Page 132 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

RECENT HISTORY AND PRESENT POLITICS 161

• rebellious tribes, of which the Zaranik, occupying a belt
coagt tQ the hipg south of Hodeidah, are the most impor-
fr,,m 1 q£ the highlands (second to fifth zones), the southern part,
t int about ‘Amran, is under a condominium, the Turks having the
^r,)in military and administrative control, but the Imam retain-
•'"^leeal powers, religious and civil (see later), which amount to
M1^ocial jurisdiction. In the northern part, from about ‘Amran up
a s
the Asir border, the Imam’s is the only paramount power, but
Tis impaired by the sturdy independence of certain great tribes,
Especially the Hashid and Bekil, and the influence of Idrisi of Asir.
()n the eastern plateau no law runs but that of the local chiefs of the
Jftuf Mareb, and other oases, the Beni Yam controlling Nejran.
The Turks, who first established themselves in Yemen early
in the sixteenth century, lost their hold on the highlands
a hundred years later ; and these, falling into the hands of the
Zeitli Imams of Sa‘dah, who had previously been supreme in the
north only, remained independent till well on into the latter half
• of the nineteenth century. The Tihamah also passed out of
Turkish power a little later, arid throughout the eighteenth century
was ruled in the main by its own local sheikhs, under a vague
| suzerainty exercised by the Imams from San‘a which was hardly
• effective except in Mocha. But in 1819 Mohammed ‘Ali of Egypt
• occupied the coast towns, and prepared the way for the resumption
] of direct Turkish rule. In consequence of the efforts of Sherif !
Husein of Abu ‘Arish in S. Asir to dominate the Tihamah after the
i
withdrawal of the Egyptians in 1840, a Turkish expeditionary
force under Tewfik Pasha appeared in Yemen in 1849, retook
Hodeidah and other parts of the Tihamah from Sherif Husein, and
advanced on to the highlands. But though it entered, it was
onable to retain San‘a, and it was not till 1872, when the Imams
I displayed their incompetence to govern for nearly a quarter
; " * century longer, that the Turks established themselves in the
i it/*If highlands on an invitation from the notables of the capital
a 7 • Imam, Ghalib el-Hadi, was sent into retirement on
years SI°t’ anc* i'he titular rulers remained in obscurity for twenty
‘‘onst'f Tihamah and central and southern highlands were
Hie H Uteci as a vilayet, which nominally extended northwards to
bold o'3"2 h°r(Ier; but the only part north of ‘Amran effectively
‘•ojist-P really ^ministered by the Turks was the central part and
and nIm 7 ^sir’ all the intervening highland region, about Khamir
hold tke ah’ rema,ining in fact independent. Turkish efforts to
'K<‘"pati °aSeS °* eastern P^teau resulted in no permanent-
vH\nrK °n- They also made intermittent but ineffective attempts
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