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 classical works this reference cites do not document the group.
- Reported country
- The middle Euphrates country of al-ʿIrāq, below al-Kūfa
- Reported connection
- Linked to Khuzāʿah in some accounts — a report, and a resemblance of name
- Written
- الخزاعل; singular reported as al-Khazʿalī
- In the classical works
- Not documented; the name is recorded here, not a descent
- Scope
- Historical — no modern attribution
Overview
Al-Khazāʿil — written الخزاعل, the singular reported as al-Khazʿalī — is reported as a grouping of the middle Euphrates country of al-ʿIrāq, in the district below al-Kūfa. This page describes a historical tribe as reported, and makes no claim about any modern family.
The name, and a resemblance that proves nothing
The name has the shape of a broken plural of a form like Khazʿal. Some accounts connect it to Khuzāʿah, an old name the classical genealogists do record and which has its own page in this reference; but the connection is asserted centuries after those genealogists and rests, so far as one can see, on the two names sounding alike. Arabic is full of such pairs, and a resemblance of letters is not a descent. This page therefore reports the connection as a report and does not adopt it.
Ibn Manẓūr enters the quadriliteral kh-z-ʿ-l for a limp: khazʿala is said of a man and of the hyena that goes lame in its walk. Yāqūt describes al-Kūfa and its district. The lexicon explains the word and the place-book locates the country; neither mentions this grouping.
On sources
The classical works this reference cites — Ibn Ḥazm, al-Qalqashandī, al-Hamdānī, Yāqūt, Ibn Manẓūr and Ibn Khaldūn — do not document al-Khazāʿil. Its present shape is later than all of them by centuries, and what is reported about it comes from oral tradition and from later writing that lies outside the sources this reference is permitted to use. The page therefore records the name, the country it is reported in, and what the reports attach it to. It does not record a descent, and nothing on it should be read as one. The page keeps to the name and to what the classical works do and do not contain, and does not enter later history.
On lineage
Branch lists and affiliations here are given as reported, and the genealogists differ among themselves. Nothing on this page 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.
Frequently asked questions
Are al-Khazāʿil a branch of Khuzāʿah?
The classical genealogists say nothing of the kind, and the connection appears only in far later accounts that seem to rest on the similarity of the two names. This reference reports it and does not adopt it.
What does the word mean?
The lexicon gives the root for limping in the gait. That explains the word, not the naming of a people, and the lexicon does not mention this group.
Sources
- ابن منظور، لسان العرب، 711هـ — مادّة خزعل — المذكور اللفظ، لا هذه الجماعة
- ياقوت الحموي، معجم البلدان، 626هـ — في الكوفة وناحيتها — المذكور الموضع، لا القبيلة
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