The slaves of the Quraysh: a study of the Quraysh discourse against the Ridda movement (the Apostates)

The purpose of the present paper is to focus on the eleventh year of the Islamic calendar in order to achieve a new reading of the Ridda / Apostasy movement and to prove that the Quraysh caliph had meant by Islam to address most of the Arabs living in the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the prominence and representation of the elements of politics and power, this study looks through a discursive lens on the subject, and accordingly the Quraysh discourse is analyzed within the theoretical framework of Laclau and Mouffe. Together with the documented demonstration of the agency and determinative influence of politics in the field of religion, especially in the mentioned period, the reading obtained in the framework of this theory of Islamic history and in connection with the disputed issue of apostasy proves that subjects of the Quraysh Islamic discourse had been literally enslaved (taslīm), not Muslim (i.e. one who surrenders). What confirms this claim is the variable and volatile definition of the dominant discourse relating to Islam and being a Muslim.