The Siege of Ta'if

After the Battle of Hunayn, the Prophet ﷺ left the spoils of war (ghanima) and the prisoners under guard at Ji'ranah. He then marched on Ta'if, where the defeated tribe of Thaqif had taken refuge behind the city's massive walls. Scholars of seerah usually treat Hunayn and Ta'if together, because they happened back to back against the same enemy. They were still two separate incidents, since Hunayn was a battle while Ta'if was a siege. The Muslims arrived in the last week of Shawwal, 8 AH.

Ta'if was a green, well-watered city in the mountains, quite unlike the barren valley of Makkah. It had no Ka'bah, but its people had made it strong in other ways. Thaqif had surrounded it with massive walls. On top of the walls they had built devices for pouring burning oil and shooting arrows down on attackers. They had also stored enough supplies for nearly a year, because they expected a long siege.

The Prophet ﷺ had foreseen this. While he was still in Makkah, even before Hunayn, he sent a few Companions to the tribe of Jurash, among them Urwah ibn Mas'ud and Ghaylan ibn Salama. Their task was to learn methods of siege warfare that the Muslims had never used before. They learned to build a catapult and a battering ram, and to form a testudo, in which soldiers advance toward a wall under a roof of large shields. They came back with this knowledge before the army reached Ta'if, and so for the first time Muslims built and used a catapult.

The Muslims first camped near the city, but they were showered with arrows. The Prophet ﷺ moved them to another site, which later became the location of the first mosque in Ta'if. On one occasion the Muslims used the testudo to approach the walls. Burning oil poured from above still got through and burned many of them. When they ran out from under the shields, a fresh volley of arrows killed a number of them. The battering rams did not work, and the catapults did some damage but could not break open the gates.

The Prophet ﷺ suggested leaving Ta'if for now and coming back another time. Some of the Companions did not want to go. They had just won at Makkah and Hunayn, and they did not want to leave when victory seemed so close. When the Prophet ﷺ saw that they wanted to stay, he let them stay.

The city still held. After another deadly volley of arrows the Companions lost heart, and when the Prophet ﷺ told them a second time that they should move on, they quietly agreed. Before they left, the Companions asked him to make du'a (supplication) against Thaqif. Instead he prayed that Allah would guide them. The army then returned to Ji'ranah, where the spoils were waiting.