Banu Bakr

Summary

The Banu Bakr bin Wa'il (Arabic: بنو بكر بن وائل Banū Bakr ibn Wā'il), or simply Banu Bakr, were an Arabian tribe belonging to the large Rabi'ah branch of Adnanite tribes, which also included Abd al-Qays, Anazzah, Taghlib. The tribe is reputed to have engaged in a 40-year war before Islam with its cousins from Taghlib, known as the War of Basous. The pre-Islamic poet, Tarafah was a member of Bakr.

Banu Bakr
بنو بكر
Rabi'aite Arab tribe
LocationAncient Arabia
Descended fromBakr bin Wael bin Qasit bin Hinb bin Afsa bin Du'mi bin Jadila bin Asad bin Rabi'a bin Nizar
Parent tribeRabi'a ibn Nizar
Branches
ReligionIslam

Bakr's original lands were in Najd, in central Arabia, but most of the tribe's bedouin sections migrated northwards immediately before Islam, and settled in the area of Upper Mesopotamia, on the upper Euphrates. The region of Diyar Bakr, and later the city of Diyarbakır in southern Turkey, take their names from this tribe.[1][2]

The tribe is distinct from the tribe of Bani Bakr ibn Abd Manat, who lived in the Hejaz and had important interactions with Muhammad.

History edit

Muhammad's era edit

During the Islamic Prophet Muhammad's era the Banu Bakr tribe was involved in various military conflicts.

Branches edit

The following are some of the related and sub-tribes of Bakr ibn Wa'il in the pre-Islamic and early-Islamic eras:

In eastern Najd:

  • Taghlib ibn Wa'il, migrated northwards to the Jazirah plain in northern Mesopotamia in the 6th century.
  • Anz ibn Wa'il
  • al-Nammir ibn Qasit

References edit

  1. ^ Trudy Ring, Noelle Watson, Paul Schellinger. 1995. International Dictionary of Historic Places. Vol. 3 Southern Europe. Routledge. P 190.
  2. ^ Canard, M., Cahen, Cl., Yinanç, Mükrimin H., and Sourdel-Thomine, J. ‘Diyār Bakr’. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Ed. P. Bearman et al. Brill Reference Online. Web. 16 Nov. 2019. Accessed on 16 November 2019.