Early Islam · a Light

A Persian idea kept ten thousand men out of Madinah

In 627 a coalition of Makkan and allied tribes, put by the sources at around ten thousand men, marched on Madinah. Salman al-Farisi, who had grown up in Persia, proposed digging a trench across the open northern approach, the only side not protected by lava fields and palm groves. It was not an Arab tactic and the cavalry had no answer to it. The Muslims dug for weeks in cold weather and hunger, the Prophet ﷺ working in the line with them. The siege broke up after about a month without a general battle, and a storm scattered the camp. The idea came from a former slave who had been born a Zoroastrian near Isfahan.

The Trench, Madinah · 627 CE