~Muharram to Safar 7 AH (628 CE) · 7 AH
Details differ across the sources
Scholars differ on whether Khaybar ended as a conquest (the majority view, held by Ibn al-Qayyim, since every fortress before the last was taken by force) or a surrender (since the final and largest fortress capitulated without a fight). Sources also differ on the exact date: Ibn Ishaq says Muharram 7 AH, al-Waqidi says Safar 7 AH (reconciled as beginning in one month and ending in the other); Imam Malik and al-Zuhri say Muharram 6 AH, using a calendar convention that counts the first Hijri year as 0 AH. Reports also differ on who killed Mirhab: Ali RA in Sahih Muslim, Muhammad ibn Maslamah RA in Ibn Ishaq.
In brief
The Battle of Khaybar in Muharram 7 AH was the Muslim conquest of the richest oasis in Arabia, 180 km north of Madinah. Khaybar was held by Jewish tribes, among them the Banu al-Nadir expelled from Madinah, who had organised the confederacy that besieged the city at Khandaq. Within weeks of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah removing the Quraysh threat, the Prophet ﷺ marched on it with around 1,700 men and arrived unannounced at dawn. Khaybar's dozen fortresses could not help one another, so the Muslims took them one at a time over several weeks. The strongest, Na'im, fell after ten days when Ali RA was given the banner and killed its champion in single combat; others fell to assault or thirst, until the last surrendered after a two-week siege. The people of Khaybar were allowed to stay and work the land for half its produce, terms the neighbouring lands of Wadi al-Qura and Fadak also accepted without a fight. After the surrender a woman of Khaybar tried to poison the Prophet ﷺ with a roast lamb, killing one companion. The spoils were the greatest the Muslims had yet seen and, in land, the largest conquest of the whole Seerah; the Muhajirun gained an income of their own for the first time. On the day the last fortress fell, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib RA returned from Abyssinia.
Outcome: The Jews of Khaybar surrendered and were permitted, by treaty, to remain and work the land in exchange for half its produce, with all maintenance costs on them and the treaty terminable by the Muslims at any time; this arrangement lasted until Umar RA resettled them near the end of his caliphate. Fadak and Wadi al-Qura submitted on the same terms without a fight. In land it was the largest conquest of the Seerah; the spoils gave the Muhajirun their first independent income, and Bishr ibn al-Bara RA died of the poisoned lamb sent to the Prophet ﷺ.
The largest conquest by land in the Prophet ﷺ's seerah, and the greatest source of wealth the Muslims had seen to that point; it ended the last organized Jewish military threat in central Arabia and gave the Muhajirun lasting financial independence from the Ansar.
The Fall of Khaybar·Chapter 3 of 11
See the whole storyThe exiles of Banu al-Nadir had settled in Khaybar and remained open enemies of Madinah.
Khaybar's leaders had raised the confederacy of Khandaq and turned the Banu Qurayza; no treaty bound them and they were the one threat left.
With the Quraysh neutralised by the treaty, the Prophet ﷺ turned within weeks to the last threat in central Arabia.
The treaty required the tribes to hand over their gold; Sa'ya claimed Huyayy's was all spent.
Safiyyah, daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, was among the captives; the Prophet ﷺ freed and married her on the road home.
Frightened by the fall of Khaybar, the people of Fadak wrote to accept the same terms without an army approaching.
Abu Hurairah RA and a few of the Daws reached Khaybar after the conquest and were given shares.
Several rulings, from donkey meat to sharecropping, were legislated around the time of Khaybar.
Ja'far RA and the Abyssinian emigrants reached the camp on the very day the last fortress fell.
Told as a flash-forward: the joy of Ja'far's return would be cut short by his death at Mu'tah the next year.
Told as a flash-forward: on his deathbed the Prophet ﷺ still felt the poison of the woman of Khaybar.
Other events recorded in 7 AH. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
Seventeen hundred men leave Madinah in high spirits and reach the oasis before dawn.
O people, be gentle with yourselves. For verily, the One you are calling out to is not deaf. He can hear you and see you, and He is nearer to you than your jugular vein. He is with you.
Said when the Muslims, marching to Khaybar, were shouting the takbir at the top of their voices.
When the camel stopped and the Prophet ﷺ told me to get off, I saw that I had blood: this was my first cycle. I became terrified, and I stayed on the camel and didn't move.
One of the young Ansari girls who had come to help tend the wounded at Khaybar had no mount, so the Prophet ﷺ let her ride behind him on his camel.
Come down. Perhaps you are having your cycle? Okay, don't worry: go and cleanse yourself and make your matter firm, come with some water and salt, wash this blood, and get back where you were sitting.
Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar! Khaybar has been destroyed. And whenever we arrive at the border of a land or a people, then what an evil morning it is for those that have been warned.
Said after the people of Khaybar spotted the Muslim army before Fajr and fled back inside their fortress shouting that Muhammad ﷺ and his army had arrived.
Na'im holds for ten days until Ali RA carries the banner; the champion Mirhab falls.
Tomorrow at Salat al-Fajr, I will hand the banner to someone whom Allah and His Messenger love. And Allah will grant us victory at his hands.
Never in my life did I wish to become a leader like I did on that night.
Where is Ali?
Asked the next morning at Fajr, after prophesying the day before that he would hand the banner to someone Allah and His Messenger love.
Sent for Ali despite his eye ailment; when he was brought with his eyes closed from the pain, spat in his eyes and made du'a for him.
My eyes were healed the moment the Prophet ﷺ spat in them and made du'a; it was as if I had never had any pain.
Go forth. And in the name of Allah, keep on going and do not turn back.
Said after asking for Ali ibn Abi Talib RA, who had stayed in his tent with an eye infection, to be brought to him; the Prophet ﷺ spat in his eyes, curing them, then handed him the banner.
Ya Rasulullah! What conditions should I give them?!
Shouted without turning around, since the Prophet ﷺ had told him not to turn back.
Fight them until they testify there is no god except Allah, and that Muhammad ﷺ is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. If they do so, then their lives and properties are protected from you and me, and their affair is with Allah. For by Allah, if Allah guides through you even one person, then it is better than a herd of camels.
A shepherd slave, a Bedouin who fought for glory, and a door seven men could not lift.
What are you about?
Asked by the slave of Khaybar after he heard that a man had come with a new religion, when he approached the Prophet ﷺ to find out more.
I am a prophet.
What have you come with?
Accepted Islam then and there, upon hearing the Prophet ﷺ explain the faith.
A slave shepherd of Khaybar who had heard there was a man with a new religion.
My master has sent me to graze the flock. What do I do with the flock?
You must return it to your master. Go to such a place, and the sheep will return to their master.
The Prophet ﷺ rubbed the heads of the sheep before sending the newly-Muslim slave to release them.
Returned the flock to my master as an amanah, then fought fiercely on the side of the Muslims until a stray arrow struck and killed me.
His two Hoorun Ayn have come to greet him.
Said as he stood over the body of the newly-converted shepherd during burial and closed his eyes; when the sahaba asked why, he explained this.
No, rather he is a man from Jahannam.
Said when the sahaba, impressed by a Bedouin fighting mightily at Khaybar, praised him as a man of Paradise.
I followed him as he fought on. When an arrow struck his hand and he could fight no more, he put his sword to the ground and threw himself upon it, and so he died.
The companion who followed the Bedouin fighter reported this back to the Prophet ﷺ and repeated the shahadah in amazement.
A person may do the deeds of the people of Jannah until there is only a cubit or two between him and Jannah, and then qadr catches up to him and he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it. And a person among you may do the deeds of the people of the Fire until there is only a cubit or an arm's breadth between him and the Fire, but then qadr catches up to him and he does the deeds of the people of Jannah and enters it.
Seven of us tried to pick up the door, but we were not able to pick it up.
Said of the fortress door that Ali ibn Abi Talib RA had used as a shield after his own shield was lost, and which he cast aside once the fighting ended.
The last fortress asks for terms and the people of Khaybar stay on as tenants for half the produce.
Ya Aba al-Qasim, your people do not know how to operate or mend these lands. We are people who know Khaybar inside out. So why don't we agree to a percentage?
Said when the Prophet ﷺ initially intended to expel the people of Khaybar from their land after their surrender.
How those who were there remembered it.
We never ate to our fill until after Khaybar.
Recalled once the wealth and produce of Khaybar began arriving, giving the Muhajirun, who had reached Madinah with nothing, a lasting abundance for the first time.
In my participation in the Battle of Khaybar, the Prophet ﷺ gifted me this necklace, and he was the one who put it around my neck. I will never part with this as long as I live; and when I die, it will be buried with me.
The Prophet ﷺ gave this necklace to the same young Ansari girl who had ridden with him to Khaybar, as a gift for the women's help tending the wounded.