Dhu-Hamdān

Group of Sabaean tribes (s²ʿb), under the authority of the princes banū Hamdān, then dhu-Hamdān.

The name Hamdān, which appears six centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, designates, from the 1st century BCE onwards, the princely lineage of the tribe (s²ʿb) Ḥāshid^um (fraction of Samʿī), some fifty kilometres north of Ṣanʿāʾ. The residence of this princely lineage was Hirrān Palace, which was probably at Nāʿiṭ.

Towards the end of the 3rd century CE, during the tribal reorganization that followed the annexation of Sabaʾ by Ḥimyar, the banū Hamdān (singular bin Hamdān) absorbed the banū Suʾrān, princes of dhu-Raydat (fraction of Bakīl^um). From then on, they dominated a tribal group that brought together Ḥāshid^um and dhu-Raydat (fraction of Bakīl^um) (Ir 17).

The princes of the tribal confederation are now called dhu-Hamdān in the singular (pl. alhat Hamdān), in the Ḥimyarite manner, with the pronoun dhu- (pl. alhat) instead of bin (plural banū), which indicates a noble lineage (see CIH 645). Previously, the appellation dhu-Hamdān was not unknown, but was exceptional (Ja 716).

In the 6th century CE, the name dhu-Hamdān began to be used to designate the tribal group over which the dhu-Hamdān princes had authority. This group is called “the tribes (ʾs²ʿb) of dhu-Hamdān”, ashʿub dhu-Hamdān (ʾs²ʿb ḏ-Hmdⁿ), but also shaʿb dhu-Hamdān (s²ʿb ḏ-Hmdⁿ), with s²ʿb in the singular (unless it is a plural of the shuʿūb type). Other tribal groupings are then also referred to by the name of their prince, for example in South Arabian, the Azʾūn (Arabic: Ayzūn), and in Islamic sources, the Asābiḥ and the banū al-Ḥārith b. Kaʿb.

Four inscriptions from Ḥimāʾ, dating from June and July 523, shed light on the composition of the new dhu-Hamdān tribe, which now brought together Ḥimyarites and Arabs. Three inscriptions were commissioned by the head of the army; they state that the military contingents sent by dhu-Hamdān to lay siege to Najrān were made up of two types of fighters, those from the towns (hagar) and those from marginal populations, known as nomadic Arabs (ʿarab):

• “Then the king sent him to take up a position against Nagrān, with a detachment of Azʾūn and with the tribes of dhu-Hamdān —their people of the towns and their Arabs (w-hgr-hmw w-ʾʿrb-hmw)—, and the Arabs of Kiddat (= Kinda), Murād^um and Madhḥig^um” (Ry 508/7, al-Kawkab, dhu-qiyāẓan 633 ḥim, i.e., June 523)
• “Wrote this inscription prince Sharaḥʾīl Yaqbul dhu-Yazʾan, when he took up a position against Nagrān with the tribe (s²ʿb) of dhu-Hamdān — the people of the towns and the Arabs (hgrⁿ w-ʿrbⁿ ) —, a detachment from Azʾūnān and the Arabs from Kiddat, Murād and Madhḥig^um” (Ja 1028/7, Ḥimà, dhu-madhraʾān 633 ḥim, i.e., July 523).
• “{the prince} was in operation against Nagrān with a unit (nfr) supplied by the Azʾūnān and with the troops of the house of Hamdān (ʾgys² byt Hmdⁿ), people of the towns and Arabs (hgrⁿ w-ʿrbⁿ ), and with the Arabs of Murād^um , Kid⁽⁴⁾dat and Madhḥig^um” (GDY01_57-1).

The distinction between people from towns (hagar) and marginal populations (ʿarab), united here in the same tribal entity, probably reflects the opposition between shaʿb and ʿashīrat observed in inscriptions from the 2nd–4th centuries CE. It should be noted that the tribe Khawlān (neighbouring dhu-Hamdān) was then also composed of the tribes-shaʿb and tribes-ʿashīrat (Ja 616/12, 14: ʾs²ʿb w-ʿs²r Ḫwln Gddm, 3rd cent. CE). The townspeople are the custodians of the old South Arabian civilization, in other words, in the 6th century, the Ḥimyarites.

The fourth inscription, commissioned by the head of the contingent provided by dhu-Hamdān and his subordinates, is even more explicit. The commissioners are “ʿAbd^um dhu-Marrān [...], head of the house of dhu-Hamdān and Suʾrān […] and the officers, cavalry captains, hunters and Arabs of dhu-Hamdān, in their mountain and lowland” (GDY01_58-1). It clearly sets, within Hamdān, the Ḥimyarites on one side (without using the word), and the Arabs of the mountain (ṭawd) and the low country (tihāmat), on the other. The precise meaning of these two geographical designations has not been established.

Another inscription from Ḥimà, dated to July 523, which still has the same commissioner, uses more traditional wording to distinguish South Arabians and Arabs:

• “when he was in operation with the tribes (ʾs²ʿb) of dhu-Hamdān and the Arabs against Nagrān” (Ry 507/9).

Forty-five years later, a final text commemorating the participation of a contingent sent by the tribe (s²ʿb) of dhu-Hamdān for the maintenance of the Maʾrib dam confirms that dhu-Hamdān consisted of Ḥimyarites and Arabs: its commissioners were:

• “the chiefs and kabīrs of the tribe (s²ʿb) of dhu-Hamdān [...] as they brought land to the Dam of Marib with their tribes (ʾs²ʿb) Ḥāshid^um and Bakīl^um and the Arabs Suflān, Ṣaddān and ʾẓrfⁿ” (Ja 547+546+544+545/3-6, Maʾrib dam, 668 ḥim., i.e., November 558).

The Ḥimyarites are Ḥāshid^um and Bakīl^um while the Arabs are Suflān, Ṣaddān and ʾẓrfⁿ.

In Arab-Muslim scholarly literature, the distinction between Ḥimyarites and marginal populations called Arabs is found in the pact recording the submission of Hamdān (the new name for dhu-Hamdān) to the authority of Muḥammad, around 631. In this pact, it seemed necessary to make clear what was meant by ‘Hamdān’: “his Ḥimyarites, his Arabs, his mingled ones and his subordinates’ (Hamdān Aḥmūr-hā wa-Aʿrābu-hā wa-khalāʾiṭu-hā wa-mawāli-hā). Ibn Saʿd states: “its Ḥimyarites are Qudam, Āl dhī Marrān, Āl dhī Laʿwa and the nobles (adhwāʾ) of Hamdān and its Arabs are Arḥab, Nihm, Shākir, Wādiʿa, Yām, Murhiba, Daʾlān, Khārif, ʿUdhar and Ḥajūr” (Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt 1: 257, with Ghurb corrected to Aʿrāb).

The fact that the “Ḥimyarites” appellation is used here is rather novel, as it was not necessary in pre-Islamic inscriptions since it was taken for granted.

The enumeration of the groups involved is also somewhat original. The Ḥimyarites are mostly lineages (Āl) whereas the Arabs are tribes.

It is notable that among Ḥimyarite lineages, only one, dhū Marrān, is attested before Islam. The second lineage, dhū Laʿwa, claimed descent from the banū Suʾrān in the 10th century (al-Hamdānī/ed. al-Khaṭīb, Iklīl 10: 109), but it did not descend from them according to the genealogies of Ibn al-Kalbī (Caskel 1966, I: Tab. 230). The other lineages are unknown. This reflects the substantial renewal of the elites after the massacres of the 6th century. All these lineages had practically disappeared by the 10th century. Nothing remains of them today.

As for the ten Arab tribes, only two are attested before Islam: Yām (Yʾm^m) and Ḥagūr (Ḥgr). Remarkably, almost all of them still exist today: Arḥab, Nihm, Wādiʿa, Yām and Ḥajūr as tribes; Murhiba as a tribe (but also as a fraction of Nihm); Khārif and ʿIdhar (= ʿUdhar) as a fraction of Ḥāshid; Shākir in the tribal name Wāʾila ibn Shākir. Only Daʾlān has disappeared.

The integration of Arab tribes into the ancient South Arabian tribes of Ḥāshid^um and Bakīl^um is first attested in the genealogies of Hishām Ibn al-Kalbī (d. in 819 or 821) (Caskel 1966). Wādiʿa, Yām, Daʾlān, Khārif, ʿUdhar, Ḥajūr are now branches of Ḥāshid; the others are attached to Bakīl. This integration is confirmed in multiple ways by later works.

Data on Hamdān are particularly abundant from the very end of the 9^th century thanks to Zaydi sources and above all the works of the Yemeni scholar al-Ḥasan al-Hamdānī (d. after 970). We are indebted to the latter for a very precise geographical description in Ṣifat jazīrat al-ʿArab, and Hamdān’s genealogy in the 10th book of al-Iklīl, which establishes a kind of directory of the true nobility.

By the time of al-Hamdānī, there was no longer really a tribe named Hamdān, although a few figures were referred to as sayyid of Hamdān. The name refers to a country, “the Land of Hamdān” (Balad Hamdān, al-Hamdānī/ed. Müller, Ṣifa: 109–113), which is a combination of the territories belonging to the tribes of Ḥāshid and Bakīl.

In al-Hamdānī’s genealogies, as in those of Ibn al-Kalbī, Hamdān is understandably the ancestor of Ḥāshid and Bakīl. But al-Hamdānī innovates by making a few corrections and above all by multiplying the additions, including a new branch in Hamdān’s descent (ʿAmr ibn Awsala = Hamdān), which brings together a wealth of data taken from inscriptions.

Today, the ancient tribal confederation of Hamdān still exists, but it is now called “Ḥāshid and Bakīl”. Yet, the name of Hamdān has not entirely disappeared as it is borne by three small tribes, one near Ṣaʿda, one in Jawf (Āl Hamdān) and one near Ṣanʿāʾ.

Christian J. Robin

References and suggesting reading

Sources

GDY01_57-1: Robin, in press.

GDY01_58-1: Robin, in press.

al-Hamdānī, Iklīl 10:

• al-Hamdānī, al-Ḥasan ibn A. / ed. M. al-Khaṭīb, 1948-49. Al-Iklīl min akhbār al-Yaman wa-ansāb Ḥimyar, taṣnīf Lisān al-Yaman Abī Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. Aḥmad al-Hamdānī, al-Kitāb al-ʿāshir. Cairo: al-Salafiyya.

al-Hamdānī, Ṣifa:

• al-Hamdānī, al-Ḥasan ibn A. / ed. D.H. Müller, 1884. Al-Hamdānī’s Geographie der arabischen Halbinsel, nach den Handschriften von Berlin, Constantinopel, London, Paris und Strassburg. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill.
• al-Hamdānī, al-Ḥasan ibn A. / ed. M. ibn ʿAlī Akwaʿ, 1977. Ṣifat Jazīrat al-ʿArab (Silsilat Khizānat Al-Turāth). Riyadh: Dar al-Yamāma.

Ibn al-Kalbī, Genealogies:

• Caskel, W. 1966. Ǧamharat an-nasab. Das genealogische Werk des Hišām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī, 2 vols. Leiden: Brill.

Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt:

• Ibn Saʿd, Muḥammad b. Saʿd b. Manīʿ al-Hāshimī al-Baṣrī / ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā, 1997. Al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrà. 8 vols. Beirut: Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya.
• Ibn Saʿd, Muḥammad b. Saʿd b. Manīʿ al-Hāshimī al-Baṣrī / ed. E. Sachau. 2022. Biography of Muhammad, his companions and the successors up to the year 230 of the Hijra. Eduard Sachau’s edition of Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir. Set. Leiden: Brill.

Studies

• Robin, C.J., in press. Hamdān - Du lignage sabéen à la tribu yéménite. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam.

_{Alternate spellings: Dhu-Hamdân, Dhu-Hamdan, ḏ-Hmdn, d-hmdn}