Who Was Banu Qurayzah? The treaty broken at the Trench in Islamic History

Before the worldBefore Adam

The first nationsAdam to Shuayb

Egypt and Bani Israilc. 1300–1000 BCE

Bani Israil and Romec. 1000 BCE – 250 CE

Arabia before IslamUp to 570 CE

Enemies of the Prophet ﷺ610–632 CE

After the Prophet ﷺ632–1000 CE

Crusades and conquests1090–1502 CE

The end of timeStill to come

Ten signs before the Hour

Isa ibn Maryam descends
A landslide in the east
A landslide in the west
A landslide in Arabia
The smoke
The sun rises from the west
The Beast of the earth
A fire from Yemen drives people to their gathering

Sahih Muslim lists ten major signs before the Hour without fixing their order. This follows a common order given by the scholars. Sahih Muslim 2901a ↗

Villains of history50 / 76

بنو قريظة

Banu Qurayzah

The treaty broken at the Trench627 CE · 5 AH

Relied onTheir fortresses

Undone byThe judgement they asked for

A Jewish tribe of Madinah bound by treaty to defend the city. During the siege of the Trench, their leaders broke the treaty and sided with the Confederates, leaving the Muslims open from behind.

How it ended

After the siege lifted they surrendered and asked for the judgement of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, their old ally. He ruled that their fighting men be executed and the rest taken captive.

And He brought down those who supported them among the People of the Scripture from their fortresses and cast terror into their hearts [so that] a party you killed, and you took captive a party.
Quran 33:26

The lessonA treaty is kept in the hour of danger, not only in easy times (8:56).

In the Quran

33:26-27 8:55-58

Stood against
Source: Authentic hadithSahih al-Bukhari records Sa'd's judgement. The reports differ on how many were killed, and historians still discuss it.Sahih al-Bukhari 3043 ↗

Every villain in Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal

Each entry is drawn from the Quran, authentic hadith (with links to sunnah.com), the classical commentators and the historians. Companions who fought Islam and later became Muslim are not included, nor are figures Muslims disagree about.