detach[1] themselves from the rest. Ye are on the point of becoming the tail among the Arabs." That is why those who settled in Makkah were called Khuzâʿah.[2] Then came Thaʿlabah ibn-ʿAmr Muzaiḳîya with his son and followers to Yathrib whose people were Jews. They settled outside the city where they grew and increased in number and became so strong as to drive the Jews from Yathrib. Thus they came to live inside the city and the Jews outside of it.
Al-Aus and al-Khazraj. Al-Aus and al-Khazraj are the sons of Ḥârithah ibn-Thaʿlabah[3] ibn-ʿAmr Muzaiḳîya ibn-ʿÂmir, and their mother was Ḳailah, daughter of al-Arḳam. Some say she was a Ghassanide of al-Azd tribe, others say she was of ʿUdhrah tribe.
In pre-Islamic times, the Aus and the Khazraj saw many battles which made them trained in warfare. They became so used to fighting that their valor spread far, their courage became well known, their bravery was often cited and their name became a source of terror in the hearts of the Arabs, who feared them. Their possessions were well guarded against encroachment, and their neighbor was well protected; and all that was preparatory to the fact that Allah wanted to have them support his Prophet and to honor them by lending him aid.
It is reported that at the arrival of the Prophet in al-Madînah he wrote an agreement and made a covenant with the Jews of Yathrib.[4] The Jews of Ḳainuḳâʿ, however, were the first to violate the covenant, and the Prophet expelled them from al-Madînah. The first land that the Prophet conquered was that of the banu-an-Naḍîr.
