Sariyyat Zayd ibn Ḥārithah

Several military expeditions during the Madinan period were led by Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (RA), one of the closest Companions of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and his freedman and adopted son before the prohibition of adoption by lineage in Islam. Because of his loyalty, military ability, and trusted status, the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly appointed him commander over important sarāyā. These expeditions were directed toward various regions of Arabia and formed part of the broader effort to secure Madīnah, monitor hostile tribal activity, and challenge Quraysh commercial influence.

Among the most prominent expeditions led by Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (RA) were the sarāyā to al-Qaradah, al-Jumūm, al-ʿĪṣ, Ḥismā, and Muʾtah. In several of these operations, Muslim detachments successfully intercepted Quraysh caravans or concluded strategic arrangements with local tribes. The Sariyyah of al-Qaradah, for example, resulted in the capture of a valuable Quraysh caravan traveling through an alternative Iraqi trade route, thereby increasing economic pressure on Makkah. Zayd (RA) also played a central role in frontier expeditions toward the northern regions bordering Byzantine-allied Arab tribes, culminating in his appointment as the first commander at the Battle of Muʾtah, where he was martyred in 8 AH / 629 CE.

The repeated appointment of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (RA) as commander demonstrates the high degree of confidence the Prophet ﷺ placed in him. His expeditions occupy an important place in sīrah and maghāzī literature because they illustrate the organizational development of the early Muslim military structure and the expanding political influence of the Islamic state beyond Madīnah. Classical historians including Ibn Hishām, al-Wāqidī, Ibn Saʿd, and al-Ṭabarī preserve detailed accounts of these expeditions, while later Muslim scholars regarded Zayd (RA) as one of the foremost military commanders of the Prophetic era.

## References

1 Ṣafī al-Raḥmān Mubārakpūrī, al-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm (Urdu) (Lahore: Maktabah al-Salafiyyah, 1995), 336. 2 Qāḍī Muḥammad Sulaymān Salmān Manṣūrpūrī, Wa-mā arsalnāka illā raḥmatan li’l-ʿālamīn (Lahore: Progressive Books, 2022), 2: 150-70. 3 Muhammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, Urdu trans. Sāʾīm Chishtī (Lahore: Chishtī Kutubkhānah, 2024). 4 Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Muḥammad Bākhshīsh Abū Mālik (Casablanca: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1994). 5 Shiblī Nuʿmānī and Syed Sulaimān Nadwī, Sīrat al-Nabī (Lahore: Maktabah Khalīl, 1990), 1:269. 6 Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿd al-Baṣrī, Ṭabaqāt Ibn Saʿd, trans. ʿAbdullāh al-ʿAmadī (Karachi: Dār al-Ishāʿat, 2003), 1:272.