Was Marwan ibn al-Hakam the First “Real” Muslim?
Was Marwan ibn al-Hakam the First “Real” Muslim?
This chapter examines how we may we use genealogies for writing about the past by focusing on genealogies as a source for writing religious history, and particularly that of the early Muslim community in Arabia and Iran. It analyses the genealogy of the Umayyad Marwan ibn al-Hakam (r. 684–5 CE) for what it may suggest of the identity of ‘the early community of Believers’. It considers the contradictory nature of the surviving literary reports about Marwan before discussing Marwan's genealogy, embedded in the early Arabic tradition, as onomastic evidence. By analysing the onomasticon of the families who played a prominent role in the early Believers' movement, the chapter shows that Marwan drew on names of qur'anic prophets when naming no less than a half-dozen of his own sons. It argues that Marwan's naming practices indicate a key turning point in the history of ‘the early community of Believers’ and the initial emergence of a Muslim identity.
Keywords: religious history, Arabia, Iran, genealogy, Marwan ibn al-Hakam, Arabic tradition, onomasticon, qur'anic prophets, Muslim identity, naming practices
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