[2] The Sultanate spanned the Indian Ocean coast up to the border of Mahra, encompassed Shabwa, the central valleys and oasis settlements of Hadhramaut, and controlled the southern Empty Quarter.

Sons of Umar bin Awadh al Qu'aiti, who became a jemadar in the forces of the Nizam of Hyderabad State (now in India), first took the town of Shibam from the rival Kathiris in 1858 to consolidate their rule over all of Hadhramaut.

Qu'aiti Shaikh, Abdulla, being apprehensive that the capture of Mukalla would follow that of Shihr and that his communication with the seaboard would he cut off, applied to his brothers, in the service of the Hyderabad State, for assistance against Sultan Ghalib bin Muhsin.

An attempt was made by the Kathiri Shaikh in December of the same year to retake the place, but he was repulsed by the Qu'aiti, who have since remained in unmolested possession of the port and district.

[3] Salih bin Muhammad died in 1873, shortly after the conclusion of a treaty with him, by which he engaged for himself, his heirs and successors, to prohibit the import or export of slaves to or from Mukalla and its dependencies.

He was succeeded as Naqib by his son, Umar bin Salih, who accepted an offer by the Qu'aiti Jemadar of Shihr to aid him in reducing the refractory Shaikh of Duan.

Taking advantage of his admission with 600 followers into the fort of Mukalla, the Qu'aiti Jemadar demanded payment of a debt alleged to have been due to him by the late Naqib.

Finding himself powerless to resist this demand, the Naqib consented to a treaty under which he agreed to cede half of Mukalla, of Bandar Burum, and of the district of Al-Harshiyyat in return for a payment of 2.5 lakhs of dollars, from which, however, the debt due to the Qu'aiti Jemadar was to be deducted.

There she was detained under the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, and not released until the Qu'aiti Jemadar had bound himself under a heavy penalty to send her at once to Bombay without touching at, or undertaking any operations against, any of the ports of Hadhramaut.

[3] The British Government steadily avoided interference or arbitration in the disputes between the Naqib of Mukalla and the Jemadar of Shihr, and took no action regarding them beyond asking for assurances from the ministers of the Hyderabad State that persons in the service of the Nizam, who might be convicted of taking part in the quarrel by supplying money and munitions of war to their relatives on either side, and so prolonging the strife, would be dismissed.

Jemadar Awadh bin Umar went to India to lay his petition before the Viceroy, while his nephews returned to Shihr after signing a pledge not to interfere with the administration of their country.

[3] The settlement of the dispute between Awadh bin Umar and his nephews was then submitted to arbitration, which resulted in the award of a large sum of money to Husein and Munassar and their families.

[3] In 1916, the Sultan sent to Aden his minister Khan Bahadur Sayyid Husein bin Hamid el Mehdar to discuss the question of his suzerainty over the Hadhramaut.