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It was said, “O Messenger
of Allah! Pray to Allah against the tribe of Thaqif [of Ta’if].”
He said, “O Allah! Guide Thaqif, and bring them (to us).”1
The Prophet had routed
the enemy at Hunain and driven him from Autas. He now decided to
give Malik bin Auf no time to recover his breath and organise further
resistance. Consequently, he sent the captives and the flocks taken
at Autas with an escort to Jirana, to be kept under guard until
the return of the army, and the very next day he set out for Taif,
where major resistance was to be encountered. But he moved cautiously,
for after the unpleasant experience of the ambush at Hunain, he
had no intention of letting the army walk into another trap. The
country now was hilly, consisting of steep ridges rising up to the
plateau on which stood Taif; and in this terrain a wily commander
like Malik could lay an ambush almost anywhere.
Leaving Autas, the Prophet marched through
the Nakhla Valley and then turned south into the Wadi-ul-Muleih.
From this valley he crossed into the Wadi-ul-Qarn, and following
this wadi, reached the plateau 7 miles north-west of Taif.
So far the Muslims had encountered no opposition and scouts had
reported no sign of the Thaqeef outside Taif; but hoping to surprise
Malik, the Prophet shifted his axis. Cutting across the difficult
terrain north of Taif, he got to the less hilly region lying east
of the town, between Nikhb and Sadaira. 2
From here he marched to Taif, coming in from the rear. Throughout
this march, Khalid again led the army with the Bani Sulaim as advance
guard. (See Map 6 below)
But Malik bin Auf, in spite of his lack
of years, was not a man to be caught unawares. Having suffered grievously
in his clash with the Muslims at Hunain and Autas, he was determined
not to accept battle with the Muslims again in the open: he would
fight them on his own terms. Consequently, he kept his army within
the walled city of Taif and speedily stocked it with sufficient
provisions to withstand a long siege. Here the Thaqeef, under their
brave young general, awaited the arrival of the Muslims.
The Muslims got to Taif on February 5, 630
(the 15th of Shawal, 8 Hijri), and started a siege which was to
last 18 days. On arrival at Taif, the camp was set up too close
to the wall of the town and this mistake was punished by the Thaqeef
archers, who showered the camp with arrows. A few Muslims were killed
before the camp was moved away and established in the area where
the mosque of Ibn Abbas stands today. Groups of Muslims were now
deployed around the fort to prevent entry and escape; and Abu Bakr
was made responsible for the siege operations.
Most of the time, fighting between the two armies consisted of exchanges
of archery. The Muslims would close up to the town and try to pick
off the Thaqeef archers on the wall, but the Thaqeef had the odds
in their favour as they had some cover in the open. So the Muslims
got the worst of these engagements and many of them were wounded,
including Abdullah, son of Abu Bakr, who later died of his wounds.
Thus some days passed. After the fall of
Makkah, the Prophet had sent two Muslims to Jurash, in the Yemen,
to learn all about siege warfare. These two men did not, however,
return till after the Siege of Taif and thus could play no part
in the siege. But Salman the Persian again came to the help of the
Muslims as he had done in the Battle of the Ditch. As a Persian
he knew something about more sophisticated forms of warfare. Under
his instructions, the Muslims constructed a catapult and used it
to hurl stones into the town; but the Muslims were amateurs at this
business and the catapult produced no significant effect.
Salman next decided to use a testudo. (A
testudo was a large shield, usually made of wood or leather, under
which a group of assailants could advance to the gate of the fort,
safe from enemy missiles, and either crash through the gate with
a battering ram or set fire to it.) Under the instructions of Salman,
the Muslims constructed a testudo of cowhide, and a group of them
advanced under its protection to set fire to the wooden gate of
Taif. As they got to the gate, however, Malik and his men poured
red-hot scraps of iron onto the testudo. These pieces burnt the
testudo and terrified those under it, so that they hurriedly dropped
the unfamiliar equipment and ran back. As they ran, the Thaqeef
fired a volley of arrows at them and killed
one of them.
1. Mukhtasar Sirat Al-Rasul sall-Allahu
'alayhi wa sallam, of Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab.
2. The Wadi-ul-Muleih runs between the present
Taif Airport and Seil-ul-Kabeer. The Wadi-ul-Qarn, in its upper
reaches, crosses the present Taif-Makkah Highway 7 miles from Taif.
Sadaira is 25 miles east of Taif on the Turaba road, and Nikhb lies
just 3 miles east-south-east of Taif. The Wadi-un-Nikhb was known
in ancient times, according to local tradition, as the Wadi-un-Naml-the
Valley of Ants-through which Solomon marched towards the Yemen for
his encounter with the Queen of Sheba. The story of Solomon is narrated
in the Quran (27: 16-44).
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