Subay

The Subay were an Arab tribe of the Najd, descended from the Banu Amir ibn Sa’sa’a. Their nomadic branch originally grazed around Ranyah and Kurmah on the Najd-Asir border, while other clans settled in towns.

In the seventeenth century the Subay Al Sulaim ruled Unaizah, a trading town in al-Qasem. After the Ottoman invasion of 1818, the tribe entered the weakening Bani Khalid’s desert lands; in 1830 Subay and Saudi forces fought the battle that ended Bani Khalid rule in al-Hasa.