حصار الطائف

After the Battle of Hunayn routed the Hawazin-Thaqif confederacy, the Thaqif retreated inside Taif — one of the most prosperous and defensible cities in the Hijaz, a mountain city with thick walls, catapults, and a population determined to resist. The Prophet ﷺ had been pelted with stones in Taif years earlier, the most physically painful rejection of his prophetic career. Now, in Shawwal 8 AH, he returned with the Muslim army and laid siege. The defenses held. The Thaqif deployed catapults and fired arrows and molten iron from the walls. When the Muslim army advanced under hide-covered shields, the Thaqif dropped fire and destroyed the structure. Several companions were killed. The Prophet ﷺ had the surrounding orchards cut down as economic pressure. He offered freedom to any enslaved person who came down from the walls — several did, providing intelligence about conditions inside. After fifteen to twenty-five days, the Prophet ﷺ ordered withdrawal. When companions expressed surprise, he gave them the option to fight the next day; they began to prepare, then he announced departure, and they accepted it immediately. During the siege, companions suggested the Prophet ﷺ invoke a curse against the Thaqif. He declined and instead made du'a: 'O Allah, guide the Thaqif and bring them to us.' His judgment was correct. The Thaqif were contained — their allies destroyed, their surrounding territory Muslim, their trade cut off. Within months they sent a delegation to Medina. They tried to negotiate exemptions from Islamic obligations: keep al-Lat for three years, then two, then one month. Every request was refused. They eventually accepted Islam without conditions. Abu Sufyan and Mughirah ibn Shu'ba were sent to destroy al-Lat publicly. The idol the Prophet ﷺ had been stoned for condemning was demolished by Taifi hands, completing a journey the seerah had begun with the most painful rejection of his prophetic career. The Siege of Taif completes the Taif narrative that had begun with the most painful rejection of the Prophet's ﷺ mission — the bleeding feet at the gates years earlier — and ends with voluntary submission and the destroyed idol, the full arc of patience and da'wah realized.