Page 112 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

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POPULATION 151

on each cheek. They are not allowed to ride in the town,
''"'['even outside they must dismount when passing a Moslem.
r'\ it would not be correct to describe them (at least for the present)
>ua persecuted community ; the law has been administered fairly
\vith regard to them and, being remarkably industrious, they are
' the°whole prosperous and contented. Nevertheless, of late
nil
ars there has been a tendency among them to emigrate—largely,
it appears, to Jerusalem. Every male adult pays a capitation tax
of one riyal.
la religion the Central Yemen follows the Zeidi sect, an offshoot
of the Shiah, called after Zeid, a great-grandson of ‘Ali, and estab­

lished in the Yemen by the Imam Hadi Yahya, a.d. 901. Through
him the present Imam of Yemen claims descent from ‘Ali, the
fourth Khalif, by his wife Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet. The
Zcidis approach the orthodox Sunni more nearly, perhaps, than any
other sect of the Shiah.
The dwellers on the eastern plateau are all Sunnis, or orthodox
Moslems, regarding the Sunna (a collection of traditions of the
Prophet) as canonical, and guiding their conduct thereby. ■There i
is no love lost between these two great sects in Yemen.

In the Tihamah the Sunni doctrine is also paramount ; at •i
Hodeidah, however, a few Zeidis from up-country may be found. i
i
The creed and practices of Sunni extend in some parts (Hajeilah,
!
for instance) some distance back into the maritime range.
The Yemeni is not regarded as particularly fanatical : he sees the 1
!
sects into which his own people are divided, and, maybe, realizes
;
that there are at least two sides to every question. Hence his
not unfriendly attitude to the Jews.
1

l
Domestic Life and Appliances

In describing matters domestic in Yemen a sharp line must be
' rau'11 between the conditions of life among the littoral population
a,ul those °f the highlands.
the lowlands pastoral clans range and settle as grazing and
(l\v m dictate. The black goat-hair tents of the more inland desert-
uii i S ar? rarely seen ; the natives here raise huts of matting
no ’ with an entrance covered by a piece of matting, but with
niov 16r aPerture- Furniture is extremely scant and light so that
curd 1Ue?t may be easy—one or two wooden beds laced with palm
•Moresa tew gonrds for sour milk, some conical-lidded baskets for
primitive hookah made out of an empty coco-nut, and