Fight in the Way of God 89However, neither the “reverse migration” from Medina to Mecca
nor the defection of the Hanifs troubled Muhammad. He was con-
cerned with a far more urgent matter: there was a traitor in Medina.
Someone had informed the Quraysh of his plans to raid the caravan.
And while there were many possibilities, Muhammad’s suspicions fell
at once upon the Banu Qaynuqa, one of the largest and wealthiest
Jewish clans in the oasis. Acting on his suspicions, he besieged the
Qaynuqa fortification for fifteen days until the clan finally surren-
dered.
Muhammad’s fears about the Banu Qaynuqa’s treachery may not
have been unfounded. Most of the Jewish clans in Medina had vital
commercial links with the Quraysh and wanted no part in what they
assumed would become a protracted war between the two cities.
Muhammad’s presence in the oasis had already made things finan-
cially difficult for them. The political alliance between the Arab tribes
and an increasingly powerful Muhammad had drastically eroded the
power and authority of Medina’s Jewish clans. The Banu Qaynuqa
suffered especially from the Prophet’s tax-free market, which had
eradicated their economic monopoly over Medina and greatly
reduced their wealth. A war with Mecca would only have worsened
the situation of Medina’s Jewish clans by permanently severing their
economic ties to the Quraysh, who were, after all, the primary con-
sumers of their dates, wines, and arms. Despite the victory at Badr,
there was still no reason to believe that Muhammad could actually
conquer the Quraysh. Eventually the Meccans would regroup and
return to defeat the Prophet. And when that happened, it would be
imperative for the Jewish clans to make their loyalties to the Quraysh
absolutely clear.
After Badr, Muhammad was likewise deeply concerned with clari-
fying loyalties, and it was for this reason that he cemented the agree-
ments of mutual protection in the oasis by formalizing the
Constitution of Medina. This document, which Moshe Gil aptly calls
“an act of preparation for war,” made clear that the defense of Me-
dina—or at the very least the sharing of the cost of such a defense—
was the common responsibility of every inhabitant. And while the
Constitution clarified the absolute religious and social freedom of
Medina’s Jewish clans, stating “to the Jews their religion and to the