Varisco - Metaphors and Sacred History The Genealogy of Muhammad and The Arab Tribe

Metaphors and Sacred History: The Genealogy of Muhammad and the Arab "Tribe"
Author(s): Daniel Martin Varisco

Source: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 3, Anthropological Analysis and Islamic
Texts (Jul., 1995), pp. 139-156
Published by: The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research
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METAPHORS AND SACRED HISTORY: THE
GENEALOGY OF MUHAMMAD AND THE ARAB
"TRIBE"
DANIEL MARTIN VARISCO

Hofstra University
The genealogy of the Prophet Muhammad was the primary model used by m
lim genealogists in defining Arab tribal structure. This article examines the
both the overall genealogical template and the canonized genealogy of Muha
nificant ancestors from Abraham. Attention is given to the derivation of tr
terms, especially the use of a body metaphor. It is argued that the delineatio
mad's genealogy represents a legitimization of his role as Prophet in early
course on sacred history. [Arab genealogy, tribe, Islam, marriage, body met
Introduction Middle East has been with how applicable a seg-

mentary lineage model, originally developed for
certain African kinship groups, may be to Arab
Men, We have created you from a male and a female, and Berber tribes. It is not that other aspects of
and made you into nations and tribes, that you might get kinship or local social relations have been ignored
to know one another. (Surah al-Hujurit, The Quran)
by ethnographers. However, this one methodologi-
cal issue of an appropriate lineage model has linked
The historical setting of Arab culture, both as re- the discussion among scholars of the region closely
flected in textual sources and revised in contempo- with the study of kinship in the discipline at large.
rary social contexts, is beset with the notion of If no longer the cutting edge of Middle East an-
tribe. In the Islamic world that God divided into thropology, it is the one issue on which ethnogra-
"nations" and "tribes," it was the tribal idiom that phers in the region still have to cut their teeth.
the Prophet of Islam was forced to speak in sev- Arab scholars since the beginning of Islam
enth-century Arabia. In an expanding Islamic em- have maintained an interest in tribal genealogy.
pire, to nations far from Arabia, it was the tribal Consequently, there is an abundant corpus of texts
connection that often legitimized political and so- in the study of genealogy (nasab). These Arabic
cial status. Even the most urbane medieval poets genealogical texts have been largely ignored by
were lured into the supposed glory days of past tri- ethnographers. Part of the reason for this may be
bal deeds of noble Arabs. The situation is not alto- the trite but telling statement of Gellner (1973:
gether different today, when the mention of the 191) that "Orientalists are at home with texts. An-
Middle East conjures up for a Western audience thropologists are at home in villages." Such disci-
images of bedouins, camels, and date-palmed oases.plined division of scholarly labor virtually con-
It is not surprising, then, that the common denomi-demns textual exegesis to literary analysis alone
nator defining the Islamic Arab societies of the re- and fails to liberate the ethnographer from the
gion is invariably a tribal origin, no matter how blindsiding of historical ignorance. The analysis
distant from the realities of present social life.' presented here will not rehash the old arguments
In order to understand Arab culture or partic- about the relevance of the segmentary lineage as a
ular Arab societies, one has no choice but to ask generic model." Rather, this article explores a curi-
"What is a tribe?"2 Anthropologists have a long ous omission in the debate-an analysis of how
history of looking at the structure of tribal kinshipearly Arabic genealogical sources define tribal
and the rhetoric of tribal ideology. As a result, a structure. Exegesis is essential to the task, as is an
significant amount of ethnographic data has beenappreciation of the historical context in which the
amassed in the past several decades for specific tri- texts evolved as texts, but both of these are
bal groups in the Middle East, although much ofprolegomena for placing anthropological analysis of
this has been documented for tribes in transition Arab tribal structure on a firmer comparative
within modern nation states.3 The most wide-rang-
footing.
ing concern in the ethnographic literature on the While individual anthropologists discuss the
139
140 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
tribal structure described to them in a specific

historiographic one andcon-
sets the stage for exploring
temporary context or occasionally refer
the second, to isbroad
which ultimately a hermeneutic and
generalizations from well-known Arab
semiotic one.historical
The Arabic terminology of this tribal
texts,6 no one has analyzed the paradigm
paradigm needs for the
to be examined in at least three
Arab tribe noted explicitly and implicitly inFirst,
different ways. numer-
the multiple meanings of each
ous medieval Arab genealogical term
texts. The closest
are relevant, perhaps the most significant is-
any scholar has come to doing sosue
isfrom
in the
the work of
standpoint ofthe Arab genealogists.
Joseph Chelhod, a skilled ethnographer and Ara-
Second, the structure itself needs to be examined,
bist. Chelhod (1969, 1974) wroteparticularly
severalthe major ar-
functional possibilities of the num-
ticles on tribal terms for the second edition of the ber of segments and affinal links. Finally, and most
Encyclopaedia of Islam; he also wrote a seminal significantly, the credibility of the genealogy should
work on Bedouin social structure (1971). Based on be addressed in relation to the links in a specific
these texts, Chelhod (1974: 335) noted that the case history. The aim of this study is to parse
principle of segmentary opposition is suggested by Muhammad's genealogy, link by link, to see what
the Arab genealogical literature because the com- kind of a template it is. If Muhammad's genealogy
ponent parts are "symmetrical and of evidently were encountered in fieldwork today, how would an
equal strength." Yet, he concluded that the seg- ethnographer make sense of it? Would it suggest
ment terms are too ambiguous to be taken as a se- that the Prophet Muhammad lived in a social
rious model.7 If so, it would be virtually impossible world of segmentary Arab lineages? What does the
to separate genealogical fiction from fact over the genealogy as a text say if taken at face value?
broad course of Arab history and Arabic usage.
The present analysis will focus on the most
The Paradigm for the Arab Tribe
important genealogy in the Islamic Middle East,
that of the Prophet Muhammad. The official gene-
alogy of their Prophet has been accepted by Mus- It is impossible to ignore the question "What is a
lims for well over a thousand years as a textual tribe?" if the aim of analysis is to have a heuristic
truth. There is little or no controversy among Arab concept. The generic concept of "tribe," whether in
genealogists over who the immediate forebears of everyday speech or anthropological jargon, is am-
Muhammad were, nor over his ultimate non-Arab biguous. To the extent it is taken for granted, it
link through Ishmael (IsmN''l in Arabic) to Abra- lacks analytical precision, but any attempt to define
ham and the Judaeo-Christian patriarchs. As in the a type of "tribe" for as broad a cultural entity as
case of the long lists of "begats" in the biblical the Arabs or the Middle East invariably defies con-
genealogies, the original rationale for creating such sensus. This fuzziness, rather than an impediment
lists of ancestors has long since been forgotten. to analysis, is no doubt an integral part of its func-
What makes the genealogy of Muhammad relevant tional value as a conceptual tool (Bourdieu 1977:
to the anthropological debate, however, is that it 109). If the concept had to be defined precisely at
became the paradigm of Arab tribal structure in the start of analysis, there would be little common
medieval Arabic texts. In attempting to explain the ground for a broad-based discussion across disci-
levels of segments within tribes, the earliest geneal- plines.8 In fact, the ambiguities in defining the
ogists used the ancestors of Muhammad as the pri- "tribe" as a model for social and political behavior
mary example. This fact suggests two interesting may be essential for praxis, for, as Bourdieu (1990:
questions. How does the structural relation of the 172) notes, kinship categories "institute a reality"
tribe and its segments in this widely known para- rather than define one. It is best to agree with Tap-
digm compare with ethnographic examples from per (1990: 56) that any attempt by anthropologists
recent or contemporary Arab tribes? And, did to define away the ambiguities is misdirected and
Muhammad's genealogy serve as a metaphor of tri- that the concept of "tribe" is best approached as "a
bal structure or did the model of tribal structure state of mind, a construction of reality, a model for
serve in some way to validate Muhammad in the organization and action."
emerging sacred history of Islam? The structure of the tribe as a primary social
The following discussion seeks to answer the concept in Arab culture is defined textually by
first question, an exercise that might be called an Arabic terminology for "tribe" and its various
METAPHORS AND SACRED HISTORY 141
components and segments. Lexical

viduals sources
who are related in founder
to the same distant
Arabic evince a delight in etymologies and only
of the tribe. Yet in practice aresignificant
no- ances-
toriously full of contradictions. To
tors for ego find the earliest
are highlighted, so that each genealogy
is presented
dictionary meaning or the most commonin an abridged and edited form. In
interpre-
tation in the sources hardly everyday
guaranteeslife there is us
neveran accu-
a need to define all pos-
rate derivation or usage among
sible the earliest
relationships, only to Arabic-
demonstrate relevant re-
speaking tribes. Specific terms for the
lationships. tribe realities,
Given practical or tri-the relevance
bal segments in Arabic have of
varied
particular widely
kinship linksthrough
changes over time. The
place and time, even within political
the valuelimited compara-
of genealogy was clear to medieval
tive information available. Yet certain terms have
Arab scholars (for example, al-Qalqashandt 1959),
survived contextual dissection quite well. For ex-as it is to anthropologists (for example, Peters
ample, the Arabic word qabila, which is invariably1970). The result of continual editing of ancestors
glossed as "tribe" in English, was often incorpo-in and out of genealogies is that they invariably
rated wholesale into other languages, such as Per-harbor contradictions when frozen in time and
sian, Turkish, and Berber. Does the fact that dif-place.9 When any given genealogy is textualized,
fering social groups over a wide geographic andthe existence of contradictions should hardly be a
historical span often use the same word (or cog-surprise. The important question is what these con-
nate) mean that they are describing the same type tradictions mean to the people who accepted or ig-
of social structure? Obviously they are not, sincenored them. And, perhaps it is useful to question
their contexts of use differ. Making sense of theour analytical insistence, whether as ethnographer
terms is a more difficult, but not necessarily impos-or historian, that they must mean something.
sible, task in the case of historical genealogical
texts than of contemporary ethnographic examples. The genealogical structure relevant to ego can
Yet in both one must do more in the end than or- be represented graphically in a number of ways.
der the nesting of terms or add up the linguistic The pyramidal form of idealized genealogical
sums of tribal segments. It is necessary to piece to- schemes is rarely, if ever, encountered in the field.
gether the broader context of discourse within A literal tree is sometimes used to depict the gene-
which these terms have meaning and value. The alogy of Muhammad in Islamic iconography. Yet,
ethnographer cannot return to pre-Islamic or early Arab genealogists seldom refer to trees, except in a
Islamic Arabia to conduct fieldwork, but analogiesgeneral sense (for example, al-'UmarT 1985: 71).
with contemporary ethnography can provide a The most common visual metaphor in the medieval
fresh interpretive angle on the historiography of Is-texts is the human skeleton. To trace ego's ances-
lamic genealogical texts. tors is thus to ascend from the feet to the head,
In a general sense the concept of tribe in Arab with each tribal division representing a major body
genealogy relates to a concern with tracing blood part. The most commonly cited sequence for the
descent to either a real or legendary ancestor of thegenealogy of Muhammad is shown in Figure 1,
distant past. Tribes require long periods of time towhich lists five closely related but slightly variant
be defined and redefined. The structure of Arab tri- slates of ancestral candidates. These are all docu-
bal genealogy is built from the level of the immedi- mented in early sources, the most widely quoted
ate family through patrilineal ascent of increas- being the scheme of Ibn al-Kalbi, who died in the
ingly larger agnatic segments to that of a "tribe" early ninth century.1' More elaborate, and less re-
commonly linked with a distant and eponymous an- alistic, schemes were developed in the later medie-
cestor. In the formal genealogical models each seg- val period (for example, al-Nuwayri 1923ff. 2:
ment is nested inside a larger grouping. The 269). Discussion of the terminology for tribal divi-
scheme theoretically provides a pyramidal grid in sions usually focused on the body metaphor,1 a not
which it should be possible to trace the relation- uncommon mode of representing kin groups in
ship, through the patriline, between any two indi- other societies.
Figure 1. Tribal Paradigm Related to the Genealogy of Muhammad
DIVISION BODY PART ANCESTOR

A. B. C, D.
1. sha'b suturer udar Mudar Khuzayma Ad~

2. qabila skull bones Kinana Kindna Kin5na Rabi'a/Muar
3. 'imara breast Quraysh Quraysh Quraysh Quraysh/Kinana
4. bain belly 'Abd Manf QuSayy QuWayy Abd Manf/B. Makhzim
5. fakhidh thigh IHshim HA hlm lHshlm B. HAshim/B. Umaya
6. fasila lower leg 'Abd al-Muutlib al-'Abbjs al-'Abbds al-'Abbs/'Abd al-Muttalib
DIVISION ANCESTOR
E.
1. sha'b MU#
2. qabila Kinna
3. 'imdra Quraysh
4. batrn Fihr
5. fakhidh Qu ayy
6. habl Hshim
7. fasila al-'Abtbs
KEY: Slate A: Ibn "Abd al-Barr (1985:40-45)

Slate B: Zubayr bn Bkkrin In b Rashiq (1972:2:190-191).
Slate C: al-Suwaydi (1339/1920-1:7). Note that al-MNwardi (1985:204) and al-Qqashandi (1959:13) have the same, altho
B. Abi TAllb for level 6.
Slate D: al-Zamakhshari (n.d.: 3: 569); al-Qalqashandi (1959:13-14)
Slate E: Al-Hamdani (1977:97); Nashwtn lbn Sa'id (n.d. 2:496). This is a Yement variant, due to the unique Yemeni usa
In the paradigm for the genealogy of where it referred to a territorial rather than a kin-
Muham-
ship unitis(Beeston
mad (Fig. 1), the largest significant grouping the 1972: 258, Robin 1982: 18-22).
sha'b. In lexicons this term is definedThe "bodily" as usage predates any recorded us-
South Arabic
age insits
the suture of the skull. Just as the suture northern
atop Arabic dialects. The sense of sha'b
the highest part of a human skeleton, the sha'b can
as a structural term distinct from its specific mean-
be seen as the highest significant tribal grouping.
ing of tribal descent is implied in the lexicons, since
Yet, as the eleventh-century Islamic sha'b
scholar
is saidal-
to be the equivalent foreign ('ajam)
MNwardi (in al-Qalqashandi 1959: 13) term
noted,
for the
one usual Arabic designation of tribe
could also derive the term from the fact that the (qabila)."5 The sha'b comprises a broad range of
tribes (qabM'il), which defined the next lower divi- kin rather than a cohesive group. The members of
sion, literally "branched out" (tatasha"ba) from a sha'b could never gather together in one place,
this major grouping.12 This root meaning of the even in the imagination of a medieval Arab geneal-
verb explains the derivation of the term for the ogist. Nevertheless, the term sha'b is often used by
"suture" from which the plates of the skull can be Islamic scholars to refer to a major Arab genealog-
said to separate. What is interesting about the termical grouping in the distant past, such as the basic
sha'b is that it can signify both a separation and adistinction between 'Adnin, for the northern
unity.13 Here is an appropriate connotation for the Arabs, and Qahtin, for the southern Arabs. The
most inclusive "tribal" term, which both separatesbasic distinction between northern and southern
broadly defined tribal affiliations and defines theArabs is ideological rather than practical. Much
boundary where tribal unity begins to be relevant. was made of the merits of belonging to either
The term sha'b in plural form appears in the southern or northern tribes in the evolving power
Quran (49:13) along with the term qabi'il struggles of an expanding Islamic empire.
("tribes"). As a result, there is much discussion of The next lower tribal division is the qabila, the
the term in Quranic commentaries as well as lex- Arabic term usually translated as the generic
icons.14 Sha'b was also used in South Arabic, "tribe" in English. At base it defines the descend-
ants in the patriline from a batn

single ancestral
and fakhidh, "fa-
two terms which are widely
ther" (ban- ab wahid) of the citeddistant past
in the literature and(Ibn
in contemporary Arab
Manzir n.d.: see q-b-l). In terms ofgenealogies.
tribal the body meta-
Several ethnographic examples
phor it is compared with several bones
support in that
the idea theinskull,
the formal genealogical
often the frontal, occipital, model
and batnparietal
is a morebones;
inclusive segment level than
some sources are more specific fakhidhin (forplacing the
example, Dostal 1974: 3). The term
qab-'il as bones in the ear. Thebatnsemantic fit be-
is probably derived from an early Semitic
tween sha'b and qabN'il would seem
word for toalthough
stomach, be well
it also means uterus or
marked in this skeletal case, but
wombin fact and
in Hebrew the more
Arabic (Lecerf 1960a:
common definition of qabila is 1102).
a groupFakhidh
inliterally
which is the
thethigh, a highly
members meet face-to-facecharged metaphor for a kin
(al-M~wardi ingroup
al-in a number of
Qalqashandi 1959: 13), which societies.
is theRobertson Smith (1966:
root sense of 38) cites the
common
the verbal form.17 A qabila is in thisuse of these two
sense a terms as evidence for an
realis-
tic grouping of kin who could, evolutionary
at least shift in pre-Islamic Arabia from ma-
theoretically,
come into contact with each other. Chelhod
trilateral to (1974:
patrilateral kinship. In this sense he
334) suggests that the Arab genealogist al- equates batn with a matrilineal clan because the
Nuwayri implied a sense of complementary opposi- term connotes the womb or mother's belly, and
tion by explaining qabila as "so named because its fakhidh with a patrilineal clan because of the sym-
component parts are placed face to face and in bolic significance of the thigh in the biblical narra-
equal numbers." However, Arab genealogists were tives.'19 In the ethnographic literature the term
fakhidh is often used for a patrilineal descent
well aware that tribes were not of equal numbers.
Beneath the level of qabila is the 'im-lra, group of five generations' depth; this is the group
which in the body metaphor represents the chest often associated with the blood-right (for example,
(sadr) and neck ('unuq) (al-Qalqashandi 1959: Cole 1984: 175; Jwaideh 1976: 161; Lecerf 1960b:
14). The meaning of "chest" stems from the notion 700).20 From the ethnographic perspective this is
that it is part of the "structure" of the body, since the lineage group most relevant for day-to-day so-
'imara is not a common usage in Arabic for this cial behavior in tribal communities of the Middle
body part. One of the classical definitions of this East (Lancaster 1981: 26). Peters (1970: 387) ar-
term is a large tribal segment that can take care of gues that for the Cyrenaican Bedouin there is an
itself.'" This relates to the root meaning of the "area of ambiguity" after the fifth generation
Arabic term, which refers to living for a long time where ancestors start to be dropped from or grafted
or flourishing (Lane 1984: 2154). Robertson Smith into a genealogy. The practical reality, as described
(1966: 69) argues that 'imdra means those that by Dresch (1989: 78) for Yemen, is that "it is un-
practice a common religion, but this is hard to sus- usual to meet a tribesman who can, without con-
tain from the linguistic evidence available. The sulting old land-deeds and the like, name any more
term 'imira is often used in medieval Arabic for distant forebear than his great-grandfather."
"cultivated land," although Robertson Smith The family, in the sense of the descendants of
(1966: 70) rejects this as the original derivationa on
living "father," is the fasila. Although this term
the grounds that the Arabs were not farmers. This is used in the Quran (for example, 70:13) in a ge-
demonstrates the caution necessary for interpreting
neric sense of kin (Ibn 'Abd al-Barr 1985: 13), it is
Arabic etymology, where it is easy to see what youa common term for family in the lexicons. Accord-
want to see. Many Arabs in Arabia were farmers ing to the body metaphor fasila is the lower leg
for a considerable time before the advent of Islam,
(s-q) and the foot (qadam) (al-Qalqashandt 1959:
especially those from Yemen. It is relevant that the
14). Al-Zabidi (1888) noted that the term fasila
term 'imira could refer to pastoral land as well could
(al- refer to part of a man's thigh (fakhidh). The
Zabidi 1888), a usage apparently overlookedgenealogists
by also compared this term with that of a
Robertson Smith. The term 'imlra is synonymous toe joint (mafsil). Yet, setting the body image
with batn among the sedentary and agricultural aside for a moment, there is a lexical argument
Bant Hushaysh in northern Yemen (Dostal 1974: that the term is derived from the sense that it sets
3), but its usage is rare in the ethnographic litera-
one man apart (yafsalu) from another (al-
ture elsewhere. Qalqashandi 1959: 14). This unit is best defined as
A distinction is made in the model between an extended family household rather than the more
distinct
restricted nuclear family, which had levels,meaning
little as indicated in Figure 1, does have
in Arab social structure. There are a number of
credibility in terms of the number of divisions or
terms to denote a living family, the more common segment levels. The ethnographic literature is re-
plete with segment schemes of Arab tribes of five
being ahl, a'ila, and 'iyyi-l (Lecerf 1956). In gene-
alogical texts these terms for family may also or be six divisions; these include the Iraqi El Shabana
(Fernea 1970: 82); Syrian bedouins (Chatty 1980);
used in a generic sense to express a larger grouping
Cyrenaican bedouins (Peters 1970); and tribes of
of kin, but the term fasila rarely is used this way.
It need hardly be pointed out that use of athe Yemeni highlands (Adra 1982: 130), to name
but a few examples. There is no reason to assume
body metaphor for Arab tribal structure in medie-
val texts does not prove that this template wasthat a genealogical model documented in a classi-
cal Arabic text could not have been based on ac-
meaningful for the earliest or even contemporane-
ous Arab tribesmen. Of the six or seven structural tual usage, even if it was not so universal as the
terms listed in Figure 1, not all are referred to in texts imply.
recorded genealogies nor are they documented as a On closer examination the term sha'b is prob-
model in ethnographic contexts. For example, al- lematic, since it is not found as part of the "tribal"
structure in Arab tribes today. Nor does the term
Qalqashandi (1959: 14) pointed out that while the
terms qabila and batn were widely used in theseem ever to have been applied by Arab tribesmen
to themselves independent of the formal genealogi-
sources he consulted in the fifteenth century, other
cal schemes. The use of sha'b no doubt had less
terms in the body metaphor were rarely men-
significance for tribesmen than for the early Mus-
tioned.21 Commonly used body terms such as batn
lims who were committed to unifying rather than
(belly or womb) and fakhidh (thigh) have an obvi-
carving up the tribal universe of seventh-century
ous symbolic significance in defining kinship rela-
Arabia. This generic term has come to signify a
tionships as a metaphor of sexual reproduction. But
meaningful group of "people" in general, as in its
the association of tribal affiliation with the procrea-
modern application to the nation state. From the
tive function of the body is not the same as the
linguistic evidence as well as usage in pre-Islamic
metaphor of a tribe segmented from the tip of the
and early Islamic literary texts, qabila defines the
toes to the top of the head. There are equally viable
maximal unit of genealogical interest. It may be of
explanations of most of the segment terms, espe-
interest to Islamic scholars that all men are de-
cially sha'b, qabila, 'imira, and fasila, as noted
scended from Adam, but the tribesman had little
above. Thus, sha'b could ultimately be derived
reason to think back before the legendary father of
from a sense of unity or division; qabila from the
his own blood-linked group identity. If one looks
sense of coming "face-to-face" or meeting fellow
only at the levels between the qabila as the maxi-
kin; 'imra from flourishing; fasila from being set
mal unit of tribal identity and the fastla or ex-
apart from others. In light of the penchant of many
tended family of a living man, there are only three
Arab scholars to contrive meanings from contorted
intermediate nesting levels in this standard model.
root senses, is it possible that the body metaphor is
Such a template, on the surface, has an authentic
a scholarly fancy, a post hoc rendering of what ge-
ring to it. The paradigm is credible, whether or not
nealogists wanted the tribal structure to resemble?
it is objectively authentic or even historically
Or, is there a logic to the template that we have
plausible.
yet to appreciate?
Apart from the authenticity of the textual
model as a socially significant genealogical model, The Prophet's Significant Ancestors
another question arises. Could this segmented
model of the Arab tribe used as a template for the The credibility of the tribal paradigm elaborated
ancestors of Muhammad correspond with social re- for Muhammad cannot be established by a simple
ality?22 The important issue for this analysis is thecomparison to ethnographic examples for the num-
credibility of the template which Arab genealogists ber of segment levels. Fortunately, the Arab gene-
defined for the Arab "tribe" in general. Is therealogists plotted out the significant ancestors of the
ethnographic documentation of such a segmentaryProphet's patriline and defined these for each seg-
nesting and do the generation breaks defining the ment. It can be assumed that the association of
segments correlate with potentially meaningful tri- each tribal segment with the generation level back
bal groups? At the outset, the raw structure of six from Muhammad was purposeful, regardless of
whether these represented functional

there is an arealineage
of ambiguity t
groups at the time. There is vidual ancestors
no indication, to be
even in forgotte
the exigencies
terms of sacred Islamic history, of tribal politics
that Muhammad
had a written genealogy. Thus,portant tribes often
the compilers of hishave well
ancestry either relied on an gies that can
established oralbe cited and re
tradi-
tion or literally "created" a agreed upon mythical
genealogical charter.past. Thus
Even if the genealogy of the ing that is
Prophet the ancestors
assumed to of Muham
the Islamic
be largely a myth, the important point is sources.
how and The genea
why genealogists constructed Muhammad,
it. Genealogy ancestor
in this by ances
case must be approached as avirtually
mode ofunanimously
discourse, aby the ea
list of names that in some wayties in terms of direct
legitimizes those descent b
who record the names, not alegendary father
sterile listing of the "Nor
of who
was who. At some point theTabari 1988: must
genealogy 37). There
be are, how
enceshistoriography
read as more than a genealogy; among authorities as
Prophet's significant ancestors, d
must give way to hermeneutic.
When an Arab tribesman is each tribal
asked division.
to name his For some,
tions
lineage or tribal segment, he removed)
can usually defines
give the the hi
number of generations in thestructure
potential at the sha'b,
memory of while oth
his living ancestors. The first few generations tend removed
Mudar (19 generations
son
to be accurate, because it would of
be 'Adn'n, to
difficult and still others
alter
(16living
what is known by a range of generations removed), the
individuals.
Mudar.23
Once one counts back beyond the living memory,
Figure 2. Genealogical Descent of Muhammad
22. 'Adndn (sha'b, slate C)

21, Ma'add
Mother: Mahdad bt. al-Laham) b. Jalhab b. Jadis (IK) or b. Tasm or b. al-Tawsam (TAB); note
that she is descended from Yaqshin, a son of Abraham (TAB)
20. Niz5r
Mother: Mu'ana bt. Jawsham b. Julhuma b. 'Amrti
19. Mudar (sha'b, slates A, B, E or qabila, slate C)
Mother: Sawda bt. 'Akk b. al-Dith b. 'Adnin (IK, TAB)
18. Ilyas
Mother al-RabAb bt. Hayda b. Ma'add (IK, TAB)
17. Mudrika
Mother: Khindif; real name is Layla bt. Hulwin b. 'ImrAn b. al-Hflf b. Qudd'a (IK); she was a
woman from Yemen
16. Khuzayma (possibly sha'b, slate D)
15. KinAnaMother: Salma

(qabila, slates bt.D,Aslam
A, B, E) b. al-H.ff b. Qud.'a (IK), or Salma bt. Asad b. Rabi'a (TAB)
Mother: 'Awina bt. Sa'd b. Qays b. 'Ayldn,or Hind bt. 'Amroi b. Qays (IK)
14. al-Nadr
Mother: Barra bt. Murr b. Udd b. Tdbikha (TAB): note that she was the second wife of #16 before
she married #15.
13. Malik
Mother: 'Ikrisha bt. 'Adwin b. 'Amrf b. Qays b. 'Ayln (IK), or Hind bt. Fahm b. 'Amni b.
Qays b. 'AylAn (TAB)
12. Fihr (batn, slate E)
Mother: Jandala bt. 'Amir b. al-Harith b. MuOd al-Jurhumi (IK), or Jandala bt. al-.H1rith b.
Mu.dd,
(TAB) or Salma bt. Udd b. Tdbikha b. Ilyis b. Mudar, or Jamila bt. 'Adwln of Bariq in Azd
Figure 2. (continued)
11. Ghilib
Mother: Layla bt. al-Hirith b. Tamim b. Sa'd b. Hudhayl b. Mudrika
10. Lu'ayy
Mother: 'Atika bt. Yakhlud b. al-Nadr b. Kindna, or Salma bt. 'Amrut b. Rabi'a (Luhayy) b.
9. Ka'b .Hritha of Khuz.'a ( K, TAB)

Mother: Mwliyya bt. Ka'b b. al-Qay.n b. Jasr b. Shay' Allh b. Asad b. Wabra of Qudi'a (IK)
8. Murra
Mother:
Kinina Wahsiyya (or Mukhshiyya, IK) bt. Shaybdn b. Muh.rib b. Fihr b. Malik b. al- Nadr b.
(TAB)
7. Kilib
Mother:
6. Qusayy (baln, slateHind
B andbt. Surayr b.slate
D, orfakhidh, Tha'laba b. al-H.rith
D, or 'imira b. Fihr
as Quraysh, slatesb.A,B,C,E)
Malik b. al-Nadr b. Kinina (IK, TAB)
Mother: Filima bt. Sa'd b. Sayal (Khayr) b. Hamtla b. 'Awf b. Ghanm b. 'Amir al-Jadir b. 'Amru
b. Ju'thuma b. Yashkur of the Azd Shanu'a (TAB)
5. 'Abd Manif (baln, slates A and C)
Mother: Hubba bt. Hulayl b. Habashiya (or Hubshiya) b. Salul b. Ka'b b. 'Amru of KhuzA'a (IK,
TAB)
4. ~I;shim (fakhidh, slates A, B, C, D; habl, slate E)
Mother: 'Atika bt. Murra b. Hilal b. Falij b. Dhakwin b. Tha'laba b. al-Hdirith b. Buhtha b.
Sulaym b. Mansfor b. 'lkrlma b. Khasafa b. Qays b. 'Ayl;n b. Mudar (IK, TAB)
3. 'Abd al-Muttalib (fa$ila, slates A and C)
Mother: Salma bt. 'Amr? b. Zayd b. Labid b. Harar b. Khiddsh b. Jundub b.'Adi b. al- Najjar al-
Khazraji (TAB), or Salma bt. 'Amr~i b. Zayd b. Labid b. Khidfsh b. 'Amir b. Ghanm b. 'Addi b.
Najj~r b. Tha'laba b. 'Amr=f b. al-Khazraj (IK)
2. 'Abd Allah
Mother: Fatima bt. 'Amr6 b. 'A'idh b. 'lmran b. Makhz0m (IK, TAB): note that her maternal
grandmother was from Qusayy.
1. Muhammad
Mother: Amina bt. Wahb b. ' Abd Manif b. Zuhra b. KilAb
The formal patrilineal descent line of the dardizing the Prophet's genealogy. In this sense the
Prophet back to 'Adnin is shown in Figure 2. If details of the genealogy can provide a reading of
this were an accurate historical sequence without the power struggles within the developing Islamic
missing generations, 'Adnin would have lived community, a point long ago recognized by Robert-
about 630 years before Muhammad, almost the era son Smith (1966: 6) and others. The genealogy of
of the birth of Christ, assuming an average of Muhammad was a way of legitimizing certain de-
thirty years per generation. In sacred time, how- scendants, all the more so since the Prophet left no
ever, 'Adnin is placed much farther back in his- sons, and there was considerable tension among the
tory, since his son Ma'add was said to live at the descendants of his daughter Fatima, who married
time of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (al- her patrilateral cousin 'Ali, and the more distantly
Tabart 1988: 37) and the pre-Islamic Arab prophet related caliphs of the early Islamic empire.
Shu'ayb. A historian would note this time is at As in the case of the biblical genealogies of
least seven centuries earlier than what the geneal- Christ, the ancestry of Muhammad can ultimately
ogy suggests. Ethnographic study has demonstrated be traced back to Adam. There is little disagree-
that ancestors are dropped from or added to genea- ment between Muslims over the biblical presenta-
logical schemes in order to reflect changing social tion of the antediluvians and patriarchs from Adam
and political contexts (for example, Peters 1970). to Abraham. The relevant link in the Arab genea-
In this case over half of the ancestors would be logical texts is Abraham, the archetypal Muslim
missing. It is obvious, therefore, that a process before
of Muhammad. The lives of several early bibli-
fission and fusion would have been at work when cal heroes, especially Abraham, are redefined sym-
scholars in the early Islamic community were stan- bolically, so that they become linked to the sacred
Islamic center of the universe, seventh-century

Mecca.25 Arab from major
The the small Meccan tribal
break with Judaeo-Christian tradition stems from group of Quraysh with the God of Abraham re-
differing interpretations of Abraham's covenant vered by Jews and Christians in their respective
with God. In Islamic ideology the line of promise revelations. Any fuzziness in the earliest genealogi-
established by God for Abraham extends throughcal links dissipated in consideration of the author-
his eldest son Ishmael and a subsequent Arab line ity of the Prophet. It was enough that Muhammad
to Muhammad rather than through his younger said he stemmed from Abraham's loins. It was
son Isaac to King David and eventually Jesus for even reported that the angel Gabriel had informed
Christians.26 It is at the generation after Abraham Muhammad of his ancestral link to Mudar (Ibn
that the descent line is Arabized, for Ishmael even- Sa'd 1967 1: 4). Besides, there was a tradition in
tually married a wife from the ancient Arab tribewhich the Prophet Muhammad referred to the gen-
of Jurhum at Mecca. Thus Muhammad, as a de- ealogical knowledge of the Arabs as "a science the
scendant of Ishmael, combines the original biblicalknowledge of which profits not and the ignorance
ancestry of Abraham with a distinctively Arab af- of which injures not" (quoted in al-Damirt 1906 1:
final stock. He is not merely an Arab prophet; nor25).
are the pre-Islamic Arabs divorced from the sacred Taken as a whole, even though the genealogi-
genealogies of Genesis. cal paradigm as a structural map of an Arab tribe
According to the classical accounting of their is credible, there is a major problem in the way it is
origins, the Arabs were divided into three main fleshed out for the specific recorded ancestry of
genealogical groups. The original stock, calledMuhammad. The critical issue is the generational
b-M'ida, represented the legendary Arabs of thedepth in the lower parts of the nesting order. The
past. For all practical purposes these tribes all diedProphet's extended family (fasila) centers on 'Abd
out long before the time of Muhammad. A secondal-Muttalib, the Prophet's grandfather (#3), as one
grouping of Arabs, the 'ariba, descended from might expect, although some list the significant in-
Qahtdn, the biblical Joktan (Ibn Hazm 1972: 8). dividual as al-'Abbis, who in fact was the brother
These were known as the "Southern Arabs" who of 'Abd al-Muttalib and not in the direct bloodline
settled primarily in Yemen. The third grouping
of the Prophet. Muhammad was initially raised by
was the "Arabized Arabs" or musta'riba, who de-
'Abd al-Muttalib after his father died, so this is the
scended from Ishmael. They were "Arabized" be-
logical breaking point for the extended family. The
cause Ishmael had to learn Arabic when he came inclusion of al-'Abb~s, which serves to bolster the
to Mecca and subsequently married into the Arablater claims of the Abbsid caliphate, refers to the
tribe of Jurhum. From Ishmael came the "North- alleged fact that al-'Abbas was responsible for the
ern Arabs" associated with 'Adnin and later young Muhammad after his real grandfather died.
Muhammad. This southern versus northern dichot- The next two segment levels up (fakhidh and
omy, politicized from the earliest part of the
batn) Is-
are simply the father (#4) and grandfather
lamic era, is a structural given in all Arab (#5) of 'Abd al-Muttalib. Considering that Qusayy
genealogies. (#6) is defined as the first in the line of Quraysh as
While 'Adnn is believed to have descended an 'im-ra, the formal genealogy of this tribal line-
age represents an arbitrary structural break at
agnatically from Ishmael and Abraham, the precise
linkage is not agreed upon. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr (1985:
each of the four generations above Muhammad's
16) mentioned the number of ancestors between father. This is a situation with no grounding in the
'Adnin and Ishmael as between five and forty ethnography
de- of tribal relations in the Arab world.
pending on the sources, but noted that no one However one defines "segmentation" of Arab tribal
divisions, it is nowhere a process based on social
knows for sure.27 There is a widely cited tradition
from 'A'isha, the Prophet's favorite wife, that fission in four successive generations. The numbers
Muhammad himself proclaimed that no one knew simply are not there to generate structural groups
the direct ancestors of 'Adn-n (for example, of Ibn
"tribal" significance. As Wilkinson (1977: 167)
'Abd al-Barr 1985: 17-19). While the essenceexplains
of for the context of Omani tribes, a clan or
genealogical theory was to define an unbroken lineage group must be of a certain size to be inde-
chain of ancestors, the exact ancestry linking 'Ad-
pendent, perhaps as many as 300-500 individuals in
nan with Ishmael was ignored. In sum, the geneal-
order to be demographically stable. In this regard,
ogy of Muhammad is a sacred charter that links one acannot posit Qusayy, who defines the maximal
lineage beneath the tribe (qabila), as the

the time of theancestor
Prophet (Watt 1971). By replacing
Kinina with
of anything other than a minor lineage of Quraysh,
five togenealogists
six affirm the sig-
generations' depth. nificance of the Prophet's immediate tribal lineage.
The choice of ancestors at the lower end of the This claim effectively removes descent groups other
genealogy was simply an arbitrary reading back, than those stemming from Qusayy as legitimate
one generation at a time, from 'Abd al-Muttalib. contenders for leadership in the early Islamic com-
This form better fits the model of a dynasty, which munity. Such a position can be seen as a post-hoc
in fact is implied in the justification of Quraysh as legitimization of Quraysh on the part of early Mus-
lim scholars rather than a clue to the tribal solidar-
the tribe with responsibilities for maintaining the
sacred site of Mecca (al-Tabari 1988: 24). To fur- ity of Qusayy's descendants (see Donner 1981: 78-
ther illustrate how impractical this specific geneal- 79). Caetani (quoted by Della Vida 1971: 519) ar-
ogy as a tribal template would be, consider that gues that Qusayy is to Mecca what Theseus was to
Athens and Romulus was to Rome. Further evi-
Muhammad did not in fact have tribal support at
any of the defined structural levels in Mecca. dence for the ideological nature of Quraysh is the
When the Prophet and his followers were forced to literary genre of fad~i'il Quraysh, which praised
the character of this northern tribe over all others
flee in the hegira, there was no lineage to call upon.
(Kister and Plessner 1976: 52).
If the Quraysh, the tribal affiliation of Muhammad
To summarize the analysis thus far, the struc-
so exalted in later Islamic scholarship, was a func-
tural template given for Muhammad's significant
tional unit at the time of the Prophet, where was it
tribal ancestry loses credibility when the specific
in the time of Muhammad's greatest need? The
ancestors are plotted out. This discrepancy, in it-
irony is that Muhammad is portrayed in the Quran
self, is not a sensational revelation, although schol-
and early biographical sources outside of his tribal
ars have tended to reject the historicity of Muham-
identity, yet at the same time his supposed tribal
mad's genealogy out of hand without first
ancestry was to become the paradigm for idealized
Arab tribal structure. considering the issue of credibility.29 But rather
than write off the specific rendering of the
The Prophet's tribe is commonly identified as
Prophet's genealogy as religious propaganda, an Is-
Quraysh, but this term is not designated as qabila
lamic legitimization of Muhammad devoid of social
in any variant of the formal genealogy. The term
reality, it is important to continue to read the gene-
Quraysh is itself problematic, because there is ma-
alogy as a text meaningful in Arab and Islamic
jor disagreement over when the term came to be discourse.
applied to a tribal unit."2 This term is a nickname
and does not name an ancestor per se. In the for-
mal scheme Quraysh is the segment level of an The Prophet's Significant Female Ancestors
'im-ra, which would make it a grouping close to
the level of tribe (qabila). Most genealogists claim Muhammad's genealogy cannot be fully understood
that Quraysh refers to the descendants of Qusayy, through the patriline alone, despite the patriarchal
which would include only five generations before emphasis in Arab society. Information is almost al-
the Prophet. But this would make it only a minimal ways recorded in the genealogical texts on the tri-
lineage, a tribe-in-the-making rather than a well bal groups from which the wives of the significant
established tribe linked to a distant ancestor. Ibn ancestors came. What does the genealogy recorded
al-Kalbi (1986: 22) claims that Quraysh applies to in the texts have to say about who these male an-
the descendants of Fihr (#12) and others cite al-cestors married? A similar situation has arisen in
Nadr, who is thirteen generations removed from anthropological assessments of the biblical genealo-
Muhammad. Such a long generational leap aftergies. When Edmund Leach examines the biblical
Qusayy, even in terms of the sequence provided, isgenealogy of King Solomon, he is struck by the
credible. It allows for fission and fusion to reflect presence of five women in the sequence. Leach
tribal politics at the time of Muhammad. At this (1969: 64) argues that the presence of these female
point there is hardly any meaningful difference be- names in the genealogy was not capricious but pro-
tween the proposed 'imgra of Quraysh and the vided Solomon with a double line of descent from
qabila of Kinina (#15), since al-Nadr is the son of Jacob (the endogamy principle) and also from
Kinina. There are indications from the pre-Islamic Esau the Edomite and Heth the Canaanite (the al-
literature that Kinina was a well-known tribe at liance rule). Thus, Leach concludes that Solomon
is portrayed symbolically through his

the line, the clear textual
preference gene- from
is for daughters
male
alogy as the legitimate heir todescendants of Abraham,
the "land" of rather than the
Israel
both by right of promise andSouthern by right
Arabs. With the of alliance.
exceptions of his grand-
The significance of the women
father and mentioned
great-grandfather, all in the
of Muhammad's
genealogy is to legitimize Solomon's
other significant right to rule
(that is, defining a tribalin
segment
level) ancestors' wives were
everyone's eyes. Such an interpretation related to Abraham.
provides a
reading which defines a poignant political
The next lower motive,
division in the nesting order is
even if it puts many biblical
the exegetes on is
qabila (tribe), which the defen-
usually linked with
sive.30 Leach's analysis reflects an
Kin'na (#15), theanthropological
great-great-grandson of Mudar.
concern with the full implications of kinship
The case of Kinna's wife presents gene-
a unique twist
alogy as a mode of discourse,
in the especially
genealogy."3 Kinina the
marriednature
his father's sec-
of alliance through marriage.
ond wife, whose name is Barra. She is a great-
In an insightful discussion great-granddaughter
of parallel of Ilys (#18), who is the
cousin
marriage, Cole (1984: 178) great-grandfather argues that "patrilineal
of Kin'na. The loop is thus com-
descent has been so stressed in studies of Middle pleted by marriage of a patrilateral cousin linked
Eastern kinship systems that the importance of through the generation below Mudar, who defines
the sha'b. It is important to note that there appears
both affinal and matrilateral relations have gener-
to be a major age discrepancy between Barra, who
ally been ignored." This can also be said for previ-
ous study of Muhammad's kin. While there hasis five generations removed from Mudar, and
Kinina's father, who would be only three genera-
been some limited anthropological discussion of the
wives of the Prophet Muhammad (for example,tions removed from the same ancestor. One would
Combs-Schilling 1989: 70-72, 79-83; Mernissiexpect this kind of contradiction when ancestors
are added to or dropped from the genealogy.
1991),3' no one has yet looked at the marriages of
Muhammad's ancestors. Given the ethnographic The next level in descending order is the
documentation on marriage preferences and actual'imra, which is linked in all the slates (Fig. 1)
marriage patterns, how credible are the wives inwith the Quraysh. As noted above, there is consid-
the genealogy? Why did the compilers bother to erable disagreement over the ancestor who is first
record where the wives came from, if this informa-
entitled to be called Quraysh. If the significant an-
tion was not of some significance?32 cestor for Quraysh is al-Nadr (#14), the son of
Kinina, there are two candidates for the wife who
The first significant Arab in the Prophet's line
is 'Adndn (#22), the legendary ancestor of the bears the next male in the Prophet's patriline. Both
"Northern Arabs," one reputed founder of theare related in their patrilateral descent to a certain
Prophet's sha'b. 'Adnin is presented as a full de- 'Amr ibn Qays ibn Aylin, who is a son of the leg-
endary Mudar, one of the candidates that defines
scendant of Ishmael in the patriline. His wife33 was
a woman from the ancient Arab tribe of Tasm, but the Prophet's sha'b. One of these possible wives is a
she is identified as a descendant in her patrilinefourth cousin, the other a fifth cousin sharing the
from Yaqshin, another reputed son of Abraham common ancestor of Mudar with al-Nadr. In this
(al-Tabari 1988: 36). Thus at the start of thecase there is a significant link either directly to
known Arab element in the genealogy, the loopMudar or through a son of Mudar. The preference
back to Abraham is complete. Some authoritiesfor a wife is again a patrilateral cousin a few gen-
erations removed.
link the sha'b with Mudar (#19), the great-grand-
son of 'Adngn. The significant wife of Mudar was a If Quraysh is identified with Qusayy (#6), the
granddaughter of Ma'add (#21) and a great-grand-genealogy arrives at the fifth generation from the
daughter of 'Adn~n. The match for Mudar is thus Prophet. In the sacred history recorded in the biog-
a patrilateral parallel cousin, not literally his fa-raphy of the Prophet, Qusayy represents a major
shift in tribal control of the ka'ba shrine at Mecca.
ther's brother's daughter but functionally the same
at a generation back. Once again we find endog- This is in effect the beginning of the Prophet's sig-
amy within the line of descent from 'Adnan. nificant lineage group, for Muhammad identified
Mudar's father, Nizir (#20), also married his pa- himself as Quraysh. It is important to note that
trilateral cousin in the same structural relation. even if the tribe of Quraysh were in existence
These marriages parallel the link between the bibli- before Qusayy, they were not in control of the sa-
cal Ishmael and his Arab wife. As one goes down cred ka'ba until the time of Qusayy. The religious
significance of Quraysh as a tribe the localbegins

thus tribal groups.
with It is recorded that he grew
Qusayy and not any alleged earlier up outside of Mecca
ancestor. and returned to defeat his
Later
cousin andhad
Muslim scholars asserted that Quraysh gain control
tribalof the ka'ba. However, he
honor ('izz), prophethood (nubliwa), legitimate
was only able to do this with the support of his ma-
ternal uncles (al-Tabari
succession rights (khil'ifa), and legitimate control1988: 12-15).
of the sacred ka'ba in Mecca (IbnInSa'Td the cases1982
of the 1:
Prophet's mother and first
326). Qusayy married the daughter wife of
the Hulayl
loop to the patriline is once again con-
ibn
Hubshtya of the important Khuzi'a nected.tribe
Muhammad's
which mother was Amina, a grand-
controlled Mecca prior to thedaughterarrival of 'Abd
of Manif
the (#5). Thus 'Abd Alldh,
Quraysh on the scene. The KhuzN'a Muhammad's
are said father, married his third cousin, who
to link
was in
back up to the main patriline of the fact a generation
Prophet at the older than him. He was
tempted to do
level of Ily-s (#18), son of the legendary otherwise,
Mudar, a but rejected an offer by
an unrelated woman to have sex with him."7 The
candidate for the sha'b level. Thus, Qusayy once
first
again married within the sha'b and in wife of the Prophet
keeping with was Khadija, who was a
great-great-granddaughter of Qusayy (#6), the leg-
the partrilateral parallel cousin preference.
endary founder
As noted earlier, all of the ancestors of the Quraysh in Mecca. In mar-
between
Qusayy and Muhammad, with therying Khadtja, Muhammad
exception of the thus validated the pa-
trilateral cousin preference in marriage and
Prophet's father who died before Muhammad was
returned to the reputed founder of the Quraysh as
actually born, are associated in one slate or another
a meaningful tribal segment.
with a tribal segment. In the case of slate A, as
The preference for patrilateral parallel cousin
shown in Figure 2, the batn for Muhammad is
marriage is said to be one of the hallmarks of Arab
linked with 'Abd Manif (#5), the son of Qusayy.
tribes. There is an extensive literature, documen-
'Abd Manif married a woman who was related
tary and theoretical, on this marriage pattern.38
through Mudar (#19). The heir of 'Abd Mandf was
The primary explanations of this endogamous pat-
Hdshim (#4), who married a "noblewoman" from
tern have been functional. For example, it can be
the Bani 'Addi ibn al-Najj!r tribe of Khazraj. At
said to serve the long-term interests of a patriline
this point there is a major shift in the marriage
by preserving inheritance within the lineage. Such
pattern, since Hishim's wife was not related to the
a preference could also strengthen the bond be-
patriline of Muhammad even in the distant past."5
tween a man and his paternal uncles and cousins,
She is a descendant of the Khazraj tribe, which
since their sons theoretically represent future sons-
stems from the "Southern Arabs" of Qaht~n rather
in-law. One part of the debate has been whether
than 'Adn-n. It is interesting to note that HIshim
such a pattern is destructive to alliances (Murphy
played an important role in the development of the
and Kasdan 1959: 23) or actually constructive
Quraysh lineage through his securing of alliances
(Cole 1984: 171). Bourdieu (1990), however,
for the safe passage of Meccans in other territories
makes a scathing attack on the self-fulfilling "habi-
(al-Tabari 1988: 16). With HI{shim the Quraysh
tus" of the anthropological concern with kinship
lineage became international, so it is not entirely
categories and marriage rules. That it is also a part
surprising that his wife should have come from
of native discourse may represent little more than
outside the sha'b.38 If any of these ancestors had a
"the fact that it is the marriage most perfectly con-
critical interest in forming alliances for the good of
sistent with the mythico-ritual representation of the
sexual division of labour, and more particularly of
the lineage,
A similarit was clearly
pattern is found.Hishim.
for the wife of 'Abd the functions assigned to the men and women in
al-Muttalib (#3), the son of HI~shim and reputed inter-group relations" (p. 184). That most of the
founder of the Prophet's extended family or fasila. marriages in Muhammad's genealogy should reflect
'Abd al-Muttalib married Fatima bt. 'AmrU b.
the ideal of an Islamic patriarchal perspective
'A'idh b. 'Imran b. MakhzUim from outside theshould pa- come as no surprise.
triline. Her maternal grandmother, however, was
from the direct line of Qusayy, a point specifically
noted in the Prophet's biography. Such an affinal Making Sense of Muhammad's Segments
link legitimizes what is clearly an exogamous mar-
riage with alliance implications. Like Hgshim, This analysis of Muhammad's genealogy in its role
'Abd al-Muttalib was oriented to alliances outside as the metaphor for Arab tribal structure may be
summarized as follows. The overall genealogical

derstand what a tribe may be, if we explore the
template as a tribal paradigm paradigm documentedainmodel
is credible, Arabic genealogical
to which Arabs at the time and even now could re- sources over a vast stretch of time? At this stage of
late. An ethnographer could easily encounter such my analysis, there are three conclusions that should
a nested ordering of segments among Arab tribes be of interest to anthropologists and historians.
today. Yet, the canonized genealogy of Muham- First, the segment terms used in contemporary
mad's literal ancestors makes no sense as a "tribal" or recent tribal concepts have a long and relevant
charter for social behavior and political action. The history. If one takes the proposed Arab tribal
number of segment levels may be credible, but the model as a by-product of a body metaphor, a num-
arbitrary creation of several tribal segments withinber of practical problems arise. For example, the
the five generations preceding Muhammad's father terms sha'b and qabila can refer to parts in the
is clearly artificial. These could not have beenhead, but the generic senses of division or "branch-
meaningful descent segments at the time of theing out" in the former and "coming face to face"
Prophet, and they should not be read as such. Forin the latter are simpler and more practical deriva-
the historian the obviously contrived rendering oftions. As an ethnographer of Yemeni tribesmen, I
the lower segments is part of the political discoursewould find it difficult to believe that similar, practi-
defining a new Prophet and his successors. Yet cal-minded men several centuries ago thought up
there is a credible ring to the generational jumpsuch a widely used term as qabila, their most im-
back to the level of the "tribe" (qabila). The offi-portant political term, on the basis of obscure
cial genealogy evinces grafting along the lines ofnames for bones in the ear. Who, beside a pedantic
ideological expediency onto an earlier tribal scholar, would even have known such esoteric
template. terms? The popular terms batn and fakhidh are in-
The focus on the patriline, central as it is in deed body language, but their association with sex-
the discourse of Islamic patriarchy, is not the only uality and fertility does not imply that tribesmen
reading of the genealogy. The pattern of selecting saw their nesting order in the metaphor of a human
wives for Muhammad's significant ancestors shows body.39 The whole body metaphor as "the" para-
that the genealogy reflects the idealized preference digm for tribal structure is difficult to sustain on
of patrilateral cousin marriage. Indeed, it reflects the linguistic evidence; all the terms can more
the ideal so well that it seems too credible in light readily be explained by other means. The metaphor
of ethnographic evidence for actual incidence of of a human body for the tribal paradigm in Arabic
such marriages. The wives of the "significant an- is more likely a textual construction, a simplifica-
cestors" above the segment level defined by tion of an otherwise confusing classification prob-
Hifshim were all linked to the patriline through lem, not a medieval "ethnographic" rendering of a
Mudar (#19), who generally defines the sha'b, or tribesman's cultural template.
one of Mudar's sons. Only at the level of Muham- A second conclusion is that the number of seg-
mad's great-grandfather, theoretically in living ments in the structural scheme falls within the
memory of those who knew the Prophet, is there an range of credibility, in comparison with ethno-
indication of marriage for alliance outside the line graphic data on Arab tribes. Even if many of the
stemming from Abraham. In the case of Muham- significant ancestors cited in the case of Muham-
mad's grandfather, it is significant that an affinal mad do not represent viable descent segments, a
link was recorded for his grandfather's wife to the credible generation depth is indicated at the upper
emerging "tribe" of Quraysh. end of the genealogy. The fact that the genealogy
Having assessed the genealogical text as one reflects ideology more than reality calls for a differ-
might any informant's tribal identity, the question ent sort of reading of the genealogy as a text. Me-
remains as to what Muhammad's genealogy can dieval genealogical scholars may very well have
tell us about the segment structure of Arab tribes been aware that the template they recorded for
at the time of the Prophet and in the early medie- Muhammad was unlike tribal structure as they
val period. Is all of this merely an orientalist exer- would have encountered it among actual Arab
cise in historiography of early Islamic sources or is tribes. But this is a problem only if we treat the
there a viable reason for the anthropologist to step text as documentary and focus solely on its histori-
outside the academic comfort of his village-level cal accuracy. I would argue that the genealogy of
view of kinship? Do we as ethnographers better un- Muhammad, far from being a list of fanciful an-
cestors, is a form of textual segment

legitimization of the paradigm as such
sheikhs. Although
Muhammad as the last in a longcould line be of
segmentary
prophets. in the way Evans-Pritchard
The Prophet of Islam is presented describes,
in it in asthe specific case of Muhammad it
literally
a blood descendant of Abraham clearly through was notIshmael,
intended to be so.40
whose association with the sacred ka'ba at Mecca This brief analysis of Muhammad's genealogy
guarantees that God's spiritual covenant with is an example of how anthropologists, using com-
Abraham is meant for Muhammad and his follow- parative ethnographic data, can add to the histori-
ers. Yet Muhammad is neither Jew nor Christian, ography of early Islamic texts on Arab society. At
but truly Arab. He is grafted onto the line of prom- issue is not whether the textual presentation can
ise because Ishmael chose and Abraham approved make sense apart from a grounding in social struc-
a wife from the ancient Arab tribe of Jurhum. The ture, nor whether the ethnographer must look at
direct line of Muhammad's ancestors validates the the historical development of tribal terms in order
link to Abraham, although no direct chain beyond to explain a specific genealogy. It can be argued
the legendary founder of the "northern Arabs" was that any genealogy, once written, comprises a text
established. Even the wives generally stem from with multiple interpretations. No single reading of
Abraham's line, reflecting the idealized marriage such a text can suffice out of the social context in
preference of patrilateral inclusion. which it would have been meaningfully applied. By
The third conclusion is an indication of the laying bare the paradigmatic structure and by ex-
kind of tribal structure the Prophet's genealogical amining the sequence of individual ancestors in one
template defines. In his classic description of the specific case, I have only set the stage for under-
tribal structure of Cyrenaica, Evans-Pritchardstanding Muhammad's genealogy as a text. The fo-
(1949: 59) argued that here there was "a system cal of point of the genealogy is Muhammad himself.
balanced opposition between tribes and tribal sec- It is his status as the Prophet of Islam that leads to
tions from the largest to the smallest divisions" in the recording of the genealogy as a paradigm for
which there was no single authority. For Evans- tribal structure in the first place. It only matters
Pritchard, the Bedouin Arab tribe was a model who of the Prophet's ancestors are, if one is interested
the segmentary lineage structure he described ear- in legitimizing one's own real or contrived kinship
lier for the Nuer of the Sudan. While the anthro- to these same ancestors. The most important gene-
pological debate over the usefulness of this segmen- alogy in Islamic discourse flows not from literal
tary lineage model still continues, it is quite clear historical records but rather from the legitimiza-
that the nested segments of fastla, fakhidh, batn, tion of Muhammad to Arabs, Jews, and Christians.
and 'im-ra in Muhammad's genealogy are in no The significant ancestors defining tribal segments
way descent groups in opposition to similar descent are not only reputed relatives of a certain genera-
groups. There simply was not enough genealogical tional depth and link; these are also individuals
depth to create the sort of lineage opposition de- about whom stories are told, heroic figures in the
scribed by Evans-Pritchard for the Bedouin or sacred history of Mecca leading up to the forma-
Nuer. More precisely, the actual ancestors at these tion of Islam. It remains to read the fuller story of
levels were undisputed rulers. The sequence ofthe Prophet's genealogy, as part of the evolving Is-
'Abd al-Muttalib, H-shim, 'Abd Man-f, and lamic discourse on the legitimacy of political and
Qusayy reads like a royal lineage, not like a set of
spiritual power."4
NOTES
Acknowledgments This article is based on a paper presented at try to define the tribal concept for the Middle East
studies that
the Middle East Studies Association in November 1991. I wish are Caton 1990; Dresch 1986; and Tapper 1983, 1990.
to thank Phyllis Chock, Fred Donner, Dale Eickelman, David 3As has been recognized for some time, the current tribal
Hicks, and the anonymous AQ readers for their comments. configuration of the Middle East, as it might be summed up on
'In addition to a long history of popular misconceptions,a National Geographic wall map, is largely a relic of colonial
consider the argument of Meeker (1979: 9-10) that the policy (for example, Salzman 1978: 543).
"mounted pastoral nomadism" of early Arab tribes resulted in 4As an example to which the banality of the debate can be
a "cultural uniformity" in the Middle East. For a critique of reduced, consider the remarks of Akbar Ahmed (1980) that
Meeker's argument, see Varisco 1986. the difference in views on segmentary lineage theory can be ex-
2Consider, for example, the article by Jacques Berque plained by a segmentary opposition between British functional-
(1953). In his introductory text to the anthropology of the ists and American anthropologists. Or, the self-serving claim
Middle East, Eickelman (1989: 126-150) devotes a whole chap- by Ahmed and Hart (1984: 3) that "in spite of such criticism
ter to this very question. Among the recent anthropological [of the segmentary lineage model], however, satisfactory alter-
native explanations have not been put'"The forward."

term qabila canForbe usedanin a excel-
wide variety of struc-
lent critique of the debate in Middle East anthropology,
tural contexts. Al-MI'wardt (1981: 77) quotedsee a tradition of
Caton 1987. Speaking of Yemeni tribes,
Muhammad that Dresch (1989:
refers to the 111,
Bant H"shim as a qabila of the
note 5) states he "saw nothing in Upper Yemen
qabN'il of Quraysh. thatoflooked
Yet neither at
these segment levels is styled
all like an African 'maximal lineage.' " It
qabila is formal
in the useful to Ibn
template. noteDuraydthat
(1987 1:372) noted
for the African context Verdon (1982: 576)
that the related argues
term that
qabill can be used in the
Arabic to denote a
segmentary lineage model has outlivedgenerationits
(jil). usefulness. Kuper
(1982: 83-84) goes so far as to deny '7Thus,
any invalue
pre-Islamicat all cosmology
Bedouin to thethe term qabIl
model formulated by Evans-Pritchard.
refers to the wind coming toward you as you face the sunrise in
"Considerable attention was paid the
by eastan
and earlier generation
qibla is used by the Muslim for the orientation of
of scholars on the "who's who" of Arab tribes,
facing toward Mecca. including the
tribal milieu of the prophet Muhammad. The (n.d.
"'8bn ManzUr comprehensive
4:606) expressed this as: al-hayy al-
survey by Wiistenfeld (1899) places az7Tm
the alladhi
ancestors in an
yaq'imu bi-nafsihi. outline
I read this as a tribe which is
format. The brilliant, yet flawed in today's
able literally context,
to "stand" on itsanalysis of of the ability
own both in terms
Arab kinship by Robertson Smith (1966), originally
to defend itself presented
and support itself.
in 1885, treated the prophet's genealogy but
'9This didfrom
is evident not compare
references it 24:1 and
in Genesis
to contemporary Arab tribal structure.47:29, where placing the hand under the thigh consecrated a
'For example, Gellner (1981: 29-30) draws on (1990:
vow. Eilberg-Schwartz the 168) discus-
argues that in this sense the
sion of lbn KhaldUn regarding dynastic development
thigh is a metaphor of the male organ. from
It is important to note
tribes, but when it comes to defining tribes
that Gellner
these details resorts
of Robertson "in
Smith's argument for evolution
Platonic terms" to wolves, sheep, and from sheepdogs. Similarly,
matriliny to patriliny Pe-accepted today.
are not generally
ters wrote a laudatory preface to a reprint20For aedition of of
detailed study Robertson
the blood feud and tribal struc-
Smith's (1966) study of Arab kinship. However,
ture in the Middle East and no attempt
nearby region, see Black-Michaud
was made to relate the material in(1975).this preface with Peters'
own research in Libya and Lebanon. 21A representative example is the genealogical text of the
7Chelhod focused on the various usages of the
thirteenth-century Yemenisegment
sultan, al-Malik al-Ashraf 'Umar
terms in a wide range of literature. It
ibnis not
YUsuf surprising
(1985), who referred that the (qabr"il) of Azd
to the "tribes"
recorded usages seem contradictory, since
as consisting they are
of twenty-five not
"tribes" ex- with one of the
(qaba'il),
amined in context. Unfortunately, latter
the (that
segment model
is, the tribe he did
of Aws) having five butiin (plural of
batn).
note is a late and inflated list of terms by Theal-Nuwayrt
other term he sometimes used for a tribal segment
(1923ff).
'By comparison, one can only imagine
is fakhidh,where ecumenical
although this is not distinguished in his text from
dialogue would be if Christians, Jews, Muslims,
the use of batn. or Buddhists
insisted on defining "God" with theological precision
22lt is not possible, nor is it even at the
relevant from an anthro-
outset.
pological perspective, to determine whether or not the specific
9The comments of Dresch (1989: 111) on Yemeni tribal- genealogy of Muhammad is accurate historically. A devout
ism are appropriate: "There is in any case rarely a need Muslim
to talk has no need to doubt what is basically given as revela-
about the system in abstract terms: the outsider's attempts to an outside observer would naturally be concerned with
tion, but
do so easily produce confusion and false classifications that are of historicity.
the issue
artefacts of one's questions." 23Robertson Smith (1966: 6) observed about a century ago
'0All dates referred to in the article are for the Christian
that the three ancestors 'Adn~n, Ma'add, and Niz'r are "prac-
Era (C.E.) unless otherwise noted. tically identical" in terms of genealogical time. However, the
"For a discussion in English of the body metaphor range
in de-from Khuzayma to 'Adn'n suggests a lack of agreement
fining Arab tribalism, see Aasi (1969: 9). The earlier discussion
as to what the sha'b signifies.
by Redhouse (1885: 281-282) is based entirely on the defini-24The information in this chart is based primarily on the
texts of Ibn Hishlim (IH), al-TabarT (TAB), and Ibn al-Kalbt
tions in the Arabic-English lexicon of Edward Lane. Briiunlich
(1934) summarizes a number of segment schemes mentioned in
(IK). There are minor differences in the textual sources, but
the travel literature. these are ignored here unless relevant to the argument. In order
12Jacques Berque (1957) found that when a family split in to find the wife of each ancestor, look at the mother of the son
an Egyptian context, this was literally referred to as tafarru' in the main line of descent.
(dividing into branches). 26Many of these legends are recorded in the literature. In
13As Lane (1984: 1556) notes from an examination of the the Islamic reading of Adam's fall, the first man was directed
classical sources, the term sha'b can refer to a collection and to Mecca, where God sent down a jewel of paradise and even-
union or to a separation and division. The term sha'b can de- tually Adam took part in the first building of the ka'ba shrine
note a crack in something. There is also a sense in which the at Mecca (al-TabarT 1989: 122). See also the reconstruction by
term refers to something far away or distant. Newby 1989 of Ibn Ish'q's account of the same events.
"'Much of the interpretation of this passage focuses on the 26Some commentators go so far as to assert that the Jews
unity of all men through the original ancestors of Adam and changed the story in favor of Isaac because of their envy
Eve and quotes Muhammad to the effect that no Muslim is (hasad) of the Arabs (Ibn KathTr 1979 3:186). For a detailed
better than another on the basis of his ancestry. examination of the Islamic legends of Abraham and Ishmael,
'6The term sha'b was applied to the Persians and by exten- see Firestone (1990).
sion to other non-Arab nations. In this sense a society could be 27An attempt to fill in the ancestors between 'Adnin and
called shutibi in the sense of barbarian. The term has also Ishmael can be found in al-QalqashandT (1959: 23), who lists
been applied in Arabic to "Socialists," although the historical seven generations, although he also cautioned that no one
irony is not readily apparent from this relatively recent usage. knows the generations before 'Adnan with any certainty.
28Quraysh is by most accounts not the name

resolved of
the an individ-
problem of such a tainted custom in the prophet's
ual. Al-Tabart (1988: 29-30) noted thatpedigree
the term may
by stating there have
were in fact two women by the same
name
been for a type of camel, a shark, a word (Kister and
meaning Plessner 1976: 59).
"inquiry,"
or a word meaning "gathering together." 381t should also be noted that H"shim was the great grand-
29Robertson Smith (1966: 11-12) referred
fatherto Muhammad's
of Muhammad. It would have been difficult to create a
"pedigree" as "a mere reading back of Arab
false tribal structure."
link to the patriline at this point simply because enough
Clearly this is not what it is. In his influential
people would havestudy ofto know who the actual wife
been around
Muhammad, the Orientalist Margoliouth was. (1905: 4) said that
Muhammad's ancestors were fanciful and artificial. The same

"3Bourdieu (1990: 182) observes that "marriage to
was said about much of what is recorded in the biography
ger living at a distance is prestigious because it bears w
(s7ra) of Muhammad (Guillaume 1967), although Serjeant the extent of the group's influence .
(1958) argues that the sira presents an overall credible portrait
37In a version provided by al-Tabari (1988: 7), this
of Muhammad and should not be dismissed out-of-hand as
was a sorceress and Jewish convert from an unrelated Arab
mere religious propaganda. Newby (1989) has recently probed
tribe. After 'Abd All'h, Muhammad's father, was married to
the credibility of the biographical literature on the prophet.
his cousin, he returned to seek sex with the woman. This time
30The cultural symbolism of the Old Testament genealo-
she refused, because she knew that the prophet would be born
gies has received a variety of attention since Leach (for exam-
to Amina, his wife. The story not only shows there were signs
ple, Andriolo 1973; Prewitt 1990). While much of the anthro-
of the coming prophet that wise people could understand, but
pological discussion of the issue has focused on the legitimacy
that the proper mother for the prophet should be a trustworthy
of applying Levi-Straussian structuralism to Biblical myth (for
patrilateral cousin.
example, Carroll 1977), it is now generally accepted that the
3"See, for example, the work of Bourdieu (1990: 162-199);
methods anthropologists use to study myth and kinship in the
contemporary world can be applied to texts once considered the
Chelhod 1956; Cole 1984; Khuri 1970; Murphy and Kasdan
1959. It is important to note that the Arabic term bint 'amm
special domain of theologians and historians of religion (Lang
(father's brother's daughter) may be extended back several
1985). Although some of Leach's interpretations have been
generations to father's father's brother's daughter, and so forth
rightly criticized as taken out of exegetical context, his argu-
ment for Solomon's succession has not. (Adra 1982: 113).
31The genealogical and biographical genres yield valuable 391f a body metaphor was at the basis of the earliest
information on the wives of Muhammad. Robertson Smith Arabic kin terms, it is curious that the male sex organ should
(1966: 289-290) provides a tantalizing account of Muham-be missing from the list.
mad's marriage to Khadtja, but exaggerates the importance of 40There is a wealth of textual data that could be examined
the role of temporary marriage in Arabia. For an excellent tex-to see if segmentary opposition is referred to by the genealo-
tual study of the Islamic sources on Muhammad's wives, see gists. A major step in this regard is the study by Donner
Stowasser (1994: 85-118). (1980) on the Bakr b. Wl"il tribes on the eve of Islam. It
32It is interesting to note that Muhammad is portrayed in would be useful to look at other examples from the so-called
the sira as the most noble son of Adam on both his father's and
"Battle Days" of the pre-Islamic Arabs. My point is only that
mother's sides (Guillaume 1967: 708). the particular genealogy of Muhammad does not fit the ideal
33When I refer to the wife of each ancestor, it is the wifemodel of a segmentary lineage. It was not meant to be an "eth-
who bore the next ancestor in the prophet's line. Several of thenographic" rendering of Arab tribal structure.
ancestors are recorded as having more than one wife. The polit- "I am preparing such a study for publication. Some of the
ical significance of the co-wives requires a separate study. ideas have already been developed in the original paper
3'The custom of marrying a father's wife was a pre-Is-
presented at the Middle East Studies Association in November,
1991.
lamic one condemned in Islam. The Muslim scholar al-J'hiz
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Metaphors and Sacred History: The Genealogy of Muhammad and the Arab "Tribe"

Author(s): Daniel Martin Varisco

The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research is collaborating

DANIEL MARTIN VARISCO

Introduction Middle East has been with how applicable a seg-

tribal structure described to them in a specific

components and segments. Lexical

Figure 1. Tribal Paradigm Related to the Genealogy of Muhammad

DIVISION BODY PART ANCESTOR

1. sha'b suturer udar Mudar Khuzayma Ad~

KEY: Slate A: Ibn "Abd al-Barr (1985:40-45)

ants in the patriline from a batn

whether these represented functional

Figure 2. Genealogical Descent of Muhammad

22. 'Adndn (sha'b, slate C)

15. KinAnaMother: Salma

9. Ka'b .Hritha of Khuz.'a ( K, TAB)

Islamic center of the universe, seventh-century

lineage beneath the tribe (qabila), as the

is portrayed symbolically through his

significance of Quraysh as a tribe the localbegins

summarized as follows. The overall genealogical

cestors, is a form of textual segment

native explanations have not been put'"The forward."

28Quraysh is by most accounts not the name

Muhammad's ancestors were fanciful and artificial. The same

Briunlich, E. 1934. Beitr~ige zur Gesellschaftsordnung der arabischen

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