The expedition of Khalid ibn al-Walid to
Nakhla took place in January 630 AD, 8AH, in the 9th month of the
Islamic Calendar
The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or ...
.
Khalid ibn al-Walid
Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (; died 642) was a 7th-century Arab military commander. He initially headed campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh. He later became a Muslim and spent the remainder of his career in ...
was sent to destroy the image of the Goddess
al-Uzza which was worshipped by polytheists; he did this successfully.
Expedition and demolition of Temple
Soon after the
Conquest of Mecca
The Conquest of Mecca ( ar, فتح مكة , translit=Fatḥ Makkah) was the capture of the town of Mecca by Muslims led by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in December 629 or January 630 AD ( Julian), 10–20 Ramadan, 8 AH. The conquest marked t ...
, Muhammad began to dispatch expeditions on errands aiming at eliminating the last symbols reminiscent of pre-Islamic practices.
He sent Khalid bin Al-Walid in Ramadan 8 A.H. to a place called Nakhlah, where there was an idol of the goddess called Al-‘Uzza worshipped by the
Quraish and
Kinanah tribes, and guarded by custodians from Banu Shaiban. Khalid, at the head of thirty horsemen, arrived at the spot and destroyed the idol.
Upon his return, Muhammad asked him if he had seen anything else there, to which Khalid replied, "No". He was told that the idol had not been destroyed and that he must go back and fulfill the task. Khalid went again to Nakhlah and there saw a black Abyssinian (Ethiopian) woman, naked with disheveled hair. He struck her with his sword and cut her into "two pieces", according to the Muslim scholar, Saifur Rahman al Mubarakpuri. He returned once again and narrated his story to Muhammad, who then confirmed the fulfillment of the task, saying that the black Ethiopian woman was the real "al-Uzza".
[{{Internet Archive, id=bub_gb_Feo9AAAAYAAJ, name=The life of Mahomet and history of Islam, Volume 4, By Sir William Muir, page=154
, p. 135 See bottom, Notes section]
See also
*Military career of Muhammad
The military career of Muhammad (''c.'' 570 – 8 June 632), the Islamic prophet, encompasses several expeditions and battles throughout the Hejaz region in the western Arabian Peninsula which took place in the final ten years of his life, from ...
Notes
630
Campaigns ordered by Muhammad
Persecution of Pagans