The terms Qahtanite and Qahtani (Arabic: قَحْطَانِي from قَحْطَان; transliterated: Qahtani or Qaḥṭānī or Kahtani) refer to one of the main groups of Arab peoples either originating in, or claiminggenealogical descent from the southern extent of the Arabian Peninsula, especially from Yemen.[1][2]
The Qahtani people are divided into the two sub-groups of Himyar and Kahlan, with the Himyar branch as Himyarites and the Kahlan branch as Kahlanis.[2] Another dominant group among the Arab people are variously known as Adnan, Ma'add or Nizar.[2]
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[hide]Qahtani origins[edit]
Arab tradition maintains that a semi-legendary ancestral figure named Qahtan[1][2] and his 24 sons are the progenitors of the southern inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula known as Qahtani.
Early Islamic historians identified Qahtan with the Yoqtan (Joktan) son of Eber of the Hebrew Bible (Gen. 10:25-29).[citation needed]
Among the sons of Qahtan are noteworthy figures like A'zaal (believed by Arabs to have been the original name of Sana'a, although its current name has been attested since the Iron Age) andHadhramaut. Another son is Ya'rub, and his son Yashjub is the father of 'Abd Shams, who is also called Saba. All Yemeni tribes trace their ancestry back to this "Saba", either through Himyar orKahlan, his two sons.
The Qahtani people are divided into the two sub-groups of Himyar and Kahlan, who represent the settled Arabs of the south and their nomadic kinsmen (nomads).[2] The Kahlan division of Qahtan consists of 4 subgroups: the Ta' or Tayy, the Azd group which invaded Oman, the 'Amila-Judham group of Palestine, and the Hamdan-Madhhij group who mostly remain in Yemen.[2]
The Kahlan branch includes the following tribes:Azd ( Aus and Khazraj, Bariq, Ghassan, Khuza'a and Daws), Hamdan, Khath'am, Bajflah, Madhhij, Murad, Zubaid and Nakh', Ash'ar, Lakhm andKindah.[3]
KAHTAN.
|
.--------------------+-------------------.
| |
[[Yarab]]. [[Hazaramaut]].
| *
Yoshjab. *
| Sadif.
Saba.
|
.-----------------------------.
| |
[[Himyar]]. [[Kahlan]].
* |
* .-----------------+----------.
Kozaa. | |
| Rabia. Zeid.
Al-Hafi. * |
| * .-----------------------.
| [[Hamdaan]]. | |
| Abad. *
.-----+-----+----------. * *
| | | * Ghous.
Aslom. Amran. Amr. | |
* * | .------+--+-----+------. |
* * .-----+-----. | | | | |
Zeid. | | | | Murrah. Muzhij. Tay. Ash-ar. |
| .-------+. Bahra. * Bali. | | | |
| | | * .---+---. | .--+-----. |
| Jarm. Taghlib. Mahra. | | | | | |
| | Adi. Khaulan. | Ghous. Kharija. |
| Vabra. | | | |
| | .--------------. | Jadila. |
| .---------. | | | | |
| | | Lakhm. Ofeir. Juzam. | |
| Kalb. Khoshain. | | .------+------. |
| | Dar. Kinda. | | | |
| Taym Allat. | Ans. Illah. | |
| Sukun. | | | |
.---+-------+-----. Morad. | Saad-ul-Ashira |
| | | | | |
Joheina. Saad. Nohd. .------------------. Jufi. |
| | | |
Ozra. Harb. Amr. |
| | |
.----------. Nakha. |
| | |
Raha. Sada. .-----------------------.
|
.----------+----------.
| |
[[Azd]]. Anmar.
| |
.---------------+---. .------+-+-------.
| | | | |
Mazen. Shahnvah. Khas-am. Ghous. Ghafiq.
| | | |
.----------+----------. .-------+-------. Bajila. Ahmas.
| | | | | |
Saalba. Harisa. | Samala. [[Banu Daws|Doos]]. Haddan.
| | Jafna.
.--+----. | ([[Ghassanids|TheGhassinides]]).
| | |
[[Banu Aus|Aws]]. [[Banu Khuza'a|Khazraj]]. |
|
.-----+---+----------.
| | |
Adi. Afsa. Lohay.
| | |
[[Bariq]]. Aslam. [[Banu Khuza'a|Khuza'a]].
| |
Salaman. Mustalik.
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Early linguistic connection[edit]
The first groups of Semites that moved northward already developed the early Semitic names derived from triliteral and sometimes a quadriliteral verb root that first appeared in early (now extinct) East Semitic languages, especially Akkadian, Assyrian, and Old Babylonian. A closer examination reveals connections with the Central Semitic language family including: Aramaic, Phoenician, Hebrew, and Nabatean, which is closely related to the Southern Semitic languages Minaean, Sabaean, Qatabanian, Awsanian, Hadhrami, and Himyarite.
Ancient Semitic villages[edit]
Biblical and historiographical place names that correspond with modern place names in Yemen and Asir include:
- Adeem, Yadoom, Damt (from the verb D/a/m meaning "to last")
- Aram, Arm, Yareem, Maryama (from the verb A/r/m meaning "to stand above")
- Yafe'e, Mayfa'a, Ayfo'o (from the verb Y/f/a "to grow")
- Aden "settled", Yahosn "lost"
- Thobhan, Mathbah "slaughtered"
- Yomin "south", Yamant "blessed"
- Yahir "to destroy"
- Yaghshom, Ghashm "to rain"
- Yaslih "to fix"
- Marbad, Arbad (from the verb R/b/d meaning "to spread")
Pre-Islamic Qahtani migration out of Arabia[edit]
Early Semites who developed civilizations throughout the Ancient Near East gradually relinquished their geopolitical superiority to surrounding cultures and neighboring imperial powers, usually due to either internal turmoil or outside conflict. This climaxed with the arrival of the Chaldeans, and subsequently the rivaling Medes and Persians, during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE respectively. Though the Semites lost geopolitical influence, the Aramaic language emerged as the lingua franca of much of the Near East. However, Aramaic usage declined after the defeat of the Persians and the arrival of the Hellenic armies around 330 BCE.
The Ghassanids[edit]
The Ghassanids (ca. 250 CE) were the last major non-Islamic Semitic migration northward out of Yemen. They revived the Semitic presence in the then Roman-controlled Syria. They initially settled in the Hauran region, eventually spreading to modern Lebanon, Israel & the Palestinian Territories and Jordan, briefly securing governorship of Syria away from the Nabataeans.
After Islam[edit]
Between the 7th and the 14th centuries, the Arabs had forged an empire that extended their rule from most of Spain and southern France in the west, to western China in the east. During this period of expansionism, the Arabs, including Qahtanite tribes, overspread these lands, intermingling with local native populations while yet maintaining their cultural identity. It is not unlikely to find Arabs of Qahtanite descent as far away as Morocco or Iran, and many can trace their heritage with profound accuracy. Among the most famous examples of Qahtanite Arabs is the social scholarIbn Khaldun who was born in Tunisia to a family that immigrated from Islamic Spain (Al-Andalus).
Joktan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joktan or Yoktan (Hebrew: יָקְטָן, Modern Yoktan Tiberian Yoqṭān, Arabic: قحطان Qahṭān; literally, "little") was the second of the two sons of Eber (Gen. 10:25; 1 Chr. 1:19) mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. His name means "small" or "smallness".
In the Book of Genesis 10:25 it reads: "And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan."
Joktan's sons in the order provided in Gen. 10:26-29, were Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.
In Pseudo-Philo's account (ca. 70), Joktan was first made prince over the children of Shem, just as Nimrod and Phenech were princes over the children of Ham and Japheth, respectively. In his version, the three princes command all persons to bake bricks for the Tower of Babel; however, twelve, including several of Joktan's own sons, as well as Abraham and Lot, refuse the orders. Joktan smuggles them out of Shinar and into the mountains, to the annoyance of the other two princes.[1] The traditional history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also maintains that Joktan's sons would take no part in the tower building, and that they were thus allowed to preserve the original Ge'ez language — which their descendants, the Agazyan, carried across the Red Sea into Ethiopia as they mixed with the Cushitic and Agaw people to form the hybrid Habesha race.
In pre-Islamic literature[edit]
Details about the three of Joktan's sons, Sheba, Ophir and Havilah, were preserved in a tradition known in divergent forms from three pre-Islamic Arabic and Ethiopic sources: the Kitab al-Magall(part of Clementine literature), the Cave of Treasures, and the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan.
Kitab al-Magall: "He [Nimrod] died in the days of Reu, and the third thousand since Adam was completed. In his days the people of Egypt set up a king over them called Firnifs. He reigned over them for sixty-eight years. In his days also a king reigned over the town of Saba and annexed to his kingdom the cities of Ophir and Havilah, his name was Pharaoh. He built Ophir with stones of gold, for the stones of its mountains are pure gold. After him there reigned over Havilah a king called Hayul. He built it and cemented it, and after the death of Pharaoh women reigned over Saba until the time of Solomon son of David."
Cave of Treasures: "And in the days of Reu, the Mesraye, who are the Egyptians, appointed their first king; his name was Puntos, and he reigned over them sixty-eight years. And in the days of Reu a king reigned in Shebha (Saba), and in Ophir, and in Havilah. And there reigned in Saba sixty of the daughters of Saba. And for many years women reigned in Saba--until the kingdom of Solomon, the son of David. And the children of Ophir, that is, Send (Scindia ?), appointed to be their king Lophoron (?), who built Ophir with stones of gold; now, all the stones that are in Ophir are of gold. And the children of Havilah appointed to be their king Havîl, who built Havilah, that is, Hend (India ?)."
Conflict of Adam and Eve: "And in those days Ragu [Reu] was 180 years old, and in his 140th year Yanuf [Apophis] reigned over the land of Egypt. He is the first king who reigned over it, and he built the city of Memphis, and named it after his own name. That is Misr, whose name is rendered Masrin. This Yanuf died; and in his stead, in the days of Ragu, one from the land of India reigned, whose name was Sasen, and who built the city of Saba. And all the kings who reigned over that country were called Sabaeans, after the name of the city. Then again Phar'an reigned over the children of Saphir [Ophir], and built the city of Saphir with stones of gold; and that is the land of Sarania, and because of these stones of gold, they say that the mountains of that country and the stones thereof are all of gold. Then the children of Lebensa of the country of India, made king over them, one called Bahlul, who built the city of Bahlu. Then Ragu died in his 289th year."
