 The origins of the Bani al-Atrash family are obscure, according to Druze historian Kais Firro, who asserts that like other prominent Middle Eastern families, "genealogical trees were only reconstructed after the consolidation of a family's power".The Bani al-Atrash claim descent from Ali al-Aks, a ruler of the Jabal al-A'la mountain in the western countryside of Aleppo.This claim is affirmed by several historians of the family, but is viewed skeptically by Firro.