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The Massacre of the Banu Qurayzah: Difference between revisions
The Massacre of the Banu Qurayzah (view source)
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[[File:Banu qurayza massacre.jpg|175px|right|thumb|Detail from miniature painting: ''The Prophet, Ali, and the Companions at the Massacre of the Prisoners of the Jewish Tribe of Beni Qurayzah'', illustration of a 19th century text by Muhammad Rafi Bazil.]] | [[File:Banu qurayza massacre.jpg|175px|right|thumb|Detail from miniature painting: ''The Prophet, Ali, and the Companions at the Massacre of the Prisoners of the Jewish Tribe of Beni Qurayzah'', illustration of a 19th century text by Muhammad Rafi Bazil.]] | ||
According to the traditional Islamic sources, in 627 AD as a result of the [[Battle of the Trench]] and the betrayal of the Muslims by the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, the Muslims under the direct military command of the prophet [[Muhammad]] laid siege to the Banu Qurayza compound. After a siege of around 2 weeks, depending on the source, the Jews of Banu Qurayza surrendered and entrusted their fate to a trusted intermediary from the Muslims of the tribe of 'Aws, Sa'ad bin Mu'adh. Sa'a'd bin Mu'adh, however, claiming to be following the law of the Torah itself, advised Muhammad to slaughter the men folk of the tribe and sell the women and children into slavery. Muhammad took this advice and as a consequence between 400 and 900 prisoners of the tribe were slaughtered, many in front of their families, and the rest of the tribe were sold into slavery. | According to the traditional Islamic sources, in 627 AD as a result of the [[Battle of the Trench]] and the betrayal of the Muslims by the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, the Muslims under the direct military command of the prophet [[Muhammad]] laid siege to the Banu Qurayza compound. After a siege of around 2 weeks, depending on the source, the Jews of Banu Qurayza surrendered and entrusted their fate to a trusted intermediary from the Muslims of the tribe of 'Aws, Sa'ad bin Mu'adh. Sa'a'd bin Mu'adh, however, claiming to be following the law of the Torah itself, advised Muhammad to slaughter the men folk of the tribe and sell the women and children into slavery. Muhammad took this advice and as a consequence between 400 and 900 prisoners of the tribe were slaughtered, many in front of their families, and the rest of the tribe were sold into slavery. The event is well attested to in the Islamic historical tradition, and has served as the basis for multiple rulings throughout history dealing with the treatment of captured non-Muslims by Muslim military forces. | ||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
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{{Quote| Ibn Ishaq: 683 | Then Abu Sufyan said: “O Quraish, we are not in a permanent camp; the horses and camels are dying; the Banu Qurayza have broken their word to us and we have heard disquieting reports of them. You can see the violence of the wind which leaves us neither cooking-pots, or fire, nor tents to count on. Be off, for I am going” }} | {{Quote| Ibn Ishaq: 683 | Then Abu Sufyan said: “O Quraish, we are not in a permanent camp; the horses and camels are dying; the Banu Qurayza have broken their word to us and we have heard disquieting reports of them. You can see the violence of the wind which leaves us neither cooking-pots, or fire, nor tents to count on. Be off, for I am going” }} | ||
Yassir Qadhi states that the punishment was "harsh" and yet it is sometimes necessary to be harsh. Yaqeen institute scholar Abu Amina Elias (Justin Parrott) makes the cases that killing the "fighting men" prisoners of the Banu Qurayza was an "act of self-defense" on the part of the Muslim community and cites Deuteronomy 20:12-14 to justify the actions of the Muslims. He also claims that the prophet only sent his men their with arms to "defend themselves" and that the women and children of the Banu Qurayza were taken "into captivity" for their protection since all of their men folk had bee slaughtered <ref>"Did the Prophet commit genocide against Jews?" Faith in Allah There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger https://abuaminaelias.com/prophet-genocide-banu-qurayza/ April 8, 2013 </ | Yassir Qadhi states that the punishment was "harsh" and yet it is sometimes necessary to be harsh. Yaqeen institute scholar Abu Amina Elias (Justin Parrott) makes the cases that killing the "fighting men" prisoners of the Banu Qurayza was an "act of self-defense" on the part of the Muslim community and cites Deuteronomy 20:12-14 to justify the actions of the Muslims. He also claims that the prophet only sent his men their with arms to "defend themselves" and that the women and children of the Banu Qurayza were taken "into captivity" for their protection since all of their men folk had bee slaughtered <ref>"Did the Prophet commit genocide against Jews?" Faith in Allah There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger https://abuaminaelias.com/prophet-genocide-banu-qurayza/ April 8, 2013 </ref>. Karen Armstrong, in her book A Short History of Islam, likewise claims "The struggle did not indicate any hostility towards Jews in general, but only towards the three rebel tribes. The Quran continued to revere Jewish prophets and to urge Muslims to respect the People of the Book."<ref>Islam:A Short History Karen Armstrong Modern Library 2002 </ref> | ||
These arguments are all echoes of the original arguments found in the material above. Ibn Ishaq claims that the Jews of banu Qurayza posed a threat to the Muslims via their betrayal and does portray Muhammad as hesitating to decide their fate. ibn Ishaq even recounts of how "harsh" the punishment was: | These arguments are all echoes of the original arguments found in the material above. Ibn Ishaq claims that the Jews of banu Qurayza posed a threat to the Muslims via their betrayal and does portray Muhammad as hesitating to decide their fate. ibn Ishaq even recounts of how "harsh" the punishment was: | ||
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{{Quote| Ibn Ishaq: 686|Apostle sent him (Abu Lubaba) to them (Banu Quraiza), and when they saw him they got up to meet him. The women and children went up to him weeping in his face, and he felt sorry for them. They said, ‘Oh Abu Lubaba, do you think that we should submit to Muhammad's judgement? He said ‘yes' and pointed with his hand to his throat signifying slaughter.}} | {{Quote| Ibn Ishaq: 686|Apostle sent him (Abu Lubaba) to them (Banu Quraiza), and when they saw him they got up to meet him. The women and children went up to him weeping in his face, and he felt sorry for them. They said, ‘Oh Abu Lubaba, do you think that we should submit to Muhammad's judgement? He said ‘yes' and pointed with his hand to his throat signifying slaughter.}} | ||
Yet critics of these pro-Islam viewpoints have pointed out that the verse cited by modern Muslims from Deuteronomy to justify the extermination of the Banu Qurayzah yet in fact this is not how the verse has been viewed in traditional Christian or especially Jewish scholarship. According to Jewish doctrine, these verse were revealed to him before the Israelites entered the Holy Land, specifically instructing them on how to deal with the people living there < | Yet critics of these pro-Islam viewpoints have pointed out that the verse cited by modern Muslims from Deuteronomy to justify the extermination of the Banu Qurayzah yet in fact this is not how the verse has been viewed in traditional Christian or especially Jewish scholarship. According to Jewish doctrine, these verse were revealed to him before the Israelites entered the Holy Land, specifically instructing them on how to deal with the people living there <ref> Citation need</ref>. Morever, the claim that there was no apparent animus towards the Jews of Banu Qurayzah on the part of Muhammad is contradicted by ibn Ishaq's account: | ||
{{Quote|Ibn Ishaq: 684 | "When the apostle approached their forts he (Muhammad) said: "You brothers of monkeys.., has god disgraced you and brought his vengeance upon you?" | {{Quote|Ibn Ishaq: 684 | "When the apostle approached their forts he (Muhammad) said: "You brothers of monkeys.., has god disgraced you and brought his vengeance upon you?" | ||
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In mocking them as apes, Muhammad is here echoing the Qur'an, which claims that (some) Jews were turned into apes for violating the sabbath (Qur'an 50:60). | In mocking them as apes, Muhammad is here echoing the Qur'an, which claims that (some) Jews were turned into apes for violating the sabbath (Qur'an 50:60). | ||
Jewish anti-jihad scholar Andrew Bostrom points out that Muhammad took one of the most beautiful Jewish women of the Banu Qurayzah, Rayhanah, as his wife and that the Muslims benefited handsomely from the destruction of this tribe, so self-defense was clearly not the only concern. < | Jewish anti-jihad scholar Andrew Bostrom points out that Muhammad took one of the most beautiful Jewish women of the Banu Qurayzah, Rayhanah, as his wife and that the Muslims benefited handsomely from the destruction of this tribe, so self-defense was clearly not the only concern. <ref> Citation needed </ref>. Abu Amina Elis's view that the Muslims took such women and children as Rayhana captive simply for their protection also cannot be true, as ibn Ishaq recounts that some of them were taken to the far-off region of the Najd to be sold for weapons and horses. Yassir Qadhi himself points out that the Banu Qurayza were offered freedom to pass were they to accept Islam, and according to the sira only their heard, petulant hearts which rejected Muhammad despite knowing he was a prophet of the Lord prevented them from allowing themselves to be saved by conversion to Islam. So clearly, at least in the eyes of the sira, their Jewish religion did, in fact, have something to do with the pitilessness with which Muhammad dealt with them, going against Qadhi's point that the prophet acted without malice according to the sources we have. | ||
{{Quote|Al-Tabari: Vol 8. (p. 38)|The Messenger of God had commanded that all of them who had reached puberty should be killed.<ref>The History of Al-Tabari: The Victory of Islam, translated by Michael. F. State University of New York Press, Albany 1997, Volume 8. page. 38 </ref>}} | {{Quote|Al-Tabari: Vol 8. (p. 38)|The Messenger of God had commanded that all of them who had reached puberty should be killed.<ref>The History of Al-Tabari: The Victory of Islam, translated by Michael. F. State University of New York Press, Albany 1997, Volume 8. page. 38 </ref>}} | ||
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The narrative of the Banu Qurayza is an accepted part of Islamic law, and multiple Islamic jurists have cited it, including when ruling that certain populations of Jews and other non-believers be massacred. As such there is no question amongst orthodox Muslims that it happened. Yet the historiography of the subject is not without its own problems. | The narrative of the Banu Qurayza is an accepted part of Islamic law, and multiple Islamic jurists have cited it, including when ruling that certain populations of Jews and other non-believers be massacred. As such there is no question amongst orthodox Muslims that it happened. Yet the historiography of the subject is not without its own problems. | ||
Within the Islamic tradition, ibn Ishaq was frequently criticized for giving too much weight to Jewish stories and being biased in general in his retellings of certain events. Malik ibn Anas accusses ibn Ishaq of being a "liar" for listening to "Jewish stories." | |||
Modern scholarship has cast much more serious doubts on the scholarship of Islamic scholars working in the 8th century (2nd Islamic century) such as ibn Ishaq. As Fred Donner points out, one of the earliest documents we have from the nascent proto-Islamic movement in the ''Constitution of Medina صحيفة مدينة'' also known as the Ummah Document or صحيفة الأمة. This remarkable document, preserved by the Islamic historian [[Al-Tabari]], lays out a compact for the "believers" of Medina, an "ummah" or national community that includes the Jews as "believers" on the same level as the Arab believers. Fred Donner believes this document actually points to an early, occulted history of Islam in which Arab monotheists joined with Jews into one "ummah" under the command of Muhammad. Troublingly for the historical narrative, this document makes mention of many different Jewish tribes, but the main 3 tribes of the sira, the Banu Qurayzah, the Banu Qaynuqaa', and the Banu Nadir are conspicuously absent. It is in fact the absence of these tribes which convinces scholars that the document must be very old despite being preserved only in the 9th-century works of Tabari, since a younger document would presumably would have been changed to agree with the established historical narrative. Donner mentions that many early 7th century mosques do not include the qibla facing towards Mecca, and concludes that this story of the massacre of the Banu Qurayzah may have been invented or embellished in order to explain a much later break between the Jewish and Muslim communities. | |||
Patricia Cronner and Michael Cook in their groundbreaking work ''Hagarism'' likewise report on an Armenian historian writing in the 7th century known as pseudo-Sabeous. This historian imputes the Arab invasions to a confederation of Jews and Arabs led by Muhammad himself, contradicting the Islamic narrative that Muhammad died before the invasion of Palestine and the Middle East. Pseudo-Sabeous likewise imputes to the Arabs and Jews a shared monotheism and brotherhood through their ancestry to Abraham and his wife Hagar. If this account is to be believed, there could not have been any great massacre of the Jews by Muhammad as we has working with them when he invaded Palestine. Stephen Shoemaker in his work ''The Death of a Prophet'' adds further evidence to thesis of Crone and Cook, marshaling evidence from a wide variety of sources, almost all of which predate the first Islamic sources, that Muhammad himself was actually the leader of the believers when they entered Palestine and he died only after its conquest. The early . In particular he calls attention to a Jewish apocolypse, the Secretys of Rabbi ben Shim'on, which seems to paint Muhammad as the redeemer of the Jews from the oppression of the Romans in the Holy Land. If this is to be believed, and this source predates every Islamic source we have, the massacre of the Banu Qurayza could not have taken place, since Muhammad, the leader of the invasion of Palestine, was seen as a savior of the Jewish people. This would seem to indicate that the break between the Muslims and the Jews took place after his death, and would indicate that stories such as the massacre of the Banu Qurayzah were fabricated in order to "back date" the break with the Jews to the prophet's own lifetime. | |||
==See Also== | ==See Also== | ||