Chathʿam

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Tribal groups on the Arabian Peninsula in the time of Muhammad. The Chathʿam (written here Khath'am) lived in the southwest of the peninsula.

The Chathʿam ( Arabic خثعم, DMG Ḫaṯʿam ) were an Arab tribe who had lived in the mountainous area between at-Tā'if and Najrān along the caravan route from Yemen to Mecca since the sixth century AD .

Descent, name and clans

There were two theories regarding the ancestry of the Chathʿam. One theory attributed them to a South Arabian origin. Accordingly, the Chathʿam were descendants of Aqyal or Aftal, a son of Annār ibn Irāsch ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ghauth ibn Nabt, and Hind bint Mālik ibn al-Ghāfiq ibn asch-Shāhid ibn ʿAkk. They were related to the Azd through their paternal ancestor al-Ghauth ibn Nabt . According to the theory of the "genealogists of the Mudar", however, the Chathʿam actually belonged to the Northern Arabs and, like their brother tribe Badschīla, were descendants of Anmār ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān. They did not adopt a South Arabian genealogy until later, when they were driven from their original homes in the Tihāma or Sarāt Mountains.

There were also different views on the origin of the name Chathʿam. One said that Chathʿam was originally an epithet Aqyals / Aftals, which he is said to have received either from his camel or from a mountain. According to another view, the name derives from a ceremony that the descendants of Aqyal performed when they formed an alliance with Badschīla and in which they splattered one another with the blood of a slaughtered camel. The name of this spraying ceremony, called Chathʿama ( ḫaṯʿama ), was passed on to the tribe.

The main clans of the Chathʿam were the Shahrān, the Nāhis, the Quhāfa and the Aklub. Nāhis and Shahrān can be traced back to two great-grandchildren of the same name from Chathʿam. The Quhāfa, who actually represented a subgroup of the Shahrān, formed the ruling family ( Ahl al-bait ) of the Chathʿam according to Ibn Hazm . The Aklub were actually not a genuinely Chathʿamite clan, but had only joined the Chathʿam afterwards when their ancestor Aklub had been declared a great-great-grandson of Chathʿam.

history

Pre-Islamic History

According to the theory that the Chathʿam regarded as Northern Arabs, at the time of the separation of the descendants of the Maʿadd, the Chathʿam moved to the mountains of as-Sarāt, where they settled especially on the mountains Schann and Bāriq, until the Azd on their migration after the dam breach of Ma'rib passed them by and drove them from their homes. They then migrated northeast to the Wādī Bīscha in the Tihama and to the Wādī Turaba as well as to Tabāla, the center of the cult of the deity Dhū l-Chalasa . They also took possession of the two mountains Sawān jointly with the Salūl, Suwāʿ ibn ʿĀmir, Chaulān and ʿAnaza in the Hijāz.

Due to the location of their area, the Chathʿam played an important role in the relations between Mecca and Yemen. When King Abraha built a magnificent pilgrimage church in Sanaa around the middle of the 6th century , there were fears among the Arabs that the sanctuary of Mecca would lose influence as a result. According to a report narrated by at-Tabarī , Nufail ibn Habīb, a man from the Chathʿamite clan of the Aklub, came to Sanaa and threw dirt and corpses into the church to desecrate it. Abraha was angry about this and decided to go on a campaign north with elephants in order to destroy the Meccan sanctuary. Nufail ibn Habīb then teamed up with the Shahrān and Nāhis and attacked him on the way. But he was beaten and taken prisoner by Abraha. After Nufail had assured him of the loyalty of the Chathʿam, Abraha released him and made him his guide. Nufail then led him to at-Tā'if, but played a double game by secretly working towards the failure of the expedition.

Transition to Islam

Chathʿam women were very present in Mecca, often marrying Quraish men and played an important role in early Islamic history. According to a story that is narrated in at-Tabarī , it was a Chathʿamite priestess from at-Tabāla who recognized a light on the face of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muttalib , the father of Mohammed , and therefore wanted to marry him immediately, which ʿAbdallāh refused, however, because his father ʿAbd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim had already chosen another woman for him.

The Chathʿamitin Asmā 'bint ʿUmais, who belonged to the Shahrān clan, was one of the first women to convert to the faith of Muhammad and took part in the emigration to Abyssinia. She was successively married to Jafar ibn Abī Tālib , Abū Bakr and ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib and bore children to each of them. Her sister Salmā bint ʿUmais married Mohammed's uncle Hamza ibn ʿAbd al-Muttalib . Chālid ibn al-Walīd married a daughter of the Chathʿamite Anas ibn al-Mudrik. He was a well-known poet and fighter who belonged to the Chathʿamite clan of the Aklub and was best known for his victory at Faif ar-Rīh, in which he defeated the Banū ʿĀmir ibn Saʿsaʿa. Ibn Hazm describes him as the "Lord of the Chathʿam" ( saiyid Ḫaṯʿam ).

The first encounters of the Chathʿam with the Muslims on their tribal territory were hostile: in the safari of the year 9 (May / June 630) Mohammed sent Qutba ibn ʿĀmir with 20 men and ten camels against a branch of the Chathʿam near Tabāla. They captured a man there to question him. But he pretended not to understand and tried to alert the nearest settlement on the water, so that Qutba cut off his head. During the night, the Muslims then attacked the settlement, but met with fierce resistance. The next morning the Chathʿam came hurrying up in large groups, but the Muslims were protected by a swollen rain stream so that they could escape to Medina unmolested with the booty.

But after Jarīr ibn ʿAbdallāh of the Badschīla fraternal tribe destroyed the Dhū l-Chalasa sanctuary in early 632 and killed some Khathʿamites, the Chathʿam sent two ambassadors, al-Ashʿath ibn Wahschī and Anas ibn Mudrik, with an entourage of other Khathʿamites to Medina, um to swear allegiance to the Prophet. He had a certificate made out for them in which he declared all blood guilt from pre-Islamic times to be abolished and established taxes for their country. Accordingly, those who cultivated rain-fed crops and had only uncertain yields did not have to pay taxes, but those who owned fields irrigated by streams or canals had to pay a tenth or twentieth part of their harvest as tax. Jarīr ibn ʿAbdallāh acted as witness to the letter.

During the farewell pilgrimage in the spring of 632, a memorable incident occurred in which a Chathʿamite woman was also involved. When the said Chathʿamitin asked Mohammed in Minā about the pilgrimage regulations, she was stared at by his cousin al-Fadl ibn al-ʿAbbās longer. Mohammed stood up and turned al-Fadl's head away from her. When asked by al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muttalib about the reason for this action, Mohammed replied that he had seen a young man and a young woman and did not want to leave them to Satan . The incident later played a large role in the Islamic discussions about the face veil , because the Chathʿamitin apparently had not covered her face with the consent of the Prophet. Depending on whether the incident was assigned to the time before or after the end of the state of ordination , different conclusions were drawn from it. While those who assigned it to the time after the end of the state of consecration concluded that women generally do not need to veil their face, those who assigned it to the time before the end of the state of consecration meant that this was only a prohibition on covering the face during the State of consecration.

After the Prophet's death

After the Prophet's death, only a part of the Chathʿam joined the Ridda movement . During the wars of conquest they fought in the Syrian and Iraqi armies. Mālik ibn ʿAbdallāh, a Chathʿamit from the Quhāfa clan, led the summer campaigns ( ṣawāʾif ) against the Byzantine Empire for a total of 40 years under Muʿāwiya I , Yazid I and ʿAbd al-Malik . Many of the Chathʿam settled in Kufa , Basra , Mosul , Syria and al-Andalus . The most important center of the Chathʿam in al-Andalus was Medina-Sidonia (Šaḏūna).

literature

Arabic sources
  • Abū ʿUbaid al-Bakrī : Muʿǧam mā staʿǧam min asmāʾ al-bilād wa-'l-mawāḍiʿ . Ed. Muṣṭafā as-Saqqā. 4 parts. Maṭbaʿat at-ta'līf wa-t-tarǧama wa-n-našr, Cairo 1945-1951. Part I, pp. 57-63. Digitized
  • Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn Duraid: Kitāb al-Ištiqāq . Ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld. Dieterich, Göttingen, 1854. pp. 304-306. Digitized
  • Ibn Ḥazm : Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . Ed. ʿAbd as-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Dār al-Maʿārif bi-Miṣr, Cairo, 1962. pp. 390–392.
  • Muḥammad ibn as-Sāʾib al-Kalbī : Nasab Maʿadd wa-l-Yaman al-kabīr . Ed. Nāǧī Ḥasan. 2 volumes. ʿĀlam al-Kutub, Beirut, 1988. Vol. I, pp. 356-362. Online version
  • Ibn Qutaiba : Kitāb al-Maʿārif . Ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld. Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1850. p. 50, lines 18-20. Digitized
Secondary literature
  • Hüseyin Algül: Art. "Has'am (Benî Has'am)" in Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm ansiklopedisi Vol. XVI, pp. 281b-282b. Digitized
  • Werner Caskel: Ǧamharat an-nasab: the genealogical work of Hišām Ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī . 2 Vols. Brill, Leiden, 1966. Vol. I, plates 224-226. - Vol. II, pp. 45f., 345.
  • G. Levi Della Vida: Art. " Kh a th ʿam" in Encyclopedia of Islām. Geographical, ethnographic and biographical dictionary of the Muslim peoples. Vol. II. EJBrill, Leiden and O. Harrassowitz, Leipzig, 1927. pp. 991b-993a.
  • G. Levi Della Vida: Art. " Kh a th ʿam" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Vol. IV, pp. 1105b-1106b.
  • Theodor Nöldeke : History of the Persians and Arabs at the time of the Sasanids according to at-Tabarī . Brill, Leiden, 1879. pp. 206-217. Digitized
  • Ferdinand Wüstenfeld : Register of the genealogical tables of the Arab tribes and families: with historical and geographical notes . Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, Göttingen, 1853. pp. 130f. Digitized
  • Ferdinand Wüstenfeld: "The residences and migrations of the Arab tribes" in treatises d. K. Company d. Knowledge zu Göttingen 14 (1869) 53-58. Digitized

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So al-Kalbī: Nasab Maʿadd wa-l-Yaman al-kabīr . 1988, Vol. I, pp. 343, 356 and Ibn Ḥazm: Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . 1962, p. 392.
  2. ↑ Cf. Caskel: Ǧamharat an-nasab . 1966. Vol. I, plates 176 and 221.
  3. ↑ Cf. al-Bakrī: Muʿǧam mā staʿǧam . Ed. F. Desert field. Vol. I, pp. 41f. Digitized
  4. ↑ See Wüstenfeld: "The residences and migrations of the Arab tribes". 1869, pp. 53, 58.
  5. ↑ Cf. al-Kalbī: Nasab Maʿadd wa-l-Yaman al-kabīr . 1988, Vol. I, p. 343 and Wüstenfeld: Register . 1853, p. 130.
  6. ↑ So al-Kalbī: Nasab Maʿadd wa-l-Yaman al-kabīr . 1988, Vol. I, pp. 343,356.
  7. ↑ Cf. Ibn Ḥazm: Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . 1962, p. 391.
  8. ↑ Cf. Levi Della Vida: Art. " Kh a th ʿam". 1927, p. 992a.
  9. ↑ Cf. Ibn Ḥazm: Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . 1962, p. 391.
  10. ↑ Cf. al-Bakrī: Muʿǧam mā staʿǧam . Ed. F. Desert field. Vol. I, pp. 41f. Digitized
  11. ↑ Cf. Levi Della Vida: Art. " Kh a th ʿam". 1927, p. 992a.
  12. ↑ See Wüstenfeld: Register . 1853, pp. 130f.
  13. ↑ Cf. Ibn Ḥazm: Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . 1962, p. 391.
  14. ↑ Cf. Nöldeke: History of the Persians and Arabs . 1879, pp. 216f.
  15. ↑ Cf. Nöldeke: History of the Persians and Arabs . 1879, pp. 206-214.
  16. ↑ Abū Ǧaʿfar Muḥammad b. Ǧarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī : Taʾrīḫ ar-rusul wa-l-mulūk . Edited by MJ de Goeje. Leiden 1879–1901. Vol. I, pp. 1079f. Digitized
  17. ↑ Cf. al-Kalbī: Nasab Maʿadd wa-l-Yaman al-kabīr . 1988, Vol. I, p. 358.
  18. ↑ Cf. Levi Della Vida: Art. " Kh a th ʿam". 1927, p. 992b.
  19. ↑ Cf. al-Kalbī: Nasab Maʿadd wa-l-Yaman al-kabīr . 1988, Vol. I, p. 17.
  20. ↑ Cf. Levi Della Vida: Art. " Kh a th ʿam". 1927, p. 992b.
  21. ↑ Cf. Ibn Ḥazm: Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . 1962, p. 391.
  22. ↑ Cf. Julius Wellhausen : Muhammed in Medina: this is Vakidi's Kitab alMaghazi in a shortened German version. Reimer, Berlin, 1882. p. 387. Digitized
  23. ↑ Cf. Aloys Sprenger : The life and teachings of Moḥammad, according to largely unused sources . 2nd edition Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin, 1869. Vol. III, p. 468f. Digitized and Leone Caetani: Annali dell'Islam Vol. II, p. 330. Digitized
  24. ↑ Cf. Musnad Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal : Musnad ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib No. 530. Wikisource
  25. ↑ See dazuabrī al-Mutawallī al-Mutawallī: al-Ḥiǧāb baina l-ifrāṭ wa-t-tafrīṭ . Maktabat al-Qurʾān, Cairo, 1996. pp. 85f.
  26. ↑ Cf. Ibn Ḥazm: Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . 1962, p. 391.
  27. ↑ Cf. Caskel: Ǧamharat an-nasab . 1966. Vol. II, p. 345.
  28. ↑ Cf. Ibn Ḥazm: Ǧamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab . 1962, p. 392.