Desertions, defections and withdrawals

Family: War, peace and the conduct of conflict · 4 entries

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Person

• Abdullah ibn Ubayy

  c. 580 CEThe chief of Khazraj who had been preparing to be crowned king of Medina when the Hijra ended his ambition — remembered in the Sunni sources as the leader of the 'hypocrites' who opposed the Prophet from inside the city.

Event

• The Battle of Uhud

  March 625 CE · Shawwal 3 AHA battle near Mount Uhud in which the Quraysh gained the upper hand and Hamza, the Prophet's uncle, was killed.

• Defection of the hypocrites at Uhud

  23 March 625 CE · 7 Shawwal 3 AHOn the road to Uhud, when the army was near al-Shawt, Abdullah ibn Ubayy broke away and withdrew with some three hundred fighters on the pretext that the Messenger had rejected his advice to stay in Medina. This withdrawal revealed for the first time the hypocrisy that had been hidden. The Banu Haritha of the Aws and Banu Salama of the Khazraj wavered toward going back, then held firm by God's help; Abdullah ibn Haram, Jabir's father, tried to turn the hypocrites back and they refused {cite:mubarakpuri-raheeq p.253}.

• The expedition to Tabuk

  October 630 CE · Rajab 9 AHThe Prophet led a large expedition north toward the Byzantine frontier as far as Tabuk; no battle took place.

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