Yemen and Ethiopia, two historic countries on either side of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, have been in contact since almost the dawn of time. This is scarcely surprising, as the intervening strip of sea between South Arabia and the Ethiopian Horn of Africa is at its closest little more than fifty miles wide, and is believed ten thousand years ago to have been only eleven miles wide. The highlands of the Yemeni and Ethiopian regions, as the archaeologist David Phillipson notes, have “much in common physically and environmentally”.
The antiquity of Ethiopian and Yemeni history is apparent from the fact that traditions in both countries go back twelve centuries to the time of the renowned Queen of Sheba. It is not the object of this article to examine her life, or to enter into the debate as to whether she was the ruler of Ethiopia or Yemen, or whether her government, as is often suggested, extended over both lands.
In the Islamic tradition the Queen of Sheba is known as Bilqis and she reigned in the kingdom of Saba in Yemen. Ethiopian tradition sees her in many lights, sometimes as the queen consort of the snake king, Arwe of Axum, and sometimes as a great judge - large stone thrones can be seen all over the ancient city of Axum. In Yemen, and in Arabian traditions, she was a magical queen of Saba and therefore a pagan who eventually accepted Allah as the one true God.
The existence of shared names on either side of the Red Sea caused the Italian scholar Carlo Conti Rossini to postulate, however somewhat simplistically, that the very name of Abyssinia was of Yemeni origin. Conti Rossini assumed that the Habashat actually originated in Yemen, and later established themselves, as colonists, on the Ethiopian side of the Red Sea, where, he believed, they introduced their name. These suppositions were once widely accepted.
The British Arabist Spencer Trimingham for example wrote, in 1952, that the Habashat, or “agriculturalist mountaineers” of Yemen, faced with population pressure, and the failure of their irrigation system, crossed the intervening sea, and, after leaving the “inhospitable coastal zone” of Ethiopia, “found a country [in the Ethiopian interior] which possessed the same climate and vegetation as their own land”. The Habashat, he claims, thereupon “assumed a predominance over all the other tribes, and its chief took the title of negus nagasti (chief of chiefs)”. Elaborating on this supposed migration, Trimingham claimed that the Yemeni migrants “came as settlers and colonizers”, “brought their regional names with them”, settled in the plateau regions “most suitable for agriculture”, and “brought the fully developed civilization of the Sabaeans”.
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One of the first of these scholars was Joseph Greenberg, whose Studies in African Linguistic Classification, appeared in 1955. In the following year, 1956, Jacqueline Pirenne, a scholar of early Arabian history, drastically revised South Arabian chronology. Six years later, in 1962, the Dutch linguist A.J. It revealed the existence in Ethiopia of Ge’ez graffiti, and other inscriptions, which were quite as old as the South Arabian inscriptions in Ethiopia.
In the following decade the Italian archaeologist Rodolfo Fattovich, working in Nubia, unearthed ancient pottery virtually identical to that which had been produced in Ethiopia prior to the founding of Aksum. This thesis was further spelt out, in the following year, by the epigraphist Roger Schneider. He argued further that Sabaeans who came to Ethiopia “did not arrive in a cultural vacuum”, but that, on the contrary, a significant Ethiopian state, people, and language had existed well before their advent.
Whatever the direction, dating, and details of such migration, there can be no denying that northern Ethiopia and Yemen, in the half millennium or so prior to the Christian era, shared a related civilisation, or civilisations. This is evident from the at least limited use in Ethiopia of the Sabaean language and script, as found on ancient Aksumite inscriptions and coins, and an apparently identical religion. The latter centred on the worship of the sun and moon, and the local god Almaqah. The logo of the sun and moon, used at that time in Yemen, appears for example on an ancient Aksumite obelisk at Matara, as well as on virtually all pre-Christian Aksum coins, which began to be struck in the first century A.D.
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 "Fertile Arabia" or "Happy Arabia". With its long sea border between early civilizations, Yemen has long existed at a crossroads of cultures with a strategic location in terms of trade on the west of the Arabian Peninsula.
Topography of Yemen
The Sabaean Kingdom came into existence from at least the 11th century BC. There were four major kingdoms or tribal confederations in South Arabia: Saba, Hadramout, Qataban and Ma'in. The Sabaean Mukarrib Karib'il Watar I, in the 7th century BC, recorded the undertaking of eight campaigns, one in which he defeated the reign of Awsan, and divided its land between himself and his allies. Lack of water in the Arabian Peninsula prevented the Sabaeans from unifying the entire peninsula. Instead, they established various colonies to control trade routes.
Evidence of Sabaean influence is found in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, where the South Arabian alphabet religion and pantheon, and the South Arabian style of art and architecture were introduced. The Sabaeans created a sense of identity through their religion. By the 3rd century BC, Qataban, Hadramout and Ma'in became independent from Saba and established themselves in the Yemeni arena. Minaean rule stretched as far as Dedan, with their capital at Baraqish. The Sabaeans regained their control over Ma'in after the collapse of Qataban in 50 BC. By the time of the Roman expedition to Arabia Felix in 25 BC, the Sabaeans were once again the dominating power in Southern Arabia.
Aelius Gallus was ordered to lead a military campaign to establish Roman dominance over the Sabaeans. The Romans had a vague and contradictory geographical knowledge about Arabia Felix or Yemen. The Roman army of ten thousand men reached Marib, but was not able to conquer the city, according to Cassius Dio and Pliny the Elder. Strabo's close relationship with Aelius Gallus led him to attempt to justify his friend's failure in his writings. It took the Romans six months to reach Marib and sixty days to return to Egypt. After the Roman expedition - perhaps earlier - the country fell into chaos and two clans, namely Hamdan and Himyar, claimed kingship, assuming the title King of Sheba and Dhu Raydan.
Dhu Raydan (i.e. Himyarites) allied themselves with Aksum in Ethiopia against the Sabaeans. The chief of Bakil and king of Saba and Dhu Raydan, El Sharih Yahdhib, launched successful campaigns against the Himyarites and Habashat (i.e.
According to Islamic traditions, King As'ad The Perfect mounted a military expedition to support the Jews of Yathrib. Abu Karib As'ad, as known from the inscriptions, led a military campaign to central Arabia or Najd to support the vassal Kinda against the Lakhmids. However, no direct reference to Judaism or Yathrib was discovered from his lengthy reign. Abu Karib As'ad died in 445, having reigned for almost 50 years.
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By 515, Himyar became increasingly divided along religious lines and a bitter conflict between different factions paved the way for an Aksumite intervention. The last Himyarite king Mu'di Karab Ya'fir was supported by Aksum against his Jewish rivals. After the death of Ma'adikarib Ya'fur around 521 AD, a Himyarite Jewish warlord called Dhu Nuwas rose to power. He began a campaign of violence against Christians under his control. Dhu Nawas executed Byzantine traders, converted the church in Zafar into a synagogue, and killed its priests, among other acts of conquest. He marched toward the port city of Mocha, killing 14,000 and capturing 11,000. Then he settled a camp in Bab-el-Mandeb to prevent aid flowing from Aksum.
At the same time, Yousef sent an army under the command of another Jewish warlord, Sharahil Yaqbul, to Najran. Sharahil had reinforcements from the Bedouins of the Kinda and Madh'hij tribes, eventually wiping out the Christian community in Najran by means of execution and forced conversion to Judaism. Esimiphaios was a local Christian lord, mentioned in an inscription celebrating the burning of an ancient Sabaean palace in Marib to build a church on its ruins. Three new churches were built in Najran alone. Many tribes did not recognize Esimiphaios's authority.
Esimiphaios was displaced in 531 by a warrior named Abraha, who refused to leave Yemen and declared himself an independent king of Himyar. Emperor Justinian I sent an embassy to Yemen. He wanted the officially Christian Himyarites to use their influence on the tribes in inner Arabia to launch military operations against Persia. Justinian I bestowed the dignity of king upon the Arab sheikhs of Kinda and Ghassan in central and north Arabia. From early on, Roman and Byzantine policy was to develop close links with the powers of the coast of the Red Sea. They were successful in converting Aksum and influencing their culture. A Kindite prince called Yazid bin Kabshat rebelled against Abraha and his Arab Christian allies. A truce was reached once The Great Dam of Marib had suffered a breach. Abraha died around 555-565 AD; no reliable sources regarding his death are available.
Location of Yemen
The Sasanid empire annexed Aden around 570. Under their rule, most of Yemen enjoyed great autonomy except for Aden and Sana'a. Prophet Muhammad sent his cousin Ali to Sana'a and its surroundings around 630. At the time, Yemen was the most advanced region in Arabia. The Banu Hamdan confederation were among the first to accept Islam. Muhammad sent Muadh ibn Jabal as well to Al-Janad in present-day Taiz, and dispatched letters to various tribal leaders. The reason behind this was the division among the tribes and the absence of a strong central authority in Yemen during the days of the prophet.
Major tribes, including Himyar, sent delegations to Medina during the Year of delegations around 630-631. Several Yemenis had already accepted Islam, including Ammar ibn Yasir, Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami, Miqdad ibn Aswad, Abu Musa Ashaari and Sharhabeel ibn Hasana. A man named 'Abhala ibn Ka'ab Al-Ansi expelled the remaining Persians and claimed to be a prophet of Rahman. He was assassinated by a Yemeni of Persian origin called Fayruz al-Daylami. The country was stable during the Rashidun Caliphate. Yemeni tribes played a pivotal role in the Islamic conquests of Egypt, Iraq, Persia, the Levant, Anatolia, North Africa, Sicily and Andalusia. Yemeni tribes that settled in Syria, contributed significantly to the solidification of Umayyad rule, especially during the reign of Marwan I. Powerful Yemenite tribes like Kindah were on his side during the Battle of Marj Rahit. Several emirates led by people of Yemeni descent were established in North Africa and Andalusia.
Effective control over entire Yemen was not achieved by the Umayyad Caliphate. Imam Abd Allah ibn Yahya was elected in 745 to lead the Ibāḍī movement in Hadramawt and Oman. Muhammad ibn Ziyad founded the Ziyadid dynasty in Tihama around 818; the state stretched from Haly (In present-day Saudi Arabia) to Aden. They nominally recognized the Abbasid Caliphate but were in fact ruling independently from their capital in Zabid. The history of this dynasty is obscure; they never exercised control over the highlands and Hadramawt, and did not control more than a coastal strip of the Yemen (Tihama) bordering the Red Sea.
A Himyarite clan called the Yufirids established their rule over the highlands from Saada to Taiz, while Hadramawt was an Ibadi stronghold and rejected all allegiance to the Abbasids in Baghdad. By virtue of its location, the Ziyadid dynasty of Zabid developed a special relationship with Abyssinia. The first Zaidi imam, Yahya ibn al-Husayn, arrived to Yemen in 893. He was the founder of the Zaidi imamate in 897. He was a religious cleric and judge who was invited to come to Saada from Medina to arbitrate tribal disputes. Imam Yahya persuaded local tribesmen to follow his teachings. The sect slowly spread across the highlands, as the tribes of Hashid and Bakil, later known as the twin wings of the imamate, accepted his authority.
Yahya established his influence in Saada and Najran; he also tried to capture Sana'a from the Yufirids in 901, but he failed miserably. In 904, the newly established Isma'ili followers invaded Sana'a. The Yufirid emir As'ad ibn Ibrahim retreated to Al-Jawf, and between 904 and 913, Sana'a was conquered no less than 20 times by Isma'ilis and Yufirids. As'ad ibn Ibrahim regained Sana'a in 915. The Yufirid emir Abdullah ibn Qahtan attacked and burned Zabid in 989, severely weakening the Ziyadid dynasty. The Ziyadid monarchs lost effective power after 989, or even earlier than that. The Sulayhid dynasty was founded in the northern highlands around 1040.
In 1060, Ali ibn Mohammed Al-Sulayhi conquered Zabid and killed its ruler Al-Najah, founder of the Najahid dynasty, whose sons were forced to flee to Dahlak. Hadramawt fell into Sulayhid hands after their capture of Aden in 1062. By 1063, Ali had subjugated Greater Yemen. He then marched toward Hejaz and occupied Makkah. Ali was married to Asma bint Shihab, who governed Yemen with her husband. The Khutba during Friday prayers was proclaimed in her husband's and her name. Ali al-Sulayhi was killed by Najah's sons on his way to Mecca in 1084. His son Ahmad al-Mukarram led an army to Zabid and killed 8,000 of its inhabitants. He later installed the Zurayids to govern Aden. Ahmad al-Mukarram, who had been afflicted with facial paralysis resulting from war injuries, retired in 1087 and handed over power to his wife Arwa al-Sulayhi.
Queen Arwa moved the seat of the Sulayhid dynasty from Sana'a to Jibla, a small town in central Yemen near Ibb. Jibla was strategically near the Sulayhid dynasty source of wealth, the agricultural central highlands. It was also within easy reach of the southern portion of the country, especially Aden. Al-Abbas & al-Mas'ūd sons of Karam Al-Yami from the Hamdan tribe started ruling Aden for the Sulayhids, when Al-Abbas died in 1083. His son Zuray, who gave the dynasty its name, proceeded to rule together with his uncle al-Mas'ūd. They took part in the Sulayhid leader al-Mufaddal's campaign against the Najahid capital Zabid and were both killed during the siege (1110). Their respective sons ceased to pay tribute to the Sulayhid queen Arwa al-Sulayhi.
They were worsted by a Sulayhid expedition but queen Arwa agreed to reduce the tribute by half, to 50,000 dinars per year. The Zurayids again failed to pay and were once again forced to yield to the might of the Sulayhids, but this time the annual tribute from the incomes of Aden was reduced to 25,000. Later on they ceased to pay even that since Sulayhid power was on the wane. After 1110 the Zurayids thus led a more than 60 years long independent rule in the city, bolstered by the international trade. The chronicles mention luxury goods such as textiles, perfume and porcelain, coming from places like North Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Oman, Kirman, and China. After his demise, the Zaidi community was split between two rival imams.
The Rasulid Dynasty was established in 1229 by Umar ibn Rasul. Umar ibn Rasul was appointed deputy governor by the Ayyubids in 1223. When the last Ayyubid ruler left Yemen in 1229, Umar stayed in the country as caretaker. He subsequently declared himself an independent king by assuming the title al-Malik Al-Mansur (the king assisted by Allah). Umar established the Rasulid dynasty on a firm foundation and expanded its territory to include the area from Dhofar to Mecca Umar first established himself at Zabid, then moved into the mountainous interior, taking the important highland centre Sana'a. However, the Rasulid capitals were Zabid and Ta'izz. He was assassinated by his nephew in 1249.
Omar's son Yousef defeated the faction led by his father assassins and crushed several counter-attacks by the Zaydi imams who still held on in the northern highland. It was mainly because of the victories which he scored over his rivals that he assumed the honorific title al-Muzaffar (the victorious). After the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in 1258, al-Muzaffar Yusuf I appropriated the title of caliph. He chose the city of Ta'izz to become the political capital of the kingdom because of its strategic location and proximity to Aden. Al-Muzaffar Yusuf I died in 1296 having reigned for 47 years. When the news of his death reached the Zaydi imam Al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar bin Yahya he commented by saying: The greatest king of Yemen, the Muawiyah of the time, has died.
Slave-market in the town of Zabid in Yemen
The dynasty is regarded as the greatest native Yemeni state since the fall of the pre-Islamic Himyarite Kingdom. Though the Rasulids were of Turkic descent they claimed an ancient Yemenite origin to justify their rule. The Rasulids were not the first dynasty to create a fictitious genealogy for political purposes, nor were they doing anything out of the ordinary in the tribal context of Arabia. By claiming descent from a solid Yemenite tribe, the Rasulid brought Yemen to a vital sense of unity in an otherwise chaotic regional milieu. They had a difficult relationship with the Mamluks of Egypt because the latter considered them a vassal state. Their competition centered over the Hejaz and the right to provide kiswa of the Ka'aba in Mecca.
The dynasty became increasingly threatened by disgruntled family members over the problem of succession, combined by periodic tribal revolts, as they were locked in a war of attrition with the Zaydi imams in the northern highlands. During the last twelve years of Rasulid rule, the country was torn between several contenders for the kingdom. The Tahirids were a local clan based in Rada'a. While they were not as impressive as their predecessors, they were still keen builders. They built schools, mosques and irrigation channels as well as water cisterns and bridges in Zabid and Aden, Rada'a, and Juban. Their best-known monument is the Amiriya Madrasa in Rada' which was built in 1504. The Tahiride were too weak either to contain the Zaydi Imams or to defend themselves against foreign attacks.
The Mamluks of Egypt tried to attach Yemen to Egypt and the Portuguese, led by Afonso de Albuquerque, occupied Socotra and launched an unsuccessful four-day siege of Aden in 1513. The Portuguese posed an immediate threat to the Indian Ocean trade; the Mamluks of Egypt therefore sent an army under the command of Hussein Al-Kurdi to fight the intruders. The Mamluk sultan of Egypt sailed to Zabid in 1515 and began diplomatic...
The Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula are the original Arabs. Tribes of nomads from the Arabian Desert developed Arab culture. Yemenis started migrating north during the pre-Islamic era. Many Arab families with common names (e.g., Haddad, Haddadeen, which means Smith or metalworker) that have long family trees in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan trace their ancestry to that early migration from Yemen.
There are many Arabic dialects spoken in Yemen. Today, there is a sharp division between Yemeni from the northern tribes and the southern ones. Those from the north descended from Mesopotamians, who entered their land 1,000 years before Christ. The north and the south were separate nations in the 70s and 80s; one backed by communists and the other by the West. They merged for a couple of years, but now they are fighting once again. Iran backs one side using Shia Islam as their banner, while the other supports a Sunni Muslim head of state.
There has been much business and social interaction between Yemenis and Ethiopians dating back hundreds of years before Christ. Both countries have taken in refugees from the other during times of crisis.
Sonia Khaled, 55, leans across the balcony of her villa in Legetafo. Raised in Addis, as it’s called by the locals, Khaled returned to Yemen for a time before marrying her husband when she was 28. Abdulrahman was a merchant at the time, importing carpets and rugs from Belgium and jewellery and beads from Germany. There were thousands arriving then and it was an easy journey by boat, says Khaled. The traders brought with them spices and silks from India, and hides from Yemen. Those that ventured further, into the capital, settled in the Arada neighbourhood of Addis and would pray in one another's homes before the first mosque, Masjid Anwar, was built in 1922 in nearby Mercato. Today, Yemenis in Ethiopia are well accustomed to the country’s cuisine.
“Years ago, before Biblical times, the land was one”, Khaled tells Middle East Eye. “So, trade and social exchanges date back to even before Christianity. And like our claims over coffee, which is always done in a playful way, it's the same case with Saba [Queen of Sheba], we both say she belongs to us. “The Yemenis left entrusting their shops and livelihood mainly to those from the Argoba community. “We feel at home here, and Ethiopians feel like we are one of them. Yemeni migrants arriving most recently to Ethiopia following Yemen’s civil war, already have family connections, a shared lineage.
Yemeni Arabs came to Ethiopia during the long civil war in the 1970s. Some returned to Yemen, but many remain. Today, Yemenis are the largest Arab group in Ethiopia. The Yemeni Arab diaspora try to pick up whatever profession they had in Yemen. Many in Ethiopia are businessmen or even government officials. The two countries have done a brisk business with one another for hundreds of years. There are many Yemeni merchants and businessmen in Ethiopia today. Yemeni Arab society is patrilineal, so they pass down inheritances through the males. Although Muslims can have up to four wives, most marriages among Yemeni Arabs are monogamous.
The Yemeni Arabs have had a close association with Islam since it began in the 600s. Today, nearly all the Yemeni Arabs are Muslim, no matter where they live. Two-thirds of Yemenis adhere to some form of Sunni Islam, and about one-third are Shia Muslims. Though they vary in terms of tribal loyalty, one thing Yemeni Arabs all agree on is devotion to the Islamic religious system.
Did The Queen Of Sheba's Kingdom Include Parts Of Modern-day Yemen? - African Roots And Routes
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