The 120 year Tribal War...............

[Fabregas]

[iN MADINAH]

 

THE PEOPLE OF MADINAH

 

 

Yathrib had been chosen by Allah to shelter the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) after his emigration and to bring forth not only the first Islamic Society but also to serve as a focal point for the universal call of Islam. The great honor accorded to the city makes it necessary to know its distinctive features, its unique physical, social and cultural conditions, like those of the Arab tribes living there and their interactions with one another, the economic and political manipulations of the Jews and their fighting spirit as well as the way of life sustained by its fertile land. Various religions, cultures and communities flourished in the city in stark contrast to Makkah, which was dominated by one faith and one cultural pattern. The details given here, albeit briefly, depict the state of affairs in Madinah when the Prophet (peace be upon him) made his debut in that city.

 

 

 

 

THE JEWISH PRESENCE

 

The view preferred by historians about Jewish settlements in Arabia, at large and those in Madinah, in particular, is that they date from the first century A.D. Dr. Israel Welphenson writes that:

 

“After Palestine and Jerusalem were laid waste in 70 A.D. and the Jews dispersed to different parts of the world, a number of them made their way to Arabia. This is in accordance with the Jewish historian Josephus, who was himself present at the siege of Jerusalem and had led the Jewish units on several occasions. Arab sources also corroborate his statement."

 

Three Jewish tribes, Qaynuqaa', an-Nadhir and Quraydha, were settled in Madinah. The number of adults belonging to these tribes was over two thousand where Qaynuqaa' was estimated to have seven hundred combatants, with an-Nadir having almost the same number too, while the adult men of Quraydha were reported to be between seven and nine hundred.

 

These tribes were not on good terms and very often they are caught in confrontations with one another. Dr. Israel Welphenson says:

 

“Bani Qaynuqaa' were set against the rest of the Jews because they had sided with Bani Khazraj in the battle of Bu’ath in which Bani an-Nadir and Bani Quraydha had inflicted a crushing defeat and massacred Bani Qaynuqaa' even though the latter had paid bloodwit for the prisoners of war. The bitterness among the Jewish tribes continued to persist after the battle of Bu’ath. When Bani Qaynuqaa' subsequently fell out with the Ansaar, no other Jewish tribe came to their aid against them (Ansaar).” (Al-Yahud fi Balad il’Arab, p. 129)

 

The Qur’an also makes a reference to the mutual discord between the Jews:

 

“And when We made with you a covenant (saying): Shed not the blood of your people nor turn (party of) your people out of your dwellings. Then ye ratified (Our covenant) and ye were witnesses (thereto). “Yet it is you who slay each other and drive out party of your people from their homes, supporting one another against them by sin and transgression - and if they come to you as captives ye would ransom them, whereas their expulsion was itself unlawful for you.[Qur'aan 2:84-5]

 

The Jews of Madinah had their dwellings in their own separate localities in different parts of the city. When Bani an-Nadir and Bani Quraydha forced Bani Qaynuqaa' to relocate their settlement in the outskirts of the town, they took up their quarters in a section of the city. Bani an-Nadir had their habitation in the higher parts, some four or five kilometers from the city towards the valley of Bathan, which houses some of the richest groves and agricultural lands of Madinah. The third Jewish tribe, Bani Quraydha, occupied a vicinity known as Mehzor, which is a few kilometers. to the south of the city.

 

The Jews of Madinah lived in compact settlements where they had erected fortifications and citadels. They were however, not independent but lived as confederate clans of the stronger Arab tribes which guaranteed them immunity from raids by the nomads. Predatory incursions by the nomadic tribes being a perpetual menace, the Jewish tribes had to always seek the protection of one or more chieftains of the powerful Arab tribes.

 

RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS OF THE JEWS

 

The Jews considered themselves to be blessed with divine religion and law. They had their own seminaries, known as Midras which imparted instruction in their religious and secular life, science, law, history and the Talmudic lore. Similarly, for offering prayers and performing other religious rites, they had synagogues where they normally put their heads together to discuss their affairs. They observed the laws brought about by the Pentateuch together with the many other rigid and uncompromising customary rules imposed by their priests and rabbis and celebrated Jewish feasts and fasted. As for example, they commemorate, on the tenth day of the month of Tishri, The Fast of the Atonement. (Banu Israel Fil-Qur’an wal Sunnah, pp. 80-81)

 

FINANCES

 

The financial relationship of the Medinan Jews with the other tribes was mainly limited to lending money on interest or on security or sequestration of personal property upon payment failure. In an agricultural region like Madinah, there was ample scope for money-lending business since the farmers very often needed capital for purposes of cultivation. (Banu Israel Fil-Qur’an wal Sunnah, pp. 80-81)

 

The system of lending money was not limited merely to pledging personal property as security for repayment of the loan, for the lenders very often forced the borrowers to pledge even their women and children. The following incident bears a testimony to the prevailing practices:

 

“Muhammed b. Maslamah said to K’ab: “Now, we hope that you will lend us a camel-load or two (of food). K’ab answered: I will do so (but) you shall pledge something with me. [The Muslims] retorted: What do you want? - (K’ab) replied, “Pledge your women with me”. Then they responded, “How can we pledge our women with you, the most beautiful of the Arabs? K’ab parried, “Then pledge your sons with me. [The Muslims] countered, “How can we pledge our sons with thee, when later they would be abused on this account, and people would say: “They have been pledged for a camel-load or two (of food)! This would disgrace us! We shall, however, pledge our armor with you.

 

Such transactions produced naturally, enough hatred and repugnance between the mortgagees and the mortgagors, particularly since the Arabs were known to be sensitive where the honor of their womenfolk is concerned.

 

Concentration of capital in the hands of the Jews had given them power to exercise economic pressure on the social economy of the city. The markets were at their mercy. They rigged the market through hoarding, thereby creating artificial shortages and causing the rise and fall in prices. Most of the people in Madinah detested the Jews owing to such malpractices of usury and profiteering, which were against the substance of the common Arabs. (Banu Israel Fil-Qur'aan wal-Sunnah, p. 79)

 

The Jews, in their social transactions with the Arab tribes, Aus and Khazraj, spent lavishly, though judiciously, in creating a rift between the two tribes. On a number of occasions in the past, they had successfully pitted one tribe against the other, leaving both tribes worn out and economically ruined in the end. The only objective Jews had set before themselves was how to maintain their economic dominion over Medinah.

 

An incident related by Ibn Hisham that took place after Madinah became Muslim sheds light upon this strategy. Sh’ath b. Qays was an old jewish man and he felt bitter against the Muslims. He passed by a place where a number of the Prophet’s companions from Aus and Khazraj were talking together. He was filled with rage seeing their amity and unity. So he asked the Jewish youth who were friendly with the Ansaars to join them and mention the battle of Bu’ath and the preceding battles, and to recite some of the poems concerning those events in order to stir up their tribal sentiments.

 

The cunning device of Sh’ath was not in vain, for a few years before Islam, the the two tribes had been at daggers with each other . Their passions were aroused and they started bragging and quarreling until they were about to unsheathe their swords when the Prophet (peace be upon him) came with some of the Muslim emigrants from Mecca. He pacified them and appealed to the bonds of harmony brought about by Islam. Then the Ansaars realized that the enemy had duped them. The Aus and Khazraj wept, embraced and welcomed back one another as if nothing had happened. (Ibn Hisham, Vol. I, pp. 555-6)

 

For many centuries, the Jews had been waiting for a redeemer. This belief of the Jews in the coming Prophet (peace be upon him), about which they used to talk with the Arabs, had prepared the Aus and the Khazraj to give their faith readily to the Prophet (peace be upon him). (Dr. Mohammed Syed al-Tantawi, Banu Israel fil-Qur’an wal-Sunnah, pp. 73-101.)

 

The Jews of Arabia spoke Arabic although their dialect was interspersed with Hebrew for they had not completely given up their religious aspirations. In regard to the missionary activities of the Jews, Dr. Israel Welphenson says:

 

“There is less uncertainty about the opportunities offered to the Jews in consolidating their religious supremacy over Arabia. Had they so willed, they could have used their influence to the best advantage. But as it is too prominent among every student of Jewish history, they have never made any effort to invite other nations to embrace their faith, rather, for certain reasons, they have been forbidden to preach this to others.” (Dr. Israel Welphenson; Al-Yahud fi Balad il-‘Arab, p. 72)

 

Be that as it may, many of the Aus and the Khazraj and certain other Arab tribes had been Judaized owing to their close social connections with the Jews or ties of blood. Thus, there were Jews in Arabia, who were of Israelite descent, with a fraction of Arab converts. The well-known poet K’ab b. Ashraf (often called an an-Nadir) belonged to the tribe of Tayy. His father had married in the tribe of Bani an-Nadir but he grew up to be a zealous Jew. Ibn Hisham writes about him: K’ab b. Ashraf who was one of the Tayy of the sub-section of Bani Nabhan whose mother was from the Bani al-Nadir. (Ibn Hisham, Vol. P. 514).

 

There was a custom among the pagan Arabs that if the sons of anybody died in infancy, he used to declare to God that if his next son remained alive, he would entrust him to a Jew to rear him up on his own religion. A tradition referring to this custom finds place in the Sunan Abu Dawud.

 

“Ibn ‘Abbaas said: Any woman whose children died used to take the vow that if her next child remained alive, she would make him a Jew. Accordingly, when Banu an-Nadir were deported they had the sons of Ansaar with them; they said, “ We would not forsake our sons”, thereupon the revelation came: “There is no compulsion in religion.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, Kitaab-ul-Jihad, Vol. II).

 

AUS AND KHAZRAJ

 

The two great Arab tribes of Madinah, Aus and Khazraj, traced a common descent from the tribe of Azd belonging to Yemen from where successive waves of emigrants inundated the northern regions from time to time. The exodus was brought about by a variety of reasons, some of which were the unstable political conditions in Yemen, Abyssinian aggression and disruption of irrigation system supporting agriculture after the destruction of Ma’rib dam. However, both the Aus and Khazraj came down to Madinah after the Jews. The Aus settled down in ‘Awali, an area in the south-east of Madinah while the Khazraj occupied the lands in the central and northern parts of it. With the northern part of the city being low-lying, nothing intervened between the abode of the Khazraj and Harrata Wabrah in the West. (Makkah wal Madinah, p. 311).

 

The Khazraj consisted of four clans: Malik, ‘Adiy, Mazin and Dinar, all co-laterals to Banu Najjaar and also known as Taym Al-Lat. Banu Najjaar took up residence in the central part of the city where the Prophet (peace be upon him)’s mosque now stands. The Aus, who have settled in the fertile, arable lands were the neighbors of the more influential and powerful Jewish tribe. The lands occupied by Khazraj were comparatively less fertile and they had only Banu Qaynuqaa as their neighbors. (Makkah wal Madinah, p. 311).

 

It is rather difficult to reckon the numerical strength of Aus and Khazraj with any amount of certainty, but an estimate can be formed from different battles in which they took part after the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) departure to Madinah. The combatants drafted from these two tribes on the occasion of the conquest of Makkah numbered four thousand. (Al-Imta, Vol. I, p. 364).

 

When the Prophet (peace be upon him) migrated to Madinah, the Arabs were powerful and in a position to play the first fiddle. The Jews being disunited had taken a subordinate position by seeking alliance either with the Aus or the Khazraj. Their mutual relationship was even worse for they were more tyrannical to their comrades in religion in times of clashes than to the Arabs themselves. It was due to the antipaYour and bitterness between them that the Bani Qaynuqaa were forced to abandon their cultivated lands and resorted to working as artisans. (Makkah wal Madinah, p. 322)

[Fabregas]

Does anyone see the similarities between the conflict of the Aus and khazraj and the condition of the muslims today?

[Fabregas]

There are great lesson for the Somali people in the Awz and Khazraj which i will inshallah touch in!