The Mehri (var. al-Mahrah, al-Meheri, al-Mahri or al-Mahra ( ar, المهرة), also known as the al-Mahrah tribe ( ar, قبيلة المهرة), are a Semitic ethnic group primarily inhabiting South Arabia and the

Guardafui Channel The Guardafui Channel ( so, Marinka Gardafuul) is an oceanic strait off the tip of the Horn of Africa that lies between the Puntland region of Somalia and Socotra to the west of the Arabian Sea. It connects the Gulf of Aden to the north with the ...

island of

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’ ...

Origin

They are descended from Mahra bin Heydan bin 'Amr bin el-Hafi Quda'a bin Malik bin 'Amr bin Murra bin Zeyd bin Malik bin Ḥimyar. Which means Mahra son of Heydan son of 'Amr son of el-Hafi Quda'a son of Malik son of 'Amr son of Murra son of Zeyd son of Malik son of Ḥimyar.

Distribution

The Mehri are one of the largest tribes in the

Al Mahrah Governorate Al Mahrah ( ar, ٱلْمَهْرَة '), or simply Mahra, is a governorate ('' muhafazah'') of Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Situated in the area of the former Mahra Sultanate, its capital is Al Ghaydah, and it has intern ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

and in the island of

and Dhofar Governorate of Oman. Mehri group members are also found in other countries in the Arabian Peninsula, mainly

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

and

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

. According to '' Ethnologue'', there are around 115,200 total Mehri speakers. Of those, 50,000 live in Yemen (2011), 50,800 in Oman (2000), and 14,400 in Kuwait (2000), and according to Saudi officials there are around 20,000 Mehri speakers in Saudi Arabia.

Language

The Mehri speak the

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 Y ...

as their native tongue. It belongs to the

Modern South Arabian The Modern South Arabian languages (MSALs), also known as Eastern South Semitic languages, are a group of endangered languages spoken by small populations inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen and Oman, and Socotra Island. Together with the ...

(MSA) subgroup of the

Afroasiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

family's Semitic branch. Mehri is divided into two main

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

s: Eastern Mehri (Mehriyot) and Western Mehri (Mehriyet). These idioms in turn have urban and Bedouin varieties. On the island of

, the Mehri inhabitants speak the native

Soqotri language Soqotri (also spelt Socotri, Sokotri, or Suqutri; autonym: ماتڸ دسقطري, ''mɛ́taḷ di-saḳɔ́ṭri''; , ''al-luḡah al-suquṭriyyah'') is a South Semitic language spoken by the Soqotri people on the island of Socotra and the two ...

of the

Soqotri people The Soqotri people, sometimes referred to as Socotran, are a Semitic ethnic group native to the Gulf of Aden island of Socotra. They speak the Soqotri language, a Semitic language in the Afroasiatic family. General The Soqotri primarily inh ...

. The Mehri language is most closely related to other Modern South Arabian languages, such as Bathari and Soqotri. These tongues collectively share many features with the

Old South Arabian languages Old South Arabian (or Ṣayhadic or Yemenite) is a group of four closely related extinct languages spoken in the far southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script. There were a number of oth ...

(Epigraphic South Arabian), as spoken by the ancient

Sabaeans The Sabaeans or Sabeans ( Sabaean:, ; ar, ٱلسَّبَئِيُّوْن, ''as-Sabaʾiyyūn''; he, סְבָאִים, Səḇāʾīm) were an ancient group of South Arabians. They spoke the Sabaean language, one of the Old South Arabian langu ...

Minaeans The Minaean people were the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ma'in ( Minaean: ''Maʿīn''; modern Arabic ''Maʿīn'') in modern-day Yemen, dating back to the 10th century BCE-150 BCE. It was located along the strip of desert called Ṣayhad ...

, and

Qataban Qataban ( Qatabanian: , romanized: , ) was an ancient South Semitic-speaking kingdom of South Arabia (ancient Yemen) which existed from the early 1st millennium BCE till the late 1st or 2nd centuries CE. The kingdom of Qatabān was one of the si ...

ians. Additionally, many Mehri in Yemen speak as a second language

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

Religion

The Mehri are predominantly Muslims.

Genetics

According to Y-DNA analysis by Černý et al. (2009), most inhabitants of Socotra, some of whom are Mehri descendants, belong to the basal haplogroup J. Around 71.4% of them carry J*(xJ1,J2), which is the highest reported frequency of the paternal clade. Maternally, basal haplogroup N likewise occurs at its highest frequencies on the island (24.3%). Mitochondrial analysis by Non (2010) found that the haplogroup R0a (27.7%) is the most common mtDNA clade among the Mehri within the Mahra Governorate. The next most frequent maternal lineages borne by the Mehri are the haplogroups H (13.9%), R2 (13.9%), L2a1 (4.6%), and K (1.5%), as well as various subclades of the macro-haplogroup L(xM,N) (21.5%).

Notes

References

Ethnologue - Mehri language
*Yule, P. (2018). “Toward an identity of the Samad period population (Sultanate of Oman)”. ''Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie'' 11, 438–86. . {{authority control Yemeni tribes Afroasiatic peoples Ethnic groups in Oman Ethnic groups in Somalia Ethnic groups in Yemen Social groups of the United Arab Emirates Ethnic groups in the Middle East South Arabia