al-Athbaj

Overview

al-Athbaj is entered among the branches of Banū Hilāl, and Hilāl among the descendants of ʿĀmir ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa of Hawāzin — as reported, with the genealogists differing over the chain. In Ibn Khaldūn's account of the movement west it is the third name beside Riyāḥ and Zughba, and the one whose sections he distributes most widely: he places them between the other two branches rather than in a country of their own. This page describes a historical tribe and makes no claim about any modern family.

The name

The form is worth attention, because it is not shaped like an ordinary personal name. Ibn Manẓūr enters the root th-b-j: al-thabaj is the middle of a thing and the part of the back between the shoulders, and al-athbaj is the one whose back stands out or is bowed. Names of this pattern — a definite article over an adjective of physical description — begin their life in the sources as bynames given to a man and become the name of his descendants afterwards. The classical writers usually report that a group is called after such a man without explaining the byname, and where they do explain it the explanation is transmitted rather than documented. This page reports the lexical sense of the word and does not turn it into an origin.

In the accounts of the movement west

What the sources record about al-Athbaj is inseparable from what they record about Hilāl as a whole: a movement out of Upper Egypt westward into Ifrīqiya in the middle of the fifth century AH, and then a spreading out over generations rather than a settlement in one place. Because its sections are placed among those of the other branches, a section named in one report under al-Athbaj is named in another under Riyāḥ or Zughba, and the reports do not resolve the difference. Where a branch is given here it is given as reported.

On lineage

This page describes a historical tribe as the classical sources record it, and makes no claim about any modern family. Branch lists and affiliations are given as reported, and the genealogists differ among themselves. Nothing here establishes any living family's descent: a shared name may reflect descent, alliance (ḥilf) or clientage (walāʾ), and the sources usually say which only when they know.