Chālid ibn al-Walīd

His tomb in the Chalid-ibn-al-Walid mosque in Homs

Chālid ibn al-Walīd ( Arabic خالد بن الوليد, DMG Ḫālid ibn al-Walīd also Khaled Ebn El-Walid , * around 584 in Mecca ; † 642 in Homs ) was a companion of Muhammad and one of the most important Arab generals during the Ridda Wars and on the early Islamic campaigns of conquest . Due to his military successes, Mohammed is said to have given him the nickname "Sword of God" ( Saif Alllāh ).

Life until the death of the prophet

Chālid ibn al-Walīd came from the Banū Machzūm clan of the Quraish tribe in Mecca . At first he was one of the opponents of the Prophet Mohammed and, as the cavalry leader of Mecca, defeated the Muslims in 625 at the Battle of Uhud . In the spring of 629 he converted to Islam . In the following years he became an important military leader of Muhammad. In the battle of Muʾta in September 629 he saved the Muslims from being surrounded by the Byzantines .

After taking Mecca in January 630, however, he fell out of favor with the Prophet for some time. The reason for this was the affair over the Banū Jadhīma. They were a clan of the Kināna tribe who lived in the southeast of Mecca. In February 630, Chālid was sent by Mohammed with a troop of 350 men to the Banū Jadhīma to ensure their loyalty. Although it was a peaceful undertaking and the Banū Jadhīma said they had already embraced Islam, Chālid used force against them and killed some of their men. It obviously played a role that members of the Kināna had previously killed an uncle and a brother of his. Chalid's behavior aroused general outrage in Mecca. To appease the critics, the Prophet Chalid publicly reprimanded. Chālid withdrew for a time, but was then welcomed back with approval by the Prophet. On this occasion Mohammed is said to have given him the nickname "Sword of God".

During the campaign to Tabūk , the Chālid led the vanguard. In October 630 he was sent with 420 horsemen to the Dūmat al-Jandal oasis, which at that time was ruled by the Christian tribal king ( malik ) Ukaidir ibn ʿAbd al-Malik from the Kinda tribe . He could take the oasis and capture the king. An annual jizya payment was imposed on the oasis .

Role during the Ridda Wars

The route of the troops of Chālid ibn al-Walīd during the Ridda Wars

When the Ridda wars broke out after the death of Mohammed , the caliph Abū Bakr placed him at the head of an army that opposed the rebellious chief of the Asad, Tulaiha ibn Chuwailid, and his allies from the tribes of the Taiyi 'and Ghatafān, and then against the renegade poet and chief Mālik ibn Nuwaira of the Yarbūʿ should fight.

Victory at Buzācha

Even before the two combat units of Chālid and Tulaiha met at Buzācha in the Najd , the Taiyiʾ switched to Chālid's side after negotiations. Together with the newly won allies, Chālid achieved a brilliant victory on the battlefield over Tulaiha and his ally ʿUyaina ibn Hisn of the Ghatafān. After the victory of Buzācha, Chālid distributed the captured weapons among his fighters, divided his army into different departments and sent them in different directions. One of these detachments was sent against the tribal association of ʿĀmir ibn Saʿsaʿa under the leadership of a man from the Tamīm.

The Mālik ibn Nuwaira affair

Another division came across twelve men from the Yarbūʿ in late autumn 632, including Mālik ibn Nuwaira. The men did not resist, declared that they were Muslims themselves, and were taken to Chālid's camp in al-Butāh. Although some of Chalid's men interceded on behalf of the prisoners, arguing that they were inviolable as Muslims, Chalid had them executed. A little later, Chālid married Mālik's widow Umm Tamīm, who was considered particularly beautiful.

When ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb heard of this behavior, he urged Abū Bakr to execute or at least depose Chālid for the murder of a Muslim and for the zinā offense he had committed (he had not observed the ʿidda waiting period). Others made serious allegations that he had tortured and burned some of the alleged apostates to deter the tribes. In Islamic historiography , Chālid's crackdown on Mālik was partly justified by the fact that, in an interview with Chālid, Mālik had referred to the Prophet Mohammed as "your man", that is, using an expression that indicated that he was outside the Muslim community.

Abū Bakr held his protective hand over Chālid in the Mālik ibn Nuwaira affair, so that he could continue his military ventures thereafter. In this context the words are handed down from him: "I will never be the one who sheaths a sword that God has drawn (against the unbelievers)."

Battle of ʿAqrabāʾ

Chālid also led the supreme command of the Muslim army in the largest battle within the Ridda Wars, that of the EbeneAqrabāʾ plain in the Yamāma in the spring of 633. Chālid's opponents here were Musailima and the Banū Hanīfa allies with him. Because of the large number of dead, the place is also known as the "Garden of Death". Islamic sources report that Chālid's army consisted of Muhādjirūn , Ansār and members of various tribes and that Shurahbīl ibn Hasana led his vanguard. Al-Balādhurī reports that the Ansār long refused to attack the Banū Hanīfa, but then consented to it. During the fighting, tensions are said to have developed in the Muslim camp between the Bedouins and the townspeople, who accused each other of cowardice in front of the enemy. After the victory over Musailima, which was finally achieved, the Banū Hanīfa surrendered and concluded a peace treaty with Chālid. Shortly afterwards he married Muddschāʿa, the daughter of a chief of the Banū Hanīfa, who had negotiated the contract.

According to the report of Saif ibn Umar , after the conclusion of the peace treaty, a letter from Abū Bakr arrived, in which the Chālid requested that all adult men of the Banū Hanīfa be executed. Chālid, however, kept the word given to the Banū Hanīfa. This in turn turned the Ansār against him, who saw themselves cheated of their prey and suspected him of adhering to the Banū Hanīfa because of his wife. They complained to the caliph, whereupon ʿUmar again demanded Chalid's removal.

Conquests in the Middle East

In the early summer of 633, Chālid moved towards Iraq on behalf of Abū Bakr and conquered the cities of al-Hīra , which at that time served as the residence of the Lachmid princes , and al-Anbār , at that time the second largest city in Iraq. Then he attacked the border fortress ʿAin at-Tamr, 90 kilometers further south, overpowered its garrison and made numerous prisoners who were transferred to Medina. In ʿAin at-Tamr, Chālid was commissioned to march to the Dūmat al-Jandal oasis, where the Christian chief Ukaidir ibn ʿAbd al-Malik terminated his loyalty to Medina and, together with a coalition of Arab tribal groups, became a center of resistance against Muslim rule had built. Chālid and his troops were able to defeat this coalition; Ukaidir fell in battle.

When a major confrontation between the troops operating in Syria and the Byzantine army was on the horizon, Abū Bakr called on the Chālid, who was still in Iraq, to ​​hurry to reinforce them in Syria. On April 24, 634, he and his troops surprisingly appeared at the Christian Ghassanids , who were celebrating Easter on the Marj Rāhit plain north of Damascus . The two Arab armies united in southern Syria, and together they could take the city of Bosra . Under Chālid's command, the Arabs defeated a Byzantine army on July 30, 634, which they encountered at Ajnadain in Palestine .

After ʿUmar had assumed rule in 634, he withdrew Chālid's command of the troops in Syria, but when he captured Damascus in the summer of 635, Chālid still negotiated the surrender treaty with the city. Shortly afterwards, the handover of command to Abū ʿUbaida ibn al-Jarrāh took place . The reasons for Khalid's deposition by Umar are not entirely clear. The motives that are mentioned include ʿUmar's resentment due to the Mālik affair, ʿUmar's particular closeness to Abū ʿUbaida, and Chālid's arbitrary handling of money. ʿUmar later confiscated part of Chālid's private fortune.

literature

• Khalil ʿAthamina: “The Appointment and Dismissal of Khālid b. Al-Walīd from the Supreme Command: A Study of the Political Strategy of the Early Muslim Caliphs in Syria ”in Arabica 41/2 (1994) 253-272.
• Patricia Crone : Art. Khālid b. al-Walīd. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. IV, pp. 928-929.
• Fred McGraw Donner: The early Islamic Conquests . Princeton 1981.
• Klaus Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical examination of the historiography of the early Islamic period . ( Islamic Studies 217) Berlin 1998. Digitized
• Elias Shoufany: Al-Riddah and the Muslim Conquest of Arabia . University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1973.

supporting documents

1. ↑ On this episode, cf. Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, pp. 30-66.
2. ↑ Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, p. 20.
3. ^ W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad at Medina. Oxford 1956. pp. 114f.
4. ↑ See Shoufany 116.
5. ↑ See Shoufany 118.
6. ↑ See Shoufany 120, 125.
7. ↑ See Shoufany 125.
8. ↑ See Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, pp. 103-105
9. ↑ See Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, pp. 105-107 and Shoufany 124.
10. ↑ See Shoufany 124.
11. ↑ See Ella Landau-Tasseron: Art. Mālik ibn Nuwaira. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VI, pp. 267a-269a. Here p. 268a.
12. ↑ Quotation from Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, p. 105.
13. ↑ See Shoufany 128-130.
14. ↑ See Shoufany 125f.
15. ↑ See Shoufany 130.
16. ↑ See Shoufany 131.
17. ↑ See Donner 176–190.
18. ↑ See Donner 124.
19. ↑ See Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, pp. 161f.
20. ↑ See Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, p. 216.
21. ↑ See Klier: Ḫālid and ʿUmar: Source-critical investigation . 1998, p. 189.