Mahris
Ethnic Group
The Mahris (Arabic: المهريون), also known as the al-Mahra tribe (Arabic: قبيلة المهرة), are a Yemeni 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 Mahra Sultanate.
Origin
Mahras are descended from Mahra ibn Haydan ibn Amr ibn al-Hafi Quda'a ibn Malik ibn Amr ibn Murra ibn Zayd ibn Malik ibn Ḥimyar, who was from Quda'a.
Distribution
The Mahri are one of the largest tribes in the Al Mahrah Governorate of Yemen and in the island of Socotra and Dhofar Governorate of Oman. Mehri group members are also found in other countries in the Arabian Peninsula like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The Mahri also have a significant presence in the northern Puntland state in Somalia since they had historical ties and close proximity to the Horn of Africa for centuries.
The public source identifies “Mahris” as ethnic Group. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mahris, Ethnic and Group.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3375759. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1967.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mahris” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.