Dhofar Governorate

The Dhofar Governorate (Muḥāfaẓat Ẓufār) is the largest of the 11 Governorates in the Sultanate of Oman in terms of area. It lies in Southern Oman, on the eastern border with Yemen's Al Mahrah Governorate and the southern border with Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. It is a rather mountainous area that covers and had a population of 416,458 as of the 2020 census. The largest city and capital is Salalah. Historically, the region was a source of frankincense. The local dialect of Arabic is Dhofari Arabic, which is distinct from that of the rest of Oman and from Yemen. At Aybut Al-Auwal ("First Aybut") in Wadi Aybut (west-central Nejd), a site was discovered in 2011 containing more than 100 surface scatters of stone tools belonging to a regionally specific lithic industry, the late Nubian Complex, known previously only from Northeast Africa. Two optically stimulated luminescence age estimates place the Arabian Nubian Complex at 106,000 years old. This provides evidence for a distinct Middle Stone Age technocomplex in southern Arabia around the earlier part of the Marine Isotope Stage 5. Bronze Age sites of the Dhofar Survey include tomb complexes found at Hodor (al-Hudfir). Venetian merchant Marco Polo wrote of Dhofar in The Travels of Marco Polo (c. 1300), stating: Dufar is a great and noble and fine city. The people are Saracens [Muslims] and have a Count for their chief who is subject to the Soldan [Sultan] of Aden. Much white incense is produced here, and I will tell you how it grows. The trees are like small fir trees; these are notched with a knife in several places, and from these notches the incense is exuded. Sometimes it flows from the tree without any notch; this is by reason of the great heat of the sun there. This Dhafar is supposed to be the Sephar of Genesis, x. 30. Dhofar was a major exporter of frankincense in ancient times, with some of it being traded as far as China. Al-Baleed (also spelled Al Blaid), an area near Salalah which contains numerous archeological finds, used to serve as the home of the Manjawi Civilization from the 12th-to-16th centuries.

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Related concepts (9)

South Yemen

South Yemen (al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (جمهورية اليمن الديمقراطية الشعبية, Jumhūriyat al-Yaman al-Dīmuqrāṭīyah al-Sha'bīyah), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (اليمن الديمقراطي, al-Yaman al-Dīmuqrāṭīyy) or Yemen (Aden) (اليمن (عدن), al-Yaman ('Adin)), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 1990 as a state in the Middle East in the southern and eastern provinces of the present-day Republic of Yemen, including the island of Socotra.

Salalah

Salalah (Ṣalālah) is the capital and largest city of the southern Omani governorate of Dhofar. Its population in 2009 was about 197,169. Salalah is the third-largest city in the Sultanate of Oman, and the largest city in the Dhofar Province. Salalah is the birthplace of the former sultan, Qaboos bin Said. Salalah attracts many people from other parts of Oman and the Globe during the monsoon/khareef season, which spans from June to September. Tourists visit Salalah during this season.

Mehri language

Mehri or Mahri ( مهريّت ) is the most spoken of the Modern South Arabian languages (MSALs), a subgroup of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. It is spoken by the Mehri tribes, who inhabit isolated areas of the eastern part of Yemen, western Oman, particularly the Al Mahrah Governorate, with a small number in Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni and Omani borders. Up to the 19th century, speakers lived as far north as the central part of Oman.