Battle of Harrah
The Syrian Army Camps near Medina
Muslim b. 'Uqba and his troops left Wādi al-Qurā' for Medina and camped his army at a place called “Jurf” at a distance of three miles from Medina.[^1]88
On the other hand, it was long since the people of Medina had been informed about the departure of Syrian army and were prepared for confrontation and defense. They reconstructed the same trench that the Muslims had dug to defend Medina in the battle of Ahzāb (Khandaq), which over time had partly ruined. They also erected high walls to protect some parts of Medina.[^2]89
Reconstruction of the old trench and construction of new trenches took fifteen days in all.[^3] For these tasks, the Quraysh had undertaken the distance between Rātij[^4] and Ahzāb Mosque and the Ansār, the distance between Ahzāb Mosque and the Banī Salama and Mawālī neighborhood to carry out the digging and reconstructing the trench from Rātij to the Banī 'Abd al-Ashhal.[^5]92
The trench had been dug on the west side of Medina, so Muslim b. 'Uqba
was determined, after consultations he had or because of the trench that
was an impenetrable barrier to his troops, to launch the attack from the
east of Medina which was a rocky land called Harrah.[^6]
The setting up of Syrian army camp near Medina made the people of
Medina take the war more seriously and plan and carry out extra measures
to defend the town. For the sake of integration of defense and battle,
they also had to choose someone as their commander-in-chief.The setting
up of Syrian army camp near Medina made the people of Medina take the
war more seriously and plan and carry out extra measures to defend the
town. For the sake of integration of defense and battle, they also had
to choose someone as their commander-in-chief.The setting up of Syrian
army camp near Medina made the people of Medina take the war more
seriously and plan and carry out extra measures to defend the town. For
the sake of integration of defense and battle, they also had to choose
someone as their commander-in-chief.
[^1]: Yāqūt Hamawī, Mu‘jam al-Buldān, vol. 2, p. 128.
[^2]: Ya‘qūbī, Ta’rīkh-i vol. 2, p. 250; Mas‘ūdī, Al-Tanbīh wa al-Ishrāf, p. 263; Samhūdī, Wafā’ al-Wafā’, vol. 1, p. 129.
[^3]: Digging the trench and its reconstruction took six days (Ibn Sa‘d, Tabaqāt, vol. 2, p. 67).
[^4]: Name of Jewish quarter in Medina (Yāqūt Hamawī, Mu‘jam al-Buldān, vol. 2, p. 128).
[^5]: Banī ‘Abd al-Ashhal is a caln of the Aws tribe from which Sa‘d b. Ma‘ādh and a number of Sahāba are regarded to have originated; Suwaydī, Sabā’ik al-Dhahab, p. 173; Zirklī, al-A‘lām, vol. 2, p. 42.
[^6]: Tabarī, Ta’rīkh, vol. 4, p. 372.