Murra

Banū, an Arab tribal term.

The Arab genealogical works record the name Murra in the genealogies of many tribes, but apparently the name does not always denote functioning tribal groups. In the Ḳurays̲h̲, e.g., Murra is merely a link in the genealogical chain, and not the name of a clan (see Ibn Ḥazm, D̲j̲amharat ansābal-ʿArab, Cairo 1962, 14 ff.). It is also difficult to determine whether a given (ancient) Murra was a tribe, a clan or a lineage. As effective tribal groups may be considered the following (among others): (1) the B.Murrab. ʿUbayd, of the Tamīm confederacy. In the 2nd/8th century, they lived in Kūfa (Ibn Ḥazm, 217; Ibn Kat̲h̲īr, al-Bidāya wa ’l-nihāya, Cairo 1932, v, 517). (2) The B.Murrab. Ṣaʿṣaʿa, clan of the poet ʿAbd Allāh b. Hammām [q.v.] (al-Wazīr al-Mag̲h̲ribī, Adabal-k̲h̲awāṣṣ, Riyāḍ 1980, 135; al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ḳalāʾidal-d̲j̲umān, Cairo 1963, 115). There seems to be a confusion regarding the genealogy of this poet (see Mad̲j̲allat al-ʿArab, i (1966-7), 37, 48, 1154); however, these B. Murra were better known by their mother’s name, Salūl (Ibn Ḥazm, 281, 482; Ibn al-Kalbī, D̲j̲amharatal-nasab, Beirut 1986, 379-80). Today in Arabia there is a clan called Murrab. Salūl b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa, which forms a part of the great confederacy of ʿUtayba (M.S.H. Kamāl, in Mad̲j̲allat al-ʿArab, iii (1968-9), 819). (3) The B.Murra of the tribe of D̲j̲ud̲h̲ām. who lived in Palestine in al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī’s days (8th-9th/14th-15th centuries) (al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ḳalāʾid, 68, and see also 57; al-Ḳuṭb, Ansāb al-ʿArab, Beirut 1969, 175). (4) The B. Murra of the tribe of D̲j̲uhayna, who lived in the Ḥid̲j̲āz (al-Hamdānī, Ṣifat d̲j̲azīratal-ʿarab, Leiden 1884, 180). (5) The B.Murraof Kinda, who had a masd̲j̲id to themselves in Kūfa (al-Ḳuṭb, 177). (6)The B.Murra of the tribe of Aws; they seem to have been a lineage, since they are said to have occupied one of Medina’s “fortresses” (āṭām) (al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Nihāyatal-arab, Cairo 1959, 418; al-Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-arab, Cairo 1955, ii, 330; Yāḳūt, Muʿd̲j̲am al-buldān, ii, 728). (7) The B. Murra of the tribe of ʿAbd al-Ḳays. One of the families of this group, the ʿUyūnids, ruled al-Aḥsāʾ (Baḥrayn) from the 5th/11th to the 7th/13th centuries (Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUḳayl, in Mad̲j̲allat al-ʿarab, xvii [1982-3], 501; art. bahrayn). (8) Several groups called Murra were included in the S̲h̲aybān, a branch of the Bakr b. Wāʾil confederacy, whose homeland was basically in ʿIrāḳ. The most important of these groups seems to have been the B.Murrab. Hammām. Some of them held important positions as governors and generals during the late Umayyad and early ʿAbbāsid periods, whereas others joined the K̲h̲ārid̲j̲ī opposition. They are usually mentioned, however, as “S̲h̲aybānī” rather than as “Murrī” (Ibn Ḥazm, 324-7; Ibn al-Kalbī, 497-519; W. Caskel, Gamharat an-nasab, Das genealogische Werk des Hišām ibn Muḥammadal-Kalbī, Leiden 1966, ii, 23-4; al-Wazīr al-Mag̲h̲ribī, 120; al-Nuwayrī, Nihāya, ii, 348; al-Ṭabarī, ii, 147, 975, 1633-4).