The Hums among Quraysh

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.