Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

As a result of the rejection of his message and the persecution of his followers, the Islamic prophet Muhammad left his hometown of Mecca in 622 and migrated with his followers to the oasis town of Medina.[1] There, he had more followers and founded a local power base. On three occasions, his forces battled with his Meccan opponents, led by his own tribe, the Quraysh.[2] Mecca was thus a no-go area for the Muslims,[3] with its old sanctuary of the Ka'ba. Although it had been a pilgrimage center from the pre-Islamic times, it seems that the Muslims were enjoined to perform pilgrimage to the Ka'ba only in the Medinan period.[4] The Muslims had so far prayed by facing toward Jerusalem,[5] but at some point in Medina, Muhammad reportedly received a divine revelation ordering him to face Mecca instead.[3]

In March 628, following a dream that he was circumambulating the Ka'ba, Muhammad decided to set out for pilgrimage.[6] Anticipating violent Meccan response, he invited his Bedouin and tribal allies in the outskirts of Medina to join him, but the majority declined, probably because they saw no prospect of booty or anticipating hostilities.[6][7] Muhammad with a group of some 1,500 Muslims of Medina, as well as some tribal allies, marched towards Mecca to perform the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage).[8][lower-alpha 1] There are conflicting accounts as to whether the Muslims carried weapons.[10] They were dressed as pilgrims and had sacrificial animals with them.[11] On getting the news, the Meccans mistook the approach as an attack and sent a 200-strong cavalry force to stop it. Muhammad avoided the force by taking an unconventional route and pitched his tents at the place of Hudaybiyya, on the border of the sacred territory of the Ka'ba.[8]

The Quraysh sent their emissaries to negotiate with him to whom he declared that he had come to perform the pilgrimage and had no hostile intentions. The Quraysh nevertheless considered it weakness and a declaration of defeat to let him enter the city unconditionally. They are reported to have said: "Even if he has come not wanting to fight, by God, he shall never enter [the sanctuary] by force against our will, nor shall the bedouin ever [have cause to] say that about us".[12] At one point, he sent his close aid Uthman to Mecca to carry out negotiations. A rumour spread that he had been slain. Muhammad vowed to avenge his death and took pledge of his followers to fight the Meccans to end. The pledge became known as the Pledge of the Tree (bay'at al-ridwan). The rumour turned out to be false, and the Quraysh sent their emissary, Suhayl ibn Amr, to reach a settlement. After negotiations, the parties agreed to resolve the matter peacefully and a treaty was drawn up.[13][14] The main points stated:[15]

• There will be a truce between both parties for ten years.
• Whoever flees to Muhammad from the Quraysh without the permission of his guardian will be sent back to the Quraysh, but whoever comes to the Quraysh from the Muslims will not be sent back.
• Whoever wishes to enter into a covenant with Muhammad will be allowed to do so, and whoever wishes to enter into a covenant with the Quraysh will be allowed to do so.
• The Muslims will return to Medina without performing the pilgrimage but will be allowed the following year and would stay in Mecca for three days during which time the Quraysh will vacate the city. The Muslims will carry no weapons except sheathed swords.[15]

The document was written by Ali. As he was writing, "This is what Muhammad, the apostle of God, has agreed with Suhayl b. 'Amr",[16] Suhayl objected that he did not believe in his prophethood, hence he could write only his name, to which Muhammad consented.[16] After the document was written, Suhayl's son Abu Jandal turned up to join the Muslims but was handed over to Suhayl in keeping with the treaty.[13] Umar and some other Muslims were unhappy about the truce with the people whom they regarded as the enemies of God.[17] Muhammad called his followers to shave their heads and sacrifice their animals. They were reluctant to do so but followed after he had set an example. While Muslims then returned to Medina, the Sura 48 of the Qur'an was revealed.[13]

Those converts who later escaped to Medina were returned in accordance with the treaty. Abu Basir, one of the returned, escaped to the sea coast and was later joined by some 70 others, including Abu Jandal. They formed a guerrilla band and started raiding Meccan caravans to Syria. The Meccans eventually asked Muhammad to take them back to Medina. An exception to the treaty was later created unilaterally by the Muslims when some Muslim women from Mecca escaped to Medina since the Qur'an forbade their return.[13]

In the long term, the treaty proved advantageous to the Muslims and is often regarded as an "important step" in Muhammad's consolidation of power.[18] By signing the treaty, the Quraysh implicitly acknowledged Muhammad as their equal,[19] and by gaining access to the pilgrimage at the Ka'ba, Muhammad was able to increase Islam's appeal to those tribes who held the Ka'ba in high regard.[18] The Muhammad biographer Ibn Hisham later wrote: "No previous victory in Islam was greater than this... when there was an armistice and war was abolished and men met in safety and consulted together none talked about Islam intelligently without entering it."[20] The truce enabled Muhammad to expand his dominion elsewhere in Arabia unhindered. The historian Fred Donner has suggested that the very purpose of the attempted pilgrimage was to secure a truce with the Meccans since Medina was trapped between two hostile cities (the Jewish stronghold of Khaybar to the north and Mecca to the south) and was very vulnerable. However, he could not simply beg the Meccans for a truce; by skillfully crafting the situation, he got it without asking. It was nevertheless a "desperate gamble", which could have ended in disaster had the Quraysh opted not to make peace.[21] Soon afterwards, he besieged and neutralized Khaybar.[22] Since other tribes were allowed to align whichever side they wanted, Muhammad was able to win over some tribes formerly allied with the Quraysh.[23] According to Islamicist Montgomery Watt, the treaty, which meant lifting of the Medinan blockade of the Meccan trade with Syria and the granting to the Quraysh other concessions, was intended by Muhammad to foster better relations with the Quraysh and to attract them towards Islam.[24]

• Anthony, Sean (2020). Muhammad and the Empires of Faith: The Making of the Prophet of Islam. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520340411.

• Ali, Farrukh B. (1981). "Al-Ḥudaybiya: An Alternative Version". The Muslim World. 71 (1): 47–62. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1981.tb03426.x.

• Donner, Fred M. (1979). "Muḥammad's Political Consolidation in Arabia up to the Conquest of Mecca: A Reassessment". The Muslim World. 69 (4): 229–247. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1979.tb03388.x.

• Donner, Fred M. (2010). Muhammad and the Believers, at the Origins of Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674050976.

• Fishbein, Michael, ed. (1997). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume VIII: The Victory of Islam: Muḥammad at Medina A.D. 626–630/A.H. 5–8. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-3149-8.

• Goerke, Andreas (2000). "The Historical Tradition about al-Ḥudaybiya: A Study of ʿUrwa B. al-Zubayr's Account". In Motzki, Harald (ed.). The Biography of Muḥammad: The Issue of the Sources. Leiden: Brill. pp. 240–275. ISBN 978-90-04-11513-2.

• Guillaume, Alfred (1998) [1955]. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Isḥāq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh. Karachi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-636033-1.

• Hawting, Gerald R. (1986). "Al-Ḥudaybiyya and the Conquest of Mecca: A Reconsideration of the Tradition about the Muslim Takeover of the Sanctuary". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 8: 1–24.

• Kennedy, Hugh (2016). The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century (Third ed.). Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-78761-2.

• Watt, W. Montgomery (1956). Muhammad at Medina. London: Clarendon Press.

• Watt, W. Montgomery (1971). "Al-Ḥudaybiya". In Lewis, B.; Ménage, V. L.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume III: H–Iram (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 539. OCLC 495469525.