A Survey of the Genealogical Roots of the Ḥijāzī Arab Tribes back to ʿAdnān (1)

ʿAdnān had two sons: Maʿadd and ʿUk.

Al-Suhaylī said: ʿAdnān also had a son named al-Ḥārith and another called al-Mudhhab. He further mentioned among his children al-Ḍaḥḥāk, though some hold that al-Ḍaḥḥāk was a son of Maʿadd rather than of ʿAdnān.

He added: It is likewise said that ʿAdn—after whom the city of ʿAdan (Aden) is named—and Abyan were both sons of ʿAdnān, a report transmitted by al-Ṭabarī (3).

ʿUk married into the clan of the Ashʿariyyūn and settled among them in Yemen, whereupon their dialects merged into a single tongue (4). For this reason some Yemenis claim descent from him, saying: “ʿUk ibn ʿAdnān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Azd ibn al-Ghawth.” Others say: “ʿUk ibn ʿAdnān ibn adh-Dhīb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Asad,” and yet others substitute ar-Rayth for adh-Dhīb. The sound position, however, is what we have stated—that they descend from ʿAdnān (5).

ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās said:

ʿUk, the son of ʿAdnān—those who called themselves Ghassān
until they were driven from every land.

Maʿadd, for his part, begot four sons: Nizār, Quḍāʿah, Qunuṣ, and Iyād. Quḍāʿah was the eldest, and Maʿadd bore his kunya through him. We have already set out (7) the various opinions concerning Quḍāʿah; the view presented here is that favoured by Ibn Isḥāq (8) and others—and Allah knows best.

As for Qunuṣ, it is said that his line became extinct. Yet a number of the early authorities maintain that al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Munḍir—the Persian governor of al-Ḥīrah—was of their stock (9), while others, as noted earlier, trace him to Ḥimyar. Allah knows best.

From Nizār came Rabīʿah, Muḍar, and Anmār.

Ibn Hishām adds: Iyād was likewise a son of Nizār, as the poet has said (10):

Among gallant youths, fair-faced and noble,
from Iyād ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd.