Jewish tribes of Arabia
Encyclopedia
The Arab Jewish tribes are the 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...

 tribes professing the Jewish faith
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...

 before and during the advent of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. It is not always clear whether they were originally Israelite in ancestry, genealogically Arab tribes that converted to Judaism, or a mixture of both. Jewish tradition records the existence of nomadic tribes such as the Rechabite
Rechabite
Rechabites are the descendants of Rechab through Jonadab or Jehonadab. They belonged to the Kenites who accompanied the children of Israel into the holy land, and dwelt among them. Moses married a Kenite wife, and Jael was the wife of "Heber the Kenite". Saul also showed kindness to the Kenites...

s that converted to Judaism in antiquity.

Tribes

Some of the Arab Jewish tribes historically attested include:
  • Banu Aws fled 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....

     under Ghassanid rule, then fled Yathrib (presently known as Medina
    Medina
    Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

    ), and after explusion by Muhammed, back to Syria
  • Banu Harith
    Banu Harith
    The Banu Harith was one of the Jewish tribes of Arabia during Muhammad's era.They were included in point 31 of the Constitution of Medina as allies to the Muslims, being as "one nation", but retaining their Jewish religion .- References :...

  • Banu Jusham
    Banu Jusham
    The Banu Jusham was one of the Jewish tribes of Arabia during Muhammad's era.They were included in point 31 of the Constitution of Medina as allies to the Muslims, being as "one nation", but retaining their Jewish religion .-References:...

  • Banu Najjar
    Banu Najjar
    The Banu Najjar was one of the Jewish tribes of Arabia during Muhammad's era.They were included in point 31 of the Constitution of Medina as allies to the Muslims, being as "one nation", but retaining their Jewish religion .-People:*Rumaysa bint Milhan...

  • Banu Qaynuqa
    Banu Qaynuqa
    The Banu Qaynuqa was one of the three main Jewish tribes living in the 7th century of Medina, now in Saudi Arabia...

  • Banu Sa'ida
    Banu Sa'ida
    The Banu Sa'ida was one of the Jewish tribes of Arabia during Muhammad's era.They were included in point 31 of the Constitution of Medina as allies to the Muslims, being as "one nation", but retaining their Jewish religion ....

  • Banu Shutayba
    Banu Shutayba
    The Banu Shutayba was one of the Jewish tribes of Arabia during Muhammad's era.They were included in point 31 of the Constitution of Medina as allies to the Muslims, being as "one nation", but retaining their Jewish religion. -References:...

  • Banu Kinanah
    Banu Kinanah
    Banu Kinanah is the largest Adnanite tribe of western Saudi Arabia in Hejaz. Since Islamization they started to claim that they are descended from Kinanah, who was a grandson of Ilyas who was named after the prophet Elijah.- Ancestry :The tribe traces a genealogical history backwards from their...

  • Jafna Clan of the Banu Thal'aba who were exiled members of the Banu Ghassan - while both tribes were not Jewish, they did have Jewish members; whereas the Jafna Clan was solely Jewish
  • Banu Zaura
  • Banu Zurayq In Islamic lore, Labid ben Asam was a Jewish Jinn (Genie) who cast a spell on Prophet Mohammed that prevented Prophet Mohammed from having sexual relations with his wives—thus no male offspring. Prophet Muhammad actually did have male offspring, although none of them survived more than a few years of age.

  • Banu Quda'a
    Banu Quda'a
    Quda'a is a Himyarite tribe that was exiled from Yemen following the trials of the Lakhmids and they settled The Southern part of the Lakhmid Kingdom in the Samawa region....

     — Himyarite tribe of converts to Sadducee Judaism
    Judaism
    Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...


  • Banu Qurayza
    Banu Qurayza
    The Banu Qurayza were a Jewish tribe which lived in northern Arabia, at the oasis of Yathrib , until the 7th century, when their conflict with Muhammad led to their demise, after the Invasion of Banu Qurayza, took place in the Dhul Qa‘dah, 5 A.H i.e. in February/March, 627 AD...

     — sub-clan of the al-Kāhinān, located in Yathrib(Medina
    Medina
    Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

    ), "principal family" fled Syria under Ghassanid rule, then fled Medina, after explusion by Prophet Muhammed, back to Syria
  • Banu Nadir
    Banu Nadir
    The Banu Nadir were a Jewish tribe who lived in northern Arabia until the 7th century at the oasis of Yathrib . The tribe challenged Muhammad as the leader of Medina. and planned along with allied nomads to attack Muhammad and were expelled from Medina as a result. The Banu Nadir then planned the...

     — sub-clan of the al-Kāhinān, located in Yathrib(Medina
    Medina
    Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

    )

  • Banu Juw

History of immigration

Contemporary researchers have pieced together a mosaic of Judaized Arabian Tribes but we have little evidence of them being Sadducee, Boethusian, Nazirite or otherwise. Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 found its place in the Arabian Peninsula by immigration of Jews into it. This immigration took place mainly during five periods—
  • after the collapse of Kingdom of Judah
    Kingdom of Judah
    The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....

     in 586 BCE,
  • after the Roman conquest of Judea and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
    Titus
    Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....

     in 70 CE, exiles (Sadducees, Essenes, Zadokites, Boethusians) found a home in the desert,
  • survivors of the Bar Kochba Revolt, in 135 CE, who sought religious freedom in the Arabian desert rather than live under the yoke of the Romans,
  • immigration, around 300 CE, by people who are known in Islamic literature as the Banu Aus and the Banu Khazraj who fled the Ghassanids
    Ghassanids
    The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Holy Land....

     in Syria.
  • migration from Judea into southern Arabian Peninsula to ride the ascent of the Himyarite Kingdom around 380 CE.

Arabized Jews

The Sanaite Jews have a legend that their ancestors settled in Yemen forty-two years before the destruction of the First Temple. According to the Prophet Jeremiah some 75,000 Jews, including priests and Levites, traveled to Yemen. The Banu Habban
Habbani Jews
The Habbani Jews are a Jewish tribal group from the Habban region in eastern Yemen .-Ancient and medieval history:...

 in southern Yemen have a legend that they are the descendants of Judeans who settled in the area before the destruction of the Second Temple. These Judeans supposedly belonged to a brigade dispatched by King Herod to assist the Roman legions fighting in the region. Contemporary scholars suggest that the Sadducees, Boethusians, Nazirites and Essenes spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula, and western Persia, with their co-religionists, the Pharisees, who did not stay in Yavne.

The Sadducee Himyarite royal family in exile commanded vast wealth and resources, particularly the Nabatean bedouin with whom they had controlled the market of trade by Land from North-East Africa for centuries.

By the close of the fifth century, the Banu Aus
Banu Aus
The Banū Aws or simply Aws was one of the main Arab tribes of Medina. The other was Khazraj, and the two, constituted the Ansar after the Hijra.Aws and Khazraj were known as Banū Qayla in pre-Islamic era.-Etymology:...

 and Banu Khazraj
Banu Khazraj
-Early history:Abu Muhammad Al-hasan Ibn Ahmad Al-hamdani mentioned that The Banu Khazraj along with Banu Aws settled the area of Yathrib around the 2nd century ad as part of the PreIslamic Exodus of Yemen due to the Great Dam damage....

 had become masters of Yathrib. During these events, or possibly in coordination with them, Yathrib was host to a noble visitor. In 470 CE, Persian King Firuz was attempting to wipe out the Exilarchate. The Exilarch
Exilarch
Exilarch refers to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah and his court into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction...

 Huna V, who was the son of Mar-Zutra bar Mar-Zutra, whisked his daughter and some of his entourage to Yathrib (Medina) for safety.

Judaized Arabs

In abt 400 CE, Himyarite King tubba Abu Karib As'ad Kamil (385-420 CE), a convert to Sadduceean Judaism, led military expeditions into central Arabia and expanded his empire to encompass most of the Arabian Peninsula. His army had marched north to battle the Aksumites
Aksumite Empire
The Kingdom of Aksum or Axum, also known as the Aksumite Empire, was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period ca. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD...

 who had been fighting for control of Yemen for a hundred years. The Aksumites
Aksumite Empire
The Kingdom of Aksum or Axum, also known as the Aksumite Empire, was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period ca. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD...

 were only expelled from the region when the newly-Jewish king rallied Jews together from all over Arabia, with pagan allies. The relationship between the Sadducee Himyarite Kings and the polytheistic Arab tribes strengthened when, under the royal permission of Tubba' Abu Karib As'ad, Qusai ibn Kilab
Qusai ibn Kilab
Qusai ibn Kilab ibn Murrah was the great-grandfather of Shaiba ibn Hashim . He was fifth in the line of descent to the Islamic Muhammad, and attained supreme power at Makkah. Qusai is amongst the ancestors of Sahaba and the progenitor of the Quraysh.-Background:He was born into the famous Quraysh...

 (400–480 CE) reconstructed the Ka'aba from a state of decay, and had the Arab al-Kahinan (Cohanim) build their houses around it. Qusai ibn Kilab
Qusai ibn Kilab
Qusai ibn Kilab ibn Murrah was the great-grandfather of Shaiba ibn Hashim . He was fifth in the line of descent to the Islamic Muhammad, and attained supreme power at Makkah. Qusai is amongst the ancestors of Sahaba and the progenitor of the Quraysh.-Background:He was born into the famous Quraysh...

 was the great-great- grandfather of Shaiba ibn Hashim
Shaiba ibn Hashim
Shaiba ibn Hashim , better known as or Abd al-Muttalib, since he was raised by his uncle Muttalib, was the grandfather of Islamic prophet Muhammad.-Early life:...

 (Abdul-Mutallib, who had a Jewish wife). Shaiba ibn Hashim
Shaiba ibn Hashim
Shaiba ibn Hashim , better known as or Abd al-Muttalib, since he was raised by his uncle Muttalib, was the grandfather of Islamic prophet Muhammad.-Early life:...

 was fifth in the line of descent to Muhammad, and attained supreme power at Mecca. Qusai ibn Kilab
Qusai ibn Kilab
Qusai ibn Kilab ibn Murrah was the great-grandfather of Shaiba ibn Hashim . He was fifth in the line of descent to the Islamic Muhammad, and attained supreme power at Makkah. Qusai is amongst the ancestors of Sahaba and the progenitor of the Quraysh.-Background:He was born into the famous Quraysh...

 is among the ancestors of Sahaba
Sahaba
In Islam, the ' were the companions, disciples, scribes and family of the Islamic prophet...

 and the progenitor of the Banu Quraish. When Qusai came of age, a man from the tribe of Banu Khuza'a
Banu Khuza'a
the Khuza'a or Banu Khuza'a form a branch of the South Arabian tribe of Azd-Origin:Most traditionalists trace the origins of the tribe to Amr ibn Lahi al-Khuza'i, and agree that with the other branches of the Azd they at some point left the Yemen and moved north. 'Amr ibn Luhay and his clan...

 named Hulail (Hillel) was the trustee of the Kaaba, and the Na'sa (Nasi)—authorized to calculate the calendar. Qusai married his daughter and, according to Hulail's will, obtained Hulail's rights to the Ka'aba. Hulail, according to Arabian tradition was a member of the Banu Jurhum
Jurhum
Jurhum was a Qahtani tribe in the Arabian peninsula. An old Arab tribe, their historical abode was Yemen before they emigrated to Mecca....

. Banu Jurhum was a sub-group of the Banu Qahtani from whom the Himyarites originally descend.

Around 455 CE, the last Himyarite King is born—the last of the Hasmoneans. He was referred to as a Sadducean King with Sidelocks, Zur'ah Yusuf Ibn Tuban As'ad Abu Kaleb Dhu Nuwas Dhu Nuwas
Dhu Nuwas
Yūsuf Dhū Nuwas, was the last king of the Himyarite kingdom of Yemen and a convert to Judaism....

. He died in 510. His zeal for Judaism, albeit in a Sadducee flavor, brought about his fall. Having heard of the persecutions of Jews by Byzantine emperors, Dhu Nuwas
Dhu Nuwas
Yūsuf Dhū Nuwas, was the last king of the Himyarite kingdom of Yemen and a convert to Judaism....

 retaliated by putting to death some Byzantine merchants who were traveling on business through Himyara. He didn't simply kill them with hanging—he burned them in large pits—earning him the title "King of the burning pit".

These killings destroyed the trade of Yemen with Europe and involved Dhu Nuwas in a war with the heathen King Aidug, whose commercial interests were injured by these killings. Dhu Nuwas was defeated. Dhu Nuwas then made war against the Christian city Najran, in Yemen, which was a dependency of his kingdom; and on its surrender, he offered the citizens the alternative of embracing Judaism, under coercion, or being put to death. As they refused to renounce their faith, he executed their chief, Harith ibn Kaleb, and three hundred and forty chosen men. Many scholars suspect that the Hamyarite Kings, in their display of violent recruitment, lend the greatest weight to any explanation of "why contemporary Jews do not proselytize"—in fact Contemporary Judaism actively discourages conversion and converts even after conversions have occurred.

The rise of Islam

Four-hundred ninety years (70x7) years had passed from the destruction of Bar Kochba's armies until the year 622 CE. Bar Kochba was a failed Messiah and now, according to Daniel
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...

, "would come the true warrior Messiah". "A warrior with 'the helmet of deliverance on His head' and clad in armor". "He will don garments of vengeance (as his) clothing and will put on a cloak of zealousness". "He will fight the battle of Gog ha-Magog
Gog and Magog
Gog and Magog are names that appear primarily in various Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures, as well as numerous subsequent references in other works. Their context can be either genealogical or eschatological and apocalyptic, as in Ezekiel and Revelation...

 and against the army of Armilos (Heraclius
Heraclius
Heraclius was Byzantine Emperor from 610 to 641.He was responsible for introducing Greek as the empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, successfully led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.Heraclius'...

)". Most of the Jewish tribes of Arabia were on alert for a new Messiah—anxious to usher his arrival.

In 622 CE, Mohammed leveraged Jewish-Arab despondency at successive military defeats, abandonment by Persian Jews, loss of Jerusalem (again), the Murder of the Exilarch Nehemiah ben Hushiel, and the renewed opposition of the Banu Quraish, set out for Taif. Mohammed was working hard to turn the hearts of the Jewish-Arabian and Pagan tribes from their esoteric Jewish Prophesies and Pagan believes respectively—he succeeded in stimulating the Messianic fervor of Jews and coercing the Pagan tribes. Against this back-drop, Mohammed capitalized upon a confluence of events that rendered the Jewish Arab tribes hopeful for redemption at the hands of a Messiah.

When Mohammed arrived in Taif, and called upon the Jewish tribes to hear his teachings, he was rejected.

In late 622 CE, Shallum ben Hushiel (a/k/a "Salman al-Farsi", "Shallum the Persian", "Salman the Good", "Abu Bakr al-Chaliva al-Saddiq", Hanamel the 37th Exilarch") son of the Exilarch Hushiel, went to visit Mohammed in Medina, and offered his submission (desiring conversion to Islam). With the submission of an Exilarch
Exilarch
Exilarch refers to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah and his court into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction...

, Mohammed found resistance to submission, by Judaized Arab tribes, begin to wane.

Some of these tribes, or some of their members, were conquered and converted to Islam, some lived as crypto-Jews, while others remained Jews living among Muslims though protected by the Constitution of Medina
Constitution of Medina
The Constitution of Medina , also known as the Charter of Medina, was drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It constituted a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of the significant tribes and families of Yathrib , including Muslims, Jews, Christians and pagans. This constitution formed the...

.

See also

  • Arabian tribes that interacted with Muhammad
    Arabian tribes that interacted with Muhammad
    -Introduction:The most prominent of such Arabian tribes were the Banu Quraish which were in turn divided into several sub-clans. The Qur'aish sub-clan of Banu Hashim was the clan of Muhammad, while their sister sub-clan, the Banu Abd-Shams became known as his most staunch enemies...

  • Yemenite Jews
    Yemenite Jews
    Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...

  • Mizrahi Jews
    Mizrahi Jews
    Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...

  • Arab Jews
    Arab Jews
    Arab Jews is a term referring to Jews living in the Arab World, or Jews descended from such persons.The term was occasionally used in the early 20th century, mainly by Arab nationalists, to describe the 1 million Jews living in the Arab world at the time...

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