al-Aws

Al-Aws is one of the two tribes of Yathrib, with al-Khazraj. The Sealed Nectar counts them among the branches of Kahlan of the Qahtani lineage, and makes them sons of Haritha ibn Thalaba ibn Amr of al-Azd, who settled in Medina after the migration of the Azd from Yemen. ^{2 3 4}

The author notes that Sulayman al-Nadwi inclined to the view that the Ansar, the Aws and al-Khazraj, were not of the family of Qahtan but of Nabit ibn Ismail and their remnants in those lands. ^{5 6}

The author gives the Aws and al-Khazraj as an example of how rivalry for honour and leadership often led to wars between tribes that share one father. ⁷

The pledges of al-Aqaba and the support of the Aws for the Prophet ﷺ after the migration are presented under the Ansar and in the entries on the events.

Al-Aws, with al-Khazraj, was one of the two main Arab tribes of Medina. Before Islam both were known as Banu Qayla, from their reputed mother, and after the hijra they were the Ansar, the "helpers" of Muhammad. Ibn Sa'd gives the genealogy as al-Aws ibn Tha'laba ibn 'Amr (Muzayqiya') ibn 'Amir (Ma' al-sama') ibn Haritha ibn Imri' al-Qays, going back to Qahtan. The name al-Aws probably means "the gift", a contraction of Aws Manat; it was changed in Islamic times to Aws Allah. The Constitution of Medina calls the four clans Khatma, Wail, Wakif and Umayya ibn Zayd simply the Banu'l-Aws. ⁸

The traditional story is that after the emigration from Yemen the descendants of the ancestors quarrelled, and al-Aws and al-Khazraj separated from Ghassan and settled at Yathrib, then controlled by Jewish clans. For a time the Banu Qayla were subordinate to the Jews, but under Malik ibn al-'Ajlan of the Khazraj clan of Salim they became independent and obtained a share of the palm trees and the strongholds. The entry doubts that the two tribes were a unity at this time: the effective units were the subdivisions called clans, and the genealogies, which are later compilations, are wholly patrilineal, although matrilineal kinship mattered in Medina. The units responsible for blood-money in the Constitution were single clans or groups of clans, and the idea of Aws and Khazraj as tribes was probably fostered to bind allied clans more closely shortly before the hijra. ⁸

The leading man among the Aws in the generation before the hijra was Hudayr ibn Simak, of the clan of 'Abd al-Ashhal. The oppressive policy of the Khazraj leader 'Amr ibn al-Nu'man of Bayada drove the Jewish tribes of Qurayza and al-Nadir into alliance with the exiled clans, and they were helped by the nomadic clan of Muzayna; the battle of Bu'ath went in favour of the Aws, but Hudayr was killed and no peace was made, though no further large-scale fighting followed. When Muhammad began negotiations, nearly all the Khazraj came to an agreement with him, while many of the Aws held back. The conversion of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh ibn al-Nu'man, chief of 'Abd al-Ashhal, was decisive for the growth of Islam at Medina; from Badr until his death in 5 AH (627) he was the leading Muslim of the Banu Qayla or Ansar. The enmity between Aws and Khazraj died away gradually, and is not heard of after Abu Bakr became caliph. ⁹