Attiya al-Qurazi
عَطِيَّةُ الْقُرَظِيُّʿAṭiyyah al-Quraẓī
Biography
ʿAṭiyyah al-Quraẓī was a young boy of Banū Qurayẓah at the time of the tribe's surrender and mass execution (5 AH). He later narrated that he was spared, along with the other young boys, because he had not yet grown pubic hair, the physical standard used to distinguish those old enough to be counted among the executed men from those still classified as children. His report became one of the primary pieces of evidence classical jurists relied on for determining the age of legal majority in matters of Islamic law where an exact birth date was unknown.
Significance
His first-person account of being physically inspected and spared for not having reached puberty became a key textual basis in Islamic jurisprudence for determining legal majority (bulugh) absent a known birth date