The Warrior Prophet: Muhammad and War (by Joel Hayward)

Abstract

Joel Hayward’s The Warrior Prophet: Muhammad and War (Claritas Books, 2022; I only have access to the Kindle version) is an important recent addition to the English language Sira literature. The book, erudite and amply referenced throughout, investigates the Prophet Muhammad’s motives for waging jihad against Mecca after his flight to what became Medina. Professor Hayward, a specialist in military history, sets out to explain the well-established facts of the Prophet’s martial career: In his ten-year stay in Medina, the Prophet sent out some 80 expeditions, himself leading some 27 of them, of which about 9 saw significant combat. These campaigns led to his conquest of Mecca and the rest of Arabia, culminating in numerous encounters with the Arab tribes allied to the Roman Empire in Syria. A challenge for historians has been that whereas the Qurʾan, Hadith, and the Sira materials—the three early sources for Hayward’s history—furnish a great variety of microscopic detail about these battles, the events are so interlocked that an observer trying to isolate a clear and sufficient motive for the initiation of hostilities against Mecca faces a challenge. Hayward’s book is an attempt to answer that challenge.