autumn of 624 a band of the Ansar led by Muhammad ibn Maslama killed him at his stronghold — the sources record that the Prophet authorized it, asking "who will deal with Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, for he has harmed God and His Messenger?" ¹ ².

For young visitors

Ka'b fought with poems instead of swords — and in that war it was enough to get him killed.

Opinions on the question

The question: How are Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf and his killing described?

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

An enemy poet whose incitement after Badr made him, in the tradition's judgment, a combatant in verse; his killing is narrated as an authorized act of war.

More opinions (1)

Academic viewSecondary opinion

Historians treat the affair as a political assassination in the factional struggle inside Medina, and note that the sources differ on details and on how far the Prophet directed it.