Bakr b. Wāʾil is one of the largest lineage groups of the "Northern Arabs" in Muslim-era genealogies. At the dawn of Islam, the sub-tribes of the Bakr b. Wāʾil lived in the area between the desert frontier in central Iraq and al-Yamāma in the Arabian Peninsula. Like most super-tribal lineages, it is challenging to speak of the Bakr as one cohesive corporate entity across history. Whilst the name "Bakr b. Wāʾil" is found in pre-Islamic poetry, its constituent sub-tribes were not united before the