Yemen - Goodbye to Arabia Felix

The time has come for me to say goodbye to Yemen, known to the Romans as Arabia Felix or 'happy/fortunate Arabia'.  My learning journey to Yemen has been really fascinating and, despite the current political difficulties faced by the Yemeni people, I've been left with a very positive impression of their culture and their potential to create a society that is peaceful and prosperous.  As usual, my 'armchair' travelling has also left me with a great desire to go and see Yemen for myself!

A summary of the topics

Esoteric by Martin Sojka

During the past six weeks I have had the opportunity to learn more about the History of Yemen - how it's a bridge between Arabia and East Africa.  I've learned about the two Yemens, north and south, following separate paths until reunification in the 90's.  I learned a little bit more about Islam and the Madhabs, or schools of Islamic thought.  I learned about the Queen of Sheba and the current situation for women in Yemeni society.  I learned about Coffee and Qat, two plants that were first cultivated in Yemen, they have had very different destinies in the modern world.  I also listened to the music of Mohamad al-Harithi.  I learned how to make Saltah, Yemen's national dish and I also visited a Yemeni restaurant just off the Edgware Road here in London.

Books about Yemen by me

I read several books about Yemen.  Tim Mackintosh-Smith's travelogue Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land was very readable and informative, Mackintosh-Smith is a great authority on Yemen and his book gave me a lot of ideas about the themes I should research for this blog.  I also read the popular novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday, which was really funny and enjoyable and I read The Hostage by Yemeni writer Zayd Mutee' Dammaj, which was darkly sensual and frightening.  I watched several movies relating to or shot in Yemen, including King Vidor's Solomon and Sheba (1959) and Pasolini's Arabian Nights (1974).  I also learned a lot about the island of Socotra, the part of Yemen that isn't really all that Yemeni.

Other themes for further research

Of course I touched on a whole range of themes that I didn't have time to research fully, but would be interesting to explore further, if you want to learn even more about Yemen.  Some of the other themes were:

The beach in Socotra by Martin Sojka

- the History of Frankincense and Yemen's role in exporting it to medieval Europe
- the poetry of Imru' al-Qays and the theme of nostalgia
- Mad Mitch and the last battle ever fought by the British Empire
- The Yemeni poltergeist  idar al-dar and the Arabian approach to the supernatural
- Yemeni dress and that ultimate male accessory, the djambia
- The skyscrapers of Shibam and the development of architecture in Yemeni towns
- Joseph Wolff, the Jewish Anglican missionary
- Cush and the sons of Noah

I really regret not having time to do some research on the Temani, the Jews of Yemen.  To make up for it, I'm posting a YouTube video below from Ofra Haza, one of the most famous Yemeni Jews.  This is a traditional Temani song called Im Nin' Alu and comes from her 1984 album Shirey Teyman aka Yemenite Songs.  Madonna fans might recognise this, as she also sampled a version of this song on Isaac from her album Confessions on a Dance Floor



Did you know?

As well as the 'big' themes I didn't have time to blog about, I also picked up lots of trivia related to Yemen, which will come in handy in dinner party conversations, I'm sure.  I learned that:

- the prophet Mohammad said the Yemenis have 'the kindest and gentlest hearts of all'
- the official Arabic word for 'motorbike' translates as 'fiery bicycle'
- the Yemeni general Abdul Rahman al Ghafiqi conquered Bordeaux in the 8th century
- there are baboons in Yemen

Young man chewing Qat by Martin Sojka

- the mountain tribesmen of Yemen didn't use to eat fish, as they thought it was some kind of inedible worm
- the Arabs call rain 'barakah' which is also the word for blessing
- Yemeni fans of Michael Jackson are called mutamaykalin
- by the time the British pulled out of Aden in 1967, it was costing them £60 million a year
- Aden's busiest market is called 'the Suq of rumours'
- Aden was known as the 'white man's grave'
- Al-Maqah was the god of the moon
- There are people on the island of Socotra who have blue eyes
- the 1994 Yemeni census included 'cave' under types of accommodation
- a Kurdish dynasty ruled Yemen in the 12th century
- many cities in the Middle East have a Tahrir square, tahrir تحرير means 'liberation'
- the Queen of Sheba had hairy legs
- Marriage between cousins is permitted in Islamic traditions
- Yemeni weddings usually begin on a Wednesday and end on a Friday
- at 2300 metres above sea level, Sana'a is the 7th highest capital city in the world (just below Addis Ababa and Asmara)
- Yemen is one of only 7 countries in the world that apply the death penalty for same-sex relations

I hope you've enjoyed my virtual trip to Yemen as much as I have.  I'm going to leave you with the words of a very poignant poem from Imru al-Qays (Diwan, Poem 2):

Djambia by Martin Sojka

Weep for me, my eyes! Spill your tears

And mourn for me the vanished kings

Hujr ibn 'Amru's princely sons

Led away to slaughter at eventide;

If only they had died in combat

Not in the lands of Banu Marina!

No water was there to wash their fallen heads,

And their skulls lie spattered with blood

Pecked over by birds

Who tear out first the eyebrows, then the eyes.

Image credits:

For this final blogpost on Yemen, I wanted to highlight the work of a very talented Slovak photographer called Martin Sojka - Martin has taken some stunning photos in Yemen and Socotra, but also in places like Iceland and New Zealand.  You can see more of his images on his Flickr photostream  

Thanks Martin for sharing these images with us using the Creative Commons License. 

Yemen - Socotra, the island of blissful Sorcerers

It's interesting that each and every country/place I've researched about for this blog has a region or an area that is very much 'at the edge' of that country/place's culture.  Whether it's Bayan-Olgii, the Kazakh-speaking western province of Mongolia, or Limburg in the southern Netherlands, Oklahoma has its panhandle and Xinjiang/Uyghuristan has the Ili Valley.  Even Hong Kong has its New Territories.  For Yemen, the island of Socotra is the part that doesn't quite fit in - not really Yemeni, it's closer to Somalia and Africa than to Yemen.

Kent in the Indian ocean

Socotra Landscape by Stefan Geens

With a population of 42,000, Socotra is the same size as Kent in England (or Long Island, for my North American readers).  It's an incredibly isolated place, being cut off from the rest of the world for six months of the year by ferocious sea storms that make it too perilous to sail there.  No doubt, in our age of air travel, it's more accessible than ever, but Socotra retains an aura of mystery - it's an island of Makolis (or sorcerers), a windswept outpost in the Indian ocean, where witch-trials continued well into the 20th century. Socotra is far from the mountains of Sana'a and the baking desert sands of the Hadramawt. 

The Island of Bliss

The name 'Socotra' is believed to have come from the Sanskrit for 'Island of Bliss', dvipa sukhadhara, which the Ancient Greeks called dioskouridou.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the people of Socotra speak their own language, Soqotri, which is one of the oldest surviving South Arabian languages, related to Arabic, but linguistically closer to the languages of Ethiopia.  I guess it's the equivalent of Icelandic for us, ie. a language that has existed in relative isolation for a long time, which means it has preserved some archaic words and structures that the mainland languages have since lost. 

Blood from the Dragon's Tree

Dragon's Blood Trees by Stefan Geens

One thing you might already know about Socotra and, again hardly suprising, considering its isolation from the continent land masses, is that it has incredibly high levels of biodiversity.  More than a third of Socotra's plant species are endemic, ie. they're not found anywhere else on Earth.  This is similar to the situation in other isolated island groups, eg. Hawaii, the Galapagos Islands and Madagascar.  Like those other island groups, Socotra has been recognised as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site.  I've come across UNESCO's work again and again, as I've been researching this blog and I really love what they're doing to help preserve many beautiful sites around the world. 

It's also quite interesting that, despite the diversity of plant life in Socotra, the only mammal that is native to the island is the bat!  Perhaps one of the most interesting trees on Socotra (and an unofficial symbol of the island) is the Dragon's Blood tree.  Not only does it have an interesting umbrella-like shape, but it also has red sap, believed in ancient times to be the blood of a dragon.  Dragon's blood was seen as a cure for many ailments and in the 18th-century, dragon's blood resin was exported to Italy, where it was used as a varnish for violins. 

A very 16th-century Crusade

Crabs on Qansaliyah beach by Stefan Geens

Perhaps it was Marco Polo who started the rumours about a 'lost' Christian tribe living on Socotra and when the Portuguese arrived in the Indian ocean in the early 16th century, they showed a brief interest in Socotra as a stopping point on the way to India. They also had a religious objective in mind, ie. to liberate their supposed 'fellow Christians' from the tyranny of their Islamic overlords.  The British also took an interest in Socotra and I can see why, as an island nation, other islands have always been an attractive subject for the British crown (eg, the Caribbean islands, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Even Aden is an island!). 

Eco-tourism on Socotra

Fish for dinner in Hadiboh by Stefan Geens

Modern Socotra seems as oddly out of the place as it has ever been.  For a poor country like Yemen, the possible implications of an eco-tourist industry on Socotra must seem very promising, far away from the civil strife of the Arab spring.  I guess isolation has its up-side!  Even more isolated than the main island of Socotra are the three smaller islands, Darsa, Samha and Abd al Kuri.  There is something very revealing by looking at a country like Yemen from the point of view of one its most obscure corners.  I would certainly love to visit Socotra, as well as mainland Yemen, when the political situation calms down. It sounds like an incredibly exciting destination, with a lot to offer the curious traveller!



Image credits:

All images accompanying this blog post were taken from Stefan Geen's photostream on Flickr.  Stefan visited Socotra in 2006, when he was living in Beijing, China.  By an interesting quirk of fate, Stefan has also taken lots of photos from Kashgar in Xinjiang/Uyghuristan, which is a place I've also blogged about.  I didn't come across his photos, when I was blogging about Xinjiang/Uyghuristan, but it's well worth having a look at his Chinese photos as well. He's got a very interesting website where you can find out more. 

Thanks Stefan for sharing these wonderful images with us using the Creative Commons License.

 

Yemen - a Country held Hostage

Published in Beirut in 1984, Zayd Mutee' Dammaj's novel  الرهينة or The Hostage is probably the most famous novel ever written by a Yemeni writer.  Dammaj was born in a small village just north of Ta'izz and was lucky enough to be allowed to leave Yemen to study law in Egypt.  His father was a staunch anti-royalist and The Hostage, which is set in North Yemen during the late 40's, is incredibly critical of Yemeni society, as it existed before the revolutions that brought an end to the Imams' rule.  Although the subject matter of his novel is incredibly controversial, Dammaj was a well-respected figure in North Yemen, unlike his contemporary Abdelrahman Munif, whose novel Cities of Salt was banned in neighbouring Saudi Arabia (see my earlier blog post about this). 

An English language version of the novel was published in 1994 with a translation by Christopher Tingley and Dr May al-Jayyusi.  In 1980, Dr al-Jayyusi, a Palestinian poet and translator, founded PROTA, the Project of Translation from Arabic, which set out to make contemporary Arabic literature more accessible to a non-Arabic speaking audience. 

The Hostage by Zayd Mutee' Dammaj

The Hostage refers to the main character, a young male adolescent from one of the many tribes that the Imam wished to control by kidnapping the sons of the tribal leaders.  Hostage-taking has a long history in Yemen and was often used by ruling Imams to ensure tribal loyalty.  Tradition dictated that the hostages should be well-fed and educated - one English traveller to Yemen during the time of Imam Yahya, described the hostage situation, as a kind of 'compulsory Eton' (from Tim Mackintosh-Smith's book, Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land.) 

Unfortunately, in recent years, hostage-taking, or kidnapping, has become a blight on Yemen's international reputation.  Whilst most hostage situations have ended peacefully, there have also been bloody confrontations, such as the one that left four hostages dead in 1998 or the incident involving nine foreign tourists who were abducted in Saada in June 2009.  To Dammaj, the Hostage is a potent symbol of Yemen, a country that was isolated from the world by Imam Yahya, who preferred to keep the people of Yemen inside the country and all foreign influences out. 

Yemeni protester by Messay.com

The Hostage is not only a hostage, but becomes a duwaydar, which is a kind of servant - a role he volunteers to do, as he believes that it will liberate him from the imprisonment suffered by all of the other boy-hostages.  As the novel goes on, it becomes clear that a duwaydar's role involves a lot more than that of a servant, as the older women of the house visit his room at night and use the duwaydar for their own sexual gratification.  The duwaydar is supposed to be pre-pubescent and it is only when he claims to have 'become a man' that he is relieved of his nocturnal duties!  I must admit, a novel about the sexual exploitation of young boys is a pretty shocking thing for a reader in the West and I can't begin to imagine how the novel is perceived by readers of Arabic. 

Of course, the role of women in the novel is also of crucial importance.  The older women are sexually frustrated and abusing a young boy in this way is seen to be somehow 'more acceptable' than having relations with a grown man.  The women are also hostages, in a sense, they have no real freedom and are mostly kept inside the palace.  A notable exception is the Sharifa Hafsa, who is kind to the young hostage and forms an attachment to him that is emotional, rather than sexual.  A sharifa is a kind of princess, supposedly a direct descendant of Ali.  Sharifas weren't permitted to marry below their social status, which meant that an awful lot of them remained unmarried (hence sexually frustrated!). 

Women protesters by messay.com

Interestingly, like Cities of Salt, The Hostage records the impact of inventions, such as the radio and motorcar, on Yemeni society.  Like the descriptions in Cities of Salt, these inventions are regarded with a mixture of fear and excitement in The Hostage.  Despite the Imam's distrust of all things foreign, the appearance of these inventions in the novel heralds the dawn of a new age and a curiosity about the outside world, even amongst the Imam's most loyal followers.

When I was blogging about Rajasthan, I became aware of the existence of the book of births, deaths and marriages, which is ritually important to Rajasthani tribes.  This also appears in Dammaj's novel, as the most important book, after the Qu'ran, to the Yemeni tribesmen. 

Yemeni protest in Washington by messay.com

The Hostage is, perhaps, just as relevant now, as when it was first published.  With the ongoing struggle in Yemen to oust the country's leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen has yet to finalise its contribution to the Arab spring.  Despite fierce opposition and an attempt on his life, Saleh continues to hold the entire country hostage, in a way that is only too reminiscent of the Imams Yahya and Ahmad. 

Image credits:

The images of Yemeni protesters are by Messay Shoakena, who is a photographer based in Washington DC.  You can see more of Messay's images on his website.  Thanks for sharing these images with us, using the Creative Commons License

Yemen - Coffee and Qat

It wasn't until I was blogging about the Netherlands that I learned that coffee originally came from Yemen.  Well, as with a lot of Yemeni things, it probably originated in Ethiopia but, I guess, Yemen was the first place that coffee was cultivated and turned into something palatable.  Whilst Yemen had been exporting coffee beans for quite a while, it was the Dutch who stole the young coffee plants and replanted them in their colonies in (what is now) Sri Lanka and Indonesia.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Coffee plantation by ineedcoffee.com

Coffee, from the Arabic word قهوة‎ (qahwah) came to Europe in two directions; exported as beans through the Ottoman Empire to Istanbul and Vienna - it later took Amsterdam, Paris and London by storm, resulting in a proliferation of coffee houses or cafes in 17th century Europe.  Looking at the top coffee-growing countries today, it's hard to believe that Yemen was ever at the centre of the trade in coffee beans.  Brazil is, by far, the biggest coffee-growing country, followed by Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia.  Ethiopia has also reclaimed its tradition of coffee-growing and is currently the world's 5th largest coffee producer.

In terms of coffee consumption (per head of population), it might surprise you to know that people from Finland, Norway and Iceland consume more coffee than anywhere else.  In Ireland we also consume a lot of coffee, 3.5 kilos per person annually, according to 2007 figures from the World Research Institute.  In Britain, it's a lot less (2.8) and in the United States a bit more (4.2).  The global average in 2007 was 1.3 kilos per person annually.  Interestingly, Yemen's coffee consumption per person is almost zero!

Coffee Art by ineedcoffee.com

Whether coffee is beneficial or harmful is debatable - I'm sure the major coffee producing companies would point out the benefits of drinking coffee and it certainly helps increase concentration and stimulates the brain.  My rule-of-thumb is that most things are good for you in moderation.  I usually have one cup of coffee per day, first thing in the morning or as soon as I get to work.  I didn't drink coffee until I was in my early 20's, but I'd find it hard to give up now, so I guess it's pretty addictive!  I drank all kinds of coffee for years but then something changed and I can no longer stand instant coffee.  I didn't use to be such a coffee snob but I've come to the conclusion that instant coffee is vile, just like drinking coffee-flavoured hot water!  I prefer ground coffee in a French press (or сafetière). 

Qat plant by A Davey

It's interesting to compare the fate of coffee to that other (in)famous Yemeni plant, Qat.  They're similar in many ways - both plants increase concentration and can be addictive.  Both are important in social situations and mostly consumed by adults.  Qat is chewed rather than drunk.  It isn't consumed by nearly as many people every day as coffee is and, if you're wondering why you've never heard of it, that's probably because it's banned in most of the Western world.

Qat contains cathin and cathinone, which are like amphetamines that stimulate the brain, suppress appetite and cause a mild euphoria.  In Yemen, qat is consumed mostly (but not exclusively) by men, especially in the hour or so before sunset, when men gather to socialise, talk and listen to devotional music.  In his book, Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land Tim Mackintosh-Smith rather poetically describes the importance of qat to Yemeni culture.  He calls this time the Hour of Solomon and says the songs that are sung then are 'as perilous as they are beautiful'.

Qat at an Ethiopian market by A Davey

Categorised as a drug in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf states, the consumption of qat is strictly forbidden throughout the rest of Arabia.  It's also banned in Scandinavia, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada and the United States.  Interestingly, the use of qat in the UK is legal.  I don't imagine it's available at every corner store and I'm pretty sure its use is mostly restricted to immigrants of Yemeni, Somali and Ethiopian origin.  Still, it would be interesting to find out how widespread the use of qat is here in the UK.  I reckon it's only a matter of time before the new coalition government redefines qat as a controlled substance, in line with the laws of other European countries.

I guess if caffeine hadn't taken off in Europe in the way that it has, it could well have been classified as a drug.  It's interesting to think that one man's socially acceptable stimulant is another man's controlled substance!  I'm going to leave you with a song by the popular Yemeni singer, Mohamad al-Harithi which is typical of the songs sung during the Hour of Solomon.



Image credits:

The coffee images are by flickruser INeedCoffee/Coffee Hero aka Michael Allen Smith, a coffee enthusiast from Seattle.  Michael has a very amusing and interesting website which is well worth a visit. 

The images of qat and the at the market in Ethiopia was taken by flickruser A Davey who is from the Pacific northwest.  You can see more of his photos on flickr

Thanks to Michael and A Davey for sharing these images with us using the Creative Commons license

Yemen - the Queen of Sheba and the women of Yemen

One of the things people from Yemen seem to be quite proud of is the country's claim to be the birthplace of the Queen of Sheba.  Sheba is also claimed by the Ethiopians, who called her Makeda and I'm beginning to see a pattern of cultural exchange that has blurred the edges of Yemeni, Ethiopian, Eritrean  and Somali culture.

Archaeological evidence from Ma'rib, a town in the desert just east of Sana'a, is offered as proof of the existence of Sheba.  Whether or not Sheba was a real personage hardly seems to be the point - it's what she symbolised that has become so important, not only to the Yemenis, but to the early Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Sheba and King Solomon

Solomon and Sheba by Piero della Francesca

Just as there is a paucity of historical evidence of the Queen of Sheba's existence, I've also found that there are very few interpretations (in the Western world) of the Queen of Sheba's life - the ones that do exist relate to her visit to Solomon, the King of Israel.  Most accounts tell how the Queen of Sheba had heard of Solomon's great wisdom and faith, so she travelled all the way to Israel to see his kingdom with her own eyes.  She has been depicted as being wealthy beyond belief and brought gifts of gold, spices and jewels which, I'm sure, made an impression on Solomon and his subjects.


As part of my research, I've read Kings 10:10, the paragraph in the Bible that relates to Solomon and Sheba.  It's an incredibly short version of the story and I can't help wondering what was left unsaid.  Other accounts have linked Solomon and Sheba romantically, but the Bible, rather enigmatically, merely states that 'King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba everything she asked for'.

The Hollywood movie

Of course, the Hollywood version, King Vidor's 1959 epic, Solomon and Sheba is a lot more exciting.  Not only does Sheba (played by the Italian beauty, Gina Lollobrigada) seduce King Solomon (played by Yul Brynner, who was born in Vladivostok), but she is also partly responsible for the fall of Solomon's kingdom and the Hebrew God's destruction of Solomon's temple, when he allows Sheba and her cortege to hold a festival in honour of the Sheban love god, Ragan.

It's a great movie and I really enjoyed watching it.  I'm posting the link to a YouTube video, which shows one of the movies' most famous scenes, ie. the pagan orgy in honour of Ragan.  Gina Lollobrigada is fantastic and the scene reminded me of a Lady Gaga video.  Whilst Lady Gaga might only raise a few eyebrows in our modern times, Lollobrigada's dance in this scene caused quite a stir in late 1950's America!

Claude Lorrain's Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba

The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba

Also as part of my research for this blog, I went to see Claude Lorrain's 1648 painting The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, which hangs in the National Gallery, here in London.  The Sheban port, as depicted by Lorrain, looks nothing like the photos and images I've seen of Yemen, but Lorrain's approach to this story was innovative, not only because of the way he used light in the painting, but also because of the subject matter - most artists and writers have only been concerned with Sheba's visit to Israel, whereas Claude chose to focus on her departure from Sheba, reflecting his interest in the theme of voluntary exile. 

The arrival of the Queen of Sheba

Handel's oratorio, Solomon, based on biblical stories about the wise king, was first performed at the Theatre Royal (now known as the Royal Opera House) in Covent Garden, London  on the 17th of March 1749.  The sinfonia from Solomon is better known as The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and is a piece of music I have loved for many years.  I'm posting a video from YouTube below, so you can enjoy this piece of music firsthand (if you're not already familiar with it).



Soft diplomacy or cultural subjugation

I've been thinking a lot about Sheba's story and how it can be interpreted.  The optimist in me sees the story of Solomon and Sheba as one of the first portrayals of a diplomatic mission - one that wasn't based on war and conquest, but the exchange of gifts and cultural ideas.  In the biblical version of this story, Sheba leaves Israel peacefully and you get the impression that both Sheba and Israel have been enriched by this cultural contact.

I get the impression that, for many Yemenis, Sheba represents the 'glory days' of Yemen, when it was a land rich beyond any one's wildest dreams.  There are echoes of Yemeni history in the story of Sheba and, I think she is more a symbol of fertility and bountiful harvests, than an actual person.  Like a fallen queen, Yemen in more modern times has been culturally subjugated to the influences of a wider world.  Early Christians interpreted this story as the subjugation of pagan beliefs by monotheism.  For modern Yemenis, Sheba symbolises a country that is passive, female and exploited. 

Women in Yemeni society

Yemeni woman by localsurfer

The position of women in Yemeni society leaves a lot to be desired.  According to the Washington-based NGO, Freedom House Yemeni women have limited access to judicial institutions and the majority of law makers are men.  In the tribes, there does seem to be a strong role for women, but this varies from region to region and, in general, Yemeni women are discriminated against under the law.  For example, women in Yemen need a letter of approval from their 'guardian', before they can marry a non-Yemeni.  Bizarrely, Yemeni law considers the testimony of two women to be equal to that of one man.

There are no laws to protect women from sexual harassment at work - that is, if a woman can find a job, literacy levels amongst Yemeni women are incredibly low - according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 61.6% of women in Yemen are illiterate, which is double the illiteracy rate for men.  I'm not quite sure where the Queen of Sheba would fit in to modern-day Yemen! 

Image credits:

The image of Piero della Francesca's painting Legend of the True Cross - the Queen of Sheba Meeting with Solomon hangs in the Basilica de San Francesco which is Arezzo, in Italy.  This image is copyright-free, as it's in the public domain

The image of Claude Lorrain's Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba is also in the public domain.

The image of the young Yemeni woman was published on Flickr by localsurfer who is from Barnstaple in North Devon.  You can see more of his images on his website.  Also, it's worth having a look at the information he's written about this image, to get an idea of what life is like for women in Yemen.  Thanks localsurfer for sharing this image with us using the Creative Commons License. 

Yemen - How I made Saltah

Research into the national dish of Yemen very quickly brought me to a dish called سلتة Saltah, which is very close to the Arabic word سلت which means salt.  I don't know what the real thing tastes like, but the version I made wasn't too salty.  There seems to be only one recipe for Saltah knocking about on various different websites and this was the one I used.


Ingredients:

The Ingredients for Saltah, Hilbeh and Zhug

كوب واحد من النفط  one cup of oil
بصل 2 onions
البطاطا 4/6 potatoes
لحم مفروم minced meat (I used beef, but you could also use lamb)
لحوم البقر الأسهم beef stock
طماطم 2 tomatoes
بيض 2 eggs (which should be beaten)
عصير الليمون lemon juice
تشيليز 3/4 chillies
فصوص ثوم 6 cloves of garlic
حلبة نبات fenugreek seeds
كمون ground cumin
هال ground cardamom
كزبرة fresh coriander

Preparing Hilbeh and Zhug

Preparing Hilbeh

Preparing Zhug

Saltah is usually served with two condiments called Hilbeh and Zhug which are stirred into the dish at the very end.  I prepared these first, so I could put them in the fridge and chill them slightly.

Spices

Zhug and Hilbeh

Hilbeh حلبة نبات is a green-coloured condiment based on fenugreek.  It was my first time ever cooking with this spice (the English name comes from the Latin for Greek hay).  Fenugreek is popular in Indian cooking and is often used to make curries.  I steeped the seeds overnight in a glass of water, as recommended by the recipe, then blitzed them in the food processor, with some water, 2 garlic cloves, a green chilli, chopped coriander and the juice of a lemon.

To make Zhug مهدي الشوق I mixed some red chillies, oil and coriander with 4 garlic cloves, ground cumin and cardamom seeds.  Zhug is a popular condiment throughout the Middle East and I'm sure many of us have had this on kebabs or falafel.

Preparing the Saltah

Fry the onion

Fry the beef

To make the Saltah, you start by frying the onions in a frying pan, then adding the minced meat and frying this until it is brown.  I fried the meat and onions in a pan, then added them to the main stewing pot later - this was mostly because I'd underestimated the amount of space I would need to cook this dish - however, it worked out quite well doing it this way, so I would also cook the meat separately in future.

Heat the tomatoes and potato

Add the beef stock

I parboiled the potatoes before adding them to the main pot with the tomatoes (which I had salted) and fresh coriander.  In retrospect, I probably should have added the coriander later. Once the tomatoes had softened a bit, I added beef stock and brought the mixture to the boil.  It was at this point that I added the meat and onions to the pot and reduced the heat.

Saltah

The original recipe recommends simmering for one hour, but I was in a bit of a hurry, so I let the ingredients simmer for forty minutes, before stirring in the egg and adding the condiments.

It was a really straight-forward dish to make and incredibly delicious.  I made quite a bit portion, so we also had Saltah for dinner the next day.  I'm sure you could add rice to the mixture (which would make it a bit like kabsa) but we decided to eat it with yummy slices of country bread.

Traditional Yemeni food in London

The Queen of Sheba restaurant

Halloumi starter

I decided to add a new element to my learning experience this time, by visiting a traditional Yemeni restaurant.  I'm sure that most of the world's cuisines are represented in London and, sure enough, there is a traditional Yemeni restaurant, not far from Paddington Station, called The Queen of Sheba.

Kabsa Lahan

I went there with some friends and, this being Ramadan, the restaurant was pretty empty, most of the bookings being later in the evening, after sunset.  Unfortunately, I couldn't try their Saltah, but we had a range of starters - halloumi, falafel, moussaka and kibbah (which I hadn't tried before).  We all ordered lamb-based dishes and I tried the Kabsa Laham which was quite good.  The portions were massive and, for the first time ever, my partner couldn't finish his dinner (he's usually asking for more!)

It was a nice addition to the learning experience and one I hope to repeat in future blogs.   

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to use this under the following Creative Commons license:

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Yemen - the Madhab (مذهب) or Islamic schools of thought

It's quite apt to be blogging about a Muslim country during Ramadan.  I'd love to say that I planned it that way, but that's not the case.  When I was blogging about Saudi Arabia, I touched on the subject of Islam in a very general way, but it's such a rich and fascinating subject area, it will take me quite a few blog posts, I'd imagine to begin to understand the complexities of the Islamic faith.

Shi'a or Sunni?

One thing I learned about Islam when I was doing research about Saudi Arabia, is that it's an incredibly diverse faith.  There is no centralised power structure and history has led different branches of Islam in different directions, depending on which caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة khilafa meaning 'succession') you or your tribe believed in.

I'm sure most people will be aware that there are two main branches of Islam, أهل السنة or Sunni, who make up the majority of Muslim believers and  شيعة or Shi'a, predominant in Iran and parts of Iraq.  I'm still struggling to understand the difference between Sunni and Shi'a, but it seems to relate to a split that happened back in the early days of the development of Islam.

So what is Shi'a?

Arabia Felix by eesti

Followers of Shi'a believe that Muhammad's cousin Ali was his rightful successor, not the three Caliphs or successors (Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman) followed by orthodox Sunni believers.  Ali's succession gained early support in (what is now) Iraq and his final resting place is the incredibly important Shi'a shrine حرم الإمام علي in Najaf, Iraq.  The politics of Islam seemed to have moved away from Arabia pretty early on, as Syria and Iraq championed these first rival factions of Islamic belief. I'm just beginning to understand the significance of the Iraqi holy sites to Muslim and, more specifically, Shi'a believers. 

I'm also trying to understand what all of this means to Islam in the 21st century and what I've understood is that the independence of the Shi'a imams from the rigidness of the Quranic scriptures and the Hadiths has given the Irani imams power that goes beyond the laws of the state.  On one hand, Shi'a seems to have a greater capability to deal with 21st century life.  On the other hand, belief in the god-given rights of imams and end-of-the-world predictions about the coming of مهدي al-Madhi, a kind of 'messiah', make Shi'a seem arcane and backward.

The Schools of Shi'a

Yemen countryside by eesti

Shi'a is further divided into three main schools:

اثنا عشرية or ithna asharriyah often called the Twelvers in English - is the biggest school of belief in Shi'a and predominates in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Lebanon

الإسماعيليون or Ismaili often called the Seveners in English - they seem to be a very small sect with a minority of believers spread throughout the Islamic world.

الزيدية or the Zaydi is a Shi'a school very closely connected to Yemen - they are know as the realists of Shi'a and split off from the other two branches very early on so, although they believe in the succession of Ali, they don't seem have the same belief in the god-given powers of the Imam or al-Mahdi

The schools of Sunni

Doorway in Ta'izz by eesti

Sunni believers also fall into various different schools or Madhab.  I can't even begin at this point to understand the difference between these, so for now, I'll content myself with identifying the four main ones and where they have most of their followers:

حنفي or Hanafi is the main Madhab in India, Pakistan, Central Asia, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, parts of Iraq and amongst Muslim communities in the UK and Germany. 

مالكي or Melikiyah is the predominant Madhab in north and west Africa (but not in Egypt or Sudan) - it's also the school of jurisprudence followed by most Muslims in Eritrea.

شافعي or Shafi'i spreads in a great arc across the Indian ocean, from the Muslim populations of Ethiopia, Sudan,Yemen and Somalia to Malaysia, Indonesia and South East Asia. 

حنبلى or Hambela is the school of Islam followed in Saudi Arabia.

There is also a Madhab called الاباضية or Ibadhi which is neither Sunni nor Shi'a and is the dominant school of Islam in Oman and Zanzibar.

Of course, all of this is an over-simplification of the spread of Islamic beliefs and each country, as well as many non-Muslim countries, will have a range of Madhabs and believers, from the main schools of Sunni and Shi'a, as well as more obscure Madhabs not mentioned in this blog. 

Islam in Yemen

Mosque in San'a by eesti

Yemen seems to have a characteristic north-south split when it comes to religion, with northern Yemen following the Shi'a school of Zaydi and southern Yemen following the Sunni school of Shafi'i.  By all accounts, both schools are in the moderate camps of Sunni and Shi'a so (perhaps?) not all that different to each other in terms of religious practice.  I get the sense that, whilst religion is important to Yemeni culture, it doesn't seem to dominate all aspects of Yemeni life, in contrast to the form of Islam practiced across the border in Saudi Arabia.

I look forward to learning more about Islam in future blog posts, now that I have added another piece to the puzzle!

Image credits:

For this blog post I've chosen to highlight the work of flickuser eesti who is from Saitami prefecture, just outside Tokyo and Japan.  He seems to have photographed half of the world, so it's well worth visiting his photostream on flickr.  He's also photographed Uzbekistan and Russia and has a very cute teddy bear who crops up in different places!

Thanks eesti for sharing your photos with us under the Creative Commons License.

Yemen - Allah, al-Watan, ath-Thawrah, al-Wahdah!

It's more than 3,000 miles from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang/Uyghuristan to Sana'a, the capital of  الجمهورية اليمنية (Al Jumhūriyyah al Yamaniyyah - ie. the Republic of Yemen), the next place on my list!

The basics

At around 204,000 square miles (or 555,000 square kilometres), Yemen is slightly larger than Spain, more than six times bigger than Scotland and slightly smaller than the Canadian province of Manitoba.  It has an estimated population of 24 million people and 43% of the population is less than 14 years old (CIA World Factbook). The capital city, Sana'a, located in the country's highlands, is about 90 miles from the Red Sea and 185 miles north of Aden, a port city which will probably be more well-known to my British and European readers.

A bridge between the Arab world and East Africa

Young girl in Sana'a by kebnekaise

I think I know as little about Yemen, at this point, as most people in Europe.  I did touch on Yemeni culture and the diaspora in the Gulf states, when I was researching my blog posts for Saudi Arabia. One thing I learned about Yemen during this research is how different it is to the other states in Arabia.  Yemen is much poorer than Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates and lots of Yemeni men travel to the Gulf states for work.  The local economy, as in many poor countries, depends on the remittances being sent home by these workers.  Interestingly, whilst Yemen's relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states has been pretty tense in the past, Yemen has had a much closer relationship with Egypt and countries like Somalia and Ethiopia, that are culturally linked (putting Yemen at the centre of a Semitic cultural sphere, rather than at the edge of the Arab world).

A tale of two Yemens

It can't be nice, being looked upon as some kind of poor relation and I'm beginning to sense the complexity of the Yemeni identity.  Steeped in history, with a capital city that is a UNESCO world heritage site and such amazing potential for tourism, Yemen's recent history, unfortunately, has left most Westerners with the impression that it's a haven for kidnappers, pirates, revolutionaries and Islamic extremists.  An additional factor in researching the history and culture of Yemen is trying to get my head around the two Yemens, North and South.

The North -  الشمال

First, there is the culturally and politically dominant northern part of Yemen, containing the capital and a large chunk of the country's population, this is the Yemen that was part of the Ottoman Empire, gaining independence after the First World war, as the Kingdom of Yemen and in the 60's, after an Egyptian-style revolution, the Yemen Arab Republic.

The South -  الجنوب

Then there is the South, with its capital at Aden, which came under British influence, as a convenient stopping point on the route to India.  When the north gained its independence in 1918, Britain continued to govern the southern part of Yemen, as part of British India, until 1937, when the status of Aden was changed to 'Crown Colony'.  British rule in Aden became increasingly unpopular and the short-lived Federation of South Arabia in the 60's was quickly replaced by the socialist People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Unity - الوحدة

Sana'a by kebnekaise

Despite numerous attempts to reunite the two parts of Yemen, it wasn't until the 22nd of May 1990 that North and South Yemen were finally reunited to form the modern-day Republic of Yemen.  I must hold my hand up at this point and admit that I have no recollection whatsoever of the re-unification of Yemen.  Germany, yes, Yemen . . .uhm, I guess I was busy studying for my Inter Cert (an Irish exam, that comes halfways through secondary school, sort of like GCSE's in the UK).  Mind you, I don't remember other important things that happened on May 22nd 1990, like the launch of Windows 3.0, although possibly the significance of this (digital) revolution wasn't recognised by most of us at the time! 

Yemen's flag is typical of flags in the Middle East and North Africa, ie. with red, white and black stripes, it looks very similar to the flags of Egypt and Syria.  The former flags of North and South Yemen included symbols that represented the political nature of each of these countries, whereas the flag adopted after 1990, leaves the white stripe, rather neutrally, blank. 

Motto of the Republic of Yemen

In the opening title of this blog post, I've given a transcription in Roman letters of the country's motto:


لله، الوطن، الثورة، الوحدة
I was struck by how simple and direct the motto is and it seems to capture the essence of Yemeni political life very well!

The skyscrapers of Shibam by kebnekaise

لله، 'Allah' 
الوطن، 'al-Watan' (home/country)
الثورة، 'ath-Thawrah' (revolution)
الوحدة  'al-Wahdah' (unity)


Yemeni themes

I've just started researching possible themes for Yemen and I've already come up with some areas that I would like to look into further, such as the Queen of Sheba, the use of qat, the history of the coffee trade, the trade in frankincense and the island of Socotra.  I've bought some classical Yemeni music, Mohammad al-Harithi's L'Heure de Salomon recorded on CD for the Institut du Monde Arab.  I've been listening to this all morning and it's very transcendental, like the Indian Bhajan (devotional music) I blogged about in May 2010.  I'm also going to try my hand at the Yemeni national dish, Saltah and I've got a few books lined up, including a well-known Yemeni novel.

The peasant of Hadramawt by kebnekaise

I hope you'll join me, as I learn about Yemen.  Comments etc are much appreciated, as long as they aren't intentionally offensive to Yemeni people or culture.  


Image credits:

It's always exciting finding images on Flickr.com that illustrate the places I'm blogging about.  My research for Yemen has brought me to the work of kebnekaise aka Davide, who is from Trento in the north of Italy.  He seems to have travelled a lot in the north of Europe, Svalbard, Iceland etc., but the photos I've used to illustrate this blog post come from a trip he did to Yemen in 2000.  


I couldn't put all of the photos here, but you can see the rest of the Yemeni set on his photostream.  You can also see his images on his website.   


Thanks Davide for sharing these images with us using the Creative Commons License.