The high Asir, from al-Namas and Tanomah south past Abha to the Yemen border, with the Tihama slopes of Rijal Alma' and Muhayil, is the country of Azd tribes: the Banu Shihr (Shahr) at al-Namas and Tanomah, the Banu Amr, Bal-Asmar and Bal-Ahmar, and further south the Rufayda and Alma' (al-Hamdani).
The name 'Asir' for a tribal confederation and a province comes into use later. Nothing is recorded for 1200; no outside power is known to rule here.
Who holds it
- Name
- not known for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Shaykhs of the Asir highland tribes
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Family
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No chief of this people is named for the winter of 1199-1200 in the sources read.
What it holds
- the high Sarat of al-Namas, Tanomah and Abha
- the Tihama slopes of Rijal Alma' and Muhayil
How things stand that morning
Present; no chief named.
Military
Village levies of the mountains.
Customs
Terrace farmers and herders under lineage shaykhs, with fortified villages and market days; feuds settled by tribal law.
Where the sources disagree
- A web claim of a battle in '1207' by a Shihri prince against 'Turkish troops' is unsupported and ignored.
Evidence: Tenth-century tribal geography only.
On the map: Rough; the southern edge meets the Yemeni sheet's highlands.
Primary sources for The Bedouin
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- History of the Observant Traveller (A Traveller in Thirteenth-Century Arabia), Ibn al-Mujawir (Jamal al-Din Yusuf ibn Ya'qub) (about 1226 to 1232). A merchant-traveller's description of western and southern Arabia a generation after 1200: Mecca and the Hijaz ports, the Red Sea crossing, Zabid and the Tihama, Aden with its customs and tariffs, the Hadramawt coast, Dhofar and Oman, Socotra, and the opposite African shore at Zeila and the Dahlak islands. Read online
Sources and studies
- Banu Shahr (English Wikipedia, citing al-Hamdani, Sifat Jazirat al-Arab)
- al-Hamdani, Sifat Jazirat al-Arab (tenth century), the standard description of the tribes and places of the Sarat, Najd and the Hejaz, as used in the Wikipedia tribal articles cited here
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.