Ba 'Alawi sada

The Ba 'Alawi sadah or Sadat Ba 'Alawi (Arabic: سادة آل باعلوي, romanized: sādat āl-bā'alawiy) are a group of Hadhrami Sayyid families and social group originating in Hadhramaut in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula. They claim their lineage to Ahmad al-Muhajir who was born in 873 (260H), who emigrated from Basra to Hadhramaut ^[1] in 931 (318H) to avoid sectarian violence, including the invasion of the Qaramite forces into the Abbasid Caliphate. Great classical scholars of Islam such as Ibn Hajar al-Haitami, Yusuf bin Ismail Al-Nabhani and Murtada Al Zabidi have validated the genealogy of the Ba Alawi Sada.^[2]

They follow the Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah methodology on the Shafi'i school in jurisprudence, and the Ash'ari school in faith, and they have their own way of seeking God, which is the Al-Baalawi Tariqah, one of the Sufi orders spread in the Islamic world.^[3]

The Ba 'Alawids are known for preaching Islam. The founder of their order was Muhammad bin Ali Baalawi, known as "Al-Faqih Al-Muqaddam", whom during his time, Sayyid families in Hadhramaut were seen as a threat by other tribes. Due to instability in the region, it was normal during his study that Muhammad bin Ali put a sword on his lap for protection. Muhammad grew tired of the tension and bloodshed in the ranks of the believers thus symbolically broke his sword and announced that his Tariqa and the way of Alawid Sayyids are non-violence and renounced any tariqa that uses violence.^[4] It is believed the dissemination of Islam in Southeast Asia was carried out by traders and clerics of Hadhramaut who transited in India since 15th century as the Sufism and its influences can be traced strongly in the region.^{[5] [6]}

They were at the top of the social ladder in Hadramawt because of their lineage, their social, financial and reformist role among the people, spreading the principles of Islam to the people, establishing mosques and scientific schools, in addition to their advancement in scientific and intellectual centers that made them occupy the top of the society.^[7]

The origin of the name Ba 'Alawi goes back to one of their ancestors, Alawi bin Ubaidillah bin Ahmad al-Muhajir, the first of al-Muhajir's descendants to be named 'Alawi. The use of the name Ba 'Alawi came after they were influenced by the Hadharem in their way of referring to their fathers, and the meaning of (Ba) among the Hadharem is "children of".^[8]

However, the Ba 'Alawids do not use these two surnames except in biographies and genealogies, and a person is usually attributed to his tribe, but there are some individuals from Bani Alawi who are still called Ba 'Alawi because they do not belong to any of the known tribes.^[8]

The word Sadah or Sadat (Arabic: سادة) is a plural form of word Sayyid (Arabic: سيد), while the word Ba 'Alawi or Bani 'Alawi means descendants of Alawi. In sum, Ba'alawi are Sayyids who have a blood descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Alawi ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Ahmad al-Muhajir. Meanwhile, Alawiyyin (Arabic: العلويّن; al-`alawiyyin), a Sayyid term that is used to describe descendants of Ali bin Abi Talib from Husayn ibn Ali (Sayyids) and Hasan ibn Ali (Sharifs). All people of Ba 'Alawi are Alawiyyin Sayyids through Husayn ibn Ali, but not all people of Alawiyyin family are of Ba 'Alawi.

Imam al-Muhajir's grandson Alawi was the first Sayyid to be born in Hadhramaut, and the only one of Imam al-Muhajir's descendants to produce a continued line in Hadhramaut; the lineages of Imam al-Muhajir's other grandsons, Basri and Jadid, were cut off after several generations. Accordingly, Imam Al-Muhajir's descendants in Hadhramaut hold the name Bā 'Alawi or Bani 'Alawi ("descendants of Alawi").

Ahmad Al-Muhajir's descendants continued to move through the valley's villages, settling in the village of Sumal for a time before moving to the village of Bayt Jubair. In 521 AH, Ali bin Alawi, known as "Khali' Qasam," a descendant of the Al-Muhajir, moved to the city of Tarim and made it his home for himself and his children. Since then, Tarim has become the headquarters of the Bani Alawi to this day.^[9]

The Ba 'Alawi Sadah have since been living in Hadhramaut in Southern Yemen, maintaining the Sunni Creed in the fiqh school of Shafi'i. In the beginning, a descendant of Imam Ahmad al-Muhajir who became scholar in Islamic studies was called Imam, then Sheikh, but later called Habib.

It was only since 1700 AD they began to migrate^[10] in large numbers out of Hadhramaut across all over the globe, often to practice da'wah (Islamic missionary work).^[11] Their travels had also brought them to the Southeast Asia. These Hadhrami immigrants blended with their local societies unusual in the history of diasporas. For example, the House of Jamalullail of Perlis is descended from the Ba 'Alawi. Habib Salih of Lamu, Kenya was also descended from the Ba 'Alawi. In Indonesia, quite a few of these migrants married local women or men, sometimes nobility or even royal families, and their descendants then became sultans or kings, such as in Sultanate of Pontianak or in Sultanate of Siak Indrapura.^[12] The Sultanates of Sulu, Lanao, and Maguindanao as well trace their origins to Ba Alawi Sada.^[13] These Sultanates follow the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence.^[14]

According to Ja'far al-Labani, a historian from Mecca: "Most of the Sayyids living in Mecca and Medina are the Ba'alawis, whose memory spread in Hadhramaut, and then they came from Hadhramaut to Mecca, Medina and other countries of Allah, so these gentlemen are the ones who are handed over to preserve their genealogy, and they are known to the captain of the Sayyids in Mecca and Medina, and the captain of the Sayyids is none other than them, and their births are controlled wherever they are, and their names are enumerated, and their genealogy is preserved in the well-known way. Their genealogies are preserved in the manner known to them, in order to divide their revenues from endowments and the like, and whoever else belongs to the pure lineage, whether Egyptian, Levantine, Roman, or Iraqi, although there are many of them, they are not recognized because their genealogies are not set on a sound basis by the public, but some of them may have evidence that gives some doubt about the truth of their claim."^[8] Of course, as all genealogists know, almost none of our conclusions about ancestry/descendancy are 100% proven, especially when they are based at least in part on oral and paper records.^[15]

The genealogies of the Ba Alawids were preserved in a large general tree located in fifteen volumes, compiled by the famous genealogist Abd al-Rahman al-Mashhur, author of "Shams al-Dhahira"(1340 Hijri), which was the approved tree, and is still recorded to this day in the Hejaz, Yemen, southeast Asian countries and East Africa. Its original version was preserved in Tarim in Hadhramaut, and was adopted by the Association of Alawiyyin in Jakarta, Indonesia.^[16] There is a well-known genealogical tree reference by al-Musnid 'Idrus ibn 'Umar al-Habshi, and another genealogical tree reference that was preserved in Mecca and was transcribed by al-Qadi Abu Bakr ibn Ahmad ibn Husayn al-Habshi. In addition to these general genealogical tree, there were also specific genealogical trees for many tribes of Bani Alawi, in which they record their genealogy.^[16]

Some of the notable books that records their genealogy are:^[17]

• "Al-Jawahir al-Saniyya fi al-'Itrat al-Husayniyya" by 'Ali bin Abi Bakr al-Sakran
• "Al-Barqah Al-Mushiqah fi dhikr al-Libaas al-Aniiqah" by 'Ali bin Abi Bakr al-Sakran
• "Ghurar al-Baha' al-Dhawi fi Manaqib Bani Jadid, Bani Basri, and Bani Alawi" by Muhammad bin Ali bin Alawi Khird
• "Al- Shajara an-Nabawiya fi tahqiq ansab al-Sadah Al-Alawiyah by Abdullah bin Sheikh al-Aydarus
• "Al-Mashra' al-Rawi" by Muhammad bin Abi Bakr al-Shilli "
• "Al 'Iqd an-Nabawi wa al-Sirr al-Mustafawi" by Shaykh bin Abdullah al-Aydarus
• "The Service of the Clan in Summarizing, Refining and Supplementing Shams al-Dhahira (Khidmat al- 'Ashirah) " by Ahmad bin Abdullah al-Saqqaf
• "Min A'qaab al-Bidh'ah al-Muhammadiyyah al-Thahirah" by Alawi bin Muhammad Bilfaqih
• "Al-Mu'jam al-Latif in the Reasons for Surnames and Nicknames in the Honorable Lineage of Bani Alawi" by Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Shatiri
• "Al-Shajara al-Zakiyyah in the Genealogy and Biography of the Household of the Prophet" by Sayyid Yusuf bin Abdullah Jamal al-Layl
• "Al-Rawdh al-Jali in the Genealogy of Bani Alawi" by Murtada al-Zubaidi al-Husseini

After the descendants of Ahmad bin Isa al-Muhajir settled in Tarim, some governors asked them to prove their lineage to confirm what they claimed, and that this should be done by a judicial ruling, and Tarim had three hundred muftis at that time, so Ali bin Muhammad bin Jadid, who died in 620 AH, traveled to Iraq and proved the lineage to the judge there and witnessed it. Then these witnesses met the Hadhramaut pilgrims in Mecca and testified to them, and when these Hadhramaut pilgrims came to Hadhramaut and testified to the proof, the people recognized their lineage, and the sheikhs and scholars unanimously agreed on this.^[18]

It is known that when Ahmad al-Muhajir came to Hadramawt, he still had family and relatives in Basra, where his son Muhammad remained on his property, as well as his sons Ali and Hussein, his grandson Jadid bin Ubaydullah (his diminutive real name of Abdullah) went to see those properties and visit relatives. Al-Muhajir's children and grandchildren invested in Hadramawt for many years from the proceeds of their money in Iraq, so they were in contact with their ancestral homeland and their cousins there, and they had their news and those who came from there reminded them of their biography and history.^[19]

Centuries passed, and those who questioned their lineage came by saying that a genealogy book published in 20th century attributed to Al-Fakhr al-Razi did not mention a son named Ubaydullah for Ahmad bin Isa and that his descendants were only three sons, Muhammad, Ali, and Hussein.^[20]

In 2000, FamilyTreeDNA was established and initiated a global project to identify human origins through DNA analysis with the aim of reconnecting the Jewish diaspora around the world.^{[21] [22]} The company classified the results of the analysis samples sent to it into different genetic lines based on the male (Y) chromosome and by comparison with other samples that had been examined and classified. When some members of the Ba Alawi performed this genetic analysis, some of their results showed the haplogroup G lineage, which is predominantly found in the Caucasus. A few doubt that their lineage to the Prophet's Household is authentic, claiming that the lineage in which Arabs predominate is the haplogroup J1 lineage. However, this opinion is contested^[23] as there is no evidence to support the DNA patterns of the true descendants of Prophet Muhammad. Many other prominent branches claiming descent from Muhammad, such as Idrissids, Jaylanis, Rifais, Rizvis, Naqvis and others, also exhibit similar discrepancies.

According to historical sources, many genealogists and historians,^[24] such as: Ibn Tabataba,^[25] Baha al-Din al-Janadi,^[26] Ibn Inabah,^[27] Muhammad al-Kadhim Al-Yamani,^[28] Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Amid al-Din al-Najafi,^[29] Siraj al-Din al-Rifai,^[30] Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi,^[31] Ibn Hajar al-Haytami,^[32] Ibn Shadqam,^[33] Al-Muhibbi,^[34] Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din,^[35] the family lineage is connected to Muhammad.

Some authoritative Muslim scholars such as former Mufti of Egypt Shaikh Ali Jum'ah,^[36] Sheikh Usamah Al-Azhari of Al-Azhar University in Egypt,^[37] Iranian Ayatollah Sayyid Mahdi Rajai,^{[38] [39]} Muhammad Said Ramadhan Al-Bouti, Saudi Arabian genealogists Sharif Ibrahim bin Manshur ِAl-Hashimi Al-Amir^[40] and Sharif Anas bin Ya'qub Al-Kutbi,^[41] have asserted their opinion that Ba 'Alawi sada family lineage is connected to Muhammad.

Some of the family names are as follows:^{[42] [43]}