Prophet Muhammad's line to Kedar, Ishmael

The Prophet’s Family Line No 2  - from Qusayy to Adnan and beyond

Sr Ruqaiyyah

The last of the Banu Khuza’ah kings, Hulayl b. Hubshiyyah (Habashiya) b. Salul b. Ka’b b. Amr al-Khuza’i, gave his heiress daughter Hubbah in marriage to the hero Qusayy b. Kilab of people known as the Banu Nadr.[1]   Qusayy’s line can be traced as far back as Adnan, of the line of Isma’il b. Ibrahim.

Qusayy was the son of Kilab b. Murrah  b. Ka‘b  b. Lu‘ayy by his wife Fatimah bint Sa’d b. Sayal of the Banu Azd of Yemen. Qusayy had a brother Zuhrah.

Qusayy’s father Kilab was the son of Murrah b. Ka’b by his first wife Hind bint Surayr b. Thalabah b. Harith b. Fihr b. Malik b. Nadr b. Kinanah b. Khuzaymah. Murrah’s second wife, Asma bint Adiy b. Harithah b. Amr b. Amir b. Bariq (from Yemen), also known as Bariqiyyah of Asad, was the mother of Kilab’s half-brothers Taym and Yaqazah (Ibn Ishaq named her Hind bint Harithah al-Bariqiyyah).   Yaqaza was the father of Makhzum. (The three men whose names are highlighted were leaders of important tribes)

Ka’b b. Lu’ayy was a famous poet, one of those who believed there would soon come a new Messenger of God.  Murrah had two brothers, Adiy and Husays. Murrah and Husays were the sons of Ka’b’s wife Wahshiyah (or Makhshiyyah) bint Shayban b. Muharib b. Fihr b. Malik b. Nadr b. Kinanah. Adiy’s mother was Raqash bint Rukbah b. Na’ilah b. Ka’b b. Harb b. Taym b. Sa’d b. Fahm b. Amr b. Qays b. Aylan.   Husays was the father of Amr and grandfather of Jumah and Sahm. (Three more important tribal leaders)

Ka’b’s father was Lu’ayy b. Ghalib (Qusayy’s great-great-grandfather), the brother of Taym al-Adram. Lu’ayy had seven sons - Ka’b, Amir, Sama, Khuzaymah, Sa’d, Harith and Awf. The mother of all the sons except Amir and Awf was Mawiyyah bint Ka’b b. Qayn b. Jasr b. Shay Allah b. Asad b. Wabrah b. Taghlib b. Hulwan b. Imran b. Haf b. Quda’ah. 

Ka’b and his two brothers were known as the Banu Najiyah.

Awf’s mother was Baridah bint Awf b. Ghanm b. Abdullah b. Ghatafan.

Amir’s mother was either Makshiyah or Layla bint Shayban b. Muharib b. Fihr (Ibn Ishaq p.706 n.88). The tribe of Awf b. Lu’ayy allied with the Ghatafan.

Lu’ayy and Taym were the two sons of Ghalib b. Fihr. When Lu’ayy died, Baridah took her son back to her own people and married Sa’d b. Dhubyan b. Baghid.

Ka’b had two other paternal half-brothers – Khuzaymah (who was known as Aidhat Quraysh after his mother Aidhah bint Khims b. Quhafah b. Khatham, and Sa’d (whose mother was Bunanah).

Lu’ayy’s mother was Atikah bint Yakhlud b. Nadr b. Kinanah, the first of the Atikahs of the tribe of Quraysh who were ancestresses of the Prophet (pbuh). Another source (Ibn Ishaq p.41) gave her name as Salmah bint Amr b. Rabi’ah (Luhayy) b. Harithah b. Amr Muzayqiqa b. Amir Ma’al-Sama b. Khuza’ah.

Lu’ayy had two full brothers, Taym al-Adram (from daram, meaning a receding chin) and Qays.

Lu’ayy’s father was Ghalib b. Fihr b. Malik and his mother was Layla bint Harith b. Tamim b. Sa’d b. Hudhayl b. Mudrikah. (Other sources named his mother as either Jandalah bint Amir b. Harith b. Mudad (b. Amr) al-Jurhumi, or Salmah bint Udd b. Tabikhah b. Ilyas b. Mudar or Jamilah bint Adwan of Bariq of Azd).

Lu’ayy had six full brothers - Harith, Muharib, Asad, Awf, Jawn and Dhi’b.

Fihr and Harith were sons of Malik b. Nadr. Malik’s wife was Ikrishah (or Atikah) bint Adwan (Harith) b. Amr b. Qays b. Aylan. Another source named Fihr’s mother as Hind bint Fahm b. Amr b. Qays b. Aylan.

Malik, Salt and Yakhlud were the sons of Nadr (Qays) b. Kinanah.

Nadr’s mother was Barrah bint Murr b. Udd b. Tabikhah b. al-Yas b. Mudar, who had previously been married to his father Kinanah’s father. Kinanah b. Quzaymah had many other sons, including Malik, Milkan, Abd Manat, Nudayr, Amir, Harith, Amr, Sa’d, Awf, Ghanm, Makhramah, Jarwal, Ghazwan and Hudal.

They had a paternal half-brother Abd Manat, whose mother was Fukayhah (or Fakhah) al-Dhafra bint Hani b. Bali b. Amr b. Haf b. Quda’ah.

Abd Manat had a maternal half-brother, Ali b. Mas’ud b. Mazin b. Dhi’b b. Adiy b. Amr b. Mazin al-Ghassani. Abd Manat married Hind bint Bakr b. Wa’il, who bore him children, and when he died Ali b. Mas’ud married her and they also had children.

Kinanah, Asad, Asada (Abu Judham) and Hawn/Hun were the sons of Khuzaymah b. Amr (Mudrika). Kinanah’s mother was Awanah bint Sa’d b. Qays b. Aylan b. Mudar (or Hind bint Amr b. Qays), and his paternal half-brothers Asad, Asadah and Hun were the sons of that Barrah bint Murr whom Kinanah subsequently married himself.

Khuzaymah and Hudhayl were sons of Mudrika or Amr b. Ilyas. Their mother was Salmah bint Aslum b. Haf b. Quda’ah (or Salmah bint Asad b. Rabi’ah). They had a maternal half-brother Taghlib b. Hulwan b. Imran b. Haf b. Quda’ah. 

Mudrika (Amr), Tabikha (Amir) and Umayr (Qama’ah) were the sons of Ilyas b. Mudar. Their mother was a woman of Yemen, Khindif (her real name being Layla bint Hulwan b. Imran b. Haf b. Quda’ah, and her mother being Dariyyah bint Rabi’ah b. Nizar). This is the matriarch whose name prevailed in the genealogy and her sons were known as the Banu Khindif. They got their nicknames from their reactions to antics of a hare that scattered their camels – Amr went after the camels and was called ‘Overtaker’ (= Mudrika) while Amir cooked the hare (cook = tabikha). Umayr had slunk (=inqama’a) into the tents and not come out, but Layla rushed to see what was happening and Ilyas asked where she was hurrying to (= tukhandifin).

Ilyas and Nas (also called Aylan ‘the destitute’ because he was so generous he gave his possessions away, and who fathered all of Qays) were sons of Mudar b. Nizar, the brother of Rabi’ah. Their mother was Rabab bint Haydah b. Ma’add. These two were known as as-Sarihan, the ‘Candid ones’, of the line of Isma’il (pbuh) b. Ibrahim (pbuh). They had a full-brother Iyad and two paternal half-brothers Rabi’ah and Anmar, whose mother was Jaddalah bint Walan b. Jawsham b. Julhumah b. Amr of Jurhum. Anmar and Iyad went to the Yemen.

Mudar was the son of Nizar b. Ma’ad (Abu Iyad, also called Abu Rabi’ah). His mother was Mu’anah bint. Jawsham b. Julhumah b. Amr, and his full brothers were Qunus, Qunasah, Sinam, Haydan, Haydah, Hayadah, Junayd, Junadah, Qahm, Ubayd al-Rammah, Urf, Awf, Shakk and Quda’ah. These were sons of Nizar, the brother of Quda’ah.

Nizar was the son of Ma’ad b. Adnan.  Ma’ad’s mother was Mahdad bint Lihamm (or Lahm) b. Jalhah b. Jadis (or Tasm, or Tawsam), one of the friends of Yaqshan the son of Ibrahim (pbuh). Ma’add’s full brothers were al-Dith Adan b. Adnan (or Akk, although some said Akk was the son of Dith b. Adnan), Abyan, Dahhak and Akk.

This genealogy up to this point is not disputed by any of the scholars, and all the tribes of the Arabs of the Hijaz combine in this line of descent.

Beyond this point, unfortunately, genealogists differ

(i)                          from which son of Isma’il the main line of descent came, and

(ii)                        in the names on the line of descent from Isma’il to Adnan

It is important to note, however, that it was common practice to omit less well-known names from long lists and only record or jump to the better-known celebrities.

Adnan, who was said to have been the ancestor of all the northern Arabs, had two paternal half-brothers, Nabt and Amr.

1. One line recorded by the historian Ibn Ishaq gives:

Adnan b. Udd (Udad)  b. Muqawwam b. Nahur b. Tayrah b. Yarub b. Yashjub b. Nabut b. Isma’il b. Ibrahim.

      

       2. The Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) cousin-wife Umm Salamah, suggests:

Adnan b. Udad b. Zand (Hamaysa) b. Yara (Nabt) b. Araq al-Thara (Qaydhar?) b. Isma’il (pbuh) b. Ibrahim (pbuh).

3. Another line was suggested in the poetry of Qusayy b. Kilab:

Adnan b. Udad b. Aytahab b. Ayyub b. Qaydhar (Kedar) b. Isma’il (pbuh) b. Ibrahim (pbuh).

4. A further suggestion is:

Adnan b. Mayda b. Mani b. Udad b. Ka’b b. Yashjub b. Yarub b. Hamaysa b. Qaydhar (Kedar) b. Isma’il (pbuh) b. Ibrahim (pbuh).

5. The suggestion of Muhammad b Sa’ib al-Kalbi is:

Adnan b. Udad b. Hamaysa b. Salaman b. Aws b. Buz b. Qamwal b. Ubayy b. Awwam b. Nashid b. Haza b. Bildas b. Yidlaf b. Tabakh b. Jaham b. Tahash b. Makha b. Ayfa b. Abqar b. Ubayd b. Da’a b. Hamdan b. Sanbar b. Yathribi b. Yahzan b. Yalhan b. Arawa b. Ayfa b. Dayshan b. Isar b. Aqnad b. Ayham b. Muqsir b. Nahath b. Rizah b. Shamma b. Mizza b. Aws b. Arram b. Qaydhar (Kedar) b. Isma’il (pbuh) b. Ibrahim (pbuh).  (This last list seems far too long.)

The last four of these versions give Adnan’s descent from Isma’il’s son Kedar rather than Nabut. Several other versions also exist.

Qaydhar and Kedar

The references to Qaydhar or Qaydar are very important to those seeking to link this line with the references to Kedar appearing in various other places in the Old Testament, since Muslim scholars put these forward as possible texts prophesying the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).   See Isaiah 42.11.

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[1] Ibn Kathir 1.60, Ibn Sa’d vol 1 p.71 states that the forbears of the Quraysh were known as the Banu Nadr. Nadr b. Kinanah was Qusayy’s great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.