Descent from Muhammad

Date: 0700 to 1500
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Arabia Spain Muhammad

This profile is intended to house discussion of descent from the prophet Muhammed.

Contents 1 Verified Lines of Descent 2 Legendary and Fictional Lines of Descent 2.1 Line to Zaida "Isabel" 3 Sources

Verified Lines of Descent

Legendary and Fictional Lines of Descent

Users of the Geni service have established a project entitled Descents fro Muhammad in Medieval Spain. The project page contains several lines with an identification of where fiction intrudes on reality.

Line to Zaida "Isabel"

The line to Zaida "Isabel" is line #4 in the Geni project, and was introduced to WikiTree before higher standards forbid the reation of unverified pre-1500 profiles.

Nicholas Whyte presents this line of descent from the prophet Muhammed to a woman who converted to Chrstianity and took the name Isabel. The historicity of this account has not been confirmed, but it has circulated widely. ^[1]

1. The Prophet Muhammad (570-632) had by his wife Khadijah
2. a daughter, Fatimah; she and her husband Ali had
3. a son, al-Hasan (d. 670); he and his wife Zhadah Kandaria had
4. a son, Husain (born c. 669). Husain had
5. a daughter, Zohra "al-Lakhm"; she and her husband Abu Farisi had
6. Na'im al-Lakhmi; he had
7. a son also named Na'im al-Lakhmi. The second Na'im al-Lakhmi had
8. a son, Itaf (fl. 742); he had
9. a son, Amr; he had
10. a son, Aslan. Aslan had
11. a son, called Amr like his grandfather; he had
12. a son, Abbad; he had
13. a son, Qarais. Qarais had
14. a son, Ismail, who became Iman of Seville; he had
15. a son, Kadi Abul-Kasim Muhammad I (d. 1042) who became Chamberlain of Seville; he had
16. a son, Abu Amr Abbad ben Muhammad al-Mu'tamid, (d. 1068) also Chamberlain of Seville. This al-Mu'tamid had
17. a son Abul-Kasim Muhammad ben Abbad al Mu'tamid (1045-1095) who became Emir of Seville and was famously devoted to his wife, I'tamid; they had
18. a daughter Zaida (1075-1107), baptised as a Christian, and renamed Isabel, who was married in 1098 to Alfonso VI, King of Leòn & Castile; she had
19. a daughter Sancha de Castile (born c.1100) wha was married in 1120 to to Rodrigo 'El Franco' Gonzalez de Lara.

Of course, it's too good to be true. I am fairly confident of the second half of the genealogy above, but substantial elements in the first six hundred years appear to be fictional. Todd Farmerie has posted convincingly on several of the gaps in the record: ^[2]

re the line from 4) Zohra to 14) Abbad: according to Farmerie, Zohra"is fictional, as is her nickname, invented (ca. 1500) solely to connect the Lakhmi line to that of Ali and Muhammad. These Lakhm were a minor tribe from the Sinai distinct from the house of Ali, so a descendant of his would not have been described as "the Lakhm", nor were any daughters of Ali's tribe allowed to marry out of the tribe at this time. Likewise, Abu Farisi is an invention, not known to the earliest scholars and genealogists of the family that would come to rule in Spain." Skipping down a couple of generations, "[7)]Itaf is said to have been a soldier in 742, which exacerbates the chronological problem." [Indeed - if he was a soldier in 742, but his great-great-grandfather was born in 669, that leaves only 73 years for four generations which is cutting it rather fine.] "He only appears in the histories of the royal family claiming descent from him, and may likewise be fictional. None of the intervening generations down to [14)]Muhammad are independently attested, outside of the pedigree of the Abu 'Abbadis, and the pedigree has no branches through these generations." And finally, 11) Abbad "is the eponymous ancestor of the Abu 'Abbadi family, and perhaps a prior first-ancestor, before the pedigree was extended." ^[2] In a second article, Todd Farmerie points out that 17) Zaida presents two big problems: first, "Contemporary Arabic sources describe Zaida as daughter-in-law of the ruler of Seville, not his daughter, and any attempt to identify her paternity has not moved beyond the level of wild guesswork. (Any assignment of her mother is completely without foundation, as mothers were almost never identified, even for the rulers.)" - so her relationship with those ahead of her in the table is disputable; and secondly, "Zaida was baptized as Isabel, but it is far from universally accepted that she is identical with the Queen Isabel who was mother of Sancha Alfonso, wife of Rodrigo Gonzalez" - so the relations below are dodgy as well.^[2] And from farther down the same article, 19) Rodrigo Rodriguez de Lara "is a genealogical fiction, invented by Salazar y Castro to link Sancha Rodriguez, whom he wrongly thought to be a Lara, with Rodrigo Gonzalez. (Earlier reconstructions made Sancha daughter of Rodrigo Gonzalez, but chronology demanded an additional generation.) In fact, Rodrigo Gonzalez and [18)] Sancha Alfonso had two children, a son who entered the church, and a daughter married to the Count of Urgel, as his second wife. By her, the Count of Urgel had a son who died without issue, and a daughter married, as second wife, to the Count of Haro. By her, the Count of Haro had one known son, who in turn had one known son, at which point the line fades into the minor nobility. There are no known descendants of Sancha beyond this point."^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ How I am descended from the Prophet Muhammad? Accessed 7 August 2023 jhd
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Todd Farmerie, Source of Citation to be sought.

https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/4qfzKMW3qWo/m/T1hyDbm5CwAJ