Dhofar mountain clans

Who holds it

Name

Not known for 1199-1200

Title

Clan heads

Since

Not known

Confidence

low

Overlord

The lord of Zafar and Mirbat, in some measure (not pinned).

What it holds

• Mountain pastures, caves and springs
• Frankincense trees on the dry northern slopes

Allies and rivals

Not recorded.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing clans within the Manjawi sphere.

Where the sources disagree

• The language identification follows later evidence; medieval writers lump these clans with the Mahra.

Evidence: Geography and later ethnography; nothing named for 1200.

On the map: The crest and the northern foot of the mountains are traced roughly.

Primary sources for Dhofar

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.

• Annals of Oman, from the Kashf al-ghumma, Sirhan ibn Sa'id ibn Sirhan (compiler), from earlier Ibadi chronicles (about 1728, from earlier Ibadi sources). The Ibadi imamate of Oman has no contemporary chronicle for 1200; the later Omani compilations (the Kashf al-ghumma and al-Salimi's Tuhfat al-a'yan) preserve a list of imams and the tradition of the Nabhani maliks who ruled the interior from the 12th century, with Hormuz and Kish pressing on the coast. Read online
• 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