Expedition of Khalid ibn al-Walid (Nakhla)

The expedition of Khalid ibn al-Walid to Nakhla took place in January 630 AD, 8AH, in the 9th month of the Islamic Calendar.

Khalid ibn al-Walid was sent to destroy the idol Goddess al-Uzza which was worshipped by polytheists; he did this successfully.

Soon after the Conquest of Mecca, Muhammad began to dispatch expeditions on errands aiming at eliminating the last symbols reminiscent of pre-Islamic practices.

He sent Khalid bin Al-Walid in Ramadan 8 A.H. to a place called Nakhlah, where there was an idol of the goddess called Al-‘Uzza worshipped by the Quraish and Kinanah tribes, and guarded by custodians from Banu Shaiban. Khalid, at the head of thirty horsemen, arrived at the spot and destroyed the idol.

Upon his return, Muhammad asked him if he had seen anything else there, to which Khalid replied, "No". He was told that the idol had not been destroyed and that he must go back and fulfill the task. Khalid went again to Nakhlah and there saw a black Abyssinian (Ethiopian) woman, naked with disheveled hair. He struck her with his sword and cut her into "two pieces", according to the Muslim scholar, Saifur Rahman al Mubarakpuri. He returned once again and narrated his story to Muhammad, who then confirmed the fulfillment of the task, saying that the black Ethiopian woman was the real "al-Uzza".

The Muslim historian Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi mentions the event in his book the "Book of Idols" as follows:

The Prophet ordered him to return and cut down the second tree. He went and cut it down. On his return to report the Prophet asked him a second time, "Have you seen anything there?" Khalid answered, "No."

Thereupon the Prophet ordered him to go back and cut down the third tree. When Khalid arrived on the scene he found an Abyssinian woman with dishevelled hair and her hands placed on her shoulder[s], gnashing and grating her teeth.

Behind her stood Dubayyah al-Sulami who was then the warden of al-'Uzza...

Turning to the woman, he dealt her a blow which severed her head in twain, and lo, she crumbled into ashes. He then cut down the tree and killed Dubayyah the warden, after which he returned to the Prophet and reported to him his exploit.

Thereupon the Prophet said, "That was al-'Uzza. But she is no more. The Arabs shall have none after her. Verily she shall never be worshipped again."
[The Book of Idols, By Hisham Ibn-Al-Kalbi, pages 25-26]

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