Maʿadd () 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 the tribe itself. The tribe was understood in genealogies to be one of several northern Arab tribes that collectively descended from Ma'add's father, Adnan. By contrast, the tribes of South Arabia traced their ancestry to Qahtan. Ma'addite may have been the Arabic dialect that pre-Islamic qasidas were composed in, and it may have a common ancestor with Hijazi Arabic.
The word Ma'add underwent many semantic shifts in the Islamic era. First, the Ma'add geography transitioned from central Arabia to the Fertile Crescent as a result of the movement of peoples during the early Muslim conquests. Then, the word Ma'add went from being used as an ethnonym, to a tribe. To reassert its hegemony in the face of the spread of pan-Arab identity (and as the term 'Arab' came to adopt the communal sense of 'Ma'add' in earlier times) in the eighth century, the Ma'add tribe was traced to a founder figure (named Ma'add) who became the earliest ascertainable ancestor of the Arabs. By the ninth-century, however, Arab genealogical history was extended further back, first to Ma'add's father Adnan, and then his grandfather Udad, and eventually, Ishmael, as the ancestor of all Arabs. Yet another genealogical model then became dominant, which delineated South Arabs as a distinguished line of Arabs descending not from Ishmael or Adnan, but Qahtan. By the end of the ninth century, Ma'addite identity had become largely lost.
Pre-Islamic era
Inscriptions The first well-dated text that uses the word Ma'add (as MʿDW) is the Namara inscription ( CE), discovered at Namara in southern Syria. In this Arabic inscription, Ma'add is mentioned in a list of the Arabian groups, including Nizar and Asdayn, subjugated by the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr, along with other Arab nations from north, west central and South Arabia. In this context, Imru' al-Qays is described as the "King of the Arabs" (malik al-ʿarab) and "King of Maʿadd" (malik maʿadd),Jan Retso, Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads (2003), RoutledgeCurzon publications, Page: 467 indicating his submission of the Ma'add in this time. The inscription is ambiguous regarding the geography of Ma'add. According to Webb, the inscription could imply that they were located in South Arabia, possibly near Najran. Irfan Shahid argues that the inscription offers little specificity as to the locale of Ma'add in Arabia, or whether it was a tribe or a confederation. Shahid speculates the group could have formed out of the chaos among the Arab tribes following either the Roman annexation of the Nabatean Kingdom in 106 CE or the fall of the Palmyrene Empire to Rome in 272, both polities having wielded significant influence or control over Arab tribal life in northern Arabia. After the submission to Imru' al-Qays of the Lakhmids, Ma'add again appears in a successive series of conflicts from 340 to 360 CE, in having to confront Himyarite expeditions against them. A century later, in a source found at Maʾsal Jumḥ, the Himyarite king Abu Karib celebrates a conquest of Ma'add in an expedition that involved an alliance with the tribes of Sabaʾ, Hadhramaut, and Kinda. Another source from 521 CE in the same place describes a Himyarite expedition launched further north from the same region, indicating the maintenance of Himyarite possession over subsequent decades. After another revolt, Abraha finally and permanently defeated Ma'add in 552 CE at Haliban.
The 'Land of Maʿadd' (ʾRḌ MʿDM) is mentioned in an inscription, Jabal Riyām 2006–17. The date of the inscription is unclear, although the editors have placed it in the 3rd century CE. If correct, it would be the earliest source for Ma'add. The inscription ʿAbadan 1 (c. 360 CE) describes campaigns by the Himyarite Kingdom against nomadic groups, among them Ma'add.
Ma'add is mentioned in two Middle Sabaic texts which suggest Ma'add is in central Arabia, slightly at odds with the Namara inscription, potentially signifying fluid borders. Inscriptions during and around the time of Abraha (a Himyarite king) in the 6th century more firmly localize Ma'add to central Arabia. Some corroboration for the idea that the Ma'add belonged to the Himyarite sphere of influence comes from the mid-6th century writings of the Byzantine historian Procopius and Ibn Habib's al-Muhabbar (9th century). From these sources, it may be concluded that the Ma'add were generally north of the territory under Himyarite control, and south of the territory of Lakhmid control. Therefore, they existed beyond the domains of immediate territorial control of the major powers of their time.
A new inscription from the late 3rd century CE allows the territorial extent of Ma'add to be confidently assessed at this point in time. It was centered on Maʾsal Jumḥ. To the southeast, it reached Yabrīn, and to the southwest, it reached Ḥalibān. To the north, it reached ʿĀqil and Wādī al-Ruma, including the valley of al-Kharj.
Poetry Ma'add is a prominent group described in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry (often used as a signifier for "all people"), with at least a few lines being dedicated to them in virtually every collection of this poetry. They regularly appear as an overarching identity, with whom comparisons are frequently made in order to elevate ones self or their tribe. For example, al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani praises the leader al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir by comparing him with Ma'add:You outstrip the nobles in nobility / Like a stallion outstrips hunting dogs in the chase, / You surpass all of Maʿadd as a patron sought and enemy feared, / From the abundance of praise, you are its first recipient.The Taghlib poet al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq used the term in a similar way, to boast of the supremacy of his own clan:All people of Maʿadd have their tribes / And each have their safe havens. / But we have no mountain strongholds, / Only swords of formidable repute.For some poets, it was a "disgrace" not to descend from either Ma'add or AdnanJawwad Ali, The Detailed History of Arabs before Islam (1993), University of Baghdad, Vol.1, pp. 379–387Ihsan Abbas, The "Divan" (Collection of Poems) of Labeed ibn Rabi'a (1962-Kuwait), Page: 255 and Ma'add's glory alone outweighed the rest of that of the history of Arabia.Ignác Goldziher - Muhammedanische Studien 1, Page: 91 Some poems imply that the Ma'add tribe were the vast majority of pre-Islamic Arabs.Abd A. Mahna, The "Divan" (Collection of Poems) of Hassan Ibn Thabet (1994), Page:44Abd Ar-Rahman Al-Barqouqi, Explanation of the "Divan" (Collection of Poems) of Hassan Ibn Thabet (1929), Page: 398 Other poems celebrate Ma'add's victory against a tribe of South Arabia called the Madh'hij.Ibn Salam, Tabaqat Ash-Shu'araa (The Ranks of Poets), Page: 5
Byzantine sources The nation of Ma'add was mentioned by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea ( CE– CE) in his historical record of the wars of Justinian I. He mentioned that a Saracen nation named "Maddeni" (Ma'add) were subjects with the kingdom of the "Homeritae" (Himyarites), and that Justinian sent a letter to the Himyarite king ordering him to assemble an army of Himyarite soldiers and from Ma'add under the leadership of a king of the nation of Ma'add named "Kaisus" (Qays), in order to attack the borders of the Sasanian Empire, and then approved the leader of Ma'add as a king on the region.H.B Dewing, Procopius's History of Wars, Page: 181
Arabic historiography and Kindite kingship
The 5th-century Sabaic inscription in central Arabia which noted that the Himyarite king Abikarib As'ad and his son Hassan Yuha'min "soujourned in the land of Ma'add on the occasion of the establishment of certain of their tribes" correlates with an early Islamic-period literary source, the ('Book of Songs') which notes Abikarib As'ad appointed the Kindite chief Hujr "over the tribe of Ma'add". The Arabic literary tradition suggests that Hujr and his family (the Banu Akil al-Murar) established their rule over the Ma'add, in what is generally referred to as the Kindite kingdom. According to the general narrative, the Ma'add tribes invited the Himyarites' intervention to bring order to the Ma'add. Instead of ruling over them directly, the Himyarites delegated the role to Hujr for unclear reasons.
After Hujr died the main body of the Ma'add tribes in Najd (northern central Arabia) were led by his son Amr 'al-Maqsur' and the Ma'add tribes of the Yamama (southeastern central Arabia) were ruled by his other son Mu'awiya 'al-Jawn'. The Ma'add tribe of Rabi'a, or more particularly its subtribes of Taghlib and Bakr, rejected Amr's authority and most likely killed him in battle around the late 5th century. Under Amr's son al-Harith, in 502, the Kinda became federates of the Byzantines, siutated largely outside of the Limes Arabicus frontier, while the Ghassanids became the Empire's federates within the Limes under the same agreement. Al-Harith split command of the Ma'add among four of his sons, Hujr, Ma'dikarib, Shurahbil and Salama. Gunnar Olinder estimates the division occurred around the start of his reign, prompted by internal strife among the tribes of Ma'add whose leaders requested the division by al-Harith. Hujr was installed over the brother tribes of Asad and Kinana from the Mudar division and whose abodes were in Jabal Shammar and the Tihama, respectively. Ma'dikarib ruled over the Qays tribe of Mudar, and whose branches were spread across northern and central Arabia. Salama led the Rabi'a tribes of Taghlib and al-Namir ibn Qasit and the Sa'd ibn Zaydmanat and Hanzala branches of the Tamim, another Mudar tribe; all of Salama's tribes dwelt in northeastern Arabia, close to the Sasanian realm. Shurahbil controlled the Bakr, sections of the Tamim, and the Ribab, all except the latter of which lived between Jabal Shammar, eastern Arabia and the Euphrates valley; the Ribab lived in the southern part of central Arabia.