ABSTRACT
After about eight years of dividing his time between studies and trade, Ibn Sumayt
˙ did the right thing for a young sayyid son born in the diaspora; he
travelled to H ˙ ad ˙ ramawt. This journey took place sometime in 1298 (i.e.
between 3 December 1880 and 23 November 1881) when Ibn Sumayt ˙ was
around twenty years of age. According to one of his biographers, Ibn Sumayt ˙
‘packed his belongings and boarded a steamer for Aden’.1
