The House of Fayez (Arabic: الفايز or, colloquially: Al-Fayez, Alfayez, Al Fayez, Al Faiz, Al Fayiz) is a noble sheikhly Jordanian family that heads the major Jordanian clan Bani Sakher. The family's influence and prominence in the region was at its ultimate under Fendi Al-Fayez, who led the family in the 1840s and gradually became the leader of the entire Bani Sakher. Fendi would rule large parts of Jordan and Palestine, including the ancient Kingdoms of Moab and Ammon, and parts of modern-day Saudi Arabia until the late 1860s when a series of battles with the Ottoman Empire decreased the family's resources and claimed a portion of its holdings. After Fendi, his young son Sattam led the tribe in a push to cultivate the lands and live a more sedentary lifestyle, then under Mithqal Alfayez as a permanent political power in modern Jordan.Alon, Yoav. The Shaykh of Shaykhs: Mithqal Al-Fayiz and Tribal Leadership in Modern Jordan. Stanford University Press, 2016. The family was the largest owner of land in Jordan and owned portions of modern day Palestine, and Mithqal was the single largest owner of private land in the kingdom in 1922.Warriner, Land Reform, p.160. The Al-Fayez family is active in Jordanian and Arabian politics and is currently headed by former Prime Minister Faisal Al-Fayez.
History According to ethnographic and historical records compiled by Frederick Peake and Alois Musil, the origins of the Al-Fayez family are rooted in the northward migration of the Bani Sakhr confederation from the northern Hejaz region near Al-Ula. While early constituent branches like the Dahamshe initially established themselves along the desert fringes of Al-Balqa, the leadership structure stabilized during the early-to-mid 17th century under Fayez, a descendent of Tweiq, from whom the modern family takes its name. Fayez consolidated the political and economic influence of the Al-Touqah branch. Under his patriarchate and the subsequent leadership of his sons Mohammad, Qa'dan, and I'dbeys, the family accumulated significant livestock wealth and secured control over strategic deep-desert watering stations, including Bir Bayir and Al-Azraq. This territorial and economic consolidation allowed the Al-Fayez lineage to systematically integrate the fragmented components of the Bani Sakhr and establish a centralized leadership framework over the confederation prior to the 18th century.
18th century In 1742, Sheikh Qa'dan Al-Fayez, the progenitor of the Qa'dan branch of the Al-Fayez family and the grandson of Fayez Al-Tay, was invited to support the Ottoman state in Sieging Tiberias. Although the siege was a failure, the Beni Sakher were still thanked by an invite from As'ad Pasha al-Azm to escort the Hajj Caravans. In 1757, the Ottoman state failed to pay the Beni Sakher for their services, this coupled with the drought of 1756 has led to the infamous raid in 1757 led by Qa'dan. The raid's casualties were in the tens of thousands, including Musa Pasha and the sister of the sultan.
By the 1780s the Bani Sakher tribe was under the leadership of the sons and grandsons of brother I'dbeys, Qa'dan, and Mohammad Al-Fayez. Awad bin Thiab, grandson of Mohammad was at considered by the Ottomans as the face of the tribe and its paramount sheikh, arranging and actively participating in the logistics of Al Hajj caravans and trading. His cousins Sa'd bin Qa'dan and Rabah bin I'dbeys were more focused on tribal raids and regional warfare. During the French invasion of Palestine in 1799, the Beni Sakhr tribe, mobilized crossed the Jordan River to combat Napoleon's forces of 13,000 troops at the Battle of Esdraelon. It was during this dramatic confrontation that Rabah, supported by Emir Awad, famously remarked that he "could not swim in hell with a stick" when contrasting his traditional cavalry lances with the overwhelming force of the French artillery infantry squares.
19th century In November 1804, during a logistical crisis facing the annual Mecca pilgrimage (Hajj al-Sharif), the Ottoman Damascus Eyalet under Governor Abdullah Pasha al-Azm contracted the autonomous Bani Sakher tribe to secure the Transjordanian transport corridors. As recorded in the Jerusalem Sharia Court Registers (Sijillat al-Mahkama al-Shar'iyya), the provincial government issued a high-priority financial transfer (hawala) of 32,000 Ottoman piasters to the paramount leader Sheikh Awad bin Thiab Al-Fayez. This expenditure commissioned the Al-Fayez leadership to transport 1,000 camel-loads of barley to the imperial garrison at Ma'an Castle (Qal'at Ma'an), safeguarding the pilgrimage from starvation and tribal raids. A historiographical contract highlights the deep sovereign interdependence between the empire and local authorities. By addressing Awad with the elite courtly honorific «مفخر المشايخ الموقرين» ("The Pride of the Honored Sheikhs"), the Sublime Porte officially codified the noble, paramount status of the Al-Fayez lineage at this stage as the supreme gatekeepers of the frontier decades before 19th-century European expeditions began documenting the region.
In 1820, Fendi Al-Fayez, a grandson of Sheikh Awad bin Thiab led in battle for the first recorded time, and by mid century he was the paramount sheikh and revered throughout Arabia. One of the most famous conflicts that they had was against the Majalli family in 1863 and was documented by the Italian explorer Carlo Claudio Camillo Guarmani in his book that Northern Nejd. The Al Tafilah villagers, who were subject to Mohammad Al-Majalli, paying yearly tributes to him, were discontented with the recent negligence of the Majalis in protecting the villagers. The Tafilah villagers were gathered by Abdullah Al-Huara, the chief of the Tafilah, and agreed to renounce vassalage and replace the tribute with an annual gift as homage instead. The Al-Majalli chief was discontent with this and was ready to force the Tafilah's to become their vassals again, but was stopped by the Bani Sakher headed by Fendi, where Fendi sent Shlash Al-Bakhit Al-Fayez to ensure the contract between them where both parties comprised to avoid bloodshed.
However, in January 1864, Al-Majalli again decided to attack and announce himself the master of the Tafilah, and was met with an immediate declaration of war from Fendi himself. Shlash Al-Bakhit was successful in leading an attack against Qoblan Al-Mkheisen who was appointed by Al-Majalli to oversee the Tafilah. Fendi shortly after sent 200 who met a force of 2000 riflemen on dromedaries. However, during the long standstill, the people of Al-Kerak were virtually under siege and were quickly running out of food and becoming increasingly ill-content, sensing this, Al-Majalli secretly went to Fendi in the night to personally declare his surrender to him and agreed to pay reparations to all those wronged in the conflict, including reinstating Al-Huara's son as the Chief of Al-Tafilah.
In 1868, an Anglican missionary, F.A Klein, was accompanied by Sattam bin Fendi on Fendi's orders to show him the Mesha Stele, which was previously unknown to the western world. The stone has been dated to 840BC and described a war between the ancient Kingdom of Moab and the ancient Kingdom of Israel. Today the stone can be found in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
In 1879, Fendi, on the way back from Nablus as part of his camel trade has died in the from illness in the Adwan lands of Al-Ghor region. His burial and mausoleum are located at the final junction of the Valleys of Al-Kafrein and Al-Ramah, exactly four kilometers east of the Baptismal Site of Jesus.
A dispute occurred shortly after over the succession of Fendi, between his second eldest Satm and his chosen successor Sattam. The feud lasted until 1881, and ended with Satm's death and Sattam being recognized by both the Arabs and the Ottomans. He received his beyship from the latter, and shortly followed the creation of the new administrative region of Al-Jizah with Sattam as its first governor . An incident between the Majalis of Karak and Henry B. Tristram that same year was solved with Sattam reasserting the Al-Fayez influence and dominance over the Karak region.
Sattam's focus during his rule was on safeguarding trading routes going through his regions from bandits and settling new populations from Palestine and Egypt into Jordan to increase the manpower for agriculture. The most notable example of this was the settling of many Gazans such as the Abu Zaid family into the Sahab region
20th Century After Sattam's death in 1891, another succession crisis unfolded with Sattam's son Fayez bin Sattam vying to succeed his father, in opposition to his uncle Talal bin Fendi. Talal was eventually recognized as Sheikh of Sheikhs of the Beni Sakher. The Ottomans invited both Fayez and Talal to Istanbul to arbitrate a successful reconciliation. During his visit, Talal was conferred the title of Pasha with a monthly salary and would later become Beylerbey. During his 18-year reign, Talal enjoyed friendly relations with the Ottomans during his last years with strains over the construction of the Hijaz Railway which not only crossed through many of the family's private lands but would also destroy their income as protectors of Hajj Caravans and providers of camels and supplies. Talal negotiated with the Ottomans, where they agreed to keep paying for the Hajj Caravans, and also pay the tribe for the protection of the Hijaz Railway. By 1908, Talal stopped receiving payments from the Ottomans, and his trip to Damascus to complain coincided with the beginning of the Young Turk revolution.
Talal would be succeeded by Fawaz bin Sattam in 1909. Fawaz who was recognized by the Ottomans as Sheikh of Shiekhs and would act as an official representative of the empire, but would face a rebellious Mithqal who challenged Ottoman authority over cultivated fertile lands. By then, the new Ottoman administration was enacting new conscription laws that even included tribesmen. Mithqal dropped his claim over the land after peaceful negotiations between the two parties and a settlement of 200 ewes to Mithqal. By 1913, Mithqal would act as the military commander of the Bani Sakher and would share a portion of the leadership of the Beni Sakher with his brother Fawaz.
After Fawaz's death in 1917, his son Mashour who had had a Damascene education would succeed his father. Mashour was recognized by the Ottomans as Sheikh of Shiekhs, and Mithqal who was older was compensated by the Ottomans by the title of Pasha to become the last real Pasha in Jordan with a title sanctioned by the Sultan. In 1920, Mashour was recognized as the Governor of Jiza and would serve in the position till his death in a inter-tribal battle in 1921. Mithqal who welcomed then Abdullah bin Hussein in Jiza, was recognized as Sheikh of Sheikhs of the Beni Sakher in the new Emirate of Transjordan with no opposition.
In 1923, during the Adwan rebellion, Mithqal Al-Fayez led the Beni Sakher against the Adwan and in full support of Emir Abdullah, with the result being the defeat of the Adwan forces with some taken as prisoners and exiled.
In may of 1926, Emir Abdullah brokered both peace and an agreement of non-aggression between the Bani Sakher and the Huwaytat, signed on by Mithqal Al-Fayez and Hamad bin Jazi. This was followed with the larger Al-Ramadi conference in Iraq in 1927, where Mithqal and heads of the major tribes of Jordan and Iraq such as the paramount Sheikh of Shammar Aqil Al-Yawar Al-Jarba and the paramount Sheikh of the Anazzah Mahrouth bin Fahad bin Hathal, agreed to cease the ancient practice of extra-tribal warefare "Ghazw". Mithqal was also a signatory and a broker of a similar agreement between Syrian tribes and Jordanian tribes in 1928 which ended the tradition in the whole of North Arabia.
21st Century - present In 2004, H.E Faisal Al-Fayez becomes the Prime Minister of Jordan, and later in 2005, also becomes the Head of the Royal Hashemite Court.