The ground of the Mahra clans: the coast with its fishing villages and anchorages (Sayhut, Qishn, al-Ghayda, Damqawt, Hawf), the limestone plateau behind, and the wadis that drain north to the sands.
Each clan has its own wells and grazing and its own shaykh; disputes go to clan councils and customary law.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known for 1199-1200
- Title
- Clan shaykhs of the Mahra
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
What it holds
- Coastal villages and anchorages
- Wells and pastures of the plateau
Allies and rivals
Not recorded.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Al-Idrisi; geography.
On the map: The inland edge against the sands, the western edge against the Hadrami tribes and the Najd north of the Dhofar mountains (given to the Mahra herders as the likeliest users) are approximate.
Primary sources for Mahra
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.