A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN
[Illustration: BAZAAR AT DHAMAR.]
A
JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN
AND
SOME GENERAL REMARKS UPON
THAT COUNTRY
BY
WALTER B. HARRIS, F.R.G.S.
AUTHOR OF
‘THE LAND OF AN AFRICAN SULTAN; TRAVELS IN MOROCCO’
_ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS
TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR_
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCXCIII
_All Rights reserved_
TO
MY FATHER AND MOTHER
_I DEDICATE THIS BOOK_.
PREFACE.
But very few words are necessary as a preface to this book, as more than
once in its pages its objects are stated.
An account of my journey through the Yemen appeared last autumn in a
series of articles in the ‘Illustrated London News,’ and it is with
kind permission of the proprietors of that paper that some of the
illustrations reappear here. Many of the illustrations, however, have not
seen the light of day before.
The chapter on the Yemen rebellion was published as an article in
‘Blackwood’s Magazine’ for February last.
The remainder of the book consists of entirely new matter.
I cannot attempt to thank here the many persons who aided me and rendered
me services during the time I was in the Yemen. Without their assistance
my journey would probably have failed. To them I am most grateful.
W. B. H.
_Sept. 1893._
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
PART I.—SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YEMEN.
I. THE YEMEN, 3
II. THE YEMEN BEFORE THE HEJIRA, 27
III. THE YEMEN SINCE THE HEJIRA, 47
IV. THE INFLUENCES OF ISLAM IN THE YEMEN, 70
V. THE REBELLION IN THE YEMEN, 92
PART II.—A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN.
I. ADEN, 121
II. ADEN TO LAHEJ, 151
III. LAHEJ TO KHOREIBA, 174
IV. ACROSS THE TURKISH FRONTIER, 200
V. SOBEH TO YERIM, 223
VI. YERIM TO DHAMAR, 247
VII. DHAMAR TO SANAA, 263
VIII. SANAA, THE CAPITAL OF THE YEMEN, 299
IX. SANAA TO MENAKHA, 323
X. MENAKHA To HODAIDAH, 341
XI. HODAIDAH, 358
APPENDIX.
GENEALOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TREE OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA, 374
A LIST OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA, GIVING THEIR FULL TITLES, 375
PEDIGREE OF THE REIGNING ABDALI SULTAN OF LAHEJ, 376
INDEX, 377
ILLUSTRATIONS.
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
BAZAAR AT DHAMAR, _Frontispiece_
COFFEE PLANTATION ON TERRACES AT ATTARA, NEAR
MENAKHA, _To face page_ 8
VIEW OF MOUNTAIN-RANGES NEAR SÔK EL-KHAMIS, ON THE
ROAD FROM SANAA TO HODAIDAH, ” 18
ANCIENT TANK AT MENURA, NEAR DHAMAR, ” 38
HOWTA, THE CAPITAL OF LAHEJ, ” 60
MENAKHA, ” 110
TOMB AND MOSQUE OF SHEIKH OTHMAN NEAR ADEN, ” 122
PALACE OF THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ, ” 162
MY RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ, ” 170
KHOREIBA, ” 198
VIEW OF AZAB, ” 218
MAN AND WOMAN OF THE HIGHLANDS OF THE YEMEN, ” 228
MOSQUE AT BEIT SAÏD, ” 232
UPPER FLOOR OF A KHAN AT YERIM, ” 248
MY QUARTERS AT DHAMAR, ” 260
KARIAT EN-NEGIL, ” 262
JIBEL DORAN—EARLY MORNING, ” 282
KHADAR, ” 286
VIEW FROM WAALAN, ” 288
THE AUTHOR BEING EXAMINED AND HIS PASSPORT READ IN THE
PRESENCE OF AHMED FEIZI PASHA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF
THE YEMEN, ” 292
MENAKHA, FROM THE NORTH, ” 322
THE VILLAGE OF EL-HAJRA, ” 342
TURKISH CAMP OF HOJAILA, ” 348
GATE OF A WALLED VILLAGE IN THE YEMEN, ” 354
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.
A NATIVE OF THE TEHÁMA, 68
A YEMENI, 78
JEW OF THE YEMEN, 82
TURKISH TROOPS ON THE MARCH, 103
MAIN PASS, ADEN, 144
A VALLEY IN YEMEN, 193
CASTLE OF AMIR OF DHALA, 195
A GIRL OF THE YEMEN, 204
VILLAGE OF AREDOAH, 213
BEIT EN-NEDISH, 226
INSCRIBED STONE AT MUNKAT, NEAR YERIM, 243
MOSQUE AND MINARET AT DHAMAR, 259
HIRRAN, 273
CAVE-TOMBS, HIRRAN, 274
GROUND-PLAN OF TOMB III., 275
INTERIOR OF TOMB III., HAIT HIRRAN, 276
ENTRANCE TO TOMB IV., HAIT HIRRAN, 277
THE AUTHOR IN PRISON AT SANAA, 295
TURKISH OFFICERS IN A _CAFÉ_ AT SANAA, 308
TURKISH MOSQUE AT SANAA, AS SEEN FROM THE PRISON WINDOW, 316
TURKISH SOLDIER, 317
GORGE NEAR MENAKHA, 332
VIEW NEAR WISIL, 344
A STREET IN HODAIDAH, 364
MAPS.
ADEN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, _To face page_ 122
DHAMAR TO SANAA, ” 264
THE COUNTRY OF THE YEMEN, _At the end_
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN.
PART I.
SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YEMEN
CHAPTER I.
THE YEMEN.
The Yemen may be described as forming the south-west corner of Arabia.
So little is known of the geography of the interior, and to such a
slight extent do even the natives define the boundaries between their
own land and the surrounding provinces, that any exact description of
the country is impossible. The same may be said of nearly all oriental
frontiers, except where, taking an example from European customs, a clear
line of demarcation has been agreed upon; for, as a rule, limits depend
far more upon tribal position and inheritance than upon any natural
features of the land in question; and in many cases in the settlement of
frontier questions with oriental Powers, even European Governments have
been obliged to follow upon these lines. This is especially clearly
exemplified in the case of the Algerian and Moroccan frontier, in the
southern parts of which no absolute boundary has been fixed, certain
tribes, whether in French or Moorish territory, belonging to whichever of
the two nationalities under which they are enrolled.
How infinitely difficult it is, then, in the case of the Yemen, to state
where that province begins and ends, will be appreciated.
As to two of its limits, the task of definition is simple; for on the
west the Red Sea, and on the south that portion of the Indian Ocean
known as the Gulf of Aden, allow of no question. On the north and east
far more serious difficulties arise. Without attempting to delineate any
exact frontier, which, with our present geographical knowledge of the
country, would fail at the best to be anything more than roughly correct,
more general terms must be used than would be justifiable in a more
pretentious work than the present.
It may be stated, then, that the province of Arabia known as the Yemen
is bounded on the east by the Hadramaut tribes, and on the north by the
Asir, although some authorities include the latter, making the north
frontier of the Yemen adjacent with the southern limit of the Hejaz,
the province of Arabia in which are situated the holy cities of Mecca
and Medina. As far as the writer was able to gather, however, from the
natives themselves, the Asir is considered to be an entirely different
district, although its inhabitants are nearly related to the Yemenis by
blood. In fact, it may be said without much exaggeration that the present
divisions of Arabia as marked upon the maps are but little in advance
geographically of the ancient Greek and Roman arbitrary distinctions of
Arabia Felix, Arabia Petræa, and Arabia Deserta. Even allowing for the
widest limits claimed for the Yemen, the whole country lies between 42°
and 46° east longitude and 12° and 20° north latitude.
Although no natural formation of the Yemen can assist one in correctly
determining its inland frontiers, the same cannot be said of the two
great divisions into which the country is split up. These are so apparent
that, from the earliest geographers to the present day, they have
remained unchanged and fully recognised. But in order to appreciate this,
a few words must be said as to the formation of the country. While the
interior consists of vast mountain-ranges and elevated plateaux, some of
which lie at an altitude of over eight thousand feet above the sea-level,
the seaboard consists, both on the west and south, of low-lying sandy
deserts and plains, varying in breadth from thirty to nearly a hundred
miles. The only exception where a spur of the mountains approaches the
sea is at the headland of Sidi Sheikh, the south-west corner of the Red
Sea—a spur of land a few miles in width exactly opposite the island of
Perim, from which it is divided by a narrow channel. It may be remembered
that only a few years back there was a false report that France had
purchased this advantageous spot from the Turkish Government.
The formation of these maritime plains is such that it may be safely
surmised that a very considerable portion, at least of what is now
desert, was at one time covered by the sea. So fast, indeed, has been the
silting action, that more than one former port now lies well inland. As
an example of this, Sir R. L. Playfair, in his excellent ‘History of the
Yemen,’ mentions the town of Muza, once a flourishing sea-port, now over
twenty miles inland. In many places, too, shells and chips of coral are
to be found at great distances from the coast. The same retrograde action
of the sea can be traced, too, at Aden, which was, no doubt, at one time
an island, and is now joined to the mainland by a low isthmus, formed by
the silting of sea-sand upon a submarine basis of rock.
The name Teháma is applied to these plains of the Yemen. It is a district
exceedingly subject to drought, and with a very small rainfall. What
water-supply it boasts, with the exception of oases, is principally due
to the mountain torrents, which, originating in the highlands, rush
impetuously down the steep slopes, usually to be entirely exhausted by
the desert before reaching the sea. It is said, however, that even in
the driest seasons water may be found by sinking wells in the river-beds.
Although the supply thus obtained is sufficient to maintain the lives
of Bedouins and their flocks and herds, it is far from proving of any
great utility to cultivation, in such spots where, even in good years,
cultivation is possible. However, fortunately for the inhabitants,
there are scattered over these deserts many oases, where cereals can be
reared with tolerable certainty of reaping the crops. The poor quality
of the soil as a rule renders agriculture, except in the most favourable
positions, an unprofitable pursuit. The plains serve, too, for the
breeding of camels,—those of the Abdali and Foudtheli country, lying
to the north and north-east of Aden, being especially famous for their
swiftness and carrying capabilities.
The Jibál, or highlands, display entirely opposite features. Enormous
ranges of mountains rise abruptly from the Teháma to great altitudes, in
places probably 14,000 and 15,000 feet. These ranges for the most part
take a general south-easterly direction, and are split up into a series
of wide, fertile, parallel valleys. It was doubtless the luxuriance and
agricultural wealth, added to the attractiveness of the climate, of this
portion of Arabia, that won for the Yemen in former days the title of
Arabia Felix. In these great valleys the coffee is grown, sharing with
the production of the indigo-plant and other dye-giving species the
attention of the mountaineers. Added to this, the climate is such as to
allow nearly all European vegetables to grow and flourish, and also many
varieties of fruit-trees. The nature of the country renders necessary
for cultivation the terracing of the steep mountain-sides, and over this
laborious task an almost incredible amount of work and time is expended.
But of this I shall have opportunity of speaking anon.
There is, as might be expected, a vast difference in the temperature of
the highlands and the plains. While at Aden and the surrounding country
the thermometer averages all the year round some 85° Fahrenheit, it
probably does not rise above a mean of 61° or 62° in the shade at Sanaa,
the capital of the Yemen, where, as in all the elevated country, frosts
are by no means uncommon in winter. Nor is it solely in temperature
that great differences are apparent with regard to the low and high
elevations; for whereas also in the former the rainfall is uncertain and
sometimes almost nil,[1] the mountain country boasts two regular wet
seasons—in spring and in autumn respectively. In this respect the seasons
may be said to correspond with those of the plateaux of Harrar and the
Galla country. In both cases the rain is said to be of almost daily
occurrence, but lasting only a short time, the showers being broken by
periods of bright sunshine.
Nothing can be imagined more beautiful than the scenery of the mountains
of the Yemen. Torn into all manner of fantastic peaks, the rocky crags
add a wildness to a view that otherwise possesses the most peaceful
charms. Rich green valleys, well timbered in places, and threaded
by silvery streams of dancing water; sloping fields, gay with crops
and wild-flowers; the terraced or jungle-covered slopes,—all are so
luxuriant, so verdant, that one’s ideas as to the nature of Arabia are
entirely upset. Well known as is, and always has been, the fertility
of this region, its extent is almost startling, and it can little be
wondered at that Alexander the Great intended, after his conquest of
India, to take up his abode in the Yemen, had not death cut short his
career.
[Illustration: COFFEE PLANTATION ON TERRACES AT ATTARA, NEAR MENAKHA.]
Thus briefly described, it will be seen that the Yemen consists of
two entirely different systems of country, influenced by two entirely
different climates: the one arid plains, without much appreciable
rainfall; the other a mountainous district, producing cereals, dyes,
aromatic gums, coffee, and other rich produce—a country of valleys and
plateaux, well watered withal, and enjoying a climate that for salubrity
may be said to equal any in the tropics. Having now pointed out in a
general way the difference of the two districts, I purpose to enter a
little more definitely into the description of each.
To commence with the Teháma, as being the seaboard. It consists, as
already stated, of plains varying from thirty to a hundred miles in
breadth, and separating the highlands from the sea, both on the west
and south. These, for the sake of distinction, I shall call respectively
the western and southern Teháma. The former contains some five cities
of importance, situated either on the coast of the Red Sea or in that
district which divides it from the mountains. Almost in the Asir country
lies Lohaya, a small town on the coast, to which I shall refer more
particularly in a chapter on the Yemen rebellion. Proceeding south, the
next coast town of importance is Hodaidah, to-day the capital of that
portion of the Yemen, and still farther south Mokha. As it was my lot
to spend a week in the fever-stricken town of Hodaidah, I shall reserve
anything I have to say about it for another opportunity; but as it was
my ill fortune to see Mokha only from the sea and not to land there,
and as I shall therefore not have to narrate any personal experiences
in reference to it, I shall add some description of the place and its
history at this juncture.
There is certainly no name of any city in the Yemen as familiar to
Englishmen as that of Mokha, with the exception of Aden. This it owes
to its having for a long time enjoyed almost the sole reputation of the
export city of the coffee-berry. However, it is not generally known that
no coffee grows at all in the immediate vicinity of Mokha, and that
all that was shipped from there was previously carried to the city by
caravans from the mountains, often over very great distances. Almost as
suddenly as Mokha rose to fame has it fallen again. Before the arrival in
the Red Sea of the English and Portuguese traders it scarcely existed at
all, the outlets for the trade of this portion of the Yemen being Okelis
and Muza. It was not, in fact, until the fifteenth century A.D. that
Mokha became a place of resort for ships, and it owes its origin more
to the discovery of coffee than to any advantages or attractions of its
own. In the early part of the seventeenth century the English and Dutch
founded trading “factories” there, and from that time for a period of
some two hundred years its fame and wealth were renowned. Van den Broeck
describes the place as it existed at the time of his visit in 1616, and
notes that to such an extent has its trade recently augmented that goods
from Hungary and Venice were found in the market, which had been carried
by caravans the whole length of Arabia, to be exchanged for the produce
of the far east.[2] He further describes the town as a most flourishing
community, containing within its walls numbers of numerous nationalities
who had flocked there on hearing of its fame and renown.
A century after the Dutch and English had founded their factories the
French followed their example, while in 1803 the Americans commenced
to trade direct with the Red Sea ports. On the British occupation of
Aden in 1839, the immense superiority of that place as a port, and the
security and advantages assured by British rule, drew the commerce from
Mokha thence, the former celebrated city fast falling to decay and
ruin.[3] Before this period, however, serious outrages had been offered
to British subjects, and during the first twenty years of this century
there had been constant trouble brewing between the fanatical natives and
the Christians, augmented no doubt by the jealousy felt by the former
for the manner in which the Europeans had annexed their trade. More
extraordinary still than these outrages was the manner in which their
perpetration was looked upon by the British Government, and it was not
until things became unbearable that forcible means were taken to punish
the offenders, and in 1820 a force under Captain Bruce, who had been sent
thither to enforce a treaty with the Imam’s Amir, and Captain Lumley of
H.M.S. Topaz, bombarded Mokha, and succeeded in forcing an entry into the
town. The result of this long-delayed act of reparation on the part of
the Indian Government was the placing upon an honourable footing of the
British “factory,” and the carrying through of a treaty of commerce with
the Government of the Yemen.[4]
Although the author did not land in Mokha, the captain of the steamer
on which he proceeded from Hodaidah to Aden very kindly approached as
near the shore as was compatible with the ship’s course, and with the aid
of glasses a very good view of the place was obtained. From a distance
it still has the appearance of being a flourishing town, but on nearer
approach one can see that, although the walls of the houses are still
standing, the roofs and floors have for the most part fallen in, and
Mokha is to-day little more than a vast ruin, from which a few tall
minarets still rise to tell of its former beauties. A handful of Turkish
soldiers and a few Bedouins are all that remain of its once heterogeneous
population; and where once the streets were filled with richly robed
merchants, goats feed to-day on the coarse weeds.
As Lohaya and Hodaidah are more particularly mentioned elsewhere in this
book, little more remains to be said of the ports of the western Teháma.
Some mention must be made, however, of the islands of Kamaran and Perim,
the two most important of the many that lie on the eastern side of this
part of the Red Sea. The former owes its importance to-day from the fact
that it is a British possession, and serves as the quarantine station of
the pilgrims going to and returning from Jeddah, _en route_ to and from
Mecca. It is situated in latitude 15° 20′ N. and longitude 42° 30′ E.,
and is about ten miles in length, varying from two to four wide. In some
parts it is little more than a swamp, in others some low hills allow of
the growth of palm-trees; but the inhabitants are nearly all engaged in
the pearl and turtle fisheries.[5]
The other island which may be included in a description of the Teháma
is Perim. It is situated in the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, a mile and a
half from the Arabian and about ten miles from the African shores. It is
formed of dark volcanic igneous rock and plains of sand on which a few
sand-loving flowers grow. The highest point of the island is between two
and three hundred feet above the sea-level. What, however, compensates
for its aridness and hideous character is the grand harbour it possesses.
This bay is a mile long by half a mile wide, well sheltered, and
averaging a depth of five fathoms in the good anchorages. In 1799, in
consequence of the invasion of Egypt by the French, a British naval
force, under Admiral Blanket, proceeded to the Red Sea, while the
Bombay Government, acting in conjunction with the other force, seized
Perim in the name of the East India Company. No fresh water, however,
being procurable, it was during the next year abandoned as a station
for troops. To-day, under the hands of the Perim Coal Company not only
offices but a hotel has been erected there, and the place promises to
become a flourishing coaling-station. All the water is, of course,
produced by condensers. A few British troops are habitually quartered
there, being sent from time to time for that purpose from Aden, and there
is telegraphic communication both with that port and Hodaidah.
Two cities of importance lie in the interior of the western
Teháma—namely, Zebeed and Beit el-Fakih. The former has throughout all
the medieval history of the Yemen played a part of great importance;
for not only has Zebeed been a seat of learning and art, but also has
been inseparably connected with all the great civil wars and religious
differences that have from time to time shaken the Yemen to its very
foundations. Before the invasion of the Turks it was the capital and
seat of government of the Teháma, though to-day Hodaidah has usurped its
position as such.
The foundations of Zebeed were laid by Ibn Ziad after his conquest of
the Teháma in 204 A.H.[6] The city is described not only by Omarah but
also by many other native historians, who one and all make mention of
its political importance as well as of its size. The account most to
the point, perhaps, is that of El Khasraji, who states that the city is
circular in form; that near it to the south flows the river of the same
name, while to the north is the Wadi Rima, the two ensuring a fertile
situation and a constant water-supply. He adds that it stood midway
between the mountains and the sea, and almost equidistant from both, the
time taken to reach either the one or the other being half a day.
Of Beit el-Fakih little need be said here, as to-day it is a place of but
slight importance. Like all these cities of the Teháma, it is irregularly
built of sun-dried mud bricks. Its name, “The House of the Scholar,”
is derived from its being the place of burial of a certain Seyed Ahmed
ibn Musa, whose tomb is still much reverenced and visited as a place of
veneration. The town possesses no claim to interest either politically or
commercially.
The next portion of the Yemen of which notice must here be taken are
the plains commencing from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and extending
to some sixty miles east of Aden. These plains are included in the
Teháma, but in order to distinguish them from that part already noticed,
I describe them as the southern Teháma. Like the western Teháma, they
separate the mountains from the sea, and in many respects these two
portions of desert bear great resemblance. The southern Teháma varies
from fifty to a hundred miles in breadth, and is inhabited by wild
tribes, the most important of which are the Subaiha, the Abdali, and
the Foudtheli, the first being nomad in character. These plains boast
no cities of any size except Howta, the capital of the Sultan of Lahej,
chief of the Abdali tribe, which lies some twenty-seven miles north-west
of Aden, and Taiz,—though the latter, from its situation on a spur of
the mountains, may be said rather to dominate than to belong to these
southern plains. Ibn Khaldun, in his geography of the Yemen, refers to
Taiz as an important city overlooking the Teháma, and mentions that it
had at all times been a royal residence. Without much further mention
of this city, which the author did not visit, a few remarks may be made
upon its later history. Owing to jealousies between members of its ruling
family, a certain Seyed Kassim, uncle to the then ruling Imam, Ali
Mansur, treacherously sold the place to the Egyptians in 1837, and it
was taken without resistance by Ibrahim Pasha, a general in the service
of the famous Mahammed Ali Pasha, who held it until in 1840 a fanatical
Mahdi el-Fakih Saïd took the town, only to have it wrested from him in
1841 by the Imam Seyed Mahammed el-Hadi. During the late Yemen rebellion
it fell into the hands of the Arabs, for formerly it lay within the limit
of Turkish influence, and has probably by this time been reoccupied by
the Osmanli troops.
With these few remarks upon the plain districts of the Yemen, scanty as
they are, notice may now be taken of the mountainous districts. Such
parts as the author travelled through will be more minutely treated
of in the narration of his journey, together with the towns of Yerim,
Dhamar, and Sanaa, the three principal cities of the Yemen plateaux.
However, there are other places of importance to which reference must
be made here, and which, although not situated upon the plateau, must
by their position be included in this division of the Yemen. Of these
the most important are Ibb and Jiblah. Both of these mountain-fortresses
are of some antiquity, and have played no mean part in the history of
the country. Ibb is mentioned by Omarah as being situated upon the great
pilgrim-road built by Huseyn ibn Salaamah, a slave-vizier, which led
from the Hadramaut, east of Aden, to Mecca itself, which was constructed
about the year 400 A.H. After leaving Aden this great pilgrim-route was
split up into two parts, one proceeding _viâ_ Ibb and the mountains,
joining the author’s route at Kariat en-Nekil, north of Dhamar; the other
following the Teháma. The road which leads _viâ_ Ibb proceeds through
Sanaa, and thence _viâ_ Sadah and Taif to the Holy City.
Jiblah, or Dhu Jiblah, as it was formerly called, owes its name to
the fact that it was built upon the site of a pottery belonging to a
Jew, Jiblah by name. It lies some ten miles to the south-west of Ibb.
Ibn Khaldun gives a short description of the place. It is, he says, a
fortress, and was founded by Abdullah, the Sulayhite, in the year 458
A.H. Like Taiz, it was a royal residence.
[Illustration: VIEW OF MOUNTAIN-RANGES NEAR SÔK EL-KHAMIS.
_On the road from Sanaa to Hodaidah._]
The other cities of the mountain district, lying principally north of
Sanaa, the capital, and therefore not coming under that portion of the
country which it was the author’s lot to travel over, will be noticed
anon.
Rough as these notes are, they will, I venture to think, help to
illustrate the map. To attempt here the task of identifying the ancient
sites with modern names would be not only a task of great difficulty,
but also one unsuitable to the present book. Mr Kay, in his most able
translation of Omarah’s History, has pointed out how extremely laborious
and uncertain has been his attempt to do so, even with such maps as
to-day exist of the country. The author, after consideration, thought it
more advisable to avoid entering into discussions that bear but little
relation to his work, and would, he fears, but prove uninteresting to
the general reader. He has therefore confined his geographical notes to
such portions of the country as he himself passed through, supplemented
by a few remarks upon places that demand some notice, either from their
importance to-day or from historical interest. In the chapter relating to
the history of the country the same course has been pursued, a few pages
of print being put aside for what would fill volumes were it taken in
hand.
Having now treated of the Yemen as it appears from a cursory glance
at the map, it is intended to enter a little more fully into its
description, unconnected with its natural formation of plains and
highlands.
Ibn Khaldun, in the preface to his Geography, states that the Yemen
is divided into seven royal seats of Government;[7] but Niebuhr gives
a larger list of provinces, which is again added to by Sir Lambert
Playfair. These divisions of the country, it must be understood, are
entirely Arab in origin, and to-day have been more or less altered to
suit the Turks. However, on inquiry from the natives, the writer found
that, although disregarded by the Osmanli conquerors, the names are still
in common use amongst the indigenous peoples.
The author gives the list of these provinces in the order in which they
are printed in Playfair’s ‘Yemen’:—
Aden.
The Teháma.
Sanaa.
Lahej.
Kaukeban.
Beled el-Kabail (Hashid wa Bakil).
Abou Arish.
A district lying between Abou Arish and the Hejaz, inhabited by
Bedouins, &c.
Khaulán.
Sahán (including Sadah).
Nejrán.
Nehm.
East Khaulán (several small principalities).
Beled el-Jehaf (or Mareb),
and
Yaffa.
“These are,” says Playfair, “as nearly as they can be classified, the
great political divisions of the country; but numerous smaller states
and tribes exist which cannot be classed with propriety in any of the
above districts, yet which are too insignificant to require a separate
notice.”[8]
The first two of these provinces, the _Teháma_ and _Aden_, are described
elsewhere. The third is _Sanaa_, taking its name from the city, the
capital of the Yemen. On account of continued wars and struggles, its
boundaries have for ever been shifting. Within the province are situated
the cities of Dhamar, Yerim, Rodaa, Ibb, Jiblah, Kátaba, Taiz, and Hais.
_Lahej_ is described more fully elsewhere, so there is little further
need to make mention of it here, except to roughly indicate its limits;
for under this title are contained not only the tribe-lands of the Abdali
Sultan, but also the Subaiha, Akrabi, Foudtheli, and Houshabi tribes.
The country inhabited by these Arabs of the Plains may be said to extend
from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb to about eighty miles east of Aden. The
country is poor, and boasts but one or two towns, but many large villages.
The next province is _Kaukeban_, which, with _Beled el-Kabail_, _Abou
Arish_, and _Beni Hallel_, may be taken altogether. The latter tribe
inhabit a strip of plain country along the borders of the Red Sea,
while the three former include that portion of the country lying to the
north-east and east of Beni Hallel, and extending as far east as a line
drawn from Sanaa due north.
North again of Abou Arish, and between that country and the Hejaz, is the
Asir, part of which is mountainous and part plains—the former inhabited
by dwellers in fixed abodes, and the latter by wild Bedouins.
North of Sanaa, and upon the road connecting that city with Mecca,
the continuation of the pilgrim-road of Huseyn ibn Salaamah mentioned
elsewhere, is the province of _Khaulán_, east of which again is _Sahán_,
included in the province and former principality of Sadah. This forms
one of the richest portions of the Yemen, being famous for fruits,
honey, and cattle. It consists of large valleys well watered, and at
such an elevation as to render them not only suitable for the growing of
fruit-trees, but also exceedingly healthy. Niebuhr mentions these tribes
as hospitable but inclined to robbery, and as speaking as pure Arabic as
is anywhere in use.
The next province is still more mountainous, and, on account of its
inaccessibility, has remained almost unconquered. It is known as
_Nejrán_, and consists of wide fertile valleys reaching nearly to the
desert of Akhaf. Like Khaulán, it is renowned for its cattle and fruit,
the breed of horses, too, being celebrated. They are said to be of the
famous Nejed strain.
The province of _Kahtan_, situated eleven days’ journey north of the
valley of Nejrán, is another example of the difficulties of fixing any
reliable frontier to the Yemen. Evidently it is inhabited by Yemeni
people, as it takes its name from the founder of that stock, Kahtan, who
is said to be no other than Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures.
_Eastern Khaulán_ lies to the north-east of the capital Sanaa. It
possessed formerly a celebrated city of the Jews, which is now said to be
almost entirely deserted. Although generally known by the name of Eastern
Khaulán, it in reality consists of a number of small principalities.
_Beled el-Jehaf_ may be said to form the extreme eastern division of
the northern portion of the Yemen, but whether it should be considered
as part of that country is open to doubt. It extends from a few days’
journey east of Sanaa as far as the desert that divides Oman from
Western Arabia. It is in this district that is situated the city of
Mareb, otherwise known as Saba or Sheba, whence the celebrated queen
visited Solomon. The natives have traditions of a Queen Balkis, whom
they affirm to have been the lady in question. However, this has been
proved impossible, as the dates do not correspond. It was at Saba that
the celebrated dam was built, the destruction of which, about one hundred
years A.D., wrought such widespread destruction. A few words about this
prodigious building will be found in reference to the tanks at Aden in
the chapter upon that possession.
The last of the list of provinces is _Yaffa_, which lies between the
Hadramaut on the east and south, and the districts of Lahej and Sanaa on
the north and west. It became independent some two centuries ago, up to
that time having been under the rule of the Imams of Sanaa.[9] It is a
rich fertile country, producing gums, cereals, and coffee. It possesses
three towns—Yaffa, Medinet el-Asfal, and Gharrah. Living in close
conjunction with the Yaffai tribe are the Oulaki, divided into the upper
and lower, their capitals being respectively Nisáb inland, and Howr on
the coast.[10]
These, then, are the principal provinces into which the Yemen is
considered by the natives to be divided, though to define exactly their
boundaries, as in the case of the frontiers of the whole country, would
be an impossible task.
With regard to the geography of the Yemen but few more words are needed,
in order to render clear the following pages of the narrative of the
author’s journey. Although an account is given elsewhere of the Turkish
dominion of the Yemen, it may be as well to delineate the present
frontier since the Osmanli occupation of the country, although again it
is almost an arbitrary one.
To commence from the south. The division between the Arab tribes of the
southern Teháma and Turkish Yemen commences some ten miles east of the
Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and so includes the promontory of Sidi Sheikh,
which projects toward Perim Island, from which it is divided by a narrow
strait a mile and a half in width. From thence the frontier runs in a
north-easterly direction, passing a little to the east of Taiz, from
which it again turns more directly east, passing to the south of Mavia,
and, skirting the territory of the Amir of Dhala, includes the town of
Kátaba. From this spot it turns almost due north, keeping well to the
east of Yerim and Dhamar, although these towns, as a matter of fact, form
practically the eastern boundary of the Turkish Yemen. From Dhamar to
Sanaa the frontier runs almost due north and south, and may be said to
exist about forty to fifty miles east of a straight line drawn between
these two cities.
From Sanaa to the north the Turks claim authority as within their limits
over all the country lying to the west of a line drawn from Sanaa to the
south-eastern corner of the province of the Hejaz, although over the Asir
and other inaccessible mountain tribes their authority is purely nominal,
and has never been acknowledged to any extent.
It must not be thought that all the country lying within the frontier
thus described is securely under Turkish rule, for there are whole tribes
which do not, nor ever have done so, acknowledge anything more than a
nominal subjection to the Sublime Porte.
That these notes upon the geography of the Yemen will prove of but little
value to _savants_ the writer knows only too well; but if his journey was
unproductive of any scientific or historical discoveries, it must be
borne in mind the period at which it was undertaken: that not only was
a rebellion still taking place, that a month or two before had shaken
the whole country to its very foundations, but also that the author was
by the Turks treated as a spy, and was more than once in great personal
danger from the Arabs. Under these circumstances he feels that he cannot
be blamed if his journey was devoid of any great results. All that he can
boast to have brought back with him is a story of travel and adventure,
and numerous photographs and notes, that will tend to throw light upon
the present condition of the Yemen, especially on what has been taking
place in that country since the Turkish occupation of the highlands in
1872. His narrative of travel tells a story of long night marches, and
of days spent in hiding; of a sojourn in a Turkish prison; and this
story, he trusts, will prove sufficient evidence that he had little or no
opportunity for research. It was owing to a mere chance that his notes
and photographs were saved from destruction by the Turkish authorities at
Sanaa.
If these pages tend to throw some light upon this most interesting corner
of Arabia, and help to show what the country and its inhabitants are
like, the author will be well satisfied with the result.
CHAPTER II.
THE YEMEN BEFORE THE HEJIRA.
Having in the last chapter briefly sketched the principal geographical
features of the Yemen, it remains now to make mention of its history.
The same remarks as were made as to the geography are applicable here,
that with the exception of certain periods which have been made the study
of archæologists and orientalists, there is but very little known of
the history of the Yemen, and there are long periods existing between
the times of which something has been written or translated that are
almost blanks. Nor is it on this account alone that the task of compiling
in two chapters so many centuries of historical matter is a difficult
one, for many of the times and dynasties of which there exists some
trustworthy account are all but unimportant in treating of the country
in general, what knowledge we possess in very many cases being simply
the genealogies of local princes and rulers. However, it is only by a
study of these shreds of history that we are able to gain any facts
concerning the condition of the country during the early centuries after
the introduction of Islam, for instance; and if they in themselves appeal
almost solely to the student of things oriental, they yet tend to throw
more light upon the inner life of the people than it would be possible to
gather elsewhere.
But the history of the Yemen is by no means confined to such a brief
period as that which has passed between the birth of Islam and to-day.
There exists a far more ancient and more wonderful history, of which,
unhappily, we know as yet but little, but which, should it even be
possible to make thorough examination of its monuments and records, may
prove that many of the existing civilisations sprang from the Yemen
and Hadramaut, and that the ancient Egyptians themselves, owed the
foundations of their arts and learning to the inhabitants of Southern
Arabia. Some light has been thrown lately upon the old civilisation of
Southern Arabia by the successful excavations carried on by Mr Theodore
Bent in Mashonaland, which have proved most clearly that the Arabs of
Southern Arabia were in touch with that distant quarter of Africa, and
not only in touch, but even so firmly rooted there as to erect forts and
temples, to build and to decorate, and to work the mines of that country.
At present scientific exploration of the Yemen and the other divisions of
Southern Arabia has been, for many reasons, so seldom undertaken that
there remains to be discovered there more than is probably to be found in
any part of the world. How rich the country is in archæological remains
may be judged from the quantity of inscriptions, &c., brought back by the
enterprising and scholarly Austrian Dr Glaser, to whom we owe nearly all
that is known of the earlier periods of Yemenite history. It was through
the extensive researches of this _savant_ that any conclusive data have
been given not only to individual sovereigns but to whole dynasties, with
the result that although far from perfect knowledge, very considerable
light has been thrown upon the early days of the Yemen.
Before, however, entering into any precise account of the historical
records of the Yemen, it may be as well to briefly mention a few
well-founded traditions generally accepted amongst the natives and
believed by themselves to be undisputable. In this they are, no doubt,
mainly right in the origin; but in attempting to trace their descent,
through periods later than those of the earliest times, they have to some
extent become confused. This is most apparent in the cases of the two
great divisions, or nations, which inhabited the Yemen, the weaker of
which, at times, finding similarity between names, claimed descent from a
common ancestor with the stronger, until by force of time no clear line
of division was possible in many cases.
Although there can be little doubt of a prehistoric and almost
pretraditional race inhabiting Southern Arabia, the only record worthy of
acceptance from native sources of their existence is their mention in the
Koran. No traditions exist as to them amongst the people to-day, or even
amongst those Arab historians of the middle ages who made special studies
of the subject.
The inhabitants of Southern Arabia may be divided into two great stems,
to which the names of Yemenite and Ishmaelite tribes have been very
properly given.
The Yemenite nation are the direct descendants of Kahtan, generally
identified with Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures, of the line of Shem, the
son of Noah, another of whose descendants, Hazarmaveth, gave his name to
what is to-day known as Hadramaut.
The second great division into which the inhabitants of the Yemen may be
divided are the descendants of Adnan, who was of the family of Ishmael,
son of Abraham: although unfortunately the connecting links are absent,
yet in spite of this there can be no doubt as to the fact. This Adnan
is said to have been the contemporary of Bukht Nasser, in other words
Nebuchadnezzar;[11] and it was the fierce wars waged by this monarch,
tradition relates, that drove the Ishmaelite tribes to seek refuge
amongst the Yemenite peoples. If this be the case, it is a marvellous
fact that two nations inhabiting the same country for such an enormous
period of time, and for the last twelve or thirteen hundred years united
in religious ideas, are able to-day to speak with any certainty as to
which branch they belong. Yet such is the case, with the exception of
certain Arab tribes who claim descent from Kahtan, the mistake arising
through certain similarities of names to be found amongst his descendants
and those of Adnan.
Each of these two divisions of the population are again split up into
sections, though in the case of the Yemenites such is not to be found
until the days of Himyar, son of Abd esh-shems and great-grandson of
Kahtan. It is unnecessary here to enumerate the tribes still existing
which claim to have sprung from the family of Himyar, more than to
mention the three principal ancestors on which their claims are based.
These are respectively Himyar himself, and Malik and Arib, sons of Zayd,
son of Kahtan, son of Abd esh-shems.
The family of Ishmael are likewise split up into many tribes, claiming
descent from three separate members of the posterity of Abraham—namely,
El-Yas, Kays Aylan, and Rabiah.
There yet remains another section which cannot be passed over without
notice, as commentators differ as to from which stem they originated.
These are the descendants of Kudaah. While some protest that their
ancestor was Himyar, son of Abd esh-shems, others claim that they are of
Ishmaelite descent, and ought to be enrolled under the heading of Arab
tribes. It is more than possible that in their case an early amalgamation
took place between the two stocks, and individuals adopted as their
ancestor whichever of the founders of the parties it best suited their
interests to put forward.
Such, then, was the origin of the two nations which to-day, still to be
distinguished from one another by their traditions of ancestry, form the
population of the Yemen.
Although there is no reason to doubt the genuineness of these traditions,
and in fact everything points to their being authentic, the next period
with which we come in contact is no longer a traditional one, but has
been handed down to us in monuments and inscriptions still existing. The
knowledge we have upon this period of the history of the Yemen is due to
the aforementioned Dr Edouard Glaser, who has successfully translated
over a thousand inscriptions, with the result of practically proving
the existence of two separate great dynasties that in succession held
sway over the country. In so doing, what was commonly believed to have
been the fact until his discoveries were made has been disproved, and an
entirely new epoch in the history of the world brought to light. I refer
to the dominion of the Minæan and Sabæan kings. It is, too, from these
records that there has been found to have existed, contemporarily with
early Egyptian times, a remarkable state of civilisation and commerce
in the Yemen, and what was wrongly believed to have been in early
pre-Islamic days a country of savagery, has been proved to have contained
a cultured population, skilled in art and excelling in commerce.
This fact doubtless to no small degree influenced the history of the
civilisation of the ancient world.
The earlier of the two great dynasties which at different epochs held
sway over the Yemen, if not also over the surrounding coasts of Africa,
was that of the Minæans, who are known in tradition as the Maïn.
Thirty-two names of kings of this dynasty have already been discovered;
and as a proof of the immense power they must have held, tablets
commemorative of their wars have been found as far removed from the
seat of their government as Teima, on the road from Damascus to Sinai;
while an inscription from Southern Arabia renders thanks to Astarte for
their escape from the ruler of Egypt and their safe return to their
own city of Quarnu. This votive tablet was erected by the governors of
Tsar and Ashur, which again speaks for the immense tract of country
owing allegiance to the Minæan king; for of these places one has been
identified as being situated near where the Suez Canal now passes. This
extension of frontier was doubtless owing to the great importance of the
trade-routes from East to West, the possession of which in later times
brought the otherwise unimportant Jewish kingdom so much to the fore.
But more important, perhaps, than the discovery that these peoples were
living in a state of considerable civilisation, and carrying on most
profitable commerce, is the fact of their knowledge of writing; for many
of the recently discovered inscriptions in the Yemen date from a period
contemporary with Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chaldæan cuneiform, and
earlier than any known inscription in the Phœnician characters.
Following upon the Minæan dynasty, of which, as before stated, thirty-two
kings are known by name, is that of the Sabæans: yet the nature of
the inscriptions shows that a very considerable period of time must
have elapsed between the two; for whereas, in the earlier specimens of
writing, full grammatical forms are found, the latter is not nearly
so complete. Yet the Sabæan dynasty can be traced back with certainty
to the time of Solomon, one thousand years B.C., and there is every
reason to believe that they had been in power at that time for a very
considerable period. How very remote, then, must be the antiquity of the
preceding dynasty, which we know to have been separated from the latter
by a sufficient lapse of years to have allowed of radical changes in the
formation and grammar of their written language! Besides which, although
comparatively few inscriptions have been discovered of this period, we
have a list of no less than thirty-two Minæan sovereigns. Professor
Sayce, in an able article upon this subject, states that he believes
that it is quite possible that inscriptions may be discovered which will
prove Southern Arabia to have been in a state of civilisation in the
days of Sargon I., or even of Menes, who is supposed to have lived some
five thousand years B.C.: nay more, he expresses his opinion, which many
traditions tend to prove, that all civilisation may have sprung from the
Yemen and its adjacent provinces.[12]
Apart from the great interest attending this alone, another point must at
once attract our attention—namely, the existence of an alphabet earlier
than that of the oldest discovered Phœnician inscriptions. Until these
researches into the writings of the Yemen, it was believed that the
Phœnician formation of letters was an abridgment of the hieroglyphics of
Egypt; but there seems now to be reason to suppose that this still more
ancient writing of Southern Arabia may prove to be not only the source
from which the Phœnicians derived their alphabet, but also the origin of
those of all modern nations, including Greece and Rome. What may be said
almost to prove this theory, says Professor Sayce, is the fact that while
the Phœnician letters, described by name as animals and things, have but
little resemblance to the object from which the name is taken, this still
older form of Semitic writing bears a decided resemblance to the objects
described in the names of the Phœnician letters.
Probable as all this is, it must remain for the time at least only a
theory, until further discoveries are forthcoming; but apart from all
suppositious matters, it may safely be stated that, be the Aryan origin
what it may, it is to Southern Arabia that we must look for the home of
the Semitic peoples. Referring back to the earlier paragraphs of this
chapter, in which mention is made of the two great divisions of the
inhabitants of the Yemen, it will be seen that the tradition existed
in the time of Mahammed, and is mentioned in the Koran, of an older
population, whom it may be inferred were the original Semitic stock,—for
it must be remembered that the present geographical position of the
Semitic races is almost entirely owing to the spread of Islam, and it is
to Arabia, and Arabia alone, that we must look for their origin,—at a
time preceding the first Minæan kings, and probably at a period when the
stone age was passing into that of metal, and fishers and hunters were
becoming traders and agriculturists.[13] But of all the incidents of the
ancient history of the Yemen, there is one that will especially appeal
to all. I refer to the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon about the
year one thousand B.C. Sheba has always been identified with Saba, the
capital of the Sabæan empire, a city lying some seven days’ journey to
the north-east of Sanaa, the present capital of Turkish Yemen. The story
is too well known to need any comment here; it need only be noticed that
the point it is written from is that of a Jewish historian, who would
naturally tend to magnify the glories of Solomon and the admiration of
the queen at his wonderful city, palace, and temple. Yet, as a matter of
fact, it is not at all improbable that Saba possessed buildings as fine
as any of those of Solomon; and certainly, whereas no ruins remain of
the latter, the great dam, built some seventeen hundred years B.C. at
Saba, still stands, though of course in ruins, to tell the tale of the
vast building powers of the Sabæan architects. Nor do we in the gorgeous
description of Solomon’s works find reference to anything that could
possibly have compared in size and structure with this extraordinary
_barrage_, of which it is sufficient to say that it measured three
hundred cubits thick, one hundred and twenty feet high, and two _miles_
in length.[14] The presents which the Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon
tend as much as anything to prove that she was a native of Southern
Arabia, for her offerings will be found either to be produce of that
country, or such articles as could, owing to the enormous commerce of
Saba, find an outlet in that direction from farther south and east.
Although the already discovered inscriptions point to Saba having been
the capital of a great and civilised empire eight hundred years B.C.,
the existence of the great dam, which may be attributed to Lokman, who
lived 1750 years B.C., and the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon,
speak of greater antiquity.
The religion of the Sabæans is too large a question to attempt here,
more especially as there are evidences that during the long periods of
the Minæan and Sabæan dynasties it underwent many changes, merging from
a primitive idolatry into worship of the planets and stars, and even,
in cases, to the recognition of a supreme deity. They believed in the
immortality of the soul, a future state of reward or punishment, and
many also in transmigration. The gradual change of doctrine appreciable
in the religion, besides being due to the natural outcome of increased
civilisation and culture, was no doubt largely influenced by the
astronomers and astrologers of Chaldæa. Doubtless, too, there existed in
their religious traditions a sort of hero-worship, for we read in various
authorities of certain names as being those of deities and of men. Thus
we find the city of Saba was called after a god of that name, while again
the founder is mentioned as being Saba the son of Abd esh-shems, the
father of the so-called Himyaric dynasty.
[Illustration: ANCIENT TANK AT MENURA, NEAR DHAMAR.]
Any attempt, with the space at disposal here, to draw conclusions from
the traditions existing as to the earliest inhabitants of the Yemen, is
out of the question; and rather than do so, it will better suit our
purpose to keep to what have been proved to be facts—the existence of
the Minæan and later the Sabæan dynasties; the high state of culture and
commerce in Southern Arabia at a very remote period; and the existence
of a written language that was possibly, if not probably, the origin of
Phœnician, and so of all European forms of writing; and the still greater
idea that Southern Arabia may be proved to be the land of “Punt,” and the
birthplace of the Egyptian race, and their arts and culture.
Shortly before the commencement of the Christian era Egypt became a Roman
province, and a few years later an expedition under Ælius Gallus was
sent to explore Arabia and Ethiopia. How difficult would be the task was
evidently realised, for when the expedition started from Cleopatris, near
the modern Suez, it consisted of no less than eighty vessels of war and a
hundred and thirty transports, with ten thousand Roman troops and fifteen
thousand mercenaries.[15] But the expedition was destined to disaster,
for although it penetrated as far as Southern Arabia—probably Nejrán—the
troops were decimated by famine and disease, and only a small handful
ever returned.
In looking through these early pages of the history of the Yemen, one
cannot but be struck with the important part that women played in
politics; and even after the introduction of Islam, and the women had
been assigned a lower position, the old custom crops up again and again,
and we find women seizing the reins of government.
The first example that we find of the power exercised by women is without
doubt the Queen of Sheba; while a second example follows within a few
years after the failure of the expedition of Ælius Gallus, in the person
of Queen Balkis, whose real name was Belkama or Yalkama, and who was
sufficiently strong-minded to amalgamate two kingdoms by marrying her
rival, whom she immediately removed by poison.
About A.D. 120 the great dam of Saba or Mareb burst, spreading wholesale
destruction throughout the wide fertile valley below it. About this
period, too, an expedition was carried by the then King Tubba el-Akran as
far as Samarcand, and thence into China; and in A.D. 206, Abou Kariba,
one of the most illustrious of all the Himyaric kings, invaded Chaldæa
and defeated the Tartars of Adirbijan. He started on a second expedition
to conquer Syria, but returned after taking the Hejaz to the Yemen, where
he is said to have renounced idolatry and embraced Judaism.
A legend, quoted by Sir Lambert Playfair in his ‘History of the Yemen,’
tells of the introduction of the Jewish faith into the Yemen during the
reign of this Sultan. It savours of the priests of Baal; for, wishing to
put to the test the merits of Judaism and idolatry, the priests of either
creed proceeded to a certain spot whence fire emerged from the ground.
Pushed on by the crowd, the test was tried, and while the Jewish priests
passed through the flame unscathed, the idolaters perished. But the
feeling between the two was by no means destined from this fact to become
a cordial one, and constant fights occurred between the two parties.
Although Christianity seems to have appeared in the Yemen previous to
the year 297 A.D., it was not until that date that it became a religion
of importance in the country. It was during the reign of the king Tubba
ibn Hassan, who held the throne at this period, that Christianity was
introduced into Abyssinia; and about the middle half of the fourth
century the Emperor Constantius sent a certain bishop, Theophilus Indus,
to convert the Yemenis, of whom the king was so far tolerant, even if he
did not himself embrace Christianity, to allow the building of churches.
One was erected at Zafar, near Yerim; another at Aden; and a third at a
port in the Arabian Sea, supposed generally to be Hormuzd.
So king succeeded king with the usual rapidity of oriental countries,
until in 478 A.D. a certain Lakhnia (or Lakhtiaa) Tanú usurped the
throne, whose cruelties to the surviving members of the royal family
are recorded by more than one historian. However, it remained for one
of these, a youth by name Asaad abou Karib, or Dhu Nowas, to revenge
his relations by stabbing the usurper with a dagger, he himself being
unanimously elected to the throne. He embraced Judaism, and adopted the
name of Yusef (Joseph). However, like many converts, he became a fanatic,
and his cruelties toward the Christians are perhaps unparalleled in
history. Dhu Nowas attacked them in Nejrán, and having foully broken his
promise that no harm should befall them, gave them the choice between
death or Judaism. Twenty thousand, it is said, were burned alive in huge
pits filled with blazing wood. The Koran commends these people who died
for their religion, and calls a curse upon their persecutor.[16]
But the cruelty of Dhu Nowas was to reap its reward. A few Christians
who escaped fled to the Court of the Christian emperor of the East,
who presented them with letters to the Christian king of Abyssinia,
requesting him to punish the perpetrator of these cruel outrages.
In A.D. 525, accordingly, the Abyssinians invaded the Yemen, and Dhu
Nowas was defeated, being drowned, purposely, it is said, after the first
battle. From that moment the Abyssinian general Aryat met with but futile
resistance, and pushed into the heart of the country, destroying and
razing the cities as he went along.
Thus was overthrown, never to rise again, the Himyaric dynasty, which had
held the throne of the Yemen for over two thousand years. Many of the
kings had been celebrated both for war and culture, but their ancestors
were now, on account of their fanatical persecution of the Christians,
in return to suffer from cruelties and oppression as severe as any they
themselves had ever practised.
It is but one of the many examples of the terrible bloodshed consequent
upon diversity of opinion on religious subjects,—for with bloodshed did
Christianity force itself into the Yemen, and with bloodshed was it
destined a few years later to disappear. Aryat, having conquered the
Yemen, was appointed Viceroy of the King of Abyssinia in that country,
and reigned until nearly the middle half of the sixth century, being
succeeded by Abrahá, in fighting with whom Aryat was slain.
Meanwhile, by every means of cruelty and oppression Christianity had been
pushed forward; but at length a bishop was appointed at Zafar, whose
name is to-day included in the calendar of saints as St Gregentius,
who persuaded Abrahá to adopt more lenient measures than those of his
predecessor; and even the Arab authors acknowledge him to have been
a just and compassionate prince. That he was, however, a fanatic is
certain; for the church at Sanaa having been defiled by an Arab from
Mecca, where for centuries the Kaabah had been a place of pilgrimage, he
vowed to destroy that place, and at the head of a great army marched into
the Hejaz. Approaching Mecca, the inhabitants fled; but Abrahá, mounted
upon his famous white elephant Mahmoud, failed,—for it is said not
only did the huge pachyderm refuse to turn toward the city, but that a
miraculous flight of birds dropped pebbles upon the heads of the invading
army, killing both men and elephants. This miracle is generally explained
as an epidemic of smallpox: however, be it what it may, it ended in the
total rout and flight of the Abyssinian troops, who in a miserable plight
resought the Yemen, where shortly afterwards Abrahá died.
This “battle of the elephant,” as the Arab historians called it, is
doubly famous, as it happened in the year of the birth of Mahammed.
But the Abyssinian rule was soon to end. Acts of tyranny and cruelty
hurried on its termination, and Jaskum, the last sovereign, died in 575
A.D., when the ancestors of the Himyaric dynasty, certain of being unable
to regain the throne for themselves, and having failed to persuade the
Romans to take up their cause, implored the aid of the Persian monarch
Kesra, who after many delays fitted out an expedition, formed for the
most part of convicts from the prisons, which reached Aden, under the
personal conduct of a descendant of Himyar, Maadi Karib, and a Persian
general of the name of Wahraz. A battle ensued with the Abyssinians, in
which their monarch—for the Viceroys had by this time taken imperial
rights—was killed. Sanaa was reached, and the gates broken down to allow
the Persian conqueror to enter with uplifted banners, and Maadi Karib
was proclaimed viceroy, paying tribute and owning allegiance to the
Persian sovereign.
The event of the return of a descendant of Himyar to power is celebrated
by many an Arab historian and poet.
Amongst many other ambassadors and men of repute who flocked to the
court at Sanaa, after the overthrow of Christianity, was the grandfather
of Mahammed, Abd el-Mutalib, who was received with special honours, as
belonging to the powerful tribe of the Koreish, lords of Mecca. But
Maadi Karib was destined to fall a victim to Abyssinian treachery, being
murdered by his body-guard, which consisted of javelin-throwers of
Habesh. A state of anarchy ensued, in which the natives struggled with
the Abyssinians for the supreme power; and finally the Persian monarch
Kesra Paruiz was forced to send an expedition, which proved entirely
successful. But bloodshed was the result, and the Abyssinians were put
to the sword with great cruelty, even the half-breed children being
slaughtered.
Great as was the number of the slain, both the Abyssinian and Persian
occupation has left its mark in the Yemen, and a particular and despised
race exists there to-day known as the Akhdam.[17] Authorities differ
as to whether they are the descendants of the Abyssinians or Persians;
but so closely did one occupation follow upon the other that it may be
reasonably supposed that, owing to the youth of the children at the time,
and the rapidity with which both nationalities died out of the country,
but little distinction would exist, in spite of diversity of colour,
between the two.
Meanwhile the Persian rule was for a time fairly established, though
many tribes were almost entirely governed by their own local chiefs.
All religions were tolerated, and Christianity maintained its ground,
principally in Nejrán, and we find mention amongst early authorities of
a Christian bishop of that province, Kos by name. It was probably in his
time that a Christian Church was erected in Nejrán.
At this period a great change was to take place in the religion and
government of Arabia, for there had arisen at Mecca a prophet, Mahammed
by name, of the tribe of the Koreish, who was destined to influence not
only all Arabia but the whole history of the world.
CHAPTER III.
THE YEMEN SINCE THE HEJIRA.
Mahammed was destined to overthrow the whole social and religious status
of Arabia. But the Yemen was by no means anxious at the first to accept
the new doctrine, and for a time remained steadfast to the Persian cause
and religion, under the viceroyalty of Budhan, who, though eventually he
accepted the faith of Islam, hesitated until pressure was brought to bear
upon him, and until he had obtained, to him, satisfactory evidence of the
Prophet’s miracles.
The dissensions at this period existing amongst the Christians of
the Yemen added not a little to the success of the spread of the new
religion. Yet in these first days of conversion every leniency was shown
to the Christians, and a treaty was made between the princes of Nejrán,
which, it may be remembered, was the stronghold of Christianity in the
Yemen, and Mahammed himself, very advantageous to the former, one of the
clauses stipulating that tolerance was to be allowed, and no Christians
forcibly converted to Islam.
But the Prophet had fixed his heart on the conversion of Arabia Felix,
and for this purpose, in the tenth year of the Hejira, Ali ibn Abou
Taleb, his son-in-law and nephew, was despatched thither. Failing by
moderate means to bring over the people, the sword was resorted to; but
in spite of this fact, authorities state that Islam was grafted in the
country with the loss of only some twenty lives.
But its course was to be by no means a smooth one, for amongst several
other pretenders two arose at the same period, 632 A.D., who laid claim
to the prophetic office. Both had been converts to Islam, and one at
least had actually seen Mahammed, and it was no doubt the report of his
enormous success that stirred these men to rival his claims.
The first, Mosailma by name, was a chief of the tribe of Hanífa. Being of
a diplomatic turn of mind, he thought to make an alliance with Mahammed,
and a correspondence took place between the two, worthy of repetition
here. The letters ran as follows:—
“From Mosailma, the Prophet of God, to Mahammed, the Prophet of God! Let
the earth be half mine and half thine.”
Mahammed’s answer was short but to the point:—
“From Mahammed, the Prophet of God, to Mosailma, the Liar. The earth
belongs to God. He giveth it as an inheritance to such of his servants as
pleaseth him, and the happy issue shall attend such as fear him.”
But Mosailma was not to be discouraged by this reply, and continued his
career until, shortly after the death of Mahammed, his successor the
Caliph Abou Bekr sent an expedition under a certain general Khalid to
attack him. In a battle near Akriba Mosailma was slain, and his followers
disbanded; who, seeing their leader die, once more reverted to Islam.
The second impostor was El-Aswad, chief of the tribe of Anis. He had
previously been an idolater, but had become a convert to the Mahammedan
faith. Meeting at first with every success, he installed himself at
Sanaa, and nearly the whole of the Yemen acknowledged his authority. But
at the instigation of Mahammed, who was at this time still alive, he was
treacherously slain by his wife and accomplices.
These two impostors, although their career did not to any extent
permanently affect the history of the Yemen, are celebrated throughout
Arab traditions, in which they are known as “The Liars.”
But the troubles in the Yemen were by no means at an end. Every preceding
dynasty had left dissension and rival blood in the country, and for a
long period, during the reign of the early Caliphs, the country was
constantly disturbed with war and bloodshed. Pretender to the throne
followed pretender, and it was not for a period of some years that any
tranquillity was restored to the Yemen.
In A.D. 655 Ali succeeded to the Caliphate on the death of Othman, and
having to quell many disturbances and dissensions at home, he did not
for some time turn his attention to the Yemen, where, after a lapse in
the war between Muavia, governor of Syria, and the Caliph, a large band
of the troops of the former, under the leadership of Bashir ibn Ardeb,
carried out the most horrible atrocities on the partisans of the cause
of Ali. But revenge was near, and a short time later—39 A.H.—troops
to the number of four thousand were despatched by Ali from Kufa, who
equalled perhaps the cruelties of Muavia’s adherents; but they succeeded
in stamping out the cause of Othman, the lately assassinated Caliph,
and Ali’s son was proclaimed governor of the Yemen. Islam had by this
period made such a firm footing in the country, that, in spite of the
dissensions between Christians, idolaters, and Jews, we find the troubles
confined almost entirely to the many sects of Islam itself. Some of the
most important of these will be found mentioned elsewhere, so that no
reference is necessary to them here, except as showing how firm a hold
the acceptance of the new religion had gained amongst the inhabitants of
the Yemen.
The country after the death of Ali became subject to the Omeyyad dynasty
of Caliphs, until in A.D. 749 the Abbasides exterminated them, with
unparalleled bloodshed and cruelty, the conquest of the Yemen being
carried out by Mahammed Abousi Mahammed. The typical cruelty of this
man is well exemplified by a paragraph in Sir R. L. Playfair’s ‘History
of the Yemen.’ Finding the inhabitants suffering from what is now known
as “Yemen boils,” an exceedingly common complaint in that country, he
ordered all those who showed any signs of the sickness to be buried alive
as unclean. Happily his own death prevented this cruel order from being
carried out. Sharing the ups and downs of the Abbaside dynasty, to whom
the Yemen acknowledged a varying system of vassalage, in 811 A.D. the
inhabitants declared for El-Mamun, son of Harun el-Rashid, the great
Caliph of the East, who was sharing with his brother Amin the government.
Under this Caliph the governor of the Yemen was Mahammed, son of Ziad.
He conquered the Teháma, or western plains, and became sovereign of the
whole country.
There remained at this period a tribe of the name of Beni Yafur,
descendants of the old Himyaric kings, who lived at Sanaa. Acknowledging
the Abbaside Caliphs, they were by force obliged to fall under the
jurisdiction of Ibn Ziad; but Asaad ibn Yafur, the last of the family,
took advantage of the Karmathian rising throughout the Yemen to usurp
the power, which he held until his death. He was the last prince of the
Himyaric people; and although his family held the throne for a few years
they never arrived at any great power, their position being materially
weakened by insurrections and family strifes.
Ibn Ziad having died, and been succeeded by several members of his
family, Abou’l-Jaysh his grandson came to the throne. On the death of
the Caliph El-Mutawakil and the abdication of El-Mustain, he disclaimed
all allegiance to the Caliphate, and took to himself regal honours,
though there seems to be some apparent discord as to dates, for the
assassination and abdication of the Caliphs occurred before Abou’l-Jaysh
came to the throne. Probably he was the first to assume regal power,
although his immediate predecessors had ceased paying tribute to the
Caliphs.[18]
Apparently Abou’l-Jaysh was a man of great power, and by the time of his
death he was master of the whole of the Yemen, while his revenues reached
an enormous sum. It was during his reign that the Zaidite dynasty sprung
up. The foundation of what afterwards was the principal line of the
Imams, or Sultans of the Yemen, is not without interest. Although to-day
ousted from power by the Turks, the leader of the late rebellion was no
less a personage than a descendant of the great family who in A.H. 288
(A.D. 901) founded at Sadah the Zaidite dynasty. As of the direct family
of the prophet Mahammed, it may be interesting to trace the line from
the founder of Islam to Yahya, who returned to the Yemen from India in
288 A.H. to announce the supremacy of the Zaidis. This is best done by a
short genealogical tree.
MAHAMMED.
|
Fatima and Ali.
|
Hasan.
|
Hasan.
|
Ibrahim.
|
Ismail.
|
Ibrahim.
Tabátabá.
|
Kasim er-Rassi.
|
Huseyn.
|
El-Hadi Yahya.
(D. 298 A.H.)
Although Yahya succeeded in wresting Sanaa from Asaad ibn Yafur, he was
unable to hold it, and eventually returned to Sadah, where descendants of
his family are to-day living.
From this period we find a constant rise and fall of dynasties. While
Imams alternately held and lost authority, there were springing up,
generally to disappear, princes in many parts of the country, so that at
times the Yemen was divided into a number of principalities. Celebrated
amongst these were the Sulayhites and the Zurayites, of whom the latter
for centuries held possession of the southern province of Aden. But,
meanwhile, in the north the Imams were succeeding one another with the
usual rapidity of oriental sovereigns, and with very varied authority. In
the fifth century A.H. we find the Abyssinian line again in possession of
Zebeed, at this time the principal city of the Teháma.
Meanwhile the Zaidi family of Rassites continued to govern at Sadah
without serious interruption.
In 1173 A.D. the then reigning Sultan of Sanaa surrendered his power to
Turan Shah, brother of Salah ed-din (Saladdin), the Ayyubite Caliph of
Egypt; and Ali, son of the Sultan El-Mansur Hatim, was nominated governor
of that city.
It would be out of place here to trace the long lines of governors and
rulers who dominated the Yemen during the next two centuries. A few
names, however, are remembered to-day, and mentioned by authorities as
being men of great power or culture. The first is El-Muzaffer, who united
for the time at least all the Yemen under his sway, and who died at the
end of the thirteenth century; and again, Abdul-Wahab, who reigned early
in the sixteenth century, and founded many colleges at Sanaa, Taiz, and
Zebeed, and built a number of cisterns and aqueducts at places where
water was scarce.
During the next period of the history of the Yemen, we come in contact
for the first time with European traders and the Turks, who were destined
in no small degree to influence the future of the country.
About the year 1445 A.D. the Christian king of Abyssinia sent a mission
to Florence, and a famous missive to the priests of Jerusalem. This
king is well known to history from these two acts alone, and to-day is
celebrated as Prester John. Whether his embassy stirred the religious
zeal or the cupidity of Europe it is difficult to say, but it resulted,
whatever its cause may have been, in a Portuguese expedition to the far
East, which eventually ended in the leader, De Covilham, marrying and
settling in Shoa.
I think there is but little need here to repeat the adventures of many
European expeditions that were sent at various periods to visit this
portion of the globe. Such as refer more immediately to Aden will be
found mentioned in the chapter on that possession, while I have elsewhere
referred to the “factories” at Mokha.
Early in the sixteenth century the Mamlook power in Egypt was overthrown
by the Sultan Selim I., upon which event the larger portion of the
Arabian states went over to the new cause. This Selim was desirous
of himself leading an expedition for the conquest of Arabia, but was
obliged to abandon the idea on account of ill health; nor did he ever
recover sufficiently to carry out his purpose. His son, Suleiman the
Magnificent, was equally intent upon the conquest of India, and for
this purpose fitted out a fleet in A.D. 1520. On the 27th June 1538 the
fleet left Suez, and Aden was reached a few months later, and the town
was taken. Proceeding to India, Suleiman Pasha was forced to retire on
being attacked by the Viceroy of Goa, and returned to Aden, where he
left sufficient troops to garrison the town, and proceeded to Mokha,
whence messengers were sent to Zebeed with the demand that the governor
of that city should at once proceed to the coast. The Arab’s refusal
to comply with this order cost him his life, for a few months later
Zebeed was taken, and a number of its inhabitants put to the sword. This
completed the conquests of Suleiman the Magnificent, and all the coast of
Arabia acknowledged the Turkish rule, Sanaa itself becoming the seat of
the Pasha of the Yemen. But although firmly rooted in the country, the
Turkish forces were unable to extract tribute from the numerous tribes,
many of which remained practically independent. A revolt occurred at Aden
in 1551, which was, however, put down by Peri Pasha, who wrested the
town from the Portuguese, to whom it had been handed over by its Arab
inhabitants.
Eight years later a still greater rebellion broke out throughout the
whole of the Yemen. However, the Turks, under Hasan Pasha, were able to
quell it, and continue their rule in the country.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the English appear for the
first time in this part of the world, the first ship to trade in the Red
Sea being the East India Company’s vessel Ascension, Captain Sharpey,
who, however, failed in his desire to establish commercial relations
between the two countries. This voyage was followed by several others,
but of these mention will be found in the chapter relating to Aden.
In 1630 the Turks withdrew from the Yemen, and the government fell into
the hands of a descendant of Ali ibn Abou Taleb, who married Fatima,
the daughter of the Prophet Mahammed. This man was by name Kasim, whose
full titles were Mansur el-Kasim el-Kebir. His ancestor, El-Hadi Yahia,
had founded the Rassite dynasty in 284 A.H. The family of Kasim, which
now commenced to hold the government of the Yemen, continued until the
conquest of Sanaa by the Turks in 1872 to fill the posts of Imams.[19]
A few words are necessary in explanation of this title, by which the
rulers of the Yemen have been so long known. The word Imam literally
means the leader of prayer in the mosque. Thus it will be seen that the
office was not merely a temporal one, but was also imbued with religious
rights, enjoyed on account of their descent from the Prophet. Not daring
to assume the title of “Caliph,” they preferred the minor one “Imam,”
though practically by carrying out the old-established customs, such as
changing their names on succeeding to power, they took upon themselves
the position enjoyed by the direct successors of Mahammed himself. The
office was a hereditary one, and generally succeeded to by primogeniture,
provided the eldest son was of an age and character suitable to his being
able to carry out the necessary duties.
Niebuhr gives an interesting account of the principal officers in the
service of the Imams, a portion of which may be mentioned here.[20] The
various provinces were, he says, under the governorship of a “Dowla,”
or military governor, who was responsible for his district, collected
the taxes, commanded the troops, and regulated all local affairs. It was
customary for a man only to hold the office for a few years, in order
to prevent his acquiring great wealth or influence. Their position was
always an uncertain one, as they necessarily made many enemies, who
were ready to do them some ill turn at headquarters. The Bas-Katéb was
secretary, appointed by the Imam, under each, whose principal work was to
spy upon and report to their lord and ruler the actions of the “Dowla.”
As ordained by the tenets of Islam, all cases relating to laws laid down
in the Koran were tried by the Cadi, or chief judge. The ports were
under the rule of three officers,—an Amir el-Bahr, or captain of the
port; an Amir es-Sôk, whose duty lay in regulating the markets; and a
Sheikh el-Beled, who collected the taxes. El-Kasim was succeeded by his
son El-Muayyad Mahammed, who in turn was succeeded by his brother Ismail,
who lived a life of supreme simplicity, and died after a long reign,
mourned by the whole country.
So Imam succeeded Imam with all the changing fortunes of oriental rulers,
and without apparently performing any deeds which redound to their own
praise or raised the splendour of their country. In all probability their
lives were simply spent in Eastern uxoriousness, and in keeping in order
the turbulent tribes by which they were surrounded.
In 1709 the French appeared for the first time in the Red Sea, and
carried out a treaty with the governor of Mokha, on behalf of the then
Imam El-Mehdi. The principal clauses referred to religious toleration,
the duties on merchandise, and that redress should be given for any
insults offered to French subjects.[21] In spite of this treaty in 1738
Mokha was bombarded by the French, on account of debts owing to the
traders by the governor of that city. The town was taken, but handed back
to the Imam on the payment of the debt. This ended in the drawing up of a
second treaty, somewhat reducing the duty chargeable on the imports and
exports.
For the next twenty years affairs in the Yemen remained in a state
of tolerable peace. From time to time tribes raised the standard of
independence; but there seems to have been no organised attack upon the
Imams, although the family was continually engaged in intrigue as to
the succession. However, in 1758 a serious rebellion broke out, under a
certain Abd er-Rabi ibn Ahmed, who had been governor of a small province
in the service of the Imam. Abd er-Rabi had made enemies in the household
of the Imam, and at their instigation was recalled. He refused, however,
to obey, whereupon the Imam sent a force of some three thousand men to
bring him. Nevertheless, he was able to hold out within the walls of
Kátaba for no less a period than nearly a year, and eventually made his
escape by night to his followers in the tribe of Hajeriya. Finding it
impossible to capture Abd er-Rabi, the Imam made overtures to the Sultan
of Aden to assist him. Abd er-Rabi hearing of this, entered Lahej and
blockaded Aden. He was destined, however, to fall a victim to an act
of treachery. The Imam was at this period attacking the city of Taiz,
which he was unable to capture, and, hoping to kill two birds with one
stone, invited Abd er-Rabi to join him. This the latter did, and the city
was taken. The Imam, delighted with his success, under the most solemn
protestations of friendship invited him to Sanaa, where on his arrival
he was, after every ignominy had been showered upon him, decapitated.[22]
[Illustration: HOWTA, THE CAPITAL OF LAHEJ.]
In 1762 King Frederick V. of Denmark organised an expedition for the
exploration of Arabia under the leadership of Karsten Niebuhr. With
him were associated three other Danes, who all died either during the
expedition or immediately upon its termination. In spite of the fact that
more than a century has elapsed since this expedition took place, we
have never since been given a clearer or more interesting and valuable
account of the Yemen. The social state of the country is particularly
well described, and no one can overestimate the value of Niebuhr’s work.
He twice interviewed the Imam during his stay at Sanaa, and the second
time greatly interested his royal host by exhibiting and explaining
his scientific instruments. Niebuhr’s account of the Imam and his
surroundings is most interesting, but unfortunately space does not allow
of my giving any extracts here.
In 1770 an attack was made upon the British factory at Mokha. However,
two British men-of-war were sent to the spot, and an indemnity was
paid, which it was found out eventually had been extracted from Indian
merchants, who were, of course, British subjects! The Yemen at this time
had attracted a few European adventurers, who had become Moslems and
entered the service of the Imam. Amongst these was a certain Scotchman
of the name of Campbell, who was commanding the artillery of El-Mehdi
Abbas, the then Imam. A rebellion had burst out in the country, and the
rebels had seized upon a stronghold in the vicinity of Sanaa, in which
was water, and where they had collected a quantity of provisions. Such,
however, was the fear of the natives for the ingenuity of these European
renegades, that they surrendered on hearing that Campbell and his
companions were engaged upon the manufacture of shells—a task they had
neither the means nor the knowledge of carrying to a successful end. The
episode is merely interesting as showing the acknowledgment of the Arabs
of the superiority of the European over themselves in such things—an
allowance readily made to-day by nearly all classes of the Arab world.
In 1799 a British force was sent to cruise in the Red Sea, on account
of the French having taken possession of Egypt; and Perim, an island
situated in the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, was occupied, though, on
account of the scarcity of water, it was only held for a period of four
months.
The trade of the Red Sea with India had up to this period been a very
considerable one, but owing to the misgovernment of the Imams, and
their inability to offer security to traders, it had greatly diminished
in the last few years. On this account Sir Home Popham was sent on a
special mission to the Yemen in 1801, and was nominated Ambassador to
the Southern Arabian states. He arrived at Mokha on his return from
Calcutta in 1802, and set out for Sanaa. However, he reached only as far
as Taiz, and there, as had been the case along the entire route, he was
treated with every ignominy. The Imam protested that the treatment of
the Ambassador had been carried on without his knowledge and contrary to
his orders, and he promised to punish the offenders. In all probability
Ali Mansur, who then held the throne at Sanaa, was entirely unable to
cope with the turbulent tribes, and it is known for certain that from his
extravagances he was always in arrears with the subsidised chiefs of the
neighbouring districts.
I have briefly mentioned elsewhere the Wahabi sect, which, under the
leadership of Abd el-Wahab en-Nejdi, sprang up in the eighteenth century.
It had not, however, seriously made itself felt in the Yemen until this
period, its progress being no doubt largely influenced by the Wahabi
conquest of Mecca and Medina. During the years 1804 and 1805 the Yemen
suffered from continual raids of the Wahabi leaders, for the most part
chiefs of the Beni Asir, the tribes lying between the Hejaz and the Yemen
proper. But treachery was on foot, and certain Shereefs nominally owing
allegiance to the Wahabi doctrine were really working in the interests
of the Imam of Sanaa, and in this manner the marauders were held more or
less in check. Meanwhile the Imam Ali Mansur had been deposed by his son
Ahmed, who had seized the reins of government. But the city of Mokha
refused to acknowledge Ahmed while the old Imam was still alive, and on
that account Ahmed put an expedition into the field against the Dowla of
that town. Happily for the country Ali Mansur died, and the people of
Mokha were then able to acknowledge his son as Imam, and so a disastrous
war was staved off.
So great had become the power of the Wahabis that in 1813 Mahammed Ali
Pasha invaded the Hejaz in the name of Turkey, and restored Mecca and
Medina to the Osmanli Sultan. Thence an envoy was sent to the Imam at
Sanaa, requesting his co-operation in the stamping out of the Wahabis.
This was readily granted, for the Imam evidently saw that Mahammed Ali’s
eyes were turned in the direction of the Yemen; and although he protested
that he himself was devoid of means to carry on warfare, he gave the
envoy letters to the Dowla of Mokha to supply him with vessels and
material, knowing full well that he possessed neither.[23]
In 1814 Mahammed Ali’s troops took the town of Konfoda, north of Lohaya;
but the Asir tribes surprised it a few months later, drove the Turks out,
and seized an enormous quantity of booty and supplies. So worn out were
the Turkish troops with their long campaign that Mahammed Ali was obliged
to abandon his scheme for the taking of the Yemen, and retired to Cairo,
leaving Ibrahim Pasha to continue the campaign, which ended in the
downfall of the Wahabis. The viceroyalty of Ibrahim was marked with every
kind of cruelty and despicable corruption, and his departure from Jeddah
in 1819 was the signal for great rejoicings. Mahammed Ali then carried
out a treaty with the Imam, who, on the condition of paying one hundred
thousand dollars a-year, was to be restored several provinces which he
had lately lost, including Konfoda and Lohaya, which the Turks themselves
had taken.
On account of a brutal attack that was made upon Lieutenant Dommicetti,
at the time confined to his bed with fever, and upon the employees of
the British factory, a force was sent to that place in 1819 to demand
reparation, and a treaty from the Imam, in which certain privileges were
granted to British subjects. Difficulties arose, and in December 1820
Mokha was bombarded by Captain Bruce, and full reparation made by the
governor.
The Porte meanwhile had become uneasy at the great success attending
the campaigns of Mahammed Ali Pasha; and on a Mamlook, Mahammed Agha,
generally known as Turkchee Bilmas, rebelling against Mahammed Ali, the
Sultan of Turkey, hoping to profit through his agency, installed him
governor of the Hejaz. Marching south, Turkchee Bilmas took Hodaidah in
1832. Zebeed was the next city to fall, whence he marched upon Mokha,
which also surrendered; but the tide changed, and a year later Mokha
alone remained in Turkchee Bilmas’ hands, where he was attacked by a
large force by sea, under Ahmed Pasha, and by some 20,000 of the Asir
tribes by land. In the attack upon the city Turkchee Bilmas escaped to
the East India Company’s vessel Tigris, and was conveyed in her to Bombay.
In 1837 the Imam’s uncle, Seyed Kasim, treacherously sold Taiz to the
Egyptians; but their power there was of short duration, for in 1840 the
Egyptians evacuated the Yemen, which thereupon became distracted with
strife. Although Ibrahim Pasha had previously agreed to hand over the
Teháma to Mahammed ibn Oun, Shereef of Mecca, he was not successful, for
a Shereef of the Abou Arish disputed its possession. The Shereef of Mecca
therefore despatched troops to the coast, who occupied Hodaidah the very
day the Pasha left it, but only to hold it for a very short time, for a
month later the Asir tribe entered the town. Shereef Huseyn, brother of
Mahammed el-Meccawi, assumed the governorship of Mokha, and commenced to
ill-treat the British subjects there, at the same time demanding, in an
insulting letter, the surrender of Aden.[24]
The Imam was not at first able to attend to these matters, as a religious
rebellion had broken out under the leadership of a fanatic, El-Faki Saïd,
who called himself “Medhi el-Mantether.” But as soon as this impostor
had been attacked and killed, the Imam turned his attention to the
Teháma. Failing in obtaining the aid of the British, it appears that both
he and her Majesty’s Government referred the matter to Constantinople,
with the result that a commissioner was sent by the Porte to confer
with the Shereef. However, he appears, says Playfair in his notes upon
the subject, to have been bribed by Shereef Huseyn, and returned to
Constantinople with but little accomplished. The result, however, of his
mission became apparent a year later, when the Sultan appointed him Pasha
of the Teháma, on the understanding that he paid a tribute of 70,000
dollars per annum to the Porte.
[Illustration: _A Native of the Teháma._]
The Imam, El-Hadi Mahammed, died in 1844, and was succeeded by Ali
Mansur, who had been formerly deposed, and whose great idea seemed to
be to retrieve the losses his predecessors had suffered. Fighting at
once commenced, but the Imam’s troops met with but little success, and
smallpox carried off a very considerable number. A rebellion broke out a
few months later, the Imam was deposed, and his cousin, Mahammed Yahya,
placed on the throne in his stead. Desirous of carrying out the scheme
of his predecessor for the recovery of the Teháma, he took the field and
finally routed the Shereef Huseyn at Bajil, near Hodaidah, the Shereef
himself being taken prisoner. Hodaidah, Zebeed, and Beit el-Fakih were
handed over to the Imam, and shortly afterwards he captured Mokha,
where he learned that another division of the Shereef Huseyn’s army had
retaken Zebeed. The Imam fled to Sanaa, and a few weeks later Mokha fell
once more into the hands of Huseyn. The Turks, seeing the opportunity
a suitable one to push their interests in Southern Arabia, sent an
expedition to Hodaidah, on the arrival of which the Shereef Huseyn handed
over the place to the new-comers. The Imam was compelled to visit the
Pasha at Hodaidah, and a treaty was signed, the principal clauses of
which were as follows:—
1. The country governed by the Imam was to continue under his
jurisdiction, but he was himself to be considered as a vassal to the
Porte.
2. The revenues of the country were to be equally divided between the
Porte and the Imam.
3. Sanaa was to be garrisoned with a thousand regular Turkish troops.
4. The Imam was to receive 37,000 dollars per month from the revenue
previous to its division.[25]
Both the Turks and the Imam suffered, however, from the results of this
treaty—the former by being almost annihilated on their arrival at Sanaa,
the latter by being deposed and murdered. The power of the Imams was
gone; the Turks, although driven out of the highlands of the Yemen,
retained their footing on the coast, and carried on desultory warfare in
many directions. The country, after years of war and bloodshed, remained
in a state of anarchy, and the descendants of the great Imams seemed to
lose all spirit and authority. They sank into private life at Sanaa,
giving themselves up to luxury and vice; and the greatness of the Yemen
was finished.
CHAPTER IV.
THE INFLUENCES OF ISLAM IN THE YEMEN.
Before entering upon any account of the various religious influences
that have since the time of Mahammed disturbed the Yemen, it may be
as well to put aside a few pages for some general remarks upon the
religion of Islam, the tenets of which are well known enough to those
who have made any study of the subject, but are to the general world
almost a closed book. It is this disregard of religions other than our
own which so weakens the constant cry of their inferiority. Rather it
should be the desire of such as wish to uphold Christianity to carefully
study and compare its doctrines with those of the beliefs they are so
ready to cry down. The world has arrived at a stage when people are not
satisfied with a mere assertion, but demand to hear both sides of the
question and to reason for themselves; and to those who have taken up or
made even a small study of Islam it is a pain, or perhaps at times an
amusement, to listen to the rabid cries as to its inferiority, issuing
from the throats of men who base their action upon a few what they call
“practical results.” It is not the author’s purpose here to enter into
a long discussion upon the subject, or to point out at any length the
many fallacies which are believed to be doctrines of Islam by a large
proportion of the British public.
But of all the arguments used to show the inferiority of the Mahammedan
religion, there is none so loved and so often brought into use as the
present condition of countries practising its belief. How little real
value this argument possesses it will not take long to prove; and it may
be generally stated that the backward condition of Mahammedan states
is not owing to their form of religion to nearly so great an extent
as it is owing to the nature of the people who profess it; in other
words, the low standpoint of most Islamic countries can be traced to
the origin of its inhabitants rather than to their beliefs. Strong as
is this statement, there is at least one very good example to prove its
truth—namely, that under similar circumstances of breed and climate we
find Christian nations sunk deeper in degradation and vice than their
Moslem neighbours. Take, for example, Abyssinia, into which Christianity
was introduced between the years 300 and 320 A.D. Why then, since from
that period they have been pursuing the Christian belief, do we not find
them to-day in a state infinitely superior to the surrounding Moslem
countries—in fact, living in a state of civilisation equalling that of
the European nations, or even of the Yemenite Arabs or the Turks? Why do
we find Abyssinia to-day a country given over to drink and debauchery,
when they are regular attendants at church? Why do we find them living
in the circular thatch-huts and wearing the same apparel that they did
probably when Christianity first made its appearance amongst them?
Because, I say, their nature is such that it is untouchable by any
religion, no matter how lofty be its aims and aspirations. “Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” Certainly not, no
matter how much he may be painted over with gaudy colours. Again, why
in Egypt do we not find the Kopts in a far higher state of civilisation
and intellectual superiority than their neighbours? It may be argued
that their Christianity is not an example of true Christianity, just as
it may be argued that the Islam of to-day is not the true Islam. Yet it
strikes one that Islam is very much nearer its original ideal than we
are to ours, who have turned our religion round and round and inside
out to make it fit the requirements of modern progress and personal
comforts. Before, Christian reader, you turn to smite your neighbour the
Moslem, look round you. Before you begin to pull the mote out of his
eye, pay a little attention to the beam that is in your own. Look at
the great armies of Europe ready to tear one another to pieces! Look at
the streets of the great cities flocked with prostitutes! Look at the
swarming drunken population of our towns! Look at the financial robberies
and the uncharitableness of our own lands,—and when you have mended that,
then you may turn to show your brotherly love, which is so engrafted in
the Christian’s heart, and rend your neighbour.
Justice, I say! If it be one’s desire to take up the cudgels against what
millions hold most dear, then let it not be done until the cudgels can
be taken up and victory assured by making a careful study of what one
is going to fight against. Religious tolerance is one of the boasts of
Englishmen; let it be their care that the boast is not a vain one.
Again, it is often said that by its so carefully laying down the laws,
Islam has prevented any material change from taking place in the
condition of those that profess it. How about Judaism? The laws are as
equally, if not more specifically, laid down in their books than even
they are in the Koran, and yet we find to-day the Jews in all material
matters almost the leaders of the world.
There can be no doubt that Christianity is a far finer religion than
Islam. Christianity is beautiful in its simplicity—beautiful in that
it touches so little upon affairs of worldly importance; but it is
doubtless a religion founded for Western and Northern people. There is no
doubt that, coming from Palestine, it chose its natural course when it
proceeded to Europe. Why was it not embraced by the Arabs and peoples
of the south, who at that time, with the exception of such as were
Jews, were professing the foul rites of idolatry? The southerner, wild
turbulent son of the desert, is unsuited to Christianity; he must have
some belief that touches him deeper, that inspires his ardour by teaching
something he can understand,—some religion that regulates his course
of life, as well as offers him hereafter a future existence. Mentally
and bodily, he is different to us northern people. His mind runs in an
entirely different channel. He exists, he thinks, in a different sphere,
and it was this sphere that Islam touched.
He was tempted by earthly spoil, by the love of persecution, and promised
licentiousness hereafter, it is often said. Perhaps; but has not the same
over and over again tempted Christian Powers?—has not love of persecution
found sufficient examples in the history of Christianity to deter us
from looking for it abroad? Is not our heaven, painted by St John in the
Revelation, tended to increase our desire to share in it by picturing
its beauties? The Revelation, it may be answered, is an allegory; yet he
who argues thus would have been burned at the stake for his pernicious
views not many centuries ago. To those who are capable, though generally
unwilling, to understand Christianity, it is a religion at once perfect
and superlative. It is an ideal seldom if ever reached. It is a goal to
be striven after, with but little hopes of doing more than one’s feeble
best to reach; and more, far more than all, it is the truth. But so is
Islam to the Mahammedan. It is a goal which many reach, because its
ideals are tangible and comprehensible. It is a religion founded by a man
of vast intellect to enforce a belief in the existence of one God, which
the intricacies of Christianity had failed to prove to the Arab races. To
them, materialists to the very backbone, the Trinity is impossible. To us
it is incomprehensible, but acknowledged. Christ was the Son of God! This
alone is sufficient to drive to a distance the Arab, who acknowledges
the Messiah’s origin as divine and supernatural, but to whom the idea of
filial relationship with the Deity is revolting and incredible.
An example of the power that Islam asserted over the minds of the
inhabitants of the Yemen is near at hand. There were many Christians
in that country at the moment when they received the tidings of the
Prophet’s mission. Nejrán, a large province, was governed by a Christian
family, and boasted a bishop, by name Kos, who died during the earlier
half of the seventh century A.D., probably during the lifetime of
Mahammed; yet but a comparatively few years later we find all traces of
Christianity disappeared. Not so in Abyssinia, where it exists to-day
amongst a people given up to one vice at least, drunkenness, from which
were they Moslems they would be free. Were Europe a Mahammedan Power,
there is no reason to doubt that we should not be in the same state of
civilisation as we enjoy to-day. The Turks are an oriental race, and
cannot be taken as a fair example; yet they have so far followed upon the
lines of Christian Powers that we find them to-day squeezing their people
to obtain the means wherewithal to purchase the destructive implements
of war, and existing in a very tolerable state of civilisation and
drunkenness.
No! the Ethiopian cannot change his skin; and just as Christianity is
the religion best suited, apart from its inestimable truth, to Northern
people, so is Islam to the Arabs and the children of the south. Each has
sorted itself and taken root where best it will flourish. Any attempt
to influence one by the introduction of the other must, by the laws of
nature which have thus sorted them, be prejudicial to the world at large.
A few words as to the general tenets of the Mahammedan religion.
It must not be forgotten that it was in A.H. 12, a year after the
Prophet’s death, that the Koran was collected by Zaid, and that therefore
there can be little doubt that in its arrangement and sequence it is far
from the order in which the words were uttered. The fragments of which
it is composed were collected from every source, but although it may be
said in its present form to follow no particular chronological order, at
the same time there can be little doubt that, apart from this weakness,
it contains the words of the Prophet himself. However, in the building up
of a new religion, it was impossible to ordain for every class of society
likely to embrace it; and on this account the Moslems, especially the
Sunnis, hold that, after the sacred book, the “traditions” are next in
sanctity. These “traditions” are the teaching, verbal or in example, of
the Prophet himself, not absolutely inculcated in the Koran, but handed
down upon the authority of “his companions.” On these traditions many
schools of theology and law have been built up, referring to them in
cases in which the Koran does not sufficiently render clear, or perhaps
omits altogether some point. Needless to say these “traditions,” being
almost innumerable and often disputed, have caused more dissension
amongst the world of Islam than any passages in the Koran itself.
The central idea of Islam is the unity of God, and the association of any
other with the Deity is the one mortal sin.[26] There is no priesthood;
the religion is a religion of the people, explained to them by doctors,
such as the Sheikh el-Islam, the Moulas, and the Cadis, whose authority
is acknowledged, but solely as exponents of religion and law, which it
is in no one’s power to revise or alter. Idolatry is to be rooted out
and trampled under foot. “There is no God but God, and Mahammed is the
prophet of God.” Soundless, rhythmless, as are the words to us, their
very repetition stirs the Moslem heart; their very mention is sufficient
for an infidel to become a Moslem. They are the only bond that binds
Sunnis and Sheiyas together, the common birthright of all Islam.
[Illustration: _A Yemeni._]
The principal and best known of the Mahammedan tenets, as well as being
those on which the religion is most founded, are the immortality of the
soul; the resurrection of the body; the judgment of good and evil; heaven
and hell; predestination, about which, however, contradictory remarks are
found in the Koran; the ministry of good angels, and the evil influence
of the bad. To none of these precepts can exception be found, for, after
all, they resemble to a great extent our own. But at this point the Koran
steps ahead of us by the prohibition of wine, games of chance, usurious
dealings, the flesh of swine, or of things strangled or which have died a
natural death, all of which are strictly forbidden. How beneficial this
has proved and is proving to the Mahammedan races is very clear; and it
may be said that it is only when Moslems have come into contact with Jews
or Christians that they have broken through these ordinances.
As to other restrictions laid by Mahammed upon his followers, and other
privileges allowed to them, a few words must be said. Polygamy is legal,
and it is this more than anything, perhaps, that raises indignation
amongst Christians. Every Moslem is allowed four wives and as many slaves
as he likes. Shocking! yet do we not decorate our church windows with
pictures of David and Solomon? do we not read their words in our places
of worship? and I doubt if either would have been satisfied with this
small allowance. Were not the patriarchs, who after Christ we are taught
most to reverence, polygamists? They at least, like the Arabs, have an
excuse, which Solomon and David certainly had not—namely, the constant
wars in which they were engaged killed off so large a population of the
men that the women were greatly in excess. Yet to-day in many Moslem
countries it is unusual to find amongst the respectable classes more
than one wife. We are by law restricted to one, they are by law and by
religion allowed four. After all, they have just as much right to swear
that their custom is the best one as we have to put forward our own.
That divorce is lax amongst the Arab races is true; so are the morals of
both men and women. But let us look again at the Kopts in Egypt, or the
Christian race of Abyssinians,—are they any better? Certainly not. Again,
in Moslem countries, these laws of divorce are appealed to more by the
poorest classes than by the rich. In England the fact that a wretched
couple of paupers do not agree has no remedy, until one day the husband
jumps on his wife and kills her. In Moslem countries he divorces her, and
probably both are married again in the course of a month.
The fact of the case is simply this. To attempt to judge Islam from a
Christian standpoint is as ridiculous as to attempt to judge Christianity
from a Moslem one. We shudder at the civil codes and conditions of the
Mahammedans; they are horrified at our Trinity, at the decoration of our
churches, at lax laws as to purification, at our drunken habits, at the
Pope, at our paid clergy, and at a hundred other details. To criticise
Islam one must have seen it in its own lands, and that with unprejudiced
eyes.
There is but one more question that must be touched upon here—namely,
slavery. Never have there been more exaggerated reports as to slavery in
oriental countries than are from time to time cropping up to-day. It must
be understood what slavery really is in the East; it must be remembered
that it is not agricultural slavery—that it is entirely domestic slavery.
Stories are from time to time appearing of atrocious cruelties to slaves:
they are true, no doubt, but they are exceptional—just as, happily, the
cruel treatment of children is exceptional in England. It is not after
the slaves have passed through the market that they suffer, it is on the
long desert-marches in which they are brought from the interior. Another
point is scarcely understood in England—namely, that probably ninety-nine
hundredths of the slaves in servitude in oriental countries have been
born in servitude, and never were brought from the Soudan at all. In this
case they have been often reared in the houses of their masters, and as
often as not treated as his children.
That slavery is contrary to law and nature all will acknowledge; that it
ought and must be put down is equally true; but as to the means of doing
it? The slave-trade must be stopped from the interior of Africa, not by
the freeing of the slaves already arrived at their journey’s end. For
instance, the emancipation of slaves in Morocco would mean thousands of
men thrown out of doors to gain a livelihood by murder and robbery, or
starve; and thousands of women driven to be prostitutes. And this is
what we are attempting to do in the name of progress and religion!
[Illustration: _Jew of the Yemen._]
How vastly Islam was in advance of the pagan religions, which for the
most part it replaced in Arabia, need not be mentioned here. From
practising horrible rites of “fetich,” from the offering even of human
sacrifices, from dissensions and religious tribal wars, the mission of
Mahammed called the Arabs to something far higher—far above anything
they had known before. Christianity had failed, in spite of repeated
efforts, to attract them to anything more than the smallest extent;
Judaism was out of date, and unsuited to the epoch they had reached. They
were ready, were yearning, for a new religion, and Mahammed took the
opportunity to found one. In place of hideous pagan rites, in place of a
few converts to an unappreciated Christianity, in place of Judaic laws of
which the people were weary, he brought amongst them a new inspiriting
religion, lofty in its recognition of monotheism, higher than anything
they had as yet known in its moral code.
But from this simple form of monotheism numerous branches were destined
to sprout; and just as Christianity is split up into innumerable sects,
so is Islam divided into many differences and brotherhoods. It is with
comparatively few, however, of these that we have to deal in regard to
the Yemen,—for although in early times changes had begun to be apparent
in the course of the religion, it is only comparatively lately that the
enormous quantity of sectarian differences now existing sprang into
life; and these, with few exceptions, have but to a very slight extent
influenced the political aspect of the country.
The first important dissension in the course of Islam occurred about the
year 37 A.H., when the theocratic party, recognising that the existence
of the Caliphs was likely to become, and was even at that time becoming,
an excuse for power and a cause of strife, and that the religious
influence was lapsing into an autocratic supremacy, stood aside and
cried for an oath of allegiance to God alone, and an elected Council of
State to regulate affairs. Revolting first against Ali, the nephew and
son-in-law of the Prophet, we find them again and again all through the
history of Islam bursting forth, egged on by such wild fanaticism as
only men of those countries can know. High though, perhaps, the original
motives of the Kharejites were, they were too often in after-times fanned
by the aspirations of pretenders to power, and it needed all the force
of temporal and spiritual rulers to check these outbursts of fanaticism.
The Kharejites were again split up into many divisions, all more or less
founded upon the idea of treating sin as infidelity, which it would be
straying from the objects of this book to specially mention here, except
that of the Obadites, who from time to time recur in the history of the
Yemen.
Although the Kharejites formed the first absolute split in Islam, there
had been gradually growing up what have always formed, and to-day form,
the two great divisions of the Mahammedan belief—namely, the sects
of the Sunnis and the Sheiyas. To mention some of the standpoints of
both. The Sunni tenets are held by Turkey and the greater part of
Mahammedan-professing India, while Southern Arabia and Persia and
portions of North Africa profess Sheiyism. The differences of the two,
briefly stated, are as follows. While the Sunnis acknowledge the election
of the Caliphs from the general professors of Islam, the Sheiyas assert
that Ali, the fourth Caliph, was the natural successor of the Prophet,
ignoring Abou Bekr, Omar, and Othman. But here again the Sheiya sect
becomes split up; for one division, which continued under the name of
Sheiyas, contend that Ali held his right to succeed the Prophet in
office in virtue of his personality; while the other side, the Zaidis,
contend that Ali was the legitimate successor and heir of the Prophet,
not by reason of his personality, but through his merits. Consequently
they assert that the successors in the Caliphate, or Imams, as they
were called in the Yemen, must necessarily be of the Prophet’s family,
but were to be chosen to fill the holy office on account of merit and
character, in place of succession by birthright alone, but that in
the veins of those elected to the post must flow the Prophet’s blood.
Amongst those of the former persuasion was the sect of Imamites, and its
sub-sects, the Dodekites and Ismailites, the latter of which was founded
and flourished in the third century A.H. It was from this branch that the
Fatimide dynasty sprang, and their descendants are to be found in the
mountains of Lebanon under the name of Druses, who are still awaiting the
return of their prophet Hakim. The point on which the Zaidis separated
from the sects of the Dodekites and Ismailites is as to the lawful
holders of the Imamate or Caliphate after the death of the grandson of
Ali.
But the Zaidis were destined also to divide, and at a subsequent period
we find the Arab and Persian Zaidis submitting to the allegiance of two
separate Imams, one of whom reigned in Arabia and one in Persia.
Even to-day intense hatred exists between the followers of Sunni and
Sheiya doctrines. No better example of this is to be found than the
fact that when Russia was engaged in a war with Turkey that threatened
to be a death-blow to Islam in Europe, not one sword was raised by the
Sheiya-professing Mahammedans for her assistance; and Persia and other
parts who do not acknowledge the Sultan Abdul Hamid as the rightful
Caliph—for the Prophet’s blood does not flow in his veins—sat impassively
and watched, with but comparatively little interest, the struggle.
The Sunnis derive their name from the Arabic word _sunnat_, a precedent;
and their faith is built up, apart from the differences already
specified, upon the example established by the Prophet himself, as handed
down to them by history and tradition. Their belief can be justly called,
perhaps, the orthodox one, for Mahammed himself chose as his successor in
office Abou Bekr, who was not of his family. Therefore to them it is no
prejudice that the present holder of the Caliphate, or successor in the
religious supremacy of Islam, is the Sultan of Turkey, who, it will be
seen, fails to be acknowledged by any of the branches of the Sheiya faith
on account of his descent.
These few words may prove sufficient to throw as much light as is
necessary in the question of the Yemen upon the two great divisions of
Islam. It need only be added to how great an extent the Turks, though
co-religionists in as far as they profess Mahammedanism, would be
separated from the Yemeni people in religious ideas; and it is this fact,
more than even the extortion they practised, that gave rise to the Yemen
rebellion.
About 280 A.H. there appeared a new sect in the Yemen, that of the
Karmathians, who sprang from the Dodekites and Ismailites, though far
exceeding them in fanaticism and excesses. They arose in the Yemen under
the leadership of two powerful men, Ali ibn Fadl and Mansur ibn Hasan, of
whom the former appears to have been most implicated in promulgating the
extraordinary and often revolting tenets of the new belief. Beginning as
a hermit, he collected round him a little band of devoted followers, and
setting forth, he commenced a series of victories. At length, overpowered
with success, he acknowledged himself a prophet, and preached from the
pulpit of Janad the rightful use of wine and permission of incest.
Continuing his march, his cause grew, and both Dhamar and Sanaa fell
before him. At the latter place his excesses were beyond recording.[27]
Seventeen years after having gained his enormous power, Ibn Fadl died at
the hands of an assassin, who, taking advantage of the common Eastern
habit of the drawing of blood, secreted poison in his long hair, and
after having sucked the lancet to prove it was clean, dried it in his
poisoned locks. The historian, El-Janadi, states that there were great
rejoicings at his death. The remnants of this sect, inoffensive now and
law-abiding, still exist in Bombay.
The next great secession from the direct Islam was that of the Nizarites
or Assassins, a name derived from _Hashishiyin_—in other words, the
eaters of _hashish_, a narcotic much resorted to in the East. This
word was the origin of our present “assassin,” but in the East to-day
has no deeper meaning than that given above. The brotherhood arose
about 400 A.H., a few years after the death of Nizar, son of the
Khalifa el-Mustansir, whom they asserted had been wrongfully withheld
from succeeding his father. Thus they gained their first title, that
of “Nizarites.” They swore an oath to devote their energies to the
propagation of their faith, and many perils they undertook for this
purpose, often sacrificing their lives in the fulfilment of their vows.
The remains of this once dreaded sect are to-day to be found in Bombay,
in Zanzibar, and in the Lebanon.
The later sect of the Wahabis shows a tendency on the part of orthodox
Arabs to the ancient tenets of Kharejite theocracy. With the Sheiyas
the contrary is the case, and they incline rather toward transcendental
doctrines, bursting out into such mystical rites as those of the sects of
Mutazelites and Sufis, or, in the Yemen, in their devotion for a divine
Imamate.
How important have been these sects in forming the history, not only of
the Yemen but of all Arabia, cannot be exaggerated. Whole dynasties have
been built up or overthrown by their fanatical devotees. From the very
earliest years of Islam we are constantly coming across the turbulent
risings of one or the other; and while the Sunnis have more or less
strictly upheld until to-day their original orthodoxy, with any variation
of which they are intolerant, we see the other great division, the
Sheiyas, split up again and again into sects and sub-sects, struggling
for a theocracy that was impossible, or used by unscrupulous pretenders
as a road to power.
Looking at Islam to-day, we find the Sunnis in very much the same
religious position as they have always held, even from the very first.
Their key-note, so to speak, has been unswerving allegiance to the
_sunnat_, or precedent of the Prophet. On the other hand, we find the
Sheiyas split up into hundreds of sects and brotherhoods, each following
some particular instruction or belief of their several founders, who for
the most part have been descendants of the Prophet himself.
One of these sects, now making itself felt in the Yemen, as it is doing
all over the Moslem world, is a modern one. I refer to the followers of
El-Mehdi Senussi, about which, as one of the coming powers of Islam,
a few words may not be out of place. The idea of Sheikh Senussi was
to bring Islam back to its original purity—to revive its great social
laws, moral and religious, as instituted by the Prophet, and to defend
and propagate the same.[28] In this it will be seen that the tenets of
Senussism resemble both those of the Sheiyas and the Sunnis—the former
in the desire for a theocracy, the latter in the punctilious observance
of precedent. Its sole distinctive feature is in its transcendentalism
and in the repetition of certain prayers. Like the Wahabis, too, music,
dancing, singing, and coffee are forbidden. In fact, the Sheikh Senussi
seems to have introduced into his new revival of Islam the doctrines of
many of the former sects. The Sheikh himself is dead, being followed in
office by his son, who is still living near Siwah, in the desert between
Egypt and Tripoli. But what makes this sect so vastly important is its
political power, and it may safely be prophesied that the next great
revolt of Islam against the Christians in Africa, no matter what form
it may take, will owe its origin to this movement. The author, within a
few months, heard Senussism preached in Somali-land and in Morocco, in
both of which countries, not to speak of the more central Tunis, Tripoli,
and the state of Fezzan, it is deeply rooted. If, then, a new movement
in Islam is able in the lifetime of two men to gain converts, and many
converts, in countries so distantly removed from one another and from the
headquarters of its founder, it can clearly be understood the immense
power it must hold over the minds of the people; and one of the greatest
drawbacks to European venture in Africa is the undoubted fact that this
smouldering fanaticism will one day burst into flame.
CHAPTER V.
THE REBELLION IN THE YEMEN.
It is seldom that the Sublime Porte is free from trouble regarding one
at least of her possessions; and although the Turkish Government has
taken, in the case of the rebellion in the Yemen, every means to throw
dust in the eyes of Europe, yet sufficient has from time to time leaked
out to show how seriously the affair was regarded by the Sultan and his
Ministers. From such scraps of information it would be impossible to
piece together a history of what has taken place; but the writer, by
making a journey of over four hundred miles through the country at the
very time of the rebellion, was, as the only European in the interior,
with the exception of a few Greek shopkeepers, able to take advantage
of his unique opportunity of seeing for himself, and gathering a
considerable amount of information on the subject.
But before any account is given of the rebellion, it must be explained of
how great a value to the Sultan of Turkey are his possessions in Arabia.
It is on them, and on them alone, that he bases his claim to the title
of Caliph—a title on which his prestige in the eyes of the Moslem mainly
rests. Amongst Mahammedan potentates he is the greatest; for although
many sects of Islam do not hold that one in whose veins the blood of
the Prophet does not flow is able by divine right to succeed to the
Caliphate, the possession of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina cannot
but add to his fame. From all parts of the world the pilgrims flock
yearly to Mecca, there to come in contact with the Turks as a governing
power, to hear the name of Abdul Hamid blessed daily in the mosque;
and in their eyes, by force of circumstance, the Sultan is inseparably
connected with the Holy Places.
True it is that the Yemen is separated from the Hejaz, the province in
which Mecca and Medina are situated, by a large tract of country, known
as the Asir. But the tribes inhabiting this district are, and always have
been, largely influenced by the Yemenite faction, and like them are in
their belief of the Sheiya sect, holding that the claim of the Sultan
of Turkey to the Caliphate is irregular and illegal. This alliance, not
only by blood but by doctrine, which is perhaps the strongest tie of all
amongst the Moslems, caused the rebellion in the Yemen to be a likely
forerunner to a war in the Asir. The Turkish rule has never been more
than nominal amongst the mountains of the latter, so that the repudiation
by them of the Osmanli Government, which has taken place, is fraught
with no great danger to Turkey, provided the discontent and consequent
rebellion remains within bounds, and does not reach the Hejaz. Although
largely subsidised by the Turkish Government, there can be little doubt
that, did they clearly see their way to success, the members of the
Shereefian family of Mecca, direct descendants of the Prophet Mahammed,
would attempt to bring back the succession of the Caliphate into their
own line, and thus into the strain of the descendants of the Prophet; and
to a cause so nearly touching their doctrinal beliefs there is but little
doubt the Bedouins of the Hejaz, as well as many of the inhabitants of
the cities, would readily lend their aid and assistance.
Therefore it will be seen that to the Turks a successful rebellion in
the Yemen meant not only the loss of the southernmost of their Arabian
States, but also the probable ensuing loss of the Hejaz, and the fall
of the Sultan of Turkey in the eyes of the larger portion of the world
of Islam. How many thousands of Mahammedans daily in the mosques call
for blessings on the head of Abdul Hamid the Caliph, who would never
pray for Abdul Hamid the Sultan! The difference is enormous, though to
us somewhat incomprehensible; and it is said, and no doubt rightly so,
that his Majesty of Stamboul values far more than his temporal powers the
title of “Commander of the faithful.” In the one case, as Caliph, he is
in the eyes of all Sunnis[29] Sultan of the Moslem world, and as such
successor to the Prophet himself. In the other, as a Sultan, he is merely
a stranger, an Osmanli, not even of the great Arab race, whose ancestors
have by force of arms conquered and left him a kingdom.
From these remarks it will be inferred how vastly important it is to the
Sultan and the Porte to retain intact the Turkish possessions in Arabia.
Although it was not until the summer of 1891 that the rebellion in the
Yemen took any outward form, the Turks must have been aware, for a
long period previous to that time, that their relations with the Arabs
were becoming day by day more strained. Yet such is the character of
Turkish provincial officials, especially of those so far removed from
the seat of the Government as in the Yemen, that they still continued
their policy of oppression, trusting to fate that there would be no
open hostilities until the jobbery that had put them into power would
follow its inevitable course by removing them and reinstating others in
their places, on whom would fall the brunt of a rebellion, which they
saw might for a time be postponed but impossible to avert. “Make your
hay while the sun shines,” is the motto of the Turkish official; and
for him, as a rule, the sun shines but for a very short period. It is
this extraordinary want of forethought and co-operation, this shifting
of responsibilities upon successors in office, amongst those who help
to rule the destinies of the Turkish provinces, that is the chief root
and origin of all their troubles. “Let me enrich myself,” thinks the
official. “In a month or two I may no longer have the opportunities. I
must make enough in this short period of office to retire upon. What may
follow, what may be the result of my policy, I care not; it interests me
not at all.”
It was the perpetual practice of these theories that gradually drove the
Arabs into resistance. The rebellion was no sudden affair; as long ago as
several years back there had commenced on the part of the Arabs a series
of outrages against Turkish officials that would have rendered apparent
to any other nation but the Turks the danger that was threatening. Cruel
and bloodthirsty as many of these outrages were, they were the only means
in the power of the Arabs of protesting against the exorbitant taxation
and the oppression that were ruining them. Their appeals to Sanaa,
and even to Constantinople, had resulted in no amelioration of their
condition.
It is necessary, I think, to give but one example of these outrages. At
Dhamar, one of the largest cities of the Yemen, there lived a certain
general, by name Mahammed Rushti Pasha, between whom and a neighbouring
tribe there had arisen misunderstanding as to the amount of taxation to
be levied upon them. The pasha insisted on the full sum, and a quarrel
ensued between the Arab sheikh and himself, the former fleeing from the
city swearing revenge. Shortly afterwards Mahammed Rushti being called
away to another part of the country, the tribe in question took advantage
of his absence to blow up his house and family with gunpowder. His wives,
children, and servants died that night, in all some eleven persons.
Returning with all speed to Dhamar, the general, with such forces as were
at the time in the city, almost exterminated the little tribe who had
accomplished so horrible a vengeance. Over the grave of those that died
that night Mahammed Rushti raised a mosque and a domed tomb, the interior
of which he hung with rich silks. Thither he would repair and sit alone.
On the taking of Dhamar by the Arabs in November last, this tomb was
looted, and when visited by the writer at the end of January, the city
by that time having been reconquered by the Turks, he found the tomb and
mosque in ruins, robbed of all its treasures.
That the feeling was so strong as to find vent in such outrages as
these—and that mentioned is but one of many—would have made it apparent,
one would have thought, that the existing state of affairs could not
continue with impunity. But the lot of the Yemeni was to be squeezed
to fill the coffers at Constantinople, and to pay for the harems and
pleasures of unscrupulous officialdom. Such, then, apart from all
religious differences, was the existing state of feeling in the Yemen
when in the summer of the year before last the rebellion broke out.
Before the conquest of the Yemen by the Turks in 1872—for although they
possessed a firm footing on the coast previous to that period, their
power had not made itself felt in the interior—the Yemen was governed by
a ruler after their own hearts; for, being of the Sheiya sect—Zaidis they
call themselves—it was necessary to the tenets of their belief that their
Sultan should be of direct descent from the Prophet, through Ali ibn Abou
Taleb, his nephew and son-in-law. This condition their Imam fulfilled;
for although the Yemen had at different times fallen into foreign hands,
still the direct family had never disappeared.
Sanaa, now the capital of Turkish Yemen, was his residence. It is a
large city, situated roughly two hundred and forty miles north of Aden,
and a hundred and sixty east of Hodaidah. Here the Imam lived the usual
secluded and sensual life of an oriental despot, looked upon by the Arabs
as a spiritual Sultan, but powerless to hold in check the depredations
and robberies of the many tribes under his nominal sway, who, with true
oriental zeal, were continually doing their best to exterminate one
another. As long as money was forthcoming, the Imam was content to dwell
at Sanaa without troubling himself about more external affairs than the
management of his own household, and the receiving of gifts from the
Arabs who performed pilgrimages to his presence. Apparently wanting in
education, except such religious knowledge as is considered necessary
for the welfare of an Oriental of high degree, he possessed no ability
to govern, nor does he appear to have been even renowned as a soldier or
organiser of troops.
Such became at length the state of the country, that trade almost
ceased on account of the attacks upon the caravans; and the Sanaa
merchants—quiet respectable Arabs—saw nothing but ruin before them, and
considering solely the benefits that would accrue to themselves by such
a step, and ignoring what the result would be upon the agricultural
population, invited the Turks to take the place. This was accomplished
in 1872 by a force from Hodaidah. The Imam was deposed; but on account
of his spiritual influence over the Arab horde, was permitted to reside
in Sanaa, receiving a pension on the condition that he would exert his
powers in furthering the interests of the Osmanli Government. This until
his death he fulfilled; on which event the _baraka_, or holy birthright,
passed to his relative Ahmed ed-Din, who, like his predecessor, was by
no means dissatisfied to receive the adoration of the Arabs and the
regularly paid allowance of the Turks.
Such, briefly, was the history of the Turkish occupation of the Yemen
and the state of affairs until last year. The tribes, in the time of the
Imam, left undisturbed both in their labours in the fields and in their
welfare, boasting an independence of centuries, found themselves, on
the Turkish occupation, little better than slaves—oppressed, taxed, and
retaxed by a people whose extortions ruined them, whose personality they
hated, and with whom, although co-religionists, there was no unison in
religious views.
But the smouldering discontent was destined to burst into flame, even
though the flame might blaze forth but to flicker and die.
On an appeal from the governor of Lohaya, a body of four hundred Turkish
troops were despatched last summer to assist in collecting by force
the taxes due from the Beni Meruan, a branch of the Asir people, and
their southernmost tribe, who inhabit the country lying to the east of
Lohaya, a port on the Red Sea coast north of Hodaidah. In command of this
force was the very Mahammed Rushti Pasha whose house had been destroyed
at Dhamar. The expedition was destined to complete failure, and being
surprised by a large body of Arabs, was nearly annihilated before the
security of a fort was reached, amongst those who fell being the pasha
himself.
In countries like the Yemen news travels with extraordinary rapidity,
and the Arabs, hearing an exaggerated report of what had taken place,
believed that at last their deliverance had come, for it was rumoured
that the great district of the Asir, between the Yemen and the Hejaz, had
risen, intent upon exterminating the Turks. Where the news travelled the
people rose in arms. Tribal banners long hid away were unfurled, and the
cry of “God give victory to the Imam” echoed and re-echoed throughout the
mountains and valleys of the Yemen.
Meanwhile the hero of the rebellion, Ahmed ed-Din, was living quietly at
Sanaa on the subsidy of the Turkish Government, unconscious of what was
taking place, although, doubtless, there was ever present in his mind the
possibility of some day regaining for himself and his descendants the
throne. He clearly saw that affairs were not ripe for a great rebellion,
and almost against his will he was obliged to fly from the capital, and
become the head of the rebel movement. Premature as things were, he must
in the enthusiasm of his partisans have almost believed in their future
success.
It was a new _Jehad_, or holy war! The Turks were to be exterminated or
driven away; the beloved Ahmed ed-Din—beloved on account of his birth
and descent rather than from any knowledge of his personality—was to
be reinstated on the throne. One by one the tribes rose, except only
the Bedouin inhabitants of the Teháma and the southern deserts, who,
possessing nothing but a few flocks and herds, and always wandering,
were indifferent to Turkish or Arab rule, and awaited the result before
promising allegiance to either side. The same plan was followed by
many of the merchants and citizens, whose position and intimacy with
the Turkish officials placed them outside the bounds of oppression and
taxation, and who in many cases were only too ready to take advantage
of their fellow-countrymen’s unenviable position, by buying from the
Turks the right of collecting the taxes of certain districts; for the
privilege of levying dues is a commercial article, sold from time to
time by auction, a system that relieves the Government of much anxiety
and trouble, but encourages to an almost incredible extent cruelty and
oppression.
In what state were the Turks to repress a general rising of this sort?
The force in the country was estimated at some sixteen thousand men,
although in reality probably far short of that number; for during the
two previous years cholera had wrought great havoc amongst the troops.
These troops consisted of Turkish regulars, Bashi-bazouks, and a large
number of Arab auxiliaries, drawn principally from the Mshareg and
Hadramaut, the country to the east of the Yemen, who did not care whom
they fought against, or for what reason they were fighting, so long as
they were paid, and whose one stimulant to feats of bravery was promised
reward. The Turkish troops already in Yemen were in a miserable state.
Ill fed, ill clothed, thinned by disease, badly housed, and seldom, if
ever, paid, it is no wonder that their spirit was broken in a land where
during summer they were liable to a temperature that seldom falls below
a hundred in such shade as their badly built barracks afforded, and in
winter to frosts, and at times snow—to all the vagaries, in fact, of a
tropical climate on the tops of mountains of from seven thousand to
nine thousand feet in altitude. A more pitiful picture than the Turkish
soldiers presented when the writer was in Yemen he never saw, and yet
they fight like devils rather than men.
[Illustration: _Turkish troops on the march._]
A few days after the flight of the Imam, Sanaa, the capital, was besieged
by an enormous force of Arabs, as was Amran, another walled city; while
those which were not so protected fell, many without even a struggle,
into the hands of the Arabs. Menakha, on the road from Hodaidah to Sanaa,
offered a little resistance, but in vain. Those of the garrison who were
not killed or wounded in the first onslaught of the Arabs were spared
on surrender, and taken away prisoners, amongst their number being the
Kaimakam or military governor. The same happened at Dhamar and Yerim, on
the road from Sanaa to Aden; while in quick succession Ibb, Jiblah, and
Taiz, all three large towns situated farther south, proclaimed for Ahmed
ed-Din. All Turkish prisoners were spared. Many voluntarily went over to
the side of the Arabs; some retired into private life on surrendering
their arms. Those of importance were sent to the Imam, where report
said they were housed and fed at his expense, doubtless in the hope of
persuading them to throw in their lot with his own, and so obtain use of
their superior knowledge of warfare. In very exceptional cases do we hear
of the cruel treatment of Turks by the Arabs in their days of victory;
and even when the tide of affairs was changed, the writer met amongst
the Arabs, in districts where no Turkish troops could enter, deserters
from the Osmanli forces being fed and clothed by the kindly Arabs; and in
many cases money was supplied them by their _quondam_ enemies to assist
them in reaching Aden, or in escaping by other means from the hard life
of soldiering.
By this time telegrams were pouring into Constantinople from Hodaidah
beseeching assistance; and the Porte, having at length realised how
serious a turn affairs had taken, exerted all its activity in forwarding
troops to the scene of war. By the time the new forces had embarked for
Hodaidah, the whole country, with the exception of Sanaa and Amran and
a small city in the Asir, by name Dhofir, had fallen into the hands
of the rebels, the plains and seaboard towns holding aloof from any
participation in the affair, though probably it was only the presence of
better organised Turkish forces which kept in check the feeling which
no doubt existed almost as strongly there as anywhere. The Beni Meruan,
many of whose villages lie on the sea-coast, were pitilessly shelled by a
couple of Turkish gunboats.
Ahmed ed-Din remained at Sadah,[30] whither he had fled from Sanaa;
nor at any part of the revolt did he take active part in the fighting,
a fact that in no small degree accounts for the subsequent failure of
the rebellion. In all probability he never left Sadah, though in his
religious character his movements were always spoken about with much
mystery.
Sanaa at the end of October was still in a state of siege, the garrison
and townspeople suffering greatly from hunger and disease, though in
Amran the state of the inhabitants was still more pitiable.
Badly fed as they were at all times, worse now than ever, one cannot but
admire the immense pluck of the handful of Turkish troops who kept at bay
for several months an immense horde of Arabs. Not only was their courage
exhibited in the dogged resistance within the town, but in their constant
and often successful sorties against the enemy.
A short description of the city of Sanaa is necessary in order to explain
the positions of besiegers and besieged during the whole of last autumn.
The city, which contains some fifty thousand inhabitants, lies in a
wide level valley. It takes the form of a triangle, the eastern point
consisting of a large fortress, dominating the town, and built upon the
lowest spur of Jibel Negoum, a mountain which rises immediately outside
the city walls. The town is divided into three distinct quarters, each
walled, and the whole surrounded by one continuous wall. They are
respectively the city proper, in which are the Government buildings,
the huge bazaars, and the residence of the Arabs and Turks; the Jews’
quarter; and Bir el-Azab, where are gardens and villas belonging to the
richer Turks and Arabs. The city was once of great wealth and prosperity,
and to-day remains one of the most nourishing cities of Arabia. The
shops are well supplied with European goods, and a large manufacture of
silk, jewellery, and arms is carried on there. The quarter in which the
Government buildings are situated presents almost a European appearance,
with its large Turkish shops, its _cafés_, and its open places, on one of
which, in front of the Governor-General’s official residence, a military
band discourses anything but sweet music of an afternoon.
But the city, as the writer saw it after its recapture by the Turks,
presented a very different spectacle from what it must have done when,
surrounded on all sides by a horde of Arabs, a continual shower of
bullets was being poured into its streets from the Arab position on Jibel
Negoum, which completely dominated the place. Fortunately for those
besieged, the rebels possessed no artillery, otherwise their efforts
would no doubt have proved successful in gaining an entrance into the
town. However, the fire poured into the city was sufficiently harassing
to render it expedient to drive the Arabs from their position above the
town, and several unsuccessful sorties were made. At length, mustering
all the troops at his command, the pasha made a final sortie about the
middle of November. Maintaining a steady fire from the fort upon the
Arab position, the troops issued from the southern gate, and wheeling
to the left after a gallant attack—for the Arabs were in overwhelming
numbers—drove the rebels back. They retreated on Dar es-salaam, a small
village a few miles outside the walls of Sanaa, consisting of perhaps a
dozen or so stone houses surrounded by a wall. Bringing up some small
field-guns, the artillery opened fire upon the rebels, completely
destroying the place and rendering a precipitate retreat of the Arabs
necessary, which they are said to have accomplished in the wildest
disorder, leaving, as I was informed, several thousand dead upon the
field. But the victory was not altogether a blessing, for there being
no one to bury the Arab dead, the inhabitants of the city suffered from
violent disease, while the stench of the decaying bodies is said to have
been terrible. Retiring once more within the precincts of the city, the
Arabs again took up their old position; but their defeat seems to have
to a great degree crushed their spirits, and the remainder of the siege,
severe though the sufferings of the townspeople were, is said to have
been less acute than previously. At any rate, the alarm of a successful
attack on the part of the rebels seems to have abated.
But relief was at hand. The Turkish reinforcements had landed in Hodaidah
under the command of Ahmed Feizi Pasha, formerly Governor of Mecca, and
commander of the Seventh Army Corps.
Learning on his arrival at Hodaidah how serious was the state of
affairs, he at once took active measures, and without even waiting for
commissariat arrangements to be carried out, marched his troops _viâ_
Bajil to Hojaila, a village at the foot of the mountains on which the
town of Menakha is situated, and over which the road to Sanaa passes.
Here three days later they were overtaken by the commissariat camels
bringing flour and provisions for the soldiers. Having rested his men, he
commenced the ascent of the steep road, and here met with the first show
of resistance. But the Turkish soldiers were fresh and fought well, and
the superiority of arms did its work. With but a short delay to force the
road, Menakha was reached.
There is perhaps in the world no city situated in the way that
Menakha is. At an altitude of seven thousand six hundred feet above
the sea-level, it is perched on a narrow ridge joining two distinct
mountain-ranges. On either side of the city are precipices, each of
considerably over two thousand feet in depth. So narrow is the town
that there are places in it where one can stand and gaze down both
these precipices at the same time. To reach it from the west there is
only one path in the steep mountain-side; while from the east it can
only be approached by a narrow track cut in the face of a precipice and
winding up it for an ascent of two thousand five hundred feet. In the
hands of well-regulated forces it would be impregnable; but the Arab
defenders, learning how easily the new Governor-General and his troops
had forced the road at Hojaila, made no plucky resistance: and armed as
they were almost entirely with matchlock and fuse guns—and many only with
spears—they could have made no permanent stand against the field-guns of
the Turks, who are said in one day to have brought their light artillery
from Hojaila to Menakha, an ascent of nearly six thousand feet, by a
break-neck path. But few shots had been fired when the Arabs fled, and
the Turks once more took possession of the place. Leaving a sufficient
garrison to protect the town, and to keep open a line of communication
with the coast, Ahmed Feizi marched on towards Sanaa. About thirty miles
from Menakha, on the road to the capital, is a spot called Hajarat
el-Mehedi, where the track is so narrow and so bad that even without
resistance it would offer no slight obstacle to the passage of troops.
Here the rebel army under Seyed esh-Sheraï, a cousin to Ahmed ed-Din,
took up a position, and a twelve days’ delay and fighting took place
before the Turks could force their way through. But on the twelfth day
it was accomplished, and the rebels dispersed. Halting but now and again
to shell some village, the troops by hurried marches reached Sanaa, and
on their being sighted by the Arab besiegers on Jibel Negoum, the Imam’s
force retired into the mountains to the east, where no Turkish troops
could follow them.
[Illustration: MENAKHA.]
The capital relieved, Ahmed Feizi was not idle. He arrived in time to
save the garrison of Amran, where, as at Sanaa, the Arabs retired on
the approach of the Turkish forces. Returning to Sanaa, he set to work
to reorganise affairs, despatching Ismail Pasha with a considerable
number of troops to recapture Dhamar and Yerim. Proclaiming military law,
which in this case meant almost no law, throughout the country, the new
Governor-General offered a reward for the head of every rebel brought
to him, and turned loose upon the Arabs his Turkish troops to loot and
plunder their villages. Marching to the south, Ismail Pasha halted at
Maaber to shell the villages of Jibel Anis, retook Dhamar without any
opposition being offered, and, leaving a garrison there, proceeded to
Yerim, and thence by Seddah and Sobeh to Kátaba, where the writer found
him encamped with four hundred troops toward the middle of last January.
Ibb, Jiblah, and Taiz returned under Turkish rule without a struggle.
There is no nation in the world that can put down a rebellion as the
Turks can, but they have a great objection to any one seeing the process;
and the presence of the writer, turning up suddenly in Sanaa while Ahmed
Feizi Pasha was engaged upon this task, caused such a shock, that he
and his servants were securely confined in prison as spies in spite of
passports, until, from the unsanitary conditions of the place and the
bad water supplied, he was seized with a violent attack of fever; and
no doubt thinking that it would be better to get rid of him alive than
have an objectionable corpse on their hands, and probably a good many
questions to answer, a guard of soldiers was prepared, and the writer
was hurried away to Hodaidah with orders to quit. Yet, in spite of the
fact that his relations with Ahmed Feizi Pasha were a little strained, he
cannot but testify to his admirable activity and soldier-like bearing—an
admiration dimmed only by the cruelty, perhaps almost necessary, of some
of his commands. Thus it will be seen, from the day that Ahmed Feizi
Pasha took over the governor-generalship of the Yemen, the tide of events
had completely changed. A series of Arab victories had ended in a series
of Arab defeats. Had Sanaa been taken, the result would doubtless have
been different; but in their endeavours to take it they failed. Renowned
in history, sacred to them as the former seat of government of their
Imams, their want of success in capturing it, together with the action of
Ahmed ed-Din, who held aloof from any active part in the warfare, broke
their spirits. Had they succeeded in entering Sanaa, had they brought
their Imam there in state, there is some possibility that the Turks might
have lost the Yemen for ever. They themselves, and Ahmed Feizi Pasha the
first of them, told the writer this.
Thus by the end of January the Turks had reconquered all the cities of
Yemen with the exception of one, Dhofir, at that time still besieged
by the Arabs. Yet in spite of the fact that Turkish rule was again
reinstated in the country, in spite of the fact that what with the
reinforcements there were altogether some forty thousand troops in
the Yemen, the rebellion was by no means stamped out. This is easily
understood when the nature of the country is described. Central Yemen
consists of a great plateau, upon which are situated the three principal
cities, Sanaa, Dhamar, and Yerim. This plateau is surrounded by a
system of mountains broken and torn into valleys and cañons, peaks and
pinnacles, amongst which it would be impossible for any Turkish force
to operate. Many of these mountains reach an altitude of over twelve
thousand and thirteen thousand feet, the summits often connected with
the valleys beneath by precipices of thousands of feet in depth. The
only roads—mere tracks they are—are cut in the face of these walls
of rock, and often are not a yard in breadth. Amongst these enormous
mountain-ranges—and to the north of Sanaa one can travel for days and
weeks amongst them—the spirit of rebellion burns as fiercely to-day
as ever. Certainly the towns are now in the possession of the Turks,
yet the main roads that connect the towns are unsafe for Turks to pass
over, except in considerable numbers together. It was to a large extent
from these mountain districts that the revenues of the Government were
previously drawn; for the Arabs of the Yemen, unlike those of the Hejaz
and most other Arabian States, are tillers of the soil, living in
well-built and permanent villages, one and all roughly fortified, from
which they would be able to withstand any band of armed tax-collectors,
such as were wont formerly to be sent to levy the dues, as often on
behalf of those who had purchased the rights of collecting from the
district as on the part of the Government direct. In many of these
villages the writer sat, sharing with the Arabs their humble repast,
sipping their coffee and smoking their hubble-bubbles, and listening to
their strange songs and prayers for the return of the Imam, Ahmed ed-Din,
to power.
The rebellion has been outwardly crushed, but the prestige of Turkey in
the Yemen has received a severe blow. The exorbitant squeezing will have
to be abandoned, with the results that the revenue will probably fall
to a tenth of its former sum. Many tribes formerly taxed will maintain
an armed independence. The garrisons in the towns must be doubled, and
the Yemen as a means of filling the Turkish coffers will be finished.
Over the rebellion the Porte has expended a vast sum of money, while any
attempt to recoup itself from the scene of action will but bring on a
second and probably more disastrous rising.
Little more remains to be told except to consider briefly in what
manner a permanent Arab success would have influenced ourselves. It was
generally believed amongst the Turks in all quarters that it was British
intrigue that stirred up the rebellion in the Yemen, although even the
Turks themselves were at a loss to understand what advantages we should
reap through such an action. They called attention to the independent
States that lie between Aden and the Turkish frontier at Kátaba, the
states of Lahej, Dhala, and the lands of the Houshabi, Aloui, and other
tribes. Yet Ahmed Feizi Pasha himself informed the writer that, equally
with the English, the Turkish Government subsidise their Sultans, Amirs,
and Sheikhs; but the object of our subsidising them is misunderstood by
the officials of Sanaa and Constantinople. To them it is impossible to
consider in the same light as we do the vast importance of trade; and
it is merely that the roads which pass through these various States may
be kept open and safe for caravans trading with Aden, that we pay large
monthly sums to the native rulers. At the same time, it is doubtless an
advantage to possess a more or less independent strip of country between
our frontier at Aden and that of the Turkish Yemen.
What has been to England the result of the Turkish occupation of the
Yemen? It has been a result enormously beneficial. Formerly, in the time
of Arab rule, no caravans were able to pass and repass in safety from the
interior to Aden. The inability of the Imam to hold the tribes in check
rendered the looting of every caravan probable. But since the arrival
of the Turks things have altered. By keeping the roads open the Turks
have rendered a vast service to England, by, as far as their power went,
ensuring safe-conduct to the passage of caravans, while unconsciously
their greed in levying enormous export and import dues at Hodaidah and
their ports has driven the greater part of the Yemen trade to Aden—a free
port. Thus it will be seen how vastly beneficial to England has been the
conquest of the Yemen by the Turks; and had the Osmanli Government lost
possession of the country, the result could have brought about but one
effect—a return to the state of affairs previous to Turkish annexation,
and a consequent enormous diminution of the Aden trade both in coffee and
exports, and in the European goods and tobaccos from the Persian Gulf,
for which the returning caravans create a great demand. Yet the Turks
assured the writer that the British Government was supplying arms and
assistance to the rebels. In reality the rifles were being smuggled in by
private traders from the French port at Obock.
As to what will be the future policy of Turkey in the Yemen it is
difficult to surmise. No doubt Abdul Hamid will be guided much by the
report of his aide-de-camp Yakoub Bey, who was despatched to Sanaa for
the purpose of bringing a full report to the Sultan. Rather than risk a
second rebellion, there is little doubt that a conciliatory policy will
be attempted; but the Yemen is too far removed from Constantinople to
be governed from there, and as soon as affairs have quieted down, the
officials will take advantage of their positions to commence once more
the oppression of the people and the filling of their pockets. Could
they be persuaded that extortion is not the road by which to arrive at
a satisfactory system of government, they would find the country daily
growing richer, and their relations with the Arabs more peaceable and
less strained than at present. But the leopard cannot change his spots;
and it is only probable that as long as Osmanli supremacy exists in the
Yemen, officialdom will continue to enrich itself and impoverish the
country.
PART II.
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN
CHAPTER I.
ADEN.
There is not a breath of wind to stir the placid surface of the
sea—not a breath to cause a draught upon the ship and cool us for a
second. It is one of those terrible still tropical days, motionless,
silent, oppressive. Nothing to hear but the hissing of the sea as the
vessel’s bows plough up the turquoise water, and the thud, thud of her
never-ceasing screw. Even the Lascars in their white clothes and bare
feet, children of the sun as they are, seem downcast.
We are passing Perim. It lies on the port side, a dirty blot upon a scene
of opalesque transparence, of shimmering water and palpitating sky.
A youth travelling round the world stretches himself, jots a few lines in
his diary, and commences to tell the old story of the taking of Perim.
But he is soon cried down, and silence reigns again.
On both sides we can see the land,—burning rock seen through a burning
atmosphere. A number of flying-fish buzz over the surface of the water,
and with a series of little splashes disappear once again.
* * * * *
A few hours later and Aden is in sight, with its broken and torn
peaks and jagged outline. A little movement is noticeable amongst the
passengers, but it is half-hearted at the best.
Then we enter the grand bay, surrounded by desolate rock and still more
desolate desert, and drop anchor a mile or so off Steamer Point, as the
shipping quarter of Aden is called.
The steamer is quickly surrounded. A few steam-launches, heavily
awninged, screech their whistles; while a crowd of small boats
manned by coal-black Somali boys, each striving to be the first upon
the scene, crowd upon us. They are boatmen, divers, and sellers of
curiosities—smart, bright little fellows, more than half nude, and as
black as coal, many with their hair left long like the cords of a Russian
poodle. Such a screaming and a yelling! Such a diving after small coins!
Such a display of leopard-skins, antelope-horns, especially those of the
lovely oryx, and ostrich-feathers, products of the opposite coast! A few
dull austere Indians and Cingalese display embroideries and table-cloths,
but the heat seems to depress them, just as it does the buyers.
[Illustration: TOMB AND MOSQUE OF SHEIKH OTHMAN, NEAR ADEN.]
It is a wonderful sight to watch the divers, balanced on the gunwales of
the boats, their hands above their heads, watching eagerly for the tiny
splash of a small coin, then breaking the water into a series of dancing
circles as their dusky bodies disappear into the transparent blue. One
can see them too under water, turning like fishes in search of the slowly
sinking money. When the excitement had worn off, and those passengers who
cared to brave the sun’s terrific rays by taking a short run ashore had
left, I hailed a boy, who, with the aid of Abdurrahman, my ever-faithful
Arab servant from Morocco, stowed my luggage into the boat. Then I said
good-bye to the P. and O. steamer, and was rowed ashore.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF ADEN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS
To Illustrate Mr. W. B. Harris’ “A Journey through the Yemen”
W. & A. K. Johnston. Edinburgh & London.]
At some steps leading to a galvanised-iron-roofed landing-place I stepped
ashore. What a scene of desolation and dreariness Aden presents to the
new-comer! and how soon one gets to like the place in spite of it all! A
background of dreary blackish rock, a sandy road, half-a-dozen rickety
_gharies_ under the shelter of a hideous iron-roofing, with sleepy
little ponies and still more sleepy Somali drivers; a whitewashed domed
saint’s tomb, with an apology for a garden on each side, in which a few
weary-looking plants were trying to appear green under a thick coating of
dust and a sweltering sun; a long crescent of badly built houses, with
the exception of the handsome Aden Bank buildings, faced by an expanse of
sand and black palings,—and that is Steamer Point, as one first sees it.
But as the sun sinks low a figure or two appear, and toward sunset the
place wears a gay and flourishing appearance.
Getting my baggage into a hand-cart, I set off for the hotel, where at
least was shade and tolerable coolness, say some 90° Fahrenheit. But
in spite of its dreary aspect, in spite of the dull monotony of its
colouring, one gets quite fond of Aden. The cheery hospitality of the
garrison, the gorgeous early mornings and evenings, the delicious warm
January nights, the club, the verandahs of which are laved by the sea,
the white hulls of the men-of-war in the bay, and the pleasant evenings
spent under their awnings, dispel all the unfavourable impressions which
are at first so numerous and apparent. In a few days one has forgotten
that the whole place, from the top of Sham-sham down to the sandy
isthmus, is all a volcanic hideosity; one has forgotten that the whole
is so impregnated with salt as to almost forbid any verdure to grow, and
that, should it by chance take root, the sun is there to kill it. One
sees after a time only the picturesqueness of the place,—the strange torn
mountain-peaks; the gay thronging crowd of many nationalities all bent on
their several businesses, except the Jews, who seem bent upon everybody
else’s; and the Somalis, who are as indifferent to the general world as
they are to the heat, excepting when a passing steamer lands for an hour
or two a flock of extraordinarily habited travellers—and then the cabs
fly backwards and forwards, the ponies kicking up the dust, their feet
rattling along the hard roads and making almost as much noise as the
cracking of the jehus’ whips; then the Jews, the money-changers, pass
and repass, spilling their coins one by one from hand to hand, until the
very jingling drives one frantic; and the black urchins, who have learnt
English enough to lie with facility, and to beg, worry, and bother until
they are paid to go away, appear. Then the curio-seller, be he Greek
or Jew or swarthy Indian, creeps out from amongst his moth-eaten lion
and leopard skins and his boxes of stale “Turkish delight,” and with
outstretched hands bids the traveller enter. Then, too, there is the
jingling of long tumblers on the wide verandah of the hotel, and a crowd
of boats in readiness at the landing-place. Just like a flock of locusts
they come and stay their hour or two, and just like a flock of locusts
they go, some outward bound, some returning home; and Steamer Point is
itself again.
Often as Aden has been described, it is necessary here to make some
mention of its various sights and the varied scenes it presents; for, as
part and parcel of the Yemen, it cannot be passed over in a book that
attempts to deal with that country. If, however, the reader has been
there, or has read more pretentious accounts of it, let him skip it over.
Hated, spoken of as typical of the infernal regions, ugly as it is, Aden
perhaps can claim an antiquity and an importance throughout all history
unparalleled, for its size and its situation, in the annals of the
world. When countries, now the centres of vast civilisations, consisted
of primeval forests, inhabited by almost primeval man, and filled with
wild beasts, Aden was an emporium of trade. With every possible natural
disadvantage, except its harbour and its situation, it was inhabited
by merchants, who collected and reshipped by vessel and by caravan the
wealth of many lands. Africa, India, the Persian Gulf, poured on to the
arid volcanic rock their gold and their purples, their spices and their
precious stones.
“Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs,
and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants. The merchants of
Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs
with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran,
and Canneh, and _Eden_, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad,
were thy merchants.”[31] There is no doubt in the minds of competent
authorities that the place here referred to as Eden is none other than
Aden, while many other of the names mentioned have been identified with
ruins and towns of modern Arabia; but of this more anon.
Ibn Khaldun, in his geographical notes on the Yemen, writing in the
eighth century A.H., mentions the extreme antiquity of Aden, speaking of
it as a place of importance in the time of the Tubbas, who were the kings
descended from Himyar, son of Abd esh-Shems, great-grandson of Kahtan,
said to be the Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures, the founder of the
oldest authentic tribes in the Yemen; for although they migrated to that
country, there are no remains to be traced of the inhabitants who were
there before them.
Returning to more historical times, we find that during the reigns of one
of the Cæsars, probably Claudius, Aden was destroyed by the Romans,[32]
probably in order to divert the trade of India to the ports which Ælius
Gallus had founded on the shores of the Red Sea, to which Aden proved,
no doubt, a formidable rival. Later we find it conquered by the army of
Constantine, and re-named Emporium Romanum.
Returning once more to oriental sources, we find the place split up by
the wars and factions which were so constant throughout the Yemen, and
Aden several times was besieged and conquered. Most important, perhaps,
of these early monarchs was the line of Hamdani princes, who, descended
from the Beni Zuray, held it from about 440 A.H. with many ups and downs
of fortune, until in A.H. 569 it was conquered by the troops of Turan
Shah of the Ayyubite dynasty of Egypt.
In 1487, some three hundred years after the accession of the Ayyubite
Sultans over Aden, a period of continued strife, we find the place
visited by a Portuguese by name John Pedro de Covilham. This expedition
was organised to explore that quarter of the globe after an ambassador
had been sent to Florence by the Christian King of Abyssinia whom we
have learned to know by the name of Prester John. Covilham eventually
ended his days at Shoa, at the Court of Iskander, or Alexander, the then
reigning prince.
From the next European, however, who visited Aden we have a more
succinct account, though unfortunately his work upon the subject of his
travels[33] is so taken up with personal narrative, and his names are so
unreliable, that it is with some difficulty that historical events are
recognised. I refer to Ludovico de Barthema, known also as Vertomanus,
who travelled in Arabia about the year 1504.
Albuquerque’s attack upon Aden forms one of the most interesting items
in its history, and short notice must be taken of it here. The sovereign
of Abyssinia at this epoch was a Christian, Queen Helena by name, who,
wishing to obtain assistance by which to keep off the Arab invasions into
her own country, sent an Armenian envoy to the Court of Lisbon. After
wandering about in a somewhat vague way for several years—he went _viâ_
India, where he was detained twenty-three months—he at length, in 1513,
arrived at Lisbon. He found on his arrival that an expedition was already
organised to carry out the proposals he was bringing from his queen,
and in command of which Alphonso de Albuquerque left India in February
of the same year with two thousand five hundred men, two-thirds of them
Portuguese, the rest Indians. On Easter eve they arrived at Aden, and
at once attacked the place. After a siege of four days further efforts
were found to be useless; and bombarding the town, and destroying the
native shipping, the Portuguese flotilla sailed for the Red Sea. A second
attempt on the part of Albuquerque to take Aden the following spring
again failed, owing to the fact that it had meanwhile been refortified.
A few years later, in 1516 A.D., Aden was again besieged, this time by
an expedition sent from Egypt under Raïs Suleiman; but the city was
again found to be impregnable, and the attacking force suffered very
considerable loss. However, so weakened had the fortifications been by
these repeated attacks, that when Soarez arrived shortly afterwards, the
governor surrendered the place into his hands; but on the Portuguese
attempting to follow and capture Suleiman’s fleet, the governor made
haste to repair the fortifications, and on Soarez’s return he found
himself baffled, and Aden more firmly in the hands of the Amir Morjaun
than ever.
Meanwhile Suleiman had organised an enormous fleet, with part of which he
visited Aden. The city was taken by treachery; for the governor, having
been enticed on board the ships, was hung, and soldiers landed on beds
under the pretence that they were sick men. In 1551 the inhabitants,
oppressed by the cruel representatives left by Suleiman, rebelled, and
ceded Aden to the Portuguese.
It is not for nearly fifty years later than this date that we find the
English in these seas. On the 8th April 1609 a ship belonging to the East
India Company, by name the Ascension, visited Aden. Received with every
possible courtesy, the captain was, when once safely in the hands of the
governor, entrapped and imprisoned, and only allowed to leave Aden after
paying heavy fines in goods and money. A year later the Darling and the
Peppercorn arrived, under the command of Admiral Sir Henry Middleton.
On the Darling proceeding to Mokha, the crew of the Peppercorn were
treacherously seized and detained in prison.
The Dutch were the next to appear upon the scene, Van den Broeck
arriving with a fleet in 1614, in order to found trading relations
between the natives and the Dutch East India Company. Their overtures
were exceedingly well received by the officials, but the jealousy of the
more influential native merchants prevented their being able to come to
any satisfactory arrangement. From this period until the beginning of
the present century Aden shared the ups and downs of fate that are so
frequent in all oriental places; but as any account of these would prove
tedious, they can very well be omitted. In 1802 we find Aden visited
by Sir Home Popham, who, having failed in concluding a treaty with the
Imam of Sanaa, was able to enter upon and carry through a commercial
and amicable treaty with the then Sultan of Aden. As late as 1833 we
find another example of the treachery of the natives of Aden. Turkchee
Bilmas, as Mahammed Agha was nicknamed, after his series of extraordinary
victories, having demanded and received the surrender of the governor of
Aden, sent thither a mission of forty persons. They were well received,
but during the night more than half their number were foully murdered,
the rest escaping in miserable plight.
In 1835 steamers of the Indian Government having harboured in Aden, made
use of it as a coaling-station; but it was, on account of the difficulty
of obtaining labour, changed for Makulla, a port to the east on the
Hadramaut coast. After, in 1837, being sacked by the Foudtheli tribe, the
attention of the Indian Government was called to Aden by the fact that a
ship flying British colours, the Deria Dowlat, being wrecked near that
port, the vessel was looted, and the passengers, some of whom were native
ladies of rank, insultingly treated. Captain Haines, in command of the
war-sloop Coote, arrived in December, and laid a claim before the Sultan
for twelve thousand dollars compensation. A plot being in the air to
obtain possession of the person and papers of Captain Haines, he sailed
for India, returning in October 1838 to enforce the carrying out of the
cession of Aden in return for an annual payment to the Sultan of nearly
nine thousand dollars a-year. Having been insultingly treated, Captain
Haines commenced to blockade the port, until, in January 1839, H.M.S.
Volage and H.M.S. Cruizer arrived upon the scene. A message to surrender
being left unanswered, the town was bombarded and taken, the Sultan and
his family escaping to Lahej, a city some thirty miles in the interior.
The capture of Aden is curious as being the first addition to the Empire
made during the reign of Queen Victoria.
It is wonderful to notice how soon it became apparent to the natives that
they had nothing to fear from the British occupation; but, in spite of
this feeling of satisfaction in the eyes of the lower-class natives and
the merchants, the chiefs of the Abdali tribe, in spite of solemn bonds
to the contrary, attempted to retake the place. In this they failed, and,
exasperated at their want of success, commenced a series of depredations
upon the caravans and local property of Arabs residing in Aden. After a
severe struggle in 1841, in which two Arab forts on the mainland were
destroyed by the British troops, affairs remained in a more peaceful
condition until, in 1846, Seyed Ismail, a fanatical Shereef, preached a
holy war and the retaking of Aden from the infidels. Augmented by many
local tribes, three separate attempts were made upon Aden, each of which
was successfully repulsed. Like all such failures in the East, the Seyed
was stamped as an impostor, and, his army having dissolved, he was killed
by a Bedouin in 1848. In 1850 the crew of a man-of-war’s boat landing
on the north side of the bay was attacked, and some of the number were
wounded, one man being killed. A still more melancholy affair happened
in February 1851, when a shooting-party was attacked at the village of
Wáhat, of whom Captain Milne was killed and several others badly wounded.
A series of like depredations and outrages continued to take place, until
in 1858 an attack was made upon the Arabs and the battle of Sheikh Othman
fought, which ended in the blowing up of the fort and the village, and
the opening of negotiations for a friendly understanding between the
British Government and the Abdali Sultan.
From this time on affairs became more quiet; but on the Turks conquering
the interior of the Yemen in 1872—they had held a firm footing on the
Red Sea coast before this period—it was found necessary to demand the
withdrawal of the Osmanli forces from the tribe lands surrounding
Aden. At this epoch, too, Little Aden, a sister peninsula which forms
the western shore of the Aden bay, was purchased, and in 1883 British
territory was extended across the isthmus, by which arrangement the
entire shores of the harbour fell under the jurisdiction of the British
Government. Included in this deed of purchase is the village of Sheikh
Othman, now a flourishing little township, with a police station and a
clock tower dominating its principal square. Bungalows have been built
there and gardens laid out, and Sheikh Othman to-day presents quite a
prosperous appearance, though the less said about its inhabitants, for
the most part Arab dancing-girls, the better.
Thus, then, the extent of territory in the possession of the British
Government in the vicinity of Aden may be described as follows: Aden on
the east, Little Aden on the west, and an intermediate strip along the
north shore of the bay; the total area forming some seventy square miles.
Of these, Aden alone is fortified.
The peninsula is situated one hundred and twenty miles from the Straits
of Bab el-Mandeb, in latitude 12° 47′ N., and longitude 45° E. It is
five miles in length and three in breadth, and consists of hills of
bare grey-black rock, the highest of which, Jibel Sham-sham, reaches
an altitude of nearly eighteen hundred feet above the sea-level. The
volcanic origin of the place is clearly demonstrated by the fact that
there exists a large crater, which, owing to the broken spurs of rock
by which it is surrounded, renders a greater portion of the peninsula
uninhabitable. However, in such parts as are suitable for building the
most has been made, and an extraordinary number of people find room
to exist upon the barren rock, which of itself produces none of the
necessities of life. Including the population of Sheikh Othman, the
census return in 1891 was over thirty-eight thousand, whereas at the time
of the British conquest in 1839 the population numbered only some six
thousand.
The greater portion of the population consists of Arabs and Somalis. The
Arabs are for the most part labourers, ship-coalers, and some shopkeepers
and traders. The Somalis prefer the lighter trade of cab-driving, the
rowing of small boats, and such work. They seem perfectly incapable of
stationary labour, and unable to conquer their nomad traits. Almost
every nationality is found in Aden: besides the Europeans there are
Hindus, Parsees, Turks, Egyptian Arabs, Persians, Chinese, Seedy boys,
Abyssinians, Jews, and many natives of India of different types and
classes. Principal amongst the British Indian subjects are the Parsees,
who act as agents and shopkeepers, in which professions they equal the
meanness—or shall I call it business talent—of the Jews. One sees them
everywhere with their long white flimsy garments and curious head-gear
resembling a coal-scuttle. They have brought to Aden a spark of the
ever-living fire of Bombay, and have established themselves there with
their temples and womenfolk, and are annexing a very considerable
proportion of the trade.
The peninsula of Aden boasts two towns and an important village. The
former are Aden proper, situated on the level bottom of the crater,
and Tawahi, at Steamer Point, which contains some seven hundred houses,
inhabited for the most part by those who gain a livelihood dependent
upon the shipping. The large town of Aden proper contains some eighteen
thousand inhabitants. The principal village is Maala, where the native
craft, strange dhows and _bugalas_, anchor; and here nearly all the
native trade is shipped or landed, as the case may be.
Before entering upon any description of Aden as it appears to the
traveller of to-day, it may be as well to finish such statistics as are
necessary here. First, as to the anchorage that Aden affords to shipping.
The bay, which attains its greatest length almost due east and west,
consists of two distinct portions, the inner and the outer harbour. The
former, almost landlocked, extends to a length of some five miles, while
the latter is the large portion lying between Little Aden and Aden. The
depth varies from three to five fathoms in the western bay and at the
entrance, while a couple of miles outside ten and twelve fathoms can
be found. A small island in the inner harbour, opposite Tawahi, serves
the purpose of a quarantine station. Very considerable improvements
have lately been carried out, and the depth of certain anchorage in the
inner bay successfully increased by aid of a large dredger—a veritable
eyesore amongst the strange and picturesque native craft with which at
certain times the bay is crowded. The larger steamers, such as the P.
and O. and the Messageries Maritimes, lie at some distance from the
shore, toward the mouth of the harbour; but the British India, Austrian
Lloyd’s, and several other important lines, bring their ships in close
under Steamer Point. This, however, is due to the fact that they usually
remain a longer time there, and that it affords them greater and cheaper
facilities for coaling.
It is, of course, as a coaling-station that Aden is most renowned. In
1891 some 165,000 tons were imported, which, together with the other
trade of the colony, brings the value of imports and exports up to a sum
of over five millions sterling per annum. What result the opening of the
coaling-station on the island of Perim may have on the coal trade of Aden
remains yet to be seen, but it seems improbable that, as was said at the
time, it will ever become a more important place than the other.
Apart from the commerce in coal, there is by no means an unimportant
trade carried on with the neighbouring coasts of Arabia, the Persian
Gulf, the Red Sea, and the African coast. This is principally in the
hands of native merchants, and a very considerable quantity of the
cargo is transported in native sailing craft. The chief articles are
hides, coffee, feathers, gums, dyes, spices and perfumes, silk, and
mother-of-pearl shells and ivory.
The coffee trade which now finds its outlet at Aden was formerly
almost entirely in the hands of the Mokha and Hodaidah merchants; but
the former town is now deserted, and the heavy dues of the Turkish
authorities at the latter have diverted a large part of the coffee to
Aden, a free port, although a considerable amount is still shipped from
Hodaidah to Aden by sea. The coffee which reaches Aden direct is brought
down by caravan from the highlands of the interior and sold to the Aden
merchants. A very considerable quantity is also brought across from the
African coast, shipped almost entirely from Zeilah, one of the Somali
ports, to which spot it is brought on camels from the highlands of Harrar
and the Galla country, all of which is practically suitable to the growth
of the coffee tree, which necessitates a high altitude above the level of
the sea. The ostrich-feathers are the produce of Somali and the Donakil
country. Mother-of-pearl shells are brought from the Persian Gulf and the
Red Sea fisheries, and ivory from Somali-land and Abyssinia. The food for
the garrison is imported from the African coast and from Arabia. Sheep
and goats are weekly shipped in large quantities from Berbera, Bulhar,
and Zeilah; while oxen, vegetables, fodder, and fuel are brought in by
camel-caravan from Lahej and the surrounding country.
What, however, astonishes one about Aden is the fact that it has no local
industries. All skilled labour has to be imported from China or India;
while even such simple trades as mat-making, boat-building, and suchlike
are almost neglected.
The climate of Aden is by no means so bad as it is generally described
to be, and I believe that statistical returns give a very fair average
of health there. The temperature for the whole year averages about 85°
Fahr. in the shade, the extremes being 72° and 102°. During my visit
the thermometer only once rose above 90°, and then only for a short
period, and once fell as low as 74°. The sky during the winter months is
unclouded, and the climate may be said to be delightful, though great
care must be taken not to get chilled at sundown. Early in June the
south-west monsoon breaks. Damp and unpleasant as this ocean wind may
seem, it is the sole cause that renders Aden inhabitable for Europeans
during the summer. The changes of the monsoon, May and September, are
the worst periods in the year, the thermometer often varying only
between 100° in the day and 90° at night! The rainfall of Aden is very
changeable, in some years rising to eight inches, in others being only
one-fourth of an inch; but it is sufficient to keep alive a few plants,
that do their little best to break the monotony of the dull rocks. After
a shower the valleys sometimes wear quite a green appearance, but as
a rule this does not last long, for the sun and dust soon dry them up
again. However, it is said that there are no less than one hundred and
thirty species, of over forty different orders, the most common being
_Euphorbiaceæ_, the _Acacia eburnea_, _Caparidiciæ_, and the lovely
_Adenum obesum_. A few wild dogs, jackals, and foxes can be found in
the rocky valleys; and birds are common—kites, hawks, flycatchers, and
wagtails being permanent residents, while many species pay the place an
occasional visit.[34]
Having thus briefly run through the statistics of Aden to such an extent
as I deem necessary for a work of this kind, I will continue with the
personal narrative of my journey, and, having exhausted my books of
reference, describe Aden as it appeared to me.
I have said elsewhere that the terrible feeling of oppression soon wears
off, and that, after only a few days’ residence in the place, one has
forgotten how truly desolate and dreary are the great brown peaks that
rear their heads so far above one on all sides. I never was in a place
that so shocks one at first, and yet which one so quickly comes to
like. It took only a day or two to shake off the feeling of the hideous
barrenness of the place; and having made a few friends, I soon began to
perceive how charming life can be made with all the disadvantages of such
surroundings and climate as Aden possesses.
The club, the very verandahs of which are laved by the sea-waves, is
one of the best of its kind in the East; and many a pleasant evening
I spent there, listening now and again to a military band which once
a-week discourses sweet music in its precincts. Pleasantest amongst many
pleasant recollections of Aden is the kindness I was shown by all with
whom I came in contact—kindness that extended not only to entertaining,
but in rendering me great service in arranging my journey into the
interior of the Yemen. I cannot here attempt to thank all those who took
pity on a stranger, but I must not pass on without saying how grateful I
am to General Jopp, H.M. Political Resident, and to Colonel Stace, C.B.,
Assistant-Resident, for their many kindnesses.
As soon as I had settled in at my hotel and rested a day to study my
whereabouts, I set to work to see the sights of the place. Fortunately
they are not very many, though some of them, such as the street scenes
in the bazaars, one can never tire of looking at. Our hotel, too, was a
“sight.” It was full of curiosities, from the exceedingly stout and none
too clean Greek who kept the place, to the dirtiest of dirty kitchens
I ever saw. The centre courtyard, surrounded by a rickety balcony, had
once been used as a _café-chantant_, and the stage and framework still
remained, festooned with cobwebs. Below, the Greek kept a curiosity-shop,
which seemed principally to contain moth-eaten skins of what once may
have been wild beasts, and rusty Somali spears. His “Turkish delight”
was good. I found he sold it to my servant at exactly half the price he
charged me, so I made Abdurrahman buy it in future, and between us and
Saïd, my Yemen man, we did a large business with him. However, on the
whole, the place was inhabitable, and in a climate like Aden one lives
mostly out of doors on the verandahs.
My first stroll to see the sights was confined to the little town of
Tawahi, in which the hotel was situated, and which is generally known
under the more general designation of Steamer Point. There is little to
see in this quarter, though a crowd of natives lying out on their long
wood-and-string beds in front of the tiny _cafés_, smoking the murmuring
hubble-bubble, is always a picturesque sight. But it is only in the back
streets that one finds this, the front of the town being faced with
what is called Prince of Wales Crescent—in other words, a semicircle of
ill-built stucco houses, with the exception of the handsome offices of
Messrs Luke, Thomas, & Co., to whose representative, Mr Vidal, I am under
many obligations for kindness. Facing these hideosities of houses is an
open sandy space, in which a few young palm-trees, caged and coddled,
were trying to grow. A row of black palings divides this sandy space from
the beach. A hideous cab-stand of galvanised iron roofing does not add to
the picturesqueness of the scene; nor, for the matter of that, does the
thin filmy coal-dust that so often floats upon the breeze, to dirty one’s
white clothes and render life gritty and unbearable. Yet in spite of this
depressing view—in spite of the bare rocks that rise above the town—all
my recollections of Tawahi are pleasant.
Having explored this little township, which can be done comfortably in
half an hour, I entered upon a longer undertaking,—I chartered a rickety
conveyance and drove to Aden proper. The town lies in the centre of the
crater of an extinct volcano, and one cannot help thinking how unpleasant
it would be for the inhabitants did the eruption that must once have
taken place recommence.
[Illustration: _Main Pass, Aden._]
Driving from Steamer Point to Aden, a distance of some four or five
miles, is by no means an exciting process, although one’s nerves are kept
in constant tension by the extraordinary evolutions of the cab, and the
thought that at any moment it may fall to pieces—ditto the pony, which a
Somali jehu on the box causes by aid of his whip to keep up to a gallop.
Through the pass of Hedfaf, along the flat that leads to the village
of Maala—its harbour crowded with native craft, while Arab sailors sit
mending the sails on the beach—away up the winding road to the Main Pass,
a zigzag cutting between high walls of rock, then down again, until,
issuing from the tunnel-like pass, one sees the town of Aden before one’s
eyes—a great white block, broken up by the streets that run at right
angles to one another, and disfigured by hideous barracks and Government
offices. The plain in which the town lies, being in reality the floor of
the crater, is almost a circle, from which torn and ragged spurs of rock
rise on all sides, except where through a gap one can catch a glimpse of
the sea and Seerah island, until they join in the peaks of Sham-sham and
its neighbours. There is but little to attract the eye about the desolate
prospect, except the relief afforded by the clean white town. Away on one
of the hill-tops stands a tower. Like the Towers of Silence at Bombay,
it serves as the scene of the strange funeral rites of the Parsees; and
here the birds of prey congregate to devour the corpse, too impure to
defile fire or earth or water.
But the sight of all Aden is the tanks. I remember long before I
visited Aden listening one evening during a long sea-voyage to an old
ship’s-carpenter discoursing on the Bible. “The Garden of Eden!” he said;
“why, of course it’s true! It’s Aden to-day, and there’s the tanks to
prove it. I seed ’em with my own eyes.” However, in spite of the dear
old man’s religious beliefs being strengthened by having seen the famous
Aden tanks, I fear they can claim no such antiquity as that with which
he connected them. In all probability these great reservoirs were built
at the time of the second Persian invasion, in the seventh century A.D.
In this case the tanks at Aden are much later in date than many of those
existing in Southern Arabia, of which the most important was, without
doubt, the great dam of Mareb, or Sheba as we know it. Although I was not
fortunate enough in my travels in the Yemen to be able to reach the ruins
of this extraordinary work, I think that a few words upon the subject may
not be out of place here.
The dam of Mareb was built probably some 1700 years B.C. by Lokman
the Adite, though some authorities attribute its construction to Abd
esh-shems, father of Himyar, founder of the Himyaric dynasty, and
great-grandson of Kahtan—Joktan of the Hebrew Scriptures. Monsieur
d’Arnaud, who visited Saba in 1843, describes the ruins of the dam.
He says that it consisted of an enormous wall, two miles long and one
hundred and seventy-five paces wide, connecting two hills. Dikes allowed
the water to escape for the irrigation of the plain below. These openings
are at different levels, so as to render practicable a supply of water
at whatever height the contents of the reservoir might stand. The
destruction of this great work took place probably about a hundred years
after the birth of Christ; but although the catastrophe is referred to
in the Koran, no certain date can be affixed to its occurrence. The fact
that it stood the enormous pressure of water which must have constantly
been present for some seventeen hundred years, testifies to the immensity
and solidity of its construction.
The tanks at Aden cannot, of course, compare with the dam of Mareb, yet
they are in their way colossal undertakings, and the labour and time
expended in their construction must have been enormous. They number about
fifty altogether, and if in working order, would be capable of holding
upwards of thirty million gallons. We know that at the time of the
invasion of Raïs Suleiman in 1538, the inhabitants of Aden were entirely
dependent upon these great cisterns for their water-supply. On Captain
Haines visiting Aden in 1835, he found several of the tanks in use, but
many were filled up with the _debris_ that the torrents had washed from
the mountains above.
In 1856 the restoration of the tanks was commenced, and now thirteen are
in working order, capable of holding nearly eight million gallons of
water. Their site is well chosen. They lie above the town, immediately
under the high rocks that form the foot of Jibel Sham-sham, and in such
a position that all the drainage of the rain-water is accumulated into
channels, and poured into the succession of cisterns that lie one above
another.
The tanks are formed in various ways: some are cut into the solid bed
of the rock, which is covered with a hard polished cement; others are
dams built across the ravine; while a third variety of shape is formed
by angles in the precipices being made use of, two of the walls of
the cistern perhaps being the natural stone, and the others formed of
masonry. The upper tanks are the first filled, the lower for the most
part being supplied from the overflow of those above. In spite of the
enormous space to contain the water and the slight rainfall of Aden,
a series of heavy showers will not only fill the tanks, but cause an
overflow stream of such bulk that very considerable damage has at times
been caused by it, as it poured along its channel through the town to the
sea.
It was upon these tanks and a few poor wells that Aden at one time
depended entirely for water, until in fact, in the fifteenth century,
when Abdul Wahab constructed the aqueduct that brought water from Bir
Ahmed into the town.
Beyond these tanks there is but little to see of the long-past glories of
old Aden; nor have the Arabs displayed in their modern buildings, with
the exception of one decorative mosque, any attempt at architectural
beauty. Mons. de Merveille, who visited Aden in 1708, has left a
description of the ruins of wonderful marble baths that he saw at that
time; but no remains of these are known to exist to-day, nor is there
any trace of the mosque built by Yasir or the pulpit of the Day Imran.
In fact, beyond the tanks, its historical traditions, and the strange
peoples who flock its streets, Aden can claim but little to interest the
traveller.
What a sight the bazaars of Aden present of an evening! Often and often
I would drive out just to spend the last hour or two of daylight in idly
sauntering through its streets. What strange peoples are to be seen
there! Indians gorgeous in scarlet and gold and tinsel; Somalis in their
plain white _tobes_, their hair left long and hanging like the cords of a
Russian poodle on either side of their heads, and often their raven locks
are dyed a strange brick-dust red colour by a clay they smear over them;
Arabs, too, with long black silky curls bursting from under their small
turbans, nude fellows, except for their loin-cloth of native-dyed indigo
cotton, the colour of which clings to their copper skins with strange
effect; creeping, crawling Jews; niggers from Zanzibar; Persians and
Arabs from Bagdad; Parsees and Greeks.
Then is the time, when the heat of the day is over, to seek some _café_
at the corner of a street, and watch the people pass. Here at a table
four Somali warriors, glorious in their very blackness, are playing
dominoes with the manners of _bourgeois_ on the boulevards; there a group
of Arabs are chatting over a hubble-bubble pipe, the mouthpiece of which
they pass one to another, over cups of the husks of the coffee-berry,
their favourite beverage.
Great strings of camels pass and repass in the street. Rickety
cabs rattle along, the drivers calling to the crowd to make way;
and throughout the whole permeates Tommy Atkins, sublime in his
self-consciousness, and a very good fellow withal. Ay, the bazaars of an
evening are a sight to be seen,—a collection of strange peoples, only
to be equalled perhaps on the bridge between Stamboul and Galata at
Constantinople.
There remains but one more sight to see in Aden, the tunnel that connects
the town with the isthmus, and which passes under the Munsoorie hills.
This excavation is three hundred and fifty yards in length, and is lit
throughout with artificial lights. It is sufficiently high and wide to
allow of carriage and caravan traffic. A second tunnel connects two
separate portions of the isthmus lines.
Immense improvements have lately been carried out in the fortifications
of Aden, and during the time of the writer’s visit several new forts
were being erected. There is no doubt that the strategic position of
the peninsula justifies a large expenditure upon its defences. The
immense value it would prove in time of war as a coaling-station cannot
be overrated. At the present period its garrison consists of the Aden
troop of cavalry, three batteries of the Royal Artillery, one regiment
of British infantry, one regiment of native infantry, and one company
of sappers; while in the bay lies a gunboat and a transport steamer
of the Indian marine. The troops are spread over the peninsula, the
cavalry having lines on the isthmus itself. Altogether, when the new
fortifications are completed, Aden may be said to be, both as regards
its defensive powers and in its commercial character, one of the most
successful spots in the world.