Qahtanite

 ( Semitic-speaking Peoples ) 

The Qahtanites (; ), also known as Banu Qahtan () or by their nickname al-Arab al-Ariba (), are the Arabs who originate from modern-day Yemen.

The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple Ancient South Arabian inscriptions found in Yemen. Some Arab traditions believe that the Qahtanites are the original Arabs.

In some Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions, the Qahtanite Arabs descend from Jokshan, a son of Abraham through Keturah and half brother of Ishmael son of Abraham through Hagar.

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Traditional Arab genealogy According to Arab tradition, the Qahtanites are from South Arabia, unlike the Adnanites who are from the north of Arabia descended from Ishmael through Adnan.

Gianluca P. Parolin (2025). 9789089640451, Amsterdam University Press. . ISBN 9789089640451

"The 'arabized or arabizing Arabs', on the contrary, are believed to be the descendants of Ishmael through Adnan, but in this case the genealogy does not match the Biblical line exactly. The label 'arabized' is due to the belief that Ishmael spoke Hebrew until he got to Mecca, where he married a Yemeni woman and learnt Arabic. Both genealogical lines go back to Sem, son of Noah, but only Adnanites can claim Abraham as their ascendant, and the lineage of Mohammed, the Seal of Prophets (khatim al-anbiya'), can therefore be traced back to Abraham. Contemporary historiography unveiled the lack of inner coherence of this genealogical system and demonstrated that it finds insufficient matching evidence; the distinction between Qahtanites and Adnanites is even believed to be a product of the Umayyad Age, when the war of factions (al-niza al-hizbi) was raging in the young Islamic Empire." Arab tradition maintains that a semi-legendary ancestral figure named Qahtan and his 24 sons are the progenitors of Yemen who controlled the Arabian Peninsula known as Qahtani.

The genealogists disagree about the pedigree of Qahțān himself. Some trace him back to Ishmael b. Abraham, saying that his name was Qahṭān b. al - Hamaysa ' b. Tayman b. Nabt b. Ismā'īl b. Ibrāhīm. Wahb ibn Munabbih and Hishām b. Muhammad al-Kalbi held this genealogy (as true). Hisham ibn al-Kalbi quoted his father as saying that he had been contemporaneous with older scholars and genealogists who traced Qahțān's pedigree in this way. Other genealogists argue that the name was Joktan b. Eber b. Shalakh. Qahtan with the Yoqtan (Joktan) son of Eber (Hūd) in the Hebrew Bible (Gen. 10:25–29).

Tony Maalouf (2025). 9780825493638, Kregel Academic. ISBN 9780825493638

or genesis 25:2-3 that Qahtan is the similarly named Jokshan son of Abraham and Keturah.

Among the sons of Qahtan are noteworthy figures like A'zaal (believed by Arabs to have been the original name of Sana'a), Hazarmaveth and Jurhum whose descendants formed the second Jurhum tribe from which Ishmael is traditionally believed to have learned Arabic by some.

Oliver Leaman (2025). 9780415326391, Taylor & Francis. . ISBN 9780415326391

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (2025). 9789960980324, Darussalam. . ISBN 9789960980324

Another son is Ya'rub, and his son Yashjub is the father of Saba'. All Yemenite tribes trace their ancestry back to this "Saba", either through Himyar or Kahlan, his two sons.

The Qahtani people are divided into the two sub-groups of Himyar and Kahlan, who represent the settled Arabs of the south and their nomadic kinsmen (). The Kahlan division of Qahtan consists of four subgroups: the Ta' or Tayy, the Azd group which invaded Oman, the 'Amila-Banu Judham group of Palestine, and the Hamdan-Madhhij group who mostly remain in Yemen.

The Kahlan branch includes the following tribes: Azd (Banu Aus and Khazraj, Bariq, Ghassan, Khuza'a and Banu Daws), Banu Hamdan, Khath'am, Bajila, Madhhij, Murad, Zubaid, Ash'ar, Lakhm, Tayy (Shammar), and Kinda.

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Pre-Islamic Qahtani migration out of Arabia Early Semites who developed civilizations throughout the Ancient Near East gradually relinquished their geopolitical superiority to surrounding cultures and neighboring imperial powers, usually due to either internal turmoil or outside conflict. This climaxed with the arrival of the Babylonians, and subsequently the rivaling Medes and Persians, during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, respectively. Though the Semites lost geopolitical influence, the Aramaic language emerged as the lingua franca of much of the Near East. However, Aramaic usage declined after the defeat of the Persians and the arrival of the Greece armies around 330 BCE.

The Ghassanids (ca. 250 CE) were the last major non-Islamic Semitic migration northward out of Yemen. They revived the Semitic presence in the then Roman Empire-controlled Syria. They initially settled in the Hauran region, eventually spreading to Palestine, and Jordan, briefly securing governorship of Syria away from the Nabataeans.

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After the rise of Islam Between the 7th and 14th centuries, the Qahtanites became involved in the Arab conquests, migrating to the newly conquered territories and intermingling with the local populations. In the Umayyad era, a blood feud broke out between Qahtanites and the Adnanite tribes of Qays, which continued in various forms and degrees till the 19th century in what has become known as the Qays–Yaman rivalry.

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See also

• Banu Lahab
• Qahtan (disambiguation)
• Kahlan
• Hadhramaut
• Hakam, Yemen

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Notes

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Further reading

• St John Simpson (2025). 9780714111513, British Museum. ISBN 9780714111513

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