The Siege of al-Ṭāʾif

Now to the main branches of both armies, which lead to Ghazwat al-Ṭāʾif, the battle of al-Ṭāʾif. The books of sīrah say that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) put a very strict siege on al-Ṭāʾif. In fact Ibn Hishām — a scholar and writer of sīrah, the student of Ibn Isḥāq — says: I was told by someone I trust that the first one in Islam to use the catapult was the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the first one in Islam to use the catapult. This was a piece of siege equipment used to hurl stones at the walls of al-Ṭāʾif, and the first one to use it was the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And "in Islam" is said meaning that it had been used before — it is not as though they invented it — but the first among the Muslims to use it was the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and this was the first ghazwah in which it was used.

Now the catapult, when it fires, hurls its stone either at the wall or inside the fortress, and one does not really see where it lands inside the fort — this is a whole city inside these walls. When this missile arrives in the city, it can hit anywhere: it could hit a home, it could hit a street, it could hit a market; it could strike anywhere, and it could cause collateral damage that was not originally intended. For example, it could strike women and children, even though the intention of the one who is firing is not to hit them; it is something that lands out of one's line of sight, so one does not really know where it falls. And therefore this was used as evidence by contemporary scholars for the legality of using modern weaponry that is similar to the catapult in its method of striking — which is different from using an arrow, where you see your target and fire at it — something similar to some modern firepower that ends up hitting the enemy indiscriminately. So again, this is one of many pieces of evidence used by modern scholars in this regard.

Now even though the catapult was being used — it was fired, and it was pounding al-Ṭāʾif — they did not give up. They had archers on the walls, and in one narration it says that the Muslims were within range and were being struck by these arrows, so they had to retreat and move out of range. And then the Companions used what is called a dabbābah. This was a wooden structure that some of the Companions would enter and use as a cover to protect themselves from arrows until they could reach the wall and get close to it. But the people of al-Ṭāʾif used a weapon against the dabbābah: they used thorny pieces of iron heated in fire. These pieces of iron would strike the dabbābah and burn it, and then penetrate it and reach those inside. So it injured some of the Companions, and they had to retreat, and this weapon was proving ineffective.

And then, when this happened, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) ordered that the grapevines of al-Ṭāʾif, which were outside the city, be cut down, and they cut down some of them. Again, this is similar to what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did in the siege of the Jews of Banū al-Naḍīr, when he ordered the palm trees to be cut down as a weapon against the enemy: because when they see their livelihood being destroyed, it weakens their morale and their willingness to hold out under the siege.