emirate · Anatolia and the Levant

Numayrids

990 CE – 1081 CE (approx.) · capital Harran

Arab emirs of the Banu Numayr who ruled Harran and the towns of the western Jazira for nearly a century.

Origins

The Banu Numayr were a Bedouin tribe of the Amir ibn Sa'sa'a who moved into the Diyar Mudar, the region between the Euphrates and the Balikh. Around 990, as Hamdanid power faded, their chief Waththab ibn Sabiq seized Harran, and the tribe went on to hold Saruj, Raqqa and for a time Edessa.

Rule and society

The Numayrids were tribal emirs who lived partly as nomads and relied on the townspeople and on dues from the fertile river valleys. They balanced between the Fatimids, the Mirdasids of Aleppo, the Marwanids and Byzantium. Harran still had a community of Sabian star-worshippers, whose temple the Numayrids are said to have turned into a palace. In 1031 they lost Edessa to Byzantine forces under George Maniakes.

Decline and legacy

The Seljuk advance weakened the Bedouin emirates. Around 1081 the Uqaylid emir Muslim ibn Quraysh took Harran, ending Numayrid rule; the tribe itself survived in the region.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Numayrids. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/numayrids
MLA
“Numayrids.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/numayrids. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Numayrids.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/numayrids.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Numayrids’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/numayrids (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻