The Family of Abdurrahman Al-Saqqaf (Segaf) Claiming to be the Family of Abi Alawi

Book Title: Exposing the Scholarly Scandal of Ba’alwi History and Genealogy: The Finalization of the Ba‘alwi Genealogical Severance from the Prophet Muhammad PBUH
Original title in Indonesian: Membongkar Skandal Ilmiyah Sejarah dan Genealogi Ba’alwi: Finalisasi Keterputusan Genealogi Ba’alwi Kepada Nabi Muhammad Saw.
Author: KH. Imaduddin Utsman Al-Bantani, head of Pondok Pesantren Nahdlatul Ulum (Islamic Boarding School), Banten
First Edition: 1445 AH / 2024 AD
Publisher: Maktabah Nahdlatul Ulum Banten
Translated into English and Published by: Al-Khoirot Research and Publication
Previous Book: Measuring the Authenticity of the Habib Lineage in Indonesia (Menakar Kesahihan Nasab Habib di Indonesia)
Field of Study: Ba'alwi History, Genealogy (Ilmu Nasab), Islamic History

Table of Contents

1. The Family of Abdurrahman Al-Saqqaf Claiming to Be The Family of Abi Alawi 
2. Back to: Book   Exposing the Scholarly Scandal of Ba’alwi History and Genealogy: The Finalization of the Ba‘alwi Genealogical Severance from the Prophet Muhammad PBUH  

The Family of Abdurrahman Al-Saqqaf Claiming to Be Alu (The Family of) Abi Alwi (Alawi)

In the ninth century Hijriah, in the city of Tarim, Hadramaut Province, there was a clan that claimed to be the "Alu Abi Alwi" mentioned in the book Al-Suluk by Al-Janadi (d. 732 AH). For the subsequent period, this clan began to be known by the name "Ba'alwi". The clan in question is the clan of Abdurrahman bin Muhammad al-Saqqaf, who was born in Tarim in the year 739 Hijriah, passed away in the year 819 Hijriah, and was buried in the Zanbal cemetery of Tarim. It appears that the tracing of the genealogy of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf's clan had begun while he was still alive, right after they read the book Al-Suluk by Al-Janadi. Later, it was formally written down during the time of Ali al-Sakran, who passed away in the year 895 Hijriah.

When reading the book Al-Suluk regarding the migration of the ancestors of the Bani Ahdal from Iraq, the clan of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf assumed that their ancestor migrated alongside those ancestors of the Bani Ahdal and was subsequently referred to as either a brother or a first cousin. Notice the text from the book Al-Suluk concerning the migration of the ancestors of the Bani Ahdal below:

وأما الأهدل فهو بهاء ساكنة بعد ألف ولام وهاء بعدها دال مهملة مفتوحة ثم لام ساكنة كان كبير القدر شهير الذكر يقال أن جده محمد قدم من بلد العراق الي اليمن وهو شريف حسيني قدم علي قدم التصوف وسكن اجوال السوداء من وادي سهام 

"As for Al-Ahdal, it is (pronounced) with a sukun on the 'ha' after the 'alif', 'lam', and 'ha'. After that 'ha', there is a letter 'dal' given a 'fathah' without a dot, followed by a 'lam' with a sukun. He was a man of high and popular standing. It is mentioned that his grandfather came from Iraq to the land of Yemen, and he was a 'Syarif Husaini'. He came upon the path of Sufism (tasawwuf), and he settled in 'Ajwal al-Sauda' within the Valley of Siham."

In the passage by Al-Janadi above, it is mentioned that the ancestor of the Bani Ahdal, named Muhammad bin Sulaiman, was a "Syarif Husaini" and that he migrated from Iraq to Yemen. From that point, the clan of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf hitched a ride on that history, claiming that their ancestor was also a "Syarif Husaini" because he was a cousin (sharing the same grandfather) of Muhammad bin Sulaiman, and had moved from Iraq to Yemen together with Muhammad bin Sulaiman. This was done without cross-checking whether Al-Janadi's information was supported by any sources or not. Later on, it will be proven that the Syarif status of the Bani Ahdal is rejected. After information circulated among the public that the ancestor of the Bani Ahdal, Muhammad bin Sulaiman, and the ancestor of the clan of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf were first cousins, a member of the Bani Ahdal subsequently recorded in his book that some say his ancestor—namely Muhammad bin Sulaiman—was a brother to the ancestor of the Ba'alwi. At the beginning of this narrative's formation, the name Ahmad bin Isa had not yet surfaced as the ancestor of the clan of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf who migrated alongside Muhammad bin Sulaiman. Notice the wording of Husain al-Ahdal (d. 855 AH) in his book Tuhfat al-Zaman below:

وحكي لنا عن بعضهم أن محمد المذكور خرج هو وأخ له وابن عم فعمد أخوه وابن عمه الي الشرق فذريته أل باعلوي في حضرموت 

"It was narrated to us by some people that the aforementioned Muhammad (bin Sulaiman) went out (migrated) together with his brother and his first cousin. Subsequently, his brother and his first cousin headed east. Thus, the descendants of his first cousin are the Ba'alwi family in Hadramaut."

In this text, it is explained that the ancestor of the Bani Ahdal, Muhammad bin Sulaiman, moved from Iraq to Yemen along with his brother (who would later be identified as the ancestor of the Bani Qudaimi) and his first cousin (sharing the same grandfather), namely the Ba'alwi in Hadramaut. Once it was established that the Bani Ahdal and the Ba'alwi shared a grandfather, the descendants of the Bani Ahdal and the Ba'alwi in the ninth century encountered a new problem—namely, the complete structural lineage of their family, who had already been designated by Al-Janadi as "Syarif Husaini". This was because Al-Janadi did not present the genealogy of Muhammad bin Sulaiman all the way up to Prophet Muhammad SAW. Therefore, we see how these two families made efforts to trace their respective family genealogies. From the Bani Ahdal, Husain al-Ahdal (d. 855 AH) attempted to complete the genealogy of Muhammad bin Sulaiman as follows:

ووجدت في بعض الأوراق نسبه مرفوعا فقال محمد بن سليمان بن عبيد بن عيسي بن علوي بن محمد بن حمحام بن عون بن الحسن  بن الحسين مصغرا بن علي زين العابدين وفي موضع أخر ابن عون بن موسي الكاظم بن جعفر الصادق بن محمد الباقر ...

 "And I found the lineage of Muhammad bin Sulaiman in some loose papers in a connected state (to the Messenger of Allah), wherein it stated: Muhammad bin Sulaiman bin Ubaid bin Isa bin Alwi bin Muhammad bin Himham bin Aon bin al-Hasan bin al-Husain—who is titled Al-Asghar—bin Ali Zainal Abidin; and in another place, bin Aon bin Musa al-Kadhim bin Ja'far al-Shadiq bin Muhammad al-Baqir..."

From the efforts of Husain al-Ahdal in the book Tuhfat al-Zaman, it is discovered that the lineage of the Bani Ahdal has two versions. The first version is: Muhammad bin Sulaiman bin Ubaid bin Isa bin Alwi bin Muhammad bin Himham bin Aon bin al-Hasan bin al-Husain bin Ali Zainal Abidin bin Husain bin Fatimah bin Nabi Muhammad SAW. The second version is: Muhammad bin Sulaiman bin Ubaid bin Isa bin Alwi bin Muhammad bin Himham bin Aon bin Musa al-Kadhim bin Ja'far al-Shadiq bin Muhammad al-Baqir bin Ali bin Husain bin Fatimah bin Nabi Muhammad SAW.

Consequently, if the ancestor of the Ba'alwi was his first cousin, it means they shared a grandfather. By estimating that the ancestor of the Ba'alwi who migrated along with Muhammad bin Sulaiman was Ali (Khaliq Qasam), then the lineage for the first version is: Ali bin Alwi bin Ubaid bin Isa bin Alwi bin Muhammad bin Himham bin Aon bin al-Hasan bin al-Husain bin Ali Zainal Abidin bin Husain bin Fatimah bin Nabi Muhammad SAW. Meanwhile, the second version is structured as follows: Ali bin Alwi bin Ubaid bin Isa bin Alwi bin Muhammad bin Himham bin Aon bin Musa al-Kadhim bin Ja'far al-Shadiq bin Muhammad al-Baqir bin Ali bin Husain bin Fatimah bin Nabi Muhammad SAW.

See the chart below:

No	FIRST VERSION		SECOND VERSION
	Ancestors of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf	Ancestors of Bani Ahdal	Ancestors of Aburrahman al- Saqqaf	Ancestors of Bani Ahdal
1.	Nabi Muhammad Saw	Nabi  Muhammad Saw	Nabi     Muhammad Saw	Nabi      Muhammad Saw
2.	Fatimah	Fatimah	Fatimah	Fatimah
3.	Husain	Husain	Husain	Husain
4.	Ali Zainal	Ali Zainal	Ali Zainal	Ali Zainal
5.	Al-husain       (al- Asgar)	Al-Husain          (al- Asgar)	Muhammad           al- Baqir	Muhammad            al- Baqir
6.	Al-hasan	Al-hasan	Ja’far al-Shadiq	Ja’far al-Shadiq
7.	Aon	Aon	Musa al-Kadim	Musa al-Kadim
8.	Himham	Himham	Aon	Aon
9.	Muhammad	Muhammad	Himham	Himham
10	Alwi	Alwi	Muhammad	Muhammad
11	Isa	Isa	Alwi	Alwi
12	Ubaid	Ubaid	Isa	Isa
13	Alwi	Sulaiman	Ubaid	Ubaid
14	Ali (Khaliqosamam)	Muhammad	Alwi	Sulaiman
15			Ali (Khaliqosam)	Muhammad

Notice that their shared grandfather is Ubaid. It is this Ubaid who would later, within the family of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf, change into Abdullah and subsequently Ubaidillah. It should also be noted that previously, there was no source whatsoever that could serve as a reference for a genealogical structure like the chart above for either family; it was only compiled in the 9th century Hijriah. Even the book Al-Suluk by Al-Janadi only refers to the Bani Ahdal family as "Syarif Husaini" (descendants of the Prophet through the line of Husain) without tracing the names of their lineage. It was admitted by Husain al-Ahdal (d. 855 AH) that he connected the lineage as shown above, for both the first and second versions, based solely on loose sheets he found in the 9th century. Meanwhile, the lineage of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf's family merely hitched a ride on the lineage of the Bani Ahdal. Such a structure is rejected by the lineage books written from the 5th to the 9th century, because it is known that Al-Hasan bin Husain al-Asghar did not have a son named Aon, and Musa al-Kadhim did not have a son named Aon. Both are rejected.

The family of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf then made the same efforts as the Bani Ahdal family to complete their lineage. Most likely, when they realized that the lineage of the Bani Ahdal had been found but was rejected by lineage books, they began to find a glimmer of hope in the book Al-Suluk. This occurred when they discovered the genealogy of Abul Hasan Ali or Syarif Abul Jadid, in which there were two names identical to those in the lineage of the Bani Ahdal, namely Isa and Alwi; and there was one name that was similar, namely Abdullah, which resembles Ubaid. Moreover, there was a sentence stating that this Syarif Abul Jadid came from the "Alu Abi Alwi" family, while the name Alwi was already present in the lineage of the Bani Ahdal. This situation led the family of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf to consider this genealogy more convincing because it had been included in an important historical book in Yemen, namely Al-Suluk, compared to the results of Husain al-Ahdal's efforts, whose genealogical structure was clearly rejected by lineage books. Formally, this effort was carried out successfully by the grandson of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf, named Ali bin Abubakar al-Sakran bin Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf, who passed away in the year 895 Hijriah. He wrote a book titled Al-Burqat al-Mushiqat, which began to introduce a permanent lineage for his family through the same line as the lineage of Syarif Abul Jadid. Naturally, this effort required additional work, as they had to be able to harmonize their family history with the history of Syarif Abul Jadid's family, plus it also had to be harmonized with the Bani Ahdal family, whose history they had previously hitched a ride on. Later we will see that even though this harmonization effort was made, the results still contain many leaks here and there.

The text written by Al-Janadi in the book Al-Suluk concerning the lineage of Syarif Abul Jadid or Abu Hasan Ali is as follows:

"And I wish to provide a supplement of the names of those who came to Ta’iz and studied there. They are a group from the first tier. Part of them is Abu al-Hasan, Ali, bin Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Hadif (Jadid, according to two manuscript narrations) bin Ali bin bin Muhammad bin Jadid bin Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Isa bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Ja’far al-Sadiq bin Muhammad al-Baqir bin Ali bin Zainal Abidin bin al-Husain bin Ali bin Abi Thalib karramallahu wajhah, and he is known by the name Syarif Abul Jadid according to the inhabitants of Yemen. His origin is from Hadramaut, from the syarifs there who are known as Al Abi Alwi, which is a house of righteousness and worship within the Sufi path (tariqat tasawwuf). Included among them are the jurists whose mention will come later, whom I know with certainty, insya Allah Ta’ala, along with the people of his land."

From this text, Ali bin Abubakar al-Sakran then arranged the lineage of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf's family differently from the Bani Ahdal family, who were supposedly from the same grandfather. Notice the statement of Ali al-Sakran below:

"And I understand from the past explanation, for the first time, based on what is found in Tarikh al-Jundi (the book Al-Suluk) and the book Talkhis al-Awaji, and the discussion about it has been mentioned, in explaining the biography of the figure al-Imam Abu al-Hasan, Ali bin Muhammad bin Ahmad Jadid, that Ubaid is Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Isa. (That is) when he (al-Janadi) said: 'Part of them is Abu al-Hasan, Ali, bin Muhammad bin Jadid (Hadid, according to two manuscript narrations) bin Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Isa bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Ja’far al-Shadiq bin Muhammad al-Baqir bin Ali bin Zainal Abidin bin al-Husain bin Ali bin Abi Thalib karramallahu wajhah, and he is known by the name Syarif Abul Jadid according to the inhabitants of Yemen, his origin is from Hadramaut from the syarifs there who are known as Al Abi Alwi, which is a house of righteousness and worship within the Sufi path'."

Subsequently, Ali al-Sakran arranged the lineage of Abdurrahman's family to become as follows: Ali (Khaliq Qasam) bin Alwi bin Muhammad bin Alwi bin Ahmad bin Ubaid (Ubaidillah/Abdullah) "bin" Ahmad bin Isa bin Muhammad al-Naqib bin Ali al-Uraidi bin Ja’far al-Shadiq bin Muhammad al-Baqir bin Ali Zainal Abidin bin Husain bin Fatimah binti Muhammad SAW. From here, we see that a significant change occurred in the lineage of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf's family compared to the lineage of the Bani Ahdal, who were supposedly from the same grandfather. In the version of Husain al-Ahdal, three sequential names—namely: Ubaid bin Isa bin Alwi—changed into Alwi bin Ubaid bin Ahmad bin Isa, with the addition of Ahmad between Ubaid and Isa. This change was based on the lineage of the aforementioned Syarif Abul Jadid family. Unfortunately, this extraordinary creation (ijtihad) was not agreed upon by the Bani Ahdal family. For subsequent periods, the Bani Ahdal family did not use this version of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf's family; they continued to use one of the lineage versions mentioned by Husain al-Ahdal in his book Tuhfat al-Zaman. Ultimately, these two families who supposedly shared a grandfather ended up with different lineages. For example, Abu Bakar bin Abil Qasim bin Ahmad al-Ahdal (d. 1035 AH) in his book Al-Ahsab al-’Aliyyah fi al-Ansab al-Ahdaliyyah states:

وأما نسبه رضي الله عنه فهو علي الأهدل بن عمر بن محمد بن سليمان بن عبيد بن عيسي بن علوي بن محمد بن حمحام  بن عوف بن موسي الكاظم بن جعفر الصادق بن محمد الباقر بن علي زين العابدين بن الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب رضوان الله عليهم أجمعين هذا نسبه

"As for his lineage, radiallahu ‘anhu, it is: Ali al-Ahdal bin Umar bin Muhammad bin Sulaiman bin Ubaid bin Isa bin Alwi bin Muhammad bin Himham bin ‘Aon bin Musa al-Kadhim bin Ja’far al-Shadiq bin Muhammad al-Baqir bin ‘Ali Zainal ‘Abidin bin al-Husain bin ‘Ali bin Abi Thalib, ridwanallahu ‘alaihim ajma’in. This is his lineage."

It is from this point onward that synchronization and harmonization between the history of the Bani Ahdal and Syarif Abil Jadid, as concocted by the family of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf, became difficult to achieve. Before discussing the confusion, the author wishes to point out that ever since their efforts to seek a lineage and finding hope in the book Al-Suluk, the family of Abdurrahman al-Saqqaf has identified themselves permanently as the "Aba Alwi" family, which later became "Ba'alwi". This name was obtained from Al-Janadi's naming of the family of Syarif Abil Jadid. For later periods, this synchronization effort shifted more toward the history of Syarif Abul Jadid rather than the history of the Bani Ahdal. Consequently, the inaccuracy in the historical arrangement would later manifest between the history of the Ba'alwi and the history of the Bani Ahdal.[]