Banu Hanifa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Banu Hanifa (Arabic: بنو حنيفة‎) were an ancient Arab tribe inhabiting the area of Yamamah in the central region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The tribe belonged to the great Rabi'ah branch of North Arabian tribes, which also included 'Anizzah, Bakr, and Taghlib. The tribe's members appear to have been mostly sedentary farmers at the dawn of Islam, living in small settlements along the wadis of central Nejd, particularly the valley of Al-'Irdh, which later came to bear their name (see Wadi Hanifa). Yaqut's 13th century encyclopedia credits them with the founding of the villages of Hajr (the predecessor of today's Riyadh) and Manfuha, and being responsible for the granaries of Al-Kharj.

Banu Hanifa played an important role in early Islamic history. At around 632, according to the traditional Muslim chroniclers, they sent a delegation pledging alleigence to the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad died shortly thereafter, and the Banu Hanifa immediately renounced their new religion, under the leadership of their own prophet, Musaylima. It is said, however, that Musaylima had declared his prophethood shortly before Muhammad's death, claiming to have been made a partner of Muhammad's in divine revelation. This, along with other apostasy movements in Arabia, triggered the Ridda Wars, in which the Muslims of Medina subjugated the rebellious tribes, but not before some heavy losses. Musaylima was killed in the battle of 'Aqraba, some 30 km north of modern Riyadh, and the rest of Banu Hanifa then made peace with the Muslims and joined the new Islamic state.

Tribesmen from Banu Hanifa participated heavily in the early Muslim conquests, and also supplied the ranks of rebellious movements such as the Kharijites. One member of the tribe by the name of Najdah ibn 'Amir, even founded a short-lived Kharijite state in Yamamah during the Umayyad era. Thereafter the tribe seems to have resumed its pre-Islamic agricultural way of life, leading the famous Umayyad-era poet Jarir ibn Atiya to mock them in scathing satirical verse for choosing the "humble" life of the farmer over the "glorious" life of the Arab nomad.

Geographers such as Al-Hamadani of the 10th century and Yaqut of the 12th seem to indicate that Bani Hanifa still resided in its ancestral lands at the time of their writings, though the tribe seems to have held little political power by then. Little else is heard from Banu Hanifa thereafter, except that a number of clans in the region of Wadi Hanifa are given a Hanafite lineage by Jabr ibn Sayyar, the ruler of nearby Al-Qassab, in his short manuscript on the geneaologies of the people of Nejd in the 17th century. One such clan mentioned by Ibn Sayyar were the Mrudah, among whom later appeared Saudi Arabia's current rulers, the clan of Al Saud. Most of these clans mentioned by Ibn Sayyar, however, today claim membership of the large tribe of 'Anizzah, though scholars such as Hamad Al-Jassir attribute this to the need to associate with a more powerful bedouin tribe, and that 'Anizzah was chosen due to shared ancestry.

[edit] References

• Yaqut Al-Hamawi, "Yamamah", "Hajr", and "Al-'Irdh" in Mu'jam Al-Buldan
• Al-Hamadani, Sifat Jazirat Al-'Arab ("A Description of the Arabian Peninsula")
• Hamad Al-Jassir, Jamharat Ansab Al-Usar Al-Mutahaddira Fi Nejd ("Compendium of the Lineages of the Settled Families of Nejd")
• Jarir ibn Atiya, Diwan
• Jabr ibn Sayyar's manuscript on the lineages of the people of Nejd