The Aws and Khazraj: Qahtani Arabs from the Land of Saba

❧Two Kinds of Arabs

The Arabs of Arabia trace their lineage to two great progenitors: ʿAdnān and Qaḥṭān. All the tribes of the Ḥijāz, Quraysh, Thaqīf, Kinanah, are Adnānī. The Prophet ﷺ himself is Adnānī. There had always been tension, sometimes outright war, between Adnānī and Qaḥṭānī Arabs.

The only Qaḥṭānī Arabs anywhere in the Ḥijāz were the Aws and the Khazraj of Yathrib. They were surrounded on all sides by Adnānī territory. That is the context of their presence.

❧The People of Saba and the Ma'rib Dam

The Aws and the Khazraj trace their lineage back to the city of Maʾrib, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Sabaʾ (Sheba). This is the civilization mentioned in the Quran:

Laqad kāna li-Sabaʾin fī maskanihim āyah: jannatāni ʿan yamīnin wa shimāl. Kulū min rizqi rabbikum washkurū lah. Baldatun ṭayyibatun wa rabbun ghafūr. (34:15)

"Indeed, for [the people of] Saba there was a sign in their dwelling place: two gardens on the right and on the left. Eat of the provision of your Lord and be grateful to Him. A pleasant land and a forgiving Lord."

The people of Saba built what historians consider the world's first dam, the Maʾrib Dam, which harnessed the water flowing into the valley and created year-round irrigation for the surrounding gardens. The dam was a marvel of ancient engineering; its remains can still be seen near the modern city of Maʾrib in Yemen.

Allāh, however, also punished them for their ingratitude:

Fa-arsalnā ʿalayhim sayla l-ʿarim. (34:16), "So We sent against them the flood of the dam (sayl al-ʿArim)."

The dam collapsed. Most likely this occurred around 300 CE, approximately 250 years before the Hijrah. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. Villages were destroyed. The Yemeni tribes scattered in many directions.

❧The Aws and Khazraj Arrive in Yathrib

The Aws and the Khazraj are cousin tribes, they share a common ancestor. So while they are distinct tribes with distinct leadership, they are related by blood. As part of the mass migration caused by Sayl al-ʿArim, they made their way northward through the Arabian Peninsula and eventually settled in Yathrib.

Why Yathrib specifically? Two likely factors:

1. Yathrib was an established, fertile settlement already occupied by Jewish farmers, people who were comfortable with agriculture and trade, who could benefit from Arab warriors and vice versa

2. If the Yemeni Jews and the Yathrib Jews had any prior trading relationship (both being part of the Yemeni diaspora in some reconstructions), then the Aws and Khazraj may have had prior knowledge of this settlement through Yemeni commercial networks

The Aws appear to have arrived first. They negotiated with the two largest Jewish tribes, Banū Qurayẓah and Banū Naḍīr, for land-use arrangements: the Arabs would farm the land, give the Jewish landlords a percentage of the produce, and take the rest. This gave the Aws access to Yathrib's best agricultural land. The Khazraj arrived later and formed their alliance with the third Jewish tribe, Banū Qaynuqāʿ, and settled on somewhat less luscious land.

This explains a striking socioeconomic difference: the Aws were wealthier than the Khazraj. They had better land, better alliances with the two richer Jewish tribes, and therefore higher income. The Khazraj had the lower territories. This socioeconomic imbalance fed into the tensions between the two tribes.

❧Relationships and Divisions

Over the next 150–200 years, the Aws and Khazraj solidified their tribal identities and their alliances. The Jewish tribes were not neutral parties, they actively supported different sides in the Arab civil wars that followed:

- Banū Naḍīr financed and supported the Aws

- Banū Qaynuqāʿ supported the Khazraj

The civil wars lasted over a century. The most devastating was the Battle of Buʿāth, which occurred about five years before the Hijrah. By the time of the Prophet ﷺ's arrival, the wars had exhausted both tribes and eliminated the senior leadership that might have resisted radical change.

❧Why This Merger Mattered

The significance of the Prophet ﷺ, an Adnānī, settling among Qaḥṭānī people was immense. For the first time since the ancient days of Adnān and Qaḥṭān, the two great streams of Arabian identity came together under a single banner, not through conquest or forced submission, but through a shared faith. The Prophet ﷺ had praised Yemeni people explicitly: "Al-ḥikmatu yamānin wa al-īmānu yamānī", "Wisdom is Yemeni and Imān is Yemeni." The Anṣār bore out the prophecy.

The coalition could not be opposed on ethnic grounds by anyone in Arabia. Both bloodlines were represented.

❧Population of the Arab Community

At the Conquest of Makkah (8 AH), the Anṣār contributed approximately 4,000–5,000 men to the Muslim army. Multiplying by ~3 for women and children gives roughly 12,000–15,000 Arabs in Yathrib at the time of the Hijrah.

Combined with ~6,000 Jews, the total population of Yathrib at the Hijrah was approximately 20,000 people, a significant city for its time and place.