Adnan (the Arabized Arabs)

The Arabised Arabs, or the Adnanites, are the third division of the Arabs in the historians' classification: those descended from the loins of Ishmael, son of Abraham ¹. Among them are Rabi'a and Mudar. From Mudar came Kinana, and from Kinana Quraysh ^{2 3}.

The forefather Abraham came originally from the town of Ur in Iraq. He emigrated from there to Harran and then to Palestine, and he settled his son Ishmael and Ishmael's mother Hagar in Mecca ^{4 5}. Ishmael had twelve sons by the daughter of Mudad al-Jurhumi. They branched into twelve tribes, all of which lived in Mecca for a period. Most of their livelihood was trade from Yemen to Syria and Egypt. Later they spread across the peninsula and beyond, and their circumstances were lost in the depths of time, except for the descendants of Nabit and Qaydar ^{2 6}. The descendants of Qaydar continued to multiply in Mecca until from them came Adnan and his son Ma'add. From Adnan the Arabised Arabs preserved their genealogies ².

Adnan is the twenty-first ancestor in the Prophet ﷺ's genealogy. It is related that when the Prophet traced his lineage and reached Adnan, he would stop and say: "The genealogists have lied," and he would not go beyond him ^{2 7 8}. Some scholars held that it is permissible to trace the lineage above Adnan. They weakened the hadith referred to, and said that between Adnan and Abraham there are forty fathers ^{2 9}.

The branches of Ma'add descend from his son Nizar; it is said that Ma'add had no son other than him. Nizar had four sons, from whom four great tribes branched: Iyad, Anmar, Rabi'a and Mudar. The last two multiplied in their branches and their clans widened ^{2 10}. From Rabi'a came Asad ibn Rabi'a, 'Anaza, 'Abd al-Qays, the two sons of Wa'il, Bakr and Taghlib, Hanifa and others ². Mudar divided into two branches. One was Qays Aylan, from which came Banu Sulaym, Hawazin and Ghatafan. The other was the branches of Ilyas ibn Mudar, from which came Tamim ibn Murra, Hudhayl, Banu Asad ibn Khuzayma and the branches of Kinana. From Kinana came Quraysh, the children of Fihr ibn Malik ibn al-Nadr ibn Kinana ³.

The author cites Muslim's hadith from Wathila ibn al-Asqa', that God chose Ishmael from among the sons of Abraham, Kinana from among the sons of Ishmael, Quraysh from among Kinana, and Banu Hashim from among Quraysh, and that He chose the Prophet from Banu Hashim ^{3 11 12}. A hadith of al-Tirmidhi from al-Abbas has the same meaning ^{3 12}.

When the offspring of Adnan multiplied, they spread across the regions of the Arabian lands, following the places of rain and the pastures. The details of their dwellings are in The location of the Arabs and their peoples ^{3 13}. The accounts of Mecca say that the Adnanites scattered into Yemen at the second campaign of Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE, and that Ma'add went to Syria. When Nebuchadnezzar's pressure receded, Ma'add returned to Mecca ^{14 15}.