The red sand belt of the Dahna and the gravel plateau of the Summan, between the Yamama oases and the Uyunid oasis of al-Hasa, from the Hafar al-Batin country south to Yabrin at the edge of the Rub' al-Khali.
These are the inland ranges of the Bedouin whom the Persia map draws round al-Hasa and Qatif: the Banu Amir and other Uqayl, hired and feared by every Uyunid faction, who will join the plot that kills Muhammad ibn Ahmad in 605 (1208-1209) and take al-Hasa in the 1230s.
Who holds it
- Name
- not known for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Shaykhs of the Banu Amir and Banu Uqayl of the inland deserts
- 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.
Overlord
None; courted and feared by the Uyunid emirs of al-Hasa and Qatif.
What it holds
- the Dahna sands and the Summan plateau
- the wells between al-Yamama and al-Hasa
- the oasis of Yabrin
Allies and rivals
Kin of the Bedouin round al-Hasa (Persia map, Banu Amir and Uqayl).
How things stand that morning
Present; no chief named.
Military
Mounted tribesmen and camel riders under their shaykhs; no fortresses.
Customs
Kin-ruled pastoralists under shaykhs chosen within leading lineages; summer camps at the wells and the edges of the oases, winter grazing in the open desert after the rains; they sell camels, sheep, butter and wool in the oasis markets, take protection money (khuwwa) from villages and caravans, and serve the sharifs or the caravan commanders for pay.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Range inferred from the Persia map's records and the geography.
On the map: Rough; the eastern edge follows the Persia map's Bedouin outline.
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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.