Page 134 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

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YEMEN
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to extend their rule southwards into the Aden hinterland as certain
Imams had done before them. The head centre of Ottoman
government was San‘a, where the Vali and C. in C. resided. Under
ft were four Sanjaqs, the Merkaz (San'a), Asir, Hodeidah, and
Ta'izz governed by Mutessarifs. The three of these lying in Yemen
proper were divided into twenty-one Kazas, Loheia, Haju, Zeidiyah,
Bajil, Beit el-Faqih, Mocha ; Haj, Suda, Tawilah, Dhoran, Reimah,
Zebid, ‘Udeir, Ibb, Hajariyah ; Hajjah (Haddah), Anis, Dhamar,
Rada‘, Yerim, and Qa‘tabah.
Never long quiet under alien rule, impatient of taxation, and
disgusted at the spectacle of their lands falling out of cultivation
and trade passing to Aden, the Yemenis, especially the highlanders,
gave continual trouble to the Turks. In 1891 a great rising (the
first of a series) took place, but was suppressed after a costly
campaign and San‘a was wrested from the rebels by Ahmed Feizi
Pasha. Yahya Hamid ed-Din, though the revolt was made in
his name, fled on its actual outbreak to Sa'dah, leaving the head­
ship of the fighting forces to his cousin, Ahmed esh-Shera'i.

Another general rising followed in 1904 on the death of the
Imam, Mohammed el-Mansur (son of Yahya Hamid ed-Din, who
had never been recognized as Imam), and the accession of his son,
Yahya. San‘a capitulated through famine, and all the posts inland
of Menakhah surrendered to the rebels, who took more than seventy
pieces of artillery and a considerable quantity of small arms and
amjnunition. Ahmed Feizi Pasha, who had shown such firmness
and ability in the previous rising, returned from Basra to command
the expeditionary column which had been collected on the coast,
fought his way to San‘a and re-established order, but only after
a great expenditure of blood and money. The Imam, however,
utterly refused to surrender any of the weapons and stores he had
captured, and it was only by the Turks giving way on this point
that a patched-up peace was made.

In 1911 San‘a (under Mohammed ‘Ali Pasha) was again beleaguered
by the insurgent tribes in the name of the Imam Yahya. ‘Izzet Pasha,
who relieved the place and became military governor, inaugurated
a rapprochement with the Imam, for he saw that the military difficul­
ties of the situation demanded some such policy, if Turkey was to
preserve even nominal sovereignty in Yemen. For a long time
the Porte refused to consider the measure, and ‘Izzet returned to !
Stambul in order to press his views, leaving Mahmud Nazim Bey
(a civilian) to carry on negotiations with the Imam. i
I
Izzet Pasha attained his aim at Stambul, and an Imperial
1‘irman was read publicly at San‘a on September 22, 1913, pro-