“Matrilineal Lineages as a Signifier of Social Links in the Context of Badr and 2. Uḥud,”

The article analyzes Ibn Ḥabīb’s presentations of social ties in the context of the battles of Badr and Uḥud through matrilineal lineages in terms of arrangement, focus, and objectives. A central theme of this study is the use of women’s (mostly Qurayshite) consanguine or marital relationships with prominent men as a historical signifier of the transition from jāhiliyya to Islam. This shift also sheds light on the process in which a new religious elite emerged and its relation to the pre-Islamic aristocracy. Ibn Ḥabīb’s atypical model of arranging information, therefore, enhances our understanding of earliest kinship networks and helps us see the importance of matrilineal ties better than other works which tend to occlude them.