The Tree of Light

A genealogy from Islamic, Jewish and Christian sources

From Adam to the Twelve Imams

من آدم إلى الأئمة الاثني عشر

One family tree from Adam, with every child the sources name for each generation. It runs as a single line to Abraham, then splits: Ishmael's branch on the left leads to the Prophet and the Twelve Imams, and Isaac's branch on the right, the line the Adams chart follows, leads through Moses and David to Mary and Jesus. Each row is one generation, so people of the same generation sit level. Select anyone to see their details and sources.

How to read the tree

Overview

The whole line at a glance

Every generation, drawn as a hanging lamp. The chain runs from Adam to Abraham; Ishmael's line forms the left of the bowl and Isaac's line the right. Hover over a station for a summary, or select it for full details. Era names jump to that part of the full tree below.

Swipe sideways to see both sides; tap a station for details.

The tree is wide: swipe sideways to follow both branches.

Method and sources

How this tree was put together

  • Adam to Abraham follows the Hebrew (Masoretic) text of Genesis 5 and 11. The BC dates are Ussher's, worked out from the ages in that text: creation in 4004 BC and the Flood in 2348 BC. The Adams Synchronological Chart uses this chronology, so check the cards against your copy of it. The Greek Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch give different ages, which changes every date.
  • Children: every child the main source names is listed beside the ancestor the line runs through. Where Genesis says only that someone had “other sons and daughters”, the tree says so. Names from later tradition or a minority source have dashed outlines.
  • Arabic name forms for the early patriarchs are the ones Ibn Hishām gives in his edition of Ibn Isḥāq's Sīra. The children of each Arab ancestor follow the same work.
  • Ishmael to ʿAdnān follows Ibn Isḥāq's list through Nābit. Most genealogists traced ʿAdnān through Qaydār (Kedar) instead, and many refused to name anyone between ʿAdnān and Ishmael. Treat this stretch as one tradition among several.
  • The Prophet, Fāṭima and the Imams: dates are the ones most Twelver sources give, mainly al-Kulaynī's al-Kāfī and al-Mufīd's al-Irshād. The Imams' children follow al-Irshād where it names them. Other genealogists give different counts, and the cards say so. Each AH date is converted to the CE year it mostly falls in.
  • Isaac to Joseph follows Genesis, Exodus 6, Ruth 4 and 1 Chronicles 2–3, then Matthew 1 after the exile. Matthew leaves out four kings (Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah and Jehoiakim); they are restored here from Kings and Chronicles and flagged. Luke 3 gives a different line from David to Joseph, through Nathan, which the cards mention. Kings' reign dates are approximate modern ones; Ussher's, used on the Adams chart, run up to about 45 years earlier.
  • Encyclopedia entries give Islamic, Jewish, Christian and other traditions equal weight, alongside history and modern scholarship. Each item is tagged with the tradition it comes from, and the Show buttons let you read one tradition at a time; scripture shared by Jews and Christians counts for both. Author's notes point out where the traditions agree, differ or echo each other. The entries describe what each tradition holds without judging between them.
  • Mary's parents are not named in the New Testament. The tree follows Islamic tradition, which names her father ʿImrān son of Māthān, and draws a dashed link to Matthew's Matthan. Christian tradition names her parents Joachim and Anne.
  • Generation numbers count from Adam, through the father where there is one: 60 to the Mahdī, 64 to Jesus through Mary. Rows line up by generation, not by date. Because the Ishmael–ʿAdnān list is so short, the left branch reaches the Prophet's time in far fewer generations, so people level with each other across the two branches can be many centuries apart.

Further reading: WikiShia on Mary and her father ʿImrān · the fathers of Moses and Mary · Ibn Hishām's lineage from Muhammad to Adam · Ibn Hishām on the children of Mudrika to Luʾayy · the children of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib · al-Mufīd's list of ʿAlī's children · ʿAdnān and the competing lines to Ishmael