Shammar

The Shammar were a tribal confederation of northern Najd, descended from the Tayy around the twin mountains of Aja and Salma. Around 1337 their people herded camels and bred horses near the wells of Ha'il.

In the fourteenth century the name Shammar replaced Tayy in written sources. Rivalry with the Anizah over desert wells continued for centuries. In the seventeenth century a large section migrated under the Al Jarba into Iraq as far as Mosul, while those who remained kept Ha'il as their seat.