riddah

riddah, series of politico-religious uprisings in various parts of Arabia circa 632 ce during the caliphate of Abū Bakr (reigned 632–634).

Despite the traditional resistance of the Bedouins to any restraining central authority, by 631 Muhammad was able to exact from the majority of their tribes at least nominal adherence to Islam, payment of the zakāt, a tax levied on Muslims to support the poor, and acceptance of Medinan envoys. In March 632, in what Muslim historians later called the first apostasy, or riddah, a Yemeni tribe expelled two of Muhammad’s agents and secured control of Yemen. Muhammad died three months later, and dissident tribes, eager to reassert their independence and stop payment of the zakāt, rose in revolt. They refused to recognize the authority of Abū Bakr, interpreting Muhammad’s death as a termination of their contract, and rallied instead around at least four rival prophets.

Most of Abū Bakr’s reign was consequently occupied with riddah wars, which under the generalship of Khālid ibn al-Walīd not only brought the secessionists back to Islam but also won over many who had not yet been converted. The major campaign was directed against Abū Bakr’s strongest opponent, the prophet Musaylimah and his followers in Al-Yamāmah. It culminated in a notoriously bloody battle at ʿAqrabāʾ in eastern Najd (May 633), afterward known as the Garden of Death. The encounter cost the Muslims the lives of many anṣār (“helpers”; Medinan Companions of the Prophet) who were invaluable for their knowledge of the Qurʾān, which had been revealed to the Prophet, recited to his disciples, and memorized by them but not yet written down. Musaylimah was killed, the heart of the riddah opposition was destroyed, and the strength of the Medinan government was established. Sometime between 633 and 634 Arabia was finally reunited under the caliph, and the energy of its tribes was diverted to the conquest of Iraq, Syria, and Egypt.