The Medinan Wives of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb and His Brother, Zayd

The Arabic genealogical literature, which is the outcome of the well-known Arab preoccupation with genealogy, is one of the best sources for the study of early Islamic history. This short paper analyzes several interesting gene-alogical details relating to the second of the Righteous Caliphs, 'Umar b. al-Khattab, and his brother, Zayd. It will be shown that two of 'Umar's wives belonged to the Aws, more precisely, to the 'Amr b. 'Awf (who were inhabitants of the village of Quba' to the south of Medina). Interestingly, 'Umar's elder brother, Zayd, also had two wives from among the 'Amr b. 'Awf. Two of these four marriages are especially notable: after the Hijra, 'Umar mar-ried the granddaughter of the Prophet's arch-enemy, Abū 'Āmir, nicknamed al-rahib, or "the God-fearing", while before the Hijra Zayd married Abū 'Amir's daughter.