Arab tribes

History, branches, and homelands of Arab tribes.

• Ajman

  An Arab tribe of eastern Arabia and Najd.

• Āl Bū Muḥammad

  A grouping reported in the marsh and river country of the lower Tigris in al-ʿIrāq. The name is a house-name built on a kunya, a formation used independently by

• Āl Faḍl

  A group of Ṭayyi' described by al-Qalqashandī among the Arabs of the Syrian desert of his own day, and reported by him as holding an amirate over them. A histor

• Al Murrah

  An Arab tribe of the Empty Quarter and eastern Arabia, famed for its desert knowledge.

• Āl ʿAlī

  A group of Ṭayyi' entered by al-Qalqashandī among the Arabs of the Syrian desert of his day — and a name borne by several unrelated groups elsewhere, so that th

• al-Anṣār

  The collective name the sources give to al-Aws and al-Khazraj of Medina after the hijra — a name earned by a role rather than taken from an ancestor.

• al-Ashʿarūn

  A Yemeni tribe of the Tihāma coast entered beside Madhḥij in the line of Udad, whose nisba al-Ashʿarī is also the name of a school of theology — two quite diffe

• Al-Aslam

  A section reported under Shammar in northern Najd. An old tribal name of the same shape, Aslam, stands in the classical books for a wholly different people, and

• al-Athbaj

  A branch of Banū Hilāl named by Ibn Khaldūn beside Riyāḥ and Zughba among the Arab groups that moved west in the fifth century AH. The name is a descriptive byn

• Al-Aws

  One of the two tribes of Yathrib, reckoned by the genealogists to al-Azd of Kahlān, and joined with al-Khazraj under the name al-Anṣār. A historical tribe — no

• Al-Azd

  A very large Qaḥṭānī tribe whose branches spread to Oman, the Sarāt and beyond.

• Al-Bū Nimr

  A name reported in the Euphrates country of al-ʿIrāq, given sometimes as a group of its own and sometimes as a section within al-Dulaym. A historical name recor

• Al-Dahāmishah

  A section reported within ʿAnazah, entered under al-ʿAmārāt of Bishr, with its country reported from northern Najd into the steppe of Iraq. No living family is

• Al-Dawasir

  An Arab tribal confederation historically associated with southern Najd (the Wadi al-Dawasir region).

• Al-Dulaym

  A grouping reported in the Euphrates country of al-ʿIrāq, about al-Anbār and Hīt, and reported as attached to Zubayd. A historical tribe recorded here by name:

• Al-Durūʿ

  A tribe of the Omani interior and the sands bordering the Empty Quarter.

• Al-Duʿūm

  A section reported under Banū Khālid in eastern Arabia and al-Aḥsāʾ. A historical section recorded here by name: the classical works this reference cites do not

• Al-Fidʿān

  A section reported within ʿAnazah under Bishr, with its country reported in the steppe between northern Najd and the middle Euphrates. No living family is attri

• Al-Fuḍūl

  A name reported for a section of Ṭayyi' and Banū Lām in Najd and Iraq. It is related in the reports to Āl Faḍl but is not the same entry, and the same word name

• al-Ḥadaʾ

  A Yemeni group whose name is written with and without its final hamza, and which the lists place now among the Ḥimyarī houses and now with Madhḥij.

• al-Ḥarābī

  A collective grouping-name used in Cyrenaica for a set of groups counted together, not the name of a single tribe. It is unrelated to Ḥarb of the Ḥijāz, whose n

• Al-Ḥarāsīs

  A small tribe of the Jiddat al-Ḥarāsīs in central Oman, whose name the desert itself carries.

• Al-Ḥarīsh

  The least documented of the four branches counted from Kaʿb ibn Rabīʿa — a name the lineage lists carry further than the histories do.

• al-Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb

  The Madhḥijī tribe of Najrān, known in the sources by its contracted name Balḥārith, and headed by the house of al-Dayyān.

• Al-Ḥasanah

  A section reported within ʿAnazah, placed by the common account with the sections of Ḍanā Muslim, with its country reported in the desert of the Levant. The nam

• Al-Ḥumūm

  A group reported in Ḥaḍramawt, in its eastern valleys and along the coast toward the country of Mahra. A historical name recorded here as reported: the classica

• al-Hūn

  A small Khuzaymī line better known in the sources under another name — al-Qāra, the archers of the proverb.

• Al-Ḥuwayṭāt

  A tribe reported in the country between the Ḥijāz and the Levant, about the head of the Red Sea and the desert east of it. A historical tribe recorded here by n

• Al-Jalās

  A heading reported within ʿAnazah under Ḍanā Muslim, with al-Rāwalah entered inside it. The name is borne by more than one unrelated group, and the written form

• Al-Janābiyyūn

  A grouping reported in the Euphrates and Diyālā country of al-ʿIrāq, and reported as attached to Zubayd. A historical tribe recorded here by name: the classical

• Al-Janbah

  A tribe reported in eastern ʿUmān, in the sand country and the ground between it and the sea. Janb of Madhḥij, which the classical genealogists do document, is

• Al-Jubūr

  A section reported under Banū Khālid in eastern Arabia and al-Aḥsāʾ — and a name borne by an unrelated tribe in Iraq besides, so that the name alone settles not

• Al-Juḥaysh

  A name reported of more than one group in al-ʿIrāq and the Jazīra, arranged under Zubayd in some accounts and as a section of Shammar in others. The classical w

• Al-Khazāʿil

  A grouping reported in the middle Euphrates country of al-ʿIrāq. Reports differ over the name, and its resemblance to Khuzāʿah is a resemblance of name: the cla

• Al-Khazraj

  The second of the two tribes of Yathrib, reckoned to al-Azd of Kahlān, and the one under which the sources enumerate the most sections. A historical tribe — no

• Al-Mahrah

  A tribe of the far south whose language is not Arabic but a sister Semitic tongue.

• Al-Manāṣīr

  A tribe of the UAE interior and the country toward the Empty Quarter.

• Al-Maʿāwil

  A tribe reported in the interior of ʿUmān, commonly reckoned of the Azd; the singular is Miʿwal and the nisba Maʿwalī. A historical tribe recorded here by name:

• Al-Muntafiq

  A confederation name reported in the lower Euphrates country of al-ʿIrāq. The word names a grouping rather than a father, and this page says what the name is do

• Al-Nakhaʿ

  A Madhḥijī tribe of Yemen whose name the genealogists explain as a byname for moving away, and which the sources record settling in al-Kūfa in strength. A histo

• al-Namir ibn Qāsiṭ

  A Rabīʿa tribe reckoned from Qāsiṭ beside Wāʾil, recorded in the north along the Euphrates, and not to be confused with Banū Numayr.

• Al-Nuʿaym

  A tribe reported in ʿUmān and the lower Gulf, in the inland oasis country and the plains about it. The name is borne by more than one unrelated group. A histori

• al-Raqībāt

  A grouping of the western Sahara, commonly written al-Rgaybāt and often spelled Reguibat. A historical name recorded here as a name only: the classical works th

• Al-Rashāyidah

  A tribe of the northern Hijaz and the Red Sea coast, with branches recorded across the sea in Sudan and Eritrea.

• Al-Rāwalah

  A section reported within ʿAnazah and entered under al-Jalās of Ḍanā Muslim, with its country reported from northern Najd into the desert of the Levant. No livi

• Al-Ribāb

  A confederation rather than a descent group — tribes bound by a sworn pact and known ever after by the name of the pact itself.

• Al-Sabaʿah

  A section reported within ʿAnazah under Bishr, with its country reported in the desert of the Levant and toward the middle Euphrates. Its written form admits mo

• Al-Ṣadif

  A tribe of Ḥaḍramawt that the genealogists place under Kinda and the lexicographers sometimes under Ḥimyar — a name the sources themselves cannot agree on. A hi

• Al-Sakāsik

  The second of the two divisions the genealogists enter under Kinda, with a district of Yemen carrying its name. A historical tribe — no living family is attribu

• Al-Sakūn

  One of the two great divisions the genealogists enter under Kinda, recorded in Ḥaḍramawt and afterwards in the garrison towns. A historical tribe — no living fa