Town · Hadramawt: the Al Rashid of Tarim and the tribes · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Tarim

The seat of the Al Rashid at the eastern end of the settled Wadi Hadramawt, and a centre of Shafi'i learning.

The Ba Alawi sayyids settled here in 521 AH (1127), and the jurists of Tarim teach law and hadith. The town has a castle; Abd Allah will wall it in 601 AH (1205).

Who holds it

Name
Abd Allah ibn Rashid (Al Rashid)
Title
Lord of Tarim
Since
593 AH (1197)
Confidence
high

Lord in 1200

Abd Allah ibn Rashid ibn Shaj'ana, who lives in the town.

How things stand that morning

Held by Abd Allah ibn Rashid.

Council

The lord rules directly. The judge (qadi) and the jurists of the scholarly families carry weight: Ali ibn Ahmad Ba Marwan, Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ba Isa, Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hubb; the Ba Alawi sayyids (see their record). In 606 AH (1209) the townsmen will swear allegiance to the Al Rashid in the mosque of Tarim.

Communities

Arab townsmen and farmers, Shafi'i Sunni of the Ash'ari creed; sayyid families; scholars; slaves. An Ibadi minority survives in Hadramawt, but not attested in Tarim.

Fairs and markets

No fair dates recorded for 1200.

Militia

The townsmen fight for the lord; not recorded in detail.

Walls and castle

The castle (husn) of the Al Rashid; the town wall is built only in 601 AH (1205).

Trade and crafts

Dates and grain of the irrigated wadi, the caravan trade to al-Shihr on the coast; crafts not recorded for 1200.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 601 AH (1204-1205)Abd Allah ibn Rashid walls the town and renews the castle.Depends on: His hold on Tarim. Stopped by: Loss of the town.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Hadrami chronicles and the biographies of Tarim's scholars.

Primary sources for Hadramawt

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. 'Rasidiler' (the Al Rashid of Hadramawt), TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi (after al-Shatiri, Adwar al-tarikh al-Hadrami; Salih al-Hamid, Tarikh Hadramawt; Ibn Awad, Jawahir tarikh al-Ahqaf; Yahya ibn al-Husayn, Ghayat al-amani; G. R. Smith, 'Hadramawt', EI2 Suppl.)
  2. Abd Allah ibn Rashid al-Qahtani al-Himyari, after al-Zirikli, al-A'lam (tarajm.com)
  3. 'al-Faqih al-Muqaddam' (Muhammad ibn Ali Ba Alawi), Arabic Wikipedia

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