The three nights in the cave of Thawr

All stops in this story

1. The three nights in the cave of Thawr — c. 13 September 622 CE · c. 1 Rabi' I 1 AH†

   The Prophet and Abu Bakr hid in the cave of Thawr for the nights of Friday, Saturday and Sunday while Quraysh combed the country offering a hundred camels for each man; their pursuers reached the cave's mouth and turned back.

2. The spider's web across the mouth of the cave of Thawr — c. 13 September 622 CE · c. 1 Rabi' I 1 AH†

   Ibn Hajar, in the biography of Kurz ibn Alqama al-Khuza'i, transmits from Urwa ibn al-Zubayr that Kurz followed the tracks of the Prophet and Abu Bakr to the cave of Thawr, saw a spider's web across its door, and said: the trail ends here; I do not know whether they took the right hand, the left, or climbed the mountain . This is a report transmitted through later narrators; the early account of the three nights in the cave is in event/ghar-thawr.

3. The journey from the cave of Thawr to Medina and the entry into the city — 23 September 622 CE · 11 Rabi' I 1 AH†

   The Prophet and Abu Bakr left the cave with the guide Abdullah ibn Uraykit and Amir ibn Fuhayra by the coast road; they passed the tent of Umm Ma'bad, Suraqa ibn Malik pursued them and his horse sank into the ground so that he asked for safe-conduct; they reached Quba on Monday 8 Rabi' I and stayed four days, then entered Medina on Friday.

4. The Prophet's she-camel strays and Zayd ibn al-Lusayt's remark — October 630 CE · Rajab 9 AH

   The Prophet's she-camel strayed on the road and his Companions went out searching for her. With him was Umara ibn Hazm, and in his litter rode Zayd ibn al-Lusayt al-Qaynuqa'i, a hypocrite in Ibn Ishaq's account, who said mockingly: does Muhammad bring news of the heavens yet not know where his camel is? The Prophet announced what he had said and where the camel was; it was found where he described, and Umara drove Zayd from his litter.

5. Battle of the Camel — November 656 CE · 36 AH

   Ali set out for Basra after Talha and al-Zubayr had asked his leave; he camped at Dhi Qar and sent al-Hasan and Ammar ibn Yasir to Kufa to rouse the people. Then the Battle of the Camel took place, in which al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam was killed. Ali then entered upon Aisha, and the people of Basra gave him their allegiance . The index places the account of the battle in 36 AH . According to al-Suyuti, Talha and al-Zubayr went to Mecca, took Aisha with them, and went to Basra seeking vengeance for the blood of Uthman; Ali met them at Basra. The battle took place in Jumada II 36 AH; Talha and al-Zubayr were killed there, and the dead numbered thirteen thousand. Ali stayed at Basra fifteen nights and then returned to Kufa . Al-Mas'udi mentions that the dead of the Camel, from Basra and elsewhere, numbered thirteen thousand, and that Ali's side lost five thousand, though people disputed this: the one who minimized it said seven thousand and the one who maximized it said ten thousand, depending on each person's leaning toward one side or the other . Ali ordered that no wounded man be finished off, no captive killed, no fugitive pursued, no one's nakedness exposed, no corpse mutilated, and that no one approach their property except for the weapons, mounts, and male and female slaves in their camp. He went out bareheaded on the mule of the Messenger of God; al-Zubayr recalled the Prophet's words to him, 'You will fight him while you are wronging him', and turned back. Al-Zubayr was killed by Amr ibn Jurmuz while at prayer in Wadi al-Siba'. Marwan ibn al-Hakam shot Talha in the arm-vein and killed him, while Talha recited: 'The regret of al-Kasi, when I sought the pleasure of Banu Jurm, as I imagined' . Ali entered the treasury of Basra and said, 'O yellow one, deceive another than me! O white one, deceive another than me!' Then he ordered it divided among those with him, five hundred each, they being twelve thousand, and took for himself a single share like one of them. He appointed Abd Allah ibn Abbas over Basra and went to Kufa .

6. The Establishment of the Day of the Cave in Baghdad as a Counterpart to the Day of Ghadir — c. 21 November 999 CE · 26 Dhu al-Hijja 389 AH

   The custom of the Shi'a of al-Karkh and Bab al-Taq was to raise domes, hang cloths and display decorations on the day of Ghadir, kindle fire on its eve and slaughter a camel on its morning. The other group wanted to do something in response, so it claimed that the eighth day of that month was the day on which the Prophet and Abu Bakr were in the cave, and it did with that day what the Shi'a had done. Opposite the day of Ashura it set a day eight days later, attributing it to the killing of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, and its people visited his grave at Maskin as the grave of al-Husayn is visited. The Day of the Cave began on Friday, four days before the end of Dhu al-Hijja in the year eighty-nine.