Tamim al-Dari

Tamim bin Aws al-Dari (Arabic: تميم بن أوس الداري‎‎) (died 661) was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Biography

Originally a Christian priest, al-Dari lived in Palestine and belonged to the Bani al-Dar—a clan of the Banu Lakhm tribal confederation. His first contact with Muhammad was in 628 CE when he led a delegation of ten other Bani al-Dar members. Previously Muhammad granted Bani al-Dar a part of the revenues of conquered land after the Muslim victory at the Battle of Khaybar. Al-Dari confronted Muhammad to receive the revenues and after meeting him, al-Dari embraced Islam and settled in Medina.[1]

After his conversion, al-Dari became an adviser to Muhammad, particularly on public worship. His advice included the introduction of oil lamps in mosques. In addition to being an adviser, he is traditionally considered to be the first narrator of Islamic religious stories. Many of his stories included ones on the end of the world, beasts and the coming of the Antichrist.[1] His wife thought he was dead and married to another man. The matter was communicated to Caliph Umar, and he referred it to Ali who said that the Prophet has foreseen all that would happen to Tamim and left the wife to have her own choice between the two husbands. The wife however decided to go back to Tamim al-Dari.[1]

Prior to Muhammad's death, al-Dari was granted a large fief for control of Hebron, Beit Einun and the surrounding area, although at that time Palestine was still under Byzantine control.[1] The deed was written up by Ali and when the caliph Umar and his Rashidun army conquered Palestine, al-Dari acquired the territory. Since, he had only one daughter and no sons, after al-Dari's death, the heirs of the Hebron fiefdom would be the descendants of his brother Nu'aim. Originally, al-Dari's role as the ruler of the fiefdom was to collect land taxes. He was forbidden to enslave any of the locals or sell their property.[2] In 655 CE, al-Dari left Medina to reside in his native Palestine where he died in 661.[1] According to tradition, he is buried in the town of Bayt Jibrin (in the vicinity of Hebron), destroyed by Israel in 1948.[3]

Today his shrine is abandoned, it is located just north to Kibbutz Beit Guvrin

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Houtsma, Martijn. Arnold, T.W. (1993).E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936 BRILL, pp.646-648. ISBN 90-04-09796-1.
  2. ↑ Gil, Moshe. (1997). A History of Palestine, 634-1099 Cambridge University Press, pp.129-130.
  3. ↑ Sharon, Moshe (1997): Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae pp.140-141. ISBN 90-04-11083-6
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