Tag̲h̲ lib b.

Wāʾil

(4,237 words)

(also Tag̲h̲lib Wāʾil), an important, mostly nomadic, tribe of the Rabīʿa b. Nizār group [see
rabīʿa and muḍar ; nizār b. maʿadd ]. A member of this tribe was called Tagh̲
̲ labī or Tag̲h̲ libī
(for the plural Tagh̲
̲ āliba, see al-T̲ h̲aʿālibī, T̲ h̲imār al-ḳulūb, ed. Ibrāhīm, Cairo 1384/1965,
130). The tribe’s pedigree is Tag̲h̲ lib/Dit̲h̲ār b. Wāʾil b. Ḳāsiṭ b. Hinb b. Afṣā b. Duʿmī b.
Ḏjadīla
̲ b. Asad b. Rabīʿa b. Nizār b. Maʿadd b. ʿAdnān.

Until the Basūs [q.v.] war which they fought against their brother-tribe, Bakr b. Wāʾil [q.v.],
the Tag̲h̲lib lived in Nad̲jd̲ [q.v.]. Following their defeat in the battle known as Yawm Taḥlāḳ
al-Limam ("the day of the shaving off of the hair that descends below the lobe of the ear",
also called Yawm al-Taḥāluḳ), which took place after the death of Kulayb b. Rabīʿa [q.v.; and
see ḥimā ], the Tag̲h̲lib dispersed (fa-tafarraḳū ; Yāḳūt, s.v. Ḳiḍa) and settled, together with
their "paternal uncles", the Namir b. Ḳāsiṭ and G̲h̲ufayla b. Ḳāsiṭ, on the lower Euphrates,
where some of them may have settled earlier. After ʿAmr b. Kult̲h̲ūm [q.v.] had in 569-70
assassinated the king of al-Ḥīra [q.v.], ʿAmr b. Hind [q.v.], they migrated further up the river
to al-Ḏjazīra
̲ [q.v.].

Before Islam the Tag̲h̲ lib were within the sphere of influence of the Sāsānids [q.v.] and their
clientkings, the Lak̲h̲mids [q.v.] of al-Ḥīra. Already in the 4th century A.D. S̲h̲āpūr [q.v.] II
transferred Tagh̲
̲ libī captives to Baḥrayn, more precisely to Dārīn, "the name of which is
Hayd̲j"(!),
̲ and al-Ḵh̲ aṭṭ (al-Ṭabarī, i, 839, cf. 845; Nöldeke, Gesch. d. Parser, 56-7, cf. 67). But
the place-name "Hayd̲j"̲ owes its existence to a scribal error: instead of Dārīn waʾ-smuhā
h.y.d̲ j,̲ read: Dārīn wa-Samāhīd̲ j.̲ (Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bug̲h̲ yat al-ṭalab..., facs. ed. Frankfurt a. M. 1986
ff., ix, 290; for die later history of the Tagh̲
̲ lib in Baḥrayn, see al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubḥ al-aʿs̲h̲ā,
ed. S̲h̲ams al-Dīn, Beirut 1407/ 1987, i, 395-6). The poet Ḏjābir
̲ b. Ḥunayy al-Tag̲h̲ libī
complained about the practices of a tax-collector sent by the king of al-Ḥīra and the
customs imposed on trade at the markets of ʿIrāḳ (Mufaḍḍaliyyāt, ed. Lyall, no. xlii). The
Tag̲h̲ lib were at some stage part of the ridāfa institution (M.J. Kister, Al-Ḥīra : some notes on its
relations with Arabia, in Arabica, xv [1968], 143-69, at 149, 166, repr. in idem, Studies in Jāhiliyya
and Early Islam, Variorum Reprints, London 1980, no. III).

For several decades in the second half of the 5th century and the first half of the 6th,
Tag̲h̲ lib’s fortunes were connected to the rise of Kinda [q.v.] in central and northern Arabia.
After a major Tag̲h̲libī defeat in the war against the Bakr and the retirement of their leader,
Muhalhil, several tribes, including the Tag̲h̲ lib and Bakr, agreed to subject themselves to
king al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. ʿAmr b. Ḥud̲jr/Ākil
̲ al-Murār al-Kindī. There followed a short interregnum
of Kinda [q.v.] in al-Ḥīra in the twenties of the 6th century [see sāsānids , vol. IX, at 77a].
After the king’s death two of his sons, S̲h̲uraḥbīl and Salama, fought against each other at
al-Kulāb (after 530; it was the First Day of al-Kulāb, or the Kulāb of the Rabīʿa; on Wādī ’l-
Kulāb (modern Wādī ’l-S̲h̲aʿrāʾ), see al-Arab [Riyāḍ] xiii/1-2 [July-Aug. 1978], 14-29). The two
brother-tribes returned to their feud; the Bakr fought on S̲h̲uraḥbīl’s side while the Tag̲h̲ lib
and Namir were with Salama. The latter’s cavalry was led by the Tagh̲
̲ libī warrior al-Saffāḥ
(Salama b. Ḵh̲ ālid) (Abū ʿUbayda, al-Dībād̲ j,̲ ed. al-Ḏjarbūʿ
̲ and al-ʿUt̲h̲aymīn, Cairo 1411/1991,
100). S̲h̲uraḥbīl was killed by ʿAmr b. Kult̲h̲ūm’s cousin, Abū Ḥanas̲h̲ ʿUṣ(u)m b. al-Nuʿmān.
The war between the Tagh̲
̲ lib and Bakr came to an end [see bakr b. wāʾil ] around the middle
of the 6th century with the signing of a peace treaty at the market of Dhu ’l-Mad̲jāz
̲ near
Mecca.

When the Lak̲h̲mids regained control of al-Ḥīra, they could count on Tagh̲
̲ lib’s support. Al-
Wazīr al-Mag̲h̲ ribī (d. 418/1027; see al-magh̲
̲ ribī, vol. V, at 1211b; Sezgin, GAS, viii, 245-6; Ibn
al-ʿAdīm, Bug̲h̲ ya, vi, 27 ff.) corrects a common error with regard to the famous visit of Imruʾ
al-Ḳays b. Ḥud̲jr̲ [q.v.] to Byzantium. It was not against the Asad [q.v.], who had killed his
father, that Imruʾ al-Ḳays wanted the Byzantines to support him, but against the king of al-
Ḥīra, al-Mund̲h̲ir III (b. Māʾ al-Samāʾ, ca. 505-54). Upon his return to the throne in al-Ḥīra,
al-Mund̲h̲ir sent an army of the Tagh̲
̲ lib and Bakr to hunt down Kinda’s leading family, the
Banū Ākil al-Murār (Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bug̲h̲ ya, iv, 567, confirming the reading "Tag̲h̲ lib" in
Ag̲h̲ ānī 1, viii, 64, 1. 17; cf. G. Olinder, The kings of Kinda, Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, Nova
Series xxiii/1 [1927], 1-118, at 66-7; Caussin de Perceval, Essai, ii, 85, n. 5).

In the Islamic period, there were Tag̲h̲ libīs in the Farasān [q.v.] island(s) in the Red Sea near
the Yemeni coast. The name Farasān originally belonged to a tribal group of the Tag̲h̲ lib
which emigrated from Syria to the Mawzaʿ area (Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḳurṭubī, al-Taʿrīf fi
’l-ansāb..., ed. Ẓalām, Cairo [1407/1986], 119-22; cf. Ḥamad al-Ḏjāsir,
̲ in al-ʿArab [Riyāḍ]
xxvi/3-4 [March-April 1991], 258-67, xxxvi/ 5-6 [May-June 1991], 390).

The genealogical literature records the name of al-Ak̲h̲zar b. Suḥayma, an early Tag̲h̲ libī
genealogist (nassāba) who transmitted at least part of the information on his tribe available
to later scholars (cf. W. Caskel and G. Strenziok, Ǧamharat an-Nasab, i, 45-7). Between al-
Ak̲h̲zar’s generation and that of the great philologists of the 2nd Islamic century there were
intermediaries who in most cases remained anonymous. Yet we know that one of Abū
ʿUbayda’s [q.v.] informants on the Yawm Irāb was the Tag̲h̲ libī Abū Ḵh̲ ayra Affār b. Laḳīṭ
(Naḳāʾiḍ Ḏjarīr
̲ wa-l-Farazdaḳ, ed. A.A. Bevan, Cambridge 1905, i, 473, l. 11, ii, 703, 1. 4; his
nisba, al-ʿAdawī, shows that he belonged to the ʿAdī Tag̲h̲ lib, i.e. ʿAdī b. Usāma b. Mālik b.
Bakr). But expertise in Tagh̲
̲ libī history and genealogy was not an exclusive Tagh̲
̲ libī
domain. Ibn al-Kalbī’s informant about the First Day of al-Kulāb, and about ʿAmr b.
Kult̲h̲ūm, was Ḵh̲ irās̲h̲ b. Ismāʿīl al-ʿId̲jlī̲ [cf. ʿid̲jl̲ ] al-rāwiya (on Ḵh̲ irās̲h̲. see Ibn al-Kalbī,
Ḏjamharat
̲ al-nasab, ed. Ḥasan, Beirut 1407/1986, 551; cf. op. cit., 544-5, 547; GAS, ii, 40).
Ḵh̲ irās̲h̲ also gave information about the battle of Ṣiffin (M. Hinds, The banners and battle cries
of the Arabs at Ṣiffīn (657 A.D.), in al-Abḥāt̲h̲, xxiv [1971], 3-42, at 6, 20), which indicates that his
scholarly interests included both the pre-lslamic and early Islamic periods. Interestingly, a
passage from Abū ʿUbayda’s K. al-Ayyām (taken either from his K. al-Ayyām al-ṣag̲h̲ īr or K. al-
Ayyām al-kabīr), which deals with the killing of ʿUmayr b. al-Ḥubāb al-Sulamī in the war
between the Tagh̲
̲ lib and the Ḳays ʿAylān [q.v.], demonstrates that Abū ʿUbayda’s K. al-Ayyām
(at least in its longer version) included not only pre-lslamic Ayyām but also batties of the
early Islamic period (Bakrī, Muʿd̲ jam
̲ mā ’staʿd̲ jama,
̲ ed. al-Saḳḳā, Cairo 1364/1945 ff., i, 216, iv,
1362).

Ibn al-Kalbī’s interest in the Tagh̲

̲ lib is reflected in the titles of two of his monographs, K.
Ak̲h̲bār Rabīʿa wa ’l-Basūs wa-ḥurūb Tag̲h̲ lib wa-Bakr and K. Ak̲h̲bār banī Tag̲h̲ lib wa-ayyāmihim
wa-ansābihim (al-Nad̲jās̲
̲ h̲ī, Rid̲ jāl,
̲ ed. al-Nāʾīnī, Beirut 1408/1988, ii, 400).

The 2nd/8th century scholar ʿAllān al-S̲h̲uʿūbī compiled K. Nasab Tag̲h̲ lib b. Wāʾil and Abu ’l-
Farad̲j ̲ al-Iṣfahānī compiled Nasab banī Tag̲h̲ lib (Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ 2, ed. ʿAbbās, Beirut 1993, iv,
1631, 1709).’Other early collections of reports about the Tag̲h̲ lib were entided As̲h̲ʿār [ Banī ]
Tag̲h̲ lib (see Sezgin, GAS, ii, passim ; I. Goldziher, Some notes on the Dīwāns of the Arabic tribes, in
JRAS [1897], 325-34, at 331, repr. in idem, Gesammelte Schriften, iv, 119-28). Beside poetry,
these monographs also included reports about the historical background of the verses (cf.,
e.g., Ḵh̲ izānat al-adab, ed. Hārūn, Cairo 1387/1967 ff., ii, 173-4, viii, 557-60).

From Tag̲h̲ lib are descended three sons: G̲ h̲anm, al-Aws and Imrān. But the genealogical
literature, keeping to the essentials, deals almost exclusively with the descendants of
G̲ h̲anm b. Tagh̲
̲ lib. The six sons of Bakr b. Ḥubayb b. ʿAmr b. G̲h̲anm formed a group called
al-Arāḳim (pl. of al-Arḳam, a certain speckled serpent). All six were eponyms of tribes
(ḳabāʾil), the most numerous and prestigious being the Ḏjus̲
̲ h̲am. Two of the Arāḳim tribes,
the Ḏjus̲
̲ h̲am and the Mālik, were referred to as al-rawḳān ("the two horns" or "the two
i

numerous and strong companies"). Bakr’s other sons were ʿAmr, T̲ h̲aʿlaba, al-Ḥārit̲h̲ and
Muʿāwiya. The Arāḳim were the most important group among the Tag̲h̲lib: nearly all the
information about the Tag̲h̲ lib in the genealogy books relates to them.

Among the Ḏjus̲

̲ h̲am b. Bakr, the Zuhayr b. Ḏjus̲
̲ h̲am had a nisba of their own, al-Zuhayrī.
The Zuhayr included several separate groups, the most important being the ʿAttāb b. Saʿd b.
Zuhayr. One of the ʿAttāb was the muʿallḳāt [q.v.] poet ʿAmr b. Kult̲h̲ūm. Also, the poet and
epistle writer Abū ʿAmr Kult̲h̲ūm b. ʿAmr [q.v.] al-Ḳinnasrīnī, who lived at the time of al-
Maʾmūn and Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, belonged to the ʿAttāb (Yāḳūt, Udabāʾ 2, v, 2243-6). The ʿAttāb
kept their leading position in Islamic times. When the Tag̲h̲ lib-Ḳays war began, the Tag̲h̲ lib
were led by ʿAmr b. Kult̲h̲ūm’s great-great-grandson (Ag̲h̲ ānī 1, xx, 128, 1. 4). The ʿAttāb and
their brother-clans, ʿUtba and ʿItbān, formed a group called al-ʿUtab. The other descendants
of Saʿd b. Zuhayr, namely the offspring of ʿAwf and Kaʿb, were called Banu ’l-Waḥad or al-
Awhād.

Still within the Zuhayr b. Ḏjus̲

̲ h̲am, but along the genealogical line of al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Zuhayr,
we find Kulayb b. Rabīʿa and his brother, the poet and leader Muhalhil. Kulayb was a d̲ jarrār,
̲
i.e. one who commanded 1,000 men, and the same was said of his father Rabīʿa.

The other component of the rawḳān i, namely the Mālik b. Bakr, included the Ḏjāhilī
̲ warrior
al-Saffāḥ, whose descendants, like those of ʿAmr b. Kult̲h̲ūm, were prominent in the Islamic
period.

There were among the Tagh̲

̲ lib at least five more tribal groups (aṣnāf) known by a tribal
appellation. Most of them belonged to the Mālik b. Bakr: al-Ḳamāḳim, al-Lahāzim (probably
the ʿAwf b. Mālik b. Bakr), al-Abnāʾ (the Rabīʿa, ʿĀʾid̲h̲ and Imruʾ al-Ḳays, sons of Taym b.
Usāma; J. Barth, Diwān des ʿUmeir ibn Schujeim al-Quṭāmī, Leiden 1902, no. 31, 1), al-Ḳuʿūr (the
Mālik b. Mālik b. Bakr and al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Mālik b. Bakr) and Rīs̲h̲ al-Ḥubārā (the Ḳuʿayn b.
Mālik b. Bakr). The ʿAmr b. Bakr were nicknamed al-Nak̲h̲ābiḳa.

Rich evidence about Tag̲h̲lib’s tribal divisions in the Umayyad period is derived from the
reports about the Tag̲h̲ lib-Ḳays war. Particularly detailed is the description of the battle of
al-Ḥas̲h̲sh
̲ ̲ āk. Having been fatally wounded, their commander, Ḥanẓala b. Ḳays b. Hawbar al-
Kinānī (of the Kināna b. Taym) was replaced by al-Marrār b. ʿAlḳama al-Zuhayrī, who
organised the Tag̲h̲ libī units under their tribal banners (rāyāt) and ordered each clan (banū
ab) to place the women behind them. They were set in war disposition by a member of al-
Abnāʾ The Mālik b. Bakr had a banner of their own and one of their groups, the ʿAdī Tagh̲
̲ lib.
was at the centre of the army (S̲h̲iʿr al-Ak̲h̲ṭal, ed. Ḳabāwa, Aleppo 1390/1970, i, 75-6).

Before Islam, Tag̲h̲lib was one of the strongest and most numerous nomadic tribes. The
Tag̲h̲ libīs were involved in some of the largest battles of pre-Islamic Arabia and often fought
in large military formations. This indicates a high degree of solidarity among their
subdivisions. Out of the eleven Rabīʿa leaders listed as d̲ jarrārūn,
̲ four belonged to the
Tag̲h̲ lib (Ibn Ḥabīb, Muḥabbar, ed. I. Lichtenstädter, Ḥaydarābād 1361/1942, 249-50; for a
fifth d̲ jarrār,
̲ al-Saffāḥ, see Ibn Durayd, Is̲h̲tiḳāḳ, ed. Hārūn, Cairo 1378/1958, 337). This is also
true of Islamic times: in the category of those who held the command (riʾāsa) over whole
tribes or groups of tribes, the following are mentioned in connection with the Tag̲h̲ lib-Ḳays
war: Ḥanẓala [b. Ḳays] b. Hawbar, S̲h̲uʿayt̲h̲ b. Mulayl and Marrār b. ʿAlḳama al-Zuhayrī
(Muḥabbar, 255-6).
However, after the advent of Islam, Tag̲h̲ lib’s political importance declined. In the battle of
Ḏh̲ū Ḳār [q.v.] around 605, the Tag̲h̲ lib and Namir (under al-Nuʿmān b. Zurʿa, a descendant of
al-Saffāḥ) fought on the Sāsānid side. Since the Tag̲h̲ lib lived far from the birthplace of
Islam, they could not have played a central role in Islamic history during the Prophet’s life.
Only four Tagh̲
̲ libīs were found in the biographical dictionaries dedicated to the Prophet’s
Companions: 1. ʿAṭiyya b. Ḥiṣn, said to have visited the Prophet; 2. The poet ʿUtba b. al-
Wag̲h̲ l; 3. A member of al-Ak̲h̲ṭal’s [q.v.] clan, the Banū Fadawkas, called Ḳabīṣa b. Wāliḳ, a
Kūfan s̲h̲arīf and one of al-Ḥad̲jd̲̲ jād̲
̲ j ̲ b. Yūsuf’s [q.v.] generals; and 4. Ḵh̲ awla bt. al-Hud̲h̲ayl b.
Hubayra, a niece of the Companion Diḥya b. Ḵh̲ alīfa al-Kalbī and probably a Christian, was
reportedly given in marriage to the Prophet but died on the way from Syria to Medina.

The Tagh̲
̲ lib took part in the ridda. The false prophetess Sad̲jāḥ
̲ [q.v.], and her Tamīmī clan
were clients of the Tagh̲
̲ lib in the Ḏjazīra,
̲ to whom her mother belonged. It was among the
Tag̲h̲ lib that she began her career. One of her followers was al-Hud̲h̲ayl b. ʿImrān, a former
Christian who led the Tag̲h̲libī unit in an army made of "mixed sorts of men from Rabīʿa"
(afnāʾ Rabīʿa) which followed her into Arabia. Al-Hud̲h̲ayl, who was one of the d̲ jarrārūn,
̲ was
later involved in fighting against the conquering Muslims at ʿAyn al-Tamr and elsewhere.

Some wrongly assumed that al-Hud̲h̲ayl b. ʿImrān was identical to Ḵh̲ awla’s father, al-
Hud̲h̲ayl b. Hubayra of the T̲ h̲aʿlaba b. Bakr (or rather, the Ḥurfa b. T̲ h̲aʿlaba), who was also
one of the d̲ jarrārūn.
̲ Now in order to differentiate between the two famous al-Hud̲h̲ayls, al-
Hud̲h̲ayl b. ʿImrān was called al-aṣg̲h̲ ar or "the younger" (Ḏjarīr.
̲ Dīwān, ed. Ṭāhā, Cairo
[1969-71], i, 253), while al-Hud̲h̲ayl b. Hubayra was called al-akbar or "the older" (Naḳāʾiḍ
Ḏjarīr
̲ wa ’l-Farazdaḳ, i, 473, 1. 9). Indeed, whereas "the older" was connected to the pre-
Islamic ayyām, "the younger" was linked to the conquests and was still alive at the time of
ʿUt̲h̲mān.

The Tagh̲
̲ lib fought against the conquering Muslim armies in western ʿIrāḳ and the Ḏjazīra.
̲
The ʿUtba b. Saʿd b. Zuhayr are specifically known to have taken part in the fighting. Al-
Ṣahbāʾ Umm Ḥabīb, the daughter of the Tag̲h̲libī leader, Rabīʿa b. Bud̲jayr
̲ of the ʿUtba, was
taken captive at al-T̲ h̲anī and sent to Medina where she was bought by ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib [q.v.].
She bore ʿAlī twins, a boy and a girl, ʿUmar al-akbar (Ibn al-Tag̲h̲ libiyya) and Ruḳayya.

Yet at some stage during the conquests, Tagh̲

̲ libī troops fought with the Muslims. The most
prominent person among them was ʿUtba b. al-Wag̲h̲ l (mentioned above as a Companion) of
the Saʿd b. Ḏjus̲
̲ h̲am b. Bakr. At the time of ʿUt̲h̲mān he was a political activist in Kūfa, where
the Tag̲h̲libī troops had settled. Tag̲h̲ lib’s limited support in the conquests and ʿUmar b. al-
Ḵh̲ aṭṭāb’s Realpolitik guaranteed for Tagh̲
̲ lib a special status with regard to taxation.
In the battle of the Camel [see al-d̲jamal
̲ ], the Rabīʿa (including the Tag̲h̲ lib) and Kinda
fought under the same banner on ʿAlī’s side (Abū ʿUbayda, al-Dībād̲ j,̲ 153-4). In connection
with Ṣiffīn [q.v.], we hear of the joint riʾāsa of Kinda and Rabīʿa. Among the Rabīʿa who
fought with ʿAlī at Ṣiffīn there were also Tag̲h̲libīs who had their own banner (Hinds, op. cit,
21), and the Arāḳim are specified in a verse (Naṣr b. Muzāḥim, Waḳʿat Ṣiffīn, ed. Hārūn, Cairo
1401/1981, 486, 1. 13). The Arāḳim were also involved in the Tag̲h̲ lib-Ḳays war (see e.g.,
Yāḳūt, s.v. al-Raḥūb). At Ṣiffīn there were Tag̲h̲ libīs on Muʿāwiya’s side as well. One of them
was "Muʿāwiya’s poet", Kaʿb b. Ḏjuʿayl
̲ (Waḳʿat Ṣiffīn, 549). ʿAlī’s reported hostile attitude
towards the Tag̲h̲lib (al-Balād̲h̲urī Futūḥ, 183, 1. 2; ʿIḳd, Cairo 1384/1965, vi, 248, l. 15) may
suggest that they were not an insignificant factor in the Umayyad force (cf. Yaʿḳūbī, ii, 218).

A crucial reconciliation between the Tag̲h̲ lib and Bakr (who at Ḏh̲ ū Ḳār still fought on
opposite sides) was affected by the pro-Umayyad Hammām b. Muṭarrif, described as the
first leader (awwal man sāda) of the Tag̲h̲ lib in Islam. He guaranteed (taḥammala) the
payment of the pending blood money (reportedly, for 1,000 men), giving 200 of his own
camels, and paid the dowers of 500 women from each tribe who married men from the
other tribe (al-Ḳurṭubī, Taʿrīf, 118; the figures are no doubt exaggerated). The reconciliation
was presumably brought about by the Tagh̲
̲ lib-Ḳays war (cf. Barth, Dīwān... al-Quṭāmī, no. 25,
34-5). With the backing of both the Tag̲h̲lib and Bakr, the leader of the former, ʿAbd Yasūʿ,
addressed the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik as a representative of both sons of Wāʾil (Ibn al-Kalbī,
Ḏjamharat
̲ al-nasab, 567).

At the beginning of the rebellion of ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr [q.v.], the Tagh̲
̲ lib supported the
Ḳays, who were led by Zufar b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ al-Kilābī and ʿUmayr b. al-Ḥubāb al-Sulamī (on the
latter, cf. M. Lecker, The Banū Sulaym, Jerusalem 1989, index) in their fight against the Kalb b.
Wabara [q.v.]. Then a series of batles (mag̲h̲ āzī ; Ag̲h̲ āni 1, xi, 59, 1. 12) took place between the
Tag̲h̲ lib, often together with the Namir, and the Ḳays which continued for some time after
Ibn al-Zubayr’s defeat (al-Balād̲h̲urī, Ansāb, v, 308-9, 313-31). The Tag̲h̲ libī forces in the
battle known as Yawm al-Has̲h̲sh
̲ ̲ āk, in which ʿUmayr b. al-Ḥubāb was killed, are of
particular interest. First, not only Tag̲h̲lib’s nomads (bādiya) took part in it but also their
settled (ḥāḍira). Second, Tag̲h̲ lib’s forces included 2,000 cavalrymen from their muhād̲ jirūn
̲
[q.v.] (sic) equipped with heavy armour who had been called in from Ād̲h̲arbayd̲jān
̲ (Ag̲h̲ ānī ,
1

xi, 62, 1. 3).

The settled members among the Tag̲h̲ lib of the Ḏjazīra

̲ were few. Reportedly, the Tag̲h̲ lib
were badw and included no ḥāḍira at all, but this statement must be qualified. In early Islam,
the Tag̲h̲lib, while owning no estates (amwāl), had fields (ḥurūt̲h̲) as well as cattle (Abū
ʿUbayd, al-Amwāl, ed. Harrās, Cairo 1396/1976, 37; note also the small villages (ḳurayyāt)
along the Ḵh̲ ābūr inhabited by the Tagh̲
̲ lib in the Umayyad period; Ag̲h̲ ānī , xx, 127, 1. 9).
1
The Tag̲h̲ lib-Ḳays war was merely an episode in the struggle between ʿAbd al-Malik and
ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr. The Tagh̲
̲ lib were pro-Umayyad. Ibn al-Zubayr’s governor in al-
Mawṣil [see al-muhallab b. abī ṣufra ] threatened to raid them if they did not pledge their
allegiance to Ibn al-Zubayr, but was dismissed before he could carry this out. ʿUmayr b. al-
Ḥubāb asked Ibn al-Zubayr’s brother and governor of ʿIrāk, Muṣʿab b. al-Zubayr [q.v.], to
appoint him as Tag̲h̲ lib’s tax-collector (Ag̲h̲ ānī 1, xx, 127, l. 23). Moreover, Muṣʿab killed the
brother of a Bakr b. Wāʾil leader who headed from ʿIrāk to the Ḏjazīra
̲ with reinforcements
for the Tag̲h̲lib. (The military aid must have followed the Tag̲h̲ lib-Bakr reconciliation.) The
Tag̲h̲ lib are said to have complained to a leader of the Rabīʿa, whose support they sought,
about the official support given to their enemies: "You know that there is Christianity
among us and that the Muḍar are the Muḍar. They are the government (sulṭān) and we
cannot combat the government’s stable or treasury". ʿUmayr b. al-Ḥubāb’s head was
reportedly sent in 70/689-90 to ʿAbd al-Malik, who welcomed the killing of Ibn al-Zubayr’s
ally.

The conversion of the Tagh̲

̲ lib already began in the early days of Islam. "Muʿāwiya’s poet",
Kaʿb b. Ḏjuʿayl,
̲ was a Muslim and the same was true of the small Tag̲h̲ libī community in
Kūfa. The Umayyad poet al-Ḳuṭāmī [q.v.] (ʿUmayr b. S̲h̲iyaym or S̲h̲uyaym) was a convert to
Islam. Among the Tag̲h̲ libīs living in Ḳinnasrīn [q.v.] there were early converts to Islam (see
entries on two ḥadīt̲h̲ transmitters, a father and a son, in al-Mizzī, Tahd̲ h̲īb al-kamāl, ed.
Maʿrūf, Beirut 1405/1985 ff., iv, 141-4, xxiv, 5-6).

But the number of converts during the Umayyad and early ʿAbbāsid periods was small. At
that time the Tag̲h̲ lib, mosdy Christian and living near the boundary of a hostile Christian
empire, were not given high positions in the Muslim state. The Tagh̲
̲ lib probably did not
take part in expeditions against Byzantium, and the participation of the poet known as
Aʿs̲h̲ā Banī Tag̲h̲ lib in one such expedition (Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bug̲h̲ ya, viii, 114) does not indicate
the contrary. Yet they did not lose their military prowess or they would not have kept so
tenaciously to their faith and their vast territories, constantly threatened by massive
military pressure from immigrating Arabian tribes.

Under the last Umayyad caliph Marwān II, His̲h̲ām b. ʿAmr b. Bisṭām al-Tag̲h̲ libī (a
descendant of al-Saffāḥ) was governor of al-Mawṣil and the Ḏjazīra.
̲ (He had a partner who
was in charge of the k̲h̲arād̲ j ̲ [q.v.]) At the time of al-Manṣūr, His̲h̲ām was governor of Sind.
Under al-Mahdī, Bisṭām b. ʿAmr al-Tag̲h̲libī (perhaps His̲h̲ām b. ʿAmr’s brother) was
governor of Sind and later of Ād̲h̲arbayd̲jān.
̲
Both His̲h̲ām and Bisṭām were no doubt Muslims. The summer expedition against
Byzantium of 177/793 was led by ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Tagh̲
̲ libī (al-Ṭabarī, iii,
629) whose forces must have included many Muslims from his own tribe.

Later in the ʿAbbāsid period, the Tagh̲

̲ lib became increasingly Muslim as well as more and
more prominent in the government of their own territory. In 197/813 al-Amīn appointed
al-Ḥasan b. ʿUmar b. al-Ḵh̲ aṭṭāb al-ʿAdawī (of the ʿAdī Tag̲h̲ lib) governor of al-Mawṣil. Al-
Ḥasan took the old town of Ad̲h̲rama from its owner, built in it a castle and fortified it.

In the 3rd/9th century there rose a powerful family in the Ḏjazīra

̲ linked through marriage
to that of the above-mentioned al-Ḥasan b. ʿUmar. Ṭawḳ b. Mālik (d. 216/831) of the ʿAttāb,
who was a descendant of ʿAmr b. Kult̲h̲ūm, officiated at the time of al-Maʾmūn as governor
of Diyār Rabīʿa [q.v.] or the eastern Ḏjazīra
̲ (in al-Muʿāfā b. Zakariyyāʾ, al-Ḏjalīs
̲ al-ṣāliḥ, ed. al-
Ḵh̲ ūlī and I. ʿAbbās, Beirut 1407/1987 ff., iv, 100, instead of al-d bār, read al-Diyār).

The former’s son, the above-mentioned Mālik b. Ṭawḳ b. Mālik (d. 260/874; sometimes the
sources confuse the two), was governor of Damascus and al-Urdunn under al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ and al-
Mutawakkil (Muk̲h̲ṭaṣar taʾrīk̲h̲ Dimas̲h̲ḳ li- Ibn ʿAsākir, ed. al-Naḥḥās et alii, Damascus
1404/1984 ff., xxiv, 50-4). More importantly, Mālik founded the town of al-Raḥba [q.v.] or
Rahḅat Mālik b. Ṭawḳ (modern al-Mayādīn; cf. Th. Bianquis, Raḥba et les tribus arabes avant les
croisades, in BÉt. Or., xli-xlii [1989-90], 23-53, at 27-8). There is yet another case of building
activity carried out by Tagh̲
̲ libīs in the same area. The offspring of Abū Rimt̲h̲a al-Tag̲h̲ libī
(of the ʿAttāb, a descendant of ʿAbd Yasūʿ) settled in the ancient castle of Kafartūt̲h̲ā,
fortified it and turned it into a madīna (fa-maddanūhā). In 261/874-5 Ḵh̲ iḍr b. Aḥmad al-
Tag̲h̲ libī was appointed by al-Muʿtamid governor of al-Mawṣil [see al-mawṣil , vol. VI, at
900a].

The Ḥamdānids who in the 4th/10th century controlled both al-Mawṣil and Aleppo, were
reportedly of the ʿAdī Tag̲h̲lib. However, some claimed that they were mawālī Tag̲h̲ lib (cf.
Canard, H’amdanides, 287-9). Further evidence on this matter goes back to al-Wazīr al-
Mag̲h̲ ribī, whose father and grandfather were secretaries of Sayf al-Dawla al-Ḥamdānī. Al-
Wazīr remarks that one of those who were envious of the Ḥamdānids accused them of
having made a false claim regarding their pedigree (daʿwa). This unspecified person said
that they were in fact the mawālī of Is̲h̲āḳ b. Ayyūb al-Tag̲h̲ libī (on whom, see al-Ṭabarī,
index). Al-Wazīr refutes this, and his defence of the Ḥamdānids seems to provide us with
valuable evidence concerning a presumed major conversion to Islam among the Tag̲h̲ lib in
the latter half of the 3rd/9th century: simply, al-Wazīr says, many of them converted to
Islam "at the hands of” [see mawlā , vol. VI, at 876a] Isḥāk (Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bug̲h̲ ya, vi, 527-9).
Roughly in the same period, Mālik b. Ṭawḳ convinced al-Ak̲h̲ṭal’s great-grandson, Sahl b.
Bis̲h̲r b. Mālik b. al-Ak̲h̲ṭal, to convert to Islam together with the rest of al-Ak̲h̲ṭal’s offspring
(Muk̲h̲taṣar taʾrīk̲h̲ Dimas̲h̲ḳ, xxiv, 52 (see al-ak̲h̲ṭal, where it is wrongly stated that the famous
poet left no offspring).

(M. Lecker)

Bibliography

(in addition to references given in the article): M. von Oppenheim, Die Beduinen, iv, Index,
s.v. Tag̲h̲ lib

Caskel, Ǧamharat an-nasab, ii, 27-8, 541-2

Ibn al-Kalbī, Ḏjamharat

̲ al-nasab, 564-75

idem, Nasab Maʿadd wa ’l-Yaman al-kabīr, ed. Ḥasan, Beirut 1408/1988, i, 83-94

Ibn Ḥazm al-Andalusī, Ḏjamharat

̲ ansāb al-ʿarab, ed. Hārūn, Cairo 1382/1962, 303-7

Abū ʿUbayd al-Ḳāsim b. Sallām, K. al-Nasab, ed. Maryam Ḵh̲ ayr al-Darʿ, Damascus 1410/1989,
355-6

Yāḳūt, al-Muḳtaḍab min kitāb d̲ jamharat

̲ al-nasab, ed. Ḥasan, Beirut 1987, 203-7

Ibn Ḳutayba, al-Maʿārif, ed. ʿUkās̲h̲a, Cairo 1969, 95-6

Naḳāʾiḍ Ḏjarīr
̲ wa ’l-Farazdaḳ, i, 266, 373

H. Lammens, Le chantre des omiades, in JA (1894), 94-176, 193-241, 381-459 (for the tribe’s
history after al-Ak̲h̲ṭal, see 438 ff.). About the Tag̲h̲libī poets, see the relevant entries in GAS,
ii. For the dispute over the question whether or not the Dawāsir in contemporary Saudi
Arabia are Tag̲h̲ libīs, see al-ʿArab (Riyād) xix/1-2 (April-May 1984), 111-20. For Tag̲h̲ libī
traditionists of various periods, see Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn, Tawḍīḥ al-mus̲h̲tabih, ed. al-ʿAraḳsūsī,
Beirut 1407-14/1986-93, ii, 45-9.

Cite this page

Lecker, M., “Tag̲h̲lib b. Wāʾil”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P.
Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 01
March 2022 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7298>

First published online: 2012

First print edition: ISBN: 9789004161214, 1960-2007