Khaybar

The name

Yāqūt reports that khaybar meant 'fortress' in the language of the people who held the place, and that the name properly covers a district containing several such strongholds with their fields and palm groves rather than a single town — the sources use the plural khayābir of them. The name is a description of what the place was: defended ground around water.

The oasis

Khaybar lies north of Medina in the Ḥijāz, on the edge of a great lava field, watered by springs that made it one of the richest date-growing districts of northern Arabia. Its dates are mentioned constantly in the early sources, and its position put it on the road running north from Medina toward Tabūk and the Levant.

History

Before Islam its fortresses were held by Jewish tribes of the Ḥijāz, as Yāqūt describes them. After the campaign of the year 7 AH the oasis came under the authority of Medina, and the sources record its groves being worked afterwards for a share of the crop.

For family research

The nisba built on the place is al-Khaybarī. Like any nisba taken from a place, it records where a forebear lived and says nothing on its own about tribal descent.