Tribes · Arabia · as at first light, 1 January 1200

The Mahra

The Mahra are the people of the long coast and plateau between Hadramawt and Dhofar.

They speak their own language, which al-Idrisi (1154) took for the old Himyaritic tongue (Mahri, one of the Modern South Arabian languages); they breed the swiftest camels of Arabia, live on dried fish, dates and milk and feed dried fish to their herds; al-Idrisi even calls al-Shihr their chief town. They have no single ruler in 1200: each clan follows its own shaykh, meets in its own councils and controls its own wells, pastures and anchorages. Later in the century a Mahri ruling family (the Al Abi Dujana) is seated at Hayrij near al-Shihr (attested 646 AH, 1248), and much later the Banu Afrar sultans rule Qishn and Socotra; neither is attested for 1200.

Who rules

Name
Not known for 1199-1200
Title
No single ruler: the shaykhs of the Mahra clans
Since
Not known
Born
-
Family
-
Confidence
low

al-Idrisi (1154); later dynasties from the Hadrami chronicles.

What the realm holds

  • The coast from east of al-Shihr to the borders of Dhofar: Sayhut, Qishn, Ras Fartak, al-Ghayda, Damqawt, Hawf
  • The plateau and wadis behind it to the edge of the sands
  • The Najd north of Dhofar's mountains (herders' ranges, not pinned)

How it was acquired

Ancestral country.

Allies and rivals

Trade with al-Shihr and Mirbat; their relations with the Al Iqbal and the Manjawi are not recorded for 1200.

The realm that morning

Self-governing clans; no outside power holds any part of their country.

Wealth

Camels (the famous Mahri camels), fish, frankincense gathering, and carrying goods along the coast.

Military

Clan fighters on camels; no figures.

Threats

  • Drought
  • Feuds between clans

Places of note

  • Ras Fartak: The great headland of the Mahra coast, a landmark for ships.

Where the sources disagree

  • Al-Idrisi's al-Shihr as the Mahra capital reflects the twelfth-century view that the whole coast east of Hadramawt was Mahra country; in 1200 al-Shihr is held by the Al Iqbal (hadramawt records).

Evidence: Al-Idrisi's description; no names or dated events for the Mahra in 1199-1200.

On the map: Drawn through the Mahra province and the anchors.

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 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. al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-mushtaq (1154), second clime, sixth section (Arabic Wikisource): al-Shihr and the Mahra, Hadramawt, Sur and Qalhat
  2. 'al-Habudiyyun' (the Habudi dynasty), Arabic encyclopedia page after Shanbal, Ibn al-Mujawir, Ibn al-Athir and al-Khazraji

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