Banū Minqar

Overview

In the genealogists' arrangement Minqar sits on a different limb of Banū Tamīm from Dārim and Yarbūʿ. They place it under ʿUbayd, within the grouping they call Muqāʿis, of Saʿd ibn Zayd Manāt ibn Tamīm — so its nearest relatives, as they order them, are the sections of Saʿd and not those of Ḥanẓala. Reckoned to it is Qays ibn ʿĀṣim al-Minqarī, remembered in the akhbār for forbearance. A brother-line under ʿUbayd is Murra, to which the sources reckon al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays, who led Tamīm at Baṣra; a large part of Tamīm settled in Iraq after the conquests, which is why so much of the tribe's material reaches us through Iraqi transmission. Note that Saʿd is a name borne by more than one group and treated separately by the sources — see the page for Banī Saʿd. This page describes a historical section of a historical tribe and makes no statement about any modern family.

The name

Al-minqar in Lisān al-ʿArab is a well of abundant water and deep bottom; al-minqār is a bird's bill. Both go back to naqara, to bore, hollow out or peck — a naming from the vocabulary of wells and of birds, which is common in the period and implies nothing further.

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 (ṣarīḥ), alliance (ḥilf) or clientage (walāʾ), and the sources usually say which only when they know.