Emin was son of Zahiyya Shihāb and Mağīd Arslān, son of Milḥam, son of Ḥaidar, son of 'Abbās, son of Fakhreddīn.[2][3] He had three brothers: Nouhad, Fouad, Sa'īd and Tawfīq (also transliterated as Toufic). The latter helped found Greater Lebanon in 1920 and fathered Mağīd Arslān II (1908–1983), a Lebanon's independence hero, member of the Lebanese Parliament and government minister. Current traditional chief of the Arslān family, Talal Arslan, is therefore a great niece of Emin Arslan.