Basus War

The Basus (or Basous) War (often written al-Basus War; Arabic: حرب البسوس ḥarb al-basūs) was a 40-year conflict between two cousin tribes in Arabia of Late Antiquity which was started by the killing of a camel owned by a woman named Al Basus under the protection of her brother in law Mura.

The Taghlib and Bakr tribes fought for roughly forty years (from 494 to 534 CE), locked in a perpetual cycle of vengeance. In parts of the Arab world today, the Basus War has been incorporated into an aphorism warning people against vendettas.