1871-1921 - Turkish Yemen
Yemen achieved its independence in 1630 and maintained it till 1871, when the territory again fell into the hands of the Turks. Yemen was occupied by the Turks in the North in 1848 and by the British in the South in 1839. The border between the North and South was fixed by the two colonial powers in 1905. Yemen had population estimated at 3,500,000 in 1910. The independent southern Arab tribes living within a radius of 100 miles of Aden were under British protection. The rest of the Yemen was subject to Turkey and under Turkish military government.
For an average distance of 60 miles inland, along the Red Sea coast, Turkish Yemen was a desert. This strip, known as the Tehama, is intensely hot, dry, and arid. There is plenty of water below the surface, but it is brackish, and the Tehama, save for a few towns, is inhabited principally by Bedouins and their herds. Straight up from the Tehama a huge mountain system rises, running practically the entire length of the Yemen and having an average breadth of 70 miles. This mountainous country, extremely fertile of soil and well watered, is the true Arabia Felix of the ancient writers.
Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, subdued the coast of Hejaz, as also several places on that of Yemen, and in 1818, by means of a great victory gained by Ibrahim Pasha, and the destruction of their capital city Derrcyeh, put a stop to the further extension of the Wahabite power. He also expended large sums in the maintenance of his sway in Arabia, which secured to him the trade of the Red Sea. Turkey afterward extended its rule not only over Yemen but also oyer the district of El Ahsa on the Persian Gulf.
Before the conquest of 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 - Yemen was governed by a ruler after their own hearts; for, being of the Shiite 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 Abo Taleb, his nephew and son-in-law. This condition their Imam fulfilled; for although Yemen had at different times fallen into foreign hands, still the direct family had never disappeared.
Sanaa, 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.
The population of Arabia was estimated at the end of the 19th Century by some authorities at 12,000,000, by others at no more than 4,000,000. The former number was certainly too high. Palgrave estimated that Hejaz contained about 1,000,000 inhabitants, Yemen 1,000,000, Hadramaut and Mahra 1,000,000, Oman and Hasa 2,500,000 and Nejed 2,000,000. This would make a total for Arabia of about 7,500,000, which figure is probably too high, but in the absence of any regular census and with total ignorance of a large part of the interior it is impossible to verify any statement on this point.
By the mid-19th Century, Yemen could hardly be said to have any government at all, with the exception of the maritime districts which own the sway of England and Turkey. The remainder of the country was parcelled out amongst numberless petty chiefs, who exercise a patriarchal government over a greater or less extent of territory, which was frequently, again, subdivided into several smaller portions under their own Sheikhs, who were virtually independent, though owning a certain amount of subjection to their feudal chiefs.
The following were the principal provinces into which Yemen was divided :- 1, Aden ; 2, The Tehama; 3, Sanaa; 4, Lahej ; 5, Kaukeban ; 6, Beliid-elKabail, or Hiishid-wa-Bekeel; 7, Aboo Areesh; 8, a large district between Aboo Areesh and the Hejdz, inhabited by free Bedouins; 9, Khaulan; 10, Sahan, including the principality of S'aadeh ; 11, Nejran; 12, Nehm ; 13, East Khaulan, consisting of several small principalities; 14, Belad-el-Jehaf, or Mareb ; and 15, Yaffa.
These were, 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.
There were no banks in the Yemen. All banking business was in the hands of native money brokers, called " banyans," and of the European firms who buy and sell drafts through their Aden houses or in connection with the Aden branch of the National Bank of India, The currency system is singularly unstable. The real, or Maria Theresa dollar, was the monetary unit, the coin most used and preferred above all others by the Arab, but the Turkish Government prohibited the importation of these coins, which were brought in surreptitiously.
Central Yemen consists of a great plateau, upon which were situated the three principal cities, Sanaa, Dhamar, and Yerim. This plateau is surrounded by a system of mountains broken and torn into valleys and cations, peaks and pinnacles, amongst which it would be impossible for any Turkish force to operate. Many of these mountains reach an altitude of over 12,000 and 13,000 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. Among these enormous mountain-ranges - and to the north of Sanaa one can travel for days and weeks amongst them - the spirit of rebellion burne fiercely as ever. Certainly the towns were in the possession of the Turks, yet the main roads that connected the towns were 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 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.
After the Turkish withdrawal from North Yemen in 1918, it became a sovereign monarchy ruled by the Hamid Ad-Deen family till 1962 when revolutionary forces proclaimed it as the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR).
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