Expedition of Abdullah ibn Rawaha to Khyber, took place in February 628 AD.

Ibn Hisham Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham ibn Ayyub al-Himyari (; died 7 May 833), known simply as Ibn Hisham, was a 9th-century Abbasid historian and scholar. He grew up in Basra, in modern-day Iraq and later moved to Egypt. Life Ibn Hisham has ...

also refers to this as Abdullah b. Rawaha's raid to kill al-Yusayr b. Rizam. The assassination was successful, and ibn Rizam was killed as well as 29 of his followers.

Assassination of Al-Yusayr ibn Rizam

The assassination of Abu Rafi did not relieve Muhammad of his apprehensions.

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

did not feel safe from the Jews of Khyber. Al-Yusayr ibn Rizam was elected the new chief of the Khyber Jews. He maintained the same good relations with the Banu Ghatafan that his predecessor Abu Rafi had. Muhammad heard that Al-Yusayr ibn Rizam was planning a fresh attack against him. So he deputed Abdallah ibn Rawaha, a leader of the Banu Khazraj, and sent him with three followers to Khyber to gather intelligence on how Al-Yusayr may be taken unaware and assassinated. But Abdullah ibn Rawaha found the Jews to be extremely alert for this second assassination to be a success. When he returned to Medina a new strategy was devised, Muhammad again sent him openly with 30 men mounted on camels to persuade al-Yusayr to visit Medina. When they arrived, they assured Yusayr they will make him the ruler of Khyber and would treat him well, giving al-Yusayr ibn Rizam a solemn guarantee of his safety. So he was mounted on the horse of Abdullah ibn Unais and the Muslims rode behind him. When they arrived at al-Qarqarat, about six miles from Khyber, al-Yusayr suspected the plans of the Muslims and changed his mind about going to meet Muhammad. He dismounted from the beast he was riding with Abdullah ibn Unais. Abdullah ibn Unais perceived that al-Yusayr was drawing his sword. So he rushed at him and hit him with a deadly blow on his hip joint. Al-Yusayr fell wounded on the floor but hit Abdullah ibn Unais and wounded him with a camel staff, the only weapon within his reach. This was a signal for the Muslims to attack, each of the Muslims killed the Jews on the camels in front of them, one behind the other. The Muslims killed all the Jews, except one who escaped.

Islamic primary sources

The Sunni hadith collection

Sunan al-Tirmidhi ''Sunan al-Tirmidhi'' () is the fourth hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. It was compiled by Islamic scholar al-Tirmidhi in (250–270 AH). Title The full title of the compilation is (). It is shortened to , , , or . The t ...

no. 3923 mentions that Muhammad sent a detachment under Abdullah ibn Rawaha:

Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal ''Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal'' () is a collection of musnad hadith compiled by the Islamic scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. AH 241/AD 855) to whom the Hanbali fiqh (legislation) is attributed. Description Musnad Ahmad, also known as Al-Musnad , is on ...

2:1966 also mentioned this incident.Nasiruddin Khattab
English Translation of Musnad Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal
Darussalam, 2012,
online txt

onlinde pdf

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Expedition Of Abdullah Ibn Rawaha 628 Campaigns ordered by Muhammad

Assassination of Al-Yusayr ibn Rizam

Islamic primary sources

See also

References