The New York Times, October 29, 1882:
MOCHA AND MOCHA COFFEEFAVORED SPOTS IN RAVINES
WHERE THE PLANT GROWS
MOCHA ITSELF A SANDY DISTRICT,
WITH SPARSE VEGETATION—
THE PLANT NOT INDIGENOUS TO ARABIA—
HARD STRUGGLE THE BEVERAGE HAD
AT FIRST IN OBTAINING FAVOR
From the London Times.
No Arabian town has so fragrant an odor around its name as Mocha, which for so many years was known as the port from which most of the coffee of Yemen was shipped.
That Mocha itself does not lie in a coffee region is probably known to few of those who honor the noble beverage. Indeed, it has long been known that these beans, which enjoy a world-wide reputation, reach the Western markets in increasingly small quantities, for the productive region in Yemen is comparatively limited in area, and crop scarcely suffices to supply the demand in the East itself. Certain it is that a considerable part of the crop finds its way by land over the Hedjaz, and only a fraction of it reaches export harbors. The most important of these, according to the Austrian Monatschrift für den Orient, at the present time is undoubtedly Aden. In former times it was quite otherwise.
After the introduction of coffee-culture and the taste for coffee into Arabia, an event by no means of ancient date, Mocha was certainly the only port from which it was shipped. At the beginning of the sixteenth century only one hut stood on the site of Mocha, that of the Sheik Shadeli, who on account of his honest dealings was much sought after by the skippers. He was an honorable and hospitable man, who regaled his guests with a cup of the beverage which he himself greatly loved and commended. This drink was no other than coffee, a knowledge of the virtues of which soon spread through the whole of Yemen. The Sheik had many visitors, and out of his hospitality a profitable business was developed; the settler's hut soon expanded into a village, and the village into a town, which in a short time was crowded with speculators and rich merchants.
Such is the legend of the founding and growth of Mocha. In what year the event took place there is no means of ascertaining, for the Turkish and Arabic chroniclers are shy of figures and dates, and leave to their successors the filling in of the blanks. But no doubt the story is essentially authentic, for after Mocha became a flourishing town Sheik Shadeli was honored with a sepulchral mosque, which is today pointed out with pride, and the principal wells of the existing town and also the land-gate bear the name of its worthy benefactor. "By Sheik Shadeli" the people of Mocha swear more than by the Prophet himself, who receives scarcely more honor than is paid to the patron of the town and of all the coffee growers of Yemen.
Coffee could not be grown at all, as we have said, in the region around Mocha itself, which is known as the Tehama, a low, flat, sandy district, with sparse vegetation. The climate is necessarily hot, fever is endemic, and water scarce. No coffee could be grown in such a region, although it contains the chief warehouses and export harbors for the product of Yemen.
For a whole century Mocha was the leading coffee port, but about the middle of the seventeenth century Hodeida, to the north of Mocha, took its place. Latterly, however, for reasons connected with Turco-Egyptian politics, Hodeida has declined. So long as it was the chief export harbor, the inland town of Beit-el-Fakhi was the chief transit centre, the leading port of which was and is still Ghalefka, which sent out almost as much coffee as Hodeida itself.
After the Turco-Egyptian domestic politics had ruined these ports, the coffee trade sought another outlet, by Aden, which now is the leading centre and place of export for the coffee of Yemen.
The coffee tree is no wild plant in Yemen, its successful growth depending on a great variety of natural and artificial conditions. In terraces among the mountain ravines, carefully protected from the chilly mountain breezes, on a soil composed of clay, porphyry, and trap, is the cultivation of the best sorts carried on. Thus it is only certain favored spots that are suited for the growth of coffee in Yemen, and the culture is essentially that of comparatively small gardens.
The best coffee garden of Yemen is that of Uddein, in the north-east of Mocha; it yields the Uddein bean, the finest coffee bean the world produces. This estate lies in the Valley of the Zebid, and in area is by no means extensive.
The second most important district is that of Beit-el-Fakhi, in which are Buljos, Hadie, and Kusmai, estates on the mountain terraces, which stretch from the Tehama to the mountains of central Yemen; many of the hamlets which used to nestle in the midst of the coffee plantations looking out from the hill-sides on the sterile plain below are now in ruins.
In the direction of Hodeida lies the third of the great coffee gardens, that of Mofhak and Harraz, on the flanks of the Yemen Mountains, which inclose the Wadi Seichan. Smaller and less productive gardens are found at Jepaad, on the north foot of the Saber Mountain, to the east of Mocha. Others of less importance are scattered about in various parts of the region, as far as the eastern plateau of Yemen, the heights varying from 1,200 to 4,000 feet above the sea.
The entire productive region is, after all, only a comparatively small section of Yemen, and even in this section itself there are many unproductive gaps—gaps which are much more extensive than are the coffee gardens themselves.
Thus, the culture of the noble product to which Mocha has given its name has gradually spread outward over a district of the early Himyaratic State, which has seen better days.
It is well known that the coffee plant is not indigenous to Arabia, but was imported from Abyssinia at a date which cannot be accurately fixed. The taste for coffee itself had a hard struggle at first to find a general welcome among the more select circles. Apart from the oldest legend concerning Shadeli's drink, the Medina Sheik Abd-el-Kader is the oldest historical authority on the use of the "blood-red kaweh," as the Tunisian Ibn Waki named the beverage.
In the year 1587, not 300 years ago, he tells us that in Yemen people made use of a drink which so lightened the night watches that the faithful of the place were able to sing the praises of God more fervently and cheerfully than could be done anywhere else. According to him, the Mufti Dhabani was the first to introduce the insignificant little bean on Arabian soil, having brought it with him from Africa.
Certain it is that the districts of Shoa, Euara, and Kaffa, (whence the name,) in the south of the Abyssinian highlands, form the original home of the coffee plant. Dhabani was of a sickly nature, and since he belonged to the Order of the Sofi (Ultra Pantheists,) who believed that everything on earth and all being emanated from the Godhead, he regarded a means of excitement of this kind as a Providential gift.
The Medinese and faithful Meccans laid their turbaned heads together in the public places when first they heard the news; a pious sheik in Aden was the first to drink the "black juice" as a sort of public spectacle.
In Mecca itself violent strife arose soon after its introduction as to the propriety of using it. There were great meetings of learned and pious men, who at last, probably after extreme pressure from the Mameluke Governor, Khair-Beg, declared that coffee "disturbed the brain and intoxicated like wine."
But their opponents were of another opinion, and adduced the authority of the celebrated Bagdad physician Avicenna in their defense, which, however, did not prevent the transgressor of the edict forbidding the use of coffee from being publicly whipped. At the same time the zealots of the Hedjaz proclaimed that all coffee drinkers would appear before the All Merciful on the Resurrection Day, with black faces.
While the great anathema was being proclaimed at Mecca, the brothers of the order at Cairo, the very Mamelukes themselves, were already reveling in the newly discovered luxury. A confirmation of the Mecca decree was, therefore, not to be expected from the Sultan, and he, Kaufu Alguri, quashed the ordinance of the Governor and sent the latter into exile.
Then many holy sheiks—for example, the celebrated Mohammed Ilarlie, founder of one of the four orthodox schools of Islam—took the side of the coffee drinkers. Thus was the precious bean fully rehabilitated in Western Arabia at least.
Soon thereafter a whole literature sprang up on the drink; poems of praise and derision without number were manufactured, which by means of the trade caravans were circulated through the whole of the Mohammedan world. With the broadside the bean itself naturally found its way everywhere, first to Aleppo and Damascus. It took fully a century for coffee to make its way from Yemen to Aleppo.
In Stamboul, more than 100 years after the Conquest, the beverage was unknown. In the reign of Selim II., (1566-74,) who was a notorious drunkard, and even in history bears this fine nickname, (Turkish mesi,) wine was not forbidden, and so coffee did not find its way into the Osman kingdom till the beginning of the reign of Murad III. The first specimens were brought by the pilgrims from Mecca in the form of branches of the tree or shrub, as, indeed, the Hadjis are wont to do on their return even at the present day.
The Aleppinese were the first to open coffeehouses in Stamboul, wherefore they received the name which they still always bear, Kavéh-Chanéh. Here, again, it was the most pious of the pious, the cream of the Ulema and other special favorites of God, who immediately publicly decreed the Divine approval of the use of the beverage, and gave the high-sounding name of "Schools of Wisdom" to the little booths where people lounged in idleness, talked politics, and played backgammon.
Such exaggeration must necessarily be followed by a reaction, and soon the zealots professed that they had found in the Koran a prohibition against the use of the beverage. They said that the coffee bean was a charcoal, and the use of charcoal was forbidden in the holy book.
In the interpretation of the Koran the Islamites were always great, but on the limits of the permissible the Stamboul theologians had the reputation of being specially learned. It required only the oracular utterance that the coffee bean was no "privileged" charcoal, spoken at the right time, to bring down upon the coffee drinkers a bloody persecution, similar to that which in the reign of Murad IV was decreed against smokers.
It is characteristic of the Osman genius that the dignitaries, especially the Grand Viziers, boldly made use of the passion for coffee-drinking to decree enormous taxes and make use of other extortions. One Grand Vizier denounced the Kavéh-Chanéhs as hotbeds of crime, debauchery, demagogism, and revolutionary plots, which called forth the temporary interference of the Police; but the habit had become so firmly established that it was evident that all attempts to banish it were futile.
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The New York Times, June 18, 1882:
ARABIA'S GREAT FORTRESS
Off Aden, April 23—The coast of Arabia, picturesque as it is, certainly ranks among the numerous spots which look best at a distance.
I once heard a veteran boatswain in the South Atlantic answer a inquiring passenger's questions about the Cape Verde Islands, which we were then approaching, by saying solemnly, "Well, Sir, them Cape Verdes, d'ye see, they're just that sort o' place that when you fust see 'em you'll be all agog to git ashore, and afore you've been ashore half an hour you'll be a deal all agoger to git aboard again."
The same thing might with equal justice be said of the shores of "Yemen the Happy," which appears to be so called in the same spirit as Dr. Carlyle, according to his reknowned brother, was called a doctor, "just oot of dereesion."
And upon the whole coast of Yemen there is not one spot more universally execrated than the quaint little rock-hewn fortress that lies hidden behind the great bastion of dark gray cliff which rises before me as I write.
The station of Aden holds, rightly or wrongly, a high rank among the seven or eight "hottest places in the world" which I have already visited...
Aden has often been called the Gibraltar of the East, and not without reason. It is true that the cliff which fences it to seaward, boldly as it stands out against the glow of the evening sky, would look tame enough beside the mighty mass that guards the gate of the Mediterranean, blotting the bright blue waters of Algeciras Bay with a shadow like that of a gathering thunder-cloud. But in other respects Aden is a very fairly exact miniature of its formidable namesake. The sea-fronting battery, the low sandy neck joining the peninsula to the mainland, the quaint little Eastern town with its trim white houses and picturesque jumble of strange costumes, the rock-hewn tunnel leading into the fort, the gloomy galleries through the heart of the cliff, the dazzling sunshine, the deep blue sea and sky, the scorching heat and overpowering dust, are all identical.
The Eastern Gibraltar, however, possesses not a few characteristic features of its own which are sufficiently striking at first sight. The endless ranges of dark, craggy mountains which tower along the Arabian shore, if less beautiful than the vine-clad hills of sunny Spain, are infinitely more imposing. Equally characteristic are the great masses of glaring white limestone which, with the full blaze of the midday sun upon them, might have tried the eyes of that celebrated detective who "could see a thief in the middle of a hay-stack, even if he wasn't there after all."
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All of Yemen is
one time zone at GMT+3
with no DST.
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Yemen News
The Kingdom of Yemen (colloquially known as North Yemen) became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and in 1962 became the Yemen Arab Republic.
The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became the People's Republic of Southern Yemen (colloquially known as South Yemen).
Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation and changed the country's name to the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states.
The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement and brief civil war in 1994 was quickly subdued.
In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to delineate their border. Fighting in the northwest between the government and the Houthis, a Zaydi Shia Muslim minority, continued intermittently from 2004 to 2010, and then again from 2014-present. The southern secessionist movement was revitalized in 2007.
Public rallies in Sana'a against then President Ali Abdallah SALIH - inspired by similar Arab Spring demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt - slowly built momentum starting in late January 2011 fueled by complaints over high unemployment, poor economic conditions, and corruption. By the following month, some protests had resulted in violence, and the demonstrations had spread to other major cities. By March the opposition had hardened its demands and was unifying behind calls for SALIH's immediate ouster.
In April 2011, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in an attempt to mediate the crisis in Yemen, proposed the GCC Initiative, an agreement in which the president would step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution. SALIH's refusal to sign an agreement led to further violence.
The UN Security Council passed Resolution 2014 in October 2011 calling for an end to the violence and completing a power transfer deal. In November 2011, SALIH signed the GCC Initiative to step down and to transfer some of his powers to Vice President Abd Rabuh Mansur HADI. Following HADI's uncontested election victory in February 2012, SALIH formally transferred all presidential powers.
In accordance with the GCC Initiative, Yemen launched a National Dialogue Conference (NDC) in March 2013 to discuss key constitutional, political, and social issues. HADI concluded the NDC in January 2014 and planned to begin implementing subsequent steps in the transition process, including constitutional drafting, a constitutional referendum, and national elections.
The Houthis, perceiving their grievances were not addressed in the NDC, joined forces with SALIH and expanded their influence in northwestern Yemen, which culminated in a major offensive against military units and rival tribes and enabled their forces to overrun the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014.
In January 2015, the Houthis surrounded the presidential palace, HADI's residence, and key government facilities, prompting HADI and the cabinet to submit their resignations. HADI fled to Aden in February 2015 and rescinded his resignation. He subsequently escaped to Oman and then moved to Saudi Arabia and asked the GCC to intervene militarily in Yemen to protect the legitimate government from the Houthis.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of Arab militaries and began airstrikes against the Houthis and Houthi-affiliated forces. Ground fighting between Houthi-aligned forces and anti-Houthi groups backed by the Saudi-led coalition continued through 2016. In 2016, the UN brokered a months-long cessation of hostilities that reduced airstrikes and fighting, and initiated peace talks in Kuwait. However, the talks ended without agreement.
The Houthis and SALIH’s political party announced a Supreme Political Council in August 2016 and a National Salvation Government, including a prime minister and several dozen cabinet members, in November 2016, to govern in Sanaa and further challenge the legitimacy of HADI’s government. However, amid rising tensions between the Houthis and SALIH, sporadic clashes erupted in mid-2017, and escalated into open fighting that ended when Houthi forces killed SALIH in early December 2017.
In 2018, anti-Houthi forces made the most battlefield progress in Yemen since early 2016, most notably in Al Hudaydah Governorate. In December 2018, the Houthis and Yemeni Government participated in the first UN-brokered peace talks since 2016, agreeing to a limited cease-fire in Al Hudaydah Governorate and the establishment of a UN Mission to monitor the agreement.
In April 2019, Yemen’s parliament convened in Say'un for the first time since the conflict broke out in 2014. In August 2019, violence erupted between HADI's government and the pro-secessionist Southern Transition Council (STC) in southern Yemen. In November 2019, HADI's government and the STC signed a power-sharing agreement to end the fighting between them, and in December 2020, the signatories formed a new cabinet.
In 2020 and 2021, fighting continued on the ground in Yemen as the Houthis gained territory, and also conducted regular UAV and missile attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia. In April 2022, the UN brokered a temporary truce between the Houthis and Saudi-led coalition that resulted in an extended pause of large-scale fighting and cessation of cross-border attacks. Also in April 2022, HADI and his vice-president resigned and were replaced by an eight-person Presidential Leadership Council with the executive powers of the president and vice president.
The CIA World Factbook: Yemen
Area of Yemen:
527,970 sq km
slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming
Population of Yemen:
31,565,602 (2023) | 23,013,376 (2008)
Languages of Yemen: Arabic
Yemen Capital:
Sanaa
SANAA WEATHER
Free Books on Yemen (.pdfs)
The Turks in Yamen Bury 1915
Resúliyy Dynasty of Yemen al-Ḥasan Khazrajī 1908
A Journey Through the Yemen Harris 1893
Rebellion in Yemen Blackwood's Magazine 1893
A History of Arabia Felix Or Yemen Playfair 1859
Travels Through Arabia Niebuhr (1762-63)
Online Book Search Engines
Yemen Reference Articles and Links
Wikipedia: Yemen - History of Yemen
BBC Country Profile: Yemen
US State Department: Yemen Profile
Maps of Yemen
Yemen Embassy, Washington D.C.
WikiTravel: Yemen
Yemen News Websites
News Yemen
Yemen Times (archives) in English
ABYZ: Yemen News Links
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