Episode 2: Revelation and unity

Before we can talk about the caliphs, we need to build on the context we established last time. The caliphs will rule over the community first united by Mohammad ibn Abdallah, of the Hashemite clan of the Quraysh, main tribe of the city of Mecca.

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Glossary

• Ibn Is’haq: one of the earliest Arab historians, among the first to put the narrations of his people to parchment. His family were already engaged in collecting and transmitting oral traditions in Medina, where his grandfather had been manumitted soon after the prophet’s death. Most of his works have sadly been lost, and exist mostly as quotations in other, surviving histories.
• Ibn Hisham: another early Arab historian, active about a century after Ibn Is’haq. His reworking of Ibn Is’haq’s encyclopedic account of the prophet defines the classical Islamic view of the life of Mohammad.
• Abraha: an Aksumite general who ruled the Yemen for a while.
• Quraysh: the main tribe in Mecca. A tribe was made up of several clans, and each clan had a leader. The tribe’s leader was the man who could best unite the will of the other chiefs: a strong leader could be secure in his position, while a weak one would have to constantly contend with his rivals.
• Hashemites: the prophet’s clan. The ‘sons of Hashim’ were one of the more important clans of Quraysh, and their chiefs often served as custodians to Mecca’s shrine, the Ka’ba.
• Umayyads: another highly prominent clan of Quraysh. The ‘sons of Umayya’ were closely related to the Hashemites, and vied with them for prominence within the tribe. Early narrations often depict them as having been rich and literate even before the coming of Islam.
• Abu Talib: the prophet’s uncle. He took over as the clan’s chief when his father passed away, and looked after his orphaned nephew Mohammad.
• Abu Bakr: a childhood friend of Mohammad’s. He was of the Taym clan of Quraysh, and would one day lead the rich clan as its chief.
• Khadijah bint Khuwaylid: Mohammad’s first wife, and the only woman to bear the prophet children. By the time they were married, she had already been widowed twice, and commanded considerable wealth. She is said to have been 15 years older than Mohammad when the two were married, and remained his only wife throughout her life.
• Ali bin abi Talib: he was the son of Abu Talib, making him the prophet’s cousin. He was raised by Mohammad from a young age, and he will go on to become one of the most influential men of his generation, first for the Arabs, and ultimately for the world.
• Yathrib: a city north of Mecca. It was largely inhabited by two nomadic tribes, and had a sizable settled Jewish population. After the onset of Islam, the city would become known as Medina, short for ‘enlightened city’ or ‘the prophet’s city’.
• Aws: one of the two main nomadic tribes inhabiting Yathrib. They were one of the earliest tribal adopters of Islam.
• Khazraj: the other main tribe of Yathrib, also some of the earliest non-Meccans to adopt Islam. The Aws and Khazraj were feuding before Islam, and some (weakly substantiated) stories say they got the idea of seeking a prophet to unite them from their local Jews.
• Abu Sufyan: chief of the Umayyad clan, and main antagonist facing the Muslims after Mohammad’s escape to Medina. After they beat him at Badr, he became Quraysh’s chief and successfully defeated the Muslims at Mt. Uhud. His power waned after the inconclusive battle of the trench, and he converted to Islam with the rest of his tribe after Mohammad’s conquest of Mecca and victory over its enemies.