6. Internal Feuds Between Tribes The internal feuds between the Qaysi Arabs who represented the new Arab emigrants in Syria from north Arabia and the Kalb (Syro-Arabs) settled in Syria in pre-Islamic days. The staunch supporter of the Umayyads which once earned the throne of Syria at Marj Rahit were among the events which precipitated the fall of the Umayyad dynasty.
The north Arabian tribes with Banu Qays as the chief of the Mudars had settled in Iraq in pre-Islamic days and the Rabiah tribe had their abode along the Tigris called Diyar Rabiah and the Mudars had along the Euphrates after the name of Diyar Mudar while the South Arabian tribes settled in Syria and were called Yamanites. They expanded from Iraq and Syria under the banner of Islam with the old rivalry between the north Arabians and south Arabians nourished in foreign lands with the same spirit as in their original homelands. The cause of the north Arabians was championed by the Qaysites and that of the south Arabians by the Yamanites at Marj Rahit in 684 A.D. and secured the throne for Marwan. During the time of Walid the Qaysiste gained supremacy over the Yamnites under the leadership of Hajjaj b. Yusuf, Muhammad b. Qasim and Qutaybah. Sulayman favoured the Yamanites, Yazid II and Walid II relied on the Qaysites for the throne while Yazid in relied upon Yamani arms. Thus family rivalry added fuel to the fire of tribal antagonism and the later Caliphs were puppets in the hands of one tribe or another. It arrested the progress of Muslim arms in the outlying provinces and frontiers and precipitated the downfall of the empire.6
7.
