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, a town in Wādī Ḥaḍramawt [ q.v.], situated about 16 km/10 miles east of S̲h̲ibām [ q.v.] and 24 km/15 miles west of Tarīm [ q.v.] and approximately 480 km/300 miles north of the port of Ḥaḍramawt, al-Mukallā [ q.v.] (see H. von Wissmann and R.B. Serjeant, map of Southern Arabia, Royal Geographical Society, 1958). The town was within the boundaries of the Fifth Governorate of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen and now in the unified Republic of Yemen. Landberg ( Etudes sur les dialectes de l’ Arabie méridionale , iii, Dat̲înah , Leiden 1913, 1820) discusses …

, Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Hamdānī , state official and historian under the second Rasūlid sultan of the Yemen, al-Muẓaffar Yūsuf (647-94/1249-95). Ibn Ḥātim’s name appears nowhere in the biographical literature of mediaeval Yemen, and neither the date of his birth nor that of his death is known. The last reference to him falls under the year 702/1302-3. However, from his history of the Ayyūbids and early Rasūlids in the Yemen, al-Simṭ al-g̲h̲ālī al-t̲h̲aman fī ak̲h̲bār al-mulūk min al-G̲h̲uzz bi ’l-Yaman (ed. G. R. Smith, The Ayyūbids and early Rasūlids, etc ., GMS, N.S. xxvi/1, The Arab…

, the name of three dynasties of mediaeval Islam. 1. A line of governors for the ʿAbbāsid caliphs in K̲h̲urāsān and the holders of high offices in ʿIrāḳ, who flourished in the 3rd/9th century (205-78/821-91). The founder of the line was the Persian commander, of mawlā origin, Ṭāhir (I) b. al-Ḥusayn D̲h̲u ’l-Yamīnayn [ q.v.], who became governor of K̲h̲urāsān in 205/821 but who died almost immediately afterwards, after showing signs of asserting his independence of Bag̲h̲dād. Nevertheless, the caliph—possibly being unable to find anyone else with th…

, a town and wadi just within the northern boundaries of the ʿAsīr emirate of present-day Saudi Arabia, situated about 200 km/125 miles as the crow flies from the Red Sea coast line and less than 100 km/62 miles due west of Bīs̲h̲a (Zaki M.A. Farsi, National guide and atlas of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , map 34, G5). The town is an ancient one, and is mentioned in the literature on the Prophet. Al-Wāḳidī (ed. Marsden Jones, London, 1966, ii, 853-4 and iii, 981) twice mentions his raids against Ḵh̲at̲h̲ʿam in Tabāla in 8/629 and 9/630. It is stated in m…

(as in “the Ṣubayḥī tribe”) or Ṣubayḥa, the name of a tribal group inhabiting the area to the west and north-west of Aden [see ʿadan ] in the Yemen from Raʾs ʿImrān, a few kilometres to the west of Little Aden in the east, as far as Bāb al-Mandab in the west, and inland. They are divided into five main groups as follows: K̲h̲ulayfī, ʿUṭirī, ʿĀṭifī, Muṣaffī and Buraymī. Their name is inherited from the ancient D̲h̲ū Aṣbaḥ of Ḥimyar. Writing in the 4th/10th century, al-Hamdānī, 53, says that Laḥd̲j̲ …

, al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam S̲h̲ams al-Dawla Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn , older brother of the famous Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn [ q.v.], the Saladin of European writers, conqueror of the Yemen in 569/1173 and founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty there [see ayyūbids ]. Tūrāns̲h̲āh first appears on the historical stage in the year 564/1168-9 after his arrival in Egypt from Syria with a number of members of the Ayyūbid house to strengthen the hand of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, still technically the vizier of the Fāṭimid caliph there. Tūrāns̲h̲āh was soon in action, assisting to suppr…

(or al-Maʿāfir ), the name of a South Arabian tribe, the genealogy of which is given as Yaʿfur b. Mālik b. al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. Murra b. Udad b. Humaysaʿ b. ʿAmr b. Yas̲h̲d̲j̲ib b. ʿArīb b. Zayd b. Kahlān b. Sabaʾ; they are included among the Ḥimyar. The name was also given to the territory which the tribe inhabited and this corresponded roughly with the Turkish ḳaḍāʾ of Taʿizziyya and the present Yemen Arab Republic province ( ḳaḍāʾ) of al-Ḥud̲j̲ariyya (pronounced locally al-Ḥugariyya), itself part of the administrative area ( liwāʾ ) of Taʿizz. In early and mediaeval times it is described as a mik̲h̲…

, a fortress in Ḥaḍramawt [ q.v.] where in 12/633 during the caliphate of Abū Bakr [ q.v.] rebels under al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ b. Ḳays [ q.v.] took refuge against Ziyād b. Labīb al-Anṣārī, the Prophet’s governor. Late in the year 11/633, Abū Bakr had decided that Islamic authority could only be effectively imposed on the Yemen by military force. In particular, he was worried by the situation in Ḥaḍramawt where al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ b. Ḳays, the leader of Kinda, had refused to give him the oath of allegiance as caliph. Abū Bakr entrusted the tas…

, a minor dynasty of mediaeval Arabia in the al-Aḥsā/al-Ḥasā [ q.v.] and al-Baḥrayn [ q.v.] areas of eastern Arabia. Their rule began there in 651/1253 after their seizure of the region from the ʿUyūnids [ q.v.]. The ʿUṣfūr were kings of Banū ʿĀmir b. ʿAwf b. Mālik, a baṭn of ʿUḳayl, in the 7th/13th century, whilst their subjects included the Banū T̲h̲aʿlaba. Little appears to be known of their history. In the mid-9th/15th century, a branch of the ʿUṣfūrids called the D̲j̲abrids assumed control of al-Aḥsā. (G.R. Smith) Bibliography Ibn K̲h̲aldūn, ʿIbar, vi, 12 Caskel and Strenziok, Ǧamharat …

, an historic, walled town of about 4,000 people (al-Waysī, 65, published in 1962) situated at about 45 km/28 miles from the main town of the Yemen, Ṣanʿāʾ [ q.v.], and placed by Werdecker (139), after Glaser, in 15° 36′ latitude and 43° 53′. The town is overlooked by an impregnable fortress perched on the mountain above which can be seen from very great distances all around. Tradition tells us that the town takes its name from a certain T̲h̲ulā b. Lubāk̲h̲a b. Aḳyān b. Ḥimyar al-Aṣg̲h̲ar. It is also the centre of a district ( ḳaḍāʾ ) of the same name. The town is undoubtedly of ancient origin. …

, a minor dynasty of mediaeval Arabia, whose capital was al-Ḳaṭīf [ q.v.], ruling over al-Aḥsā/al-Ḥasā [ q.v.] in eastern Arabia from the 5th-7th/11th-13th centuries. They destroyed the Ḳarāmiṭa [ q.v.] there in 467/1076, though little is known of their history. They are reputed to be of Āl Ibrāhīm of Murra [ q.v.], a ḳabīla of ʿAbd al-Ḳays [ q.v.]. Their influence rapidly declined in the 7th/13th century, when about the middle of the century the ʿUṣfūrids [ q.v.] assumed control of the region. (G.R. Smith) Bibliography ʿUmar Riḍā Kaḥḥāla, Muʿd̲j̲am ḳabāʾil al-ʿArab, iii, Beirut 1982, …

The opportunity is taken of prefixing to the main body of the article, on Ḥaḍrarnawt in the Islamic period, some important recent items of information on the region in the pre-Islamic time. i. Pre-Islamic Period In 1974 a French archaeological mission under the direction of J. Pirenne began work at S̲h̲abwa, which is still continuing. The most significant result has been the tracing of a very extensive town site to the northeast of the rectangular sacral enclosure which the earliest visitors had noted; included in this are some i…

colloquially called Laḥid̲j̲, a town and area of south-western Arabia, now situated in the second governorate of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. The town, also known as ¶ al-Ḥawṭa, lies between the two tributaries of the Wādī Tuban, al-Wādī al-Kabīr and al-Wādī al-Ṣaghīr, about 25 miles north-west of Aden. The town is surrounded by a fertile area which is cultivated by means of an elaborate system of irrigation using the water of the wadis and also of wells. Datepalms abound, as well as cer…

, a traditional name for the eastern area of the Sultanate of Oman [see ʿumān ], now the official Eastern Region of the Sultanate, which lies in the inland region of Eastern Had̲j̲ar, northwest of D̲j̲aʿlān and north of the Wahība Sands (see Wilkinson, Water , 14, Fig. 5). The main towns of the region are Ibrā, the largest, and Samad, al-Muḍaybī, Sināw and al-Ḳābil. The whole area is a sandy plain interspersed with wadis. Today, the official, extended region of al-S̲h̲arḳiyya is made up of thirteen provinces ( wilāyāt ), including Ibrā, Bid(d)iyya, al-Ḳābil and …

, now the main town in the southern highlands of the Yemen, some 195 km/120 miles south, slighdy west, of Ṣanʿāʾ [ q.v.] and about 140 km/88 miles north-west of Aden [see ʿadan ]. It is situated at the foot of D̲j̲abal Ṣabir which rises to a height of about 3,000 m/9,600 feet. Although the town is mentioned during the Ayyūbid period of Yemeni history (569-626/1173-1228) [see ayyūbids ], its main development came under the Rasūlids (628-845/1230-1441 [ q.v.]), who made the town their capital. It seems that Taʿizz was originally a settiement in the region of al-D̲j̲anad, th…

, a title and name of a number of Zaydī imāms of the Yemen. About 250 years after al-Hādī ila ’l-Ḥaḳḳ Yaḥyā, the founder of the Zaydiyya in the Yemen, his direct descendant, al-Mutawakkil ʿala ’llāh Aḥmad, had, between 532/1137 and 566/1170, restored Zaydī territory to its extent in al-Hādī’s time, with Ṣaʿda, Nad̲j̲rān and, for a time, also Zabīd and Ṣanʿāʾ. A generation later (593-614/1197-1217) the mountainous region from Ṣaʿda in the north to D̲h̲amār, south of Ṣanʿāʾ, was again ruled by the Zaydī al-Manṣ…

, conventionally Oman, a sultanate situated in the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, with a second area, separated from the first by parts of the United Arab Emirates, at the tip of the Musandam peninsula. The country, with a population of some 2,000,000 inhabitants, occupies some 312,000 km2 in all, and has a coastline along the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean of about 1,700 km/1,060 miles in length. The head of state is Sultan Ḳābūs b. Saʿīd, the fourteenth ruler of the Āl Bū Saʿīd dynasty [ q.v.]. The country is divided ethnically and culturally into two: the Ibāḍī …

, Yemen, the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsula, now coming substantially within the unified Republic of Yemen (which also includes as its eastern region the former People’s Democratic Republic of South Yemen, the pre-1967 Aden Protectorate, essentially the historic Ḥaḍramawt [ q.v. in Vol. III and also in Suppl.; see also suḳuṭra ]). ¶ 1. Definition and general introduction. The name is variously explained in the Arabic sources; some say it was given because al-Yaman lies to the right of the Kaʿba or to the right of the sun (al-Bakrī, ii, 856), …

, a South Arabian tribal group and sultanate, the latter eventually becoming part of the Eastern Aden Protectorate prior to the departure of the British from South Arabia in 1967. The full area of the sultanate was the whole of the coastal plain between the Wāḥidī [ q.v.] in the west and Mahra in the east, the mountainous region north up to Wādī Ḥaḍramawt [see ḥaḍramawt ], the western end of the Wādī and some tribal lands north of the Wādī. One should add the area of the Wādīs Dawʿan (sometime spelt Dawʿān in the Arabic sources) and ʿAmd. The major towns of th…

, a town and district ( ḳaḍāʾ ) lying to the north-west of the main town of Yemen, Ṣanʿāʾ [ q.v.], about 55 km/34 miles as the crow flies, and at the summit of D̲j̲abal al-Ḳarāniʿ at the height of 2,400 m/7,870 feet. It overlooks the area of al-Maḥwīt to the west and Ḥarāz to the south. Josef Werdecker ( A contribution to the geography and cartography of North-West Yemen , in Bull , de la Société Royale de Géographic d’Egypte [1939], 139) placed the town in 15° 30’ latitude and 43° 42’ longitude. Wilson ( Gazetteer , 223-4) can find no reference to the town before 607/…