Banu Kilab

The Kilab, or at least its chief, Amir ibn al-Tufayl, was involved in the massacre of Muslims at Bir Ma'una in 626 despite being under the protection of Amir's uncle Abu Bara. Amir's successor converted to Islam, followed by other tribesmen, including the prominent poet Labid and al-Dahhak ibn Sufyan, who was dispatched by the Islamic prophet Muhammad on an expedition against a recalcitrant Kilabi clan. The Banu Amir played a minor role in the early Muslim conquests, but members of the Kilab later established themselves in the garrison towns of Iraq. Several, including Aslam ibn Zur'a and his family, were governors of Basra, Khurasan, and other eastern provinces under the Umayyad caliphs in 661–750.


The Kilabi chief Zufar ibn al-Harith led the rebel Qays nomads of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and Jund Qinnasrin (northern Syria). He obtained from the Umayyads privileges later inherited by his family, who were generally recognized as the preeminent leaders of the Qays. Zufar's grandson, Abu al-Ward, led an abortive Qaysi revolt against the Umayyads' Abbasid successors in 750. In 813 a Kilabi chief of the Qays in Damascus, Ibn Bayhas, crushed an Umayyad revolt against the Abbasids, after which he ruled Damascus for ten years. There were two more mass migrations of Kilabi tribesmen from Arabia to northern Syria in the 9th and 10th centuries, the last associated with the rebellious Qarmatian movement. Through their numerical strength, skilled swordsmanship, and Bedouin mobility, the Kilab became the dominant military force in northern Syria. Two Kilabi brothers were appointed governors of Aleppo under the Ikshidids of Egypt in 939 and the 940s, until they handed over power under pressure from rival Kilabi chiefs to the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla in 944. The Kilab often rebelled against the Hamdanids and participated in their intra-dynastic disputes.


In the early 11th century, Salih ibn Mirdas assumed leadership of the Kilab and by 1025, he established an Aleppo-based emirate (principality) that spanned much of the western Jazira and northern Syria. His Mirdasid dynasty ruled Aleppo until 1080, with minor interruption. The Kilab were the core of the Mirdasid army and defended their realm, defeating the Byzantine emperor Romanos III at the Battle of Azaz in 1030 and fending off several Fatimid assaults in later years. Recurring internal divisions had sapped the tribe's strength by the reign of the last Mirdasid emir. The Kilab retained scattered fortresses and remained a major source of military recruitment for the Mirdasids' successors, but they lost their paramountcy to Turkmen groups which had begun entering northern Syria in significant numbers from the late 11th century. The Ayyubids confiscated the Kilab's last holdings in the region and put the tribe under the authority of an amir al-arab (state-sponsored commander of the Bedouin), an office held by the Al Fadl house of the rival Banu Tayy. Part of the Kilab migrated to Anatolia, reappearing in 1262 as auxiliaries of the Armenians in a raid against the Mamluks. In 1277 the tribe submitted to the Mamluk sultan Baybars in northern Syria.


The Kilabi way of life in Syria resembled their pre-Islamic existence in Arabia. There were raids and counter-raids against neighboring tribes and between the tribe itself, characterized by individual duels and boasts of valor, and motivated by booty or revenge. Young tribesmen spent the springtime horse-racing and wine-drinking. Mass banquets were held for special occasions, such as weddings and circumcisions. The women of the Kilab in Syria generally enjoyed equality with the men of the tribe and a number of Kilabi women played prominent roles in Mirdasid politics. The Kilab in Syria were Twelver Shia Muslims, though the extent of their adherence to the faith was unclear.