The Banu Muhriz were an Arab princely family that controlled the fortresses of Marqab (Margat), Kahf and Qadmus in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The family is credited by a 13th-century Alawite treatise for patronizing the budding Alawite community in the southern Syrian Coastal Mountain Range, along with two other local families, the Banu'l-Ahmar and Banu'l-Arid. The former controlled the Balatunus (Mahalibeh) fortress until losing it to the Byzantines in 1031, while the latter were based in the mountains west of Homs. A member of the family, the emir of Qadmus Abdallah ibn Ja'far ibn Muhriz, hosted the prominent Alawite missionary Abu'l-Khayr Ahmad ibn Salama al-Hadda (died 1065) in the fortress. An 11th-century poem by an Alawite religious figure celebrated the family. Alawite