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Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān (Arabic: مَعَدّ ٱبْن عَدْنَان) was a mythic
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
ancestor, traditionally regarded as the son of
Adnan Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia ...
and the forefather of several northern Arab tribes, including
Mudar The Mudar () was a principal grouping of the northern Arab tribes. History The Mudar and Rabi'a are recorded in central Arabia in the Arabic histories of the pre-Islamic period; the kings of the Kindah bore the title of "king of the Ma'add ( ...
and Rabi'ah. He is considered a key figure in Adnanite genealogy, linking the northern Arabs to
Ishmael In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Isla ...
ibn Ibrahim (
Ishmael In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Isla ...
, son of
Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...
) through
Adnan Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia ...
. While Maʿadd eventually became an individual ancestor in Islamic genealogies, the term is first known from pre-Islamic inscriptions where it refers to a group of nomadic and semi-nomadic groups occupying central Arabia, beyond the territorial domain of the major powers of its day: north of the direct territorial control of the
Himyarite Kingdom Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qataban, Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According ...
, and south of that of the
Lakhmids The Lakhmid kingdom ( ), also referred to as al-Manādhirah () or as Banū Lakhm (), was an Arab kingdom that was founded and ruled by the Lakhmid dynasty from to 602. Spanning Eastern Arabia and Sawad, Southern Mesopotamia, it existed as a d ...
. Ma'addites retained independence and protected their northern and southern frontiers because they lived in remote areas and had militarized societies. From the fourth to sixth centuries, they were centered at Ma'sal al‐Jumh in the
Najd Najd is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes most of the central region of Saudi Arabia. It is roughly bounded by the Hejaz region to the west, the Nafud desert in Al-Jawf Province, al-Jawf to the north, ...
. Ma'add coexisted among other regional identities, including Ghassan,
Himyar Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to class ...
, and Tayyi'. They are first mentioned in the
Namara inscription The Namara inscription ( ') is a 4th century inscription in the Arabic language, making it one of the earliest. It has also been interpreted as a late version of the Nabataean script in its transition to Arabic script. It has been described by ...
(328 CE). The word "Ma'add" was used in related, but different ways, in other sources. Pre-Islamic literature beyond the peninsula composed in
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and Syriac used it not for a peoples but for militarized camel-herding Bedouin in north Arabia beyond imperial control more generally. In
pre-Islamic Arabic poetry Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is a term used to refer to Arabic poetry composed in pre-Islamic Arabia roughly between 540 and 620 AD. In Arabic literature, pre-Islamic poetry went by the name ''al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī'' ("poetry from the Jahiliyyah" or " ...
, "Ma'add" was a communal identity and ethnonym functioning in the way that the word "Arab" does today. As such, Ma'add encompassed all peoples, including both northern and southern Arab tribes. In Islamic genealogical accounts, which were written at a time when Ma'add began to be thought of as a tribe as opposed to a central Arabian confederation, "Ma'add" could either refer to a figure named Ma'add, the
eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
ous ancestor of the Ma'add tribe, or to the tribe itself. The tribe was understood in genealogies to be one of several northern Arab tribes that collectively descended from Ma'add's father,
Adnan Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia ...
. By contrast, the tribes of South Arabia traced their ancestry to
Qahtan The Qahtanites (; ), also known as Banu Qahtan () or by their nickname ''al-Arab al-Ariba'' (), are the Arabs who originate from modern-day Yemen. The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple Ancient South Arabian script, Ancient South Arabian ins ...
. Ma'addite may have been the Arabic dialect that pre-Islamic
qasida The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; plural ''qaṣā’id'') is an ancient Arabic word and form of poetry, often translated as ode. The qasida originated in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and passed into non-Arabic cultures after the Arab Mus ...
s were composed in, and it may have a common ancestor with Hijazi Arabic. The word Ma'add underwent many semantic shifts in the Islamic era. First, the Ma'add geography transitioned from central Arabia to the
Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...
as a result of the movement of peoples during the
early Muslim conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (), also known as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He established the first Islamic state in Medina, Arabian Peninsula, Arabia that ...
. Then, the word Ma'add went from being used as an ethnonym, to a tribe. To reassert its hegemony in the face of the spread of pan-Arab identity (and as the term 'Arab' came to adopt the communal sense of 'Ma'add' in earlier times) in the eighth century, the Ma'add tribe was traced to a founder figure (named Ma'add) who became the earliest ascertainable ancestor of the Arabs. By the ninth-century, however, Arab genealogical history was extended further back, first to Ma'add's father
Adnan Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia ...
, and then his grandfather Udad, and eventually,
Ishmael In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Isla ...
, as the ancestor of all Arabs. Yet another genealogical model then became dominant, which delineated South Arabs as a distinguished line of Arabs descending not from Ishmael or Adnan, but
Qahtan The Qahtanites (; ), also known as Banu Qahtan () or by their nickname ''al-Arab al-Ariba'' (), are the Arabs who originate from modern-day Yemen. The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple Ancient South Arabian script, Ancient South Arabian ins ...
. By the end of the ninth century, Ma'addite identity had become largely lost.


Pre-Islamic era


Inscriptions

The first well-dated text that uses the word Ma'add (as MʿDW) is the
Namara inscription The Namara inscription ( ') is a 4th century inscription in the Arabic language, making it one of the earliest. It has also been interpreted as a late version of the Nabataean script in its transition to Arabic script. It has been described by ...
( CE), discovered at Namara in southern
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
. In this Arabic inscription, Ma'add is mentioned in a list of the Arabian groups, including Nizar and Asdayn, subjugated by the
Lakhmid The Lakhmid kingdom ( ), also referred to as al-Manādhirah () or as Banū Lakhm (), was an Arab kingdom that was founded and ruled by the Lakhmid dynasty from to 602. Spanning Eastern Arabia and Sawad, Southern Mesopotamia, it existed as a d ...
king Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr, along with other Arab nations from north, west central and South Arabia. In this context, Imru' al-Qays is described as the "King of the Arabs" (''malik al-ʿarab'') and "King of Maʿadd" (''malik maʿadd''), indicating his submission of the Ma'add in this time. The inscription is ambiguous regarding the geography of Ma'add. According to Webb, the inscription could imply that they were located in South Arabia, possibly near
Najran Najran ( '), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of Najran Province. Today, the city of Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As of the 2022 census, the city population was 381,431, wi ...
. Irfan Shahid argues that the inscription offers little specificity as to the locale of Ma'add in Arabia, or whether it was a tribe or a confederation. Shahid speculates the group could have formed out of the chaos among the Arab tribes following either the
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
annexation of the Nabatean Kingdom in 106 CE or the fall of the
Palmyrene Empire The Palmyrene Empire was a short-lived breakaway state from the Roman Empire resulting from the Crisis of the Third Century. Named after its capital city, Palmyra, it encompassed the Roman provinces of Syria Palaestina, Arabia Petraea, and Egypt ...
to Rome in 272, both polities having wielded significant influence or control over Arab tribal life in northern Arabia. After the submission to Imru' al-Qays of the Lakhmids, Ma'add again appears in a successive series of conflicts from 340 to 360 CE, in having to confront Himyarite expeditions against them. A century later, in a source found at Maʾsal Jumḥ, the Himyarite king Abu Karib celebrates a conquest of Ma'add in an expedition that involved an alliance with the tribes of Sabaʾ, Hadhramaut, and Kinda. Another source from 521 CE in the same place describes a Himyarite expedition launched further north from the same region, indicating the maintenance of Himyarite possession over subsequent decades. After another revolt, Abraha finally and permanently defeated Ma'add in 552 CE at Haliban. The 'Land of Maʿadd' (ʾRḌ MʿDM) is mentioned in an inscription, Jabal Riyām 2006–17. The date of the inscription is unclear, although the editors have placed it in the 3rd century CE. If correct, it would be the earliest source for Ma'add. The inscription ʿAbadan 1 (c. 360 CE) describes campaigns by the
Himyarite Kingdom Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qataban, Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According ...
against nomadic groups, among them Ma'add. Ma'add is mentioned in two Middle Sabaic texts which suggest Ma'add is in central Arabia, slightly at odds with the Namara inscription, potentially signifying fluid borders. Inscriptions during and around the time of Abraha (a Himyarite king) in the 6th century more firmly localize Ma'add to central Arabia. Some corroboration for the idea that the Ma'add belonged to the Himyarite sphere of influence comes from the mid-6th century writings of the Byzantine historian
Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...
and
Ibn Habib Abū Marwān ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb al-Sulami () (180–238 AH) (796–853 CE) also known as Ibn Habib, was a Andalusian polymath of the 9th century. His interests included medicine, fiqh, history, grammar, and genealogy and he was reported ...
's '' al-Muhabbar'' (9th century). From these sources, it may be concluded that the Ma'add were generally north of the territory under Himyarite control, and south of the territory of Lakhmid control. Therefore, they existed beyond the domains of immediate territorial control of the major powers of their time. A new inscription from the late 3rd century CE allows the territorial extent of Ma'add to be confidently assessed at this point in time. It was centered on Maʾsal Jumḥ. To the southeast, it reached Yabrīn, and to the southwest, it reached Ḥalibān. To the north, it reached ʿĀqil and Wādī al-Ruma, including the valley of al-Kharj.


Poetry

Ma'add is a prominent group described in
pre-Islamic Arabic poetry Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is a term used to refer to Arabic poetry composed in pre-Islamic Arabia roughly between 540 and 620 AD. In Arabic literature, pre-Islamic poetry went by the name ''al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī'' ("poetry from the Jahiliyyah" or " ...
(often used as a signifier for "all people"), with at least a few lines being dedicated to them in virtually every collection of this poetry. They regularly appear as an overarching identity, with whom comparisons are frequently made in order to elevate ones self or their tribe. For example, al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani praises the leader
al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir Al-Nuʿmān III ibn al-Mundhir (), also transcribed Naʿaman, Nuʿaman and Noman and often known by the patronymic Abu Qabus (), was the last Lakhmid king of al-Hirah (582 – ) and a Nestorian Christian Arab. He is considered one of the mos ...
by comparing him with Ma'add:
You outstrip the nobles in nobility / Like a stallion outstrips hunting dogs in the chase, / You surpass all of Maʿadd as a patron sought and enemy feared, / From the abundance of praise, you are its first recipient.
The
Taghlib The Banu Taghlib (), also known as Taghlib ibn Wa'il, were an Arab tribe that originated in Jazira. Their parent tribe was the Rabi'a, and they thus traced their descent to the Adnanites. The Taghlib were among the most powerful and cohesive no ...
poet al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq used the term in a similar way, to boast of the supremacy of his own clan:
All people of Maʿadd have their tribes / And each have their safe havens. / But we have no mountain strongholds, / Only swords of formidable repute.
For some poets, it was a "disgrace" not to descend from either Ma'add or AdnanJawwad Ali, The Detailed History of Arabs before Islam (1993), University of Baghdad, Vol.1, pp. 379–387 and Ma'add's glory alone outweighed the rest of that of the history of Arabia. Some poems imply that the Ma'add tribe were the vast majority of pre-Islamic Arabis. Other poems celebrate Ma'add's victory against a tribe of South Arabia called the
Madh'hij Madhḥij () is a large Qahtanite Arab tribal confederation. It is located in south and central Arabia. This confederation participated in the early Muslim conquests and was a major factor in the conquest of the Persian empire and the Byzantine ...
.


Byzantine sources

The nation of Ma'add was mentioned by the Byzantine historian
Procopius of Caesarea Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Emperor Justinian's wars, Procopius became the pr ...
( CE– CE) in his historical record of the wars of
Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
. He mentioned that a
Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...
nation named "''Maddeni''" (Ma'add) were subjects with the kingdom of the "''Homeritae''" (Himyarites), and that Justinian sent a letter to the Himyarite king ordering him to assemble an army of Himyarite soldiers and from Ma'add under the leadership of a king of the nation of Ma'add named "''Kaisus''" (Qays), in order to attack the borders of the
Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...
, and then approved the leader of Ma'add as a king on the region.


Arabic historiography and Kindite kingship

The 5th-century Sabaic inscription in central Arabia which noted that the Himyarite king Abikarib As'ad and his son Hassan Yuha'min "soujourned in the land of Ma'add on the occasion of the establishment of certain of their tribes" correlates with an early Islamic-period literary source, the ('Book of Songs') which notes Abikarib As'ad appointed the Kindite chief Hujr "over the tribe of Ma'add". The Arabic literary tradition suggests that Hujr and his family (the Banu Akil al-Murar) established their rule over the Ma'add, in what is generally referred to as the Kindite kingdom. According to the general narrative, the Ma'add tribes invited the Himyarites' intervention to bring order to the Ma'add. Instead of ruling over them directly, the Himyarites delegated the role to Hujr for unclear reasons. After Hujr died the main body of the Ma'add tribes in
Najd Najd is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes most of the central region of Saudi Arabia. It is roughly bounded by the Hejaz region to the west, the Nafud desert in Al-Jawf Province, al-Jawf to the north, ...
(northern central Arabia) were led by his son Amr 'al-Maqsur' and the Ma'add tribes of the Yamama (southeastern central Arabia) were ruled by his other son Mu'awiya 'al-Jawn'. The Ma'add tribe of Rabi'a, or more particularly its subtribes of
Taghlib The Banu Taghlib (), also known as Taghlib ibn Wa'il, were an Arab tribe that originated in Jazira. Their parent tribe was the Rabi'a, and they thus traced their descent to the Adnanites. The Taghlib were among the most powerful and cohesive no ...
and Bakr, rejected Amr's authority and most likely killed him in battle around the late 5th century. Under Amr's son al-Harith, in 502, the Kinda became federates of the Byzantines, siutated largely outside of the ''
Limes Arabicus The ''Limes Arabicus'' was a desert frontier of the Roman Empire, running north from its start in the province of Arabia Petraea. It ran northeast from the Gulf of Aqaba for about at its greatest extent, reaching northern Syria and forming part ...
'' frontier, while the Ghassanids became the Empire's federates within the ''Limes'' under the same agreement. Al-Harith split command of the Ma'add among four of his sons, Hujr, Ma'dikarib, Shurahbil and Salama. Gunnar Olinder estimates the division occurred around the start of his reign, prompted by internal strife among the tribes of Ma'add whose leaders requested the division by al-Harith. Hujr was installed over the brother tribes of Asad and
Kinana Kinana () is 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 modern-day tribes throughout the Arab w ...
from the
Mudar The Mudar () was a principal grouping of the northern Arab tribes. History The Mudar and Rabi'a are recorded in central Arabia in the Arabic histories of the pre-Islamic period; the kings of the Kindah bore the title of "king of the Ma'add ( ...
division and whose abodes were in Jabal Shammar and the Tihama, respectively. Ma'dikarib ruled over the
Qays Qays ʿAylān (), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe may not have functioned as a unit in pre-Islamic Arabia (before 630). However, by the ea ...
tribe of Mudar, and whose branches were spread across northern and central Arabia. Salama led the Rabi'a tribes of Taghlib and al-Namir ibn Qasit and the Sa'd ibn Zaydmanat and Hanzala branches of the Tamim, another Mudar tribe; all of Salama's tribes dwelt in northeastern Arabia, close to the Sasanian realm. Shurahbil controlled the Bakr, sections of the Tamim, and the Ribab, all except the latter of which lived between Jabal Shammar, eastern Arabia and the Euphrates valley; the Ribab lived in the southern part of central Arabia. After al-Harith's death in 528, relations deteriorated between Salama and Shurahbil over supremacy in the northeastern Najd where their dominions overlapped. This part of the Kindite kingdom, the closest to the Sasanian realm, had been its most important at the time, when the tribe had attempted to replace the Lakhmids in their capital at
al-Hira Al-Hira ( Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient Lakhmid Arabic city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq. The Sasanian government established the Lakhmid state (Al-Hirah) on the edge of the Arabian Desert ...
in Sasanian Iraq. The Taghlib and Bakr had been engaged in a long series of blood feuds known as the Basus War. Their old enmity played a contributing role to the rivalry between Salama and Shurahbil, the kings of Taghlib and Bakr, respectively. Al-Mundhir of al-Hira may have also induced the brothers toward war, offering gifts and honors to Salama, thereby provoking the envies and suspicions of Shurahbil. Besides seeking to neutralize the Kindites who had earlier attempted to topple his Lakhmid dynasty, al-Mundhir was also likely interested in extending his dominion over the Rabi'a tribes, which had migrated closer to his domains from central Arabia over the preceding decades. The brothers' rivalry culminated in a battle at a desert well west of the lower Euphrates called al-Kulab. It became one of best-known battle-days of the pre-Islamic Arabs. Olinder proposes a dating of no later than a "a few years after 530". Most of the Tamim tribesmen who accompanied the Kindite kings in the confrontation melted away, leaving the Taghlib and Bakr as the main belligerents in the fighting with Salama and Shurahbil at their helm. The battle ended with Shurahbil's death and a Taghlib victory. By the late 6th century, Kindite power throughout central Arabia was fraying. The wars between al-Harith's sons had weakened them in Najd. In the Yamama, the Kindite ruling family became involved in a war between the Tamim and the
Banu Amir The Banu Amir () was a large and ancient Arab tribe originating from Western Arabia that dominated Najd for centuries after the rise of Islam. It was an independent branch of the Hawazin confederation, and its original homeland was the border are ...
, the latter a branch of the Qays. The Kindites dispatched contingents in support of the Tamim in their assault against the Amir in what became known as the battle of Shi'b Jabala in Najd, dated variously by modern historians to circa 550, 570 or 580. The Tamim and their allies were routed, and the Kindite king was slain. The loss at Shi'b Jabala spurred the Kinda's abandonment of the Najd and the Yamama and return to their ancestral homeland, the
Hadramawt Hadhramaut ( ; ) is a geographic region in the South Arabia, southern part of the Arabian Peninsula which includes the Yemeni Governorates of Yemen, governorates of Hadhramaut, Shabwah Governorate, Shabwah and Al Mahrah Governorate, Mahrah, D ...
.


Islamic era


Movement from Central Arabia to the Fertile Crescent

The word Ma'add remained in use after the
early Muslim conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (), also known as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He established the first Islamic state in Medina, Arabian Peninsula, Arabia that ...
and into the Umayyad period. During this transitional period, the geographic space of Ma'add moved from central Arabia to the
Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...
, likely as a result of the movement of peoples, groups, and clans during the conquests. At this stage, the term came to designate a specific people with a specific history, who were used as a measure of glory, merit, power, and disgrace.


Ma'add under Umayyad power

The word Ma'add continued to be used in
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
times, especially in early Islamic poetry, and was recruited to describe the glory of Qurashite elites, particularly in the interest of those residing beyond
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
. In addition, the expression of this identity in the early Islamic period was used to continue affirming earlier Ma'addite identities, not least because large segments of Umayyad armies were manned by militarized Ma'addites, a process that continued until Ma'addites increasingly occupied a sedentary lifestyle in the face of the success of the conquests.
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
rulers occasionally adopted epithets making use of the term. For example, the caliph
Hisham Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (; 6 February 743) was the tenth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 724 until his death in 743. Early life Hisham was born in Damascus, the administrative capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, in AH 72 (691–692 CE). Hi ...
was addressed as "the Lord of Maʿadd and non-Maʿadd" (''rabb Maʿadd wa-siwā Maʿadd'') in a poem by Abu Nukhayla. The caliph
Al-Walid II Al-Walid ibn Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik (; 70917 April 744), commonly known as al-Walid II, was the eleventh Umayyad caliph, ruling from 743 until his assassination in 744. He succeeded his uncle, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. Birth and background Al-W ...
composed a diwan that referred to his entourage as the "elite of Maʿadd" (''ʿulyā Maʿadd''). Al-Akhtal wrote a verse that praised Muawiya and his son
Yazid I Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (; 11 November 683), commonly known as Yazid I, was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from April 680 until his death in November 683. His appointment by his father Mu'awiya I () was the first ...
:
Your father was Quraysh’s best: / The most noble, generous and temperate. / When the going got tough, and Maʿadd was about to flinch / Your father stood firm as wood.


From ethnonym to name of a tribe

In this period, a semantic shift occurred to the term. Earlier, Ma'add functioned as an ethnonym for central Arabian tribes. However, a departure occurs for the first time seen in the poetry of
Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah al-Makhzūmī () (November 644, Mecca – 712/719, Mecca, full name: Abū ’l-Khaṭṭāb ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Rabīʿah Ibn al-Mughayra ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Makhzūm ibn Yakaza ibn Murra al-M ...
(d. 719 CE) who refers to ''Banu Ma'add'', i.e. the "tribe of the Ma'addites":
I had once ranked you the best of Banu Maʿadd, / And now, you have surpassed even yourself.
This signalled the beginning of a process by which the term Ma'add was consolidated, from an ethnonym, to the name of a particular tribe. Over time, the exceptional status of Ma'add began to erode. Earlier, some tribes (like the
Quda'a The Quda'a () were a confederation of Arab tribes, including the powerful Banu Kalb, Kalb and Tanukh, mainly concentrated throughout Syria (region), Syria and northwestern Arabia, from at least the 4th century CE, during Byzantine Empire, Byzanti ...
) attempted to assimilate into Ma'addite identity, but for several reasons, this process was unsuccessful. Furthermore, the Ma'add were not the only conqueror group from Arabia that had a claim to the spoils and glory of the success of the conquests. Resistance to a collective Ma'add identity was strongest from South Arabian tribes, who eventually elaborated a genealogical history distinguishing them entirely from Ma'add or the lineage of Ma'add, but instead with a different ancestor,
Qahtan The Qahtanites (; ), also known as Banu Qahtan () or by their nickname ''al-Arab al-Ariba'' (), are the Arabs who originate from modern-day Yemen. The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple Ancient South Arabian script, Ancient South Arabian ins ...
. Therefore, the following verses were composed to signify an equal status between Ma'add and southern Arabs:
Jarir ibn Atiyah: You command the summit of the Maʿaddites / And your lineage tops the Yemenite heights. (Poet cited by
Al-Baladhuri ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī () was a 9th-century West Asian historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph al ...
): But for Ibn Badr, / Iraqis have no protector. / Ask who is the saviour of the right – / And Maʿadd and Qahtan point to Ibn Badr.


Reaction to Arab identity

Around this time, the ethnonym Arab began to become more commonly invoked, in a sense that was in line with the pre-Islamic and collective sense that Ma'add once occupied. Nevertheless, Ma'add continued to be used into middle and late Umayyad poetry. By the late eighth century, the Ma'add identity was in the process of being subsumed into a pan-Arab identity. As a reactionary strategy, and to entrench their status at the top of intra-Arab identity, Ma'addite Umayyad elites developed the notion that (a figure named) Ma'add was the earliest ascertainable ancestor of the Arabs.


Ma'add as the Arab ancestor

As pan-Arab identity grew in prominence and threatened to subsume Ma'addite ancestry and its exceptionalism among other Arab identities, Ma'add as a person was invented, and transformed into the earliest ascertainable ancestor of the Arabs. The earliest Islamic genealogical writings, composed in the eighth and early ninth centuries, describe Ma'add as the earliest derivable Arab ancestor. In hadiths that can be found in the writings of Ibn al-Kalbi (his ''Jamharat al-nasab''),
Ibn Sa'd Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and di ...
( ''al-Tabaqat''), Khalīfa ibn Khayyāt (''al-Tabaqat''), and Ibn Wahb (''al-Jami), Muhammad would describe explain the genealogical ancestry of the Arabs. He would stop after reaching Ma'add, and then say "the genealogists lie". In other words, Ma'add was the oldest remembered Arab ancestor. He was said to have been removed from the generation of Muhammad by twenty generations. An implication of this was that Ma'add as a tribe was synonymized with "original Arab" and allowed to retain its hierarchical prominence under a broader Arab umbrella. Ma'add, as the
eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
ous founder figure of the Ma'add tribe, came to be conceptualized by Arab genealogies as the father of many tribes along the Western Hijaz coast of the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
and
Najd Najd is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes most of the central region of Saudi Arabia. It is roughly bounded by the Hejaz region to the west, the Nafud desert in Al-Jawf Province, al-Jawf to the north, ...
.


Ma'add as the chosen tribe

The Ma'add tribe became a chosen group among, or even in contrast to, the Arabs, appearing multiple times in prophecy over the course of a mythic world-history. His birth is placed by several sources in 598 BCE. He was said to have fathered four sons:
Quda'a The Quda'a () were a confederation of Arab tribes, including the powerful Banu Kalb, Kalb and Tanukh, mainly concentrated throughout Syria (region), Syria and northwestern Arabia, from at least the 4th century CE, during Byzantine Empire, Byzanti ...
(his first), Nizar, Qunus and Iyad, although by the end of the Umayyad period, the ancestry of Quda'a had been moved to Qahtan instead of Ma'add as the former gained prominence and the latter lost it. One story occurring first in
Ibn Habib Abū Marwān ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb al-Sulami () (180–238 AH) (796–853 CE) also known as Ibn Habib, was a Andalusian polymath of the 9th century. His interests included medicine, fiqh, history, grammar, and genealogy and he was reported ...
's '' al-Muhabbar'' describes how Ma'add came to be the ancestors of all Arabs (and by extension, the ancestor of
Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
, as is stated in sources like the ''Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah'' of
Ibn Ishaq Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (; – , known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic proph ...
). In the 6th century BCE, the Babylonian empire
Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...
invaded the peninsula and committed a genocide of its people. However, prior to the genocide, an
Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...
prophet named Abrakhiya b. Ahniya b. Zarabyal was warned by God about this impending event. Abrakhiya was given the mission to discover Ma'add, whence he was still a boy, and bring him to safety. After Arabia had been emptied of its inhabitants, Ma'add returned to the region and settled in
Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
. From there, his lineage spread and he became the sole line of uncontaminated Arab blood. In later times, versions of this story was transmitted by the works of
Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...
,
Al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...
, and
Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...
.
Yaqut Al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...
, The Dictionary of Countries, Vol. 3, Pages: 377-380
The geographer
Ya'qubi ʾAbū al-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (died 897/8), commonly referred to simply by his nisba al-Yaʿqūbī, was an Arab Muslim geographer. Life Ya'qubi was born in Baghdad to a fam ...
attributed all sorts of origins myths to Ma'add, including attributing to him the achievement of being the first person to domesticate camels and use them for transporting goods. A hadith recorded by Al-Tabarani records Ma'add as attacking a camp of
Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...
: upon Moses cursing at them, God repudiates him, stating that through Ma'add, an illiterate Prophet will arise. Ibn Duraid reports a hadith asserting that, when Ma'add was faced with
Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
's group during the conquests, God had already guided them to the true faith. Finally, as the Arabic language became important in conceptualizing Arab identity, Ma'add was synonymized with the climax of correct Arabic speaking, as denoted by the spread of the phrase "More correct-speaking than Maʿadd" (''afsah min Maʿadd'') in linguistic debates.


Erosion of Ma'add identity

Eventually, the dominance of Ma'add identity in Islamic tradition resided in the ninth century and Ma'add primacy in genealogies was suppressed. A personality figure that fathered Ma'add was invoked,
Adnan Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia ...
, to consolidate this move and shift attention away from Ma'add. Ma'add tribes were relabelled as Adnanite tribes. Although this process won out, it was not uncontested. Ibn Sallam al-Jumahi argued that Ma'add was the true Arab ancestor and that Adnan was a fabrication. In support of this argument, he observed that he only saw the name Adnan one time in pre-Islamic poetry, in contrast to voluminous mentions of Ma'add. Over time, Arab ancestry continued to be transferred more remotely into the past, with a corresponding marginalization of Ma'add's prominence. The hadith where Muhammad traces Arab genealogy until reaching an earliest figure before whom "the genealogists lie" was retained, but in Al-Balādhurī's '' Genealogies of the Nobles'' (''Ansāb al-ashrāf''), Muhammad extends this as far back to Udad, the grandfather of Ma'add and the father of Adnan. Another move was then to push ancestry of all Arabs back to
Ishmael In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Isla ...
. Ma'addite identity had become largely lost by the late ninth century. In the tenth century, South Arabians split off their own genealogical history and asserted themselves as the "pure" Arabs—descended from
Qahtan The Qahtanites (; ), also known as Banu Qahtan () or by their nickname ''al-Arab al-Ariba'' (), are the Arabs who originate from modern-day Yemen. The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple Ancient South Arabian script, Ancient South Arabian ins ...
and not Adnan—with groups like Ma'add merely being "Arabized Arabs". The genealogy of the
Quda'a The Quda'a () were a confederation of Arab tribes, including the powerful Banu Kalb, Kalb and Tanukh, mainly concentrated throughout Syria (region), Syria and northwestern Arabia, from at least the 4th century CE, during Byzantine Empire, Byzanti ...
, formerly placed as an offshoot of the Ma'addite tribe, was revised to ensure that they remained powerful as Ma'add lost influence: they went from descendants of Ma'add to descendants of Qahtan.


See also

*
Ishmael In the Bible, biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Isla ...
*
Ishmaelites The Ishmaelites (; ) were a collection of various Arab tribes, tribal confederations and small kingdoms described in Abrahamic tradition as being descended from and named after Ishmael, a prophet according to the Quran, the first son of Abraha ...
* Qedarite * Iyad (tribe)


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Adam to Muhammad 6th-century BC Arab people Adnanites Ancestors of Muhammad Ancient Arabs Pre-Islamic Arabia Tribes of Arabia