The village and anchorage on the north coast east of today's Hadibu, which the Portuguese found as the island's capital in 1507; whether it was already the chief place in 1200 is not pinned, but the north coast with its anchorages and the Hadibu plain was where islanders, settlers and visiting ships met.
Who holds it
- Title
- Not known
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Chief anchorage of the north coast (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: headmen and clergy.
Communities
Christian islanders; settlers and traders from Sind and the Arabian coast (Ibn al-Mujawir, 1220s).
Fairs and markets
No fair dates recorded for 1199-1200.
Militia
Not recorded for 1199-1200.
Trade and crafts
Aloes, dragon's blood resin, ambergris, livestock and water for ships.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The capital is attested in 1507; nothing dated to 1200.
Primary sources for Socotra
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
- The History of the Observant Traveller: the pages on Zeila, Berbera, Mogadishu and Dahlak, Ibn al-Mujawir (Yusuf ibn Yaqub ibn al-Mujawir) (about 1221 to 1230). The closest description of the Horn's ports to 1200, written about twenty-five years later by a trader and official who worked the Aden trade: Zeila and its traffic in slaves, ivory and the goods of the Ethiopian interior; the Barbar (Somali) coast with Berbera and Mogadishu, and the sea route from Aden to Mogadishu and on to Kilwa with its sailing seasons; the Dahlak islands with their own sultan and his dues; Socotra; and the customs and prices of Aden under the Ayyubids of Yemen. Read online
Sources and studies
- 'History of Socotra', English Wikipedia (Yaqut, al-Mas'udi, Ibn al-Mujawir, Marco Polo)
- 'Socotra', English Wikipedia (history: al-Hamdani, Ibn Hawqal, Ibn al-Mujawir)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.