Shidyaq traced the origins of the Alam al-Dins to a certain 14th-century Tanukhid chieftain of the village of Ramtun in the Gharb, Alam al-Din Sulayman ibn Ghallab, who is mentioned by the Buhturid chronicler Salih ibn Yahya (d. 1435). Althouh Shidyaq's version was accepted by the historians Henri Lammens and Philip K. Hitti, Salibi considered it confused and entirely unconvincing ... pure fancy. Research by Alexander Hourani, based on the Sijill al-Arslani (genealogical records of the Arslan family of Choueifat), holds that the Alam al-Dins were descendants of Alam al-Din Ma'n ibn Mu'attib, a descendant of the Abd Allah ibn al-Nu'man ibn Malik branch of the Tanukh confederation; the Arslans are purported descendants of Raslan ibn Malik, the uncle of Abd Allah ibn al-Nu'man. The Sijill al-Arslani dates the arrival of the Alam al-Din and Arslan families in Mount Lebanon to the late 8th century. The Alam al-Dins had marital ties with the Arslans, as well as the Buhturids, which was also a Tanukhid family. The historian William Harris considers Salibi's theory of Ma'nid ancestry of the Alam al-Dins to be without evidence. He notes that the Alam al-Din's likely Tanukhid ancestry gave them enough traditional authority to claim rights of chieftainship over the Druze.