A long low island off the central coast of Oman, with its villages at the northern end (Ras Hilf).
The ancient Periplus calls it the Island of Sarapis, with three villages of Arabic-speaking fish-eaters and fine tortoise shell. In 1200 its fishing folk are not named and no lord is recorded.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known (the island's fishing folk)
- Title
- None
- Since
- -
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Self-governing fishermen; not pinned.
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
Fishermen.
Fairs and markets
No fair dates recorded for 1199-1200.
Militia
Not recorded for 1199-1200.
Trade and crafts
Fishing, tortoise shell, boat-building for the coast.
Where the sources disagree
- Omani history between the Nabhanid seizure of power (1154) and the fifteenth century survives only in thin, contradictory chronicles; no source we could check names a lord, governor or chief anywhere in southern Oman for 1199-1200. Following the regional brief, the realm id oman (the Nabhanid kings of Bahla, Persia map record Oman) is used only at the edge of their core (Adam, by anchor); everything else is given to its own tribes.
Evidence: Ancient and modern descriptions; nothing dated to 1200.
Primary sources for The Bedouin
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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.