DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAKKAN AND MADINAN SOCIETIES
YATHRIB HAD BEEN marked by Providence to shelter the Messenger of God after his emigration and to bring forth not only the first Islamic society but also to serve as a radiant center for the universal call of Islam. The great honor accorded to the city makes it necessary to know its distinctive features—its physical, social, and cultural conditions, the Arab tribes living there and their mutual relations, the economic and political machinations of the Jews and their fighting strength, as well as the way life was sustained by its fertile land. Various religions, cultures, and communities flourished in the city side by side; it contrasted starkly with Makkah, which was dominated by one faith and one cultural pattern. The details given here, albeit brief, depict the state of affairs in Madinah when the Apostle made his entrance in that city.
JEWS
The preferred view of historians concerning the Jewish settlements in Arabia, at large, and those in Madinah, in particular, is that they date from the first century AD.
Dr. Israel Wellphenson writes:
After Palestine and Jerusalem were laid waste in 70 AD and the Jews dispersed to different parts of the world, a number of them made their way to Arabia, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, who was himself present at the siege of Jerusalem and had led the Jewish units on several occasions. Arab sources also corroborate his statement. [1]
Three Jewish tribes, Qaynuqā‘, an-Naḍīr, and Qurayẓah, had settled in Madīnah. In total, over two thousand adults belonged to these tribes: Qaynuqā‘ were estimated to have seven hundred combatants, an-Naḍīr too had almost the same number, while Qurayẓah were reported to have between seven and nine hundred men of fighting age. [2] These tribes were not on good terms with one another and would come to blows very often.
Dr. Israel Wellphenson says:
Banū Qaynuqā‘ were set against the rest of the Jews because they had sided with Banū Khazraj in the battle of Bu‘āth, in which Banū ’n-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah had inflicted a crushing defeat and massacred Banū Qaynuqā‘ even though the latter had paid bloodwit for their prisoners of war. The bitterness between the Jewish tribes continued to persist after the battle of Bu‘āth. When Banū Qaynuqā‘ subsequently fell out with the Anṣār, no other Jewish tribe came to their aid against the Anṣār. [3]
The Qur’ān also makes a reference to the mutual discord between the Jews:
And when We made with you a covenant (saying): Shed not the blood of your people nor turn (a party of) your people out of your dwellings. Then you ratified (Our covenant) and you were witness (thereto).
Yet you it is who slay each other and drive out a party of your people from their homes, supporting one another against them by sin and transgression—and if they come to you as captives you would ransom them, whereas their expulsion was itself unlawful for you. [4]
The Jews of Madīnah had their dwellings in their own separate localities in different parts of the city. When Banū ’n-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah forced Banū Qaynuqā‘ to vacate their settlement on the outskirts of the town, they took up their quarters in a section of the city. Banū ’n-Naḍīr had their habitation in the higher parts, some four or five kilometers from the city, towards the valley of Bathān, having some of the richest groves and agricultural lands of Madīnah. The third Jewish tribe, Banū Qurayẓah, occupied a district known as Maḥzūr a few kilometres to the south of the city. [5]
The Jews of Madīnah lived in compact settlements where they erected fortifications and citadels. They were, however, not independent but lived as confederate clans of the stronger Arab tribes, which guaranteed them immunity from raids by the nomads. Predatory incursions by the nomadic tribes being a perpetual menace, the Jewish tribes had always to seek the protection of one or another chieftain of the powerful Arab tribes. [6]
RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS OF THE JEWS
The Jews considered themselves to be blessed with a divine religion and law. They had their own seminaries, known as midrās [7], which imparted instruction in their religious and secular sciences, law, history, and the Talmudic lore. Similarly, for offering prayers and performing other religious rites, they had synagogues wherein they also consulted each other regarding their affairs. They observed the laws taken from the Pentateuch as well as many more rigid and uncompromising customary rules imposed by their priests and rabbis, and celebrated Jewish feasts and fasts, as, for example, they would observe on the tenth day of the month of Tishri, the fast of Atonement. [8]
The Jews had, however, lost the spirit of their religion, and nothing distinguished them from their polytheist neighbors apart from the tenets of tawḥīd, or monotheism, and some of its divine laws. However, when they refused to accept Islam with its absolute monotheism, even their prestige as a monotheistic faith was lost.
Moreover, the Jews of Madīnah had lost the moral teachings of their faith and dabbled in the art of magic, soothsaying, and dispensing poison to meet their personal desires and passions. Indeed, their leaders and scholars continued such wicked practices even though they were fully aware that it was in defiance of God’s will. The Qur’ān alludes to this:
And they followed [instead] what the devils had recited during the reign of Solomon. [9]
This was the religious state of the Jews in Madinah right up to the messengership of Muhammad. The renowned Jewish orientalist (well known for his censure of the teachings of Islam), Margoliouth, states about the Jews of Madinah:
These Jews were highly skilled in magic and preferred its dark arts to fighting openly on the battlefield. [10]
The incident during the Battle of Khaybar reveals how the Jews attempted to take the life of the Apostle through poisoning him, though their attempt failed. [11]
As for their distorting words through mockery and ill meaning, the Qur’ān reveals:
You who believe, do not say: Rā‘īnā (attend to us) and say: Unzurnā (look at us) and listen, and the disbelievers will have a humiliating punishment. [12]
The Jews would use the term rā‘īnā behind the messenger’s back as an insult to indicate that they were not listening to him, and to mock him with a reference to its root meaning ar-rā‘ān, ignorant and dumb. [13] Thus, in this verse, God tells the believers to use words with clear meaning and not to refer to ambiguous terms with hidden and underlying connotations. The Qur’ān addresses yet another incident in which the Jews would greet the Apostle with as-sām [14] alayka (death be upon you as opposed to peace, as-salām):
And they come to you, they greet you with the words with which Allah has not greeted you. [15]
FINANCES
The financial relationship of the Madinan Jews with other tribes was mainly limited to lending money on interest on security of personal property. In an agricultural region like Madinah, there was ample scope for money-lending businesses since farmers would very often need capital for purposes of cultivation. [16]
The system of lending money was not limited merely to pledging personal property as security for repayment of the loan, for the creditors very often forced the borrowers to pledge even their women and children. An incident related to the murder of Ka‘b ibn Ashraf, narrated by Bukhārī, bears testimony to the prevailing practice:
Muhammad ibn Maslamah said to Ka‘b: Now we hope that you will lend us a camel-load or two (of food). Ka‘b answered, I will do so, (but) you shall pledge something with me. [The Muslims] said: What do you want? Ka‘b replied, Pledge your women with me. They said, How can we pledge our women to you, the most beautiful of the Arabs? Ka‘b said, Then pledge your sons with me. [The Muslims] replied, How can we pledge our sons with you? (Later) They would be abused (on this account), and people would say: He has been pledged for a camel-load or two (of food)! This would disgrace us! We shall, however, pledge our armor with you. [17]
Such transactions produced, naturally enough, hatred and disgust between the mortgages and the mortgagors, particularly since the Arabs were famously thin-skinned where the honor of their women was concerned.
The concentration of capital in the hands of Jews had given them power to exercise economic pressure on the social economy of the city. The markets were at their mercy. They rigged the market through hoarding, creating artificial scarcity and causing price inflation. The Jews faced public opprobrium from the people of Madinah owing to these malpractices, usuriousness, and profiteering, which went against the grain of the common Arab. [18]
With their predilection for avarice and acquisitiveness, the Jews inevitably adopted an expansionist attitude, as pointed out by De Lacy O' Leary:
In the seventh century, there was a strong feeling between these Bedouin[19] and the Jewish colonists because the latter, by extending their agricultural area, were encroaching upon the land which the Bedouin regarded as their own pastures. [20]
The Jews, misguided by overweening cupidity and selfishness in their social dealings with the Arab tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, spent lavishly, though judiciously, in creating a rift between the two tribes. On a number of occasions in the past, they had pitted one tribe against the other so that both had been worn out and economically ruined. The primary objective the Jews had set before themselves was to maintain their economic hold over Madinah.
For many centuries, the Jews had been waiting for a redeemer. This belief of the Jews in the coming of a prophet, about which they used to talk with the Arabs, had prepared the Aws and the Khazraj to give their faith readily to the Apostle. [21]
RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS
The Jews of Arabia spoke Arabic, although their dialect was interspersed with Hebrew, for they had not completely given up their religious language, which they used for educational and religious purposes. Regarding the missionary activities of the Jews, Dr. Israel Wellphenson says:
There is less uncertainty about the opportunities offered to the Jews in consolidating their religious supremacy in Arabia. Had they so wished, they could have used their influence to their best advantage, but as it is too well known to every student of the history of the Jews, they have never made any effort to invite other nations to embrace their faith; rather, for certain reasons, they have been forbidden to preach their religion to others. [22]
Be that as it may, many of the Aws and the Khazraj and certain other Arab tribes had been Judaised owing to their close social connections with the Jews, or to ties of blood. Thus, there were Jews in Arabia who were of Israelite descent, with an addition of Arab proselytes. An example was the well-known poet and influential Jewish merchant Ka‘b ibn Ashraf (often called an-Naḍīr), belonging to the tribe of Ṭayy. His father had married into the tribe of Banū ’n-Naḍīr, but he grew up to be a zealous Jew. Ibn Hishām writes about him: Ka‘b ibn Ashraf, who was one of the Ṭayy of the sub-section of Banū Nabhān, whose mother was from the Banū ’n-Naḍīr. [23]
Among the pagan Arabs, it was a custom for someone whose son died in infancy to swear an oath to God to entrust his next son to a Jew in order to bring him up in his own religion if he survived. A Tradition referring to this custom is found in the Sunan Abī Dāwūd.
Ibn ‘Abbās said: “Any woman whose children died would make a vow that if her next child remained alive, she would make him a Jew. Accordingly, when Banū ’n-Naḍīr were exiled, they had the sons of Anṣār with them; they said, ‘We would not forsake our sons’; thereupon the revelation came: There is no compulsion in religion.” [24]
THE AWS AND THE KHAZRAJ
The two great Arab tribes of Madinah, the Aws and the Khazraj, traced a common descent from the Yemeni tribe of Azd, from whence successive waves of emigrants inundated the northern regions from time to time. These emigrations were brought about by any number of reasons, including unstable political conditions in Yemen, Abyssinian aggression, and disruption of the irrigation system supporting agriculture after the destruction of the Ma’rib dam. However, both the Aws and the Khazraj came to Madinah after the Jews. The Aws settled down in Ṣawāli, an area in the south-east of Madinah, while Khazraj occupied the lands in the central and northern parts of the city. The northern part of the city being low-lying, nothing intervened between the habitation of Khazraj and Harrat al-Wabrah in the west. [25]
The Khazraj consisted of four clans: Mālik, ‘Adi, Māzin, and Dīnār, all collaterals to Banū Najjār, and also known as Taym al-Lāt. Banū Najjār took up residence in the central part of the city, where now stands the Prophet’s mosque. The Aws, having settled in the fertile, cultivable lands, were the neighbors of more influential and powerful Jewish tribes. The lands occupied by Khazraj were comparatively less fertile, and they had only Banū Qaynuqā‘ as their neighbors. [26]
It is rather difficult to reckon the numerical strength of the Aws and the Khazraj with any amount of certainty, but an estimate can be formed from the various battles in which they took part after the Apostle’s emigration to Madinah. The combatants drafted from these two tribes on the occasion of the conquest of Makkah numbered four thousand. [27]
When the Apostle emigrated to Madinah, the Arabs were in the ascendancy and in a position of dominance. The Jews had become disunited and forced to take a subordinate position by seeking alliances either with the Aws or the Khazraj. Their mutual relationships were even worse, for they were more tyrannical to their co-religionists in times of warfare than were the Arabs. It was due to the deeply ingrained enmity between Banū Qaynuqā‘, Banū ’n-Naḍīr, and Banū Qurayẓah that Banū Qaynuqā‘ were forced to abandon their cultivated lands and take up the profession of artisans. [28]
The Aws and the Khazraj, too, often came to the scratch. The first of these encounters was the battle of Samīr, while the last one, the battle of Bu‘āth, was fought five years before the hijrah. [29] The Jews always tried to sow dissension between Aws and Khazraj and made them run afoul of one another so as to divert their attention from them. The Arab tribes were conscious of their nefarious activities: "the fox" was the popular nickname they had given to the Jews.
An incident related by Ibn Hishām, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, sheds light upon the character of the Jews. Sha‘s ibn Qays was a Jew, old and bitter towards the Muslims. He passed by a place where a number of the Apostle's Companions from the Aws and the Khazraj were talking together. He was filled with rage to see their amity and unity; so he asked a Jewish youth friendly with the Anṣār to join them and mention the battle of Bu‘āth and the preceding battles, and to recite some of the poems concerning those events in order to stir up their tribal sentiments.
The cunning device of Sha‘s did not fail. The two tribes had been at daggers drawn in the past. Their passions were aroused, and they started bragging and quarreling until they were about to unsheathe their swords when the Apostle came with some of the Muhājirūn. He pacified them and appealed to their bonds of harmony brought about by Islam. Then the Anṣār realized that the enemy had duped them. The Aws and the Khazraj wept and embraced one another as if nothing had happened. [30]
PHYSICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS
At the time the Apostle migrated to Yathrib, the city was divided into distinct sections inhabited by Arabs and Jews, with a separate district allocated to each clan. Each division consisted of residential quarters and the soil used for agricultural purposes, while in another part, they had their strongholds or fortress-like structures. [31] The Jews had fifty-nine such strongholds in Madinah. [32]
Dr. Israel Wellphenson writes:
The fortresses were of great importance in Yathrib, for the people belonging to a clan took shelter in them during raids by the enemy. They afforded protection to the women and children who retreated to them in times of fights and forays, while the men went out to engage the enemy. These safeholds were also utilized as storehouses for the storage of food-grains and fruits, so that the enemy could not easily pillage them in open places. Goods and arms were also kept in the fortress, and caravans carrying merchandise used to halt near them for the markets were usually held along the doors of these fortresses. The strongholds also housed the synagogues and educational institutions known as midrās. [33] The costly goods that were stored in the fortresses show that the religious scriptures were also kept in them. Jewish leaders and chieftains used to assemble in these fortresses for consultations or taking decisions on important issues which were sealed by taking an oath on the scripture. [34]
Defining the word aṭām, as these fortresses were called, Dr. Wellphenson writes: “The term connotes in Hebrew, to shut out or to obstruct. When it is used in connection with a wall, it denotes such windows as are shut down from outside but can be opened from inside. The word is also expressive of a defensive wall or a rampart, and therefore, we can presume that utum was the name given by the Jews to their fortresses. They had shutters which could be shut from the outer side and opened from the inner side.”
Yathrib was, thus, a cluster of such strongholds or fortified suburbs which had taken the shape of a town because of their proximity. The Qur’ān also hints at this peculiar feature of the city in these words:
That which Allah gives as spoils unto His messenger from the people of the townships. [35]
Again, another reference to Madīnah signifies the same peculiarity.
They will not fight against you in a body save in fortified villages or from behind walls. [36]
Lava plains occupy a place of special importance in the physical geography of Madīnah. These plains, formed by the matter flowing from a volcano which cools into rocks of burnt basalt of dark brown and black color and of irregular shape and size, stretch out far and wide, and cannot be traversed on foot or even on horseback or by camel. Two of these lava plains are more extensive; one is to the east and is known as Harrat al-Wāqim, while the other lies in the west and is called Harrat al-Wabarah. Majduddin Fīrōzābādi writes in Al-Maghānim al-Maṭābah fī Ma‘ālim aṭ-Ṭābah that there are several lava plains surrounding Madīnah. The two lava plains of the east and the west have virtually made the city a fortified stronghold that could be attacked only from the north (where trenches were dug on the occasion of the Battle of the Trenches).
On the southern side, the oases, thickets, and clumped date-palm groves, as well as intertied houses of the densely populated area, defended the city against enemy incursions. [37] The strategic location of Madīnah was one of the factors responsible for its selection as the new home of the emigrants.
Harrat al-Wāqim, to the east of the city, dotted with numerous green oases, was more populous than Harrat al-Wabarah. When the Apostle emigrated to Yathrib, the more influential Jewish tribes such as Banū ’n-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah were living in Harrat al-Wāqim along with some of the important clans of Aws, such as Banū ‘Abd al-Ashhal, Banū Zufar, Banū Hārithah, and Banū Mu‘āwiyah. The eastern lava plain was known as Wāqim, named after a locality in the district occupied by Banū ‘Abd al-Ashhal. [38]
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
By and large, the inhabitants of Madīnah followed the Quraysh, whom they held to be the guardians of the Holy sanctuary and the matrix of their religious creed as well as social ethics. Like other Arabs, the population of Madīnah was pagan and principally devoted to the same idols as worshipped by the inhabitants of Hijāz, and of Makkah in particular, in addition to a few regional or tribal deities considered to be the personal or private gods of the particular clans. Thus, Manāt was the oldest and the most popular deity of the inhabitants of Madīnah: Aws and Khazraj rendered honor to it as the co-partner of God. The idol was set up on the seashore, between Makkah and Madīnah, at Mushallal near Qadīd. Al-Lāt was the favorite god of the people of Ṭā’if, while the Quraysh revered Al-‘Uzzā as their national deity. It was so because the people of every place had a particular patron god to which they were emotionally attached. If anyone in Madīnah had a wooden replica of an idol, he typically considered it to be Manāt, the idol that ‘Amr ibn Jamūḥ, the chief of Banū Salamah in Madīnah, kept in his house before his conversion to Islam. [39]
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal relates a tradition from ‘Urwah, on the authority of ‘Ā’ishah, which says: “The Anṣār would cry labbayk [40] to Manāt and to worship it near Mushallal before accepting Islam. Anyone who performed pilgrimage in the name of Manāt did not consider it lawful to go round the mounts of Ṣafā and Marwah. [41] When the people once enquired of the Apostle: O Messenger of Allah, we felt some hesitation during the pagan past in going round Ṣafā and Marwah, God sent down the revelation: [42] ‘Lo! Ṣafā and Marwah are amongst the signs of Allah’
However, we are not aware of any other idol in Madinah as glamorized as Lāt, Manāt, ‘Uzzā, and Hubal, or venerated like them, nor were idols set up in Madinah which people from other tribes would visit. Madinah does not appear to be bristling with idols, unlike Makkah, where idols were set up in every house and vendors would offer them for sale to the pilgrims. Makkah was, all in all, the prototype and symbol of idolatry in Arabia, whereas Madinah simply trailed behind it.
In Madinah, the people had two days on which they engaged in games. When the Apostle came to Madinah, he said to them, “God has substituted something better for you, the day of sacrifice and the day of the breaking fast.” [43] Certain commentators of the traditions hold the view that the two festivals celebrated by the people of Madinah were Nowrūz and Mahrajān, which had perhaps been adopted from the Persians. [44]
The Aws and the Khazraj came from a lineage whose nobility was acknowledged even by the Quraysh. The Anṣār were descendants of Banū Qaḥṭān belonging to the southern stock of Arab ‘Āribah, with whom Quraysh had marital affinity. Hāshim ibn ‘Abd Manāf had married Salmā bint ‘Amr ibn Zayd of Banū ‘Adī ibn an-Najjār, which was a clan of the Khazraj. Nevertheless, the Quraysh considered their own ancestry to be nobler than that of the Arab clans of Madinah. On the day of Badr, when ‘Utbah ibn Rabī‘ah, Shaybah ibn Rabī‘ah, and Walīd ibn Rabī‘ah came ahead of their ranks and challenged the Muslims to single combat, some youths of the Anṣār stepped forth to fight them. The warriors of Quraysh, however, asked who they were and, on coming to know that they belonged to the Anṣār, replied, “We have nothing to do with you.” Then one of them called out, “Muhammad, send forth some of our own rank and blood to face us.” Thereupon, the Apostle ordered, “Advance, O ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Hārith! Advance, O Ḥamzah! Advance, O ‘Alī! When the three were in place and told their names, Quraysh said, “Yes, these are noble and our peers”. [45]
The self-conceited Quraysh would look down upon farming, the occupation taken up by the Anṣār owing to the physical features of their city. We find an echo of the same conceit in what Abū Jahl said when he was slain by two youth of the Anṣār who were sons of ‘Afrā’. Abū Jahl said to ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd, although he was nearing his end, “Would that somebody other than a farmer had slain me!” [46]
ECONOMIC CULTURAL CONDITIONS
Madīnah was a veritable oasis. The soil warranted a systematic cultivation, and hence its population was given over to farming and gardening. The main produce of the city consisted of grapes and dates, of which there were numerous groves, [47] trellised and untrellised. Two or more palm trees occasionally grew out of a single root. [48]
Cereals and vegetables of different varieties were cultivated in the farms, but date was the chief item on the menu of the people, especially in times of drought, for the fruit could be stored for sale or exchanged with other necessaries. The date palm was the queen of Arabian trees, the source of the prosperity of the people of Madīnah, providing them with solid food and fodder for the camels. Its stems, bark, and leaves were also utilized in the construction of houses and the manufacture of other goods of daily use. [49]
Countless varieties of dates [50] were grown in Madīnah, where the people had developed methods to improve the quality and production of the dates through experience and experimentation. Of these, one was the distinction made between the male pollen and female pistils of date-palms and the fertilization (or breeding or cultivation) of ovules, which was known as ta‘bīr. [51]
Madinah was a leading agricultural center, and it also had a flourishing mercantile business, but not of the same scale as in Makkah. The barren, rocky valley of Makkah allowed no other occupation save to set out with trade caravans regularly during the summer and winter sessions to earn their livelihood.
Certain industrial pursuits were restricted to the Jews of Madinah. They had probably brought these crafts to Madinah from Yemen, as, for instance, Banū Qaynuqā practiced the trade of goldsmithing. Wealthier than other tribes inhabiting Madinah, the houses of the Jews were flush with money and abounding in gold and silver. [52]
The soil of Madinah is extremely fertile because of the volcanic matter from the surrounding lava plains. The town stands in the lower part of the valley where water courses running from the higher altitudes irrigate the agricultural lands and date plantations. A verdant wādī well, then known by the name of Ṣaqīq, supplied with water and abounding in gardens and vineyards, was the pleasure spot of Madinah’s population. There were many wells scattered about the terrain; almost every garden had one by which it was irrigated, for subterranean water was found in plenty.
The vineyards and date plantations, enclosed by garden walls, were known as Ḥā’iṭ. [53] The wells had sweet and plentiful supplies of water, which were conducted to the orchards by means of canals or through lift irrigation. [54]
Barley was the main cereal produced in Madinah, while wheat occupied a secondary place, but vegetables were grown in abundance. Transactions of different types [55] like muzāra‘ah, mu‘ājarah, muzābanah, [56] muḥāqalah, [57] mukhābarah,[58] mudāwa ah, [59] etc., were in vogue, some of which were retained by Islam while others were reformed or forbidden altogether.
The coins in circulation in Makkah and Madinah were the same as already discussed in the section dealing with Makkah. However, as the inhabitants of Madinah had to transact their business in grains and fruits, they had more of their dealings with volumetric measures. [60] These measures were mudd, ṣā‘, faraq, ‘araq, and wasaq. The measures of weight prevalent in Madinah were dirham, thiqā, dāniq, qīrāṭ, nawāt, riṭl, qinṭār, and ṭāyyah. [61]
Madinah had fertile soil, but it was not self-sufficient in food grains and had to import some of the food it required. Flour, [62] refined butter, and honey were brought from Syria. Tirmidhī relates on the authority of Qatādah ibn Nu‘mān that the staple diet of the people of Madinah consisted of dates and barley, but those who were rich would purchase flour from the Syrian merchants [63] for their own consumption, while other members of the family had to make do with dates and barley. [64] This report brings to light the culinary habits as well as the disparity in the standards of living of the well-to-do and the poorer sections of the people in Madinah, existing before the emigration of the Apostle.
In Madinah, the Jews constituted the affluent class, while the Arab tribesmen, like other guileless Bedouins, were not given to troubling their heads about the future or to feathering their nests for rainy days. In addition to it, generosity was in their blood; this manifested itself in their sparing no expense in entertaining their guests. Naturally enough, they were very often forced to borrow money on interest from the Jews by pledging their personal property.
The livestock raised by the people consisted, for the most part, of camels, cows, and ewes. The camels were also employed for irrigating the agricultural lands, and such camels were known as al-Ibil an-Nawādiḥ. Madinah had several pastures, of which the two, Zaghābah and Ghābah, were more well-known. The people in Madinah would graze their flocks in these pastures and also obtain firewood from them. [65] They reared horses for military operations as well, though not on the same scale as did the inhabitants of Makkah. Banū Sulaym were renowned for their horsemanship, although they used to import their horses from other regions.
Madinah had a number of markets, the most important among these being the one run by Banū Qaynuqā, which was stocked with silver and gold ornaments, cloth and other handicrafts, cotton and silk fabrics. Colorful carpets and curtains with decorative designs [66] were normally available in this market. Perfumes of different types and musk were also sold. Similarly, some shopkeepers sold ambergris and quicksilver. [67] Numerous forms of business transactions had come into practice, some of which were upheld by Islam, while others were forbidden. The dealings that had come into vogue were known as najash (raising the price in an auction with no intention to buy or praising a commodity which belongs to an accomplice with the intention of exploiting another customer into buying it for a higher price) al-Iḥtikār (creating a Monopoly), talaqqī ’r-rukbān (purchasing the lot of one product from a merchant at wholesale price then selling it in the town for a high price creating a monopoly of that product), bay‘ al-muṣarrāt (asking someone to cancel a transaction—when he has the choice of cancelation—tempting him with a cheaper deal), bay‘ bi ’n-nasī’ah (purchasing on credit when the time of repayment is not known), bay‘ al-ḥāḍir li ’l-bādī (purchasing the lot of one product from a merchant at wholesale price then selling it in the town for a high price creating a monopoly of that product), bay‘ al-mujāzafah (randomly selling without weighing), bay‘ al-muzābanah (purchasing fruits still on the tree with plucked fruits by estimation of weight. Estimating the weight of the fruits on the tree) and mukhāḍarah (purchasing fruits or grain before they have ripened fully). [68] Certain persons belonging to the Aws and the Khazraj also had their hands in lending money at interest, but they were comparatively fewer in number than the Jews. The social and cultural life of the common people in Madīnah was, thanks to their refined taste, fairly well advanced. Double-storied houses were common in Madīnah[69], and some of these had attached kitchen gardens. The people were used to drinking sweet water that often had to be carried from a distance. Cushions [70] were used for sitting, and the household utensils included bowls and drinking vessels made of stone and glass. Lamps were manufactured in various designs.[71] Bags and small baskets were used for carrying articles of daily use and corn from the fields. The dwellings of those who were well off, particularly the Jews, were well-stocked with many more types of household furniture. The jewelry worn by the womenfolk included bracelets, armlets, anklets, wristlets, earrings, circlets, rings, and golden or gem necklaces. [72]
Spinning and weaving were popular domestic pursuits in which the women spent their time in Madinah. Sewing and dyeing of clothes, house building, brick-laying, and stone crafts were some of the manual arts already known to the people of the city before the Apostle emigrated there.
YATHRIB’S ADVANCED AND COMPOSITE SOCIETY
The hijrah of the Apostle and his Companions from Makkah to Madinah was, in no wise, an emigration from a town to any hinterland known by the name of Yathrib but from one city to another. The new home of the emigrants was, at the same time, dissimilar in many respects from the town they had left; it was comparatively smaller than the former, but the society there was more complex in comparison to the social life of Makkah. The Apostle was, therefore, expected to come across problems of a different nature. The town was peopled by men subscribing to different religions with dissimilar social codes and customs and having divergent cultural patterns. The task now presented to him was how to overcome the difficulties arising out of a heterogeneous community and how to unite them on one creed and faith. It was a difficult assignment that could be accomplished only by a prophet, commissioned and blessed by God with wisdom, foresight, firmness of purpose, and the capacity to unite them under one set of beliefs, thus ushering the dying humanity into a new, brave world. And, above all, the savior had to have a lovable personality. How very correctly has God set forth the service rendered by that benefactor of the human race, “He is, Who has supported you with His Help and with the believers. He has united their hearts (If you had spent all that is in the earth, you could not have attuned their hearts, but Allah has attuned them. Lo! He is Mighty, Wise.” [73]
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[1] Dr. Israel Wellphenson, Tārīkh al-Yahūd fī Bilād al-‘Arab fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa Ṣadr al-Islām, p. 9.
[2] These figures are based on the number of Jews of different tribes given by the biographers like Ibn Hishām in connection to the exile of Banū ’n-Naḍīr and the massacre of Banū Qurayẓah, etc. Banū Qaynuqā‘, an-Naḍīr, and Qurayẓah were the chief tribes consisting of several clans, as, for example, Banū Ḥaḍal was a clan allied to Banū Qurayẓah. A number of persons belonging to this clan who accepted Islam became eminent Companions. Banū Zāmbā’ was another branch of Banū Qurayẓah. A few of the Jewish clans, such as Banū Awf, Banū ’n-Najjār, Banū Sā’idah, Banū Tha‘labah, Banū Jafnah, Banū ’l-Hārith, etc., have been mentioned in the treaty made by the Apostle with the Jews. After mentioning those tribes the treaty says: “The chiefs and friends of the Jews are themselves.” Samhūdī says in Wafā’ al-Wafā’ that the Jews were divided into more than twenty clans (p. 116).
[3] Tārīkh al-Yahūd fī Bilād al-‘Arab fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa Ṣadr al-Islām, p. 129.
[4] Qur’ān 2:84–5.
[5] Dr. Muhammad Sayyid aṭ-Ṭanṭāwī, Banū Isrā’īl fī ’l-Qur’ān wa ’s-Sunnah, p.77.
[6] Dr. Jawwād ‘Alī, Tārīkh al-‘Arab qabi al-Islām (Baghdad), vol. VII, p. 23.
[7] Banū Isrā’īl fī ’l-Qur’ān wa ’s-Sunnah, pp. 80–81.
[8] Dā’iratul Ma‘ārif al-Yahūdiyyah
[9] Qur’ān 2:102
[10] D.S. Margoliouth’s Muhammad and the Rise of Islam, p. 189.
[11] Bukhārī
[12] Qur’ān 2:104
[13] Rūḥ al-Ma‘ānī, al-Baghdādī, vol.I, pp.348–349.
[14] Majma‘ Bihār al-Anwār, vol.III, p.155
[15] Qur’ān 58:8. See also Rūḥ al-Ma‘ānī and Tafsīr ibn Kathīr.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Bukhārī: Kitāb al-Maghāzī, see Qatl Ka‘b ibn Ashraf.
[18] Dr. Muhammad Sayyid aṭ-Ṭanṭāwī, Banū Isrā’īl fī ’l-Qur’ān wa’s-Sunnah, p. 79.
[19] De Lacy O'Leary is referring to the Aws and the Khazraj and other Arab tribes living in and around Madinah.
[20] Arabia Before Mohammad, p. 174.
[21] Dr. Muhammad Sayyid aṭ-Ṭanṭāwī, Banū Isrā’īl fī ’l-Qur’ān wa’s-Sunnah pp. 73-101.
[22] Dr. Israel Wellphenson; Tārīkh al-Yahūd fī Bilād al-‘Arab fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa Ṣadr al-Islām, p. 72.
[23] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, p. 514.
[24] Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Kitāb al-Jihād, vol. II.
[25] Makkah wa ’l-Madinah fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa ’Ahd Ar-Rasūl, p. 311. [Aḥmad Ibrāhīm ash-Sharīf]
[26] Makkah wa ’l-Madinah fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa ’Ahd Ar-Rasūl, p. 311. [Aḥmad Ibrāhīm ash-Sharīf]
[27] Al-Imtā‘, Taqī ad-Dīn Abī Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī vol. I, p. 364.
[28] Makkah wa ’l-Madinah, p. 322.
[29] Makkah wa ’l-Madinah, p. 322–323. Fatḥ al-Bārī, vol. 7, VII, p. 85. See Ibn Kathīr for a detailed account of the battle of Bu‘āth.
[30] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, pp. 555–56.
[31] Tārīkh al-Yahūd fī Bilād al-‘Arab fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa Ṣadr al-Islām, Dr Israel Wellphenson p. 116.
[32] As-Samhūdī, Wafā’ al-Wafā’ fī Akhbār Dār al-Muṣṭafā, vol. I, p. 116.
[33] An abbreviation of Bel ha-Midras, signifying house of study or the place where students of the law gathered to listen to Midrash. Used in contradiction to the Bel ha-Sefer, i.e., the primary school attended by children under the age of thirteen to learn the scripture, it goes without saying that the Jews of Madīnah had higher institutions of learning (Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. II, art Bel ha-Midras).
[34] Tārīkh al-Yahūd fī Bilād al-‘Arab fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa Ṣadr al-Islām, pp.116–117
[35] Qur’ān 59:7.
[36] Qur’ān 59:14.
[37] Al-Maghānim al-Maṭābah fī Ma‘ālim aṭ-Ṭābah, pp. 108–114.
[38] Dr. Muhammad Husayn Haikal. Manzil al-Waḥy. p. 557.
[39] Maḥmūd Shukrī al-Ālūsī, Bulūgh al-Arab fī Ma‘rifat Aḥwāl al-‘Arab, vol. I, p. 346 and vol. II, p. 208.
[40] Lit. “At Thy Service.”
[41] A few more traditions have been related by other Companions on this connection.
[42] Qur’ān 2:158.
[43] Bulūgh al-Arab.
[44] Bukhārī and Muslim.
[45] Ibn Hishām, vol. I, p. 625.
[46] Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir Fatnī writes in Majma‘ al-Bihār that the Arabs did not consider cultivation to be an occupation befitting a man of noble descent. Abū Jahl meant that if anybody other than the sons of ‘Afrā’, who was a farmer, had killed him he would not have felt ashamed (vol. I, p. 68).
[47] The date-palm groves of Madīnah grew into thick clusters spreading out extensively. A tradition mentions that Abū Ṭalḥah was one of the Anṣār who possessed a grove so thickly clustered that if a small bird got into his grove, it found it difficult to come out of it. Once, when he was offering prayers, his eyes happened to meet a sparrow that was fluttering to get out. He was so fascinated that his thoughts turned away from the prayer for a moment. He felt so oppressed by his momentary inattentiveness to the prayers that he gave away that grove called Birḥa‘ in the way of God. Related by Imām Mālik in his Muwaṭṭa.
[48] See Qur’ān 13:4.
[49] See Bukhārī: Kitāb al-‘Ilm and its commentaries by Ibn Ḥajar and ‘Aynī.
[50] Arab authors list an enormous vocabulary for dates, which is an indication of the importance it held for the Arabs, in general, and for the people of Madīnah in particular. Adab al-Kātib by Ibn Qutaybah, Fiqh al-Lughah by Tha‘ālibī, and al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ by Ibn Sīdah should be seen in this connection. There are also treatises written on dates by other authors.
[51] The device used was to incise ovules for injecting pollen.
[52] Tārīkh al-Yahūd fī Bilād al-‘Arab fī ’l-Jāhiliyyah wa Ṣadr al-Islām, p. 128.
[53] Bukhārī: Kitāb al-Maghāzī—Ka‘b ibn Mālik says that after he had endured much harshness from the people, he walked off and climbed over the wall of Abū Qatādah's orchard (Ḥā’iṭ), who was his paternal uncle.
[54] See the tradition related by Abū Hurayrah in which he mentions channels and spades for digging them (Muslim).
[55] See the chapter dealing with cultivation and farmers in the Ṣiḥāḥ.
[56] The sale of fruit from the palm trees for a specified number of dates.
[57] The sale of a harvest before it was reaped for a specified measure of the same grain.
[58] Renting land for a third or a quarter of the produce on the condition that the owner of the land provides the seed. It was called muzāra‘ah if the cultivator supplied the seed, but certain lexicographers consider the two to be synonyms (See Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim by an-Nawawī).
[59] Selling of harvest two or three years ahead.
[60] For this reason, the Prophet said, “The measures of weight are with the people of Makkah, while the measures of volume are known by the people of Madinah”, related by Abū Dāwūd and an-Nisā’ī.
[61] For details, see the books on tradition and At-Tarātīb al-Idāriyyah by ‘Abd al-Ḥayy al-Kattānī, vol. I, pp. 413–15.
[62] The word used in Arabic is darmak, which stands for fine, soft powder of wheat meal.
[63] Known as sāfata, they were Nabataean merchants as stated by Muḥammad Ṭāhir Patnī. (Majma‘ al-Bihār, vol. III, p. 140).
[64] See Tirmidhī: commentary on 4:107 of the Qur’ān.
[65] Mu‘jam al-Buldān, Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī, and Wafā’ al-Wafā by as-Samhūdī.
[66] In a tradition related by ‘Ā’ishah, recorded in Bukhārī and Muslim, the word used for the curtain is qirām, which, according to Muhammad Ṭāhir Patnī, was fine multi-coloured wool fabric or a cloth with decorative designs hung as a screen in the bridal chamber (Majma‘ Biḥār al-Anwār, Hyderabad, vol. IV, p. 258).
[67] At-Tarātīb al-Idāriyyah, by ‘Allāmah ‘Abdul Ḥayy al-Kattānī vol I. p. 97.
[68] For details, see the chapters dealing with business transactions in the books on traditions and Fiqh, which explain the legality or otherwise of the different forms of these transactions. Also see Majma‘ Biḥār al-Anwār.
[69] See the traditions relating to the arrival of the Prophet in Madīnah and his stay in the ground floor of Abū Ayyūb Anṣārī’s house.
[70] At-Tarātīb al-Idāriyyah. vol I. p. 97.
[71] Ibid., p. 104.
[72] Relating the event of Ifk, contained in the Kitāb al-Maghāzī of Bukhārī, ‘Ā’ishah has used the word jiz‘ for the necklace lost by her. The word stands for precious stones of white and black colour found at Ẓifār in Yemen.
[73] Qur’ān 8:63.
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