Port · The Mahra · as at first light, 1 January 1200

al-Ghayda

A Mahra coastal settlement on the plain north of Ras Fartak; a clan village in 1200 (not pinned).

Who holds it

Title
Clan shaykh
Since
Not known
Confidence
low

Lord in 1200

No lord: the Mahra clan of the place.

How things stand that morning

Mahra clan village.

Charter

None known: southern Arabian towns had no charters; the lord or his deputy, the judge (qadi) and the notables answer for the town.

Council

Not recorded for 1199-1200.

Communities

Mahra.

Fairs and markets

No fair dates recorded for 1199-1200.

Militia

Not recorded for 1199-1200.

Trade and crafts

Fishing, camels, frankincense gathering, coasting trade.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: No dated mention for 1200.

Primary sources for Mahra

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. al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-mushtaq (1154), second clime, sixth section (Arabic Wikisource): al-Shihr and the Mahra, Hadramawt, Sur and Qalhat

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