The Year of the Delegations at Madinah

An open sandy courtyard framed by mud-brick walls and palm-trunk pillars supporting a roof of palm fronds. No dome, no minaret, no mihrab niche, no marble, the simple original Masjid an-Nabawi at the start of the ninth year after the Hijrah, decades before the first Umayyad reconstruction.

Around the mosque, the date palm groves of Madinah and the dark basalt of the surrounding harrah lava fields place the scene firmly in the Madinian oasis. Not Makkah's narrow valley, not Yemen's terraced highland.

The courtyard is crowded with a striking diversity of dress: Yemeni cloth in saffron and indigo from the southern delegations; the dark wool cloaks of central Najdi tribes; the white-and-brown striped cloaks of the Tamim; the embroidered Yemeni cotton of the Bahrain envoys; the leather and iron of northern tribes. The variety of pre-Islamic Arabian regional dress is itself the scene.

Tribal banners furled on the wall, the small standards of named clans waiting in turn to be received. The standards are distinctly tribal, not military: no battle pennants, no royal insignia, no Byzantine or Persian eagles.

At one side of the courtyard, a delegation has just completed its meeting and is being given a written kitab (a brief letter of grant or pledge) sealed with the silver seal-ring of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which Sunni hadith records was inscribed 'Muhammad Rasul Allah'. The seal-ring is set on a low cushion beside the scribes.

Among the assembled, a small group of Najran Christians in finer Yemeni cloth and visible neck crosses can be picked out. The Sirah records the Najran Christian delegation as the most theologically distinctive of the year's visitors; they were permitted to pray in the mosque according to their rite during their stay.

The Qur'an refers directly to this period in Surat al-Nasr (Q 110:1-2): 'When the help of Allah and the conquest come, and you see the people entering the religion of Allah in throngs.' The verse is conventionally read as describing the broad tribal entry into Islam following the conquest of Makkah and the years immediately after.

The light is mild, the sky bright. The year is the ninth after the Hijrah, the year following the Conquest of Makkah and the Expedition to Tabuk. The Sirah names this year, 'am al-wufud, the Year of the Delegations, because of the steady stream of tribal embassies through it.

Qur'an 110 (Surat al-Nasr) and Q 3:61 (Surat Al 'Imran): Surat al-Nasr is read in Sunni tafsir as the Qur'anic reference to the broad tribal entry into Islam during this period. Q 3:61 is the verse of the mubahala with the Najran Christians, who were among the delegations of the year.

Sahih al-Bukhari, nos. 65 and 2938: Hadith records the silver seal-ring of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) inscribed 'Muhammad Rasul Allah' used for sealing letters to rulers and delegations. The visible seal-ring on the low cushion in the scene reads from these reports.

Ibn Hisham, Sirat Rasul Allah: Foundational Sirah compilation. The principal source for the names of the delegations of the year and the terms of their pledges. Preserves the narrative of the Thaqif delegation from Ta'if, the Tamim, the Najran Christians, and the Yemeni tribes.

Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra: The most detailed early catalogue of the delegations. Ibn Sa'd devotes a substantial section of the Tabaqat to al-Wufud, listing the tribes that arrived during the ninth year with the named members of each delegation.

al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa-al-Muluk: Cross-references the earlier transmitted material on the named delegations. Used for the conventional dating and the political consequences of the Year of the Delegations.

Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya: Standard major Sunni history. Synthesises the Sirah and hadith sources on each named delegation, including the Najran Christians and the mubahala episode.