The siqāya (in Arabic: سقاية) was an important honorary institution with a religious background but with obvious economic connotations in force in Pre-Islamic Mecca.

It was the free supply of drinks to pilgrims who had traveled to the city to attend the annual religious rite of the umrah. This ceremony included in the month of rajab the "sacred visit" to the Ka'ba and a set of worship practices centered around the urban temple dedicated to Hubal God. At other times, however, the temple hosted hundreds of other divinities in Arabia, thus acting as a true pantheon and a reason for the Arabs, who then stayed in the city to complete purchases and sales and to listen to news and poems.

Drinks were essentially composed of nabīdh, but also other infusions, mostly mildly alcoholic. It is unclear the amount of grain harvests imposed on the Quraysh for the purchase of raw material - dry grain of Ṭā'if, dates, dried figs and other fruits with high sugar content, honey, and withdrawal methods.

The assignment was carried out by Banū Hāshim, the clan that belonged to Mohammed, and his grandfather'Abd al-Muṭṭalib b. Hāshim was the owner at the time of the prophet's youth. Later, still during jāhiliyya, siqāya remained the prerogative of the son of these, Abū Ṭalib, who gave it to his brother-the paternal uncle of Muhammad al-'Abbās b. 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib, that is to say to the richest and oldest clan representative, regardless of his nephew Mohammed (who died without male heirs who survived him), to extinguish a debt he contracted. Bibliografiamodifica wikitesto

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