Battle of Badr 624
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 624 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Medieval (500–1499) | derived from year |
| Location | Saudi Arabia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Muslim–Quraysh War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Mecca, first Islamic state | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 23.7333, 38.7667 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Badr or sometimes called The Raid of Badr (Arabic: غَزْوَةُ بَدْرٍ [ɣazwatu badr]; Ghazwatu Badr), also referred to as The Day of the Criterion (Arabic: يَوْمُ الْفُرْقَانْ, Arabic pronunciation: [jawm'ul fur'qaːn]; Yawm al-Furqan) in the Qur'an and by Muslims, was fought on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan, 2 AH), near the city of Badr, Medina Province in present-day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad, commanding an army of his Sahaba, defeated an army of the Quraysh led by Amr ibn Hisham, better known among Muslims as Abu Jahl. The battle marked the beginning of the six-year war between Muhammad and his tribe.
A few days before the battle, when he learnt of a Meccan caravan returning from the Levant led by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, Muhammad gathered a small expeditionary force to raid it. Abu Sufyan, learning of the Muslim plan to ambush his caravan, changed course and took a longer route away from Muhammad's base at Medina and sent a messenger to Mecca, asking for help. Amr ibn Hisham commanded an army nearly one-thousand strong, approaching Badr and encamping at the dune al-'Udwatul Quswa.
Badr was the first large-scale engagement between the Muslims and the Quraysh Meccans. Advancing from the north, the Muslims faced the Meccans.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Badr (revision 1380867863), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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