The Origins of the Islamic State/Part 1/Chapter 13

by Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyá al-Balādhurī

CHAPTER XIII

Dûmat al-Jandal

Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd captures Ukaidir. The Prophet sent Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd ibn-al-Mughîrah-l-Makhzûmi to Ukaidir ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik al-Kindi, later as-Sakûni, at Dûmat al-Jandal.^[1] Khâlid took him captive, killed his brother, robbed him of a silk cloak^[2] interwoven with gold, and brought Ukaidir before the Prophet. Ukaidir accepted Islam,^[3] upon which the Prophet wrote for him and the people of Dûmat the following statement:—

"This is a statement from Muḥammad, the Prophet of Allah, to Ukaidir as he accepted Islam and forsook the objects of worship and idols, and to the people of Dûmat:—To us shall belong the water-places outside the city, the untilled lands, the deserts and waste lands, as well as the defensive and offensive weapons, the horses, and the fortress; and to you shall belong the palm-trees within the city, and the running water. Your cattle which are pasturing shall not, for the purpose of taking the ṣadaḳah, be brought together [but shall be numbered on the pasture-land], and what is above the fixed number of animals from which a ṣadaḳah is required shall not be taken into consideration.^[4] Your herds shall graze wherever ye want, and ye shall observe prayer in its time, and pay the zakât as it is due. To this effect, I give you the covenant of Allah and his promise, and ye are entitled to our sincerity as regards the fulfillment of the terms. Witnessed by Allah and those of the Moslems who are present."

Ukaidir violates the covenant. Al-ʿAbbâs ibn-Hishâm al-Kalbi from his grandfather:—The Prophet sent Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd to Ukaidir. Ukaidir was brought by Khâlid before the Prophet; he became a Moslem, and the Prophet wrote him a statement. But no sooner had the Prophet been dead, than Ukaidir stopped the payment of the ṣadaḳah, violated the covenant and left Dûmat al-Jandal for al-Ḥîrah, where he erected a building and called it Dûmat after Dûmat al-Jandal. His brother, however, Ḥuraith^[5] ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik embraced Islam and thereby entered into possession of the property held by his brother.^[6]

Ḥuraith's daughter marries. Yazîd ibn-Muʿâwiyah married the daughter of Ḥuraith, Ukaidir's brother.

Abu-Bakr sends Khâlid against Ukaidir. Al-ʿAbbâs from ʿAwânah ibn-al-Ḥakam:—Abu-Bakr wrote to Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd, when the latter was at ʿAin at-Tamr, ordering him to go against Ukaidir, which he did, killing Ukaidir and capturing Dûmat. After the death of the Prophet, Ukaidir left Dûmat and then returned to it. Having killed him, Khâlid went to Syria.

Laila daughter of al-Jûdi a captive. According to al-Wâḳidi, on Khâlid's way from al-ʿIrâḳ to Syria, he passed through Dûmat al-Jandal, which he captured, carrying away many captives, among whom were Laila, the daughter of al-Jûdi-l-Ghassâni. Others say Laila was carried away by Khâlid's horsemen from a Ghassân settlement stationed by a watering-place [ḥâḍir]. It was this daughter of al-Jûdi whom ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmân ibn-abi-Bakr aṣ-Ṣiddiḳ had fallen in love with, and the one whom he meant when he said:

 

"I thought of Laila with as-Samâwah^[7] intervening between;
and what has the daughter of al-Jûdi to do with me?"

 

Thus did he win her hand and marry her. But such a hold had she on him that he gave up all his other wives. At last, however, she was affected with such a severe disease that her looks were changed and he no more liked her. He was advised to give her what is usually given at divorce^[8] and send her to her own people, which he did.

Al-Wâḳidi's version of the conquest. According to al-Wâḳidi, the Prophet led the invasion against Dûmat al-Jandal in the year 5 and met no resistance. In Shauwâl, year 9, he sent Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd to Ukaidir, twenty months after the former had embraced Islam.

The reconstruction of Dûmat al-Jandal. I heard it said by someone from al-Ḥîrah that Ukaidir and his brothers used to go to Dûmat al-Ḥîrah and visit their uncles of the Kalb tribe and spend some time with them. One day as they were together on a hunting trip, there arose before their view a city in ruins with only few walls standing. The city was built of stones [Ar. jandal] . This city they rebuilt, planted in it olive- and other trees, and called it Dûmat al-Jandal in distinction from Dûmat al-Ḥîrah.^[9]

Az-Zuhri's version of the conquest. ʿAmr ibn-Muḥammad an-Nâḳid from az-Zuhri:—The Prophet sent Kḥâlid ibn-al-Walîd ibn-al-Mughîrah to the people of Dûmat al-Jandal who were some of the Christians of al-Kûfah. Khâlid captured Ukaidir, their chief, and arranged to receive poll-tax from him.

Footnotes

1. Yâḳût, vol. ii, p. 625.
2. Ṭabari, vol. i, pp. 1702–1703.
3. Diyârbakri, vol. ii, p. 142; Athîr, vol. ii, p. 214.
4. Cf. Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, vol. iii, p. 419.
5. Ibn-Ḥajar, vol. i, p. 773, by mistake gives "Ḥuraib".
6. One verse omitted.
7. A desert from Dûmat to ʿAin at-Tamr; Iṣṭakhri, p. 23.
8. Ar. mutʿah. Muwaṭṭa, p. 208.
9. Caetani, vol. ii, p. 263.