Realm · approximate borders · 1549–1886

Mahra Sultanate

Banu Afrar sultanate of Mahra (capital Qishn) and the island of Socotra, which it held from the 16th century after the Portuguese withdrawal; it accepted British protection in 1886. Sources: Wikipedia 'Mahra Sultanate'.

See Mahra Sultanate on the map in 1549

On the map: 1549–1886
Capital: Qishn; Hadibu (Socotra)

Rulers named in the sources

Sa'd ibn Afrar 16th century
Ahmad ibn Sa'd c. 1834

States of the Middle East, 2400 BCE–1886

Among the smaller states of Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Iran and the South Caucasus were Bronze and Iron Age kingdoms (Ebla, Mari, Yamhad, Kizzuwatna, Arzawa, Ugarit, Aram-Damascus, Ammon, Moab, Edom, Mannaea), the city-kingdoms of Cyprus, Characene, Elymais, Hatra, Kinda and Muhammad's state at Medina; the Caucasian kingdoms and emirates of the 9th–12th centuries (Tbilisi, Lori, Kakheti-Hereti, Syunik, Kars) and the dynasties of the 'Iranian intermezzo' (Sallarids, Rawwadids, Hasanwayhids, Kakuyids, Marwanids, Uqaylids, Mirdasids, Mazyadids, Ikhshidids); the Burids of Damascus, the Nizari Ismaili castles, the atabegs of Azerbaijan, Fars, Luristan and Kerman; the eastern Anatolian beyliks (Saltukids, Mengujekids, Shah-Armens, Artuqids, Eretnids, Kadi Burhan al-Din, Erzincan, Tacettin, Lâdik, Alaiye); the Mamluk pashas of Baghdad; Arabian states from the Sulayhids to the Jabrids, Bani Khalid, Kathiri, Mahra and Lahej; and the South Caucasus khanates of 1747–1828. Few pre-modern sources describe frontiers.