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200 Pages·1995·9.39 MB·English
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Muslims, Jews & Pagans Studies on Early Islamic Medina by Michael Lecker jlil E.J.BRILL Muslims, Jews and Pagans examines in much detail the available source material on the cAliya area south of Medina on the eve of Islam and at the time of the Prophet Muham­ mad. It provides part of the necessary back­ ground for the study of the Prophet’s history by utilizing in addition to the Prophet’s biographies, various texts about the history, geography and inhabitants of this area. The topics include the landscape, especially the fortifications, the delayed conversion to Islam of part of the Aws tribe, the Quba3 vil­ lage and the incident of Masjid al-Dirar in 9 ah. The three appendices deal with histori­ cal apologetics, pointing to the social context in which the Prophet's biography emerged during the first Islamic century. Michael Lecker, Ph. D. (1983) in Arabic, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Arabic of the Hebrew University. He has published exten­ sively on the Prophet Muhammad's biography and the Arabian Jewry in early Islam. MUSLIMS, JEWS AND PAGANS ISLAMIC HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION STUDIES AND TEXTS EDITED BY ULRICH HAARMANN VOLUME 13 MUSLIMS, JEWS AND PAGANS Studies on Early Islamic Medina BY MICHAEL LECKER ' > 6 8 "!> ' E.J. BRILL LEIDEN • NEW YORK • KOLN 1995 The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. This book was produced using LATEX software. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lecker, Michael. Muslims, Jews, and pagans : studies on early Islamic Medina / by Michael Lecker. p. cm. — (Islamic history and civilization. Studies and texts, ISSN 0929-2403 : v. 13) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 9004102477 (alk. paper) 1. Medina (Saudi Arabia)— History. 2. Islam— Saudi Arabia- -Medina— History. I. Title. II. Series. DS248.M5L43 ' 1995 953.8— dc20 95-9833 CIP Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Lecker, Michael: Muslims, jews, and pagans : studies on early Islamic Medina / by Michael Lecker. - Leiden ; New York ; Koln : Brill, 1995 (Islamic history and civilization ; Vol. 13) ISBiN 90-04-10247-7 NE: GT ISSN 0929-2403 ISBN 90 04 10247 7 © Copyright 1995 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by E.J. Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers A1A 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERIANDS Contents Preface............................................................................................... vii Introduction..................................................................................... ix 1 The ‘Aliya: orchards and fortresses..................................... 1 2 The Aws Allah clans................................................................. 19 3 Quba’: Muslims, Jews and pagans....................................... 50 4 The Dirar Mosque (9 A.H.).................................................... 74 Concluding remarks........................................................................147 Appendices.......................................................................................150 A Mujammi' b. Jariya and the Dirar Mosque.................150 B The image problem of Abu Qays b. al-Aslat.............154 C Abu Qays nearly embraces Islam.................................156 Bibliography.....................................................................................165 Index..................................................................................................171 PREFACE This study is an analysis of the evidence on Upper Medina (al- ‘ Aliya in Arabic) and its inhabitants on the eve of the Islamic era and during the early days of Islam. The conclusions reached in it should be considered part of the preparatory work which I believe ought to precede the writing of a comprehensive narrative life of the Prophet Muhammad. Because of the present state of our knowledge of the Prophet’s history and the immense difficulty of interpreting the Arabic sources in their correct context, the extant biographies of Muhammad are quite inadequate and often include uncritical and arbitrary statements. The book is dedicated with deep gratitude to Prof. M.J. Kister on the occasion of his 80th birthday. I am also indebted to Prof. Michael Cook for his encouragement and careful reading of the full draft, and to Prof. Uri Rubin for commenting on the first chapter. Prof. Frank Stewart read the first three chapters and made many suggestions, much improving the final product. In addition, my thanks are due to the Mutual Fund of the Hebrew University for providing me with a research grant; also to Mr. Shmuel Shemesh of the Hebrew University and to Mr. Abe Alper of the Friends of the Hebrew University (New York) for their help. I wish to thank the Turkish Government and the Siileymaniye Library, and in particular its director, Mr. Muammer Ulker, for permission to work there. I am also grateful to Prof. William Brinner and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Rollig for their help in Berkeley and Tubingen, respectively. The librarians at the Oriental Read­ ing Room of the National and University Library at Givat Ram, Jerusalem, made my work there both pleasant and efficient. I am indebted to Ms. Roza I.M. El-Eini for polishing my English style and to Mr. D. Lensky for producing the camera-ready copy. The preparation of this book for publication was supported by a grant from Yad Avi Ha-Yishuv. I thank them all warmly. VIII PREFACE A note on conventions: I have used the name Medina even when referring to the pre-Islamic period (during which it was called Yathrib). The word “Banu” (“the sons of’) preceding the name of a tribe is either contracted to “B.” or omitted. INTRODUCTION Scholars of Islam have in recent years grown accustomed to a constant flow of Arabic texts which were hitherto only available in manuscript form.1 For example, Ibn al-Kalbl’s Jamharat al- nasab, which until lately had been available solely in manuscript form, appeared almost simultaneously in three different editions (one being incomplete).2 Of great importance is the recent pub­ lication of a facsimile of Ibn ‘Asakir’s TaWikh madinat Dimashq and of the extant parts of Ibn al-'Adlm’s Bughyat al-talab ft ta'rikh Halab. These books preserve many records copied from earlier compilations, now lost, which can no doubt change the form of scholarship in a number of key areas, above all in those of Umayyad history and the history of Palestine under the Muslims.3 Mention should be made of the recent publication in Cairo of Muqatil b. Sulayman’s Tafsir.4 Some of Muqatil’s unique texts 1 Alas, some editions of Arabic texts are “printed manuscripts” rather than scientific editions; G. MakdisI, “Hanbalite Islam”, in M.L. Swartz (trans. and ed.), Studies on Islam, New York-Oxford 1981, 216-74, at 218. It is of course immeasurably better to have a bad edition than no edition at all. 2 Ed. NajI Hasan, Beirut 1407/1986; ed Mahmud al-‘Azm, Damascus 1406/ 1986. The third (Jamharat al-nasab wa-mukhtasar al-jamhara u>a-hawashihi, ed. ‘Abd al-Sattar Ahmad Farraj, I, Kuwayt 1403/1983), was not completed due to the premature death of the editor. In R. Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-1shmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis, New York 1990, 179, n. 1 and 247, the book’s title is wrongly quoted as Ghamarat an-Nasab and translated as “The Abundance of Kinship”. 3 For two recent studies which make extensive use of the former source (though from rather different points of departure), see S. Leder, “Materialien zum Ta’rTh des Haitam ibn ‘Adi bei Abu Sulaiman Ibn Zabr ar-Raba‘i”, in ZDMG 144 (1994), 14-27; M. Lecker, “The Futuh al-Sham of ‘Abdallah b. Muhammad b. Rabfa al-Qudaml”, in BSOAS 57 (1994), 356-60. Cf. the convincing case for Ibn ‘Asakir presented by G. Conrad, “Zur Bedeutung des Tarlh Madinat Dimasq als historische Quelle”, in W. Diem and A. Falaturi (eds.), XXIV. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Koln 1988, Stuttgart 1990 (ZDMG Supplement VIII), 271-82. 4 Ed. ‘Abdallah Mahmud Shihata, al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma li-1- Kitab, 1980-87. The edition was quickly withdrawn from the shelves of Cairo

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This text examines the available source material on the `Uliya area south of Medina on the eve of Islam and at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. It provides some of the necessary background for the study of the Prophet's history by utilizing, in addition to the Prophet's biographies, various texts a
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