Nabhani

The Nabhanids, or Banu Nabhan, were an Azdi Arab house that ruled Oman as hereditary kings from 1154 to 1624. Their leader Muhammad al-Fallah rose as Seljuk garrisons withdrew and controlled the interior by 1154, ruling from fortified oases including Nizwa and Bahla. The kings reduced elected Ibadi imams to a largely symbolic office; chronicles record none between 1153 and 1406.

Their wealth rested on the frankincense trade from Dhofar toward Bahrain, Baghdad and Damascus. At Bahla they raised a mud-brick fort complex between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. They also came to terms with Hormuz, which held much of the coast.

From the fifteenth century the Ibadi imamate regained strength. After the Portuguese seized Muscat in 1507 and overran the coast, the dynasty was left with Bahla. In 1624 Nasir ibn Murshid of the Yaʿrubid dynasty took Oman, ending Nabhani kingship.