NOTE
The tribal settlements were established in the tenth year of Hijra based on the ownership law enacted by the Prophet Muhammad (Whoever accepts Islam on a water source, it belongs to him)
This privilege did not include the Taghlib tribe, as they did not embrace Islam. Similarly, some northern tribes lost this privilege due to their alliance with the Persians or Romans against Muslims, making their lands communal and later inhabited by the Qays Ailan tribes after the Prophet's death.
Therefore, this map cannot be relied upon for understanding events in the regions between Iraq and the Levant after the Prophetic era. However, the rest of the tribes in the Arabian Peninsula remained in their locations until the fourth century Hijri, making this map a reliable reference for studying historical events up to that period.
The map mentions “Qays ʿAilān,” whose poet once said:
وَما الأَرضُ إِلّا قَيسُ عَيلانَ أَهلُها
لَهُم ساحَتاها سَهلُها وَحُزومُها
وَقَد نالَ آفاقَ السَماواتِ مَجدُنا
لَنا الصَحوُ مِن آفاقِها وَغُيومُها
The earth belongs to none but Qays ʿAilān, her people—
They own her plains and rugged heights alike.
Our glory has reached the farthest skies,
To us belong their clearings and their clouds.
On the map, the tribes of Qays ʿAilān appear divided, as they were vast and widespread across central and western Arabia. Among them are:
Hawāzin (هوازن):
A major Qays tribe settled between the Ḥijāz and Najd. Often mentioned in books as Hawāzin or through its well-known branches such as Thaqīf, centered in Ṭāʾif, and Banū Saʿd, among whom the Prophet spent his early childhood. From Hawāzin also come Banū ʿĀmir, whose poets gave voice to the verses above.
Ghatafān (غطفان):
North of Hawāzin, a strong Qays confederation that included Banū ʿAbs, Dhubyān, and Ashjaʿ. Their lands stretched across the northern Ḥijāz and Najd, controlling important routes to the Levant.
Banū Sulaym (بنو سليم):
To the west, near Medina and the Red Sea valleys. Their name appears in the Prophet’s era often beside Hawāzin. From them came the poetess al-Khansāʾ al-Sulamiyyah, whose elegies are among the finest of early Arabic poetry.
Bahila (باهلة), Ghaniyy (غني) and Muharib (محارب)are also counted among Qays ʿAilān in many genealogies, though their lands were smaller and scattered within the same central region. Also Fahm (فهم) and 'Adwan (عدوان) on the west.
Beyond Qays ʿAilān, the map places them under Muḍar, one of the two great branches descending from Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān — the ancestor of the northern Arabs.
From Maʿadd came Rabīʿah and Muḍar, whose tribes filled much of Arabia from the heartlands to the northern frontiers.
Muḍar itself divided into two main houses:
Qays ʿAilān, whose tribes stretched wide across Najd and the Ḥijāz — Hawāzin, Ghatafān, Sulaym, Fahm, ʿAdwān, Bahila, Ghaniyy, and Muhārib — and Khindif, which included Tamīm, Kinānah (from which Quraysh descends), Hudhayl, Asad, and Muzaynah.
Facing them to the north were the tribes of Rabīʿah — Bakr, ʿAbd al-Qays, ʿAnaza, Iyād, and Taghlib.
It is Taghlib that the note on the map refers to: they did not embrace Islam during the Prophet’s time and were therefore not granted the same settlement privileges. Their lands, stretching between Iraq and the Levant, later became home to many of the Qays ʿAilān tribes after the Prophet’s death.
Looking at the map
One notices the gentle contrast in color, the lighter shades marking the lands of the ʿAdnānīs, and the deeper tones showing the Qaḥṭānīs.
The ʿAdnānīs trace their lineage to Ismāʿīl, son of Ibrāhīm, who was left in the valley of Makkah. From his descendants came ʿAdnān, and from ʿAdnān the northern tribes spread — Rabīʿah and Muḍar, and through them Qays ʿAilān, Tamīm, Quraysh, and others who filled the central and western Peninsula.
The darker lands to the south belong to the Qaḥṭānīs, whose roots run to ancient Yemen — to Qaḥṭān, and beyond him to Hud as some traditions recall. They were the people of the highlands and the fertile valleys, the builders of Maʾrib and the traders of incense and spice. From them came tribes like Himyar, Kindah, Madhḥij, Azd, and the Aws and Khazraj of Yathrib, who later welcomed the Prophet to their city.