Muntafiq

Who holds it

Title

Chief (shaykh) of the Muntafiq

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

The caliph, as paid auxiliaries.

What it holds

Tribal range held by custom and force.

Allies and rivals

See summary.

How things stand that morning

In their ranges between the lower Euphrates, the marshes and the Basra desert; no dated action in the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Camels and sheep, dates of the river edge, escort payments, raids.

Military

Bedouin horsemen.

Threats

• the caliph's governor of Basra
• the Khafaja and the Banu Amir

Customs and assemblies

Ruled by their shaykhs.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Named as Iraqi auxiliaries in 598; range from their later history and the geography.

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