- Kindah
The
Kindah (كندة) kingdom was a vassal kingdom ruled fromQaryah dhat Kahl (the present-dayQaryat al-Faw ) in CentralArabia . They ruled much of the Northern Arabian peninsula forHimyar ite Empire ofYemen .Origin
The Kindah tribe was a
Kahlani branch that was part of the Sabaean Kingdom ofMa'rib (central Yemen) in the early 3rd century AD. They played a major role in theSabaean /Hadramite war, With the Sabaean victory a branch of Kindah established themselves in Hadhramout and the majority of Kindah returned to their lands to the East of Marib. [ [http://www.thearabhistory.com/kindah] The Arab history - Kindah ]Migration out of Yemen
After the collapse of the Ma'rib dam and the Himyari final annexation of
Saba'a , The kindites headed towardsancient Bahrain but were expelled by theAbdul Qais Adnani tribe. The Kindites returned to Hadramout leaving a branch of Kindah in modernJabal Shammar in Nejd.Return to Hadramout
When the Kindites returned to Yemen in the 4th century AD The Himyarites were in the height of their power having annexed Hadramout the last rival South Arabian kingdom. The Kindites had historic feuds with the Hadramite tribes of the southern Wadi, so they were settled in Northern Hadramout and were given authority over
Hadramawt by theHimyarites . From this point on some Arab historians considered Kindah part of the Himyar tribal federation.Kindite Sheikhs in Hadhramut 325AD-425AD
*Malikum
*Murti ibn Muawiyah
*Muawiyah ibn Taur
*Amr ibn Muawiyah
*Muawiyah ibn RabiahThe expansion towards Northern Arabia
In the 5th century AD, The Adnani tribes of the North became a major threat to the trade line between Yemen and Syria. And the Himyarites decided to establish a vassal state that controlled Central and North Arabia. The Kindites gained strength and numbers to play that role, so from 425 AD The Himyarite king Hasan ibn Amr ibn Tubba’ made Hujr Akil al-Murar ibn Amr the first King (
Hujr ) of Kinda.Kindite Kings ruling from Nejd 425AD-528AD
*Hujr Akil al-Murar ibn Amr 425-458
*Amr al-Mansur ibn Hudjr 458-489
*Al-Harith Talaban ibn Amr 489-528Wars with the Lakhmids
At that period the
Ghassanids ,Lakhmids andKindites were allKahlani Qahtani vassal kingdom appointed by the Byzantines, Persians and Himyarites to protect their borders and imperial interests from the raids of the then rising threat of the Adnani tribes. The Kindites were the most successful in pacifying the Adnani tribes of Central Arabia through alliances. and focused on wars with the Lakhmids.The Fall of Himyar
In 525 AD the
Aksumites invaded Himyar and the Kindites gradually declined. Within 3 years the Kindite kingdom split into several small "kingdoms" that were subsequently destroyed in the 530s and 540s in a series of uprisings of theAdnani tribes against the Kindite kings.Imru' Al-Qais
The most famous Kindite is
Imru' al-Qais who was not only a son of one of the last Kindite kings (who unsuccessfully tried to resurrect his father's kingdom), but also the most prominent pre-Islamic Arab poet. In 540AD The Lakhmids destroyed all the Kindite settlements inNejd forcing them to move back to theHadhramawt . With theAksumites (Aksum ) in Western Yemen. The Kindites and most the Arab tribes switched their alliances to theLakhmids .Jewish Conversion
The conversion of the Himyarite kings to
Judaism in the late 5th century AD led to the conversion to Judaism of the Kindites. However, the transition of the power in Yemen to Christian Aksumites in 525 AD appears to have undermined the Kindite Judaism in the most significant way.Tribes descended from Kinda
Today most the Kindites live in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Signapore.
Banu Tageeb Ba-hbnan, Ibn Marta'a, 'Al-Mahthouth, 'Al-Afeef, 'Al-Al-Fakhr, Ba-Al-Munauthira, 'Al-Sae'ed, Al-Sadaf, 'Al-Mahdi, Ba-Ras, Ba-Baqi, Ba-Sawadan, Ibn Dighar, Dar, 'Al-Makhashin, Ba-Jamal, Ba-Kathir, Ba-Hafeen, Ibn Hameed, Ba-Qais, Ba-Karman, Ba-Sabeet Minkhoub, Ba-Bahier, Ba-Yomin ,Ba-matraf; Elias and also Bin Mahfouz which considered one the biggest tribe in Kindah nowadays.
Notes
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