A Journey through the Yemen and some General Remarks Upon that Country by Walter Harris

HODAIDAH.

The earliest mention that one finds of Hodaidah in Mahammedan history is its capture by El-Ghuri, Sultan of Egypt, in A. D. 1515. In the native historian's account of the invasion of this wild horde of Circassians, Kurds, and other strange peoples, the town is mentioned by the name of Jadidah,[45] the new (town), although this by no means can be taken as a proof that the city had only been founded shortly before that period-for Jadidah, as the name of a city, is common all over the East, and every place was probably at one time "new," though the title may long ago have become inappropriate. This tends to prove that it was probably not until the Red Sea trade had reached a flourishing condition, although at that time entirely in the hands of the natives, that Hodaidah sprang into existence.

Being situated on the sea-coast, and only a little to the south of the country of the Asir tribes, it has not escaped from attack from both quarters. Principal amongst these, perhaps, was its capture by the Asir chief, Abd el-Hakal, in 1804. In the interests of the Wahabi belief, which he, like so many of his tribe, had embraced, he made an organised attack upon the northern Teháma. His people, buoyed up with the fanaticism of their new tenets, devastated whole districts, and held the entire Yemen in terror. Four years later, however, Hodaidah was once more restored to the then reigning Imam of Sanaa, Seyed Ahmed ibn Ali Mansur.

From this time, for a space of some four-and-twenty years, we find Hodaidah thriving under the impetus given to trade by the European merchant-ships, which were at this period crowding to the Red Sea; and its lot seems to have been a peaceful one, until the arrival there in 1832 of the dreaded Turkchee Bilmas, by which nickname Mahammed Agha was generally known. Marching overland from the Hedjaz, he encamped close to the city, while his vessels, which had proceeded by sea from Jeddah and Yembo, blockaded the port. On being refused provisions by the governor, he commenced to open fire upon the town walls, whereupon the place capitulated. However, the energetic Mahammed Agha did not remain there, but, leaving four hundred men under the command of Agha Murshid, he marched on Zebeed.[46]

The Egyptian Government abandoned the Yemen in 1840, eight years after the taking of Hodaidah by Turkchee Bilmas, and it was arranged that this portion of the country at least should fall into the possession of the Grand Shereef of Mecca. But another claimant stepped forward in the person of Huseyn ibn Ali, Shereef of Abou Areesh, who with the Asir tribe, whose assistance he had been able to obtain, took the field with twenty thousand men; [47] and the very day that Hodaidah was abandoned by Ibrahim Pasha, the Shereefs troops, under the leadership of his brother, Abou Taleb, took possession of the place. Notwithstanding the recognition of the Shereef Huseyn's power did not last long; for the Asiri, ever ready for plunder, occupied the town, and only released the merchants, whom they had imprisoned, on their paying large ransoms.

In 1849 a great change was destined to take place in the government of the Yemen, and the Turks, proceeding from Jeddah, occupied Hodaidah, the Shereef of that town obtaining a subsidy from the Ottoman Government in return for his handing over the place. This pension, however, he never received; and accordingly, in 1851 he started to report his case to the Sultan at Constantinople. But sudden death cut short his career on the road, and there is little doubt but that he was murdered.[48] The leader of this Turkish expedition, Tufieh Pasha, became governor of Hodaidah and the surrounding country.

It was shortly after this that a treaty was drawn up between the Imam of Sanaa and the Sublime Porte, in which the principal clauses were that the Imam was still to continue to reign, but that he should be considered as a vassal of Abdul-Mejid, the then reigning Sultan of Turkey; that the revenues were to be equally divided between the Sultan and the Imam; and that Sanaa should be garrisoned by Turkish forces. Although the sequel of this story belongs rather to the history of Sanaa than to that of Hodaidah, it may be given briefly at this point, as it follows as a sequence upon this treaty of Hodaidah. Returning with the Imam, Tufieh Pasha arrived at Sanaa, and the change in government was made known to the inhabitants. What, however, seems particularly to have fired them to opposition was the substitution of the name of Abdul-Mejid for that of their Imam Mahammed Yahia in the prayers. Being of the Zaidi sect, one of the many divisions of the Sheiyas,[49] this naturally affected them more than any temporal changes could have done, and before midnight they had cut to pieces a large proportion of the Turkish troops, who, although they had taken possession of one of the city forts, were unable to make any resistance. At length, wounded, and with only a handful of men, Tufieh Pasha bought a permit to return to Hodaidah, for which he paid twenty thousand dollars, and retired to that spot, where he died of his wounds and exhaustion. Mahammed Yahia, the unfortunate Imam who had entered into this treaty with the Turks, was secretly assassinated,-Ali Mansur, already twice deposed, being installed in his place.

But a still more horrible tale is yet to be told regarding Hodaidah. In 1855 some sixty thousand men of the Asir tribe marched against the place with the idea of sacking it. They deferred the attack, however, owing to the presence of British ships of war; but the inhabitants, owing to all communication with the interior being cut off, had reached a condition of great misery, when cholera broke out amongst the Asiri, no less than fifteen thousand dying before they reached their homes.

But to return to Hodaidah as I saw it in February and March of last year-1892.