Zayd

David S. Powers

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780812209952
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

Although Mu?ammad had no natural sons who reached the age of maturity, Islamic sources report that he adopted a man named Zayd shortly before receiving his first revelation. This "son of Mu?ammad" was the Prophet's heir for the next fifteen or twenty years. He was the first adult male to become a Muslim and the only Muslim apart from Mu?ammad whose name is mentioned in the Qur'an. Eventually, Mu?ammad would repudiate Zayd as his son, abolish the institution of adoption, and send Zayd to certain death on a battlefield in southern Jordan.Curiously, Zayd has remained a marginal figure in both Islamic and Western scholarship. David S. Powers now attempts to restore Zayd to his rightful position at the center of the narrative of the Prophet Mu?ammad and the beginnings of Islam. To do so, he mines traces left behind in commentaries on the Qur'an, in biographical dictionaries, and in historical chronicles, reading these sources against analogues in the Hebrew Bible. Powers demonstrates that in the accounts preserved in these sources, Zayd's character is modeled on those of biblical figures such as Isaac, Ishmael, Joseph, and Uriah the Hittite. This modeling process was deployed by early Muslim storytellers to address two key issues, Powers contends: the bitter conflict over succession to Mu?ammad and the key theological doctrine of the finality of prophecy. Both Zayd's death on a battlefield and Mu?ammad's repudiation of his adopted son and heir were after-the-fact constructions driven by political and theological imperatives.

Chapter 1

Zayd

My son, keep your father’s commandment; do not
forsake your mother’s teaching.—Prov. 6:20

But the one who says to his parents, “Fie on you both . . .”—Q. 46:17

Do not forsake your fathers, for it is [an act of]
infidelity on your part.—ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb

Islamic Narratives

The steppe lands between Syria and Iraq served as the grazing grounds of the tribe of Kalb, camel breeders who inhabited oases in the valley formed by Wadi Sirhan in northern Arabia, the gateway to Syria. In the sixth century C.E., Kalbīs could be found living in Salamiyya, Palmyra, Damascus, the Golan, and in the region of Harran. In northern Arabia, they settled in Fadak, Dūmat al-Jandal, Taymāʾ, and al-Ḥīra. The territory of Kalb was controlled by the Ghassanids, vassals of the Byzantines whose capital was Jābiya in the Golan Heights. The Kalbīs, in turn, were clients of the Ghassanids, who used them to defend the Syrian frontier against the Sasanians and the Lakhmids of al-Ḥīra. Like their Ghassanid patrons, they were Monophysite Christians.¹

1.1 CAPTURE AND ENSLAVEMENT

Sometime in the latter part of the sixth century C.E., a Kalbī tribesman by the name of Ḥāritha b. Sharāḥīl married Suʿdā bt. Thaʿlab. The sources suggest that husband and wife lived in southern Palestine or northern Arabia, without specifying the exact location of their domicile. Circa 580 C.E., Suʿdā gave birth to a son, Zayd, who passed his formative years in the company of his parents, relatives, and fellow tribesmen. Zayd reportedly was short, his nose was flat and wide, and his skin was either white or tawny. When the young man was approximately twenty years old, misfortune struck: Zayd was captured by horse-riding Arabs, transported to Arabia, and sold into slavery.

Several versions of the capture and enslavement of Zayd b. Ḥāritha are preserved in Islamic sources. One account specifies that Zayd was a young man (ghulām) when he was seized by members of his own tribe—Kalb—at a place called al-Baṭḥāʾ and transported to a slave market in the vicinity of Mecca. One day, as Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh, a member of the clan of Hāshim, was walking through the slave market and examining the merchandise, his eyes happened to fall on Zayd. There was something about the young man, perhaps his sidelock, that set him apart from the other slaves.² Later that day, Muḥammad returned to his home, where he said to his wife, Khadīja, “I saw a young man in al-Baṭḥāʾ whose tribe had seized him and offered him up for sale. If only I had the money, I would purchase him.” “How much does he cost?” Khadīja asked. “700 dirhams,” Muḥammad replied. Khadīja now gave her husband 700 dirhams with which to purchase the slave. Muḥammad returned to the slave market, purchased Zayd, and brought him home. He was not yet satisfied, however, for he had a feeling that there was something special about this young man. “In truth,” he said to Khadīja, “if he were mine, I would give him his freedom.” His wife now announced, “He [now] belongs to you, so manumit him.”³ Thus did Zayd become the freedman (ʿatīq) of Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Hāshimī.

According to another account, Zayd was captured by Tihamī horsemen and sold to Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām b. Khuwaylid, who gave Zayd to his maternal aunt, Khadīja bt. Khuwaylid, who gave him to the Prophet, who manumitted him and adopted him (tabannāhu).⁴ (On the adoption, see section 1.5, below.)

In another version of the story, Zayd was visiting the family of his maternal grandfather when Fazarī horsemen captured him and sold him in the market town of ʿUkāẓ southeast of Mecca. In this account he was purchased by Khadīja’s paternal cousin, a Christian by the name of Waraqa b. Nawfal—not by her paternal nephew, Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām.⁵

A long and detailed account of Zayd’s capture and enslavement is preserved by Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845).⁶ In this version of the story, Suʿdā bt. Thaʿlab took her son Zayd to visit her relatives, the Banū al-Maʿn of Ṭayy. During the visit, horsemen of the Banū al-Qayn b. Jasr descended upon the tribal campground. The Arab raiders seized Zayd and carried him off to the Hijaz. In the market of ʿUkāẓ he was sold for 400 dirhams to Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām b. Khuwaylid, who was acting on behalf of his paternal aunt, Khadīja bt. Khuwaylid. Shortly thereafter, when Khadīja married Muḥammad, she gave the slave to her husband as a gift.⁷

Despite the variations, these narratives all share a common structure: Following his capture and enslavement by Arab horsemen, Zayd b. Ḥāritha al-Kalbī was transported to a foreign land where he was purchased by or gifted to Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Hāshimī, the man who was about to emerge as a prophet and messenger of God and who would soon become the most powerful and important person in Arabia.

1.2 A FATHER LAMENTS THE LOSS OF HIS SON

When Ḥāritha b. Sharāḥīl learned of his son’s disappearance and possible death, he was inconsolable. In the following poem, attributed to the Kalbī tribesman, he expressed his feelings as follows:

I weep for Zayd not knowing what has become of him.

Is he alive, is there hope, or has death overcome him?

By God I ask yet do not comprehend.

Was it the plain or the mountain that brought about your end?

I wish that I knew: Will you ever return?

In this world only for your coming back I yearn.

The sun reminds me of him when it dawns,

evoking his memory as the dusk falls.

When the winds blow they stir up memories like dust.

O how long my sorrow and fear for him last!

I shall hasten all my reddish-white camels all over the earth, toiling.

Neither I nor the camels will be weary of wandering

All my life long, until I die,

for every man is mortal, even though hopes lie.

To ʿAmr [b. al-Ḥārith] and Qays do I entrust [Zayd’s fate]

and to Yazīd [b. Kaʿb b. Sharāḥīl] and then to Jabal [a b. Ḥāritha].⁸

1.3 A CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH FELLOW TRIBESMEN

Time passed and life returned to normal—well, as normal as life could be for a young man who had been wrested away from his birth family and sold into slavery. In Mecca, Zayd adjusted to his status as a slave in the household of Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Hāshimī.

Mecca was a site of pilgrimage. Once a year, tribesmen from different regions of Arabia would converge on the town in order to circumambulate the Kaʿba and worship their god or gods. One day a group of pilgrims from the tribe of Kalb just happened to spot Zayd near the Kaʿba. What a stroke of good fortune! Or was it perhaps an act of divine providence? The Kalbī tribesmen told Zayd about his family and his father’s distress. Curiously, Zayd expressed no concern for either his father or his mother. Indeed, he told his fellow tribesmen that he was not interested in rejoining his family and that he did not want to be found or repatriated.⁹ Like his father, he expressed his feelings in verse, asking the Kalbīs to memorize the following lines and convey them to his tribe:

Bear a message from me to my tribe, for I am far away

I reside near the Kaʿba, the place of pilgrimage.

Let go of the grief that has overtaken you;

don’t send camels running all over the land.

Praise be to Allāh, I live with the best family,

Maʿadd, from father to son they are the noblest.¹⁰

After the Kalbī pilgrims had returned home, they told Ḥāritha b. Sharāḥīl what they had learned about his son Zayd, including his whereabouts and the identity of his master. Upon learning that Zayd was alive and well, Ḥāritha exclaimed, “My son, with the Lord of the Kaʿba!” Determined to recover Zayd, Ḥāritha traveled to Mecca, accompanied by his brother Kaʿb (cf. Heb. Yaʿqôb = Jacob).¹¹

A longer version of the encounter between Zayd and the Kalbīs is preserved in Qurṭubī’s commentary on Q. 33:37, where it is not unidentified Kalbī pilgrims who locate Zayd in Mecca but rather his uncle, Kaʿb, who was in Mecca on business. Upon entering the market, Kaʿb encountered a young man (ghulām) who bore a striking resemblance to his missing nephew. In an effort to determine the identity of this young man, Kaʿb interrogated him, as follows:

“What is your name, O young man?”

“Zayd.”

“The son of whom?”

“The son of Ḥāritha.”

“The son of whom?”

“The son of Sharāḥīl al-Kalbī.”

“What is your mother’s name?”

“Suʿdā—and I was with my maternal aunts of Ṭayy [when I was captured].”

Kaʿb embraced Zayd, who no doubt returned the gesture—even if the sources are silent about Zayd’s reaction to being found. Kaʿb then sent a message with the good news to his brother Ḥāritha and the tribe of Kalb. It was not long (in the narrative, that is) before Ḥāritha arrived in Mecca determined to ransom Zayd from his master and to reunite him with his birth family. The two brothers asked Zayd a question, “To whom do you belong?”—the same question posed by Muḥammad to the houri in Paradise (see Introduction). “To Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh,” Zayd responded.¹²

1.4 A TEST

Ḥāritha and Kaʿb, the two sons of Sharāḥīl al-Kalbī, now sought out Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Hāshimī, who, they were told, might be found in the masjid or house of prayer. The Kalbīs entered the masjid and introduced themselves to Muḥammad—who, it should be kept in mind, had not yet received his first revelation or emerged as a prophet. They addressed Muḥammad as follows: “O son of ʿAbdallāh, O son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, O son of Hāshim, O son of the Lord of his tribe, you (pl.) are the people of the Sacred Precinct (al-ḥaram) and you are its protectors. In the name of the [Lord of the] House, you free the captives and feed the prisoners. We have come to you in the matter of our son who is in your possession. Trust us (fa-ʾmun ʿalaynā) [viz., with our son] and deal kindly with us in the matter of his ransom, for surely we will pay you a large ransom.”¹³

In this carefully crafted speech, the Kalbīs honor Muḥammad by acknowledging his noble lineage and his membership in the Hāshimī clan. As guardians of the Sacred Precinct, the Hāshimīs had important duties, including the obligation to “free the captives and feed the prisoners.” The language attributed to the two men echoes that of Ps. 102:21 (“to hear the groans of the prisoner, to release those condemned to death”) while at the same time anticipating that of Q. 90:13–14 (“the freeing of a slave or the feeding on a day of hunger”). Only after acknowledging Muḥammad’s impressive genealogy and high social status do the Kalbīs mention an unnamed “son” who was his slave. Appealing to the virtues of mercy, kindness, and fair play, they implore Muḥammad to trust them (fa-ʾmun ʿalaynā), an ironic allusion to Q. 12:11, where Joseph’s brothers ask Jacob, “Father, how is it that you do not trust us with Joseph?” (mā laka lā taʾmunnā ʿalā Yūsuf). When the Kalbīs offer Muḥammad a large sum of money so that they might ransom Zayd and reunite him with his mother, he feigns ignorance and asks them which of his slaves they have in mind. “Zayd b. Ḥāritha,” they reply.

Zayd b. Ḥāritha was the slave who had been purchased by Khadīja for either 400 or 700 dirhams and gifted to Muḥammad. Miraculously, Zayd’s father and uncle had tracked him down and they wanted to take him back to his tribal homeland. How could anyone criticize Muḥammad for facilitating Zayd’s reunification with his birth family? Surely this was the proper course of action; indeed, it was arguably the only ethical and humane thing to do. But Muḥammad had a better idea. He informed the Kalbīs that he would summon Zayd ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Zayd
• Chapter 2 Zaynab
• Chapter 3 Mu’tah
• Chapter 4 Usāma
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Citation Index
• Subject Index
• Acknowledgments