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A name and a place. According to the philologist al-Layth, quoted by Yaqut, the name comes from the verb ʿakaza, “to crush the other”: the Arabs gathered there to compete in glory. The early authors do not place the market in exactly the same spot. Al-Asmaʿi speaks of a palm grove in a valley, one night from Taif and three from Mecca, at the place called al-Uthayda'. For al-Waqidi and Ibn Ishaq, it was held between Nakhla and Taif; for Ibn al-Kalbi, one stage beyond Qarn al-Manazil, on the road to Sanaa, and it belonged to the tribes of Qays and Thaqif. Al-Asmaʿi adds that there were rocks there around which people circled in pilgrimage: a cult that Islam would erase.
The great fair. Every year, the tribes spent several weeks there before the Hajj, then went on to the fairs of Majanna and Dhu l-Majaz. The calendar varies with the sources: the whole month of Shawwal according to Yaqut, from 1 to 20 Dhu l-Qaʿda according to Saudipedia. People sold goods there, proclaimed alliances, truces and ransoms, and poets recited their verses of pride. It is reported, from al-Asmaʿi, that a leather tent was set up at Okaz for an-Nabigha adh-Dhubyani, who judged the poets. Hassan ibn Thabit, al-Aʿsha and al-Khansa' came to recite there. Al-Khansa' declaimed her verse about her brother: « وَإِنَّ صَخْرًا لَتَأْتَمُّ الْهُدَاةُ بِهِ، كَأَنَّهُ عَلَمٌ فِي رَأْسِهِ نَارُ » (“Sakhr: the guides themselves follow him, as if he were a mountain with a fire burning at its summit”). Modern tradition links to Okaz the great poems called the Muʿallaqat.
The young Muhammad and the war of Fijar. Quraysh were at Okaz, during a sacred month, when they learned of a murder that set off the war called Fijar (“the sacrilegious war”) against Qays ʿAylan. The Prophet ﷺ was present on some of these days with his uncles. He later said: « كُنْتُ أُنَبِّلُ عَلَى أَعْمَامِي » (“I used to hand arrows to my uncles”). He was fourteen or fifteen according to Ibn Hisham, twenty according to Ibn Ishaq.
Quss ibn Saʿida. It is reported that Arab delegations, who came to Medina, heard the Prophet ﷺ mention Quss ibn Saʿida, the famous orator of the tribe of Iyad. He is said to have seen him preaching at Okaz on a red camel: « مَنْ عَاشَ مَاتَ، وَمَنْ مَاتَ فَاتَ، وَكُلُّ مَا هُوَ آتٍ آتٍ » (“Whoever lives dies, whoever dies is gone, and all that is to come will come”). Al-Bayhaqi gathers many versions of it. Ibn Kathir judges all these chains weak, while considering that they support one another to establish the substance of the story.
The Prophet ﷺ calls the tribes. After the revelation, Okaz became a place of preaching. Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah (may Allah be pleased with him) relates that, for ten years in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ followed people into their camps at Okaz and Majanna, and at Mina during the pilgrimage, saying: « مَنْ يُؤْوِينِي؟ مَنْ يَنْصُرُنِي حَتَّى أُبَلِّغَ رِسَالَةَ رَبِّي، وَلَهُ الْجَنَّةُ؟ » (“Who will shelter me? Who will support me so that I may convey the message of my Lord, and Paradise will be his?”). People were wary of him and pointed at him. A man said he had seen him at the souq of Okaz: « يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ، قُولُوا: لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ تُفْلِحُوا » (“O people, say: there is no god but Allah, and you will succeed”). Behind him, Abu Jahl shouted that this man wanted to turn them away from their gods. It was also on the way to Okaz, at Nakhla, that jinn heard him recite the Quran (see no. 02).
The verse on trade. Ibn ʿAbbas reports: “Okaz, Majanna and Dhu l-Majaz were markets of the pre-Islamic era. When Islam came, people felt it was wrong to trade there.” Allah then revealed: « لَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ أَن تَبْتَغُوا۟ فَضْلًا مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ » (“There is no blame upon you for seeking bounty from your Lord”, al-Baqara 2:198, translation of the meaning, Sahih International), that is, during the seasons of the pilgrimage.
The end and the return. The market still lived under the caliphs. In 129 AH (747), Kharijites (the Haruriyya of al-Mukhtar ibn ʿAwf), who had just taken Mecca, plundered Okaz, and the fair never recovered. The place remained a stage on the road of the pilgrims from Yemen for several centuries; the ruins of Qasr Mushrifa and the fort of al-ʿUrfa', close by, date from later periods (see no. 01 and 04). Its exact location was then forgotten and long debated. In 1369 AH (1950), ʿAbd al-Wahhab ʿAzzam, Muhammad ibn Bulayhid and Hamad al-Jasir together published a small book, Mawqiʿ ʿOkaz, with a map of the proposed location. King Faisal then had the question studied by commissions of geographers and historians. The festival was revived in 1428 AH (2007), and the “Souq Okaz City” opened on 1 October 2017. Around the site, the Heritage Commission reports rock drawings and carvings, ancient foundations near the well of al-Bayda', and commemorative inscriptions in Kufic from the first centuries of Islam.
What is certain and what is not
- Certain: Okaz was a pre-Islamic fair, and verse 2:198 answered the scruple of the Muslims (al-Bukhari).
- Certain: the preaching of the Prophet ﷺ at the fairs, including Okaz, is reported by Jabir and by an eyewitness (Ahmad).
- Weak: the sermon of Quss ibn Saʿida seen by the Prophet ﷺ; and the story of an-Nabigha judging the poets rests on an unnamed chain.
- Disputed: the exact location of the ancient market; the early authors differ, and the present site rests on the 20th-century identification.
- Disputed: the calendar of the fair (Shawwal or Dhu l-Qaʿda) and its beginnings (modern estimates vary by several centuries).
- To be checked: the content of, and access to, the inscriptions and carvings reported around the site.
Sources
1. Al-Bukhari, as-Sahih, no. 2050, 2098, 4519 (Okaz, Majanna, Dhu l-Majaz and verse 2:198); no. 773 (on the way to Okaz, at Nakhla).
2. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Musnad, no. 14456 (Jabir: « مَن يُؤوِيني »); no. 23151 (witness at the souq of Okaz); no. 16023 (Rabiʿa ibn ʿAbbad, same words at Dhu l-Majaz).
3. Yaqut al-Hamawi, Muʿjam al-buldan, vol. 4, p. 141, entry « عكاظ » (al-Layth, al-Asmaʿi, al-Waqidi, calendar).
4. Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalani, Fath al-Bari, vol. 3, p. 593 (location according to Ibn Ishaq and Ibn al-Kalbi).
5. ʿUmar ibn Shabba, Tarikh al-Madina, vol. 1, p. 290 (tent of an-Nabigha, Hassan, al-Aʿsha, al-Khansa').
6. Ibn Hisham, as-Sira an-nabawiyya, vol. 1, p. 183-185 (war of Fijar).
7. Al-Bayhaqi, Dala'il an-nubuwwa, vol. 2, p. 100-103 (Quss ibn Saʿida).
8. Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa n-nihaya, vol. 3, p. 298-314 (Quss ibn Saʿida, judgement on the chains).
9. Quran, al-Baqara 2:198 (Sahih International translation).
10. Saudipedia, « سوق عكاظ » (end in 129 AH, revival of 2007, city of 2017, remains): https://saudipedia.com/سوق-عكاظ
11. Saudipedia, « كتاب موقع عكاظ »: https://saudipedia.com/كتاب-موقع-عكاظ
12. Al-Madina, « سوق عكاظ: عودة مشرقة… » (14 January 2015; commissions of King Faisal, plundering of 129 AH): https://www.al-madina.com/ampArticle/355068