al-barfl x b. ma e r¿r 97 al-buldān, ed. Muammad {Abd al-Ramān al-Mar{ashlī (Beirut 1997), 2:261–2. John P. Turner al-Barāx b. Ma{rūr Al-Barāx b. Ma{rūr (d. 622 C.E.) was one of the leaders of the Anﾉār, the Medi- nan helpers of the prophet Muammad. His fame mainly rests on two episodes: he is said to have been the first to pray in the direction of the Ka{ba when Muammad still favoured Jerusalem as the qibla, and, according to some traditions, he was the first to pledge allegiance to Muammad at al-{Aqaba. Both episodes are said to have taken place shortly before the hijra of the Prophet. Al-Barāx was at that time the leader of the Banū Salima, a sub-clan of the Khazraj, one of the two main Arab tribes of Medina (the other being al-Aws). Around 620 C.E., when he was on his way to Mecca to perform a pilgrimage—or on his way back—he allegedly decided not to turn his back to the Ka{ba but instead to pray towards it. The traditions then differ over whether he returned to the old direc- tion of prayer—al-Shām, i.e., Syria, most probably signifying Jerusalem—when he learned that the Prophet disapproved of his decision, or whether he adhered to it until his death. Al-Barāx seems to have been the oldest participant and the leader of the Anﾉār in what is usually called the second meeting at al-{Aqaba. According to the tradition, he was one of the twelve leaders (nuqabāx, sing. naqīb) that Muammad appointed from among the Medinan helpers pres- ent at the meeting and the first actually to pledge allegiance to Muammad. Other traditions credit other persons with this distinction. He is also mentioned as being the first in other respects: he was allegedly the first to bequeath a third of his wealth to the Prophet at his death (which the lat- ter returned to al-Barāx’s relatives), he was first of the leaders appointed at al-{Aqaba to die, and he was the first Muslim at whose tomb the Prophet prayed. He is said to have died in 622 C.E., about a month before the hijra of the Prophet and to have been buried facing Mecca. He is thus credited with being the first to face Mecca in both his life and his death. Bibliography Biographies Ibn al-Athīr, Usd al-ghāba fī ma{rifat al-ﾉaāba, ed. Shihāb al-Dīn al-Najafī (Tehran 1923–4), 1:173–4; al-Dhahabī, Siyar a{lām al-nubalāx, ed. Shu{ayb al-Arnaxū｢ (Beirut 1981), 1:267– 9; Ibn Sa{d, al-abaqāt al-kubrā, ed. Josef Horovitz (Leiden 1904), 3/2:146–74; Ibn {Abd al-Barr, al-Isti{āb fī ma{rifat al-aﾉāb, ed. {Alī Muammad al-Bajjāwī (Cairo 1960), 1:151–3. Historical sources Ibn Hishām, Sīrat rasūl Allāh, ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (Göttingen 1858), 1:294–5, 297, 300, 309; al-Balādhurī, Ansāb al-ashrāf, ed. Yūsuf al-Mar{ashlī (Beirut 2008), 1/2:575–6, 583, 595, 598, 600, 644; al-Dhahabī, Taxrīkh al-Islām, vol. 1, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, ed. {Umar {Abd al-Salām Tadmurī (Beirut 1987), 301–4; Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī l-taxrīkh, ed. Carl-Johann Tornberg (1851–76, repr. Bei- rut 1965–7), 2:99–100; Ibn ﾆanbal, Musnad al-Imām Amad b. ﾆanbal, ed. Muammad Nāﾉir al-Dīn al-Albānī (Beirut 1985), 3:460– 2; Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, {Uyūn al-athar fī funūn al-maghāzī wa-l-shamāxil wa-l-siyar (Beirut 1980 2 ), 1:198–202, 206, 208–9; al-abarī, Taxrīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk, ed. M. J. de Goeje et al. (Leiden 1879–1901), 1:1217–23. Andreas Görke