People or land · The Bedouin tribes · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Banu Amir and Uqayl

Bedouin of the Uqayl family (the Banu Amir among them) dominate the deserts round the Uyunid oases, from the Kuwait shore to the Qatar base.

Every Uyunid faction hires them and fears them; their sheikhs will join the plot that kills Muhammad ibn Ahmad in 605 (1208-1209: Rashid ibn Umayra of the Banu Uqayl is named), and the Banu Amir will take al-Hasa and Qatif from the Uyunids in the 1230s (the later Usfurid house). Their chiefs in the winter of 1199-1200 are not named in the sources read.

Who holds it

Title
Chiefs (shaykhs) of the Banu Amir and the Banu Uqayl
Since
not pinned
Born
not pinned
Family
not pinned
Confidence
low

No chief of this tribe is named for the winter of 1199-1200 in the sources read.

Overlord

None effective; they take subsidies from the Uyunid emirs.

What it holds

Tribal range held by custom and force.

Allies and rivals

See summary.

How things stand that morning

In their ranges round al-Hasa and Qatif; courted by both Uyunid factions.

Wealth

Camels, horses, payments from the emirs, raids on the oases.

Military

Bedouin horsemen.

Threats

  • Uyunid punitive raids

Customs and assemblies

Ruled by their shaykhs in clan councils.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Uyunid tradition (Ibn al-Muqarrab) names these tribes and later chiefs; their 1200 chiefs are not named.

On the map: A tribal range, not a frontier: the tribe moves with the seasons and shares wells and pastures with others.

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

  1. Arabic Wikipedia: al-Dawla al-Uyuniyya (after Ibn al-Muqarrab's diwan and its commentary)
  2. Wikipedia: Uyunid Emirate

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.