Jurhum

Jurhum (also Banu Jurhum) was a Qahtani tribe in the Arabian peninsula. An old Arab tribe, their historical abode was Yemen before they emigrated to Mecca.

According to Arabic accounts, the tribe of the Jurhum gave protection to Hagar and her son Ishmael, a relationship cemented with Ishmael's marriage to a Jurhumite woman, the daughter of al Muḍaḍ ibn 'Amr. The Jurhum are said to have been involved in the worship centering around the Kaaba, the holy sanctuary rebuilt by Ishmael and his father Abraham and revered as a pilgrimage site. According to one tradition, their custodianship over the Kaaba ended after they were ousted by the Khuza'a, a tribal group from the south.

Islamic tradition further holds that Hagar and Ishmael found a spring in Mecca, the Zamzam well, from which the Jurhum wanted to drink, and that after their ousting by the Khuza'a tribe, the Jurhum collected the treasures dedicated to the Kaaba and destroyed the Zamzam well so that nobody would find it.

The Jurhum are attested to in Greek literature. "Isma’il grew up among the Jurhum tribe, learning the pure Arabic tongue from them. When grown up he successively married two ladies from the Jurhum tribe, the second wife being the daughter of Mudadd ibn ‘Amr, leader of the Jurhum tribe."[1]

See also

• Tribes of Arabia

Bibliography

• Shahîd, Irfan (1989), Byzantium and the Arabs in the fifth century (Illustrated, reprint ed.), Dumbarton Oaks, ISBN 9780884021520

ISBN 0-88402-152-1 Dumbarton Oaks, 1 January 1989 - 592 pages - Library of Congress - Reprinting https://books.google.com/books/about/Byzantium_and_the_Arabs_in_the_fifth_cen.html?id=6oYCfWor5AIC&redir_esc=y

Additional reading

• Adil Salahi (1995). Muhammad: Man and Prophet, pg. 4-8, The Islamic Foundation (UK), or Barnes & Noble (NY), or Element Books Limited, Shaftesbury, Dorset.