Zubayr ibn Bata

Al-Zubayr ibn Bāṭā was a figure of Banū Qurayẓah who, during the final days of the Battle of the Trench (5 AH), argued against his tribe's demand that Quraysh and Ghaṭafān hand over seventy of their noblemen as hostages before Qurayẓah would join the fight. He observed that the demand made little practical sense from the Confederates' side: Quraysh and Ghaṭafān, with the greater numbers and the freedom to simply retreat if the siege failed, had nothing to gain by surrendering their own nobles to a tribe that stood to lose everything if the coalition collapsed, while Qurayẓah, trapped inside Madinah with no path of retreat, would face nothing but the sword if the Confederates abandoned them. His clear-eyed assessment reflected a broader awareness among Banū Qurayẓah of the severity of the punishment they had invited by breaking their treaty.