I say: Thus the truth was restored to its proper place and the fugitive of justice was brought home once more (1). Quraysh settled securely in the land, achieved their full purpose with Khuzāʿah, and took possession of the Ancient, venerable House. Yet Khuzāʿah had introduced idol-worship: they set up the idols around the Kaʿbah, slaughtered sacrifices to them, implored them in supplication, sought their aid in battle, and asked them for sustenance.

Quṣayy then lodged the Qurayshite clans in the hollows of Mecca and settled another group on its outskirts, so people spoke of “Quraysh of the Valley” and “Quraysh of the Outskirts.” All the emblems of authority accrued to Quṣayy ibn Kilāb—the gate-keeping and custodianship of the House and the banner. He built a council-house to remove grievances and settle disputes, calling it Dār al-Nadwah. Whenever a matter became knotty, the chiefs of every clan would gather there, consult together, and decide it; no war-banner was unfurled, no marriage contracted, and no maiden who had come of age put on her robe except within its walls (2). The doorway of this house opened onto the Sacred Mosque.

In later years the house passed from the Banū ʿAbd al-Dār to Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām, who sold it in the time of Muʿāwiyah for one hundred thousand dirhams. Muʿāwiyah reproached him, saying, “You have sold your people’s honor for a hundred thousand?” Ḥakīm replied, “True honor today lies in God-fearingness. By Allah, I bought it in the Jāhiliyyah for a skin of wine, and now I have sold it for one hundred thousand. I declare before you all that its price is a charity in the path of Allah—so which of us is the loser?” Al-Dāraquṭnī records the story in Names of the Men of the Muwaṭṭaʾ (3).

Quṣayy also oversaw the watering of the pilgrims; they drank only from the cisterns he provided. At that time Zamzam lay buried and stopped up (4) since the days of Jurhum; the passage of time had caused its matter to be forgotten, and the people no longer knew its location.

Al-Wāqidī says: Quṣayy was the first to kindle and keep a fire at Muzdalifah so that those coming from ʿArafāt might be guided to it. He likewise instituted the rifādah, the feeding of pilgrims during the season until they returned to their lands.

Ibn Isḥāq relates: Quṣayy made this obligatory upon them, saying, “People of Quraysh, you are God’s neighbors, the inhabitants of Mecca (5), the people of the Sanctuary. The pilgrims are God’s guests and the visitors to His House, and they are the ones most entitled to hospitality (6). Provide them with food and drink during the days of ḥajj until they depart from you.” They obeyed. Each year they set aside a contribution from their wealth, handed it over to him, and he prepared it as food for the people during the days of Minā. The practice he instituted continued in the Jāhiliyyah until the rise of Islam, and it has remained in Islam up to this very day: it is the food that the ruler distributes every year at Minā to the people until the pilgrimage draws to a close (7).