Dhofar: the lords of Mirbat and Zafar

Who rules

Name

Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Akhal al-Manjawi (Shanbal's 'Muhammad ibn Manjuh'), if still alive; see the note on his death

Title

Lord of Mirbat and Zafar (Ibn al-Athir calls him 'the ruler of Mirbat')

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not known

Family

The Manjawi house (Al Manjuh), lords of Zafar since at least the eleventh century. A son, Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Manjuh, appears in Shanbal's entry for 597 AH (OCR reading uncertain). A kinsman or claimant 'son of Haritha' later rules Zafar and is killed (599 or 604 AH).

Confidence

medium

TDV 'Zafar' (after Ibn al-Mujawir); Shanbal's chronicle (OCR); the areq page on the Habudis; Ibn al-Athir through Dorar.

Overlord

None. The Ayyubids of Yemen claim nothing here that is attested for 1200.

What the realm holds

• Mirbat, the harbour and the lord's seat
• Old Zafar, the inland town of the plain (site not settled)
• The plain of Dhofar from Raysut to Taqa and Mirbat
• Overlordship of the mountain clans and the frankincense trade of the Najd (how firm is not pinned)
• Hasik and the Jabal Samhan coast (not pinned)

How it was acquired

Hereditary in the Manjawi house; its beginnings are not recorded (the Ziyadids of Zabid had claimed Mirbat in the tenth century).

Allies and rivals

Trade partners: the ports of western India, Aden, al-Shihr. In Hadramawt the Al Rashid are neighbours, not subjects; Shanbal's entry for 597 AH links a cry for help from Zafar with Ibn Rashid (OCR uncertain). The Kish islanders raid shipping in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea (al-Idrisi). The Mahra surround Dhofar to the west and north.

The realm that morning

The Manjawi lord holds Mirbat and the plain, with his vizier al-Habudi as the real master of the port's money. A succession crisis is close. West of Dhofar lies the Mahra country; north and east, the herders of the Najd and the central desert; offshore, the Kuria Muria islands.

Wealth

Horses shipped to India (Dhofar and Mirbat are known for the horse trade; Marco Polo says so later in the century); frankincense (luban) from the trees of the Najd wadis behind the mountains; cattle and dairy of the monsoon mountains; fish; the customs of Mirbat.

Military

Not recorded: the lord's household, the townsmen and the clans he can call on. No figures.

Threats

• The lord's death and a disputed succession (596 AH in Shanbal)
• His own vizier, al-Habudi, who takes power after him
• Rebellion in Zafar (597 AH)
• Pirates and raiders from the sea

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.

In 1200

1. 596 AH (by 10 October 1200; month not given)Muhammad ibn Manjuh (al-Akhal) dies (Shanbal).Depends on: Natural death as recorded; if the 600 AH date of TDV is right, he lives until 1203-1204. Stopped by: Nothing in play; the date itself is uncertain.
2. 597 AH (1200-1201)Zafar rebels; a cry for help goes out from Zafar (Shanbal, naming Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Manjuh and Ibn Rashid).Depends on: The succession going badly. Stopped by: An undisputed heir.

Later, on the likely course

1. 599 AH (1202-1203) and 600 AH (1203-1204)A Manjawi named Hawb is killed in Zafar; the vizier al-Habudi becomes lord of Mirbat (Ibn al-Athir, under 600 AH).Depends on: The house's weakness. Stopped by: A strong Manjawi ruler.
2. 604 AH (1207-1208)The governor of Zafar, who claims to be a son of Haritha (of the Manjawi), is killed.Depends on: Continuing faction war. Stopped by: Settlement between the factions.
3. 618-620 AH (1221-1223)The Habudis destroy old Zafar and Mirbat's town and move the people to their new walled city on the coast, al-Mansura (al-Balid), for fear of the Ayyubid king al-Mas'ud.Depends on: Habudi rule established. Stopped by: Habudi failure.

Places of note

• Tomb of Muhammad Sahib Mirbat (died 556 AH, 1161): Shafi'i scholar and judge of the Ba Alawi family who taught at Mirbat.
• Frankincense groves of the Najd wadis (approximate): The frankincense trees grow on the dry northern side of the mountains and in the Najd wadis behind them.

Where the sources disagree

• Shanbal records 'Muhammad ibn Manjuh died' under 596 AH without a month; 596 AH runs from about 22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200, and 1 January 1200 is about 12 Rabi I 596, so he is more likely than not still alive at first light on 1 January 1200, but this is not pinned. TDV (after Ibn al-Mujawir and Ba Makhrama) dates the death of the last Manjawi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Akhal, to 600 AH (1203-1204), and Ibn al-Athir tells the vizier's takeover under 600 AH. We take Shanbal's Muhammad ibn Manjuh and TDV's al-Akhal to be the same man.
• Ibn al-Athir calls the vizier 'Mahmud ibn Muhammad al-Himyari' and puts the founding of the new city in 619 AH; Ibn al-Mujawir (through TDV) gives Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Mazru' al-Habudi and 618 AH.

Evidence: Ibn al-Mujawir (1220s), Ibn al-Athir and the Hadrami chronicle of Shanbal give the outline; the Manjawi house itself is known by few names.

On the map: Drawn through the lord's record (the plain and Mirbat), the town records and the mountain clans' province.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• 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