Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 8
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 8 workers in leather. A growing community also attracted fugitives, tribesmen who had fled from their tribes owing to blood feuds and were glad to marry and to settle down in Mecca. An urban society began to grow, no longer confined to one tribe. Qusai organized the pilgrimage to the Ka’aba. He divided his descendants into categories, to each of which he allotted specific duties. The custodianship of the Ka’aba he entrusted to his eldest son, Abdud Dar, and to that son’s children. The annual pilgri mage lasted three days, during which large numbers of Arabs, from all over the peninsula came to Mecca. Qusai decided that Quraish should provide the poor pilgrims with food and water during this period, for which purpose he collected a tax known as rifada. Though the religious rites of the pilgrimage lasted only three days, a series of fairs were held at various sites in the neighbourhood during the preceding weeks. As Quraish gradually changed from stockbreeders to merchants, these fairs offered them an o pportunity to sell the articles brought by their caravans. A remarkable reform introduced by Qusai was connected with the calendar. The Arab tribes had hitherto employed the lunar calendar, an easy system for the illiterate people in a country where the phases of the moon are rarely concealed by clouds. But the lu nar year of twelve months is approximately eleven days shorter than the solar year. The pilgrimage was held in the twelfth month of the lunar year and moved back eleven days each year in respect of the solar year. Thus, in the course of thirty - three years, the pilgrimage moved completely round the calendar. Qusai decided that the best time to have the pilgrimage take place would