Yemen

Long before Islam, the highlands and wadis of what is now Yemen were home to a succession of prosperous South Arabian kingdoms. The most famous was Saba (the biblical Sheba), whose capital at Marib lay east of present-day Sanaa. Saba flourished from roughly the 8th century BCE and dominated the overland incense trade, while neighbouring states — Main, Qataban centred on Timna, and the easternmost kingdom of Hadramawt at Shabwa — rivalled or allied with it. Their wealth rested on a near-monopoly of frankincense and myrrh, aromatic resins carried by camel caravan north to the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia.

The engine of this civilisation was water. Around Marib the Sabaeans built the Great Dam, an earthwork and masonry structure that channelled the seasonal floods of the Wadi Adhanah across a wide oasis, irrigating more than a hundred square kilometres and allowing crops to be harvested twice a year. The dam, first raised in the early first millennium BCE and repeatedly enlarged, was one of the engineering marvels of the ancient world and sustained Marib as the largest city of southern Arabia. The kingdom of Saba is also remembered for the tradition of its queen, the Queen of Sheba, who in biblical and Quranic accounts visited King Solomon bearing gold, jewels and spices.

From around 110 BCE the Himyarites, rising from the southern highlands, gradually absorbed their neighbours, taking Saba and finally uniting much of the region under a single crown. In the 4th and 5th centuries CE the Himyarite kings increasingly turned to monotheism, and Judaism gained a notable following at court. The 6th century brought upheaval: an Aksumite (Ethiopian) invasion around 525 CE, the Christian viceroy Abraha, a Sasanian Persian conquest around 570, and the final breaching of the storied Marib Dam — an event so resonant it is recalled in the Quran — closing the long age of the incense kingdoms.

Turning points

1. c. 8th century BCEFormation

   The kingdom of Saba flourishes at Marib

   Saba, the biblical Sheba, emerged as the dominant South Arabian kingdom, with its capital at Marib controlling the lucrative caravan trade in frankincense and myrrh.

   [2] [3]

2. early 1st millennium BCEEconomy & Trade

   Construction of the Great Dam of Marib

   The Sabaeans built the Great Dam of Marib to harness the seasonal floods of the Wadi Adhanah, irrigating a vast oasis and underpinning the kingdom's wealth for over a thousand years.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [2]

3. c. 110 BCEPolitics & Power

   Rise of the Himyarite kingdom

   The Himyarites rose in the southern highlands and gradually absorbed Saba, Qataban and Hadramawt, uniting much of South Arabia under a single dynasty.

   [1] [18]

4. c. 525 CEWar & Rupture

   Aksumite conquest and the viceroy Abraha

   An Ethiopian (Aksumite) invasion overthrew the Himyarite kingdom; the Christian viceroy Abraha later ruled from Yemen before the Sasanian Persians seized the region around 570.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [1]

Figures of the era

Yemen embraced Islam in the 7th century, during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, and its towns became early centres of the faith. Sanaa, set in a high mountain valley and already ancient, grew into a major hub for the propagation of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries, its mosques, bathhouses and tower-houses giving the old city the form preserved today. Under the early caliphates Yemen was governed from afar, first by the Umayyads of Damascus and then by the Abbasids of Baghdad, while local dynasties came and went along its coasts and in its interior.

In 897 a religious scholar, Yahya ibn al-Husayn al-Hadi ila al-Haqq, was invited from Medina to mediate among the tribes around Saada and founded the Zaidi imamate, a form of Shia Islam particular to the northern highlands. The Zaidi imams, drawing on the loyalty of the Hashid and Bakil tribal confederations, established a theocratic order that, though often confined to the mountains and repeatedly challenged, persisted in one form or another until the 20th century — among the longest-lived political institutions in the Islamic world.

Over the centuries Yemen passed under a succession of greater powers. The Egyptian Ayyubids campaigned there in the late 12th century, followed by the Rasulid dynasty, under whom the lowland town of Zabid became a renowned centre of learning. From the early 16th century the Ottomans claimed Yemen, holding its ports and lowlands with varying and often tenuous authority while the Zaidi imams contested the highlands. A first Ottoman presence was driven out in the 17th century; a second occupation followed the opening of the Suez Canal, lasting until the empire's defeat in the First World War.

Turning points

1. c. 628–630 CEReligion

   Yemen embraces Islam

   Yemen adopted Islam in the 7th century, within the Prophet Muhammad's lifetime, and Sanaa became a major centre for the spread of the new faith in the 7th and 8th centuries.

   [1] [9]

2. 897 CEReligion

   Founding of the Zaidi imamate

   The scholar Yahya ibn al-Husayn, invited from Medina to arbitrate tribal disputes around Saada, founded the Zaidi imamate, binding the northern highlands to Zaidi Shia Islam for over a thousand years.

   [1]

3. early 16th centuryPolitics & Power

   Ottomans claim Yemen

   From around the 1520s the Ottoman Empire asserted control over Yemen's ports and lowlands, contesting the highlands with the Zaidi imams in a struggle that recurred for centuries.

   [1]

4. inscribed 1993Culture & Ideas

   Zabid recognised as a centre of Islamic learning

   The historic town of Zabid, capital of Yemen under the Rasulids and a celebrated centre of Islamic scholarship from the 13th to 15th centuries, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

   [11]

Figures of the era

Yemen's strategic position at the mouth of the Red Sea drew the attention of European powers. In 1839 the British East India Company captured the port of Aden from its local sultan, securing a harbour on the steamship route between Britain and India. With the introduction of steam navigation and, after 1869, the opening of the Suez Canal, Aden became one of the busiest coaling and transshipment stations in the world — nicknamed the 'Coalhole of the East' — and grew into a cosmopolitan free port whose trade dwarfed that of the surrounding country.

From Aden the British extended their influence inland, signing treaties of protection with the sultans, sheikhs and emirs of the hinterland to create the Aden Protectorate. The town itself was administered as part of British India and, in 1937, became a Crown Colony in its own right. This southern, maritime, British-influenced Yemen developed along a very different path from the highland interior — a divergence that would shape the country's politics deep into the 20th century.

In the north and along the Red Sea coast the Ottomans, who had been driven out in the 17th century, returned in force in the 19th, occupying the highlands and clashing repeatedly with the Zaidi imams. Ottoman rule was resisted fiercely, and Imam Yahya Hamid al-Din emerged as the leader of highland opposition, winning a measure of autonomy by treaty in 1911. When the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the First World War and withdrew from Yemen in 1918, Imam Yahya was left as the effective sovereign of the north.

Turning points

1. 1839Colonisation

   Britain captures Aden

   The British East India Company seized the port of Aden, establishing a coaling station on the route to India that grew into one of the world's busiest ports after the Suez Canal opened in 1869.

   ↗See the data

   [6] [13]

2. late 19th centuryColonisation

   Ottoman return to the highlands

   The Ottomans reoccupied northern Yemen in the 19th century, meeting sustained resistance from the Zaidi tribes and imams of the mountainous interior.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

3. 1911Politics & Power

   Imam Yahya wins highland autonomy

   Imam Yahya Hamid al-Din, leader of Zaidi resistance, secured by treaty a degree of autonomy from the Ottomans over the Zaidi highlands, foreshadowing full independence.

   [1] [12]

4. 1937Colonisation

   Aden becomes a Crown Colony

   The port of Aden, previously governed as part of British India, was made a separate Crown Colony, with the surrounding territories organised as the Aden Protectorate.

   ↗See the data

   [6]

Figures of the era

After the Ottoman withdrawal in 1918, Imam Yahya consolidated the independent Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen across the northern highlands, an isolated and conservative imamate that the United States formally recognised in 1946 in a letter from President Truman to the imam. Yahya was assassinated in 1948, and his son Ahmad ruled until 1962. That September, army officers led by Abdullah al-Sallal overthrew the newly enthroned Imam Muhammad al-Badr and proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic, plunging the north into a long civil war.

The North Yemen civil war (1962–1970) drew in outside powers: Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser sent tens of thousands of troops to support the republicans, while Saudi Arabia backed the royalist imam and his tribal forces. The conflict ravaged the country before ending in a republican-led compromise. The United States was among the first states to recognise the Yemen Arab Republic in December 1962, signalling the new order's international acceptance even as the fighting continued.

In the south, the British-held port of Aden and its protectorate were convulsed by an anti-colonial insurgency. From 1963 the National Liberation Front and rival nationalist groups waged the Aden Emergency against British rule, a campaign of guerrilla attacks and urban violence. As Britain prepared to withdraw, the NLF prevailed; British forces left in November 1967, and on 30 November 1967 the People's Republic of Southern Yemen — soon the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen — declared independence, the only avowedly Marxist state in the Arab world.

Turning points

1. 1918Independence

   Independent kingdom of North Yemen

   With the Ottoman defeat in the First World War and withdrawal from Yemen, Imam Yahya established the independent Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen across the northern highlands.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [12]

2. 26 September 1962Politics & Power

   Revolution founds the Yemen Arab Republic

   Army officers under Abdullah al-Sallal overthrew the imam and proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic, igniting a civil war that drew in Egyptian and Saudi forces until 1970.

   [1] [12]

3. 1963–1967War & Rupture

   The Aden Emergency

   Nationalist groups led by the National Liberation Front waged a guerrilla and urban insurgency against British rule in Aden and its protectorate, hastening Britain's decision to withdraw.

   ↗See the data

   [13] [6]

4. 30 November 1967Independence

   Independence of South Yemen

   After the British withdrawal, the People's Republic of Southern Yemen declared independence with Aden as its capital, later becoming the Marxist People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [1]

Figures of the era

By the late 1980s, with the Soviet Union — patron of the Marxist south — in decline and oil discovered along the disputed border, the two Yemens moved toward union. On 22 May 1990 the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen merged to form the Republic of Yemen, with Sanaa as capital. Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had led North Yemen since 1978, became president, and Ali Salim al-Bid of the south became vice-president, joining two states with sharply different political traditions into one fragile whole.

The union was soon tested. Mounting friction between northern and southern leaders erupted into civil war in 1994, when southern leaders declared secession. After a short but intense conflict, northern forces captured Aden in July 1994 and defeated the secession, leaving Saleh's northern-based government dominant over the whole country. The episode left lasting grievances in the south that would resurface in later decades.

The newly unified state also reclaimed and showcased an extraordinary cultural heritage. The Old City of Sanaa, with its rammed-earth tower-houses and mosques built before the 11th century, had been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986; the mud-brick high-rises of Shibam in the Wadi Hadramawt — sometimes called the 'Manhattan of the desert' — were listed in 1982, and the historic town of Zabid followed in 1993. Together they testified to a civilisation of remarkable depth even as the modern republic struggled to knit its two halves together.

Turning points

1. inscribed 1982Culture & Ideas

   Shibam, the 'Manhattan of the desert', is listed

   The Old Walled City of Shibam, famed for its towering mud-brick high-rise houses in the Wadi Hadramawt, was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

   [10]

2. inscribed 1986Culture & Ideas

   Old City of Sanaa joins the World Heritage List

   UNESCO inscribed the Old City of Sanaa, inhabited for more than 2,500 years and renowned for its multi-storey rammed-earth tower-houses and early mosques.

   [9]

3. 22 May 1990Formation

   Unification of the Republic of Yemen

   North and South Yemen merged into the Republic of Yemen with Sanaa as capital and Ali Abdullah Saleh as president, ending more than two decades of partition.

   [12] [1]

4. May–July 1994War & Rupture

   Civil war and the defeat of southern secession

   Southern leaders declared secession, but northern forces took Aden in July 1994 and crushed the breakaway attempt, consolidating Saleh's control over a unified Yemen.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [7]

Figures of the era

In early 2011, amid the wider Arab Spring, mass protests broke out across Yemen against the corruption and long rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh. After months of unrest and violence, a transition brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council saw Saleh sign over power in late 2011, and his deputy Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was confirmed as president in February 2012. The transition was fragile, and unresolved grievances — among southerners, the Houthi movement of the far north, and Saleh's own networks — soon undermined it.

In September 2014 the Houthis, allied for a time with their former enemy Saleh, swept into Sanaa and seized the capital, eventually forcing Hadi to flee. In March 2015 a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened to restore the recognised government, beginning years of air strikes, ground fighting and blockade. The fighting devastated cities, infrastructure and the economy, and damaged World Heritage sites at Sanaa, Shibam and Zabid; in 2017 Saleh was killed by his erstwhile Houthi allies after he turned against them.

The war produced what United Nations agencies have called one of the world's gravest humanitarian crises. A 2021 report by the United Nations Development Programme projected that the conflict would have caused some 377,000 deaths by the end of that year, the majority from indirect causes such as hunger and disease, and warned that millions faced acute food insecurity. A UN-mediated nationwide truce took effect in April 2022 and, though it formally lapsed later that year, largely held, bringing a measure of calm; international diplomacy toward a durable settlement continued into the mid-2020s while the country remained politically divided and deeply dependent on humanitarian aid.

Turning points

1. 2011Politics & Power

   Arab Spring uprising and Saleh's removal

   Mass protests against corruption and Saleh's three decades in power, part of the regional Arab Spring, led to a Gulf-brokered transition under which Saleh ceded power and Hadi became president in 2012.

   [8] [7]

2. September 2014War & Rupture

   Houthi forces seize Sanaa

   The Houthi movement, allied with former president Saleh, captured the capital Sanaa and went on to force President Hadi from the country, collapsing the post-2011 transition.

   ↗See the data

   [7]

3. March 2015War & Rupture

   Saudi-led coalition intervenes

   A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE began military intervention to restore the recognised government, opening a prolonged war marked by air strikes, ground combat and blockade.

   ↗See the data

   [7]

4. November 2021Catastrophe

   UN estimates 377,000 war-related deaths

   A United Nations Development Programme report projected that the war would have caused roughly 377,000 deaths by the end of 2021, most from indirect causes such as hunger and disease.

   ↗See the data

   [14] [15]

5. April 2022Politics & Power

   UN-mediated nationwide truce

   A two-month UN-brokered truce took effect on 2 April 2022, easing fighting, allowing fuel ships into Hodeidah and flights from Sanaa; it was extended and, though it later lapsed, largely held.

   [16]

Figures of the era