Official name: Republic of Yemen
Capital city: Sanaa
Internet country code: .ye
Flag description: Three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black
Geographical description: Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea, between Oman and Saudi Arabia
Total area: 203,796 sq. mi. (527,970 sq. km.)
Climate: Mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry, harsh desert in east
Nationality: noun: Yemeni(s); adjective: Yemeni
Population: 22,230,531 (July 2007 CIA est.)
Ethnic groups: Predominantly Arab, but also Afro-Arabs, South Asians, Europeans
Languages spoken: Arabic
Religions: Muslim including Shaf’i (Sunni) and Zaydi (Shi’a), small numbers of Jewish, Christian, and Hindu
| Independence Day | Nov 30 |
| Labor Day | May 1 |
| Liberation Day | Oct 14 |
| National Day | May 22 |
| Revolution Day | Sep 26 |
the southwestern and southern Arabian Peninsula. The Arabic name of Yemen (al-Yaman, literally “the right side”) probably goes back to antiquity, when to the inhabitants of northern Arabia it meant the country located to the right-hand side (when one stands facing the sunrise), while Syria was called al-Sham, “the left side.”
In ancient times Yemen included almost all of the Arabian Peninsula from the Gulf of Aqaba in the west to the lower course of the Euphrates in the east. Ancient geographers called this territory Arabia Felix (Fortunate Arabia); they evidently associated the legendary riches of “the land of fragrances,” located in the extreme southwest of Arabia, with the second meaning of the word yaman, “fortunate.” The inhabitants of ancient South Arabia itself gave the name Yemen (more precisely, Yamanat) to the region along the banks of the Hadhramawt, where there were evidently plantations of tropical trees giving myrrh. After the appearance of Islam in the seventh century and the rise of the Muslim religious center in Mecca, the northern border of Yemen came to be considered as extending from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, south of Mecca.
In the late second and early first millennium B.C. a unique South Arabian civilization took shape in Yemen. This period saw the rise of the states of Hadhramawt, Qataban, Saba (Sheba), and later, Main (the Minaean state). Highly developed irrigation permitted the formation of oases, which became the basis of economic life. The most important source of prosperity for these states was the trade in myrrh, frankincense, and other fragrant resins that were in demand in the markets of Egypt, Southwest Asia, Greece, and Rome.
The main trade route connecting South Arabia with other countries (the “road of fragrances”) passed through the Arabian Peninsula. Intermediate trade was entirely in the hands of the inhabitants of north Yemen (Main) and a trading colony, Gerra, on the shore of the Persian Gulf. Main and Saba (Sheba) were also centers of agriculture and livestock raising.
Around the middle of the first millennium B.C. the state of Saba, through which the “road of fragrances” passed, acquired the greatest political power; all the other states in Yemen came under its sway. Trying to free themselves from this dependency, Qataban and Hadhramawt searched for a maritime trade route to export myrrh and frankincense and to import crafted goods. The route was found: from the southern harbors of Hadhramawt across the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates. Later, as a result of colonizing the East African shores of the Red Sea, Qataban attained a monopoly over the incense trade. In the early second century b.c., Egypt began to occupy an increasingly important place in the sea trade of Qataban (and from the first century b.c., in the trade of the Himyarite kingdom, which arose at the end of the second century B.C. in the southwestern part of the peninsula). Beginning with the first century b.c., all of the sea trade of South Arabia with the West passed through Qataban. Until the first century B.C. the harbors of South Arabia were stopover points for goods from India.
In the early fourth century A.D. all of Yemen was united under the Himyarite kingdom. Between the fourth and sixth centuries, the beginnings of feudalism appeared: village communes fell under the sway of an aristocracy whose power had grown significantly. During this time Judaism and Christianity spread throughout Yemen.
In the early sixth century Yemen was conquered by the Ethiopians; at the end of the century it was conquered by the Sassa-nids. In the late sixth and early seventh century there were a great number of small principalities. In 629–30 they were made part of the Arabian Caliphate. The feudal system and Arab Muslim culture became firmly established, and Islam gradually became the dominant religion.
The independent states of the Ziyadids (capital, Zabid) and the Yafurids (capital, Sanaa) arose in the ninth century. In the tenth century, part of Yemen came under the power of a Shiite sect, the Zaidis. The subsequent history of the Yemeni states is filled with internecine wars and frequent changes of dynasties. From time to time states arose that were nominally subject to Egypt. In the second half of the 12th century Yemen was subjugated by Turan-Shah (brother of the Egyptian sultan, Salah al-Din), but even during this period it was governed by an independent branch of the Ayyubid dynasty. By the early 16th century the Zaidi imams held a commanding position in the northern and central mountainous regions.
The Ottoman Turks invaded Yemen in the early 16th century. However, they succeeded in conquering the country completely only after many years of war. In the early 17th century an anti-Ottoman uprising flared up, ending with Turkish troops being driven out of most of Yemen and with the establishment in 1633 of an independent state (imamate) headed by the Zaidi imams. A brief period of comparative calm ensued, and the economy and culture developed. Direct ties with some European countries, to which Yemeni mocha coffee was sent, were established. However, the imamate remained a backward feudal country, torn by internecine feudal struggles.
Small independent feudal principalities developed in the southern regions of Yemen. By the early 19th century the imams enjoyed real power only in the environs of Sanaa; they could withstand neither the attacks of the Wahhabites nor the later invasion by the troops of the Egyptian pasha, Muhammad Ali, and acknowledged themselves vassals of the Egyptian pasha.
Egyptian power over Yemen lasted until 1840. In 1839, Great Britain seized the city of Aden and turned it into a military base. Extending its control over the remaining territory of south Yemen during the rest of the 19th and the early 20th century, Britain imposed on the sheikhs, sultans, emirs, and other rulers of principalities and tribal federations in the vicinity of Aden treaties “of friendship” and later the status of protectorates. British expansion met with stubborn resistance from the masses. Only by relying on local princes (emirs, sheikhs, and so forth), who received annual British subsidies, did Great Britain maintain control over the interior regions of the country, and its influence was not secure.
By the early 1870’s the power of the Turkish sultan was restored in north Yemen, and Yemen was declared a Turkish vilayet (province), although there was no stable administration in the country. In 1873, Turkey was forced to acknowledge British control of Aden. Between 1903 and 1905, Anglo-Turkish protocols were signed on the borders of British possessions. (These agreements were affirmed and supplemented by the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1914.) After World War I the question of boundaries was the cause of conflicts between Great Britain and the Kingdom of Yemen.
In the late 19th and early 20th century uprisings against Ottoman rule frequently flared up in various areas of north Yemen. In 1904 they grew into a general insurrection, led by Imam Yahya. After a stubborn and bloody struggle the Turkish government was forced in 1911 to conclude a treaty with Yahya under which the sultan recognized the autonomous status of the Zaydi districts of Yemen, where secular power was transferred to Imam Yahya. During World War I, Yahya maintained a vassal relationship to the Ottoman Empire but did not engage in any military action.
After the war Yahya declared Yemen independent and himself king. He subjugated all the mountain districts, but his possessions were surrounded by hostile states. The Idrisids, princes of the Asir region and allies of Britain, seized the Tihama, and there were continual clashes with British troops at the borders of the Aden protectorates. The struggle to unify the country, headed by Yahya, took on the nature of an anti-imperialist movement and united the mass of the population, who had suffered from internal wars, imperialist expansion, and the destruction of traditional economic ties. In 1926, Yahya succeeded in liberating al-Hudayda and the remaining territory of the Tihama, achieving ascendancy over his rivals within the country, and uniting the country under his authority.
Yahya’s attempts to subjugate the southern regions of the Arabian Peninsula and the contested regions of the north were without success. In 1934 an Anglo-Yemeni agreement was concluded under which Britain acknowledged the independence of the Kingdom of Yemen but retained its Aden protectorates. That same year, after a war with Saudi Arabia that ended in failure for Yemen, Yahya relinquished his claims to the contested border regions.
Striving to preserve the existing feudal-theocratic system and at the same time to guard the country from imperialist penetration, Yahya pursued an isolationist policy. Foreigners were permitted into the country only under exceptional circumstances. However, in the interests of strengthening the country’s defenses and acquiring necessary goods, trade relations were maintained with a number of European countries, especially Italy. Great importance was attached to the establishment of trade relations with the USSR: the first Soviet-Yemeni treaty on friendship and trade was concluded in 1928 (renewed in 1955). Beginning in the 1930’s, Yahya’s conservative internal policies began to call forth a growing mood of opposition. There arose a number of political organizations demanding reforms. These organizations were crushed.
In World War II the Kingdom of Yemen managed to maintain neutrality despite pressure from Italy, which attempted to establish military bases in its territory. In 1943, Yahya broke off diplomatic relations with Italy; Italian and German nationals who were then in the country were interned. During the war famine and epidemics broke out in the Kingdom of Yemen, which was deprived of supplies from abroad.
The feudal-theocratic regime, absence of democratic freedoms, and acute worsening of the economic situation forced a substantial part of the population to leave the country. Large colonies of Yemenis, numbering about 1 million persons in all, arose in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Sudan, Pakistan, and the principalities of the Persian Gulf. Among the Yemeni emigres, an opposition movement developed, led by the Yemen Liberal Party, which was founded in exile in 1944. In 1948 the opposition organized a plot against Yahya, headed by Abdullah al-Wazir, a high official from a large landowning family. On Feb. 17, 1948, Yahya was killed, and al-Wazir declared himself imam and king. However, Yahya’s son Ahmad, with the help of the northern tribes, managed to remove al-Wazir and assume the throne in March 1948.
The oppression of monarchy, the continuation of the feudal system and even remnants of slavery, the unlimited authority of the imam, who was also the country’s biggest landholder, the savage exploitation of the people by the aristocracy (the saids) —all this deepened the general dissatisfaction. In the 1950’s progressive officers in the Yemeni army formed the Free Officers group, whose aim was to overthrow the royalist regime. A favorable moment for this was the death of Imam Ahmad on Sept. 19, 1962. On Sept. 26, 1962, an antiroyalist revolution occurred in north Yemen. Army units connected with the Free Officers seized the government buildings and radio station in Sanaa, and the Yemen Arab Republic was proclaimed.
The liberation struggle of the peoples of Southern Yemen against the British colonial government intensified in modern times under the influence of the successes of the liberation movement in north Yemen. Tribal insurrections erupted throughout the area in 1918. The British imperialists’ “pacification” of Southern Yemen was a lengthy process, lasting until the end of the 1920’s in the western districts and until World War II in the eastern districts.
In 1937, Aden was proclaimed a crown colony, and the territories having the status of British protectorates were divided into the Eastern and Western protectorates of Aden. Feudal and even prefeudal social structures were preserved untouched in Hadhramawt and the principalities of the Western Protectorate.
In the 1930’s various political and social organizations sprang up in Southern Yemen (such as the Club of Arab Reforms, the Club of Arab Literature, and the Hadhramawt Movement People’s Club), which carried on the fight against foreign dominance, but their influence extended only to the cities. The rebellions against the British colonialists by various tribes were of a spontaneous, disorganized nature.
After World War II the largest oil refinery in the Arab East was built in the city of Aden, which had become an important trade center, The raising of cotton, intended for the British market, was begun. As a result a relatively numerous industrial and agricultural working class came into existence.
In February 1959, Great Britain, in order to strengthen its control of Aden and the Aden protectorates, established the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South (which became the Federation of South Arabia in April 1962). By 1963 the principalities of the Western Protectorate, the colony of Aden, and Wahidi, a small principality of the Western Protectorate, had been added to the federation. Relations between the federation and Britain were regulated by a treaty “of friendship” (1959), which guaranteed the dominance of British interests. A military base and the headquarters of the British forces in the Middle East were located in Aden.
The popular masses protested strongly against the establishment of the federation and later agitated for its liquidation and for the genuine independence of Yemen. The struggle against the colonialists and their feudal allies took on a particularly wide scope after the fall of the royalist regime in north Yemen and the proclamation of the Yemen Arab Republic.
All the patriotic organizations of Aden contributed to the struggle for independence: the Aden Trades Union Congress, the People’s Socialist Party, the People’s Democratic Union (all founded in 1956), and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (founded in 1965). The National Liberation Front of Occupied South Yemen, formed in 1963, was especially important. Under its leadership, on Oct. 14, 1963, an armed struggle began against the British colonialists, federation rulers, and local princelings (sultans, emirs, and sheikhs). After the liberation forces established control over most of the territory and paralyzed the government of the federation, the government of Great Britain was forced to recognize the independence of Southern Yemen and to evacuate its troops from Aden on Nov. 30, 1967. On that same day, the independent People’s Republic of South Yemen was proclaimed (the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen since Nov. 30, 1970).
G. M. BAUER and L. N. KOTLOV