Page 146 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

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the heights around ; of these the two principal are forts Hadar
(or Heidar) and Beh (with one or more heavy howitzers), both
situated on the south-east, and commanding the town as well as the
approaches to it. The town and district are strongly garrisoned,
and are administered by a Kaimmakam, whose jurisdiction extends
from Hajeilah to Suq el-Khamls. The population of Menakhah is
about 7,000, including 1,000 Jews. The place would be well able
to withstand siege, for fertile gardens with good crops overhang the
precipices which fall sheer from the town on one side, and orchards
and fields of fodder cover the slopes of Jebel Shibam on the other.
The military hospital is at the upper end of the town, and
somewhat lower down are the tall oblong barracks and magazine ;
the Government buildings, Hukumah, and post office are substantial
buildings ; all these are supplied with very excellent water by a
covered conduit leading from a good spring in a ravine in Jebel
Shibam. There are also several other perennial springs of good
water which afford an adequate supply to the rest of the town.

3. Ta‘izz is situated at an elevation of 4,000 ft. above sea-level,
in a valley of considerable fertility at the foot of Jebel Sabor (Sabar).
The town, quadrilateral in plan, is surrounded by a wall from
25 to 30 ft. in thickness and from 10 to 12 ft. high, constructed
in the main of sun-dried bricks, but with a layer of fire-baked
bricks on the exterior, and having towers at intervals, which rise
8 or 10 ft. above the wall. The wall has five gates : the Bab
el-Keblr, the great eastern gate leading to San‘a and Mawiyah ;
the Bab Sheikh Musa, to Mochq and Hais ; the Bab ‘Ain Dummah,
towards Jebel Sabor and connecting the town with the Kahrah ;
and two others of less importance, one of which, according to
Zwemer, has been walled up. The gates are defended by towers
rising from the walls, and other towers cover the entrances. On
a bare eminence, about 400 ft. in height, east-south-east of the
town, is situated the Kahrah, a citadel-fortress with barracks,
which commands the town and would be very formidable were it
not itself commanded by the mountains round.
The present population of Ta'izz probably does not reach 4,000
(Zwemer’s estimate is 5,000), but formerly it was a large city, owing
its importance to its situation in the centre of a comparatively
fertile district at the junction of several trade routes. Describing
the town, Manzoni says : ‘ It is a mass of ruins ; mosques, houses,
fortifications, all falling to pieces. Five mosques and ten so-called
palaces, surrounded by three hundred low small houses (which
form the inhabited quarter on the west side), are the only witnesses
of its ancient importance. The remainder of the space enclosed

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