The Hums and Their Pilgrimage Customs

The Ka‘bah had been covered with Egyptian linen, then with striped Yemeni cloth; al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was the first to cover it with brocade. Ibn Ishaq said: At some point—he did not know whether before or after the Year of the Elephant—Quraysh devised the practice of al-Hums, a view they adopted and maintained. They said, “We are the descendants of Abraham, the people of the Sanctuary, the guardians of the House, and the residents of Makkah. No Arab has a right or standing like ours, nor do the Arabs recognize for anyone what they recognize for us. Do not treat anything outside the Sanctuary as sacred as you treat the Sanctuary. If you do, the Arabs will think little of your sanctity and say that you have honored the open land just as you honor the Sanctuary.” So they stopped standing at ‘Arafah and departing from it, although they knew and acknowledged that it was among the rites of pilgrimage and the religion of Abraham. They allowed the rest of the Arabs to stand there and depart from it, but said, “We are the people of the Sanctuary; we should not leave its sacred bounds or honor anything else as we honor it. We, the Hums, are the people of the Sanctuary.” They also granted the same status to Arabs born to residents of both the open land and the Sanctuary: those children could do what the Hums could do and were subject to the same restrictions.

[1] Qibati are white garments made in Egypt; qibtiyyah is their singular. [2] Burud are a kind of Yemeni cloth. [3] Ibn al-Zubayr covered the Ka‘bah with brocade before al-Hajjaj, and Khalid ibn Ja‘far ibn Kilab is also said to have done so before Islam. See al-Rawd al-Unuf. [4] Recension A reads “their practice.” [5] Hums is the plural of ahmas, one steadfast and strict in religion. Quraysh were called al-Hums because they claimed strictness in religion and adopted an ascetic, devout stance; their women did not weave wool or hair. The author will explain this further below. [6] Recension A reads “residents.” [7] Mash‘ar refers to a recognized site of pilgrimage, without which the rites are incomplete.

Kinana and Khuza‘ah joined Quraysh in this practice. Ibn Hisham said: Abu ‘Ubaydah the grammarian told me that Banu ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah ibn Mu‘awiyah ibn Bakr ibn Hawazin also joined them. ‘Amr ibn Ma‘dikarib said in a poem: O ‘Abbas, had our fine horses been at Tathlith, you would not have challenged the Hums after me. Ibn Hisham said: Tathlith is a place in their land. Shiyar means fine, well-fed horses. By “the Hums” he means Banu ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah; by ‘Abbas he means ‘Abbas ibn Mirdas al-Sulami, who raided Banu Zubayd at Tathlith. This line is from a longer poem by ‘Amr. Ibn Hisham also recited verses by Laqit ibn Zurarah al-Darimi, on the day of Jablah: Come, for they are Banu ‘Abs, the noble and distinguished people among the Hums. Banu ‘Abs were allies of Banu ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah on the day of Jablah.

The day of Jablah was a battle between Banu Hanzalah ibn Malik ibn Zayd Manat ibn Tamim and Banu ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah. Banu ‘Amir prevailed over Banu Hanzalah. Laqit ibn Zurarah ibn ‘Udas was killed, and Hajib ibn Zurarah ibn ‘Udas was captured. The account continues on printed page 201.

[1] Nasa’t means that you seized them by the forelock and contested with them. The same usage appears in a report from ‘A’ishah: no wife of the Prophet contended with me except Zaynab. [2] This is an addition from recension A. [3] The day of Jablah was forty years before Islam, the year the Messenger was born. See al-‘Iqd al-Farid and al-Rawd al-Unuf. [4] Ajdham is a known command used to urge horses forward. [5] Most copies read jillah, “the great ones”; recension A has al-hillah, meaning those who dwell in the open land. [6] Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih’s al-‘Iqd al-Farid calls this the battle of Shu‘b Jablah and says it was fought by ‘Amir and ‘Abs against Dhubyan and Tamim. [7] ‘Udas is pronounced with a dammah on the dal by most authorities; Abu ‘Ubaydah pronounces it with a fathah. See al-Rawd al-Unuf, Sharh al-Sirah by Abu Dharr, and Ibn Habib’s genealogical works.

‘Amr ibn ‘Amr ibn ‘Udas ibn Zayd ibn Abdullah ibn Darim ibn Malik ibn Hanzalah was routed. Jarir said to al-Farazdaq in a poem: It is as though you never witnessed Laqit and Hajib, or ‘Amr ibn ‘Amr when they called out, “O Darim!” This line is from a longer poem of his.

They then met on the day of Dhu Najab, when Hanzalah prevailed over Banu ‘Amir. Hassan ibn Mu‘awiyah al-Kindi, son of Kabshah, was killed. Yazid ibn al-Sa‘iq al-Kilabi was captured, and al-Tufayl ibn Malik ibn Ja‘far ibn Kilab, father of ‘Amir ibn al-Tufayl, fled. Al-Farazdaq said: Among them, al-Tufayl ibn Malik escaped on Qarzal, a horse that ran from defeat; and we struck the head of Ibn Khuwaylid, leaving him bowed like a brooding owl over chicks. These two lines belong to a longer poem of his. Jarir said: We stained the crown of Ibn Kabshah with his blood, and he met a fierce man amid the pressing cavalry. This line is from a longer poem of his. The accounts of Jablah and Dhu Najab are longer than what is related here. The author says he has not described them fully for the same reason he gave when discussing the Fijar War.

[1] Dhu Najab, with a medial vowel, is a valley near Mawan. See Ma Yu‘awwal ‘Alayh and Mu‘jam al-Buldan. [2] The manuscripts read “son of”; other copies have “father of Kabshah.” [3] Mu‘jam al-Buldan attributes these verses to Suhaym ibn Wathil al-Riyahi. [4] Qarzal, with a dammah, was the name of al-Tufayl ibn Malik’s horse; al-Tufayl was called “the rider of Qarzal.” [5] Mu‘jam al-Buldan gives another version of this line, naming Yazid and ‘Ubaydah. [6] “The brooding mother of chicks” means the head, or owl; they believed a slain man’s spirit became an owl crying “Give me drink!” until his death was avenged. [7] Misqa‘ here derives from “he struck it against a solid object.”

Ibn Ishaq said: They then invented further practices that had not previously been part of it. They said that the Hums should not make aqit, a dried curd food; should not cook clarified butter while in ihram; should not enter a tent made of hair; and, if they sought shade while in ihram, should sit only in leather tents. They went further and said that people from outside the Sanctuary who came as pilgrims or visitors should not eat food they had brought from outside it, nor perform their first circumambulation in any clothes except Hums garments. If they could not find such garments, they had to circumambulate naked. If a man or woman of noble character could not find Hums clothing and circumambulated in the clothes brought from outside the Sanctuary, they had to discard them after completing the circumambulation; neither they nor anyone else could ever use them again.

The Arabs called those discarded clothes al-laqa, “cast-offs.” Quraysh imposed this practice on the Arabs, who adopted it. They stood at ‘Arafah and departed from it, then circumambulated the House naked. Men went naked; women removed all their clothes except a front-opening shift, which they wore while circumambulating. A woman of the Arabs, while circumambulating in that state, said: Today some or all of it is exposed; what is exposed, I will not make lawful. Whoever circumambulated in the clothing he had brought from outside the Sanctuary discarded it and neither he nor anyone else used it again. An Arab poet described a beloved garment he had left behind and would not approach: How many a garment I left behind, like a cast-off held inviolable among those who circumambulate— that is, it must not be touched.

[1] Aqit, with several possible vocalizations, is a food made from sheep’s fermented milk. [2] Sala’t al-samn means cooking and processing clarified butter; the verbal noun is sila’. [3] Leather tents are shelters made from hides. [4] Laqa means something thrown away or abandoned; its plural is alqa’. [5] Mufarraj describes a garment slit at the front or back. [6] The woman is said to have been Dub‘ah bint ‘Amir ibn Sa‘sa‘ah, of Banu Salamah ibn Qushayr. Ibn Hisham notes a report that the Messenger had proposed marriage to her, but left the matter; the editor suggests that Allah’s protection and knowledge of the Messenger’s protective jealousy may have played a role.

They continued in this way until Allah Most High sent Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. When He perfected the religion for him and prescribed the rites of pilgrimage, He revealed: “Then depart from where the people depart, and ask Allah’s forgiveness. Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful” (Qur’an 2:199). “The people” here means the Arabs. Thus Allah restored them to the pilgrimage practice of standing at ‘Arafah and departing from it. Regarding what the Hums had forbidden people to wear and eat at the House—when they circumambulated naked and barred food brought from outside the Sanctuary—Allah revealed: “O children of Adam, take your adornment at every place of worship; eat and drink, but do not be excessive, for He does not love the excessive. Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision? Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, exclusively theirs on the Day of Resurrection. Thus We explain the signs for people who know” (Qur’an 7:31–32). Through Islam, Allah set aside the Hums practices and what Quraysh had invented and imposed on others. Ibn Ishaq said: Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Amr ibn Hazm narrated to me… The report continues beyond the printed page.

[1] One account of the discarded garments concerns Fakhitah, Umm Hakim ibn Hizam. She entered the Ka‘bah pregnant with Hakim ibn Hizam; labor came upon her and she could not leave, so she gave birth inside. She wrapped herself and the newborn in pieces of aqit and discarded her clothing, which became cast-offs no one could approach. Al-mithbar, with a fathah, means the place where a child is born. [2] Another copy reads “as though she”; [3] harim means something inviolable, not to be touched or used. [4] The adornment in the verse refers to clothing and not circumambulating naked. The instruction to eat and drink alludes to the Hums prohibition on bringing food into the Sanctuary. [5] Recension A reads “from”; other copies read “on.”