ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the branches of scholarship in particular, in order to show how the followers of the Shu'ubiyya brought their views into play in their treatment of the subject. In respect of genealogical science, the Arabs were excelled by the Persians and other new Muslims. Closer acquaintance with Biblical history, to which the exegetes of the Koran were perforce led by the Biblical allusions and references in it, later enriched these beginnings with new material and paved the way for the connection of Arab genealogy with Biblical accounts. Administrative considerations also determined genealogical research, in order with its help to reject unjustified claims and correct the current genealogical traditions of individual families. The point of view which dictated the inner social life also set corresponding problems for genealogists and offered opportunity for vast differences of opinion—whether a given tribe was of northern or southern Arab origin.
