Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam: Misconceptions and Flawed Polemics Meccan Trade and the Rise

of Islam by Patricia Crone Review by: R. B. Serjeant Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 110, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1990), pp. 472-486 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/603188 . Accessed: 18/01/2014 16:12
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REVIEW ARTICLES

MECCAN TRADE AND THE RISE OF ISLAM: MISCONCEPTIONS AND FLAWED POLEMICS1
R. B.
SERJEANT

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Meccan Trade sets out to prove that the accepted history of the rise of Islam is largely fabrication, that the security system established by Quraysh for caravan trade, if it existed at all, was of a minor local sort, and that pre-Islamic Mecca was a quite unimportant sanctuary. Its author starts, with deep-seated prejudices, to produce a confused, irrational and illogical polemic, further complicated by her misunderstanding of Arabic texts, her lack of comprehension of the social structure of Arabia, and twisting of the clear sense of other writing, ancient or modern, to suit her contentions. The present article, basing itself on the Arabic sources, treats a limited number of salient issues, mostly historical, and demonstrates the book's serious fallacies. It offers logical interpretation of the data, including rectification of errors in translations from Arabic passages cited in support of her arguments.

How DOES ONE DEAL WITH such a book as this, calculated to attract publicity by shocking Islamists through the strange theories it advances on preIslamic Mecca, novel theories to be sure, but founded upon misinterpretations, misunderstanding of sources, even, at times, on incorrect translations of Arabic? Add to this the author's arrogant style! Yet, being nicely printed and with the imprimatur of Princeton University Press, this diatribe might easily attract the credulous attention of those not well informed on Islam and its origins in the Arabian setting. The simplest course open to the reviewer seems to be to re-examine the sources cited by Dr. Crone to support her contentious and often fallacious notions and attempt to arrive at what they actually do say. Of the nature of the source material for early Islamic history Arabists and Islamists are, of course, fully aware. Traditions range from legend to reports of events by historians such as Ibn Ishaq (d. 150 H.) and al-WaqidT(d. 207 H.). Inconsistencies there are; nevertheless in the Traditions there is an undeniable core of "fact," but the sources are selective and the data they record so fragmentary that argument from negative evidence has little value. To illustrate what historical tradition has "left out" let me take two

' This is a review article of: Meccan Trade and the Rise of
Islam. By PATRICIA
CRONE.

Princeton:

PRINCETON

UNI-

VERSITY PRESS, 1987.Pp. 300. $32.50.

examples on which I am directly informed. Trial by ordeal, bishcah, found in the customary law of Jordan and south Arabia in modern times, is known to me only in early Arab history through a reference in Kitdb al-Munammaq (p. 118), and the word in this sense does not figure in the lexicons. Secondly, the ritual hunt of the ibex, linked with certain pre-Islamic gods and rain-making, is unknown to early Arabic literature. Yet it figures in a group of pre-Islamic inscriptions and has survived in Hadramawt to our own day. It is negative evidence nevertheless that forms a large part of Dr. Crone's argument. Data collected from oral accounts will naturally contain inconsistencies, sometimes suppressions or contradictions, the amazing Arab memory for detail notwithstanding. She eagerly seizes on these where they occur but as often as not she throws all her ingredient Traditions into the pot, stirs them together and uses the resultant mess to fudge the question at issue-thus she builds up to a reductio ad absurdum and a giggle! "Islamic tradition on the rise of Islam," she says (p. 91), "consists of little but stories," but then so do the Gospels, and why not? In Islam the existence of spurious Traditions was early recognized and Western scholars go further in distinguishing the element of factionalism in Tradition. Methodologically we cannot but start from the premise that a Tradition is a genuine report of "fact" until it is creditably shown to be false, or partially or
472

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wholly invalidated by palpable bias. The slant, for instance, given to historical tradition by sympathy for the House of Hashim can, when it occurs, be readily perceived, but this in itself need not invalidate a Tradition. In surveying the history of Mecca, its sanctuary, its trade, its political significance in 6th-century Arabia, common sense requires that the following inescapable considerations should be kept in mind: 1. The valley is devoid of natural resources adequate to support population. 2. Qusayy, ancestor of Quraysh, cannot but have had a sound reason for taking it over and settling people there. 3. As Mecca lacks natural resources the Meccans must import footstuffs such as grain and dates. 4. To purchase foodstuffs the Meccans must have had some source of income. 5. It is not unusual for a sanctuary to be located in a relatively remote desert place like the vale of
Mecca.2

lack of critical judgment, as in his BNtyles4wherein he

misinterprets al-bayt wa- '1-'adad, the (ruling/holy)

6. A shrine implies a pilgrimage to it, whether casual or organized. It is inconceivable that an organized pilgrimage should not involve trading, even if this be located a little removed from the actual shrine. 7. Apart from votive offerings (nudhiir) and possibly income from waqfs external to it, Mecca's income could hardly derive from anything but commerce and/or crafts. To the above I would add that if the Quraysh system of agreements with tribes on commerce be rejected as fabrication (a notion with which I totally disagree), it becomes the more difficult to account for the ascendancy established by Quraysh and inherited by Muhammad. Lammens and the followers of his theories exposed in La Republique marchande de la Mecque3 are the prime target of Dr. Crone's attack, and their assumption that the commerce described by Pliny and the Periplus was inherited by the Meccans attracts her scorn! Learned as he was, Lammens often shows a

house (of a tribe) and the (greatest) number, a category of relevance to this discussion. Crone also attacks W. M. Watt's theory (p. 231), developed out of Lammens' article, that "the QurashTtransition to a mercantile economy undermined the traditional order in Mecca, generating a social and moral malaise to which Muhammad's preaching was the response." Reflecting the fashionable socialist views of the fifties combined with an evangelist coloring, this theory of pagan Mecca is simply without foundation. If, in dealing with this period of Arabian history, one must look for patterns, as Watt does, surely they should be Arabian patterns? Indeed, given the nature of the historical sources for the 6th-7th centuries, such patterns should be applied as criteria, but judiciously, where they may help to enlighten. In plain terms the picture the sources for the period present is that of a struggle within a holy house' between an able cadet and the house's holders of office. A service Dr. Crone has done here is to show up the extent to which Quraysh commercial activity has been inflated by Western writers with trade patterns of the classical age in their minds, relying on these to fill out the sparse data of the early Arabic sources; but this does not negate the existence of Quraysh commerce. Regarding Quraysh trading with southern Arabia, the problem recently presented itself to me as follows. "The famous summer and winter journeys of Quraysh, to which the Qur'dn alludes, would have been timed to coincide with the arrival of the India trade fleet in the South-we do not know at which points, or even whether the Quraysh caravan route ran along the Tihamah coast or by the interior east of the mountains. Goods travelling such distances overland would surely be light in weight, high in value, to ensure a profit: tribal insecurity or piracy at sea could affect the commercial viability of land or sea routes."6 No mention is made of Quraysh merchants, or indeed of merchants of any other Arab group, in the

2 In south Arabia I know Daniyal b. HUd's tomb in Wadi Hada and Mawla Matar in the district of the tribe Sayban. Also reported is that of Salih in Jabal 'Asnab. Qabr HUd is in an area deserted nowadays, but it may not always have been so. 3 "La Republique marchande de la Mecque vers l'an 600 de notre &re," Bulletin de l'Institut EJgyptien,5th ser., IV (1910): 23-54. The very title begs the question of the form of social and governmental organization at Mecca.

4 "Le Culte des BMtyles et les processions religieuses chez les Arabes preislamites," Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d' Archeologie Orientale (Cairo), XVII (1919). 5 I employ this term faute de mieux and avoid such a term as "sacerdotal." 6 "Yemeni merchants and trade in the Yemen, 13th-16th centuries," in Marchands et hommes d'affaires asiatiques, ed. Denys Lombard and Jean Aubin (Paris: E-ditions de 1'EHESS, 1987 [written 1985]).

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.3 (1990) of the Hawazin of al-Th'if, so musayyar which had an admixture of qazz-silk was evidently known there, while dimaqs is a word for silk known to a number of pre-Islamic poets (Fraenkel, Fremdworter, 40). There is no reason to question today that al-Nu'man bought these three still well-attested types of Yemeni cloth, several of which were of silk, probably including the Aden cloth, or that they were high-quality luxury goods that were imported to the Hijaz. In the first centuries of Islam Yemeni textiles were almost proverbial for their excellence -actual examples have been found and published. In a country so noted for its skills in the handicrafts it could well be that silk was not only woven in the Yemen before Islam but that it could compete with that of other countries. Dr. Crone (p. 83) says "the claim that he [al-Nu'man] bought silk* was already rejected as mistaken by Fraenkel," but Fraenkel wrote over a century ago when little was known about the high level of culture in parts of Arabia and he has no grounds whatsoever for this statement. So while we must not accept exaggerated reconstructions of Quraysh trade in silk, there was clearly a trade in western Arabia in this commodity in which Quraysh may have taken part. She cannot however but concede with the sources that there was trading by the Meccans in "perfume," leather, clothing (sic, better understood as "cloth"), animals, raisins. Wines come from Syria and some would have expected wine to from al-Taif--one come from the Yemen also where it is made to this day and by Muslims. I cannot recall any reference to trade in it about this period. Udm, rendered as "leather," has a range of meanings-from hides and skins, coarse everyday utensils, to the red leather from Khawlan upon which the Prophet himself wrote that still comes from the north of present-day Yemen. It occurs to me that skins might have been an acceptable export to Byzantium for the manufacture of parchment. Dr. Crone gives the misleading impression that at Qabr HUd leather was sold to the itinerant merchants of al-bahr wa- '-barr, land and sea, though in fact the text states that these merchants sold leather12 and in exchange bought kundur-incense, myrrh (murr), aloes
11 In the Umayyad period the Caliph Hisham appears to have had Yemeni silkfirdsh. 12 Leather sleeping mats made in the Dhofar/7afar region are described in A. G. Miller, M. Morris and S. StuartSmith, Plants of Dhofar (Edinburgh, 1988), 192, as "of no little value." In local terms this means worth "one or two goats." I came across elaborately tooled mats upon which bodies of the dead had been laid, in a Sabaean bee-hive

account given of the trade cycle by Ibn al-KalbT,7 which describes the movement of merchants in the pre-Islamic period, starting out from Duimatal-Jandal, proceeding via the Persian Gulf to Hadramawt, and thence to Aden and San'a', terminating at the fair of 'Ukaz. Ibn al-KalbT's trade pattern is to be accepted as, broadly speaking, authentic. We are on fairly sure ground in deducing that Quraysh made regular journeys to points in northern Yemen. Ibn al-KalbT(infra) speaks of Tabalah, Jurash, and the sea-coast of the Yemen as supplying the Meccans with the grain they needed in a year8 of drought. Tabalah, eight days' distance from Mecca, and Bishah lie in the northern mikhldf of the Yemen.
MERCHANT COMMODITIES

Chapter II discusses the "Classical Spice Trade," drawing mostly on the standard authorities and, where incense is concerned, much on the two excellent studies by Nigel Groom and Walter Muller. From this not uninteresting chapter, though couched in polemical terms, Dr. Crone moves to "Meccan Spice Trade," treating in detail of individual "Arabian spices." Her argument produces the negative result that the sources do not mention Quraysh as trading in any of themwhich, given the limited data they provide, particularly on economic matters, is hardly surprising. But the lack of literary evidence does not prove that Quraysh did not trade in them. So why this rodomontade when a simple statement to this effect would have sufficed? Dr. Crone rejects the statement in al-AghanT ([Biilaq, 1285 H.], XIX:75) that, as she puts it, alNu'man of al-Hyrah would send goods to 'Ukaz and buy Yemeni products in return, in order to deny that silk could have been traded in western Arabia. The text9 states that al-Nu'man bought silk (harlr) ... and striped material (burud) of 'asb-cloth, washy-silk and striped cloth of Aden (musayyar AdanT). The poet 'Amir b. al-Tufayl, approximately contemporary with al-Nu'man (al-Mufa4kialTydt,Lyall, 711), alludes to al-dimaqs al-musayyar'l and the commentator notes that musayyar was burud min al- Yamanyu'ti bi-ha, striped material brought from the Yemen. cAmir was
7 In al-MarziiqT,al-Azminah wa-'l-amkinah (Qatar,1968seq. 69), 11:231

Sanah, sanawfi, in old Arabic usage, means a year of

drought. 9 See my Islamic textiles (Beirut, 1972 [reprintfrom Ars silks. Islamica]),123seq., withevidenceon Yemeni 10 Musayyaris "stripedcloth with an admixtureof silk,
striped cloth with yellow stripes."

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and dukhn-incense. As they did so, it can only have been for distribution further afield. There is no reason why Quraysh merchants should not have bought kundur or lubdn, so common in Hadramawt today and to be seen in Yemen markets today as well, from merchants at 'Ukaz or possibly Tabalah and other Yemeni markets. The account of Hashim's meeting with the Byzantine emperor (perhaps actually a local official?), avers that Hashim said that he had a tribe who are the traders of the Arabs. Hashim then asked him for a writing guaranteeing security to them and their merchandise so that they could bring him "what is deemed choice/rare of the leather and cloth (thiydb) of the Hijaz so that they will be selling it in your country (`inda-kum) and it will be cheaper for you." With a not untypical disregard for the Arabic text, Dr. Crone sees this last sentence as applying to "thick and coarse clothes of the Hijaz," i.e., woolens, "and we are assured that they were cheap." But the Arabic refers to the new trading agreement proposed by Hashim, not to the actual commodities, which it specifies as choice/rare. She argues: would it be worthwhile taking woolen goods (for which there is no evidence that the cloth was wool) to Syria where they are already abundant? But HijazT cloth could simply be cloth imported to the Hijaz by land or sea and called HijazT in the same way as lubdn is called lubdn ShihrT, though it is not produced but only collected there, and as we speak of Mocha coffee though Mokha is only an assembly point for the bean, which grows in the mountains. Rhetorically Dr. Crone exclaims: "Yet the Meccans claimed that bulky woollens carried by caravan from the Hijaz to Syria at a distance of eight hundred miles would be cheaper for the Syrians than what they could buy at home. It makes no sense!" Certainly it does not, but then the text does not say this! She rejects the idea (p. 141) that the Meccans dominated the exchange of goods between north Arabia and southern Syria, but the Arabic sources upon which she relies do not suggest that they did. Nor does the argument that, because a commodity was plentiful in Syria and Byzantium, these countries would be uninterested in importing it from elsewhere, take any account of the taste for foreign rarities, fluctuations of prices, or scarcities arising from political action. Nor does she consider such accidents as piracy, weather conditions and the many other factors that affect

trading. In fact, her whole treatment of the subject is strictly mechanical, not allowing for such eventualities. Further evidence is provided on Quraysh trading and industry by Hisham b. al-Kalbi (say about 100 H.) on the authority of his friend Abii Salih, in Hisham's al-Mathdlib."3 So ardent a Rafidi, i.e., ShTll, was Hisham that al-Dhahabi, who considers him unreliable as a transmitter of Tradition, would accord him no more than the briefest mention in his Tadhkirat alhuffaz~,with the remark that he was not a thiqah, a reliable authority. Nevertheless this should not deter us from taking into consideration what he has to say about the professions of prominent Quraysh personalities, though he and his father may have manipulated the historical data to detract from the honor of certain Quraysh nobles against whom they entertained prejudices, so as to manufacture a scandal (mathlabah) about them. In Arabia the trades of butcher, blood-letter, barber, circumciser and tanner14 are demeaning occupations; the tailor and blacksmith have an ambiguous status, seemingly quite respectable amongst townsfolk but, like all craftsmen, despised by the tribesmen. Ibn alKalbT's Mathalib lists a number of Quraysh who he alleges practiced one or other of the demeaning occupations; when we look into these more closely they turn out to be members of the 'Abd Shams group of the holy house of 'Abd Manaf and their supporters, opponents of the Prophet up to his occupation of Mecca, and members of the Taym b. Murrah clan, the least in social status in Mecca, the clan to which Abl Bakr belonged.' Even Zubayr b. al-'Awwam is stigmatized as a butcher-that he gained a livelihood as such is improbable, though the head of
"

shaped tomb at Bir Fadl, close to Aden. Might these mats have been imported from Dhofar?

Amjed Hasan, Kitdb Mathdlib al-'Arab of Abu '1Mundhir Hisham b. Muhammad al-Sd'ib al-KalbT,a critical edition, awarded the Ph.D. in the University of Punjab, Lahore (n.d.). 14 The demeaning crafts and trades are well documented both in classical texts and my corpus of customary law texts. There is, for example, the hajjdm, blood-letter, sa'igh, gold/silver smith, and the qassdb, butcher. It is commented that the smith is despised for his ghashsh, fraud, and the other two for their najdsah, uncleanness. It cannot be thought that Zubayr came into this category. '5 Ya'qubi, Tdrikh, ed. Houtsma (Berlin, 1883), 140. Aba Sufyan, at the time of the election of Ab5 Bakr, addresses the Banui'Abd Manaf and exhorts them not to let the people be covetous of you, especially Murrah and 'Adiyy. It is not meant that they are dacTfof course, but they do not rank as high as 'Abd Manaf.

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.3 (1990) by recalling the relatively humble background of the rulers of so vast an empire. The Mathdlib, at any rate, does show that there were merchants in cloth and citr at Mecca, though the author gives no indication of the extent of their business. Apart from grain dealing, no other respectable trades are mentioned, but this does not mean they did not exist in Mecca.
SOCIAL RANKING

a house does slaughter the animals consumed by his household. Abu Sufyan and AbU Lahab are stated to have dealt in wine (which may have become a dishonorable occupation only after Islam) but AbU Lahab is also said to have exercised the particularly low craft of tanner-it cannot be credited that he followed two such ignoble trades! A Makhztiml is described as a cobbler (khasyaf), more dishonorable, if anything, than a tanner, and an obscure person probably of the house of Umayyah is said to have been a circumciser. The Yemeni AbU MUsa al-Ash'arT, says Ibn al-Kalbi, was a barber but the Asha'irah of the ZabNdarea are honorable tribesmen to this day and it cannot be credited that he followed so low a trade. This can surely be only a trumped-up charge against the arbiter of 'Ali's selection, who deposed him after Siffin. Ibn al-KalbT's bias is patent and what he says of these persons unacceptable. Professions in which a Meccan of standing could engage are attributed by Ibn al-Kalbi to the following persons. The Caliphs AbU Bakr and 'Uthman sold cloth. Al-Harith b. 'Abd al-Muttalib used to sell cloth in al-Sha'm (Syria or the north) and buy slaves. AbU Talib dealt in cloth and 'itr. Ibn al-KalbT's Mathalib settles the problem Dr. Crone raises (p. 53) as to what AbU Talib sold, reading bazz for the burr and laban of other writers. Throughout Meccan Trade, 'itr is translated as "perfume," but Lane's Lexicon defines it as perfumes and drugs. The 'attar in Islamic manuals of market law and regulations (hisbah) clearly deals in both, and the SUq al-Mi'tarah in present day $an'c' deals in a wide variety of drugs, dyes, spices, etc. (cf. our San'cd, 185 an; below, n. 28). It is likely that 'itr in the 6th-7th centuries covered a similar range of commodities, including, perhaps, at least some of the items which Dr. Crone shows are not actually noted by the sources as being traded in by Quraysh. 'Abdullah b. Jud'an, the wealthy notable of Taym b. Murrah, was one of the many 'attars. 'Umar b. al-Khattab had various merchandises (tijarat). Perhaps Ibn al-KalbTis referring slightingly to 'Uthman b. Talhah of the holy house of 'Abd alDar in saying that he was a tailor (khayydt), but perhaps not. For Sayyid Ahmad al-ShamT tells me that in San'ad' notable Sayyid ulema would be blacksmiths and come with their books from the anvil to study circles. He himself used to make the caps worn by sayyids; this is recorded also of other ulema, but it seems not to have been primarily for gain. Abu Sufyan, says Ibn al-Kalbi, was a wheat chandler (hannat). This seems unlikely to have been a demeaning occupation in Mecca of that time, but perhaps Ibn al-Kalbi is sneering at the Umayyad caliphs

At Mecca, Ibn Ishaq16 distinguishes three social groups, the nobles, i.e., those with sharaf and man'ah (the latter term indicating that they were capable of defending themselves), the merchants (tdjir), and the la'Tf class of subject status. The merchants were unmistakably people of a certain standing, though not nobility, as they are today in such cities as San'a', Shibam, Mukalla, and Jeddah, distinct from the mudakkins who trade from small booths. Dr. Crone poses the rhetorical question (p. 186) as to who were the 1ducafd' of Quraysh? If she consults my "The da'Tf and mustad'af and the status accorded them in the Qur'an"17 she will find the names of five of them. They were emphatically not "weaklings. . . who owe their freedom from tribal molestation to the prestige with of the presiding saint." She confuses the 1da'Tf pariahs, and there are groups in Arabia who might be is not a dubbed pariahs. A pariah is da'Tf but a 1da'Tf pariah. In 1940 our tribal soldiers would eat with a .1a'Tf but not with a sweeper. If we accept what Jahizi18 says, that-traders in pre-Islamic Arabia were despised for their inability to defend themselves, this most likely applies to mudakkins who are usually .1a'Tf(or, in Tarim city, masdkTn). AbU Sufyan obviously had the sharaf and mancah of the Meccan nobles yet, if Ibn al-Kalbi is to be credited, he dealt in grain. Commerce on a large scale seems not to have been incompatible with nobility. On a lower scale, when I questioned a tribesman about 'asdkir alsultdn, tribesmen who took to petty trading in the little towns of the former Aden Protectorate when

Sirah, ed. Saqqa et alii (Cairo, 1375/1955), 1:320; 207. 145;Wustenfeld, Guillaume, 17 HamdardIslamicus(Karachi,1987),X, or Tydskrif vir Islamkunde 1987). (Johannesburg, 18 "Fakhral-sudan 'ala 'l-biddn" in Rasd'il al-Jahiz, ed.
'Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun (Cairo, 1964), 1:188. Dr. Crone speaks of "the odd suggestion of both holy men and social outcasts in Jahiz's discussion of them," but the odd suggestion is hers, not that of Jahiz!

16

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acting as a sort of bodyguard to a sultan, he replied that they had lost their honor while engaging in trade, but if they left it off they would recover their honor! This suggests a possibility of how tribesmen may have felt in 6th-century Arabia. But tribes and townspeople differ radically on social status-Hayqutdn's taunt (infra) that commerce is despised may have meant little in itself to Meccan merchants. Not only does Dr. Crone signally fail to comprehend the social structure of Arabia yesterday and today, but she distorts what I have to say about Quraysh. Nowhere do I suggest that they were "holy dispensers of justice" (p. 181), though I do point out that cAbd al-Muttalib, ancestor of the Prophet, and others of the House of Hashim were arbiters (hukkdm), as Ibn Habib states in both al-Muhabbar and al-Munammaq, mentioning also other Quraysh arbiter houses and other families of hukkdm in Arabia. Quraysh arbiters dealt in the first place with their immediate tribal group but this would not preclude them from acting in cases external to that group. In hadarTareas where the hawtah institution is mostly if not exclusively found, the mansab provides a venue and presides, but his role, whatever it may contribute towards settling disputes, is certainly not "dispensing justice," holy or otherwise. Tribesmen normally settle their disputes at meetings of their chiefs and notables. The situation is exactly mirrored in the opening clauses of the "Eight Documents" (the so-called "Constitution of Media"), no. A and final clause B, where Allah and Muhammad are designated the ultimate appeal when the judges (?) take a case on which they have failed to agree."9 I do not suggest that "saints" do not fight (p. 183). The Mansab of Thibi in Wadi Hadramawt whom I knew personally, fought for several years with the Kathlri sultans and, of course, the Yemeni Zaydis, the Imams, are very warlike indeed. Nor can I agree that Quraysh were regarded as "holy traders." It was a member of the 'Abd Manaf Bayt, a holy house, Hashim, who concluded the pacts for safe-conduct with the tribes and Byzantium, and I have further suggested that a member of the Bayt, for example Muhammad himself, might escort caravans. If other Qurashis acted as escorts as distinct from traders, it would presumably be through delegation by the Bayt, the holy house. I further maintain that it would be because of the sanctity of the Bayt to which he belonged that Hashim was in the position to negotiate the original agreements. This has nothing directly to do with the inviolability of the Haram.
19 Cf. Qur'an, IV, 59: Fa-in tandzactum fT shay'-in faruddui-huila 'lidhi wa- 'l-rasili.

It completely distorts my meaning (in a way all too typical of the book as a whole) to aver that I say the guardians of the sacred enclaves in Hadramawt resolved disputes for the tribes around them "by way of reward for their recognition of its [a sacred enclave's] inviolability." In the first place, the guardian(s) of the enclave are the tribes themselves. Arbitration of their disputes is a secondary consideration to all concerned. The process may be compared with the Prophet's action over Qurayzah-he nominated their tribal protector, a naqTb,or chief, to judge their case. Nor yet do I, as Dr. Crone asserts, "read every saiyid and sharif in pre-Islamic Arabia as a holy man." I cite certain specific cases where the term "sayyid" is "associated with functions exercised by those endowed with spiritual power." To say that the status of a "holy man" (a sayyid?) and trading are not compatible is to misunderstand the realities of the situation. I have known quite a number of sayyids in Tarim who engaged in commerce to some extent which per se did not seem to detract from their status in the city. Dr. Crone asks what functions the "guardian" of a shrine (in the 6th to 7th centuries) would perform, arriving at the conclusion that "[t]hey did not divine, they did not cure, they did not adjudicate, they simply kept the Ka'bah in repair and supplied food and drink for the pilgrims." I have known many mansabs, lords of shrines, not "guardians," in south Arabia, staying on occasion with the mansab. The mansab would not, I think, feel obliged to perform cures or divine, though mansabs often have that gift known as kashf.20 They certainly have an important socio-political role in the community. Mansabs play a leading part in the annual ziydrahs, as doubtless did the Bayt of Quraysh at the preIslamic hajj. The mansab leads the ritual Islamic prayer but we know nothing of pagan prayers. We cannot expect the constant acts of devotion practiced by Christians. I have attended an 'Attds hadrah, a sort of liturgy accompanied by music, and mawlidsperhaps something of the kind was practiced at the Ka'bah. The pilgrim talbiyah in chanted rajaz verse would surely have called for a reply in kind by the lord of the sanctuary? In fact, we know next to nothing about its 'Abd al-Dar servitors, Tradition being silent on so much of pagan worship. Can we not nevertheless credit them with the function of interpreting the divine will and acting as an intermediary with Allah? We should surely not be very far wrong in supposing they had much the same functions as those
20 L.e., knowing what happens at another time and/or place.

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.3 (1990) In a separate Tradition, this time in explanation of suirah CVI, Al-Kalbi follows with reference to the iylif/lillif of Quraysh which provides them with food against hunger and makes them secure against khawf. Khawf then, as now, however Qur'an exegesis may embroider on it, means simply physical insecurity from armed attack. Famine years (sanawdt) ran away with Quraysh money/property and, even though it is not mentioned, this should include the weakening or death of transport animals. So Hashim went to alSha'm and brought back woolen sacks of bread (khubz) on camels to Mecca. There is no indication that Quraysh discontinued their journeys north or south to purchase grain. The initiative of the Yemenis, in themselves transporting grain to Mecca, has the appearance of being a single, isolated incident. But alKalbT's account in the first story is important in showing a link between Mecca and the Yemen by both the seacoast and inland routes-this is most likely to have been the regular route followed by Quraysh in their journeys southwards and a point at which they could contact merchants from Aden by land or sea, if indeed they did not go further south. Ibn al-KalbT seems to differ from his father in asserting that Quraysh trading did not go beyond Mecca, but the Persians used to bring goods to the Meccans which they purchased to sell among themselves and to the Arabs around them, that is, until Hashim's visit to al-Sha'm. Of course the arrival of Persians (A'ajim) from the Yemen by land or sea is not in itself unlikely. It was with the visit of Hashim to al-Sha'm, Ibn al-KalbT maintains, his dispensing of tharld and his contact with the Byzantine emperor that a security pact was made with the Byzantines and the route to Syria for caravans established. I have always felt that Hashim's role has been inflated and that any contact made in the north is more likely to have been made with a Byzantine official. His inflated account of the iyldf is patently crude fabrication, intended to build up the reputation of the House of Hashim. At this point let me suggest an alternative interpretation for the rihiat al-shita' wa-'l-sayf. From the Meccan point of view the prime purpose of the journeys was to obtain a supply of grain. Ibn alhaljf (ally or KalbT,for instance, speaks of a TamlmlT client) of Banii 'Abd al-Dar as saying: "I went forth with a number of Quraysh, making for al-Sha'm for grain provision for us (mTrahla-nd)." Their purpose, as al-Bayqaaw-succinctly defines it, was to buy grain and to trade (yamtdruin wa-yattajiruin). The terms mTrah sayfiyyah and mTrah ribciyyah are cited by Lane as meaning, respectively, the spring and be-

of mansabs, sadah and the mashayikh2" classes of present day south Arabia.
THE WINTER AND SUMMER JOURNEYS (RIHLATAL-SHITAT WA-'L-SA YF)

Great play is made by Dr. Crone of the two accounts of the winter and summer journeys of Quraysh in the Kitdb al-Munammaq (pp. 31, 262) by Ibn al-KalbT and his father, respectively. Al-KalbT flourished from 66-146 H./685-763 A.D. His information goes back to the first century of Islam. His report reads as follows:
Quraysh was accustomed [to make] two journeys, one of them in winter to the Yemen and the other in summer to al-Sha'm. And they remain so [doing] until stress (jahd, to be understood as "drought") became acute for them, but Tabalah, Jurash and the people of the sea-coast of the Yemen had plentiful crops. So the people of the coast transported by sea and the people of the land on camels and the people of the coast put in to harbour at Jeddah and the people [travelling by] land put in to al-Muhassab. And the people of Mecca procured the grain they wanted, and Allah supplied them [with what they would get] from the two journeys they used to undertake to the Yemen and al-Sha'm.
22

Al-Sha'm means either Syria or the north; Tabalah and Jurash are in Wadi Bishah of 'Aslr, which latter was part of the Yemen with its ports of Qunfidhah and HalT. Al-Muhassab is a little over a mile and a half north of Mecca and a convenient place for caravans to stop. Dr. Crone (p. 213) translates kafd-hum mu'nat al-asfdr as "saved them the trouble . . . ," deriving this sense from Wehr, but this is not classical Arabic. Kafd-hu ma'unata-hu in the lexicons means "he supplied him with his provision." This is no mere linguistic quibble, for she utilizes her mistranslation to back a theory (loc. cit.).

21 I have given a description of the south Arabian Mashayikh class in Commoners, climbers and notables: A sampler of studies on social ranking in the Middle East, ed. C. A. 0. van Nieuwenhuijzen (Leiden, 1977), 256. Were she to read this it might help Dr. Crone to a better understanding of the social structure of Arabian society past and present. 22 In western Arabia an Aden Western-Protectorate tribesman would speak of going to al-Sha'm when he meant Imamic Yemen. The principle is that Shalm and Yaman are north and south of wherever you happen to be standing.

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ginning-of-winter grain provision. Now in Hadramawt, for example, the crop called shita' is sown in July and ripens six months later in January. Sayf is a term widely used for the other of the two annual grain crops.23 In Iraq today the terms shitaw! and sayf T are used for the two crops. Shitd' and rib'! are really two terms for the same cropping season. I have happened on the information24that during the Umayyad period the Amlr of Iraq used to give the Arab soldiery two 'atd's, that of al-shitd' and that of al-sayf, grain allowances and stipends. It is natural that the timing of the payment of allowances should be related to the harvests. So Quraysh journeys are likely to have been so arranged as to coincide with the appearance of the season's grain crop in the markets. In south Arabia this would also be the season when the Persian, Indian and Far Eastern merchandise was arriving at the coastal ports. It is asserted by Dr. Crone (p. 212) that the proposition that Quraysh had agreements known as iyldf can be rejected, and she alleges that sarah CVI engendered the story about Hashim's iyldf agreements covering the two annual journeys. This notion emerges from her fixation, not to say obsession, with Qur'an tafsrr or exegesis, but her twisted statement that Qur'an tafsrr generated masses of spurious information is not a discerning appreciation of such works as Tabari's Jdmi', either. There are some philological problems over the forms of the word iyldf, but the definition of it is given by Ibn Hablb (Muhabbar, 162): al-iyldf 'uhad, means "iyldf is pacts," i.e., each iyldf was a series of pacts.25 Her assertion that Ibn Hablb takes iyldf as a plural is incorrect; moreover, it has no lexical support. In point of fact the iyldf system of security pacts accords with well known Arabian patterns. For instance, as long ago as 1962, I pointed out that the Yemeni caravan travelling to Mecca in the mediaeval period could be protected by the presence of even a small boy belonging to the family of the Yemeni saint Ibn 'Ujayl. So also Hashim used to escort caravans to al-Sha'm. Kharaja Hdshim yujawwizu-hum26 wa-yuf7-him iylafa-hum alladhT
23 See my "The cultivation of cereals in mediaeval Yemen," Arabian Studies (London-Cambridge), 1 (1974): 25-74. 24 A. A. Bevan, The Naki'id of Jarir and al-Farazdak (Leiden, 1905-12), 11:1090. 25 The quotation a few lines below shows unequivocally that Ibn Habib understood iyldf as a singular noun since he follows it with a masculine alladhT, had it been a plural a feminine pronoun would have been used. 26 Yujawwizu-hum, lit., making them to pass. Instead of a passive, ukhidha, akhadha, might be read.

akhadha la-hum min al-'Arab, Hashim went forth escorting them and fully exercising for them the iyldfpacts he had received on their behalf from the Arabs (al-Munammaq, 33). The escorted were Quraysh merchants, but no doubt others, also from the tribal districts through which the caravan passed, attached themselves to it. Hashim's organization of the journey to al-Sha'm is almost mirrored by the experiment of the cAlawi sayyids from Tarfm (n. 30 infra) who set out almost a century and a quarter ago to establish a land haijroute from the Wadi Hadramawt towns to Mecca. They sent ahead to the Naq-b of the Yam tribe in the Najran area, Ahmad b. Ismac'l al-MakramT, asking for a bond/pact (mfthdq) and guarantee of security and protection (dhimmat amdn wa-jiwdr) for the 'Alawi pilgrims, inhabitants of Hadramawt, and those travelling in their company. They also sent to the Amir of 'Asir, Muhammad b. 'Ayid, for an 'ahd wamrthdq wa-sakk dhimmah. Such pacts were known as qd'idah mujawwirah. It should be remarked that alMakramT was an Ismac'lT, Muhammad b. cAyid a well known WahhabT and the cAlawi sayyids, of course, Shaficls. In brief, on the evidence of the Arabic texts at our disposal, linked also with the existence of parallel institutions in Arabia-to say nothing of mere probability-there is no valid reason to doubt that Quraysh did make journeys twice a year to purchase supplies of grain and for commerce in general. To achieve their purpose they had to have security guarantees from the tribes through whose country they passed. A commodity which would meet the requirements I have detailed on p. 473, light in weight, high in value, and also small in bulk, would be silk-it is mentioned three times in the Qur'an as clothing of haut luxe worn by the Believers in Paradise. ShIc' sympathizer as he was-like his son-alKalbl, in the passage quoted above (p. 478), does not directly allude to Hashim's role in establishing the iyldf system, which he simply calls a Quraysh practice (da'b), though he does describe how Hashim relieved Mecca from a famine. Significantly he does not speak of Hashim as initiating either journey. Ibn Ishaq27 clearly has doubts about his part, for he says: "Hashim, as they aver (yaz'amuna), was the first who instituted the two journeys of Quraysh." He had previously noted that Hashim was in charge of the

27 Srrah, op. cit., 1:136. Ibn Ishaq used the term sanna, i.e., (Hashim) "instituted" the two journeys, but Ibn HabTb, alMunammaq, does not commit himself.

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.3 (1990) country intervening, with its warrior tribes.30 While al-KalbT defines the journeys as being to al-Sha'm and the Yemen, this does not exclude Quraysh from going on occasion to Ethiopia, which is not far from the Yemeni coast, or even from continuous contact with more distant Iraq. The differing explanations of the two journeys Dr. Crone cites (p. 205 seq.) are not in reality as inconsistent as she says, but she has fudged up the quite reasonable account of them, methodologically not a sound or correct way to treat the sources. She suggests further that the transhumance of Quraysh to al-Ta'if (p. 210) may have been invented. This is easily disposed of when we consider the Prophet's agreement with Thaqlf of al-Ta'if, a clause of which stipulates that "the grapes of Quraysh which Thaqlf irrigates, half of them belong to those who irrigate them." The season of the grape harvest must surely have seen the Quraysh owners at al-Ta'if. If Dr. Crone accepts Jahiz's explanation of the poet HIayqutan'slampoon cited by her in another context, why not accept that Hayqutan is alluding to the fact that Quraysh, the affluent among them at least, spend their summer holiday in al-Ta'if and their winter break in Jeddah?
MARKETS AND THE MECCAN HARAM

rifddah and siqdyah, feeding and watering the pilgrims. To this he adds that "this was that 'Abd Shams [his brother] was a man perpetually travelling (rajul saffdr), rarely staying in Mecca, and he was poor with many children." What emerges from these statements is that each brother of the house of 'Abd Manaf managed offices it held. While Hdshim attended to functions hereditarily linked with the shrine, 'Abd Shams, the elder and leader, accompanied the caravans. The term saffdr, used in describing him, in contemporary Bahrain for instance, denotes a deep-sea voyager. Hashim's apparently out-of-turn venture into what we might call "famine relief," was, says al-Kalbi, the cause of jealousy in Umayyah, son of 'Abd Shams, that led to an honor case of the mundfarah kind; it was won by Hashim. The fact that Abui Sufyan b. Harb b. Umayyah was leader of the Quraysh caravan to Syria in the Prophet's day suggests that conduct of the caravans was hereditary in the house of 'Abd Shams. Chronologically, before al-Kalb-i's reports, one should first consider the ballad style verses of Wahb b. 'Abd b. Qusayy and Matriid b. Ka'b al-Khuzac', the latter like the Yemani madddh28 in character, who declaims laudatory elegies at the funeral of a person of note. More likely genuine than not, these verses may well have been preserved by the house of 'Abd Manaf and are quite independent of Qur'an exegesis. He speaks of 'Abd Manaf as "those who make the
iyldf caravan set forth (al-rdhilan bi-rihlat al-iyldf), 38). If

who, each winter, contend with the wind until the sun
disappears in the sea (rajjdf)" (al-Munammaq,

we accept the editor's understanding of rajjdf as albahr, the verse would indicate that the caravan or convoy made at least some of its journey by sea; this should be compared with al-KalbT's account of the Yemenis of the Tihamah (p. 478) who travel by sea to Jeddah. It is one of Matriid's verses cited by Ibn Ishaq29 that directly credits Hashim with instituting the two journeys. Lengthy as land routes from Mecca to al-Sha'm are, they might be compared to the caravan which comes to the Mansab of 'Inat of Hadramawt, carrying coffee, ghee and grain from the Mansab's awqaf in Jabal Yafi', a distance of some 500-600 miles as the crow flies, but much more in the large mountain
28 Matrud is described in al-Munammaq, 36-37, as under the protection (Jf kanaf) of Banu 'Abd Manaf. R. B. Serjeant and Ronald Lewcock, SancJ9: An Arabian Islamic city (London, 1983), 169a. 29 STrah, op. cit., 136. He uses the term sunnat (ilay-hi alrihlatdni). Cf. n. 26.

In her valiant effort to prove the Meccan pilgrimage did not even exist before Islam, Dr. Crone makes some play with the fact that Muhammad's early negotiations with the Yathrib tribes took place at the pilgrim stations like Mina, but not at Mecca. This is to ignore the natural understanding of Muhammad's wish not to negotiate with outsiders on his home ground. It does not follow that, because fairs took place in certain places outside Mecca classified as harams and formed part of the hajj routine, seasonal trading in grain, cloth and 'itr was not also carried on in the city itself. In the first place were these harams sacred enclaves or, simply, protected saqs, the latter a com30 Starting out from Tarim of WaddHadramawt in February 1866, a party of 'Alawi Sayyids travelled to Mecca via Najran, Hall b. Ya'quib and al-Qunfudhah in thirty stages of nine hours each. I have myself at various times travelled along sections of the entire route from Najran to Bir 'All and Husn al-Ghurab (Qana'), passing by Shabwah, and can confirm that there are no great physical obstacles for caravans. Though there is no evidence that they did use this route, Quraysh could have done so by organizing a series of security pacts over the route.

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monplace in Islamic Yemen? Such places are suitable as animal markets and for the bivouacing of numbers for instance, 'Ukaz where skins of tiibesfolk-as (adTm)were sold. As we have seen, the grain caravans came to al-Muhassab, close to Mecca but well removed from it. Mecca would be an unsuitable place to keep any number of camels. Camels have to be grazed as regularly as possible and, travelling in the WahidTsultanate in 1947, this was the main concern of our camel-man. Quraysh merchants going around the seasonal fairs attended by tribesfolk may be compared with the Hudaydah merchants who go round the Tihamah saqs held on different week days. The obvious reason (p. 173) for slaughtering sacrificial animals at Mina on Yawm 'Arafah ('Id al-Adha) would be on account of the unpleasantness of much rotting offal-there is no need to think that the visits to Mecca were added to an independent ritual at Mina. Individual sacrifices appear to have been made in Mecca. If they did not buy and sell at Mina on this day the obvious reason is that they would be fully occupied with slaughtering, cutting up, and cookinga process which, in my personal experience, can take some three hours or more! Despite Dr. Crone's theorizing to the contrary, it is quite consistent for Mecca of the pre-Islamic age to have been the main sanctuary and pilgrimage centre of the Hijaz province, yet to have minor sanctuarymarkets associated with it. The 'Arafah visitation is comparable to the annual excursions so common in the little south Arabian towns, to a place outside of which usually some sanctity attaches. I attended one such excursion just outside Dhamar, and at San a', the Musalla al-'Idayn lay outside the city until engulfed by modern building. Archaeologists have discovered in Hadramawt, on the mountain sides above the little towns, pre-Islamic temples, though the towns themselves have temples too; I think they must have served as places of visitation extra muros on such occasions as 'Tds. Qabr HUd and the tomb of the ancestor of the Hadraml Sayyids, 'Isa al-Muhajir, are both located at sites on the mountain sides.
SECURITY AND INVIOLABILITY

Black superiority! He reproduces verses by a black poet, Hayqutan, of not earlier than the first decade of the 2nd century of the hijrah, lampooning Quraysh, though nowhere actually referring to them by name. "Not by you," the poet says, "is the Veiled Sanctuary (al-Hardm al-Musattar) guarded. No wintering or
summering place, no pasture, . . . is there in Mecca,

but only trading, and commerce is despised (tuhqar)." Jahiz explains Hayqutan's meaning, but this does not imply that he endorses his sentiments: "He means by this, all of it, Quraysh. He says: 'They are merchants, having had recourse for protection to the Temple (i'tasamui bi- '-Bayt). And when they go out they hang dawm-palm fruit and bark (liha') of trees [understand, of the Haram] upon themselves so that they may be recognized and no one will kill them'." Jahiz adds that Hayqutan means that the Meccans are .daclf to the last degree (_f hadd al-duf) in people's eyes and a people without the capacity to defend themselves (imtind'). The lampoon of course seeks to humiliate the Meccans by manipulating the facts and to that extent it is inadmissible as evidence. These circumstances are not revealed by Dr. Crone who allows herself to "conjure up pariahs" as the explanation of Quraysh status. But it is precisely in identifying Quraysh nobles with classes like the Jewish packmen of Iraq mentioned by Jalal al-HanafT, or of San'ad' before 1950, that the satire of the lampoon bites, the
la'Tf class without imtind'.

According to Dr. Crone (p. 182): "Jahiz explains that traders in pre-Islamic Arabia, including Quraysh, were despised for their inability to defend themselves." However, she quite correctly notes that Quraysh did fight for one cause or another. She bases her statement on the well-known essay, "The Vaunting of the Blacks over the Whites," in which Jahiz, probably tongue in cheek, argues for

Dr. Crone works herself into a thorough muddle over Jahiz' explanation of Hayqutan's satirical verses, and about imtind',31 which she mistranslates as "inviolability"-a sense not reported in classical or modern lexicons. "Jdhiz," she says, "contrives to find a reference to this inviolability [of Quraysh] in a preIslamic poem, though this time in a contemptuous vein." This is in reference to the passage, supra, on Quraysh taking protection in the Temple. But Jahiz is not referring to the three pre-Islamic verses that immediately precede the passage (which could not possibly refer to Quraysh "inviolability") but to Ilayqutan's lampoon as a whole. After further wrangling she proposes the conclusion, quite unwarranted by the sources, that these latter "confuse temporary inviolability during the holy months with permanent inviolability arising from association with a sanctuary" (p. 183). They do not. It is only Dr. Crone who is confused!
31 The Tdj al-'arfis defines mancah as quwwah tamna' man yurTdu-hu bi-sa' and one who yamna' al-jdr, protects him from being wronged, yahuitu-hu min an yuddm, and imtana'a means ihtamd.

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.3 (1990) destroyed.33A holy house, Dr. Crone avers, cannot at the same time be guardians of shrines as well as traders. In this she fails to appreciate the actuality of the situation. Firstly, the guardians of the shrine are, as we have seen, not Quraysh, but the tribes. Quraysh were the servitors of the temple, but obviously service of the sanctuary would furnish a living for a quite limited number of persons-the rest must find some other occupation. It could be that the two 'Abd Manaf brothers, Hashim and 'Abd Shams, were in effect sharing the same office 'Abd Shams ensured that supplies came to Mecca and Hashim saw to their distribution. There is however no reason to assume that 'Abd Shams was losing sharaf through this.
THE PRE-ISLAMIC TRADING CYCLE

The Prophet possessed mancah and sharaf, the ability to protect oneself, and honor; in fact he belonged to the nobility of Mecca as defined by Ibn Ishdq. Nor will this status be denied 'Abd Manaf and 'Abd al-Dar. The honor that is theirs by virtue of birth is the greater through their hereditary tenure of office at the sanctuary. Yet the small number of Quraysh and their followers at Mecca would be utterly inadequate to maintain the inviolability of the Haram against aggression by large tribes. The SIrah itself reveals how few Quraysh were engaged in actions against Muhammad. In the case of a hawtah, a sacred enclave, the tribes in its vicinity guarantee its security. If one of these tribes commits such an outrage as to infringe the inviolability of the hawtah, its lord would call for support on the other tribes who would make common cause against the offender. It is only to be expected that the Haram's inviolability was protected on parallel lines. Looking for which tribes did act in this capacity, we might consider the Ahabish, Ghatafan,32Kinanah and people of the Tihamah who supported Quraysh at alKhandaq, several of which had hilf alliances with Quraysh. These tribes were present also at SUq al'Ukaz. Ibn al-Habib, in fact, positively affirms that when Qusayy and Quraysh had taken Mecca, Quda'ah and Asad, who had supported them to do so, separated from them; then Quraysh, diminished in number and fearing Bakr, made an overture to the Ahabish who responded and made an alliance with them. Further alliance pacts into which Quraysh entered include one with Thaqif (al-Munammaq, 280) involving free passage in the Haram and Wadd Wajj/Wijj for both parties. There appears to be good evidence for the construction of a whole edifice of treaties around the Haram, but this is not a subject to pursue here. Let me say, however, that this would resolve one point that puzzles Dr. Crone-that Quraysh could go to war but retreat into the Haram into which their foes could not follow them. Quraysh might use these allied tribes to fight their battles or even against one another-but a tribe at war with Quraysh, having undertaken to respect the boundaries of the Haram, would, in infringing on them, bring the Haram's other protectors down upon themselves. It is the tribes who protect a haram that render it inviolate, not the haram that gives protection to those domiciled in it. The haram of Buss, when its protectors, Ghatafan, were defeated, was desecrated and
32 ThoughGhatafan to werepersuaded by the BandNadTr on this occasion. join with MeccanQuraysh

Protection of merchants is a matter of interest to Ibn al-Kalbi in his description of the seasonal pattern of the movement of commerce from the Gulf to the Yemen and the Hijaz. Merchants of the sea, he says, proceeding from alShihr, with whom any goods remained or who had not been to markets on the way before it, would meet the people at Aden. Here obviously they could sell the kundur-incense and myrrh they had bought in Hadramawt. The merchants of the sea would take al-tab alma'mul, manufactured perfume, to Sind and Hind and the merchants of the land (tujjdr al-barr) would take it to Fars and al-Rum. (In 20th-century Aden al-barr always meant "the hinterland.") So, if Quraysh merchants did come as far as Aden, they could purchase incense. Cotton, saffron and dyes were taken to San'c' and the merchants bought cloth (bazz) and iron. This looks accurate since GhuthaymTlocks manufactured at Sa'dah are found all over western Arabia and cloth is well attested. It is noteworthy that Ibn al-KalbT records that selling takes place by al-jass bi- '-yad there, as it still does today, being termed al-hakTbi-'1yad (our Sand'a, 269) "talking with the hand." The merchants then went on to 'Ukaz, where there were no tithes ('ushar) or escort (khafarah); it is probable that khafdrah was usually granted in return for a fee. The tribes who attended the CUkazfair were Hawazin, Ghatafan, Khuza'ah, the Ahablsh, al-Harith

33

Cf. M. J. Kister, "Mecca and the tribes of Arabia...,

in Studies in Islamichistory and civilisationin honour of ProfessorDavid Ayalon, ed. M. Sharon(Jerusalem,1986),

42 seq.

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b. 'Abd Manat (of Kinanah b. Khuzaymah) ,4 cAdal (of Khuzaymah, this last a batn of Quraysh) and Mustaliq (of Khuza'ah). These tribes seem to have been linked to Quraysh by kinship or treaty and, since no taxes were imposed at cUkaz, they may have guaranteed the security of the fair. To clear up some of Dr. Crone's obfuscations, deliberate or not, it is best to translate what Ibn al-Kalbi says about the safe-conduct given to pilgrims (Al-MarziiqT, al-Azminah, 11:236). A man, when he went out of his house on pilgrimage, or as a ddjj, the ddjj being one who trades during the sacred month, would take a sacrificial beast and don the pilgrim garb (ahrama), then he would garland himself and make himself known [perhaps by shouting, "I am X, son of Y, of the tribe of Z"]. So this would be a safe-conduct/security (aman) for him with the muhilluin, those who do not recognize the sacredness of the sacred month. Traders accompanied the pilgrims, primarily intent on buying and selling to them, but no doubt to take advantage, in modern terms, of the barakah accruing to the trader though combining the hajy with his commerce. If a trader-pilgrim (ddjj), being by himself, was apprehensive about his safety, yet could find no sacrificial beast, he would garland35 himself with a necklace of goat or camel hair and make himself known by a woolen thread (I read bi-suifat-in for bisuifi-hi) and through it be safe/secure. When he came forth from Mecca he would garland himself with bark (lihb') of the trees of the Haram. The ddjj, and others as well, if he took himself to the Temple with no [distinguishing] sign ('alam) of that and without the muhrim-garb, the muhillin would take whatever he had with him. The text does not suggest that the Haram was regarded as conferring inviolability upon the pilgrim. Nor does the animal-hair badge or tree bark mean in itself that the wearer is muhrim. One mark simply means the wearer is going to Mecca and the other that
34 Kinanah b. Khuzaymah, of which Quraysh is a house, is near Mecca. 35 Qallada, probably a better translation would be "hung round his neck." "Garland" conveys the impression of ceremonial or festivity that I think is hardly appropriate to the context.

he is leaving it. It is true that Tabari36 cites Qatadah as saying the Quraysh were secure/safe among the Arabs (aminTnfi I-5Arab), but this is in connection with the "winter and summer journey" on which Quraysh had entered into security pacts with the tribes. The woolen thread has a simple and often entirely secular purpose. In 1940 the 'AwdhalTsultan demonstrated to the political officer and me how he would take a thread (of cotton) from his indigo-dyed waistwrapper to send to a tribesman to summon him to appear before him. A mansab, I have been told, would send a black-wool thread to a man to invite him to visit the sanctuary-this he would wind round his dagger hilt or scabbard. As the incomparable Landberg37has noted: "Le cheykh ou le seyyid donne une frange de son radTa celui qui cherche sa protection." It is, he says, "un talisman pour la route." The Prophet himself sent the black turban (cimdmah) with which he entered Mecca as a gage of security (amdn) to Safwan b. Umayyah. Similarly in Medina we find the tribal naqzb 'Ubadah b. al-Sdmit's people were known as al-Qawaqil because "when a man took protection (istajdra) with them they gave him an arrow and said: Qawqil38 bi- Yathrib haythu shi'ta, 'Move about in Yathrib where you wish'." In south Arabia today a tribesman would give his jdr a bullet to show he is under his protection. Following up the employment of the dawm-palm fruit and the bark of trees as a sort of badge of safeconduct, Dr. Crone (p. 183) tells us: "The inhabitants of Yathrib would similarly decorate their turrets with ropes and stalks of palm leaves when they wished to make the 'umra and pilgrimage: everyone would know that they had gone into a state of ihram and they would thus be granted free passage." On minor details of language, kirndf, rendered as "stalks," are the stumps or butts of the palm frond (Hadram1 karbah) remaining on the palm trunk when the saf foliage has been removed, and utms are just the ordinary Arab tower-house, not "turrets." One is to understand that the palm butts were tied to the ropes to act as a weight. But what the text actually does say
Jdmic (Cairo, 1954), XXX:309. The hirmr and his property were not touched because of the security (amn) Allah gave them. 3 Etudes sur les dialectes de l'Arabie meridionale, I: Hadramoiut(Leiden, 1901), 579, and III: DatLinah, 1787. 38 Sfrah, op. cit., 1:432; Guillaume, 727. In Zabid about three years ago, I heard my driver use this unusual word qawqal when asking another driver to move his vehicle.
36

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.3 (1990) the protection within the sacred enclave, the Haram, of which they were in charge. Now, in Islamic law and in tribal law (which belongs to the older pre-Islamic tradition), the least of persons belonging to a tribe can grant protection on its behalf, be the granter even a woman or a slave. The principle is embodied in the Islamic formula: al-mu'minuin yad wa-hid 'ald man siwa-hum, yu]Tr 'alay-him adna-hum. So, if one allies himself with an individual of Quraysh for security, the obligation to protect that person is binding on them all. So an ally can automatically enjoy the safety of the Haram against internal or external aggression. It is for this reason that the applicant for protection is given an arrow to display to other Quraysh to identify him as under the protection of the Lords of the Haram. The Sunnah Jdmicah, documents F and H, lays down the regulations for the Haram of Yathrib/ Madinah. These state that "[h]e who goes out (of the Medinan Haram) is secure and he who stays is secure in Madinah."" Quraysh's special standing stems from the fact that they were the Bayt of Kinanah. This is expressed in the clich6,fT-him al-bayt wa- 'l-adad, in them lies the House and the [greatest] number [of tribesmen or supporters]. One speaks in south Arabia of bayt al'aqdlah, the house in which the hereditary chieftainship lies. Ibn Hazm equates al-bayt with al-sharaf. As Ibn Ishaq says, Qusayy acquired the entire sharaf of Mecca, i.e., all the offices connected with the shrine; thus he would have added to the prestige of Quraysh. Ibn Hazm traces the tenure of the Bayt back to Fihr, ancestor of Quraysh, and though there may be reservations about this, 'Abd Manaf and 'Abd al-Dar were clearly of the Bayt of Quraysh.
* * * *

is that Banii CAbd al-Ashhal of Aws went on pilgrimage (ahramat) and 'Abdullah b. MacrUr of the Banii Salimah of Khazraj would take their property under his protection (ajafrala-hum amwdla-hum) after they had gone forth from Yathrib. He took this action because his mother was of 'Abd al-Ashhal (alMunammaq, 327-28). There is not the slightest suggestion that this had anything to do with a free passage-it is simply that a tribesman took it upon himself to look after their property in their absence. Ibn al-HabTb (al-Muhabbar, 264) states that "every merchant coming from the Yemen and the Hijaz used to ask protection (yatakhaffara) from Quraysh while they stayed in the land of Mudar because Mudar did not molest merchants of Mudar nor did an ally (Qalif) of Mudar trouble a Mudari." Dr. Crone does not really grasp the situation when she proposes that this was on grounds of kinship rather than because of the special status of Quraysh. It is not to be imagined that theoretical kinship in Mudar would eliminate its constant feuding. Quraysh would have to have positive security agreements with the Mudar tribes to ensure the passage unmolested of caravans-as of course, the sources tell us, were made by Hashim, and not only by him but by other members of the house of Qusayy. Ibn Habib's merchants would have to apply to Quraysh to join in, perhaps even to buy themselves into the system. What Ibn al-Kalbi has to say (supra, p. 483) of the Muhilliun abstaining from attack upon a man displaying the appropriate badge to indicate that he was going on pilgrimage to the Meccan Haram, which they did not consider inviolable, is highly significant. It suggests to me that the Arabian tribes may have observed a customary law or convention not to molest bona fide pilgrims en route or returning from a visitation to a site sacred to a deity. Whether the deity was one's tribal god or not, it would be injudicious to show lack of respect for the god. Yet another of Dr. Crone's misconceptions (p. 196) that turns a quite intelligible situation upside down is that "settlers in Mecca owed their safety to alliances with members of Quraysh, not to the supposed sanctity of Meccan territory." Individuals or groups sought protection of Quraysh as "Lords of the House" (Wullit al-Bayt). Wulat she translates wrongly as "guardians" which, quite rightly, she declares they were not! Naturally the protection would be sought of an individual possessed of sharaf, very likely somebody with whom they had already established contact-not, of course, from a committee! The Lords of the House (a fairly wide term) had the authority to grant entry into

How an incorrect reading of the Arabic can trick Dr. Crone into rash assertions is illustrated by her statement (p. 165) that "it is by no means obvious that Mecca did surrender [to Muhammad] peacefully." To support this allegation she cites, from the STrah, verses by 'Abbas b. Mirdas, the usual bombastic stock-in-trade of the professional poetaster, not to be taken strictly literally, which she renders:"Wetrampled upon Mecca by force with our swords." The text actually says: "Allah gave him [the Prophet] the power over it, and the judgement of the swords and victorious fortune humiliated it." But Ibn Mirdas's line alludes not to Mecca but to the fHijdz,the "Hijaz" of the previous line being indicated by the masculine pronominal suffix. The academic debate of the lawyers

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Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam

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at a later date on whether Mecca was taken by force or sulh, truce, is irrelevant, not admissible as evidence. Hassan b. Thabit's insulting invective against CAbdalDar is of the same genre as Ibn Mirdas' verses and contrasts with the granting by the Prophet to them of the retention of the keys of the Ka'bah, which their descendants hold to this day, and his policy of "composing the hearts" of his erstwhile opponents of the noble Quraysh houses. Turning to the negotiations with Muhammad by the tribal chiefs, the naqTbs, before the hijrah, Dr. Crone (p. 217) alleges that Guillaume39has mistranslated the important statement that they made. It should read: "We left our tribe (qawm), there being no (other) tribe among whom there is such enmity and war (sharr)40 as there is between them-and perhaps Allah may unite them through you." Here we have the situation where the Yathrib tribes invite a third party to come in and settle their dispute, which a member of the Quraysh Bayt, whose ancestor was known as the "Uniter," was likely to be well qualified to do. But Dr.
Crone continues: "Ibn Ishlaq . .. first tells us that

Muhammad stepped into a political vacuum in Yathrib and next that he snatched away authority from a wellestablished ruler in Yathrib. Never had Yathrib been so disunited, or else it had never been so united. The contradiction is beyond harmonization." How can a historian make such nonsense out of a straightforward situation? The story is quite clear, though Ibn Ishaq marshals his information in a manner a little disjointed. Following the contest at Bucath, the- Aws and Khazraj tribes wished to compose their differences and arrive at a peaceful settlement. Ibn Ubayy of Khazraj, about whose honor (sharaf) (not "authority" as it is rendered by Guillaume and followed by Dr. Crone), and therefore his eligibility, there was no question, was rallied around by Aws and Khazraj. With Ibn Ubayy was a shardf man of Aws. Ibn Ubayy's tribe had strung some beads on a fillet4' to

Guillaume, 198; STrah,op. cit., 1:429. Noeldeke, Delectus (Berlin, 1890), 87, for this sense of sharr. 41 This form of investiture was customary in Arabia by the time of the Namdrah inscription of the 4th century A.D., where Imru'u '1-Qays is dhii -'asral-taj, and as recent at least as the investiture of the cAwdhalTsultan Sdlih. b. Husayn with the fatTlah of the Arab match-lock gun. Irfan Shahid, "Philological observations on the Namara inscription," Journal of Semitic Studies XXIV (1979): 33-34.
39
40

wind round his head as a form of investiture, intending then to make him king, when the Prophet arrived, and his tribe abandoned him for Islam. Ibn Ubayy is called the sayyid of the people of Yathrib, i.e., their chief; there must be reservations about the term "king," which may possibly have meant something in the nature of a paramount chief. Ibn Ubayy was evidently not a "well-established ruler" as Dr. Crone avers, but since he had held aloof from participating in the Bu'ath fighting, he may have been regarded as the most suitable chief available to try and establish peace, and he certainly was a man of standing. In the meantime, the naqrbs, of lesser rank than a sayyid, had been secretly negotiating with Muhammad in what was patently a conspiracy against Ibn Ubayy, whom they took care not to inform of what they were doing. Nine of the naqibs were of Khazraj and three of Aws. Whether they were motivated by jealousies or rivalry or not, they had a superior candidate for office, not likely to be party to either tribe in their quarrels, and, as well, having the over-riding prestige of being a member of a holy house; so Ibn Ubayy had to acquiesce. The only contradiction is that manufactured by Dr. Crone herself! Astonished to find Mecca (p. 198) described in texts quoted as evidence as having "lush vegetation" (characterized as muctalij al-bathd', rendered as "a plain with luxuriant herbage"), I consulted the Arabic. Dr. Crone's references are to Wfistenfeld, but her translations are taken from Guillaume42 who does speak of the "verdant plain of al-Batha'." I have warned (JRAS [1982]: 181) that though we use his very readable translation, no reliance is to be placed on it for serious work, because of the manifold errors in his rendering. A batha' is "the bottom of a watercourse or a channel of a torrent producing plants and herbage." Muctalij is strong, tall, tangled of herbageit can mean luxuriant in the sense of abundant. But Jurhum, looking for pasture after a drought, found i1dah, i.e., tangled thorny trees-the salam, samar (gum acacia) and plants for pasture. In other words the Mecca valley was a stony flood-bed with tangled thorn trees/bushes growing along the line of it, a common physical feature in Arabia in areas otherwise barren. Mecca certainly did not have "an unusually fertile environment." As for making sense that a
42

Op. cit., 43. Similarly (p. 46) Guillaume speaks of Mecca as "a town blessed with water and trees" (balad-an dhd md'in wa-shajar-in) but a more accurate rendering would be "a region having water and vegetation."

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 110.3 (1990) On the central theme of iyldf, Marsden Jones'"Alis overwhelming in the positive evidence it provides for the existence of the iyldf system, based upon a well-analyzed and critical survey of the historical texts. In the face of such evidence as this, it is simply perverse and absurd to attempt to argue the Meccan sanctuary out of any significance prior to the advent of Islam. The negation of these are but two of the many unconvincing contentions in the book. The impression of the author left by reading Dr. Crone's work is that of a clever undergraduate at a student debate, intent to win on the points at issue, but neither over-careful in interpreting the historical sources, nor with any scruples at twisting what has already been said, to make it fit her argument. Her book may gain her the publicity it is clearly designed to do, but it will in no way advance our understanding of early Islamic origins.
STra al-Nabawiyya"43

sanctuary town should be located in a fertile environment, this does not apply to Mecca.
* * * *

The final chapter, the "Rise of Islam," can only be described as "maunderings";what is new is untrue (or irrelevant!) and what is true is not new. Part 2 of the book leaves the general impression of the author's confused reasoning, arising largely from her methodology-if such chaos can be called methodology! Her technique, as said, is to throw together a mass of data in order to produce seeming contradictions (and of course there sometimes are contradictions). But criticism of historical sources should aim at eliciting from themrwhat is possible to accept as evidence, not at manufacturing a case for destroying them in toto. Dr. Crone makes little if any genuine (might one say, sincere?) attempt at a critical assessment of the relative historicity of the sources of which she disposes. Citation of a multitude of references should not blind one to her lack of a constructive critical approach. She sets out to prove that the commerce and sanctity of pre-Islamic Mecca are a myth, thereby to outsmart those scholars who accept that, given the known limitations of the sources, there is a basis of "fact" to early Islamic historical tradition. My own feeling is one of surprise at how often one finds, when least expecting it, how consistent it is.

43' "Al-S ra al-Nabawiyya as a source for the economic in Arabiaat the time of the riseof Islam," historyof Western

Studies in the history of Arabia, Proceedings of the First

InternationalSymposium on Studies in the History of Arabia, 23rd-28th April, 1977, Departmentof History, of Riyadh(Riyadh, 1399/1979), Facultyof Arts, University 15-23.

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