How Did the Quranic Pagans Make a Living?

Author(s): Patricia Crone

Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 68,
No. 3 (2005), pp. 387-399
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20181949 .
Accessed: 28/06/2011 04:10
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. .
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press and School of Oriental and African Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London.

http://www.jstor.org

How did the quranic pagans make a living?*

PATRICIA CRONE
Instituteof Advanced Study
Among the better known essay questions set for students of Islamic subjects in
theUK is the one asking for comments on the dictum thatThe Qur'?n is the
only reliable source for the rise of Islam'. Students typically respond with an
account of the formation of the canonical text and a comment that however we
envisage this process, the Quran is not a source rich in historical information.
Few could disagree with that. Historians of the life and times of the Prophet
use the Quran as explained in tafslr,which supplies the names, dates, stories
and other supplementary data that they need, and they unwittingly tend to do
so even when they think they are using the Quran alone. But we may have
reached the point of under-estimating the book as a source. Rich in historical
evidence itmay not be, but we are not in the habit of squeezing it for informa
tion either, presumably because the sheer abundance of the exegetical material
seems to make it unnecessary. With so many works of tafsir, hadith and sira
to attend to, one comes to think of quranic statements as in the nature of mere
captions for which the substance must be sought elsewhere. This is entirely in
order for historians of readers' reactions to the book, but it evidently will not
do for those interested in the society out of which the book emerged. In what
follows I shall ignore the exegetical tradition in order to look at theQuran on
its own, with a view to answering one simple question: how does it envisage the
mushrik?n with whom it takes issue as making a living?
I. Agriculture
In sura 36 the Prophet is told to warn a people whose fathers had not been
warned and who were both heedless and unresponsive: admonished or other
wise, theywould not believe; rather, theymocked theMessenger
(36:6-10, 30).
tries to persuade these obstinate
Among the signs with which theMessenger
people is thatGod revives dead land and brings forth grain (habbari) of which
they eat, as well as gardens of date palms and grapes (jann?t min nakh?l
wa-a'n?b), and that He causes springs (al-'uy?n) to gush forth in them so that
theymay eat of the fruit. 'Itwas not their hands which made it, so will they not
give thanks?', he says (v. 33-5). The same point ismade at 56:63 f.: 'Have you
considered the soil you till?Do you yourselves sow it, or areWe the sowers?'.1
In these passages the unbelievers are agriculturalists who foolishly think that
they are causing grain, date palms, grapes and the like to grow. They are suf
fering from the human propensity to arrogance, for in actual fact it is God
who causes these things to appear.
One is mildly surprised by these passages, given that theMeccans, with
whom the obstinate people are traditionally identified, are well known to every
Islamicist as traders whose city was located in a barren spot. But they are only
two out of many passages in theQuran which suggest that the Prophet's oppo
nents were agriculturalists, whatever else they may have been in addition.
revival of dead land is a prominent theme, both as a sign of His awe
God's
some power and as a proof of the resurrection, and the reference is overwhelm
ingly to cultivated plants, not to the flowers that appear in the desert in spring
or other wild vegetation. God causes luxuriant gardens {had?Hq dh?t bahja) to
*
I should like to thank Michael
Cook for comments on this article.
1
In translations from the Quran
in this article, 'you' is always in the plural unless
noted, and the translations are usually modified versions of Arberry or Yusuf AH.
Bulletin
United

of SO AS,
Kingdom.

68, 3 (2005),

387-399.

School

of Oriental

and African

Studies.

otherwise

Printed

in the

388

PATRICIA CRONE

grow (27:60; cf. 80:30). He sends down rain, producing plants (nab?t) of all
kinds, including greens (khadir), grain (habb), date palms (nakhl), and gardens
(al-rumm?n)
(jann?t) of grapes (acn?b), olives (al-zayt?n) and pomegranates
(6:99), or simply fruits of all kinds (7:57; cf. 14:32). Other passages mention
grain and (other) plants (78:15), gardens, grain and date palms (50:9f.), date
palms and grapes (16:67; 23:19), date palms, grain, grapes and olives (16:11),
and grapes, dates, olives, fruits and fodder, all of which are 'goods for you and
your cattle (mat?'an lakum wa-li-an'?mikum)' (80:27-32). Here the unbelievers
are not explicitly said to be growing such things themselves, however.
That theywere agriculturalists is none the less clear from the fact that they
had agricultural rituals of which the Messenger
'They
strongly disapproves.
a portion
assign toGod, out of the harvest and cattle that He has multiplied,
this is for our associates. But
they assert?and
saying, "This is for God"?so
the share of their associates does not reach God, whereas thatwhich is forGod
reaches their associates' (6:136); 'And they say, this cattle and harvest are for
bidden (hijr), nobody should eat it except whoever We wish, as they claim'
(6:138). The ritual seems to consist in the consecration of the first fruits of
agriculture and the first offspring of domestic animals to the divine, and it is
one of the many passages showing that the mushrik?n believed in the same

God as theMessenger.2 Apparently, the portions dedicated to God and His

'associates' were left to be eaten by 'whoever God wished', perhaps meaning
the poor and travellers. They were in any case forbidden to the owners of the
first fruits/offspring themselves.
The Messenger
responds partly by denying that God would receive any of
it (all would go to the 'associates', i.e. the lesser divine beings, who are implic
one should actu
itly identified as demonic here) and partly by setting out how
for
the growth of
who
is
it
is
that
God
He
reiterates
responsible
ally behave.
of
various
seed
date
kinds, olives
produce (zar")
palms (al-nakhl),
gardens,
fruitswhen
'eat
their
of
adds:
and
and
(al-rumm?n)
pomegranates
(al-zayt?n),
on
and
their
of
the
thereof
due
the
and
harvest,
day
pay
(haqqahu)
they fructify
do not be prodigal: God does not like the prodigal. And of cattle some are for
burdens and others for meat. Eat of what God has provided you with and
follow not in the footsteps of Satan' (6:141f.). Once again, it is clear that we
are in an agricultural community. Both the infidels and the believers have
fields, gardens and cattle; both harvest grain, olives and pomegranates, but
they have different views on how God wishes the harvest to be handled.
The pagans also had other rituals to do with cattle. There were animals on
which itwas forbidden to ride and others over which theywould not mention
the name of God (i.e. when they slaughtered them); apparently, slaughter was
a custom of reserving the unborn
normally hallowed (6:138). There was also
men
some
of
the
for
the
animals
of
forbidding theirwives
community,
young
to eat of them unless the young were stillborn, inwhich case theywould share
them (6:139). Apparently, itwas pairs of animals that were set aside in one
or all of these rituals, for the Messenger
responds by listing pairs of sheep
cows/oxen (al-baqar), sarcasti
and
camels
(al-ibl)
(al-dayn), goats (al-maHz),
is
God
is
that
it
what
supposed to have forbidden:
cally asking exactly
two males or two females, or the unborn young of two females? And were
the unbelievers present when God ordered such a thing? All this, he says, is
in order to lead people astray
something they have falsely attributed to God
2

See W. M. Watt,
1971; G. R. Hawting,

Journal of Semitic Studies

in Pre-Islamic Mecca',
'Belief in a "High God"
The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence
1999).
of Islam (Cambridge,

16,

HOW DID THE QURANIC PAGANS MAKE A LIVING

389

(6:143f). Once again, he responds by setting out the truth: nothing is forbid
den unless it is carrion, blood, pork, or meat hallowed to other than God
(6:145). Elsewhere, he tells a warning parable culminating in the same rules
(16:112-16).
Here, then,we see that itwas not just camels that the infidels kept, but also
sheep, goats, cows and oxen. 'He has created cattle for you. In them iswarmth
(dify) and benefits and you eat of them', as sura 16:5 says; 'and there is beauty
in them for you, when you bring them home to rest (in the evening) and when
you drive them forth abroad to pasture (in themorning) (wa-lakum fih? jam?l
hi?a turlh?na wa-h?na tasrah?n?f (16:5). The reference here is to the flocks that
one can still see being driven to and from villages on a daily basis in theMiddle
East, and the remark that their owners found them beautiful is particularly
the
suggestive: we are in a rural community in terms of values too. When
owners are said to derive warmth from their cattle, the reference is to the
goods made 'of their wool, fur, and hair' listed among the benefits of cattle
in another passage (in which they are not however described as their owners)
(16:80). On the day of judgement mountains will be 'like carded wool' (101:5).3
People are told not to break their covenants with God and thus behave like a
woman who unravels the thread she has spun4 (16:9If.), while the infidels are
reminded that cattle provide them with food and drink, and that they ride on
them (23:21; 36:71-3, where they are explicitly described as owning them).
They also had horses, mules and donkeys, on all of which they rode (16:8).
That we are in an agricultural community is confirmed by two parables.
One is about a group of people who own a garden and decide to collect its fruit
the next morning; they resolve to do so without saying 'God willing', however,
and the garden is ruined during the night (t?fa (alayh? t?'ifmin rabbik?); igno
rant of this, they set out the next morning, determined to prevent poor people
from getting into the garden first, and when they find it ruined, they turn to
God in repentance, expressing the hope that He will give them a better garden
than this (i.e. in the next world, 68:17-33).5 The moral, as so often, is that
humans must learn to recognize their own impotence vis-?-vis God, who here
manifests His power through some destructive force of nature. The second
parable, which ismuch longer, concerns two men, who prove to be a believer
and an unbeliever (18:32-44). God gave two gardens to one of them (not, as
one expects, a garden to each, though thiswas probably how an earlier version
was told). The gardens were of grapes, each garden was surrounded by date
palms (nakhl), and therewas a field (zar?) and a canal (nahr) in between. Both
gardens produced abundant produce. We are not told what the other man
received, but he clearly was not doing as well, for the owner of the two gardens
boasted to him of his superior wealth and power. The wealthy man also
wronged himself by going into his garden (now in the singular), saying, T do
not think that this will ever perish, nor do I think that the hour is coming
(q?'ima); and if I am really to be returned tomy Lord, I will surely find some
thing better there in exchange'. The poor man responded by asking him
whether he did not believe inGod, who had created him from a sperm-drop,
though thewealthy man had not denied God's existence: here as so often, kufr
seems to lie not in unbelief, but rather in failure to take account of God
in
one's thought and action. The wealthy man had apparently compounded his
3
Thus Yusuf Ali (Arberry has 'like plucked wool-tufts').
4
Or like the woman who unravelled
the thread she span (a reading suggestive of Penelope).
5
The parable
is taken to refer to firstfruits in J. Benthall,
in A. I.
'Firstfruits in the Quran',
in Religious Experience
He does
(ed.), Sacrifice
Baumgarten
(Leiden 2002) (following D?cobert).
not discuss 6:136.

390

PATRICIA CRONE

arrogance with shirk, however, for the poor man continued by affirming that,
'He isGod, my Lord and I do not associate anyone with my Lord'. The poor
man also told the wealthy man that the latter should have said, 'as God will,
there is no power except inGod', when he went into his garden thinking that
itwould never perish, and that although he was not himself well endowed with
wealth and sons, the Lord might give him something better than this garden
(i.e. in the next world). The poor man added thatGod might also send a thun
derbolt against the wealthy man's garden, turning it into mere sand, or He
might make the water run off underground so that he would never be able to
find it again; and God apparently did just that, for the continuation tells us
that the rich man's fruits were destroyed (uhlta), and that he went around
wringing his hands and wailing, 'If only I had not associated anyone with my
Lord'. There was nobody to help him apart fromGod Himself, the only source
of protection.
This is a portrait of the archetypal mushrik. Here, as elsewhere in the
Quran, he is a man well endowed with wealth and sons (68:14; cf. 8:28, 18:46;
57:20) who believes inGod, but ascribes partners toHim, only to find out that
the supposed partners cannot or will not help him against God
(e.g. 16:27;
26:92ff.; 28:62ff. 46:5). Here as elsewhere, too, he denies that the day of judge
ment is about to come anytime soon or at all (e.g. 17:51; 25:11; 34:3; 45:32)
and has his doubts about the resurrection. Often, themushrik?n reject the idea
of bodily resurrection out of hand (e.g. 13:5; 17:49-52, 98; 22:5; 36:78), or
perhaps even the afterlife (e.g. 6:29, 150; 34:8); at the very least they did not
fear any reckoning (his?b) (78:27). Here there is no reference to the form that
afterlifemight take, and the idea of a return toGod is not positively ruled out,
but the possibility of other-worldly punishment is denied. As so often, it is by
arrogance that themushrik wrongs himself:6 he is too pleased with himself, too
confident in his own all too human power, and too lacking in fear of God to
listen to warnings when they come. 'He thinks that his wealth will make him
last for ever', as 104:3 puts it.God duly inflicts disaster on him, destroying his
garden inmuch the same way thatHe destroyed past nations. The Messenger
that a similar disaster will soon
repeatedly warns his infidel opponents
overtake

them

too.

The archetypal mushrik is an agriculturalist, then. In line with this, the

nations to whom earlier prophets were sent are also depicted as agricultural
ists.H?d told his people thatGod had given them cattle and sons, gardens and
springs (26:133f.), promising them abundant rain if theywould repent (11:52);
S?lih asked his people if they would remain secure in their gardens, springs,
fields and date-palms with spathes almost breaking with theweight of the fruit
'Have they not travelled in the land and seen how those before
(26:146-8).
them ended up?', the Messenger
asks, noting that the nations in question
a
came
to
bad end even though 'theywere more pow
and
themselves
wronged
itmore than they have
erful than them; they tilled the land and developed
done' (wa-ath?r? (l-ard wa-'ammar?h? akthara mimm? (ammar?h?, 30:9 and,
more briefly, 40:21). Saba* had two gardens and were told to 'eat of the suste
nance [provided] by your Lord', but they turned away from God, so He sent a
took out
flood which destroyed their gardens (34:15f.). The people thatMoses
of Egypt were also agriculturalists: they leftbehind gardens, springs and fields
(44:25f.; cf. 26:57-9).

Abu

6
Cf. Encyclopaedia
Zayd).

of the Qur'an

(ed. J.D. McAuliffe),

(Leiden,

2001-),

s.v. 'arrogance'

(Nasr

HOW DID THE QURANIC PAGANS MAKE A LIVING

391

All the suras adduced so far are classified as Meccan,

though there is dis
agreement about 6:141 ('eat of their fruitswhen they fructify and pay the due
thereof on the day of their harvest').7 The division of the suras intoMeccan
comes from the tradition, of course, and no attention has been
and Medinese
so
to
it
far; but readers wondering if themany references to agriculture
paid
could date from after the Prophet's hijra to the agricultural oasis at Yathrib
should know that as far as the tradition is concerned, the answer is 'no'.
We do, however, hear about agriculture in the suras identified as Medinese
as well. Thus a parable likens those who spend in the path of God to a grain of
corn that sprouts seven ears, each containing a hundred grains: in the same
way, God grants manifold increase to whom He will (2:261). Or those who
spend inGod's path are like a garden on a hill which doubles itsproduce when
it is hit by heavy rain and manages perfectly well with dew at other times
(2:265), whereas those who spend to show off to human beings are like a rock
covered by a thin layer of soil: heavy rain washes it away so that they can do
nothing (2:264). What the infidels spend on this world is like a freezing wind
that ruins the harvest of men who have wronged themselves (3:117). There are
people who speak agreeably about this world, but actually aim to spread cor
ruption and ruin harvests and offspring (al-harth wa'l-nasl, 2:205). And who
would want to have a garden of date-palms, grapes and fruits of all kinds with
canals flowing underneath when he is stricken with old age and has weak off
spring, only to have itdestroyed by a whirlwind with a fire, theMessenger asks
in a likeness that escapes me (2:266). All this ismuch as before, except that the
canals in the last passage are running underneath the gardens (presumably in
the form of qan?ts), as they also do in Paradise, rather than between them (in
the forms of springs and canals), as they do among the mushrik?n. The cow
that the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice is envisaged as 'not broken in
to plough the soil or water the cultivated land' (l? dhal?l tuth?ru (l-ard wa-l?
tasq? 1-harth) (2:71), and the desirable things of this world still include cattle
and cultivated land (al-an'?m wal-harth) (3:14).
'Agriculture and vegetation figure prominently in the Quran, reflecting
their significance in the environment in which the text was revealed', Waines
remarks in an article anticipating most of what I have said so far.8 So indeed
they do. How are we to reconcile this with the traditional claim that the
mushrik?n lived in a barren valley? 'The Qur'?n suggests less severe austerity',
Waines
observes. The entire area may have been more fertile than it looks
thanks to sophisticated irrigation techniques, Heck adds: the remains of as
many as nineteen dams or more are still extant in theHijaz.9 But leaving aside
that these dams were largely or wholly built after the rise of Islam and that
none of them seems to be inMecca, we do not actually solve the problem by
postulating thatMecca was fertile, for it is the Quran itself that describes the
Abrahamic
sanctuary as located in an uncultivated valley (w?din ghayr dhi
zar0) (14:37), just as it is the Quran itself that places the mushrik?n in a fertile
setting.
This clearly poses the question of whether the Quran
envisages the
as
Abrahamic
the
residence
of
the
It
mushrik?n.
is
sanctuary
certainly not
settled offspring by the sanctuary,
impossible, for it says that when Abraham
7
The problem was the relationship between the rule imposed in this verse and zak?t, imposed
not the depiction of the believers of agriculturalists.
in Medina,
See for example Fakhr al-D?n
al-Raz?, al-Tafs?r al-kab?r (Tehran, 1413), xiii, 213.
8
D.
in Encyclopaedia
'Agriculture',
of the Qury?n, 40.
'
9 Waines,
G. W. Heck,
"Arabia without spices": an alternate hypothesis', Journal of the American
Oriental Society 123, 2003, 566.

392

PATRICIA CRONE

he asked God to feed them with fruit (14:37): maybe the assumption here is
that agriculture emerged later. Alternatively, does the Quran envisage the
Abrahamic
sanctuary as deserted except for a small family of custodians main
tained by pilgrims and other visitors, implying that the agricultural community
of the mushrik?n was located somewhere else? That too is possible. In fact,
both possibilities seem to have suggested themselves to the earliest readers
of the Quran, for there are traditions inwhich Mecca
is unusually fertile, this
being how itwas under Ketura, Jurhum, theAmalekites and Qusayy (but not
apparently in the time of the Prophet),10 and there are others in which it is a
desert sanctuary until Mu'?wiya
started digging and building there, provoking
a storm of protest: he had no right to plant gardens in a place that God Him
self had described as devoid of cultivation; Mecca ought to remain a place with
wide unbuilt spaces, accessible to everyone, a place where the pilgrims would
pitch their tents as they had in the past, not one of towns and fortifiedman
sions (mada'in wa-qus?r).n But the Quran also says that God had established
a safe sanctuary (haraman ?minan) while people around the unbelievers were
being snatched away (29:67), and when people refuse guidance on the grounds
that theywould be snatched away from their land if they followed it, the retort
is, 'Have we not established for them a secure sanctuary (haraman ?minan)
to which every kind of fruit is brought as a provision from Us?' (28:57). This
could be taken to suggest that the unbelievers did live in their sanctuary, but
it agriculturally: the fruits came
also that they did so without developing
from outside.12 This was the solution for which the tradition settled. It was in
instituted the two trading journeys
response to Abraham's
prayer that God
with which He freed Quraysh from hunger and fear, according to some;13 or it
was in response to Abraham's
prayer that He moved T?'if from Syria to
we
as
are
fruits came from the neighbouring towns and
also
the
told;14
Arabia,
was by making the neighbouring towns and
as
it
indeed,
many
say;15
villages,
thatGod enabled Quraysh to stop going on
villages carry provisions toMecca
trade came to
their two trading journeys, as adherents of the view thatMeccan
an end some time before the rise of Islam was declared.16
How, then, do the exegetes handle the verses in which the polytheists are
implicitly or explicitly described as agriculturalists? Oddly, they seem to ignore
the problem. It is indeed only ifone's interest is in the historical context of the
revelation that the oddity of the examples employed to persuade the infidels
stands out: to any other reader, the book will come across as adducing univer
sally intelligible points of eternal validity. But the early exegetes did take an
interest in the historical context. It is also true that the exegetical literature is

10
Trade and theRise of Islam (Oxford and Princeton,
See the sources cited in P. Crone, Meccan
198, n. 134.
1987),
11
ma ista'jam, ed. F. W?stenfeld
in al-Bakr?, Mu'jam
Al-Kalb?
(Leipzig, 1858), 58; M. J.Kister,
and Social
from J?hiliyya to Islam', Journal of the Economic
'Some reports concerning Mecca
197f. (where qus?r is
Trade,
History
of the Orient 15, 1972, 86ff. both cited in Crone, Meccan
of the region, see also below, n. 17.
translated palaces). For Mu'awiya's
agricultural development
12
The alternative reading would be that they had simply sought refuge at the sanctuary during
some crisis when they risked being 'snatched away' from the land on which they normally lived and
worked.
13
in al-Zamakhshar?,
Mentioned
(Beirut, 1947), iv, 803, ad 106:4, where the two
al-Kashsh?f
(without being described as having anything to do with trade, cf. below,
journeys are mentioned
n. 28).
14
Thus for example al-Tabar?, Jam? al-bayan (Beirut, 1988), viii, 235, ad 14:37; cf. also M. J.
'Some reports concerning T?'if, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, i, 1979, n. 77.
Kister,
15
Thus for example Tabar?, al-M?ward?, Fakhr al-D?n al-Raz? ad 14:37.
16
b. Sulaym?n, Tafsir, ed. 'A.M. Shih?ta (Cairo, 1979), iv, 861f., adsura
106; al-Kalb?
Muq?til
in Ibn Habib,
Trade, 205ff.
1964), 262f.; cf. Crone, Meccan
(Hyderabad,
al-Munammaq

HOW DID THE QURANIC PAGANS MAKE A LIVING

393

vast, so that it is impossible to pronounce with confidence on what is or is not

in it, especially when so many quranic verses are involved. It is difficult to
believe that the problem went unnoticed. But an examination of a fair sample
of the exegetical literature on the most blatantly problematic passages, those
presenting the infidels as cultivators of olives, yielded a blank.
The answer one would have expected the exegetes to come up with is that
and above
the passages concerning agriculture refer to places outside Mecca,
owned gardens. What other solution could
all to T?*if, where the Meccans
there be? Itworks up to a point, too; for date palms, pomegranates and grapes
all fit in effortlessly at Ta'if. Grain and olives are more of a problem, however.
and other wealthy Qurash?s began a
After the conquests, when Mu*?wiya
massive agricultural development of the Hij?z, grain came to be harvested
there on a major scale,17 and it could perhaps be argued that some was grown
there before the rise of Islam as well. But the tradition invariably associates
grain with Syria.18 After the conquests theremay, for all we know, have been
attempts at olive cultivation in the Hij?z, too;19 but if there were, they did not
succeed, for obvious reasons: in its cultivated form, the olive (Olea europaeana)
conditions. It does grow wild in themon
is a tree adapted toMediterranean
tane woodlands
and shrublands of Arabia,
including the T?'if region, but it
does so as part of vegetation linkingArabia with Africa rather than theMedi
terranean, in the form of the subspecies africana.20 The cultivated olive has the
disadvantage, from an Arabian point of view, of requiring winter chill in order
17
For Mu'?wiya
digging wells and canals and planting gardens inMecca
(reportedly as the first
'Some reports', 89f.; cf. also his dam at T?'if (G. C. Miles,
so), see Kister,
'Early Islamic
inscriptions near T?'if in the Hij?z', Journal of Near Eastern Studies 1, 1948) and the dams men
in
tioned inHeck,
'Arabia without spices', 566. For Mu'awiya's
agricultural enterprises inMedina
some socio
see M. J.Kister,
'The Battle of the Harra:
the Hij?z and the tensions they provoked,
economic aspects', inM. Rosen-Ayalon
(ed.), Studies inMemory
of Gaston Wiet (Jerusalem, 1977),
see Heck,
'Arabia without spices', 565, who inadver
38ff., and above, n. 11; for other Qurash?s,
their activities to be pre-Islamic. Heck also adduces
the indisputably pre-Islamic
tently assumes
Abu Talib as an example of a class of entrepreneur who were 'sufficiently wealthy that no external
investment capital was necessary to underwrite their productive ventures', claiming that he was
wheat growers who sold their own produce', and that 'in addition to being a
'among theMakkan
major grain broker, Abu T?lib was a perfume merchant'
('Arabia without Spices', 561, 571). For all
this he refers the reader to Ibn Qutayba, who merely says that 'Abu T?lib sold perfume, or perhaps/
sometimes (rubbam?) he sold wheat (al-burr)\ (Ibn Qutayba,
(Leiden,
al-Ma'?rifl ed. F. W?stenfeld
I. A. al-S?wi (Beirut, 1970), 249; in the
1850), 283; ed. Th. 'Uk?sha
1969), 575; ed. M.
(Cairo,
version
Ibn
burr
is
the
cf.
Meccan
lub?n,
Rusta,
Crone,
Trade,
53n).
given by
replaced by
parallel
to trader), that he
Where does Heck find the information that he was a grain broker (as opposed
was a major one, that he grew his own produce, or that he was wealthy enough tomanage without
external investment capital?
18
Cf. Crone, Meccan
Trade, 98, 104, 139-41, 150, 160. It is also from Syria that the grain comes
in all the examples adduced by Heck,
'Arabia without spices', 573 (as regards that of cAbdall?h
b. Jud'an, for which he does not specify the place of origin, see Crone, Meccan
Trade, 104). Heck
none the less proposes
that the Meccans
could both import and export such things (having pro
duced them at Ta*if and elsewhere), depending on 'the basic functioning of freemarket economies',
as an example ('Arabia
and Wisconsin
the trading patterns between modern Michigan
adducing
without spices', 573). But leaving aside that we never see theMeccans
export such things, they were
not participants
in a modern
capitalist economy based on rapid distribution of information and
its goods (foodstuffs included) in the open
goods, low transport costs, and a population purchasing
market.
19
in the wake of the conquests
Much
is presupposed
agricultural experimentation
by the crop
diffusion studied by A. M. Watson,
Agricultural Innovation in theEarly Islamic World (Cambridge,
to do

1983).
20

S. A. Ghazanfar
and M. Fisher (eds), Vegetation of the Arabian Peninsula
(Dordrecht,
1990),
and T. Cope, Flora of the Arabian Peninsula
and
69, 91 3, 130; more briefly also A. G. Miller
Socotra, vol. i (Edinburgh,
1996), 20f, 26. This is clearly the plant known to the Arabs as 'utum or
a
'mountain olive' {zayt?n jabal?), which grew in the Shar?t and (in
taller form) in Oman;
it had
as
black fruits like grapes which were not edible, or it did not fruit, and itwas used medicinally,
as
well
for toothpicks (Abu Han?fa al-D?nawar?, Kit?b al-nab?t, s-y, ed. M. Ham?dallah
(Cairo,
nos.
s.w.
'shahs' and 4<utum'. Compare
the distribution inGhazanfar
and Fisher,
574, 686,
1973),
use at p. 250).
Vegetation, 91-3, 130, with a reference to medicinal

394

PATRICIA CRONE

to flower and fruit.21 It could not have produced much of a crop in either
Mecca or Medina,22 and though T?'if looks more promising, it is in the north
ern oasis of Jawf (formerlyD?mat al-Jandal) that olive cultivation is reported
to have succeeded in modern times.23 The sources for Arabia on the eve of
Islam invariably describe olives as coming from Syria.24When the Quran tries
to persuade the infidelswith examples involving grain and olive cultivation, we
would thus have to assume that the reference is to villages in Syria that the
Meccans
passed through on their business journeys and/or to estates they had
acquired there and on which they grew such crops themselves.
Taking the passages in question to refer to T?'if and Syria does not entirely
solve the problem, however. For one thing, there remains the question of how
an uncultivated valley with a single spring could sustain the sheep, goats, cows,
oxen, camels, mules, donkeys and horses with which the pagans are credited
on a
in the Quran, or how pasture could be found for them outside Mecca
basis.
For
another
there
is
contrived
about
this
daily
thing,
something
reading.
A preacher will normally try to get through to people by speaking to them
about the things thatmatter most to them, and the tradition is quite clear that
whatever else the pre-Islamic Quraysh may have been up to, they were first
and foremost traders. One would not try to convert stockbrokers inManhat
tan by playing on their fears for their subsidiary ventures or invoking the
marvels of products they had seen on their business journeys; rather, one
would speak to them of stock market crashes, depression, unemployment,
financial ruin, and the ultimate worthlessness of a life devoted to the pursuit of
wealth. Mutatis mutandis, this is clearly what the quranic preacher is doing
too. He is addressing himself to people whose livelihoods were in their gardens
and fields, and he is doing so with a wealth of local detail showing that he is at
home in thismilieu himself: there were gardens with trellises (for grapevines)
and gardens without them (ma(r?sh?t wa-ghayr ma'r?sh?t, 6:141); palms might
be single-stemmed or double-stemmed
tracts, grape
(13:4);25 neighbouring
gardens, palm trees, and fields might all be watered by a single water source
(13:4); gardens were sometimes, perhaps typically, surrounded by palm trees
and separated by sown fields and canals (18: 32f); and of all the disasters that
could befall a plot, the ultimate nightmare was that thewater should disappear
21
Two weeks at temperatures below 14? C (57? F) are required in order to induce some flower
(eds), Handbook
of Environmental Physiology
ing inmost cultivars (B. Schaffer and P. C. Andersen
of Fruit Crops (Boca Raton, Fl., 1994), i, 171), but colder temperatures are required for worthwhile
crops. FAO
speaks of a dormancy period of about two months with average temperatures lower
a Californian
than 10? C (50 F) (www.fao.org/ag/agl/aglw/cropwater/olive.stm);
company defines
the best winter temperatures as lying around -2.8 to -3.9? C (25 to 27? F), while rarely falling
below -6.1 C (21 F). Areas with regular winter temperatures as high as 12.2? C (54? F), rarely frost
for commercial olive groves
ing or reaching -2.2? (28? F), are described as unsuitable or marginal
farm supply' at www. groworganic.eom/d/d3_205.html).
valley
('Peaceful
22
and Medina
The lowest temperatures recorded inMecca
during the eleven years of 1985-95
were 10? C (50? F) and 3? C (37? F) respectively. (The maximum
temperatures were 49.5? (121? F)
and 47.5? (118? F), with a mean of 30.8? (87? F) and 27.9? (82? F) respectively.) See the chart in
and Fisher, Vegetation, 22.
Ghazanfar
23
in the previous
The lowest temperatures in T?'if and Jawf (Jouf) in the period mentioned
note were -1.2? C (30? F) and -7.0? (19? F) respectively. (The highest were 39.5? (103? F) and 46.0?
(117? F), with means of 22.9? (73? F) and 21.2? (70? F) respectively. ) For olives at Jouf, see 'Saudi
result.
at www.scf.use.edu/~muzain/itp
Arabia Map'
104/project/introduction.htm.supplementary
ii (Riyadh,
Flora of Saudi Arabia,
1989), 74, who identifies Olea
Unfortunately, A. M. Migahid,
as cultivated, only gives the distribution for the wild variety.
europeana
24
573 (casting Meccans
'Arabia without Spices',
Cf. Crone, Meccan
Trade,
104, 139; Heck,
The
carrying oil from Syria by camel caravan as an early version of the "mobile oil corporation").
olive is also associated with Syria in al-D?nawar?, The Book of Plants, a-z, ed. B. Lewin, Uppsala
and Wiesbaden
1953, no. 466, s.v. 'zayt?n'.
(Uppsala Universitets ?rsskrift)
25
and translations are offered. The
As so often with technical terms, different explanations
main point here is their technical nature.

HOW DID THE QURANIC PAGANS MAKE A LIVING

395

underground and cease to be recoverable (18:41). There was a rich vocabulary

to do with the date palm, as well as terms for clover, leaves or stalks of grain,
stubble, gardens with thickly planted trees (jann?t alf?f) (78:16), and more
besides.26

II. Travels by land and sea

Agriculture was not the only economic activity pursued by the mushrik?n,
however. They also travelled by both land and sea, possibly for trade. There is
an obscure reference to a 'journey (rihld) inwinter and journey in summer' in
106:2, and an equally obscure reference to people who wronged themselves by
asking God for longer intervals between their journeys (rabban? b? Hd bayna
asf?rin?, 34:19). Whether these journeys were made by land or sea one cannot
tell. But one of the benefits derived from cattle was that 'they carry your heavy
loads to a land that you would not (otherwise) reach except with great distress'
(16:7). It is also journeys by land that spring to mind when we are told that
God provided the 'houses of the skins of cattle that you find light on the day
you journey and the day you alight' (16:80), though the unbelievers presum
ably slept in tentswhen they arrived at their destination by sea as well; and the
Quran often asks the infidels whether they have not gone around in the land
and seen the remains of past nations, or it tells them
(a-wa-lam yasir??'1-ard)
to do so (16:36; 27:69; 30:9, 42; 40:82; 47:10; cf. 22:46).
References to sailing and the sea are both numerous and vivid (suggesting
that the Prophet had been to sea, as has been remarked before).27 The people
addressed rode not just on cattle, but also on ships (23:22; 40:80; 43:12), and
theywere guided by the stars in darkness on both land and sea (6:97; cf. also
10:22). God sent the winds 'so that the ship may sail at His command and so
that you may seek of His bounty' (30:46), they are reminded. 'You (sg.) see the
ships going through it so that you (pi.) may seek of His bounty' (16:14; 35:12);
'it is He who makes the ship sail on the sea so that you may seek of His
bounty' (17:66), as variant versions say (cf. also 22:65; 31:31). When the people
addressed were caught in storms at sea they would call upon God alone, but
theywould ascribe partners toHim when they reached dry land (10:22f.; 29:65;
31:32); and the infidels are compared tomen on journeys by land and sea alike
in a sura classified as Medinese:
their deeds are like the mirage in the desert
that a man parched with thirstmistakes for water, or like shadows on a dark
ocean with waves piling on top of waves and clouds like shadows piling on top
of each other so that one can scarcely see a hand in front of one's eyes
(24:39f).
Some of these journeys could have been commercial in nature. 'Seeking of
God's bounty' (i.e. seeking a living) certainly seems to be an expression for
trading in some passages (cf. 2:198; 62:10, discussed below). But contrary to
the impression frequently conveyed by the secondary literature, the Quran
does not connect any of these journeys with trade.28 Some of themoving about
in the land should probably be connected with pasturing, and the journeys by
sea sometimes seem to be for fishing. Thus one passage says that 'He made the
26
Waines,
'Agriculture', 4If.
27
C. C. Torrey, The Commercial-Theological
Terms in the Koran
1892, 2n); and,
(Leiden,
more
'Der Koran
und das Meer',
probing
deeply, W. W. Barthold,
Zeitschrift der Deutschen
1929.
Gesellschaft,
Morgenl?ndischen
28
Torrey claims that sura 106 'might well be the words of a tradesman to his fellows, calling on
them to recognize the goodness of Allah
in prospering their winter and summer caravans'
(Terms,
to Yemen
and Syria'
2), and Heck also holds that 'the Qur'an
speaks of annual trading caravans
('Arabia without spices', 572). But this is simply exegetical interpretation of 106:2, and only one out
of many (Cf. Crone, Meccan
Trade, 205ff.).

396

PATRICIA CRONE

sea subservient to you so that the ship may sail in it by His command and so
that you may seek of His bounty' (45:12), and a variant spells this out as 'It is
He who has made the sea subservient to you so that you may eat of it tender
(or fresh) meat (li-ta'kul? minhu lahman tariyyan) and so that you may extract
from it ornaments that you wear' (16:14). We should envisage the mushrik?n
as fish-eaters, then, and as decorating themselves with sea-shells, or perhaps
(as the exegetes suggest) with pearls. Elsewhere the community is described as
two seas are not equal,
using both sweet water and salt water products: The
the one sweet, good to taste (fur?t), and pleasant to drink, the other salty and
bitter. Yet from each you (pi.) eat tender (or fresh) meat, and you extract
ornaments for you to wear; and you (sg.) see the ship ploughing through it so
that you (pi.) may seek the bounty of God'
(35:12). It is a startling idea that
theMeccans
should have been fishermen, let alone that they should have eaten
fresh-water fish, even though one would imagine that itwas cured. Which river
or lake could be intended in this passage? There is a parable about fishermen
in the Quran.
'Ask them about the town which was close by the sea when
they violated the Sabbath', it starts (7:163). But one would take this story to
be about Jews, and perhaps addressed to them as well, though the sura is
classified as Meccan.
III. Trade
suras comes in the form of
The only explicit reference to trade in theMeccan
exhortations against cheating with weights and measures. God had established
the balance 'so that you should not transgress inweighing; weigh with justice
and do not skimp in the balance' (55:7f.), one passage says, moving on from
there to God's
creation of the date palm, grain and sweet-smelling plants
'Give
full measure when you measure and weigh with a balance
(al-rayh?n).
that is straight' (17:35); 'Fill up the measure and the balance with justice'
(6:152). Shu'ayb is presented as saying much the same (7:85; ll:84f; 26:181),
and those who exact fullmeasure for themselves while giving less than due to
others are fiercely denounced (83:1-9). One would take these exhortations to
refer to internal exchanges rather than commerce with outsiders, let alone
long-distance trade. There are similar denunciations of cheating with weights
and measures in the Old Testament, where the setting is agrarian.
suras is all the
The overwhelmingly agrarian atmosphere of the Meccan
odder in that the Prophet's language is suffused with commercial metaphors
from the start, especially in connection with reward and punishment.29
Humans are envisaged as having an account with God, who enters their acts
on the debit side or credit side in a book or ledger (kit?b, im?m), which is both
clear (mub?n) and meticulous: nothing is left out (10:61; 18:49; 21:94; 34:3;
36:12; 45:28f; 78:29; cf. kit?b hafiz at 50:4). Every soul is seen as pledged
i.e. as security for the debts it has accumulated
(74:38, cf.
(rahind) to God,
to God
(aslafat,
52:21),30 and acts are also described as advances made
aslaftum), who will redeem them on the day of judgement (10:30; 69:24). On
the day of reckoning (yawm al-his?b) every individual will be confronted with
his own personal account book, or every nation will be confronted with its
individuals will be given their books in the right
record (45:28f.). Righteous
hand, sinners in the left or from behind (in the unobtrusive manner used by
29
For all this, see Torrey, Terms, 8ff.
30
In 52:21 every man seems to be pledged
him in full for his good deeds.

(rah?n) in the sense of ensuring

that God

will

repay

HOW DID THE QURANIC PAGANS MAKE A LIVING

397

discrete creditors) (69:19, 25; 84:7f., 10f.; cf. also 56:8f.),31 and all will be asked
to read their records aloud (69:19; 17:13f.: iqra* kit?baka); literacy is taken for
granted. In an alternative metaphor, souls will be weighed, and people whose
acts are heavy will prosper while those whose deeds weigh light in the balance
will be losers (23:102f.; 7:8f; 101:5). Unlike themushriks, God uses just scales
(21:47) and gives fullmeasure, whether of rewards or punishments: every soul
will be paid its due.32 These commonly used metaphors apart, one passage
counsels against selling the compact of God for a small price (16:95; compare
the expression used of the literal sale in the story of Joseph, 12:20), and
another speaks of buying idle tales (31:6), but metaphors to do with buying
and selling are much more common in the suras classified as Medinese.33
In principle, these metaphors could simply have formed part of the inher
ited religious language, formost of them are attested before the rise of Islam,
in some cases even inArabic poetry.34 But their use in theMeccan
suras is so
consistent and vivid that one would assume them to reflect current conditions,
or at the very least a recent commercial past.35 The commercial transactions
reflected in them could, however, have been largely or wholly internal.
IV. The mushrik

community: summary

All in all, the quranic passsages addressed to or concerned with mushrik?n take
us to a mixed economy in which the cultivation of grain, grapes, olives and
date palms was combined with the rearing of sheep, goats, camels, cows, oxen
and other animals, and also with maritime activity, at least in part for fishing.
The community was sufficiently differentiated for internal exchanges, and
there may have been external trade as well, but not on a scale sufficiently
important for the preacher to attempt to pull at the heartstrings of the
mushriks via that subject. God is never described as punishing people by ruin
ing trading ventures, allowing caravans to be plundered or burying them in
sandstorms, and there are no parables about trade in the book. For all that,
themetaphors testify to a well-developed
system of keeping written accounts,
a
some
of
suggesting
community
sophistication for all its rural setting. A high
level of literacy is presupposed.
V. The community of believers
We may now turn to the passages regulating the behaviour of the believers in
a manner showing that they have come to form a community, ifnot
necessarily
a politically independent one. We have already encountered some of these pas
sages: they implied that the believers were agriculturalists like the mushriks.
This is not what all of them do, however. A fair number of them, almost all
classified as Medinese,
describe the believers as traders.
'O you who believe, do not eat up your property with vanities among your
selves, but let there be trade (tijara) by mutual consent', 4:29 proclaims: trade
was a good thing. For all that, the believers should remember that
nothing
could be more important than God and His Messenger:
'Say: ifyour fathers,
31
Hence
the expression ash?b al-yamin in sura 74:39, where every soul is pledged
'except for
those of the right hand'.
32
to do with weighing at p. 15.
Terms, 22f, 32f, with other metaphors
33Torrey,
When
the day of judgement
is called a day on which there is no bay' (14:31, again in the
seems to be that there will be no
Medinese
2:254), themeaning
ransoming rather than there will be
no buying and selling (Torrey, Terms, 42).
34
Terms, 9f.
35Torrey,
Torrey, Terms, 13f.

398

PATRICIA CRONE

sons, brothers, spouses and clan, the wealth you have gained, the commerce
you fear may slacken (amw?l iqtaraftum?h? wa-tij?ra takhshawna kas?dah?),
and the dwellings you like, (if all these things) are dearer to you than God
and His messenger and striving inHis cause, then wait until God brings His
command (i.e. doom)' (9:24). The ideal believers were men 'whom neither com
merce nor buying and selling (al-tij?ra wa'l-bay?) can divert from the remem
brance of God, the performance of prayer, and the giving of alms' (24:37). But
this was more than could be said about most of them: 'O you who believe,
when the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of
God and leave off buying and selling (al-bay*); that is best for you, ifonly you
knew. When
the prayer is finished, you may disperse in the earth seeking of
God's bounty .... But when they see some trade (tij?ra) or amusement, they
scatter running after it, leaving you (sg.) standing. Say: what is with God
is
better than any amusement or trade. God is the best of providers' (62:9-11).
Elsewhere we hear of believers who were 'travelling in the land, seeking of
God's bounty' (62:10), presumably as traders.36 Tt will not be reckoned as a sin
against you if you seek God's bounty', as we are told in a regulation of the
pilgrimage (2:198): here too one would read the passage as referring to trade
(which is also how the exegetes read it), since there cannot have been many
other ways of making an income during the pilgrimage. Gold was sometimes
deposited with the People of the Book: some would faithfully return a whole
qint?r entrusted to them,while others would refuse to return a dinar unless one
persisted, claiming not to have any moral obligations to gentiles (3:75).
We are thus left in no doubt that the believers were engaged in, indeed
preoccupied with, trade. In line with this, there is a fair amount of regulation
of commercial transactions. God had permitted buying and selling, but He had
prohibited usury (2:275f.), and though the believers were entitled to their capi
tal sums, they should be gentle with debtors and fear the day when every soul
would be paid what it earned (2:279-81). When people borrowed money, it
was recommended that they have a scribe record the agreement as dictated
by the debtor or a representative of his and witnessed by twomen, or by a man
it was best for all commercial transactions to be written,
and two women;
unless they were completed on the spot, and all should be witnessed, whether
written or not (2:282). But if the believers were travelling and could not find
a scribe, a pledge would do (in lieu of a record). Things deposited on trust
should be faithfully returned (2:283). Unlike the regulation of the harvest ritu
als and the injunctions regarding fairweights and measures, these rules are laid
down without polemics against pagan ways of doing things.
There is also much commercial imagery in theMedinese
suras, mostly to
do with buying and selling rather than accounting.37 Much of it is used against
Jews and mushrik?n, who are said to sell God's
signs or compact for a small
so
or
are
not
to
warned
do
who
(2:41; 3:187; 5:44; 9:9; cf. theMeccan
price,
or
so
not
for
(3:199), or who conceal revelation or make
16:95),
doing
praised
it up in order to sell it for a small price (2:79, 174), or who sell their faith or
their souls for such a price (2:90, 102; 3:77), or buy this life with the next
(2:86), while they and others buy error or falsehood with guidance, or unbelief
at the price of faith (2:16; 3:177; 4:44; cf. also 5:106). By contrast, there are
36
to
73:20. This sura isMeccan,
but as the reference to holy war shows, the end is addressed
members of a politically active community. The end also differs from the earlier part of the sura
leave the entire passage as a single, strik
by not having any rhyme. All verse divisions of the Quran
1935, 66; I owe this reference
ingly long verse (cf. A. Spitaler, Die Versz?hlung des Koran, Munich,
toMichael
Cook
).
37
The shift is noted by Torrey, Terms, 35.

HOW DID THE QURANIC PAGANS MAKE A LIVING

399

people who sell their souls seeking God's pleasure (2:207), in particular those
who give their lives and property to the cause: 'Let those fight in the path of
God who sell the life of this world for the next' (4:74); 'God has purchased
from the believers their selves and their property in return for Paradise. They
in the bargain that you have
fight inGod's path, kill and are killed.Rejoice
concluded with Him' (9:111). Or again, 'O you who believe, shall I lead you
to a commerce (tij?rd) that will save you from a grievous penalty? That you
and strive in the path of God with your
believe inGod and His Messenger
property and your selves. That will be best for you, ifonly you knew' (61:10f).
Devoting one's wealth and/or life to Him is now cast as a loan (qard) thatGod
will repay several times over: 'The men and the women who pay alms, giving
God a goodly loan, shall have it doubled for them and receive a generous
reward' (57:18; 73:2038). 'Fight in the path of God and know thatGod is hear
ing and knowing. Who will give God a goodly loan, so that He may double it
many times over?' (2:244f). 'Who will give God a goodly loan, so that He may
double it?' (57:11, 64:17). 'Whatever you spend inGod's path shall be repaid to
you, you will not be wronged' (8:60). Believers who are sitting on the fence are
described as doing bad business with God: having bought error with guidance,
'their commerce is profitless (fa-m? rabihat tijaratuhumy (2:16). By contrast,
Those who recite the book of God and perform prayer and spend of what
We have provided them with, privately and publicly, they are hoping for a
commerce that will never fail (tij?ratan Ian tab?rdf (35:29).39
VI. Overall
The Quran is quite rich in information on the livelihoods of both mushrik?n
and believers, but the result is puzzling. The book describes the two as living
together in a community overwhelmingly based on agriculture while also
depicting the believers as forming a community of their own in which trade
was a prominent occupation. More
crudely put, it describes the mushrik?n
as agriculturalists and the believers as traders: the situation is the reverse of
what one expects. It should not be too difficult to reconcile the picture of the
believers' community given in the Quran with that of the Prophet's Medina
presented in other sources, but its description of the community shared by
as
mushrik?n and believers can hardly be said to be suggestive of Mecca
we know it from the tradition. Where do we go from there? I do not wish to
burden this paper with conjecture, so I simply leave the reader with the
question.

38
For the date of 73:20, see above, note 36.
39
Sura 35 is classified as Meccan,
but this particular

(without presupposing

political

independence).

passage

reflects a community

of believers