Al-Hamdan

Al Hamdan (Arabic: ال حمدان‎‎) is a Druze clan based in Jabal al-Druze, a mountainous region in southeastern Syria. They were among the earliest Druze settlers in Jabal Hauran and were the dominant local force in that region between their establishment there in 1711 and circa 1860, when the al-Atrash clan became the prominent Druze power.

The Al Hamdan claim descent from the Hamdanids (Banu Hamdan), an Arab dynasty that governed much of northern Syria during Fatimid rule in the 10th century. This claim is accepted by 20th-century French historian N. Bouron and Druze historian A. Najjar. However, Druze historian Kais Firro views the claim of Hamdanid descent as skeptical and believes the Al Hamdan invented and spread it to boost their legitimacy as leaders of the Druze community, which generally held great respect for noble genealogy. According to Al Hamdan tradition, members of the family adopted the Druze faith during the Fatimid era, and migrated to Mount Lebanon during the Fatimid decline in Syria. However, early Druze chronicles do not mention conversion to the Druze religion among any members of the Hamdanid dynasty. In Mount Lebanon, the Al Hamdan were based in the village of Kafra.

Following the 1711 Battle of Ain Dara between the rival Qaysi and Yamani factions of the Druze, in which the Yamani were routed, the latter faction began a mass exodus to the Hauran from Mount Lebanon. The Al Hamdan were part of this migration. At the time of the migration, a small Druze community was present in Hauran and led by Emir Alam ad-Din, a Yamani prince related to the Ma'an dynasty which had dominated Mount Lebanon between the 14th and 17th centuries. When Emir Alam ad-Din returned to Mount Lebanon to fight alongside his Yamani kinsmen in 1711, leadership of the Hauran Druze passed to the Al Hamdan. The clan was headquartered in the village of Najran, situated at the western edge of the Lejah plain, and also controlled five villages in the vicinity. The Al Hamdan's ancestral village of Kafra was destroyed in a snowstorm in the early 18th century, prompting its inhabitants to join the Al Hamdan in Hauran. The Al Hamdan continued to have branches in the Gharb district of Mount Lebanon and in the Galilee. Khalil al-Hamdan, a member of the family from the Galilee moved to Hauran and strengthened the rule of his kinsman Hamdan al-Hamdan.

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