Al-Shihr

{{Update|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox settlement   |name = al-Shihr |other_name = |native_name = {{lang|ar|ٱلشِّحْر}} |nickname = |settlement_type = Town |motto =  |image_skyline = Passeggiata - panoramio.jpg |imagesize = |image_caption = Camels on the beach at al-Shihr |image_flag = |flag_size = |image_seal = |seal_size = |image_shield = |shield_size = |image_map = |mapsize = |map_caption = |pushpin_map = Yemen |pushpin_label_position = bottom |pushpin_mapsize = 300 |pushpin_map_caption = Location in Yemen  |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_name = {{flag|Yemen}} |subdivision_type1 = Governorate |subdivision_name1 = Hadhramaut |subdivision_type2 =District |subdivision_name2 = al-Shihr |subdivision_type3 = |subdivision_name3 = | |government_footnotes = |government_type = |leader_title = |leader_name = |leader_title1 =  |leader_name1 = |established_title =  |established_date =  |area_magnitude = |unit_pref = Imperial  |area_footnotes = |area_total_km2 =  |area_land_km2 =   |population_as_of = |population_footnotes = |population_note = |population_total 8 = |population_density_km2 = |population_density_sq_mi = |population_metro = |population_density_metro_km2 = |population_density_metro_sq_mi = |population_blank1_title = Ethnicities |population_blank1 = |population_density_blank1_km2 = |population_density_blank1_sq_mi =  |timezone = Yemen Standard Time |utc_offset = +3 |timezone_DST = |utc_offset_DST = |coordinates = {{coord|14|45|39|N|49|36|25|E|region:YE|display=inline,title}} |elevation_footnotes =  |elevation_m = |elevation_ft =  |postal_code_type =  |postal_code = |area_code = |blank_name = |blank_info = |blank1_name = |blank1_info = |website = |footnotes = }}

'''Al-Shihr''' ({{langx|ar|ٱلشِّحْر|al-Shiḥr}}), also known as '''ash-Shir''' or simply '''Shihr''',<ref name="Kauz2010">{{cite book |editor-last=Schottenhammer |editor-first=Angela |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJibpHfnw94C&pg=PA130 |access-date=December 26, 2011 |title=Aspects of the Maritime Silk Road: From the Persian Gulf to the East China Sea |year=2010 |volume=10 of East Asian Economic and Socio-cultural Studies - East Asian Maritime History |last=Kauz |first=Ralph |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |page=130 |isbn=978-3-447-06103-2}}</ref> is a coastal town in Hadhramaut, eastern Yemen.<ref name="Laughlin2008">{{cite book |last=McLaughlin |first=Daniel |title=Yemen |publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |chapter=10: Southeast Yemen |pages=191–198 |isbn=978-1-8416-2212-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQvhZaEVzjcC&q=shihr |year=2008}}</ref> Al-Shihr is a walled town located on a sandy beach. There is an anchorage but no docks; boats are used. The main export is fish oil. The town is divided in two by a ''wādi'' (dry riverbed) called al-Misyāl. The western quarter is called Majraf and the eastern al-Ramla. As of 1997, it had several souqs (markets), including Sūq al-Lakham, Sūq al-Hunūd, and Sūq Shibām.<ref name=EI2/>

==History== [[File:CO 1069-681-7.jpg|thumb|270x270px|Al-Aidarous gate of Shihr]] thumb|upright|Northern gateway of al-Shihr on a stamp issued in 1942 The history of ash-Shihr (formerly also '''al-Asʿāʾ'''<ref name=CHGSLM/>) can be traced back as far as about AD 780.<ref name=CHGSLM>{{citation|author1=Claire Hardy‐Guilbert|author2=Sterenn Le Maguer|title=Chihr de l'encens (Yémen)|url=http://www.academia.edu/download/33734507/2010_HardyGuilbert_LeMaguer.pdf|journal=Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy|volume=21|issue=1|year=2010|pages=46–70|doi=10.1111/j.1600-0471.2009.00322.x}}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, at 47.</ref> It was a major port on the incense trade route as an exporter of frankincense to places as far away as China.<ref name="Kauz2010"/> Ibn Khurradādhbih calls the area around al-Shihr the ''bilād al-kundur'', Land of Incense.<ref name=EI2/> It was also known for its ambergris, ''ʿanbar Shiḥrī''.<ref name=EI2/> It was the main port of Hadhramaut until replaced by Mukalla in the 19th century.<ref name=EI2>{{EI2|author=G. R. Smith|title=al-<u>Sh</u>iḥr|pages=438–439|volume=9}}</ref>

Local pottery production at Yadhghat was exported through al-Shihr, possibly as early as the 10th century. In 980, the entrepôt of Sharma was founded by Persian exiles up the coast from al-Shihr.<ref>{{citation |author=Axelle Rougeulle |title=Ceramic Production in Medieval Yemen: The Yadhghat Kiln Site |journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies |year=2007 |pages=239–252}}.</ref> These rival ports are mentioned together in works of medieval Islamic geography. Writing in 985, al-Muqaddasī records that Sharma and ah-Shihr were dependencies of the Ziyadid dynasty. About 1150, al-Idrīsī wrote that Sharma and al-Shihr were stopovers on the sailing route from Aden to Mirbāṭ and were about one day apart. Around 1300, al-Dimashqī noted that Sharma and al-Shiḥr were the two harbors of Hadhramaut.<ref>{{citation |author=Axelle Rougeulle |title=Excavations at Sharmah, Ḥaḍramawt: The 2001 and 2002 Seasons |journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies |volume=33 |year=2003 |pages=287–307 |jstor=41223770}}, p. 287.</ref> Al-Shihr is also mentioned by Ibn Khaldun in his ''al-Muqaddimah''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ibn Khaldun|author-link=Ibn Khaldun|title=The Muqaddimah: an Introduction to History |translator=Franz Rosenthal |editor=N.J. Dawood |publisher=Princeton University Press|volume=1 |edition=2 |year=1967|location=Princeton, N.J.|pages=122, 124, 126–7|language=en|oclc=750556436}}</ref>

Politically, al-Shihr has been under the Ziyadids (818–981), the Banū Maʿn (11th century), the Rasulids (1228–1454) and the Tahirids. After a short time, the latter lost it to the sultanate of Kathiri under Badr ibn Tuwayriq in 1462. In the 16th century, it was attacked several times by the Portuguese, who called it Xaer or Xael.<ref name=EI2/> There were battles in 1523, 1532, 1533, and 1548.<ref>R.B.Serjeant, The Portuguese Off the South Arabian Coast: Ḥaḍramī Chronicles, with Yemeni and European Accounts of Dutch Pirates Off Mocha in the Seventeenth Century, 1963, Clarendon Press, p. 52, 57, 63, 67 and 108</ref> There are still graves along the shore said to be of victims of the Portuguese.<ref name=EI2/>

In 1530, Mustafa Bey and Khoja Zufar arrived at the port of al-Shihr in Yemen.<ref name=Öztuna>Öztuna, Yılmaz. [https://books.google.com/books?id=79XQDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 Kanuni Sultan Süleyman.] Turkey: Kültür Bakanlığı, 1989</ref> The Ottomans advised the Sultan of al-Shihr, Badr, to not submit to the Portuguese and left cannons and 100 levends (Ottoman irregular troops) with the Sultan of al-Shihr.<ref name=Öztuna /> Mustafa Bey left al-Shihr in December 1530 while Khoja Zufar remained with Badr.<ref name=Öztuna /> A Portuguese force of 9 sails led by Manoel de Vasconcellos immediately arrived at the port of al-Shihr, however, Khoja Zufar prevented the Portuguese from entering al-Shihr.<ref name=Andreu>Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner; [https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/neas/article-abstract/12/1/1/175816/Conquistadores-Mercenaries-and-Missionaries-The Conquistadores, Mercenaries, and Missionaries: The Failed Portuguese Dominion of the Red Sea.] Northeast African Studies 1 April 2012; 12 (1): 1–28. p.9.</ref><ref name=Istanbul>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6RIMAQAAIAAJ&q=şihr+sefer+1531 Tarih Enstitüsü dergisi.] Turkey: İstanbul Üniversitesi, Edebiyat Fakültesi, Tarih Enstitüsü, 1974.</ref><ref>Önalp, Ertuğrul. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Zk9OAQAAIAAJ&q=Şihr+1531+portekiz Osmanlının güney seferleri: XVI. yüzyılda Hint okyanusu'nda Türk-Portekiz mücadelesi.] Turkey: Berikan Yayınevi, 2010.</ref><ref name=Mughul>Mughul, Muhammad Yakub. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1uu1AAAAIAAJ&q=Şihr+1531+portekiz+sefer Kanunî devri: Osmanlıların Hint Okyanusu politikası ve Osmanlı-Hint Müslümanları münasebetlerı, 1517-1538.] Turkey: Fetih Yayınevi, 1974.</ref><ref>R.B.Serjeant, ''The Portuguese Off the South Arabian Coast: Ḥaḍramī Chronicles, with Yemeni and European Accounts of Dutch Pirates Off Mocha in the Seventeenth Century'', 1963, Clarendon Press, p. 57</ref><ref>ابن حميد الكندي, العدّة المفيدة الجامعة لتواريخ قديمة وحديثة مكتبة الإرشاد، صنعاء عام 1991م, صفحة 168 [https://archive.org/details/Tareeh-hadramoot/%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE%20%D8%A8%D9%86%20%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%AF%201/page/n167/mode/1up]</ref>

In 1548<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Toriz Proenza |first=Martha |date=2000-05-01 |title=F. Tanaka Michiko (coord.). ''Encuentros en cadena: las artes escénicas en Asia, África y América Latina''. México: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios de Asia y África, 1998 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.24201/eaa.v35i2.1661 |journal=Estudios de Asia y África |pages=363–368 |doi=10.24201/eaa.v35i2.1661 |issn=2448-654X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Dom Álvaro arriving from Goa had it bombarded, albeit with meager results, as he lacked heavy artillery and around 40 Portuguese were killed. Sometime later two large galliots arrived with siege guns, with which the Portuguese were able to batter the walls of the fort heavily, and within a short time, the garrison sent Sulaimân bin Sa'd bin Sulaimân al-Muhammadï who sought to surrender in exchange for freedom, The fort was stormed on April 7 and the Kathiri garrison was entirely slaughtered. The fort was delivered to the Afrar brothers and Sulaimân bin Sa'd was taken prisoner to Goa.<ref>{{Citation |title=Serjeant, Robert Bertram, (23 March 1915–29 April 1993), Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic, 1970–82, and Director, Middle East Centre, 1965–82, University of Cambridge |date=2007-12-01 |work=Who Was Who |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u175377 |access-date=2024-06-18 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

Later, al-Shihr became one of the three major cities of the Qu'aiti Sultanate, before a unified Yemen was formed, the other two being Mukalla and Shibam.<ref name="Laughlin2008"/>

Carsten Niebuhr visited al-Shihr in the 18th century.<ref name=EI2/>

Yemenis who emigrated to East Africa and their descendants are known as Shihiris, because most of them moved through the port of al-Shihr.<ref name=EI2/>

== See also ==

* Port of Shihr

== References == {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *Serjeant, R. B. "The Ports of Aden and Shihr (Mediaeval period)". ''Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin'' '''32''' (1974): 207–224.

== External links == *[http://www.alquaiti.com Official Website of the Al-Qu'aiti Royal Family of Hadhramaut]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shihr}} Category:Populated places in Hadhramaut Governorate Category:Populated coastal places in Yemen Category:Towns in Yemen