The group of tribes ruled over by the Amir of Dhala occupies the district north-west of the Alawi country on the high road to Sanaa.

He continued to resist Ali bin Muqbil till 1878, when, Turkish support having been withdrawn from his rival, Ali bin Muqbil resumed his position as Amir of the tribes, with the loss, however, of several of his villages which had, some voluntarily and some under pressure, yielded allegiance to the Ottomans.

[2] The years 1889 to 1900 were marked by the continued restlessness of the Quteibi, who failed to keep the settlements made in 1888, and by the encroachments of the Turks.

[2] On the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Amir Nasr submitted to the Turks when they entered the Aden Protectorate.

[2] In January 1920 Amir Nasr, with the help of the Radfan tribes and with assistance in money, arms and ammunition from the Aden Residency, made an attack on Dhala and reoccupied it, but lost it on the following day owing to a Zeidi counterattack, the Amir taking refuge in Lahej.

The Quteibi Shaikh, with the help of other Itadfan tribes and assistance in arms and ammunition from the Aden Residency, drove them out.

The Zeidi made repeated attempts to take the Quteibi country, but invariably met with strong resistance from the Radfan tribes.

After about two years of successful resistance, however, the Quteibi Shaikh yielded to Zeidi pressure and went over to them in 1922 and his stipend was stopped.

The Amir of Dhala was immediately reinstated in his capital and the Zeidi have made no attempt to recapture these places.

[3] The Radfan Hills, nominally under control of the Amiris of Dhala, were the scene of fierce fighting between British forces and the local Qutaibis during the Aden Emergency in the mid-1960s.

The last emir, Shafaul ibn Ali Shaif Al Amiri, was deposed and the state was abolished in 1967 upon the founding of the People's Republic of South Yemen.