Muhammad and The Jews — Page 70
with their rear exposed the Muslim were in a bad shape; their plight has been described by the Qur. ,an in the following verses : Your eyes became distracted and your hearts reached your throats, while you thought thoughts about Allah. Then were the believers sorely tried, and were violently shaken. 1 To break the impasse Abii Sufyiin sent I:Iuyayy b. Akhtab to the B. Quray01h inviting them to join the Confederates. 2 After some hesitance their leader Kacb. b. Asad agreed. The Qur"iin refers to the B. Quray~ah as "the people of the Book who had backed up the Confederates". 3 In the meantime, the Apostle got wind of I:Iuyayy b. Akhtab's approach to the B. Quray~ah and sent Sacd b. Muciidh and others to find the truth; they went, talked to the B. Quray01h and confirmed the report. Later on, a scout of the B. Quray~ah who had been sent to reconnoitre in the area where the Muslim families were quartered, was killed by Safiyah the aunt of the Apostle. 4 The Battle of the Al;zab was actually a major siege in which three armies, "the Quraysh, the Ghatafiin and the B. Quranah" 5 invested Medina. "They came at you from above you and from below you". 6 According to Ibn IsJ:tiiq those who came from above were the B. Quranah and those who came from below were the Quraysh and the Ghatafiin. 7 It was an expensive mistake. The Confederates were reasonably optimistic about their ability to take Medina. During the siege which lasted nearly a month there were only two actions; an individual combat in which cAmr b. cAbd Wudd b. Abii Qays was killed by c Alis and the second in which Safiyah killed a scout from the Bishah's report on this surah, Vol. V, p. 138. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur,ii11 al-Karim, Vol. III, pp. 469-72. 2 Ibn Hisham, p. 674. 3 The Qur,an, Al-Abziib, 26. Ibn Hishiim, p. 693. 4 Ibn Hisham, p. 680. 5 Ibid. , p. 694. r, The Qur~an, Al-AJ;ziib, 10. 7 Ibn Hisham, p. 694. 8 Ibn Hisham, p. 678. 70