A Journey through the Yemen and some General Rem

Name: A Journey through the Yemen and some General Remarks Upon that Country
Author: Walter Harris

Walter Harris's *A Journey through the Yemen and Some General Remarks Upon that Country* recounts an 1892–93 expedition through southwestern Arabia undertaken at the height of a Zaidi tribal uprising against Ottoman rule, blending travel narrative with geography, history, and ethnography. Harris opens by mapping the Yemen's poorly defined borders, distinguishing its two great natural zones: the arid coastal Teháma, with its ports of Hodaidah, Mokha, and Lohaya, and the fertile, terraced highland plateau centered on Sanaa, Dhamar, Yerim, Taiz, and Ibb. He surveys the region's traditional provinces and its unresolved frontier with Ottoman Turkey. A lengthy historical survey follows, tracing the Yemen from the legendary Minean and Sabean dynasties (including the Queen of Sheba and the great Mareb dam) through Himyaritic rule, the persecution of Christians under Dhu Nowas, Abyssinian and Persian occupations, the coming of Islam under Mahammed's emissaries, the "false prophets" Mosailma and El-Aswad, the Zaidi Imamate founded by El-Hadi Yahya, Ottoman conquest under Suleiman the Magnificent, European trading contacts, and the nineteenth-century interplay of Imams, Egyptian intervention, and renewed Turkish annexation in 1872. Harris then devotes a chapter to Islam's theology and sects—Sunni versus Sheiya, the Zaidis, Kharejites, Karmathians, and Senussis—paired with a spirited defense of Islam against Western prejudice, arguing that a people's character, not their creed, determines a nation's condition. The narrative's core is his account of the 1891–92 Yemen rebellion: Ottoman misgovernment and taxation abuses, the flight of Imam Ahmed ed-Din, the sieges of Sanaa and Amran, and General Ahmed Feizi Pasha's reconquest of the highlands—events Harris witnessed firsthand, including his own arrest as a suspected spy and expulsion via Hodaidah. Subsequent chapters describe Aden as a British coaling station and its vivid multiethnic bazaars; Harris's departure for the interior disguised as a modest trader, accompanied by his servants Abdurrahman and Saïd; his reception by the Sultan of Lahej at Howta; and the onward camel journey through Bedouin tribal territories, desert sandstorms, and mountain gorges toward the Yemeni interior, rendered throughout with attention to landscape, tribal customs, and the everyday hazards of travel during wartime.

By Walter Harris · First published 1893 · Genre: Travel Narrative, Adventure Narrative, Historical Writing · 16 chapters · 96,863 words

First lines

THE YEMEN.

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A Journey through the Yemen and some General Remarks Upon that Country is listed on Textopian as a historical account by Walter Harris, dated 1893 CE.

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Work type: Historical account
Author: Walter Harris
Date: 1893 CE
Language: English
Genres: Travel Narrative, Adventure Narrative, Historical Writing, Geographical Writing, Ethnographic Writing
Length: 96,863 words
Structure: 16 chapters, 612 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)

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Genres

Travel Narrative — The work is fundamentally a first-person account of Harris's journey through Yemen, documenting routes, daily experiences, and observations across the country from Aden to Sanaa and Hodaidah.
Adventure Narrative — The journey involves constant danger, close escapes from hostile tribes, imprisonment, fever, night marches through rebel-held territory, and dramatic encounters that drive the narrative forward.
Historical Writing — Substantial portions trace Yemen's history from ancient Minean and Sabean dynasties through Islamic periods to contemporary Ottoman occupation, with dedicated historical chapters and analysis of political succession.
Geographical Writing — Extensive detailed descriptions of Yemen's topography, climate zones, water systems, mountain ranges, plateaus, coastal plains, and the distinctions between the Teháma lowlands and highland interior.

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