'Who will rid me of Marwan's daughter?'

The Life of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq

Appendix 5. Lists of the Prophet's Raids and Battles

Attacks and battles in which the Prophet Muhammad personally took part

According to Ibn Ishaq, the apostle took part personally in twenty-seven raids and expeditions starting with his first local raids in 623CE, and ending in 630CE with his final attack on Tabuk in Christian Syria. 

This list is found on Page 659 of A. Guillaume: The Life of Muhammad: A translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. Oxford University Press. First published 1955. The same list can be found on Page 115 of The History of al-Tabari Volume IX: The Last Years of the Prophet. Translated and annotated by Ismail K Poonwala. State University of New York Press, 1990.

  1. Raid on Waddan, known as the raid of al-Abwa

  2. Raid on Buwat in the direction of Radwa 

  3. Raid on al-Ushayra in the valley of Yanbu

  4. The first fight at Badr in pursuit of Kurz b. Jabir

  5. The great Battle of Badr in which Allah slew the chiefs of the Quraysh

  6. Raid on the Beni Sulaym at al-Kudr

  7. Pursuit of Abu Sufyan b. Harb after the Raid of Al-Sawiq (the Mealbags)

  8. Raid on the Ghatafan toward Nadj, known as the raid of Dhu Amarr

  9. Raid on Bahran, a mine in the Hijaz near al-Furu

  10. The Battle of Uhud

  11. Pursuit of the Quraysh to Hamra al-Asad

  12. Attack on and expulsion of the Jewish tribe, the Beni al-Nadir 

  13. Raid on Dhat al-Riqa of Nakl

  14. Expedition to the last battle of Badr 

  15. Raid on Dumat al-Jandal

  16. The Battle of al-Khandaq (Battle of the Trench/Siege of Medina)

  17. Attack on and massacre of the Jewish tribe, the Beni Qurayza

  18. Revenge attack on the Beni Lihyan of Hudhayl

  19. Reprisals on the Ghatafan – the attack on Dhu Qarad

  20. Attack on the Beni al-Mustaliq of Khuza’a

  21. Expedition to Hudaybiya where the polytheists opposed his passage

  22. The Conquest of Khaybar

  23. The ‘Fulfilled Pilgrimage’ to Mecca (Some authorities do not count this pilgrimage as a raid or attack, thereby reducing to twenty-six the number of raids and battles fought by the apostle personally.)

  24. The Conquest of Mecca

  25. The Battle of Hunayn

  26. Siege of al-Taif

  27. The Raid on Tabuk in Christian Syria.

Military engagements in which the Prophet personally fought

According to Ibn Ishaq, the apostle personally fought in nine engagements: 

  1. The Battle of Badr

  2. The Battle of Uhud

  3. The Battle of the Trench

  4. The Attack on the Beni Qurayza

  5. The Attack on the Beni al-Mustaliq

  6. The Conquest of Khaybar

  7. The Conquest of Mecca

  8. The Battle of Hunayn

  9. The Siege of al-Taif

This list is taken from Page 660 of A. Guillaume and Page 117 of Al-Tabari. Of these nine engagements, seven were offensive attacks. Only two, the Battle of Uhud and the Battle of the Trench, were defensive, being fought to defend the apostle’s adopted home town of Medina. 

Summary of another 11 Muslim expeditions and raiding parties

Ibn Ishaq lists another eleven raiding parties and expeditions carried out by Muslim forces, in addition to the 27 above, making 38 in all, the most important of which (in bold type) have already been described in the short nine-chapter extracts from the Sirat Rasul Allah on this website:

  1. Ubayda b. Al-Harith sent to the Hijaz (on a raid) (Chapter 3)

  2. Hamza to the coast in the direction of al-Is (on a raid) (Chapter 3)

  3. Sa’d b. Abu Waqqas to al-Kharrar (on a raid) (Chapter 3)

  4. Abdullah b. Jahsh to Nakhla (on a raid) (Chapter 3)

  5. Zayd b. Haritha to al-Qarda, a well in Najd

  6. Muhammad b. Maslama’s to (assassinate) Ka’b b. Al-Ashraf (Chapter 4)

  7. Marthad b. Abu-Marthad al-Ghawani (invited) to al-Raji (Chapter 5)

  8. Al-Mundhir (invited) to Bir Ma’una (Chapter 6)

  9. Abu Ubayda b. Al-Jarrah to Dhul-Qassa on the Iraq road

  10. Omar b. Al-Khattab to Turba in the Beni Amr country

  11. Ali b. Abu Talib to the Yemen

Details of another 18 other Muslim raids ordered by the Prophet

Ibn Ishaq also gives descriptions of another 18 Muslim punitive attacks and assassinations ordered by the apostle, the most important of which (in bold type) have already been included in the short nine-chapter Sirat Rasul Allah on this website. (For details of these often gruesome and savage attacks, go to pages 660- 678 of A. Guillaume, as above.) 

  1. Ghalib’s Raid on the al-Mulawwah

  2. Zayd b. Haritha’s Raid on the Judham

  3. Zayd b. Haritha’s Raid on the Beni Fazara and the death of Umm Qirfa (Chapter 7)

  4. Abdullah b Rawaha’s Raid to kill al-Yusayr b. Rizam (Chapter 7)

  5. Abdullah b. Unays’s Raid to kill Khalid b. Sufyan b. Nubayh (Chapter 5)

  6. Uyayna b. Hisn’s Raid on the Beni al-Anbar of the Beni Tamim

  7. Ghalib b. Abdullah’s Raid on the land of the Beni Murra

  8. Amr b. Al-As’s Raid on Dhatul-Salasil

  9. Ibn Abu Hadrad’s Raid on the Valley of Idam and the killing of Amir b. Al-Adbat 

  10. Ibn Abu Hadrad’s Raid on al-Ghaba to kill Rifaa b. Qays al-Jushami

  11. Abdul Rahman b. Auf’s Raid on Dumatul-Jandal

  12. Salim b. Umayr’s Expedition to kill Abu Afak (Chapter 5)

  13. Umayr b. Adiy’s Journey to kill Asma d. Marwan (Chapter 5)

  14. The Muslim cavalry’s Capture of Thumama b. Athal al-Hanafi

  15. Alqama b. Mujazziz’s Expedition 

  16. Kurz b. Jabir’s Expedition to kill the Bajilis who had killed Yasar (Chapter 7)

  17. Ali’s two Raids to the Yemen (no details given)

  18. Osama b. Zayd’s Mission to Palestine/Christian Syria (the last attack ordered by the apostle while on his deathbed in 632CE). (Chapter 9)

Other attacks and assassinations not included in previous lists

Other attacks and assassination attempts not included in any of the lists above, but described by Ibn Ishaq and included in the short nine-chapter Sirat Rasul Allah on this website:

  1. Muhammad’s armed raid on Safawan, 623CE (Chapter 3)

  2. Muhammad’s siege and expulsion of the Beni Qaynuka after Badr, 624CE (Chapter 4)

  3. Amr b. Umayya to Mecca to kill Abu Sufyan b. Harb after Uhud, 625CE (Chapter 5)

  4. Abdullah b. Atik to Khaybar to kill Sallam (Abu Rafi) after the Battle of the Trench, 627CE (Chapter 7)

  5. Zayd to Muta in Christian Syria, 629CE (Chapter 8)

  6. Muhammad orders the death of rival prophet Al-Aswad, 632CE (Chapter 9)

Conclusion

In fact, there were so many attacks and raids carried out by the early Muslims on the orders of the Prophet Muhammad, often on the same targets, that even the earliest Muslim biographers such as al-Waqidi and al-Tabari sometimes differ from Ibn Ishaq and from each other, on the sequence and timing of such events.