Al-Hulays ibn Alqamah

Al-Ḥulays ibn ʿAlqamah was a respected leader of Banū Kinānah, the largest of the confederation of tribes around Makkah known as al-Aḥābīsh. He volunteered to negotiate with the Prophet ﷺ during the standoff at al-Ḥudaybiyyah (6 AH). Aware that al-Ḥulays's tribe held the consecrated sacrificial animals (hady) as particularly sacred, the Prophet ﷺ had the Muslims' several hundred decorated camels driven into the valley al-Ḥulays would pass through on his approach. Seeing the hungry, weakened animals still bearing their ceremonial markings, visible proof the Muslims had come only for pilgrimage, al-Ḥulays turned back to Quraysh without even meeting the Prophet ﷺ directly, declaring it forbidden to prevent consecrated pilgrimage animals from reaching their destination.

When Quraysh dismissed him with a racially charged insult, calling him an ignorant Bedouin unfit to have been sent, al-Ḥulays swore that none of Banū Kinānah would support Quraysh any further in the standoff, a significant defection given Kinānah's size relative to the rest of the coalition around Makkah.