Mehri

The Mehri are the Arabs of al-Mahra, between Hadhramaut and Dhofar, named after Mahra bin Haydan and claiming Himyar descent. Sabaean inscriptions mention them; they speak Mehri, a South Arabian tongue older than Arabic in the peninsula and related to Shehri, chiefly carried by oral poetry. A delegation accepted Islam from the Prophet, and their Mahri camels made their name across Arabia.

In 1432 the Ba Dujana clan seized Shihr from the Rasulids and built the first Mahri sultanate, settling Socotra around 1480 as a base against the Kathiri. After tribal wars in 1495 the Afrari family ruled Qishn and Socotra.

A Portuguese fleet took Socotra in 1507 but abandoned it in 1511, and in 1545 Portuguese guns restored Qishn to the Mahris after a Kathiri and Ottoman seizure. The Afrari sultans ruled the frankincense coast into the nineteenth century.