on the traditional methods handed down to them from their forefathers, consisted of
branding, phlebotomy, removal of diseased limbs and use of certain herbs.
MILITARY POWERS
The Quraysh were by nature or nurture, a peace-loving people, amiable in disposition; for,
unlike all other peoples inside and outside the Peninsula, their prosperity depended on the
development of free trade, continual movement of caravans, improvement of marketing
facilities in their own city and maintenance of conditions peaceful enough to encourage
merchants and pilgrims to bend their steps to Makkah. They were sufficiently farsighted to
recognize that their merchantile business was their life. Trade was the source of their live-
lihood as well as the means to increase their prestige as servants of the sanctuary. The
Qur'aan has also referred to the fact in the Soorah Quraysh:
"So let them worship the Lord of this House, who hath fed them against hunger hath
made safe from fear." [Qur'aan 106:3-5]
In other words, they were inclined to avoid a scramble unless their tribal or religious hon-
or was in peril. They were thus committed to the principle of peaceful coexistence; never-
theless, they possessed considerable military prowess. Their courage and intrepidity was as
axiomatic throughout Arabia as was their skill in horsemanship. "Al-Ghadbata al-Mudriyah"
or anger of the Mudar, which can be described as a tormenting thirst quenched by nothing
save blood, was a well known adage of Arabic language frequently used by the poets and
orators of pre-Islamic Arabia.
The military prowess of Quraysh was not restricted to their own tribal reserves alone.
They utilized the services of ahabeesh or the desert Arabs living around Makkah, some of
which traced their descent to Kinana and Khuzayma b. Mudrika the distant relation of Qu-
raysh. The Khuza'a were also confederates of the Quraysh. In addition, Makkah had always
had slaves in considerable numbers who were ever willing to fight for their masters. They
could thus draft, at any time, several thousand warriors under their banner. The strongest
force numbering 10,000 combatants, ever mustered in the pre-lslamic era, was enlisted by
the Quraysh in the battle of Ahzab.
MAKKAH, THE HEART OF ARABIA
By virtue of its being the seat of the national shrine and the most flourishing commercial
centre whose inhabitants were culturally and intellectually in Arabia. It was considered a
rival of Sana' in Yemen, but with the Abyssinians and Iranians gaining control over Sana, one
after another, and the decline of the earlier glamour of Hira and Ghassan, Makkah had
attained a place of undisputed supremacy in Arabia.