The year of delegations: the deputation of the Banu Tamim

Mohamed ibn Ishaq relates: when the Messenger of Allah conquered Mecca, finished with Tabouk, and Thaqif accepted Islam and pledged, the delegations of the Arabs came to him from every quarter. Ibn Hicham relates from Abou Oubayda that that was in the year nine, which was named the year of delegations. Ibn Ishaq says: the Arabs had made their Islam wait upon the affair of this tribe of Quraysh, for Quraysh were the leaders of the people and their guides, the people of the House and the Sanctuary, the pure descendants of Ismaïl son of Ibrahim, and the chiefs of the Arabs, who did not deny it; and it was Quraysh who had unloosed war upon the Messenger of Allah and opposed him. When Mecca was conquered and Quraysh inclined to him, and Islam overwhelmed them, the Arabs knew they had no power to war upon the Messenger of Allah nor enmity against him, and they entered the religion of Allah in throngs, hastening to him from every direction, Allah saying to His Prophet:

when there comes the help of Allah and the conquest, and you see the people entering the religion of Allah in throngs, then celebrate the praise of your Lord and seek His forgiveness: He is ever returning in acceptance (an-Nasr, 1-3), meaning: praise Allah for what He has made manifest of your religion, and seek His forgiveness, for He is ever accepting of repentance. Amr ibn Salama relates in the Sahih of the Boukhari: the Arabs waited upon their Islam for the conquest, saying: leave him with his people, for if he prevails over them he is a truthful prophet. When the day of the conquest came, every people hastened to their Islam, and my father hastened to his people’s Islam; when he came he said: I come to you by Allah from the Prophet in truth. He said: "Pray such a prayer at such a time, and such a prayer at such a time; and when the time of prayer comes, let one of you make the call, and let the one with most Quran lead you." He mentions the whole hadith, which is in the Sahih of the Boukhari.

The Waqidi relates, from Kathir ibn Abdallah al-Muzani, from his father, from his grandfather: the first to come as a delegation to the Messenger of Allah from Moudar was four hundred of Muzayna, and that was in Rajab of the year five. The Messenger of Allah made their emigration in their own land and said: "You are emigrants wherever you are: return to your properties." And they returned to their land. He relates further, from Hicham ibn al-Kalbi by his chain, that the first to come of Muzayna was Khouzai ibn Abd Nouhm with ten of his people: he pledged to the Messenger of Allah the Islam of his people; when he returned to them he did not find them as he had supposed, and they lagged behind him.

The Messenger of Allah ordered Hassan ibn Thabit to allude to Khouzai without satirizing him, and he composed verses; when they reached Khouzai he complained of it to his people, and they defended him and accepted Islam with him, and he brought them to the Messenger of Allah; and on the day of the conquest the Messenger of Allah gave the banner of Muzayna, who were then a thousand, to this Khouzai, milk-brother of Abdallah Dhou al-Bijadayn.

The Boukhari reports, at the chapter of the deputation of the Banu Tamim, from Safwan ibn Mouhriz al-Mazini, from Imran ibn Houssayn: a party of the Banu Tamim came to the Prophet, and he said: "Receive the glad tidings, O Banu Tamim!" They said: O Messenger of Allah, you have given us glad tidings, so give us! And that was seen in his face. Then a party of the Yemen came, and he said: "Receive the glad tidings, since the Banu Tamim did not accept them!"

They said: we accept them, O Messenger of Allah. He also reports, from Ibn Jourayj, from Ibn Abi Mulayka, that Abdallah ibn az-Zoubayr related that a caravan of the Banu Tamim came upon the Prophet. Abou Bakr said: appoint al-Qa’qa’ ibn Ma’bad ibn Zurara over them. Oumar said: rather appoint al-Aqra’ ibn Habis.

Abou Bakr said: you intended nothing but contradicting me. Oumar said: I did not intend contradicting you. The two disputed until their voices rose, and there came down: O you who believe, advance not before Allah and His messenger (al-Houjourat, 1), until it was complete. The Boukhari related it also from another route, from Ibn Abi Mulayka, in other wordings, which we mentioned in the tafsir at the verse: O you who believe, raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet.

Mohamed ibn Ishaq relates: when the delegations of the Arabs came to the Messenger of Allah, there came to him Otard ibn Hajib ibn Zurara ibn Odas at-Tamimi, among the notables of the Banu Tamim; among them were al-Aqra’ ibn Habis at-Tamimi and az-Zibriqan ibn Badr at-Tamimi, one of the Banu Sa’d, and Amr ibn al-Ahtam, al-Habhab ibn Yazid, Nou’aym ibn Yazid, Qays ibn al-Harith and Qays ibn Asim, brother of the Banu Sa’d, in a great deputation of the Banu Tamim. With them was Ouyayna ibn Hisn ibn Houdayfa ibn Badr al-Fazari; and al-Aqra’ ibn Habis and Ouyayna had witnessed with the Messenger of Allah the conquest of Mecca, Hunayn and Ta’if. When the deputation of the Banu Tamim came, the two were with them; and when they entered the mosque they called to the Messenger of Allah from behind his chambers: come out to us, O Mohamed! That clamour hurt the Messenger of Allah, and he came out to them, and they said:

O Mohamed, we have come to vie with you in glory: permit our poet and our orator. He said: "I have permitted your orator: let him speak." Otard ibn Hajib rose and said: Praise belongs to Allah, to whom belong our favour and grace, who made us kings, granted us great wealth wherein we do good, made us the noblest of the people of the east and their most numerous, best equipped: who is like us among men? Are we not the heads of men, the first in their excellence? Whoever vies with us in glory, let him enumerate as we have enumerated! We could multiply speech, but we are ashamed to multiply what He has given us, and by that we are known: I say this that you may bring the like of our word, and an affair better than our affair. Then he sat. The Messenger of Allah said to Thabit ibn Qays ibn Chammas, brother of the Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj: "Rise and answer the man in his speech." Thabit rose and said:

Praise belongs to Allah, whose are the heavens and the earth as His creation, whose decree He executed in them, whose knowledge fills His Throne, and nothing was ever but of His grace; then it was of His power that He made us kings and chose from the best of His creation a messenger, noblest by lineage, truest in speech, best by birth: He sent down upon him a Book and entrusted him with His creation, and he became the chosen of Allah among the worlds; he called the people to faith in him, and there believed in the Messenger of Allah his emigrants of his people and his kin, the noblest of people by lineage, the finest of faces, the best of deeds; and we were the first of creation in answer, and answered Allah when His messenger called us: we are the auxiliaries of Allah and the viziers of His messenger, fighting the people until they believe: whoever believes in Allah and His messenger, his wealth and blood are spared; and whoever disbelieves, we strive against him in Allah forever, and his killing is easy upon us!

That is my word, and I seek Allah’s forgiveness for myself and for you, for the believers, men and women: peace be upon you. Then az-Zibriqan ibn Badr rose and said: We are the noble ones: no tribe equals us! Of us are kings, and among us are the tents of trade pitched! How many tribes we have surpassed, all of them, at the duel, where excellence follows! We feed in famine: he who feeds us, of roast meat, when the famine consents not! By what men see, their delegations come to us from every land, and then we act! We slaughter the fat camels upon our mantles, for the visitors when they alight, replete! You see us vying in glory with no tribe but they depart with their heads taken! Whoever vies with us in that, we know him: the people return and the reports are heard! We have refused, and none refused for us: we are thus in glory, exalted! Hassan ibn Thabit was absent, and the Messenger of Allah sent for him. Hassan said: his messenger came to me, informing me he called me only to answer a poet of the Banu Tamim.

I went out saying: We barred the Messenger of Allah, when he alighted in our midst, upon the nose of a scorned one of Ma’dd; We barred him when he came among our houses, with our swords, from every tyrant and wrongdoer; In a house of noble lineage and wealth, on the slope of the Jolan, among the foreigners! Is glory but firmness, generosity and largesse, the glory of kings and the bearing of great charges? When I came to the Messenger of Allah, the poet of the people rose and said what he said: I examined his word and answered in his manner. When az-Zibriqan finished, the Messenger of Allah said to Hassan ibn Thabit: "Rise, O Hassan, and answer the man in what he said." Hassan said: The tribes of Fihrr and their brothers have made plain for the people a Sounna to be followed; With which is pleased every man whose secret is the fear of God, forging all good; A people who, when they war, harm their enemy, or seek good for their allies, profit:

That is their character, no novelty: know that the worst of characters are novelties! If there are forerunners among men after them, every race follows their least race; Men patch not what their palms have worn at defence, nor fail what they patched; If they outrun men one day, their race is won, or matching men of glory in largesse, they feast; A chastity named in revelation, their chastity, desiring not, nor touched by greed; They are not niggardly toward a neighbour of their bounty, nor does appetite mark them; When we set the snare for a tribe, the brains lean not to it as the grouse leans to the wild beast; We ride when war bares her claws, when the fierce startle at her fangs; They boast not when they reach their foe, and if struck, neither shame nor panic: As in the fray, with death all around, lions with bracelets on their legs; Take of them what they bring of pardon when angered, and let not your care be what they refused; For in their war leave their enmity:

an evil over which poison and shield are drawn! Honour among the people the Messenger of Allah and his partisans, when creeds and sects differ! My heart, which aids him in what I love, has best guided my praise: a tongue skilled! For they are the best of living beings all, if praise among men lives or is heard! Ibn Hicham relates, from one of the poets of the Banu Tamim, that az-Zibriqan, when he came to the Messenger of Allah in the deputation of the Banu Tamim, rose and said: We have come to you that the people may know our excellence, when they differ at the waning of the seasons; That we are the branches of men in every place, and that in the land of the Hijaz is no house like ours; That we milk the milkers when they choose, and strike the head of the stubborn drunkard; That ours is the vanguard in every raid, whether in Najd or in the land of foreigners! Hassan rose and answered him:

Is glory but firmness, generosity and largesse, the glory of kings and the bearing of great charges? We aided and sheltered the Prophet Mohamed, upon the nose of a scorned one of Ma’dd; By a tribe of noble root and wealth, on the slope of the Jolan, among the foreigners! We aided him when he came among our homes, with our swords, from every tyrant and wrongdoer; We set our sons and daughters before him, and offered our souls for the share of spoils; And we struck the people until they succeeded one another in his religion, with keen blades! We begat of Quraysh her noblest, and begat the Prophet of good of the house of Hachim! Sons of Darim, boast not: your boasting shall return to harm, at the mention of greatness! You have wandered boasting over us, and you are to us servants between the breast and the maid! If you have come to shed your bloods and your wealth in the places of division, Then set no rival to Allah and accept Islam, and wear not the garb of the foreigners!

Ibn Ishaq relates that when Hassan ibn Thabit finished his speech, al-Aqra’ ibn Habis said: by my father, this is one sorely tested: his orator is more eloquent than our orator, his poet more poetic than our poet, and their voices higher than our voices! When the people had finished they accepted Islam, and the Messenger of Allah granted them bountiful gifts. Amr ibn al-Ahtam, whom the people had left in their tents, was the youngest of them in age; and Qays ibn Asim, who hated Amr ibn al-Ahtam, said: O Messenger of Allah, there was a man of us in our tents, a young lad! And he disparaged him.

The Messenger of Allah gave him the like of what he gave the people. When it reached Amr ibn al-Ahtam that Qays had said that, satirizing him, he said: You have remained a spreader of slander, reviling me before the Messenger, neither true nor hitting! Your fortified houses are fortresses level, and your fortresses a plain hollow at its summit, faulty! The Bayhaqi reports, through Ya’qoub ibn Soufyan, from Soulayman ibn Harb, from Hammad ibn Zayd, from Mohamed ibn az-Zoubayr al-Hanzali, that there came to the Messenger of Allah az-Zibriqan ibn Badr, Qays ibn Asim and Amr ibn al-Ahtam.

He said to Amr ibn al-Ahtam: inform me of az-Zibriqan, for as for this one, I do not ask you of him, thinking he already knew Qays. He said: obeyed among his nearest, violent of temper, denying what is behind his back. Az-Zibriqan said: he said what he said knowing I am better than what he said.

Amr said: by Allah, I knew you only as the flute-player of manhood, narrow of enclosure, foolish of father, vile of lineage! Then he said: O Messenger of Allah, I have spoken truth of them both: when he pleased me I said the best I knew of him, and when he angered me I said the worst I knew of him. The Messenger of Allah said: "Of eloquence there is magic!" That is without chronological link by this route.

The Bayhaqi says it is also related, connectedly, by a very strange chain, from Ibn Abbas: there sat with the Messenger of Allah Qays ibn Asim, az-Zibriqan ibn Badr and Amr ibn al-Ahtam of the Banu Tamim. Az-Zibriqan boasted and said: O Messenger of Allah, I am the lord of the Banu Tamim, their obeyed and heeded, their foremost shield from wrong, taking for them their rights: this one knows that, meaning Amr ibn al-Ahtam. Amr ibn al-Ahtam said: he is violent of temper, denies his neighbour, obeyed among his nearest. Az-Zibriqan said: by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, he knows other of me than what he said, and nothing kept him from speaking but envy.

Amr ibn al-Ahtam said: I envy you?! By Allah, you are of vile lineage, of recent wealth, of a foolish father, a squanderer in the tribe! And by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I spoke truth in the first and last alike: but I am a man who, when pleased, says the best he knows, and when angry, says the ugliest he finds; and I spoke truth in both the first and the last. The Messenger of Allah said: "Of eloquence there is magic!"

The Waqidi mentions the cause of their coming: they had drawn weapons upon Khouza’a, and the Messenger of Allah sent to them Ouyayna ibn Badr with fifty men, no Ansari or emigrant among them: he took captive of them eleven men, eleven women and thirty children. Their chiefs came because of their captives; it is said ninety or eighty men of them came then, among them Otard, az-Zibriqan, Qays ibn Asim, Qays ibn al-Harith, Nou’aym ibn Sa’d, al-Aqra’ ibn Habis, Rabah ibn al-Harith and Amr ibn al-Ahtam. They entered the mosque when Bilal had called the dhouhr and the people were awaiting the Messenger of Allah to come out to them: these hastened, called him from behind the chambers, and there descended upon them what descended. The Waqidi then mentions their orator and their poet, and that he granted them for each man twelve ounces and a half, except Amr ibn al-Ahtam, who was given but five ounces for the youth of his age. And Allah is most knowing.

Ibn Ishaq relates that there descended upon them from the Quran the word of the Most High: those who call you from behind the chambers, most of them do not reason; and had they been patient until you came out to them, it would have been better for them: and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. Ibn Jarir relates, from Abou Ammar al-Houssayn ibn Hourayth al-Marwazi, from al-Fadl ibn Moussa, from al-Houssayn ibn Waqid, from Abou Ishaq, from al-Bara’, concerning the word: those who call you from behind the chambers, that he said: a man came to the Messenger of Allah and said: O Mohamed, my praise is comely and my blame ugly. He said: "That belongs to Allah!" And the chain is good and connected. It is related from al-Hasan al-Basri and Qatada without chronological link, and this man was even named: Ahmad reports, from Affan, from Ouwayb, from Moussa ibn Oqba, from Abou Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman, that al-Aqra’ ibn Habis called to the Messenger of Allah from behind the chambers, and the hadith continues there.