In 6 A.H. the hard-negotiated, ten-year treaty of Hudaybiyyah was agreed between the Quraish and the Muslims of Madinah establishing peace and granting the Muslims right of pilgrimage to the Kab’ah. It was in the environment created by this treaty that Muhammad (SAW) began to reach out to the kings of Arabia[1], inviting them to Islam.
Muhammad (SAW) then turned his attention to the Khaibar Jews who had broken their treaty with the Muslims and fomented the confederate hostilities against them for too long. The Khaibar Jews were conquered and their lives mercifully spared in return for their great wealth. The Muslim army also subdued the Bedouin tribes of Nadj (7 A.H.) and performed the ‘Umrah to Makkah.
8 A.H. was no less a year of dramatic events which included an army of 3,000 Muslims, dispatched to the border of Syria in response to the murder of one of Muhammad’s (SAW) envoys, facing down a Byzantine (Roman) army of nearly 200,000; heralding the start of the conquest of Christian lands.
[1] Including Abysinia, Egypt, Persia, Rome, Bahrain, Yamamah, Damascus, Oman.
