Khabbāb b. al-Aratt

KhabbabEI.pdf Khabbāb b. al-Aratt, Abū ɈAbd Allāh or Abū Yaḥyā or Abū Muḥammad or Abū ɈAbd Rabbihi, a Companion of the Prophet. Tradition is not unanimous about his origin. Some reports state that his father was captured in a raid launched by the RabīɈa in the Sawād, sent to Mecca and sold as a slave to SibāɈ b. ɈAbd al-ɈUẓzā alKhuzāɈī, a confederate (ḥalīf) of the Banū Zuhra; SibāɈ (who was later killed by Ḥamza in the battle of Uḥud) gave him as a gift to his daughter Umm Anmār who freed him. In a tradition attributed to ɈAlī he is said to have been the first of the Nabaṭ to embrace Islam. Other traditions claim that the mother of Khabbāb, a professional circumciser, also gave birth to SibāɈ; it is for this reason that Ḥamza when killing SibāɈ, shouted to him “O son of the woman cutting the clitoris”. By virtue of this kinship, Khabbāb claimed to be a confederate of the Zuhra in Mecca. Some reports say that his father was from Kaskar or from the vicinity of al-Kūfa. A quite different tradition states that alAratt was a Tamīmī, of the Banū SaɈd, who was captured in a raid and sold in Mecca to Umm Anmār al-KhuzāɈiyya who freed him. This version, adopted by his descendants, gives his pedigree as follows: Khabbāb b. al-Aratt b. Djandala b. SaɈd b. Khuzayma b. KaɈb b. SaɈd from Tamīm. Another account records that Khabbāb was a freed slave (mawlā) of Thābit b. Umm Anmār; Thābit, these sources claim, was a mawlā of alAkhnas b. Sharīḳ Thaḳafī, who in his turn was a confederate of the Zuhra. These contradictory traditions do not help to establish exactly his origin and his position in Mecca, but he must have been of a very low status, as he was doubly dependent, being a mawlā of a family which was in turn in a relation of dependence as confederates of the tribal group of Zuhra. Khabbāb himself was a blacksmith, a profession regarded as base in Mecca and in the Arab peninsula in general. The tradition of his Sawādī origin seems preferable because of his father's incorrect Arabic speech, which is indicated by his nickname al-Aratt; this would seem to point to Arabic not being his native language, and he probably spoke Nabataean, sc. neo-Aramaic. Although a mawlā, Khabbāb apparently acquired some influence in the KhuzāɈī family of his master. It was he who promoted the plan that the family of SibāɈ should join the Zuhrī ɈAwf b. ɈAbd ɈAwf (the family of ɈAbd al-Raḥmān b. ɈAwf) as confederates and he indeed succeeded in carrying out his plan. Khabbāb was one of the earliest converts to Islam. He is usually mentioned as the sixth or the seventh man who embraced Islam. A unique tradition granting him an usually high position in Islam says that he was the first man who embraced Islam. Khabbāb is recorded as one of “the weak ones” in Mecca. Lacking any protection (manaʿa), he was exposed to persecution and cruel torture. The noble Ḳurashīs and leaders of tribes used to mock the Prophet when they saw him in the company of Khabbāb and other poor men, and some verses in the Ḳurɇān were revealed to the Prophet in this connection. It is said that Khabbāb was attached to the Prophet and heard some chapters of the Ḳurɇān from his mouth, and that he witnessed the conversion of ɈUmar to Islam when present in the house of ɈUmar's sister, reading chapters from the Ḳurɇān. Having left Mecca as a muhādjir, Khabbāb dwelt in Medina together with al-Miḳdād b. ɈAmr in the house of Kulthūm b. Hidm; after the death of the latter they moved into the house of SaɈd b. ɈUbāda. In some sources, Khabbāb is included in the list of the Aṣḥāb al-Ṣuffa. The Prophet set up the relation of brotherhood between Khabbāb and Djabr b. ɈAtīk. Khabbāb participated in the battle of Badr and was entrusted with the division of the spoils. Tradition usually adds that he took part in all the other battles of the Prophet: he is, however, not mentioned in the list of warriors recorded in the stories of the battles. No details are available about the vicissitudes of his life during the caliphates of Abū Bakr and ɈUmar. ɈUthmān granted him possession of ṢaɈnabā or Istīniyā in the vicinity of al-Kūfa and he settled in al-Kūfa. ShīɈī traditions claim that he took part in the battle of Ṣiffīn and Nahrawān; some ShīɈī sources mention that he signed the document of arbitration at Ṣiffīn. Khabbāb died in 37 AH (or 39) at the age of 63 (or 73) as a rich man, leaving about 40,000 dirham in cash. He regretted before his death that he had accumulated wealth; he was afraid lest he might have forfeited his reward in the next world, as he had received it already in this world. Khabbāb gave orders that he should be buried outside al-Kūfa, thus initiating a change in the then custom of burying the dead in their own houses. ɈAlī is said to have prayed over his grave when he returned from the battle of Ṣiffīn. He transmitted 32 utterances of the Prophet, some of which were recorded in the canonical collections of ḥadīth, and some traditions of the Prophet were transmitted by his daughter. A son, ɈAbd Allāh, was cruelly killed by the Khawāridj. (M. J. Kister) Bibliography Ibn Hishām, Sīra al-nabawiyya, Cairo 1355/1936, i, 271, 368-370, 383, ii, 337 Ibn SaɈd, Ṭabaḳāt, Beirut 1377/1957, iii, 164-7, v, 245 al-Wāḳidī, al-Maghāzī, ed. M. Jones, London 1966, i, 100, 155 al-Balādhurī, Ansāb al-ashrāf, ed. Muḥammad Ḥamīdullāh, Cairo 1959, i, index idem, Futūḥ al-buldān, Beirut 1377/1958, 381-2 al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, index idem, al-Muntakhab min kitāb dhayl al-mudhayyal, Cairo 1358/1939, 57 Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, al-Ṭabaḳāt, ed. Akram idem, Taʾrīkh, ed. Akram iyāɇ al-ɈUmarī, Baghdad 1387/1967, 17, 126 iyāɇ al-Dīn al-ɈUmarī, Baghdad 1386/1967, index Muḥammad b. Ḥabīb, al-Munammaḳ, ed. Kh. A. 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Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C. E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; and W. P. Heinrichs.