Banu Abs - History

History

The Banu 'Abs originate almost 2000 years ago branching from the Ghatafan clan, and had inhabited and still inhabit the outskirts of Hail in modern Nejd in an area called today Hurrat Bani Rasheed. The Tribe is known for its independence and bravery, as it had been called one of the Jamarat of the Arabs, or the most powerful tribes that took no allegiance to anyone but themselves. The earliest stories regard tales of war and chivalry before Islam, in the famous war of AlDahhas wil Ghabraa, between them and their cousins Bani Thibyan, which had lasted almost 40 years. The war had ended when the King Zuhair of the Banu 'Abs, had called for an end to the bloodshed, asking the wealthy merchants of both tribes to pay the losses caused by the war. Before he had died King Zuhair had predicted like many Christians and Jews before him that there will arrive a Prophet that will unite humanity under God's rule, and had advised for his tribe to follow the future Prophet with all allegiance. Soon, enough, they had willingly done so, and Islam had become their religion, and the whole tribe had humbly converted before the Hijra of the Muslims to Madinah.

After the Prophet Muhammad had died, the tribe of 'Abs, had willingly participated in the Arab conquests and their tribe members had reached the outskirts of the Middle East and North Africa, toppling dictatorships, and converting the masses under Islam. Today, many peoples from all around North Africa, and the Middle East can claim ancestry to this legendary tribe.

Throughout centuries, this tribe has had vast encounters with invaders, and conquerors attempting to invade them, in the most famous encounter with the Sassanid Empire, where the tribe of 'Abs had no more than 3000 fighters, and they were faced by the behemeth of Persia, with 20,000 warriors, and the tribe of 'Abs had won the war, although one of the largest Persian generals at the time commanded such an army against the small tribe.

Even, after many centuries, the latest migration of large amounts of the Banu Abs to North Africa, was in the strife revolving around the unification of the Second Saudi State although they demanded autonomy to themselves, as the Ottoman Empire had granted them for so long.