Studies on the Life of Muhammad and the Dawn of Islam : Idol Worshippers, Christians and Jews in Pre- and Early Islam

This volume includes 20 articles published between 1994 and 2020 on the subject of Muḥammad and the history of early Islam, covered in five sections: Arabia on the Eve of Islam, Muḥammad at Medina, Muḥammad and the Jews, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and the sīra and studies on early Islamic literature. The book focuses on a variety of historical questions, from the presumed Ghassanid/Byzantine involvement in the hijra to Muḥammad’s treaties with the main Jewish tribes of Yathrib/Medina. Predilection for detail, especially in the realms of genealogy and geography, is a salient characteristic of Lecker’s research, which in recent years has been increasingly based on digitized text repositories. Many of the articles deal with the social and economic environment of early Islam, which is vital for the study of Muḥammad’s biography. They are conceived of as building blocks in a future critical biography of the Arabian prophet. Studies on the Life of Muhammad and the Dawn of Islam will appeal to thos Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 12 Preface 13 Abbreviations 14 Part 1 Arabia on the eve of Islam 16 1 Pre-Islamic Arabia 18 Tribal historiography 18 The nomadic and settled populations 21 Idol worship 24 Foreign powers 27 Mecca: trade and agriculture 28 Medina: a precarious balance 30 2 The monotheistic cousins of Muḥammad’s wife Khadīja 32 Khadīja’s Christian cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal 33 ʿUthmān ibn al-Ḥuwayrith and the Byzantine connection 35 The Jewish mother of Khadīja’s cousin Tuwayt ibn Ḥabīb 43 Conclusions 47 Part 2 Muḥammad at Medina 50 3 Were the Ghassānids and the Byzantines behind Muḥammad’s hijra? 52 The goal of the Khazraj in the Battle of Buʿāth (ca. 617) 52 The dominant role of the Khazraj at the ʿAqaba meeting (June 622) 54 The links between the Khazraj and Ghassān 60 Ghassān in the umma agreement (ca. 623 C.E.) 63 Were the Ghassānids and the Byzantines behind Muḥammad’s hijra? 65 4 Genealogy and politics: Muḥammad’s family links with the Khazraj 68 The mother of Muḥammad’s paternal great-uncles Ṣayfī and Abū Ṣayfī 69 Salmā, the mother of Muḥammad’s grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib 72 Sawda, the daughter of Salmā’s niece, marries Muḥammad shortly before the hijra 74 5 The emigration of ʿUtba ibn Abī Waqqāṣ 82 6 Did the Quraysh conclude a treaty with the Anṣār prior to the hijra? 86 Part 3 Muḥammad and the Jews 98 7 Abū Mālik ʿAbdallāh b. Sām of Kinda, a Jewish convert to Islam 100 8 Were the Jewish tribes in Arabia clients of Arab tribes? 103 The Jews of Medina on the eve of the hijra 104 The aftermath of the Fiṭyawn affair 105 The battle of Ḥusayka 108 Anti-Anṣārī polemics 109 The nomad’s share in the annual crop 111 The kayla of Abū Barāʾ 111 The jaʿāla of Fadak 112 The ṭuʿma or ukl of Wādī l-Qurā 114 ʿUyayna’s itāwa 116 9 Did Muḥammad conclude treaties with the Jewish tribes Naḍīr, Qurayẓa and Qaynuqāʿ? 118 10 The assassination of the Jewish merchant Ibn Sunayna according to an authentic family account 128 The mawlā of the Banū Ḥāritha 130 Muḥayṣṣa’s daughter 132 Muḥayṣṣa 133 An alternative setting for the brothers’ conversation 134 Wāqidī’s combined report about Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf 135 Muḥayṣṣa’s alleged role in the surrender of Fadak 135 11 Were there female relatives of the prophet Muḥammad among the besieged Qurayẓa? 141 Sukhayla and ʿĀtika 146 12 Wāqidī (d. 822) vs. Zuhrī (d. 742): the fate of the Jewish Banū Abī l-Ḥuqayq 151 Wāqidī’s account about Khaybar 151 Wāqidī’s combined report 154 Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī’s account 156 Part 4 Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and the sīra 168 13 Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ṣāḥib al-sīra/ṣāḥib al-maghāzī 170 14 Muḥammad b. Isḥāq ṣāḥib al-maghāzī: was his grandfather Jewish? 174 The synagogue at Nuqayra 174 Ḥumrān ibn Abān, formerly known as Ṭuwayd ibn Abbā 179 The great-grandfather Khiyār/Kūthān 180 The walāʾ link with Qays ibn Makhrama and the Jewish connection 181 Conclusions 182 15 When did Ibn Isḥāq compose his maghāzī? 184 Ibn Saʿd’s account of the course of Ibn Isḥāq’s life 185 Ibn Isḥāq’s “undoings” 187 The role of the Abbasid court 190 16 Notes about censorship and self-censorship in the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad 197 The two who disobeyed Muḥammad 197 Muḥammad and the holy man 203 The harlot from Yathrib and her jinnī 205 Part 5 Studies on early Islamic literature 222 17 The Jewish reaction to the Islamic conquests 224 Early Jewish converts to Islam 224 The trials and tribulations of the Conquests 225 Competition and urbanization 229 Assistance to the conquest army put in context 230 Religious edifices 232 Leaders and state officials 233 18 Wa-bi-Rādhān mā bi-Rādhān . . .: the landed property of ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd 235 wa-bi-Rādhān mā bi-Rādhān 236 Ibn Masʿūd’s four courts, two in Kūfa and two in Medina 239 An estate in the Saylaḥ īn district “on the way to Qādisiyya” 240 Al-Nahrayn and al-Saylaḥ īn 244 Conclusions 247 19 On the burial of martyrs in Islam 248 Isrāʾīliyyāt : the Ṣiffīn disaster was unavoidable 248 The merits of death on the way to the battlefield or on enemy territory 250 The martyr’s grave as a landmark 251 Burial in a lush meadow on enemy soil 255 Resurrection from the bellies of birds and beasts of prey 256 20 The Futūḥ al-Shām of ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b.Rabīʿa al-Qudāmī 258 Index 264 History;,the,Life,of,Muhammad;,History,of,the,Middle,East;,Religious,History;,History,of,Islam History,the Life of Muhammad,History of the Middle East,Religious History,History of Islam