The Best
Known Genealogical Works Are Al-Kalkashandi (Originally In Seventy-Five
Books, Extended To One Hundred); The Umdat Al-Tullab By Ibn Khaldun;
The “Tohfat Al-Arab Fi Ansar Al-Arab,” A Well-Known Volume By Al-Siyuti;
And, Lastly, The Sirat Al-Halabi, In Six Volumes 8vo.
Of the latter
work there is an abridgment by Mohammed al-Banna al-Dimyati in two
volumes 8vo.; but
Both are rare, and consequently expensive.
[FN#59] I give the following details of the Harb upon the authority of
my friend Omar Effendi, who is great in matters of genealogy.
[FN#60]The first word is the plural, the second the singular form of
the word.
[FN#61] In the singular Aufi and Amri.
[FN#62] To these Mr. Cole adds seven other sub-divisions, viz.:—
1. Ahali al-Kura (“the people of Kura?”), 5000.
2. Radadah, 800.
3. Hijlah, 600.
4. Dubayah, 1500.
5. Benu Kalb, 2000.
6. Bayzanah, 800.
7. Benu Yahya, 800.
And he makes the total of the Benu Harb about Al-Jadaydah amount to
35,000 men. I had no means of personally ascertaining the correctness
of this information.
[FN#63] The reader will remember that nothing like exactitude in
numbers can be expected from an Arab. Some rate the Benu Harb at 6000;
others, equally well informed, at 15,000; others again at 80,000. The
reason of this is that, whilst one is speaking of the whole race,
another may be limiting it to his own tribe and its immediate allies.
[FN#64] “Sham” which, properly speaking, means Damascus or Syria, in
Southern Arabia and Eastern Africa is universally applied to Al-Hijaz.
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