Banu Judham

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Banu Judham
بنو جذام
EthnicityArab
NisbaAl-Judhami
LocationSouthern Levant and Northwestern Arabia
Descended fromKahlan ibn Saba
ReligionPaganism, later Islam

The Judham (

Battle of Yarmouk. Afterward, the Judham converted to Islam and became the largest tribal faction of Jund Filastin (district of Palestine
).

The origins of the Judham are not clear. They may have been descendants of the

northern Arabs, though the tribe itself claimed Yamanite (southern Arab) origins. However, this may have done to draw closer to their Yamanite allies in Syria
.

Location

Before the advent of Islam in the early 7th century, the Judham nomads roamed the desert frontier areas of

Adhruh, Tabuk as far south as Wadi al-Qura.[1] On the eve of the Muslim conquests, they dominated the territory extending from the environs of Tabuk northward to the areas east of the Wadi Araba valley and the Dead Sea, including the Balqa region around modern Amman.[2]

Origins theories

The origins of the Judham are obscure.

Shu'ayb (Jethro) and the 8th-century genealogist Muhammad ibn Sa'ib al-Kalbi declared the tribe to be autochthonous descendants of the Biblical Midianites.[4]

History

Byzantine period

The Judham served as

Yathrib (Medina) descended from the Judham.[1]

Early Islamic period

During the lifetime of the Islamic prophet

expedition to Tabuk in 630 was partly a response to reports that the Judham and Lakhm were mobilizing with the Byzantine army in the Balqa.[2] A certain leader of the Judham in the area of Amman or Ma'an, Farwa ibn Amr, embraced Islam and was consequently crucified by the Byzantine authorities, though the historian Fred Donner holds the story of Farwa "may be merely a pious legend".[2] After the death of Muhammad in 632, the Dhubayb defected from the nascent, Medina-based Muslim state and was the target of an assault by the Muslim general Usama ibn Zayd at the beginning of Caliph Abu Bakr's reign (632–634).[9]

The Judham formed part of the Arab contingents of Byzantine emperor

Jabiya in 637 or 638.[11]

Purported banner of the Judham at the Battle of Siffin

In the Muslim military administration of

Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari.[12] Natil belonged to the Judham's preeminent clan, the Sa'd ibn Malik, and was referred to in the sources as sayyid Judhām bi-l-Shām (leader of the Judham of Syria).[13] Rawh was younger than Natil and hailed from the Sa'd ibn Malik's brother clan, the Wa'il ibn Malik.[13] The Sa'd traditionally provided the chiefs of at least a large part of the Judham and there are no indications in the sources of a rivalry between the Sa'd and Wa'il clans during the pre-Islamic period.[14] Rivalries for leadership of the tribe between Natil and Rawh developed during the caliphate of Mu'awiya I (661–680).[15]

During the reigns of Mu'awiya I and

Ma'add, a northern Arabian tribe mentioned in the 4th-century Namara inscription.[17] During the Sufyanid period, the Judham (along with the Lakhm and Amila tribes) were held by most sources to be of Yemeni (south Arabian) descent, though there were also sources which claimed they were descendants of the Qanas branch of the Ma'add tribe or the Banu Asad, another branch of the Ma'add.[18] As Rawh sought to forge stronger ties to the Banu Kalb, he petitioned Yazid to recognize the Judham as descendants of Ma'add and thus kinsmen of the Quda'a; Natil opposed Rawh's initiative and insisted on affiliation with Qahtan, the progenitor of the Yemenite tribes.[18]

Following the death of Yazid's son and successor Mu'awiya II in 684, the Judham under Natil allied with Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, a rival, Mecca-based claimant to the caliphate, while Rawh supported the Umayyad Marwan I.[1][19] Following Marwan's victory over the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr at the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684, the Quda'a and the Kalb changed genealogical affiliation to the Qahtan and formed the Yaman (Yemenite) confederation in opposition to the pro-Zubayrid Qays tribes of northern Syria.[20] The Judham remained allies of the Kalb and together the two tribes formed the linchpin of the Yaman confederation in Syria during the struggle with the Qays.[1] Natil fled Palestine or was killed and by the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), Rawh became the undisputed leader of the Judham.[21] The tribe remained closely allied with the Umayyads until their demise in 750.[1]

Middle Islamic period

A branch of the Judham called the Banu Bayadh or al-Bayyadhiyin were recorded as inhabiting the northern

Banu Sakhr tribe inhabiting the province of al-Karak in modern Jordan belonged to the Judham, though in the Banu Sakhr's modern-day oral traditions, they claim descent from an 18th-century tribe of the Hejaz which entered modern Jordan in the 19th century.[24]

Their presence in Egypt is also reported by David E. Millis, Reuven Aharonia and others in the form of the al-Ayed/Aydeh clan the head of which married the Circassian maternal founder of Egypt's Abaza family during the reign of the Circassian Mamluks.[25][26]

Notes

  1. ^ In the Arab genealogical literature which emerged in the 8th century the Judham, Lakhm and Amila were all fathered by Adi ibn al-Harith ibn Murra ibn Udad ibn Zayd of the Kahlan.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bosworth 1965, p. 573.
  2. ^ a b c Donner 1981, p. 105.
  3. ^ Caskel 1966, p. 53.
  4. ^ Caskel 1966, p. 54.
  5. ISBN 9781136109782
    .
  6. ISBN 9780859894791
    .
  7. ^ Gil 1997, p. 18.
  8. ^ Gil 1997, p. 24.
  9. ^ Donner 1981, p. 106.
  10. ^ Donner 1981, pp. 147–148.
  11. ^ Donner 1981, p. 320, note 267.
  12. ^ a b Hasson 1993, p. 97.
  13. ^ a b Hasson 1993, p. 98.
  14. ^ Hasson 1993, p. 99.
  15. ^ Hasson 1993, p. 109.
  16. ^ Crone 1994, p. 44.
  17. ^ Crone 1994, p. 46.
  18. ^ a b Crone 1994, p. 44, note 235.
  19. ^ Gil 1997, p. 76–77.
  20. ^ Crone 1994, p. 47.
  21. ^ Hasson 1993, p. 117.
  22. ^ Bailey 1985, pp. 20–21.
  23. ^ Prawer 1985, p. 91.
  24. ^ Al-Bakhit 1995, p. 882.
  25. ISBN 978-1-134-26821-4
    .
  26. ISBN 978-1-61797-619-3
    .

Bibliography
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