Al-Lami
A family name (nisba) to Bani Lam, a tribe the genealogists reckon to Tayyi — met in Iraq as much as in northern Arabia.
- Type
- Tribal nisba
- Attributed to
- Bani Lam (reckoned to Tayyi)
- Recorded range
- Northern Arabia, Iraq and toward Khuzestan
Overview
Al-Lami (al-Lami) is the nisba of Bani Lam, a tribe the genealogists reckon to Tayyi. The sources place them first in northern Arabia and then, from the later medieval period, across the country into Iraq and on toward Khuzestan — a north-eastward movement told far less often than the westward and northward ones.
Why the name is met in Iraq
Because the tribe is recorded moving that way, the nisba is now common in Iraq and its marches as well as in the Peninsula. Distribution is a fact of place, not of descent: bearers of the name in one country are not a single family by virtue of being gathered there, and a family in Iraq bearing it need not be connected to a family in Arabia bearing it.
Note
Bearing a tribal nisba does not by itself establish a specific line of descent, and a tribe on the move gathers descent (ṣariḥ), alliance (ḥilf) and clientage (walaʾ) alike.
Sources
- ابن حزم الأندلسي، جمهرة أنساب العرب، 456هـ — أنساب طيّئ
- القلقشندي، نهاية الأرب في معرفة أنساب العرب، 821هـ — في ذكر بطون طيّئ ومنازلها؛ يُراجَع ويُوثَّق قبل إثبات التفاصيل
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Last reviewed: 2026-08-31