Muslims in Mecca

Origin of the words Islam and Muslim

Ibn Ishaq, one of the earliest historians of the events that are related to the advent of Islam, calls this religion ‘Islam’ (Islām اِسلام).¹  The Qur’an also uses the word ‘Islam’ to describe it.²  Qur’an doesn’t use its derivative ‘Muslim’ but uses its pleural Muslimīn and Muslimūn. The Earliest datable use of the term Islam by Muslims themselves is the inscription on the Dome of Rock.³

The origins of the name Islam and its derivative Muslim are obscure. Qur’an uses world aslamah to describe the sacrifice of Ibrahim (Ibrāhīm اِبراهِيم). ⁴  It gives a hint to Watt, an English historian, that Islam would have been a derivative of aslama and would have meant ‘resignation or submission to Allah’.⁵  Prophet Muhammad himself is reported to have said that the religion he took to Medina was the Hanifiyah (Ḥanīfīyah حَنِيفِيَه).⁶  Similarly, Muhammad bin Maslamah, an early Muslim from Medina, calls Islam Hanifiyah at the time of dispute with Banu Nadir (Banū Naḍīr نَضيِر). ⁷  One poem attributed to Hassan bin Thabit (Ḥassān bin Thābit حَسّان بِن ثابِت), the poet laureate of the Prophet, at the time of the conquest of Mecca is:

You have lampooned the pure blessed Ḥanīf
Allah’s trusted one whose nature is loyalty.⁸

This means the word Hanifiyah has been being used interchangeably with the word Islam for a while.  Actually, a Christian writer by name of Abu Ṣālih, writing about Egyptian Christians in the thirteenth century CE mentions Muslims in these words: ‘The Hanifite nation appeared and humbled the Romans. ⁹  So, Islam and Hanifiyah were synonymous up to the thirteenth century CE.

By the way, the first mention of Muslims as a community in a non-Islamic source is in a papyrus of the Greek language calculated to be written around 642 CE.  Here they are called Magaritai.¹⁰  In another document of slightly later date (around 644 CE), written in Syriac, they are referred to as Mahghre or Mahgrayry. ¹¹  To Crone, a Danish historian, it appears that these words are derived from the Arabic ‘Muhājirūn’. ¹²

Prophet Muhammad as a historic person

In 1930 Liutsian I. Klimovich, a Russian scholar, suggested that Prophet Muhammad is not a real historic personality.  Rather he is a legend created by Middle Eastern writers of the mid-8^th and 9^th centuries. ¹³  He argued that the earliest known biographies and reports of Prophet Muhammad are from the mid-8^th century.  If Prophet Muhammad were a real person why any evidence of his existence is not available for more than a century after his death?

The British Library houses a number of manuscripts in its Oriental Manuscript Collection.  One of them is BL Add. Mss: 14,461.  This manuscript has 107 pages and contains Gospel according to Matthew and Gospel according to Mark. Somebody scribbled a few lines on its folio number 1 a.  Wright, who catalogued this manuscript, brought to attention that the distinctly legible writing on its folio number 1 a is a nearly contemporary notice of the taking of Damascus by the Arabs in 634 – 5 CE. ¹⁴  What Wright had missed out, and realized by later scholars, was that it was the earliest notice of Prophet Muhammad himself.  Here is the scribbled text.  The writing is very faint, and the reader has to add a few letters or words in between to make sense.  Such letters are written within {}, whereas the translator’s notes are written within [ ]. The English translation of the original Syriac reads:

In January {the people of} Ḥimṣ took the word for their lives and many
villages were ravaged by the killing of {the Arabs of} Mūḥmd [Muḥammad]

and many people were slain and {taken} prisoner from Galilee as far as Beth….
{…} and those Arabs pitched camp beside {Damascus?} {…} and we saw everywhe{re…} and o{l}oive oil which they brought and them.  On the

tw{enty-six}th of May the Saq{īlā}rā went {…} from the vicinity of Ḥimṣ
and the Romans chased them {…} On the tenth {of August} the Romans fled

from the vicinity of Damascus {and there were killed} many {people} some
ten thousand.  And at the turn {of the ye}ar the Romans came.  On the twentieth of August in the year n{ine hundred and forty-} seven there gathered in Gabitha {a multitude of} the Romans and

many people {of the R}omans were kil{led} {s}ome
fifty thousand. ¹⁵

There are certain observations to be made here.  The people of Ḥimṣ ‘took the word for their lives’ is an expression that they agreed to surrender in return for their lives.  Then there was a battle in Palestine with the ‘Arabs of Muhammad’ in which many villages were ruined and people from the region of Galilee and Beth [? Sacharya, Southwest of Jerusalem] were taken captive.  Then the Arabs laid siege to Damascus (as read by Noldeke:  T. Noldeke “Zur Geschichte Der Araber Im 1, Jahrh. d.H. Aus Syrischen Quellen’, Zeitschrift Der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 1876, Volume 29, P 76).  In May Saqilara had limited success in the beginning but apparently, he was unable to lift the siege. ¹⁶  The next battle took place in Gabitha, [a town to the north of river Yarmouk in the Golan massif].  The writing gives the date of the battle of Yarmouk as 20^th August 947 AG which is 20^th August 636 CE.  The keyword in this text is “we saw” which is written on line 13.  It means the writer was an eyewitness to the events that were noted and that he had penned them down on or immediately after 20^th August 636 CE.  According to Hoyland, an English historian, it was customary during those days to write down commemorative notes on the blank pages of the Gospel.¹⁷  If we take the date of death of Prophet Muhammad as June 8, 632, the above document was written just three years and three months after the death of Prophet Muhammad.

British library preserves another Syriac manuscript as well.  This is BL Add. Mss: 14,643.  This manuscript was first catalogued by Wright in 1870 and since then is giving frustration to scholars. ¹⁸  It contains so much incoherent material that it is difficult to make sense of any theme or year of its writing.  One entry in it is significant from point of view of the history of Islam.

In the year 945, indiction 7, on Friday, 4 February, [634 CE] at the ninth hour,
there was a battle between the Romans and the Ṭayyāye [Arabs] of Mḥmt [Muhammad] in Palestine twelve miles east of Gaza.  The Romans fled, leaving

hind the patrician Bryrdn, whom the Tayyāye killed.  Some 4000 poor villagers of Palestine were killed there, Christians, Jews and Samaritans.  The Ṭayyāye
ravaged the whole region. ¹⁹ 

This is the first explicit reference to Prophet Muhammad in a non-Muslim source, and its precise dating inspires confidence that it ultimately derives from first-hand knowledge.  The account is usually identified with the battle of Dathin, which Muslim sources say, took place near Gaza in the spring of 634 CE. ²⁰  If we agree that the above document was written on February 4, 634 CE, this is mention of Prophet Muhammad even earlier than the previous one, just one year and eight months after his death.

There is yet another document of non-Muslim origin.  Doctrina Jacobi (teaching of Jacob) is a Christian polemical dialogue written in Greek against the Jews.²¹  It is about hundred pages long document from an unknown author.  The background of the dialogue is Carthage in Africa.  The dialogue is between Jacob, a Jew who has been forced to convert to Christianity and other Jews whom Jacob wants to convert to Christianity.  The dialogue touches current political affairs of Byzantine Rome in light of recent Arab conquests. At one place it says, “When the Candidatus was killed by the Saracens, I was at Caesarea and I set off by boat to Sykamina.  People were saying ‘the Candidatus has been killed’, and we Jews were overjoyed. And they were saying that the prophet had appeared, coming with the Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the anointed one, the Christ who was to come.  I, having arrived at Sykamina, stopped by a certain old man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him; ‘what can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?’  He replied, groaning deeply: ‘he is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword.  Truly they are works of anarchy being committed today and I fear that the first Christ to come, whom Christians worship, was the one sent by God and we instead are preparing to receive the Antichrist.  Indeed, Isaiah said that the Jews would retain a perverted and hardened heart until all of the earth should be devastated.  But you go, master Abraham, and find out about the prophet who has appeared’.  So I, Abraham, inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men’s blood.  He says also that he has keys of paradise, which is incredible.” ²²  This is not a dated document but after the dialogue is over, one character is shown to leave Carthage on July 13^th, 634 CE.  This very date gives a clue to Hoyland that it was not written much after 634 CE. ²³  Nau gives it a little later date of 640 CE.²⁴  More recently Thummel has also agreed to the date of 634 CE.²⁵  If we recognize July 13, 634 CE as the date of writing of Doctrina Jacobi, this becomes one of the earliest mentions of Prophet Muhammad in non-Muslim sources.  Though Prophet Muhammad is not named, apparently it is he who was being talked about.

Society usually takes decades or sometimes centuries to create legends.  The mention of Prophet Muhammad within a few years of his death in so many historical sources generated by the people, who did not even accept him as a prophet, negates the idea that Prophet Muhammad was a legend.  He was a real person who lived and breathed on this earth.

Prophet Muhammad was of little consequence to the outside world until after his death, so we have no contemporary external sources to elucidate his life. ²⁶

Chronology of Early Islam

The Austrian National Library preserves a fascinating papyrus.  It is a receipt generated centuries ago in a small town of Upper Egypt, Ihnas (Haeracleopolis).  It ended up in Vienna where J. Von Karabacek and others catalogued it in 1894, giving it the name ‘PERF 558’.  When Grohmann examined it in 1923, he was amazed by his finding.  The scribblers of the receipt had written the date of the transaction in both the Hijrah calendar (Jumada 1, year 22) as well as in the Alexandrian calendar (30 Pharmouthi, 1^st indiction).²⁷  From this data one could easily calculate that Jumada 1, 22 AH was 25^th April 643 CE.²⁸  PERF 558 is the earliest document available after the advent of Islam that matches a date of the Hijrah calendar with any other calendar.

Caetani, an Italian historian, was the first scientist to develop a chart to convert a Hijrah Calendar date to Gregorian Calendar one. ²⁹  Freeman-Grenville has verified his work.³⁰  Using Caetani’s formulae the scholars have calculated the year of Immigration (hijrah) to be 622 CE.  Date of PERF 558 papyrus mentioned above, fits well with the conversion tables provided by Caetani.³¹

The Year of Immigration is undoubtedly determined to be 622 CE, the question remains on which date exactly the Prophet reached Quba.  Charts developed by Caetani and others work perfectly for the periods when the Hijrah calendar was being used practically.  However, they do not hold good for the period before the inauguration of the Hijrah calendar in 637 CE³²  They might be accurate up to the year but are not precise to the extent of date and day for the period before the inauguration of the Hijrah calendar.  The reason is simple.  We know pre-Islamic Arabs observed intercalary months and this practice was abolished by Prophet Muhammad at the time of pilgrimage (Hajj) at the end of the 10^th year after Immigration.  What we do not know is whether or not Muslims observed intercalary months during the ten years before the Pilgrimage of Farewell.  Therefore, it may be taken as certain that the first day of the year 11 AH corresponded to March 29, 632 CE.  Without intercalation, then, the beginning of the era of the Hijrah calendar would be straightforwardly on 16 July 622.³³  But if the Muslims observed intercalary months (presumably three) during the ten years before the Pilgrimage of Farewell, then calculating exact dates for those events is a daunting task.  The only event during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad that can be dated accurately is the funeral of his son Ibrahim (Ibrāhīm).  It is preserved in early Islamic sources that there was a solar eclipse at the time of the burial of the Prophet’s son Ibrahim.³⁴  Margoliouth calculates this date from astronomical records to be Jan 27, 632 from 7-9 AM.³⁵ This date simply gives us a clue that the Prophet was still alive on that date but doesn’t add anything to our knowledge of the first day of the Hijrah era.

Caetani takes a position that the statements in the early Islamic sources are made on the basis of orthodox Muslim reckoning, with no intercalation, since scholars writing in the second Islamic century would overlook intercalation or deliberately reject it.³⁶  This position is seconded by Amir.³⁷  According to Watt, orthodox reckoning also fits in best with a number of statements in the early Islamic sources.³⁸  This text also takes this presumption as correct and gives dates of events that occurred in Mecca and Medina accordingly.³⁹ Now, the problem of dating the events that happened before Immigration is even bigger.  No generally acceptable calendar was available at that time.  Further, as Guillaume observes, those events are reported by early Islamic sources as stories from the distant past.⁴⁰  Hence, only years can be guessed for those events, dates are impossible.

Caetani, who has performed a careful survey on early Islamic sources, concludes that early Muslim writers agree on four dates:

1: For three years Prophet Muhammad expounded his message secretly to close friends, and only at the end of that period he began to preach publically.

2: The emigration to Ethiopia took place in the fifth year of prophethood.

3: The boycott of the clan of Hashim began after the emigration to Ethiopia and lasted for two or three years.

4: Abu Ṭalib and Khadija died after the end of the boycott and three years before Immigration.

Taking the year of immigration, 622 CE, as a reference point, Caetani provisionally adopts the following scheme of dates:

610 CE: fist revelation

613 CE: the beginning of public preaching

614 CE: entry into the House of al-Arqam

615 CE: emigration to Ethiopia

616 CE: commencement of the boycott of Hashim

619 CE: end of boycott; deaths of Khadija and Abu Ṭalib; Journey to Taif

620 CE: first Medinan converts

621 CE: first pledge of Aqabah

622 CE: second pledge of Aqabah. ⁴¹

This scheme of events has worked as a template for later historians who arrange other events in relation to these dates.

Birth of Prophet Muhammad

Prophet Muhammad (Muḥammad مُحَمَّد) was born in Mecca to Abdullah bin Abdul Mutallib (‘Abd Allah bin ‘Abd al Muṭṭalib عَبد اللَّه بِن عَبدُ المُطَّلِب) of Hashim (Hāshim ها شِم) clan of Quraysh (قُريش) tribe.  Abdullah died at a comparatively early age in Medina during a trading expedition, apparently shortly before the birth of Prophet Muhammad.⁴²  The Prophet’s mother, Amina bint Wahb (Āminah bint Wahb آمِنه بِنت وَهَب), was of Zuhra clan of Quraysh.  This clan belonged to ‘Abd ad-Dār branch.  Prophet Muhammad’s maternal grandmother was from the Asad clan of Quraysh.⁴³  It was his paternal grandmother, Salma, who was not a Quraysh and was from the Najjār clan of the Khazraj tribe, resident of Medina.⁴⁴

The name Muhammad, though uncommon in Arabia at that time, was not unique.  We hear that Muhammad bin Khuza’i was the name of a person who was appointed governor over Mudar by Abraha after the War of the Elephant, before the birth of Prophet Muhammad. ⁴⁶  We also come across Muhammad bin Malsamah of Aws tribe, who was a contemporary of the Prophet and used to live in Medina before Immigration.  He converted and became a prominent Muslim.⁴⁷

In verses composed by Abu Talib (paternal uncle of the Prophet), he calls Prophet Muhammad by name of ‘Ahmad’ (Aḥmad اَحمَد).⁴⁸  As nobody else during his lifetime is reported to have called him by this name on his face and as Ahmad comes from the root of Muhammad, it can be assumed that Ahmad was his nickname and only elders of his family had the privilege to call him by this name. Qur’an calls him Ahmad in only one place.⁴⁹

Later Muslim writers called him Mustafa (Muṣṭafā مُصطَفىٌ). ⁵⁰  It might have been picked up from the very first public address he gave after Immigration to Medina.  In this sermon, he said, “The people He (Allah) chooses, He calls them Muṣṭafa.”⁵¹  Qur’an also calls him by this name once.⁵²  Apparently Mustafa is derived from yṣtafa.  Many other epithets of Prophet Muhammad, like Muzzammil, Muddathir, Khātim an-Nabiyin, Rahmatul lil Alameen, Siraj um Munīr, Khairul Bashar, etc. are derived from verses of the Qur’an. ⁵³

Scholars are still debating the year of the Prophet’s birth.  Early Islamic sources give the year of birth in the ‘year of the elephant’ (ām ul fīl) calendar, which starts from the year Abraha attacked central Arabia and the year from which the Quraysh started their calendar. ⁵⁵  Unfortunately, none of them agree with each other.  Ibn Ishaq gives the ‘year of an elephant’ as the year of the Prophet’s birth. ⁵⁶  This assertion has logically been rejected by scholars many times.  For example, al-Fasi, a 15th-century historian, makes a point that some traditions show Abdul Muttalib (Prophet’s paternal grandfather) got involved in the events of the year of the elephant, before his discovery of Zamzam, on which occasion, we are told, that only one of his sons had been born.  Since his son Abdullah, the father of the Prophet, was the youngest of his ten sons, this hardly gives time for the Prophet to be born in the year of the elephant.⁵⁷  Ibn al kalbi, a late Islamic source, states contradicting Ibn Ishaq, that Prophet Muhammad was born after twenty-three years of the year of the elephant. ⁵⁸  If we take the ‘year of an elephant’ to be 552 CE, Ibn Kalbi is talking about 575 CE.

Modern scholars, who try to calculate the year of the Prophet’s birth by taking the year of Immigration, 622 CE, as a reference point, reach too many different conclusions.  Caetani gives 575 CE as the birth year of the Prophet.⁵⁹  Mahmood Pasha al-Falaki, an Egyptian astronomer, calculates date of birth of Prophet Muhammad to be 20^th April 571 CE.⁶⁰  Montgomery Watt presents it to be 570 CE.⁶¹  In any case, the old saying is, great men are born in anonymity.

Childhood and youth of the Prophet

As Prophet Muhammad was a posthumous child, the responsibility of his nurturing went to his mother Amina and his grandfather Abdul Muttalib (‘Abd ul Muṭṭalib عَبد المُطَّلِب).  His wet nurse, who breast fed him for about two years, was Halima (Ḥalīmah bint abī Dhu’ayb حَلِيمَه بِنت اَبى ذُعَيب) of Sa’d bin Bakr clan of Hawazin (Hawāzin هوازِن).⁶²  She is sometimes referred to as Sa’dia (Sā’diah سَعدِ يَه) meaning pertaining to the Sa’d.  The clan of Sa’d had close relations with the Jews of Khaybar. ⁶³

He was only six when his mother died, and two years later his grandfather died. ⁶⁵  He was now under charge of his uncle Abdul Manaf bin Abdul Muttalib (‘Abd al Manāf bin ‘Abd al Muṭṭalib عَبد المَناف بِن عَبدَ المُطَّلِب ) commonly known as Abu Talib (Abū Ṭālib ابو طا لِب).⁶⁶  With him Prophet Muhammad is said to have made a journey to Syria.⁶⁷  It was this journey to Syria with Abu Talib during which they camped at Busra and met Bahira (Baḥīrā بَهِيرَىٌ), a Christian monk.⁶⁸, ⁶⁹, ⁷⁰

When fully grown, the Prophet is said to be a handsome man of medium height, fair in complexion, with black eyes and thick eyelashes, a high neck and a thick beard. ⁷¹  The first job done by the Prophet was to look after Abu Ṭalib’s sheep and camel at Ajyad near Mecca. ⁷³  It appears to be a lowly job by Arab standards from that time, but enough for an orphan who didn’t have a chance to educate himself or to learn any skills. ⁷⁴, ⁷⁵  The fact that the Prophet could not start any trading business of his own before his marriage can partly be explained by the premature death of his father, who either did not have enough capital or the Prophet did not inherit anything from him.  It is known that Abdul Muttalib, Prophet’s grandfather, was a propertied person.  One of his properties was a spring in Taif. ⁷⁶

Khadija (Khadījah bint Khuwaylid bin Asad خَدِ يجَه بِنت خُو يلِد بِنت اَسَد) of Asad clan of Quraysh was married twice and was a widow.  Her second husband was from Makhzum (Makhzūm مَخز وُم) clan of Quraysh.⁷⁸  She was a businesswoman and had her own capital.⁷⁹  It was she who employed young Prophet Muhammad to be an agent for her commercial venture to Syria.  She was immensely impressed by his honesty during his work, to the extent that she proposed marriage.  The Prophet discussed this proposal with his uncle Hamza (Ḥamzah bin ‘Abd al Muṭṭalib حَمزَه بِن عَبد المُطَّلِب), who went along with the Prophet to Khadija’s father to ask for her hand.⁸⁰, ⁸¹

After marriage, the Prophet shifted to the house of Khadija in Hizamiyah street, where she lived along with Hakim bin Hizam, her nephew, with a covered walkway and a garden, where there was a door leading to the house of ‘Awwām who had married an aunt of the Prophet. ⁸²

We do not hear of any trips to Syria after marriage.  The Prophet presumably had enough capital to take a moderate share in trading enterprises locally.⁸³  We do not know what did he sell but in a tradition, he is told to buy a bale of clothes for breeches.⁸⁴  In another tradition the Prophet used to buy goods wholesale and sell them retail in Medina.⁸⁵  The Prophet occasionally consented to act as an auctioneer.⁸⁶  Actually, the Prophet continued to work as a businessman in Mecca even after the start of his prophetic mission.⁸⁷

After his birth in Mecca, the Prophet was raised in the same town.  Even Halima did not take him to the neighbourhood of Khaybar, where her clan used to live.  Mecca was in the Nomadic Zone and maintained neutrality from the superpowers of the time.  Trade and commerce was the leading sector in Mecca.  The volume of trade can be guessed from the fact that during the first eighteen months after Immigration, Muslims attacked seven Meccan Caravans of international trade.⁸⁸  Income from Pilgrimage was only a fraction of what they earned from other activities.  Neutrality was probably necessary to maintain trade links with Ethiopia, Yemen and Byzantine Rome.  The predominant tribe inhabiting the town was Quraysh.  Those clans of Quraysh who wholeheartedly engaged themselves in trade were economically and politically more powerful than others.  As early Islamic sources record a lot of prominent men of Mecca from either Abd Shams (‘Abd al Shams عَبد الشَمس) or Makhzum clans of Quraysh, it is assumed that these two were the strongest clans in Mecca.⁸⁹  The Prophet’s clan, Hashim appears to be economically on the wane.⁹⁰  Four sons of Abdul Manaf (‘Abd Manāf عَبد المَناف ) originally got involved in developing trade at Mecca.  Abdul Shams went to Yemen, Nawfal to Persia, Muttalib (al-Muṭṭalib) to Ethiopia (Abyssinia), and Hashim to Syria.  Probably it was the premature death of Hashim in Gaza that decreased the relative importance and prosperity of his decedents.⁹¹  The story that Abdul Shams yielded to Hashim the rights of supplying food and water to the pilgrims because Hashim was less occupied in commercial journeys may have a foundation in fact.  With Abdul Muttalib, who was brought up by his mother in Medina and was brought to Mecca by his uncle Muttalib, the situation of the clan might have improved a bit.  He is shown to dig Zamzam and engage in negotiations with Abraha. ⁹²  Though Watt thinks that negotiations with Abraha should not have been on behalf of the whole Mecca rather than on behalf of a fraction of it.⁹³  But again, after the death of Abdul Muttalib we do not see either Zubayr bin Abdul Muttalib as the head of the clan or Abu Ṭalib bin Abdul Muttalib at the helm of any Meccan affair.⁹⁴  Even Hilf ul Fudul (Ḥilf ul Fuḍūl حِلف الفُضول) after the War of Fijar (Fijār فِجار), which was an alliance of weaker clans, with Hashim part of it, was created by the leading role of Abdullah bin Jud’an (‘Abdallah bin Jud’ān عَبدُ اللَّه بِن جُدعان) of Taym clan of Quraysh. ⁹⁵, ⁹⁶  The Prophet is said to be twenty years old at the time of the War of Fijar and is consistently reported to have participated in some events of the war. ⁹⁷  He was present at Hilf ul Fudul. ⁹⁸  War of Fijar was an important political event.  This was started by an unprovoked attack by an ally of the Quraysh on a caravan from Hirah (in Iraq) to Yemen by the way of Taif.⁹⁹  It was a comparatively big and protracted war that was fought between tribes of Hawazin and Thaqif (Thaqīf ثَقِيف) on the one hand and tribes of Quraysh and Kinanah (Kinānah كِنانه) on the other.¹⁰⁰  Asad bin Khuzaymah tribe was allied to the Quraysh in the War of Fijar.¹⁰¹  Sulaym and Amir bin Sa’sa’ah confederated with Hawazin-Thaqif axis.  This war is usually interpreted in economic terms. The Meccans were trying either to close the Taif route altogether or to ensure that they had some control over it.¹⁰²  As they were apparently successful in the war, they presumably attained their object.¹⁰³  As we know it was Abd Shams and Makhzum who owned property in Taif during the Prophet’s time in Mecca, it is assumed these were the clans who benefited most from the War of Fijar.  ¹⁰⁴   Hilf ul Fudul or confederation of virtuous (c. 580 CE), as Mas’ūdi puts it, originated in an attempt to help a Yamani to recover a debt from As bin Wa’il (‘Āṣ bin Wāil عاص بِن واءِل) of Sahm clan of Quraysh just after the War of Fijar.¹⁰⁵  Party to this agreement were the clans of Hashim, al-Muttalib, Asad, Zuhrah and Taym.¹⁰⁶  As the wealthy clans of Abd Shams and Makhzum were not part of Hilf ul Fudul, it is assumed that refusal of debt payment to the Yemeni was an attempt of these wealthy clans to exclude Yemenis from trade from Yemen to Mecca. ¹⁰⁷  Apparently they succeeded in it. ¹⁰⁸  Prophet Muhammad is widely reported to have participated in Hilf ul Fudul. ¹⁰⁹

While most of the political events of pre-Islamic Mecca can be explained on the basis of inter-clan rivalry, a unique individualism, as opposed to tribalism, was on a rise in Mecca.  It could be secondary to the advent of commercial capital in Mecca.  We find many occasions in Pre-Islamic Mecca where an individual dared to differ from his clan.  For example, when Uthman bin Huwayrith (‘Uthmān bin Ḥuwayrith عُثمان بِن حُوَيرِث ) converted to Christianity and entered into negotiations with Byzantine Rome or their agents with an aim to become ‘king’ of Mecca just after the War of Fijar, it was his own clan Asad that opposed him. ¹¹⁰  This kind of individualism could be on the rise in other parts of the peninsula as well.  We can deduce from the study of pre-Islamic poetry that a peculiar individualism, separate from tribal identity, was on a rise.  The pre-Islamic poets, while boasting glories of their tribe, did not miss any occasion to reflect upon their own share in that glory.

It was this milieu of inter-clan competition and individualistic endeavours in which Prophet Muhammad declared his prophethood.

The Beginning of Prophethood (ba’th بَعث)

According to Ibn Ishaq, The Prophet used to go for taḥannuth to Hira (Ḥirāʾ حِراء), a mountain cave near Mecca.  It was there, at the age of forty, when Prophet Muhammad received first revelation.  He got anxious but Khadija consoled him.  She took him to Waraqa bin Nawfal bin Asad, her cousin.  Waraqa, who had converted to Christianity said, this was nāmūs which was sent down to Mūsā bin ‘Imrān.¹¹¹, ¹¹², ¹¹³, ¹¹⁴  Waraqa bin Nawfil was an old blind man, and he died soon after.¹¹⁵, A question remains in mind why didn’t he convert to Islam if he could identify that Prophet Muhammad got an angel from God?

According to Ibn Ishaq, Prophet Muhammad lived in Mecca after revelation for thirteen years.¹¹⁶  Caetani calculates the year of first revelation from this data to be 610 CE.¹¹⁷  According to Ma’mar Prophet Muhammad lived in Mecca after revelation for fifteen years.¹¹⁸  Sean calculates the year of first revelation from this data to be 608 CE.¹¹⁹

Secretive preaching phase

From the very inception of Islam, Prophet Muhammad preached on two religious themes.  Unity of Allah and prophethood of Muhammad.  It was the second theme that was emphasized. ¹²⁰  Logically speaking, if any polytheist was going to believe in the unity of Allah, rejecting his deities, he would have to first believe that Muhammad is a prophet and that whatever he says is from Allah.

In the first few years, the Prophet preached secretly for safety reasons.¹²¹  Writing about the secretive phase of Islam, Ibn Ishaq tells that people began to accept Islam, both men and women, in large numbers until the fame of it spread throughout Mecca, and it began to be talked about. ¹²²  It means that preaching of Islam during this phase was not as secretive as the name suggests.  Apparently, during this phase, the prophet and his Companions invited only those people into Islam who were in their personal circle as opposed to preaching Islam to all and sundry or at public gatherings.

Despite the fact that everybody in Mecca knew about the new religion and talked about it, none of the early Islamic sources, including Ibn Ishaq and Ma’mar, records a single incidence of opposition to the new religion by the polytheists by that time.  The secretive phase was a peaceful coexistence of Muslims and polytheists in Mecca.

The sequence in which the earliest Muslims accepted Islam is difficult to be ascertained precisely.  Since nobility in the latter period of Islam depended theoretically upon service to the cause of the Islamic community, later Muslims made the most of their ancestors’ claims to merit in this respect, and the traditional accounts of the earliest conversions have therefore to be handled with care. ¹²³  For example, Tabari gives a large selection of source material and leaves the reader to decide for himself between the three candidates, Ali, Abu Bakr and Zayd bin Harithah as the first male who accepted Islam. ¹²⁴ 

Ibn Ishaq gives a list of about fifty-five men and women under the heading of earliest Muslims. ¹²⁵  Some important names in this list are Ali bin Abu Talib (‘Ali bin Abu Tālib عَلي بِن اَبُو طالِب); Abdullah bin Uthman (‘Abd Allah bin ‘Uthmān, Abu Quḥāfah عَبد اللَّه بِن عُثمان اَبُو قُحافَه) better known as Abu Bakr  (Abū Baker اَبُو بَكْر); Zayd bin Haritha (Zayd bin Ḥārithah زَيد بِن حارِثَه); Uthman bin Affan (Uthmān bin ‘Affān عُثمان بِن عَفَّان); Zubayr bin Awwam (Zubayr bin ‘Awwām زُبَير بِن عَوَّام); Abdur Rahman bin Awf (‘Abd ar-Raḥmān bin ‘Awf  عَبدُ الرَحمان بِن عَوف); Talha bin Ubaydullah (Ṭalḥah bin ‘Ubaydallāh طَلحَه بِن عُبَيد اللَّه); Sa’d bin Malik (Sa’d bin Mālik سَعَد بِن مالِك) better known as Sa’d bin Waqqas (Sa’d bin Abī Waqqāṣ سَعَد بِن اَبِي وَقَّاص); Amir bin Abdullah (‘Āmir bin ‘Abd Allah عامِر بِن عَبد اللَّه) better known as Abu Ubayda bin Jarrah (Abu ‘Ubaydah bin al-Jarraḥ اَبُو عُبَيده بِن الجرَّاح); Abdullah bin Mas’ud (‘Abd Allah bin Mas’ūd عَبد اللَه بِن مَسعُود); Ammar bin Yasir (‘Ammār bin Yāsir عَمَّار بِن ياسِر); Ja’far bin Abu Talib (Ja’far bin Abu Tālib جَعفَر بِن اَبُو طالِب) and Uthman bin Maz’un (‘Uthmān bin Maẓ’ūn عُثمان بِن مَظعُون).¹²⁶  The list contains names of some other early converts that are engaging but they didn’t become prominent later in Islam.  Sa’id bin Zayd (Sa’īd bin Zayd سَعِيد بِن زَيد) was son of prominent Meccan Hanif, Zayd bin Amr.  It was he who had converted along with his wife, who happened to be a sister to Umar bin Khattab, mentioned at the time of Umar’s conversion.  Khalid bin Sa’id (Khālid bin Sa’īd bin al-‘ Ās خالِد بِن سَعِيد اَلعَاص) was son of a leading Meccan financier.  Arqam bin abi Arqam (Arqam bin abū al Arqam ‘Abdu Manāf اَرقَم بِن اَبُؤ اَرقَم عَبدُ مَنَاف) belonged to the powerful Makhzum clan.  He allowed using his house for praying and teaching of Islam, according to Ibn Sa’d, a late Islamic source. Al Nahham Nu’aym (Al Naḥḥām Nu’aym bin ‘Abdullah النَحّام نُعَيم بِن عَبد اللَّه) was a leading man of Adi (‘Adi عَدِي) clan of Quraysh. Nahham did not migrate to Medina until 627 CE.  Amir bin Fuhayra (‘Āmir bin Fuhayra عامِر بِن فُهَيرَه) was a freedman of Abu Bakr.  As Ibn Ishaq does not mention house of al-‘Aqram and Ibn Sa’d gives almost the same list of people who were Muslim at the time Prophet Muhammad started teaching at the house of al-‘Aqram, it is evident that both lists are complete and that was the total strength of early Muslim community at that particular time.¹²⁷  None of the earliest converts was non-resident of Mecca.

Scholars have been busy looking for a pattern among the earliest Muslims that could explain why they accepted Islam earlier than other Quraysh.  Abu Sufyan bin Harb (Abu Sufyān bin Ḥarb اَبُو سُفيان بِن حَرب), while explaining the situation in his hometown to the Byzantine Romans, says that Islam is a new religion that is being adopted only by the young and the slaves.  Abu Sufyan might have given this statement to discredit Islam but Ma’mar, who is praising Islam, echoes the same idea. ¹²⁸  This kind of theme expressed by the earliest Islamic sources lead some modern historians to think along these lines.  Margoliouth, an English historian writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, is of opinion that slaves and freedmen accepted Islam earlier as there was a prospect of them being treated equally and moreover they anticipated being manumitted as it was a pious duty of Muslims.¹²⁹  Zinatullah Navshirvanov writing a few decades later, simply sees  Islam as a struggle of the downtrodden against oppressors. ¹³⁰  This theory suffered from a lack of historical evidence and was replaced by Mikhail A. Reisner by another but similar theory.  Reisner’s theory stipulates that Islam was born as a result of a class struggle between rich and big merchants of Mecca and small and less affluent merchants of Mecca.¹³¹  The paradigm behind such theories is that only economic interest is the driving force of any social change.  This analysis could be partly true but fails to explain the conversion of so many others who were rich and were well placed in tribal hierarchy.  Watt, after surveying biographies of early Muslim converts concludes that they could be divided into three categories; younger sons of the best families; men, mostly young from other families; and men without close ties to any clan.¹³²  This analysis rejects the notion that the early Islamic movement was that of the downtrodden.  Even if we think on economic lines it was not a struggle between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ rather it was between ‘haves’ and ‘nearly bads’. ¹³³  Beauty of Watt’s analysis is that it does not neglect the fact that one portion of early Muslims consisted of weak who were looking for protection.  But to him sole political and economic motivations cannot explain all early conversions.  The spiritual motivation was as important.  Some people were already seeking spiritual satisfaction before Islam.  Ibn Ishaq tells of four Meccans who went in search of Ḥanifiyah, the religion of Ibrahim, immediately before the inception of Islam. ¹³⁴  There was an urge towards monotheism. ¹³⁵  Typical example of conversion among earliest Muslims for purely spiritual reasons is that of Sa’id bin Zayd bin Amr.¹³⁶  Egyptian scholar ‘Abd al-Muta’āl aṣ-Sa’īdi, after analysing the ages of those who immigrated to Medina, concludes that the overwhelming majority of people were under forty.¹³⁷  As we know most of them had accepted Islam about a decade or so ago, one pattern is established beyond doubt, early Islam was a movement supported by the youth.¹³⁸

Public preaching phase

Three years after the first revelation Prophet Muhammad started preaching publicly.¹³⁹

The population of Mecca among whom the Prophet started preaching openly was not immensely big.  A few years later, the number of Quraysh polytheists who left Mecca for Badr was nine hundred and fifty and the number of Quraysh Muhajirun who confronted them from the other side was eighty-three.¹⁴⁰ Hence, the total number of Quraysh involved in the conflict was 1036.  A few years further down, Quraysh of Mecca and Quraysh Muhajirun of Medina fought the battle of Ḥunayn under one banner.  At that time total strength of the Quraysh fighters was one thousand according to Ibn Ishaq and two thousand according to Waqidi.¹⁴¹  These statistics give us a rough idea of the total population of Mecca before the Immigration of Muslims.

Genesis of Polytheist opposition

Opposition to Islam by polytheists did not come immediately after the public proclamation.  In Ibn Ishaq’s words, “When the apostle openly displayed Islam, as Allah ordered him, his people did not withdraw or turn against him, so far as I have heard until he spoke disparagingly of their gods.  When he did that they took great offence and resolved unanimously to treat him as an enemy’.¹⁴²  Start of opposition after the Prophet denounced idols is also apparent in the statement of Zuhrī, recorded by Ibn Sa’d, “The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless and preserve him, summoned to Islam secretly and openly, and there responded to Allah whom He would of the young men and weak people so that those who believed in Him were numerous and the unbelieving Quraysh did not criticize what he said.  When he passed by them as they sat in groups, they wound point to him, ‘there is a youth of the clan of ‘Abd ul Muṭṭalib who speaks [things] from heavens’. This lasted until Allah [in the Qur’an] spoke shamefully of the idols they worshipped other than Himself and mentioned the rendition of their fathers who died in unbelief.  At that they came to hate the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless and preserve him, and to be hostile to him. ¹⁴³ 

Tabari has preserved for us a copy of a written document of a later date.  It is a letter written by Urwah bin Abdullah bin Zubayr to Abdul Malik bin Marwan (caliph from 685 to 705 CE):  …. Now as for him, that is, the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless and preserve him, when he summoned his tribe to accept the guidance and the light revealed to him, which were the purpose of Allah’s sending him, they did not hold back from him when he first called them, but almost hearkened to him, until he mentioned their idols (ṭawāghīt); from Aṭ-Ṭai’f there came some of the Quraysh, owners of the property, and rebutted him with vehemence, not approving what he said, and roused against him those who obeyed them.  So the body of the people turned back from him and left him, except those of them whom Allah kept safe, and they were few in number.  Things remained like that for such time as Allah determined they should remain.  Then their leaders took counsel on how they might seduce (yaftinū) from the religion of Allah those who follow him [Muhammad] of their sons and brothers and fellow clansmen.  Then there was a time of extreme trial (fitan) and upheaval for the people of Islam who followed the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless and preserve him.  Some were seduced, but Allah kept safer [and faithful] when He would.  When the Muslims were treated in this way, the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless and preserve him, told them to go away to the land of the Ethiopians.  Over the Ethiopians, there was a good king called the Najāshi. (or Negus); in his land no one suffered wrong; and moreover, he himself was praised for his uprightness.  Ethiopia was a market where the Quraysh traded, finding in it ample supplies, security and good business.  The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless and preserve him, gave them this order, then, and the main body of them went there when they were oppressed in Mecca and he feared [the effect of]) the trials (fitnah) upon them.  He himself continued without a break [as he was].  For years they [Quraysh] continued to act harshly toward those of them who became Muslims.  Afterwards, Islam spread in it [Mecca], and some of their nobles entered it [Islam] convert.^{144 146}

Some people of Quraysh approached Abu Talib, who was the head of the clan of Hashim at that time and according to Arab traditions of the Nomadic Zone was responsible for the protection of Prophet Muhammad. They asked him to prevent his nephew from cursing their gods, insulting their religion, mocking their way of life and accusing their forefathers of error. ¹⁴⁷  Ibn Ishaq enumerates eight names who thus approached Abu Talib. Prominent among them were Sakhr bin Harb (Ṣakhr bin Ḥarb (صَخْر بِن حَرب of Abd Shams clan (more commonly known as Abu Sufyan), Amr bin Hisham (‘Amr bin Hishām عَمرو بِن هِشام) of Makhzum clan (more commonly known as Abu Jahl اَبُو جَهْل), and Walid bin Mughira (Walīd bin Mughīrah وَلِيد بِن مُغِيرَه) of Makhzum clan.¹⁴⁸  All clans of Quraysh did not participate in this delegation, meaning, the main thrust of opposition was coming from Abd Shams and Makhzum.  This hypothesis gets stronger when we look at the ode composed by Abu Talib about this matter and preserved by Ibn Ishaq.¹⁴⁹  In this poem he names a number of individuals who pressurized his clan to stop protecting the Prophet.  All names belong to only Abd Shams and Makhzum.  Actually, only Abd Shams and Makhzum owned big properties in Taif.

Modern historians tend to seek political and economic factors behind the Meccan’s opposition to the cause of Prophet Muhammad.  Watt rejects the idea that the opposition to Prophet Muhammad was based on the fear that the Bedouins would stop coming to Mecca for pilgrimage if idolatry would be abandoned, inflicting a financial loss on the Meccan traders.  They would still come to the Ka’ba as the place itself was considered sacred.  It was fear that worship of Allāt, Manāt and ‘Uzza would seize.  Lāt was worshipped in its own sanctuary located at Taif where Makhzum and Abd Shams had properties.  They also had business relations with Banu Sulaym (سُلَيم) whose territory was ‘Uzza.  Another reason for opposition was that in the Arab mind accepting religious leadership meant accepting political leadership as well. Meccans had already seen a connection between the Christianity of Uthman bin Ḥuwayrith and his attempt to become prince of Mecca.¹⁵⁰  Political and economic motives could well be behind the opposition but early Islamic sources don’t mention them.  They only emphasize the religious factors behind the opposition.  Ibn Ishaq has painstakingly preserved the fierce reasoning in his treatise that used to take place between the Prophet and Abu Jahl.  The only theme that emerges from these debates is that Abu Jahl seriously doubted that Muhammad was a prophet and that whatever he preached was true.  Abu Jahl appears to be a person of a religious bent and a staunch zealot of the Meccan pagan religion.

In response to opposition, Abu Talib ‘called upon Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib to stand with him in protecting the apostle.  This they agreed to do, with the exception of ‘Abd ul ‘Uzza bin ‘Abd ul Muṭṭalib’ (more commonly known as Abu Lahab). ¹⁵¹

The first incidence of physical manhandling between Muslims and polytheists took place after the public announcement of Islam. One day, when Muslims were praying in a vale of Mecca, a group of polytheists tried to interrupt them.  The two groups came to blows and Sa’d bin Waqqaṣ smote a polytheist with the jawbone of a camel wounding him.¹⁵²  The population of Mecca plunged into a deep ideological split after the public announcement of Islam.

Walid bin Mughira was the chief of the Makhzum clan.¹⁵³  He was not bitterly opposed to Prophet Muhammad.  It was Abu Jahl, a prominent member of Makhzum, who organized the league of opposition.¹⁵⁴, ¹⁵⁵  Ibn Ishaq writes “It was that evil man Abu Jahl who stirred up the men of Quraysh against them [The Muslims]. When he heard that a man had become Muslim, if he was a man of social importance and had relations to defend him, he reprimanded him and poured scorn on him, saying, ‘You have forsaken the religion of your father who was better than you.  We will declare you a blockhead and brand you as a fool, and destroy your reputation’.  If he was a merchant he said, ‘we will boycott your goods and reduce you to beggary’. If he was a person of no social importance, he beat him and incited people against him”.¹⁵⁶  This passage also establishes that the pagan opposition intimidated the Muslims according to their social status.  They were the slaves and persons without a clear connection with any clan who suffered the most.¹⁵⁷  Ibn Ishaq reports about seven slaves who were tortured for being Muslim but gives full details of torture on only one – Bilal bin Ribah (Bilāl bin Ribāḥ بِلال بِن رِباح).  He further elaborates that Ammar bin Yasir, along with his father and mother, was also tortured and it was Ammar’s mother who was tortured to death for refusing to abandon Islam.¹⁵⁸, ¹⁵⁹  As far as other Muslims are concerned, Ibn Ishaq mentions some incidences of throwing dust on them, dragging them and giving them a blow but no free Arab man with a strong link to the Quraysh is reported to be killed or seriously injured.¹⁶⁰

Actually, the fiercest opposition to Islam was not physical.  It was in the form of a smear campaign against Prophet Muhammad and Islam.  Early Islamic sources testify that the Prophet was called names like ‘poet’, ‘crazy’ and ‘bewitched.’  The pagan opposition made sure that such negative publicity of the Prophet and the Muslims reached the ears of those who visited the Ka’ba from outside the town.  Descriptions of this ideological rift in Mecca by all early Islamic sources include the heated debates that took place between Prophet Muhammad and the polytheists.  And in many such debates, the most vocal representative of the opposition was Abu Jahl.  Details of these debates not only throw light on the earliest Islamic concepts but also elaborate on some of the religious beliefs held by the polytheists of Mecca.

By the end of this phase of the advent of Islam, just before emigration to Ethiopia, there was hardly any clan of the Quraysh that did not have a convert.¹⁶¹  On the other hand, stiff opposition definitely stalled the growth of new religion in Mecca.  The number of Muslims had grown to fifty-five within three years of the inception of Islam.¹⁶²  All remaining Meccan years could add only a few more people.  The number of Muslims who immigrated to Medina was seventy. ¹⁶³

Emigration to Ethiopia

Emigration to Ethiopia started in the 5^th year of the mission.¹⁶⁴

Ibn Ishaq narrates the story of emigration to Ethiopia in these words: “When the apostle saw the affliction of his companions and, that though he escaped it because of his standing with Allah and his uncle Abu Ṭālib, he could not protect them, he said to them: ‘if you were to go to Ethiopia [it would be better for you], for the king will not tolerate injustice and it is a friendly country, until such time as Allah shall relieve you from your distress’.  Thereupon his companions went to Ethiopia, being afraid of apostasy and fleeing to Allah with their religion.  This was the first immigration (hijrah هِجرَة) in Islam.  The first of the Muslims to go were  …. (then names of ten adult males and their dependants follow).  These ten were the first to go to Ethiopia according to my information.  Afterwards, Ja’far bin Abu Ṭālib went, and the Muslims followed one another until they gathered in Ethiopia; some took their families, others went alone…..(then follow the names of eighty-three adult males, including those in the first list).”¹⁶⁵  This passage confirms that emigration was not in one big group; rather people emigrated one by one.¹⁶⁶   Caetani, after inspecting thoroughly the resources surrounding the matter, concludes that the first list of ten people is an incomplete version of those who sojourned in Ethiopia temporarily and returned to Mecca.  Later, they immigrated to Medina along with the Prophet Muhammad.  The other list includes all the people who immigrated to Ethiopia.¹⁶⁷  Some of them returned to Medina only in 628 CE at the time of the conquest of Khaybar and that was only when the Prophet sent a messenger inviting them back.¹⁶⁸  The question of why these people did not return to Medina while Muslims were trying to establish themselves in Medina from 622 CE onwards is still unanswered and is open to speculation.  It is known that Caliph Umar was not in favour of treating them in higher esteem than those who fought in the battle of Badr.¹⁶⁹  So, when he compiled a new hierarchy of nobility in Islam on the basis of services to Islam in 637 CE, he put survivors of Badr just after widows and kinsmen of the Prophet.  Analysis of earlier disputes brought to Islamic courts shows that before the application of the new hierarchy all Muhajirun (immigrants) were just after widows and kinsmen of the Prophet in the hierarchy.¹⁷⁰

The reason for emigration to Ethiopia is given in a straightforward way in the passage of Ibn Ishaq, mentioned above.  By looking at the clans of those who emigrated to Ethiopia it becomes evident that with exception of two, none of Hashim, al-Muttalib, Zuhrah, Taym and Adi emigrated.  These were the clans of Half ul Fudul.  It means the people who emigrated were from powerful clans.  It is possible that they were pressurized more by their own clan members than those from weak clans. ¹⁷¹  Leaders of opposition to the Prophet Muhammad belonged to Makhzum and Abd Shams.  Al-Arqam from Makhzum was a conspicuous exception who did not emigrate to Ethiopia.  Probably he was strong.  And that could be the reason he dedicated his house to the propagation of Islam during the public preaching phase.¹⁷²

It is said that the Meccan polytheists sent a two men delegation to the Najashi (or Negus) requesting the return of the emigrants but Najashi granted them political asylum.¹⁷³  As we have noted in the previous chapters, Ethiopia had been involved in the political affairs of Yemen, it is possible that Najashi had political designs even this time.

Boycott of Prophet’s clan

Eventually, Prophet Muhammad’s opponents, foiled in their attempts to detach him from his clan, managed to bring together a grand alliance of nearly all the clans of the Quraysh against Hashim and al-Muttalib.  It was actually the triumph of Abd Shams and Makhzum in breaking the alliance of the Half ul Fudul clans.¹⁷⁴

They agreed on two things in Boycotting the clans of Hashim and al-Muttalib.  One, that none of the other clans would have business with them and second that there would be no intermarriage.¹⁷⁵  Whole of Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib joined hands supporting each other except Abu Lahab.¹⁷⁶  Abu Lahab was the younger brother of Abu Ṭalib.  He was married to the sister of Abu Sufyan.  When the opposition against Prophet Muhammad hardened, Abu Sufyan took a stand against Prophet Muhammad.  This might be the time when the engagement of one of Prophet Muhammad’s daughters, either Ruqayya or Umm Kulthūm, to Abu Lahab’s son ‘Utba broke off.¹⁷⁷  It may be supposed that Abu Lahab’s line of conduct was influenced by his business relations with Abd Shams.¹⁷⁸

Prophet Muhammad always remained thankful to Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib for their support during the boycott. Defending his decision to allocate permanent shares from his fifth of the booty of Khaybar to members of Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib, he expressed it.  The only person who did not belong to either of these two clans but got a share was Abu Bakr.¹⁷⁹

Early Islamic sources are vague in their depiction of any extra difficulties that the boycotted clans had to face as a result of it.  Especially, they don’t record any specific events of business failure, divorce, failure to get medical treatment etc. as a result of the boycott.  It leads Watt to believe that the boycott was not particularly strict, probably because many boycotters were bound to Hashim in a marriage alliance.¹⁸⁰  Since they boycotted only two clans of the Quraysh and not all Muslims, Watt believes that in addition to the protection of Prophet Muhammad there could be other reasons for the dispute as well.¹⁸¹

Actually, it was during the boycott that thirty-three Ethiopian emigrants returned to Mecca.¹⁸²  Some of them were under the protection of polytheists, for example, Uthman bin Maz’un was under the protection of Walid bin Mughirah.¹⁸³  This return coincides with the events of abrogation of āya which happened during the boycott.¹⁸⁴

End of Boycott

According to Ibn Ishaq’s account of the end of the boycott, the initiative was taken by Hisham bin Amr (Hishām bin ‘Amr هِشام بِن عَمرو) of Amir (‘Āmir عامِر) clan of Quraysh.  Zuhayr bin Abi Umayyah of Makhzum, Mut’im bin Adi (Muṭ’im bin ‘Adi مُطعِم بِن عَدِي) of Nawfal, Abu’l-Bakhtari of Asad, and Zam’ah bin Aswad of Asad seconded Hisham.¹⁸⁵  Ibn Ishaq gives the impression that some of the Quraysh were not happy with this Boycott.  Hisham bin Amr used to provide amenities of life to the boycotted clans even during the boycott.  While talking to other Quraysh polytheists, his argument was ‘you will find that they will soon do the same with you’.  Boycott finished by consensus of the Quraysh with the only exception of Abu Jahl. Even Abu Lahab and Abu Sufyan did not oppose ending the boycott.  As the Quraysh’s justification of ending the boycott given by Ibn Ishaq is vague, it opens Pandora’s box of speculations by different scholars.  Watt thinks there could be a commercial motive behind it. ¹⁸⁶  Margoliouth argues that one reason for upholding the ex-communication ban on Hashim could be an imminent attack by Ethiopia in favour of the Muslims. ¹⁸⁷

Loss of protector

It was probably 619 CE, (three years before immigration to Medina), not long after the end of the boycott, when Prophet Muhammad lost by death Abu Ṭalib and Khadija, one after another.¹⁸⁸  Death of Abu Talib had political repercussions for the Prophet.  Abu Ṭalib was succeeded by his younger brother Abu Lahab as the chief of the Hashim clan.  Though Abu Lahab had participated in the boycotting alliance, it would be dishonourable for a chief to refuse protection to any member of the clan.  This could be the reason, he promised to protect the Prophet initially, but later on, formally refused on the ground that Prophet Muhammad alleged Abdul Muttalib to be in hell.  The traditional account is that Uqba bin Abi Mu’ayt (‘Uqbah bin Abī Mu’ayṭ عُقبِه بِن اَبِي مُعَيط) of Abd Shams and Abu Jahl had instigated to Abu Lahab to ask Prophet Muhammad to clear his position on this point.¹⁸⁹

It is only after the death of Abu Ṭalib that, we hear, Prophet Muhammad started communication lines to tribes other than the Quraysh for the first time.

Visit to Taif

The town of Taif (Ṭā’if  طاءِف) was a smaller replica of Mecca with few differences.¹⁹²  It was the Aḥlaf who were friendly with the Quraysh and it is mainly the Aḥlaf whom Prophet Muhammad approached.  The particular men approached were Abd Yalil (‘Abd Yalīl عَبد يَلِيل) of Amr bin Umayr (‘Amr bin ‘Umayr عَمرو بِن عُمَير) clan and his brothers.  According to Ibn Ishaq, the Prophet approached them to get a protector and with the hope to get a few converts from them. ¹⁹³  Watt, after studying other sources, concludes that the objective was not only to get a protector or a few converts but to build a Muslim community there on a pattern he built later at Medina. ¹⁹⁴

Whatever the objectives, the Prophet could not accomplish anything.  Moreover, they encouraged the town louts and slaves to insult him and to shout after him.  He took refuge in the garden of two brothers of the Abd Shams clan of Quraysh.¹⁹⁶  The Prophet did not return to Mecca immediately, instead, he proceeded to Nakhlah on the outskirts from where he started negotiating for the protection (jiwār) with heads of some clans in Mecca.¹⁹⁷, ¹⁹⁸  It gives a clue that his own clan, now under Abu Lahab had refused to protect him.  Ultimately Mut’im bin Adi, head of the Nawfal clan, agreed to take the Prophet under his protection and the Prophet could return to Mecca.¹⁹⁹, ²⁰⁰  It is significant to note that none of the Muslims, including Umar bin Khattab, were strong enough to give the Prophet protection.²⁰¹

This is the time when the Prophet approached a number of tribes, by preaching in fairs and in pilgrimage, to believe in his prophecy and to protect him.  Early sources give names of Kindah, Kalb, Hanifa and Amir bin Sa’sa’ah.²⁰²  We don’t know why the Prophet approached only those tribes whose territory was far away from Mecca.²⁰³  At this juncture, no doubt, there was a fundamental change in the preaching strategy.  Islam was offered to all Arabs.²⁰⁴

Non-Quraysh tribes start accepting Islam

By this time nascent Islam had come to a standstill in Mecca.  Conversion of Umar bin Khattab (‘Umar bin Khaṭṭāb عُمَر بِن خَطَّاب), which has been dated to 616 CE by Sir William Muir, was the last significant conversion in Mecca before Immigration.²⁰⁵  Contacts with non-Quraysh tribes had not yielded any gainful results.  At the long last breakthrough came from Yathrib.

Around 620 CE the Prophet met with six men from the Khazraj (خَزرَج) tribe of Yathrib at the fair of Aqabah (‘Aqabah عَقَبَه).²⁰⁶, ²⁰⁷  As’ad bin Zurara (As’ad bin Zurārah اَسعَد بِن زُراره) and Awf bin Harith (‘Awf bin Ḥārith عَوف بِن حارِث) of Najjar (Najjār نَجَّار) clan; Rari bin Malik (Rāri’ bin Mālik رَارِيع بِن مالِك) of Zurayq clan; Qutaba bin Amir (Quṭaba bin ‘Āmir قُطَبَه بِن عَامِر) of Salima (Salīmah سَلِيمَه) clan; Uqba bin Amir (‘Uqba bin ‘Amir عُقبَه بِن عامِر) of Haram (Ḥarām حَرام) clan; and Jabir bin Abdullah (Jābir bin ‘Abdallah جابِر بِن عَبد اللَّه) of Ubayd (‘Ubayd عُبَيد) clan, were their names.  They were the first converts from Yathrib.  Interestingly, the reason they gave for their conversion was: “We have left our people, for no tribe is so divided by hatred and rancour as they.  Perhaps Allah will unite them through you [Prophet Muhammad].  So let us go to them and invite them to this religion of yours; and if Allah unites them in it, then no man will be mightier than you.”²⁰⁸

Out of these six, As’ad bin Zurara, is reported to be the first convert at Yathrib.  According to Ibn Sa’d, As’ad bin Zurara, who was already monotheist along with Dhakwan bin Abd Qays (Dhakwān bin ‘Abd Qays ذَكوان بِن عَبد قَيس) accepted Islam during the haram season at Mecca to become first Muslims in Medina.²⁰⁹  This tradition also depicts that, like Mecca, trend towards monotheism was present in Yathrib immediately before the advent of Islam.  As’ad bin Zurara was the main leader of Najjar clan.²¹⁰  It was As’ad bin Zurara himself who gave protection to Mus’ab bin Umayr (Muṣ’ab bin ‘Umayr  مُصعَب بِن عُمَير) in Yathrib.²¹¹  As’ad bin Zurara did not survive long after Immigration.  He died of diphtheria while the mosque of Yathrib was under construction.²¹²  All Yethribites who accepted Islam, in the beginning, were Khazraj delineating the fact that Aws (اَوس) had some upper hand in the War of Bu’ath (بُعاث) and the Khazraj felt defeated.²¹³  The Khazraj were more inclined towards a neutral arbiter.

Next year, at the Aqabah fair of 621 CE, five of them returned bringing with them seven others including two from Aws.  These twelve people pledged to avoid various sins and to obey Prophet Muhammad.  This is known as the Pledge of the Women (bay’at an-nisa’ بَعَتَ النِساء).²¹⁴, ²¹⁵  Its other name is the First Pledge of Aqabah. Prophet Muhammad sent with them Mus’ab bin Umayr to teach them Qur’an. This was the first example of a lieutenant being appointed by Prophet Muhammad.²¹⁶  First convert won by Mus’ab bin Umayr in Yathrib was Muhammad bin Maslamah.²¹⁷  Two chieftains of Aws, Usayd bin Hudayr (Usayd bin Ḥuḍayr أسَيد بِن حُضَير) and Sa’d bin Mu’adh (سَعَد بِن مُعاذ) converted after that.  After these conversions, Islam became fashionable at Yathrib.  Soon there was only one clan left by name of Aws Mannat (Aws Mannāt اوس مَنَّاة), which was later renamed as Aws Allah, that did not have any converts.²¹⁸

In the 622 CE fair at Aqabah, there were seventy-three men and two women from ten different clans of both Aws and Khazraj.²¹⁹  These ten formed all the clans of Aws and Khazraj in Medina except Aws Mannat.  The clan of Salimah was overrepresented in this delegation while the clan of Ḥubla was underrepresented.²²⁰  Anyhow, Islam was getting popular among all Arabs residing in Medina.

On this occasion, the Prophet asked for protection.  It was granted with a promise from the Prophet that he would not leave the Yathrebite Muslims, later on called Ansar (helpers, Anṣār, اَنصار) in early Islamic annals, and return to his own people after victory. ²²¹  This deal, known as the pledge of war (bay’at al-ḥarb بَعَت الحَرب), was not only a pledge to follow Prophet Muhammad but to protect him by arms.  Its other name is the Second Pledge of Aqabah.  Ibn Ishaq shows presence of Prophet’s Uncle Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib (‘Abbās bin ‘Abd al Muṭṭalib عَبَّاس بِن عَبد المُطَلِب) on this occasion.  Watt considers it a later forgery, especially in view of the fact that Abbasid caliphs had to glorify their ancestors.  Otherwise, questions would have risen why Abbas, being a Hashimite, was unable to protect the Prophet. ²²²

One man of prominence who was present at the Second Pledge of Aqabah was Sa’d bin Ubada (Sa’d bin ‘Ubādah سَعَد بِن عُباده) of khazraj. ²²³  Ibn Ishaq mentions him as one of the leaders.²²⁴  Two important men from Ansar were absent from this delegation. One was Sa’d bin Mu’adh and the other was Abdullah bin Ubayy (‘Abdallāh bin Ubayy عَبد اللَّه بِن أُبَى).  Early Islamic sources give no explanation for the absence of Sa’d, who is said to have accepted Islam by that time. ²²⁵  It is said about Abdullah bin Ubayy that the Yathribites waited for him to join the delegation before it met the Prophet but he did not turn up.²²⁶  Later, when he was still at Aqabah, the unnerved Quraysh polytheists approached him asking about any such deal.  He showed his unawareness saying his people would consult with him on any matter of importance and he would have known such a deal if it would have taken place.²²⁷

Immigration to Medina (Hijrah هِجرَة)

Indeed, Muslims had started immigrating to Yathrib immediately when such a prospect appeared.²²⁸  Abdullah bin Abdul Asad (‘Abdallah bin ‘Abd ul Asad عَبد اللَّه بِن عَبدُ الاَسَد), also known as Abu Salma (Abū Salma اَبُو سَلمىٌ), of Makhzum clan was the first Meccan Muslim to start residing in Medina, one year before any Pledge of Aqabah.  Quraysh polytheists of Mecca knew about this matter and did not prevent him from immigrating.²³⁰  Early Islamic sources term them Muhajirun (Muhājirūn مُهاجِرُون immigrants).

Watt opines that the two-year interval between the First Pledge of Aqabah and actual immigration by the Prophet means that there was a detailed negotiation between the Yathrebites and Prophet Muhammad before the decision on immigration. It could be the case that during the first pledge Prophet Muhammad insisted on a more representative delegation because the first pledge was with Khazraj only.²³¹  It is also possible that the additional job of Mas’ab bin Umayr was to report on the situation in Medina.²³²

The only logic Ibn Ishaq gives for Immigration is ‘better prospect of the movement in Medina’. ²³³  Actually, sources do not record any new wave of persecution in Mecca just before Immigration and some Muslims like Nu’aym an-Naḥḥam managed to remain in Mecca after Immigration.²³⁴  Immigration was a strategic plan.  Margoliouth’s impression that it was a flight lacks supporting evidence. ²³⁵

Quraysh Polytheists sense danger

As the prophet, along with Ali and Abu Bakr, were the last of prominent Muslims who remained in Mecca, Ibn Ishaq tells us that the Quraysh polytheists of Mecca realized two things.  One, that Prophet Muhammad was left with very few supporters in Mecca, and others already immigrated. Second, they started seeing Prophet Muhammad as a threat who had mustered enough power to attack them.²³⁶  These were the two reasons behind their decision to hold a council of the Quraysh, which accepted Abu Jahl’s proposal to involve one man from each clan to murder the Prophet.  In this way, the Hashims would not be able to wage a war against them and would be content with blood money.  Interestingly, a son and a brother of Mut’im bin Adi, who had given protection to the Prophet just a few years ago, were part of this scheme.  Their names were Jubayr bin Muṭ’im and Ṭu’aymah bin ‘Adi respectively.²³⁷  Mut’im was already dead by that time.²³⁸  Only Abd Shams, Makhzum, Abd ad Dar (‘Abd ad Dār عَبدَ الدار), Asad, Sahm (سَهم), Nawfal and Jumah (Jumaḥ جُمَح) clans participated in this meeting.²³⁹

Anyhow, this scheme never materialized.  The Prophet easily avoided arrest.  According to Ibn Ishaq’s story, Prophet Muhammad asked Ali to take his place in bed and he himself slipped out unobserved along with Abu Bakr.  They made their way to a cave to the south of Mecca and hid there for a day or two.  Then they proceeded on camels along with Abu Bakr’s freedman ‘Amir bin Fuhayrah and a guide Abdullah bin Arqat, a polytheist from the tribe of D’il bin Bakr. For the first part of the journey, they followed a devious path and only joined the beaten track when they were away from Mecca.²⁴⁰, ²⁴¹

It is known that the Quraysh did not use to execute anybody within the boundaries of the Haram of the Ka’ba.²⁴²  Some of them might have been reluctant to murder Prophet Muhammad inside Mecca.  As no serious attempt was made on the life of Prophet Muhammad within the town limits of Mecca, Watt believes, there was a lack of consensus in the meeting on the matter.²⁴³  Watt further believes that there might be a point after the crossing of which Prophet Muhammad would have been out of the sphere in which his protection was Meccan responsibility and after which he was the responsibility of Yathribites.  That is the reason the Quraysh were desperate to catch him at that point after he slipped out of Mecca.²⁴⁴  The Quraysh’s offer of hundred camels as blood money for Prophet Muhammad persisted after he was out of the Meccan sphere of protection.  That is the reason there was an attempt on his life on the way to Medina during the journey of Immigration.²⁴⁵

Immigration – dawn of an era

Ibn Ishaq gives the date of reaching Quba as Monday, 12^th Rabi ul Awwal (Rabī ‘ul Awwal رَبِيعُ الاَوَّل).²⁴⁶  Watt calculates this date to be September 24, 622 CE.²⁴⁷ Isabah gives this date to be Monday, 8^th Rabi ul Awwal of 1 AH corresponding to September 20, 622 AD calculated by Margoliouth.²⁴⁸  Bukhāri, a very late source, says that the day Prophet Muhammad reached Quba was Jewish Yom Kippur.²⁵⁰

The age of the Prophet is said to be fifty-three years by that time.²⁵¹

The first day of the Arabian year in which Immigration (hijrah) took place, was later selected as the beginning of the Islamic era.²⁵⁴

End Notes

1. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 93.
2. Qur’an 3:19, 3:85, 5:3, 6:125, 39:22 and 61:7.
3. M. van Bechem, Materiaux pour un corpus inscriptionum, (Cairo 1927), Part 2, Vol. II, no. 217 (Islam appears in no. 215).
4. Qur’an 37:103.
5. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Medina (London; Oxford University Press, 1956) 304.
6. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 278.
7. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob,  (London: Routledge, 2011), 179.
8. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 559.  Here Ḥassān is addressing Abu Sufyan and is talking about Prophet Muhammad.
9. Abu Ṣālih the Armenian, The churches and Monasteries of Egypt, ed. And trans. B. T. A. Evetts, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895), 231.
10. Adolf Grohmann, ‘Greek Papyri of the Early Islamic Period in the Collection of Archduke Rainer’, Etudes de papyrology 8 (Cairo: Institut Francais d’archeologie Orientale, 1957), 28.
11. Isho’yahb patriarchae III, Lbter Epistularum Coupus scriptorium chistianorum orientalium, Scriptores Syri, second series, vol. LXIV, ed. and Trans. Rubens Duval, (Leuven: Peeters publishers, 1904), 97.
12. Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, Hagarism; the making of the Islamic World, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 8.
13. Liutsian Klimovich, “Sushchestvoval li Mokhammed? Diskussiia v Komunisticheskoi akademii v antireligioznoi sektsii institute filosofii 12/XI 1930g. po dokladu L. I. Klimovicha”, Voinstvuiushchii ateizm no. 2 – 3 (1931), 189 – 218.
14. William Wright, ‘Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired Since the Year 1838’ (London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1870) Reprint Gorgias press 2002.  Part I, P 65 -66, No XCIV.
15. A. Palmer (with contributions from S. P. Brock and R. G. Hoyland), The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles Including Two Seventh-Century Syriac Apocalyptic Texts, (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993), 2, 3.
16. This event of Saqilara is also mentioned by Theophanes the Confessor who writes: “The emperor …. Dispatched Sakellarios Theodore with a Roman force against Arabs.  Theodore met a host of Saracens near Emesa; he killed some of them (including their emir) and drove the rest all the way to Damascus” (Theophanes the Confessor, The Chronicle of Theophanes, trans. and ed. Harry Turtledove, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), P 37 annus mundi 6125.  See also:  F. M. Donner, the early Islamic Conquests, (Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 1981), 144.
17. R. G. Hoyland seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish And Zoroastrian Writings On Early Islam, (Princeton (NJ): The Darwin Press, 1997), 116, 17.
18. For the catalogue see: W. Wright, Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired Since the Year 1838, (London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1870), Part III,  P 1440 – 1041,  No DCCCCXIII.  For the difficulties of interpreting the text see: A. Palmer (with contributions from S. P. Brock and R. G. Hoyland), The Seventh Century In The West-Syrian Chronicles Including Two Seventh-Century Syriac Apocalyptic Texts, (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993), 5, 6.
19. Thomas the Presbyter, Chronica minora II.  Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium.  Vol 3 (Scriptores Syri), ed. Ernest Walter Brooks, (Paris: Peeters Publishers, 1940), 147 – 48.
20. R. G. Hoyland, Seeing Islam As Others Was It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish And Zoroastrian Writings On Early Islam, (Princeton (NJ): The Darwin Press, 1997), 120.
21. Nathanael G. Bonwetsch (ed.), “Doctrina Lacobi nuper baptizati”, in Abhandlungen der Koiglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenchaften zu Gottingen.  Philologisch-Historische Klasse: n.F., Band 12, Nro. 3. (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1910) Reprint: Liechtestein: Kraus, 1970.  1 – 91.
22. Vincet Dèroche, ‘Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati: juifs et chretiens dans l’orient du VIIe siècle.,’ Travaux let mèmoires 11 (College de France: Centre de recherché d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 1991), 47 – 229.
23. Robert. G. Hoyland. Seeing Islam As Others Was It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish And Zoroastrian Writings On Early Islam, (Princeton (NJ): The Darwin Press, 1997), 58.
24. Francois Nau, ‘La Didascalie de Jacob: Premiere Assemblee’ in Patrologia Orientalis, Vol 8.  Eds. Rene Graffin and Francois Nau (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1912) 715.
25. Hans Georg Thummel.  Fruhgeschichte der ostkirchlichen Bilderlehre: Texte und Untersuchungen zur Zeit vor dem Bilderstreit; (series: Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 139) (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1992), 232.
26. Robert G. Hoyland, In God’s Path: the Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 37.
27. Adolf Grohmann, ‘Apercu de Papyrologie Arabe” Etudes De Papyrologie, I (Cairo: Societe Royale Egyptiene de papyrology 1932) 41 – 43. Plate IX.  Also see: Adolf Grohmann. Corpus Papyrorum Raineri Archiducis, III, Series Arabica I (Vienna: Vindobonae, 1923 – 24) pt. 2, XXI – XXVI.
28. Alan Jones “the dotting of a script and the dating of an era: the strange neglect of PERF 558,” Islamic Culture Vol LXXII No 4(1998): 95 – 103.
29. Leone Caetani, Chronographia Islamica, Ossia Raissunto cronologico della storia di tutti I popli musulmani dall’anno 1 all’anno 922 higrah (622 – 1517 dell’Era Volgare), Corredato della bibliografia di tutte le principali fonti stampate e manoscritte, Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner, 1912/22.  Caetani published the table of conversion only from 1 to 132 AH.  See also: Leone Caetani.  Annali Dell’Islam, Vol. IV (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1911), 674.
30. Freeman-Grenville G. S. P. The Islamic and Christian Calendars AD 622 – 2222 (AH 1 – 1650), Reading: Garnet Publishing, 1995.
31. Alan Jones, “The dotting of a script and the dating of an era: the strange neglect of PERF 558,” Islamic Culture 72, no. 4 (1998):  95 – 103.
32. For the year of the inauguration of the Hijrah calendar see: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 773.  See also: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XIV, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. G. Rex Smith (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 114.
33. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956) 339.
34. Ibn Sa’ad, tabaqat, Vol 1, P 142.
35. Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905) chronology XVI.  See also: “NASA – Solar Eclipse Search Engine.” NASA. Accessed 21 Nov, 2018. https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEearch/SEsearch.php#searchresults.
36. Leone Caetani. Annali Dell’Islam, (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1911),Vol I P 466, 519.
37. H. Amīr ‘Ali, “the first decade in Islam”, Muslim World XLIV. 136.
38. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956) 339.
39. The formula used to convert a Hijrah year into Gregorian is: Gregorian calendar (G)= (32/33) H + 622; Hijrah calendar (H) = 33/32 (G-622).  See: Marcus Hattstein and Peter Delius, Islam:  Art and Architecture, Cologne: Konemann, 2000.
40. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), xvii.
41. Leone Caetani, Annali dell’Islam, (Milan: 1905) vol. I, P 219.
42. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 5 See also:  Ibn Sa’ad, Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht, ed. E. Sachau, (Leiden: 1905), Vol I, part 1, p 61.
43. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 32.
44. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 59.
45. Photo credit: Al Sayyid Abd al Ghaffar.  Photographic equipment was provided to Ghaffar by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje.  Hamīdijjah, a government building constructed during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II and the Jiyād fortress are visible in the background.  Currently housed in Leiden University Library Archives.  See also: Barry Neilld for CNN on November 18, 2010.  Mecca: A Dangerous Adventure – Snouck Hurgronje’s early Photographs 1885 are showing until December 6 at Dubai’s Empty Quarter Gallery.
46. Al- Ṭabri, Ta’rikh, I, 551, ed. Cairo 1930.
47. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob.  (London: Routledge, 2011), 4.
48. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad.  ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 27.
49. Qur’an 61:6.
50. For example, al-Ishāratu ilā Sīrate sayyidina Muhammad al Mustafa by Muhglatay b. Qaleej b. ‘Abdillah al-Bakjary al-Masrri a- Hanafi (c. 1290 CE – 1361 CE).
51. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013). 231.
52. Qur’an 22:75.
53. Qur’an 73:01; Qur’an 74:01;  Qur’an 33:40; Qur’an 21:107;  Qur’an 33:46; and Qur’an 33:21.  Actual word used here is aswa al ḥusnah.
54. Photo credit: Al Sayyid Abd al Ghaffar.  Currently housed in Leiden University Library Archives.
55. For the start of Quraysh’s colander see:  Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 600.
56. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad.  Ed. and Trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 69.
57. Al Fasi, Ṣahifā al-gharām, (Cairo 1956), 248.  For a sequence of Abdullah among ten sons and the number of sons born by the time of digging of Zamzam see:  See Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony,  (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 3, 5.
58. Ibn al Kalbi.
59. Leone Caetani, Annali dell’Islam, (Milan: 1905), vol. I.
60. Mahmood Pasha al-Falaki, Natāij-al-Ifhām fi Taqwīm al-‘Arabi Qabl al-Islam, Cairo: Matbat al-Amiria, 1887.  Aḥmad Zaki Āfindi’s Urdu translation survives in the Azad Library in India.
61. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 33.
62. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 70.
63. For the neighbourhood of the Sa’d and the Jews see: Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 276.
64. Photo credit Michal Strzelbicki.
65. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad,  ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 73.
66. For Abu Talib’s name see: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 605.  Abu Talib was the full brother of Abdullah.  See:  Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 6.
67. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 79.  Ma’mar states that he could not make it to Syria but the party returned from Tayma when a Jewish rabbi predicted dangers.  See: Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 6,7.
68. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 79.
69. Prophet Muhammad appears to have travelled a lot.  It is claimed that after hiring Prophet Muhammad, once Khadija sent him to Hubāsha in Tihamah. See: Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 8.
70. Boṣra بَوصرَه of Arabic sources is Busra in modern southern Syria.  Hubasha of Arabic sources is Bariq in modern Saudi Arabia.  Hubasha used to hold an annual market. See: Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade and the rise of Islam, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 123.
71. Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.63.3.  None of the early Islamic sources have preserved the personal appearance of Prophet Muhammad.  It appears that the description of the Prophet’s appearance became part of Islamic religious literature at a later date as compared to the description of maghazi.  Ibn Sa’d doesn’t describe the personal appearance of Prophet Muhammad for the sake of description.  He rather is noting the impression of an onlooker.  Later on, Ya’qubi describes the personal appearance of Prophet Muhammad for the sake of description.  “The Messenger of God was imposing and dignified, of obvious cleanliness and shining face, well-proportioned, over average height, but not excessively tall, not marred by potbelliedness nor disparaged from being small-headed and thin-necked, good-looking, handsome of face; he outpaced anyone who walked with him, even if the one going with him had longer legs; large-crowned and curly-haired – if his newborn’s hair separated, it formed a clear part – and his hair did not go beyond his earlobes, radiant of color, with a complexion tinged with redness; having intense blackness in his eyes and bushiness in his eyelashes; hoarse in his voice; thick-bearded, with most of the grey hairs of his beard around his chin and those of his head on the temples; flat-cheeked and broad-mouthed; pleasant in speech, neither taciturn nor garrulous; having little chest hair; of medium build, with a broad chest and broad shoulder-blades, with a large distance the shoulders; wide of back, stocky, below the sockets of the hip and thigh; bright on the unclad parts of his body; with the area between his upper chest and his navel connected by hair running like a line, but bare of hair other than that; hairy of arms, shoulders and the upper parts of the chest; with long forearms, ample hands, thick palms and soles of the feet; with extended fingers and well-arched feet; lively of step when he walked, as though he were descending a slope [or] falling off a boulder; when he turned round, he turned altogether; having a lowered glance, so that he looked toward the ground more than he looked toward the sky; having usually watchful gaze, so that when he met someone, he greeted them first off,” writes Ya’qubi.  (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 735.)
73. Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.31.5.   See also: Azraqi, History of Meccah, Ed. Wustenfeld.  (Leipzig, 1857) 71.  Both Ibn Sa’d and Azraqi are late Islamic sources. ⁷²Ajyad still exists with the same name in the south of the Ka’ba.
74. Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam.  New York: knickerbocker press,1905.
75. Some scholars have challenged the notion that the Prophet was really illiterate.  See: Goldfeld, Isaiah, “The illiterate Prophet (al-nabi al-ummi): An Inquiry into the Development of a Dogma in Islamic Tradition,” Der Islam 57 (1980): 58 – 67.
76. See: Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.18.9.
77. Photographer unknown.  This house was first mentioned by Balādhuri (d. c. 892 CE) (Aḥmad ibn Jābir al-Balādhuri.  Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916) 78).  Among modern scholars, it was Rutter to describe it (E. Rutter, The Holy Sites of Arabia, vol 1.  London: 1928). It was a popular site for religious tourism for centuries as described in the travelogue of Ibn Jubayr.  Later on, the current Saudi government built a school over it to destroy it.  In 1989, when Masjid il Ḥaram was being extended, the house got unearthed again.  Many people photographed it but the site was buried quickly and construction over it was completed speedily.  See also:  Ahmad Zaki Yamani. The House of Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2014.
78. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 38.
79. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 8.
80. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 79.
81. Ibn Sa’d gives the age of Prophet Muhammad as twenty-five years and that of Khadija as forty years at the time of their marriage. (Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.35.1.).  None of the early Islamic sources gives the age of Prophet Muhammad and Khadija at the time of their marriage. However, they don’t note anything which could be contrary to the notation of Ibn Sa’d.  Later sources tend to agree with Ibn Sa’d.  Ya’qubi, for example, gives the Prophet’s age to be 25 at the time of his marriage. (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 614).  He further tells that Khadija died three years before the Prophet’s Immigration and she was sixty-five years old at the time of her death.  From this data, one can calculate that she might be around forty at the time of her marriage. (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018),630).  See also: Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 38.
82. Azraqi, History of Meccah, ed. Wustenfeld, (Leipzig, 1857), 463.  Azraqi is a late Islamic source.  However, earlier sources don’t describe any tradition contrary to it.
83. Azraqi, History of Meccah, ed. Wustenfeld,  (Leipzig, 1857), 471, 2.
84. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad Vol IV, (Cairo: 1896), 352.  Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. c. 855 CE) is a late Islamic source.  Moreover, his known work is on hadith rather than on sirah.
85. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad Vol I, (Cairo: 1896), 255.
86. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad Vol III, (Cairo: 1896), 111.
87. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013),
88. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 6 – 8.
89. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 9.
90. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 9.
91. For the young death of Hashim at Gaza at the age of twenty see: Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967),  volume  1 Parts 1.17.5.
92. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 25, 62.
93. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965),
94. late Islamic sources inform us in an indirect way how the leadership of the Hashim clan changed hands.  There was a contract between the Hashim clan and the Khuza’ah.  Ibn Sa’d asserts that Abdul Muttalib left a will for his son Zubayr to abide by the contract with the Khuza’ah, Zubayr left a will for Abu Talib.  Abu Talib left a will for Abbas. (Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.18.4.).  Similarly, Ya’qubi informs us that Abdul Muttalib bequeathed his judicial authority to his son Zubayr. (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 607).
95. For clan affiliation of Abdullah bin Jud’an and that the pact was signed at his house see: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 608, 611.
96. For general inter-clan politics of pre-Islamic Mecca and relative social positions of different clans see: Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 31,32.
97. Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.32.2.  Ya’qubi gives his age to be between seventeen and twenty.  (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 609).
98. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 33.
99. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013). See also: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 610.
100. Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 610.  See also: Montgomery W. Watt, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford University Press London 1956) 102.
101. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Medina (London: Oxford University Press, 1956) 339.
102. Landau-Tasseron, Ella (1986). “The Sinful Wars: Religious, Social, and Historical Aspects of the Ḥurūb al Fijār,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986): 37 – 59.
103. For the result of the war see:  Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 610.  For analysis of the war see:  Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 14, 15.
104. For Abu Sufyan’s property in Taif see: Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 616.
105. kitab Muruj adh-dhahab wa ma’adin al-jawahir, eds Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille, (Paris: Societe Asiatique, 1861 -1877), Vol IV, P 123.  Mas’udi (d. 956 CE) is an extremely late Islamic source.
106. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad,  ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 57.
107. Mahmood Ibrahim, “Social and Economic Conditions in Pre-Islamic Mecca,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 14(3) (Aug. 1982): 355.
108. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 15.
109. Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life based on the Earliest Sources, (London: Islamic Texts Society, 1983), 31 32.  Early Islamic sources do not mention Prophet Muhammad’s participation in the event.  They are the late sources who record it.  However, early Islamic sources don’t record anything contrary to it.
110. For Uthman’s conversion to Christianity see: Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad,  ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 99.  For the analysis of the event see: Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 19. See also: Khalil ‘Athamina, “The Tribal Kings in Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Study of the Epithet malik or dhū al-tāj in Early Arabic Traditions,” al-Qantura 19 (1998): 35.
111. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 104 – 107.  See also: Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 8, 9.
112. Ma’mar claims that Waraqa had translated Gospel into Arabic.  (Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid. The Expeditions. Ed. Joseph E. Lowry, Trans. Sean W. Anthony.  (New York: New York University Press, 2015). 100). But Griffith proves that it was not until the Abbasid era that the Gospel was translated into Arabic (Griffith, Sidney H. “the Gospel in Arabic: An Inquiry into its Appearance in the First Abbasid Century” Oriens Christianus 69 (1985): 126 – 67.)
113. According to late Islamic sources the first revelation was Qur’an 96:1 – 5.  See Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.46.1.
114. There is a cave near Mecca, which Muslims traditionally believe to be the cave in which the Prophet received his first revelation. A visit to this cave is on the itinerary of many pilgrims.
115. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid. The Expeditions. Ed. Joseph E. Lowry, Trans. Sean W. Anthony.  (New York: New York University Press, 2015). 10, 11.
116. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad,  ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 281.
117. Leone Caetani, Annali dell’Islam vol. I, (Milan: 1905), 219.
118. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony,  (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 47.
119. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony,  (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 47.
120. Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905) 81.
121. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony,  (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 47.
122. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 117.
123. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 86.
124. Tabari 1168.
125. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad,  ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 115, 116, 117.
126. For real name of Abu Bakr see: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 748.  For real name of Sa’d bin Waqqas see: Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri.  Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 409.  For real name of Abu Ubayda bin Jarrah see: Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri.  Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 166.
127. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 87.
128. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 12.
129. Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905) 81.
130. Zinatullah Navshirvanov, “Kommunisticheskie techeniia v istorii musul’manskoi Kul’tury”, Novyi Vostok No. 4 (1923): 274 – 279.
131. M. Reisner, “Koran i yego sotsial’naia ideologiia”, Krasnaya Nov, vol. 9 (1926), 134 – 149.  AND   M. Reisner, “Koran i yego sotsial’naia ideologiia”, Krasnaya Nov, vol. 8 (1926), 146 – 164.
132. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 95, 96.
133. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 95, 96.
134. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad,  ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 98 – 103.
135. For the general decline of paganism in Arabia at the eve of Islam see: G. R. Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
136. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 97.
137. ‘Abd al-Muta’āl aṣ- Ṣa’i.di, Shabāb al-Quraysh, Cairo, 1947.
138. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 96.
139. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 117.  Ma’amar gives a time of four to five years. See:  Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 47. Ya’qūbī sticks to three years: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018),617.
140. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 24.  AND Ibn Sa’ad.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.  Leiden: 1905. iii/2 iii/1.
141. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 567.  AND Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 437.
142. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 118.  Also see: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 617.
143. Ibn Sa’ad.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.  Leiden: 1905. Vol I, part 1, p 133.
144. Tabari, Ann 1180.
146. Ya’qubi gives the Negus name of Aṣḥamah (اَصحَمَه).  See: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018),624]. Three points are noted in this passage.  Firstly, the first active opposition is said to be due to the mention of idols; secondly, some Quraysh with property in Taif were the leaders of the opposition to the Prophet; thirdly, all this preceded the emigration to Ethiopia. ¹⁴⁵Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965),101.
147. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 119.
148. For the real name of Abu Sufyan see: Abū Jā’far Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of al- Ṭabarī. Vol. XVIII, ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater, trans. Michael G. Morony (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 215.  For the real name of Abu Jahl see: Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 119.
149. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 122 – 127.
150. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965),135.
151. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 120.
152. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 118.
153. Clue to his leadership comes from the story that it was he who organized the rebuilding of the Ka’ba. See: Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 7.  For his leading role in the rebuilding of Ka’ba see also: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 613.
154. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965),134.
155. Abu Jahl attained the leadership role of the Makhzum clan only after the death of Walid bin Mughira, which occurred after the boycott but before Immigration to Medina.
156. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 145.
157. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965),117.
158. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 143 – 145.
159. Sumayya Umm Ammār was the first Muslim martyr. (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 621).
160. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013),.
161. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 88-94.
162. See above
163. Seventy might not be the total strength of Muslims at that time.  Some of them were residing in Ethiopia.
164. Waqidi, Dhakha’ir wa A’lak, 204.
165. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 146.  See also: Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 71.
166. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965),110.
167. Leone Caetani, Annali dell’Islam, (Milan: 1905), vol. I P 262 – 72.
168. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 526 – 530.  See also:  See also: Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 112.
169. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 80.
170. Leone Caetani, Annali dell’Islam, (Milan: 1905), vol. I P 262 – 72.  See also Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 112.
171. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 112.
172. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 113.
173. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 150 – 153.
174. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 121.
175. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 159.
176. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 159.
177. For breaking off the engagement see: Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 314.
178. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 120.
179. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 342.
180. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 122.
181. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 122.
182. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 169.
183. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 169.
184. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 167.
185. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 167.
186. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 122.
187. Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905) 170, 171.
188. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 191.
189. Ibn Sa’d, Kitāb al Ṭabaqāt al Kabīr, ed. and trans. S. Moinul Haq and H. K. Ghazanfar, (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967), volume 1 Parts 1.54.1.  Ibn Sa’d is a late Islamic source, anyhow.  See also Watt who used the tradition assuming its validity: Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 138.
190. Photo credit:  A. H. Mirza and sons.  Present location: British Library.  Tombs of Abu Ṭālib and Khadījah are those domed buildings that are more prominent in the photograph.  Jannat ul Mu’alla had been a tourist attraction for religious tourists for centuries.  It is mentioned by ibn Jubayr in his travelogue.  This historical graveyard was demolished by the Saudi government in 1925. 
192. Taif still exists in modern Saudi Arabia at its ancient location.  Its old name was Wajj.  The name changed in pre-Islamic times when the city got a city wall and started being called Taif.  (Aḥmad ibn-Jābir al-Balādhuri.  Kitāb Futūh al-Buldān, ed. and trans. Philip Khūri Ḥitti, (New York: Columbia University, 1916), 86)]  It was a commerce-based town but unlike Mecca, had agriculture in the countryside.  Its main inhabitants were Banu Thaqif (Thaqīf ثَقِيف) comprising of two parts, Banu Malik (Mālik مالِك) and Ahlaf (Aḥlāf احلاف).  Aḥlaf were custodians of the sanctuary of the goddess Allāt.  The Malik were intimately connected with the Hawazin who dominated the surrounding countryside. ¹⁹¹Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 139.
193. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 192.  See also Tabri 1199 – 1202.
194. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 139.
195. Photographer unknown.  This track has been in use in its paved form for at least 1000 years.  There might be a precursor track before it was paved.  It fell into ruins after the advent of motorized traffic and the construction of a metal road in 1953.  It is restored by the Saudi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in 2012 to its former glory as a tourist attraction.  (Zia H. Shah. “1000 years old Mountain Path to Taif Restored.”  Arab News.  Jan. 12, 2012.)
196. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 193.
197. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 194.
198. Nakhlah is Ash-Shara’i’ neighbourhood of Mecca in modern Saudi Arabia.
199. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 194.
200. Mut’im bin Adi had played a role in ending the Boycott earlier.  He never accepted Islam.  He had died by the time of the battle of Badr and did not participate in it from the polytheist side.  (Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 56).
201. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 140.
202. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013),194.
203. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 140.
204. Ya’qubi, a very late Islamic source highlights this point.  See: Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018),632.  See also: Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965), 140.
205. One significant conversion, just before Umar’s was that of Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib.
206. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 197.
207. There is a mosque by name of Masjid Bay’ah in the vicinity of Mina in modern Saudi Arabia.  Muslims believe that it was constructed at the site of the pledge of Aqabah.
208. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 198.
209. Ibn Sa’ad.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.  Leiden: 1905. Vol II, Part II P 22.
210. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 235.
211. Ibn Sa’ad.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.  Leiden: 1905. Vol III P 82.
212. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 235.
213. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 261.  See also:  Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905) 196.
214. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 145.
215. For the name of the pledge see Ya’qubi, who calls it the pledge of women.  (Ya’qūbī, Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-, The Works of Ibn Wāḍīḥ al-Ya’qūbī: An English Translation, Eds. and Trans. Matthew S. Gordon, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson and Michael Fishbein, (Leiden: Brill, 2018),635.
216. Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905) 199.
217. Ibn Sa’ad.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.  Leiden: 1905. Vol II, ii, 19.
218. Isabah Ibn Hajr, (Calcutta 1853 – 1894), Vol. iii 1179.
219. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 201 -204.
220. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Medina (London; Oxford University Press, 1956) 174.
221. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 203 -204.
222. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 147.
223. For the presence of Sa’d bin Ubada on the occasion see: Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 204.  For his tribal affiliation see: Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 96.
224. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 206.  See also: Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 52.
225. For Sa’d bin Mu’adh’s acceptance of Islam by that time see: Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 200.
226. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 204.
227. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 206.
228. Ibn Sa’ad.  Biographien Muhammeds, seiner Gefahten und der spateren Trager des Islams bis zum jahre 230 der Flucht. ed. E. Sachau.  Leiden: 1905. 171.
230.   Eventually seventy Muslims immigrated to Yathrib including the Prophet himself.²²⁹Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 145.
231. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 147.
232. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 147.
233. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013),.
234. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 150.
235. For use of the word ‘flight’ instead of ‘immigration’ see: Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905.
236. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 221.
237. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 221 – 222.
238. Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī, The life of Muḥammad:  kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 56.
239. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 150.
240. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 221 – 227.
241. There is a cave near Mecca, which the Muslims believe to be the cave where the Prophet hid.  A visit to the cave is on the itinerary of many pilgrims.
242. For example, Meccan polytheists took Khubayb bin ‘Adi out of the limits of the Haram to kill him. (Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 40).
243. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 150.
244. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 151
245. Ma‘mar ibn Rāshid, The Expeditions, ed. Joseph E. Lowry, trans. Sean W. Anthony, (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 78.
246. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 227.
247. Montgomery W. Watt Muhammad at Mecca Oxford University Press London 1953 (repr. 1965) 151.
248. For the date see: Isabah Ibn Hajr Calcutta 1853 – 1894 Vol. ii 696.  For the calculation see: Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905), 213.
250.   As Jews use the solar calendar, Margoliouth has calculated the date of Yom Kippur of the year 622 CE to be September 20, 622 CE.²⁴⁹Margoliouth, D. S. Muhammed and the rise of Islam New York: knickerbocker press,1905) chronology XVI.
251. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 281.
254. Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013),.²⁵²  Its years are counted as ‘After Hijrah’ and are abbreviated as AH.

     Ali reached Yathrib three days later after returning different people’s properties that were deposited with the Prophet.²⁵³Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013),.