Battle of Uhud · martyrdom of Hamza (a)

The Quraysh return

A year after Badr the Quraysh marched on Madinah with three thousand men under Abu Sufyan to avenge their dead. The Prophet (s) would have defended the city from within, but the younger men and Hamza pressed to meet the enemy in the field, and the army took up position on the slopes of Uhud, with fifty archers posted on a hill to guard the flank and ordered not to leave it whatever happened.

The battle

The Muslims drove the Makkans back at first, but most of the archers abandoned their post to join the looting of the camp, Khalid b. al-Walid's cavalry came round the hill, and the army was caught between two fronts. Around seventy Muslims were martyred; the Prophet was wounded in the face and a tooth broken, and a rumour that he was dead scattered the ranks. Ali (a) and a handful of companions held around him until the Quraysh, satisfied with their revenge, withdrew.

Hamza

The Prophet's (s) uncle Hamza, who had defended him in Makkah before he himself believed and had fought at Badr, was killed by the spear of Wahshi, a slave promised his freedom for it, and his body was mutilated by Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan. The Prophet wept over him and gave him the title Lord of the Martyrs; his grave at the foot of Uhud is visited by pilgrims to Madinah. The battle is commonly dated to 15 Shawwal, though some sources give the 7th.