Port · Oman · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Sohar

The great port of Oman in the tenth century, much reduced by 1200.

The Banu Nabhan began as governors of Sohar under the Buyids; the frankincense road ran inland from Sohar towards Bahrain.

Who holds it

Name
Not pinned (the Nabhanid malik or a local chief)
Title
Not pinned
Since
Not pinned
Confidence
low

How things stand that morning

Reduced; holder not pinned.

Charter

None known: the towns of the atabegs have no charters; the governor, the judge (qadi) and the market inspector (muhtasib) answer to the ruler.

Council

No sworn council; the notables (a'yan), the qadi and the headman (ra'is) speak for the town. Names for 1199-1200 not pinned.

Communities

Arabs of the Azd; foreign merchants of the earlier age gone.

Fairs and markets

Daily or weekly markets; no fair dates recorded.

Militia

Not recorded for 1199-1200.

Walls and castle

Not described for 1200.

Trade and crafts

Coastal trade, dates.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: General.

Primary sources for Oman

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
  • Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. 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

  1. 'Nabhani dynasty', English Wikipedia (after al-Salimi, PSAS 32 and 35)
  2. G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905), chapters XVII-XXIV (Fars, Kirman, Makran) after Istakhri, Muqaddasi, Ibn al-Balkhi, Yaqut and Mustawfi

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