Jabal Khazzaz
Jabal Khazzaz
A forty-year pre-Islamic war between Abs and Dhubyan of Ghatafan sparked by a rigged horse race between Dahis and al-Ghabra and ended when al-Harith ibn Awf and Hurm ibn Sinan paid blood money to extinguish the feud.
Plan your visit
Practical information verified separately from the historical record.
Before you go: Check with the operator or a local guide before departure; field access details have not yet been verified.
Why visit?
Reflect on Arabia's longest remembered tribal war, whose famous days and the heroism of Antarah ibn Shaddad still shape the poetry and memory of central Najd.
The War of Dahis and al-Ghabra pitted two branches of Ghatafan, Banu Abs and Banu Dhubyan, in one of the longest and most celebrated conflicts of the Jahiliyya. Allies including Tayy and Hawazin joined Dhubyan. The name derives from two horses belonging to Qays ibn Zuhayr al-Absi: Dahis and al-Ghabra. When Qays wagered a race against Hudhayfa ibn Badr al-Dhubyani, Hudhayfa's supporters ambushed Dahis and turned his head back so that al-Ghabra could win. The exposed treachery ignited a war that lasted some forty years.
Famous days of battle punctuated the struggle, and the knightly poetry of Antarah ibn Shaddad immortalized Absi valor. Peace came only when al-Harith ibn Awf and Hurm ibn Sinan undertook to pay the blood money that would end the cycle of vengeance.
The war belongs to the literary and moral geography of Arabia as much as to its politics: a cautionary tale of honor, trickery, and the immense cost of feud, remembered in verse and linked in popular memory to landmarks such as Jabal Khazaz near Dukhnah in al-Qassim.