Aš-Šhu'ara

Ash-Shuara stands at the eastern foot of the great Jabal Thahlan, west of Dawadmi. The mountain, celebrated by Arab poets, contains many ravines and small water sources. Shuara itself was a watering place of the Banu Numayr before the Al Mughayrah settled and built there. Local accounts recall a fortified residence and agricultural wells established beside the wadi by Ajil ibn Hulayyitim. Its water and position on caravan routes made the settlement a stopping place in the high Najd country. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, the remaining Al Mughayrah sold Shuara to Ali ibn Atiyyah of the Banu Zayd, whose families became prominent in the town.