Mostafa Badawi Hardback, 178 pages 9781909460379 Definitive account of the Battle of Badr, complete with colour photographs, maps and diagrams In the Quran it is called Yawm al-Furqan, ‘The Day of Decision’. In Ramadan, in the year 2 AH, two armies met at Badr, a remote spot in the Arabian desert. A small but well-equipped army of about one thousand pagans was defeated by just 313 Muslims, ill-equipped but divinely aided and spiritually unconquerable. To outsiders, this would have seemed no more than a minor skirmish between desert tribesmen. Neither the combatants, nor the location, nor the outcome had the least importance in the eyes of the wider world, where in those days the two major powers were the Persian and Byzantine empires. And yet Muslims consider Badr the most momentous battle in history. Had the leading Muslims not survived, there would have been little prospect of Islam, the last true religion, surviving. The world’s history would have been unimaginably different. Contents 1. The First Raids 2. Changing of the Qibla 3. The Caravan 4. ‘Atika’s Dream 5. Quraysh Respond 6. The Pagan Army’ s Northward March 7. The Muslims Side 8. From Madina to Badr 9. The Eve of the Battle 10. Daybreak 11. The Pagan Side 12. The Battle 13. The Rout 14. Twilight of the Battle 15. In the Valley of al-Uthayl 16. The Way Home 17. Makka After the Defeat 18. Fate of the Captives 19. Consequences of the victory
