Banū Kilāb

The Banu Kilab () was an Arab tribe in the western Najd (central Arabia) where they controlled the horse-breeding pastures of Dariyya from the mid-6th century until at least the mid-9th century. The tribe was divided into ten branches, the most prominent being the Ja'far, Abu Bakr, Amr, Dibab and Abd Allah. The Ja'far led the Kilab and its parent tribe of Banu Amir, and, at times, the larger Hawazin tribal confederation from the time of the Kilab's entry into the historical record, , until the advent of Islam, , except for two occasions when the larger Abu Bakr was at the helm. Under the Ja'far's leadership the Kilab defeated rival tribes and the Lakhmid kings and eventually became guards of the Lakhmid caravans to the annual fair in the Hejaz (western Arabia). The killing of a Ja'far chief as he escorted one such caravan led to the Fijar War between the Hawazin and the Quraysh of Mecca.

The Kilab, or at least its chief, Amir ibn al-Tufayl, was involved in the massacre of Muslims at Bir Ma'una in 626 despite being under the protection of Amir's uncle Abu Bara. Amir's successor converted to Islam, followed by other tribesmen, including the prominent poet Labid and al-Dahhak ibn Sufyan, who was dispatched by the Islamic prophet Muhammad on an expedition against a recalcitrant Kilabi clan. The Banu Amir played a minor role in the early Muslim conquests, but members of the Kilab later established themselves in the garrison towns of Iraq. Several, including Aslam ibn Zur'a and his family, were governors of Basra, Khurasan, and other eastern provinces under the Umayyad caliphs in 661–750.

The Kilabi chief Zufar ibn al-Harith led the rebel Qays nomads of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and Jund Qinnasrin (northern Syria). He obtained from the Umayyads privileges later inherited by his family, who were generally recognized as the preeminent leaders of the Qays. Zufar's grandson, Abu al-Ward, led an abortive Qaysi revolt against the Umayyads' Abbasid successors in 750. In 813 a Kilabi chief of the Qays in Damascus, Ibn Bayhas, crushed an Umayyad revolt against the Abbasids, after which he ruled Damascus for ten years. There were two more mass migrations of Kilabi tribesmen from Arabia to northern Syria in the 9th and 10th centuries, the last associated with the rebellious Qarmatian movement. Through their numerical strength, skilled swordsmanship, and Bedouin mobility, the Kilab became the dominant military force in northern Syria. Two Kilabi brothers were appointed governors of Aleppo under the Ikshidids of Egypt in 939 and the 940s, until they handed over power under pressure from rival Kilabi chiefs to the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla in 944. The Kilab often rebelled against the Hamdanids and participated in their intra-dynastic disputes.

In the early 11th century, Salih ibn Mirdas assumed leadership of the Kilab and by 1025, he established an Aleppo-based emirate (principality) that spanned much of the western Jazira and northern Syria. His Mirdasid dynasty ruled Aleppo until 1080, with minor interruption. The Kilab were the core of the Mirdasid army and defended their realm, defeating the Byzantine emperor Romanos III at the Battle of Azaz in 1030 and fending off several Fatimid assaults in later years. Recurring internal divisions had sapped the tribe's strength by the reign of the last Mirdasid emir. The Kilab retained scattered fortresses and remained a major source of military recruitment for the Mirdasids' successors, but they lost their paramountcy to Turkmen groups which had begun entering northern Syria in significant numbers from the late 11th century. The Ayyubids confiscated the Kilab's last holdings in the region and put the tribe under the authority of an (state-sponsored commander of the Bedouin), an office held by the Al Fadl house of the rival Banu Tayy. Part of the Kilab migrated to Anatolia, reappearing in 1262 as auxiliaries of the Armenians in a raid against the Mamluks. In 1277 the tribe submitted to the Mamluk sultan Baybars in northern Syria.

The Kilabi way of life in Syria resembled their pre-Islamic existence in Arabia. There were raids and counter-raids against neighboring tribes and between the tribe itself, characterized by individual duels and boasts of valor, and motivated by booty or revenge. Young tribesmen spent the springtime horse-racing and wine-drinking. Mass banquets were held for special occasions, such as weddings and circumcisions. The women of the Kilab in Syria generally enjoyed equality with the men of the tribe and a number of Kilabi women played prominent roles in Mirdasid politics. The Kilab in Syria were Twelver Shia Muslims, though the extent of their adherence to the faith was unclear.

Arabia

Origins and branches

The Banu Kilab were a major branch of the Banu Amir ibn Sa'sa'a, a large Bedouin (nomadic Arab) tribe, which first appeared in the historical record in the mid-6th century; they were mentioned in a South Arabian inscription by Abraha in 544/45 or 547. The Banu Amir were the most powerful tribe of the Hawazin confederation. According to the Arab genealogical tradition, the Kilab's eponymous progenitor was a son of Rabi'a ibn Amir ibn Sa'sa'a and the latter's wife Majd, the daughter of Taym ibn Murra of the Quraysh, the mercantile tribe in control of the Ka'aba, a major sanctuary in Mecca for the polytheistic Arab tribes in the pre-Islamic period. The marriage of Rabi'a and Majd spawned another prominent branch of the Banu Amir, the Banu Ka'b.

There were ten first-tier divisions of the Kilab, each named after a son of the tribe's founder. They were the Ja'far, Abu Bakr, Amr, Amir, Mu'awiya, Abd Allah al-Samut, al-Adbat, Ka'b, Rabi'a, and Ru'as, the most prominent being the first five. The Abu Bakr was the largest and strongest division, followed by the Amr. The Amir division's Wahid clan was more numerous than the Amr, but weaker. The Abu Bakr, Amr, and Wahid shared the same maternal ancestor, Subay'a bint Murra ibn Sa'sa'a. The Amr and Wahid were traditionally close allies of the tribe's preeminent house, the Ja'far. The Mu'awiya was commonly known as (), because five of its progenitor's sons, Dabb, Dabab, Mudibb, Hisl, and Husayl, bore different names for a lizard. About half of the Mu'awiya lived a settled life, while the other half remained nomadic, like the rest of the Kilab. The Rabi'a, Ru'as, Ka'b, and al-Adbat were the least prominent divisions. The Abd Allah al-Samut grew prominent only with the advent of Islam. Each of the main divisions of the Kilab were composed of several branches and sub-tribes.

Abode

The Banu Amir's original homeland was the area west of the Turubah oasis, extending eastward beyond Ranyah to the uplands south of the modern Mecca–Riyadh highway in Najd (central Arabia). From this region, the Kilab migrated northward and northwestward into a large area which later became known as the . At one point in the pre-Islamic period, the Kilab controlled nine-tenths of the . They also occupied the area south of the as far west as al-Siyy (about east of Mecca). The previously established tribes of the Dariyya area, the Numayr (which was later counted as a subtribe of the Banu Amir), part of the Muharib, and the Ghani largely became dependents of the Kilab.

The Dibab division seasonally migrated between their older settlements in the Turubah oasis and the center of the Dariyya. The Abd Allah lived along the modern Irq al-Subay', northwest of modern Riyadh, while the Abu Bakr seasonally migrated from the southern Dariyya southeastward to Karish on the modern Mecca–Riyadh highway. The Amr seasonally migrated from the southeastern Dariyya to Damkh. The Kilab's brother tribe of Ka'b and its sub-tribes of Uqayl, Qushayr, Ja'da, Harish, and Ajlan inhabited the wide stretch of territory from Ranyah and the northern approaches of Najran in the southwest to the Tuwaiq oases to the northeast. The migration areas of the Kilab and the Ka'b bordered each other along an extensive stretch. This "explains the remarkable solidarity of the Ka'b and the Kilab", according to the historian Werner Caskel.

Kilabi territory was bordered to the east by the Tamim and Ribab tribes, to the northeast by the Banu Asad, to the north and northwest by the tribes of the Ghatafan, and to the southwest by the Sulaym and the other groups of the Hawazin. To the south the Banu Amir's territories were bordered by those of the Khath'am and the South Arabian tribes of Murad, Suda' and Ju'fi, which had taken up nomadism and pushed northward toward the Banu Amir's territories. Other than the Sulaym and Hawazin, with whom the Kilab had cordial relations, the Kilab was in a constant state of latent hostilities with its neighboring tribes and with the South Arabian neighbors of the Ka'b and the Banu Amir in general. Friendly relations had been maintained with the Balharith, Nahd and Jarm of Najran to the southwest, but toward the end of the 6th century or the beginning of the 7th century the sources report hostilities between the Kilab and the Balharith.

Leadership of the Ja'far

Between 550 and 630, the Ja'far exceeded all other divisions of the Kilab, and the Banu Amir in general, in military prowess and energy. They were the leading house of the Banu Amir for most of this period, exercising "some vague authority over the Kilab", in the words of Caskel. Before the mid-6th century, the tribes of central northern Arabia, generally grouped together under the Qays confederacy, had been under the sway of the Kindite kings. As Kindite dominance faded around the mid-6th century, the Qays came under the supremacy of Zuhayr ibn Jadhima of the Banu Abs, who had the support of the Lakhmid kings of al-Hira in Iraq. The Abs were a clan of the Ghatafan, which, together with the Hawazin, accounted for most of the Qays. Zuhayr's rule was considered oppressive by the Hawazin, moving Khalid ibn Ja'far, a son of the Ja'far's eponymous progenitor, to assassinate Zuhayr. Khalid thereafter became the head of the Hawazin, which separated from the Qaysi confederacy, and gained the Lakhmids' favor.

Conflict with the Tamim

At an uncertain point after the Hawazin's break with Ghatafan, Khalid led a raid against the Banu Murra clan of Ghatafan, in which its chief was slain. In turn, the chief's son assassinated Khalid in the 560s. Khalid's killer gained protection from part of the Tamim, led by Laqit ibn Zurara, provoking the ire of the Banu Amir. Khalid's brother and successor, al-Ahwas ibn Ja'far, led an attack against the Tamim at the battle of Rahrahan and captured Laqit's brother, who soon after died in captivity. In revenge, Laqit gathered a coalition of the Tamim, the Banu Dhubyan of Ghatafan, the Asad, and contingents from the Kindite rulers of Bahrayn and the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir IV (). In the ensuing battle of Shi'b Jabala, the Banu Amir and Abs under al-Ahwas repulsed Laqit and achieved a decisive victory. The battle was one of the three most famous ('battle days') of the pre-Islamic Arabs, and the historian Franz Krenkow called it "the most remarkable deed recorded of the Kilāb". It weakened Kindite power in northern Arabia and led to the eventual Kindite migration to the Hadramawt.

The battle took place sometime between 550 and 582. About one year after, the Banu Amir, led by the Kilabi chiefs, allied with a Kindite prince from Yemen, Hassan ibn Kabsha. Their aim was to eliminate the Darim, the branch of the Tamim that had opposed Kilab at Shi'b Jabala, and seize their lands and livestock. The Darim had prior knowledge of the planned raid and withdrew into the Wadi al-Rummah valley, placing before them another branch of the Tamim called the Yarbu. The Yarbu, an especially warlike clan, had not been present at Shi'b Jabala and thus did not incur the casualties of its Tamimi brethren. During the subsequent clash between the two sides, known as the Day of Dhu Najab, the Yarbu killed Ibn Kabsha and killed or wounded several Kilabi chiefs, including the head of the Amr division, Yazid ibn al-Sa'iq, and al-Ahwas's son and nephew.

Relations with the Lakhmids

At the beginning of the Lakhmid king al-Nu'man III's reign (), a delegation from the Ja'far arrived at al-Nu'man's court in al-Hira to gain favor for their tribe, at a time when the king was a friend and drinking companion of al-Rabi ibn Ziyad, a chief of the Abs and enemy of the Ja'far. The delegation was led by Abu Bara Amir ibn Malik, the nephew and successor of al-Ahwas. Al-Rabi influenced al-Nu'man against the Ja'far, prompting Abu Bara's nephew, the future celebrated poet Labid ibn Rabi'a ibn Malik, to recite his first known poem, a (prosody), in which he humiliated al-Rabi. In reaction, al-Nu'man expelled al-Rabi from his court in disgrace and granted the Ja'far unspecified requests. In the words of the historian Charles James Lyall, "the members of this illustrious family he Ja'farwere fully conscious of its eminence". In Labid's before al-Nu'man's court he proclaimed:

We are the best of ʿĀmir son of Ṣaʿṣaʿah;
We feast our guests on platters ever full,
And smite the heads beneath the battle-din.

The Hawazin's relations with the Lakhmid kings were mainly predicated on transporting goods from al-Hira to the annual fair at Ukaz in the Hejaz (western Arabia), for which they were given a part of the profits. In an unspecified year before 585, the Banu Amir had attacked one of al-Nu'man's caravans on its way to Ukaz, prompting the king to dispatch a punitive expedition against the tribe. During the confrontation that followed, Abu Bara and Yazid ibn al-Sa'iq led their tribe to a decisive victory. Individual tribesmen or clans of the Hawazin at times partook in Lakhmid raids in the Najd, where the kings of al-Hira could typically not enter without escorts from the Hawazin or their allies, the Sulaym. During the early part of al-Nu'man's reign, the Qushayr clan of the Kilab's brother tribe of Ka'b, seized the king's caravan after the king had been compelled to flee from an incoming Sasanian Persian army. When another clan of the Ka'b, the Uqayl, demanded the Qushayr split the booty, fighting ensued between the two clans until a Kilabi chief, Abu Bara's brother Mu'awiya ibn Malik, arbitrated the dispute. Mu'awiya boasted of his household and its leadership position in verse:

A man am I of famous company, active in all good works, whose glory is high of head, inherited from our fathers:
... We render to the tribe all that is due and fitting: and we pardon its offenses against us, and re admitted by all to beits chiefs.
And when the tribe loads its burdens upon us, we stand up therewith and bear them: and when it repeats the load, we bear it yet again.

Fijar War

The ambushing and killing of the Ja'far leader Urwa al-Rahhal as he escorted the Lakhmid caravan to Ukaz sparked a series of battles between the Hawazin, under Abu Bara, and the Quraysh. This conflict took place over four years, and is known as the Fijar Wars. Urwa's killer was an ally of the Qurayshite chief Harb ibn Umayya, but the Quraysh also had close relations with the Kilab. Both tribes belonged to the , a socio-economic and religious pact including a number of tribes living in the (the area around Mecca considered inviolable by the Arabs). The Kilab and the Ka'b did not live within the and owed their membership to their maternal Qurayshite descent. Abu Bara's and the Kilab's participation in the Fijar Wars was restricted to the first battle, in which they pursued the Quraysh from Ukaz and bested them at Nakhla, on their retreat to Mecca. When the Quraysh crossed into the , the Kilab halted their pursuit in fear of violating its sanctity.

Modern historians have generally assessed that the Fijar War was related to the Quraysh's attempts to close the caravan route between al-Hira and Yemen through Ta'if, a town which commercially rivaled Mecca, or to redirect the route through Mecca. This assessment was questioned by Ella Landau-Tasseron, who posited that the Banu Amir and the Quraysh had been mutually interested in gaining greater, joint control of the annual Lakhmid caravans to Yemen. Moreover, the Ja'far and the Quraysh were both seen as enemies by the Bakr ibn Abd Manat, the branch of the Kinana to which Urwa's killer belonged. The animosity of the Bakr ibn Abd Manat toward the Ja'far stemmed from the canceling of a protection covenant by Abu Bara's brother al-Tufayl; the Bakr ibn Abd Manat had entered al-Tufayl's protection in Najd after the Quraysh had expelled them from Mecca. In the years preceding the Fijar War the Bakr ibn Abd Manat attempted to obtain commissions from the Lakhmids to guard their caravans. Although the killing of Urwa had been against the interests of the Kilab and the Quraysh, the latter were compelled to fight due to the Kilab's intent on blood revenge against the Qurayshite confederates of Urwa's killer. The Kilab's limited participation in the ensuing war may have reflected their desire not to breach the pact.

Ja'far–Abu Bakr rivalry

The cohesion of the Kilab in the pre-Islamic period was particularly strong. Although its internal unity generally held in the face of external challenges, there was a recurring rivalry between the Ja'far and the Abu Bakr for leadership of the tribe. Ja'far leadership took a blow after the Kilab was routed and dispersed by the Dhubyan, as the Ja'far became isolated from its brother tribes. This contributed to their subsequent exile to the protection of the Balharith in Najran, which Caskel attributes to the machinations of the Abu Bakr chief, Jawwab Malik ibn Ka'b. The incident which triggered their exodus was the killing of Urwa al-Rahhal's son by a member of the Ghani, and the Ja'far's rejection of the Ghani's payment of blood money, as they regarded the Ghani to be of lesser status; in the resulting tension, the Ghani allied with the Abu Bakr.

The Banu Amir, under the leadership of the Abu Bakr, were soon after routed by an alliance of rival tribes in the battle of al-Nisar. In the subsequent peace settlement, the Banu Amir surrendered half of their property to the victors in return for their captive women. The Ja'far, under Abu Bara, were absent from the battle due to their exodus, but soon after reconciled with the Abu Bakr and their preeminent position in the tribe was restored. The Ja'far's return followed Abu Bara's rejection of a Balharith proposal for a marriage alliance, which he considered tantamount to reducing the Ja'far to a satellite clan of the Balharith. The Ja'far settled the old dispute with the Ghani when the Abu Bakr paid the blood money they owed.

There may have been a second occasion in which the Ja'far left the Kilab, allied with the Balharith, and were replaced by the Abu Bakr as the tribe's leading house. On that occasion, in revenge for the death of an Abu Bakr man slain by the Asad, the Abu Bakr killed an Asad man protected by the Ja'far. Although the Abu Bakr paid the blood money, angry members of the Ja'far took captive a man of the Abu Bakr and humiliated him in captivity. The ensuing tensions between the two Kilabi houses caused the Ja'far's second exodus to Najran. The conflict was eventually settled, and the Ja'far returned to the Banu Amir. In an earlier stage of the dispute, a son of al-Ahwas appealed to the Abu Bakr in verse, offering his son Da'b as a hostage for them to humiliate:

Take Daʾb in exchange for the wrong that I have done you—you have no superiority over Daʾb:
for among those not of royal race none has superiority over us; and among your kinsmen you can find equality in bloodwite.

Later battles with the Ghatafan

In the last decade of the 6th century, the Banu Amir under Ja'far leadership launched a raid against the Murra and Fazara clans of Ghatafan in their abode in Wadi al-Raqam. The Banu Amir attempted to escape with the booty they had captured, as the Murra and Fazara horsemen pursued them. The Banu Amir's horses were slow due to exhaustion, and the Ghatafan clans had the advantage of fighting on their own terrain. The main body of the Banu Amir ended trapped between enemy tribesmen. A son of al-Tufayl and two grandsons of al-Ahwas were slain, and dozens of Banu Amir captives were executed in revenge for previous killings of Ghatafan tribesmen.

Soon afterward, the Dhubyan raided the Banu Amir at a place called Sahuq and captured a large number of their camels. The Banu Amir pursued the Dhubyan and in the ensuing fight were defeated and forced to retreat. Another son of al-Tufayl became separated from the tribe and hanged himself presumably to avoid death by thirst or torture at the hands of the Dhubyan. His death was satirized by the Ghatafani poets Salama ibn Khurshub al-Anmari and Urwa ibn al-Ward al-Absi. In a later battle, the Day of al-Batha'a, a son of al-Tufayl and a son of Abu Bara were killed in an abortive raid by the Banu Amir against the Abs. According to Lyall, the poetry of Amir ibn al-Tufayl indicated that there were many more battles between the Banu Amir and Ghatafan, with outcomes more favorable for the former, but details were not provided by the sources.

Relations with Medina

Expedition of Bir Ma'una

The Banu Amir had developed a reputation for military prowess in Arabia by the time the Islamic prophet Muhammad began his teachings in Mecca in the early 7th century. Despite their close ties with the Quraysh, which opposed Muhammad, the Banu Amir remained on generally peaceful terms with the nascent Muslim community; they had a mutual opponent in the Ghatafan tribes. In July 625 a party of Muslims dispatched by Muhammad to the Najd were killed at Bir Ma'una, a watering place, by Bedouin tribesmen. The traditional Islamic accounts of the event are contradictory, differing on the Muslim expedition's peaceful or military character, its aim, and the composition of the involved parties.

The expedition to the Najd had been prompted by a meeting between Abu Bara and Muhammad, where the former had declined the latter's invitation to embrace Islam, but proposed to Muhammad that a Muslim deputation be sent to proselytize in the Najd under Abu Bara's protection. The historian M. J. Kister concluded that Abu Bara, an elderly man by then, had sought to buttress his position within the tribe by backing Muhammad, but without embracing Islam. Muhammad had sought to win over at least part of the powerful Banu Amir, particularly following his military setback against his Quraysh enemies at the Battle of Uhud four months prior.

Although Abu Bara and his son, Rabi'a, promised the Muslims the protection of their tribe, the Muslims were attacked upon encountering the tribesmen of the Sulaym at Bir Ma'una, where the Sulaym encamped under the Kilab's protection. Amir ibn al-Tufayl and his cousin, Jabbar ibn Sulma, a grandson of Abu Bara, were the only two Kilabi tribesmen mentioned by name as participants in the Bedouin party. The sources generally implicate Amir ibn al-Tufayl with leading the Sulaymi assault against the Muslims. Kister placed the Sulaymi chief Anas ibn al-Abbas al-Ri'li, who sought to avenge the slaying of his nephew by the Muslims at the Battle of Badr in 624, as the assault's overall leader, but did not discount that Amir ibn al-Tufayl approved or participated in the assault.

The survivors of the attack killed two men of the Kilab on their return to Medina in revenge, prompting Muhammad to offer Abu Bara blood money for their slayings, which were judged to be illicit. Abu Bara's cooperation with Muhammad was largely seen as an aberration by the Banu Amir, and cost him his pre-eminent position in the tribe. Not long after, Abu Bara died, and was succeeded by Amir ibn al-Tufayl as leader of the Ja'far.

Later interactions with Muhammad

Relations between the Banu Amir and the Muslims remained peaceful despite the Bir Ma'una incident, but tensions followed Muhammad's calls for a religious union of the Muslims and the nomadic tribes. Amir ibn al-Tufayl and his cousin, Arbad ibn Qays, a grandson of Khalid ibn Ja'far, are held by the traditional Muslim sources to have negotiated their tribe's membership in the Muslim community with Muhammad in his capital at Medina in September/October 629, but with no result. The two Kilabi chiefs died soon after. Amir ibn al-Tufayl was succeeded as leader of the tribe by his cousin and rival, Alqama ibn Ulatha. Alqama converted to Islam, the first among the Banu Amir to do so. Other members of the Kilab counted among the early converts to Islam were al-Dahhak ibn Sufyan, a chief of the Abu Bakr, Amr ibn Bujayr of the Ru'as, and the brothers Mula ibn Abd Allah and Qudama ibn Abd Allah of the Dibab. The 8th-century historian Ibn Sa'd mentioned that in 9 AH (630/31 CE), eight delegations of the Banu Amir and its subtribes conferred with Muhammad in Medina, including one of the Kilab in general and another from the Ru'as. The first included Labid, Jabbar ibn Sulma, and al-Dahhak ibn Sufyan. An agreement was reached and Labid converted to Islam. The Ru'as deputation was headed by Amr ibn Malik ibn Qays, who afterward converted his clansmen to Islam. The historian Muhammad Mazhar Siddiqi argued that the deputations suggest the Banu Amir embraced Islam before Muhammad's death in 632.

Al-Dahhak, and his kinsman, al-Asyad ibn Salama, led an expedition against the Qurata clan of the Abu Bakr, to which al-Asyad belonged, and which had rejected Islam. According to the history of al-Waqidi (d. 823) the expedition was launched in April 630. Caskel considered a raid against the Qurata in 630 to be improbable and the alternative dating of 627/28 to be more likely. In the major Battle of Hunayn in 630, which followed the general conversion of the Quraysh to Islam, the Kilab did not participate alongside their Hawazin affiliates against Muhammad. Afterward, the Banu Amir completed their union with the Muslims.

Ridda wars and Muslim conquests

Alqama left Islam before or soon after the death of Muhammad in 632. Most chiefs of the Bedouin tribes also left the faith or threw off allegiance to the Muslim state in Medina around this time. This led to the Ridda wars, in which Muhammad's successor as leader of the Muslims, Caliph Abu Bakr (), dispatched expeditions to rein in the tribes. In the account placing Alqama's apostasy after Muhammad's death, he was targeted in an expedition by Khalid ibn al-Walid, and consequently declared his Muslim faith and made peace with Abu Bakr. In the account placing his defection before Muhammad died, he was said to have fled to Byzantine Syria following the Battle of Hunayn. Afterward, he returned to his tribe's protection in the Najd before eventually embracing Islam once again and becoming an important ally of Abu Bakr. There was little conflict reported between the Banu Amir and Medina during the Ridda wars. The tribe generally took a neutral position until joining the Muslim side after Khalid ibn al-Walid routed the Ghatafan and Asad at the Battle of Buzakha.

The Banu Amir played a minor role in the early Muslim conquests of the 630s–640s, in which the Sasanian Empire, i.e. Iraq and Iran, and a large part of the Byzantine Empire, namely Syria and Egypt, came under Islamic rule. Alqama may have been appointed the governor of the Hauran, a region in southern Syria, by Abu Bakr's successor Umar (). Following the conquests, groups of the Kilab settled in northern Syria and the western Jazira ( see below).

Activity in Arabia until the 10th century

The caliphs in Medina founded the , located on the Kilab's stomping grounds, as a reserved area for the state around the 640s–650s, exacerbating the existing tensions between the Ja'far on one side and the Abu Bakr and Dibab on the other over territory. Otherwise, there was little change among the sub-tribes of the Kilab and the Banu Amir in central Arabia. A member of the Ru'as, Abu Du'ad, became a prominent Bedouin poet in the Hejaz and participated in the disputes of the Kilab in Arabia before his death in 700. Another poet of the Kilab, the highwayman Tahman ibn Amr, lived as a wandering poet in the Yamama and Yemen during the reign of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (). Members of the Qurata clan were settled in Medina by 762, during Abbasid rule (post-750), when one of its members, Rashid ibn Hayyan ibn Abi Sulayman ibn Sam'an, defected from the cause of the Alid rebel Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya upon the approach of an Abbasid army.

The Kilab, Numayr, and Qushayr were involved in the Bedouin uprisings in central Arabia during the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Wathiq () until they were suppressed by the caliph's general Bugha al-Kabir in 845. He summoned them via his emissaries, whereupon about 3,000 Kilabi tribesmen arrived to submit to him. He detained 1,300 of them whom he accused of criminal acts, imprisoning them in Medina before taking part of them to Baghdad. Two years later, the Abbasids eliminated the Numayr in their long-held areas northeast of the Dariyya, after which the Kilab and the Uqayl began to migrate there. The 10th-century military expeditions of the Qarmatians of Bahrayn, whose forces consisted of the Banu Amir and other Bedouin tribesmen, initiated a new wave of Kilabi migration out of Arabia into Syria ( see below).

Iraq and the east

Several Kilabi tribesmen settled in the Muslim garrison towns of Basra and Kufa in Iraq, which were established in the late 630s following the Muslim conquest of the region. From the Amr division, Aslam ibn Zur'a and the commander al-Harith ibn Yazid and his son, Zufar ibn al-Harith, descendants of Yazid ibn al-Sa'iq, settled in Basra. According to the historian Suhayl Zakkar, the Amr division "was always distinguished by its militant and warlike attitude". Zufar migrated to the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) during the First Muslim Civil War (656–661) and became a leader of the Qays tribes there ( see below), while Aslam remained, and later served as the sub-governor of Khurasan (northeastern frontier of the caliphate) for the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I in the 670s. He was a major leader of the Qaysi tribesmen, who formed a significant faction of the Muslim garrisons of Basra and Khurasan. Aslam's son, Sa'id, served as governor of Makran (southeastern Iran) under the viceroy of Iraq al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (). His grandson Muslim ibn Sa'id was adopted by al-Hajjaj after Sa'id's death and served as the governor of Khurasan in 723–724. Two other members of the Kilab were recorded in the sources as sub-governors under al-Hajjaj: Qatan ibn Mudrik, who was appointed over Basra, and Muhammad ibn al-Sa'sa, who was appointed over Bahrayn and Oman.

From the Dibab division, Shimr, a son of one of Muhammad's companions, Dhu al-Jawshan ibn al-A'war, settled in Kufa, where he became a chief of the tribe. Although originally a backer of Caliph Ali against the Umayyads, he switched allegiance to the latter and became notorious for his killing of Ali's son Husayn in 680. He was killed in revenge by the pro-Alid ruler of Kufa Mukhtar al-Thaqafi (), after which his sons resettled in the Jazira. Also killed in Kufa by Mukhtar in 686 was a descendant of Labid, Malik ibn Hizam ibn Rabi'a; Labid had settled in Kufa following the conquest.

A member of the Kilab, Abd Allah ibn Hilal, was the sole Qaysi in the Iraqi viceregal administration of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab (715–717), who appointed him the sub-governor of Basra. The family of the Kilabi tribesman Nubata ibn Hanzala, who had participated in the Umayyad siege of Mecca in 692, settled in Iraq during the Third Muslim Civil War (744–747) and became leaders of the Qays there. Nubata was dispatched by the viceroy of Iraq, Yazid ibn Umar ibn Hubayra, to Jurjan in Iran, where he fell fighting the forces of rebel leader Qahtaba ibn Shabib. Nubata's son Muhammad was the sub-governor of Wasit and was among the Qaysi nobles executed by the Abbasids after they captured the city in 749.

The Ubayd clan of the Ru'as had also established itself in Kufa following the conquests. When the Kharijite rebel Shabib ibn Yazid al-Shaybani invaded Kufa in 696, a member of the clan, Abu Hamid Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, led the city's defense. The clan produced a number of luminaries, including the prominent hadith scholar Waki ibn al-Jarrah, whose father al-Jarrah ibn Malih had been the supervisor of the treasury in Baghdad under Caliph Harun al-Rashid (). Waki was one of the principal teachers of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780–855), the founder of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence. His son Sufyan was also a transmitter, though of lesser reputation.

Syria

Early migrations and leadership of the Qays

Clans from the Abu Bakr, Amr, Abd Allah, Dibab and Ja'far migrated to Syria during and soon after the Muslim conquest of that region in the 630s, constituting the first major wave of Kilabi settlement in Syria. The Kilab first established themselves in the area west of the northern Euphrates valley in Jund Qinnasrin (military district of northern Syria). The Bujayyid and Bijad clans of the Ru'as settled in Damascus. Many of the Kilabi newcomers were brought in as troops by Mu'awiya I during his governorship of Syria (640s–661). During Mu'awiya's caliphate (661–680), the chief of the Ja'far was Abd Allah ibn Bishr, a grandson of Abu Bara. He was involved in a dispute of an unspecified nature with the chief of the Abu Bakr, Abd al-Aziz ibn Zurara ibn Jaz. The latter was slain in the army of Mu'awiya's son and future successor Yazid I, during a campaign against the Byzantines in 669.

Banu Zufar of Qinnasrin

The deaths of caliphs Yazid I () and Mu'awiya II () left Syria in political disarray. Zufar, who had established himself in Jund Qinnasrin and led the district's troops against anti-Umayyad rebels in the Hejaz in 683, revolted against the Umayyads and gave his allegiance to their Hejaz-based challenger, Caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The tribe of Banu Kalb, which was maritally linked to the Umayyads and had held a privileged position in the court and army to the chagrin of the Qays, backed the Umayyad Marwan ibn al-Hakam as caliph. Zufar dispatched the troops of Qinnasrin to join the Qaysi-backed governor of Damascus, Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, against the Umayyad–Kalb coalition at the Battle of Marj Rahit near Damascus in 684, during which Dahhak was killed and the Qays routed. Consequently, Zufar fled to the Jaziran town of Qarqisiya, expelled its Umayyad governor, and fortified and established it as a center of Qaysi resistance to the Umayyads. At the head of the Qays, he oversaw a series of raids and counter-raids against the Kalb in the Syrian steppe.

In 691, Marwan's successor, Abd al-Malik, made an agreement with Zufar whereby the latter defected from Ibn al-Zubayr in exchange for a prominent position in the Umayyad court and military. The Qays–Kalb feud persisted through 694, during which Umayyad princes backed one side against the other depending on their maternal affiliations with the tribes; Abd al-Malik's half-brother Bishr ibn Marwan, whose mother was Abd Allah ibn Bishr's sister, Qutayya, sponsored the Qays.

Zufar's sons, Hudhayl and Kawthar, who were particularly active during the reigns of caliphs Sulayman () and Umar II (), were regarded as preeminent chiefs of the Qays and were highly respected by the caliphs. Hudhayl served in the army of Abd al-Malik's son, Maslama (d. 728), with whom Zufar's family had formed marital links and established neighboring residences in Jund Qinnasrin.

After the Umayyad rout at the Battle of Zab in 750 and the subsequent takeover of Syria by the armies of the Abbasid Revolution, a son of Kawthar, Abu al-Ward Majza'a, who was a commander under the Umayyad caliph Marwan II, recognized Abbasid authority. Not long after, he and his brother Abu al-Wazi led their Qaysi partisans in a pro-Umayyad revolt against the Abbasids in reaction to the harassment of Maslama's family by Abbasid troops from Khurasan. The Qays were routed and Abu al-Ward, his brother, their kinsmen and many of their supporters were slain.

Banu Bayhas of Damascus

Another prominent Kilabi family in Syria was the Banu Bayhas of Damascus, from the Dibab division. Their founder, Bayhas ibn Zumayl al-Kilabi, was keeper of the seal of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid II () and was in the caliph's entourage when it was attacked by the rebel Umayyad prince, and al-Walid's successor, Yazid III (). One of the sons of Bayhas, Kardam, served as the governor of Oman in the Iraqi viceroyal administration of Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi (738–744). The family remained active during the Abbasid period, when another son of Bayhas, Salih, was dispatched by Harun al-Rashid to the Byzantine capital Constantinople in 800 to secure the release of Muslim prisoners of war held by the Byzantines.

Two sons of Salih, Muhammad (commonly known as Ibn Bayhas) and Yahya, took control of Damascus during the instability following the Fourth Muslim Civil War (811–813). Ibn Bayhas was esteemed by the Syrian Qays as a noted warrior and poet in the feuds with the Yaman, a coalition of the Kalb and southern Arab tribes and enemies of the Qays. Unlike most of the Syrian Qays, he was generally supportive of the Abbasids. During the revolt of the Yamani-backed Umayyad Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani, who had taken over Damascus and attacked Qaysi villages in its periphery, Ibn Bayhas rallied the Qays of the area and besieged Damascus from his camp in the Ghouta. He became ill during the ensuing battles, and nominated the Umayyad Maslama ibn Ya'qub, a descendant of Maslama, to lead his supporters. Maslama ibn Ya'qub ultimately seized power in Damascus in rebellion against the Abbasids. Ibn Bayhas recovered, and drove Maslama ibn Ya'qub and Abu al-Umaytir out of the city in 813. They died shortly after in the nearby village of Mezzeh.

Ibn Bayhas's governorship of Damascus was recognized by Caliph al-Ma'mun (), to whom Ibn Bayhas had been consistently loyal, and he remained in office until 823, when Abd Allah ibn Tahir was appointed governor-general over Syria and Egypt. Ibn Bayhas was a practically independent ruler, as shown by the fact that he minted coins in his name. He also empowered the Qays in the province, and put down an Umayyad rebellion, this time led by a descendant of Caliph Uthman (), Sa'id ibn Khalid al-Faddayni. Another Kilabi leader, called Ibn Bayhas, likely a member of the same family, was among the tribal nobles to support a rebellion against the Abbasid caliphs al-Mu'tasim () and al-Wathiq () by another Umayyad pretender in 841.

Dominance of northern Syria

During the reign of Caliph al-Mutawakkil (), law and order began to break down throughout Syria, and this process accelerated in the years following his death. The political vacuum and frequent revolts paved the way for the Kilab to strengthen their influence in northern Syria. Sometime during the 9th century, a second major wave of Kilabi tribesmen, likely from the Amr division, migrated to the area from Arabia. By the time Ahmad ibn Tulun, the nominal Abbasid governor of Egypt, conquered Syria in 878, the "Kilab ... established themselves as a force to be reckoned with", according to the historian Kamal Salibi

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