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Battles of the Prophet: A Brief Guide to the Ghazawaat of Prophet Muhammad
Battles of the A Brief Guide to the Ghazawaat of Prophet Muhammad presents information relating to all 27 Prophetic battles in a single, accessible volume. Ideal for students of knowledge, each section contains the
- Factbox with battle statistics - Geographical information/maps - Description of key events and notable figures - The battle's significance in early Muslim society
- Factbox with battle statistics - Geographical information/maps - Description of key events and notable figures - The battle's significance in early Muslim society
160 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2023
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November 2, 2025
I approached Battles of the Prophet with genuine interest. I have long read across the wide and sometimes uneven literature on the Prophet Muhammad’s campaigns—both Muslim and non-Muslim treatments, ranging from devotional works to military analyses. Among modern studies, Joel Hayward’s The Warrior Prophet stands out as the most rigorous and balanced, combining respect for the Prophet ﷺ with academic precision. Earlier efforts such as Muhammad Hamidullah’s Battles of the Prophet were pioneering for their time but are now dated and uneven in structure and sourcing.
Other books explore this field in very different ways. Russ Rodgers’s The Generalship of Muhammad (2012), written by a non-Muslim military historian, tries to assess the Prophet’s campaigns through modern operational frameworks. While imaginative, it often suffers from cultural misreadings. In contrast, The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed — His Life and Campaigns by Lt. General A. I. Akram combines a soldier’s eye for tactics with strong grounding in the sīrah and classical sources. The Maghāzī of Sayyidunā Muhammad by Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah—the earliest known biography of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—is literally the first Maghāzī work in existence, and it provides a priceless early window into how the Prophet’s battles were first recorded by his contemporaries and near-contemporaries.
Even later works such as A Muslim Manual of War, the Mamlūk-era treatise edited and translated by George T. Scanlon, show how Islamic military ethics and strategic thought evolved centuries after the Prophet’s time, retaining a deep concern with moral restraint and discipline in warfare.
With this context in mind, I came to Battles of the Prophet hoping for a concise and accurate synthesis. The book’s layout is attractive: it features charts, brief summaries, and an inviting visual design. The idea of a “brief guide” to the ghazawāt—the Prophet’s expeditions—is a valuable one. Unfortunately, the execution does not live up to its potential.
Language and Readability
As an English professor and ESL instructor, I routinely work with writers for whom English is a second or third language. I can read through dense or awkward prose and reconstruct meaning with relative ease. Even so, this book required that level of decoding throughout. I often had to fill in missing context or reconstruct the author’s intended meaning from my own prior knowledge of the sīrah. For readers without that background, the result would be confusion and, in some cases, genuine misinformation. The issue here is not merely language—it is the assumption that readers already know the chronology, geography, and dramatis personae of the campaigns.
Chronology and Factual Issues
The book is basically chronological, moving from the early Medinan period through the major campaigns. However, at a few points the sequence misplaces events without a clear rationale. Those deviations are small but noticeable, and they can be confusing for readers who are trying to track developments battle-to-battle. Tightening those spots (or briefly explaining why the order shifts) would make the guide much easier to follow.
More seriously, there are factual errors. On page 57, the author writes:
“Umayyah bin Khalaf, a staunch enemy of Islam, caught up with Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and charged toward him. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ took the sword from one of his companions and struck Ubay, leaving him severely wounded.”
This passage confuses two entirely different figures:
Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the Meccan slave-owner of Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ (ra), was killed at the Battle of Badr (624 CE).
Ubayy ibn Khalaf, on the other hand, was the Meccan who raised and fed a horse daily, vowing that he would one day kill the Prophet ﷺ with it.
All major sīrah sources—Ibn Hishām, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Rāḥīq al-Makhtūm (which the author even cites)—agree that Ubayy ibn Khalaf was the attacker at Uhud. They also specify that the Prophet ﷺ used a short spear or javelin (ḥarbah), not a sword. He took it from one of his companions and wounded Ubayy near the neck or collarbone. Ubayy fled, crying, “If he had only spat on me, it would have killed me,” and later died of that wound.
These are not trivial distinctions. The difference between Umayyah and Ubayy, and between a ḥarbah and a sword, changes both the historical and symbolic meaning of the event. Such confusion undermines confidence in the rest of the text.
Overall Evaluation
The book’s intention—to make the Prophet’s campaigns accessible to a broad audience—is commendable. The formatting is thoughtful and visually appealing. However, the combination of linguistic difficulties, factual errors, and occasional chronological confusion prevents it from fulfilling its purpose. It reads like an unedited draft that needed the guidance of a historian and a native-fluent English editor familiar with Maghāzī literature.
Readers seeking reliable and engaging works will be far better served by Joel Hayward’s The Warrior Prophet or Yasir Qadhi’s Sīrah series, which combine clarity with scholarly integrity. Works such as Lt. Gen. Akram’s The Sword of Allah and Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah’s Maghāzī provide rich detail from both early and later Islamic perspectives. Even Meraj Mohiuddin’s Revelation: The Story of Muhammad offers pedagogical value through its charts, maps, and structured approach—though its inclusion of certain non-Muslim and perennialist voices makes it uneven in theological rigor. Still, as a visual resource, it represents a significant contribution to modern sīrah pedagogy.
Conclusion
Battles of the Prophet: A Brief Guide to the Ghazawāt of Prophet Muhammad aspires to make the Prophet’s campaigns more accessible, but it falters on accuracy, clarity, and coherence. A revised edition, grounded in verified sources and edited by a scholar fluent in both Arabic and English, could transform it into a genuinely useful reference.
For now, the book remains an earnest but flawed attempt—a reminder of how vital precision and contextual understanding are when writing about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and of how rich and varied the modern literature on the Prophet’s generalship has become.
Annotated Bibliography of Related Works
1. The Maghāzī of Sayyidunā Muhammad — Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah
Translated by Javed Iqbal & Jody McIntyre (Heritage Press, 2024)
The earliest extant biography of the Prophet ﷺ, focusing on his campaigns. A foundational Maghāzī source and the first known book of sīrah in Islamic history.
2. The Warrior Prophet: Muhammad and War — Joel Hayward (Hurst, 2024)
The most sophisticated modern study of the Prophet’s generalship. Combines Islamic textual sources with contemporary military analysis.
3. The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed — His Life and Campaigns — Lt. Gen. A. I. Akram (National Publishing House, 1970)
A detailed and engaging military biography that contextualizes Khalid ibn al-Waleed’s strategies within early Islamic warfare and ethics.
4. The Generalship of Muhammad: Battles and Campaigns of the Prophet of Allah — Russ Rodgers (Frontline Books, 2012)
Attempts to interpret the Prophet’s campaigns through modern operational theory. Useful in parts but sometimes shaped by outsider assumptions.
5. A Muslim Manual of War — Edited and Translated by George T. Scanlon (University of Cairo Press, 1961)
A translation of the Mamlūk treatise Tadbīr al-Ḥurūb wa Tadbīr al-Ḥurūb by ʿImrān ibn Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī, reflecting the continuity of Islamic military ethics long after the early period.
6. Battles of the Prophet — Muhammad Hamidullah (Darul Ishaat, Karachi)
Historically important as an early systematic attempt in English to document the Maghāzī, though it now appears dated and occasionally inaccurate.
7. Revelation: The Story of Muhammad — Dr. Meraj Mohiuddin (Mindworks Publishing, 2016)
Visually strong and pedagogically useful, especially for its charts and maps. Its textbook-style presentation helps readers visualize events, though the inclusion of several non-specialist and perennialist voices makes its scholarly framing uneven.
Other books explore this field in very different ways. Russ Rodgers’s The Generalship of Muhammad (2012), written by a non-Muslim military historian, tries to assess the Prophet’s campaigns through modern operational frameworks. While imaginative, it often suffers from cultural misreadings. In contrast, The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed — His Life and Campaigns by Lt. General A. I. Akram combines a soldier’s eye for tactics with strong grounding in the sīrah and classical sources. The Maghāzī of Sayyidunā Muhammad by Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah—the earliest known biography of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—is literally the first Maghāzī work in existence, and it provides a priceless early window into how the Prophet’s battles were first recorded by his contemporaries and near-contemporaries.
Even later works such as A Muslim Manual of War, the Mamlūk-era treatise edited and translated by George T. Scanlon, show how Islamic military ethics and strategic thought evolved centuries after the Prophet’s time, retaining a deep concern with moral restraint and discipline in warfare.
With this context in mind, I came to Battles of the Prophet hoping for a concise and accurate synthesis. The book’s layout is attractive: it features charts, brief summaries, and an inviting visual design. The idea of a “brief guide” to the ghazawāt—the Prophet’s expeditions—is a valuable one. Unfortunately, the execution does not live up to its potential.
Language and Readability
As an English professor and ESL instructor, I routinely work with writers for whom English is a second or third language. I can read through dense or awkward prose and reconstruct meaning with relative ease. Even so, this book required that level of decoding throughout. I often had to fill in missing context or reconstruct the author’s intended meaning from my own prior knowledge of the sīrah. For readers without that background, the result would be confusion and, in some cases, genuine misinformation. The issue here is not merely language—it is the assumption that readers already know the chronology, geography, and dramatis personae of the campaigns.
Chronology and Factual Issues
The book is basically chronological, moving from the early Medinan period through the major campaigns. However, at a few points the sequence misplaces events without a clear rationale. Those deviations are small but noticeable, and they can be confusing for readers who are trying to track developments battle-to-battle. Tightening those spots (or briefly explaining why the order shifts) would make the guide much easier to follow.
More seriously, there are factual errors. On page 57, the author writes:
“Umayyah bin Khalaf, a staunch enemy of Islam, caught up with Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and charged toward him. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ took the sword from one of his companions and struck Ubay, leaving him severely wounded.”
This passage confuses two entirely different figures:
Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the Meccan slave-owner of Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ (ra), was killed at the Battle of Badr (624 CE).
Ubayy ibn Khalaf, on the other hand, was the Meccan who raised and fed a horse daily, vowing that he would one day kill the Prophet ﷺ with it.
All major sīrah sources—Ibn Hishām, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Rāḥīq al-Makhtūm (which the author even cites)—agree that Ubayy ibn Khalaf was the attacker at Uhud. They also specify that the Prophet ﷺ used a short spear or javelin (ḥarbah), not a sword. He took it from one of his companions and wounded Ubayy near the neck or collarbone. Ubayy fled, crying, “If he had only spat on me, it would have killed me,” and later died of that wound.
These are not trivial distinctions. The difference between Umayyah and Ubayy, and between a ḥarbah and a sword, changes both the historical and symbolic meaning of the event. Such confusion undermines confidence in the rest of the text.
Overall Evaluation
The book’s intention—to make the Prophet’s campaigns accessible to a broad audience—is commendable. The formatting is thoughtful and visually appealing. However, the combination of linguistic difficulties, factual errors, and occasional chronological confusion prevents it from fulfilling its purpose. It reads like an unedited draft that needed the guidance of a historian and a native-fluent English editor familiar with Maghāzī literature.
Readers seeking reliable and engaging works will be far better served by Joel Hayward’s The Warrior Prophet or Yasir Qadhi’s Sīrah series, which combine clarity with scholarly integrity. Works such as Lt. Gen. Akram’s The Sword of Allah and Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah’s Maghāzī provide rich detail from both early and later Islamic perspectives. Even Meraj Mohiuddin’s Revelation: The Story of Muhammad offers pedagogical value through its charts, maps, and structured approach—though its inclusion of certain non-Muslim and perennialist voices makes it uneven in theological rigor. Still, as a visual resource, it represents a significant contribution to modern sīrah pedagogy.
Conclusion
Battles of the Prophet: A Brief Guide to the Ghazawāt of Prophet Muhammad aspires to make the Prophet’s campaigns more accessible, but it falters on accuracy, clarity, and coherence. A revised edition, grounded in verified sources and edited by a scholar fluent in both Arabic and English, could transform it into a genuinely useful reference.
For now, the book remains an earnest but flawed attempt—a reminder of how vital precision and contextual understanding are when writing about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and of how rich and varied the modern literature on the Prophet’s generalship has become.
Annotated Bibliography of Related Works
1. The Maghāzī of Sayyidunā Muhammad — Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah
Translated by Javed Iqbal & Jody McIntyre (Heritage Press, 2024)
The earliest extant biography of the Prophet ﷺ, focusing on his campaigns. A foundational Maghāzī source and the first known book of sīrah in Islamic history.
2. The Warrior Prophet: Muhammad and War — Joel Hayward (Hurst, 2024)
The most sophisticated modern study of the Prophet’s generalship. Combines Islamic textual sources with contemporary military analysis.
3. The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed — His Life and Campaigns — Lt. Gen. A. I. Akram (National Publishing House, 1970)
A detailed and engaging military biography that contextualizes Khalid ibn al-Waleed’s strategies within early Islamic warfare and ethics.
4. The Generalship of Muhammad: Battles and Campaigns of the Prophet of Allah — Russ Rodgers (Frontline Books, 2012)
Attempts to interpret the Prophet’s campaigns through modern operational theory. Useful in parts but sometimes shaped by outsider assumptions.
5. A Muslim Manual of War — Edited and Translated by George T. Scanlon (University of Cairo Press, 1961)
A translation of the Mamlūk treatise Tadbīr al-Ḥurūb wa Tadbīr al-Ḥurūb by ʿImrān ibn Ibrāhīm al-Anṣārī, reflecting the continuity of Islamic military ethics long after the early period.
6. Battles of the Prophet — Muhammad Hamidullah (Darul Ishaat, Karachi)
Historically important as an early systematic attempt in English to document the Maghāzī, though it now appears dated and occasionally inaccurate.
7. Revelation: The Story of Muhammad — Dr. Meraj Mohiuddin (Mindworks Publishing, 2016)
Visually strong and pedagogically useful, especially for its charts and maps. Its textbook-style presentation helps readers visualize events, though the inclusion of several non-specialist and perennialist voices makes its scholarly framing uneven.
Displaying 1 of 1 review