Adnan

Adnan is the ancestor at whom the Prophet's genealogy stands. He descends from Qaydar ibn Isma'il, and in al-Mubarakpuri's account he is the twenty-first ancestor in the chain of the Prophet's lineage. From him the Adnani Arabs preserved their genealogies ¹.

The descendants of Qaydar ibn Isma'il kept multiplying in Mecca, until Adnan came from them, and then his son Ma'add. From Adnan the Adnanite Arabs preserved their genealogies ^{1 2}.

It is reported that when the Prophet traced his lineage and reached Adnan, he would stop and say, "The genealogists have lied," and would not go beyond him ^{1 3 4}. A group of scholars held that the lineage may be traced above Adnan, weakening the hadith referred to, and said that between Adnan and Abraham there are forty fathers by careful verification ^{1 5}. The question is therefore a disagreement between those who stop at Adnan and those who trace the lineage beyond him.

The clans of Ma'add branched out from his son Nizar, and it is said that Ma'add had no son other than Nizar. Nizar had four sons, from whom four great tribes branched: Iyad, Anmar, Rabi'a and Mudar ^{1 6}. As Adnan's children multiplied, they spread across the lands of Arabia, following the rain and the grass ⁷. The histories of Mecca say that Adnan's political star began to rise over Mecca after the weakening of Jurhum, shortly before Nebuchadnezzar appeared. They also say that the descendants of Adnan dispersed to Yemen at Nebuchadnezzar's second campaign, in 587 BCE ^{8 2 9}.

In the second part of the Prophet's lineage, the author sets out a sequence of about forty names: Adnan ibn Udd ibn Humaysa' ibn Salaman ibn Awsa' ibn Buz ibn Qimwal ibn Abi ibn Awwam ibn Nashid ibn Hazza ibn Baldas ibn Yadlaf ibn Tabikh ibn Jahim ibn Nahash ibn Makhi ibn Ayd ibn Abqar ibn Ubayd ibn al-Da' ibn Hamdan ibn Sanbar ibn Yathrabi ibn Yahzan ibn Yalhan ibn Ar'awi ibn Ayd ibn Dishan ibn Ayşar ibn Afnad ibn Ayham ibn Muqsir ibn Nahith ibn Zarih ibn Sami ibn Mazi ibn Awdah ibn Aram ibn Qaydar ibn Isma'il. He notes that Mansurpuri compiled this, drawing on the narrations of al-Kalbi and Ibn Sa'd after verification, and that the sources differ considerably on it ^{10 11}. See the Prophet's lineage.

The names are transcribed from the scanned edition of the book and were read from the page. The vocalisation of some of them cannot be read in the copy available and needs to be checked against a critical edition.