The Zamzam Well (Arabic: بئر زمزم, romanized: Biʾru Zamzam Arabic pronunciation: [biʔru zam.zam]) is a well located within the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is located 20 m (66 ft) east of the Kaaba, the holiest place in Islam.
In Islamic narratives, the well is a miraculously generated source of water, which opened up thousands of years ago when Ismaʿil (Ishmael), the son of Ibrahim (Abraham), was left with his mother Hajar (Hagar) in the desert. It is said to have dried up or been buried while the tribe Jurhum lived in the area. The well is claimed to have been rediscovered and excavated in the 6th century by Abd al-Muttalib, grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Etymology The origin of the name is uncertain. According to historian Jacqueline Chabbi, the noun Arabic: زمزم, romanized: Zamzam is an onomatopoeia. She associates the noun with the adjectives Arabic: زمزم, romanized: zamzam and Arabic: زمازم, romanized: zumāzim which are onomatopoeic denoting a dull sound stemming from either a distant roll (of thunder) or a guttural sound emitted with a closed mouth by animals or people, however meaning either 'an abundant supply of water' or 'a source of water which does not dry up' if applied to Arabic: ماء, romanized: māʾ, lit. 'water'. She states that this latter meaning of an unintelligible guttural sound encompasses a layer of meaning associated with the sacred and mystical, in addition to the basic notion of the sound possibly being related to the concept of an abundant flow of water. Early Islamic sources use the terms Arabic: زمزم, romanized: zamzama and Arabic: زمازم, romanized: zamāzima to refer to the religious rites of Zoroastrianism and the Zoroastrians. The terms are onomatopoeic and derive from what Arabs perceived to be an indistinct, droning sound of the recitation of Avestan prayers and scriptures by Magi. Medieval Arabic writers like al-Masʿūdī generally state the well is named on the account of Arabic: زمزم, romanized: zamzama, lit. 'prayers recited by Zoroastrians'. They argue that based on their "kinship with Abraham" Zoroastrians regularly made pilgrimages to Mecca to pray over the well. A later account by al-ʿAynī claims that the well is named after Arabic: زمازم, romanized: zamāzima supposedly meaning 'bridles' which had been donated to the well by and named after Sasan, the Zoroastrian progenitor of the Sasanian Empire. Other medieval Arabic sources connect the name to the Angel Gabriel being the source of the murmuring being captured by this onomatopoeia. Hughes additionally identifies a tradition of deriving the name from an exclamation supposedly made by Hajar either being Arabic: زم، زم!, romanized: zamm, zamm!, lit. 'fill, fill!' or supposedly Egyptian meaning "Stop, stop!".
Traditional accounts
Traditional origins
Islamic tradition states that the Zamzam Well was opened up in some form by God to assist Hajar, the second wife of Ibrahim and mother of Ismaʿil. In Islamic narratives Ibrahim, commanded by God, led Hajar and Ismaʿil to the area of present-day Mecca, there he left them alone in the desert. The two are narrated to have been suffering severely from thirst. In some versions of the story Hajar walks back and forth between the two hills of Safa and Marwah in search of water. The story of the appearance of the well either involves the infant Isma'il scraping the ground with his feet and water springing out or God sending Gabriel (Jibra'il) who consequently opens up the well using a variety of methods depending on the narration. The wealth of mystic discourses discussing the history of the well is from the Abbasid era and largely extra-Quranic, as the well is not referred to directly by the Quran. According to Islamic tradition, Ibrahim rebuilt a shrine called Arabic: بيت ٱللَّٰه, romanized: Baytu 'l-llah, lit. 'House of God' near the site of the well. A building supposedly first constructed by Adam, which Muslim tradition regards as the origin of the Kaʿba. The well is meant to have dried up (possibly as punishment) during the settlement of the tribe of the Jurhum, who initially are meant to have migrated to the area from Yemen. In some narrations focused on the objects deposited in Zamzam the well simply dries up, then prior to the Jurhum being forced to leave Mecca because of God expelling them for their misdeeds their leader buries sacred objects from the Kaʿba in the location of Zamzam. In others, focused on the well itself, the objects are placed in Zamzam itself, with the well ultimately being buried by the leader of the Jurhum.
Traditional rediscovery According to traditional Muslim accounts, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib is responsible for the rediscovery of the well. He purportedly had a divine precognition about the well at some point in his life. A common narrative relayed by Ibn Ishaq via Ibn Hisham involves four dreams, the first three concern mysterious objects called Arabic: طيبة, romanized: Ṭayba, Arabic: برة, romanized: Barra and Arabic: المضنونة, romanized: al-Maḍnūna he is meant to dig for, the fourth then names Zamzam. Other accounts omit the third dream naming Arabic: المضنونة, romanized: al-Maḍnūna. Following ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib's precognitions to dig, he is claimed to have found a number of artefacts: golden gazelle figurines, armour, and several specimens of a type of sword called Arabic: السيف القلعى, romanized: as-Sayf al-Qalaʿī, lit. 'Qalaʿī sword'. Ibn Saʿd relays two separate traditions regarding the discovery of a well by ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, one involving Zamzam's discovery and water disputes among the Quraysh, the other involving the series of dreams and said artefacts but neither water nor the name Zamzam. Hawting's analysis argues that the oral traditions surrounding the Arabic: بئر الكعبة, romanized: Biʾru 'l-Kaʿba, lit. 'Well of the Kaʿba', a dry well inside the Kaʿba reputed to have been used as the treasury of the Kaʿba and as a place for religious offerings in pre-Islamic Mecca and Zamzam merged at some point with stories concerning the former being adapted to feature the latter.
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