Qahtan (the Original Arabs)

The Pure Arabs (al-'Arab al-'Ariba), the people of Qahtan: in the historians' division of the Arabs, the second category, descended from the loins of Ya'rub ibn Yashjub ibn Qahtan. They are called the Qahtanite Arabs, and their cradle is the land of Yemen ¹.

The tribes and clans of Qahtan branched out, and two became famous. The first is Himyar, whose best-known clans were Zayd al-Jumhur, Quda'a and al-Sakasik. The second is Kahlan, whose best-known clans were Hamdan, Anmar, Tayy', Madhhij, Kinda, Lakhm, Judham, al-Azd, al-Aws, al-Khazraj, and the sons of Jafna, kings of Syria ^{1 2}.

The clans of Kahlan left Yemen and spread across the peninsula. Most of them left shortly before the Flood of al-Arim, when their trade failed under Roman pressure: the Romans controlled the sea trade route, and after occupying Egypt and Syria they disrupted the land route ¹. The author holds that rivalry between the clans of Kahlan and of Himyar led to Kahlan's departure, and he points to Himyar remaining in Yemen after Kahlan left ³. In the chapter on the kingdom in Yemen, he lists the factors that scattered the family of Qahtan and sent them to distant lands: the failure of Yemen's trade under Nabataean control of northern Hijaz, then Roman dominance of the sea routes, and then tribal rivalry ⁴. He notes that the sources differ greatly on the dating of these migrations and their causes ³.

In the era of the petty kings after Alexander, the Qahtanis migrated and occupied part of the countryside of Iraq. Later, Adnanites who had also migrated followed them and pressed them until they settled part of the Upper Euphrates region ^{5 6}.

The author reports Sulayman al-Nadawi's preference that the kings of the Ghassan family and the Ansar of the Aws and Khazraj were not of the house of Qahtan, but of Nabit ibn Isma'il ^{7 8}. Attributing these clans to Qahtan is therefore a matter of dispute.