The Battle of Uhud

When the Muslims saw Mohammed fall, they concluded he was killed and took to flight.

Continuing Mohammed,
our selection from The History of the Saracens by Simon Ockley published in1718. The selection is presented in 10.5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Mohammsd.

Time: December 22, 624
Place: Uhud Mountain

Mohammed, being told of these underhand practices, said, one day, “Who will rid me of the son of Ashraf?” when Mohammed, son of Mosalama, one of the helpers, answered, “I am the man, O apostle of God, that will do it,” and immediately took with him Salcan son of Salama and some other Moslems, who were to lie in ambush. In order to decoy Kaab out of his castle, which was a very strong one, Salcan, his foster-brother, went alone to visit him in the dusk of the evening; and, entering into conversation, told him some little stories of Mohammed, which he knew would please him. When he got up to take his leave, Kaab, as he expected, attended him to the gate; and, continuing the conversation, went on with him till he came near the ambuscade, where Mohammed and his companions fell upon him and stabbed him.

Abu Sofian, meditating revenge for the defeat at Beder, swore he would neither anoint himself nor come near his women till he was even with Mohammed. Setting out toward Medina with two hundred horse, he posted a party of them near the town, where one of the helpers fell into their hands and was killed. Mohammed, being informed of it, went out against them but they all fled; and, for the greater expedition, threw away some sacks of meal, part of their provision. From which circumstance this was called the meal-war.

Abu Sofian, resolving to make another and more effectual effort, got together a body of three thousand men, whereof seven hundred were cuirassiers and two hundred cavalry; his wife Henda, with a number of women, followed in the rear, beating drums and lamenting the fate of those slain at Beder and exciting the idolaters to fight courageously. The apostle would have waited for them in the town but as his people were eager to advance against the enemy, he set out at once with one thousand men; but of these one hundred turned back, disheartened by the superior numbers of the enemy. He encamped at the foot of Mount Ohud, having the mountain in his rear. Of his nine hundred men only one hundred had armor on; and as for horses, there was only one besides that on which he himself rode. Mosaab carried the prophet’s standard; Kaled, son of Al Walid, led the right wing of the idolaters; Acrema, son of Abu Jehel, the left; the women kept in the rear, beating their drums. Henda cried out to them: “Courage, ye sons of Abdal Dari; courage! smite with all your swords.”

Mohammed placed fifty archers in his rear and ordered them to keep their post. Then Hamza fought stoutly and killed Arta, the standard-bearer of the idolaters; and as Seba, son of Abdal Uzza, came near him, Hamza struck off his head also; but was himself immediately after run through with a spear by Wabsha, a slave, who lurked behind a rock with that intent. Then Ebn Kamia slew Mosaab, the apostle’s standard-bearer; and taking him for the prophet cried out, “I have killed Mohammed!” When Mosaab was slain the standard was given to Ali.

At the beginning of the action the Muslims attacked the idolaters so furiously that they gave ground, fell back upon their rear and threw it into disorder. The archers seeing this and expecting a complete victory, left their posts, contrary to the express orders that had been given them and came forward from fear of losing their share of the plunder. In the meantime, Kaled, advancing with his cavalry, fell furiously upon the rear of the Muslims, crying aloud at the same time that Mohammed was slain. This cry and the finding themselves attacked on all sides, threw the Muslims into such consternation that the idolaters made great havoc among them and were able to press on so near the apostle as to beat him down with a shower of stones and arrows. He was wounded in the lip and two arrow-heads stuck in his face. Abu Obeidah pulled out first one and then the other; at each operation one of the apostle’s teeth came out. As Sonan Abu Said wiped the blood from off his face, the apostle exclaimed, “He that touches my blood and handles it tenderly, shall not have his blood spilt in the fire” (of hell). In this action, it is said, Telhah, while he was putting a breast-plate upon Mohammed, received a wound upon his hand, which maimed it forever. Omar and Abu-Bekr were also wounded. When the Muslims saw Mohammed fall, they concluded he was killed and took to flight; and even Othman was hurried along by the press of those that fled. In a little time, however, finding Mohammed was alive, a great number of his men returned to the field; and, after a very obstinate fight, brought him off and carried him to a neighboring village. The Muslims had seventy men killed, the idolaters lost only twenty-two.

The Koreishites had no other fruit of their victory but the gratification of a poor spirit of revenge. Henda and the women who had fled with her upon the first disorder of the idolaters, now returned and committed great barbarities upon the dead bodies of the apostle’s friends. They cut off their ears and noses and made bracelets and necklaces of them; Henda pulled Hamza’s liver out of his body and chewed and swallowed some of it. Abu Sofian, having cut pieces off the cheeks of Hamza, put them upon the end of his spear and cried out aloud, “The success of war is uncertain; after the battle of Beder comes the battle of Ohud; now, Hobal, * thy religion is victorious!” Notwithstanding this boasting, he decamped the same day. Jannabi ascribes his retreat to a panic; however that may have been, Abu Sofian sent to propose a truce for a year, which was agreed to.

[* An Arab of Kossay, named Ammer Ibn Lahay, is said to have first introduced idolatry among his countrymen; he brought the idol called Hobal, from Hyt in Mesopotamia and set it up in the Kaaba. It was the Jupiter of the Arabians and was made of red agate in the form of a man holding in his hand seven arrows without heads or feathers, such as the Arabs use in divination. At a subsequent period the Kaaba was adorned with three hundred and sixty idols, corresponding probably to the days of the Arabian year. — Burckhardt’s Arabia, pp. 163, 164.]

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