Genealogy
Genealogy is the language of kinship and collecting information about lineage. Arabs and Muslims have long since known of the importance of this science because, in the past, a tribe was the social fabric of life. God said: “and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other” and, from this concept, the basis of the importance of genealogy for Muslims to know there lineage has grown. This science thrived as the states flourished, and dimed as civilization faded, and genealogy reached its peak in the Abbasid era.
Genealogists can trace human lineage from the time of the Prophet Noah, peace be upon him, and this is the furthest extent of genealogy. Some can even trace the lineage of the Prophet Ismail, peace be upon him, and trace the Arab tribes that shows the lineage of the great ancestral Adnaniyah and Qahtaniyah tribes. The lineage of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him is: Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Abdul Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf ibn Qusai bin Kalb ibn Murrah ibn Ka’b Ibn Loay bin Ghalib bin Fahr bin Malik bin Al-nadr bin Khuzaymah bin Aware bin Elias bin Mudar bin Nizar bin Adnan thus arriving at Ismail bin Ibrahim, peace be upon them. The lineage of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is: Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa bin Shakhbut bin Diab bin Isa bin Nahyan bin Falah bin Hilal bin Falah bin Hilal bin Jabla bin Ahmed bin Yas bin Abdul Al Lam bin draw bin al-Asaad bin Habib bin Amr ibn Kahl ibn Aslam bin Tadol binTiam Lat bin Rafidah bin Thoor bin Kalb bin Wabra bin Taghlib bin Helwan bin Imran bin al haf bin Gdaaea.
There are two ways to codify lineages, namely: Simplified and Detailed. Detailed is the clear naming of individuals in the form of a family tree. The Mabsoot, he also wrote the lineage, peace of God be upon him, in the preceding paragraph. During a time of illiteracy in the pre-Islamic times, lineages were preserved in the memory of the individual members of the tribe who enjoyed special status, similar to that of a poet at the time. The National Library and Archives Library and Archives pay a great deal of attention to genealogy as has a unit specializing in genealogical sciences. In addition, the Emirates Library of the National Library and Archives Archives contains a wide range of books and references relating to genealogy.
God said: “and made you tribes and families that you may know each other. Surely the noblest of you with Allah is the most dutiful of you.” Based upon the principles set out in this verse, Muslims scientists have been interested and studied ancient genealogy. Genealogical knowledge was one of the outstanding features of the pre-Islamic era and the goal of it was to confirm the links and tribal alliances, not to deal with the Koran text.
Genealogy was like any other science that flourished with the prosperity of the Islamic state. Interest in it decreased until it gradually disappeared completely in the era of ‘decadence’, as it is called, because scientific production, literacy and intellectual thought reached its lowest level during that period. In the modern era, genealogy returned to the fore with the flourishing of the scientific and intellectual movement in the Arab and Islamic countries. It is interesting that during the time in which the light faded, the science of genealogy in Islamic countries flourished among the Orientalists whose interest in Arab and Islamic genealogy dramatically increased.
There have been new technological developments with respect to genealogy: First, the emergence of genetic science that is made possible by access the DNA of any person. Second, the proliferation of websites family trees.
For the National Library and Archives , genealogy is one of the areas that it concentrates on producing family trees of the ruling families of the seven Emirates in addition to the ancient lineages of the Emirati tribes.
