Kawkaban

Who holds it

Name

Ali ibn Hatim al-Yami (probable)

Title

Sultan

Since

After 1166 (probable)

Confidence

low

Lord in 1200

Probably the Hamdanid sultan Ali ibn Hatim; not pinned.

How things stand that morning

Probably Hamdanid, in the imam's alliance.

Charter

None known: Yemeni towns had no charters; the ruler's governor (wali), the judge (qadi) and the market inspector (muhtasib) answered to the sultan or the imam.

Council

No sworn council; the notables, the qadi and the headman speak for the town. Names for 1199-1200 not pinned.

Communities

Hamdan tribesmen; Zaydis and Ismailis.

Fairs and markets

Daily or weekly markets; no fair dates recorded for 1200.

Militia

Not recorded for 1199-1200.

Walls and castle

Kawkaban walled on the north and protected by cliffs elsewhere, with rain cisterns; Shibam below.

Trade and crafts

Market of Shibam; farmland of the plain.

Where the sources disagree

• The Hamdanid hold in 1200 is an inference from the events of the 1160s and the alliance of 1197.

Evidence: English Wikipedia's articles on Kawkaban, Hatim ibn Ibrahim and al-Mansur Abdallah.

Primary sources for Hamdanids

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 Yemen, Umara al-Yamani (Umara ibn Ali al-Hakami) (1168 to 1174, at Cairo). The history of Yemen's dynasties to the eve of the Ayyubid conquest: the Ziyadids and Najahids of Zabid, the Sulayhids and their queen Arwa, the Zuray'ids of Aden, the Hamdanid sultans of San'a and the Mahdids of Zabid, with Umara's own career as a Yemeni envoy to Fatimid Cairo. 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