Nihayat al-Arab fi Marifat Ansab al-Arab
- Author died
- 821 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani
Nihayat al-Arab fi Ma'rifat Ansab al-Arab (The Ultimate Aim in Knowing the Genealogies of the Arabs) is an alphabetical genealogical reference work on Arab tribes composed by the Egyptian Shafi'i scholar and administrator Abu al-Abbas Ahmad al-Qalqashandi (756–821 AH / 1355–1418 CE) .
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into an introduction (Muqaddimah), a core body (Maqsad), and a concluding section (Khatimah) :
- Introduction (Muqaddimah): Comprises five chapters addressing fundamental principles of genealogy . These cover the virtue and utility of genealogy—such as its legal relevance to inheritance, marriage guardianship, endowments, and blood money—and the requirement of knowing the Prophet's lineage; the definition and divisions of the Arabs; the tiers and strata of tribal descent (tabaqat al-ansab); their ancient dwelling places before dispersing; and essential rules required for students of the discipline .
- Core Body (Maqsad): Divided into two chapters . The first traces the noble lineage of the Prophet ﷺ and the branches stemming from it . The second consists of detailed entries on Arab tribes arranged alphabetically by dictionary letters to facilitate lookup, noting their contemporary residences where available .
- Conclusion (Khatimah): Divided into five chapters exploring Arab cultural history and lore before Islam . These address pre-Islamic Arab religions, intertribal contests of pride and boastings (mufakharat), major pre-Islamic and early Islamic tribal battles, ritual fires of the Arabs (niran al-Arab), and their pre-Islamic seasonal markets .
Method and Scope
Al-Qalqashandi stated in his preface that the book does not claim an exhaustive catalog of every single branch, but gathers the foundational roots and major branches of Arab tribes in an accessible reference format . According to reports cited in biographical and bibliographic sources, the book was composed for al-Maqarr al-Jamali Yusuf al-Umawi, while Hajji Khalifa recorded that it was compiled for Abu al-Jud Baqrin Rashid, the chieftain of the Bedouins in the Eastern and Western districts .
Al-Qalqashandi later authored Qala'id al-Juman fi Qaba'il al-Urban as a more specialized treatise focused on the living tribes of his day relevant to the Mamluk chancellery (diwan al-insha), noting that many ancient tribes recorded in Nihayat al-Arab had ceased to exist or dispersed without known contemporary localities . The Iraqi historian Abbas al-Azzawi similarly characterized Nihayat al-Arab as serving primarily as an encyclopedia of ancient tribes rather than contemporary ones of the author's era, with the contemporary material restricted largely to Egypt and adjacent regions .
Adaptations and Publications
The Iraqi scholar Muhammad Amin al-Suwaydi (d. 1246 AH) adapted the text into his book Saba'ik al-Dhahab fi Ma'rifat Qaba'il al-Arab . Al-Suwaydi praised Nihayat al-Arab as one of the finest works written on the subject, but rearranged its alphabetical entries into diagrammatic genealogical charts using interconnected lines and circles leading back to Adam, while incorporating additional lineages of monarchs and supplemental information .
The book was early printed in Baghdad at Matba'at al-Riyad . It was later edited by Ibrahim al-Ibyari and published in Cairo in 1959, and has seen subsequent printings in Cairo and Beirut .
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