Visit ArabiaHistory
Al-Haʾit is an oasis of black basalt and palm trees, in the south of Hail province. It lies about 250 km from Hail and 280 km from Medina. The present name is said to come from the “wall of palm trees” (حائط النخل) that surrounds the village.
A very ancient oasis. Two reliefs carved on the basalt show Nabonidus, king of Babylon (556-539 BC), with a text in cuneiform script. One of them, published by A. Hausleiter and H. Schaudig in 2016, names the town Padakku. This is the Akkadian form of the name Fadak. The other was announced by the Heritage Commission in July 2021; it has about 26 lines. The Harran stelae say that Nabonidus spent ten years in Arabia, around 553-543 BC, in Tayma, Dadan (al-ʿUla), Padakku, Khaybar and Yathrib. These reliefs are protected and not open to the public. They belong to Antiquity and have no link with the Islamic history of the place.
The expeditions of 6 AH and 7 AH. According to the historians of the sira (Waqidi, Ibn Saʿd), in Shaʿban 6 AH, ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) set out with 100 men against the Banu Saʿd ibn Bakr, who were gathering near Fadak to help the Jews of Khaybar. He marched by night to the water point of al-Hamj (الهمج), “a water point between Khaybar and Fadak” (Ibn Saʿd). The Bedouins fled; there was no fighting. Today no one knows where al-Hamj was. In Shaʿban 7 AH, Bashir ibn Saʿd led 30 men against the Banu Murra near Fadak. His companions were killed. Wounded, he dragged himself to Fadak and stayed a few days with a Jew of the oasis until he recovered (Waqidi, Ibn Saʿd).
The surrender of Fadak (7 AH / 628). The historians report that after the fall of the fortresses of Khaybar, the people of Fadak, Jews who grew date palms, sent a delegation to the Prophet ﷺ. They asked for their lives to be spared and surrendered without a fight. According to Waqidi, the Prophet ﷺ had first sent Muhayyisa ibn Masʿud to call them to Islam, and their leader Nun ibn Yushaʿ came to negotiate. The agreement left the inhabitants half of the land and its harvests; the other half went to the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Ishaq concludes: « فَكَانَتْ خَيْبَرُ فَيْئًا بَيْنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ، وَكَانَتْ فَدَكُ خَالِصَةً لِرَسُولِ اللهِ ﷺ، لِأَنَّهُمْ لَمْ يُجْلِبُوا عَلَيْهَا بِخَيْلٍ وَلَا رِكَابٍ ». Translation: “Khaybar was spoils shared among the Muslims, and Fadak belonged exclusively to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, because they had not ridden against it with horses or camels” (Ibn Hisham).
The verse. The status of property obtained without fighting is described in Surat al-Hashr:
« وَمَآ أَفَآءَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِۦ مِنْهُمْ فَمَآ أَوْجَفْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ خَيْلٍۢ وَلَا رِكَابٍۢ وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُسَلِّطُ رُسُلَهُۥ عَلَىٰ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌۭ »
“And what Allah restored [of property] to His Messenger from them - you did not spur for it [in an expedition] any horses or camels, but Allah gives His messengers power over whom He wills, and Allah is over all things competent.” (al-Hashr 59:6, Sahih International)
The next verse (59:7) states that this property goes “for Allah and for the Messenger and for [his] near relatives and orphans and the needy and the [stranded] traveler - so that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you”. The verse does not name Fadak. The link with Fadak comes from the sira and from the Companions.
What the Prophet ﷺ did with it. According to an account of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) transmitted by Malik ibn Aws (Abu Dawud, Waqidi, Ibn Saʿd), the Prophet ﷺ had three reserved properties: Banu Nadir, Khaybar and Fadak. The income of Fadak was assigned to travellers (ابن السبيل). Ibn Saʿd adds, from Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad, that things stayed this way until the death of the Prophet ﷺ. The harvests were mainly dates. According to Ibn Saʿd, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz said that Fadak brought in about ten thousand dinars a year.
The name of the oasis also appears in the Sahih. Usama ibn Zayd (may Allah be pleased with them both) reports that the Prophet ﷺ rode a donkey « عَلَى قَطِيفَةٍ فَدَكِيَّةٍ », on a blanket from Fadak (Bukhari 4566).
After the death of the Prophet ﷺ. ʿAisha (may Allah be pleased with her) reports that Fatima (may Allah be pleased with her) sent to ask Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) for her share of what the Prophet ﷺ had left « مِمَّا أَفَاءَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ بِالْمَدِينَةِ وَفَدَكَ، وَمَا بَقِيَ مِنْ خُمُسِ خَيْبَرَ ». Abu Bakr answered that the Prophet ﷺ had said:
« لاَ نُورَثُ، مَا تَرَكْنَا صَدَقَةٌ، إِنَّمَا يَأْكُلُ آلُ مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ فِي هَذَا الْمَالِ »
“We are not inherited from. What we leave is charity. The family of Muhammad ﷺ only eat from this property.” (Bukhari 4240; Muslim 1759)
He added: « وَإِنِّي وَاللَّهِ لاَ أُغَيِّرُ شَيْئًا مِنْ صَدَقَةِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ عَنْ حَالِهَا الَّتِي كَانَ عَلَيْهَا فِي عَهْدِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ ». Translation: “By Allah, I will not change anything of the charity of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: it will stay as it was in the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”
In Muslim (1757), ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the Companions present under oath, then ʿAli and al-ʿAbbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), whether they knew that the Prophet ﷺ had said « لاَ نُورَثُ مَا تَرَكْنَا صَدَقَةٌ ». They answered: « نعم », “yes”. In Bukhari (3093), ʿUmar kept Khaybar and Fadak and said: « هُمَا صَدَقَةُ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ كَانَتَا لِحُقُوقِهِ الَّتِي تَعْرُوهُ وَنَوَائِبِهِ، وَأَمْرُهُمَا إِلَى مَنْ وَلِيَ الأَمْرَ ». Translation: “They are the charity of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. They were for the obligations and needs that arose for him. Their management belongs to whoever governs.” Fadak therefore remained a property of the community, managed by the caliph. This subject has led to debates between schools. This entry keeps to the texts of the two Sahihs.
What followed, according to the historians. Around 20 AH, ʿUmar had the palm trees and lands of Fadak valued. He paid the Jews of the oasis half of their value, and then they left (Tabari, Waqidi). Under ʿUthman, the land was entrusted to Marwan ibn al-Hakam. Ibn Hajar, quoted by Samhudi, explains that ʿUthman held that what had belonged exclusively to the Prophet ﷺ went to the caliph after him. Fadak then passed to the Umayyads.
ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz (caliph from 99 to 101 AH) gave up Fadak. According to Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Kathir, he restored it to its status in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿUthman. According to Yaqut and al-Baladhuri, he entrusted its management to the descendants of Fatima (may Allah be pleased with her). Samhudi retains the public treasury version, with an income paid to travellers. In the Abbasid era, Yaqut reports that Fadak changed hands several times. In 210 AH, the caliph al-Mamun had a deed drawn up concerning it.
In the 9th century AH (15th century AD), Samhudi questioned scholars and emirs of Medina. None of them knew any longer where Fadak was.
The Islamic inscriptions. On the volcanic rocks around al-Haʾit, I. as-Samari recorded about 45 Islamic inscriptions, mostly Abbasid (2nd-4th centuries AH): prayers, professions of faith, verses of poetry, gravestones with Quranic verses. Two are dated: 132 AH / 749 (Maslama ibn Suhaym) and 150 AH / 767 (ʿAbdallah ibn ʿUbaydallah, a prayer for Paradise). At Rawdat Dhiyab (روضة ذياب), about 5 km to the south in Wadi Ghunaym, 29 inscriptions have been recorded, three of them dated: 119 AH / 737, 186 AH and 189 AH. The same rock faces bear Thamudic and prehistoric carvings (cattle, ostriches, hunting scenes). In the nearby village of al-Huwayyit (الحويط), the rocks also bear Kufic inscriptions and a poem dated 309 AH / 921. These texts show that the oasis remained frequented under the Umayyads and the Abbasids.
What you see today. The old core brings together the districts حي الشريف, حي قصر الحصان and حي المدارس. The souk of حي الشريف has 49 shops. You can also see a large heritage mosque, houses of rammed earth and stone, and majlis restored by the inhabitants. Saudipedia counts seven mosques and four old markets. The palm grove has about 20,000 palm trees. It is watered by springs whose names have been kept: فياضة، جريدة، الغوير، الغار، عجرة، الجواخين، العوينة، أبي سليمان. In the 13th century, Yaqut already wrote: « وفيها عين فوارة ونخيل كثيرة », “there is a gushing spring and many palm trees”. The palm groves are private: you look at them from the tracks. The inscriptions are in the open air, with no signposting; a local guide is needed, and nothing must be marked or damaged.
What is certain and what is not
- Certain: verse 59:6-7 on property obtained without fighting; the request of Fatima (may Allah be pleased with her) and the answer of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) with the hadith « لاَ نُورَثُ، مَا تَرَكْنَا صَدَقَةٌ » (Bukhari 4240, 6726; Muslim 1759); the management of Khaybar and Fadak by ʿUmar as the charity of the Prophet ﷺ (Bukhari 3093; Muslim 1757). The identification of Fadak with al-Haʾit is confirmed by the name Padakku on the relief of Nabonidus found on the spot.
- Historians' account: the surrender of 7 AH and its terms, the role of Muhayyisa and Nun ibn Yushaʿ, the expeditions of ʿAli (6 AH) and Bashir ibn Saʿd (7 AH), the assignment of Fadak to travellers, the compensation of the Jews by ʿUmar, what followed under the Umayyads, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz and the Abbasids. The link between verse 59:6 and Fadak comes from the Companions and the sira: the verse does not name Fadak.
- Uncertain: the location of al-Hamj is not known. The two versions of the decision of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz (public treasury, or management entrusted to the descendants of Fatima). No remains from the time of the Prophet ﷺ have been identified at al-Haʾit. The link between a particular spring and Yaqut's “gushing spring” is local tradition.
Sources
1. Quran, al-Hashr 59:6-7 (Sahih International translation).
2. Bukhari 3093, 4240, 4566, 6725-6726; Muslim 1757, 1759.
3. Abu Dawud 2967 (account of Malik ibn Aws).
4. Ibn Hisham, as-Sira, vol. 2 p. 336, p. 348, p. 352.
5. Waqidi, al-Maghazi, vol. 1 p. 377; vol. 2 pp. 561-563, pp. 705-707, p. 720, pp. 722-723.
6. Ibn Saʿd, at-Tabaqat, vol. 1 p. 389; vol. 2 p. 68, p. 90; vol. 5 pp. 301-302.
7. Tabari, Tarikh, vol. 2 p. 641; vol. 3 p. 14, p. 19; vol. 4 p. 111.
8. Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya, vol. 6 pp. 294-295, p. 307, p. 358; vol. 12 p. 693.
9. Yaqut, Muʿjam al-buldan, « فدك », vol. 4 pp. 237-238.
10. Samhudi, Wafaʾ al-wafa, vol. 1 p. 78; vol. 3 p. 157.
11. Hausleiter A. and Schaudig H., “Rock Relief and Cuneiform Inscription of King Nabonidus at al-Ḥāʾiṭ”, Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 9, 2016, pp. 224-240; Gadd C. J., “The Harran Inscriptions of Nabonidus”, Anatolian Studies 8, 1958.
12. As-Samari I., « النقوش المؤرخة في منطقة حائل », Adumatu 39, 2019, pp. 29-54.
13. Heritage Commission, SPA press releases, 13-14 July 2021; Saudipedia, « موقع الحائط الأثري ».