About this Event
This talk will focus on ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa, a prominent companion of the Prophet Muḥammad, who was entrusted with various tasks related to the Jews of Medina and Khaybar. Among his responsibilities was estimating Khaybar’s date produce following the defeat of its Jewish inhabitants. I will discuss rare accounts revealing that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa’s wet nurse was from Khaybar, and I will argue that his childhood connection with Khaybar’s Jews offers a persuasive explanation for his professional trajectory. The talk will also place the accounts of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa’s wet nurse in the broader context of nursing ties between Muḥammad’s Medinan supporters and the Jews. I seek to show that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa belonged to a group of Muḥammad’s supporters who had shared close connections with the Jews before the rise of Islam but who subsequently changed their attitude toward them during Muḥammad’s Medinan period.
Yaara Perlman is a historian of the premodern Middle East, working at the intersection of kinship ties created through women, tribal affiliations, and social and political networks. Her research covers topics pertaining to pre-Islamic Arabia, as well as to the early history of Islam from the time of the Prophet Muḥammad to the period of the early ʿAbbāsid caliphs. Her first book, currently in progress, focuses on Khaybar, an oasis that during Muḥammad’s lifetime was inhabited by Jews. It seeks to elucidate Muḥammad’s considerations in making administrative appointments there, along with the close relations that some of his companions shared with the Jews. She holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and has been a postdoctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University and Yale Law School.
This talk is a part of the Jews in the World of Islam Lecture Series.
Event venue & nearby stays
MES Reading Room, Calhoun Hall (CAL) 516, 201 West 21st Street, Austin, United States
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