Art. XXII.—Notes on the History of the Banu ‘Oḳayl

Henry C. Kay

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00161490

Art. XXII.—Notes on the History of the Banu ‘Oḳayl

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Henry C. Kay

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The following particulars on the origin and early history of the Banu ‘Oḳayl are from Ibn Khaldūn, vol. ii. p. 312, vol. vi. p. 11, etc. (Bulak Edition).

I may perhaps allow myself to begin by reminding the reader that Eastern writers invariably represent the Ismailian Arabs as the posterity of ‘Adnan, descendant of Ismail, and the people of each tribe as the actual children of one or other of the Arab Patriarch's posterity, after each of whom the tribe is usually named. But it is obviously unnecessary, to say the least of it, to regard the genealogies attributed to the tribes as anything more than the real or reputed pedigrees of their chiefs.

Type: Research Article
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 1886 , pp. 491 - 526

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00161490 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1886

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^{page 492 note 1} Ibn Khaldūn, vol. ii. pp. 241, 298.

^{page 492 note 2} In translating that passage, in his Hiatoire des Berbères, de Slane applies it to the 'Oḳaylis alone. And that no doubt is the natural construction to be placed upon the words as they stand in the original. But I think the meaning intended by the author is as I have stated it in the text, a reading, I may add, which makes the statement somewhat less startling and incredible.

Ibn Hazm was the author of a book, Kitāb Jamharat al Ansāb, mentioned in the Kashf eẓ Zunūn, and frequently quoted in Ibn Khaldūn's work on the Arab tribes. He was a native of Cordova, and died in A.H.456. His life is given by Ibn Khallikan (de Slane's translation, vol. ii. p. 267), and a short notice of him and of his chief writings in Al Maḳḳari's work on the Arabs of Spain, vol. ii. p. 963 (Bul. ed.), but neither of these writers makes mention of the Kitāb al Jamharah.

^{page 492 note 3} The life of Al Jurjāni, who died in A.H. 366, is given by Ibn Khallikan, vol. ii. p. 221. I read the word Khuluṭ as the plural of Khalīṭ. See Lane's Dictionary.

^{page 494 note 1} Vol. vi. p. 18. See De Slane's translation in his Histoire des Berbères, vol i. p. 41.

^{page 497 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. i. p. 358.

^{page 498 note 1} Abu'l Hasan 'Aly ibn Sa'īd, the traveller and historian, is much quoted by Ibn Khaldūn. He was born at Granada in A.H. 610, and died at Tunis about 685 (A.D. 1286). He was a voluminous writer, and his works were held in high estimation, but, excepting in the form of quotations and extracts, to be found chiefly in Al Maḳḳari, Al Maḳrīzi, and Ibn Khaldūn, none of his writings are known to be extant, other than a geographical treatise and a collection of lyrics compiled from the writings of the principal Arab poets down to his time.

^{page 498 note 2} Ibn al Athīr, vol. x. p. 90.

^{page 499 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. v. p. 228. The tribe of Ḥanīfah was derived from that of Bekr, eon of Wa-il, and was descended from Rabī'ah, sou of Nizar, whilst the 'Okaylis were, as already stated, one of the numerous tribes of the great sept of Kays 'Aylan, son of Modar, son of Nizar. Nizar was son of Ma'add, son of 'Adnān, the descendant of Ismail.

Ilyās and Kays 'Aylan were the two sons of Moḍar. They and Rabī'ah, brother of the latter, are the fathers of the three great stems into which the Arab posterity of Ismail are mainly divided. The tribe of Ḳuraysh, to which the Prophet Muhammad belonged, was descended from Ilyas. The main fact of the descent of 'Adnān from Ismail, the son of Abraham, is held to be beyond all dispute; but there is no authoritative teaching on the particulars of the line, nor even on the number of generations, between Ismail and 'Adnān. Genealogists are liars, is a traditional saying attributed to the Prophet, and he forbade all critical researches extending further back (see M. de Meynard's translation of Al Mas'udi, vol. iv. pp. 112 and 118).

Respecting Ma'add a tradition is preserved, and is mentioned by Ibn Khaldūn, to the effect that when the Prophets Jeremiah and Baruch, under the inspiration of God, commanded Bukht Naṣṣar to take vengeance upon the Arabs for their iniquities, and for the murder of the Prophet Shu'ayb, son of Mahdam, Ma'add was borne to a place of safety in Mesopotamia by the miraculous being Burāk, the same that subsequently carried Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem. Ma'add was thus favoured because from his loins was to spring a noble Prophet, the seal of the apostles, a decree which, continues the writer, received its fulfilment. (Ibn Khaldūn, vol. ii. pp. 30, 107, 237, 299–300.) See also Jeremiah xlix. 28; Isaiah xxi. 13 to 17, lx. 7; Judith ii. 23. (Caussin de Perceval, vol. i. p. 180.) Ḳaydhār and Naābit were sons of Ismail. They may doubtless be identified with the biblical Kedar aud Nabayoth. It is not known with certainty which was the ancestor of 'Adnan. (Ibn Khaldun, vol. ii. p. 298.)

The Shu'ayb above mentioned, it must be remembered, is not the same as the prophet of the like name, who was sent to the Midianites.

^{page 500 note 1} See Dozy's Histoire des Mussulmanes d'Espagne.

^{page 500 note 2} Ibn Khalūn, vol. vi. p. 11.

^{page 501 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol, vi. pp. 274–5.

^{page 501 note 2} Vol. vi. p. 216.

^{page 502 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. vi. p 305. In the concluding sentence I adopt the version given by At Tabari (Leyden ed. vol. iii. p. 1142) Under the same authority the word is substituted for in the sentence

^{page 502 note 2} Ibn Khalūn, vol. ii. p. 242.

^{page 503 note 1} This work is mentioned in the Kashf eẓ Ẓunūn under the heading 'Ilm al Ansāb, and in Ibn Khallikan, vol. ii. p. 289.

^{page 503 note 2} See also Al Mas'ūdi, vol. iii. p. 215, vol. vi. p. 150.

^{page 503 note 3} Ibn al Athīr, vol. vii. p. 382.

^{page 503 note 4} Vol. vi. p. 396. Samarra is a town on the Tigris, at no great distance above Baghdad. Diar Rabī'ab and Diar Modar may be described as respectively the Eastern and Western portions of North Mesopotamia.

^{page 503 note 5} Ibn al Athīr, vol. vii. p. 276; Aṭ Ṭabari, part iii. p. 2028.

^{page 504 note 1} Malik ibn Ṭanḳ, of the tribe of Taghlib, was a military commander under Harūn ar Rashīd, and a lineal descendant of 'Amru ibn Kulthūm, a celebrated poet and warrior of the Ante-Islamitic period and author of one of the seven Mu'allaḳat. Malik was founder of the city of Raḥabah, named after him Rahabat Malik ibn Ṭauḳ. He died in A.H. 260.

^{page 505 note 1} Vol. iv. p. 91.

^{page 505 note 2} See Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 40.

^{page 505 note 3} See de Goeje, Memoire sur les Carmathes.

^{page 506 note 1} The district occupied by the Banu Bekr received the name of Diār Bekr.

^{page 506 note 2} Ibn Khaldūun, vol. iv. p. 227. It was between the Banu Taghlib and Banu Bekr that a feud arose, the incidents of which are renowned in Arab history, and which is said to have lasted forty years. And it was shortly after its termination, and not long before the appearance of Islam, that the Taghlibites removed to Syria and thence to Mesopotamia. See Fresnel, Lettres sur l'histoire des Arabesavant l'Islamisme. Ibn al Athīr, vol. i. p. 384 et seq. and p. 397, etc.

^{page 506 note 3} Ibn Khaldūn, vol. iv. p. 254.

^{page 508 note 1} Ibn Khaldūn, vol. iv. p. 272; Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 162.

^{page 508 note 2} Ibn Khallikan in his life of Al Muḳallid gives the remainder of the chief's pedigree as follows, namely, Al Muhanna Abd er Rahman, son of Burayd, son of Abd Allah, son of Zayd, son of Kays, son of Jūtha, son of Tahfa, son of Hazn, son of 'Oḳayl. Reckoning three generations to a century, we arrive at A.D. 424, as the period of Amir ibn Sa'sa'ah, the great-grandfather of 'Okail, a fair approximation to M. Caussin de Perceval's calculations, according to which Amir ibn Sa'ṣa'ah was born about A.D. 381. It will be observed that this pedigree does not confirm Ibn Sa'Id's statement that the Princes of Mausil belonged to the 'Okayli subtribe of 'Obadah.

^{page 509 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 89.

^{page 511 note 1} Ḳasr (castle) is a name borne by a large number of places. Ḳasr 'Isa, which is probably that referred to in the text, is situated on the Tigris. Al Jāmi'ani, as has already been stated, stood on the banks of the Euphrates, on the site of the ancient Babylon. Al Anbār also on the Euphrates, ten parasangs west of Baghdad. Al Madā-in, on the Tigris, was the name given by the Arabs to the ancient cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, a short distance below Baghdad. Daḳūḳa is situated east of the Tigris, on the road from Baghdad to Irbil.

^{page 511 note 2} The name is printed in the Leyden Edition of Ibn al Athār Maḳn, and so also in Ibn Khallikan, but elsewhere I find it invariably written. There can be little doubt that the latter is the correct spelling, and indeed it occurs thus written in one at least of the MSS. used by Professor Tornberg (see vol. ix. p. 136).

^{page 513 note 1} Al Ḥaẓīrah was a town two days' journey from Baghdad, on the road to Mauṣil. Ibn ḳurād is spoken of in 391 and 420 as dwelling at Sindāyyah, and Kamil in 410 as possessing an encampment at Bardān. Both these places are in the neighbourhood of Baghdad, and at a short distance from one another.

^{page 513 note 2} See Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 116.

^{page 514 note 1} 'Okbara and Awāna are situated on the opposite banks of the Tigris about ten parasangs above Baghdad. Ḥarba and Nahr Beytar were two small towns at a short distance from the others.

^{page 516 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. pp. 288b, 352Google Scholar.

^{page 516 note 2} Ibid. vol. ix. p. 312.

^{page 517 note 1} Al Mutīrah is situated on the Tigris above Baghdad, near Samarrah, and a short distance below Takrīt.

^{page 519 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 307; vol. x. p. 289.

^{page 519 note 2} Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 403.

^{page 521 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 404.

^{page 521 note 2} Ibn al Athīr, vol. x. p. 247.

^{page 522 note 1} Ḥadīthah and 'Ānah are two towns on the Euphrates, ahout thirty-five miles from one another.

^{page 523 note 1} Ibn al Athīr, vol. x. p. 322.

^{page 524 note 1} Sarūj is a town near Harran, in the modern province of Orfah or Edessa. It is famed in Arabic literature as the reputed native place of Abu Zayd es Sarūji, the hero of the Maḳamat of Hariri.

^{page 526 note 1} See Ibn al Athīr, vol. ix. p. 369.

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Art. XXII.—Notes on the History of the Banu ‘Oḳayl

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