BIND9 as a DNS server refuses requests

I am trying to set up a DNS server on Amazon Linux using BIND9.
It has to act as a master nameserver for a lot of domains.

I have imported all of the DNS zone files using NamedManager (a web interface that creates bind configration files).

My /etc/named.conf is as follows:

options {
    listen-on port 53 { any; };
    directory   "/var/named";
    dump-file   "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
    statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
    memstatistics-file "/var/named/data/named_mem_stats.txt";
    allow-query     { any; };
    allow-recursion { 127.0.0.1; };
};

include "/etc/named.namedmanager.conf";

zone "." IN {
        type hint;
        file "named.ca";
};

My /etc/named.namedmanager.conf (the auto-generated files) is as follows:

zone "mydomain.com.dns" IN {
        type master;
        file "mydomain.com.dns.zone";
        allow-update { none; };
};
zone "myotherdomain.com.dns" IN {
        type master;
        file "myotherdomain.com.dns.zone";
        allow-update { none; };
};
// ... more zones

My /var/named/mydomain.com.zone

$ORIGIN mydomain.com.
$TTL 120
@               IN SOA ns.THISNAMESERVER.com. mymail@mymaindomain.com. (
                        2013111005 ; serial
                        21600 ; refresh
                        3600 ; retry
                        604800 ; expiry
                        120 ; minimum ttl
                )

; Nameservers
mydomain.com.   86400 IN NS ns.THISNAMESERVER.com.

But when I try to resolve mydomain.com using this DNS server from home I get the following:

[me@myhomepc ~]$ host mydomain.com. ns.MYNAMESERVER.com
Using domain server:
Name: ns.MYNAMESERVER.com
Address: <my-nameserver-ip>#53
Aliases: 

Host mydomain.com not found: 5(REFUSED)

I tried disabling recursion for 127.0.0.1 (recursion no; in options{}), as I need to be my nameserver to be serving results. In that case I don't get REFUSED but I don't get any answer!