Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 7
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 7 About a century and a half before the birth of Muhammad, Qusai, a descendant of Fihr, chief of Quraish, married the daughter of the Khuzaa chief of his time, as had done his ancestor Fihr before him. Khuzaa had been the wardens of the Ka’aba. Qusai was an active and intelligent youth who made himself useful to his father - in - law and was often employed by him as his deputy in the performance of the rites of the Ka’aba. When the Khuzaa chief died, Qusai attempted to assume the guardianship of the Temple. Khuza a objected, claiming for their tribe the hereditary right to the post, and took up arms. Qusai called on his relatives for support and defeated Khuzaa in battle and drove them out. As a result of this successful operation, Quraish became the owners of the valley of Mecca and Khuzaa sank to a subordinate position. Qusai was a man of remarkable character and intelligence. He persuaded Quraish to build houses in place of tents, grouped around the Ka’aba and in the narrow tributary valleys. The tribe consisted of thirty - six clans and had been in existence for several c enturies. It appears, however, that only the more important clans or those closely related to Qusai, built houses round the Ka’aba. The others lived farther away, probably in tents, while some may have remained nomadic in the desert. As a settled community, Mecca attracted various types of individuals, not themselves of Quraish. When, in the sixth century, Quraish began to play a leading role in the oriental trade, some families grew rich and acquired retainers. They gathered around th em slaves and domestic servants, guards to accompany the caravans, artisans, carpenters, sword - makers, weavers and