Banī Taym ibn Murra

Overview

The genealogists reckon this clan to Taym ibn Murra ibn Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy, which places it, in their arrangement, beside Kilāb, from whom Quṣayy is reckoned, and beside Yaqaẓa, from whom Makhzūm is reckoned: its parting from the line that leads to ʿAbd Manāf falls two generations above Quṣayy rather than below him. It is counted among the Muṭayyabūn, and the received account of the ḥilf al-fuḍūl sets the meeting that concluded it in the house of a man of this clan — again a pact, not a lineage. Taym in the lexicons is servitude: Taym Allāh is the equivalent of ʿAbdullāh, and mutayyam is a man whom passion has enslaved. Because the sense was productive, Taym joined to the name of a deity or a lord became one of the most repeated eponyms in Arab genealogy, and the repetition is the practical point of this page. The sources record Taym ibn Murra in Quraysh, Taym al-Lāt in Bakr ibn Wāʾil, and Taym among the Ribāb reported as allies of Tamīm; and the reports say the given name of Jumaḥ of Quraysh was itself Taym. The nisba al-Taymī is common to all of them and singles out none. 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.