Sirah

The Expedition of Nakhla

The patrol at Nakhla and the sacred month, Rajab 2 AH / c. 624 CE

Rajab 2 AH / c. 624 CE

Imagined 360° reconstruction of The Expedition of Nakhla

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

The valley of Nakhla, between Makkah and Ta'if

21.5500, 40.1500 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

The expedition of Nakhla, in Rajab of the second year after the migration (c. 624 CE), shortly before the battle of Badr, was a small and difficult episode that the maghazi sources, Ibn Ishaq, al-Waqidi and al-Tabari, record with care. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent a party of about a dozen Companions under Abdullah ibn Jahsh (radiyallahu 'anhu) with sealed instructions to be opened only after two days' march, directing him to Nakhla, a valley with palms and water on the road between Makkah and Ta'if, to gather news of Quraysh and observe their movements. There the party came upon a small Quraysh caravan; reckoning the last day of Rajab, the party fell upon it, took its goods and a captive, and one of the Quraysh was killed. The deed troubled the Muslims greatly, for it had fallen, by their reckoning, within the sacred month of Rajab, in which fighting was forbidden by the old custom of the Arabs, and the Quraysh made much of it; the Prophet at first withheld the spoils. Then came the revelation of the verse of Surat al-Baqara: they ask you about fighting in the sacred month; say, fighting in it is a grave matter, but barring others from the way of Allah, disbelief in Him, and expelling the people of the sanctuary from it are graver in the sight of Allah, and persecution is worse than killing (Q 2:217), setting the deed in the balance against the far greater wrongs of the persecution and expulsion the believers had suffered. This scene depicts the place and the moment before the encounter: the palm-filled valley of Nakhla with its watering place, a hidden watch-camp among the palms, and a caravan approaching with its bundled goods. In keeping with the Sirah tier no person is shown and the fighting itself is not depicted.

What you see

A palm-filled valley with a watering place between the bare hills on the road between Makkah and Ta'if, a halt on the caravan route through the rough country south-east of the sanctuary.

A small watch-camp is set among the palms, a patrol concealed and observing the road; a distant caravan of laden camels approaches the watering place, unaware of the watchers.

This is the expedition of Nakhla, a small party under Abdullah ibn Jahsh (radiyallahu 'anhu) sent to gather news of Quraysh, which fell upon a Quraysh caravan, took its goods and a captive and killed a man, on the last day of the sacred month of Rajab, in which fighting was forbidden by old Arab custom.

The deed troubled the Muslims, for it had fallen in the sacred month; the Qur'an answered that fighting in the sacred month is a grave matter, but barring others from the way of Allah, disbelief and expelling people from the sanctuary are graver still (Q 2:217). The scene shows the place and the approaching caravan, not the fighting.

Bundled goods and waterskins by the palms mark the caravan's halt; the watch-camp is hidden in the grove, the men kept distant and anonymous, the moment before the encounter.

The expedition of Nakhla is recorded by Ibn Ishaq, al-Waqidi and al-Tabari, and the verse on fighting in the sacred month (Q 2:217) is connected to it. In the Sirah tier no person is depicted.

Primary sources

Ibn Ishaq via Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya: The narrative of the expedition of Nakhla, the sealed instructions, the encounter, and the unease over the sacred month.

al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi (early 9th c.): The detailed Sunni record of the party, the caravan, and the spoils and captive.

The Qur'an, Surat al-Baqara (2:217): The verse on fighting in the sacred month, connected by the tradition to Nakhla, weighing it against the greater wrongs of persecution and expulsion.

al-Tabari, Tarikh and Jami' al-Bayan (9th-10th c.): Sunni history and tafsir of the episode and the verse.

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