Azd - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

The Azd or Al Azd, are an Arabian tribe. They were a branch of the Kahlan tribe, which was one of the two branches of Qahtan the other being Himyar.

In the ancient times, they inhabited Ma'rib, the capital city of the Sabaean Kingdom in modern-day Yemen. Their lands were irrigated by the Ma'rib Dam, which is thought by some to have been one of the engineering wonders of the ancient world because of its size. When the dam collapsed for the third time in the 1st century CE, a large number of the Azd tribe left Yemen and migrated in many directions.

Azd is also a widely used male name in Yemen.

Azd branches

In the 3rd century CE the Azd branched into four sub-branches, each led by one of the sons of Amr bin Muzaiqiya

Imran Bin Amr

Imran bin Amr and the bulk of the tribe went to Oman, where they established the Azdi presence in Eastern Arabia. Later they invaded Karman and Shiraz in Southern Persia, and these came to be known as "Azd Daba". Another branch headed west back to Yemen, and a group went further west all the way to Tihama on the Red Sea. This group was to become known as Azd Uman after Islam.

Jafna bin Amr

Jafna bin Amr and his family headed for Syria, where he settled and initiated the kingdom of the Ghassanids. They were so-named after a spring of water where they stopped on their way to Syria. This branch was to produce:

The Ghassanid Dynasty in Syria.

A Roman Emperor (Philip the Arab, a Ghassanid Arab from Syria, who ruled 244–249 CE).

A Byzantine dynasty (the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian, also known as the Syrian, ruled 717-741 CE).

The Ghassanids remained mainly Christian. Today they make up the majority of Arab Christians in Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria.

Thalabah bin Amr

Thalabah bin Amr left his tribe Al-Azd for the Hijaz and dwelt between Thalabiyah and Dhi Qar. When he gained strength, he headed for Yathrib, where he stayed. Of his seed are the great Aws and Khazraj, sons of Haritha bin Thalabah. These were to be the Muslim Ansar and were to produce the last Arab dynasty in Spain (the Nasrids).

Haritha bin Amr

Haritha bin Amr led a branch of the Azd Qahtani tribes. He wandered with his tribe in the Hijaz until they came to Tihama. He had three sons Adi, Afsa and Lahi. Adiy was the father of Bariq, Lahi the father of Khuza'a and Afsa the father of Aslam.

Zahran

The Zahran tribe is a pre-Islamic offshoot of the Azd tribe originating from the Kingdom of Saba (Sheba) in Yemen. The shortage of water promted them to relocate to Al Baha in Arabia. Today members of the Zahran tribe can be found all over the Middle East and beyond. According to Arab scholars, the dialect used by the Hejaz tribes, the Zahran and the Ghamid, is the closest to classical Arabic.

Azd 'Uman

The Azd 'Uman were the dominant Arab tribe in the eastern realms of the Caliphate and were the driving force in the conquest of Fars, Makran and Sindh. They were the chief merchant group of Oman and Al-Ubulla, who organized a trading diaspora with settlements of Persianized Arabs on the coasts of Kirman and Makran, extending into Sindh since the days of Ardashir. They were strongly involved in the western trade with India and with the expansion of the Muslim conquests they began to consolidate their commercial and political authority on the eastern frontier. During the early years of the Muslim conquests the Azdi ports of Bahrain and Oman were staging grounds for Muslim naval fleets headed to Fars and Hind. From 637 CE the conquests of Fars and Makran were dominated by the Azdi and allied tribes from Oman. Between 665 CE and 683 CE the Azdi 'Uman became especially prominent due in Basra on account of favors from Ziyad bin Abihi, the Governor of Muawiya I, and his son Ubaidullah. When a member of their tribe Abu Said Al- Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah became governor their influence and wealth increased as he extended Muslim conquests to Makran and Sindh, where so many other Azdi were settled. After his death in 702, though, they lost their grip on power with the rise of Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf as governor of Iraq. Al-Hajjaj pursued a systematic policy of breaking Umayyad power, as a result of which the Azdi also suffered. With the death of Hajjaj and under Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik as Caliph, their fortunes reversed once again, with the appointment of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab.

Phylogenetics

All of famous Azd clans are belong to Haplogroup J-Z644 and its Subclades, L174, Z642, BY74 and ZS1409. J-Z644 is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is believed that those clades spread from Yemen to Arabian peninsula, Levant, with exception of a single SNP known as FGC5206 which clearly show its association with Iberian peninsula (Spain). Thus, that would lead to conclude that they're descendant from the ancient Azd Arabs who emigrated to Andalusia during the Islamic conquests period.