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, a town approximately 240 km/150 miles to the north of the chief town of the Yemen, Ṣanʿāʾ [ q.v.], situated on the southern edge of the Ṣaʿda plain, and the administrative capital of the province ( muḥāfaẓa ) of the same name. The town is about 1,800 m/5,904 ft. above sea level and in the 1986 census in the Yemen had a reported population of 24,245 persons. The inhabitants of the province numbered 323,110. Although al-Hamdānī, 67, informs us that the town was called Ḏj̲umāʿ in pre-Islamic times, certain Sabaic inscriptions mention hgrn ṢʿDTm , "the town Ṣaʿda", tog…

, 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/…

, name of a Sunnī dynasty of the Yemen. They took their name from a certain Muḥammad b. Hārūn who had earned for himself the nickname Rasūl (“messenger”) under one of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs in the 6th/12th century because of his trustworthiness and efficiency as a confidential envoy. The family tree can be constructed as given below (the element al-Malik prefixed to the rulers’ honorific titles is omitted here). By the time the last sultan appeared on the scene, Rasūlid history was marked by serious family squabbles over the leadership. 1. History. The Rasūlid historians and genealogis…

a large tribal group, now inhabiting in the main the areas of Ḏh̲amār and Radāʿ in the modern Yemen Arab Republic. The traditional genealogy, given by e.g. Ibn Durayd, Is̲h̲tiḳāḳ , ed. ¶ Wüstenfeld, 237 ff., and by Yāḳūt, Beirut 1374-6/1955-7, v, 89, is from Mālik b. Udad b. Zayd b. Yas̲h̲d̲j̲ub b. ʿArïb b. Zayd b. Kahlān b. Sabaʾ b. Yas̲h̲d̲j̲ub b. Yaʿrub b. Ḳaḥtān. The numerous component ḳabāʾil of Mad̲h̲ḥid̲j̲ are listed in full by al-Malik al-As̲h̲raf ʿUmar, Ṭurfat al-aṣḥāb fī maʿrifat al-ansāb , ed. K. V. Zetterstéen, Damascus 1949, 9; those most frequ…

, a dynasty of southwestern Arabia centred on Tihāma [ q.v.] between the years 203-409(?)/818-1018, but having control also in the northern highlands of the Yemen [see al-yaman ] and along the Indian Ocean coast. Unfortunately, our sources are late and little informed, there are discrepancies in the dates given and even the names of the later members of the family are unknown. The dynasty is named after Muḥammad b. Ziyād, who traced his pedigree back to the Umayyad dynasty and who, during the caliphate of the ʿAbbāsid al-Maʾmūn [ q.v.], became the protégé of his minister, al-Faḍl b. Sahl [ q.v.…

, the name given by the Arabs to a member of the gazehound family, so-called because it pursues its quarry by sight and not by scent. The salūḳī stands about 25-6 ins. in height at the shoulder. The salūḳī has often been mistaken for the greyhound by travellers to the Middle East, but the ears are long and pendulous, while the greyhound’s are short and pricked, and the greyhound is wider in the body and more heavily built. Whereas the greyhound is a sprinter, the salūḳī is possessed of great stamina. Abundant evidence exists in Arabic literature that the salūḳī hunted oryx in the Ḏj̲āhiliyya …

, a dynasty of Abyssinian slaves with their capital in Zabīd [ q.v.], reigned 412-553/1022-1158. ¶ The best historical source for an understanding of the dynasty is ʿUmāra (see Kay, in Bibl .), but it should be stressed that ʿUmāra’s account is sometimes confused, frequently anecdotal with interruptions of little or no relevance and lacking in dates. Other published sources which can be used as a control on ʿUmāra’s text are listed below, though many depend ultimately on him, being transmitted in the main through other writers. When the last Ziyādid [ q.v.] had been put to death during…

, also not infrequently appearing as al-Tahāʾim in mediaeval sources, the area of the Red Sea coastal plain stretching from ʿAḳaba in the north to the Bāb al-Mandab in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, some even claiming that it extends further along the southern Indian Ocean coast. Today, inhabitants of the Ḥid̲j̲āz [ q.v.] divide Tihāma into three: Tihāmat al-Ḥid̲j̲āz from the north as far south as al-Layt̲h̲, Tihāmat ʿAsīr from al-Layt̲h̲ to D̲j̲īzān/D̲j̲āzān and, from the latter south, Tihāmat al-Yaman. Historically, it is the second and thir…

, a former settlement on the Indian Ocean coast and modern name of the Southern Region of the Sultanate of Oman. In early, mediaeval and late mediaeval times it was never actually a port, and is now a ruined site called al-Balrd, a few miles to the east of the chief town of the southern region, Ṣalāla [ q.v.]. In modern times, the name came to be used for the whole of the Southern Region of the Sultanate of Oman [see ʿumān ] and was officially Anglicised as Dhofar. There can be no longer any doubt about the correct vocalisation of the Arabic name, for both lexicographers (e.g. Ibn Manẓūr, LA, Beirut 195…

, an Ismāʿīlī dynasty ruling over much of the southern highlands and Tihāma [ q.v.] region of the Yemen between the years 439-532/1047-1138 approximately. ¶ 1. History , Firstly, a word should be said about sources. Ismāʿīlī sources have in the past always been difficult of access and we still suffer from their general policy of secrecy in this matter. Still a major source is ʿUmāra’s Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-ϒaman (the author died in 569/1174) and the best edition of it remains Kay’s (see Bibl . below). The work is scarcely ideal, however; the author, writing for th…

, at the present time a town in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia about 70 km/45 miles south-east of the capital al-Riyāḍ [ q.v.] and situated in the region of al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ within the al-Riyāḍ emirate, close to Maḥaṭṭat al-K̲h̲ard̲j̲ on the al-Riyāḍ to al-Ẓahrān (Dhahran) railway (Hussein Hamza Bindagji, Atlas of Saudi Arabia , Oxford 1980, 49; Zaki M.A. Farsi, National guide and atlas of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1989, 71). The town is now relatively small and has a population of less than 50,000 (Bindagji, 3). The origin of the name may be yamāma , singular of the collective yamām …

, a sultanate and confederation of tribes occupying the territory about 320 km/200 miles to the east of Aden [see ʿadan ], forming a delta shape from the Indian Ocean shore in the south, stretching north about 208 km/130 miles to the region of Bayḥān [ q.v.], and flanked by the ʿAwlaḳī states in the west and the Ḳuʿayṭī sultanate in the east (see e.g. map in Johnston, Steamer Point ). Its administrative capital was latterly Mayfaʿa near the impressive pre-Islamic fortifications of Naḳab al-Ḥad̲j̲ar, whose pre-Islamic name, MYFʿT, it took, in …

a town and region on the South Arabian Indian Ocean coast approximately 330 miles east of Aden [see ʿadan ], the main port of Ḥaḍramawt [ q.v.] until the 19th century, when al-Mukallā rose to prominence. The port is particularly well known as a fishing and trading centre, but is throughout the centuries associated with the incense trade: Ibn K̲h̲urradād̲h̲bih (147-8) calls the area the Land of Incense ( bilād al-kundur ) and quotes the following line of poetry: Go to al-S̲h̲iḥr; don’t go to Oman ( ʿUmānā ); if you don’t find dates, you will find incense ( lubāna )!. Niebu…

, a name sometimes used, most notably by Ibn K̲h̲aldūn ( ʿIbar . iv, 111), of the Zaydī imāms of the Yemen [see zaydiyya ]. The term “Banu ’l-Rassī” is not commonly used by the Yemeni Zaydī historians and may only have gained some currency in Europe after Kay’s translation ( Yaman , 184 ff.) of the chapter in Ibn K̲h̲aldūn’s ʿIbar. Perhaps also as a result of Kay’s translation, the term Rassid imāms was used soon after in Lane-Poole’s Dynasties , 102 and table, for the Zaydī imāms down to ca. 700/1300. The nisba is derived from a place in the Ḥid̲j̲āz, al-Rass, held…

, from ancient times the chief town of the Yemen [ q.v.] and present capital of the unified Republic of Yemen. Its present population is reckoned to be just over half a million. The town is situated in the centre of the northern highlands of the Yemen at lat. 15° 22′ N. and long. 44° 11′ E., i.e. about 170 km/106 miles as the crow flies from the nearest point on the Red Sea and 300 km/186 miles approximately from the Indian Ocean port of Aden [see ʿadan ], Ṣanʿāʾ is located at a height above sea level of more than 2,200 m/7,216 feet. It is all but surrounded b…

, 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…