View source for Quda'a

{{Short description|Confederation of Arab tribes}}
{{Infobox tribe
|name=Banu Quda'a
|local name= بنو قضاعة‎
|type=[[Ma'add]]ite or [[Himyarite]]
|nisba=Al-Quḍāʿī
|location=Northwestern Arabia, [[Syria (region)|Syria]]
|descended=Quda'a
|religion=Paganism, later Islam
|image=
|caption=The flag of Quda'a
|image_size=
}}
The '''Quda'a''' ({{langx|ar|قضاعة|translit=Quḍāʿa}}) were a confederation of [[Arab]] tribes, including the powerful [[Banu Kalb|Kalb]] and [[Tanukh]], mainly concentrated throughout [[Syria (region)|Syria]] and northwestern [[Arabia]], from at least the 4th century CE, during [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] rule, through the 12th century, during the early Islamic era. Under the first caliphs of the [[Bilad al-Sham|Syria]]-based [[Umayyad Caliphate]] (661–750), the Quda'a occupied a privileged position in the administration and military. During the [[Second Muslim Civil War]] (683–692) they allied with [[South Arabia]]n and other tribes in Syria as the [[Yaman (tribal group)|Yaman]] faction in opposition to their rivals, the [[Qays]] confederation, in what became a [[Qays–Yaman rivalry|rivalry for power and influence]] which continued well after the Umayyad era. In forging this alliance, the Quda'a's leaders genealogically realigned their descent to the South Arabian [[Himyar]], discarding their north Arabian ancestor, [[Ma'add]], a move which elicited centuries-long debate and controversy among early Islamic scholars.
==Genealogical origins and tribal alignment==
===Background===
In the Arab genealogical tradition, the Arab tribes were generally divided into those with northern or southern Arabian ancestors. The ancestral origins of the Quda'a are obscure, with the claims of the early genealogists being contradictory.{{sfn|Kister|Plessner|1976|p=56}} The Quda'a were counted among the northern Arabian [[Ma'add]] tribes in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=46}}{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=50}} Ma'add had been attested as a tribal confederation in the [[Syrian Desert]] as early as the 4th century. One of the prominent tribes of the Quda'a, the [[Banu Kalb]], had been present in [[Syria (region)|Syria]] centuries before the [[Muslim conquest of Syria|advent of Islam]] in the 630s, and since they and the wider Quda'a group had been present there for so long, the historian [[Patricia Crone]] comments that it is "pointless to speculate where they may have originally come from".{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=46}} The Quda'a, as well as the [[Kinda (tribe)|Kinda]] tribe, occupied a privileged position under [[Mu'awiya]]'s governorship of [[Bilad al-Sham|Islamic Syria]] (639–661) and his Syria-based [[Umayyad Caliphate]] (661–680), as they were the foundation of his military strength. The alliance with Quda'a was sealed by Mu'awiya's marriage to [[Maysun bint Bahdal]] of the [[Bahdal ibn Unayf|Kalb's leading household]]. The nobles of the Quda'a were granted yearly, inheritable stipends, as well as veto and consultation rights with the caliph. Under Mu'awiya's successor, his son with Maysun, [[Yazid I]] ({{reign|680|683}}), the Quda'a maintained their privileges.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=44}}
===Initial attempts to link with Himyar===
According to several early Islamic sources, the first figure to claim [[South Arabia]]n, [[Himyarite]] descent for the Quda'a was a supposed [[companion of Muhammad]], Amr ibn Murra of the [[Juhayna]], another major constituent tribe of the Quda'a.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=46}}{{sfn|Kister|Plessner|1976|p=57}} Amr ibn Murra urged his tribesmen in Egypt, which was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in the 640s, to join the Yamani, or South Arabian, tribes,{{sfn|Kister|Plessner|1976|p=57}} and according to reports attributed to a late 7th-century source, [[Isa ibn Talha al-Taymi]], and the [[qadi]] of Egypt [[Ibn Lahi'a]] (d. 790), Amr ibn Murra invoked a conversation he had with Muhammad in which the latter informed him that Quda'a stemmed from Himyar.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|p=182}} Depending on the source, Amr ibn Murra's effort was supported by Mu'awiya or, alternatively, frowned upon by the caliph.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=47}} The 8th-century genealogist [[al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar]] held that in response to Mu'awiya's order to ascertain the lineages of the Arab troops in Egypt, Amr ibn Murra proclaimed that Quda'a was a descendant of Himyar. [[Uqba ibn Amir]], another companion of Muhammad from the Juhayna who settled in Egypt and was close to Mu'awiya, backed these claims, according to Ibn Lahi'a.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|p=182}}
The historian [[Wilferd Madelung]] views the reports about Amr ibn Murra's Himyarite advocacy as credible,{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=47}} and thus dates the efforts to link Quda'a with Himyar to Mu'awiya's rule.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|p=182}} He speculates the efforts were politically advantageous for the Quda'a as the Himyarites formed a significant proportion of the troops in Egypt and that Mu'awiya hoped to "extend his marriage alliance with Kalb indirectly to Himyar" through forging their genealogical links.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|pp=182–183}} Nonetheless, the Quda'a's claims of Himyarite lineage was not endorsed by the Himyar or the Kalb in Syria during Mu'awiya's caliphate.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|p=183}} Crone, on the other hand, considers the narratives about Amr ibn Murra to be "exceedingly doubtful"; she questions his biography, as he was held to have been an old man in Muhammad's time but lived well into Mu'awiya's caliphate, and suspects that he is mainly used in the early sources to advocate for the Himyarite descent of the Quda'a. She further notes that the Quda'a did not develop an interest in Himyarite descent until well after Mu'awiya's death in 680.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=47}}
Links between the Quda'a and the South Arabian tribes were also demonstrated in the reorganization of [[Kufa]], one of the two chief [[amsar|Arab garrison towns]] of Iraq by Mu'awiya's governor there in 671.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|p=183}} The Arab military settlers were organized into seven divisions based on their tribal origin. The soldiers who belonged to the Quda'a tribes were assigned to the same seventh as the South Arabian tribes of [[Azd|Azd Sarat]], Hadhramawt, [[Kinda (tribe)|Kinda]], [[Bajila]] and [[Khath'am]], suggesting that the Quda'a was remembered to have had South Arabian origins. However, as they were not part of the same seventh as the Himyar, the South Arabian tribe to which the Quda'a was traditionally held to have descended from, Crone considers the relevance of the Kufan genealogists who decided the Quda'a's tribal association as "uncertain".{{sfn|Crone|1994|pp=46–47}}
===Consolidation of Quda'a–Himyar union===
{{see also|Yaman (tribal group)}}
The Quda'a's privileged position in the Umayyad state during the Sufyanid period (661–684, i.e. the reigns of Mu'awiya I, Yazid I, and [[Mu'awiya II]]) caused consternation among the other tribal components in Syria.{{sfn|Crone|1994|pp=44–46}} By this point, there were three major tribal confederations in Syria: the Quda'a, which had a strong presence in the central districts of [[Jund al-Urdunn|Jordan]], [[Jund Dimashq|Damascus]] and [[Jund Hims|Hims]] where they were allied with the tribes of [[Ghassanids|Ghassan]] and Kinda; the more recent northern Arabian arrivals of the [[Qays]], who were mainly concentrated in [[Jund Qinnasrin|northern Syria]] where the Quda'a lacked a foothold; and the Qahtan,{{efn|According to the historian [[Werner Caskel]], the [[South Arabia]]n tribal settlers of [[Homs]] formed an alliance based around the unifying figure of [[Qahtan]] as a shared ancestor during the reign of [[Yazid I]].{{sfn|Madelung|1986|pp=181–182}}}} which grouped the South Arabian Himyar, [[Banu Hamdan|Hamdan]] and [[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]] of Homs, which settled there during the Muslim conquest.{{sfn|Crone|1994|pp=44–46}}{{sfn|Crone|1980|p=34}} According to Crone, the non-Quda'a tribes were essentially faced with the choice of joining or opposing the Quda'a, and the Sufyanid period "was marked by intense discussion of possible genealogical realignments" among the tribes. These deliberations were held by the 'brother' tribes of [[Judham], [[Lakhm]] and [[Amila]] in the southern district of [[Jund Filastin|Palestine]], and the Kinda.{{sfn|Crone|1994|pp=44–46}} At this time, the Quda'a in Syria still claimed Ma'addite descent, and sponsored efforts by the upstart Judham chief, [[Rawh ibn Zinba]], to persuade his tribesmen and their affiliates to endorse descent from the Ma'addite [[Banu Asad|Asad]] tribe. This effort was opposed by the bulk of the Judham under the elder chief [[Natil ibn Qays]], who opted for lineage from Qahtan in alliance with the South Arabians of Homs.{{sfn|Crone|1980|p=34}}
When Yazid died during the [[Second Muslim Civil War]] in 683, followed weeks later by the death of his successor, Mu'awiya II, Yazid's son by a Kalbi woman, Umayyad rule had collapsed across the caliphate, in favor of the anti-Umayyad caliph [[Ibn al-Zubayr]] of [[Mecca]]. While the Quda'a sought to preserve Umayyad rule, and thus their privileges, their tribal opponents in Syria, including the Qahtan, the Qays, and the Judham, threw in their lot with Ibn al-Zubayr and his ally in Damascus, [[al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri]], taking control of Syria's districts except for Quda'a-controlled Jordan. The Quda'a and their tribal allies, including the Ghassan, Kinda, [[Banu 'Akk|Akk]] and [[Banu Ash'ar|Ash'ar]], nominated an Umayyad from a different branch of the family, [[Marwan I]], as caliph and together routed the much larger army of their tribal rivals under al-Dahhak at the [[Battle of Marj Rahit (684)|Battle of Marj Rahit]] in 684.{{sfn|Crone|1980|pp=34–35}} Umayyad rule was quickly reasserted across Syria, but the Qays commenced a [[Qays–Yaman rivalry#Ayyam raids|series of raids against the Kalb]] to avenge their losses at Marj Rahit. According to the 8th-century Kalbi genealogists, Nasr ibn Mazru and al-Sharqi ibn Qutami, the Quda'a adopted Himyarite descent as part of an [[Yaman (tribal group)|alliance with the Yamani tribes]], during this period of raids and counter-raids between the Qays and the Kalb.{{sfn|Crone|1994|pp=45–47}}{{sfn|Kister|Plessner|1976|p=57}}{{efn|[[Wilferd Madelung|Madelung]] and [[Patricia Crone|Crone]] question that Quda'a would genealogically subordinate themselves to the [[Himyarites]] during the [[Second Muslim Civil War]] period, when they had just defeated them at [[Battle of Marj Rahit (684)|Marj Rahit]], instead of adopting the route of other Syrian nomadic tribes, which claimed descent from Qahtan through Himyar's brother, [[Kahlan]], thereby bypassing Himyar.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=47, note 255}} Madelung interprets this as evidence that Quda'a's efforts to link with Himyar dated earlier, to [[Mu'awiya I]]'s reign, when the legendary figure of Himyar was likely the ultimate unifying figure for South Arabian descent, before the rise of Qahtan as this figure during Yazid's reign.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|pp=181–182}} Crone dismisses Madelung's theory as insufficient.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=47, note 255}}}} The Ma'add confederacy in Syria was thus dissolved, and its constituents were merged with the Qahtan, i.e. the Yaman.{{sfn|Crone|1980|p=35}}
The historian [[Khalid Yahya Blankinship]] dates the Quda'i–Yamani union to {{circa|685}},{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=50}} while the historian [[Werner Caskel]] dates it to the 690s.{{sfn|Madelung|1986|p=181}} Yazid's son [[Khalid ibn Yazid|Khalid]], who had been in line to succeed Marwan until the latter replaced him with his own son, [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan|Abd al-Malik]], encouraged the effort to disrupt tribal support for Marwan's progeny. The Quda'a's genealogical alignment with the Yaman was sealed by the favoritism shown to Qaysi troops in the Umayyad army invading the Byzantine Empire in 715–718 by Abd al-Malik's son, the prominent general [[Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik|Maslama]], and the considerable investments by the wealthy governor of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate, [[Khalid al-Qasri]] ({{reign|724|738}}), to persuade the chiefs of Quda'a to change their genealogy. These efforts were condemned by the more pious men of the Quda'a, such as Nasr ibn Mazru, who viewed the renouncement of the Quda'a's ancestor Ma'add to be unconscionable.{{sfn|Crone|1994|pp=47–48}}{{sfn|Kister|Plessner|1976|p=57}}
===Controversy===
The disputes over the Quda'a's origins elicited considerable debate among early Islamic scholars, who invoked the purported opinions of Muhammad to favor either side, while others proposed "ingenious harmonizations" of Ma'addite and Himyarite ancestries for the tribe, according to Crone.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=48}} Among the alleged utterances of Muhammad were that Ma'add's ''[[kunya (Arabic)|kunya]]'' (paedynomic) was ''Abū Quḍāʿa'' ('Father of Quda'a'), or that Muhammad explicitly stated Quda'a was a descendant of Himyar. The 8th-century genealogist, [[Ibn al-Kalbi]], who belonged to the Quda'a, harmonized these seemingly contradictory claims by holding that Quda'a's mother, Mu'ana, was originally the wife of Malik ibn Amr ibn Murra ibn Malik ibn Himyar, and that she afterward wed Ma'add, bringing Quda'a with her; thus Quda'a became known as a son of Ma'add, albeit not a biological one.{{sfn|Kister|Plessner|1976|p=56}} This tradition is also espoused by a later genealogist, [[Ibn Abd Rabbihi]] (d. 940), who further notes that ''Quda'a'' was an epithet meaning 'leopard' and his actual name was Amr.<ref>Ibn Abd Rabbih, p. 275.</ref> The historians [[al-Baladhuri]] and [[Abu'l-Baqa Hibat Allah]] offer the opposite narrative, namely that Mu'ana was originally the wife of Ma'add, with whom she had Quda'a, and then later married Malik ibn Amr of the Himyar.{{sfn|Kister|Plessner|1976|pp=56–57}}
==Sub-tribes==
The sub-tribes of the Quda'a were:
*[[Juhayna]], a prominent tribe whose territory spanned the northern central [[Hejaz]] (western Arabia), giving them control over a large part of the caravan routes between Syria and Mecca. They played an important role, along with other Quda'a tribes, in the [[Muslim conquest of Egypt]] in the 640s, settling in [[Fustat]]. The Juhayna of Egypt migrated to [[Upper Egypt]] during the [[Fatimid]] period (10th–12th centuries). These tribesmen went further south in the 14th century, gaining control over swathes of [[Nubia]] and eventually merging with tribes of the Sudan. The Juhayna who had remained in the Hejaz allied with the [[Alids]], whilst retaining their tribal identity. They survived into the modern era, allying with the [[Hashemites]], descendants of the Alids, but after the latter were ousted by the [[House of Saud]], they became generally loyal subjects of the Saudi kingdom and play an important role in the development of their region.{{sfn|Kister|1986|pp=315–317}}
*[[Banu Kalb|Kalb]], the strongest tribe of the Quda'a whose territory historically spanned the vast steppe between Iraq and Syria, the so-called Samawa, and including the [[Wadi Sirhan]] and [[Dumat al-Jandal]] areas. After the Muslim conquest, they expanded their presence to Damascus and its environs, the [[Golan Heights]], the upper [[Jordan Valley]], Homs and [[Palmyra]]. The Kalb remained a potent force in Syria through the 10th century,{{sfn|Dixon|1978|pp=492–494}} and retained influence around Damascus into the 11th century.
*[[Bali (tribe)|Bali]], a prominent tribe whose territory abutted the Juhayna's to the north, up to the borders of Syria. The played a prominent role in the conquest of Egypt, with most of the tribe's members in Syria being relocated there in the 640s. They were present in large numbers at Fustat, [[Akhmim]], [[Asyut]] and [[Ushmun]], but were expelled by the Fatimids and moved southward with the Juhayna. Together the two Quda'a tribes mixed with the indigenous [[Beja people|Beja]] and [[Baqqara]] tribes, contributing considerably to their Arabization and Islamization. Part of the Bali had remained in Arabia, with some accepting Saudi rule, and other parts of the tribe taking refuge with the ousted Hashemites in [[Emirate of Transjordan|Transjordan]].{{sfn|Kister|1986|pp=317–318}}
*[[Bahra']], a smaller tribe which migrated from the Euphrates valley to the plains around Homs before the Muslim conquest of Syria.{{sfn|Bosworth|1960|p=938}}
*Khushayn, a minor tribe
*[[Jarm]]
*[[Banu Udhra|Udhra]], a tribe historically established in the [[Wadi al-Qura]] area on the borderlands between Syria and the Hejaz. They were allies of the Jewish agriculturalists of that region and had close ties with the inhabitants of [[Yathrib]]. Some of their tribesmen migrated into Syria and a number served important positions under the Umayyad caliphs there.{{sfn|Lecker|2000|pp=773–774}}
*[[Balqayn]], a tribe whose territory neighbored that of the Quda'a tribes of Bali, Udhra and Kalb, the last of which was the traditional rival of the Balqayn. They are last mentioned as participants in inter-tribal fighting around Damascus in the late 8th century.{{sfn|Watt|1978|p=820}}
*[[Salīhids|Salīḥ]], a tribe historically concentrated in Wadi Sirhan and the [[Balqa (region)|Balqa]] region of [[Jordan]]. They became the dominant Arab ''[[foederati]]'' of the [[Roman Empire]] in the 4th century and expanded further into northern Syria. They were charged with collecting taxes from the [[Bedouins]] seeking to dwell in ''[[Limes Arabicus]]''.
*[[Banu Nahd|Nahd]], a tribe that inhabited the [[Najran Province|Najran]] and [[Abha]] Governorates before migrating all over Arabia especially [[Hadhramaut]], where they own a considerable amount of territory.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Jiris |first=Ghaythan Bin |title=محافظة بيشة: دراسات، وإضافات، وتعليقات |publisher=Antiques & Collectibles |pages=42–272 |trans-title=Bisha Governorate: Studies, additions, and comments}}</ref><ref name=":72">{{Cite book |last=Toy |first=Barbara |title=Travelling the Incense Route |publisher=I.B.Tauris |date=September 30, 2009 |pages=58–59}}</ref>
The tribes of [[Tanukh]], Khawlan and Mahra are sometimes considered as part of Quda'a, but some genealogists dispute their association with the tribe. Over time, some tribes of Quda'a joined other confederations, took on a different [[Genealogy|pedigree]] and changed their tribal identity.{{sfn|Kister|1986|p=315}}
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==Bibliography==
*{{The End of the Jihad State}}
*{{EI2 |article=Bahrāʾ |last=Bosworth |first=C. E. |authorlink=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |volume=1 |page=938}}
*{{Slaves on Horses}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Crone |first1=Patricia |s2cid=154370527 |title=Were the Qays and Yemen of the Umayyad Period Political Parties? |date=1994 |journal=Der Islam |volume=71 |issue=1 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter and Co. |pages=1–57 |issn=0021-1818 |doi=10.1515/islm.1994.71.1.1 }}
*{{EI2 |title=Kalb b. Wabara—Islamic Period |first=A. A. |last=Dixon |volume=4 |pages=493–494}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Kister |first1=M. J. |last2=Plessner |first2=M. |authorlink1=M. J. Kister |title=Notes on Caskel's Ğamharat an-Nasab |journal=Oriens |date=1976 |volume=25 |pages=48–68 |doi=10.2307/1580656 |jstor=1580656 |isbn=978-1-000-58502-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0PdbEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA58}}
*{{EI2 |article=Kuḍāʿa |last=Kister |first=M. J. |volume=5 |pages=315–318}}
*{{EI2 |article=ʿUdhra |last=Lecker |first=M. |volume=10 |pages=773–774}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Madelung |first1=Wilferd |authorlink=Wilferd Madelung |title=Apocalyptic Prophecies in Ḥimṣ in the Umayyad Age |journal=Journal of Semitic Studies |date=1986 |volume=31 |issue=2}}
*{{EI2 |title=Al-Kayn |first=W. Montgomery |last=Watt |author-link=W. Montgomery Watt |volume=4 |pages=819–820}}
{{Historical Arab tribes}}
[[Category:Quda'a| ]]
[[Category:Tribes of Arabia]]
[[Category:Tribal confederacies]]