Sirah

The Well of Ma'una

The betrayal of the teaching parties at Bi'r Ma'una and al-Raji, Safar 4 AH

4 AH / 625 CE

Imagined 360° reconstruction of The Well of Ma'una

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

Bi'r Ma'una, a desert well on the edge of Najd between the lands of Banu 'Amir and Banu Sulaym

23.9000, 41.4000 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

In Safar of the fourth year after the Hijrah, 625 CE, some months after the reverse at Uhud, two small parties of Muslims sent out from Madinah as teachers and reciters of the Qur'an were betrayed and destroyed by inland Arab tribes. At Bi'r Ma'una, a well on the edge of Najd between the territories of the Banu 'Amir and the Banu Sulaym, a party that the sources number at around seventy of the qurra' (those who carried and taught the Qur'an) had been sent at the request of a chief who offered them safe-conduct; once in the interior they were surrounded and almost all killed, the safe-conduct betrayed by tribes of Sulaym. In the same period, at a place called al-Raji near 'Usfan, a smaller party of teachers sent with another delegation was ambushed by the tribe of Lihyan; some were killed on the spot and others taken and later killed at Makkah. Ibn Ishaq's Sira and al-Waqidi's Maghazi preserve the details of both betrayals, and the canonical hadith collections (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim) record that the grief of Bi'r Ma'una was the occasion on which the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) recited the qunut, a supplication in the formal prayer, for a month against the tribes that had broken their pledge, the only sustained instance of such a supplication in the Sira. The episodes belong to the difficult year after Uhud, when the prestige of the Madinian community was at a low ebb and small parties were vulnerable in the open country. This scene depicts the place and its aftermath only: the remote well, the gear of a halted party, the signs of an ambush now past. No act of violence and no body is shown. In keeping with the strictest visual ethics, and out of respect for the Companions who were martyred here, no person is depicted.

What you see

A lone desert watering-place on a high, open plain at the margin of Najd, far inland from any town, the kind of remote well, away from settlement and protection, where a small party could be cut off and surrounded.

A stone-rimmed desert well with watering-troughs and the scattered gear of a halted travelling party, pack-saddles, water-skins, a few belongings left on the ground, the camp of a group that stopped here and did not move on.

The aftermath of an ambush, conveyed only by signs: abandoned mounts, the disturbed ground of an encampment, birds circling the empty plain. No act of killing and no body is shown, the violence is past and off-frame.

Faint tracks lead in from the direction of Madinah; the party had been sent out as teachers, on a request for instruction, into the lands of inland tribes far from the safety of the oasis.

The subject is a place of treachery and grief: a remote well where a party sent to teach the Qur'an was betrayed and destroyed. It is remembered with the well of al-Raji, where a second teaching party was ambushed in the same period.

The grief of this betrayal is the traditional occasion of the qunut, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) supplicating in prayer for a month against the tribes that broke their pledge, as recorded in the canonical hadith.

The dating is Safar of the fourth year after the Hijrah, 625 CE, some months after the reverse at Uhud, a season of repeated betrayals of small Muslim parties by inland tribes.

Primary sources

Ibn Ishaq / Ibn Hisham, Sirat Rasul Allah (compiled 8th-9th c.): The narrative of both betrayals, Bi'r Ma'una and al-Raji, the numbers of the parties, the tribes responsible, and the safe-conduct that was broken. The principal source.

Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi (early 9th c.): Detailed account of the two expeditions of teachers and their destruction; dating to Safar 4 AH. Used with the usual caution on al-Waqidi.

Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim (3rd c. AH): The canonical reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made qunut for a month after Bi'r Ma'una, supplicating against the tribes that betrayed the reciters (e.g. Sahih al-Bukhari 4088-4096; Sahih Muslim 677). The strongest attestation of the episode.

al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa-al-Muluk (early 10th c.): Compiles the accounts and fixes both betrayals in the post-Uhud sequence of 4 AH.

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