Sariyyat ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib

The Sariyyah of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib refers to several military expeditions led by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib during the lifetime of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. Among the most prominent was the expedition to al-Fuls, the idol of the tribe of Ṭayyiʾ, in 9 AH / 630 CE. The Prophet ﷺ dispatched ʿAlī at the head of a military detachment to destroy the idol and weaken the remaining centers of pagan tribal influence in northern Arabia.

According to the classical sīrah and maghāzī traditions, the Muslim force advanced toward the territory of Ṭayyiʾ and successfully destroyed al-Fuls without major resistance. Several captives and spoils were taken, including individuals from prominent tribal families. Among those captured was the sister of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, whose later release contributed to the eventual acceptance of Islam by her brother, an influential tribal leader. The expedition thus carried not only military significance but also political and religious consequences.

The Sariyyah of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib illustrates the Prophet’s ﷺ broader efforts in the later Madinan period to eliminate organized pagan worship and consolidate Muslim authority across Arabia. It also highlights the important role played by ʿAlī in several strategic missions entrusted to him by the Prophet ﷺ. Reports concerning this sariyyah are preserved in the works of Ibn Isḥāq, al-Wāqidī, and other early historians of the sīrah and maghāzī tradition.

## References

1 Shiblī Nuʿmānī and Syed Sulaimān Nadwī, Sīrat al-Nabī (Lahore: Maktabah Khalīl, 1990), 1: 267. 266. 2 Muhammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, Urdu trans. Sāʾīm Chishtī (Lahore: Chishtī Kutubkhānah, 2024). 3 Qāḍī Muḥammad Sulaymān Salmān Manṣūrpūrī, Wa-mā arsalnāka illā raḥmatan li’l-ʿālamīn (Lahore: Progressive Books, 2022), 2: 150-70. 4 Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār and Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, Sīrat Ibn Hishām, Urdu trans. Syed Yāsīn ʿAlī Ḥusnī Niẓāmī (Lahore: Idārah Islāmiyāt, 1994), 1:417. 5 Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿd al-Baṣrī, Ṭabaqāt Ibn Saʿd, trans. ʿAbdullāh al-ʿAmadī (Karachi: Dār al-Ishāʿat, 2003), 1:316, 380. 6 Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Muḥammad Bākhshīsh Abū Mālik (Casablanca: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1994).