The Hamdanid sultans (Banu Hatim) of Kawkaban

Who rules

Name

Ali ibn Hatim al-Yami al-Hamdani (al-Wahid)

Title

Sultan (of the Banu Hatim of Hamdan)

Since

1161 as sultan of Sana'a (English Wikipedia)

Born

Not pinned

Family

The second Hatimid line of the Yam (Hamdan): son of Hamid al-Dawla Hatim ibn Ahmad (1139-1161)

Confidence

medium

English Wikipedia; his death date and the list of his fortresses in 1200 are not pinned.

Overlord

Pledged to the Zaydi imam al-Mansur Abd Allah in 593 (1197) through his brother Bishr.

What the realm holds

• Kawkaban and Shibam (probable; besieged and taken by him from the Ismaili da'i after 1166)
• Other castles of the Hamdan country (not pinned)
• The allegiance of part of Hamdan, especially his own Yam

How it was acquired

Hereditary sultanate of Sana'a (1139 for his father); Sana'a lost in 1174 and finally in 1189.

Allies and rivals

Ally: the imam al-Mansur Abd Allah. Enemies: al-Mu'izz Isma'il; the Tayyibi da'is of Haraz, whom he fought in the 1160s. Do not confuse him with his namesake Ali ibn Hatim al-Hamidi, the Tayyibi da'i who succeeded in November 1199.

The realm that morning

A dispossessed sultan in alliance with the imam, holding some fortresses north-west of Sana'a (Kawkaban probably); his line's rule of Sana'a is over.

Wealth

The harvest of the Shibam plain and the dues of his tribesmen; no customs or mint.

Military

Hamdani tribesmen of Yam and their allies; mountain fortresses. No figures.

Threats

• An Ayyubid attack from Sana'a, a day's march away
• Dependence on the imam

Where the sources disagree

• Later, at an undated point between 1199 and 1209, the Banu Hatim appear in Sana'a under Ayyubid overlordship, welcoming the Tayyibi da'i Ali ibn Hatim al-Hamidi (English Wikipedia); the historian Ibn Hatim of the same clan later served the Rasulids. Whether Ali ibn Hatim al-Yami had already made his peace with al-Mu'izz by 1 January 1200 is not pinned: this record follows the alliance with the imam of 1197.
• English Wikipedia ends his reign in 1174 (the Ayyubid conquest), yet has him hold Sana'a 'for long stretches' until 1189 and pledge to the imam in 1197. His death date is not given in the sources reached.

Evidence: The family's rule to 1189 is clear; its holdings in 1199-1200 are an inference from the alliance of 1197 and the history of Kawkaban.

On the map: A small block round Kawkaban stands for a scatter of castles that cannot be pinned.

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.

• History of Yemen, Umara al-Yamani (Umara ibn Ali al-Hakami) (1168 to 1174, at Cairo). The history of Yemen's dynasties to the eve of the Ayyubid conquest: the Ziyadids and Najahids of Zabid, the Sulayhids and their queen Arwa, the Zuray'ids of Aden, the Hamdanid sultans of San'a and the Mahdids of Zabid, with Umara's own career as a Yemeni envoy to Fatimid Cairo. 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