Mahra

The Mahra (Mahri, plural Mahris) are an Arabian people of the far southeast of the peninsula: Yemen's al-Mahra governorate, their homeland, Oman's Dhofar and al-Wusta, the Saudi border desert at Kharkhir, and Socotra. They trace their descent to Mahra bin Haydan of Quda'a, and tradition links them to the ancient people of 'Ad. Their language, Mehri, is not Arabic but the largest of the six Modern South Arabian languages, related to Soqotri, Shehri (Jibbali), Hobyot, Harsusi and Bathari, with Eastern (Mehriyot) and Western (Mehriyet) dialects; it is spoken almost only aloud and is endangered. Medieval geographers wrote that the Mahra had 'a language of their own that no one understands but them'. A Mahri delegation went to the Prophet in Medina, and Mahri cavalry fought in the conquest of Egypt and North Africa, taking with them the fast Mahri camel that still bears their name. From the early 16th century the Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra was ruled by the Afrar family, chosen by consensus of the tribes; it became a British protectorate in 1886, issued its own passports, which carried Mahris to work across the Gulf, and ended in 1967. The Mahra are divided into some 30 tribes and sections, among them Kalshat, Samouda, Bin Afrar, Zuwaidi, Harizi, Bin Qamsit, Bin Kadda, Bin Yashul and, in Dhofar, Bayt Thuwar and Bayt Za'banot; lineage and family matter more to them than a wider Mahri label. The Hobyot of the Oman-Yemen border count themselves Mahra but speak a language of their own.

Mahri life divides between the coast, where families fish for sardines, shark and kingfish, and the plateau and desert, where camel and goat herders move between winter grazing and summer villages; the eastern mountains yield frankincense. Society is organised by tribe and section under sheikhs and councils, with coffee gatherings, marriage within the tribe and patrilineal inheritance. Men greet by touching noses. Mahri women are not veiled in the Hadrami way, may receive male guests, and once painted their faces with blue and green stripes for feasts. Oral poetry and song in Mehri, most of it outside known Arabian genres, mark weddings, feuds and daily life. Families keep kin and homes on both sides of the Yemen-Oman border, and Mehri Language Day is celebrated every 2 October in al-Mahra.

The Mahra are Sunni Muslims of the Shafi'i school. In Yemen's al-Mahra a strong Sufi tradition and a moderate local Islam prevail, and in 2018 the women of Qishn protested to stop a Salafi centre for displaced northerners. Belief in jinn and spirits that must be kept at peace, the evil eye, amulets with Qur'anic verses and Qur'anic healing are part of daily life, especially among the bedouin. Their conversion is dated to the Prophet's lifetime; earlier they were polytheists. No detailed study of Mahri folk religion exists.

Mehri has only Bible portions from 1902: no New Testament, no JESUS Film, and Global Recordings lists no Mehri recordings. Mehri has no established written form and is the language of home and poetry, so oral and audio media would suit it best. All Mahris understand Arabic and can use Arabic Scripture and media. No known Christians or outreach exist among the Mahra in Yemen or Saudi Arabia; Oman's Mahra live in a country where proselytising is banned. Conflict in Yemen and strict laws everywhere make access very difficult.

Mahri herders were allowed to settle on the Saudi side of the Empty Quarter in the 1980s, and from the 1990s royal orders and the Interior Ministry gave them identity numbers and passports. Their files were never completed: many received work residence permits instead of national identity cards, children went without birth certificates, and some passports did not allow travel beyond the governorate. In 2013 al-Kharkhir had 6,000-6,500 people of four tribes (al-Manahil, al-Mahra, al-Awamer, al-Rawashid), some of whom had waited more than 20 years for identity cards, and about 300 families camped in the desert to press for land at a new site, al-Shuqaq, 120-130 km away. A royal order abolished the governorate on 31 December 2014, its territory passing to Sharurah, and by 2018 the Najran emir had withdrawn all services under an order to move the residents. In October 2020 about 4,000 people of al-Kharkhir, mostly Mahra, appealed to the king and threatened to move into the valleys of Yemen's al-Mahra if they were not given identity cards by 17 November 2020. No later report says how this ended.