[1] According to the 10th-century writer al-Hamdani, Khamir was named after one Khamir ibn Dawman ibn Bakil, of the Bakil tribe, who Hamdani described as "a king who built palaces in the Zahir of Hamdan.

"[1] Hamdani specified that the city's name referred to the fact that it was inhabited by "the sons of Khamir"; he wrote that, during his lifetime, the town was mostly inhabited by members of Bakil.

[1] He described its pre-Islamic ruins and wrote that the king As'ad al-Kamil was born here.

[1] During the Middle Ages, the main north–south highway in the area bypassed Khamir to the east, so the city is absent from most historical accounts of the period.

[1] Its first mention in the Ghayat al-amani of Yahya ibn al-Husayn is in the year 1398 (800 AH); the text mentions that some of its houses had Himyarite foundations that could not be destroyed.