Ẓafār

Dhofar lies between the Arabian Sea and the mountains of southern Oman, where the southwest monsoon gives the coastal escarpment a brief but intense rainy season. Frankincense trees grow on the limestone slopes, and their resin was gathered, sorted and carried by camel to coastal ports. The mountains also supplied pasture, while springs and small valleys supported villages and date gardens.

Al-Baleed near Salalah became the seat of the Manjawi civilization between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. Its port linked the incense country with Yemen, the Persian Gulf, India and the Indian Ocean, drawing merchants and scholars to the coastal plain. Dhofar was known to travelers as a city and region ruled by local elites, but inland tribes retained substantial power over routes and mountain pastures.

During the sixteenth century control shifted among the Kathiri, the Mahra Sultanate and local Qara tribes. The interior remained difficult to govern, and the rainy-season mountains could cut communications for months. Incense continued to shape the regional economy, but its value depended on monsoon agriculture, pastoral mobility and the small anchorages that connected the mountains to maritime trade. The mountains also preserved Mehri and other South Arabian speech alongside the coastal Arabic of the ports.