Sirah
The Compensatory Pilgrimage ('Umrat al-Qada')
The Ka'ba precinct at Makkah, Dhul-Qa'dah 7 AH
7 AH / 629 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
The Ka'ba and its precinct, Makkah
21.4225, 39.8262 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
Among the terms of the truce of Hudaybiyyah (6 AH) was that the Muslims, turned back that year, would return the following year to perform the lesser pilgrimage ('umra) and that the Quraysh would vacate Makkah for three days to let them do so. Accordingly, in Dhul-Qa'dah of the seventh year after the Hijra (629 CE), the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) led the Companions into Makkah for the 'Umrat al-Qada', the 'compensatory' or 'fulfilled' pilgrimage. The Quraysh withdrew to the surrounding hills and watched from a distance while the Muslims entered in ihram, circled the Ka'ba (tawaf), performed the sa'y between Safa and Marwa, and, by the reports in Sahih al-Bukhari (the 'Umrat al-Qada' narrations), Bilal (radiyallahu 'anhu) gave the call to prayer. After three days they departed on schedule, honouring the agreement. It is essential to the dating that this is the year before the conquest: the Ka'ba was still surrounded by the idols of the Quraysh, which would only be removed when Makkah was taken peacefully the following year (8 AH). The compensatory 'umra was a powerful, peaceful demonstration of the community's standing and of its claim to the ancient sanctuary, and it softened many Makkan hearts in the year before the city opened. This scene depicts the draped Ka'ba in its pre-conquest precinct, the ring of pilgrims at tawaf, and the Quraysh watching from the heights, without depicting the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or any Companion, in the Sirah tier, and with the architecture kept to the simple early sanctuary rather than the later monumental mosque.
What you see
A roughly cubic stone building draped in cloth stands at the centre of an open precinct ringed by bare hills, the Ka'ba, in its pre-conquest form, before the later great mosque enclosed it. A simple sanctuary in a valley, not a vast galleried courtyard.
Idols and images still stand around and within the precinct, for this is the year before the conquest; the cleansing of the Ka'ba has not yet happened. The pilgrims perform their rites among signs of the old order they have come only to visit, not yet to remove.
A ring of pilgrims in the plain cloth of ihram circles the building (tawaf), Muslims performing the lesser pilgrimage they were turned back from the previous year at Hudaybiyyah, now fulfilled under the truce's terms.
On the surrounding heights the Quraysh watch from a distance: by the treaty they vacated the town for three days and withdrew to the hills while the Muslims performed the 'umra, a tense, temporary handover of the sanctuary, observed rather than contested.
The bare valley walls and the absence of any large mosque structure mark Makkah of the 7th year after the Hijra, the sanctuary town, not the monumental Haram of later centuries with its arcades and minarets.
The bearing is orderly and time-bounded: a pilgrimage performed and then departed from on schedule, honouring the truce, a demonstration of restraint and of the community's claim to the sanctuary, made peacefully.
Primary sources
Sahih al-Bukhari (the 'Umrat al-Qada' reports): The performance of the delayed 'umra under the Hudaybiyyah terms, the three days, and the rites. The primary Sunni frame.
Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya (Ibn Ishaq recension): The narrative of the compensatory pilgrimage, the Quraysh withdrawal, and the orderly departure.
al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi (early 9th c.): Detailed maghazi account of the 'umra, numbers, and the three days; used with caution on specifics.
al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa-al-Muluk (9th-10th c.): Sunni historical synthesis placing the 'umra in 7 AH, between Hudaybiyyah and the conquest.
Further reading & cross-references
al-Azraqi, Akhbar Makka (9th c.): Topography and history of the Makkan sanctuary; used to constrain the pre-conquest form of the Ka'ba and precinct (idols present, no later mosque structure).
Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, al-Rahiq al-Makhtum (20th c.): Modern Sunni synthesis for the chronology and the place of the 'umra in the year before the conquest.
Guess places like this in GeoSiyer
Drop into a 360° scene from Islamic history and pin where — and when — it happened.
Play GeoSiyer