Banū Bishr

Overview

Banū Bishr is reported as one of the sections of Qaḥṭān, with its country placed in the south of Najd and toward ʿAsīr. This page describes a historical section as reported, and makes no claim about any modern family.

The name is borne by more than one group

Bishr is a common Arabic personal name, and a section named for an ancestor called Bishr can arise anywhere, independently, as often as the name is given. Divisions called Bishr are reported under other tribes entirely — a division of ʿAnizah is commonly reported under that name — and the classical books likewise carry men and sections called Bishr in unrelated lines. None of these is evidence about any of the others. A family that traces itself to a Banū Bishr has therefore not, by that alone, established which Banū Bishr, still less a descent; the name narrows nothing until something besides the name is brought.

The name

Ibn Manẓūr enters the root b-sh-r for the outer skin — al-bashara — and for the open, cheerful face: al-bishr is that openness of countenance, and bushrā is glad news. The lexicon gives the word its senses, and the frequency with which Arabs used it as a personal name follows from those senses. It does not follow that any particular group was named for any particular reason, and the page claims none.

On sources

The classical works this reference cites do not document this section of Qaḥṭān. The arrangement in which it appears is later than all of them, and what is reported about it comes from oral tradition and from modern writing outside the permitted sources. Yāqūt is citable for the Najdī country, and it is the country that is cited, not the section. The page records a name, notes that it is borne widely, and records no 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.