Account of the Events that Took Place in the Second Year after the Hijrah

During that year many expeditions (maghāzī) and detachments (sarāyā) were dispatched, the greatest and most illustrious of them being the Major Battle of Badr, which occurred in the month of Ramadan. Through that battle Allah distinguished truth from falsehood and guidance from misguidance.

This, then, is the proper moment to relate the campaigns and military missions; we therefore say—and Allah’s help is sought:

[The Book of Campaigns]

Imām Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār states in his work al-Sīrah (1), after mentioning the Jewish rabbis (2), their enmity toward Islam and its people, and the verses that were revealed concerning them:

Among them were Huyayy ibn Akhtab; his two brothers Abū Yāsir and Judayy; Salām ibn Mishkam; Kinānah ibn al-Rabīʿ ibn Abī al-Ḥuqayq; Salām ibn Abī al-Ḥuqayq—better known as Abū Rāfiʿ al-Aʿwar, the merchant of the Ḥijāz, whom the Companions killed in the land of Khaybar, as will be mentioned; al-Rabīʿ ibn al-Rabīʿ ibn Abī al-Ḥuqayq; ʿAmr ibn Juhāsh; and Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf—who was of the tribe of Ṭayyʾ and then an ally of the Banū Nabhān, while his mother was from the Banū al-Naḍīr; the Companions killed him before Abū Rāfiʿ, as will be discussed later—together with his two allies al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿAmr and Kurdum ibn Qays—may Allah curse them. All of these were from the Banū al-Naḍīr.

From the Banū Thaʿlabah ibn al-Faṭyūn (3) were ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣūrayyā—no one in the Ḥijāz was more knowledgeable in the Torah than he (I add: it has been said that he accepted Islam)—, Ibn Ṣalūbā, and Mukhayrīq—who embraced Islam on the day of Uḥud, as will be mentioned, and who was the leading rabbi of his people (4).

From the Banū Qaynuqāʿ were Zayd ibn al-Luṣayt, Saʿd ibn Ḥanīf, Maḥmūd ibn Shayḥān (5), and ʿAzīz ibn Abī