Ma'add

Ma'addites retained independence and protected their northern and southern frontiers because they lived in remote areas and had militarized societies.

Pre-Islamic literature beyond the peninsula composed in Greek and Syriac used it not for a peoples but for militarized camel-herding Bedouin in north Arabia beyond imperial control more generally.

First, the Ma'add geography transitioned from central Arabia to the Fertile Crescent as a result of the movement of peoples during the early Muslim conquests.

[15] Irfan Shahid argues that the inscription offers little specificity as to the locale of Ma'add in Arabia, or whether it was a tribe or a confederation.

[19] After the submission to Imru' al-Qays of the Lakhmids, Ma'add again appears in a successive series of conflicts from 340 to 360 CE, in having to confront Himyarite expeditions against them.

A century later, in a source found at Maʾsal Jumḥ, the Himyarite king Abu Karib celebrates a conquest of Ma'add in an expedition that involved an alliance with the tribes of Sabaʾ, Hadhramaut, and Kinda.

[20] A new inscription from the late 3rd century CE allows the territorial extent of Ma'add to be confidently assessed at this point in time.

[23] For example, al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani praises the leader al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir by comparing him with Ma'add:[23]You outstrip the nobles in nobility / Like a stallion outstrips hunting dogs in the chase, / You surpass all of Maʿadd as a patron sought and enemy feared, / From the abundance of praise, you are its first recipient.The Taghlib poet al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq used the term in a similar way, to boast of the supremacy of his own clan:[23]All people of Maʿadd have their tribes / And each have their safe havens.

[30][24] The 5th-century Sabaic inscription in central Arabia which noted that the Himyarite king Abikarib As'ad and his son Hassan Yuha'min "soujourned in the land of Ma'add on the occasion of the establishment of certain of their tribes" correlates with an early Islamic-period literary source, the Kitab al-Aghani ('Book of Songs') which notes Abikarib As'ad appointed the Kindite chief Hujr "over the tribe of Ma'add".

[31] The Arabic literary tradition suggests that Hujr and his family (the Banu Akil al-Murar) established their rule over the Ma'add, in what is generally referred to as the Kindite kingdom.

[34] The Ma'add tribe of Rabi'a, or more particularly its subtribes of Taghlib and Bakr, rejected Amr's authority and most likely killed him in battle around the late 5th century.

[37] Hujr was installed over the brother tribes of Asad and Kinana from the Mudar division and whose abodes were in Jabal Shammar and the Tihama, respectively.

[39] Al-Mundhir of al-Hira may have also induced the brothers toward war, offering gifts and honors to Salama, thereby provoking the envies and suspicions of Shurahbil.

[39] Besides seeking to neutralize the Kindites who had earlier attempted to topple his Lakhmid dynasty, al-Mundhir was also likely interested in extending his dominion over the Rabi'a tribes, which had migrated closer to his domains from central Arabia over the preceding decades.

[42] Most of the Tamim tribesmen who accompanied the Kindite kings in the confrontation melted away, leaving the Taghlib and Bakr as the main belligerents in the fighting with Salama and Shurahbil at their helm.

In the Yamama, the Kindite ruling family became involved in a war between the Tamim and the Banu Amir, the latter a branch of the Qays.

[44] The Kindites dispatched contingents in support of the Tamim in their assault against the Amir in what became known as the battle of Shi'b Jabala in Najd, dated variously by modern historians to circa 550, 570 or 580.

[47] The loss at Shi'b Jabala spurred the Kinda's abandonment of the Najd and the Yamama and return to their ancestral homeland, the Hadramawt.

During this transitional period, however, the geographic space of Ma'add moved from central Arabia to the Fertile Crescent, likely as a result of the movement of peoples, groups, and clans during the conquests.

[48] The word Ma'add continued to be used in Umayyad times, especially in early Islamic poetry, and was recruited to describe the glory of Qurashite elites, particularly in the interest of those residing beyond Mecca.

[51] Al-Akhtal wrote a verse that praised Muawiya and his son Yazid I:[52] Your father was Quraysh’s best: / The most noble, generous and temperate.

However, a departure occurs for the first time seen in the poetry of Umar ibn Abi Rabi'ah (d. 719 CE) who refers to Banu Ma'add, i.e. the "tribe of the Ma'addites":[53]I had once ranked you the best of Banu Maʿadd, / And now, you have surpassed even yourself.This signalled the beginning of a process by which the term Ma'add was consolidated, from an ethnonym, to the name of a particular tribe.

[53] Therefore, the following verses were composed to signify an equal status between Ma'add and southern Arabs:[54]Jarir ibn Atiyah: You command the summit of the Maʿaddites / And your lineage tops the Yemenite heights.

As a reactionary strategy, and to entrench their status at the top of intra-Arab identity, Ma'addite Umayyad elites developed the notion that (a figure named) Ma'add was the earliest ascertainable ancestor of the Arabs.

[59][60][61][62] The Ma'add tribe became a chosen group among, or even in contrast to, the Arabs, appearing multiple times in prophecy over the course of a mythic world-history.

However, prior to the genocide, an Israelite prophet named Abrakhiya b. Ahniya b. Zarabyal was warned by God about this impending event.

Ibn Duraid reports a hadith asserting that, when Ma'add was faced with Muhammad's group during the conquests, God had already guided them to the true faith.

In support of this argument, he observed that he only saw the name Adnan one time in pre-Islamic poetry, in contrast to voluminous mentions of Ma'add.