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Badr

(974 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, or Badr Ḥunayn, a small town south-west of Medina, a night’s journey from the coast, and at the junction of a road from Medina with the caravan route from Mecca to Syria. It lies in a plain, 5 m. (8 km.) long and 2½ m. (4 km.) broad, surrounded by steep hills and sand-dunes, and was a market centre. Here occurred on 17 (or 19 or 21) Ramaḍān, 2 A. H. (= 13 or 15 or 17 March, 624) the first great battle of Muḥammad’s career. Though there is a wealth of detail in the early sources, it is difficult to give a clear account of the battle and the events which…

ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy

(555 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
b. Salūl (Salul being Ubayy’s mother), chief of Ba ʾl-Ḥublā (also known as Sālim), a section of the clan of ʿAwf of the Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲, and one of the leading men of Medīna. Prior to the hid̲j̲ra he had led some of the Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲ in the first day of the Fid̲j̲ār at Medīna, but did not take part in the second day of the Fid̲j̲ār nor the battle of Buʿāt̲h̲ since he had quarreled with another leader, ʿAmr b. al-Nuʿmān of Bayāḍa, over the latter’s unjust killing of Jewish hostages, perhaps because he r…

al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲

(483 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, one of the two main Arab tribes in Medina. With the other tribe, al-Aws [ q.v.], it formed the Banū Ḳayla in pre-Islamic times and the Anṣār [ q.v.] or “helpers” (sc. of Muḥammad) under Islam. The ancestors of al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ are given under al-Aws. The following are the main subdivisions of the tribe: Al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ and al-Aws settled together in Yat̲h̲rib or Medina after leaving the Yemen, and for a time were subordinate to the Jews there. The ¶ leader in gaining independence from the Jews was Mālik b. al-ʿAd̲j̲lān of the clan of Sālim (Ḳawāḳila) of al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲. …

al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib

(458 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, with the kunya Abu ’l-Faḍl, half-brother of Muḥammad’s father, his mother being Nutayla bint ¶ Ḏj̲anāb of al-Namir. The ʿAbbāsid dynasty took its name from him, being descended from his son ʿAbd Allāh. Consequently there was a tendency for historians under the ʿAbbāsids to glorify him, and in his case it is particularly difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. He was a merchant and financier, more prosperous than his half-brother Abū Ṭālib, who, in return for the extinction of a debt, surrendered to him the office of providing pilgrims to Mecca with water ( siḳāya

Isḥāḳ

(556 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, the Biblical Isaac, mentioned in fifteen passages of the Ḳurʾān. God gives Abraham ¶ “good tidings of Isaac, a prophet, of the righteous”, and blesses them both (XXXVII 112 f.). In a fuller description, when messengers concerning Lot corne to Abraham; his wife “laughed, and we gave her good tidings of Isaac, and af ter Isaac of Jacob” (XI, 71/74); and it is explained that this will happen despite their age. Several verses speak of Isaac and Jacob being given to Abraham (VI, 84; XIX, 49…

al-Muhād̲j̲irūn

(837 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
(a.), the Emigrants, are primarily those Meccan Muslims who made the hid̲j̲ra or emigration from Mecca to Medina either just before Muḥammad himself or in the period up to the conquest of Mecca in 8/630. The word hid̲j̲ra [ q.v.] implies not only change of residence but also the ending of ties of kinship and the replacement of these by new relationships. In the document known as the Constitution of Medina (Ibn His̲h̲ām, 341-4), which is an agreement “between the Emigrants and the Anṣār (the Muslims of Medina)”, the Emigrants appear a…

Ḥalīma Bint Abī Ḏh̲uʾayb

(220 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
foster-mother of the prophet Muḥammad. She and her husband belonged to the tribe of Saʿd b. Bakr, a subdivision of Hawāzin. Muḥammad was given to her to suckle from soon after his birth until he was two years old. Well-to-do families thought desert-life healthier for infants than that in Mecca. Some modern scholars have doubted the whole episode, but Muḥammad probably lived with this tribe for a time. After the battle of Ḥunayn he honoured his fostersister al-S̲h̲aymā, and responded favourably w…

Id̲j̲āra

(765 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
the granting of protection ( d̲j̲iwār [ q.v.]) to a stranger according to ancient Arab practice. This form of protection was especially important for those who travelled about, but it was also used in other cases. The d̲j̲ār (pl. d̲j̲īrān ) is mostly the person protected, but may also be the protector (as in Sūra VIII, 48/50; Mufaḍḍaliyyāt , 760, 18). To ask for protection is istad̲j̲āra (Sūra IX, 6). The granting of protection was announced publicly (cf. Zaynab’s id̲j̲āra of her former pagan husband in Ibn His̲h̲ām, 469); and thus, when ʿUt̲h̲mān b. Maẓʿūn wanted to renounce the d̲j̲iwār of …

Badw

(22,344 words)

Author(s): Coon, C.S. | Wissmann, H. von | Kussmaul, F. | Watt, W. Montgomery
I. Pastoral nomads of Arabian blood, speech, and culture are found in the Arabian Peninsula proper and in parts of Iran, Soviet Turkestan, North Africa, and the Sudan. This article is limited to their way of life in their home territory. Unlike primitive hunting and gathering, pastoral nomadism is a sophisticated System of exploiting land incapable of cultivation. Later to arise than agriculture, pastoralism utilises seven species of domestic animals: the sheep, goat, and ox, domesticated in Neolithic times as part of the ¶ herding and sowing complex of Western Asia; the ass, …

al-Ḳayn

(635 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
or banū ’l-ḳayn , often contracted ¶ to Bal-Ḳayn (cf. Bal-Ḥārit̲h̲, etc.), the name of one or more Arab tribes. The best known is part of the tribal group of Ḳuḍāʿa, and al-Ḳayn is here interpreted as the nickname of al-Nuʿmān b. D̲j̲asr, so that the tribe is known as al-Ḳayn b. D̲j̲asr. The word ḳayn means “worker in iron”, “smith”, or possibly “slave”, and is used as a term of contempt in the Naḳāʾid D̲j̲arīr wa’l-Farazdaḳ . There is no evidence, however, of any connexion of Bal-Ḳayn b. D̲j̲asr with smiths. They act as a normal Bedouin tribe, and …

Muʾāk̲h̲āt

(419 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
(a.) “brothering”, is a practice found in the early days of Islam by which two men became “brothers”. The best-known example is the “brothering” by Muḥammad of Emigrants from Mecca with Muslims from Medina. This may have happened soon after he reached Medina, but is placed by Ibn Isḥāḳ just before the battle of Badr, accompanied by a list of thirteen such pairs (Ibn His̲h̲ām, 344-6). It is clear, however, from Ibn Ḥabīb ( Muḥabbar , 70 f.) that there had previously been some “brothering” at Mecca, and he gives a list of nine pairs. This is confirm…

Abū Sufyān

(676 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
b. Ḥarb b. Umayya , of the clan of ʿAbd S̲h̲ams of Ḳurays̲h̲, prominent Meccan merchant and financier (to be distinguished from Muḥammad’s cousin, Abū Sufyān b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib). His name was Ṣak̲h̲r, and his kunya is sometimes given as Abū Ḥanẓala. ʿAbd S̲h̲ams had been at one time a member of the political group known as the Muṭayyabūn (which included the clan of Hās̲h̲im), but about Muḥammad’s time had moved away from this group and in some matters cooperated with the rival group, Mak̲h̲zūm.…

Ḥanīfa b. Lud̲j̲aym

(413 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, ancient Arab tribe, part of Bakr b. Wāʾil [ q.v.] on a level with T̲h̲aʿlaba and ʿId̲j̲l. The chief subdivisions were al-Dūl (or al-Duʾil), ʿAdī, ʿĀmir, Suḥaym. They were partly nomadic, partly agricultural (date-palms and cereals), and also partly pagan, partly Christian. The town of al-Had̲j̲r, capital of al-Yamāma, belonged chiefly to them, also the town of Ḏj̲aww (later al-K̲h̲idrima). Other localities mentioned as belonging to them (and as chiefly occupied by them) include: the wādī of al-ʿIrḍ, al-Awḳa, Fays̲h̲ān, al-Kirs, Ḳurrān, al-Manṣif …

Āmina

(254 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, Muḥammad’s mother. Her father was Wahb b. ʿAbd Manāf of the clan of Zuhra of the tribe of Ḳurays̲h̲, and her mother Barra bint ¶ ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā of the clan of ʿAbd al-Dār. It is said that She was the ward of her uncle Wuhayb b. ʿAbd Manāf, and that on the day he betrothed her to ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib he also betrothed his own daughter Hāla to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (Ibn Saʿd, i/1, 58). If this report is correct it may be an example of some forgotten marriage-custom. Āmina seems to have remained…

al-Aswad

(482 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
b. kaʿb al-ʿansī , of the tribe of Mad̲h̲ḥid̲j̲, leader of the first ridda in al-Yaman. His proper name is said to have been ʿAyhala or ʿAbhala, and he was also known as Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḵh̲imār, "the veiled one" (or Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḥimār, "the man with the donkey"). After the murder of Ḵh̲usraw II Parwīz (Ar. Abarwīz) in 628, but possibly not before the capture of Mecca in 630, the Persians in al-Yaman, under Bād̲h̲ām (or Bād̲h̲ān), made an alliance with Muḥammad, since they realised that they could ob…

Saʿd b. ʿUbāda

(458 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, chief of the clan of Sāʿida at Medina. The clan appears to have been small since it is not mentioned in the fighting leading to the battle of Buʿāth [ q.v.], but it may have been more influential than its size warranted, perhaps because it was wealthy. Only two members of the clan were at the second meeting with Muḥammad at al-ʿAḳaba [ q.v.], but both were included among the nuḳabāʾ or representatives. One of these was Saʿd b. ʿUbāda, who had become a Muslim at an early date. Saʿd was badly treated by some Meccans on his way back from al-ʿAḳ…

al-Madīna

(13,695 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery | Winder, R.B.
(usually Medina in English, Médine in French), residence of the Prophet Muḥammad after the ḥid̲j̲ra and one of the sacred cities of Islam. Medina is situated in the Ḥid̲j̲āz province of Saʿūdī Arabia in latitude 24° 28′ N, longitude 39° 36′ E, about 160 km. from the Red Sea and about 350 km. north of Mecca. It has developed from an oasis on relatively level ground between the hill of Uḥud on the north and that of ʿAyr on the south. East and west are lava flows (in Arabic ḥarra [ q.v.] or lāba ). There are several wādī s or watercourses which cross the oasis from south to…

ʿAḳīda

(4,200 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
(a.), creed; but sometimes also doctrine, dogma or article of faith; and hence ʿaḳāʾid (pl.), articles of faith, is also used for "creed". 1. The Development and Use of the Form. The documents to which the terms ʿaḳīda or ʿaḳāʾid are applied vary in length, and the longer ones cannot be sharply divided from the comprehensive theological treatises (e.g. al-ʿAḳīda al-Niẓāmiyya by al-Ḏj̲uwaynī). The terms, however, may usefully be taken to signify compositions where the chief interest is in the formulation of doctrine or dogma, and not…

K̲h̲adīd̲j̲a

(688 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, first wife of Muḥammad, daughter of K̲h̲uwaylid of the clan of Asad of the tribe of Ḳurays̲h̲ in Mecca. Before her marriage to Muḥammad she had been married twice, to Abū Hāla al-Tamīmī, a client of the Meccan clan of ʿAbd al-Dār, and to ʿUtayyiḳ (or ʿAtīḳ) b. ʿĀʾid̲h̲ (incorrectly ʿĀbid) b. ʿAbd Allāh of the Meccan clan of Mak̲h̲zūm. The order of these marriages is disputed, as is also the ism of Abū Hāla and his genealogy. To Abū Hāla she is mostly said to have borne two sons with the (usually feminine) names of Hind and Hāla, and to ʿUtayy…

Kaʿb b. al-As̲h̲raf

(386 words)

Author(s): Watt, W. Montgomery
, opponent of Muḥammad at Medina, reckoned to belong to his mother’s clan al-Naḍīr, though his father was an Arab of the Nabhān section of Ṭayyiʾ. He presumably followed the Jewish custom of taking his religion from his mother, but it is doubtful if he was a scholar, as the words in a poem sayyid al-aḥbār (Ibn His̲h̲ām, 659, 12) would imply, if the poem were genuine. Aroused by the deaths of many leading Meccans at Badr, he went to Mecca and used his considerable poetic gifts (he is called faḥl faṣiḥ in K. al-Ag̲h̲ānī ) to incite Ḳurays̲h̲ to fight the Muslims. On hi…
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