The island of dunes between the Sharqiya, Ja'lan and the Arabian Sea, grazed by camel and goat herders who water at its edges.
The tribe that later gave its name to the sands is not attested for 1200; the herders of that time are not named.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known for 1199-1200 (the Al Wahiba, who give the sands their name, are attested only later)
- Title
- Herders' shaykhs
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
What it holds
- Grazing and wells of the sands and their edges
- The coast from al-Ashkhara to Barr al-Hikman
Allies and rivals
Not recorded.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing herders.
Threats
- Drought
Where the sources disagree
- Omani history between the Nabhanid seizure of power (1154) and the fifteenth century survives only in thin, contradictory chronicles; no source we could check names a lord, governor or chief anywhere in southern Oman for 1199-1200. Following the regional brief, the realm id oman (the Nabhanid kings of Bahla, Persia map record Oman) is used only at the edge of their core (Adam, by anchor); everything else is given to its own tribes.
Evidence: Geography; no source of the period.
On the map: Outline of the dune field.
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.