The dominant Bedouin of the Syrian desert since the mid-twelfth century.
Fadl ibn Rabi'a and his brothers served the Burid and Zengid rulers of Damascus as mounted auxiliaries; when relations soured they plundered villages and pilgrim caravans. In the late twelfth or early thirteenth century the Al Fadl were pushed out of the Hauran by their cousins of Al Mira and moved north to the steppe round Homs (Tritton). They range from the edge of the Homs and Hama farmland past Palmyra to the Euphrates about al-Rahba.
They are tied to the princes by subsidies, grazing rights and service, not by iqta' (their great Mamluk-era iqta's at Salamiyah and Palmyra come much later).
Who holds it
- Name
- Not pinned for 1 January 1200. Al-Adil, as sultan (from 1200), appointed Haditha, a grandson of Fadl ibn Rabi'a, amir al-arab over the Bedouin of the Damascus and Hama principalities (Hiyari); the date within his reign is not known.
- Title
- Amir of the Banu Rabi'a (later the office of amir al-arab)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Family
- Banu Rabi'a of Tayy, descended from the Jarrahid amirs of Palestine of the tenth and eleventh centuries; branches: Al Fadl, Al Mira, Al Faraj.
- Confidence
- low
Al Fadl article (Hiyari 1975, Tritton 1948, Amitai-Preiss 1995).
Overlord
The Ayyubid princes of Damascus, Homs and Hama claim them; the Ayyubids of Egypt paid them to keep the roads between Syria and Iraq safe (Tritton).
What it holds
- Grazing and wells of the Palmyrene steppe and the desert west of the Euphrates.
How things stand that morning
Present in their ranges; their leader that winter is not named in the sources read.
Customs
Ruled by their amirs and shaykhs by kinship; summer grazing on the edges of the sown land, winter in the deep desert; escort and protection of caravans for payment.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1200-1218, date not pinnedAl-Adil names Haditha, grandson of Fadl, amir al-arab over the Bedouin of Damascus and Hama.Depends on: Al-Adil's sultanate and his need to secure the desert roads. Stopped by: Bedouin revolt or another branch preferred.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Known from later Arabic sources summarized by Hiyari; nothing dated to the winter of 1199-1200.
On the map: Rough range; the edges of the sown land, the oasis of Palmyra and the river towns belong to Homs.
Primary sources for The Bedouin
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of the Observant Traveller (A Traveller in Thirteenth-Century Arabia), Ibn al-Mujawir (Jamal al-Din Yusuf ibn Ya'qub) (about 1226 to 1232). A merchant-traveller's description of western and southern Arabia a generation after 1200: Mecca and the Hijaz ports, the Red Sea crossing, Zabid and the Tihama, Aden with its customs and tariffs, the Hadramawt coast, Dhofar and Oman, Socotra, and the opposite African shore at Zeila and the Dahlak islands. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.