Emigration—From Makkah to Madinah

of his way, the Prophet could now turn his attention to the Jews of Khaybar. The attack on Khaybar (Muharram A.H. 7) followed quickly after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (Dhu’lQa’dah, A.H. 6), finally solving the Jewish problem. Twenty thousand armed men were holding out in the eight mighty fortresses of Khaybar. The fortresses were also equipped with highly sophisticated defences. The story of this fortified city’s sacking is long, in which methods of extraordinary military ingenuity were used. First, the town gate was broken with a massive tree trunk wielded by about fifty men. A few strong blows were enough to break the gate, allowing the Muslims to enter amidst a hail of arrows and stones. Four fortresses were captured in this manner. The rest took fright, opened their gates, and put themselves at the mercy of the Muslim army. There remained the Quraysh to be subdued. The Prophet’s intuition told him to wait until they broke the treaty before entering the battlefield with them. The Prophet knew the negative sentiments that spurred the Quraysh in their fight against the Muslims. Since the former was motivated by feelings of jealousy, hate, greed and arrogance, the Prophet realized that they would stop short of no immoral and unreasonable action in pursuit of their aims. His estimate proved correct. In Sha’ban A.H. 8, fighting erupted between the tribes of Khuza’ah and Banu Bakr. The Banu Bakr were allied to the Quraysh and the Khuza’ah to the Muslims. In blatant contradiction to the terms of the