[4] Unlike its nomadic Hawazin counterparts, the Thaqif was a settled, or 'urban', tribe from the pre-Islamic period, living in the city of Ta'if, which they built a wall around.

[6] After Muhammad captured Mecca and gained the submission of the Quraysh, his emergent Muslim polity came under threat by the Thaqif in Ta'if and the tribe's nomadic Hawazin confederates.

When the siege faltered, Muhammad succeeded in turning Malik ibn Awf and his Bedouin warriors against the Thaqif and they blockaded the roads leading into Ta'if.

[1] The siege compelled the Thaqif to send a delegation led by one of their chiefs, Abd Yalil, to Muhammad to negotiate their conversion to Islam.

[7] Despite their defeat, the Thaqif became firmly incorporated into the Muslim community and, in the words of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, Muhammad had "secured the allegiance and services" of another "able and experienced group" as he had done with the Quraysh.

When most of the Arab tribes discarded the authority of the Muslim state following Muhammad's death in 632, in what became known as the Ridda wars, Uthman played an important role in preventing the Thaqif from similarly defecting.

Caliph Umar appointed the Thaqafite Abu Ubayd ibn Mas'ud as the conquest's overall commander in 634, but he was slain during the Battle of the Bridge, where the Sasanians defeated the Muslims.

[12] The literacy of the Thaqif in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods was on par with the Quraysh, and was a key factor in the Muslim state's recruitment of Thaqafite tribesmen to important administrative positions.

[14] Through al-Mughira's good offices with the caliph, he secured the pardon of his protege, the adoptive Thaqafite Ziyad ibn Abihi, in 664.

[5] Ziyad became the powerful governor of Basra in 665, and after al-Mughira's death, was assigned the governorship of Kufa as well, making him the viceroy of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate.

[16] Like the other Thaqafites who administered Iraq, al-Hajjaj had been a man of letters, in his case, working as a teacher before taking up a military career.

They constituted half of Ta'if's inhabitants at that time, while part of the tribe lived as Bedouins outside of the city where they possessed large herds of goats and sheep.