Ansār
As Ansār ( Arabic أنصار, DMG anṣār 'helper') are the followers of the Islamic prophet Mohammed from the city of Yathrib (later Medina ), who welcomed him and his followers from Mecca , the so-called Muhādschirūn , in their city in 622. They essentially consisted of the Arab tribes of the Khazradsch and Aus , who, together with other Jewish tribes, settled Yathrib during this period.
Quranic use of the term
The term Anṣār ('helper') already occurs in the Koran . Here it is first used for the disciples of Jesus:
“But when Jesus found that they were unbelieving, he said,“ Who are my helpers (on the way?) To God? ”The disciples said: We are the helpers of God ( anrār Allaah ). We believe in him. Testify that we are devoted to him! "
In Sura 61 : 14 the believers are asked to be “helpers of God” in the same way as the disciples of Jesus were. Here the term does not seem to be reserved for a specific group of believers.
A differentiation between Meccan and Medinan Muslims, which falls back on the Arabic word root n-ṣ-r , can be found for the first time in Sura 8 : 72, where it says:
"Those who believe and have emigrated and have waged war (w. Struggled) with their property and personally for God's sake , and those who have granted (them) admission and assistance ( allaḏīna awau wa-naṣarū ), they are friends with each other. "
The juxtaposition of “emigrants” ( muhāǧirūn ) and “helpers” ( annetār ) is then encountered twice in concise abbreviation in sura 9 : 100 and 9: 117.
The Ansār according to Islamic tradition
prehistory
In the period before the Hijra of Mohammed, there was a generation-long feud in the vicinity of Yathrib (Medina) with Jewish and Arab tribal groups on both sides, which led to general exhaustion. The Khazradsch were allied with the Jewish tribes of the Banū Quraiẓa and Banū ʾl-Naḍīr , the Banu Aus with the third Jewish tribe of Yathrib, the Banū Qainuqāʿ . In the years before the hijra a certain calm had returned after lengthy fighting, but it was based only on mutual exhaustion and not on a peace agreement. When six members of the Khazradsch met Muhammad in 620, they probably hoped that Muhammad would mediate in the conflict.
The two ʿAqaba meetings
On pilgrimage 621, five of the six men returned from Yathrib and brought seven more men with them, including two from the Aus. In a remote place called ʿAqaba, the twelve men vowed to take in Mohammed and his followers and to protect them as well as their wives and children (hence baiʿat an-nisāʾ "homage to women"). Ibn Ishāq reports that Muḥammad, together with the twelve men, sent one of his Meccan followers, Musʿab ibn ʿUmair , to Yathrib and instructed him to "read them the Qurʾān, teach them Islam, and instruct them in the religion."
The following year, during the aj (June 622), a second meeting took place in al-ʿAqaba, this time 73 men from Yathrib attended. Not only did they swear faithful obedience to Mohammad, but they also vowed to fight for him. This oath is therefore known as baiʿat al-ḥarb ("homage to war"). It is possible that the followers of Muḥammad from Yathrib were given the title of Anṣār (“helper”) on this occasion . The Islamic tradition relates to this event Koran verse 61:14, in which the believers are called upon to be like the disciples of Jesus' "helpers of God".
Mohammed himself had to flee Mecca because he had quarreled with most of the population there because he denigrated the gods of the Meccans and his protector Abū Tālib ibn ʿAbd al-Muttalib had died three years earlier.
After the arrival of Muhammad in Medina
The result was actually a peace treaty and a treaty that established the city-state “ Madinatun-Nabi ” as a federation of autonomous tribes with a common foreign and defense policy. According to Islamic sources, the Arab tribes embraced Islam more or less sincerely, and the Jewish tribes retained their social and religious identity and their internal legal autonomy.
Mohammed and his muhâjirûn deprived themselves of all means of subsistence through their emigration from Mecca and were therefore dependent on the help of al-Ansâr. Since this could not be permanent, the Prophet organized campaigns to intercept the caravans that were trading with Mecca (see Battle of Badr ). This of course worsened relations with the Quraish and the other Meccan tribes.
In this mixture of Muhâjirûn and Ansâr, Khazradsch and Aus, Muslims, polytheists and Jews , there were not only winners of the peace agreement within Medina (outside there was war). Muslim sources report the many feuds in the Madinatun nabi. The dissatisfied, such as B. the Wa'il , sometimes made pacts with the enemy outside.
After the Prophet's death
After the Prophet's death, serious differences of opinion arose between the Meccan muhādjirūn and the Ansār. The Ansār went to Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda , the chief of the Medinan clan Banū Sāʿida, and gathered in his saqīfa , an open meeting place. There they paid homage to Saʿd and demanded that the Ansār and the Quraish should separate and each choose their own commanders. The Islamic community threatened to break up. Only through ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb , who surprisingly paid homage to Abū Bakr and urged the other Muslims to recognize his rule, could the cohesion of the Muslim community be ensured. One of the first men from the ranks of the Ansār to pay homage to Abū Bakr was, according to Arabic sources, Bashīr ibn Saʿd. He rivaled his uncle Saʿd ibn ʿUbada for the leadership of the Khazradsch. After turning away from Saʿd and taking the oath of allegiance to ʿUmar, the other Ansār also followed him.
literature
- W. Montgomery Watt: Art. "Anṣār" in Encyclopaedia of Islam . Second edition. Vol. I, pp. 514f.
- Ibn Ishaq , Gernot Rotter (translator): The life of the prophet. As-Sira An-Nabawiya . Spohr, Kandern in the Black Forest 1999, ISBN 3-927606-22-7 .