Conquest of Mecca

In the Islamic month of Ramadan in the year 8 AH, which corresponds to December 629 or January 630, Muhammad led an army from Medina to Mecca, the city of his birth and of the Kaaba shrine. Mecca's ruling Quraysh tribe gave way with little fighting, and the city passed into Muslim hands. Its fall formally ended years of war between the Quraysh and Muhammad's community. The detailed narrative comes from the Muslim biographical (sira) and hadith tradition, compiled more than a century after Muhammad's death.

After the failure of the Quraysh siege of Medina at the Battle of the Trench in 627, the two sides agreed in 628 to a ten-year truce, the Treaty of Hudaybiyya. It let the Arab tribes ally themselves with either party. The Banu Bakr sided with the Quraysh and the Khuza'a with the Muslims.

According to the traditional accounts, the Banu Bakr attacked the Khuza'a, killing some of them even after they had taken refuge in the sanctuary at Mecca, and some leading Quraysh men secretly supplied the attackers with men and weapons. The Khuza'a appealed to Muhammad. The Quraysh leader Abu Sufyan travelled to Medina to try to renew the truce but returned without success.

The sources say Muhammad prepared in secret, sending a small party in another direction to mislead observers, and intercepted a letter that one of his followers had tried to send to warn the Meccans. The army that set out, traditionally numbered at 10,000, was joined on the way by Muhammad's uncle al-Abbas and others. Camped outside the city at Marr al-Zahran, the Muslims lit many fires so that the Meccans could see their strength.

Abu Sufyan, who had come out to gather news, was brought before Muhammad by al-Abbas and, according to the sira, accepted Islam. Muhammad then announced an amnesty: anyone who stayed in Abu Sufyan's house, remained in their own home or entered the sacred mosque would be safe.

The army entered Mecca in several columns. Most met no resistance, but one led by Khalid ibn al-Walid was attacked by a group of Quraysh fighters; the traditional accounts report about a dozen of them and two of Khalid's men killed. Muhammad then went to the Kaaba, which according to tradition held 360 idols, and had them broken and the images inside destroyed. Bilal ibn Rabah climbed onto the Kaaba to give the call to prayer.

Standing at the door of the Kaaba, Muhammad is reported to have addressed the Quraysh and pardoned them, using words the Quran attributes to the prophet Joseph forgiving his brothers. Several former opponents were spared, including Hind bint Utba, Abu Sufyan's wife, and Wahshi, the killer of Muhammad's uncle Hamza. The tradition records that a small number of people, nine according to the accounts, were excluded from the amnesty, of whom four were put to death and the rest pardoned. Muhammad confirmed the family of Uthman ibn Talha as permanent keepers of the Kaaba's key.

Many Meccans then pledged allegiance to Muhammad and accepted Islam. He declared Mecca a sanctuary where bloodshed was forbidden, reassured the people of Medina that he would continue to live among them, and stayed about nineteen days. Expeditions were sent to destroy nearby shrines of pre-Islamic deities, including al-Uzza, Suwa and Manat. One such mission, led by Khalid ibn al-Walid to the Banu Khuzaimah, ended in killings that, the sources say, Muhammad publicly disowned, sending Ali ibn Abi Talib to pay compensation.

The fall of Mecca brought the Kaaba under Muslim control, ended its use for the worship of idols and closed the conflict with the Quraysh, whose leaders now largely joined the Muslim community. Exact dates remain uncertain because it is unclear how the Meccan calendar of the time should be converted.

Our 600 map shows Arabia before the rise of Islam, in what is now Saudi Arabia; by our 700 map the region formed part of a caliphate stretching far beyond it, following the conquests of the Rashidun Caliphate.