How many tribes were there in makkah before the mageration of hazrat mohammed?

Answer 1

There were several tribes in Mecca at this time. Archaeology shows that the city of Mecca was first built around the year 200 C.E. According to local legends, the indigenous tribe was the Khuza'a.

Other tribes that later settled in Mecca were the Quraysh, the Bakr and the Hilal. All of these tribes still lived in Mecca in Muhammad's time.

Around 440, the Quraysh ousted the Khuza'a from the dominant position and gained control of the city. The Quraysh were of course Muhammad's tribe, and they were still politically powerful - the "nobility" of Mecca - when he was born in 571. The Hilal, though lacking political power, were wealthy and might be considered the "bourgeois" tribe. The Khuza'a and the Bakr were merely respectable. The Bakr supported the Quraysh, who were their patrons; but the Khuza'a harboured a lot of latent resentment, and eventually supported Muhammad against the Quraysh.

Mecca was a city of immigrants, so there were a few people from nearly every tribe in Arabia. Most, though not all, of these immigrants were the poor labourers and servants of the native tribes. The other group of people who might be considered the "working class" of Mecca were the freed slaves, who usually remained attached to their former masters as "vassals" or servants. Some semi-nomadic tribes could also be found on the outskirts of the city.

The lowest rung of society was the slave population. Slaves could be from any tribe or foreign country, and were often Greek, Persian or Abyssinian.

N.B. There are legends, not supported by archaeology, that Mecca was founded by Abraham about 2,000 years before the Khuza'a arrived. These legends claim that Mecca was inhabited by a tribe called the Jurham, who disappeared from Mecca when the Khuza'a fought them. It may be true that the Khuza'a fought other Bedouin tribes in the generations before Mecca became a settled city.