The objective of this blog is to share and gather information pertaining the network of al-Ja'fariyya family around the world. What is in context of the subject matter would be the origin and branches of Bani Hassan al-Hussaini family rooted in Jordan and is believed to be the ancestor of the writer's family now residing in different places in Malaysia. 

Bani Hassan is of prophetic bloodline (ahl al-bayt) through Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq the eponym of the family "al-Ja'fariyya or al-Ja'afirah". While Ja'far was the descendant of Imam Hussain al-Shahid bin Imam 'Ali bin Abi Talib and Sayyidah Fatimah the daughter of Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم.

Although the genealogical names reached up only to the 6th generation however based on accounts gathered from family elders mentioning the family origin from a certain village called "Ein el-Nimr" near 'Amman in Jordan helped in connecting it with the the said Hussaini tribe and its long history living in that area. 

According to historians Bani Hassan of Jordan claimed descent from Sheikh Badruddin (thus also the family eponym al-Badri) also known as Sheikh al-Sultan due to his role in aiding Sultan Salahuddin al-Ayyubi's campaigns during The Crusade c. 1180s. He and his family initially migrated from Turbah and al-Laith in Hejaz to Karak, Tafilah and Shubak in Jordan given charges defending Ayyubids border towns against the enemies. 

After 1187 until 1220s the family resided in Jerusalem (Bait al-Maqdis) and Badruddin was invested with the endowment (waqf) property of the whole Wadi Nusur (or Surur) valley west of Jerusalem comprising of several villages, and his tomb could still be found on top of a hill known as Diyar al-Sheikh. His descendants would become important religious figures such as the sheikh of al-Aqsa in historical Palestine up until 1750s.

Circa 1500s, a branch of al-Dajani family of the al-Badri family migrated from the vicinity of Jerusalem out to the land of their kins in Wadi Zarqa in Jordan. They lived as bedouins or semi-sedentary tribe and up until today became the largest tribe in Jordan and Palestine. This branch is called as Bani Hassan according to the name of one of their earliest ancestors who first migrated to Jordan. 

Bani Hassan area is centred in Wadi Zarqa which bordered other tribal areas of Jerash, 'Amman, Wadi Sirhan etc. and their leaders were descended from a branch known as Aal al-Qallab which played an important role in the establishment and administration of the modern Jordanian state. 

The writer's ancestors believed to be from this Bani Hassan is believed to had reached Malaysia (then Tanah Melayu, Malaya) at least since c. 19th century from the 6th generation ancestor named (Wan, from "Tuan" (master) indicative of Arabian prophetic family heritage) Daud. Daud gave birth to Wak Leman (Sulaiman, "Wak" is classical Malay for eldest brother or uncle), Haji Harun, Zakaria, and Dolah (Abdullah). 

Although the children of Daud were all born in the country of Kelantan in east coast Malaysia, except for Wak Leman, all of them including Daud himself migrated back to Kedah on the west coast where their ancestor(s) were said to have first arrived from the Middle East. Here they lived and intermarried with local ladies and had many descendants.

Wak Leman's descendants remained in Kelantan in the area of Pak Badol. Haji Harun's in Sungai Ular near Kulim in Kedah, although remained childless he adopted the children of his brothers and wife's relatives including the grandmother of the writer. Zakaria's descendants spread in Serdang near Dungun in Terengganu, at Melor and Gunong in Kelantan, while a branch migrated with him to Sungai Ular and Terap in Kedah the latter where he died and was buried at. 

One of Zakaria's daughter Hajjah Safinah (writer's grandmother) married with a man from Trong in the country of Perak of Kedah ancestry and she later migrated with her husband there. Finally, the youngest child of Daud, Dolah had descendants mainly distributed around Kulim and Terap in Kedah.

The writer is thus maternally connected to the Jordanian Ja'fariyya heritage although based on an aspect of Arab tribal genealogical system (nasabah) he could still be regarded as a part of the descent though its degree of functionality and proximity would never be the same with those of direct paternal descent. It is interesting that according to elders the prophetic epithet "Wan" (or some says "Nik", of nobility ancetsry) was intentionally dropped by their ancestor Daud due to many reasons.

Majority of the more recent family members are not aware of this ancestry, if not for the writer's effort in collecting as much as possible the information pertaining the history of the family it will be lost forever. The main source of the history Imam Abdul Rahim of Gunong the younger brother of writer's grandmother notedly passed away this year (2024) while their eldest sibling Yahya of Serdang passed in 2022 during the COVID19 epidemic outbreak. 

The tradition of talking about the family history was initiated many years back by the writer's father since the writer was still a child and this created an everlasting passion. Many remaining elders to date are ignorant of the history and of any further details of the history, while on going effort to collect relevant information would involve retracing Wak Leman's family in Kelantan who are out of contact for many years with the rest of the family.  

Although direct genealogical link for each generations might be impossible to be completed, however based on existing indirect and contextual evidences will and actually has led to many discoveries pertaining the family heritage including their ancestral factors with the Maghrebian, Ayyubid, Ottoman and other Middle Eastern polities which represent the main historical writing subjects. These factors will be shared in this blog further many comes from original extensive postings from FB.

Nabil Nadri ibn al-Ja'fariyya 

Kedah Dar al-Aman

Malaysia