Ma'ad ibn Adnan

Ma'ad ibn Adnan (Arabic: مَعَدّ ٱبْن عَدْنَان, romanized: Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān) is an ancient ancestor of Qusai ibn Kilab and his descendant the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is featured in ancient Arabic literature.

Family tree from Adnan to Muhammad
Ma'ad ibn Adnan
Born598 BCE
SpouseMu'ana bint Jawsham ibn Julhuma ibn 'Amru
ChildrenNizar
Quda'a
Qunus
Iyad
Parent(s)Adnan (father)
Mahdad bint al-Laham (mother)
Relativesal-Dith ibn Adnan (brother)

Biography

According to traditions, Ma'ad is the son of Adnan, the father of a group of the Ishmaelite Arabs who inhabited West and Northern Arabia. Adnan is believed by Arab genealogies to be the father of many Ishmaelite tribes along the Western Hijaz coast of the Arabian peninsula and Najd.[1][2][3][4] As it was reported, Ma'ad was first born of Adnan, his year of birth being 598 BCE.[5][6][7][8][9]

Ma'ad was the father of four sons: Nizar, Quda'a, Qunus and Iyad. Quda'a was the first-born and so Ma'ad ibn Adnan was known by his Kunya "Abu Quda'a."[10]

From the poems composed by Pre-Islamic poets, and from their statements, it can be concluded that Ma'ad was more venerated and more important than his father Adnan, evidenced by the number of times when he was mentioned in Pre-Islamic poetries, and how he was described and honored by his descendants' tribes when boasting against other tribes, some other poets even considered it as "disgrace" not to be a descendant of Adnan and Ma'ad.[5][11] Some other poems also celebrated and honored the victory of the people of Ma'ad against the tribe of Madh'hij in South Arabia.[5][12]

When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II attacked the Qedarite Arabs during the time of Adnan, Ma'ad was sent away by his father, and after the defeat of the Qedarite and the death of both Adnan and Nebuchadnezzar II, many Adnanites who were not forced to live in Mesopotamia have fled away to Yemen, but Ma'ad, as the successor of his father, ordered them to return to Hijaz and Northern Arabia.[5][13][14][15] The defeat and displacement of the people of Ma'ad seemed to be viewed by Pre-Islamic Arabs as a disastrous event, so that it was used as a proverbial measure in describing the horror of their later defeats.[5][16]

Ma'ad, unlike his father, was mentioned countless times by Pre-Islamic Arab poets across the whole Arabian Peninsula, including Ghassanid and Christian poets, even in the famous Seven Mu'allaqat. From those poems, it can be seen that Ma'ad was venerated by Pre-Islamic Arabs, and for some reason, they believed that all the glories throughout the whole Arab history is considered nothing when compared to the glory of Ma'ad.[17][5] From some other poems, it appears that the nation of Ma'ad presented a large majority among Pre-Islamic Arabs.[5][18][19]

Ma'ad was mentioned by name in the Namara inscription as a nation that was conquered by the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr, along with other Arab nation from North, Central-West and South Arabia.[20][21][22][5]

From some of the reports of about the relations between the Lakhmids and the nation of Ma'ad, it can be concluded that the kings of the Northern Arab kingdoms feared them and viewed them as mighty opponent because of their powerful war tactics, even when they conquered them, they treated their kings with high respect as important people, and gave them large conquered colonies to rule, as reported in the Namara inscription.[5] Such views are also supported by the Classical Arabic writings.[23][24] The nation of Ma'ad was mentioned by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (c. 500 CE – c. 565 CE) in his historical record of the wars of Justinian I.

He mentioned that a Saracen nation named "Maddeni" (Ma'ad) were subjects with the kingdom of the "Homeritae" (Himyarites), and that Justinian sent a letter to the Himyarite king ordering him to assemble an army of Himyarite soldiers and from Ma'ad under the leadership of a king of the nation of Ma'ad named "Kaisus" (Qays), in order to attack the borders of the Sasanian Empire, and then approved the leader of Ma'ad as a king on the region.[25][5]

The tradition of Ibn Ishaq states that Muhammad was the son of 'Abdullah, b. 'Abdu'I-Muttalib (whose name was Shayba), b. Hashim (whose name was 'Amr), b. Abd Manaf (whose name was al-Mughira), b. Qusay (whose name was Zayd), b. Kilab, b. Murrah, b. Ka'b, b. Lu'ayy, b. Ghalib, b. Fihr, b. Malik, b. al-Nadr, b. Kinana, b. Khuzayma, b. Mudrika (whose name was 'Amir), b. Ilyas, b. Mudar, b. Nizar, b. Ma'add, b. Adnan, b. Udd (or Udad),....b. Ya'rub, b. Yashjub, b. Qedar, b. Isma'il, b. Ibrahim, the friend of the Compassionate.[26]

See also

References
  1. The chosen record of the Ancestries of Arab tribes, Abd al-Rahman al-Mughiri, Volume 1, Page 58
  2. Clans of Iraq, Abbas Al-Azzawi, Volume 1, Page 13
  3. The Beginning and the End, Ibn Kathir Volume 2, Page 187
  4. Fulfilling the need of Knowing the origins of Arabs, Ahmad al-Qalqashandi, Volume 1, Page 118
  5. Jawwad Ali, The Detailed History of Arabs before Islam (1993), University of Baghdad, Vol.1, pp. 379–387
  6. The Historical Record of Ibn Khaldun, Vol. 2, Page: 229
  7. Nasab Quraysh (The Genealogy of Quraysh), Ibn Hazm, Page: 5
  8. The Historical Record of At-Tabari, Vol. 2, Page: 29
  9. Nihayat Al-Arab Fe Ma'rifat Ansab Al-Arab (Fulfilling the need of Knowing the origins of Arabs), Vol. 2, Page: 352
  10. Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad. The Life of Muhammad. Oxford University Press. p. 4.
  11. Ihsan Abbas, The "Divan" (Collection of Poems) of Labeed ibn Rabi'a (1962-Kuwait), Page: 255
  12. Ibn Salam, Tabaqat Ash-Shu'araa (The Ranks of Poets),Page: 5
  13. The Historical Record of Ibn Khaldun, Vol. 2, Page: 299
  14. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Tareekh Al-Umam Wa Al-Mulook (The History of Nations and Kings),Vol. 1, Page: 327
  15. Yaqut Al-Hamawi, The Dictionary of Countries, Vol. 3, Pages: 377-380
  16. The Historical and Geographical Record of Abu Ubayd Al-Bakri, Vol. 1, Page: 57
  17. Ignác Goldziher - Muhammedanische Studien 1, Page: 91
  18. Abd A. Mahna, The "Divan" (Collection of Poems) of Hassan Ibn Thabet (1994), Page:44
  19. Abd Ar-Rahman Al-Barqouqi, Explanation of the "Divan" (Collection of Poems) of Hassan Ibn Thabet (1929), Page: 398
  20. James A. Bellamy, A New Reading of the Namara Inscription, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1985), Pages:31-48
  21. Saad D. Abulhab, DeArabizing Arabia: Tracing Western Scholarship on the History of the Arabs and Arabic Language and Script, Pages: 87-156
  22. Jan Retso, Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads (2003), RoutledgeCurzon publications, Page: 467
  23. Al-Asfahani, Kitab Al-Aghani (The Book of Songs), Vol. 2, Pages: 22
  24. Abu Al-Hasan Ibn Ali Al-Mas'udi, Murooj Ath-Thahab Wa Jawhar Al-Ma'adin, Vol. 1, Page: 173
  25. H.B Dewing, Procopius's History of Wars, Page: 181
  26. Ibn Ishaq; Guillaume (1955). The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Isḥāq's sīrat. London. p. 3. ISBN 0195778286.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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