Battle of al-Harra: Difference between revisions

| coordinates = {{coordCoord|24|29|22|N|39|43|40|E|format=dms|type:event_region:SA-03|display=title,inline}}

| result = [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] victory

* [[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]]

* [[Muhajirun]] (including the [[Quraysh]])

| commander1 = {{Plain list|
* [[Muslim ibn Uqba]] <br />
* [[Marwan I|Marwan ibn al-Hakam]]

| casualties2 = {{Plain list|
* 180–700 Ansar and Quraysh <br />
* 4,000–10,000 other Medinans after the battle

The '''Battle of al-Harra''' ({{lang-ar|يوم الحرة|translit=Yawm al-Ḥarra|lit=Day of al-Harra}}) was fought between the [[Bilad al-Sham|Umayyad]] army of the caliph [[Yazid I]] ({{reign|680|683}}) led by [[Muslim ibn Uqba]] and the defenders of [[Medina]] from the [[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]] and [[Muhajirun]] factions, who had rebelled against the caliph. The battle took place at the [[lava field]] of Harrat Waqim in the northeastern outskirts of Medina on 26 August 683 and lasted less than a day.

The elite factions of Medina disapproved of the hereditary succession of Yazid (unprecedented in Islamic history until that point), resented the caliph's impious lifestyle, and chafed under Umayyad economic acts and policies. After declaring their rebellion, they besieged the [[Umayyad dynasty|Umayyad clan]] resident in Medina and dug a defensive trench around the city. The expeditionary force sent by Yazid and local Umayyads, who had since been released from the siege, encamped at Harrat Waqim, where the rebels confronted them. Despite an initial advantage, the Medinans were routed due to the defection of one of their factions, the Banu Haritha, which enabled Umayyad horse riders led by [[Marwan I|Marwan ibn al-Hakam]] to attack them from the rear.

The location of the battle was the lava field of Harrat Waqim, which straddles the eastern outskirts of [[Medina]] in the [[Hejaz]] (western [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]]).{{sfn|Smith|1994|p=110, note 534}}{{sfn|Vaglieri|1971|p=226}} It was named after the Waqim fortress of the [[Banu Qurayza]] tribe that had been resident in the area during the [[pre-Islamic Arabia|pre-Islamic period]] and was alternatively known as Harrat Bani Qurayza or Harrat Zuhra.{{sfn|Lecker|1985|p=44}} It formed part of the vast geological system of {{transl|ar|[[Harrat al-Shamah|ḥarras]]}} (basaltic deserts) which spanned the region east of the [[Hauran]] in [[Syria (region)|Syria]] southward to Medina's environs.{{sfn|Editors|1971|p=226}} As a result of the fame of the battle, Harrat Waqim was thenceforth referred to in Muslim sources as 'the Harra'.{{sfn|Vaglieri|1971|p=226}}

Under the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]], beginning in 622, and the first three caliphs, [[Abu Bakr]] ({{reign|632|634}}), [[Umar]] ({{reign|634|644}}) and [[Uthman]] ({{reign|644|656}}), Medina served as the capital of the [[Caliphate|early Muslim state]], which by Uthman's time came to rule over an empire spanning [[Arabia]], most of the Persian [[Sasanian Empire]] and the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] territories of [[Diocese of the East|Syria]] and [[Roman Egypt|Egypt]]. The capital was moved to [[Kufa]] in [[Sawad|Iraq]] by the fourth caliph, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law [[Ali]] ({{reign|656|661}}), during the [[First Muslim Civil War]]. Ali's rival for the caliphate, the[[Mu'awiya]], governor of [[Bilad al-Sham|Syria]] [[Mu'awiya]], won the war and made [[Damascus]] capital of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], which he founded in 661.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

In 680, Yazid dismissed his cousin [[al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan]] from the governorship of Medina for having failed to prevent Husayn and the other major opponent to his rule, [[Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr]], a grandson of Abu Bakr, from leaving Medina. Al-Walid's replacement, the Umayyad [[Amr ibn Sa'id al-Ashdaq]], failed to capture Ibn al-Zubayr, who took refuge in the [[Kaaba]] in [[Mecca]], or extract from him the [[bay'ah|oath of allegiance]] to Yazid. Al-Ashdaq mobilized a troop of Medinans enrolled in the army, as well as {{transl|ar|[[mawla|mawali]]}} (sing. {{transl|ar|mawla}}; non-Arab, Muslim freedmen or clients) of the Umayyad clan, to assault Ibn al-Zubayr, but many of the recruited Medinans were reticent to participate and paid others to fight in their place.{{sfn|Kister|1977|pp=34–35}} Ibn al-Zubayr defeated this force, and partly as a consequence, Yazid dismissed al-Ashdaq and reappointed al-Walid ibn Utba in August 681. Feigning an attempted reconciliation with the caliph, Ibn al-Zubayr requested that Yazid replace al-Walid ibn Utba with a milder governor. Yazid acceded, installing his young and politically inexperienced cousin [[Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Sufyan]] in December 682.{{sfn|Kister|1977|pp=35–36}}

Uthman ibn Muhammad was unable to control the growing opposition to Umayyad rule.{{sfn|Vaglieri|1971|p=226}} According to the historian [[al-Mada'ini]] (d. 843), the inaugurating act of rebellion by the Medinans occurred during a gathering in the mosque where the attendees each tossed an article of clothing, such as a turban or a shoe, an Arab custom symbolizing a severing of ties, to renounce their allegiance to Yazid.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=153}} According to the historian [[Abu Mikhnaf]] (d. 774), the first act of rebellion by the Medinans was giving allegiance to Ibn Hanzala.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=153–154}} Afterward, they assaulted the Umayyads and their supporters in the city, together about 1,000-strong, who fled to the quarter of their leading elder, [[Marwan I|Marwan ibn al-Hakam]].{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=154}} The latter sent urgent requests for assistance from Yazid,{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=154}}{{sfn|Vaglieri|1971|p=227}} who dispatched an army to suppress the opposition from both the Medinans and Ibn al-Zubayr.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=47}}

Squadrons of Medinan {{transl|ar|mawali}}, fighting under the command of the {{transl|ar|mawla}} [[Yazid ibn Hurmuz]], defended a large section of the ditch, and held off an assault by the Syrians, refusing demands to surrender.{{sfn|Kister|1977|p=45}} The historians [[Wahb ibn Jarir]] (d. 822) and [[Ali ibn Ahmad al-Samhudi|al-Samhudi]] (d. 1533) held that Medinan lines were compromised by the defection of the Banu Haritha, whose members gave Marwan and his horse riders access through their quarter in Medina, enabling them to assault the Medinans at the Harra from the rear.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=156}} The Quraysh under Ibn Muti fled the battlefield and headed for safety to Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca.{{sfn|Vaglieri|1971|p=227}} According to al-Waqidi, the battle concluded on 26 August 683.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=156}} The fighting lasted less than a day.{{sfn|Kister|1977|p=49}}

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