Early migrations and leadership of the Qays Clans from the Abu Bakr, Amr, Abd Allah, Dibab and Ja'far migrated to Syria during and soon after the
Muslim conquest of that region in the 630s, constituting the first major wave of Kilabi settlement in Syria. The Kilab first established themselves in the area west of the northern
Euphrates valley in
Jund Qinnasrin (military district of northern Syria). The Bujayyid and Bijad clans of the Ru'as settled in Damascus. Many of the Kilabi newcomers were brought in as troops by Mu'awiya I during his governorship of Syria (640s–661). During Mu'awiya's caliphate (661–680), the chief of the Ja'far was Abd Allah ibn Bishr, a grandson of Abu Bara. He was involved in a dispute of an unspecified nature with the chief of the Abu Bakr, Abd al-Aziz ibn Zurara ibn Jaz. The latter was slain in the army of Mu'awiya's son and future successor
Yazid I, during a campaign against the Byzantines in 669.
Banu Zufar of Qinnasrin The deaths of caliphs Yazid I () and
Mu'awiya II () left Syria in political disarray. Zufar, who had established himself in Jund Qinnasrin and led the district's troops against anti-Umayyad rebels in the Hejaz in 683, revolted against the Umayyads and gave his allegiance to their Hejaz-based challenger, Caliph
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The tribe of
Banu Kalb, which was maritally linked to the Umayyads and had held a privileged position in the court and army to the chagrin of the Qays, backed the Umayyad
Marwan ibn al-Hakam as caliph. Zufar dispatched the troops of Qinnasrin to join the Qaysi-backed governor of Damascus,
Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, against the Umayyad–Kalb coalition at the
Battle of Marj Rahit near Damascus in 684, during which Dahhak was killed and the Qays routed. Consequently, Zufar fled to the Jaziran town of
Qarqisiya, expelled its Umayyad governor, and fortified and established it as a center of Qaysi resistance to the Umayyads. At the head of the Qays, he oversaw a series of raids and counter-raids against the Kalb in the Syrian steppe. In 691, Marwan's successor,
Abd al-Malik, made an agreement with Zufar whereby the latter defected from Ibn al-Zubayr in exchange for a prominent position in the Umayyad court and military. The Qays–Kalb feud persisted through 694, during which Umayyad princes backed one side against the other depending on their maternal affiliations with the tribes; Abd al-Malik's half-brother
Bishr ibn Marwan, whose mother was Abd Allah ibn Bishr's sister, Qutayya, sponsored the Qays. Zufar's sons, Hudhayl and Kawthar, who were particularly active during the reigns of caliphs
Sulayman () and
Umar II (), were regarded as preeminent chiefs of the Qays and were highly respected by the caliphs. Hudhayl served in the army of Abd al-Malik's son,
Maslama (d. 728), with whom Zufar's family had formed marital links and established neighboring residences in Jund Qinnasrin. After the Umayyad rout at the
Battle of Zab in 750 and the subsequent takeover of Syria by the armies of the
Abbasid Revolution, a son of Kawthar,
Abu al-Ward Majza'a, who was a commander under the Umayyad caliph
Marwan II, recognized Abbasid authority. Not long after, he and his brother Abu al-Wazi led their Qaysi partisans in a pro-Umayyad revolt against the Abbasids in reaction to the harassment of Maslama's family by Abbasid troops from Khurasan. The Qays were routed and Abu al-Ward, his brother, their kinsmen and many of their supporters were slain.
Banu Bayhas of Damascus Another prominent Kilabi family in Syria was the Banu Bayhas of Damascus, from the Dibab division. Their founder, Bayhas ibn Zumayl al-Kilabi, was keeper of the seal of the Umayyad caliph
al-Walid II () and was in the caliph's entourage when it was attacked by the rebel Umayyad prince, and al-Walid's successor,
Yazid III (). One of the sons of Bayhas, Kardam, served as the governor of Oman in the Iraqi viceroyal administration of
Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi (738–744). The family remained active during the Abbasid period, when another son of Bayhas, Salih, was dispatched by Harun al-Rashid to the Byzantine capital
Constantinople in 800 to secure the release of Muslim prisoners of war held by the Byzantines. Two sons of Salih, Muhammad (commonly known as
Ibn Bayhas) and Yahya, took control of Damascus during the instability following the
Fourth Muslim Civil War (811–813). Ibn Bayhas was esteemed by the Syrian Qays as a noted warrior and poet in the feuds with the
Yaman, a coalition of the Kalb and southern Arab tribes and enemies of the Qays. Unlike most of the Syrian Qays, he was generally supportive of the Abbasids. During the revolt of the Yamani-backed Umayyad
Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani, who had taken over Damascus and attacked Qaysi villages in its periphery, Ibn Bayhas rallied the Qays of the area and besieged Damascus from his camp in the
Ghouta. He became ill during the ensuing battles, and nominated the Umayyad Maslama ibn Ya'qub, a descendant of Maslama, to lead his supporters. Maslama ibn Ya'qub ultimately seized power in Damascus in rebellion against the Abbasids. Ibn Bayhas recovered, and drove Maslama ibn Ya'qub and Abu al-Umaytir out of the city in 813. They died shortly after in the nearby village of
Mezzeh. Ibn Bayhas's governorship of Damascus was recognized by Caliph
al-Ma'mun (), to whom Ibn Bayhas had been consistently loyal, and he remained in office until 823, when
Abd Allah ibn Tahir was appointed governor-general over Syria and Egypt. Ibn Bayhas was a practically independent ruler, as shown by the fact that he minted coins in his name. He also empowered the Qays in the province, and put down an Umayyad rebellion, this time led by a descendant of Caliph
Uthman (),
Sa'id ibn Khalid al-Faddayni. Another Kilabi leader, called Ibn Bayhas, likely a member of the same family, was among the tribal nobles to support a rebellion against the Abbasid caliphs
al-Mu'tasim () and
al-Wathiq () by another
Umayyad pretender in 841.
Dominance of northern Syria During the reign of Caliph
al-Mutawakkil (), law and order began to break down throughout Syria, and this process
accelerated in the years following his death. The political vacuum and frequent revolts paved the way for the Kilab to strengthen their influence in northern Syria. Sometime during the 9th century, a second major wave of Kilabi tribesmen, likely from the Amr division, migrated to the area from Arabia. By the time
Ahmad ibn Tulun, the nominal Abbasid governor of Egypt, conquered Syria in 878, the "Kilab ... established themselves as a force to be reckoned with", according to the historian
Kamal Salibi. In 882, the Kilab provided critical assistance to Ibn Tulun in his suppression of two uprisings, the first led by an Abbasid prince and the second by his own rebel governor of northern Syria. Both rebellions were apparently backed by older-established Arab tribes and peasant clans whose lands were being encroached upon by the Kilab. The Kilab firmly established themselves as the predominant tribe in the region north of the
Palmyrene steppe and west of the Euphrates in the early to mid-10th century. At that time, a third major wave of Kilabi migrants, principally from the Awf branch of the Abu Bakr division, invaded northern Syria; the medieval Aleppine chronicler
Ibn al-Adim puts the date of the Kilabi invasion at 932 and states that the tribesmen largely came from the Abu Bakr clans of Subaya and Dhu'ayba. The 10th-century chronicler and genealogist, Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abdallah al-Asadi, noted the presence in northern Syria of tribesmen of the Kilabi divisions of Abu Bakr, Amr, Abd Allah and Dibab, but not the Ja'far. Zakkar interpreted this as an indication that the latter had assimilated into the urban or rural population by then. The 10th-century Kilabi invasion may have been encouraged or directly supported by the
Qarmatian movement, a radical
millennarian Shi'ite Isma'ili sect that had spread from southern Iraq in the second half of the 9th century. The Qarmatians, whose troops largely consisted of Bedouin tribes, launched a series of uprisings Syria in the 10th century, the first occurring in 902. According to the historian
Hugh Kennedy, these campaigns "led to fundamental changes in the distribution and relative strengths of the bedouin tribes in the Syrian and Arabian deserts", and was the most important such realignment of the Arab tribes until the 18th century. The Kilab and other branches of the Banu Amir provided the bulk of the Qarmatians' military personnel. At the time, the Arab tribes of Syria and Mesopotamia experienced marked population growth, which coincided with rising grain prices. This, according to historian
Thierry Bianquis, made the tribes "susceptible to Qarmatian
[sic] propaganda denouncing the wealth of the urban
Sunni population and the luxury of the
pilgrimage caravans". The tribes frequently raided the agricultural lands of
Hama,
Ma'arrat al-Nu'man and
Salamiyah, but nonetheless integrated well with the rural population due to their shared Shi'ite faith. In 937, the Kilabi newcomers captured Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, plundered the surrounding countryside and took captive its governor and local garrison after the latter put up resistance. The dominance of the Kilabi Bedouins prevented
Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid (), the ruler of Egypt and southern Syria, from effectively governing northern Syria, which he had conquered in the late 930s. He formed an alliance with part of the Kilab, appointing Ahmad ibn Sa'id ibn al-Abbas al-Kilabi, from the Amr division, as governor of
Aleppo in 939. In the months after, al-Ikhshid's forces were driven out of northern Syria by the Abbasids. Between 941 and 944, the political situation in northern Syria was fluid, and at one point, al-Ikhshid reoccupied the region. Al-Ikhshid appointed Ahmad ibn Sa'id as governor of
Antioch and the latter's brother, Uthman, as governor of Aleppo.
Emirate of Aleppo Relations with the Hamdanid dynasty and his court. Sayf al-Dawla was able to take control of
Aleppo from its Kilabi governor, Uthman ibn Sa'id, with the assistance of resentful Kilabi chieftains. The Kilab were a major element of Sayf al-Dawla's military and often rebelled and reconciled with Sayf. The appointments of Ahmad and Uthman aroused the jealousy of other Kilabi chieftains. Seeking to replace their kinsmen, they invited
Nasir al-Dawla, the
Hamdanid ruler of
Mosul, to invade Aleppo with their assistance. Nasir al-Dawla's brother,
Sayf al-Dawla, entered Aleppo in October 944 and was greeted by Uthman, who took Sayf on a tour of each of the villages in Aleppo's domain. Ibn al-Adim asserts that the internal divisions among the Kilab enabled Sayf al-Dawla to successfully establish himself in Aleppo. Sayf al-Dawla later enlisted Kilabi tribesmen in his failed attempt to conquer Ikhshidid-controlled southern Syria in 946. However, due to incessant Bedouin raids against his subjects, Sayf al-Dawla expelled most of the tribes of northern Syria to the Jazira. The Kilab was an exception, being the only tribe authorized to inhabit northern Syria. They entered into conflict with Sayf at some point, but by the time he died in 967, he had granted the Kilab (pardon). Throughout the 10th and 11th centuries, the Kilab "represented an organised military force with powerful cavalry trained in mounted swordsmanship and not fearing to confront a government army on the field of battle", according to Bianquis. Salibi notes that the northern Syrian Kilab's main military assets were their "Bedouin swiftness of movement" and their kinship connections with the Kilab in the Jazira. The tribe "served those who paid most and often, at a time of crisis, would sell their employer to the highest bidder", according to Zakkar. And so it was with both the Hamdanids and their opponents; Kilabi tribes were involved in every Hamdanid struggle with the Byzantines, every uprising against the Hamdanids, and in intra-dynastic conflicts over the emirate of Aleppo. In return for helping their employers secure victory on the battlefield, the Kilab expected from them grants of (income-producing properties; sing. ). Sayf al-Dawla's successor,
Sa'd al-Dawla (), had five hundred Bedouin warriors from the Amr in his army in 983, indicating the large size of that Kilabi division. Meanwhile,
Bakjur, Sa'd al-Dawla's rebellious (slave soldier), had his own contingent of Kilabi warriors when he fought against Sa'd al-Dawla in 991. In 1008–1009, the Kilab were employed by a Byzantine-
Marwanid alliance to help install Sa'd al-Dawla's son,
Abu'l Hayja, as the emir of Aleppo to replace
Mansur ibn Lu'lu', who as ruler of the emirate had allied himself with the
Fatimid Caliphate. However, the Kilab collaborated with the Fatimids and betrayed the Marwanids. When the Fatimids turned against Mansur in 1011–1012 and gained promises of Kilabi support to restore Hamdanid rule in Aleppo, the Kilab betrayed the Fatimids. Thus, the tribe "saved Mansur b. Lu'lu' on two occasions by their inaction", according to Bianquis. In return, the Kilab demanded from Mansur in the emirate, villages to supply them with grain, and fertile pastures and rangelands around Aleppo to graze their sheep and horses. To relieve his obligations to the Kilab, Mansur employed a ruse whereby he invited 1,000 Kilabi tribesmen to a feast at his palace in Aleppo on 27 May 1012, only to trap and assault the tribesmen. Those among the Kilabi invitees who were not massacred were imprisoned in the dungeons of the
Citadel of Aleppo.
Takeover of the emirate under Salih ibn Mirdas (
pictured) by
Mansur ibn Lu'lu' in 1012. Two years later,
Salih ibn Mirdas escaped the citadel, captured Mansur and exchanged him for the remaining Kilabi prisoners. In 1025, Salih captured Aleppo and made it the capital of his
Mirdasid emirate. Upon hearing of Mansur's actions, Muqallid ibn Za'ida, a Kilabi emir from Aleppo's outskirts, launched an assault against
Kafartab to pressure Mansur; the latter responded by relocating his Kilabi prisoners to facilities with better conditions, and gave favorable treatment to Muqallid's brothers, Abu Hamid and Jami'. However, after Muqallid was killed and the Kilab aborted their siege of Kafartab, Mansur returned the prisoners to the dungeons, where many Kilabi chieftains were tortured, executed or died of poor conditions. Among the Kilabi prisoners was
Salih ibn Mirdas, an emir from a princely family belonging to the Abu Bakr division, who had captured
al-Rahba in 1008–1009. Salih was subjected to particularly brutal torture and humiliation by Mansur. Mansur forced a few Kilabi chieftains to accept his terms and had them released in 1013, but most Kilabi prisoners remained incarcerated, including Salih, whose "boldness and resentment increased" as a result, according to Zakkar. Salih escaped from the citadel in 1014 and rallied his surviving tribesmen at their encampments in
Marj Dabiq. The Kilab united behind Salih, who soon after led them in their siege against Aleppo. The Kilab and Mansur's army of clashed several times, and Mansur was able to inflict losses on the Kilab and plunder part of their camp. Encouraged by this, Mansur recruited local toughs, including many Aleppine Jews and Christians, and confronted Salih's Kilabi warriors at the outskirts of Aleppo on 13 August 1014. The Kilab routed Mansur's army, killing some 2,000 Aleppine irregulars and capturing Mansur and his senior commanders. Nonetheless, the Kilab were unable to capture Aleppo, which was defended by Mansur's brothers and mother. Negotiations for Mansur's release concluded with the release of the Kilabi prisoners and a promise to assign to the Kilab half of the emirate of Aleppo's revenues. Moreover, Salih was recognized by Mansur as the supreme emir of the Kilab. In the following years, Salih consolidated his authority over the Kilab and expanded his emirate to include the important Euphrates fortress towns of
Manbij and
Balis. Mansur did not follow through on his pledge to hand over to the Kilab their share of Aleppo's revenues, provoking Kilabi raids against Aleppo's countryside. In 1016, Mansur fled Aleppo after the commander of its citadel,
Fath al-Qal'i, revolted. Salih persuaded Fath to abide by Mansur's promises to the Kilab, but Fath ceded Aleppo to the Fatimids, to Salih's chagrin. The Kilab were not strong enough to challenge the Fatimids, but friendly relations were established between Salih and the new Fatimid governor,
Aziz al-Dawla. By the time the latter was assassinated in 1022, Salih had added the towns of
Rafaniyah and
Raqqa to his emirate. In 1024, an alliance was formed between the Kilab and the Kalb and
Tayy, the strongest Arab tribes in central Syria and
Transjordan, respectively. Salih's forces captured Aleppo that year, along with
Homs,
Baalbek,
Sidon and
Hisn Akkar, while the Fatimids' hold on the rest of Syria was considerably weakened. Salih "brought to success the plan which had guided his [Kilabi] forebears for a century" with his capture of Aleppo, according to Bianquis. In 1028, the Fatimid governor of Syria,
Anushtakin al-Dizbari, moved against the Kilab and the Tayy, having secured the defection of the Kalb. Opposed to Tayyi/
Jarrahid domination of
Palestine and Mirdasid control of central Syria, Dizbari confronted Salih and the Jarrahid emir
Hassan ibn Mufarrij at the
Battle of al-Uqhuwana near
Tiberias in 1029. Salih was slain and Dizbari seized the Mirdasids' central Syrian domains.
Reigns of Nasr and Thimal Salih had designated his son, Thimal, as his successor, but his eldest son, Nasr, a survivor of al-Uqhuwana, also sought the emirate. At the same time, the two brothers faced an imminent offensive by the Byzantine emperor
Romanos III in 1030. Thimal remained in Aleppo with the bulk of their forces, while Nasr led the rest of his Kilabi horsemen to confront the Byzantines. The Mirdasids landed a major victory against Romanos III at the
Battle of Azaz. Nasr seized the citadel of Aleppo while his brother was away. Thimal mobilized his Kilabi partisans to oust Nasr, but ultimately the chiefs of the tribe mediated a power-sharing agreement between the brothers, whereby Nasr ruled the northern Syrian part of the emirate from Aleppo and Thimal ruled the Jaziran part from al-Rahba. Nasr entered Byzantine vassalage soon after the Battle of Azaz to ward off multiple threats: his own tribesmen, 20,000 tribesmen from the hostile Tayy and Kalb tribes who relocated to Byzantine territory close to Aleppo, as well as the Fatimids. After the Byzantines and Fatimids made peace in 1036, Nasr reconciled with the Fatimid caliph, who granted his request for the governorship of
Homs. Dizbari, who sought control of all of Syria, opposed Nasr's acquisition of Homs. He recruited Tayyi and Kalbi tribesmen, and a Kilabi faction opposed to the Mirdasids, secured Byzantine approval, and marched against Nasr. The latter was defeated and killed outside Hama in 1038. Thimal gained control of Aleppo after Nasr's death, but withdrew in the face of Dizbari's army. Thimal left his cousin,
Muqallid ibn Kamil, in charge of the citadel, and their Kilabi kinsman, Khalifa ibn Jabir, in charge of the city. They surrendered to Dizbari in June, and Fatimid rule was restored in Aleppo. Dizbari consecrated ties with the Kilab by marrying the daughter of the Kilabi chieftain Mansur ibn Zughayb. Thimal continued to control the Jaziran part of the emirate. After Dizbari died in 1042, Thimal regained control of Aleppo with Fatimid approval. Contravening his agreement with the Fatimids, Thimal forwarded only part of the treasure stockpiled by Dizbari in Aleppo to the Fatimids. In 1048, the Fatimids sent an army—including a Kalb-dominated Bedouin contingent—against him, led by the Hamdanid descendant
Nasir al-Dawla. Thimal and his Kilabi troops were unable to repulse them and were besieged in Aleppo. Nasir al-Dawla retreated to Damascus after floods destroyed his equipment and killed many of his troops, after which Thimal recaptured Ma'arrat al-Nu'man and Hama. Another Fatimid army was sent, this one led by
Rifq, and composed of Fatimid troops and tribesmen of the Kalb, Fazara and Tayy. Thimal sent an advance force of Kilabi tribesmen led by Muqallid ibn Kamil, which successively demolished the fortifications of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Hama and Homs to prevent their use by the Fatimids. The Kilab then defeated the Fatimid army and captured Rifq, who died in captivity. The Mirdasids and Fatimids reconciled in 1050 and Thimal's emirate over Aleppo was reconfirmed by the caliph. In 1056, Thimal was pressured to cede al-Rahba to the Turkish rebel
al-Basasiri and al-Raqqa to the
Numayrids of
Harran, angering the Kilab and causing its split into two factions, one loyal to Thimal and the other to his brother
Atiyya, emir of Balis, who made off with the cash Thimal had entrusted to him to deliver to al-Basasiri. The Mirdasid emirs were reconciled by a Fatimid envoy, staving off an intra-Kilabi feud. Continued dissensions among the Kilab against Thimal, al-Basasiri's presence in the emirate, the presence of a Fatimid army led by
Ibn Mulhim during renewed Fatimid–Byzantine conflict in Syria, and efforts by the Fatimid court all led Thimal to cede Aleppo to Ibn Mulhim in 1057–1058 and relocate to Cairo. The political circumstances, in which the Mirdasids kept control only of Balis, left the Kilab weakened and unable to mount any attempt to recapture Aleppo. After al-Basasiri was killed by the Seljuk sultan
Tughril Bey in 1059, Atiyya recaptured al-Rahba in 1060, enthusing the Kilab to move against Aleppo. Atiyya initially switched his allegiance to the Abbasid Caliphate, prompting the Fatimids to dispatch an army, including the Kalb, to capture al-Rahba. The Kilabi chiefs warned the Fatimids not to allow the Kalb entry into their tribal territory, but the expedition proceeded. In response, the Kilab entered Jund Hims, tribal territory of the Kalb, and sacked Homs and Hama, demolishing their walls in the aftermath. Meanwhile, Thimal's Numayrid wife, al-Sayyida al-Alawiyya, engineered the takeover of Aleppo by her son from Nasr,
Mahmud, who captured the city later that year with the Numayr and part of the Kilab. The subsequent defection of numerous Kilabi tribesmen to Mahmud caused a political rift within the tribe, between loyalists of Mahmud and his uncle Atiyya. The Fatimids viewed the turbulent politics in Aleppo as counter to their interests, and sent Thimal to retake the city in 1061. The bulk of the Kilab rallied to Thimal and mediated between him and Mahmud.
Later Mirdasid emirs, entry of the Turkmens, and weakening of Kilabi power Thimal died in 1062 and was succeeded by Atiyya. The rivalry between Mahmud and Atiyya and their respective factions within the Kilab resumed. The bulk of the Kilab backed Mahmud and marched with him against Aleppo in 1063, but they were repulsed by Atiyya's Turkmen mercenaries, led by
Ibn Khan. According to Zakkar, after Thimal's death "the time in which the Kilabi chieftains and tribesmen held the decisive power in the struggle for Aleppo had passed". A Mirdasid emir of the Kilab, Muqallid ibn Kamil's son Mani, was killed by the Turkmens, which sapped Kilabi morale and compelled Mahmud to agree to terms with Atiyya. In 1064 Mahmud and his Kilabi tribesmen captured Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, Hama and Kafartab before marching against Aleppo, but they were again repulsed and a settlement was reached recognizing Mahmud's control of the three captured towns. Ibn Khan and his followers were chased out of Aleppo by Atiyya in 1065 and defected to Mahmud and the Kilab in
Sarmin, after which their combined forces captured Aleppo. An agreement was reached, allotting the Jaziran portion of the emirate to Atiyya. Conflict resumed between Atiyya and Mahmud in 1067, during which Atiyya had gone to Homs to recruit among the Kilab and other tribes there. Zakkar speculated that the Kilab's increasing presence in Jund Hims was due to pressures from Turkmen migrations into northern Syria and the migrations of Uqaylid tribesmen from the region of Mosul into the Kilab's Jaziran domains. Mahmud, Atiyya and their Kilabi factions were reconciled by the efforts of the
Banu Ammar rulers of Tripoli later that year. The Uqaylids under
Muslim ibn Quraysh captured al-Rahba from the Mirdasids in 1068 and Raqqa in 1070–1071. In January 1071, a Seljuk army led by Sultan
Alp Arslan besieged Aleppo, but could not force its surrender. Alp Arslan then summoned the Kilabi chiefs of the area and promised to confer on one of them the rulership of Aleppo, if Mahmud was ousted. To counter potential Kilabi collaboration with the Seljuks against him, Mahmud agreed to submit to Seljuk rule, and was kept in power in Aleppo by Alp Arslan. In 1072 Mahmud and his Turkmen mercenaries repulsed raids against Aleppo by the Byzantines and Atiyya, who had defected to Byzantium, and recaptured al-Rahba from the Uqaylids. Mahmud died in 1075 and was succeeded at first by his son,
Nasr, and then after Nasr's death, by another son,
Sabiq. The latter's dependence on the Turkmen mercenaries and the Turkmens' monopolization of power in the emirate provoked the Kilabi chiefs, who proclaimed Sabiq's brother,
Waththab, as their supreme emir. The bulk of the tribe mobilized in the plain of Qinnasrin in preparation for an assault on Aleppo, but they were ambushed by the Turkmen cavalries and dispersed at great cost in booty. Waththab and the Kilabi chiefs Mubarak ibn Shibl and Hamid ibn Zughayb went to the court of the Seljuk sultan
Malik-Shah to seek his assistance against Sabiq, which Malik-Shah agreed to. Malik-Shah sent an army to Syria, led by
Tutush I, who was accompanied by the disaffected Kilabi chiefs and their tribesmen, as well as Muslim ibn Quraysh. Muslim ibn Quraysh secretly opposed a Seljuk takeover of Aleppo and collaborated with Sabiq, admonishing the Kilabi chiefs for supporting Turkmens against their own kin. He persuaded the Kilabi chiefs to desert at the gates of Aleppo and persuaded Waththab and his brother Shabib to join forces with Sabiq. Tutush maintained the siege, but a troop of Seljuk reinforcements was massacred by the Kilab, Uqayl, Numayr and Qushayr led by Muslim ibn Quraysh near
Sinjar. Tutush left the siege to assault Kilabi tribesmen in the Aleppo region, but was unable to pursue them into the desert. In the course of the Seljuk siege of Aleppo, the primary motivations for the defection of Muslim ibn Quraysh and the Kilab to Sabiq, as indicated in contemporary poems by
Ibn Hayyus and communications recorded in the chronicles of Ibn al-Adim and
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, were their tribal kinship ties and mutual desire to preserve Bedouin Arab rule in Aleppo. Accordingly, Sabiq appealed to his brothers and the Kilabi chief, Abu Za'ida Muhammad ibn Za'ida, that he was "defending" their "land and authority", and that, should Tutush capture Aleppo, he would demolish the "" (the rulership of the Bedouin Arabs), and to preserve the last Arab principality in Syria from Turkish invasion. Tutush captured Kilab-held fortresses near Aleppo, including Azaz, while Abu Za'ida massacred any groups of Turkmen cavalries he could find. Bianquis called it "a very hard war, paid for by the peasants and merchants". Tutush captured Damascus, and his deputy Afshin pillaged the villages around Rafaniyya, Ma'arrat al-Nu'man and the Jabal al-Summaq, massacring the men, raping or capturing the women and children, so that by the time he moved eastward into the Jazira "the plain of northern Syria no longer had a single village intact", in the words of Bianquis.
Collapse of the emirate and decline of the Kilab The devastation in northern Syria opened the way for Muslim ibn Quraysh to gain control of Aleppo in 1080, when Sabiq, Shabib and Waththab were compelled by the Kilab and the Aleppines, desperate from famine, and their
Munqidhite vizier, to hand over the city. Thus, Mirdasid rule in Aleppo came to a permanent end, though Muslim ibn Quraysh allotted the of
Atharib, Azaz, and another in the vicinity of Rahba to Shabib, Waththab, and Sabiq, respectively. Muslim ibn Quraysh was backed by the Kilab, for he fit their need for a strong leader in a time of severe political and economic crisis, amid the conflict with Tutush and Afshin. By the end of the year, Muslim ibn Quraysh ruled an area spanning Mosul, Aleppo, Harran, Antioch,
Edessa and Hama. He retook the he had assigned to the Mirdasid brothers, and captured Homs from its Kilabi ruler
Khalaf ibn Mula'ib, but kept him in his post after Munqidhite mediation. The Mirdasid brothers and Ibn Mula'ib allied with Tutush in Damascus against Muslim ibn Quraysh, who besieged Damascus. The troops of Tutush included Kilabi tribesmen, in addition to the Uqayl, Kalb, Tayy, Ulaym and Numayr. The Uqaylid emir was defeated and retreated to his Jaziran domains. After the Seljuk commander
Sulayman ibn Qutulmush captured Antioch in 1083, he gained the support of the Mirdasid brothers and their Kilabi partisans against Muslim ibn Quraysh. The Uqaylid emir was defeated and killed in battle with the Seljuks at the
Afrin River in 1085, and direct Seljuk rule was introduced to Aleppo later that year. As a recompense, the Seljuks gave two Uqaylid emirs control over the Jaziran fortresses of
Qal'at Ja'bar, Raqqa, Rahba, Harran,
Saruj and the
Khabur Valley, which Zakkar noted was an indication "that the tribe of Kilab lost its footing and traditional power in the [Jaziran] territory". In 1090 Ibn Mula'ib, ruler of Homs and Apamea, was besieged and captured by Tutush and sent to Malik-Shah as a captive. The collapse of their emirate deprived the Mirdasids of their leadership over most of the Kilab, the bulk of whom were at this time led by Shibl ibn Jami and dwelt in the southwestern Aleppo plain. The remainder of the tribe was led by Waththab, who entered the service of Tutush. The latter recruited heavily among the Kilab, and the Bedouin in general, in his struggle for supremacy with his Seljuk rival
Aq-Sunqur, who ruled in Aleppo. Aq-Sunqur had poor relations with the Kilab, but was obliged to recruit them to bolster his insufficient number of Turkish troops, as the Kilab remained the main pool of military recruitment in northern Syria. When the two sides fought in Hama in May 1093, the Kilabis and Turkmens deserted Aq-Sunqur, who was defeated and executed by Tutush. According to Hugh Kennedy, after the fall of the Mirdasids and the increasing encroachment of their pastures by Turkmen groups, the Kilab "soon disappeared entirely as a Bedouin tribe". Ibn al-Adim notes that clans of the Kilab continued to control remnants of the Mirdasid emirate, albeit unofficially, following the Mirdasids' fall. The Kilab continued to be the strongest and most numerous tribe in northern Syria, but were politically weak as a result of their internal divisions and unwillingness to unite under a supreme emir. Waththab and his Kilabi horsemen made an attempt to block the
First Crusade's advance into northern Syria in 1098. The
Ayyubid dynasty conquered Syria toward the end of the 12th century, and the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt,
al-Adil, established the office of (commander of the Bedouin) to govern the Bedouin tribes of Syria and incorporate them into the state. The Kilab were excluded from the jurisdiction of the until the Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo,
az-Zahir (), confiscated their in the emirate of Aleppo and passed them over to the Tayy. Az-Zahir's measure prompted some Kilabi clans to migrate northward into
Anatolia, while those which remained in northern Syria allied with the
Al Fadl, the ruling house of the Tayy and the heritable holders of the post. The
Mamluks took over most of the Ayyubid domains in Syria by 1260. In 1262–1263, about 1,000 Kilabi cavalrymen collaborated with the
Armenian king in a raid against Mamluk-held
Ayn Tab. Later, in 1277, the Kilab gave their allegiance to the Mamluk sultan
Baybars at
Harim in northern Syria.
Internal aspects of the tribe during the emirate period Size While the Abu Bakr was the largest Kilabi subtribe in Arabia, the Amr was the largest and strongest in Syria, at least until the 9th century. As a result of their mass migration from Arabia to Syria in 932, the Abu Bakr came to outnumber the Amr in Syria. Most of the Abu Bakr tribesmen hailed from its Awf, Rabi'a and Amr branches. There is scant information about the size of the Kilab at the height of its power in Syria in the 10th and 11th centuries. On two occasions, under Salih in 1014 and under Nasr in 1038, the sources note the Kilab numbered 2,000 horsemen. It is likely that the Kilabi warriors on these two occasions represented only part of the tribe's manpower. In 1075 Ibn al-Adim noted that the Kilab "had never assembled in such great numbers before ... they were about 70,000 horsemen and infantry". Although Zakkar notes that the figure may be exaggerated, he considers that it reflects the "immensity" of the tribe. The contemporary poets,
al-Ma'arri and Ibn Hayyus, do not mention any other tribes in northern Syria except for the Kilab, indicating the tribe's predominance over other Arab nomads in the region. Among the tribes living alongside the Kilab in the emirate were the Banu Abs, based mainly in
Wadi Butnan and Hiyar Bani Qa'qa' near Manbij, the
Banu Asad in Wadi Butnan, Nuqrat Bani Asad between
Khanasir and
Hass Mountain,
Jabal al-Summaq, and
Ma'arrat Misrin, and the
Tanukh of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man. The bulk of these tribes had largely abandoned nomadic life for urban living, but retained their tribal traditions and organization.
Leadership structure The historian Andrew Cappel notes that the Kilabi clans which entered Syria in the 10th century came with independent leaderships and were not subject to a higher tribal authority. Zakkar writes that the entry of the new Kilabi tribesmen "no doubt had some considerable effect on the life and organization of the whole body of Kilab" in Syria, but "it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find any reliable information concerning this". After their settlement there and the increasing socio-economic stratification among the tribesmen, a new political structure developed, which Cappel calls the "conical clan". The structure was marked by a series of elite households which governed their own clans, and the Kilab as a whole. Eventually, Salih and his descendants of the Mirdasid house provided the preeminent leadership over the Kilab, with lesser Kilabi chieftains and their descendants presiding over their respective clans. Little is known about the lesser chieftains, except for some of their names. The succession of the Mirdasid emirs was at times determined internally by
primogeniture or the designation of a (chosen successor, crown prince). Disputes over succession were settled by a consensus among the Kilabi chieftains for the worthiest Mirdasid or, more often, by the outcome of infighting between the Mirdasids and their respective partisans within the Kilab. The emirs' principal claims to loyalty rested on direct kinship ties with a particular clan, or bribery. On occasion lesser Kilabi clans took advantage of divisions within the Mirdasid house for financial gain. Factionalism was intensified due to the near constant rivalry between most of the Kilabi clans, which was only mitigated when the tribe felt compelled to unify in the face of a shared external threat. According to Zakkar, the Kilab "exercised greater authority over the [Mirdasid] dynasty, than the dynasty over [it]". Although Salih established his Aleppo-based government along the lines of a traditional medieval Islamic state, with a
qadi to oversee the judiciary, a fiscal administration, and a
vizier to oversee state affairs, the Mirdasid emirate represented a "hybrid of bedouin and sedentary policies and traditions", according to Cappel. Under Salih the center of power shifted from the city to the neighboring Kilabi tribal camps. A new office was established, known as (chieftain of the state), which was reserved for Salih's trusted Kilabi confidant. Each Kilabi chieftain was assigned an by Salih.
Culture The way of life of the Kilab in late 10th-century Syria was reminiscent of nomadic life in pre-Islamic Arabia. There were frequent cycles of
raids and counter-raids between the Kilabi clans or neighboring tribes, mostly for booty, wantonness or revenge. Initial engagements usually involved combat between a single horseman from either side, while the main body of the tribe spectated. Each opposing horseman would recite a , boasting of his valor and the merits of his tribe, and challenging any opposing tribesmen to fight. Clashes typically ended with the death of a prominent warrior or leader of a tribe, without the engagement of the main bodies. In many cases, when the Kilab successfully ambushed a rival tribe, they would seize opposing tribesmen and their property; captive tribesmen would be enslaved or released for a heavy ransom. In springtime, Kilabi youth spent their time horse-racing or drinking wine. Most drinking was done in the many taverns, called in Arabic, located in the tribe's encampments or villages, or along the banks of small streams, called in Arabic. The Mirdasid emirs held mass feasts for their tribesmen in the spring, on the occasion of lambing season, a circumcision, or a wedding. The local poet
Ibn Abi Hasina (d. 1065) mentioned that 50,000 attended a banquet hosted by Thimal for the circumcision of his nephew, Mahmud. The main dish served during the feasts was called , which consisted meat cooked in yoghurt mixed with pieces of bread. Kilabi love poems of the time period resembled
those of pre-Islamic Arabia. Love poems could result in a conflict between Kilabi clans or other tribes when one of their women was the subject of the poem. The woman's clan or tribe would initially prohibit her suitor from communicating with her and would force her into marriage with someone else after denying her suitor's permission to marry on account of the poem having dishonored her clan. According to Zakkar, "Kilabi women, in the main, enjoyed equality with the men and on the whole their life was untrammeled". A number of important personalities of the Mirdasid house were women. Among them was Salih's mother, al-Rabab, who is reported to have given her son reliable political advice and was invited by the Fatimid governor Aziz al-Dawla to live in Aleppo to consecrate his ties with Salih. The Numayrid princess, Alawiyya bint Waththab, who was a wife to Nasr, then Thimal after Nasr's death, and mother to Mahmud, was known in the sources as (the Lady). In her frequent role as envoy or mediator she was instrumental in establishing Thimal's rule in Aleppo, reconciling Thimal with the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir in 1050, reconciling the Mirdasids and Numayr in 1061, and saving Mahmud's rule in Aleppo from Alp Arslan's siege in 1071. The Kilab of Syria, like most Aleppines, were
Twelver Shia Muslims. It is not clear to what extent they adhered to the religion. Many of their tribesmen bore names associated with Shia Islam, such as Ali, Ulwan, Hasan and Ja'far, though the vast majority had non-Islamic, Arabic tribal names. ==Al-Andalus==