Banū Hilāl

Overview

Banū Hilāl are reckoned to Hawāzin under Muḍar, and are recorded moving west in large numbers into North Africa in the fifth century AH. That migration became the subject of the Sīrat Banī Hilāl, an oral epic still performed from Egypt to the Maghreb and inscribed by UNESCO as intangible heritage — a rare case of a tribe whose memory is carried as much by a living performance tradition as by the genealogies.

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.