Banu Uqayl - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Banu Uqayl are an ancient Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

tribe that played an important role in the history of eastern Arabia

Bahrain (historical region)

Bahrain is a historical region in eastern Arabia that was known as the Province of Bahrain until the 16th Century. It stretched from the south of Basra along the Persian Gulf coast and included the regions of Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, Qatar, and the Awal Islands, now known as Bahrain. The name...

and Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. They belonged to the Banu Ka'b branch of the large Banu 'Amir

Banu 'Amir

Banu 'Amir ibn Sa'sa'ah or Banu 'Amir were a large and ancient Arab tribal confederation originating from central and southwestern Arabia that dominated Nejd for centuries after the rise of Islam. The tribe is of North Arabian stock, tracing its lineage to Adnan through Hawazin, and its original...

confederation.

The Banu 'Amir confederation of tribes had their original homeland in western Arabia, on the border between Hejaz

Hejaz

al-Hejaz, also Hijaz is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined primarily by its western border on the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina...

and Najd

Najd

Najd or Nejd , literally Highland, is the central region of the Arabian Peninsula.-Boundaries :The Arabic word nejd literally means "upland" and was once applied to a variety of regions within the Arabian Peninsula...

. The 'Uqayl branch moved southwards and settled in the large valley known as "al-'Aqiq" (modern day Wadi al-Dawasir), which they later claimed was granted to them by the Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

prophet

Prophet

In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

. During the Abbasid

Abbasid

The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

era, most of the Banu 'Amir moved from Najd into Iraq and Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. The Uqaylids were among the last to leave, settling on the banks of the Euphrates

Euphrates

The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...

. There a section of the tribe founded the Uqaylid dynasty, which controlled Mosul

Mosul

Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...

and other regions of northern Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

, though remaining largely nomadic. When the Uqaylid dynasty was brought down, three large Uqaylid tribes, the Khafajah

Khafajah

Khafajah or Khafaje was the ancient town of Tutub in the city-state of Eshnunna...

, 'Ubadah, and Muntafiq, settled in southern Iraq and remain there to the present day.

Another section of the Uqayl, possibly coming from Iraq, according to Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...

, took over the deserts of eastern Arabia, around the al-Hasa

Al-Hasa

Al-Ahsa is the largest governorate in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, named after Al-Ahsa oasis. The name Al-Ahsa is also given to the biggest city in the region, Hofuf. In classic Arabic, Ahsa means the sound of water underground. It has one of the largest oases in the world with Date Palms of...

oasis. There they allied themselves with the Qarmatians

Qarmatians

The Qarmatians were a Shi'a Ismaili group centered in eastern Arabia, where they attempted to established a utopian republic in 899 CE. They are most famed for their revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate...

, like many other Banu Amir groups. The Qarmatians

Qarmatians

fell to the Uyunid dynasty, a sedentary Arab clan from al-Ahsa

Al-Hasa

, in 1076. In the mid-13th centuries, one Uqaylid clan leader, 'Usfur ibn Rashid, deposed the 'Uyunids, and founded the 'Usfurid dynasty, which lasted until 1330. The area was then taken over by the Shi'ite Jarwanid clan based in Qatif

Qatif

Qatif or Al-Qatif is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the west...

.

The most powerful Uqaylid dynasty, however, were the Jabrids

Jabrids

The Jabrids were a bedouin dynasty that dominated eastern Arabia in the 15th and 16th centuries. They were descendants of the tribe of Uqayl, a branch of Bani 'Amir.Their most prominent ruler was Ajwad ibn Zamil, who died in 1507...

. Some historians believe they were a branch of the 'Usfurids or at least closely related to them. Their most famous ruler, Ajwad ibn Zamil, however, is described by his contemporaries as having been "of Najd

Najd

i origin." Ajwad's elder brother established the dynasty in the early 15th century by deposing and killing the last Jarwanid ruler in Qatif. At their height, the Jabrids controlled the entire Arabian coast on the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

, including the islands of Bahrain

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

, and regularly led expeditions into central Arabia. One contemporary scholar described Ajwad ibn Zamil as "the king of al-Ahsa

Al-Hasa

and Qatif

Qatif

and the leader of the people of Najd." The Jabrids lost Bahrain to the Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

in 1521 and their kingdom collapsed soon afterwards on the mainland. One branch of the Jabrids remained active in Oman

Oman

Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

however for nearly another three centuries. It is unknown for sure what became of the Jabrids. Some believe they left to Iraq, while others believe they are identical with the "Jubur" section of the Bani Khalid

Bani Khalid

.'Bani Khalid'. is an Arab tribal confederation of eastern and central Arabia. The tribe dominated the eastern region of modern-day Saudi Arabia from 1670 to 1793, and again under the auspices of the Ottoman Empire for a brief period in the early 19th century...

, who eventually took control of the region after the Jabrids. The Bani Khalid tribe itself is believed to be partly of Uqaylid origin.

Further reading