Yemen has a rich tradition of tribal customary law, variously styled as ‘urf al-qabalī, ḥukm ‘urfī or aḥkām al-man‘, that can be documented back to at least the time of the Yemeni savant al-Ḥasan al-Hamdānī (d. 945 CE). Yemeni tribal law texts from the past three centuries have been studied by several European and Yemeni scholars, including Ettore Rossi, R. B. Serjeant, Paul Dresch, Fāḍil Abū Ghānim and, most recently, Ahmad al-Gabali. There are brief mentions of aspects of customary law in a number of historical sources and travel accounts, but the earliest extant text on Yemeni tribal law is in the mixed archival manuscript compiled for the Rasulid Sultan al-Malik al-Afḍal al-‘Abbās (d. 1377 CE), shortly before his death. This brief text of 62 lines spread over one and a quarter pages is unfortunately not complete and has several lacuna. From the start it discusses five major parts of customary law: protection (dhimām), clientage (jār), escort (rafīq), guest (ḍayf) and marriage (ṣihr). It also mentions the various forms of censure: ‘ayb aswad, ‘ayb aghbar and ‘ayb​ abyaḍ. The text quotes several passages from the Quran and the ḥadīth literature. There is also a reference to the first Zaydī imam, al-Hādī ilā al-Ḥaqq (d. 911 CE) and his grandfather Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm (d. 860 CE). It appears to be authored by a Zaydī scholar, although the name of the author is not indicated in the surviving text. This paper will discuss the contents of the text and its importance for understanding the development of tribal customary law in Yemen.

In Yemen, Sufism has never developed the elaborate hierarchical organizations and economic assets that we find in the rest of the Muslim world, especially in Egypt, Anatolia, Africa, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, and India. This characteristic of Yemeni Sufism springs from the scarce economic resources and the resultant poverty of the population (including the ruling elites), tribal anarchy, and the lack of centralized state authorities that would support Sufi institutions to legitimize themselves. Another characteristic feature of Yemeni Sufism is the presence in the highlands of North Yemen of a politically active Zaydî community, whose scholars and rulers (the Zaydî imâms) have opposed and occasionally persecuted Sunni Sufis on doctrinal grounds (as a consequence of the Shî‘î rejection of the spiritual authority and guidance of Sufi “friends of God” (awliyâ’) in favor of the people of the Prophet’s house (ahl al-bayt). To these distinctive features of Yemeni Islam, one may add the menacing presence along the country’s northern borders of anti-Sufi Wahhâbî tribes (starting in the second half of the 18th century), and, later on, the rise of the powerful Wahhâbî-Saudi state that was eager to impose (for the most part, unsuccessfully) its puritan (anti-saint and anti-Sufi) version of Islam (Wahhâbî Salafism) on its Yemeni neighbors. In the recent past and until today, at stake in the Salafi-Sufi polemic and occasionally physical confrontation around Sufi shrines has been the issue of not only theological orthodoxy, but also of authenticity. Each party has claimed to be indigenous and authentic, while dismissing the opponent as a foreign implant, a poacher intruding onto Yemen’s religious field without license, as it were. For the Sufis, the Salafi rejection of worship at local shrines and of Sufi rituals is alien to the beliefs and practices of the local Yemeni community. For the Salafis, on the contrary, Sufism is a heretical implant surreptitiously grafted by its promoters onto the pristine Islam of the pious ancestors (al-salaf al-sâlih). The paper examines how the two rival communities, which have extensive transnational connections and coteries of followers, have sought to position themselves as the sole legitimate representatives of the authentic Yemeni religiosity and, by extension, also of Yemeni nationhood.

Imam al-Mansur al-Qasim b. Muhammad (d. 1029/1620) was the founder of the Qasimi dynasty as well as the ancestor of the Hamid al-Din imams. He was a towering intellectual and political figure, who held distinctive theological and legal opinions, and can be considered the last great scholar among the later Zaydi imams. This presentation is based on a manuscript treatise I have co-edited and will consist of detailing and analyzing a polemical exchange over religious doctrine and Sufism between Imam al-Qasim and a pro-Ottoman opponent. Titled "Kitab Hatf anf al-afik fi jawabihi `ala al-Kamil al-mutadarik," the treatise is a commentary on a long poem. It sheds light on later Zaydi theology, the sect’s attitude toward Sufism and the Ottomans, who were then seeking to control Yemen. As such, it represents an important source for the political and intellectual history of 11th/17th-century Yemen.

Yemeni Jewish Migration to East Africa and to Palestine during the Ottoman era (1880s-1918) Jews lived in Yemen continuously since pre-Islamic time. However, a migration trend, which began in late 19th century -- a few years following the Ottoman occupation in 1872 -- led to the gradual diminishing of this community. This paper argues that Jewish migration from Yemen during the Ottoman era resulted from various social disruptions, political, societal and economic— that promoted Jewish—as well as Muslim—emigration. The penetration of the great powers into the Red Sea basin—Great Britain in Aden in 1839, the Ottoman Empire in Yemen in 1872 and Italy in Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1885—is presented as a major factor leading to the aforementioned disruptions. Consequently, Yemen became connected to the global economy, thus undermining the traditional Yemeni Jewish economy, which was based on handicrafts and cottage industry. Jews lost their livelihood also as a result of the revolts against the foreign occupiers and various ecological disasters. Many of these Jews were pushed to immigrate to Aden, East Africa, Egypt or India. At the same time, the Ottoman occupation of Yemen meant that its citizens could travel freely within a huge empire, ensued a large-scale immigration to Palestine. The analysis indicates that at least up to the establishment of Israel in 1948 Jewish emigration from Yemen was unrelated to the Zionist movement, its emissaries or its institutions, but rather was the result of traditional and religious attachment to the Holy Land among the Yemeni Jews.

With the devastating air and ground war in Yemen now in its seventh year, archaeological excavation, not to mention topographical surveys, have had to be abandoned throughout the country. So it is heartening to learn that new painstaking scrutiny of satellite aerial imagery by EAMENA researchers at Oxford University have revealed two previously unknown town sites on the eastern side of the Tihamah coastal strip. Satellite imagery of central Tihamah, where widespread farming disturbs the ground, has not revealed architectural remains. However on the east, two small towns previously unknown have now been discerned. One site is situated on the north bank of Wadi Mawr where it flows out from the foothills and enters the plain, and the other is a similar site against a spur of hillside on the southern flank of Wadi Shu'aynah east of Hays. Both these 'newly discovered' sites occur on major access routes leading into the foothills of the highlands of central Yemen. These two sites share certain architectural features including earthen rampart walls which could mean they are from the same period, if only we can learn more about them from afar. The panel speaker will discuss what era these sites might date from and thus who lived there. Textual sources rich in historical place names and/or tribal names have been collected in an unpublished Tihamah Gazetteer that might help. Notable are the chronicles of al-Khazraji, and local histories and biographies by Ibn al-Mujawir, al-Sharji, Watyut, Umarah, Ibn al-Dayba et al, and by early western travellers such as Carsten Neibuhr in the 18th century. Without the ability to collect ceramic remains on the ground at present, establishing habitation periods is speculative at best. As soon as hostilities cease and Yemenis return to peaceful coexistence, a program of topographical surveys could be coordinated with GOAM, the official historical research institute in Sanaa. Analysis of ceramic remains would tell us enough to date these sites using well established sherd sequences from the Royal Ontario Museum excavations at Zabid. The point is to encourage as broad a conversation as possible to help understand these finds in the aerial satellite record.