'the Sacrilegious Wars') were a series of battles that took place in the late 6th century mainly between two major tribal confederations of Arabia, the Quraysh and the Hawazin.
[citation needed] The war was between 'two great confederations including townsfolk of Mecca and Taif': on the one hand, the Qays (excluding the Ghatafan) and, on the other, the Quraysh and the Kinana.
[1] In response, Abu Bara, the preeminent chief of the Banu Amir and its parent tribe, the Hawazin, called his tribesmen to arms.
The Kilab and the Ka'b, another branch of the Banu Amir, belonged to the Ḥums, a socio-economic and religious pact including the Quraysh and other tribes living in the Ḥaram (the area around Mecca considered inviolable by the Arabs).
[1] News of the killing reached Ukaz, where al-Barrad's patron, Harb ibn Umayya, had gathered with other chieftains belonging to the Quraysh.
[10] This common assessment of the war was questioned by Ella Landau-Tasseron, who posited that the Banu Amir and the Quraysh had been mutually interested in gaining greater, joint control of the annual Lakhmid caravans to Yemen.
Moreover, the Ja'far (the preeminent clan of the Kilab and the Banu Amir and Hawazin in general) and the Quraysh were both seen as enemies by the Bakr ibn Abd Manat, the branch of the Kinana to which al-Barrad belonged.
In the years preceding the Fijar War the Bakr ibn Abd Manat attempted to obtain commissions from the Lakhmids to guard their caravans.
Some, such as the Kitab al-Aghani, a large collection of early Islamic and pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, report that Muhammad actually fought (courageously) at the battle of yawm Shamṭa (where the Quraysh were defeated).