The Quraysh () are an Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably the Banu Hashim, into which Islamic prophet Muhammad was born. By the 7th century, they had become wealthy merchants, dominating trade between the Indian Ocean, East Africa, and the Mediterranean. The tribe ran caravans to Palestine and Damascus in summer and to Yemen in winter, while also mining and pursuing other enterprises on these routes.
When Muhammad began preaching Islam in Mecca, the Quraysh initially showed little concern. However, their opposition to his activities quickly grew as he increasingly challenged the polytheism prevalent throughout pre-Islamic Arabia. As relations deteriorated, Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina (the journey known as the Hijrah) after negotiating with the Banu Aws and the Banu Khazraj to mediate their conflict. However, the two sides proved unable to reach a peaceful resolution, and the Quraysh continued to obstruct Muhammad's community's attempts to perform the Islamic pilgrimage at Mecca, prompting him to confront them through armed conflict, primarily by conducting raids on their caravans. These raids escalated into several major battles, including those at Badr, Uhud, and "the Trench" (Medina's outskirts). Following these engagements and changes in Medina's political landscape, including the expulsion of three Jewish tribes, Muhammad reportedly shifted the focus of his military campaigns from Quraysh caravans to northern Arab tribes such as the Banu Lahyan and the Banu Mustaliq.
As Muhammad's position in Medina became more established, attitudes towards him in his hometown became more conciliatory. The Treaty of al-Hudaybiya formalized a ten-year truce (beginning in March 628) with the Quraysh and allowed Muhammad to perform Umrah in Mecca in the following year. During this pilgrimage, Muhammad reconciled with his clan, symbolized by his marriage to Maymuna bint al-Harith. Further, several prominent Meccans, such as Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-As, recognized Muhammad's increasing influence and converted to Islam, later taking pivotal roles in the early Muslim conquests.
According to Muslim sources, the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya was broken by the Quraysh approximately two years after it was ratified. A belligerent party within the tribe, against the advice of their chief Abu Sufyan, had supported one of their client clans in a conflict against the Banu Khuza'ah, allies of Muhammad. Muhammad responded by marching with an army of 10,000 men to besiege Mecca. Confronted by the advancing army, Abu Sufyan and others, including Muhammad's ally Khuza'i Budayl ibn Warqa, met with him to request amnesty for all Qurayshis who did not resist his advance. Thus, Muhammad and his troops entered Mecca virtually unopposed, and almost all of the city's inhabitants converted to Islam. After Muhammad's death in 632, leadership of the Muslim community traditionally passed to a person belonging to the Quraysh, as was the case with the Rashidun, the Umayyads, and the Abbasids, and purportedly with the Fatimids.
Name Sources differ as to the etymology of Quraysh, with one theory holding that it was the diminutive form of (shark). One theory, going back to the Arab genealogist Hisham ibn al-Kalbi asserted that there was no eponymous founder of Quraysh; rather, the name stemmed from , an Arabic word meaning "a coming together" or "association". Another theory says the name Quraysh does trace to an eponymous ancestor: Qusayy ibn Kilab, a sixth-generation descendant of Fihr ibn Malik, who gathered together his kinsmen and took control of the Kaaba. The or surname of the Quraysh is Qurashī, though in the early centuries of the Ummah, most Qurashi tribesmen were denoted by their specific clan instead of the tribe. Later, particularly after the 13th century, claimants of descent from the Quraysh used the Qurashī surname.
History
Origins The Quraysh's progenitor was Fihr ibn Malik, whose full genealogy, according to traditional Arab sources, was the following: Fihr ibn Malik ibn al-Nadr ibn Kinana ibn Khuzayma ibn Mudrika ibn Ilyas ibn Mudar ibn Nizar ibn Ma'add ibn Adnan. Thus, Fihr belonged to the Kinana tribe and his descent is traced to Adnan the Ishmaelite, the semi-legendary father of the "northern Arabs". According to the traditional sources, Fihr led the warriors of Kinana and Khuzayma in defense of the Kaaba, at the time a major pagan sanctuary in Mecca, against tribes from Yemen; however, the sanctuary and the privileges associated with it continued to be in the hands of the Yemeni Khuza'a tribe. The Quraysh gained their name when Qusayy ibn Kilab, a sixth-generation descendant of Fihr ibn Malik, gathered his kinsmen and took control of the Kaaba. Prior to this, Fihr's offspring lived in scattered, nomadic groups among their Kinana relatives.
Establishment in Mecca All medieval Muslim sources agree that Qusayy unified Fihr's descendants and established the Quraysh as the dominant power in Mecca. After conquering Mecca, Qusayy assigned quarters to different Qurayshi clans. Those settled around the Kaaba were known as ('Quraysh of the Hollow') and included all descendants of Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy and others. The clans settled in the outskirts of the sanctuary were known as ('Quraysh of the Outskirts'). According to historian Ibn Ishaq, Qusayy's younger son, Abd Manaf, had grown prominent during his father's lifetime and was chosen by Qusayy to succeed him as guardian of the Kaaba. He also gave other responsibilities related to the Kaaba to his other sons Abd al-Uzza and Abd, while ensuring that all decisions by the Quraysh had to be made in the presence of his eldest son Abd al-Dar; the latter was also designated ceremonial privileges such as keeper of the Qurayshi war banner and supervisor of water and provisions to the pilgrims visiting the Kaaba.
According to historian F. E. Peters, Ibn Ishaq's account reveals that Mecca in the time of Qusayy and his immediate offspring was not yet a commercial center; rather, the city's economy was based on pilgrimage to the Kaaba, and "what pass[ed] for municipal offices [designated by Qusayy] have to do only with military operations and with control of the shrine". During that time, the tribesmen of Quraysh were not traders; instead, they were entrusted with religious services, from which they significantly profited. They also profited from taxes collected from incoming pilgrims. Though Qusayy appeared to be the strongman of Quraysh, he was not officially a king of the tribe, but one of many leading (tribal chieftains).
According to historian Gerald R. Hawting, if the traditional sources are to be believed, Qusayy's children, "must have lived in the second half of the fifth century". However, historian W. Montgomery Watt asserts that Qusayy himself likely died in the second half of the 6th century. The issue of succession between Qusayy's natural successor, Abd al-Dar, and his chosen successor, Abd Manaf, led to the division of Quraysh into two factions; those who backed the Abd al-Dar clan, including the clans of Banu Sahm, Banu Adi, Banu Makhzum and Banu Jumah, became known as ('the Confederates'), while those who backed the Abd Manaf clan, including the Banu Taym, Banu Asad, Banu Zuhra and Banu al-Harith ibn Fihr, were known as ('the Perfumed').
Control of Meccan trade Toward the end of the 6th century, the Fijar War broke out between the Quraysh and the Kinana on one side and various Qaysi tribes on the other, including the Hawazin, Banu Thaqif, Banu Amir and Banu Sulaym. The war broke out when a Kinani tribesman killed an Amiri tribesman escorting a Lakhmid caravan to the Hejaz. The attack took place during the holy season when fighting was typically forbidden. The Kinani tribesman's patron was Harb ibn Umayya, a Qurayshi chief. This patron and other chiefs were ambushed by the Hawazin at Nakhla, but were able to escape. In the battles that occurred in the following two years, the Qays were victorious, but in the fourth year, the tide turned in favor of the Quraysh and Kinana. After a few more clashes, peace was reestablished. According to Watt, the actual aim in the Fijar War was control of the trade routes of Najd. Despite particularly tough resistance by the Quraysh's main trade rivals, the Thaqif of Ta'if, and the Banu Nasr clan of Hawazin, the Quraysh ultimately held sway over western Arabian trade. The Quraysh gained control over Ta'if's trade, and many Qurayshi individuals purchased estates in Ta'if, where the climate was cooler.
The sanctuary village of Mecca developed into a major Arabian trade hub. According to Watt, by 600 CE, the leaders of Quraysh "were prosperous merchants who had obtained something like a monopoly of the trade between the Indian Ocean and East Africa on the one hand and the Mediterranean on the other". Furthermore, the Quraysh commissioned trade caravans to Yemen in the winter and caravans to Gaza, Bosra, Damascus and al-Arish in the summer. The Quraysh established networks with merchants in these Syrian cities. They also formed political or economic alliances with many of the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) tribes in the northern and central Arabian deserts to ensure the safety of their trade caravans. The Quraysh invested their revenues in building their trading ventures, and shared profits with tribal allies to translate financial fortune into significant political power in the Hejaz (western Arabia). In the words of Fred Donner:
[By the end of the 6th century,] Meccan commerce was flourishing as never before, and the leaders in this trade [the Quraysh] had developed from mere merchants into true financiers. They were no longer interested in "buying cheap and selling dear," but also with organizing money and men to realize their commercial objectives. There was emerging, in short, a class of men with well-developed managerial and organizational skills. It was a development unheralded, and almost unique, in central Arabia.
The Banu Makhzum and Banu Umayya, in particular, acquired vast wealth from trade and held the most influence among the Quraysh in Meccan politics. The Banu Umayya and the Banu Nawfal, another clan descending from Abd Manaf that had become wealthy from their commercial enterprise, split from the faction in 605 and engaged in business with the . Their financial fortunes had enabled them to become a force of their own. During a commercial incident where a Yemenite merchant was robbed of his trade by al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi, the reformed in the Hilf al-Fudul, which consisted of the Banu Hashim and Banu Muttalib, which, like the Banu Umayya, were descendants of Abd Manaf, and the Taym, Asad, Zuhra and al-Harith ibn Fihr clans. The Banu Hashim held the hereditary rights surrounding the pilgrimage to the Kaaba, though the Banu Umayya were ultimately the strongest Qurayshi clan. According to Watt, "In all the stories of the pre-Islamic period there is admittedly a legendary element, but the main outline of events appears to be roughly correct, even if most of the dating is uncertain."
Conflict with Muhammad