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The Banu Kalb (Arabic: ‫بنو‬
‫كلب‬ , romanized: Banū Kalb) was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the
desert and steppe of northwestern Arabia and central Syria. It was involved in the tribal politics of the
eastern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire, possibly as early as the 4th century. By the 6th century, the
Kalb had largely adopted Christianity and came under the authority of the Ghassanids, leaders of the
Byzantines' Arab allies. During the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a few of his close
companions were Kalbites, most prominently Zayd ibn Haritha and Dihya, but the bulk of the tribe
remained Christian at the time of Muhammad's death in 632. They began converting in large numbers
when the Muslims made significant progress in the conquest of Byzantine Syria, in which the Kalb stayed
neutral. As a massive nomadic tribe with considerable military experience, the Kalb was sought as a key
ally by the Muslim state. The leading clans of the Kalb forged marital ties with the Umayyad family, and
the tribe became the military foundation of the Syria-based Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) from the
reign of Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) to the early reign of Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705).
During the Second Muslim Civil War, the Kalb routed its main rival, the Qays, in the Battle of Marj Rahit
in 684, inaugurating a long-running blood feud, in which the Qays eventually gained the advantage. In
the resulting tribal factionalism which came to dominate Umayyad politics, the Kalb became a leading
component of the Yaman faction against the Qays. The Kalb lost its political influence under the pro-
Qaysite caliph Marwan II (r. 744–750), a situation which continued under the Iraq-based Abbasid
Caliphate (750–1258). From its footholds in the Ghouta and Palmyra oases, the tribe revolted against
the Abbasids on several occasions in the 8th–10th centuries, at first in support of Umayyad claimants to
the caliphate and later as key troops of the Qarmatians, whose suppression contributed to the Kalb's
political isolation. The Kalb remained among the three largest tribes of Syria at the start of Fatimid rule
in the late 10th century, but due to its increasing sedentarism, it was disadvantaged to the more
numerous and nomadic Tayy and Kilab tribes. The Kalb's relative weakness encouraged its close alliance
with the Fatimids over the next century. This was occasionally interrupted, most notably when the Kalb
joined the Tayy and Kilab in a rebellion to split Syria among themselves in 1024–1025, during which the
Kalb failed to capture Damascus. The Kalb continued transitioning to a settled existence into the 12th
century, after which the tribe no longer appears in the historical record.
Before Islam, the Kalb dominated the regions of al-Jawf and Wadi Sirhan, as well as the Samawa, the
great desert expanse between Syria and Iraq. After the Muslim conquest, the tribe expanded its
presence into Syria proper, taking the dominant position in the Golan Heights, the northern Jordan
Valley, the Damascus area, and in and around Homs and Palmyra. As Fatimid rule progressed in the 11th
century, the tribe's main concentration between Damascus and Palmyra shifted to the settled areas
between Damascus, the Hauran, and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains.