Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (died 642) was a 7th-century Arab military commander. He initially led campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh, but later converted to Islam and spent the remainder of his career serving Muhammad and the first two Rashidun caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar as a commander of the Muslim army. Khalid played leading command roles in the Ridda Wars against rebel tribes in Arabia in 632–633, the initial campaigns in Sasanian Iraq in 633–634, and the conquest of Byzantine Syria in 634–638.
As a horseman of the Quraysh's aristocratic Banu Makhzum clan, which ardently opposed Muhammad, Khalid played an instrumental role in defeating Muhammad and his followers during the Battle of Uhud in 625. In 627 or 629, he converted to Islam in the presence of Muhammad, who inducted him as an official military commander among the Muslims and gave him the title (). During the Battle of Mu'ta, Khalid coordinated the safe withdrawal of Muslim troops against the Byzantines. He also led the Bedouins under the Muslim army during the Muslim conquest of Mecca in 629–630 and the Battle of Hunayn in 630. After Muhammad's death, Khalid was appointed to Najd and al-Yamama to suppress or subjugate the Arab tribes opposed to the nascent Muslim state; this campaign culminated in Khalid's victories over the rebel leaders Tulayha at the Battle of Buzakha in September 632 and Musaylima at the Battle of al-Yamama in December 632.
Khalid subsequently launched campaigns against predominantly Christian Arab tribes and the Sasanian Persian garrisons along the Euphrates valley in Iraq. Abu Bakr later reassigned him to command the Muslim armies in Syria, where he led his forces on an unconventional march across a long, waterless stretch of the Syrian desert, boosting his reputation as a military strategist. As a result of decisive victories led by Khalid against the Byzantines at Ajnadayn (634), Fahl (634 or 635), Damascus (634–635), and the Yarmouk (636), the Muslim army conquered most of the Levant. Khalid was subsequently demoted and removed from the army's high command by Umar. Khalid continued service as the key lieutenant of his successor Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah in the siege of Homs, Aleppo, and the Battle of Qinnasrin, all in 637–638. These engagements collectively precipitated the retreat of imperial Byzantine troops from Syria under Emperor Heraclius. Around 638, Umar dismissed Khalid from both his military command and his position as governor of Qinnasrin. Khalid died in 642 either in Medina or Homs.
Khalid is generally considered by historians to be one of the most seasoned and accomplished generals in Islamic history, and he is likewise commemorated throughout the Arab world. Islamic tradition credits him with decisive battlefield tactics and effective leadership during the early Muslim conquests. However, historical accounts offer differing perspectives on certain events, including his execution of Malik ibn Nuwayra during the Ridda Wars and his dismissal from command by Umar. Khalid's military fame disturbed some pious early Muslims, most notably Umar, who feared it could develop into a personality cult. In Sunni tradition, Khalid is generally honored as a heroic figure, whereas Shia tradition portrays him more critically.
Ancestry and early life Khalid's father was Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, an arbitrator of local disputes in Mecca in the Hejaz (western Arabia). Al-Walid is identified by the historians Ibn Hisham (d. 833), Ibn Durayd (d. 837) and Ibn Habib (d. 859) as the "derider" of the Islamic prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Meccan suras (chapters) of the Qur'an. He belonged to the Banu Makhzum, a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe and Mecca's pre-Islamic aristocracy. The Makhzum are credited for introducing Meccan commerce to foreign markets, particularly Yemen and Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and developed a reputation among the Quraysh for their intellect, nobility and wealth. Their prominence was owed to the leadership of Khalid's paternal grandfather al-Mughira ibn Abd Allah. Khalid's paternal uncle Hisham was known as the 'lord of Mecca' and the date of his death was used by the Quraysh as the start of their calendar. The historian Muhammad Abdulhayy Shaban describes Khalid as "a man of considerable standing" within his clan and Mecca in general.
Khalid's mother was al-Asma bint al-Harith ibn Hazn, commonly known as Lubaba al-Sughra ('Lubaba the Younger', to distinguish her from her elder half-sister Lubaba al-Kubra) of the nomadic Banu Hilal tribe. Lubaba al-Sughra converted to Islam about and her paternal half-sister Maymuna became a wife of Muhammad. She was also half-sister of Asma bint Umais, who successively married Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, Abu Bakr, and later Ali ibn Abi Talib. Through his maternal relations, Khalid became highly familiarized with the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) lifestyle. Descriptions of Khalid’s appearance are rare, but some accounts claim he so closely resembled Umar in both looks and voice that people with poor eyesight often confused them.
Early military career Opposition to Muhammad
The Makhzum were strongly opposed to Muhammad, and the clan's preeminent leader Amr ibn Hisham (Abu Jahl), Khalid's first cousin, organized the boycott of Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim of Quraysh, in . After Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina in 622, the Makhzum under Abu Jahl commanded the war against him until they were routed at the Battle of Badr in 624. About twenty-five of Khalid's paternal cousins, including Abu Jahl, and numerous other kinsmen were slain in that engagement.
The following year, Khalid commanded the right flank of the cavalry in the Meccan army which confronted Muhammad at the Battle of Uhud north of Medina. According to the historian Donald Routledge Hill, rather than launching a frontal assault against the Muslim lines on the slopes of Mount Uhud, "Khalid adopted the sound tactics" of going around the mountain and bypassing the Muslim flank. He advanced through the Wadi Qanat valley west of Uhud until being checked by Muslim archers south of the valley at Mount Ruma. The Muslims gained the early advantage in the fight, but after most of the Muslim archers abandoned their positions to join the raiding of the Meccans' camp, Khalid charged against the resulting break in the Muslims' rear defensive lines. In the ensuing rout, several dozen Muslims were killed. The narratives of the battle describe Khalid riding through the field, slaying the Muslims with his lance. Shaban credits Khalid's "military genius" for the Quraysh's victory at Uhud, the only engagement in which the tribe defeated Muhammad.
In 628, Muhammad and his followers headed for Mecca to perform the (lesser pilgrimage to Mecca) and the Quraysh dispatched 200 cavalry to intercept him upon hearing of his departure. Khalid was at the head of the cavalry and Muhammad avoided confronting him by taking an unconventional and difficult alternate route, ultimately reaching Hudaybiyya at the edge of Mecca. Upon realizing Muhammad's change of course, Khalid withdrew to Mecca. A truce between the Muslims and the Quraysh was reached in the Treaty of Hudaybiyya in March.
Conversion to Islam and service under Muhammad
In the year 6 AH () or 8 AH () Khalid embraced Islam in Muhammad's presence alongside the Qurayshites Amr ibn al-As and Uthman ibn Talha; the modern historian Michael Lecker comments that the accounts holding that Khalid converted in 8 AH are "perhaps more trustworthy". The historian Akram Diya Umari holds that Khalid embraced Islam and relocated to Medina following the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, apparently after the Quraysh dropped demands for the extradition of newer Muslim converts to Mecca. Following his conversion, Khalid "began to devote all his considerable military talents to the support of the new Muslim state", in the words of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy.
Khalid participated in the expedition to Mu'tah in modern-day Jordan ordered by Muhammad in September 629. The purpose of the raid may have been to acquire booty in the wake of the Sasanian Persian army's retreat from Syria following its defeat by the Byzantine Empire in July. The Muslim detachment was routed by a Byzantine force consisting mostly of Arab tribesmen led by the Byzantine commander Theodore, and several high-ranking Muslim commanders were slain. Khalid took command of the army following the deaths of the appointed commanders and, with considerable difficulty, oversaw a safe withdrawal of the Muslims. Muhammad rewarded Khalid by bestowing on him the honorary title ('the Sword of God') or ('the Unsheathed Sword of God').
In December 629 or January 630, Khalid took part in Muhammad's conquest of Mecca, after which most of the Quraysh converted to Islam. In that campaign Khalid led a nomadic contingent called ('the Bedouin emigrants'). He led one of the two main pushes into the city and in the subsequent fighting with the Quraysh, three of his men were killed while twelve Qurayshites were slain, according to Ibn Ishaq, the 8th-century biographer of Muhammad. Khalid commanded the Bedouin Banu Sulaym in the Muslims' vanguard at the Battle of Hunayn later that year. In that confrontation, the Muslims, boosted by the influx of Qurayshite converts, defeated the Thaqif—the Ta'if-based traditional rivals of the Quraysh—and their nomadic Hawazin allies. Khalid was then appointed to destroy the idol of al-Uzza, one of the goddesses worshiped in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, in the Nakhla area between Mecca and Ta'if.
Khalid was afterward dispatched to invite the Banu Jadhima in Yalamlam, about south of Mecca, to Islam, but according to traditional Islamic sources, he attacked the tribe without authorization. In the version of Ibn Ishaq, Khalid had persuaded the Jadhima tribesmen to disarm and embrace Islam, which he followed up by executing a number of the tribesmen in revenge for the Jadhima's slaying of his uncle Fakih ibn al-Mughira dating to before Khalid's conversion to Islam. In the narrative of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1449), Khalid misunderstood the tribesmen's acceptance of the faith as a rejection or denigration of Islam due to his unfamiliarity with the Jadhima's accent and consequently attacked them. In both versions, Muhammad declared himself innocent of Khalid's action but did not discharge or punish him. Despite the controversy, Muhammad’s trust in Khalid persisted. Shortly thereafter, he sent Khalid to investigate the Banu Mustaliq, a tribe related to the Banu Jadhima, following reports of their alleged apostasy. Khalid approached the task cautiously, confirmed the Banu Mustaliq’s adherence to Islam, and delivered an accurate report to Muhammad. This episode indicates that Khalid’s initial doubts about the Banu Jadhima’s religious commitment, despite their distinct clan affiliation, were not entirely baseless, as suspicions about related tribes resurfaced months later, prompting multiple delegations to investigate their status. According to the historian W. Montgomery Watt, the traditional account about the Jadhima incident "is hardly more than a circumstantial denigration of Khālid, and yields little solid historical fact".
Later in 630, while Muhammad was at Tabuk, he dispatched Khalid to capture the oasis market town of Dumat al-Jandal. Khalid gained its surrender and imposed a heavy penalty on the inhabitants of the town, one of whose chiefs, the Kindite Ukaydir ibn Abd al-Malik al-Sakuni, was ordered by Khalid to sign the capitulation treaty with Muhammad in Medina. In June 631 Khalid was sent by Muhammad at the head of 480 men to invite the mixed Christian and polytheistic Balharith tribe of Najran to embrace Islam. The tribe converted and Khalid instructed them in the Qur'an and Islamic laws before returning to Muhammad in Medina with a Balharith delegation.
Commander in the Ridda wars