Qusayy ibn Kilab Takes Mecca

The guardianship of the House and rule of Mecca passed from Khuza'a to Qusayy ibn Kilab around 440 CE — with three accounts of the cause and Ya'mar ibn Awf's arbitration.

When Hulayl ibn Hubshiyya al-Khuza'i died, war broke out between Khuza'a and Quraysh over the rule of Mecca and the House ¹. Al-Mubarakpuri relates three accounts of the cause: that Qusayy saw himself worthier of the Ka'ba — Quraysh being the chiefs of Ishmael's house — and sought his people's help; or that Hulayl charged him with the House's care; or that Hulayl gave the House's rule to his daughter Hubba, whom Abu Ghubshan administered as her agent — and Qusayy bought it from him for a skin of wine ¹.

Whichever it was, the two parties fought fiercely, then made Ya'mar ibn Awf of Banu Bakr their arbiter. He judged that Qusayy was worthier of the Ka'ba and the rule of Mecca, that every life Qusayy had taken was written off and trampled under his feet, and that blood-wits were due for those Khuza'a and Banu Bakr had lost — so he was called that day "al-Shaddakh" (the crusher) ².

He gathered his people from their dwellings into Mecca and divided it into quarters among them ²; he founded Dar al-Nadwa on the northern side of the Ka'ba's mosque as Quraysh's assembly ³; and his were the offices of leadership, the banner, the gatekeeping, the watering and the feeding ¹. His seizure of Mecca and the House fell in the mid-fifth century CE, in 440 ⁴; and so complete sovereignty and effective command in Mecca passed to Qusayy and then to Quraysh ¹.