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, an ancient pre-Islamic walled site in northeastern Arabia, some 90 km/56 miles ¶ almost due west of the port of D̲j̲ubayl on the Arabian Gulf (see General map, Potts, Arabian Gulf, xx). Located in Wādī al-Miyāh, the site covers an area of about 990 m by 825 m and lay on the trans-Arabian route linking southern Arabia with ʿIrāḳ, and in Islamic times both al-Hamdānī and Ibn Khurradād̲h̲bih mention the route, called by the 7th/13th century traveller Ibn al-Mud̲j̲āwir (214) Ṭarīḳ al-Raḍrāḍ , the “Gravel Road”. It has in recent years been suggested that the…

, a town in Ḥaḍramawt, about 10 miles/15 km. due east of Tarīm, and situated at the confluence of the Wādīs ʿĪnāt and Ḥaḍramawt. The holy family of Īnāt is the Āl Bū Bakr b. S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ and the illustrious manṣab , S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Bū Bakr b. Sālim, known as Mawlā ʿĪnāt, is buried in the town. The family has been subjected to severe criticism from other Sayyid groups because of its bearing arms. ʿĪnāt has become one of the most important ḥawṭas [ q.v.] in Ḥaḍramawt. It is famous for its own breed of hunting dogs which seem to be indistinguishable from the common “pie-dog”. With thes…

, 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. Their origins were in the area of Ẓafār [ q.v.] on the Indian Ocean, now within the Southern Region of the Sultanate of Oman [see ʿumān ], and they appear suddenly on the stage of history in the 9th/15th century. By the time the Eastern Aden Protectorate collapsed in 1967 after the departure of the British, the Kat̲h̲īrī sultanate was made up of the centre and eastern end o…

, 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 …

, the name of the administrative capital of the Southern Region (Ẓafār [ q.v.], Dhofar, also D̲j̲anūbiyya) of the Sultanate of Oman [see ʿumān ) and of the plain in which the town is situated. The town stands on the shore of the Indian Ocean and is 850 km/528 miles as the crow flies south-west of the capital of the Sultanate, Muscat [see masḳaṭ ] and about 120 km/75 miles from the present border with the Republic of Yemen. The town is the seat of the Minister of State and the Wālī of Dhofar. The town is a modern one which has developed from a small market town only in the post-1970 perio…

, a South Arabian dynasty of Fāṭimid allegiance (473-569/1080-1173), of Yām [ q.v.], centred on the southern port of Yemen [see al-yaman ], Aden [see ʿadan ]. When the Maʿnids (Banū Maʿn), the then rulers of Aden, suspended their tribute to their masters, the Ṣulayḥids [ q.v.] in 473/1080, al-Mukarram Aḥmad marched on Aden for the Ṣulayḥids, drove out the Maʿnids and installed as joint rulers al-ʿAbbās and al-Masʿūd, sons of one al-Mukarram b. al-D̲h̲iʾb, in return for their previous services to the Ṣulayḥid Fāṭimid cause. Al-ʿAbbās died in…

, the name of a town and area in ʿUmān [ q.v.] which finds no place in the classical Arabic geographies. The town is situated about 112 km/70 miles west, as the crow flies, of the chief town of the Sultanate, Muscat [see masḳaṭ ], on the northern side of the range of al-D̲j̲abal al-Ak̲h̲ḍar. The district, according to Lorimer ( Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf , Calcutta 1908, IIB, 1603-4), is the region of western Had̲j̲ar from al-Ḥazm with all the villages therein. The word itself is universally defined as Arabised Persian (see the previous article) meaning “village”, “market-to…

, banū , also and perhaps originally Riʾām, a tribal grouping in ʿUmān [ q.v.]. The tribe would appear to have originated in the coastal area of southern ʿUmān and in the 4th/10th century al-Hamdānī ( Ṣifa , 52) refers to them as a baṭn of al-Ḳamar, which Ibn Manẓūr’s LA (v, 115) states is a baṭn of Mahra b. Ḥaydān, not the main group of Mahra which remained in southern Arabia. Kaḥḥāla ( Muʿd̲j̲am , ii, 458), relying on the 5th/11th century geographer, al-Bakrī, says Banū Riyām themselves are a baṭn of Mahra b. Ḥaydān b. ʿAmr b. al-Ḥāf, that they live in the coastal area of southern ʿ…

b. ʿAlī , called ʿImād al-Dīn, a Ḥasanī s̲h̲arīf of Yemen. Belonging also to the Zaydī Ḥamzas, he is usually given the nisba al-Ḥamzī. He was a Ṣanʿānī, was born in 673/1274 and died in 714/1314. Idrīs had a strict Zaydī background and his early days were spent under the eye of his father, D̲j̲amāl al-Dīn ʿAlī, who played a prominent military part on the side of the Zaydīs in the Zaydī-Rasūlid struggles of the late 7th/13th century. By the time his father died in 699/1299, he had made his peace with the Rasūlids and Idrīs was left in charge of the Ḥamzī as̲h̲rāf in the Yemen…

, the first local dynasty to emerge in the Yemen in the Islamic period (232-387/ 847-997). The name is often erroneously vocalised “Yaʿfurids”, but the 4th/10th century Yemeni scholar al-Hamdānī, who was a contemporary of the Yuʿfirids, makes it clear that Yuʿfirids is the correct spelling ( al-Iklīl , Südarabisches Muštabih , ed. O. Löfgren, Uppsala etc. 1953, 36, and al-Iklīl, ii, ed. Löfgren, Uppsala 1965, 71). The family was of D̲h̲ū Ḥiwāl, a tribe from S̲h̲ibām-Kawkabān some 40 km/25 miles north-west of Ṣanʿāʾ [ q.v.]. The founder of the dynasty, Yuʿfir b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al…