Tribe or land · The Bedouin tribes · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Southern jol tribes

The stony plateau (jol) between the wadi and the coast and the side valleys draining into the middle wadi, home of bedouin and village tribes.

The chronicles name the Banu Harith (written Banu Haritha in some texts; TDV calls them the Banu Harith ibn Ka'b), the Banu Haram and the Al Yusuf among those who turned against Abd Allah ibn Rashid; the Banu Harith took villages round Tarim in a later revolt. Their chiefs, the house of al-A'lam, give rise to the Al Yamani, lords of Tarim from 621 AH (1224).

Who holds it

Name
Not pinned for 1199-1200 (Yamani ibn al-A'lam is named as chief of the Banu Harith in 611 AH, his son Mas'ud in 623 AH)
Title
Tribal shaykhs; the Banu Harith led by the house of al-A'lam
Since
Not known
Confidence
low

What it holds

  • Pastures, wells and villages of the southern jol and side wadis (approximate)

Allies and rivals

Against the Al Rashid when pressed; the Banu Harith later ally with the Habudis of Zafar (a marriage in 611 AH).

How things stand that morning

Self-governing; hostile to Abd Allah ibn Rashid by turns.

Threats

  • Rashidid campaigns
  • Famine

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 606 AH (1209)Fahd ibn Abd Allah brings the Banu Harith and the Banu Haram back to obedience.Depends on: Rashidid recovery. Stopped by: Renewed war.

Where the sources disagree

  • Which tribe held which valley in 1200 is not recorded; the outline is a single block for all of them.

Evidence: Names from the chronicles; ranges not recorded.

On the map: One block for several tribes; boundaries not recorded.

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

  1. 'Rasidiler' (the Al Rashid of Hadramawt), TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi (after al-Shatiri, Adwar al-tarikh al-Hadrami; Salih al-Hamid, Tarikh Hadramawt; Ibn Awad, Jawahir tarikh al-Ahqaf; Yahya ibn al-Husayn, Ghayat al-amani; G. R. Smith, 'Hadramawt', EI2 Suppl.)
  2. Salim ibn Muhammad ibn Hamid al-Kindi, Tarikh Hadramawt, vol. 1 (archive.org OCR text; searched for the Al Rashid, the Al Iqbal, the Al Dughar and the Ghuzz; the OCR digits are garbled, so dates are taken from TDV)
  3. 'al-Habudiyyun' (the Habudi dynasty), Arabic encyclopedia page after Shanbal, Ibn al-Mujawir, Ibn al-Athir and al-Khazraji

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.