Abd al Kuri

Abd al Kuri is a rocky island in the Guardafui Channel, the westernmost of the Socotra Archipelago, lying about 105 kilometres southwest of Socotra itself and much closer to the Horn of Africa than to Arabia. Its terrain is mostly granite and diorite covered by limestone, with little fresh water, so the people who lived here relied on fishing and on grazing their animals on sparse upland vegetation.

The archipelago was known to sailors of the Indian Ocean for its aloes, frankincense and dragon’s blood, and it lay on the sea routes between the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and India. By the late Middle Ages the Mahra sultans of southern Arabia ruled Socotra and its dependencies. In 1507 a Portuguese fleet under Tristão da Cunha seized the port of Suq on Socotra after a hard fight against the Mahra, but hunger and sickness in the garrison led the Portuguese to leave in 1511, and the Mahra sultans regained the islands.