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The Emigration of ՙUtba B. Abīwaqqāṣ From Mecca To Medina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Michael Lecker
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Extract

This short article deals with the emigration of ՙUtba b. Abī Waqqāṣ (or ՙUtba b. Mālik), a member of the Quraysh subdivision named Banū Zuhra, from Mecca to Medina, which occurred several years before the Hijra of the Prophet Muḥammad and his Companions. ՙUtba's famous brother, Saՙd b. Abī Waqqāṣ, belonged to the inner circle of Companions surrounding the Prophet Muḥammad from early on in his career. ՙUtba, by contrast, fought against the Prophet at Uՙud and probably died a pagan.

Type
Notes and Communications
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1996

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References

1 I briefly discussed this issue in my doctoral thesis, ‘On the Prophet Muḥammad's activity Medina’, Jerusalem, 1982, 33. However, I wrongly identified ՙUtba's court in Qubā' (see below) with the court which he may have owned in the Balāṭ, i.e., in the Sāfila of Medina.

2 On ՙUtba's role during the Battle of Uḥud see e.g. al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, ed. Jones, Marsden (London, 1966), I, 243245, 248Google Scholar. See also al-Kalbī, Ibn, Jamharat al-nasab, ed. Ḣasan, Nājī (Beirut, 1407/1986), 77Google Scholar: ՙUtba's son, Nāfiՙ, and ՙUtba himself, fought at Uḥud with the unbelievers, then Nāfiՙ converted to Islam. According to Qudāma, Ibn, al-Tabyīn fī ansāb al-Qurashiyyīn, ed. al-Dulaymī, Muḥammad Nāyif (Beirut, 1408/1988), 291Google Scholar, Nāfiՙ embraced Islam upon the conquest of Mecca. For the dispute about ՙUtba's Companion-status, see al-Fāsī, al-ՙIqd al-thamīm fī ta՚rīkh al-balad al-amīn, ed. Sayyid, Fu՚ād (Cairo, 1378/1958–1388/1969), VI, 12Google Scholar; al-ՙAsqalãnī, Ibn Hajar, al-Iṣāba fī tamyt¯z al-ṣaḥāba, ed. al-Bijāwī, ՙAlī Muḥammad (Cairo, 1392/1972), v, 259260Google Scholar. Ibn Qudāma, Tabyīn, 289, quotes from al-Zubayr b. Bakkār an unequivocal statement, probably originating with family circles, that ՙUtba converted to Islam: aslama ՙUtba wa-māta fī ՙl-islām wa-awṣā ilā akhīhi Saՙd, ‘ՙUtba embraced Islam, died in the Islamic era, and appointed his brother, Saՙd, as his trustee’, viz., regarding a child born to ՙUtba by the slavegirl of another man. In the margin of one of the Tabyīn manuscripts, a scribe, having compared this phrase with the relevant passage in al-Zubayr b. Bakkār's Jamharat nasab Quraysh (see below), implies that Ibn Qudāma altered a neutral statement made by al-Zubayr, i.e., māta ՙUtba fī ՙl-islām, into aslama ՙUtba wa-māta fī ՙl-islām. However, it seems more likely that Ibn Qudāma quoted a statement made by al-Zubayr b. Bakkār elsewhere. For another example of a family claim, see al-Balādhurī, Ansāb al-ashrāf, MS Süleymanie Kütüphanesi (Reisülküttap Mustafa Efendi), 597/598, 828: having quoted the claim that ՙUtba died shortly after the Battle of Uḥud as a result of the Prophet's curse, al-Balādhurī quotes a counterclaim to the effect that ՙUtba converted to Islam upon the conquest of Mecca: wa-qāla qawm: aslama fī ՙl-fath wa-māta baՙda ՚l-fatḥ. Al-Balādhurī, who prefers the former claim, remarks: wa-mawtuhu qabla ՚l-fatḥ athbatu. (Indeed, the ḥadīth immediately following in al-Balādhurī suggests that ՙUtba died prior to the conquest of Mecca.) The existence of the counterclaim, presumably going back to a family tradition, is nevertheless noteworthy. The same family circles may have been behind the listing of ՙUtba's daughter, Umm Ḣakīm, among the women who emigrated from Mecca to Medina, the Muhājirāt; Ibn ՙAbd al-Barr, al-Istīՙāb fī maՙrifat al-aṣḥāb, ed. ՙAlī Muḥammad al-Bijāwī (Cairo n.d.), IV, 1933.

3 Kister, M. J., ’On strangers and allies in Mecca’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 13, 1990, 113154, at 142–3Google Scholar. Also, Wellhausen, J., Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, IV (Berlin, 1889), 3233Google Scholar.

4 I could not find any details on him. Perhaps he was the son of al-Mundhir [b. Muḥammad b. ՙUqba] b. Uḥayḥa b. al-Julāḥ. The latter fought at Badr; see al-Wāqidī, I, 160 (the remark which then follows, wa-laysa lahu ՙaqib, does not mean that he never begot a son, but that ‘there was no male offspring remaining to him’; see Lane, E. W., Arabic-English lexicon (London, 18631893)Google Scholar, s.v., ՙaqib, 2101b); Saՙd, Ibn, al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā (Beirut 1380/1960–1388/1968), III, 473Google Scholar; Qudāma, Ibn, al-Istibṣār fī nasab al-ṣaḥāba min al-anṣār, ed. Nuwayhid, ՙAlī (Beirut, 1392/1972), 315Google Scholar. For an indirect family link between Uḥayḥa b. al-Julāḥ and the Prophet, see Lecker, M., ‘A note on early marriage links between Qurashīs and Jewish women’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 10, 1987, 1739, at 28Google Scholar.

5 Habīb, Ibn, Kitāb al-munammaq fī akhbār Quraysh, ed. Fāriq, Khūrshīd Ahmad (Beirut, 1405/1985), 268Google Scholar. On Bi'r Ghars see the geographical dictionaries of Yāqūt, (Muՙjam al-buldān, Beirut, 1957Google Scholar) and al-Bakrī, (Muՙjam mā staՙjama, ed. al-Saqqā, Muṣṭafā, Cairo, 1364/1945–1371/1951)Google Scholar, s.v. Ghars; al-Samhūdī, , Wafā' al-wafā bi-akhbār dār al-muṣṭafā, ed. al-Hamīd, Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ՙAbd, (Cairo, 1374/1955; repr. Beirut), III, 978981Google Scholar and al-Fīrūzābādī, al-Maghānim al-muṭāba fī maՙālim Ṭāba (Riyād, 1389/1969), 46–7 (where the well is called Ghurs, al-Aghras and Ghars); also Ibn Shabba, Ta՚rīkh al-Madīna al-munawwara, ed. Fahīm Muḥammad Shaltūt [Mecca, 1399/1979], I, 161–2 (al-Aghras, al-Ghars). On the territory of the Banū Jaḥjabā see Lecker, M., ‘On the markets of Medina (Yathrib) in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 8, 1986, 133147, at 134–6Google Scholar; Lecker, M., Muslims, Jews and Pagans: studies on early Islamic Medina, Leiden 1995 (forthcoming), ch. iiiGoogle Scholar. There is yet another indication of a link between ՙUtba and the Banū ՙAmr b. ՙAwf, in whose midst he settled: ՙUtba's daughter, Umm Kulthūm, married Sahl b. Hunayf of the ՙAmr b. ՙAwf (more precisely, of the Ḣanash subdivision). She bore him a son, Saՙd. If indeed Sahl's kunya was Abū Saՙd (there are at least four more versions concerning his kunya; Ibn Saՙd, III, 471; Ibn Qudāma, Istibṣār, 320–21), this may suggest that Sahl married her before the Hijra.

6 Ibn Saՙd III, 139.

7 Al-Wāqidī, index, s.v. Abū Bakr b. Ismāՙīl b. Muhammad.

8 See an entry on his father, Ismāՙīl, in Ibn Ḣajar al-ՙAsqalānī, Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb (Hyderabad, 1325), I, 329. One of Ismāՙīl's students was the famous al-Zuhrī.

9 See also al-Zubayrī, Muṣՙab b. ՙAbdallāh, Kitāb nasab Quraysh, ed. Levi-Provençal, E. (Cairo, 1953), 263Google Scholar: kāna aṣāba dimā'an (read: daman) fī Quraysh fa- ՚ntaqala ilā ՚l-Madīna qabla ՚l-hijra, fa- ՙttakhadha bihā manzilan wa-mālan, ‘he shed the blood of a man from the Quraysh, migrated to Medina before the Hijra and acquired in it a house and an orchard’. In Medinan usage, māl means cultivated land: fa-inna ahla ՙl-Madīna yusammūna ՚l-arḍīna amwālan; Sallām, Abū ՙUbayd al-Qāsim b., Kitāb al-Amwāl, ed. Harrās, Muḥammad Khalīl (Cairo, 1396/1976), 506, no. 113Google Scholar. See also al-Zubayr b. Bakkār, Jamharat nasab Quraysh, MS Bodley, Marsh 384, 93b, 1. 17: kāna aṣāba daman fī Quraysh fa- ՚ntaqala ilā ՚l-Madīna qabla ՚l-hijra wa- ՚ttakhadha bihā manzilan wa-mālan.

10 Al-Zubayr b. Bakkār, loc. cit. The passage is quoted in al-Fāsī, al-ՙIqd al-thamīn, VI, 13 (where fa-qutila bi-Buՙāth should be replaced by taqtatilu bi-Buՙdth).

11 See also the order of events according to a completely independent report dealing with the Aws attempt to make an alliance with the Quraysh (cf. above, n. 3). A few young men of the ՙAbd al-Ashhal (an Aws subdivision) came to Mecca, seeking to form an alliance with the Quraysh against the Khazraj (yaltamisūna ՚l-ḥilfa min Quraysh ՙalā qawmihim mina ՚l-Khazraj, ‘… against their own people, more specifically, against the Khazraj’). On that occasion they allegedly met the Prophet. Then they returned to Medina and the Battle of Buՙāth between the Aws and Khazraj took place; Hishām, Ibn, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, ed. al-Saqqā, al-Abyārī and Shalabī, (Beirut, 1391/1971), II, 69Google Scholar.