User:Al Ameer son/Azd

Origins
In the Arab genealogical tradition, particularly the great genealogy works of Ibn al-Kalbi and Ibn Hazm, the Azd are held to be the descendants of Dira' ibn al-Ghawth. The latter was known as 'al-Azd' for having the courage of an asad (lion).

A reference to a king of 'Asd' named al-Harith ibn Ka'b is made in a South Arabian inscription dating to c. 235 CE. The inscription notes that this king and another of Kinda and Madhhij named Malik ibn Badd were associated with the Sabaean king Ilsharah ibn Yahdub. The same al-Harith ibn Ka'b is mentioned in a later inscription where he is said to have been captured by the Himyarite conqueror of the Sabaean kingdom, Shammar Yuhari'ish. Historians are divided as to whether 'al-Asd' is a reference to the Azd or the Asad tribe. The same Himyarite king is mentioned in a later inscription as having embarked on a diplomatic mission to Malik ibn Ka'b, the "king of al-Azd", on his way to meet the Sasanian Persian royals of Ctesiphon. The historian Retso derived a link between the supposed Azd kings mentioned in the inscriptions with the traditionally accepted progenitor of most of the Azd in South Arabia, Nasr ibn al-Azd, who is mentioned in the Namara inscription. Based on these theories and inscriptions, the historian Brian Ulrich proposes genealogical construction of Azd whereby Nasr ibn al-Azd was the grandfather of al-Harith ibn Ka'b and the latter was the grandfather of Malik ibn Ka'b. He notes that this proposal may be voided if the al-Harith ibn Ka'b mentioned in the inscriptions instead refers to the progenitor of the eponymous Banu al-Harith ibn Ka'b tribe of Najran. That tribe is traditionally held to belong to the Madhhij, but some traditional sources held they were originally an Azd tribe.

The abodes of the Asd or Azd in the two inscriptions was likely the Wadi Bisha valley.