ʿUkl

Overview

ʿUkl is reckoned to ʿAwf ibn ʿAbd Manāt ibn Udd and counted among the groups of al-Ribāb, with its diyār given in Najd. The striking thing the genealogists report about it is the name: ʿUkl, they say, was a woman who reared the sons of ʿAwf, and it was her name and not their father's that settled on them. Names of this kind form a small but real class in a system otherwise resolutely reckoned through fathers, and they are worth knowing about, because a family register built on the assumption that every tribal name is a father's name will misread them. The root in the lexicon carries the sense of gathering, binding and driving stock together. One further caution: ʿUkl is not ʿUqayl, which is a separate name and a separate tribe, reckoned in the line of Hawāzin. This page describes a historical tribe 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.