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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…

, 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…

, also commonly S̲h̲uhāra, the name of a large mountain, town and fortress in the district ( nāḥiya ) of al-Ahnūm in the Yemen, placed by Werdecker ( Contribution , 138) at 16° 14′ lat. N. and 43° 40′ long. E., i.e. approximately 90 km due east of the Red Sea coast and 110 km north, slightly west, of Ṣanʿāʾ [ q.v.). Al-Ahnūm was originally of Ḥās̲h̲id, one of the two divisions of Hamdān. Today, however, the majority of its tribal groups are of Bakīl, the other division, and it is counted as Bakīl territory. The town itself, known in former times as Miʿattiḳ, is called S̲h̲ahārat al-Raʾs s…

, 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…

, 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 well-known town in Wādī Ḥaḍramawt [ q.v.], situated about 40 km/25 miles from S̲h̲ibām, east, slightly north, and about 25 km/15 miles from Sayʾūn [ q.v.] in the same direction (see ¶ H. von Wissmann, map, Southern Arabia , RGS, London 1958). The town marks where Wādī Ḥaḍramawt ends and where Wādī al-Masīla begins. In Arab tradition, the name comes from Tarīm b. al-Sukūn b. al-As̲h̲ras b. Kinda or from the name of the one who first setded there, Tarīm b. Ḥaḍramawt b. Sabaʾ al-Aṣg̲h̲ar. The name is attested in the pre-Islamic inscriptions: trm in Iryani 32 and trym in …

, a dynasty of Zabīd in the Yemen claiming descent from the pre-Islamic Tubbaʿs of Ḥimyar. 1. History. The family took its name from the father of its first leader, ʿAlī b. Mahdī, who died in 554/1159. ʿAlī was brought up with a strong traditional Islamic education by his father in Tihāma. Though much given to quiet meditation, ʿAlī also acquired a reputation for eloquence. He travelled widely too, performing the pilgrimage each year and meeting ʿulamāʾ from all corners of the Islamic world. The famous historian-poet, ʿUmāra, is our earliest source…

, 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…