In the seventh century CE, the Khaybar oasis was inhabited by Jewish tribes who made their living growing date palm trees.

The oasis was divided into three regions, namely, al-Natat, al-Shiqq, and al-Katiba, probably separated by natural diversions, such as the desert, lava drifts, and swamps.

[2] The revenue of Fadak largely supported needy travelers, the poor, military expeditions, and Muhammad's family,[2][8] who were forbidden from receiving general alms.

Her husband Ali and a maid at Muhammad's house, named Umm Aiman, are reported to have offered their testimonies in support of Fatima.

[12] Abu Bakr, however, did not find their testimonies sufficient to establish the ownership of Fatima,[2] requiring two men or one man and two women as witnesses per Islamic law.

[9][17] Abu Bakr added that he would administer those properties like Muhammad and that his kin should henceforth rely on general alms,[18] which was forbidden for them in his lifetime because of their status of purity in the Quran.

[20] In his al-Tabaqat al-kubra, the Sunni traditionist Ibn Sa'd (d. 845) furnishes the hadith of inheritance with two chains of transmission which include numerous companions of Muhammad, such as Umar, Uthman, and Zubayr.

[21] In particular, he includes in these chains some prominent Hashimites, such as Ali and Ibn Abbas, who are both reported to have vehemently disputed this claim of Abu Bakr in other sources.

[23] Along these lines, Sajjadi writes that all (credible) versions of this hadith are narrated from Abu Bakr, his ally Umar, his daughter Aisha, and Malik ibn Aus Al-Hadathan,[2] though some primary sources have disputed the status of the last one as a companion of Muhammad.

[35][36] Madelung suggests that the caliphate of Abu Bakr was inherently inconsistent with maintaining the privileged status of Muhammad's kin and applying the Quranic rules of inheritance to them.

[41] Aslan suggests that Abu Bakr intended to strip the House of Muhammad from its privileged status, weaken its political might,[42] and particularly undermine Ali's claim to the caliphate.

[8] Umar also altered Abu Bakr's inheritance policy by turning over Muhammad's small estate in Medina to his cousin Ali and his uncle Abbas.

[8] The third caliph Uthman also kept Fadak, though it is likely that he did not treat the land as a charitable property anymore but instead awarded it to two of his cousins, namely, Marwan and his brother.

[2] Alternatively, the Shia Sharif al-Murtaza (d. 1044) contends that Ali might have practiced taqiya (religious dissimulation) by upholding the status quo for Fadak.

[49][2] An exception is Umar II (r. 717–720), who returned Fadak to the descendants of Fatima during his caliphate,[53][2] as parts of his efforts to address the injustices inflicted upon the Alids.

Among these is the tale of the Abbasid Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), the famed caliph of Arabian Nights, appearing in the sixteenth-century work The Subtleties of People.

To his indignation, the caliph was told that the first boundary of Fadak was Aden, the second was Samarkand, the third was the Maghrib, and the fourth was the Armenian Sea, encompassing virtually the entire empire of Harun.