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Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hatim al-Hamdani, commonly known simply as Ibn Hatim, was a 13th-century official and historian in Yemen, under the Rasulid dynasty. His chief historical work: Kitab al-Simt al-ghali al-thaman fi akhbar al-muluk min al-Ghuzz bi’l-Yaman. Under Sultan al-Muzaffar Yusuf I (r. 1249–1295) he became one of the officials in the capacity of roving ambassador. The date birth and of his death is unknown. He gives us an interesting anecdote about East Africa.

Taken from: Notes on Migration between Yemen and Northeast Africa during the 13–15th Centuries by Tamon Baba

Full name: Badr al Din Muhammad b. Hatim al Yami al Hambani

Full name book: Kitab al-Simt al Ghali al-Thaman fi Akhbar al Muluk min al-Ghuzr bi’l-Yaman.

Ibn Hatim: Al Simt al gali al taman

P217-218

In 1239 the Sultan al Mansur Umar (1), orders the taking of the town of al Sihr (2) which was in the hands of Abd al Rahman

ibn Rasid ibn Iqbal (3) . He stations soldiers and puts them under two of his emirs: Burayq who is the governor and a naqib (4)

called al Asbahi head of the troops. But after they had been in al-Sihr (2) for some time, the commander attacked and killed

the governor, and flees with the income of the town to Maqdisu.

P301

(Around  650/1252–1253) Sultan al-Malik  al-Muzaffar (5) left the jobs of supervising the mamluks and the court to al-Alfi (. . .).

Then, al-Alfi responded with a joke (nukta). Our lord Sultan became angry and expelled him to al-Habasa.

(1) Sultan al Mansur Umar; was the first Rasulid Sultan of Yemen, from 1228 to 1249.

(2) al Sihr; coastal town in Hadhramaut in eastern Yemen

(3) Abd al Rahman ibn Rasid ibn Iqbal. : this paragraph got copied by Al Janadi (d1332)

(4) honorary title mostly reserved for the descendants of the prophet Mohammed.

(5) Sultan al-Muzaffar Yusuf I (r. 1249–1295).