Ma'add

Maʿadd (Arabic: مَعَدّ) was an evolving term originally referring to the Bedouins of central Arabia during the pre-Islamic period (pre-7th century). During the early Islamic period, as these Bedouins moved into the Fertile Crescent, the term denoted a tribal confederation, eventually specific 'northern' Arabs, distiguishing those originating from South Arabia. 'Ma'add' became the name of the mythic ancestor of these Arabs in the Arab geneological tradition which crystallized in the 8th century. The term 'Ma'add' is first known from pre-Islamic inscriptions where it refers to a group of nomadic and semi-nomadic groups occupying central Arabia, beyond the territorial domain of the major powers of its day: north of the direct territorial control of the Himyarite Kingdom, and south of that of the Lakhmids. Ma'addites retained independence and protected their northern and southern frontiers because they lived in remote areas and had militarized societies. From the fourth to sixth centuries, they were centered at Ma'sal al‐Jumh in the Najd. Ma'add coexisted among other regional identities, including Ghassan, Himyar, and Tayyi'. They are first mentioned in the Namara inscription (328 CE). The word 'Ma'add' was used in related, but different ways, in other sources. Pre-Islamic literature beyond the peninsula composed in Greek and Syriac used it not for a peoples but for militarized camel-herding Bedouin in north Arabia beyond imperial control more generally. In pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, "Ma'add" was a communal identity and ethnonym functioning in the way that the word "Arab" does today. As such, Ma'add encompassed all peoples, including both northern and southern Arab tribes. In Islamic genealogical accounts, which were written at a time when Ma'add began to be thought of as a tribe as opposed to a central Arabian confederation, "Ma'add" could either refer to a figure named Ma'add, the eponymous ancestor of the Ma'add tribe, or to...