Updated on
The Al-Taher Family
The Al-Taher family traces its beginnings to the city of Nablus in Palestine, where As'ad Al-Taher was born around 17951.
The family’s earlier paternal ancestry reaches across the southern Levant. As'ad was the son of Taher, son of Saleh, son of Sulaiman Jaradat, connecting the Al-Taher family directly to the Jaradat of Silat Al-Harithiya, a village north of Jenin, Palestine. Through them, our history extends eastward across the Jordan River to Karak, Jordan, where the Jaradat were established before their seventeenth-century dispersal.
From Karak, Jordan, to Nablus, Palestine
The Jaradat are historically associated with the al-Amr tribal community of Karak, Jordan, and remain affiliated with it today.
While historical traditions connect them with al-Amr and, further back, with Bani Uqba and Judham, these traditions deserve careful investigation rather than automatic acceptance as literal father-to-son pedigrees. Arab tribal identities could encompass related families, allied groups and multiple paternal lineages while remaining historically meaningful communities.
A particularly important historical reference point comes from around 1670, when a large portion of the Jaradat were displaced from Karak toward the mountains of Hebron and Nablus and the plains of Huran. Family and regional traditions preserve subsequent movements throughout the Levant.
By the late eighteenth century, surviving accounts bring us much closer to individuals whose lives directly shaped our family.
Saleh, son of Sulaiman Jaradat, was a leader among the Jaradat during a turbulent period in the history of northern Palestine. One of his sons, Taher, became the link in the family line leading to As'ad, from whom the Al-Taher family documented in this Archive descends. Family accounts describe a dispute involving Taher and members of his family that appears to have contributed to his move to Nablus around 1795.
The Beginning of Al-Taher
According to family accounts, Taher married Ruqaya Kamal2 in Nablus, where their son As'ad was born around 17951. Taher gave the family its name; As'ad became the founder of the Al-Taher family whose descendants we document today.
Nablus became the family's historical home, where its roots deepened and its Nabulsi identity took shape. Yet the family's story was never confined to one city. Beginning with As'ad's own children, branches established themselves elsewhere in Palestine and, over time, in Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. Later generations carried the family name to communities around the world.
Those places became part of the family's identity through the lives, relationships and memories of the people who called them home. Each branch's history contributes to the wider story of the family.
A Story Still Being Written
Beginning with As'ad, we have already documented several thousand members of the extended family, but the tree is still far from complete. Many descendants, relationships, dates, and other details remain missing, especially in branches descending through women. Most spouses are also still missing from the record. Earlier versions of the family tree followed the traditional patrilineal model of genealogy, tracing descent through the male line, so these branches and family connections were outside their scope. The full family is likely considerably larger than the record we have today; its eventual size will become clearer as these branches are completed.
The work of earlier researchers and family members gave us the foundation on which this Archive is built. Our immediate priority is therefore to make the genealogical record as complete and accurate as possible—identifying descendants across every branch, filling gaps, correcting errors, and documenting family relationships with the help of those who know them best. Family members are central to this work. By sharing information about their own families, identifying corrections, and helping us reach branches that remain incomplete, they contribute knowledge that no single researcher could assemble alone.
Over time, the Archive may also preserve photographs, documents, family memories, and other materials that add depth and context to the names in the tree. But the first task is clear: to build the most complete and reliable record we can of As'ad's descendants and the families connected to them.
Our story is already more than two centuries old. The task now is to ensure that as much of it as possible is accurately recorded and not lost with time.
Read Origins & Evidence for the historical sources, the role of DNA, and the questions that remain open.