Battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq)

Quraysh, Ghaṭafān and their confederates — the Aḥzāb of the Qurʾānic chapter — brought some ten thousand men against Madinah in Shawwāl 5 AH. On Salmān al-Fārisī's counsel the Muslims dug a trench across the city's exposed northern approach, a tactic Arabia had not seen, and the coalition's cavalry spent weeks failing against it.

Cold, exhausted supplies, quarrels seeded between the allies, and finally a night windstorm that tore their camp apart ended the siege. "Allah is enough for us" the sources give as the summary of the month; the confederacy never assembled again, and the initiative passed permanently to Madinah.

The chronicles date the siege to Shawwāl, running into Dhū al-Qaʿdah, without fixing its first day.