Brothers who have heaped their offences upon us—
a tale of our own days and of times long past.

Some have said that the tribe was called “Quraysh” after taqarrush, which means earning a livelihood and engaging in trade; this was reported by Ibn Hishām(1).

Al-Jawharī writes: “al-qarsh denotes acquisition and collection; one says: qarasha – yaqrishu.”

Al-Farāʾ adds: “Because of this it was called Quraysh. It is a tribe whose forefather is al-Naḍr ibn Kinānah; everyone descended from him is Qurashī, to the exclusion of the other descendants of Kinānah and those above him.”(2)

Another opinion derives the name from ‘searching.’

Hishām ibn al-Kalbī said: “Al-Naḍr ibn Kinānah was nicknamed Quraysh because he would search out people’s needs and meet them from his own wealth; taqarrush in this context means searching. His sons used to look into the needs of the pilgrims during the season and supply them with provisions until they reached their homelands. For that deed he was called Quraysh, and they were called Quraysh as well.”(3)

Al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥillizah used the word with this meaning when he said:

O spokesman who inquires about us before ʿAmr—
will he be granted any reprieve?(4)

This was cited by al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār.

Yet another view holds that “Quraysh” is the diminutive of qarsh, a marine creature. A poet declared:

Quraysh is the beast that lives in the sea;
because of it Quraysh received its name.

Al-Bayhaqī reports: Abū Naṣr ibn Qatādah told us, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Malīnī informed us,(5) and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Khalīl al-Nasawī narrated to us,(6) that Abū Kurayb related: Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ told us, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from Abū Rakānah al-ʿĀmirī, that Muʿāwiyah said to Ibn ʿAbbās, “Why was Quraysh called Quraysh?” He replied, “Because of a creature that dwells in the sea—the largest of its kind—called al-qarsh; it passes nothing, whether lean or fat, without devouring it.” Muʿāwiyah said, “Recite something on that for me,” so he recited the verses of al-Jumaḥī:

Quraysh is the beast that dwells in the sea;
by it Quraysh was given the name.
It devours the lean and the fat alike,
leaving no feathers to the two-winged prey.
Thus do the people of Quraysh across the land—
they consume the territories with ravenous appetite.(7)