EVENTS Individual Combats The Makkhans came forward with great confidence and halted when about 300 yards from the Muslim Army. Arab custom, except in raids demanded that individual combats must be held between the outstanding soldiers of both sides. Utbah b. Rabiya his brother Shaiba b. Rabiya and his son, Walid b. Utbah came out of the Makkhan force and demanded individual combats. The family of Utbah bin Rabiya was the traditional standard bearers of Quraysh and as a result of an altercation with Abu Jahl over the question of whether to fight or witndraw, they left that they must prove that they had no rival in bravery among the Makkhan army. Three men, Maoodh and Auf sons of Harith and another from amongst the Ansars went forward, from the ranks of the Muslim army, to answer the challenge given in a haughty manner. Utbah b. Rabiya, the leader of the three gladiators from Makkah refused to fight individual combats with any but the Quraysh, their equals in social status. He demanded that these combats should be confined to the members of Quraysh nobility on both sides. According to one account, he demanded that from the Muslim army the family of Abdul Mutalib alone should take part in these combats as they alone had a pedigree as noble as that of his family. Hamza, AH and Ubaidah b. Harith b. Abdul Mutalib, two uncles and a cousin, were detailed by the Holy Prophet to answer the challenge of Utbah b. Rabiya. Hamza took on Shaiba b. Rabiya. Ali stood opposite Walid b. Utbah and the eldest among the Muslim trio Ubaidah b. al-Harith went against Utbah b. Rabiya. The Makkhan duelists accepted these combatants as worthy of their status and reputed bravery. The duels unusually brief as Hamza and Ali were both able to dispose of their adversaries even while they were in their showing off mood. Ubaidah b al Harith and Utbah b Rabiya seriously wounded each other. Custom permitted that once blood had been drawn and one of the contestants had been incapacitated, his adversary could be taken on by the nearest enemy, Hamza and Ali pounced on Utbah b Rabiya and fell him to the ground in no time. The three individual combats having all gone in
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favour of the Muslims, the cry of Allah-O-Akbar, on each occasion had upset the Quraysh to such an extent that they went into a general attack immediately.6