segmented into various clan groupings, which are important kinship units that play a central part in Somali culture and politics. Clan families are patrilineal, and are divided into clans, primary lineages or subclans, and dia-paying kinship groups. The lineage terms qabiil, qolo, jilib and reer are often interchangeably used to indicate the different segmentation levels. The clan represents the highest kinship level. It owns territorial properties and is typically led by a clan-head or Sultan. Primary lineages are immediately descended from the clans, and are exogamous political units with no formally installed leader. They comprise the segmentation level that an individual usually indicates he or she belongs to, with their founding patriarch reckoned to between six and ten generations. The five major clan families are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist Dir, Isaaq, Darod, Hawiye and the sedentary agropastoralist Rahanweyn. Minor Somali clans include Benadiri. The Dir, Hawiye, Gardere (Gaalje'el, Degodia, Garre), Hawadle and Ajuran trace agnatic origins to the patriarch Samaale. Sheikh Darod is asserted to have married a woman from the Dir (while some accounts say Hawiye), thus establishing matrilateral ties with the Samaale family. The Darod have separate paternal traditions of descent through Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti (Sheikh Darod), who is said to have Arabian Banu Hashim origins through Aqiil Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib arriving at a later date from the Arabian peninsula, in the 10th or 11th centuries and the Isaaq clan traces paternal descent to the Islamic leader Sheikh Isaaq Bin Ahmed Al Hashimi (Sheikh Isaaq), however contemporary genetic studies indicate that none of these clans possess any noticeable Arab ancestry. The Rahanweyn or Sab trace their stirp to the patriarch Sab. Both Samaale and Sab are supposed to have ultimately descended from a common lineage originating in the Arabian peninsula. These traditions of descent from elite Arab forefathers, who settled on the littoral, are debated, although they are based on early Arab documents and northern oral folklore. A comprehensive genealogy of Somali clans can be found in Abbink (2009), providing detailed family trees and historical background information. The tombs of the founders of the Darod, Dir and Isaaq major clans, as well as the Abgaal subclan of the Hawiye are all located in northern Somalia. Tradition holds this general area as an ancestral homeland of the Somali people. Kinship The traditional political unit among the Somali people has been kinships. Dia-paying groups are groupings of