ONCE UPON A HISTORY

Pre-Islamic Arabia and the Hijrah

A Brief Introduction to Islamic Studies

Philip Alexander, B. A.

Conditions in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Water is the key ingredient to life. In today’s world, we just walk to a faucet and flip it

on, but in the ancient world, water was more difficult to find and produce. Access to water

became the focal point in regards to building settlements. If there was no water, there was no

community. In the desert conditions of the Arabian Peninsula, this was especially true. Places

with access to water were able to thrive, and one such settlement was Mecca. Mecca was

established around the Zamzam Well, and the well dispensed enough drinking water to support

an entire community. Without the Zamzam Well, Mecca would not have been able to grow into

an international settlement.

The people of ancient Arabia were divided into many tribes, some nomadic and some

sedentary. “The principal sources of livelihood were herding, agriculture, trade, and raiding.”1

Intertribal warfare was a constant part of life. A tribe was continually trying to establish their

dominance over the others with the end goal of absorbing tribes and growing in strength and

numbers.

The tribal nature of the Arabian Peninsula created a number of problems for the

inhabitants there. The foremost was the constant warfare. A tribe was never safe from attack or

raiding, but as time passed the tribe leaders adopted many rules to govern the warfare. Central

rules to the warfare made certain that the tribal deities would be respected. One of the rules was

the institution of the harams. The harams were local shrines in which the Arabian gods were

thought to inhabit. “The haram consisted of a sacred area with definite boundaries around the

1 Esposito, Muhammad and the Quran: Messenger and Message . 2-3.

shrine proper, in which it was forbidden for members of the cult to engage in bloodshed or

violence.”2

In the Islamic tradition, Abraham journeyed to Mecca to visit his son, Ishmael. In Mecca,

the father and son were instructed by God to build a sanctuary. The sanctuary they built is named

the Ka’bah.3 In modern times the Ka’bah is the most sacred site in Islam. However, the Ka’bah

was a significant holy site long before the birth of Muhammad. The religion of pre-Islamic

Arabia was polytheistic and reflected the tribal nature of the area. The religions incorporated idol

worship and placed great importance on rituals. The rituals needed local shrines and places of

worship to complete them. The Ka’bah was a central shrine of the tribal gods. The Ka’bah

“housed the 360 idols of tribal patron deities, and was the site of a great annual pilgrimage and

fair.”4

The Ka’bah was a local shrine and sacred area. The Ka’bah was one of the areas

considered holy enough to be given the designation of haram. The Ka’bah being in the limits of

Mecca created an Arabian haram for the settlement. Mecca was a safe haven in the Arabian

Desert where no violence would befall someone within city limits. The haram allowed for the

deities to be respected and for people to worship in peace, but at the same time it also allowed for

much more. A nonviolent region attracts people from many walks of life. A merchant looking to

trade does not want to be in danger of losing their valuable goods so they are attracted to a place

where they will not be raided. Opposing tribes looking to negotiate with one another would be

attracted to a neutral area where they are not in danger of being ambushed. Many other types of

people would be similarly attracted to spending time in a place protected by the rules of the

2 Fred M. Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, (London: Harvard University Press,

2010), 30. 3 Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2006),3.

4 Esposito, Muhammad and the Quran: Messenger and Message, 3.

haram. Mecca was particularly attractive because the Zamzam Well provided enough drinking

water for settlers and pilgrims alike.

During late antiquity Mecca became a major settlement of the Arabian Peninsula. Mecca

had several aspects that contributed to its rise. The Well of Zamzam and the water it produced

gave the city the ability to sustain life. The Ka’bah and its meaning to all of the religions of the

Arabs gave the city a religious importance that few other areas had. The religious importance of

the city and the rules that governed warfare that created the haram gave the people who settled

and traveled to the city a relatively high level of safety. The high level of safety allowed for trade

to flourish within the city limits. The ability to maintain life, its religious meaning, and being a

trade center combined to allow Mecca to become one of the only major settlements in the Arab

world.

The Hijrah

In 610 CE, Muhammad began receiving revelations from Allah. After a couple years he

decided to go public with his message and accrued a following in the city of Mecca.

Muhammad’s revelations consisted of messages to live righteously, but the most important

revelation he shared with the community was that there was only one god. These messages

inspired a “community of believers” that followed Muhammad, and believed him to be a prophet

sent from God. The Quraysh were the dominant tribe in Mecca and “were generally a tolerant

people, but as soon as Muhammad forbade the cult of the old deities of Arabia a gulf of

suspicion and hatred suddenly opened between the Qurayshi majority and the Muslim

community.”5 The chiefs wanted to silence the message of Muhammad, but were initially unable

to without creating a blood feud, because Muhammad was under the protection of his uncle Abu

Talib.

5 Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1993), 108.

The year 619 CE is often referred to as the year of sadness. First, Muhammad’s wife

Khadijah passed away. While not a huge hit to the movement, the death of Khadijah was a huge

loss for Muhammad as she was “not only his wife but also his intimate friend, his wise

counselor, and mother to his whole household.”6 Shortly after her death, Muhammad’s uncle and

protector Abu Talib fell ill and passed away. With no protector Muhammad was left vulnerable.

He was no longer free from harassment and on one occasion a man threw a handful of dirt at

Muhammad’s face and on another occasion a man threw a filthy sheep’s uterus over Muhammad

while he prayed.7 Muhammad continued to try and spread his message, but it was becoming

clear that it would be impossible to do so in Mecca without a protector.

Muhammad continued preaching his message, but he knew that his movement was no

longer safe in Mecca. In 620 CE, Muhammad presented himself to six pilgrims from Yathrib.

These six pilgrims realized that as a prophet Muhammad would make a good, impartial leader.

The six surrendered to the will of Allah and entered Muhammad’s community of believers.8

These pilgrims saw a better world through Muhammad and the following year during the hajj

they brought more people from Yathrib to meet Muhammad and hear his message. They

surrendered to the will of Allah and when the group left to return to Yathrib, Muhammad sent

with them Mu’sab ibn Umayr so that he could teach the people of Yathrib the Qu’ran. 9 The

growing hostility in Mecca combined with the growing support in Yathrib led Muhammad to

encourage his followers in Mecca to emigrate to Yathrib.

Muhammad’s encouragement began the exodus of Muslims to Yathrib. “Some of the

larger houses in Mecca were now tenantless; others, which had been full, were now empty save

6 Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions,

2006),98. 7 Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, 100.

8 Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet , 144.

9 Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet , 146.

for one or two old people.” 10 The emigration from Mecca to Yathrib greatly angered the

Quraysh. The Quraysh realized that it was time to take action. They gathered in an Assembly to

decide what to do. It was decided that “every clan was to nominate a strong, reliable, and well-

connected young man, and at a given moment all these chosen men together should fall upon

Muhammad, each striking him a mortal blow, so that his blood would be on all the clans.”11

Muhammad learned of the plot to kill him and he knew that he could no longer stay in Mecca.

Muhammad quickly made plans to leave Mecca and made his own hijrah to Yathrib. Shortly

after arriving in Yathrib the name of the city was changed to Medina, to signify it as “the city of

the prophet.”

Muhammad migrating to Medina started a new period for the Islamic movement.

Suddenly, Muhammad had power and legitimacy in his city. In Mecca, Muhammad had been

receiving revelations with the message of living righteously, but once he was set up in Medina

the revelations began to hold the message of how to live righteously. The community of

believers that followed Muhammad had started as a spiritual community and was maturing into a

political community. In Medina, Muhammad was able to build a place of worship and walk

through the streets without fear of being disrespected or injured. Muhammad could preach his

message and create a following that was loyal to him. As the arbiter of disputes in Medina

Muhammad had the role of political leader of the city, and as the prophet of Allah he was also a

religious leader in the Believers’ movement.12 Muhammad took these combined roles to increase

the size and power of his community of believers. The people of Medina flocked to the Islamic

faith and, when threatened with war from the people of Mecca, united under Muhammad.

10

Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, 119. 11

Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, 119. 12

Fred M. Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, (London: Harvard University Press,

2010), 75.

The hijrah marks an enormous turning point in the founding of Islam. Muhammad never

wanted to leave Mecca, but the political pressure from the Quraysh forced Muhammad to flee.

Leaving Mecca became an event that helped the Islamic faith grow and mature. Having the

political backing of the city and a constantly growing religious presence in Medina allowed

Islam to grow into a religion to be contended with. No longer was the religion just one man, but

it was an entire city. While the hijrah was a very challenging time for Muhammad and his

community of believers, it marked the true beginning of Muhammad’s movement as a religion

and that is why today it is year 0 on the Islamic calendar.