Al-Ghatafani

Overview

Al-Ghatafani (al-Ghaṭafānī) is the nisba of Ghaṭafān, which the genealogists place under Qays ʿAylān and Muḍar, with its remembered range in Najd and the country between Najd and the Hijaz. ʿAbs, Dhubyān and, beneath Dhubyān, Fazāra and Murra, together with Ashjaʿ, are reckoned to it — as reported by the classical genealogists, who differ among themselves. In Lisān al-ʿArab the root gh-ṭ-f gives al-ghaṭaf for ampleness of living and for abundance of hair on the eyelid, and the tribal name is referred to it.

A nisba to a gathering name

Ghaṭafān stands at the level of a gathering name rather than a tribe families attribute themselves to directly, which is why the branch nisbas — al-ʿAbsī, al-Dhubyānī, al-Fazārī — are met far more often. The wide name and the narrow one are not rivals: a line may correctly be given either, and a book that uses the wide one has said less, not something different. What it does not settle is which branch, and no reading of the form supplies that; only a family's own record does. Confusion here runs vertically, between tiers of the same scheme, rather than between look-alike names.

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.