The view that has priority (1) therefore indicates that they are Qaḥṭānites; Allah knows best.

Allah, exalted be He, says:
“O mankind! We created you from a male and a female and made you nations and tribes that you may come to know one another. Surely, the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing.”
[al-Ḥujurāt, 49:13]

The genealogists explain that the hierarchy runs as follows: nations (shuʿūb), then tribes (qabāʾil), then clans (ʿamāʾir), then sub-clans (buṭūn), then branches (afkhādh), then offshoots (faṣāʾil), and finally kindreds (ʿashāʾir). The ʿashīrah (2) is a man’s circle of closest relatives (3); beyond it there is no further subdivision.

Let us begin, then, with the Qaḥṭānite Arabs, after which we shall discuss the Ḥijāzī Arabs—the ʿAdnānites—and the affairs of the pre-Islamic era, so that the narrative will flow naturally into the life of the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, if Allah wills; in Him we place our trust.

Al-Bukhārī states, under the heading “Chapter: Mention of Qaḥṭān” (4):
“ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us; Sulaymān ibn Bilāl related to us, from Thawr ibn Zayd, from Abū al-Ghayth (5), from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:
‘The Hour will not come until a man from Qaḥṭān appears, driving the people with his staff.’”

Muslim likewise transmitted it, through Qutaybah, from al-Dirāwardī, from Thawr ibn Zayd, with the same wording (6).

Al-Suhaylī (7) remarked: “Qaḥṭān was the first to whom the greeting Abayta al-laʿn—‘May you be spared reproach’—was addressed, and the first to whom Anʿim ṣabāḥan—‘A pleasant morning to you’—was said.”

Imām Aḥmad (8) recorded: “Abū al-Mughīrah narrated to us; Ḥarīz (9) narrated to me; Rāshid ibn Saʿd al-Maqraʾī (10) told me, from Abū Ḥayy (11), from Dhū Mikhbar (12), that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
‘Authority was once with Ḥimyar, but Allah stripped it from them…’”