Banu Amila

Banu Amila (Arabic: بَنُو عَامِلَة, Banū ʿĀmila), also spelled Amela, was an Arab tribe that historically dwelt in the Levant (greater Syria) during the Byzantine (3rd–7th centuries CE) and early Islamic periods (7th–11th centuries). Before or during the Crusades (late 11th–13th centuries) they made their abode in the mountainous region called after them, the Jabal Amil, in present-day Southern Lebanon. The long-established Shia Muslim community that lives in this region generally claims descent from the Amila, though the community's singular descent from the tribe is neither substantiated nor likely, according to the historian Tamara Chalabi.