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

Al Iqbal of al-Shihr

The house that holds the port of al-Shihr, the sea gate of Hadramawt and the Mahra coast, and the stronghold of al-Rayda east of it.

Al-Idrisi, writing in 1154, calls al-Shihr the chief town of the Mahra country. The Al Iqbal are rivals of the Al Rashid of Tarim, who will besiege al-Shihr for a month in 599 AH (1203), yet in a later crisis Muzaffar ibn Faris, besieged at al-Rayda, will call on the Al Rashid for help against rebels in the town (al-Sa'a, the old name of al-Shihr's town). They keep the port until Umar ibn Mahdi takes it for the Ayyubids in 616 AH (1219), and members of the house are still named at al-Shihr after that.

Who he is

Name
Not pinned. Shanbal's chronicle names Muzaffar ibn Faris ibn Iqbal 'king of al-Shihr' in the first years of the 600s AH (the year is not clear in the OCR text), with Abd al-Baqi ibn Faris, apparently his brother; whether Muzaffar already ruled on 1 January 1200 is not pinned. An Abd al-Rahman ibn Rashid ibn Iqbal is named at al-Shihr in the 620s AH.
Title
Lord ('king' or 'sultan' in the chronicle) of al-Shihr
Since
Not pinned
Born
Not known
Family
Al Iqbal, also called the Al Faris; Shanbal's account of the Ayyubid conquest of 575-576 AH counts them among Kinda (OCR reading)
Confidence
low

TDV 'Rasidiler' (the Al Iqbal hold al-Shihr until Umar ibn Mahdi takes it in 616 AH); Shanbal's and Ibn Hamid's chronicles (OCR snippets naming members of the house).

Overlord

None acknowledged in 1200, as far as the sources show. The Ayyubid troops (the Ghuzz) took al-Shihr from the Al Faris in 575-576 AH and reached it again in later campaigns.

What it holds

  • al-Shihr (al-Sa'a), the port and its customs
  • The coastal plain and its villages round al-Shihr (Ghayl Ba Wazir's springs and gardens: not pinned)
  • al-Rayda, a stronghold on the coast east of al-Shihr (attested a few years later; probably Raydat Qusay'ar; not pinned)
  • The anchorage at Mukalla (not pinned)

Allies and rivals

Rivals of the Al Rashid of Tarim. Their dealings with the Mahra of the coast east of the town, and with the lords of Dhofar, are not recorded for 1200.

How things stand that morning

Hold al-Shihr and its near coast. The plateau behind belongs to the tribes; the coast east of their district belongs to the Mahra.

Wealth

Customs on the sea trade: frankincense from Dhofar and the Mahra country, horses and dried fish shipped to India, ambergris, Indian cloth and goods coming in; fishing.

Military

Household, townsmen and allied tribesmen. No figures.

Threats

  • The Al Rashid of Tarim
  • An Ayyubid fleet or army from Aden
  • The lords of Dhofar, whose Habudi successors later fight for al-Shihr (673-677 AH)

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)Abd Allah ibn Rashid besieges al-Shihr; the siege is broken off when the Nahd rise.Depends on: The Rashidid quarrel continuing. Stopped by: A settlement.
  2. 616 AH (1219)Umar ibn Mahdi takes al-Shihr from the Al Iqbal for the Ayyubids.Depends on: An Ayyubid push into Hadramawt. Stopped by: Ayyubid weakness.

Places of note

  • al-Rayda (probably Raydat Qusay'ar): Coastal stronghold where Muzaffar ibn Faris was besieged (Shanbal; date not clear).

Where the sources disagree

  • The OCR text of Ibn Hamid gives garbled dates for the Al Iqbal; only the names are usable.

Evidence: Known as the holders of al-Shihr from the Hadrami chronicles; no ruler's name is pinned for 1200.

On the map: The district's extent is a guess from the lie of the coastal plain; only the town and al-Rayda are attested as theirs.

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. 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-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-mushtaq (1154), second clime, sixth section (Arabic Wikisource): al-Shihr and the Mahra, Hadramawt, Sur and Qalhat
  4. Ahmad ibn Abd Allah Shanbal, Tarikh Hadramawt (Tarikh Shanbal), archive.org OCR text: Muzaffar ibn Faris ibn Iqbal, king of al-Shihr; the siege of al-Shihr in 599 AH

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