Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi
(Arabic: خالد بن الوليد بن المغيرة المخزومي,)
Khālid ibn al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīra al-Makhzūmī; died 642) was an Arab Muslim commander in the service of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the caliphs Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) and Umar (r. 634–644) who played a leading role in the Ridda wars against rebel tribes in Arabia in 632–633 and the early Muslim conquests of Sasanian Iraq in 633–634 and Byzantine Syria in 634–638
A horseman of the Quraysh tribe's aristocratic Makhzum clan, which ardently opposed Muhammad, Khalid played the instrumental role defeating the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud in 625. Following his conversion to Islam in 627 or 629, he was made a commander by Muhammad, who bestowed on him the title Sayf Allah (the Sword of God). Khalid coordinated the safe withdrawal of Muslim troops during the abortive expedition to Mu'ta against the Arab allies of the Byzantines in 629 and led the Bedouin contingents of the Muslim army during the capture of Mecca and the Battle of Hunayn in c. 630. After Muhammad's death, Khalid was appointed to suppress or subjugate Arab tribes in Najd and the Yamama (both regions in central Arabia) opposed to the nascent Muslim state, defeating the rebel leaders Tulayha at the Battle of Buzakha in 632 and Musaylima at the Battle of Aqraba in 633.
Khalid subsequently moved against the largely Christian Arab tribes and the Sasanian Persian garrisons of the Euphrates valley in Iraq. He was reassigned by Abu Bakr to command the Muslim armies in Syria and he led his men there on an unconventional march across a long, waterless stretch of the Syrian Desert, boosting his reputation as a military strategist. As a result of decisive victories against the Byzantines at Ajnadayn (634), Fahl (634), Damascus (634–635) and Yarmouk (636), the Muslims under Khalid conquered much of Syria. He was afterwards demoted from the high command by Umar for a range of causes cited by traditional Islamic and modern sources. Khalid continued service as the key lieutenant of his successor Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah in the sieges of Homs and Aleppo and the Battle of Qinnasrin, all in 637–638, which collectively precipitated the retreat from Syria of imperial Byzantine troops under Emperor Heraclius. Umar dismissed Khalid from his governorship of Qinnasrin afterward and he died in Medina or Homs in 642.
Khalid is generally considered by historians to be one of early Islam's most seasoned and accomplished generals and he is commemorated throughout the Arab world until the present day. The Islamic tradition credits Khalid for his battlefield tactics and effective leadership of the early Muslim conquests, but accuses him of illicitly executing Arab tribesmen who had accepted Islam, namely members of the Banu Jadhima during the lifetime of Muhammad and Malik ibn Nuwayra during the Ridda wars, and moral and fiscal misconduct in Syria. His military fame disturbed some of the pious, early Muslim converts, including Umar, who feared it could develop into a personality cult.
Hazrat Khalid's early military career
Khalid's father was al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, an arbitrator of local disputes in Mecca in the Hejaz (western Arabia).[1] Al-Walid is identified by the historians Ibn Hisham (d. 833), Ibn Habib (d. 859) and Ibn Durayd (d. 837) as the "derider" of the Islamic prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Meccan suras (chapters) of the Qur'an. He belonged to the Banu Makhzum, a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe and Mecca's pre-Islamic aristocracy. The Makhzum are credited for introducing Meccan commerce to foreign markets, particularly Yemen and Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and developed a reputation among the Quraysh for their intellect, nobility and wealth. Their prominence was owed to the leadership of Khalid's paternal grandfather al-Mughira ibn Abd Allah. Khalid's paternal uncle Hisham was known as the "lord of Mecca" and the date of his death was used by the Quraysh as the start of their calendar. The historian Muhammad Abdulhayy Shaban describes Khalid as "a man of considerable standing" within his clan and Mecca in general.
Mother name of Khalid
Khalid's mother was al-Asma bint al-Harith ibn Hazn, commonly known as Lubaba al-Sughra ("Lubaba the Younger", to distinguish her from her elder half-sister Lubaba al-Kubra) of the nomadic Banu Hilal tribe.[6] Lubaba al-Sughra converted to Islam about c. 622 and her paternal half-sister Maymuna became a wife of Muhammad.[6] Through his maternal relations Khalid became highly familiarized with the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) lifestyle.[7]
Early opposition to Muhammad
The Makhzum were strongly opposed to Muhammad, and the clan's preeminent leader Amr ibn Hisham (Abu Jahl), Khalid's first cousin, organized the boycott of Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim of Quraysh, in c. 616–618. The Makhzum under Abu Jahl commanded the war against the Islamic prophet, who had emigrated from Mecca to Medina in 622, until they were routed at the Battle of Badr in 624. About twenty-five of Khalid's paternal cousins, including Abu Jahl, and numerous other kinsmen were slain in that engagement. The following year Khalid and his cousin Ikrima, the son of Abu Jahl, respectively commanded the right and left flanks of the cavalry in the Meccan army which confronted Muhammad at the Battle of Uhud north of Medina. According to the historian Donald Routledge Hill, rather than launching a frontal assault against the Muslim lines on the slopes of Mount Uhud, "Khalid adopted the sound tactics" of going around the mountain and bypassing the Muslim flank. He advanced through the Wadi Qanat valley west of Uhud until being checked by Muslim archers south of the valley at Mount Ruma. The Muslims gained the early advantage in the fight, but after most of the Muslim archers abandoned their positions to join the raiding of the Meccans' camp, Khaled charged against the resulting break in the Muslims' rear defensive lines. In the ensuing rout, several dozen Muslims were killed. The narratives of the battle describe Khalid riding through the field, slaying the Muslims with his lance. Shaban credits Khalid's "military genius" for the Quraysh's victory at Uhud, the only engagement in which the tribe defeated Muhammad.
In 628 Muhammad and his followers headed for Mecca to perform the umra (lesser pilgrimage to Mecca) and the Quraysh dispatched 200 cavalry to intercept him upon hearing of his departure. Khalid was at the head of the cavalry and Muhammad avoided confronting him by taking an unconventional and difficult alternate route, ultimately reaching Hudaybiyya at the edge of Mecca. Upon realizing Muhammad's change of course, Khalid withdrew to Mecca. A truce between the Muslims and the Quraysh was reached in the Treaty of Hudaybiyya in MarchConversion to Islam and service under Muhammad Edit
In the year 6 AH (c. 627) or 8 AH (c. 629) Khalid embraced Islam in Muhammad's presence alongside the Qurayshite Amr ibn al-As;[16] the modern historian Michael Lecker comments that the accounts holding that Khalid and Amr converted in 8 AH are "perhaps more trustworthy". The historian Akram Diya Umari holds that Khalid and Amr embraced Islam and relocated to Medina following the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, apparently after the Quraysh dropped demands for the extradition of newer Muslim converts to Mecca. Following his conversion, Khalid "began to devote all his considerable military talents to the support of the new Muslim state", according to the historian Hugh N. Kennedy.
Khalid participated in the expedition to Mu'ta in modern-day Jordan ordered by Muhammad in September 629. The purpose of the raid may have been to acquire booty in the wake of the Sasanian Persian army's retreat from Syria following its defeat by the Byzantine Empire in July. The Muslim detachment was routed by a Byzantine force consisting mostly of Arab tribesmen led by the Byzantine commander Theodore and several high-ranking Muslim commanders were slain. Khalid took command of the army following the deaths of the appointed commanders and, with considerable difficulty, oversaw a safe withdrawal of the Muslims. Muhammad rewarded Khalid by bestowing on him the honorary title Sayf Allah (Sword of God).
The oasis town of Dumat al-Jandal (pictured in 2007). Khalid led an expedition against the city in 630, and may have led another expedition in 633 or 634, though modern historians have cast doubt about the latter campaign or Khalid's role in
In December 629/January 630 Khalid took part in Muhammad's capture of Mecca, after which most of the Quraysh converted to Islam. In that engagement Khalid led a nomadic contingent called muhajirat al-arab (the Bedouin emigrants). He led one of the two main pushes into the city and in the subsequent fighting with the Quraysh, three of his men were killed while twelve Qurayshites were slain, according to the 8th-century biographer of Muhammad Ibn Ishaq. In the Battle of Hunayn later that year, during which the Muslims, boosted by the influx of Qurayshite converts, defeated the Thaqif—the Ta'if-based traditional rivals of the Quraysh—and their nomadic Hawazin allies, Khalid commanded the Bedouin Banu Sulaym in the Muslims' vanguard. Khalid was then appointed to destroy the idol of al-Uzza, one of the goddesses worshiped in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, in the Nakhla area between Mecca and Ta'if.
Khalid was afterward dispatched to invite to Islam the Banu Jadhima in Yalamlam, about 80 kilometers (50 mi) south of Mecca, but the Islamic traditional sources hold that he attacked the tribe illicitly. In the version of Ibn Ishaq, Khalid had persuaded the Jadhima tribesmen to disarm and embrace Islam, which he followed up by executing a number of the tribesmen in revenge for the Jadhima's slaying of his uncle Fakih ibn al-Mughira dating before Khalid's conversion to Islam. In the narrative of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1449), Khalid misunderstood the tribesmen's acceptance of the faith as a rejection or denigration of Islam due to his unfamiliarity with the Jadhima's accent and consequently attacked them. In both versions Muhammad declared himself innocent of Khalid's action, but did not discharge or punish him. According to the historian W. Montgomery Watt, the traditional account about the Jadhima incident "is hardly more than a circumstantial denigration of Khālid, and yields little solid historical fact"
Later in 630, while Muhammad was at Tabuk, he dispatched Khalid to capture the oasis market town of Dumat al-Jandal. Khalid gained its surrender and imposed a heavy penalty on the inhabitants of the town, one of whose chiefs, the Kindite Ukaydir ibn Abd al-Malik al-Sakuni, was ordered by Khalid to sign the capitulation treaty with Muhammad in Medina. In June 631 Khalid was sent by Muhammad at the head of 480 men to invite the mixed Christian and polytheistic Balharith tribe of Najran to embrace Islam. The tribe converted and Khalid taught them the Qur'an and Islamic laws before returning to Muhammad in Medina with a Balharith delegation.
Commander in the Ridda wars
Map detailing the route of Khalid ibn al-Walid's military campaigns in central Arabia.
Map detailing the route of Khalid's suppression of Arab tribes in central Arabia during the Ridda wars
After Muhammad's death in June 632, most tribes in Arabia, except those inhabiting the environs of Medina, discontinued their allegiance to the nascent Muslim state or had not established formal relations with Medina. An early and close companion of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, became the leader of the Muslim community and dispatched the bulk of the Muslim army under Usama ibn Zayd against Byzantine Syria despite threats to the Muslim towns of the Hejaz by nomadic tribes which had discarded Muslim authority. Abu Bakr assembled an army and defeated a group of the Ghatafan tribe at Dhu al-Qassa in the Hejaz. Afterthe threat to Medina was quashed, Abu Bakr dispatched Khalid against the rebel tribes in Najd (the central Arabian plateau). Out of the six main conflict zones in Arabia during the ensuing Ridda wars (wars against the "apostates"), two were centered in Najd: the rebellion of the Asad, Tayy and Ghatafan tribes under Tulayha and the rebellion of the Tamim tribe led by Sajah; both leaders claimed to be prophets. Lecker holds that Khalid was deployed before the return of Usama's army, while Watt holds that Khalid was sent at the head of a large army following Usama's return. Khalid was Abu Bakr's third nominee to lead the campaign after his first two choices, the Qurayshites Zayd ibn al-Khattab and Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba, refused the assignment. His forces consisted of the earliest converts to Islam, namely the Muhajirun (Meccan emigrants to Medina) and the Ansar (natives of Medina). Throughout the campaign, Khalid demonstrated considerable operational independence and did not stringently abide by the caliph's directives. In the words of Shaban, "he simply defeated whoever was there to be defeated".
Battle of Buzakha
Khalid's initial focus was the suppression of Tulayha's following. In 632, Khalid confronted Tulayha's forces at the Battle of Buzakha, during which the Tayy defected to the Muslims early in the battle.[38] As Tulayha appeared close to defeat the Banu Fazara section of the Ghatafan under their chief Uyayna ibn Hisn deserted the field, compelling Tulayha to flee for Syria. His tribe, the Asad, subsequently submitted to Khalid, followed by the hitherto neutral Banu Amir, which had awaited the results of the conflict before giving its allegiance to either side.
Execution of Malik ibn Nuwayra
After Buzakha, Khalid proceeded against the rebel Tamimite chieftain Malik ibn Nuwayra headquartered in al-Bitah, in the present-day Qassim region. Malik had been appointed by Muhammad the collector of the sadaqa (alms tax) over his clan of the Tamim, the Banu Yarbu, but stopped forwarding this tax to Medina after Muhammad's death. Abu Bakr consequently resolved to have him executed by Khalid. The latter faced divisions within his army regarding this campaign, with the Ansar initially staying behind, citing instructions by Abu Bakr not to campaign further until receiving a direct order by the caliph. Khalid claimed such an order was his prerogative as the commander appointed by the caliph, but he did not force the Ansar to participate and continued his march with troops from the Muhajirun and the Bedouin defectors from Buzakha and its aftermath; the Ansar ultimately rejoined Khalid after internal deliberations.
According to the most common account in the Muslim traditional sources, Khalid's army encountered Malik and eleven of his clansmen from the Yarbu in 632. The Yarbu did not resist, proclaimed their Muslim faith and were escorted to Khalid's camp. Khalid had them all executed over the objection of an Ansarite, who had been among the captors of the tribesmen and argued for the captives' inviolability due to their testaments as Muslims. Afterward, Khalid married Malik's widow Umm Tamim bint al-Minhal. When news of Khalid's actions reached Medina, Abu Bakr's chief aide Umar ibn al-Khattab pressed for Khalid to be punished or relieved of command, but Abu Bakr pardoned him. According to the account of the 8th-century historian Sayf ibn Umar, Malik had also been cooperating with Sajah, his kinswoman from the Yarbu, and was encountered with his small party by the Muslims after being defeated by rival clans from the Tamim. The modern historian Wilferd Madelung discounts Sayf's version, asserting that Umar and other Muslims would not have protested Khalid's execution of Malik if the latter had left Islam, while Watt considers accounts about the Tamim during the Ridda in general to be "obscure ... partly because the enemies of Khālid b. al-Walīd have twisted the stories to blacken him". In the view of the modern historian Ella Landau-Tasseron, "the truth behind Malik's career and death will remain buried under a heap of conflicting traditions".
Elimination of Musaylima and conquest of the Yamama Edit
See also: Battle of Yamama
Map of the Yamama region of Arabia shaded in red. The region was conquered by Khalid from the Banu Hanifa tribe led by Musaylima
Following a series of setbacks in her conflict with rival Tamim factions, Sajah joined the strongest opponent of the Muslims: Musaylima, the leader of the sedentary Banu Hanifa tribe in the Yamama, the agricultural eastern borderlands of Najd. Musaylima had laid claims to prophet-hood dating before Muhammad's emigration from Mecca, and his entreaties for Muhammad to mutually recognize his divine revelation were rejected by Muhammad. After Muhammad died, support for Musaylima surged in the Yamama, whose strategic value laid not only with its abundance of wheat fields and date palms, but also its location connecting Medina to the regions of Bahrayn and Oman in eastern Arabia. Abu Bakr had dispatched Shurahbil ibn Hasana and Khalid's cousin Ikrima with an army to reinforce the Muslim governor in the Yamama, Musaylima's tribal kinsman Thumama ibn Uthal. According to the modern historian Meir Jacob Kister, it was likely the threat posed by this army which compelled Musaylima to forge an alliance with Sajah. Ikrima was repelled by Musaylima's forces and thereafter instructed by Abu Bakr to quell rebellions in Oman and Mahra (central southern Arabia) while Shurahbil was to remain in the Yamama in expectation of Khalid's large army.
After his victories against the Bedouin of Najd, Khalid headed to the Yamama with warnings of the Hanifa's military prowess and instructions by Abu Bakr to act severely toward the tribe should he be victorious. The medieval historian Ibn Hubaysh al-Asadi holds that the armies of Khalid and Musaylima respectively stood at 4,500 and 4,000, with Kister dismissing the much larger figures cited by most of the traditional sources as exaggerations.[53] Khalid's first three assaults against Musaylima at Aqraba were beaten back. The strength of Musaylima's warriors, the superiority of their swords and the fickleness of the Bedouin contingents in Khalid's ranks were all reasons cited by the Muslims for their initial failures. The Ansarite Thabit ibn Qays proposed the Bedouins' exclusion from the fight, to which Khalid acceded. In the fourth assault against the Hanifa, the Muhajirun under Khalid and the Ansar under Thabit killed a lieutenant of Musaylima, who subsequently fled with part of his army. The Muslims pursued the Hanifa to a large enclosed garden which Musaylima used to stage a last stand against the Muslims. The enclosure was stormed by the Muslims, Musaylima was slain and most of the Hanifites were killed or wounded. The enclosure became known as the 'garden of death' for the high casualties suffered by both sides.
Khalid assigned a Hanifite taken captive early in the campaign, Mujja'a ibn al-Murara, to assess the strength, morale and intentions of the Hanifa in their Yamama fortresses in the aftermath of Musaylima's slaying. Mujja'a had the women and children of the tribe dress and pose as men at the openings of the forts in a ruse to boost their leverage with Khalid; he relayed to Khalid that the Hanifa still counted numerous warriors determined to continue the fight against the Muslims.This assessment, along with the exhaustion of his own troops, compelled Khalid to accept Mujja'a's counsel for a ceasefire with the Hanifa, despite Abu Bakr's directives to pursue retreating Hanifites and execute Hanifite prisoners of war.[55] Khalid's terms with the Hanifa entailed the tribe's conversion to Islam and the surrender of their arms and armor and stockpiles of gold and silver. Abu Bakr ratified the treaty, though he remained opposed to Khalid's concessions and warned that the Hanifa would remain eternally faithful to Musaylima. The treaty was further consecrated by Khalid's marriage to Mujja'a's daughter. According to Lecker, Mujja'a's ruse may have been invented by the Islamic tradition "in order to protect Khalid's policy because the negotiated treaty ... caused the Muslims great losses". Khalid was allotted an orchard and a field in each village included in the treaty with the Hanifa, while the villages excluded from the treaty were subject to punitive measures. Among these villages were Musaylima's hometown al-Haddar and Mar'at, whose inhabitants were expelled or enslaved and resettled with tribesmen from clans of the Tamim.
The traditional sources place the final suppression of the Arab tribes of the Ridda wars before March 633, though the Western historian Leone Caetani insists the campaigns must have continued into 634. The Muslim war efforts, in which Khalid played a vital part, secured Medina's dominance over the strong tribes of Arabia, which sought to diminish Islamic authority in the peninsula, and restored the nascent Muslim state's prestige. According to Lecker, Khalid and the other Qurayshite generals "gained precious experience [during the Ridda wars] in mobilising large multi-tribal armies over long distances" and "benefited from the close acquaintance of the Kuraysh [sic] with tribal politics throughout Arabia
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