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THE THEME OF ANNUNCIATION is demonstrated further in stories which anchor the idea of attestation in the local Arabian background of the Prophet's life. These are not only polemical stories about the Arabian Jews who await the Prophet's appearance, only to reject him later on, but also anecdotes about Arabs who never cease to believe in him, once they become aware of his expected emergence. Muḥammad features in these traditions not as a Quranic prophet deriving his attestation from that scripture, but first and foremost as an Arab whose attestation is rooted in local Arabian history. Although the stories are constructed as if to assert Muhammad's genuine message, they are actually designed to promote the interests, claims, and status of certain Arab groups vying for recognition in medieval Islamic society. The stories thus demonstrate the political function of the theme of annunciation. Some traditions revolve round south Arabian ancestors. The traditions about them seem to have been circulated by Muslims belonging to the Anṣār, i.e. the Aws and the Khazraj, who were of south Arabian descent and dwelt in Medina. The struggle of the Ansar for recognition in Islam as reflected in traditions glorifying their past has already been noticed by Goldziher.

One specific tradition, attributed to the Companion Ibn ‘Abbas, revolves round the king of Yemen, Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, who is said to have obtained his knowledge about Muḥammad from a secret book he inherited from his forefathers. He communicates his knowledge to ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib (Muḥammad's grandfather), who has come to Yemen to congratulate the king on his recent as- cension to the throne. Sayf is able to tell ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib the name of the Prophet and describe his external appearance. The king stresses, obviously, that the new religion of the Prophet will establish itself in Yathrib ( = Medina), where Muḥammad will enjoy the support of the Anṣār. He also alludes to the persecution about to be perpetrated by Quraysh on Muḥammad. The political slant of the story is evident enough.

Other traditions about south Arabian history reintroduce the Jews as the source of the textual attestation of Muḥammad. They disclose the information to a south Arabian mythological forefather, namely, the tubba’ (i.e. a Yemeni ruler) Tuban As'ad Abū Karib. Ibn Ishaq relates that this tubba’ raided the Ḥijāz, but was prevented from attacking Medina by a pair of Medinan rabbis of Qurayza who were able to tell him about the future emigration of Muḥammad to that town. In a tradition of the Medinan Companion Ubayy ibn Ka'b recorded by Ibn Sa'd, the Jews provide a full description of Muḥammad in which he is depicted as Riding a Camel, etc. This is the very description which, as seen above, was circulated as a prophetic ḥadīth.