A Reconsideration of the Number of the Prophet’s Wars

Abstract

In hadith and historical sources, more than eighty wars, comprising ghazwas (the wars in which the Prophet was present) and sariyyas (the wars in which the Prophet was not present), have been attributed to the Prophet. Scholars of history have mentioned about twenty-seven ghazwas and more than fifty sariyyas, all of which took place during the ten years after the migration to Medina until the demise of the Prophet. Apart from the famous battles such as Badr, Uhud, Khandaq, Bani Qurayzah, Khaybar, Muta, Tabuk and Hunayn, many of these ghazwas and sariyyas are unknown except to some historians. This raises the question of why there must have been more than eighty wars in ten years, that is, almost one war every ninety days. This research tries to examine the real number of the Prophet's wars. The figure of eighty is greatly exaggerated.and was closer to twenty.

Keywords

• the prophet
• number of wars
• ghazwa
• sariyya