Tayy
The Tayy, also known as Ṭayyi, Tayyaye, or Taiyaye, are a large and ancient Arab tribe, among whose descendants today are the tribes of Bani Sakher and Shammar. The nisba of Tayy is aṭ-Ṭāʾī. In the second century CE, they migrated to the northern Arabian ranges of the Shammar and Salma Mountains, which then collectively became known as the Jabal Tayy, and later Jabal Shammar. The latter continues to be the traditional homeland of the tribe until the present day. They later established relations with the Sasanian and Byzantine empires.
Though traditionally allied with the Sasanian client state of the Lakhmids, the Tayy supplanted them as the rulers of al-Hirah in the 610s. In the late sixth century, the Fasad War split the Tayy, with members of its Jadila branch converting to Christianity and migrating to Syria where they became allied with the Ghassanids, and the Ghawth branch remaining in Jabal Tayy. A chieftain and poet of the Al Ghawth, Hatim al-Ta'i, is widely known among Arabs until today.
Adi ibn Hatim and another Tayy chieftain, Zayd al-Khayr, converted to Islam together with much of their tribe in 629–630, and became companions of the Prophet. The Tayy participated in several Muslim military campaigns after Muhammad's death, including in the Ridda Wars and the Muslim conquest of Persia. Al-Jadila in northern Syria remained Christian until the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 638.
The Tayy were split during the First Fitna, with those based in Arabia and Iraq supporting Ali as caliph and those in Syria supporting Mu'awiya. The latter and his Umayyad kinsmen ultimately triumphed and members of the Tayy participated in the Umayyad conquest of Sindh in the early eighth century. Nonetheless, a branch of the Tayy under Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i were among the leaders of the Abbasid Revolution which toppled the Umayyads in the mid-eighth century. The Tayy fared well under the Abbasid Caliphate, producing military officials and renowned poets such as Buhturi and Abu Tammam.
By the mid-9th century, Abbasid authority had eroded and the Tayy were left dominant in the southern Syrian Desert and Jabal Tayy. Under the Jarrahids, they established themselves in Palestine under Fatimid rule. As the virtually independent rulers of the area between Ramla and Jabal Tayy, they controlled the key routes between Egypt, Syria, Arabia and Iraq. They vacillated between the Fatimids and the Byzantines and then between the Seljuks and Crusaders until the late 12th and early 13th centuries, when the Tayy's various subbranches, chief among them the Al Fadl, were left as the last politically influential Arab tribe in the region extending from Najd northward to Upper Mesopotamia.
Genealogy
The Tayy's progenitor, according to early Arab genealogists, was Julhumah ibn Udad, who was known as "Tayy" or "Tayyi". The theory in some Arab tradition, as cited by 9th-century Muslim historian al-Tabari, holds that Julhumah's laqab of Ṭayyiʾ derived from the word ṭawā, which in Arabic means "to plaster". He received the name because he was said to have been "the first to have plastered the walls of a well", according to al-Tabari. Julhumah's ancestry was traced to Kahlan ibn Saba ibn Ya'rub, great-grandson of Qahtan, the semi-legendary, common ancestor of the Arab tribes of southern Arabia. Julhumah was a direct descendant of Kahlan via Julhumah's father Zayd ibn Yashjub, who in turn was a direct descendant of 'Arib ibn Zayd ibn Kahlan.Branches
The two main branches of Tayy were Al al-Ghawth and Al Jadilah. The former was named after al-Ghawth, a son of Julhumah. The immediate offspring of al-Ghawth's son, 'Amr, were Thu'al, Aswadan, Hani, Bawlan and Salaman. The offspring of Thu'al and Aswadan became leading sub-branches of the Tayy in northern Arabia, while the offspring of Hani became a major sub-branch in southern Mesopotamia. According to traditional Arab genealogists, the Banu Thu'al were the ancestors of the Banu Rabi'ah of Syria, and in turn of the Al Fadl emirs.The Al Jadilah's namesake was a woman of the Tayy named Jadilah, whose sons Hur and Jundub became the progenitors of Banu Hur and Banu Jundub, respectively. The latter produced the numerous Al al-Tha'alib subbranch, which itself produced the Banu La'm, which became a leading sub-branch of Al Jadilah in northern Arabia. The Jarm may have also been a branch of the Al al-Tha'alib.
According to the 14th-century Arab historian and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, the Tayy were among those Qahtanite tribes who lived in the hills and plains of Syria and Mesopotamia and intermarried with non-Arabs. Ibn Khaldun further stated that Tayyid tribesmen did "not pay any attention to preserving the lineage of their families and groups". Thus the lineage of the Tayy's many subbranches was difficult for genealogists to accurately ascertain.
Pre-Islamic era
Migration to Jabal Tayy
The Banu Tayy were originally based in Yemen, but migrated to northern Arabia in the late 2nd century CE, in the years following the dispersion of the Banu Azd from Yemen.They largely lived among the north Arabian mountain ranges of Aja and Salma with Khaybar north of Medina as their most important oasis, and from there they would make incursions into Syria and Iraq during times of drought. Their concentration in Jabal Aja and Jabal Salma lent the mountain ranges their ancient, collective name "Jabal Tayy". Prior to the Tayy migration, the mountains had been the home of the Banu Assad, who lost some territory with the arrival of Tayyid tribesmen. However, the two tribes ultimately became allies in later centuries and intermarried. In ancient times, the two main branches of the Tayy were the Al al-Ghawth and Al Jadila. The tribesmen lived in different parts of the region, with those living among the mountains known as the "al-Jabaliyyun", those on the plain known as "as-Sahiliyyun" and those on the desert sands known as "al-Ramliyyun".
Relations with Sassanids and Byzantines
Fifth century
The Tayy were so widespread and influential throughout the Syrian Desert that Syriac language authors from Upper Mesopotamia used their name, to describe Arab tribesmen in general, or even to refer to Muslims, and ܛܝܝܐܝܬ for Arabic, much the same way that authors from Byzantine Syria and Egypt used "Saracenos". The Syriac term was borrowed by the Sasanian Empire as, New Persian Tāzī, also meaning "Arab". For the Tayy specifically, Syriac authors would use the word "Tu'aye".The Tayy were subjects of the Sasanian Empire. However, they were also counted as allies by the Byzantine Empire's chief Arab foederati in the early to mid-5th century, the Salihids. The Tayy are mentioned in the late 5th century as having raided numerous villages in the plains and mountains of the Syrian Desert, including parts of Byzantine territory. This prompted the Byzantine army to mobilize its Arab clients at the desert frontiers with Sassanid-held Mesopotamia to confront the Tayy.
The Byzantines demanded restitution from the Tayy, but the Sasanian general Qardag Nakoragan instead initiated negotiations that called for the Byzantine Arab clients to restore livestock and captives taken from Sasanian territory in previous years in exchange for compensation from the Tayy. The negotiations succeeded, and the Sasanians and Byzantines delineated their borders to prevent future raiding between their respective clients. However, to the embarrassment of the Sasanian and the outrage of the Byzantines, four hundred Tayyid tribesmen raided several minor villages in Byzantine territory while representatives of the two sides were meeting in Nisibis. Despite this violation of the bilateral agreement, the Sasanian-Byzantine peace held.
Sixth century
Throughout the 6th century, the Tayy continued their relations with the Sasanians and their chief Arab clients, the Lakhmid kingdom of Mesopotamia. Towards the end of the 6th century, a Tayyid chief named Hassan assisted the Sasanian emperor Khosrow II when the latter fled from his usurper, Bahram Chobin, by giving him a horse. A few years later, the Lakhmid governor of al-Hira, al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir, fell out with Khosrow II, who had been restored to the throne, and sought safety with the Tayy. The tribe refused to grant refuge to al-Nu'man, who was married to two Tayyid women. He was ultimately killed by the Sasanians in 602. A Tayyid chief, Iyas ibn Qabisah al-Ta'i, subsequently migrated to al-Hira with his kin and became its governor, ruling from 602 to 611. The Banu Bakr opposed the rule of Iyas and began raiding Sasanian territory in southern Mesopotamia. In response, Iyas commanded pro-Sasanian Arab and Persian troops against the Banu Bakr at the Battle of Dhi Qar in 609, in which the Sasanians were defeated.According to historian Irfan Shahid, evidence suggests that clans of the Tayy moved into Byzantine-held Syria beginning in the 6th century. By then, the Ghassanids had supplanted the Salihids as the Byzantines' main foederati, and the Salihids began living alongside the Tayy in the region of Kufa. In the late 6th century, the Al al-Ghawth and Al Jadila fought against each other in the 25-year-long Fasad War in northern Arabia. Numerous atrocities were committed by both factions and the war resulted in the migration of several Jadila clans from the north Arabian plains to Syria, while the Al Al-Ghawth remained in Jabal Aja and Jabal Salma. The Jadila tribesmen founded a hadir near Qinnasrin called "Hadir Tayyi" after the tribe. The Ghassanid king al-Harith ibn Jabalah brokered a peace between the Tayy factions, ending the Fasad War. Afterward, the Tayy's relations with the Ghassanids, which had previously been checkered, were much improved. The Al Jadila converted to Christianity, the religion adopted decades earlier by the Ghassanids. Some other clans of the Banu Tayy remained pagan, worshiping the deities of Ruda and al-Fils. Those who converted to Christianity apparently embraced their new faith zealously and produced two well-known priests, named in Syriac sources as Abraham and Daniel.
Sometime during the 6th century, the Tayy and the Asad formed a confederation, which was later joined by the Ghaṭafān. The alliance collapsed when Asad and the Ghaṭafān assaulted both the Āl al-Ghawth and Āl Jadīlah and drove them out of their territories in the Jabal Tayy. However, one of the leaders of the Asad, Dhu al-Khimarayn Awf al-Jadhami, defected from the Ghaṭafān soon after and reestablished the alliance with the Tayy. Together, they campaigned against Ghaṭafān and restored their territories in the Jabal Tayy.