Qahtanite

File:Pre_Islamic_Arabian_Tribes_(Harold_Dixon).svg, showing the presence of the Arab tribes in West Asia, 1914]]

File:Qahtanites.png

According to Arab tradition, the Qahtanites are from South Arabia, unlike the Adnanites who are from the north of Arabia descended from Ishmael through Adnan.{{cite book |last=Parolin |first=Gianluca P. |url=https://archive.org/details/citizenshiparabw00paro |title=Citizenship in the Arab World: Kin, Religion and Nation-State |year=2009 |isbn=978-9-08964-045-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/citizenshiparabw00paro/page/n30 30] |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |url-access=limited}} "The 'arabized or arabizing Arabs', on the contrary, are believed to be the descendants of Ishmael through Adnan, but in this case the genealogy does not match the Biblical line exactly. The label 'arabized' is due to the belief that Ishmael spoke Hebrew until he got to Mecca, where he married a Yemeni woman and learnt Arabic. Both genealogical lines go back to Sem, son of Noah, but only Adnanites can claim Abraham as their ascendant, and the lineage of Mohammed, the Seal of Prophets (khatim al-anbiya'), can therefore be traced back to Abraham. Contemporary historiography unveiled the lack of inner coherence of this genealogical system and demonstrated that it finds insufficient matching evidence; the distinction between Qahtanites and Adnanites is even believed to be a product of the Umayyad Age, when the war of factions (al-niza al-hizbi) was raging in the young Islamic Empire." Arab tradition maintains that a semi-legendary ancestral figure named Qahtan and his 24 sons are the progenitors of Yemen who controlled the Arabian Peninsula known as Qahtani.

The genealogists disagree about the pedigree of Qahțān [himself]. Some trace him back to Ismā'īl b. Ibrāhīm, saying that his [name] was Qahṭān b. al - Hamaysa ' b. Tayman b. Nabt b. Ismā'īl b. Ibrāhīm. Wahb ibn Munabbih{{Cite web|url=https://shamela.ws/book/492/40|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107053149/https://al-maktaba.org/book/492/40|url-status=dead|title=ص40 - كتاب الإيناس بعلم الأنساب - الياء - المكتبة الشاملة|archivedate=November 7, 2020|website=shamela.ws}} and Hishām b. Muhammad al-Kalbi held this genealogy (as true). Hisham ibn al-Kalbi quoted his father as saying that he had been contemporaneous with [older] scholars and genealogists who traced Qahțān's pedigree in this way. Other [genealogists] argue that the [name] was Qahţăn b. 'Abir b. Shalakh.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=czSP046th6IC&pg=PA130|title=The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 39: Biographies of the Prophet's Companions and Their Successors: al-Ṭabarī's Supplement to His History|first=Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr|last=al-Ṭabarī|date=January 1, 1998|publisher=SUNY Press|via=Google Books}} Qahtan with the Yoqtan (Joktan) son of Eber (Hūd) in the Hebrew Bible (Gen. 10:25–29).{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0BdsFRX55cC&pg=PA45 |title=Arabs in the Shadow of Israel: The Unfolding of God's Prophetic Plan for Ishmael's Line |last=Maalouf |first=Tony |publisher=Kregel Academic |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8254-9363-8 |page=45 |language=en |chapter=The Unfortunate Beginning (Gen. 16:1–6) |quote=This view is largely based on the claim of Muslim Arab historians that their oldest ancestor is Qahtan, whom they identify as the biblical Joktan (Gen. 10:25–26). Montgomery finds it difficult to reconcile Joktan with Qahtan based on etymology. |access-date=28 July 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180728141058/https://books.google.nl/books?id=A0BdsFRX55cC&pg=PA45&redir_esc=y%23v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=28 July 2018 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |last=Maqsood |first=Ruqaiyyah Waris |title=Adam to the Banu Khuza'ah |url=http://www.ruqaiyyah.karoo.net/articles/prophfamily1.htm |website=The Prophet's Family Line |access-date=2015-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092744/http://www.ruqaiyyah.karoo.net/articles/prophfamily1.htm |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=dead}} or genesis 25:2-3 that Qahtan is the similarly named Jokshan son of Abraham and Keturah.

Among the sons of Qahtan are noteworthy figures like A'zaal (believed by Arabs to have been the original name of Sana'a), Hadhramaut and Jurhum whose descendants formed the second Jurhum tribe from which Ishmael is traditionally believed to have learned Arabic by some.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isDgI0-0Ip4C&pg=PA321 |title=The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia |last=Leaman |first=Oliver |date=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-32639-1 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8bbHTcRV5kC&pg=PA62 |title=Short Biography of the Prophet |last=Abd al-Wahhab |first=Muhammad ibn |author-link=Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab |translator-last=Strauch |translator-first=Sameh |date=2006 |location=Riyadh |publisher=Darussalam |isbn=978-9-96098-032-4 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBtCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA18 |title=The Mo'allaqah of Zuheyr, rendered into English, with an introduction and notes |first=C. J. |last=Lyall |author-link=C. J. Lyall |date=1878 |journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |volume=47 |page=18}} Another son is Ya'rub, and his son Yashjub is the father of Saba'. All Yemenite tribes trace their ancestry back to this "Saba", either through Himyar or Kahlan, his two sons.

The Qahtani people are divided into the two sub-groups of Himyar and Kahlan, who represent the settled Arabs of the south and their nomadic kinsmen (nomads). The Kahlan division of Qahtan consists of four subgroups: the Ta' or Tayy, the Azd group which invaded Oman, the 'Amila-Judham group of Palestine, and the Hamdan-Madhhij group who mostly remain in Yemen.

The Kahlan branch includes the following tribes: Azd (Aus and Khazraj, Bariq, Ghassan, Khuza'a and Daws), Hamdan, Khath'am, Bajila, Madhhij, Murad, Zubaid, Ash'ar, Lakhm, Tayy (Shammar), and Kinda.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DRByAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Kahlanite%22&pg=PA45 |last=Zaydān |first=Jirjī |author-link=Jurji Zaydan |translator-last=Margoliouth |translator-first=David Samuel |date=1907 |title=Umayyads and ʻAbbásids: Being the Fourth Part of Jurjí Zaydán's History of Islamic Civilization, Volume 4 |location=Leyden |publisher=E. J. Brill |page=45}}

Early Semites who developed civilizations throughout the Ancient Near East gradually relinquished their geopolitical superiority to surrounding cultures and neighboring imperial powers, usually due to either internal turmoil or outside conflict. This climaxed with the arrival of the Babylonians, and subsequently the rivaling Medes and Persians, during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, respectively. Though the Semites lost geopolitical influence, the Aramaic language emerged as the lingua franca of much of the Near East. However, Aramaic usage declined after the defeat of the Persians and the arrival of the Hellenic armies around 330 BCE.

The Ghassanids (ca. 250 CE) were the last major non-Islamic Semitic migration northward out of Yemen. They revived the Semitic presence in the then Roman-controlled Syria. They initially settled in the Hauran region, eventually spreading to Palestine, and Jordan, briefly securing governorship of Syria away from the Nabataeans.

Between the 7th and 14th centuries, the Qahtanites became involved in the Arab conquests, migrating to the newly conquered territories and intermingling with the local populations. In the Umayyad era, a blood feud broke out between Qahtanites and the Adnanite tribes of Qays, which continued in various forms and degrees till the 19th century in what has become known as the Qays–Yaman rivalry.

• Banu Lahab
• Qahtan (disambiguation)
• Kahlan
• Hadhramaut
• Hakam, Yemen

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Simpson |first=St John |date=2002 |title=Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen |location=London, UK |publisher=British Museum |isbn=978-0-71411-151-3}}
• {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/diewohnsitzeundw00wsuoft |last=Wüstenfeld |first=Heinrich Ferdinand |author-link=Ferdinand Wüstenfeld |date=1869 |title=Die Wohnsitze und Wanderungen der arabischen Stämme |trans-title=The Dwelling Places and Wanderings of the Arabian Tribes |language=de |location=Göttingen |publisher=Dieterichschen Buchhandlung}}
• {{cite journal |url=https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/hs/Crone_Articles/Crone_Qays-Yemen.pdf |title=Were the Qays and Yemen of the Umayyad Period Political Parties? |first=Patricia |last=Crone |author-link=Patricia Crone |date=1994 |journal=Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East |volume=71 |number=1 |pages=1–57}}

Category:Semitic-speaking peoples

*

Category:History of Yemen

Category:Yemeni tribes

Category:Ancient Arab peoples

Category:South Arabia