Al-Shahrani

Overview

Al-Shahrani (al-Shahrānī) is the nisba of Shahrān, a tribe of the southern Sarāt — the terraced mountain country of the region now called ʿAsīr, described in the classical geographies. Most sources reckon Shahrān to Khathʿam. That is reported by the genealogists rather than settled by them, and Khathʿam's own placement is itself disputed: some attach it to the Qaḥṭānī line through Anmār, others argue otherwise.

The form of the name

Shahrān ends in -ān, and the nisba keeps the whole word: al-Shahrānī, not al-Shahrī. Al-Shihrī is the nisba of Banī Shihr — a neighbouring but distinct tribe — and the two names are regularly confused in writing.

Note

A shared nisba does not by itself establish a line of descent: one name may be carried by descent, by alliance (ḥilf) or by clientage (walāʾ). What a family can stand behind is what its own documents and mashjara record.