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Quraish had so greatly advanced in numbers and power as to rival their Khozaite rulers. It was reserved for Qussai (the progenitor of Muhammad) to assert the right of his tribe to the guardianship of the Kaba, and the government of Mecca. The outline of his romantic story is as follows:-Kilab, the fifth in descent from Fihr Quraish, died leaving two sons, Zohra and Zaid; the former grown up, the latter, who was born about A.D. 400, being but an infant. The widow of the deceased chieftain married a man of the Bani Ozra tribe, and followed him with the lad Zaid to her new home in the highlands south of Syria, where she gave birth to another son called Riza. When Zaid grew up he was called "Qussai," because of the separation from his father's house; but at last, learning the noble rank of his ancestry, he resolved to return to Mecca, and travelled thither with a company of the Ozra pilgrims. At Mecca he was recognised by his brother Zohra, and at once received into the position which his birth entitled him to hold. Qussai was a man of commanding person and of an energetic and ambitious temper. He was treated with great distinction by Holail the Khozaite king, who gave him his daughter Hobba in marriage, and permitted him or rather perhaps his wife to assume the immediate management of the Kaba, and some functions attaching to the government of the city. On the death of the benefactor who had bestowed on him power and position, Qussai, now possessing four grown-up sons, and himself being a man of wealth and influence, perceived his opportunity, and having canvassed among the Quraish for support, bound them together in a secret league. Further, as the Khozaites are said to have outnumbered the latter tribe, he wrote to his brother Riza to aid him at the ensuing pilgrimage with an armed band of the Bani Ozra.

Meanwhile, another occasion presented itself. From remote times the Bani Sufa (a distant branch collateral with the Quraish) had been the possessors of certain privileges in connection with the temple at Mecca, amongst the rest the highly-prized right of dismissing the multitudes who annually repaired as pilgrims to the sacred precincts. The time had, however, now arrived when Qussai, conscious of his strength, determined to question this privilege: so, stepping forth before the assembled throng, he claimed the honour in question. A dispute took place, and weapons were drawn, but after a sharp encounter, in which Riza, with 300 of the Bani Ozra, rushed to the succour of Qussai, the Sufa yielded the coveted office to their opponents.

To return to the Khozaites; as may be imagined, they regarded with jealousy the usurpation of their prescriptive right, and began to entertain suspicions that Qussai would seek to snatch from them their own hereditary title to supremacy over the Hijaz : whereupon they prepared to resist, and associated with themselves some quondam allies, who had aided in the expulsion of the Jorhomites. The Quraish rallied round Qussai, who, as before, was supported by Riza and his comrades. A second but more general and bloody action ensued. The victory remained uncertain, for the carnage was great on both sides, and the combatants naturally agreed to a truce, surrendering the decision of their claims into the hands of an aged sage named Amr. The umpire affirming the pretensions of Qussai, yielded to him the guardianship of the Kaba and the government of Mecca: further, still more strongly to mark the justice of Qussai's position, Amr decreed the price of blood for all men killed on the side of the latter, while the dead amongst the Khozaites were allowed to pass unavenged by fine.

Such is the most generally received account of the way in which the command of Mecca passed into the hands of Qussai. Some, however, are of opinion that Holail, the Khozaite king, openly held that Qussai was best entitled to succeed him, and therefore left to his son-in-law the coveted inheritance. Others maintain that the monarch in question gave up the care of the Kaba, with its keys, to his daughter Hobba, and appointed an individual of the name of Ghubshan to assist her; whereupon Qussai -so runs the legend-made the man intoxicated and purchased from him, when in a state of incapability, the control of the sacred city in exchange for a skin of wine and some camels-a proceeding which the Khozaites resenting, hostilities ensued. A third statement is that the last-mentioned tribe, being attacked by a deadly pestilence, which nearly extirpated them, resolved to evacuate Mecca, selling or otherwise disposing of their houses in the city.

However, be the circumstances what they may, it is beyond question that towards the middle of the fifth century (A.D. 440) Qussai ruled supreme at Mecca. The first act of his authority was to bring within the valley his kinsmen of Quraish descent, many of whom had been wont to live in the surrounding glens and mountains: this done, the town was laid out anew, a separate quarter being allotted to each family. But so large an influx of inhabitants, added to the regular distribution of the land, swelled the city far beyond its previous bounds, and the site of the new habitations trenched upon the acacias and brushwood of the valley. It chanced that the superstition of the place had invested the trees with so peculiar a sanctity that the people feared to remove them. Without hesitation Qussai, superior to such scruples, seized a hatchet, the Quraish followed his example, and the wilderness was soon cleared. Owing to his having effected the reunion of his clan, Qussai was called "the Gatherer." The next civic work of this enterprising chieftain was to build a Hall of Council, near the Kaba, having its porch opening towards that sacred spot. Here all political movements were discussed, and social ceremonies solemnised. In this building, too, girls first assumed the dress of womanhood, and within its revered precincts marriages were celebrated. Thence all caravans set forth, and thither the traveller, on returning from his journey, first bent his steps. When war was imminent it was there that the banner was mounted upon its staff by Qussai himself, or by one of his sons. The assumption of the presidency in the Hall of Council riveted the authority of its builder as the Shaikh of Mecca, and governor of the country, and "both before and after his death" -such is the language of one of the most famous of Muslim historians" his ordinances were obeyed and venerated as people obey and venerate the observances of religion."

Besides these civil offices, Qussai possessed the

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chief religious dignities connected with the worship of the nation; thus he held the keys, and with them the control, of the Kaba, or holy of holies, in the temple of Mecca; his was the privilege of giving drink to the votaries who were wont annually to repair to the sacred city, and providing them with food-prerogatives which in the eyes of the generous Arabs, invested his name with a peculiar lustre. During the pilgrimage leathern bags of water were, at his instigation, hung up at Mecca, and other places in the vicinity; and stimulating the liberality of the inhabitants he persuaded them to subscribe annually an ample fund, which was expended by himself in the gratuitous distribution of food to the pilgrims. With strange inconsistency, though it was ostensibly to secure the right of marshalling the processions of pilgrims on their return from Mecca that he drew his sword, he did not, when established in power, personally exercise this prerogative, which, in common with some other privileges, he delegated to the hands of subordinates.

The last days of the Patriarch are portrayed by the Arab historian "Waqidi" in terms of simplicity, which enhances the charm of all that proceeds from the pen of a writer, whose language recalls in some measure the unaffected grandeur of early biblical narrative:

"In process of time Qussai became old and infirm. Abdul Dar was the oldest of his sons, but he lacked influence and power, and his brethren raised themselves up against him. Wherefore Qussai resigned all his offices into the hands of his firstborn, saying: 'Thus wilt thou retain thine authority over thy people, even though they raise themselves up against thee: let no man enter the Kaba unless thou hast opened it unto him: nor let any banner

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