Ballaḥmar

Overview

Ballaḥmar — written بللحمر — is reported as a tribe of the south-western highlands of Arabia and the country descending from them toward Tihāmah, neighbouring Ballasmar, whose name is formed in exactly the same way. This page describes a historical tribe as reported, and makes no claim about any modern family.

The name is a contraction of Banū al-Aḥmar

In the speech of the south-western highlands and the Tihāmah below them, banū al- before a name is contracted, so that بنو الأحمر becomes بللحمر, written as one word. The same rule gives بللسمر from بنو الأسمر and بلقرن from بنو القرن; it is a habit of the region's tongue rather than a distinct sort of tribal name, and knowing it turns a strange-looking word back into a transparent one. Ibn Manẓūr enters the root ḥ-m-r for the colour red — al-aḥmar is the red, and al-ḥumra is redness — and the pairing of a red and a dusky in two neighbouring names is worth noticing, but the lexicon does not explain why either people came to be called by a colour, and this reference does not manufacture a reason. Nor does it repeat the etymologies that later writing offers, which lie outside its permitted sources.

On sources

The classical works this reference cites do not document Ballaḥmar under that name. Al-Hamdānī describes the mountain country of the south-west and its peoples in his own century, and he is the source to consult for that country; he is not a source for this tribe as it is reported today, and the contracted name belongs to a later stage of the language. What is reported about Ballaḥmar comes from oral tradition and from modern writing outside the permitted sources. This reference does not attach the tribe to a parent it cannot cite, and describes its region in prose instead. The page records a name and a country, not a descent.

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.