Al-Mudliji

Overview

Al-Mudliji (al-Mudlijī) is the nisba of Mudlij, reckoned by the genealogists to Kināna, with a remembered range on the Tihāma coast of the Hijaz and the country inland of it. The root d-l-j is in Lisān al-ʿArab travelling by night: the idlāj of a caravan, and the dulja, the last stretch of the night — Mudlij being the active participle from it, one who journeys in the dark. The classical literature also attaches to the Banū Mudlij a reputation in qiyāfa, the reading of tracks and likenesses; that is a report about a people at a time, not a content of the name, and a family called al-Mudlijī is not thereby anything.

Names easily confused

Mudlij is an ordinary personal name of a common pattern, and a nisba built on any forebear who bore it carries no tribal sense; the written form is the same either way. More than one Mudlij is recorded in the books besides the Kinānī one, so the nisba is not by itself a placement even when the tribal reading is meant. Within Kināna the neighbouring section nisbas — al-Ḍamrī, al-Laythī, al-Ghifārī — sit at the same tier, and a single line may appear under one in one book and another in another. In writing, al-Mudlijī should also be kept apart from forms on nearby letters that a careless hand produces, since none of them attributes to Mudlij.

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.