Hadhramaut
Encyclopedia
Hadhramaut, Hadhramout, Hadramawt or Ḥaḍramūt ( ) is the formerly independent Qu'aiti
state and sultanate encompassing a historical region of the south Arabian Peninsula
along the Gulf of Aden
in the Arabian Sea
, extending eastwards from Yemen
to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman
. The name of the region is currently retained in the smaller Hadhramaut Governorate
of the Republic of Yemen. The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadhrami
s and speak Hadhrami Arabic
.
, the Islamic prophet
Saleh
relocated himself and about 4,000 of his followers to the area known as Hadhramaut and it was here where he died and thus, the region was called "death has come".
Another theory is that it is related to Hazarmaveth
in Genesis 10:26 and 1 Chronicles
1:20 in the Bible
(meaning "court of death", according to various Bible dictionaries). There, Hazarmaveth is the name of a son of Joktan
, one of the sons of Shem
in the table of the Sons of Noah
in Genesis 10—i.e., the founders of nearby nations including Sheba
, also a son of Joktan. As Southern Arabia was and is one of the homelands of the South Semitic language subfamily, a Semitic
origin for the name is highly likely. If the name did reflect a biblical- or pre-biblical-era naming convention in the Near East
, this would make it ancient indeed, pre-dating both Islam
and Greco-Roman
civilization.
A third theory is that the name derives from the Greek
υδρευματα (hydreumata), or enclosed (and often fortified) watering stations at wadi
s. A hydreuma (singular) is a manned and fortified watering hole or way station along a caravan
route. Juris Zarins
, rediscoverer of the city claimed to be the ancient Incense Route trade capital Ubar
in Oman, described that site in a Nova
interview:
Narrowly, Hadhramaut refers to the historical Qu'aiti
and Kathiri
sultan
ates, which were in the Aden Protectorate
overseen by the British Resident
at Aden
until their abolition upon the independence of South Yemen in 1967. The current governorate of Hadhramaut roughly incorporates the former territory of the two sultanates. It consists of a narrow, arid coastal plain
bounded by the steep escarpment
of a broad plateau
(al-Jol, averaging 1370 m (4,494.8 ft)), with a very sparse network of deeply sunk wadis (seasonal watercourses). The undefined northern edge of Hadhramaut slopes down to the desert Empty Quarter.
In a wider sense, Hadhramaut includes the territory of Mahra
to the east all the way to the contemporary border with Oman. This encompasses the current governorates of Hadramaut and Mahra in their entirety as well as parts of the Shabwah Governorate
.
The Hadhramis live in densely built towns centered on traditional watering stations along the wadis. Hadhramis harvest crops of wheat
and millet
, tend date palm and coconut
groves, and grow some coffee
. On the plateau, Bedouins tend sheep and goats. Society is still highly tribal, with the old Seyyid
aristocracy
, descended from the Prophet Muhammad, traditionally educated and strict in their Islamic observance and highly respected in religious and secular affairs.
has established sizable Hadhrami minorities all around the Indian Ocean
, in South Asia
, Southeast Asia
and East Africa
including Hyderabad
, Bhatkal
, Gangolli
, Malabar, Sylhet
, Java
, Sumatra
, Malacca
and Singapore
.
In Hyderabad, the community is known as Chaush
and resides mostly in the neighborhood of Barkas
.
Several Indonesia
n ministers, including former Foreign Minister Ali Alatas
and former Finance Minister
Mari'e Muhammad are of Hadhrami descent, as is the former Prime Minister
of East Timor
Mari Alkatiri
.
Hadhramis have also settled in large numbers along the East African coast, and two former ministers in Kenya
, Shariff Nasser and Najib Balala
, are of Hadhrami descent.
Other notable Hadhrami people include the Bin Laden family
and the Ghassanids
.
sultans ruled the vast majority of Hadramaut, under a loose British
protectorate
, the Aden Protectorate, from 1882 to 1967, when the Hadhramaut was annexed by South Yemen.
The Qu'aiti dynasty was founded by 'Umar bin Awadh al-Qu’aiti, a Yafa’i tribesman from Southern Arabia, whose wealth and influence as hereditary Jemadar
of the Nizam of Hyderabad's armed forces enabled him to establish the Qu'aiti dynasty in the latter half of the 19th century, winning British recognition of his paramount status in the region, in 1882. The British Government and the traditional and scholarly sultan Ali bin Salah signed a treaty in 1937 appointing the British government as "advisors" in Hadhramaut. The British exiled him to Aden in 1945, but the Protectorate lasted until 1967.
In 1967, the former British Colony of Aden and the former Aden Protectorate including Hadramaut became an independent Communist
state, the People's Republic of South Yemen, later the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. South Yemen, along with Hadramaut, was united with North Yemen
in 1990 as the Republic of Yemen. See History of Yemen
for recent history.
The capital and largest city of Hadhramaut is the port Al Mukalla
. The Yemeni government is encouraging northern Yemenis to "re-populate" the Hadhramaut in order to change its demographics and reduce the number of ethnic Hadhramis thereby quelling separatist sentiment. The population of North Yemen is quickly crowding into Hadhramaut's cities and exhausting their already limited resources: Al Mukalla had a 1994 population of 122,400 and a 2003 population of 174,700, while the port city of Ash Shihr
has grown from 48,600 to 69,400 in the same time. One of the more historically important cities in the region is Tarim
. An important locus of Islamic learning, it is estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad anywhere in the world.
Qu'aiti
Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut (Arabic: (الدولة القعيطية الحضرمية) or the Qu'aiti Sultanate of Shihr and Mukalla (Arabic:سلطنة الشحر والمكلاا ), was a sultanate in the...
state and sultanate encompassing a historical region of the south Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
along the Gulf of Aden
Gulf of Aden
The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is about 20 miles wide....
in the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
, extending eastwards from Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
. The name of the region is currently retained in the smaller Hadhramaut Governorate
Hadhramaut Governorate
Hadhramaut or Hadramawt is a governorate of Yemen. Lying within the large historical region of Hadhramaut, it is the country's largest governorate.-Overview:...
of the Republic of Yemen. The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadhrami
Hadhrami people
The Hadhrami or Hadharem are people from the Hadhramaut and their descendants in diaspora communities around the world. They speak Hadhrami Arabic....
s and speak Hadhrami Arabic
Hadhrami Arabic
Hadhrami Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken by the Hadhrami people living in the . It is also spoken by many Hadhrami emigrants who migrated from to East Africa , South-east Asia and, recently, to the other Gulf countries...
.
Etymology
The origin of the name is not exactly known. There are various theories. One theory is that the region is named after a nickname of Amar bin Qahtan (عمرو بن قحطان), meaning "death has come", from (Arabic for "has come") and /maut/ ("death"), the reason being that whenever he entered a battle, there were always many people who died. Another theory is that after the destruction of ThamudThamud
The Thamūd were a people of ancient Arabia who were known from the 1st millennium BC to near the time of Muhammad. Although they are thought to have originated in southern Arabia, Arabic tradition has them moving north to settle on the slopes of Mount Athlab near Mada'in Saleh...
, the Islamic prophet
Prophets of Islam
Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
Saleh
Saleh
Saleh or Salih was a prophet of ancient Arabia mentioned in the Qur'an, who prophesied to the tribe of the Thamud. He is mentioned nine times throughout the Qur'an and his people are frequently referenced as a wicked community who, because of their sins, were ultimately destroyed...
relocated himself and about 4,000 of his followers to the area known as Hadhramaut and it was here where he died and thus, the region was called "death has come".
Another theory is that it is related to Hazarmaveth
Hazarmaveth
Hazarmaveth is the third of thirteen sons of Joktan, who was a son of Eber, son of Shem in the table of the Sons of Noah in Genesis chapter 10 and 1 Chronicles chapter 1 in the Bible...
in Genesis 10:26 and 1 Chronicles
Books of Chronicles
The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible. In the Masoretic Text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim . Chronicles largely parallels the Davidic narratives in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings...
1:20 in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
(meaning "court of death", according to various Bible dictionaries). There, Hazarmaveth is the name of a son of Joktan
Joktan
Joktan or Yoktan was the second of the two sons of Eber mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. His name means "small" or "smallness"....
, one of the sons of Shem
Shem
Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each...
in the table of the Sons of Noah
Sons of Noah
The Seventy Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing in of the Hebrew Bible, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective...
in Genesis 10—i.e., the founders of nearby nations including Sheba
Sheba
Sheba was a kingdom mentioned in the Jewish scriptures and the Qur'an...
, also a son of Joktan. As Southern Arabia was and is one of the homelands of the South Semitic language subfamily, a Semitic
Semitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
origin for the name is highly likely. If the name did reflect a biblical- or pre-biblical-era naming convention in the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
, this would make it ancient indeed, pre-dating both Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and Greco-Roman
Greco-Roman world
The Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman culture, or the term Greco-Roman , when used as an adjective, as understood by modern scholars and writers, refers to those geographical regions and countries that culturally were directly, protractedly and intimately influenced by the language, culture,...
civilization.
A third theory is that the name derives from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
υδρευματα (hydreumata), or enclosed (and often fortified) watering stations at wadi
Wadi
Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...
s. A hydreuma (singular) is a manned and fortified watering hole or way station along a caravan
Caravan (travellers)
A caravan is a group of people traveling together, often on a trade expedition. Caravans were used mainly in desert areas and throughout the Silk Road, where traveling in groups aided in defence against bandits as well as helped to improve economies of scale in trade.In historical times, caravans...
route. Juris Zarins
Juris Zarins
Juris Zarins is an American-Latvian archaeologist and professor at Missouri State University, who specializes in the Middle East....
, rediscoverer of the city claimed to be the ancient Incense Route trade capital Ubar
Iram of the Pillars
Iram of the Pillars , also called Aram, Iram, Irum, Irem, Erum, Wabar, Ubar, or the City of a Thousand Pillars, is a lost city on the Arabian Peninsula.-Introduction:Ubar, a name of a region or a name of a people, was mentioned in ancient records, and was spoken of in folk...
in Oman, described that site in a Nova
NOVA (TV series)
Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...
interview:
Geography
Qu'aiti
Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut (Arabic: (الدولة القعيطية الحضرمية) or the Qu'aiti Sultanate of Shihr and Mukalla (Arabic:سلطنة الشحر والمكلاا ), was a sultanate in the...
and Kathiri
Kathiri
Kathiri was a sultanate in the Hadhramaut region of the southern Arabian Peninsula, in what is now officially considered part of Yemen and the Dhofar region of Oman....
sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
ates, which were in the Aden Protectorate
Aden Protectorate
The Aden Protectorate was a British protectorate in southern Arabia which evolved in the hinterland of Aden following the acquisition of that port by Britain in 1839 as an anti-piracy station, and it continued until the 1960s. For administrative purposes it was divided into the Western...
overseen by the British Resident
Resident (title)
A Resident, or in full Resident Minister, is a government official required to take up permanent residence in another country. A representative of his government, he officially has diplomatic functions which are often seen as a form of indirect rule....
at Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
until their abolition upon the independence of South Yemen in 1967. The current governorate of Hadhramaut roughly incorporates the former territory of the two sultanates. It consists of a narrow, arid coastal plain
Coastal plain
A coastal plain is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. One of the world's longest coastal plains is located in eastern South America. The southwestern coastal plain of North America is notable for its species diversity...
bounded by the steep escarpment
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...
of a broad plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
(al-Jol, averaging 1370 m (4,494.8 ft)), with a very sparse network of deeply sunk wadis (seasonal watercourses). The undefined northern edge of Hadhramaut slopes down to the desert Empty Quarter.
In a wider sense, Hadhramaut includes the territory of Mahra
Al Mahrah Governorate
Al Mahrah or Mahra is a governorate of Yemen in the southern Arabian Peninsula. Situated in the area of the former Mahra Sultanate, its capital is Al Ghaydah....
to the east all the way to the contemporary border with Oman. This encompasses the current governorates of Hadramaut and Mahra in their entirety as well as parts of the Shabwah Governorate
Shabwah Governorate
Shabwah is a governorate of Yemen. Its main town is Ataq.-Districts:*Ain District*Al Talh District*Ar Rawdah District*Arma District*As Said District*Ataq District*Bayhan District*Dhar District*Habban District*Hatib District...
.
The Hadhramis live in densely built towns centered on traditional watering stations along the wadis. Hadhramis harvest crops of wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
and millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
, tend date palm and coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
groves, and grow some coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. On the plateau, Bedouins tend sheep and goats. Society is still highly tribal, with the old Seyyid
Sayyid
Sayyid is an honorific title, it denotes males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husain ibn Ali, sons of the prophet's daughter Fatima Zahra and his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.Daughters of sayyids are given the titles Sayyida,...
aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
, descended from the Prophet Muhammad, traditionally educated and strict in their Islamic observance and highly respected in religious and secular affairs.
Hadhrami diaspora
Since the early 19th century, large-scale Hadhramaut migrationHuman migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
has established sizable Hadhrami minorities all around the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, in South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
including Hyderabad
Hyderabad State
-After Indian independence :When India gained independence in 1947 and Pakistan came into existence in 1947, the British left the local rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one of the new dominions or to remain independent...
, Bhatkal
Bhatkal
Bhatkal is also known as Batecala in some historical text especially in Portuguese history.Once ruled by Jain King Bhattakalanka and thus the name. Bhatkal is a port town in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India 126 km from Karwar. The town lies on NH-17 running between Mumbai and Mangalore...
, Gangolli
Gangolli
Gangolli is an Indian village in the Kundapura taluk of Udupi. It is situated across the river Pancha Gangaval from the town of Kundapura. It is located on a peninsula on the west coast of Karnataka...
, Malabar, Sylhet
Sylhet
Sylhet , is a major city in north-eastern Bangladesh. It is the main city of Sylhet Division and Sylhet District, and was granted metropolitan city status in March 2009. Sylhet is located on the banks of the Surma Valley and is surrounded by the Jaintia, Khasi and Tripura hills...
, Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
.
In Hyderabad, the community is known as Chaush
Chaush
The Chaush are a Sunni Muslim community of Hadhrami Arab descent found in the Deccan region of India. An extension of these Arab descendants are also found in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro. It is a Turkish word used particularly during the Ottoman era of the Balkans, 'Chaush' or Čauši were...
and resides mostly in the neighborhood of Barkas
Barkas, Hyderabad
Barkas is a neighbourhood in Hyderabad, India that used to serve as the Military Barracks of the Nizam of Hyderabad. It is known as being inhabited mainly by the Chaush community who are direct descendants of the Hadhrami Arab military men and bodyguards hailing from the Hadhramaut region of the...
.
Several Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n ministers, including former Foreign Minister Ali Alatas
Ali Alatas
Ali Alatas was an Indonesian diplomat of Hadhrami descent, who served as the country's foreign minister from 1988 to 1999. He was Indonesia's longest serving foreign minister.-Education and early career:...
and former Finance Minister
Minister of Finance (Indonesia)
The Finance Minister of Indonesia is the Head of the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia....
Mari'e Muhammad are of Hadhrami descent, as is the former Prime Minister
Prime Minister of East Timor
The Prime Minister of Timor-Leste is the head of government in East Timor. The President is the head of state. The Prime Minister is chosen by the political party or alliance of political parties with a majority in the national legislature and is formally appointed by the president...
of East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
Mari Alkatiri
Mari Alkatiri
Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri was the first Prime Minister of an internationally-recognized East Timor. He served from May 2002 until he resigned on 26 June 2006 following weeks of political unrest in the country...
.
Hadhramis have also settled in large numbers along the East African coast, and two former ministers in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Shariff Nasser and Najib Balala
Najib Balala
Najib Balala is a Kenyan politician. He is the Tourism Minister and a M.P...
, are of Hadhrami descent.
Other notable Hadhrami people include the Bin Laden family
Bin Laden family
The bin Laden family , also spelled bin Ladin, is a wealthy family intimately connected with the innermost circles of the Saudi royal family. The family was thrown into media spotlight through the activities of one of its members, Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks...
and the Ghassanids
Ghassanids
The Ghassanids were a group of South Arabian Christian tribes that emigrated in the early 3rd century from Yemen to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Holy Land....
.
Modern history of the Wadi Hadhramaut
The Qu'aitiQu'aiti
Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut Qu'aiti , officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut (Arabic: (الدولة القعيطية الحضرمية) or the Qu'aiti Sultanate of Shihr and Mukalla (Arabic:سلطنة الشحر والمكلاا ), was a sultanate in the...
sultans ruled the vast majority of Hadramaut, under a loose British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
, the Aden Protectorate, from 1882 to 1967, when the Hadhramaut was annexed by South Yemen.
The Qu'aiti dynasty was founded by 'Umar bin Awadh al-Qu’aiti, a Yafa’i tribesman from Southern Arabia, whose wealth and influence as hereditary Jemadar
Jemadar
Jemadar was a rank used in the British Indian Army, where it was the lowest rank for a Viceroy's Commissioned Officer . Jemadars either commanded platoons or troops themselves or assisted their British commander...
of the Nizam of Hyderabad's armed forces enabled him to establish the Qu'aiti dynasty in the latter half of the 19th century, winning British recognition of his paramount status in the region, in 1882. The British Government and the traditional and scholarly sultan Ali bin Salah signed a treaty in 1937 appointing the British government as "advisors" in Hadhramaut. The British exiled him to Aden in 1945, but the Protectorate lasted until 1967.
In 1967, the former British Colony of Aden and the former Aden Protectorate including Hadramaut became an independent Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
state, the People's Republic of South Yemen, later the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. South Yemen, along with Hadramaut, was united with North Yemen
North Yemen
North Yemen is a term currently used to designate the Yemen Arab Republic , its predecessor, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen , and their predecessors that exercised sovereignty over the territory that is now the north-western part of the state of Yemen in southern Arabia.Neither state ever...
in 1990 as the Republic of Yemen. See History of Yemen
History of Yemen
Yemen is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable population, a feature recognized by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, who described Yemen as Eudaimon Arabia meaning "fortunate...
for recent history.
The capital and largest city of Hadhramaut is the port Al Mukalla
Al Mukalla
Al Mukalla is a main sea port and the capital city of the Hadramaut coastal region in Yemen in the southern part of Arabia on the Gulf of Aden close to the Arabian Sea...
. The Yemeni government is encouraging northern Yemenis to "re-populate" the Hadhramaut in order to change its demographics and reduce the number of ethnic Hadhramis thereby quelling separatist sentiment. The population of North Yemen is quickly crowding into Hadhramaut's cities and exhausting their already limited resources: Al Mukalla had a 1994 population of 122,400 and a 2003 population of 174,700, while the port city of Ash Shihr
Ash Shihr
Ash Shihr is a coastal town in Hadhramaut, southern Yemen. It is located at around . It was a part of the Qu'aiti Sultanate before the unified Yemen was formed.-External Links:*...
has grown from 48,600 to 69,400 in the same time. One of the more historically important cities in the region is Tarim
Tarim, Yemen
Tarim is a historic town situated in the Hadhramaut Valley of South Yemen, South Arabia. Tarim is widely acknowledged as the theological, juridical, and academic center of the Hadhramaut Valley. An important locus of Islamic learning, it is estimated to contain the highest concentration of...
. An important locus of Islamic learning, it is estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad anywhere in the world.
External links
- Official Website of the Al-Qu'aiti Royal Family of Hadhramaut
- Architecture of Mud: documentary Film about the rapidly disappearing mud brick architecture in the Hadhramaut region.
- UN map of Yemen showing Hadhramaut (.pdf file)
- Nova special on Ubar, illustating a hydreuma
- Book review of a biography of Qu'aiti sultan Alin din Salah
- Hadhrami migration in the 19th and 20th centuries
- The Linguistics of Loanwords in Hadrami Arabic
- Ba`alawi.com Ba'alawi.com | The Definitive Resource for Islam and the Alawiyyen Ancestry.