Al-Harsusi

Overview

Al-Harsusi (al-Ḥarsūsī) is the singular nisba of al-Ḥarāsīs, a small tribe recorded in the central Omani interior. Their country, the gravel steppe called the Jiddat al-Ḥarāsīs, carries the tribe's name in current official use, which makes the nisba unusual in one respect: it reads as a nisba to the people and to the ground they hold at once, and the two readings cannot be told apart in the name itself.

In the classical sources

The classical works cited on this page do not record the name — al-Hamdānī describes Oman and its tribes without it — so what is said here rests on the modern record of the country rather than on the genealogists. Harsusi is also the name of the speech recorded for them, counted with the Modern South Arabian tongues alongside Mehri rather than among the Arabic dialects.

Note

As with any tribal nisba, bearing it fixes no line: the sources place a man inside a tribal name by alliance (ḥilf) and clientage (walāʾ) as well as by direct descent (ṣarīḥ), and say which only when they know. Families should verify their own documented lineage.