Al-Anbari
A family name (nisba) to Banū al-ʿAnbar of Tamīm, met in the old books under the contracted form Balʿanbar; ʿanbar is also the ordinary word for ambergris and a common personal name.
- Type
- Tribal nisba
- Attributed to
- Banū al-ʿAnbar of ʿAmr ibn Tamīm
- Root
- ʿ-n-b-r (ʿanbar, ambergris)
- Note
- The contracted Balʿanbar of the old books is the same group
Overview
Al-Anbari (al-ʿAnbarī) is attributed to Banū al-ʿAnbar, a Tamīmī house the genealogists reckon to ʿAmr ibn Tamīm. The classical texts often contract the name to Balʿanbar — banū swallowed into the article, as the same books write Balḥārith — and this is one group and not two: a reader who meets al-Balʿanbarī on one page and al-ʿAnbarī on another is meeting a single attribution.
Names easily confused
ʿAnbar in Lisān al-ʿArab is the well-known perfume, ambergris; the word is used besides of a great sea creature and of a shield made from its hide. It was also a frequent personal name, given widely, and given often to men who entered households by clientage. A nisba built on such an ancestor is al-ʿAnbarī exactly as the tribal one is, and nothing in the form separates them. This is therefore a name in which the tribal reading is one possibility among several, and where a family's own record — not the shape of the word — decides.
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 حزم الأندلسي، جمهرة أنساب العرب، 456هـ — عمرو بن تميم — العنبر؛ يُراجَع ويُوثَّق قبل إثبات التفاصيل
- ابن منظور، لسان العرب، 711هـ — مادة: عنبر
This page is an educational, historical reference compiled from published sources.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