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(a.) (pl. ḥunafāʾ ), means in Islamic writing one who follows the original and true (monotheistic) religion. 1. The Ḳurʾān. The word ḥanīf…

, chief of the clan of ʿAbd al-As̲h̲hal in Medina in succession to his father. At the time of the Hid̲j̲ra he seems to have been the strongest man in the tribe of al-Aws, of which his clan was a part. He had taken part in the fighting prior to the battle of Buʿāt̲h̲ [ q.v.] and been wounded. The leader of al-Aws …

, ‘the helpers’, the usual designation of those men of Medina who supported Muḥammad, in distinction from the Muhād̲j̲irūn or ‘emigrants’ i.e. his Mecc…

, properly Abu ’l-Ḥakam ʿAmr b. His̲h̲ām b. al-Mug̲h̲īra of the Banū Mak̲h̲zūm of Ḳurays̲h̲, also named Ibn al-Ḥanẓaliyya after his ¶ mother, Asmāʾ bint Muk̲h̲arriba. He was born about 570 or a little after; he and Muḥammad were youths together at a feast in the house of ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḏj̲udʿān, while his mother became a Muslim and lived until after 13/635. A few years before the Hid̲j̲ra Abū Ḏj̲ahl seems to have succeeded al-Walīd b. al-Mug̲h̲īra as leader of Mak̲h̲zūm and also of the group of clans associated with Mak̲h̲zūm. He was less inclined to compromise with Muḥammad than was al-Walīd, as his position in Meccan affairs was more endangered by Muḥammad than that of the older man. He was perhaps largely responsible for the boycott of Hās̲h̲im and al-Muṭṭalib, and the ending of the boycott was a defeat for his policy. He won an important success, however, when he and ʿUḳba b. Abī Muʿayṭ, soon after Abū Ṭālib died and was succeeded by Abū Lahab as chief of Hās̲h̲im, persuaded the latter to cease giving protection to Muḥammad. Just before the Hid̲j̲ra he seems to have tried to have Muḥammad killed, and to make revenge impossible there was to be a man from each clan involved. Owing to his hostility to Muḥammad during the latter years of the Meccan period many acts of persecution of Muslims are attributed to him, though probably not all really happened (cf. Ḳ. xvii, 62, xliv, 43, xcvi, 6 and commentators). He and his brother al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. His̲h̲ām persuaded their uterine brother ʿAyyās̲h̲ b. Abī Rabīʿa to return from Medina and kept him (perhaps forcibly) in Mecca. Abū Ḏj̲ahl’s influence was based on his commercial and financial strength. The expedition of Ḥamza to Sīf al-Baḥr in 1/623 came near a large caravan directed by Abū Ḏj̲ahl. In 2/624 when Mecca was informed that Abū Sufyān’s caravan from Syria w…

, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān , one of the poets supporting Muḥammad, was an Anṣārī of the clan of Salima of the tribe of al-K̲h̲azrad̲j̲ [see al-anṣār ]. He must have been born before 600 A.D., since he is said to have taken part in the internal fighting in Medina before the Hid̲j̲ra, and to have been present at the second ʿAḳaba [ q.v.], when allegiance was sworn to Muḥammad. He was not present at Badr, but took part in most of the subsequent expeditions led by Muḥammad. At Uḥud he received several wounds and was the first to recognize Muḥammad after the rumour ¶ that he had been killed. S…

, Banū , one of the three main Jewish tribes of Yat̲h̲rib (Medina), with lands towards the south-east of the oasis. As in the case of the other Jewish groups, it is not known whether they were descended from ref…

al-Ṣaymarī (or al-Ḍaymarī ), one of the Muʿtazila of Baṣra, died c. 250/864. He was a pupil of His̲h̲ām b. ʿAmr al-Fuwaṭī ( fl.c. 210/825), like his father criticizing the main tendency of the school of Baṣra (that of Abu ’l-Hud̲h̲ayl), and being in his turn criticized by Abu ’l-Hud̲h̲ayl’s successors, al-Ḏj̲ubbāʾī and Abū Hās̲h̲im. Our knowledge of his distinctive views comes mainly from al-As̲h̲ʿarī’s Maḳālāt . He emphasized the difference between God and man, admitting that God might be called a "thing" in the sense that He was "other" ( l.c., 519). In particular he insisted that G…

, son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and Lubnā bint Hād̲j̲ir (of Ḵh̲uzāʿa), and half-brother of Muḥammad’s father. His name was ʿAbd al-ʿUzza and his kunya Abū ʿUtba; Abū Lahab (literally "father of the flame") was a nickname given by his father on account of his beauty. At one time, doubtless before Muḥammad’s preaching had roused opposition, he was friendly with his nephew, for his sons ʿUtba and ʿUtayba were married (or perhaps only betrothed) to Muḥammad’s daughters Ruḳayya and Umm Kult̲h̲ūm respectively. During the boyc…

, a large Arab tribe of the Yemen group, the full genealogy being Hamdān (Awsala) b. Mālik b. Zayd b. Rabīʿa b. Awsala b. al-K̲h̲iyār b. Mālik b. Zayd b. Kahlān. Their territory lay to the north of Ṣanʿā [ q.v.], stretching eastwards to Maʾrib [ q.v.] and Nad̲j̲rān [ q.v.], northwards to Ṣaʿda [ q.v.], and westwards to the coa…

, one of the two subdivisions of Muḍar, which along with Rabīʿa was reckoned as constituting the sons of ʿAdnān, the so-called Northern Arabs [see d̲j̲azīrat al-ʿarab ]. The other subdivision of Muḍar was K̲h̲indif or al-Yās. ʿAylān is sometimes said to be the father of Ḳays, but it is more likely that the double name means “Ḳays (owner) of ʿAylān” (sc. a horse, dog or slave). The following is an abbreviated genealogical table: ¶ Ḳays ʿAylān does not appear to have functioned as a unit before Islam, and in the accounts of “the days of the Arabs” only the individual tribes are named. In Umayyad times, however, the alleged genealogies became a convenient basis for bringing together groups of clans so as to constitute something like a political party. This process began when small contingents from different tribes were lodged together in the cities of the empire; for Baṣra cf. C. Pellat, Le milieu baṣrien , Paris 1953, 23 and passim…

, son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib b. Hās̲h̲im and Fāṭima bint ʿAmr (of Mak̲h̲zūm), and full brother of Muḥammad’s father. His own name was ʿAbd Manāf. He is said to have inherited the offices of siḳāya and rifāda (providing water and food for pilgrims) from his father, but at the Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl and war of the Fid̲j̲ār his brother al-Zubayr seems to have been the leading man of Hās̲h̲im. He fell into debt, and to meet this surrendered the siḳāya and rifāda to al-ʿAbbās. Nevertheless he seems to have remained chief of the clan of Hās̲h̲im, and their quarter of the town was called the s̲h…

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, a mountain-road, or a place difficult of ascent on a hill or acclivity. There are many places of this name: the best-known is that between Minā and Mecca. Here, according to traditional accounts, Muḥammad had secret meetings with men from Medina at the pilgrimages of the years 621 and 622 A. D. In 621, at “the first ʿAḳaba”, twelve were present, and they gave to Muḥammad an undertaking known as ‘the pledge of the women’ ( …

, people observing rigorous religious taboos, especially Ḳurays̲h̲ and certain neighbouring tribes. The word is the plural of aḥmas , “hard, strong (in fighting or in religion)”, but one of the Ḥums is called aḥmasī (fern, aḥmasiyya ). Ibn His̲h̲ām (126) thinks that taḥammus , the observance of the taboos in question, was an innovation of Ḳurays̲h̲ about the time of Muḥammad’s birth, and some changes may have been made to emphasize the superiority of Ḳurays̲h̲ to other tribes; but the nature of the taboos makes it li…

, an early sect, frequently mentioned but somewhat mysterious. Identity. No names are known of any members of the sect, apart from the alleged founder D̲j̲ahm [ q.v.]. The basic fact is that “after the trans…

, a North Arabian tribe, reckoned part of D̲h̲ubyān, which was itself included in G̲h̲aṭafān [ q.v.]. Its main pasture-grounds were in Wādi ’l-Rumma in Nad̲j̲d, and the names of many localities associated with it have been preserved (cf. Yāḳūt, index, s.v. Fazāra). In the Ḏj̲āhiliyya the famous war of Dāḥis between Abs and D̲h̲ubyān arose out of a wager between Ḳays b. Zuhayr, chief of Abs, and Ḥud̲h̲ayfa b. Badr of Fazāra about their respective horses Dāḥis and G̲h̲abrā. The latter won because of underhand acts by some men of Fazāra, and this led to the killing of a brother of Ḥud̲h̲ayfa. ¶ In the long war which followed D̲h̲ubyān was led by Ḥud̲h̲ayfa, and then by his son Ḥiṣn (A. P. Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur l’histoire des Arabes avant l’Islamisme…

, an ancient Arab tribe reckoned to the ʿArab al-ʿĀriba (see art. ʿarab , d̲j̲azīrat al-, vi). According to later standard Arab tradition, D̲j̲urhum was descended from Yaḳtān (Ḳaḥtān). The tribe migrated from the Yaman to Mecca. After a protracted struggle with another tribe Ḳatūra (also referred to as ʿAmālīḳ), led by al-Sumaydiʿ, D̲j̲urhum under their chief (called Muḍād b. ʿAmr, al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Muḍāḍ, etc.) gained control of the Kaʿba. This they retained till driven out by…

, ditch, trench or moat. The word seems to have come into Arabic from Persian through Syriac (cf. A. Siddiqi, Studien über die persischen Fremdwörter im klassischen …

, ancient Arabian tribe, reckoned part of Bakr b. Wāʾil [ q.v.]. Their common ancestor ʿId̲j̲l b. Lud̲j̲aym was proverbially noted for his stupidity (Goldziher, Muh . St., i, 48n; Eng. tr. i, 52n.). The tribe as a whole had a reputation for …

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