The broken plateau and valleys of the later Shabwa country: Nisab and Ataq, Habban, Wadi Mayfa'a, Azzan, and the coast from east of Ahwar to Bir Ali.
The tribal names known there today (Awlaqi, Wahidi) are later; in 1200 the country belongs to tribes whose names and chiefs are not recorded, beyond the reach of Ayyubid Aden and of the Hadrami lords.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known for 1199-1200
- Title
- Tribal shaykhs
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
None attested.
What it holds
- Valleys, wells and pastures from Nisab to the Wadi Hajr
- The coast from east of Ahwar to Bir Ali
Allies and rivals
Not recorded.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing tribes; who held what is not recorded.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: No source of the period describes this country.
On the map: A single block for unnamed tribes; the western edge stops short of Abyan (yem records).
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.