Adnan ( ar, عدنان, 'adnān) is the traditional ancestor of the

Adnanite The Adnanites ( ar, عدنانيون) were a tribal confederation of the Ishmaelite Arabs, traces their lineage back to Ismail son of the Islamic prophet and patriarch Ibrahim and his wife Hajar through Adnan, who originate from the Hejaz. The ...

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...

of Northern, Western, Eastern and Central

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

, as opposed to the Qahtanite Arabs of

Southern Arabia South Arabia () is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, Al-Bahah, and 'Asi ...

who descend from

Qahtan The terms Qahtanite and Qahtani ( ar, قَحْطَانِي; transliterated: Qaḥṭānī) refer to Arabs who originate from South Arabia. The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple ancient Arabian inscriptions found in Yemen. Arab traditions be ...

. His ancestry can be traced back to

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...

and from there to

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

and

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

Origin

According to tradition, Adnan is the father of a group of the Ishmaelite Arabs who inhabited West and Northern Arabia; he is a descendant of

Ishmael Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...

, son of

. Adnan is believed by genealogists to be the father of many Ishmaelite tribes along the Western coast of

, Northern

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. Many family trees have been presented by Adnan, which did not agree about the number of ancestors between

and Adnan but agreed about the names and number of the ancestors between Adnan and the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

. The overwhelming majority of traditions and Muslim scholars state that Adnan is a descendant of

Qedar The Qedarites ( ar, قيدار, Qaydār) were a largely nomadic ancient Arab tribal confederation centred in the Wādī Sirḥān in the Syrian Desert. Attested from the 8th century BC, the Qedarites formed a powerful polity which expanded its ...

the son of Ishmael, except for

Ibn Ishaq Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...

who claimed that Adnan was a descendant of

Nebaioth Nebaioth ( ''Nəḇāyōṯ'') or Nebajoth is mentioned at least five times in the Hebrew Bible, according to which he was the firstborn son of Ishmael, and the name appears as the name of one of the wilderness tribes mentioned in the Book of Genes ...

;. According to classical Muslim historian

Al-Tabari ( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari ...

, Ibn Ishaq's differing record may be due to one of the descendants of Qedar also bearing the name of "Nebaioth". Most Muslim scholars refused any attempt to recite the ancestors between Adnan to Ishmael, and condemned other scholars such as

for doing it. This complete absence of evidence for any ancestor between Adnan and Ishmael (and his son) has led some scholars to consider any personal name between the two figures as post-Islam

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

Family

Adnan married Mahdad bint Laham, who was a descendant of his

ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

's half brother Yaqshan. He had two sons with her,

Ma'ad ibn Adnan Ma'ad ibn Adnan ( ar, مَعَدّ ٱبْن عَدْنَان, Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān) is an ancient ancestor of Qusai ibn Kilab and his descendant the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is featured in ancient Arabic literature. Origin According to t ...

and

Akk ibn Adnan Al-Harith ibn Adnan ( ar, عك بن عدنان; perhaps the same as Akk) is the brother of Ma'ad ibn Adnan, who is an ancestor of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is featured in ancient Arabic literature. Parentage Some say that Ma'ad ibn Adnan ...

. Akk dwelt in the Yaman because he took a wife amongst the

Asharites Ashʿarī theology or Ashʿarism (; ar, الأشعرية: ) is one of the main Sunni Islam, Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Ulama, Muslim scholar, Shafiʽi school, Shāfiʿī Faqīh, jurist, Mujaddid, reformer, and Kalam, s ...

and lived with them, adopting their language. The Asharites were descended from

Saba' The Sabaeans or Sabeans (Sabaean:, ; ar, ٱلسَّبَئِيُّوْن, ''as-Sabaʾiyyūn''; he, סְבָאִים, Səḇāʾīm) were an ancient group of South Arabians. They spoke the Sabaean language, one of the Old South Arabian languag ...

ibn Yashjub ibn

Ya'rub Ya'rub ( ar, يعرب, also spelled ''Yarob'',''Ya'rob'', ''Yarrob'', ''Yarab'' or ''Yaarub'') is an ancient Arabic personal name. He is the grandson of Abir being the son of Qahtan and the ancestor of the Himyarite and Sabaean kings of Yemen. ...

ibn

In Pre-Islamic Arabia

Adnan was mentioned in various Pre-Islamic poems, by the Pre-Islamic poets Lubayb Ibn Rabi'a and Abbas Ibn Mirdas. Adnan was viewed by Pre-Islamic Arabs as an honorable father among the fathers of Arab tribes, and they used this ancestry to boast against other Qahtani tribes who were a minority among the

Adnanites The Adnanites ( ar, عدنانيون) were a tribal confederation of the Ishmaelites, Ishmaelite Arabs, traces their lineage back to Ishmael in Islam, Ismail son of the Islamic prophet and patriarch Abraham in Islam, Ibrahim and his wife Hagar i ...

Layla Bent Lukayz Laila bint Lukaiz or Layla bint Lukayz ( ar, لَيْلَى بنت لُكَيْز died 483), otherwise known as "Layla the Chaste" (Arabic: ليلى العفيفة), was a legendary Arab poet and one of the leading poets of the fifth century.''Cl ...

, a Pre-Islamic

female poet This is a list of female poets with a Wikipedia page, listed by the period of time in which they were born. Before CE 1–500 CE 500–999 CE 11th–14th centuries In chronological order: 15th century 16th century 17th century ...

, was captured by a

Persian king This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranian peoples, Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or King of Kings#Iran, Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes aroun ...

and forced to marry him, so she composed a poem designated to other Arab tribes, asking for their help and reminding that she and they all belong to Adnan, which makes it a duty for them to rescue her. In other poems such as the ones composed by the Pre-Islamic poet "Qumma'a Ibn Ilias", it appears that Arabs considered it as an "Honor" to be a descendant of Adnan, and for some reason they appear to have been proud of it - presumably because if something is considered an "Honor", it is something to be proud of, as a function of the language model.

In North Arabian inscriptions

The name of Adnan is often found in various

Thamudic Thamudic is a name that refers to ancient Arabic Thamudic tribe language found by nineteenth-century scholars for large numbers of inscriptions in Ancient North Arabian (ANA) alphabets which have not yet been properly studied. These texts are found ...

inscriptions, but with few details. In some

Nabataean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Lev ...

inscriptions, Adnan seems to hold some kind of importance or venerability, to the extent that some Nabataeans (descendants of Nabioth, the eldest son of Ishmael) were named after him as ''Abd Adnon'' (meaning, "the slave

r servant R, or r, is the eighteenth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabe ...

of Adnan"). This is no particular indication that he was worshiped, rather than venerated as an honorable figure, much as other Arabs sometimes named their sons "servants" of their forefathers.

Death

Adnan died after

Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling ...

returned to

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

. After Adnan's death, his son

Ma'ad Ma'ad ibn Adnan ( ar, مَعَدّ ٱبْن عَدْنَان, Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān) is an ancient ancestor of Qusai ibn Kilab and his descendant the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is featured in ancient Arabic literature. Origin According to tra ...

moved to the region of Central-Western

Hijaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provinc ...

after the destruction of the

Qedarite The Qedarites ( ar, قيدار, Qaydār) were a largely nomadic ancient Arab tribal confederation centred in the Wādī Sirḥān in the Syrian Desert. Attested from the 8th century BC, the Qedarites formed a powerful polity which expanded its ...

kingdom near

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

, and the remaining Qedarite Arabs there were displaced from their lands and forced to live in

Al-Anbar Al Anbar Governorate ( ar, محافظة الأنبار; ''muḥāfaẓat al-’Anbār''), or Anbar Province, is the largest governorate in Iraq by area. Encompassing much of the country's western territory, it shares borders with Syria, Jordan, ...

province and on the banks of the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

river under the rule of the

Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the List of kings of Babylon, King of B ...

Descent from Adnan to Muhammad

According to Islamic tradition, the

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

was descended from Adnan. It has also been reported, through many speeches, that Adnan foretold the coming of Muhammad and ordered his successors to follow him. The following is the list of chiefs who are said to have ruled the Jazeera and to have been the intraline ancestors of Muhammad: * Adnan *

( معد) * Nizar ( نزار) *

Mudhar The Mudar ( ar, مُضَر) are one of the most powerful Adnanites, northern Arab tribal groupings. History The Mudar and Rabi'ah ibn Nizar, Rabi'a are recorded in central Arabia in the Arabic histories of the Pre-Islamic Arabia, pre-Islamic pe ...

( مضر) * Ilyas ( إلياس) * Mudrikah ( مدركة) * Khuzaimah ( خزيمة) *

Kinanah The Kinana ( ar, كِنَاَنَة, Kināna) were an Arab tribe based around Mecca in the Tihama coastal area and the Hejaz mountains. The Quraysh of Mecca, the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, was an offshoot of the Kinana. A number of mod ...

( كنانة) *

al-Nadr In Islamic tradition, an-Nadhr () was the ancestor of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He precedes Muhammad by 13 generations. Ancestry The tradition (the version of Ibn Ishaq) holds that "Muhammad was the son of 'Abdullah, b. 'Abdu'I-Muttalib (who ...

( النضر) * Malik ( مالك) *

Fihr Fihr ibn Malik ( ar, فِهْر ٱبْن مَالِك, Fihr ibn Mālik, ), is counted among the direct ancestors of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In the lineage of Muhammad from Adnan, Fihr precedes Muhammad by eleven generations. Meaning of ...

( فهر) * Ghalib ( غالب) *

Lu'ay Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib () was an ancestor of Islamic prophet Muhammad of Arabia. He is the son of Ghalib ibn Fihr who lived in Makkah. History The tradition states that Muhammad was the son of 'Abdullah, b. 'Abdu'I-Muttalib (whose name was Shayba) ...

( لؤي) * Ka'b ( كعب) * Murrah ( مرة) * Kilab ( كلاب) * Qusai ( قصي) *

Abd Manaf Abd Manaf al-Mughirah ibn Qusai ( ar, عبد مناف ٱلمغيرة ٱبن قصي, ''ʿAbd Manāf al-Mughīrah ibn Quṣayy'') was a Quraysh (tribe), Qurayshi and great-great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His father was Qusai ibn ...

( عبد مناف) *

Hashim Hashim ( ar, هاشم) is a common male Arabic given name. Hashim may also refer to: *Hashim Amir Ali *Hashim (poet) *Hashim Amla *Hashim Thaçi *Hashim Khan * Hashim Qureshi * Mir Hashim Ali Khan *Hashim al-Atassi *Hashim ibn Abd Manaf *Hashim ib ...

( هاشم) *

Abd al-Muttalib Shayba ibn Hāshim ( ar, شَيْبَة بْن هَاشِم; 497–578), better known as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, ( ar, عَبْد ٱلْمُطَّلِب , lit=Servant of Muttalib) was the fourth chief of the Quraysh tribal confederation. He was ...

( عبد المطلب) * Abd Allah ( عبد الله) *

( محمد)

References

{{Adam to Muhammad Semitic-speaking peoples Adnanites Ancient Arabs Ancestors of Muhammad Sahabah ancestors Ishmaelites