Battle of Badr
624 battle between the Muslims and the Quraysh near Badr (present-day Saudi Arabia)
The Battle of Badr or sometimes called The Raid of Badr (Arabic: غَزْوَةُ بَدْرٍ [ɣazwatu badr]; Ghazwatu Badr), also referred to as The Day of the Criterion (Arabic: يَوْمُ الْفُرْقَانْ, Arabic pronunciation: [jawm'ul fur'qaːn]; Yawm al-Furqan) in the Qur'an and by Muslims, was fought on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan, 2 AH), near the city of Badr, Medina Province in present-day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad, commanding an army of his Sahaba, defeated an army of the Quraysh led by Amr ibn Hisham, better known among Muslims as Abu Jahl. The battle marked the beginning of the six-year war between Muhammad and his tribe.
A few days before the battle, when he learnt of a Meccan caravan returning from the Levant led by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, Muhammad gathered a small expeditionary force to raid it. Abu Sufyan, learning of the Muslim plan to ambush his caravan, changed course and took a longer route away from Muhammad's base at Medina and sent a messenger to Mecca, asking for help. Amr ibn Hisham commanded an army nearly one-thousand strong, approaching Badr and encamping at the dune al-'Udwatul Quswa.
Badr was the first large-scale engagement between the Muslims and the Quraysh Meccans. Advancing from the north, the Muslims faced the Meccans. The battle began with duels between the warriors on both sides, following which the Meccans charged upon the Muslims under a cover of arrows. The Muslims countered their charge and broke the Meccan lines, killing several important Qurayshi leaders, including Amr ibn Hisham and Umayyah ibn Khalaf.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Battle of Badr” as 624 battle between the Muslims and the Quraysh near Badr (present-day Saudi Arabia). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as 624 battle between the Muslims and the Quraysh near Badr (present-day Saudi Arabia). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q486124. The Library of Congress control number is sh85010921. Authority coordinates are 23.733, 38.767. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Battle of Badr”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Battle of Badr primary sources, Battle of Badr archive and Battle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Battle of Badr”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Badr” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.