 Besides anecdotes provided in the writings of European consuls, most of the information on Aqil's life indirectly traces back to a history of the man written by Mikha'il Qa 'war, a Nazareth clergyman. Aqil was born into a Bedouin family, known later as the Hanadi tribe. The actual Hanadi were an unrelated tribe that came to Palestine from Egypt during Egyptian rule in Palestine (1831 – 1840) and around 1840 joined Aqil's Hawwara tribesmen, who also had migrated from Egypt. The name "Hanadi" translates in Arabic as "Indians" and the Hanadi irregulars were referred to as such by the inhabitants of Palestine because of their dark skin.
