The Banu Kilab of the Amir ibn Sa'sa'a grazed the central Najd plateau (the reserve of Dariyya) in early Islam; many moved to Syria from the tenth century, where their Mirdasid princes ruled Aleppo, and the Ayyubids later put the Syrian Kilab under the Al Fadl.
After the Ukhaydirid emirs of al-Yamama (still ruling in 1051) the Banu Kilab took that country (Madelung). Whether a Kilabi power still holds central Najd and al-Yamama in 1200 is not recorded; this record keeps their name on the plateau where the evidence last puts them.
Who holds it
- Name
- not known for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Shaykhs of the Banu Kilab in Najd
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Family
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No chief of this people is named for the winter of 1199-1200 in the sources read.
What it holds
- the pastures and wells of central Najd west of the Tuwayq
- a claim, by Madelung's account, to lordship over al-Yamama after the Ukhaydirids
Military
Mounted tribesmen and camel riders under their shaykhs; no fortresses.
Customs
Kin-ruled pastoralists under shaykhs chosen within leading lineages; summer camps at the wells and the edges of the oases, winter grazing in the open desert after the rains; they sell camels, sheep, butter and wool in the oasis markets, take protection money (khuwwa) from villages and caravans, and serve the sharifs or the caravan commanders for pay.
Where the sources disagree
- The Kilab's hold on al-Yamama 'at some point after' 1051 (Madelung) is not dated; they may have lost it long before 1200.
Evidence: Madelung's undated statement and early geography; nothing for 1200.
On the map: Very rough.
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
- Ukhaidhirids (English Wikipedia, citing Madelung, 'al-Ukhaydir', EI2 X, 792)
- Banu Kilab (English Wikipedia, citing Caskel 1960)
- al-Hamdani, Sifat Jazirat al-Arab (tenth century), the standard description of the tribes and places of the Sarat, Najd and the Hejaz, as used in the Wikipedia tribal articles cited here
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.