Al Fadl

The Ayyubids often appointed them to the office of Amir al-ʿarab, giving the Al Fadl emirs (princes or lords) command over the Bedouin tribes of northern Syria.

Starting with Emir Isa ibn Muhanna, the Al Fadl became the hereditary holders of the office by order of the Mamluk sultans and were given substantial iqtaʿat (fiefs) in Salamiyah, Palmyra and other places in the steppe.

By then their tribal territory spanned the region between Homs in the west and Qal'at Ja'bar to east, and between the Euphrates valley in the north to central Arabia in the south.

Isa's sons and successors Muhanna and Fadl vacillated between the Mamluks and the latter's Mongol enemies, but generally they were highly favored by Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad.

As a result of the wars and Syrian agrarian reforms that stripped the emir of much of his land, his relationship with the tribe shifted from benevolent landlord to symbolic leader and political representative.

[3] The Banu Rabi'ah were descendants of the 10th-century Jarrahid rulers of Palestine, and became prominent in Syria as a result of their participation in the Muslim war effort against the Crusaders, who conquered the Syrian (Levantine) coastal regions in 1099.

[3] He and his brothers Mira, Thabit and Daghfal, and their father Rabi'ah, provided and commanded mounted auxiliary troops for Tughtekin (r. 1104-1128), the Burid ruler of Damascus, and his Zengid successors.

[6] Some modern-era tribesmen have claimed descent from al-Abbas, the Abbasids' namesake and ancestor, and through him trace their lineage to the Quraysh tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

[8] Ghannam was later dismissed by al-Kamil, who concurrently bestowed authority over the entire emirate to Maniʿ for his close cooperation with the Ayyubids of Egypt and Syria and his assistance in their military campaigns.

[8] Maniʿ died in 1232/33 and was succeeded by his son Muhanna after being confirmed for the post in an agreement between the respective Ayyubid emirs of Damascus and Homs, al-Ashraf Musa and al-Mujahid Shirkuh II.

[9] According to historian Reuven Amitai-Preiss, it was not Ali but his son and successor Abu Bakr who was appointed amir al-ʿarab in the years just prior to the Mamluks' annexation of Syria.

This was apparently a reward for ʿIsa's aid and friendship during Baybars' exile in Syria in the 1250s at a time when Abu Bakr's father Ali denied him refuge.

[9] ʿIsa's strongest Bedouin opposition came from his kinsmen in the Al Mira under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hajji, who dominated the tribes of southern Syria.

[12] During the Mamluk era, the Al Fadl's territory spanned the area between Homs in the west to Qal'at Ja'bar in the northeast and all along the Euphrates valley through the countryside of Basra southward to the Washm region in central Najd.

[11] In exchange for protecting the Syrian frontier and aiding the Mamluks as auxiliary troops, the Al Fadl and some of their Banu Rabi'ah kin were bestowed with official assignments, iqtaʿat and gifts.

[15] Nonetheless, the Al Fadl were the most favored Bedouin tribe in Syria and their leaders consistently held the title of amir al-ʿarab and were given official receptions by Mamluk sultans.

[14] Toward the end of ʿIsa's reign, in 1281, Palmyra was granted to the Al Fadl as an iqtaʿ, and it became one of the tribe's principal towns and sources of income, along with Salamiyah.

[21] The Al Abu Risha took over leadership of the Mawali tribal confederation, whose member tribes, many of whom were descended from non-Arab slaves, were not necessarily related to each other through blood ties.

[22] The Ottomans entrusted Al Abu Risha with protecting the caravan and Hajj pilgrimage routes of northern Syria in exchange for an annual salary.

[26] By 1887, peace was established between the Al Fadl and their Circassian and Druze rivals as a result of Ottoman recognition of the tribe's pasture rights and territorial boundaries.

[24] Their territory in the Golan Heights, near the armistice lines with Israel, came under the control of the Syrian military authorities, who viewed the emir of the Al Fadl as a security threat.

[24] By 1958, the power of the Al Fadl's emir, Fa'our al-Fa'our, was greatly reduced as a result of his lands being confiscated in the agrarian reforms initiated during the United Arab Republic period in Syria.

[27] Land rent was Fa'ours main source of income and with its loss, he was no longer able to wield power over his tribesmen and continue the tradition of distributing wealth to lesser-ranking members of the tribe.

[27] The sight of the emir being forced to walk while all other tribal leaders drove trucks provoked a sense of dishonor among the tribesmen of the village, who launched efforts to pool funds from Al Fadl's members to buy a new car for Fa'our.

[27] The reaction of the tribesmen to his dire financial situation spurred Fa'our, who was based in Beirut, to reassert his political leadership of Al Fadl.

[28] This success symbolized the change in the Al Fadl emir's traditional role, whereby he was no longer a wealthy benefactor and landlord of his tribesmen, but rather a political leader who represented their interests.

[30] In the 1970s, Fa'our began efforts to acquire pasture lands in Saudi Arabia for some of his tribesmen displaced from the Golan, which entailed regular commuting between Beirut and the tribal council of King Khalid in Riyadh.