Menurut tradisi orang-orang Arab, Bani Adnan berasal dari Arabia Utara, tidak seperti Suku Qahthan yang berasal dari Arabia Selatan, yang merupakan keturunan Hud.[3]
Silsilah keluarga yang menggambarkan cabang-cabang Bani Adnan.Silsilah keluarga keturunan Bani Adnan.
Menurut tradisi silsilah di Arab, Bani Adnan adalah keturunan dari Adnan yang diturunankan dari Ismail,[4][5][6] sementara Suku Qahthan di Arabia Selatan (Yaman) merupakan suku asli Arab.[7][8]
Historiografi modern
Menurut beberapa sejarawan modern, perbedaan antara kaum Adnan dan Qahtan tidak memiliki bukti dan mungkin telah berkembang dari faksi-faksi selanjutnya selama periode Umayyah.[3]
^Parolin, Gianluca P. (2009). Citizenship in the Arab World: Kin, Religion and Nation-State. hlm. 30. ISBN978-9089640451. The ‘arabicised or arabicising Arabs’, on the contrary, are believed to be the descendants of Ishmael through Adnan, but in this case the genealogy does not match the Biblical line exactly. The label “arabized” has came about to use is due to the belief that Ishmael spoke Hebrew until he got to Mecca, where he married a Yemeni woman and learnt Arabic. Both genealogical lines go back to Sem, son of Noah, but only Adnanites can claim Abraham as their ascendant, and the lineage of Mohammed, the Seal of Prophets (khatim al-anbiya'), can therefore be traced back to Abraham. Contemporary historiography unveiled the lack of inner coherence of this genealogical system and demonstrated that it finds insufficient matching evidence; the distinction between Qahtanites and Adnanites is even believed to be a product of the Umayyad Age, when the war of factions (al-niza al-hizbi) was raging in the young Islamic Empire.
