“Fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits,” says the Muslim holy book, the Koran, “surely Allah (God) does not love those who exceed the limits.”
Muhammad Mustafa, the Messenger of God, had to fight a series of battles in the defense of Islam from his new home in Medina. Those battles in which he led the army of Islam in person, are called “Ghazwa” and those expeditions which he sent out from Medina under the command of any one of his companions, are called “Sariyya”. Roughly speaking, the Prophet launched 80 campaigns during the ten years from his migration in A.D. 622 to his death in A.D. 632. Some of these campaigns were nothing more than reconnaissance missions. The numbers involved in them were minuscule, and all they did was to watch the movements of some clan or tribe. Some were missionary expeditions. Many others were minor skirmishes. Still others were of interest only because of some particular incident attaching to them. I shall give a cursory account of the minor campaigns, and will then put the focus on the major battles of Islam. Long before Islam, the Greeks and the Romans had learned that a battle could change the destinies of nations. Among the campaigns of the Prophet, there are five battles about which it can be said that they changed the destinies of nations. They are the battles of Badr, Uhud, Khandaq, Khyber and Hunayn. These battles were inevitable. The Quraysh of Makkah believed that if all Arabs accepted Islam, it would mean to them (the Quraysh) the loss of all the pilgrim revenues, and the loss of their privileges which they enjoyed as the guardians of the idols. A triumph of Islam was correctly foreseen by them as a death blow to privilege. It was this fear, the fear of the loss of economic and political power and prestige that precipitated war between them and the Muslims. Since the emigration of the Muslims from Makkah, a de facto state of war had existed between them and the Quraysh. In the early days in Medina, the Muslims did not dare to remove their armor at any time. Pickets were posted around the city every night to warn the citizens if the enemy made a sudden raid. The Apostle could not sleep at nights being fearful of an attack at any time. It was in these circumstances that he had to take some defensive measures for the security of Medina. As head of the nascent state, its security was his first responsibility. In the interests of security, the Muslims had to keep an eye on the movements of the enemy, his friends and his allies. The Prophet sent out the first expedition in the ninth month of the first year of Hijra, under the command of his uncle, Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib. Thirty Muhajirs took part in it. Their aim was to intercept a caravan of Quraysh. But a tribe, friendly to both sides, interposed between them. There was no fighting, and the expedition returned to Medina. In the following month, the Prophet sent sixty Muhajirs under the command of his cousin, Obaida ibn al-Harith, to Rabigh, near the Red Sea. They encountered a caravan of the Quraysh. Both sides shot a few arrows at each other but there were no casualties. Two Makkan traders deserted their caravan, came over to the Muslim side, accepted Islam, and accompanied the expedition when it returned to Medina. Obaida ibn al-Harith is said to have shot an arrow at the enemy. It was the first arrow shot for Islam.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. The battle of Badr was the most important among the Islamic battles of Destiny. For the first time the followers of the new faith were put into a serious test. Had victory been the lot of the pagan army while the Islamic Forces were still at the beginning of their developments, the faith of Islam could have come to an end. No one was aware of the importance of the outcome of the Battle as the Prophet (S) himself. We might read the depth of his anxiety in his prayer before the beginning of the Battle when he stood up supplicating his Lord : God this is Quraish. It has come with all its arrogance and boastfulness, trying to discredit Thy Apostle. God, I ask Thee to humiliate them tomorrow. God, if this Muslim band will perish today, Thou shall not be worshipped.1 At this battle in which the pagan army consisted of 950 fighters and 314 (including the Messenger S), the Islamic defense was a combination of three defensive lines : 1. The personality of the Messenger, his leadership and his unequalled firmness. He (S) was to the Muslims the final refuge at Badr and at every battle he attended. 2. The Hashmites (the clan of the Prophet S), led by Ali Ibn Abu Talib (as)who entered this battle relatively obscure and came out with unequalled military fame. His military performances became the popular subject of the Arab caravans conversations throughout the Arabic Peninsula. 3. The hundreds of companions of the Messenger whose hearts were filled with the faith and readiness for sacrifice. Many of them viewed martyrdom to be a gain, equal to life and victory. These good companions were the army of Islam, its first line of defense and thick wall behind which the Messenger (S) used to stand. They were the attackers and the defenders. As to the clan of the Messenger they were the ones that he used to call before any one else, to offer the heavy sacrifice. They used to stand in the first line of defense opening for the army the way through their thrusts in the line of the enemies. When the general offensives began and every companion participated, the clan of the Messenger (S) were the most damaging to the enemies. They were so at Badr and at the following battles. The battle began when Utbah Ibn Rabi-ah, his son Al Walid and his brother Sheibah (all from the Ommayad) stood in front of the pagan army and asked the Prophet (S) to send to them their equals for a dual. Hundreds of companions were around him and many of them were expecting to be called upon by the Prophet (S) but he choose to start from his own family. The load was heavy and the heavy load could be carried only by the people to whom it belonged as he called upon Ali, Al Hamza and Obeidah Al Harith (all from the clan of the Prophet) to face the three warriors. Ali destroyed Al Walid and Al Hamza killed Utbah; then they both assisted Obeidah against his opponent Sheibah. Sheibah died immediately and Obeidah was the first martyr at this battle. He died after he lost his leg. When the general offensive began, hundreds of companions participated in the battle and offered sacrifices and pleased their Lord. But the members of the house of the Messenger (S) distinguished themselves. Ali's endeavour was unique at this battle. When Hanthala Ibn Abu Sufyan faced him, Ali liquefied his eyes with one blow from his sword. He annihilated Al Auss Ibn Saeed, and met Tuaima Ibn Oday and transfixed him with his spear, saying “You shall not dispute with us in God after today.” The Messenger (S) took a handful of gravel when the battle was extremely heated. He threw it at the faces of the pagans saying “ May Your faces be disfigured. God, terrify their hearts and invalidated their feet. “ The pagans ran away, turning their faces to no one. The Muslims went on killing them and taking prisoners. 70 pagans met their death, and the Muslims took from them 70 prisoners. History preserved in its records only fifth of the names out of the 70 pagan loses. Twenty2 or twenty two3 of them died at Ali's hand. This battle laid the foundation of the Islamic State and made out of the Muslims a force to be reckoned with by the dwellers of the Arabic Peninsula.
IN 8 AH (630 CE), the Qureish of Makkah broke their pact of Hudaibya with Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by killing some of the men of the Khuza tribe, with whom the Prophet had a treaty, inside the sacred surrounds of the Kaaba. The Khuzas asked the Prophet for help. He said, “They have betrayed us and broken the pact!” He at once prepared to leave for Makkah. On Muharram 10, AH 8, the Prophet set out, along with his allied tribes, with his forces of 10,000 men: the largest force to set out of Madina so far. While they camped outside Makkah, the Prophet asked the men to spread out and light a fire each. The 10,000 fires became visible to the Makkans who were overawed. Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Qureish, and some other men came running to the camp and met the Prophet. When the call to prayer was sounded at dawn, Abu Sufyan, the Prophet’s bitterest enemy, was so moved that he sought the Prophet and recited the kalima: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger!” Thereafter, the Prophet sent a messenger to Makkah to announce that whoever entered Abu Sufyan’s house would be safe and whoever went behind his own door and bolted it would be safe and whoever went into the Sacred Mosque would also be safe. Abu Sufyan rushed to Makkah and said, “O Qureish, this is Muhammad (PBUH) who has come to you with a force you cannot resist.” Thereafter, almost all the Makkans took refuge and no one tried to resist the entry of Muslims into Makkah. The Prophet gave strict orders not to start a fight and announced, “This is the day of mercy!” He divided his troops into four divisions to enter the city from four different directions. Before entering Makkah, while still seated on his camel, the Prophet bent low, prostrating in humility and gratefulness to his Lord. When he heard of the skirmish between Khalid bin Walid’s troops and Ikrimah’s men, he was angry and said, “Did I not forbid fighting?” It was explained that the Qureish had attacked them first. Then the Prophet put on his armour and along with his men, entered the Kaaba, touched the Hajr al-Aswad with his staff and recited “Allahu Akbar”, which his followers repeated so that the whole of Makkah resounded with it. The Prophet made seven rounds of the Kaaba and then turned towards the 360 idols surrounding the mosque. He pointed towards each and recited, “The truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Surely, falsehood is bound to vanish!” (17:81). As he pointed to the idols, each one fell on its face. Thus the Kaaba, which had been built first by Adam and then reconstructed by Abraham for the worship of the One God, was finally cleansed of all man-made deities. The door of the Kaaba was unlocked. The Prophet entered it and asked that pictures of false gods be erased. Since there was no looting, no plunder and no mistreatment of women, the Makkans were now convinced that the Prophet did not wish to avenge them. Those who had taken refuge in their homes came out and joined those in the Sacred Mosque. The Prophet, standing at the door of the Kaaba, addressed them: “There is no God but Allah alone. He has no associate. He has made good His promise and helped his servant. He has put to flight the confederates. Every claim of privilege or blood or property is abolished by me except the custody of the temple and the watering of the pilgrims … O Qureish, God has taken from you the haughtiness of the days of paganism and its veneration of ancestors. Man springs from Adam and Adam springs from dust.” He recited from the Quran, “We have created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. The most noble of you, in the sight of God, is the most pious” (49:13). Then he asked, “O Qureish, what do you think that I am about to do with you?” They replied, “Good. You are a noble and generous brother, son of a noble and generous brother. It is thine to command.” He then spoke to them words of forgiveness which, according to the revelation Joseph had spoken to his brothers when they came to him in Egypt, “Verily, I say as my brother Joseph said, ‘This day there shall be no upbraiding of you nor reproach. God forgiveth you, for He is most Merciful of the merciful’” (12: 92). He said, “Go your way for you are the freed ones!” Only four persons were given the death penalty, which had nothing to do with this conquest. A general amnesty was declared for his bitter enemies of two decades who had broken their pact of Hudaibya and who had tried every trick to harm the Prophet and his followers. The Prophet then took his place at the hill of Safa, and the Makkans, both men and women, flocked to him to pay homage and to accept Islam. Through his treatment of the Qureish, the Prophet demonstrated his faith in peace, non-violence, freedom, human rights and equality of all human beings. He also lived the verse of the Quran (16:126) in which it is said that retaliation is valid, but forgiveness is more noble and worthy of reward.
The Battle of the Yarmuk (also spelled Yarmouk) was a major battle between the army of the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. The battle consisted of a series of engagements that lasted for six days in August 636, near the Yarmouk River, along what are now the borders of Syria–Jordan and Syria-Israel, southeast of the Sea of Galilee. The result of the battle was a complete Muslim victory that ended Byzantine rule in Syria. The Battle of the Yarmuk is regarded as one of the most decisive battles in military history,[4][5] and it marked the first great wave of early Muslim conquests after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, heralding the rapid advance of Islam into the then-Christian Levant. To check the Arab advance and to recover lost territory, Emperor Heraclius had sent a massive expedition to the Levant in May 636. As the Byzantine army approached, the Arabs tactically withdrew from Syria and regrouped all their forces at the Yarmuk plains close to the Arabian Peninsula, where they were reinforced, and defeated the numerically superior Byzantine army. The battle is widely regarded to be Khalid ibn al-Walid's greatest military victory and cemented his reputation as one of the greatest tacticians and cavalry commanders in history.[6]
The siege of Jerusalem lasted from 20 September to 2 October 1187, when Balian of Ibelin surrendered the city to Saladin. Earlier that summer, Saladin had defeated the kingdom's army and conquered several cities. The city was full of refugees and had few defenders, and it fell to the besieging armies. Balian bargained with Saladin to buy safe passage for many, and the city came into Saladin's hands with limited bloodshed. Though Jerusalem fell, it was not the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as the capital shifted first to Tyre and later to Acre after the Third Crusade. Latin Christians responded in 1189 by launching the Third Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart, Philip Augustus, and Frederick Barbarossa separately.[1] In Jerusalem, Saladin restored Muslim holy sites and generally showed tolerance towards Christians; he allowed Orthodox and Eastern Christian pilgrims to visit the holy sites freely -- though Frankish (i.e. Catholic) pilgrims were required to pay a fee for entry. The control of Christian affairs in the city was handed over to the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.
he capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Army, under the command Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II on 29th May 1453. With this conquest Ottomans became an Empire and one of the most powerful empires, The Eastern Roman Empire fell and lasted. After the Constantinople conquest, 21 years old Ottoman Sultan II. Mehmed also took the title “The Conqueror” added to his name. Altough his early age, Sultan II Mehmed, started to prepare siege for İstanbul. He wanted to be the commander as Prophet Hz Muhammed mentioned the conqueror of Constantinople; “One day, Constantinople will be conquered. How wonderful and blessed are the commander of its conquest and his soldiers!” decades ago. First he took precautions with strategic tactics in both inside and outside of the state. After this, he moved to conquer Constantinople. Constantinople had been an imperial for many years. The city were bombarded by cannon fires which was designed by Mehmed the Second himself. Constantinople had been attacked in the past many times, but its great walls always prevailed. Sultan Mehmed, II changed this with the use of cannons forever. Sultan's massive cannon fired on the walls for weeks. Baltaoglu Suleyman Bey launched the first attack to enter the Golden Horn gulf on 9th April 1453 and failed to break the chains which was placed at the mouth of the horn. This chain, which floated on wooden logs, was strong enough to prevent any Ottoman ship from entering Golden Horn. The victory of the Pope’s Christian and Genoese ships decreased the morale of the Ottoman army. During this chaos and widespread feeling of lose, with the Sultan's spiritual menthor Aksemseddin promised certain success about the conquest. Sultan Mehmed improved a new type of cannon as called as “humbara”, today known as “howitzer” which is taken an aim for shooting the target. It is an important discovery for the world’s army history. Cannons were not enough to take the city. Encouraged by spiritual support, Sultan II Mehmed, decided plan for his navy. the Ottoman fleet anchored in Dolmabahce would be moved to the Golden Horn gulf by land as an element of surprise. Several ships and galleys carried by soldiers via rope were slid over slipways. In the morning of 22th April, Eastern Roman Empire woke up with a surprise and terrified when they saw Ottoman galleys in the horn. On 29th May, the Ottoman army attacked for the final assault. The siege lasted from Friday, 6 April 1453 until 29 May 1453 Tuesday when the city was conquered by the Ottomans under the command of Sultan II. Mehmed. A new era started on the world and a new balance came through by the conquest of Constantinople.