The Banu Bakr bin Wa'il ( ar, بنو بكر بن وائل '), or simply Banu Bakr, were an

Arabian 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. ...

tribe belonging to the large

Rabi'ah Rabīʿa ibn Nizar ( ar, ربيعة بن نزار) is the patriarch of one of two main branches of the "North Arabian" (Adnanite) tribes, the other branch being founded by Mudhar. Branches According to the classical Arab genealogists, the foll ...

branch of

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. Th ...

tribes, which also included

Abd al-Qays The Abd al-Qays ( ar, عبد القيس) was an ancient Arabian tribe from the Rabi'a branch of the North Arabian tribes. History Origins The name of the tribe means 'servant of the odQays'. It belonged to the tribal groups originally resident ...

Anazzah Anizah or Anazah ( ar, عنزة, ʻanizah, Najdi pronunciation: ) is an Arabian tribe in the Arabian Peninsula, Upper Mesopotamia, and the Levant. Genealogy and origins Anizah's existence as an autonomous tribal group, like many prominent m ...

Taghlib The Banu Taghlib (), also known as Taghlib ibn Wa'il, were an Arab tribe that originated in Najd (central Arabia), but later migrated and inhabited the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) from the late 6th century onward. Their parent tribe was the Rabi ...

. The tribe is reputed to have engaged in a 40-year war before

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 ...

with its cousins from Taghlib, known as the War of Basous. The pre-Islamic poet,

Tarafah Tarafa ( ar, طرفة بن العبد بن سفيان بن سعد أبو عمرو البكري الوائلي / ALA-LC: ''Ṭarafah ibn al-‘Abd ibn Sufyān ibn Sa‘d Abū ‘Amr al-Bakrī al-Wā’ilī''), was a 6th century Arabian poet of the ...

was a member of Bakr. Bakr's original lands were in

Najd Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the H ...

, in central Arabia, but most of the tribe's bedouin sections migrated northwards immediately before Islam, and settled in the area of

Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, ...

, on the upper

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'') ...

. The region of

Diyar Bakr Diyar Bakr ( ar, دِيَارُ بَكرٍ, Diyār Bakr, abode of Bakr) is the medieval Arabic name of the northernmost of the three provinces of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), the other two being Diyar Mudar and Diyar Rabi'a. According to the m ...

, and later the city of

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

in southern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, take their names from this tribe.Canard, M., Cahen, Cl., Yinanç, Mükrimin H., and Sourdel-Thomine, J. �
Diyār Bakr
��. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Ed. P. Bearman et al. Brill Reference Online. Web. 16 Nov. 2019. Accessed on 16 November 2019. The tribe is distinct from the tribe of Bani Bakr ibn Abd Manat, who lived in the

Hejaz 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 Provin ...

and had important interactions with

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 ...

History

Muhammad's era

During the Islamic Prophet Muhammad's era the Banu Bakr tribe was involved in various military conflicts.

Branches

The following are some of the related and sub-tribes of Bakr ibn Wa'il in the pre-Islamic and early-Islamic eras: *

Adnan Adnan ( ar, عدنان, 'adnān) is the traditional ancestor of the Adnanite Arabs of Northern, Western, Eastern and Central Arabia, as opposed to the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia who descend from Qahtan. His ancestry can be traced back t ...

ite,

or "Northwestern Arabian" (Northern Arabian Red Sea coast) ** Rabi`ah (ربيعة), migrated northwards and eastwards from

, for example to

Diyar Rabi'a Diyar Rabi'a ( ar, دِيَارُ رَبِيعَةَ, Diyār Rabīʿa, abode of Rabi'a) is the medieval Arabic name of the easternmost and largest of the three provinces of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), the other two being Diyar Bakr and Diyar ...

Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the region has been ...

*** Bakr ibn Wa'il,

Al-Yamama Al-Yamama ( ar, اليَمامَة, al-Yamāma) is a historical region in the southeastern Najd in modern-day Saudi Arabia, or sometimes more specifically, the now-extinct ancient village of Jaww al-Yamamah, near al-Kharj, after which the rest ...

, bedouin sections migrated before Islam to

in Al-Jazira. ****

Banu Hanifa Banu Hanifa ( ar, بنو حنيفة) is an ancient Arab tribe inhabiting the area of al-Yamama in the central region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The tribe belongs to the great Rabi'ah branch of North Arabian tribes, which also included Abdu ...

- mostly sedentary, were the principal tribe of

. ****

Banu Shayban The Banu Shayban () is an Arab tribe, a branch of the Bakr ibn Wa'il group. Throughout the early Islamic era, the tribe was settled chiefly in the Jazira, and played an important role in its history. History In the pre-Islamic period, the Shayb ...

- mostly

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

(''

bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

''), led the

Battle of Dhi Qar The Battle of Dhi Qar ( ar, يوم ذي قار), also known as the War of the Camel's Udder, was a pre-Islamic battle fought between Arab tribes and the Sassanid Empire in Southern Iraq. The battle occurred after the death of Al-Nu'man III by the ...

against the

Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ns in southern

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 ...

prior to

. The jurist

Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...

claimed descent from this tribe. **** Banu Qays ibn Tha'labah - bedouin and sedentary, were the inhabitants of the town of

Manfuha Manfuha ( ar, منفوحة) is an ancient village and a historical neighborhood in southern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Established on the edge of the narrow, fertile valley known as Wadi Hanifa, Manfuha was until the mid-20th century considered a tw ...

(now part of Riyadh). The pre-Islamic poets

al-A'sha Al-A'sha ( ar, ٱلْأَعْشَىٰ) or Maymun Ibn Qays Al-A'sha (d.c. 570– 625) was an Arabic Jahiliyyah poet from Najd, Arabia. He traveled through Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia and Ethiopia. He was nicknamed Al-A'sha which means "weak-sig ...

and

were among its members. ****

Banu Yashkur The Banu Yashkur () is an Arab tribe belonging to the larger Banu Bakr ibn Wa'il tribe. The tribe is originally from Al-Yamama and had control over this region in the pre-Islamic period. Ancestry The tribe descended from Yashkur ibn Bakr ib ...

- bedouin and sedentary, inhabitants of

. Al-Harith ibn Hillizah, one of the purported authors of the

Seven Hanged Poems The Muʻallaqāt ( ar, المعلقات, ) is a group of seven long Arabic poems. The name means The Suspended Odes or The Hanging Poems, the traditional explanation being that these poems were hung in the Kaaba in Mecca, while scholars have also ...

of pre-

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

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. ...

, was a member of Yashkur. **** Banu 'Ijl - mostly

, located in

and the southern borders of

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 ...

. **** Banu Dhuhal *** Abdul Qays ***

In eastern

: *

Taghlib ibn Wa'il The Banu Taghlib (), also known as Taghlib ibn Wa'il, were an Arab tribe that originated in Najd (central Arabia), but later migrated and inhabited the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) from the late 6th century onward. Their parent tribe was the Rabi ...

, migrated northwards to the Jazirah plain in northern Mesopotamia in the 6th century. * Anz ibn Wa'il * al-Nammir ibn Qasit

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakr Tribes of Arabia Tribes of Saudi Arabia Bakr