Al-Najjar
An occupational family name from n-j-r, the hewing and shaping of wood; written exactly like the name of Banū al-Najjār of the Khazraj, which is a tribal name and a different thing altogether.
- Type
- Occupational name
- Sense
- One who hews and shapes wood; a carpenter
- Root
- n-j-r
The word
Al-Najjar (al-najjār) is built on n-j-r. In Lisān al-ʿArab najr is cutting and hewing: najara al-khashaba means he worked the wood down with the adze, the shavings are nujāra, and the najjār is the man whose craft that is. The same root carries senses the lexicon gives plainly beside it — a man's najr is his origin and his stock, and najrān is the socket in which a door-leaf turns. Ibn Khaldūn counts carpentry among the crafts a settled town cannot do without, wanted for roofing and doors before anything ornamental.
A trade and a tribe, written alike
Banū al-Najjār are a clan of the Khazraj at Medina, and the genealogists give al-Najjār there as a byname carried by their ancestor, not as a trade practised by his descendants. Their nisba is the tribal one. Nothing in the written form separates the two: a family called al-Najjār may go back to a carpenter of any town, or may be attached to the Medinan clan, and only its own documented record says which. This is the most that can be read off the name itself.
Bearing the name
An occupational family name records what an ancestor did, as the name was applied to him — not a lineage. It attaches to no tribe, and two families bearing it need have no connection to one another beyond the word itself.
Sources
- ابن منظور، لسان العرب، 711هـ — مادة: نجر
- ابن خلدون، المقدمة، 808هـ — في صناعة النجارة وضرورتها للعمران
- ابن حزم، جمهرة أنساب العرب، 456هـ — في بطون الخزرج
This page is an educational, historical reference compiled from published sources.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