Anizah

Anizah's existence as an autonomous tribal group, like many prominent modern tribes, predates the rise of Islam in the seventh century.

The classical Arab genealogists placed Anizah within the large Rabiʿa branch of the Adnanites alongside the tribes of Abd al-Qays, Banu Bakr, Bani Hanifa, and Taghlib.

[6] According to the historians Abu'l-Hasan Bayhaqi and Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, the Anizah tribe settled in the Hijaz region, specifically in Khaybar, at the end of the 10th century AD.

According to Encyclopedia of Islam, "it is not known whence they came", while many such as the Western travelers Philby and Anne Blunt simply assumed they had recently migrated from Nejd, having been pushed northwards into Syria by other tribes.

One branch of the Anizah in that area, centered around Al-Jouf and the valley of Wadi Sirhan and extending into Jordan and Syria, became so large and powerful that it practically developed into an independent tribe, known as the Ruwallah.

The Ruwallah engaged in battle with other branches of Anizah, and also became the arch-enemy of the large tribe of Shammar, who inhabited roughly the same area and dominated Nejd in the late 19th century after temporarily deposing the Al Saud.

Members of the Anizah tribe were displaced in the eighteenth century from the land of Najd to Iraq and from Iraq to Ahvaz, and they still live there[citation needed] The sparse chronicles of Nejd relating to the pre-Wahhabi era relate a process of penetration of the tribe into northern and western Nejd, where they began to claim pastures during the winter months.

[12] One 19th-century historian, Ibn La'bun, a descendant of Anizah who went by the tribal appellation of "Al-Wa'ili", recorded the story of the settlement of several `Annizi families in Nejd, which he placed in the 14th century CE.

With the rise of the First Saudi State in the late 18th century, Anizah were among the tribes that adopted a favorable attitude towards this new power, but took little active part in supporting it militarily, due to their geographical location.

Settled families in Anizah are to be found not only in Saudi Arabia, where they are most numerous, but also in Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Ahwaz (Iran) and the West Bank, where the village of Anzah near Jenin is reportedly named after the tribe.

Special arrangements were made in the early 20th century for these tribes, but the vast majority ended up settling within these new states and taking Saudi, Kuwaiti, Iraqi, Lebanese, Syrian, or Jordanian citizenship.

Ibn Abar quoted on this saying : "It is for the benefit of this narration that it is told from various perspectives with agreement and consensus on the cause and content, and it is for the purpose of collecting zakat from this tribe and bringing it to the Sharif, and we have the right to ask why sheikh Hathal pledged to carry out this mission.