Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Preface to the First [German] Edition (2008)
- The Current State of Research on the Authenticity of the Early Islamic Tradition
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Beginning of Revelation
- 3 From the Persecutions in Mecca to the Hiǧra
- 4 The Battle of Badr and the Events Leading to It
- 5 The Battle of Uḥud
- 6 The Slander Against ʿĀʾiša
- 7 The Battle of the Trench and Banū Qurayẓa
- 8 The Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiya
- 9 The Conquest of Mecca
- 10 Results and Conclusion
- 11 The Earliest Non-Muslim Writings on Muḥammad
- 12 Hagarism Revisited or, Non-Muslim Sources vs. the ʿUrwa Corpus: Whom to Trust?
- 13 Comments on Reviews of the First Edition
- 14 Addenda and Corrigenda to the First Edition
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Authors
9 - The Conquest of Mecca
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 August 2025
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Preface to the First [German] Edition (2008)
- The Current State of Research on the Authenticity of the Early Islamic Tradition
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Beginning of Revelation
- 3 From the Persecutions in Mecca to the Hiǧra
- 4 The Battle of Badr and the Events Leading to It
- 5 The Battle of Uḥud
- 6 The Slander Against ʿĀʾiša
- 7 The Battle of the Trench and Banū Qurayẓa
- 8 The Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiya
- 9 The Conquest of Mecca
- 10 Results and Conclusion
- 11 The Earliest Non-Muslim Writings on Muḥammad
- 12 Hagarism Revisited or, Non-Muslim Sources vs. the ʿUrwa Corpus: Whom to Trust?
- 13 Comments on Reviews of the First Edition
- 14 Addenda and Corrigenda to the First Edition
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Authors
Summary
Overview of the Transmission
Traditions going back to ʿUrwa can be found on several topics related to the conquest of Mecca. A detailed account of the events, which includes the conquest of Mecca, the subsequent encounter with the Hawāzin at Ḥunayn, and the subsequent siege of al-Ṭāʾif, has been recorded in the form of a letter from ʿUrwa to the Caliph ʿAbd al- Malik by al-Ṭabarī. This long tradition is partly supported by other traditions on the authority of ʿUrwa transmitted by Abū l-Zinād, al-Zuhrī and Hišām b.ʿUrwa. A tradition that is set in the immediate run-up to the conquest of Mecca is handed down by al-Zuhrī and by Muḥammad b. Ǧaʿfar b. al-Zubayr, but it has no parallel in the letter of ʿUrwa.
A large part of the other traditions about Mecca that are traced back to ʿUrwa deal with topics that are only marginally related to the conquest. They will be dealt with after the study of the detailed tradition. There is also a long tradition according to Ibn Lahīʿa ← Abū l-Aswad ← ʿUrwa, which will however be omitted from the investigation for reasons laid out in the previous chapters.
The Detailed Tradition
The Transmission According to Hišām b. ʿUrwa
The events surrounding the conquest of Mecca, the encounter with the Hawāzin at Ḥunayn and the siege of al-Ṭāʾif are described in great detail in a letter from ʿUrwa to the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik. This letter can be found divided into different parts in al- Ṭabarī's Taʾrīḫ. Only in the first passage is there an explicit mention of this being a letter. However, there is no doubt that the individual passages are parts of a single letter. As with most of ʿUrwa's letters that al-Ṭabarī cites, the isnād for all parts is ʿAbd al-Wāriṯ b. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ← ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ← Abān al-ʿAṭṭār ← Hišām b. ʿUrwa ← ʿUrwa. As in the case of the hiǧra, the passages on the conquest of Mecca are related in content and connect to each other in terms of both content and language.
This has already been pointed out by von Stülpnagel:
There are three other passages from the letters that obviously belong together. Only the first one mentions the correspondence, again with the long introduction: “You wrote to me, asking me…” (Ṭabarī Annales I, 1633-36). The transition to the next passage (Annales I, 1654), i.e., to the continuation of the letters, again occurs with a double interlocking: Muḥammad's stay in Mecca after the conquest and the emerging confrontation with the Hawāzin are the joints of the connection. That the passage in I, 1654 is given as a statement of ʿUrwa and no letter is mentioned seems irrelevant in view of the smooth transition and the almost identical isnād. The transition to the next passage in the letter (Annales I, 1669) is almost as smooth; for here the historical events are developed in one go. Moreover, in the second half of Annales I, 1669f., the conclusion of 1654f. is taken up once more, and at the end of 1669f. there is again a relation back to the beginning of the same tradition. Thus, the nesting of the two passages is perfect. It does not matter that there is nothing about a letter in 1669 either and that the passage is only marked as a ḥadīṯ.
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- The Earliest Writings on the Life of MuḥammadThe 'Urwa Corpus and the Non-Muslim Sources, pp. 175 - 192Publisher: Gerlach PressPrint publication year: 2024
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