Ghanem is an Arabic masculine given name and a surname.
The Ghanem family is descended from brothers Jafna ibn Amr and Thalabah ibn Amr of the Azd Dynasty, one of the oldest Pre-Islamic tribes that inhabited southwestern Arabia, mainly Yemen, and the Al-Bahah and 'Asir provinces in Saudi Arabia. Following the Ma'rib dam break during the 3rd century, they scattered between modern-day Saudi Arabia and the Levant.
Jafna settled in Roman-ruled Syria and initiated the Kingdom of the Ghassanids, which disappeared in 635 when the area was conquered by Muslims. They were so named after a spring of water where they stopped on their way to Syria. His descendants adopted Christianity (Syriac Miaphysite rite, then Chalcedonian) and became allied to the Byzantines.
Meanwhile, his brother, Thalabah ibn Amr, settled in Hijaz and his descendants became the Ansaris, the local inhabitants of Medina who took the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers into their homes when they emigrated from Mecca during the Hijra.
In Lebanon, the family descends directly from Moussa Ghanem Al-Ghassani, a native of Al-Nabek, Syria and a descendant of the Ghassanid tribe, "Al-Ghassani" being Arabic for the Ghassanid. Moussa moved to Yanouh in the 9th century and settled there. In the following centuries, his descendants moved to other regions in Lebanon, including Lehfed, Jouret Bedran, among others.
"Ghanem" may refer to:
Given name
- Ghanem al-Dosari (born 1980), Saudi human rights activist and satirist
- Ghanem Hamarsheh (born 1977), Jordanian retired footballer
- Ghanem Nuseibeh (born 1977), founder of Cornerstone Global Associates
- Ghanem Zrelly (born 1984), Tunisian actor
Surname
- Maroun Ghanem (born 1964), Lebanese Entrepreneur
- Abdullah Ghanem (born 1995), Emirati footballer
- Antoine Ghanem (1943–2007), Lebanese politician
- Asma Ghanem (born 1991), Palestinian visual artist and musician
- Donia Samir Ghanem (born 1985), Egyptian singer and actress
- Iskandar Ghanem (1911–2005), Lebanese army general
- Marcel Ghanem (born 1964), Lebanese journalist
- Najwa Ghanem (born c. 1960), Syrian first wife and first cousin of Osama bin Laden
- Ola Ghanem (born 1971), Egyptian actress
- Robert Ghanem (1942–2019), Lebanese lawyer and politician
- Sabine Ghanem (born 1984), Swiss-Lebanese jewelry designer and socialite
- Samir Ghanem (1937–2021), Egyptian comedian
- Saoud Ghanem (born 1981), Kuwaiti-born Qatari former international footballer
- Shihab Ghanem (born 1940), Emirati engineer, administrator, poet and author
- Shukri Ghanem (1942–2012), Libyan politician, former Prime Minister of Libya
See also
- Karl Ghanem (born 2006), Lebanese Entrepreneur , Son of Maroun Ghanem
- Nassir Al-Ghanem (born 1961), Kuwaiti former footballer
- Nujoom Al-Ghanem (born 1962), Emirati poet, artist and film director
- Mohamed El Ghanem, Egyptian refugee detained without charge for seven years by the Geneva judiciary from 2007 to 2013
- Ganem, a given name and surname
