The Programme for safeguarding manuscripts in the private libraries of Zabid was started in 2001 (http://www.anne.regourd.org/zp/index.html). From the outcomes, i.e. 4 volumes of the Catalogue cumul? des bibliothhques de manuscrits de Zabid on a first library, a forthcoming volume on another library, and some inventories, we have a reliable idea of the local collections. Apart from some items which I will present, texts are often of fiqh (80%) and are found to be, either copies -less frequently, autographs- of works, which are already well known, or compilations. By now, it is clear that the interest of these collections lies mainly in the study of the annotations (marginalia) and of the codicological features (papers and script/ink/style of writing). The contribution of Zabid's manuscripts to history is, then, based on: - the consistency of private collections in respect of the production of manuscripts (a majority of scribes were local scholars): this is already certain. The next step is, hopefully, the definition of a local "style". At the least, we will be able to date a manuscript and say more about its provenance (codicology as a science contributing to history); - marginalia, which allow us to reconstruct local History. For instance, marks of ownership tell us about the circulation of manuscripts inside Zabid, and in some cases inside Yemen, showing connections between the two Sunni parts of the country. Moreover, we learn about social life and representations.

The 13th-14th centuries Rasulid corpus of agricultural texts represents one of the most important sources for reconstructing the agricultural history of Yemen. In the late 13th century the sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Umar wrote a short treatise entitled "Milh al-malaha fi ma'rifat al-filaha" (The Fine Science of Elegance in the Knowledge of Agriculture). This is not only the first major agricultural text of the Rasulid era, but also the one most focused on the range of cultivated plants in Yemen at the time. So far two extant copies of the text, both defective and relatively recent, are known. Fortunately, al-Ashraf's text is quoted verbatim in the later "Bughyat al-fallahin" of his grand nephew, al-Malik al-Afdal al-'Abbas. There are four known copies of the latter treatise, as well as an abridgement compiled for the sultan and with marginalia in his hand. This abridgement is, given its context, the most authoritative for certain problematic terms that later Yemeni copyists either did not know or otherwise garbled. In reconstructing the original text of Milh al-malaha, I am working with all the relevant copies. The importance of the text is not only its early date, but the range of information relevant to the practice of agriculture in Yemen at the time. Unlike the latter text of al-Afdal, al-Ashraf does not borrow from other traditions, nor does he include information about areas outside Yemen. This talk will discuss the process of reconstructing and translating the text, outlining its significance in the history of Yemeni agriculture, and indeed, the development of agriculture in Arab tradition.

Conservation work inside the Iskandariyya madrasa of Zabid led to the unexpected exposure of an inscriptional panel next to the mihrab. The inscription was found not to have the expected religious content. Instead, the texts reflects the dedication of a waqf in 940/1533 in support of a madrasa which is to be sustained by the product of harvest derived from land in the Wadi Zabid district. The text lists canals and individual properties of land watered by them. Levies from the properties are given in dry measures for grain. Understanding the detailed textual information that the inscription gives on land and water allocation rights requires use of archaeological evidence of the irrigation infrastructure that was put into place in the Zabid hinterland during earlier centuries. Under the Rasulids in particular (1228-1454), personal interest of the rulers led to large-scale investment in irrigation schemes in the Wadi Zabid, the remains of which were the focus of several seasons of archaeological excavations. Matching the archaeological with the textual information also shows the mutual dependence of the city and its agricultural hinterland. Successful management of the irrigation system in the Wadi Zabid lay in the hands of the urban authorities. At the same time, the farmland was of fundamental importance for sustenance of Zabid's economic, cultural and religious life, not least as demonstrated by the waqf dedication in support of the madrasa.

After ousting the Ottomans in the early seventeenth century, the Qasimi imams of Yemen expanded their territory to include the coastal lowlands of Yemen and the eastern stretch of Hadramawt. Whereas the previous Zaydi imamates of Yemen had been limited in their geographic purview, the seventeenth-century Qasimis engaged in territorial expansion and located themselves in competition with other early modern states. Letters exchanged during the era provide evidence that the Qasimis saw themselves as participants on a wider political stage. For instance, Imam al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad communicated with, and then sent embassies to, the Ethiopian king Fasiladas, as recorded in Ahmad al-Haymi's Sirat al-Habasha. His successor Imam al-Mutawakkil Isma'il exchanged a series of letters with the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. These letters and exchanges, which have been explored and published by E. van Donzel and Francois Blukacz, represent the desire for political and religious legitimacy and illustrate a worldview that reached outside of the limits of the southern Arabian Peninsula. By the eighteenth century, the later Qasimis lost the territory and political stability gained by their predecessors. However, they remained in active communication with foreign states and merchants, as evidenced through commercial documents as well as local chronicles. For instance, in the early eighteenth century, Imam al-Mahdi Muhammad, also known as Sahib al-Mawahib, welcomed both French and Dutch merchants to his court near Dhamar, as well as an embassy from the Safavid Shah Sultan Husayn. His successor, Imam al-Mutawakkil al-Qasim, received an Ottoman embassy from Jidda who tried to discourage him from allowing European merchants to purchase coffee in Yemen. Relying upon Yemeni chronicles, European travel writing, and the archival documents of the Dutch East India Company, this paper explores the tone and investments of these later and less-known foreign encounters, which unlike their earlier counterparts, present a view into the economic interests of the imamate, as well as a few cases of medical diplomacy.

The Dimension of Protection (Dhimma) granted by Imam Yahya to the Jews of Yemen The dhimm?-status is an ambivalent and flexible issue. Even in the concrete case of Immm Yahyh (1869-1948) and his relationship with the Jews, accounts seem to be ambiguous: although he is mentioned as having destroyed synagogues when he first came to power in 1905, subsequently ordering forced conversion of Jewish orphans, Yemenite Jews generally remember him as a righteous ruler and their protector. But do these different accounts necessarily point to a contradictory, arbitrary behavior on the part of Im m YahyYa Or may his different attitudes portray two sides of the same system which is conclusive within a wider frame that looks beyond the bilateral relationship between the Imhm and the Jewse First, I shall focus on the question of whether the relationship between Imam Yahya and the Jews was determined by 'security' or by 'discrimination'. I outline an exemplary case study based on handwritten Arabic petition-documents composed by representatives of the Jewish community in San'a and answered by Imam Yahya during the 1930ies. Another source for investigating the micro-managed relationship between the Imam, deputies of his government and the Jews are the memories of the san'ani rabbi Salim b. Sa'id al-Jamal (later called Rabbi Gamliel) who worked as a mediator between Imam Yahya and the Jewish Community from the mid 1920ies until his emigration to Palestine in 1944. Asking how and why did the dhimma-relationship functioned, my focus will than shift to a deeper layer of the presented case study. By scrutinizing the particular interests of a wider range of 'actors', directly or indirectly involved in the concrete case, it will be possible to reveal some plausible explanations for Imam Yahya's seemingly "ambiguous" behaviour towards the Jews. It will be concluded that the relationship between Imam Yahya and the Jews was determined rather by security than by discrimination. Resulting from an actor-centered analysis of case studies, it must be retained that the dhimma-relationship went beyond being a bilateral relationship between the Jews and the Imam. It was a much wider 'social space' in which Muslims and Jews fought out political struggles, legal and religious tensions as well as personal arguments and court intrigues. An analysis of the "Space of Dhimma" will thus not only shed light on the Muslim-Jewish relationship, but entails a deeper understanding of Islamic statehood in Yemen and beyond.