Saturday 30 November 2013

Arabian Chronicle: Hejaz and Nejd

Assalāmu'alaikum wa ramatullah


While South East Asia was in its Hindu-Buddhism period in the 7th century with the rise of Srivijaya empire, Arabian Peninsula witnessed the battles between Roman empire and the Persian empire. Both of the empires were competing with each other to get colonial lands just like British and France who were competing for influences in Arabia and Syria in the 18th century.

Only two regions were free from foreign invasion and influences which are the Hejaz and the Nejd. However, there were not like the Ghassanides or the Lakhmides who established monarchy system for their regions' administration. The Hejaz and Nejd only have confederation system where tribes cooperated among each other when they had something to deal with foreigners.

Each tribe was ruled by a Sheikh and they only managed their own affairs within their tribe. The Sheikhs would send one among them as a messenger to deal with foreigners if there were disputes among the confederation of tribes and foreign powers. They deal with everything through that way. In this sense, being in confederation does not mean that they were united like in today's centralized federation system. They only unite themselves when they have to deal with foreigners but when they were among themselves, there would be differences in their ideology, aspiration and others. Sometimes they mingle well among each other and sometimes they fought each other. This is some glance on what happened in Arabian Peninsula. Our ancestral land....

Nejd: Kindite Bedouines

The Kindites managed to establish their own power in Nejd region in the late of 5th century. They were Bedouine Arabs who were largely converted into Judaism. In the beginning, they were competing for the influence with the Lakhmides. Most of the Lakhmide Arabs at that time were baptized as Christians in Nestorian Catholic Church. The Kindites won and thus the tribe brought together the branches of the tribe from north into the south.

The Lakhmides then plead the help from the neighboring Ghassanides who were also Christians and they waged war with the Kindites. The Kindites has fallen to the knees of the Lakhmides. The Kingdom of Kindites tried to beg for help from the Byzantine empire in 529 M through their prince and a great poet, Imr al-Qays who took the role as an ambassador to the Roman empire there but to no avail. Emperor Justinian I did not take any action for the plea.

Hejaz: Holy Mecca

By ancient rites, we were from the Quraysh tribe because our clan belongs to the Hashemite clan. The Arabs are of many clans and tribes. I simply cannot understand why Malay brethren are generalizing us as rude people? Why do you have to bring up all of those racist notions in the Sīrah lessons despite of telling everyone about the sermon of noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w during the final pilgrimage in 'Arafat? I am not a pure Arab myself but in my vein there are also Northern Indian and Indochinese blood due to genetic crossing of our maternal lineage just like what happened to the Peranakan Chinese or the Portuguese speaking people in Malacca. Many of the Hashemite Arabs were married to native women when they spread themselves over the seas. I am calling myself an Arab because I am aware that my paternal grandfather's family belongs to a Hashemite clan and they are Arab diaspora. We just do not speak Arabic all the times but we can speak in it if we are forced, lol. By the way I am proud of our heritage. Proud does not mean that I am looking down on others in term of that annoying snobbish. Proud means I am just proud of our heritage just like the Singh were proud about their heritage. Just like the Rajputs who are proud of their heritage and culture. I am not proud like the notion of "chosen nation" or whatever it is. There is no such thing because we are not Jewish and I cannot understand why some South East Asians especially Malay speaking people are so fond of that "Black Banner" prophecies? That is not even part of our traditional Creed and is not even important as compared to Taqwa and Sincerity before Him.  

Jurhumites

So, the holy city Mecca itself was governed by the Jurhumites which is a sub-branch of Qahtanite Arabs of South Arabia. These Jurhumites were the second descendants of the Southern Arabian tribe who managed to flee the breached Ma'arev Dam which caused great floods in Southern Arabia around 449, 450, 542, 548, and 570's where it was reported that around 50,000 people had to migrate from Southern Arabia (Yemen) to Syria, Northern Arabia and even to Iraq only in the 570s. The Jurhumites were not the descendants of Ishmael a.s so they are not the Ishmaelites. But there might be cross marriage among the Jurhumites with the Ishmaelites just the same like the Ishmaelites were also married to Hebrew Jewish tribes.

Ishmaelites

According to narrations of our elders when I was a little boy as I could still remember it until now, prophet Abraham a.s as according to our record visited the valley of Mecca few times and he was also involved in his son's wedding. Ishmael a.s. married twice with Jurhumite ladies. The first wife was divorced because his father does not like the lady. She was rude to her father in-law and that happened because prophet Abraham a.s did not attend the wedding as he was in the land of Cana'an up north. He married again for the second time. The second wife was a polite lady so prophet Abraham a.s approved her and asked Ishmael a.s to keep her forever.

The Ishmaelites were respected and deemed as noble by the people in Arabia. It happens due to the involvement of Abraham a.s and Ishmael a.s in the reconstruction of the cubicle monument which was build marked by Noah a.s. While being respected in Mecca for the role of their ancestors in the reconstruction of the Cubicle, but the Ishmaelites were also powerless. They hold no jurisdiction at all.  

In this sense, I always feel weird when people were saying that Jerusalem is Muslims' first holy city. The first holy city for us is in Holy Mecca! Not in Jerusalem. The Jewish of Judah in Southern kingdom and ancient Israelites of Northern kingdom were the ones who were commanded to face the Jerusalem in their prayers. In the beginning of the revelations to prophet Muhammad s.a.w, the God the Highest commanded him to direct his face toward North because the cubicle building was tainted with chaotic pagan rites and impure practices. He cannot just simply step on the norms at that time or he would be in trouble while he was a poor guy and alone! The cubicle became a focus for worship by people around since it was known to the Noahides around the area.

The cubicle was a mark for the center of the Earth and above the heavens is the Bayt al-Ma'amor which is another sacred sanctuary for other creatures of the heavens, namely the angels (souls). Countless of them would pray in the sanctuary above there and later disappear and it happens everyday until the great doomsday where the universe disintegrate. The explanation is in the Fath al-Bari part 9 section 493 (Ibn Hajar quoting Ibn Jarir al-Tabari) and in the Ibn Katir Exegesis of the Quran. The sanctuary is also mentioned in Glorious Quran (Surah al-Tur 52:3-4). The location of the Bayt al-Ma'amor is not to be speculated because the heavens are not like the layers of skies understood by people around. There are many things which could not be understood with "Science" that fall under "Metaphysical" categories. We ordinary human-beings have no capability to understand everything so we refuse to speculate, we refuse to claim that we have knowledge about metaphysical matters and we refuse to claim that everything could be brought into laboratories.

Later, the Azdites moved out from Yemen because the flood of the Ma'arev affected them. Some of them who moved into the holy city, Mecca was Haritha bin Amr and his nickname is, Khuza'a. The Khuza'as fought the Jurhumites and they seized the power for their own in Mecca. The Ishmaelites in Mecca were also downgraded after those invaders won. Although downgraded but the branches of Ishmaelites through the offsprings of 'Adnan were far spread across the Hejaz and Nejd up to the edge of Iraq and down to Bahrain borders.

Quraish

Those Ishmaelites of the Holy Mecca were the offpring of Fihr bin Malik. His nickname is Quraish and that is how our larger tribe is known until today. The Arabic language that we use which is also the Standard Quranic Arabic is the language of this tribe. We do not speak in Arabic dialects though I can understand Tihamite Arabic (almost resembling the Egyptian Arabic) since we are born in the overseas and we never live in Arabia environment. Our grandfathers did not send our fathers abroad to Arabia for religious and cultural education no more since 18th century because they had no time to think about that. Some of them were very poor and they have to survive in a very harsh environment... Moving here and there.

During his lifetime, Quraish already lost everything and was downgraded although everybody knows that his family are Ishmaelites, the offspring of a sage. They held no power nor influence in Mecca. The holy sanctuary which also contains the Cubicle monument was totally under the supervision of the Azdites. Only then, Quay bin Kilab which is the fifth grandfather of Muhammad s.a.w unites the offspring of Quraish. They build up their strength and chasing the Khuza'as out from the holy sanctuary. He snatched the key of the Cubicle from Abu Ghabsham who was his son in-law. Since then, he became the Chief of Mecca and the high priest there. The rights flowing then to his offspring and so on until the period of Muhammad s.a.w lifetime.

Half an hour before the evening service. I am off for the mosque and will continue later only by His will... Thank you for viewing : )     

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

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