Banu al-Qayn
Banū al-Qayn (Arabic: بنو القين) (also spelled Banūʾl Qayn, Balqayn or al-Qayn ibn Jasr) were an Arab tribe that was active between the early Roman era in the Near East through the early Islamic era (7th–8th centuries CE), as far as the historical record is concerned.[1] According to historian Irfan Shahid, "it is almost certain" that the Banu al-Qayn, along with the Judham and Amila tribes, "functioned as military units in the Roman period, forming part of the Nabatean confederacy".[3] In the 4th century CE, the tribe's dwelling places were in Transjordan and they served as foederati (federates) of the Byzantine Empire.[1] According to historian W. Montgomery Watt, "the last that is heard" of the Banu al-Qayn was in 792, during the Abbasid era, when they were involved in intertribal fighting in Damascus.[1] However, the late 9th-century geographer al-Ya'qubi held that the town of Arandal, an administrative center in southern Transjordan, was populated by the Banu al-Qays along with the Ghassanids.