YAWM SHI'B JABALAH · LATE PRE-ISLAMIC ERA
Nearly 1,400 years ago, two alliances met at the mouth of a narrow mountain pass in one of the last great battles before Islam. The name has carried forward ever since. We make gear for the ones still climbing toward it.
SHI'B JABALAH
01 — TWO ALLIANCES
Banu Amir and their allies from Abs held the shi'b — a tight mountain pass with limited approaches — against Banu Tamim and their allies from Asad, Dhubyan, and Kinda. The ground itself would decide as much as the fighters.
02 — THE THIRST
Then, as the opposing force advanced into the pass, they released the herd. Maddened by thirst, the camels tore through the enemy lines before a single blade was drawn — a tactic locally remembered as Ta'tīsh an-Nūq, the thirsting of the she-camels.
03 — THE ROUT
Laqit ibn Zurara, a leading commander of Tamim, was killed in the fighting, and several allied leaders were taken captive. It stands as one of the major recorded battles of pre-Islamic Arabia.
04 — THE NAME
The exact year isn't settled — tradition places it around the time of the Prophet's birth, in the last years before Islam. What's certain is the ground: a plateau east of Al-Jumsh, in Ad-Dawadmi, that still carries the name forward.
Sources: Ibn al-Athir, Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh · Al-Bakri, Mu'jam Ma Ista'jam — accounts vary on cause and exact date
THE MOUNTAIN
Jabalah is a plateau east of Al-Jumsh, within Ad-Dawadmi governorate — old sources describe it as a highland with a large shi'b and limited entrances, the same terrain that decided a battle here in the last years before Islam. It's the reason the pass could be held at all.
COORDINATES
24.7997° N 43.8888° E
LOCAL LEGEND — NOT HISTORY
Oral tradition around the mountain also tells of Muqait and Rushah — a climber who scaled the cliff face for falcon chicks and became wedged in a crevice. It isn't documented like the battle, but it's still told at the base of the mountain today.
BUILT FOR THE CLIMB
Heavyweight fleece, built for the last hour of daylight on the trail.
View on Salla →Double-walled steel, engraved with the same mark that started it all.
View on Salla →Packable, stackable, built to survive a drop off the ridge.
View on Salla →