The Expulsion of Jurhum from Mecca

In the mid-second century CE, Khuza'a drove Jurhum out of Mecca, with help from Banu Bakr ibn Abd Manaf ibn Kinana, after Jurhum had wronged newcomers and made the wealth of the Ka'ba lawful for themselves. Jurhum blocked the well of Zamzam, buried in it the gazelles of the Ka'ba and the Black Stone, and departed for Yemen. ^{1 2 3}.

The power of Jurhum weakened shortly before the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and the political star of the Adnanites began to rise over the horizon of Mecca from that age. This is shown by the fact that the leader of the Arabs in Nebuchadnezzar's raid on them at Dhat Irq was not a Jurhumite. ^{1 4}. Then Jurhum's affairs in Mecca deteriorated and their conditions became straitened. They wronged those who came to the city and made the wealth of the Ka'ba lawful for themselves, which angered the Adnanites and roused their resentment. ^{1 2}.

When Khuza'a settled at Marr al-Zahran and saw the Adnanites' aversion to Jurhum, it took advantage of this. With help from clans of Adnan, namely Banu Bakr ibn Abd Manaf ibn Kinana, it fought Jurhum until it drove them out of Mecca and took over its rule, in the mid-second century CE. ¹.

When Jurhum went into exile, they blocked the well of Zamzam, obliterated its site and buried several things in it. Ibn Ishaq says: Amr ibn al-Harith ibn Mudad al-Jurhumi went out with the two gazelles of the Ka'ba and the Black Stone corner, and buried them in the well of Zamzam. He and those with him from Jurhum set off for Yemen, and they grieved bitterly at leaving Mecca and its rule. In that context Amr recited his well-known verse saying that between al-Hajun and al-Safa there was no companion. ^{1 3}. The author relates from al-Mas'udi that in early times the Persians used to offer money and jewels to the Ka'ba, and that Sasan ibn Babak offered two golden gazelles, jewels and swords, which Amr threw into the well of Zamzam. ^{1 5}. Abd al-Muttalib's recovery of these items is told in the redigging of Zamzam.

The author estimates the time of Ismail at twenty centuries before the common era. On that reckoning, Jurhum's residence in Mecca lasted about twenty-one centuries, and their rule over it about twenty centuries. ^{1 6}

Khuza'a took sole control of Mecca's affairs, except for three privileges that remained with the tribes of Mudar, and Khuza'a's rule lasted three hundred years. ⁶. See the offices of Quraysh and Qusayy's seizure of Mecca.

"The mid-second century CE" is the estimate of Fu'ad Hamza, relayed by the author, that Jurhum's expulsion took place in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. The other periods are the author's own reckoning. There is no second source for this history.