al-Akhal

Who he is

Name

Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Akhal al-Manjawi

Title

Lord of Mirbat and Zafar

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not known

Family

Manjawi house; son Muhammad (named under 597 AH by Shanbal, OCR uncertain)

Confidence

medium

TDV 'Zafar'; Shanbal; areq page on the Habudis.

What it holds

• Mirbat with its harbour and customs
• Old Zafar and the plain from Raysut to Taqa
• The mountain clans' dues and the frankincense trade (not pinned)
• The coast east to Hasik (not pinned)

How it was acquired

Inherited (details not recorded).

Allies and rivals

His vizier al-Habudi, loyal while he lives; Manjawi kinsmen who will fight over the succession.

How things stand that morning

Lord of Dhofar, probably still alive; see the realm record.

Wealth

Horse and frankincense exports, the customs of Mirbat.

Military

Not recorded.

Threats

• Death and succession
• His vizier's ambition

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. 596 AH (by 10 October 1200)Dies (Shanbal).Depends on: As recorded; TDV puts it in 600 AH. Stopped by: Nothing in play.

Where the sources disagree

• Shanbal records 'Muhammad ibn Manjuh died' under 596 AH without a month; 596 AH runs from about 22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200, and 1 January 1200 is about 12 Rabi I 596, so he is more likely than not still alive at first light on 1 January 1200, but this is not pinned. TDV (after Ibn al-Mujawir and Ba Makhrama) dates the death of the last Manjawi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Akhal, to 600 AH (1203-1204), and Ibn al-Athir tells the vizier's takeover under 600 AH. We take Shanbal's Muhammad ibn Manjuh and TDV's al-Akhal to be the same man.

Evidence: Named by Ibn al-Mujawir (through TDV) and dated by Shanbal and TDV, who disagree.

On the map: The lord's real hold is the plain and the harbour; the mountains are drawn as the clans' province.

Primary sources for Dhofar

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.

• Annals of Oman, from the Kashf al-ghumma, Sirhan ibn Sa'id ibn Sirhan (compiler), from earlier Ibadi chronicles (about 1728, from earlier Ibadi sources). The Ibadi imamate of Oman has no contemporary chronicle for 1200; the later Omani compilations (the Kashf al-ghumma and al-Salimi's Tuhfat al-a'yan) preserve a list of imams and the tradition of the Nabhani maliks who ruled the interior from the 12th century, with Hormuz and Kish pressing on the coast. Read online
• 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