Banu Hanifa - 13th Century Onwards

13th Century Onwards

In the 14th century, however, Ibn Batuta relating his visit to Hadjr, also states that most of its inhabitants are from Banu Hanifa, and even joins their emir, one Tufail ibn Ghanim, on a pilgrimate to Mecca. Little else is heard from Banu Hanifa thereafter, except that a number of clans in the region of Wadi Hanifa are given a Hanafite lineage by Jabr ibn Sayyar, the ruler of nearby Al-Qassab, in his short 17th-century manuscript on the genealogies of the people of Nejd. One such clan mentioned by Ibn Sayyar were the Mrudah, among whom later appeared Saudi Arabia's current rulers, the clan of Al Saud. Most of these clans mentioned by Ibn Sayyar, however, today claim membership of the large tribe of 'Anizzah, or to Wa'il, the purported patriarch of both 'Annizah and Hanifah. Scholars such as Hamad Al-Jassir attribute this to the need to associate with a more powerful bedouin tribe, and that 'Anizzah was chosen due to shared ancestry.