Mehri people
مهري | |
|---|---|
Flag used by Mehri people; It used to be the flag of the Mahra Sultanate | |
Map of Yemen showing Al Mahrah Governorate. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Yemen Oman Somalia | |
| Languages | |
| Mehri, Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Semitic-speaking peoples Especially Harasis, Soqotri, and other Modern South Arabian-speaking peoples |
The Mehri (Arabic: المهرة), also known as the al-Mahrah tribe (Arabic: قبيلة المهرة), are an Arab ethnographic group primarily inhabiting South Arabia especially in the Al-Mahra Governorate in Yemen and the island of Socotra in the Guardafui Channel. They are named after Mahra bin Haydan. They can also be found in the Sultanate of Oman, and the eastern region of the Arabian Peninsula.
They have participated in the conquests of North Africa, Morocco and Andalusia, and they lived there. Some of them work in fishing, and some of them live in the desert, and it is to them that the Mahri camels are attributed in the Arab heritage. The Mahra were famous for their Mahri language, which is a Semitic language belonging to the eastern family within the group of South Semitic languages, and it is a language closely related to other neighboring languages, such as the Shehri and Socotri languages. They have an ancient history, and they were mentioned in a number of Sabaean writings in Al-Musnad script, and had a sultanate that lasted for five centuries which remained in existence until 1967, which was the Sultanate of Al-Mahra.