Battle of the Trench 627
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 627 | 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 |
| Coordinates | 24.4667, 39.6000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Trench (Arabic: غزوة الخندق, romanized: Ghazwat al-Khandaq), also known as the Battle of Khandaq (Arabic: معركة الخندق, romanized: Ma’rakah al-Khandaq) and the Battle of the Confederates (Arabic: غزوة الاحزاب, romanized: Ghazwat al-Ahzab), was part of the conflict between the Muslims and the Quraysh. The Quraysh advanced towards the Muslims, who defended themselves in Medina by digging a trench around their settlement at the suggestion of Salman the Persian. The battle took place in 627 and lasted around two weeks, resulting in five to six casualties reported by the Muslim, and three casualties amongst the Quraysh.
The Quraysh launched an attack, but realized soon after that they had very limited military capability, being primarily merchants. This prompted negotiations with the Bedouins in order to get them to join the campaign. The Banu Nadir, whom Muhammad had previously expelled from Medina on account of an attempted assassination (crime against the state), were also part of this effort and offered the Bedouins half of their crops in Khaybar to persuade them to participate in attacking the Muslims. They reported to have gathered a confederate force of between 7,500 and 10,000 men, including Banu Ghatafan, Banu Sulaym, and Banu Asad.
Muhammad, having learned of the impending hostile advance from the Quraysh, took the advice of Salman the Persian to have his followers make a deep trench to impede the attackers' movement.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Trench (revision 1370602569), 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.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Medina (1812) 1812 · 0 km
- Siege of Banu Qaynuqa 624 · 0 km
- Siege of Medina 1916 · 0 km
- Battle of al-Harra 683 · 3 km
- Battle of Uhud 625 · 4 km
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Other battles of the Muslim–Quraysh War
- Battle of Badr 624
- Battle of Uhud 625
All 3 battles of the Muslim–Quraysh War →
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