It roughly corresponds to the Wadi Bayhan, which runs down from the Yemeni highlands in a northeast direction into the Ramlat al-Sab`atayn desert.

[4] There are records of the rise of a Jewish messiah near Bayhan during the reign of Sultan 'Amir ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1488-1517) of the Tahiride dynasty.

The messianic pretender rode horses with saddles decorated in silver, and organized the people who gathered around him into a military force.

[3][a] Sharif Husayn bin Ali Bayhan, the ruler of the emirate, sided with the royalists against the republicans in the North Yemen Civil War.

Sharif Husayn made an unsuccessful attempt to regain control of Bayhan by force in early 1968.

[7] Sharif Haydar al-Habili, who became the first Arab commander of the FRA in June 1967 when it became the South Arabian Army, came from the Amirate of Bayhan.

Dyers could make up dye as needed, about monthly, in clay pots called zirs from Habban, Shabwa.