Banu 'Akk ( ,

Ancient South Arabian Old South Arabian (or Ṣayhadic or Yemenite) is a group of four closely related extinct languages spoken in the far southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script. There were a number of oth ...

:𐩲𐩫𐩣 lit. ʿkm, ʿAkkum; Greek:’Αχχιται) or simply 'Akk, was one of the main pre-Islamic Arab tribes. The tribe inhabited Yemen in the Jahiliyyah.

Traditional Arab genealogy

According to

Ibn Hisham Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām ibn Ayyūb al-Ḥimyarī al-Muʿāfirī al-Baṣrī ( ar, أبو محمد عبدالملك بن هشام ابن أيوب الحميري المعافري البصري; died 7 May 833), or Ibn Hisham, e ...

the members of the Banu 'Akk tribe are descendants of a man called Al-Dith ibn Adnan () or also known as 'Akk. Akk dwelt in Yemen because he took a wife amongst the

Banu Ash'ar Banu al-Ash'ar ( ar, بنو الأشعر; Ancient South Arabian: , ʾs²ʿrn) also known as al-Ashaira ( ar, الأشاعرة, link=no) is a Qahtanite tribe that inhabited Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula. The companion of the prophet, Abu Musa al-A ...

and lived with them. The Banu Ash'ar were descended from Nabat ibn Udad ibn Zayd ibn Yashjub ibn Arib ibn Zayd ibn Kahlan ibn Saba'. While regarding the Banu 'Akk lineage, there seems to be a dispute between scholars in determining their origins. For example, According to al-Sam'ani they are of Adnanite origin. On the other hand, Ibn Hazm writes that they were descendant from Qahtan, hence, Qahtanite Arabs. The mother of Madh'hij, who is the founder of the Madh'hij tribe, is said to be from 'Akk. The tribe of Banu Ghafiq from which the general

Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah Al-Ghafiqi ( ar, عبدالرحمن بن عبداللّه الغافقي, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ghāfiqī; died 732), was an Arab Umayyad commander of Andalusian Muslims. He unsuccessfully led into ...

descended, is a branch of Banu 'Akk.

History

Pre-Islamic period

The Arab tribes were known to go on a pilgrimage to the temples of the pagan deities of Arabia. Banu 'Akk tribesmen would travel from Yemen to Mecca to perform the pilgrimage to the deity Wadd. According to '' Kitab al-Asnam (The Book of Idols)'' of

Ibn al-Kalbi Hishām ibn al-Kalbī ( ar, هشام بن الكلبي), 737 AD – 819 AD/204 AH, also known as Ibn al-Kalbi (), was an Arab historian. His full name was Abu al-Mundhir Hisham ibn Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib ibn Bishr al-Kalbi. Born in Kufa, he spent ...

, The Banu 'Akk had a unique chant and rituals to Wadd. The tribe would bring two young African slaves of theirs in front of the tribesmen, and the slaves proceed to shout: "We are the crows of 'Akk!" The tribesmen reply and shout: "'Akk to you submits, Your worshippers from Yemen. May we once more make this pilgrimage!"

Islamic period

The Banu 'Akk participated in many battles and conflicts. Under the

Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate ( ar, اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his ...

Amr ibn al-'As ( ar, عمرو بن العاص السهمي; 664) was the Arab commander who led the Muslim conquest of Egypt and served as its governor in 640–646 and 658–664. The son of a wealthy Qurayshite, Amr embraced Islam in and was assigned impor ...

entered Egypt with an army that included approximately 3,000 to 4,000 men from the tribe of Banu 'Akk. In 817 AD, the Banu 'Akk participated in a revolt alongside Banu Ash'ar against Abbasid Caliph

al-Ma'mun Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'mu ...

's governor of Yemen

Notable people

Among the tribe's members are: * Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi Umayyad commander and governor of Al-Andalus *

Muhammad ibn Aslam Al-Ghafiqi Muhammad ibn Aslam Al-Ghafiqi () (d. 1165 CE) was a 12th-century Andalusian-Arab oculist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physic ...

An ophthalmologist who lived in the 12th century * Mehjaa ibn Saleh The first Muslim killed in the

Battle of Badr The Battle of Badr ( ar, غَزْوَةُ بَدِرْ ), also referred to as The Day of the Criterion (, ) in the Quran, Qur'an and by Muslims, was fought on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan (calendar month), Ramadan, 2 Anno Hegirae, AH), near the ...

Abū Jaʿfar al-Ghāfiqī Abū Jaʿfar al-Ghāfiqī (uncertain birth and death dates), was an 11th-century Andalusian Arab botanist, pharmacologist, physician and scholar from Ghafiq near Cordoba in the southern Iberian peninsula called al-Andalus, a region of mixed cultu ...

12th century botanist *

Muhammad ibn Muqatil al-Akki Muhammad ibn Muqatil ibn Hakim al-Akki ( ar, محمد بن مقاتل بن حكيم العكي) was a provincial governor for the Abbasid Caliphate. Appointed to Ifriqiya in 797, he was the last Provincial governor of that province prior to the ...

Abbasid governor of

Ifriqiya Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna ( ar, المغرب الأدنى), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (today's western Libya). It included all of what had previously ...

References