Sirah

Zamzam and the Quarter of Banu Hashim

The well of the sanctuary and the Prophet's clan, c. 578-595 CE

c. 578-595 CE

Imagined 360° reconstruction of Zamzam and the Quarter of Banu Hashim

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

The quarter of Banu Hashim and the well of Zamzam, by the Ka'ba, Makkah

21.4225, 39.8262 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

Zamzam, the spring by the Ka'ba that the tradition traces to the days of Hajar and the infant Ismail (peace be upon him), had in the long generations after the old custodians of Makkah been buried and its very place forgotten. Ibn Ishaq and the Makkan topographer al-Azraqi relate that Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, the chief of Banu Hashim and grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), was guided in a dream to seek it out, and dug down by the Ka'ba until he struck the water, so restoring to his clan the honoured office of siqaya, the watering of the pilgrims, which his people held alongside the rifada, their feeding. The clan of Banu Hashim, keepers of these offices, dwelt in the quarter hard by the sanctuary, and it was into this clan and household that the Prophet was born in the Year of the Elephant (c. 570 CE). Orphaned of his father before his birth and of his mother as a young child, he was taken first under the care of his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, the keeper of Zamzam, and after the grandfather's death under his uncle Abu Talib, who succeeded to the leadership of Banu Hashim. This scene depicts the place that framed his childhood and youth: the open well of Zamzam with its bucket and rope by the Ka'ba, the narrow lanes and houses of the Banu Hashim quarter, and the bare valley closing around the sanctuary. The re-digging of the well itself belongs to the generation before his birth; the scene shows the quarter as the setting of those early years. In keeping with the Sirah tier no person is shown.

What you see

The narrow lanes and mud-brick and stone houses of a clan quarter pressed hard against the open sanctuary precinct, the dwellings of the leading clan of the valley town, with the ancient cube of the Ka'ba close by.

An open well stands near the Ka'ba, a leather bucket and a rope at its mouth and a watering trough beside it; this is Zamzam, the spring of the sanctuary, from which the pilgrims are given to drink.

Zamzam, long buried and its place forgotten since the days of the old custodians, had been re-dug by Abd al-Muttalib, chief of Banu Hashim and grandfather of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who held the honoured office of watering the pilgrims (siqaya).

This is the clan and quarter into which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was born and in which he was raised, orphaned of both parents, first under his grandfather the keeper of Zamzam and then under his uncle Abu Talib. The scene shows the place, not any person.

The bare Makkan valley closes around the sanctuary, the clan houses climbing the lower slopes; the heart of the town that lived by the pilgrimage and the trade.

The re-digging of Zamzam by Abd al-Muttalib and the offices of siqaya and rifada are recorded by Ibn Ishaq and al-Azraqi (Akhbar Makka). The re-digging itself predates the Prophet's birth; the quarter is the setting of his childhood. In the Sirah tier no person is depicted.

Primary sources

Ibn Ishaq via Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya: The re-digging of Zamzam by Abd al-Muttalib, the dream, and the offices of siqaya and rifada held by Banu Hashim.

Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (9th c.): Sunni record of Banu Hashim, Abd al-Muttalib and the household into which the Prophet was born and raised.

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