ʿAsmāʾ bint Marwān

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ʿAsmāʾ bint Marwān ( Arabic عصماء بنت مروان, DMG ʿAṣmāʾ bt. Marwān ; † March 21, 624 ) was a Jewish poet who is listed in Islamic historiography in connection with her opposition to Mohammed and who was killed because of an insult she wrote against the Prophet and his followers. She belonged to the Umaiya ibn Zaid, a sub-tribe of the Aus and was married to a member of another sub-tribe, the Banū Chatma: Yazīd ibn Zaid ibn Hisn Chatmī. ʿAsmāʾ was the mother of five sons, the youngest of whom was an infant.

Overview of all sub-tribes of Aus

prehistory

ʿAsmāʾ, in the form of a poem handed down in Ibn Ishāq's biography of the prophet, had the Muslim Medinians for their submission to a stranger, i.e. H. Mohammed, mocked and incited the non-Muslim inhabitants of the oasis to attack Mohammed and his followers:

“You fucking the Malik and the Nabit

And the up, you fucked the Khasradsch ! (...)

You obey a foreigner who is not from your area,

Who is neither from Morad nor from Madhhij! (Yemeni tribes)

If you hope in him after the murder of your chiefs,

As if you were craving the soup of a boiling meat?

Is there no man of honor who uses a moment of inattention?

And put an end to the hopes of the bullfinch catchers? "

- Translation after Maxime Rodinson

Al-Wāqidī and al-Balādhurī pass on ʿAsmāʾs verses without the call to attack the Muslims contained in Ibn Ishāq's version.

According to Ibn Ishāq's account, the murder of the aged Jewish proselyte Abū ʿĀfak, for whose death he does not give an exact date, but explicitly dates before the assassination attempt on ʿAsmāʾ, was the reason for these verses.
Al-Wāqidī, on the other hand, names the shawwāl of the second year according to the Islamic calendar (March 27 to April 25, 624) and thus the month after ʿAsmāʾs murder as his date of death, whereby the murder of him would be excluded as the decisive reason for ʿAsmāʾs verses. Al-Balādhurī and Ibn Saʿd date his death in the same month as al-Wāqidī.

In response to ʿAsmāʾs hostility, the famous poet and fellow prophet Hassān ibn Thābit († approx. 659) wrote the following verses:

“The Banū Wāʾil, the Banū Wāqif and the Chatma are inferior to the Banū Khazradsch

Woe to her! When she caused cheek by her moaning and death came

She provoked a man of glorious parentage and dignified manners

Without hesitation, he stained her with bloody paint after part of the night

May God transfer you to the relief of Paradise that you may enjoy the grace of entry. "

This poem contained in Diwān Hassān ibn Thābits can also be found in a partly different form in Ibn Ishāq's biography of the prophets and al-Wāqidīs "Book of Campaigns" ( Kitāb al-Maġāzī ). Ibn Ishāq's version lacks the last line in Ibn Thābit's poem.

The poetic exchange of blows between ʿAsmāʾ and Ibn Thābit illustrates the rift within Yathrib in the form of the smoldering conflict between the residents of the oasis who have converted to Islam (the Ansār ) and the followers of the Prophet in general on the one hand, and the Jewish and pagan resident there Opposition on the other. The decisive factor was the arrival of Muhammad there, the acceptance of the new religion by parts of the local population and the associated changes in the socio-political structure of Yathrib. In contrast to the conflicts of the pre-Islamic period, this was not based on membership or the alliance with one of the two dominant tribes (see: Banū Qaila ), but was based on membership of one of the respective religious communities and was also of an economic and political nature . The murder of ʿAsmāʾ followed the consolidation of Islamic rule over the oasis and the fight against the Medinan opposition to the Prophet. It went hand in hand with the expulsion of the Qainuqāʿ during the same period. Against a similar background, the Banū Nadīr were expelled the following year and the Banū Quraiza were annihilated after the battle of the trenches in 627.

assassination

The course of events as well as the events connected with it are passed down differently in the respective sources. It is unanimously reported that the perpetrator - ʿUmair ibn ʿAdī, a member of her husband's tribe - is said to have killed ʿAsmāʾ in his sleep in response to their verses and then reported the assassination to the Prophet. Upon hearing of her death, her husband's entire sub-tribe is said to have adopted Islam.

According to Ibn Ishāq's tradition, in response to the poem, Mohammed is said to have asked who could redeem him from Marwān's daughter, whereupon Umair went to her house and killed her. In al-Wāqidī's account, the act does not go back to a statement made by Muhammad. Accordingly, he was in Badr when ʿUmair heard of Asmāʾs verses and thereupon made an oath to take her life if the prophet should return safely from the battle. Al-Balādhurī records that ʿUmair was also in Badr when he heard the poem and swore that he would kill her if he returned from Badr. After he had asked the Prophet's permission to kill ʿAsmāʾ on his return to the city, he is said to have done the deed.

According to al-Wāqidī and Ibn Saʿd, Umair was blind. When he entered ʿAsmāʾs home, she and her children - including the baby who was still sucking on her breast - were said to have slept around them. He is said to have felt her first in order to then tear the child from her breast and pierce her with his sword.

When he reported the deed to the prophet the next morning, he is said to have praised him for it. Because of his commitment to Islam - so the account of al-Wāqidī and Ibn Sad - Mohammed gave the blind Umair the nickname al-Baṣīr , dt. "The seeing one". When asked whether he had anything to fear because of this act, the Prophet is said to have appeased him by saying that no two goats would attack each other because of this woman: lā yantaṭiḥu fīhā ʿanzān . This saying of Muhammad handed down in Ibn Ishāq's biography of the prophets, which is also contained in the version of al-Wāqidī, Ibn Saʿd and al-Balādhurīs, has become proverbial and is sometimes used. a. listed by Ibn ʿAsākir in his Scholarly History of Damascus Taʾrīḫ madīnat Dimašq . The idiom is used to describe trivialities.

It is not immediately clear from Ibn Ishāq's account what Umair’s concerns specifically referred to. Al-Wāqidī cites as the reason for this the fear of having undermined the authority of Muhammad by carrying out a murder for which he was not explicitly commissioned.

Al-Wāqidī and Ibn Ishāq also record a conversation between ʿUmair and the bereaved sons of ʿAsmāʾ when he met them following his report to Mohammed. According to Ibn Ishāq, he told them that he had killed their mother and then called on them to fight him without much hesitation. According to al-Wāqidī, this request was accompanied by a threat to kill them too if they ever did the same as their mother.

The Banū Chatma are said to have converted to Islam on the same day, so that even those among them who are said to have previously secretly converted to Islam could openly profess their religion:

"On the day that Marwan's daughter was killed, the men of the Banu Khatma were converted because they saw the power of Islam."

- Translation after Maxime Rodinson

For the reception of this and similar events in research see here and here .

See also

swell

  • Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (ed.): The life of Muhammad. After Muhammed Ibn Ishāk , edited by Abd el-Malik Ibn Hishām. Dieterichsche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1859. Vol. 1, P. 995 f.
    • German translation by Gustav Weil: The life of Mohammed after Mohammed Ibn Ishâk, edited by Abd el-Malik Ibn Hischâm. Translated from the Arabic by Dr. G. Because . JB Metzler, 1864. Vol. 2, pp. 337 f.
    • English translation by Alfred Guillaume: The Life of Muhammad. A Translation of ibn Isḥāq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh . Oxford University Press, 2004. pp. 675 f.
  • John Marsden Beaumont Jones (Ed.): The Kitāb al-Mag̲h̲āzī of al-Wāqidī . Oxford University Press, 1966. Vol. 1, pp. 172-174
    • German partial translation by Julius Wellhausen: Muhammed in Medina. This is Vakidi's Kitab alMaghazi in a shortened German version . Reimer, 1982. pp. 90 f.
    • English translation by Rizwi Faizer: The Life of Muhammad. Al-Wāqidī's Kitāb al-Maghāzī . Routledge, 2011. pp. 85 f.
  • Eduard Sachau (ed.): Ibn Saad . Biographies of Muhammad, his companions and the later bearers of Islam up to the year 230 of his flight . Brill, 1909. Vol. 2, Part 1: The campaigns of Muhammad (ed. Josef Horovitz ). P. 18 (German summary on p. XIV )
    • English translation by Syed Moinul Haq: Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir . Kitab Bhavan, 1985. Vol. 2, Part 1, pp. 30 f.
  • Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balāḏurī : Ansābu 'l-ašrāf (ed. Muhammad Hamidullah). Dār al-Maʿārif, 1959. Vol. 1, p. 373

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Al-Wāqidī calls the 25th Ramadān ( kāna qatlu ʿaṣmāʾi li-ḫamsi layālin baqīna min ramaḍān , Eng . "The murder of ʿAsmāʾ took place on the 25th Ramadān [literally: when there were five nights left in Ramadān ]") of the second Year according to the Islamic calendar (March 21, 624) as the date of death. Ibn Ishāq cites the murder of Asmāʾ at the end of his chapter on the Prophet's campaigns without specifying a date. See John Marsden Beaumont Jones: The Chronology of the "Mag̱ẖāzī" - A Textual Survey. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 19 (1957). P. 247 and sources cited there. Al-Balādhurī and Ibn Saʿd give the same date as al-Wāqidī. See Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balāḏurī: Ansābu 'l-ašrāf (ed. Muhammad Hamidullah). Dār al-Maʿārif, 1959. Vol. 1, p. 373 and Eduard Sachau (ed.): Ibn Saad. Biographies of Muhammad, his companions and the later bearers of Islam up to the year 230 of his flight . Brill, 1909. Vol. 2, Part 1: The campaigns of Muhammad (ed. Josef Horovitz). P. 18 . See Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina . Brill, 1995. p. 38 and William Montgomery Watt: Muhammad at Medina. Oxford 1962. p. 340
  2. ↑ It appears, so Lecker, to have traded around an Arab convert. See Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina . Brill, 1995. p. 38 and p. 20, note 3. See Encyclopaedia Judaica. Judaism in the past and present . Eschkol A.-G., 1929. Vol. 3, p. 529, sv "Asma". Stillman and Watt mistakenly refer to her as a polytheist. See Norman A. Stillman: The Jews of Arab Lands. A History and Source Book . Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979. p. 13 and William Montgomery Watt: Muhammad at Medina. Oxford 1962. p. 178
  3. ↑ Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina . Brill, 1995. pp. 38 f. See William Montgomery Watt: Muhammad at Medina. Oxford 1962. p. 178 and Encyclopaedia Judaica. Judaism in the past and present . Eschkol A.-G., 1929. Vol. 3, p. 529, sv "Asma"
  4. ↑ a b Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet . Kohlhammer, 2008. p. 162
  5. ↑ a b Encyclopaedia Judaica. Judaism in the past and present . Eschkol A.-G., 1929. Vol. 3, p. 529, sv "Asma"
  6. ↑ Two of the five sub-tribes of the Aus are meant: The Nabīt and the ʿAmr ibn ʿ Auf. The first-mentioned Mālik means Mālik ibn Aus, the forefather of all sub-tribes of Aus, and thus the entire tribe. The verses, however, aim only at the Nabīt and the ʿAmr ibn ʿAuf, which is evident from the following concretisation after the Mālik has been mentioned. See Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina . Brill, 1995. pp. 39 f.
  7. ↑ Murād, see G. Levi Della Vida: Murād . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Volume 7. Brill, 1993. pp. 591 f.
  8. ↑ Maḏḥiǧ, see GR Smith, CE Bosworth: Mad̲h̲ḥid̲j̲ . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Volume 5. Brill, 1986. pp. 953 f.
  9. ^ Maxime Rodinson: Mohammed. CJ Bucher, 1975. pp. 154 f. after Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (ed.): The life of Muhammad. After Muhammed Ibn Ishāk, edited by Abd el-Malik Ibn Hishām. Dieterichsche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1859. Vol. 1, p. 995 . See the German translation by Gustav Weil: The life of Mohammed after Mohammed Ibn Ishâk, edited by Abd el-Malik Ibn Hischâm. Translated from the Arabic by Dr. G. Because . JB Metzler, 1864. Vol. 2, p. 337 and the English translation by Alfred Guillaume: The Life of Muhammad. A Translation of ibn Isḥāq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh . Oxford University Press, 2004. pp. 675 f.
  10. ↑ He died under similar circumstances: in response to the writing of verses hostile to the Muslims, he was murdered on the orders of the Prophet
  11. ↑ falammā qutila Abū ʿAfak nāfaqat , translation: "After Abū ʿAfak was killed, she hyped [she turned out to be a hypocrite]"
  12. ↑ On the pertinent information from Ibn Isḥāqs and al-Wāqidīs see John Marsden Beaumont Jones: The Chronology of the "Mag̱ẖāzī" - A Textual Survey. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 19 (1957). P. 247 and sources cited there
  13. ↑ See Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balāḏurī: Ansābu 'l-ašrāf (ed. Muhammad Hamidullah). Dār al-Maʿārif, 1959. Vol. 1, p. 373 and Eduard Sachau (ed.): Ibn Saad. Biographies of Muhammad, his companions and the later bearers of Islam up to the year 230 of his flight . Brill, 1909. Vol. 2, Part 1: The campaigns of Muhammad (ed. Josef Horovitz). P. 18
  14. ↑ See Walid Najib Arafat: Ḥassān b. T̲h̲ābit . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. Volume 3. Brill, 1971. p. 271b
  15. ↑ Walid Najib Arafat: Dīwān of Ḥassān ibn Thābit . Gibb Memorial Trust, 1971. Vol. 1, p. 449
  16. ↑ This refers to the Murra, Imruʾu l-Qais and Dschuscham, three of the five sub-tribes of the Aus. See Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina . Brill, 1995. p. 39
  17. ↑ a b Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina . Brill, 1995. p. 41
  18. ↑ See: Mohammed # The internal politics in Medina , Municipality of Medina
  19. ↑ See Hannah Rahman: The Conflicts Between the Prophet and the Opposition in Madina. In: Der Islam 62 (1985). P. 260 f. See Irving M. Zeitlin: The Historical Muhammad . Polity Press, 2007. pp. 12 f. and Michael Lecker: Glimpses of Muḥammad's Medinan decade. In: Jonathan E. Brockopp (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Muḥammad. Cambridge University Press, 2010. pp. 71-73. See also Kister's comments in connection with the murder of Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf in Meir J. Kister: The Market of the Prophet. In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 8 (1965). Pp. 272-276
  20. ^ William Montgomery Watt: Muḥammad . In: PM Holt, Ann KS Lambton, Bernard Lewis (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Islam . Cambridge University Press, 1988. Vol. 1A, p. 46
  21. ↑ See also: Mohammed # The opposition to Mohammed in Medina
  22. ↑ a b c Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (ed.): The life of Muhammad. After Muhammed Ibn Ishāk, edited by Abd el-Malik Ibn Hishām . Dieterichsche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1859. Vol. 1, p. 996
  23. ^ Marsden Jones (ed.): The Kitāb al-Mag̲h̲āzī of al-Wāqidī . Oxford University Press, 1966. Vol. 1, pp. 172 f.
  24. ↑ Al-Wāqidī, however, does not list him among the participants in the battle. See Marsden Jones (ed.): The Kitāb al-Mag̲h̲āzī of al-Wāqidī . Oxford University Press, 1966. Vol. 1, pp. 152-172
  25. ↑ Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balāḏurī: Ansābu 'l-ašrāf (ed. Muhammad Hamidullah). Dār al-Maʿārif, 1959. Vol. 1, p. 373
  26. ↑ a b See Marsden Jones (ed.): The Kitāb al-Mag̲h̲āzī of al-Wāqidī . Oxford University Press, 1966. Vol. 1, p. 173 and Eduard Sachau (ed.): Ibn Saad. Biographies of Muhammad, his companions and the later bearers of Islam up to the year 230 of his flight . Brill, 1909. Vol. 2, Part 1: The campaigns of Muhammad (ed. Josef Horovitz). P. 18
  27. ↑ Volume 51, pp. 224-225 (ed. Al-ʿUmarī. Beirut 1997)
  28. ↑ See Ibn Manzūr : Lisān al-ʿArab . Al-Maṭbaʿa al-Kubra al-Amirīya, 1883. Vol. 3, p. 461 and Edward William Lane: An Arabic-English Lexicon . Willams & Norgate, 1863. Vol. 8, p. 2809, sv نطح (n-ṭ-ḥ): "(...) alluding to a case in which there will not happen any discord or contention. "
  29. ↑ a b Marsden Jones (ed.): The Kitāb al-Mag̲h̲āzī of al-Wāqidī . Oxford University Press, 1966. Vol. 1, p. 173
  30. ^ Maxime Rodinson: Mohammed. CJ Bucher, 1975. P. 167 after Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (Ed.): The life of Muhammad. After Muhammed Ibn Ishāk, edited by Abd el-Malik Ibn Hishām . Dieterichsche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1859. Vol. 1, p. 996
personal data
SURNAME ʿAṣmāʾ bint Marwān
ALTERNATIVE NAMES عصماء بنت مروان (Arabic); Asma, daughter of Marwan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish poet
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century or 7th century
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 624