Banu Bakr

Banu Bakr ibn Wa'il or Banu Bakr, son of Wa'il (Arabic: بنو بكر بن وائل‎ banū bakr ibn wā'il) were an Arabian tribe belonging to the large Rabi'ah branch of Adnanite tribes, which also included 'Anizzah, Taghlib, and Bani Hanifa. The tribe is reputed to have engaged in a 40-year war before Islam with its cousins from Taghlib, known as the War of Basous. The pre-Islamic poet, Tarafah was a member of Bakr.

Bakr's original lands were in Nejd, in central Arabia, but most of the tribe's bedouin sections migrated northwards immediately before Islam, and settled in the area of Al-Jazirah, on the upper Euphrates. The region of Diyar Bakr, and later the city of Diyarbakır in southern Turkey, take their names from this tribe.

Most of the bedouins of Bakr in al-Yamama joined the rest of the tribe in Mesopotamia after the appearance of Islam, where they had good relations with the tribe of 'Anizzah. However, some inhabitants of al-Yamama continued to trace their descent from Bakr through Bani Hanifa up to the modern era, particularly in Riyadh.

Approximate locations of some of the important tribes and Empire of the Arabian Peninsula at the dawn of Islam.

The tribe is distinct from the tribe of Bani Bakr ibn Abd Manat, who lived in the Hejaz and had important interactions with Muhammad.

Tribe tree / classic relations

The following are some of the related and sub-tribes of Bakr ibn Wa'il in the pre-Islamic and early-Islamic eras:

• Adnanite, Canaanite/Hejaz or "Northwestern Arabian" (Northern Arabian Red Sea coast)
  • Rabi`ah (ربيعة), migrated northwards and eastwards from Hejaz, for example to Diyar Rabi'a in Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia
    • Bakr ibn Wa'il, Nejd, bedouin sections migrated before Islam to Diyar Bakr in Al-Jazira.
      • Banu Hanifa - mostly sedentary, were the principal tribe of al-Yamama (the region around modern-day Riyadh).
      • Banu Shayban - mostly nomadic (bedouin), led the Battle of Dhi Qar against the Sassanid Persians in southern Iraq prior to Islam. The jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal claimed descent from this tribe.
      • Banu Qays ibn Tha'labah - bedouin and sedentary, were the inhabitants of the town of Manfuha (now part of Riyadh). The pre-Islamic poets al-A'sha and Tarafah were among its members.
      • Banu Yashkur - bedouin and sedentary, inhabitants of al-Yamama. Al-Harith ibn Hillizah, one of the purported authors of the Seven Hanged Poems of pre-Islamic Arabia, was a member of Yashkur.
      • Banu 'Ijl - mostly bedouin, located in al-Yamama and the southern borders of Mesopotamia.
    • Abdul Qays
    • `Anizzah, nomadic branch in the steppes bordering Syria and Mesopotamia, sedentary Bani Hizzan in Al-Yamama in eastern Najd
    • Taghlib ibn Wa'il, migrated northwards to the Jazirah plain in northern Mesopotamia in the 6th century.
    • Anz ibn Wa'il
    • al-Nammir ibn Qasit
  • Mudhar, with nomadic branches in western Al-Jazira (Diyar Mudar), famous subtribes and clans: Quraysh and Banu Hashim

External links

• Fadhil H. Khudeda / College of Arts/ Dohuk University
• Turkey - Southeastern Anatolia P 621