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The Journal of Middle Eastern and North African Intellectual and Cultural Studies
Volume 2, Issue 1

Individualism, Movement, and Change in Early Mecca and Medina GHADA OSMAN
In pre-Islamic times, the main unit of social organization was the tribe, which was made up of a number of clans. Each clan had a chief, who, although not perceived as an absolute leader, was at least a first among a group of equals that served as some sort of advisory council or majlis. Tribal and group solidarity, and collective unity, were seen as the unwritten oral law of society. Nevertheless, although group identity was a major part of early Meccan and Medinan life, individualism and the social and intellectual movements that were its by products, were starting to take hold by the late sixth and early seventh centuries. This process was enhanced by physical movement from place to place. The term individualism has been interpreted in distinct ways in different parts of the world. I use the term as defined by the mainstream of French thought, especially in the nineteenth century. Associated by Durkheim with the twin concepts of anomie and egoism, individualism here refers to the social, moral and political isolation of individuals, their disassociation from social purposes and social regulation, [and] the breakdown of social solidarity. The definition of individualism includes, more particularly, autonomy and economic individualism, rather than the values of privacy, or the ethical, epistemological, and methodological individualism, that have been associated with the term in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In his 1953 work Muhammad in Mecca, W. Montgomery Watt advanced the theory of social breakdown as an explanation for the rapid rise and spread of the Islamic faith. Others have also referred to the social change that was occurring within Mecca at the time. John Esposito writes, The emergence of Mecca as a major mercantile center precipitated the beginnings of a new political, social, and economic order. New wealth, the rise of a new commercial oligarchy from within the Quraysh tribe, greater division between social classes, and a growing disparity between rich and poor strained the traditional system of Arab tribal values and social security. It is Watt in particular, however, who links the social significance of these changes to the realm of religion: Here then was an important material change from a pastoral, nomadic economy to a mercantile one. The Meccans had retained the attitudes and social institutions appropriate to the life of the nomad in the desert, such as blood feuds and clan solidarity. Even if they had not been pure nomads for some time, they had remained sufficiently close to the desert to have preserved much of its outlook. The essential situation out of which Islam emerged was the contrast and conflict between the Meccans nomadic outlook and attitudes and the new material (or economic) environment in which they found themselves.

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At the level of social institutions this was seen in the breakdown of the tribe or clan and of the solidarity associated with it. In the hard conditions of the desert[,] men had to join with one another in order to survive. They did so on the basis of kinship in units that may be called tribes or clans. Solidarity, or loyalty to ones kin, was of the utmost importance. If you saw your kinsman in danger, you went to his help without asking whether he was right or wrong. In Mecca this tribal solidarity was being replaced by individualism. There may have been some beginnings of individualism among the nomads, but at Mecca the trend to individualism was mainly due to the growth of commerce. The great merchants put business interests before everything else, and would join with business associates against their fellow-clansmen. Watt expounds on his theory, explaining how this resulted in a breakdown in morality and a general deterioration in Meccan religious life that subsequently facilitated the rise of Islam. He extends his hypothesis about the rise of individualism to Medina, where the nomadic outlook and ethic, to which the men of Medina still adhered, was not suited to the conditions of agricultural life in an oasis. This tension, Watt believes, was what had led to the eruption of war in the city. Gordon Newby also notes how factors of location and occupation were as important as religion and tribal heritage in some Arabian alliances, although there were still remnants of old relationships. Groups from different tribes lived together in the various localities around the greater area of Yathrib. Upon his arrival in Medina, Watt notes, Muhammad was seen as chief of the clan of the Emigrants. This position, although nominally part of the framework of a tribal social system, actually groups people again along lines based on religion and not on kinship. The purpose of this article is to expand on the theory expounded by Watt, by building a theoretical framework for this socio-cultural transformation. First of all, it discusses the economic position of Mecca and Medina and establishes the existence of trade as a noteworthy force in the cities. Second, it highlights how the introduction of trade led to the spread of social movement and the development of the social structure. In time, both of these factors (which could be both interdependent and independent) resulted in exposure to different ideas, with the consequent outcome of a willingness for intellectual experimentation, particularly in the realm of religion. The case of the four hanifs, whose pre-Islamic travels were specifically undertaken to find an alternate religion, demonstrate these changes. The article concludes with an examination of the relationship between the individual and his society, highlighting the links and tensions between the two. The Economic Position of Mecca and Medina The extent of Meccas trade has given rise to a full debate among scholars, the majority of whom have held the belief that trade in the city was on a fairly large scale. Meccans reportedly dealt in leather, ingots of gold and silver, gold dust (tibr), and perfumes and spices from South Arabia or India. According to Jawad Ali, Mecca also traded in grapes, cloth, and weapons, some of which were from Syria and Yemen, and again possibly India. Shahid writes that by the time of the Prophets great-grandfather Hashim, Meccan trade had become extra-Arabian, involving, among other powers, Byzantium itself. In the late sixth century, Mecca had become the meeting point of trade routes, one from the east, a second from the south, and a third from the African mainland. Its commercially advantageous location was further enhanced by the Zamzam water well that made the city a convenient stop on the trade route. Meccans also had access to the port of al-Shuayba, and thus could import and export material by sea. The Quraysh had introduced trade agreements or ilafs with Abyssinia, Byzantium, and the Sasanian Empire, as well as with the bedouin along the trade routes. The ilaf not only helped Meccan trade by providing mobility for its capital and by leaving caravans to travel unmolested, but it also encouraged development of the tribal economy by assuring a market for its products, thus raising the Qurayshs prestige. An opposing school of thought holds the belief that Mecca was in fact not a large trading center. Most prominent among those holding this view is Patricia Crone, whose essential premise is that the lack of basic sources makes any assumptions about the existence of a rich Meccan trade unproveable. She also cites factors that raise questions about the feasibility of this trade, such as Meccas location, not a logical choice for a trade center, and the Meccans lack of ships. Indeed, the Meccans had no ships. Mahmood Ibrahim mentions that the Meccans used to hire ships for their trade in the Red Sea and beyond, but he gives no further detail on the matter. We know that the Quraysh had to resort to hauling a broken Byzantine ship from the Red Sea all the way into Mecca in order to rebuild the Kaba, and that when some of its wood proved inadequate, they had
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no option but to leave the shrines original brick. Likewise, the Muslims early migration to Abyssinia appears to have been on Abyssinian vessels. Tabari tells us that God caused two merchant ships at al-Shuayba to halt for the Muslims, and in these Muslims were carried to Abyssinia for half a dinar. Ibn Kathir confirms that the first Emigrants eleven men and four women walked and/or rode their way to the sea and then rented a boat for half a dinar to Abyssinia, inasmuch as Mecca didnt have the means of transporting even fifteen people. When it was time for the Emigrants to return, Muammad asked the Negus to send back those of his Companions that were still there, transporting them back, which he did, according to Ibn Hibban, in two vessels. On the other hand, the attempt by the Neguss son to cross to Arabia with 60 others is simply described as follows: His son left with sixty people from Abyssinia in a boat on the sea. This contrast is not surprising: Abyssinia was a country with a shoreline, whereas Mecca was independent from the rest of Arabia, with no direct access to the sea. As is clearly demonstrated here, however, the Meccans managed to maintain some kind of sea trade with Abyssinia through the use of the latters vessels. Axum had no shortage of vessels, since its prosperity depended on its key role in the lucrative Red Sea and Indian Ocean. In fact, M.J. Kister points to a statement in the anonymous Nihayat al-Irab fi Akhbar al-Furs wa al-Arab that declares Abyssinia to have been the best land in which the Meccan merchants traded. Watt surmises that the Muslim Emigrants to Abyssinia made a good life as traders there. Trade ties with Abyssinia involved the Arabs sending the Abyssinians hides as raw material and the Abyssinians returning them as finished products. The value of Meccas hides was well known. When Amr b. al-As went to Abyssinia to attempt to persuade its ruler, the Negus, to return the Muslims whom he was protecting in his land, he took leather with him, since the gift he (the Negus) liked most from our lands was tanned hides; so we gathered up many tanned hides for him. We also know that the Negus once gave the Prophet a pair of plain black leather shoes. For the Prophet, this was an unusual gift; Ibn Majah mentions the tradition in connection with several concerns that then arose about the performance of ablution while wearing such footwear. Conversely, the Negus, despite giving such a gift, liked receiving leather from Arabia, demonstrating that the product was not commonplace in Abyssinia. Trade ties deepened the link between the two lands. Despite the distance between Abyssinia and Mecca, Abd al-Muttalib wanted to enlist the help of the Negus of Abyssinia as an arbitrator in a dispute between him and Harb b. Umayya over a Jew who had been killed. What is more remarkable is that upon the rulers refusal, a local man, Nufayl b. Abd al-Uzza b. Riyah, was appointed instead, leading one to wonder why he had not been the first choice, and why Abd alMuttalib would have wished to enlist the help of a man who was so far away. One possible answer to this question is that at the time of the dispute the Negus was actually in Arabia. We have reports that he had been there: Waqidi relates that when the Negus heard of the victory at Badr, he asked the Muslims of its location. Upon being informed, he recognized it: I know it. I used to herd sheep near it. He even remembered its exact location, recalling that it took part of a day to reach from the coast. The Meccans connection to Abyssinia continued to exist until the time of the conquest of Mecca, when Ikrima b. Abi Jahl attempted an escape from Yemen to Abyssinia. The Meccans, therefore, had access to lands that were across the Red Sea. Even F.E. Peters, who belongs to the school that is skeptical about the extent of Meccan trade, deems it likely that the Quraysh was involved in an internal barter system, whereby it traded the goods coming from the oases and the bedouin dates, raisins, leather for manufactured items like textiles and oil available at Hira, Gaza, Bursa and the Yemen. It is important to note that the exact scale of Meccas trade is not significant for the purposes of this article. An internal barter system, combined with an opportunity for Red Sea trade, are two elements that would make up a powerful trade network; in general, we can thus surmise that Meccas role as a trade center was significant. Yathribs economy was easier to maintain than that of Mecca: it was an agricultural oasis of about twenty square miles or more, and its livelihood was primarily gained from growing dates and cereal. The city did have a market that was controlled by the Jewish tribe of Qaynuqa, in whose quarter it was. It also had a caravan trade with Syria. The journey to the sea took about three days, and Medinans received their imports at the port of al-Bihar, where the merchants ships, including those carrying food from Egypt, would dock. Yaqubi informs us that Yathribs main tribes, the Aws and Khazraj, lived in Quba, 6 amyal from Yathrib itself, and this is, in fact, where the Prophet first migrated before continuing on to Yathrib. Sixth-century Mecca and Medina had a great deal of interaction with each another. There was an oft-traveled route between them, with ten stopping places along the way. Intermarriage occurred between the inhabitants of the two cities: the Prophets great-grandfather Hashim was reportedly

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visiting Medina when he married a native of that city. His son, the Prophets grandfather Abd alMuttalib, was raised in Medina, and only came to Mecca as a youth. Muhammads own mother, Amina, was of Medinan stock, and died on the way back to Mecca from a visit to Medina. Thus, the two cities, both with significant trading activities, were also interconnected through family ties, expanding their socio-cultural communication networks. A New Weltanschauung As Meccan and Medinan societies continued to trade with their neighbors, their social systems began to undergo significant changes. The rise of a merchant outlook led to an individualism that ultimately resulted in openness to new ideas. I have expressed the steps involved in this process in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 I. Society organized along tribal lines II. Introduction/rise of trade III. Movement for trading purposes IV. Realignment of social structure V. Decline of bloodline as sole type of identification

VI. Decline of strict adherence to all elements of tribal affiliation

VII. More exposure to the ideas of others and more space for affiliation not based on clan or tribal gods VIII. More recognition of gaps or inconsistencies in ones Weltanschauung and more dissatisfaction with it IX. Willingness to experiment with new ideas Stages I-IV Mercantilism brought about the rise of autonomy and economic individualism and promoted them by giving the individual the opportunity to travel away from his clan. The rise of mercantilism was connected with an unprecedented increase in travel. Physical relocation had been occurring on a local level for religious reasons, but now it assumed a grander scale, with travelers venturing farther out more frequently. As more focus was placed on trade, conditions were developed to facilitate its promotion. One such condition was the establishment of the ilaf. In pre-Islamic times Abd Manaf b. Qusayy, the Prophets great-great-grandfather, was credited with having set up treaties with different powers. Ibn Sad reports from al-Kalbi: Abd Manaf b. Qusayy had six boys and six girls. Al-Muttalib b. Abd Manaf, the eldest, carried out the Qurayshs treaty with the Negus to trade in his land. Hashim b. Abd Manaf, whose name was Amr, instituted the Qurayshs treaty with Heraclius so that they could travel to and fro in safety and Nawfal b. Manaf, instituted the treaty for the Quraysh with Chosroes of Iraq..

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Thus we know of the establishment of trade relations with Abyssinia, as well as with (or at least parts of them) the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires. Hashims agreement, at least, contained further stipulations. Ibn Sad gives another report: Hashim was a noble man, who undertook a treaty with Caesar so that Quraysh could travel to and fro safely; as for the inhabitants along the way, Quraysh pledged to carry their goods without dues. Caesar wrote him a letter, and wrote to the Negus to let the Quraysh enter his land, as they were merchants. Hashim went out with a caravan with goods headed towards the city, stopping at the Nabats market Trading put the Quraysh in contact with those probably bedouin nomads whom they encountered along the trade routes, as well as with Caesar and the Negus of Abyssinia. Hashim was also the one who reportedly set up Qurayshs annual trade cycle, and appears to have been on good terms with the rulers of the neighboring lands. He was the first to have made the two trips of the Quraysh a tradition. One would be undertaken in the winter to the Yemen and to Abyssinia and the Negus, who would be generous and embrace him, and another in the summer to Syria, to Gaza, and perhaps even to Ancyra where he would visit Caesar, who would [also] be generous and embrace him Regardless of the likelihood of the trade treaties being so neatly set in place by the four brothers, it is evident that the Meccans and Medinans were becoming exposed to other people from other lands and with other ways of thinking. First, they were receiving merchants from neighboring regions. For example, we hear of oil-bearing merchants coming to Medina from Syria. Azraqi tells us how the Quraysh would tax the Byzantine merchants entering Mecca, just as the Byzantines taxed those of the Quraysh who entered their lands. Al-Numan b. al-Mundhir, ruler of Hira (r. 580-602), used to send caravans to trade at Ukaz. In time, the Meccans themselves began undertaking journeys. Al-Abbas used to frequent Basra. Before becoming a Muslim, al-Mughira b. Shuba went with a group to Egypt and gave gifts to the ruler al-Muqawqis, who granted the group accommodation in a church. Members of Quraysh frequented Syria on a regular basis: Quraysh went to Syria with its caravan. The caravan had 1,000 animals, and a great deal of money that belonged to at least four large families, who were all partaking in this trading expedition. By the time of the rise of Islam, the leading merchants of Mecca had gained control of a great volume of trade passing between Syria and the Mediterranean on the one hand, and South Arabia and the Indian Ocean on the other. Stages V-VI. All of this occurred as the individual Meccan or Medinan was breaking away from his or her old familiar clan ties. He or she was beginning to see the world in terms of different relationships and alignments. The sources tell us how trade-transactions gave rise to various partnerships, such as the one between the Prophets uncle al-Abbas and the Makhzumite Khalid b. al-Walid. And in the vicious cycle that often accompanies such phenomena, physical movement, and the differentiation between one member of a clan and another, further heightened the burgeoning individualism of the time. The economic situation necessitated organization that was no longer based upon identities of groups linked by blood but by mercantile affiliation. The increasing rate of travel greatly changed the face of Mecca and Medina. Visitors came to the cities, but also foreigners who then took up residence there. Previously, conditions had not facilitated the immigration of foreigners. The Meccan climate and physical conditions were usually harsh in comparison to those of the would-be immigrants native lands. The Hijaz was, after all, one of the few settled areas that the Byzantine missionaries had been completely unable to penetrate. In the old system dominated by clan affiliations, a solitary existence was not easy. But as Meccas status as a trade center rose, more foreigners frequented it. In time, the system created a place for these outsiders. A number of Arabs from outside Mecca were attached to clans as confederates. The system developed so that a stranger without a confederate or patron was at a loss in a dispute, but the existence of an insider confederate raised the status of that stranger. Becoming an ally or a confederate (halif) was not the only way of building an affiliation to a clan.
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Arabic sources mention a number of strangers and foreigners--Byzantines, Abyssinians, Egyptians, and Persians, as well as Arabs from outside Mecca and Medinawho were allied to tribes as mawali (singular mawla) A mawla was a manumitted slave who was required to remain beholden to his former lord When the mawla satisfied the terms of agreement, he could move up the social ladder and become a halif with little restriction upon his social and economic mobility. As opposed to being a ghulam or an abd, being a mawla did not imply the lesser existence that immediately comes to mind. After all, upon arrival from Abyssinia, the nephew of the ruling Negus became the Prophets mawla. It is unlikely that the Negus or his nephew would have been agreeable to such an arrangement had it implied inferiority. In a system where many of the clans had allies, including those who were sometimes of some station, manumitted slaves, whether Arab or foreign, could end up being similar in status to the members of the clan who adopted them. In the Arab model, being a mawla implied assimilation into the clan. A frequently mentioned tradition involves the Persian mawla Abu Uqba al-Farisi. As he struck a man at Uhud, the Prophet heard him uttering, Take this from me, the Persian mawla! The Prophet responded, What kept you from saying the Ansari mawla? A mawla of a people is of them. Affiliation of a mawla to a clan enabled an individual to fit into the fabric of society, and extended the social structure even further outside the limits of bloodlines. Stage VII. The growth of individualism meant that foreigners and mawali outside a community could be accepted into a tribal grouping that was, strictly speaking, arranged along bloodlines. And in addition to having foreign mawali living in their midst, the Meccans and Medinans themselves were traveling outside their cities. They were coming into contact with their foreign hosts, the bedouin along the way, and Arab co-travelers from other parts of the peninsula. Thus they were encountering and often becoming very familiar with the belief systems of others. Stages VIII-IX. Whereas we begin to learn of travel for trading purposes from at least the time of the Prophets great-great-grandfather Qusayy, it is only a few years before the Prophets mission that we begin to hear about distant travel that is being undertaken for religious reasons. The first instance in which we hear about this is that of the four hanifs. Having together renounced idolatry in pre-Islamic times, four men, Zayd b. Amr b. Nufayl, Ubayd Allah b. Jahsh, Waraqa b. Nawfal, and Uthman b. al-Huwayrith, set out to find an alternative religious path. At least two of the four, Zayd b. Amr b. Nufayl and Uthman b. al-Huwayrith, traveled outside Arabia to do so. Zayd remained a hanif, traveling far and wide in his religious quest. Ubayd Allah b. Jahsh became a Muslim and then migrated to Abyssinia, where he converted to Christianity and later died. Waraqa b. Nawfal and Uthman b. al-Huwayrith became Christians and returned to Mecca. Here we see an example of the actions and changes in a society inspiring a group of individuals to break away--physcially and intellectually--from the dominant trend. These individuals also ended up following their own personal paths, in part thanks to their contacts with the outside world, in part because of the freedom they had in search of their religion. They were traveling not for trade, but for personal fulfillment. Meccan society had reached a point at which the individualism that had been intimately connected with the merchants and their travels was now so developed that it could be divorced from its source of origin. An individual did not need to be involved in trade to be exposed to others ideas and move beyond his own. In addition to the significance of individualism, the case of the four hanifs demonstrates something else. Although having undertaken their spiritual search together, and having both become Christians, Waraqa b. Nawfal and Uthman b. al-Huwayrith manifested their Christianity in completely different ways. Waraqa became an isolated monk: we hear of few interactions between him and the Meccans, the most significant being with Khadija upon the onset of Muhammads revelations. Uthman, on the other hand, traveled to the Byzantine Empire, met with Caesar, and returned to attempt to change the Meccans views. Uthmans Christianity threatened the very heart of Meccas own political system. Presented in the sources as hungry for power, Uthman convinced Caesar to annex Mecca, with its prestigious trade, to his realm, and to make him its ruler. He then returned to the Meccans and tried to persuade them to relinquish their independence and submit to Caesar. O People! he said,
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Caesar is the one in whose lands you have trodden safely and where you have traded under his protection. He has made me king over you; I am your cousin and one of you. I will gather the scabbard of the sant tree, a container of ghee, and some untanned hide, and send it to him. In order to ensure that his plan was obeyed, he ended his words with a threat: I am afraid that if you refuse he will deny you Syria so that you cannot trade there, and your benefits from there will be cut off. With great trepidation, the Meccans, alarmed about the future of their trade, at first promised to comply. They grudgingly agreed to make Uthman their ruler and dispersed, but they could not let the matter lie. Meccas livelihood rested in putting its commercial interest before any other considerations, but this meant maintaining a policy of neutrality in the midst of the ByzantineSasanian struggle. Finally, it was Uthmans cousin Abu Zama al-Aswad b. al-Muttalib b. Asad-perhaps because he was closer to Uthman--who was able to stand firm against the latters wishes and persuade the Meccans to follow suit. The Meccans needed no further encouragement, and, when morning came, Uthman found that he no longer had any support for his plan. Furthermore, the Quraysh surreptitiously attempted to sabotage Uthmans efforts with Caesar through Amr b. Jafna, one of their merchants in Syria. The latter wrote to Caesars interpreter, asking him to alter whatever Uthman said, so that Caesar would be displeased with him. Familiar enough with the Byzantines through travel by both parties, the Quraysh had been horrified at the possibility of not being able to maintain their trade with them. But they were now being asked to change their political affiliation, causing an upheaval. This was what would have also ensued as a result of Abrahas invasion of Mecca, another notion that was met with resistance. We see here how the Quraysh drew the line between a personal religious choice and a choice that affected the political order by establishing a foreign power. Religion had become somewhat amorphous. Strict clan lines had disintegrated. The movement of new ideas was accelerating and spreading farther and farther. Yet Uthmans desires could not be seriously considered. Why? Change can only occur within a context that maintains some continuities with the past. Meccan and Medinan societies were able to function albeit weakly under their new system because there were some elements of stability. The old system was operating as a cocoon for the new system, but it was nevertheless a cocoon that was very much present and determinant. Furthermore, enough of the old system had survived so that a complete change in political organization would have upset the socio-economic balance to the disadvantage of those merchants who had been gaining from their positions under that system. Watt points out that in the new system the heads of the strongest clans also seem to have been securing a monopolistic grip on the most lucrative forms of trade. There were rival parties within this stratum, sometimes following the lines of the old clan alliances, and sometimes overstepping them. That is to say, the maintenance of some measure of the old political system was a necessity for the new one to flourish. The case of Abu Amir al-Rahib of Medina demonstrates this point. Having become a Christian in Medina, he was viewed very much as a leader in his hometown. Ibn Kathir tells us that he held a high place of honor among the Khazraj. He staunchly opposed the Prophet upon his arrival to Medina, and joined the Meccans in their battles against Muhammad. When Mecca was conquered, he escaped to Taif, and when that town was captured, to Syria. The opponents of Muhammad, fighting to maintain the old status quo, fully embraced Abu Amir in their midst. He may have ultimately wanted to lead the Medinans or the Meccans, but he was approaching the matter from inside the old political system, rather than suggesting an external change. Despite all the changes that were taking place, one can see that the old system was very much in force in certain ways. Watt postulates that Muhammad suffered from the breakdown of clan unity as the primary force of social cohesion. This occured in his last year or two at Mecca, when his uncle Abu Lahabs friends among the great merchants induced him to turn against his nephew. Yet here the case of Abu Talib, who protected his nephew despite the temptations of the Quraysh, immediately comes to mind. Of course Muhammad was very close to Abu Talib in particular, having grown up in his household and later having taken in Abu Talibs son Ali to be raised in his home. But even bearing in mind this strong emotional tie, this is still a clear example of clan solidarity. Soon after presenting the above-mentioned example, Watt himself notes in support of another point that a new type of unit was being formed by common business interests, but to this unit few of the older social attitudes were attached. Although his emphasis is on the dearth rather than the
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plethora of these social attitudes, he admits the presence of some leftover aspects of the old system. As Rahman points out even in the early Meccan period, the Quran had categorically asked the Prophet to approach first of all your nearest relations and your tribe. The individual cannot exist without some form of plurality, within a society or within more traditional groupings, or, in our case, within the clan. In addition to being a strongly instinctual, sometimes rational, zoon, Platos individual is also a mere part of something greater than himself. The individual and the communal can be recognized, and the identification of one is linked to the identification of the other. As the celebrated sociologist Marcel Mauss noted in his study of clan roles in the Pueblo of Zui, we already see a notion of the person or individual, absorbed in his clan, but already detached from it in the ceremonial by his rank, his role, (and) his survival. Sociologists have observed cases where persons have developed meanings about themselves quite different from those we might expect from the cultures in which they move. Such differences in meaning may be the result of a change in the culture, a change in the self concept, or both of these. Individualism and moving from place to place can fit into these categories in endless ways. The rise of mercantilism in Meccan society constitutes a change in culture, while travelling exposes a person to different experiences that may lead to a change in self-concept. Likewise, travelling brings a person face-to-face with another culture, while individualism is both a result of, and a catalyst for change in, self-concept. In the polis of Platos day that had been broken by wars and political upheavals, such as that between Athens and Sparta in the second half of the fifth century BCE, colorful and unconventional travelers broke the frame of the polis, or rather, indicated that it was broken to those who had hitherto been unaware of the fact. Likewise, dissidents from the dominant Meccan and Medinan polytheism served as wanderers who moved tentatively outside their usual framework in search of an alternative. Little did they know that the religious alternative of Islam was about to evolve dramatically before their very eyes. The momentum with which it unfolded was a formidable jolt to many who had been comfortable with the status quo. The lightening speed with which it spread nevertheless points to the general readiness of the society to accept new and radical change. Notes John Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 5. Steven Lukes, Individualism, 2nd ed. (Worcester, U.K.: Billing & Sons. Ltd., 1985), 15. See ibid., 45-124, for an analysis of these concepts. W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad in Mecca, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961). Esposito, Islam, 7. See also ibid., 8, as well as Mahmood Ibrahim, Merchant Capital and Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 57-62, 84-5. Watt, Mecca, 47-49. Ibid., 88. Gordon Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), 79-80. Ibid., 52. Watt, Mecca, 212. Ibid., 54. Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by H.A.R. Gibb et al., Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1960- ., 6:145, s.v. Makka. It is possible that what is referred to as India here could be South Arabia; see Richard Bell, The Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1926), 30. Jawad Ali, Tarikh al-Arab Qabl al-Islam (Iraq: Matbaat al-Majma al-Ilmi al- Iraqi, 1950-1960), 4:187208. Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1989), 355. Irfan Shahid (as I. Kawar), The Arabs in the Peace Treaty of 561, Arabica 3:2 (1956), 191. Mahmood Ibrahim, Social and Economic Conditions in pre-Islamic Mecca, IJMES (International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies) 14 (1982), 343. Muhammad b. Sad, Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (Beirut: Beirut Publishing House: 1978), 1:145. Ibrahim, Merchant Capital, 45. Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987). This lack of mention of an Arab ship trading with the kingdom of Aksum was also raised over 70 years earlier by Henri Lammens in Le Berceau de lIslam: lArabie occidentale la veille de lhgire (Rome: Sumptibus Pontificii Instituti Biblici, 1914), 15.
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Ibrahim, Social Conditions, 345. Abu al-Walid Muhammad b. Abd Allah b. Ahmad al-Azraqi, Akhbar Makkah wa ma Ja Fiha min alAthar (Mecca: Dar al-Thaqafah Press, 1965), 1:158. Ibn Sad from Waqidi in Abu Jarir al-Tabari, Muhammad in Mecca, trans. and ed. by W.M. Watt & M.V. MacDonald, vol. 6 of Tarikh al-Tabari: SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), 99. Waqidi in Abu al-Fida al-Hafidh b. Kathir, Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah (Cairo: Dar al-Hadith, 1992), 3:115. Ibn Sad, Tabaqat, 1:207-8. Emphasis mine. Ibn Ishaq in Izz al-Din b. al-Athir, Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, 1997), 2:93; Ibn Hajars Biographical Dictionary (Osnabrck: Bibliotheca Indica, Collection of Oriental Works, Biblio Verlag, 1980), 1:206 also from Ibn Ishaq, who, Ibn Hajar says, gave a long version of the account in his maghazi. This crossing ended in the drowning of all on board. It is relevant to note here the commonality of nautical terms such as bar and marsa in Arabic and Ethiopic, strongly indicating a joint maritime history; see Bell, Origins, 29. Stanley Burstein, ed., Ancient African Civilizations: Kush & Axum (Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1998), 18. Burstein notes that there was also a road where merchants could travel directly from Axum to Egypt, 83. M.J. Kister, Some reports concerning Mecca from Jahiliyya to Islam, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 15 (1972), 61. W. Montgomery Watts preface in Tabari, Tarikh, 6:xliv. See al-Zubayr b. Bakkar, Jamharat Nasab Quraysh wa Akhbariha (Cairo: Maktabat Dar al-Urubah, 1962), 1:425-6. Ibn Habib, al-Munammaq in Ibrahim, Social Conditions, 345. Ibn Ishaq in Abu Jarir al-Tabari, The Victory of Islam, translated and annotated by Michael Fishbein, volume 8 of Tarikh al-Tabari: SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies, ed. Ehsan Yarshatar (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 8:144. Muhammad b. Yazid b. Majah, Sunan Ibn Majah (Riyadh: Maktab al-Tarbiyyah al-Arabi li Duwal alKhalij, 1986), 2:286; Abu Jafar ibn Habib, Kitab al-Muhabbar (Hydarabad: Matbaat al-Jamiyya, 1992), 76. Ahmad b. Yahya Baladhuri, Ansab al-Ashraf (Damascus: Dar al-Yaqazah, 1997), 1:84-5. Muhammad b. Umar al-Waqidi, Kitab al-Maghazi (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), 1:120-1. Tabari, Tarikh, 8:180. F. E. Peters, Mecca: A Literary History of the Holy Land (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 33. Watt, Mecca, 84. M.J. Kister, The Market of the Prophet, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 8 (1965), 272-6. Watt, Mecca, 84, expresses an inclination toward this point of view. See Abu Dawud in Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghabah fi Marifat al-Sahabah (Beirut: Dar al-Marifah, 1997), 5:172; Ibn Ishaq in Abu Jafar Jarir alTabari, Tafsir al-Tabari (Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1954-68), 1:329, 5:409-10; Wahidi in Ibn Hajar, Dictionary, 2:700 for accounts of Syrian merchants coming to Medina, as well as the explication of verse 62:11 in The Message of the Quran: translated and explained by Muhammad Asad (Gibraltar: Dar alAndalus, 1984), 865, footnote 14, regarding a caravan coming to Medina from Syria. Amad b. Yaqub (aka al-Yaqubi), Kitab al-Buldan (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1860), 98. 1 mil (pl. amyal) is equivalent to 616 feet. See Muhammad Diya al-Din al-Rayyis, Al-Kharaj wa al-Nuzum al-Maliyyah li alDawlah al-Islamiyyah (Cairo: Dar al-Ansar, 1977), 300-1 for more information on this. Yaqubi, Buldan, 99. It should be noted that pre-Islamic Arabs frequently traveled to make pilgrimages and visit oracles. One engaging example of this is that of the Christian poet Imru al-Qays of the pre-Islamic central Arabian kingdom of Kinda. When his father was murdered, Imru al-Qays went to the idol Dhu-al-Khalasa, which stood in Tabala, between Mecca and Sanaa, at a distance of seven nights journey from Mecca. There he shuffled the divination arrows to see if he should avenge him. When the answer came back negative, he renounced the idol in anger, demanding whether it would have given the same response had its father been the one that was murdered (Hisham b. al-Kalbi. The Book of Idols, Being a translation from the Arabic of the Kitab al-Asnam, translated with introduction and notes by Nabih Amin Faris, Vol. 14, Princeton Oriental Studies. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, 1952, 29-30). Ibn Sad, Tabaqat, 1:75. Ibid., 1:78. The term al-nabat as found in Arabic texts usually does not refer to the Nabataeans, but is the name by which they called the Aramaic-speaking sedentary population of Babylonia (nabat al-iraq), as

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well as the Aramaean population of the Damascene oasis (nabat al-sham). These appellations include the implication that the nabat were mixed with some Arab elements (J. Spencer Trimingham, Christianity Among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times, London & Beirut: Longman Group Ltd. & Librairie du Liban, 1979, 146-7). Ibn Sad, Tabaqat, 1:75. Ibn Ishaq in Tabari, Tafsir, 5:410. Azraqi, Makka, 1:160. M.J. Kister, Al-Hira: Some Notes on its Relations with Arabia, Arabica 15:2 (1968), 156. See Shahid, The Arabs, 191, for more detail on the journey to Arabia Felix. Ibn Sad, Tabaqat, 1:75. Ibid., 4:285-6. Waqidi, Maghazi, 1:27. EI2 6:145, s.v. Makka. Kister, Some Reports, 78. Watt, Mecca, 37. Lings sees an example of the need for this affiliation in the position of the merchant man whose mistreatment led to hilf al-fudul (Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, London: Islamic Texts Society: Allen & Unwin, 1983, 32). For a fuller explanation of this incident, see EI2 3:389. Ibrahim, Merchant Capital, 60. Ibrahim contrasts the mawla with the qinn and their offspring, the muwalladun. The qinn, also of both Arab and non-Arab origins, had usually lost their freedom through being captured in war or being unable to pay off debts. They were either household servants or employed to generate wealth for their owners. Cf. EI2 6:875 on affiliation to Arab clans. Ibn Hajar, Dictionary, 2:999. D.S. Margoliouth, Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (London & New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1931), 12. Ibn Manda or Abu Dawud in Ibn Hajar, Dictionary, 2:1056; also 7:252; Abu Musa in Ibn al-Athir, Usd, 4:189; Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Hanbal, Musnad (Beirut: Alam al-Kutub, 1998), 7:495. Note here that the Prophet, despite using the new affiliation of Ansar, is keeping with the old custom of identifying a person according to his clan. Thus he uses the grouping Ansar, which was the new substitute clan (see above on the Prophet as head of the immigrant clan), instead of a more general Muslim umma grouping. See for example Al-Thawri from Abd Allah b. Amr in Ibn Kathir, Bidayah, 2:225-6, for Abu Sufyan b. Harbs description of his travels with the Christian Thaqafi Umayyah b. Abi al-Salt. The term hanif in Islamic writing refers to one who follows the original and true monotheistic religion of Abraham. For more information on this, see EI2, 3:165. Accounts of the four hanifs are prevalent; see, for example, Abd al-Malik b. Hishsm al-Maafiri, Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (Cairo: Dar al-Hadith, 1996), 1:191-8; Kharaiti in Ibn Kathir, Bidayah, 3:38-9, 44. See inter alia Zuhri in Tabari, Tarikh, 6:69, 72; Ibn Asakir in Ibn Kathir, Bidayah, 3:66; Muhammad b. Ismail al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari (Riyadh: Bayt al-Afkar al-Dawliyyah li al-Nashr, 1998), 22. Caesar has been interpreted to refer to either the Byzantine Emperor himself, or to one of his local governors in the Empire. Ibn Bakkar, Jamhara, 1:425-6, 430. Note the reference to another gift of Meccan hide. This concern further drives home the significance of trade for Mecca, in contrast to the point of view held by the Crone school. Ibn Bakkar, Jamhara, 427. Watt, Mecca, 38. Imad al-Din b. Kathir, Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim (Beirut: Dar al-Andalus li al-Tibaah wa al-Nashr, 1966), 3:451. Watt, Mecca, 49. Ibid. Fazlur Rahman, Islam, 2nd edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 20-21. H.D. Rankin, Plato and the Individual (New York: Barnes & Noble Inc., 1964), 9. Michael Mauss, A Category of the Human Mind: the Notion of Person; the Notion of Self, 2nd ed. trans. by D. Halls, The Category of the Person: Anthropology, Philosophy, History, ed. Michael Carrithers, Steven Collins, & Steven Lukes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 6. Arthur Combes & Donald Snugg, Individual Behavior: A Perceptual Approach to Behavior (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), 142. Rankin, Plato, 15.

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