Sorry for not realizing that this question has been languishing beneath cob-webs.
Quote:
The first inhabitants of Yathrib were from three large tribes, and they were:
The Amalekites: And it was they who founded Yathrib, according to the most authoritative narrations; and the tribe of 'Ubail--from which came Yathrib, after whome the city was named--belonged to the Amalekites. And it is obvious from their name that they were distinguished by their great height. And they were from the descendants of "Amliq bin Laud bin Shem bin Noah. They were in the area of Babylon and then they spread to different areas throught the Arabian Gulf and some of them took up residence in the place known as Yathrib. And there is no doubt that they were Arabs. Imam Ag-Tabari considered their ancestor 'Amlip to be the first person to speak Arabic.
The Jews: When the Muslims migrated to Yathrib, they found there a number of Jewish tribes; and there is agreement that most of the Jews of Yathrib were teh descendants of emigrants who came from Palestine. Some of them came as migrants after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed teh Kingdom of Judea and killed many of the Jews and enslaved many of them; this took place 586 years before the start of the Christian Era (CE) (known by the Christians as BC). Likewise, other migrations took place when the Romans made an example of them in the year 70CE, and again in the year 132 CE. And some of thesee migrants made their home in the area of Yathrib. ANd the first of the tribes which reached the area of Yathrib were Banu Quraizah and Banu An-Nadir, then other tribes followed them.
Al-Aws and Al-Khazraj: They are two Qahtani tribes which migrated to Yathrib from Yemen after the destruction of Sadd Ma'arib. And the settling of these two tribes in Yathrib had a great effect upon its history. According to the most reliable reports, the two tribes arrived in Al-Madinah in the third century of the Christian Era.
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Taken from the book
History of Madinah Munawwarah;which was prepared by group of scholars under the super-vision of Shaikh Safiur-Rahman Mubarakpuri; translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab; copyright held by Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, 2002.