Banī Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā

Overview

The genealogists place this clan among the Quraysh of Mecca and reckon it to Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn Quṣayy ibn Kilāb, which sets it, in their arrangement, beside the lines of ʿAbd Manāf and ʿAbd al-Dār, branching off at the sons of Quṣayy. In the accounts of the two Meccan blocs it is counted among the Muṭayyabūn, and the received version of the ḥilf al-fuḍūl names it among the Qurashī clans party to that pact — an undertaking of mutual support rather than a line of descent, and alliance is one of the recognised ways a tribal name is acquired without birth. The name itself is asad, the lion in the lexicons, and the nisba formed from it is al-Asadī. The most useful thing this page can say is a distinction. Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā of Quraysh is not Asad ibn Khuzayma ibn Mudrika, who is recorded at the head of a large independent tribe of Muḍar, with its own chapter in the genealogies and with territory reported in Najd and around it. The written form is identical and the nisba is identical, al-Asadī, while the ancestor meant is not, so a bare nisba met in a report or a document does not settle which of the two is intended — and the name is borne outside both. This page describes a historical clan and makes no statement about any modern family.

On lineage

Branch lists and affiliations here are given as reported by the classical genealogists, who themselves disagree. 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.