Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf

Who was Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf?

Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf was the great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the progenitor of the Banu Hashim clan of the distinguished Quraish tribe in Mecca.

His name was 'Amr al-ʻUlā but he was given the nickname Hashim which translates as pulverizer in Arabic - because he initiated the practice of providing crumbled bread in broth for the pilgrims to the Ka'aba in Mecca. Another version of the story of this naming is that Hashim comes from the Arabic root Hashm, to save the starving, because he arranged for the feeding of the people of Mecca during a seasonal famine, and he thus became "the man who fed the starving" or in Arabic: هشم الجياع‎.