Nonetheless, a branch of the Tayy under Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i were among the leaders of the Abbasid Revolution which toppled the Umayyads in the mid-eighth century.
As the virtually independent rulers of the area between Ramla and Jabal Tayy, they controlled the key routes between Egypt, Syria, Arabia and Iraq.
They vacillated between the Fatimids and the Byzantines and then between the Seljuks and Crusaders until the late 12th and early 13th centuries, when the Tayy's various subbranches, chief among them the Al Fadl, were left as the last politically influential Arab tribe in the region extending from Najd northward to Upper Mesopotamia.
[6] According to the 14th-century Arab historian and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, the Tayy were among those Qahtanite tribes who lived in the hills and plains of Syria and Mesopotamia and intermarried with non-Arabs.
[7] Ibn Khaldun further stated that Tayyid tribesmen did "not pay any attention to preserving the (purity of) lineage of their families and groups".
[17] The Tayy are mentioned in the late 5th century as having raided numerous villages in the plains and mountains of the Syrian Desert, including parts of Byzantine territory.
[18] The negotiations succeeded, and moreover, the Sassanids and Byzantines delineated their borders to prevent future raiding between their respective Arab clients.
[11] A few years later, the Lakhmid governor of al-Hirah, al-Nu'man III fell out with Khosrow II, who had been restored to the Sassanid throne, and sought safety with the Tayy.
[11] A Tayyid chief, Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i, subsequently migrated to al-Hirah with some of his tribesmen and became its governor, ruling from 602 to 611 CE.
[11] The Banu Bakr ibn Wa'il tribe opposed the rule of Iyas and began raiding Sassanid territory in southern Mesopotamia.
[20] In response, Iyas commanded pro-Sassanid Arab and Persian troops against the Banu Bakr at the Battle of Dhi Qar in 609, in which the Sassanids were defeated.
[11] Those who converted to Christianity apparently embraced their new faith zealously and produced two well-known priests, named in Syriac sources as Abraham and Daniel.
[29] In 630, Muhammad dispatched his cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib on an expedition to destroy the Tayy's principal idol, al-Fils, in Jabal Aja.
[1] As a result of the expedition, the Tayy's Kufa-based Christian chieftain, Adi ibn Hatim, who belonged to the Banu Thu'ayl branch of Al al-Ghawth,[30] fled to Syria with some of his tribesmen to join other Tayyid clans, but his sister was captured.
[31] In 630–31, a delegation of fifteen Tayyid chiefs led by Zayd al-Khayl, who belonged to the Banu Nabhan clan of the Al al-Ghawth,[30] converted to Islam and pledged allegiance to Muhammad.
[34] Following Muhammad's death in 632, several Arab tribes rebelled against his Rashidun successor, Caliph Abu Bakr, switching their allegiance to Tulayha of the Banu Asad.
Landau-Tasseron asserts that neither extreme is correct, with some Tayy leaders, foremost among them Adi ibn Hatim, fighting on the Muslim side and others joining the rebels.
[36] Adi either advised them to abandon this demand because Islam would survive Muhammad's death and they would be viewed as traitors or threatened to fight against them if they revolted.
During the Battle of the Bridge against the Sassanids in 634, another of Zayd's sons, Urwah, participated and was said by al-Baladhuri to have "fought so fiercely that his action was estimated to be equivalent to be that of a whole group of men".
[44] The Al Jadila tribesmen based in Qinnasrin did not join their Arabian counterparts and fought alongside the Byzantines during the Muslim conquest of Syria.
[citation needed] Abbasid authority in Syria and Iraq eroded considerably after the beginning of the "Anarchy at Samarra" in 861, which left the vast expanse of the Syrian and Arabian deserts without governmental oversight.
[52] The Tayy's revolt prevented the passage of the annual Hajj caravan from Damascus to Mecca until it was quashed by the Tulunid ruler Khumarawayh (884–896) in 885.
[52] For the remainder of Khumarawayh's reign, the Tayy remained suppressed, possibly due to the help of older-established Arab tribes like the Judham and Lakhm.
[53] During the latter occasion, the Jarrahid chieftain Mufarrij ibn Daghfal captured the pro-Qarmatian rebel, Alptakin, and handed him over to the Fatimids in exchange for a large reward.
[54] They sacked a Hajj pilgrim caravan later in 982, then annihilated a Fatimid army at Ayla, before being defeated and forced to flee north toward Homs.
[55] Between then and Mufarrij's death in 1013, the Tayy switched allegiance between the various regional powers, including the Fatimids, Byzantines, and the Hamdanids' Turkish governor of Homs, Bakjur.
[58] The alliance fell apart when the Kalb defected to the Fatimids, who decisively defeated the Tayy and Kilab near Lake Tiberias in 1029, prompting Hassan and his tribesmen to flee northward.
[58] The Tayy continued to fight alongside the Byzantines under Hassan and his son Allaf, protecting Edessa from Numayrid and Marwanid advances in 1036.
[61] The tribal distribution in the Syrian and north Arabian deserts had significantly changed by the late 12th century as a result of the decline of several major tribes, the expansion of others, namely the Tayy, and the gradual assimilation of substantial Bedouin population with the settled inhabitants.
The Tha'laba left their semi-permanent camp in al-Sharqiya to maraud across the country and joined the revolt of the al-A'id tribe in the mid-14th century.