Al-Adawi
A family name (nisba) to an ancestor named ʿAdī — of Quraysh, of al-Ribāb with Tamīm, of Khuzāʿa or of Ṭayyiʾ; one written form covers all of them.
- Type
- Tribal nisba
- Attributed to
- An ancestor named ʿAdī — in Quraysh, al-Ribāb, Khuzāʿa and Ṭayyiʾ
- Root
- ʿ-d-w
Overview
Al-Adawi (al-ʿAdawī) is the nisba to an ancestor named ʿAdī. Arabic turns ʿAdī into ʿAdawī rather than ʿAdiyyī — the two final yāʾs are dropped and a wāw takes their place, as with ʿAlī and ʿAlawī — which is why the surname carries no trace of the name it is built on and no trace of which bearer of it is meant. The root is ʿ-d-w: in Lisān al-ʿArab al-ʿadiyy is the first of the foot-soldiers to charge, from running.
Names easily confused
At least four unrelated lines of ʿAdī are kept apart by the genealogists and merged by the written nisba. ʿAdī b. Kaʿb b. Luʾayy is a clan of Quraysh at Mecca, counted with the Aḥlāf in the old division of the city. ʿAdī b. ʿAbd Manāt b. Udd is gathered into al-Ribāb and appears in the reports allied with Tamīm in Najd. ʿAdī b. ʿAmr is a branch of Khuzāʿa, named beside Kaʿb. And a further ʿAdī is recorded in Ṭayyiʾ. The form al-ʿAdawī chooses among none of them.
Bearing the name
A tribal nisba records what a family is called, not who its ancestors were. It may follow descent (ṣarīḥ), alliance (ḥilf) or clientage (walāʾ), and only a family's own documented record tells those apart.
Sources
- ابن منظور، لسان العرب، 711هـ — مادة: عدو
- ابن حزم، جمهرة أنساب العرب، 456هـ — في قريش، والرباب، وخزاعة، وطيّئ
This page is an educational, historical reference compiled from published sources. It is not an authority on lineage. Where sources differ, we report the difference without taking a position. Corrections are welcome via our contact page.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-07