The earliest source to mention the port of Bāḍiʿ is al-Ṭabarī, writing in the ninth century. He states that in 637 the Caliph ʿUmar exiled the poet Abū Miḥjan al-Thaḳafī there, indicating that at this early date it was a mere penal colony or place of exile similar to the Dahlak Archipelago.[1] Writing around the same time, Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam mentions Bāḍiʿ as one of the places subject to the treaty made by the governor of Egypt, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ḥabḥāb (724–734), with the Beja. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Marwān, the second son of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwān II, passed through the port in 750 while going into exile in Ethiopia (Abyssinia).