Authorship [11] Peters argues that Muhammad's treatment of the Jews of Medina was "quite extraordinary" and is "quite at odds with Muhammad's treatment of the Jews he encountered outside Medina. newsletter for the best of the past, delivered every Monday and Thursday. Modern scholars discern four kinds of messianology in the years between 170 BCE and 140 CE. But despite Muhammads remarkable accomplishments, there is no modern account of his life that examines his role as Islams first great general and the leader of a successful insurgency. Muhammad Muhammad [a] ( Arabic: ; c. 570 - 8 June 632 CE) [b] was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. These advisers held key positions during the Prophets lifetime and fought among themselves for power after his death. Life itself was subordinate to the needs of the faith. During the Battle of the Trench in December 626 and January 627, the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, whose forts were located in southern Medina, were caught conspiring to ally themselves with the confederates and were charged with treachery. Mohamed Boubendir Studied Physics at Rutgers University (Graduated 2023) Author has 624 answers and 4.1M answer views 6 y In theory, he was not anything special compared to other famous military commanders. Hans von Rte's Gideon (1540) compares the removal of saints' relics from churches to Gideon's destruction of Baal's altar. Converts had to be socialized to a new basis of military loyaltythe faithand new military units created with soldiers from many clans. Breheny's attorney said his client, a Navy veteran, entered the guilty plea to "make amends for a lack of good judgement on Jan. 6, 2021." "His history as a veteran and a law-abiding citizen . 1. The personality of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) serves as a complete role model encompassing all walks of life but one of the most important among them is his role as a military strategist. Trust in Allah but work as if no one will help you.These were just few lessons from the Life of Prophet MuhammadHope you find it useful and feel free to comment and suggest ideas/books/seminars which you think I can learn from and or share with others. What is evident from the figures, however, is that his insurgency grew very quickly in terms of its ability to recruit military manpower. Muhammads revolutionary cadre consisted of the small group of original converts he attracted in Mecca and took with him to Medina. He also led the Bedouins under the Muslim army during the Muslim conquest of Mecca in 629-630 and the Battle of Hunayn in 630. Muhammad himself seems to have possessed a detailed knowledge of clan loyalties and politics within the insurgencys area of operations and used this knowledge to good effect when negotiating alliances with the bedouins. A Muslim man who witnessed this, killed the Jewish man responsible for it in retaliation. Answer. This is an ongoing personal project for me to understand this great man and learn from him in a way that is unemotional and detached but its difficult as the more I learn the more I am in awe. Although he began as the founder of an insurgency, he was always Clausewitzian in his view that the use of force was a tactical means to the achievement of larger strategic objectives. The old Arab way of war would have had no chance of success against the armies of either of those empires. But if the means and methods used by modern military analysts to characterize insurgency warfare are employed as categories of analysis, it is clear that Muhammads campaign to spread Islam throughout Arabia fulfilled all of the criteria. His followers were mostly townspeople with no experience in desert travel. The first converts among the clans of Medina, the ansar, or helpers, also filled the ranks of the cadre. Muhammad attacked tribes, towns, and garrisons before they could form hostile coalitions; he isolated his enemies by severing their economic lifelines and disrupting their lines of communication; he was a master at political negotiation, forming alliances with pagan tribes when it served his interests; and he laid siege to cities and towns. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) positioned his army of nearly 700 Muslims on the western slope of the hill with Mount Ohud behind it on the top of which was a little pass. His latest is Muhammad: Islam's First Great General (Oklahoma University Press, 2007). They often failed to report to the battlefield, arrived late, or simply left the fight once they had captured sufficient loot. Loyalty to the ummah permitted the national army to unify the two traditional combat arms of infantry and cavalry into a genuine combined arms force. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was also a truly great general. "[15] After several battles against the Quraysh, Muhammad conquered Mecca in 629, ending his campaign against the tribe. God first instructed Gideon to send home those men who were afraid. At the Battle of Badr, the first major engagement with an enemy army, the dead were stripped of their swords and other military equipment, setting a precedent that became common. Arab cavalry, on the other hand, was unreliable in a battle against infantry, often breaking off the fight to keep their precious mounts from being hurt or make off with whatever booty they had seized. Muhammad often personally commanded his troops in the field. In Muhammads case the result has been to deemphasize the military aspects of his life and his considerable military accomplishments as Islams first great general and the inventor of the theory and practice of insurgency. Shiites, some ten to fifteen percent of Muslims, subscribe to a somewhat different doctrine of jihad, believing that it can only be waged under the command of the rightful leader of the Muslim community, whom they call imam. Women and children may not be targeted directly, unless they act as combatants by supporting the enemy in some manner. World War II Magazine Found Out. Following a defeat in the Battle of Mu'tah in Muhammad's campaign against the Byzantine began with the final expedition led by Muhammad himself, the Tabuk expedition, which is also known as the Usra expedition. See answer (1) Copy. Second, Muhammad used terrorism to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies on a large scale. Most of those killed were men from the Banu Qurayza tribe after they surrendered to a siege as an aftermath of the Invasion of Banu Qurayza. [3] Significant clauses of the constitution included the mutual assistance of each other if one signatory were to be attacked by a third party, the resolution that the Muslims would profess their religion and the Jews theirs, as well as the appointment of Muhammad as the leader of the state. Muhammads ability to obtain sufficient weapons and equipment had an important political advantage. During that time he made several trips to the north along the spice road, for example, and gained a reputation for honesty and as an excellent administrator and organizer. He also introduced the new dimension of psychological warfare, employing terror and massacre as means to weaken the will of his enemies. In the years following his death, Islamic scholars developed an account of the Islamic law of war. While those who died in battle had formerly been celebrated as examples of courage and selflessness, before Muhammad it was never suggested that death was to be welcomed or required to be a good soldier. Apostates from Islam, pagans, atheists, agnostics, and ?pseudo-scriptuaries,? Weapons, helmets, and armor were expensive items in relatively impoverished Arabia, and the early Muslim converts, drawn mostly from among the poor, orphaned, widowed, and otherwise socially marginal, could ill afford them. Download Free PDF " Prophet Muhammad as a Politician and a Military Leader " nwankwo chioma The most important qualities in which a military leader accords with a political leader, especially when one undertakes the highest position in the state or is launching a state. "[1], Medina was divided into five tribes: two of them the Khazraj and Aws, while the Jews were represented by, from smallest to largest, the Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir and Banu Quraizah. He knew Islam will prevail in those cases. Only 300 men, who had cupped the water with their hands to drink it, were allowed to remain. Gideon and the three hundred pursued Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings. Josephus and Jesus: The Early Christian Movement. Within a year of Muhammads death many of the clans that had sworn allegiance to Islam recanted, resulting in the War of the Apostates, or Riddah. He always looked for a third option instead of focusing on 2 only. Enjoying their strategic advantage due to the thick foliage of palm trees surrounding their castles, the Banu Nadir pelted the Muslims with stones and showered arrows upon them from their castles. [8], The "besheth" part of the name "Jerubbesheth" (2 Samuel 11:21) means "shame". An astute grand strategist, he used nonmilitary methods (alliance building, political assassination, bribery, religious appeals, mercy, and calculated butchery) to strengthen his long-term position, sometimes even at the expense of short-term military considerations. During the Battle of Mu'ta, Khalid coordinated the safe withdrawal of Muslim troops against the Byzantines. Two years later at Second Badr, 1,500 Muslims took the field. When his armies marched into Mecca, for example, Muhammads suffah set about hunting down a list of old enemies marked for execution. 9296, Honor and Disgrace: Ethics of Fathers 4:8 Aish Hatorah, "To YHWH and to Gideon: A reading of the Gideon story", "Five-letter inscription inked 3,100 years ago may be name of biblical judge", "This 3,100-Year-Old Inscription May Be Linked to a Biblical Judge", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gideon&oldid=1158433363, This page was last edited on 4 June 2023, at 02:18. Josephus aids us, in crucial ways, in our quest for the assembly of Jesus' earliest followers in Jerusalem. Under the old ways individuals kept whatever booty they had captured. [18], During the night, God instructed Gideon to approach the Midianite camp. It was probably the place now called Orbo, on the east of Jordan, near Bethshean. Muhammad was first and foremost a revolutionary, a fiery religious guerrilla leader who created and led the first genuine national insurgency in antiquity that is comprehensible in modern terms, a fact not lost on the jihadis of the present day, who often cite the Koran and Muhammads use of violence as justification for their own insurgencies. But the armies that achieved those conquests did not exist in Arabia before Muhammad. The founder and leader of God's Crown Chapel, Prophet Reindolf Oduro Gyebi, known widely as the Eagle Prophet, has given reasons why he is shying away from speaking about the impasse between the . [2] As a leader of the Israelites, he won a decisive victory over a Midianite army despite a vast numerical disadvantage, leading a troop of 300 "valiant" men. Benedikt Gletting (16th century) invokes the "Sword of Gideon" in a call for a pious and confident defense of the Old Swiss Confederacy against the threat of the Franco-Ottoman alliance. Seek Wisdom, Be Forgiving & Sincere in word and action.2. Although Muhammad began his struggle for a new order with a small guerrilla cadre capable of undertaking only limited hit-and-run raids, by the time he was ready to attack Mecca a decade later that small guerrilla force had grown into a large conventional army with integrated cavalry and infantry units capable of conducting large-scale combat operations. Widely regarded as one of the most consequential Muslim military leaders of all time, Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi was an Arab Muslim commander in the service of the prophet Muhammad and the caliphs Abu Bakr (r. 632-634) and Umar (r. 634-644). But better pay was only a small part of the new Islamic warriors motivation. In negotiations with bedouin chiefs he made them gifts of expensive weaponry. Muhammads teachings changed the traditional Arab view of military sacrifice and produced a far more dedicated soldier than Arab armies had ever witnessed before. After being besieged for 1415 days, the tribe eventually surrendered to Muhammad, who initially wanted to capture the men of Banu Qaynuqa', but ultimately yielded to Abdullah ibn 'Ubayy and agreed to expel the Qaynuqa'. He was also Islam's first religious poet, using many phrases from the Qur'an in his verses during the battle with kuffar. Insurgencies succeed or fail to the degree that they are able to win the allegiance of great numbers of uncommitted citizens to support the insurgencys goals. Land occupied by Muslims is known as the dar al-Islam, while all other territory is known as the dar al-harb, ?the land of war.? Everyone and everything passes, do not attach yourself to things.11. Finally, in 628, he besieged and invaded the Jewish fortress of Khaybar, which hosted more than 10,000 Jews, which Muslim sources say was retaliation for planning to ally themselves with the local Arab pagan tribes. His ultimate goal, the transformation of Arab society through the spread of a new religion, was strategic in concept. Military general c. Trader d. Religious leader. Islamic law prohibits mutilation of the dead and torture of captives, although the definition of torture is problematic, since Muhammad himself imposed punishments that would easily qualify as torture today. Six years later at Hunayn Muhammads cavalry squadrons numbered 800 horse and cavalrymen. A central element to an Islamic soldiers motivation in Muhammads day was the idea that death was not something to be feared but rather embraced. One of Muhammads most important innovations was convincing his troops that they were doing Gods work on earth. Badr: The Tribe of Makkah - an active enemy of the mission of the prophet (Peace Be upon Him) and the state of Madinah - prevented Muslims from traveling into Mak'kah or to Madinah (via Mak'kah). Peterson, Muhammad: the prophet of God, p. 126, Tariq Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet, Oxford University Press, p. 141, "The Massacre of the Ban Quraya: A Re-examination of a Tradition", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Military_career_of_Muhammad&oldid=1155968432, This page was last edited on 20 May 2023, at 15:41. better, travel conditions the emotions Normandy evoked were the same. Muhammad understood that the conflict was between the existing social order with its manifest injustices and his vision of the future, and he surpassed his adversaries in spreading his vision to win the struggle for the hearts and minds of the Arab population. The later Arab conquests, as regards both strategic concept and the new armies as instruments of military method, were the consequences of Muhammads prior military success as the leader of an insurgency. The central element of the doctrine of jihad is that the Islamic community (ummah) as a whole, under the leadership of the caliph (successor to Muhammad), has the duty to expand Islamic rule until the whole world is governed by Islamic law. 'Sword of God'). Italian orientalist Laura Veccia Vaglieri claims other motives pushed Muhammad to invade the forts of Khaybar. Division and positioning of army in the battle field on the basis of their skills is the best military strategic manoeuvre that world learnt from Holy Prophet. No insurgency can survive without an effective intelligence apparatus. As a result, the greatest commanders of the early Arab conquests were developed by Muhammad himself. Thank you soo much for such a concise yet in-depth analysis of our Prophets PBUH leadership skills. Muhammad had many enemies, and he was always on guard against an attempt upon his life. d. He was said to have been visited by several of the Muslim gods. The soldiers of Islam came to see themselves as fighting under Gods instructions. Muhammad chose Medina as his base of operations because of its strategic location. This transformation of Arab warfare enabled those leaders who came after the Prophet to establish the core of what then became the Islamic empire which in turn led to the Enlightenment within the then Muslim world. (LogOut/ In the space of a single decade he fought eight major battles, led eighteen raids, and planned another thirty-eight military operations where others were in command but operating under his orders and strategic direction. Muhammad also managed to bring about a revolution in the way Arabs fought wars, transforming their armies into instruments capable of large-scale combat operations that could achieve strategic objectives instead of only small-scale clan, tribal, or personal objectives. As early as when Muhammad left Mecca in 622, he left behind a trusted agent, his uncle Abbas, who continued to send him reports on the situation there. Muhammad understood that conversions and political alliances with the bedouins, not military engagements with the Meccans, were the keys to success. It is, as Clausewitz reminds us, always a method, never a goal. Tenskwatawa / t n s k w t w e / (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 - November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet.He was a younger brother of Tecumseh, a leader of the Shawnee.In his early years Tenskwatawa was given the name Lalawethika ("He . According to those . By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Sunni Islamic modernists began to modify the classical law of war. Ibn Hisham, as-Seerat an-Nabawiyyah, Vol. By supplying these converts with expensive military equipment, Muhammad immediately raised their status within the clan and guaranteed their loyalty to him, if not always to the creed of Islam. It was from the original small cadre of guerrillas that the larger conventional army could be grown that would ultimately permit the insurgency to engage its enemies in set-piece battles when the time and political conditions were right. 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