Key Facts
- Duration
- 1907 – 1934
- Peak area
- ~35,000 km²
- Coastal extent
- ~129 km along Tihamah Red Sea coast
- Inland extent
- ~64 km to highland scarp of Asir al-Sarah
- Annexed by
- Saudi Arabia under Treaty of Taif, 1934
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Territorial Scale Comparison
Peak area vs modern sovereign states
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Idrisi, a descendant of the founder of the Idrisiyya Sufi order, established the emirate around 1907 in rebellion against Ottoman rule along the Tihamah coast of South Arabia. Britain extended support during the First World War, bolstering the emirate's position. The state controlled an 80-mile coastal strip extending roughly 40 miles inland to the Asir highland scarp, with its capital at Sabya.
Phase II: Zenith
The emirate flourished under Muhammad al-Idrisi's leadership, gaining British recognition and expanding its influence after the Ottoman collapse in 1918. It extended its domains northward along the Red Sea coast as far as Hodeidah, reaching its greatest territorial extent in the early post-war years while functioning as an independent Sufi-led polity in a strategically significant stretch of the Arabian Peninsula.
Phase III: Decline
Following Muhammad al-Idrisi's death in 1920, the emirate weakened considerably. It was gradually incorporated into the expanding Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd as a protectorate under Saudi pressure. In 1934, the Treaty of Taif formally completed its annexation by Saudi Arabia, ending the emirate's independent existence after roughly 27 years.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory