A rich merchant who owned ships and hired them out to merchants for the voyage to India and beyond, and who served as vizier to the lord of Mirbat.
Ibn al-Athir calls him generous, brave and well liked, a lover of poetry. When the lord dies he takes Mirbat with the people's goodwill (Ibn al-Athir, under 600 AH), wins Zafar after years of faction war, and founds the Habudi dynasty.
Who he is
- Name
- Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Mazru' al-Habudi (Ibn al-Mujawir's form); Ibn al-Athir calls him Mahmud ibn Muhammad al-Himyari
- Title
- Vizier of the lord of Mirbat; great merchant and shipowner
- Since
- Not pinned
- Born
- Not known; died 620 AH (1223) by TDV's 'Hadramut' article
- Family
- His son Ahmad ibn Muhammad will build al-Mansura in 618-620 AH (whether Ahmad was born by 1200 is not pinned)
- Confidence
- medium
TDV 'Zafar'; Ibn al-Athir through Dorar; areq page on the Habudis.
Overlord
The Manjawi lord of Mirbat.
What it holds
- Ships and trade at Mirbat
- The vizierate: the lord's finances and the port
How it was acquired
Appointed vizier by the Manjawi lord.
Allies and rivals
The merchants and townsmen of Mirbat favour him; the Manjawi kinsmen are his rivals after the lord's death. Later he seeks allies among the Hadrami tribes (a marriage with the house of Yamani ibn al-A'lam of the Banu Harith in 611 AH).
How things stand that morning
The lord's vizier and the richest man of Mirbat.
Wealth
Shipping and trade.
Military
None of his own attested in 1200.
Threats
- Manjawi kinsmen
- A new lord who distrusts him
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.
- 600 AH (1203-1204), by Ibn al-AthirTakes over Mirbat on his master's death.Depends on: The lord's death and the townsmen's support. Stopped by: A strong Manjawi heir.
Where the sources disagree
- Two forms of his name (Ibn al-Mujawir and Ibn al-Athir); the areq page reads its sources as making his son Ahmad the founder of al-Mansura, TDV makes Muhammad himself the founder in 618 AH.
Evidence: Ibn al-Athir (contemporary) and Ibn al-Mujawir (1220s).
On the map: Not drawn: an office at Mirbat.
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
Sources and studies
- 'Zafar', TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi (Cengiz Tomar, 2013; after Ibn al-Mujawir, Tarikh al-mustabsir 260-261, 271; Ba Makhrama, Tarikh thaghr Adan; Ibn Battuta; P. M. Costa, Journal of Oman Studies 5, 1979)
- Dorar historical encyclopedia, year 600 AH: Mahmud ibn Muhammad al-Himyari takes Mirbat and Zafar (after Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil)
- '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.