The emirate of the Hijaz (the government of Mecca)

The Sealed Nectar devotes a chapter to the emirate of the Hijaz, tracing the leadership of Mecca and the custody of the House from Isma'il to Quraysh. ¹ It then describes the government of the Hijaz at the rise of Islam as a mixture of worldly primacy and religious leadership, with councils similar to a parliament's, but weak. ²

• Isma'il held the leadership of Mecca and the custody of the House for his whole life. He died aged 137 years, according to the author's report from the Book of Genesis. Then his sons Nabit and then Qaydar held it, or it is said the other way round. ^{1 3 4}
• Then leadership passed to Jurhum under Mudad ibn Amr. The sons of Isma'il had a respected position but no share in rule, and Jurhum ruled for some twenty centuries. ^{1 5 6}
• Then Khuza'a after the expulsion of Jurhum in the middle of the second century CE, for three hundred years, with the three privileges that remained to the tribes of Mudar in the pilgrimage. ^{7 5 8}
• Then Qusayy ibn Kilab and Quraysh from the middle of the fifth century CE, in 440 CE, when Quraysh gained full sovereignty and binding authority in Mecca. ^{9 10} See the seizure of Mecca by Qusayy and the offices of Quraysh.

The Arabs regarded the government of the Hijaz with esteem and respect, and saw its people as leaders and custodians of the religious centre. It ruled among the Arabs in the name of religious leadership, and in the sanctuary and its surroundings it acted as a government that looked after the interests of those coming to the House and carried out the law of the religion of Abraham. It had councils and formations similar to a parliament's, but they were weak and could not bear the burden, as the day of the Abyssinian invasion made clear. ² The author calls what Quraysh formed through its offices a statelet, indeed a democratic near-statelet. ¹¹

The description of weakness and the comparison to parliament are the author's judgement; see the political condition. The expedition of Abraha is at the Year of the Elephant.