Kings and their demesnes · Hadramawt: the Al Rashid of Tarim and the tribes · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Abd Allah ibn Rashid

A Shafi'i lord trained in law and hadith, of the Ash'ari creed, who took power at Tarim when a slave murdered his brother in 593 AH (1197) and in 594 AH (1198) took Shibam and Bur, making himself the strongest power in the Wadi Hadramawt.

As a boy he had been carried off to Aden with his father and brother when the Ayyubid governor al-Zanjili overran Hadramawt in 575-576 AH (1179-1180). He wants to unite all Hadramawt; the tribes resent his demands and his taxes, and the chronicles of his reign are full of their revolts.

Who he is

Name
Abd Allah ibn Rashid ibn Shaj'ana al-Qahtani al-Himyari, called al-Adil (the Just) in the Turkish encyclopedia's account
Title
Ruler of Tarim and of the middle Wadi Hadramawt
Since
593 AH (1196-1197), on the murder of his brother Shaj'ana
Born
553 AH (1158-1159) at Tarim (al-Zirikli); about 41 or 42 on 1 January 1200
Family
Al Rashid of Tarim. Father: Rashid ibn Shaj'ana, ruler from about 547 AH, captured by the Ayyubids in 575 AH and still alive in 577 AH (death not pinned). Brother: Shaj'ana ibn Rashid, ruler 577-593 AH, murdered by a slave. Son: Fahd ibn Abd Allah, grown up by 603 AH, when he took over the government (age in 1200 not known); other sons are mentioned as prisoners of Umar ibn Mahdi in 616 AH (names not pinned). Wives not known.
Confidence
high

TDV 'Rasidiler'; al-Zirikli, al-A'lam; Kure Ansiklopedi ruler list.

Overlord

Nominally the Ayyubid ruler of Yemen, al-Mu'izz Isma'il: Shaj'ana had accepted Ayyubid authority when Tughtekin took Tarim in 590 AH (1194). Whether Abd Allah still did so in 596 AH is not pinned.

What it holds

  • Tarim, the family seat, with its castle
  • Shibam, taken in 594 AH (1198)
  • Bur, between Say'un and Tarim, taken in 594 AH (1198)
  • The villages of the middle wadi between Shibam and Tarim (Say'un, Tarba, Damun and others): not pinned village by village

How it was acquired

Succeeded his murdered brother at Tarim in 593 AH (1197); took Shibam and Bur by force in 594 AH (1198), apparently from the Al Dughar, his kinsmen (not pinned).

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the Al Iqbal (Al Faris) of al-Shihr; the Al Dughar, former lords of Shibam; the tribes of the Nahd, the Banu Harith, the Banu Mu'awiya (Kinda), the Banu Haram and the Al Yusuf, who refuse him by turns. The Ayyubid governors of Aden are a distant, unwelcome overlord. Friends: the scholars and sayyids of Tarim, whose learning he shares.

How things stand that morning

Holds Tarim, Shibam and Bur and claims the whole wadi. The tribes of the plateaux and side wadis are not his to command, and the coast at al-Shihr belongs to the Al Iqbal.

Wealth

Irrigated date palms and grain of the wadi bed, the markets of Tarim and Shibam, tolls on the caravans between the coast and the wadi, levies on the farmers that are remembered as heavy.

Military

His household and slaves, the townsmen of Tarim and Shibam, and such tribes as he can pay or persuade. Tarim's castle. No figures.

Threats

  • Revolt of the Nahd, the Banu Harith and other tribes
  • The Al Iqbal of al-Shihr
  • An Ayyubid expedition from Aden
  • Murder in his own household, as befell his brother

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. 599 AH (1202-1203)He besieges al-Shihr; the Nahd take much of Hadramawt behind his back.Depends on: His quarrel with the Al Iqbal going on. Stopped by: A settlement with the Al Iqbal or the Nahd.
  2. 601 AH (1204-1205)He walls Tarim and renews its castle.Depends on: Tarim staying his. Stopped by: Loss of Tarim.
  3. 603 AH (1206-1207)He hands the government to his son Fahd.Depends on: Fahd's survival. Stopped by: Fahd's death or a family quarrel.
  4. 616 AH (1219)Umar ibn Mahdi, an Ayyubid commander, drives him from Tarim; he is murdered by a tribesman at Qarat al-Ar.Depends on: An Ayyubid push into Hadramawt. Stopped by: A stronger Rashidid hold or Ayyubid weakness.

Places of note

  • Tarim castle: The family seat and castle; walled and renewed in 601 AH (1205).

Where the sources disagree

  • The Kure ruler list says Shaj'ana restored Tarim after 576 AH; TDV and al-Zirikli say 577 AH (1181).
  • Hijri years converted with the usual tables: 593 AH is about November 1196 to November 1197, 594 AH about November 1197 to November 1198, 596 AH about 22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200 (1 January 1200 is about 12 Rabi I 596).

Evidence: Hadrami chronicles written down later (Shanbal and the compilers after him, through TDV and al-Zirikli) give the dates; no contemporary outside source names him.

On the map: The wadi floor is drawn as a narrow strip; the lord's real hold is the towns and the irrigated land, not the plateaux on either side.

Primary sources for Hadramawt

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. Abd Allah ibn Rashid al-Qahtani al-Himyari, after al-Zirikli, al-A'lam (tarajm.com)
  3. 'Rasidiler', Kure Ansiklopedi (ruler list of the Al Rashid with dates)

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