I say:
The soundest view is that the polytheists altogether numbered between nine hundred and one thousand. Qatādah (1) states explicitly that they were nine hundred and fifty men, and it seems he derived that figure from the report we have just cited—Allah knows best.

In the previously mentioned narration from ʿUmar (2) they are put at more than one thousand, but the correct view is the first, for he ﷺ said:

“ The people are between nine hundred and one thousand.” (3)

As for the Companions on that day, they were three hundred and a few-odd men, as will be specified later—together with their names, if Allah wills.

In the narration of al-Ḥakam, from Miqsam, from Ibn ʿAbbās, it was noted earlier that the Battle of Badr took place on Friday, the seventeenth of Ramadan. The same was affirmed by ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, Qatādah, Ismāʿīl al-Suddi the Elder, and Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir (4).

Al-Bayhaqī (5) relates, through Qutaybah, from Jarīr, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, from al-Aswad, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd concerning Laylat al-Qadr, that he said:
“Seek it when eleven nights remain, for its morning is the Day of Badr.”

Al-Bayhaqī (6) adds: It is also reported from Zayd ibn Arqam that when he was asked about Laylat al-Qadr he replied, “The nineteenth night—without any doubt,” and he went on to say, “The Day of Criterion was the day the two hosts met.”

Al-Bayhaqī (7) continues: What is most widely known among the scholars of sīrah and maghāzī is that it occurred after seventeen nights of Ramadan had passed.

Then he said (8): Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān informed us, Abū ʿAmr ibn al-Sammāk narrated to us, Ḥanbal ibn Isḥāq told us, Abū Nuʿaym told us, ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān told us: I heard Mūsā ibn Ṭalḥah say that Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī was asked about the Day of Badr and he replied: “Either when seventeen had elapsed, or thirteen had elapsed, or eleven remained, or seventeen remained.” This is exceedingly unusual.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (9) records in the biography of Qubāth ibn Ashyam al-Laythī—citing al-Wāqidī and others with their chains to him—that he was present at Badr on the side of the polytheists, and he recounts their rout notwithstanding the small number of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying: “I began to …”