Quda'a

Quda'a was a large confederation of Arab tribes whose genealogists disputed whether it belonged to the northern or the southern Arabs. Its tribes, among them Kalb, Tanukh, Salih, Bali and Juhayna, were widespread in the Syrian desert and northern Hejaz in late antiquity, and several served Rome as frontier allies. Under the Umayyads the Kalb were a mainstay of caliphal power in Syria.