The Basus (or Basous) War (often written al-Basus War; Arabic: حرب البسوس ḥarb al-basūs) was a conflict for 40 years between two cousin tribes in Arabia of Late Antiquity which started by the killing a camel owned by a man named "ٍSaad Bin Shams", a refugee under the protection of a Woman named "Al-Basus". Al-Basus, like any other Arab at that time, considered this as great insult to her honor which started a chain of events that lead to the war. The Taghlib and Bakr tribes fought for roughly forty years (from 494-534 CE), locked in a perpetual cycle of vengeance. In parts of the Arab world today, the Basus War has been incorporated into an aphorism warning people against vendettas.