An oasis town of palms round the great well of Haddaj, inside ancient walls, at the meeting of the roads from Syria, Iraq and the Hejaz.
Benjamin of Tudela, about 1170, wrote that the Jews of Tayma were ruled by their own prince, Hanan, owned fortified towns, paid tithes to the academies of Babylonia and the Mourners of Zion, and raided with the Bedouin, their allies; it is hearsay, exaggerated, but it shows a strong Jewish community. In summer 1181 Reynald of Chatillon, lord of Transjordan, attacked a Muslim caravan near Tayma. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Al Ali branch of the Banu Rabi'a of Tayy range from the Damascus Ghuta to Tayma and al-Jawf (Hiyari).
Who holds it
- Name
- not known for 1200; Benjamin of Tudela (about 1170) names a Jewish prince (nasi), Hanan, ruling at Tayma
- Title
- not known
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Family
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Benjamin of Tudela, Adler's translation pp. 47-49.
Lord in 1200
Not pinned: Benjamin's Jewish nasi about 1170; the Tayy Bedouin of the Banu Rabi'a range round it
How things stand that morning
No ruler named; probably a self-governing oasis under Bedouin protection.
Council
Not recorded for 1200; Benjamin's nasi about 1170.
Communities
Jewish townsmen and farmers (about 1170), Arab townsmen, Tayy Bedouin.
Fairs and markets
Not recorded.
Walls and castle
Ancient town walls, still standing (al-Bakri, Yaqut); the Qasr al-Ablaq of the poet al-Samaw'al is remembered here.
Trade and crafts
Dates, wells and caravans; Bedouin trade.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Benjamin (about 1170), the 1181 raid, and later tribal geography.
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
- Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary (about 1170), trans. M. N. Adler (1907), pp. 47-49 of the printed edition (Teima, Tilmas, Kheibar; R. Hanan the Nasi at Teima, his brother Salmon at Tilmas)
- Tayma (English Wikipedia, citing Hausleiter 2010 and Leiser 1977 on the raid of 1181)
- Tayy (English Wikipedia, citing Hiyari 1975, pp. 511-517, and Bosworth, 'Fayd', EI2)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.