Battle of Badr

In March 624, at the wells of Badr in western Arabia, a small force of Muslims from Medina led by Muhammad defeated a larger army of the Quraysh, the dominant tribe of Mecca. It was the first large-scale clash between the two sides, and its result greatly strengthened Muhammad's position in Medina and beyond. Muslim tradition dates it to 17 Ramadan in the second year after the Hijra, usually given as 13 March 624, and the Qur'an calls it the Day of the Criterion.

After the Hijra, the migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622, the people of Medina accepted him as their leader. Having lost their property in Mecca, the emigrants began raiding Meccan caravans passing near Medina. Early in 624 an unusually rich caravan led by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb was returning from the Levant, and Muhammad set out with around 300 men to intercept it. Abu Sufyan sent to Mecca for help, then slipped away towards the Red Sea coast with the goods intact.

The Muslim force numbered about 313 men, by the most commonly accepted count, with just two horses and some 70 camels. In Mecca, nearly every clan joined a relief army of around 1,300 men under Amr ibn Hisham, known in Muslim sources as Abu Jahl. On hearing that the caravan was safe, many wanted to go home, and one clan of about 300 did so; Amr insisted on marching on to Badr to display Meccan strength. Estimates of the army that reached the valley therefore range from about 600 to 1,000. Learning that he faced the main Meccan army, Muhammad consulted his followers, including the Medinan Ansar, before deciding to fight.

The Muslims seized the wells nearest the Meccan camp and blocked the others, denying their enemy water. On 13 March the fighting opened with single combats in the customary Arab style: Hamza, Muhammad's uncle, Ali ibn Abi Talib and Ubayda ibn al-Harith faced three Meccan nobles, and the Meccan champions were killed. After exchanges of arrows, the Meccans charged. According to the traditional accounts, Muhammad prayed for victory, threw a handful of pebbles towards the enemy and ordered a counter-attack, and the Meccan line broke. The Qur'an describes angels supporting the believers, and Muslim sources understand the victory as the result of divine intervention.

The Meccans lost around 70 dead, among them Amr ibn Hisham, Umayya ibn Khalaf and several other leading men of the Quraysh, and roughly 70 were taken prisoner. The Muslims lost 14 men, whose names were preserved. After debate among his companions, Muhammad chose to ransom the captives rather than execute them; according to tradition, literate prisoners could earn their freedom by teaching ten people to read and write. Two prominent Meccans, Nadr ibn al-Harith and Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt, also died, either in the fighting or, according to other accounts, executed after capture.

The victory turned Muhammad from a refugee leader into a serious rival to Mecca. More Medinans joined his later expeditions, and tribes beyond the city allied with him. In Mecca, the deaths of so many leaders left Abu Sufyan as the chief of the Quraysh; six years later he helped arrange the city's surrender to Muhammad, and his son Mu'awiya would go on to found the Umayyad Caliphate.

Veterans of Badr enjoyed special honour, and the early biographer Ibn Ishaq recorded a full roster of the Muslim combatants. All detailed knowledge of the battle comes from Islamic sources compiled from the eighth century onwards, together with references in the Qur'an, and some historians note the lack of independent evidence. The name Badr has since been given to many military operations in the Muslim world, including Egypt's opening offensive in the 1973 war with Israel.

Our 600 map shows the Hejaz, the region of western Arabia containing Mecca, Medina and Badr, on the eve of these events, and the 700 map shows the Umayyad state that grew out of the early Muslim conquests. Today the site lies in Saudi Arabia.