I heard Saʿd—who was the first man ever to shoot an arrow in the path of God—and Abū Bakrah—who had scaled the fortress of al-Ṭāʾif with a group and come to the Messenger of God—both say: “We heard the Messenger of God ﷺ declare: ‘Whoever knowingly claims affiliation to someone other than his own father, Paradise is forbidden to him.’” Muslim also transmits this ḥadīth through ʿĀṣim.

al-Bukhārī (1) records: Hishām said, “Maʿmar narrated to us, from ʿĀṣim, from Abū l-ʿĀliyah—or from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī—who said: ‘I heard Saʿd and Abū Bakrah report from the Prophet ﷺ.’” ʿĀṣim remarked, “Two men have testified before you—surely they suffice.” He replied, “Indeed. One of them was the first to shoot an arrow in the cause of God, while the other came down to the Messenger of God from al-Ṭāʾif as the third of a party of twenty-three.”

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (2) relates: Two of the Prophet’s wives accompanied him, one of them Umm Salamah. He pitched two tents for them and would pray between the two. He then laid siege to the town, fought them fiercely, and the two sides exchanged volleys of arrows.

Ibn Hishām (3) adds: The Prophet ﷺ also bombarded them with a mangonel. Someone I trust told me that he was the first in Islam to employ a mangonel, hurling its stones against the people of al-Ṭāʾif.

Ibn Isḥāq further recounts that a group of Companions crept forward beneath a movable siege shelter (dabbābah) to pierce the wall of al-Ṭāʾif. Thaqīf poured down on them red-hot iron pieces, forcing them out, then shot them with arrows and killed several of them. Only then did the Messenger of God ﷺ order that Thaqīf’s vineyards be cut down, and the people set to work hewing them.

He continues: Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb and al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah advanced and called out to Thaqīf for safe-conduct so they might speak with them. Thaqīf granted it. The two then urged the women of Quraysh and Banū Kinānah to come out—for they feared the women might be taken captive if the fortress fell—but the women refused.

Ibn al-Aswad ibn Masʿūd then said to them, “Shall I direct you to something better than what you have come for? You know where the estate of the Banū al-Aswad ibn Masʿūd lies”—the Messenger of God ﷺ was encamped in a valley called al-ʿAqīq, situated between that estate and al-Ṭāʾif—“and in all of al-Ṭāʾif there is no land whose water is drawn from farther away, whose upkeep is more difficult, or whose cultivation is more remote. If Muḥammad cuts it down it will never be farmed again. Speak to him, then, that he may either take it for himself or leave it to God and to kinship.” They claim that the Messenger of God ﷺ left it to them.

Al-Wāqidī (4) reports something similar from his teachers, and in his version it was Salmān al-Fārisī who suggested the mangonel and built it with his own hands; some say he brought it, along with two dabbābahs. God knows best.