Yemen

TL;DR. Yemen is the ancient, green corner of Arabia, once so rich from the incense trade that Rome called it "Happy Arabia." For over a thousand years its northern highlands were ruled by Zaydi Shia imams. In the 20th century it split into a conservative north and a Marxist south, united in 1990, then collapsed into the war that began in 2014 between the Houthi movement and a Saudi-led coalition, producing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Its culture, from the tower-houses of Sana'a to its distinctive cuisine and song, is among the oldest and most distinctive in the Arab world.

Key takeaways

• Yemen is old and was once wealthy; its poverty is modern, not ancient.
• The deep political thread is the Zaydi (Shia) imamate, which lasted over a millennium until 1962.
• There were two Yemens (north and south) from the 1960s until unification in 1990.
• The current war is a local power struggle layered with a Saudi-Iran proxy contest, not a simple religious fight.
• Sunni (Shafi'i) and Zaydi Shia Yemenis coexisted closely for centuries; the sharp division is recent and political.

Main events at a glance

The land and the deep past

Unlike most of Arabia, the Yemeni highlands catch monsoon rains, which made agriculture and cities possible. Yemenis terraced their mountains into green steps that still climb the slopes today. Ancient Yemen grew rich as the home of frankincense and myrrh, prized across the ancient world, and as the gateway for trade between India and the Mediterranean. The Romans called it Arabia Felix, "Happy" or "Fortunate Arabia," for its wealth and greenery.

Its early kingdoms are legendary, in the literal sense:

• Saba (the biblical Sheba), whose queen visits King Solomon in the Bible and the Quran. Its great Marib Dam irrigated a large population for over a thousand years; its eventual collapse is remembered in tradition as a turning point.
• Himyar, a later kingdom that united much of Yemen. Notably, its rulers adopted monotheism, including a period of Jewish kingship, before the rise of Islam. Christianity and Judaism both had deep roots in Yemen.

Bottom line: Yemen entered history as one of Arabia's most advanced and prosperous civilizations, a fact many Yemenis hold onto with pride.

Empires, the imamate, and the long Zaydi thread

When Islam arrived in the 600s, Yemen converted early and sent fighters into the great Arab conquests. But the story that shaped Yemen most was internal. From around the 890s the Zaydi imamate took hold in the northern highlands. The Zaydis are a branch of Shia Islam, and their imams, religious and political leaders at once, ruled much of the north, on and off, for more than a thousand years, all the way to 1962. Few political traditions anywhere have lasted so long.

The south and the coasts followed a different path, mostly Sunni of the Shafi'i school, with the great port of Aden and the distinctive Hadhramaut valley, whose merchant families spread across the Indian Ocean as far as Indonesia and East Africa.

The split in two, and the wars in detail

Yemen's modern shape came from being divided, then violently reassembled.

North Yemen. The Zaydi imams held the north, briefly contested by the Ottomans, and became independent in 1918. In 1962 army officers overthrew the imamate and declared the Yemen Arab Republic. This triggered a civil war (1962 to 1970), often called Egypt's "Vietnam," in which Egypt sent tens of thousands of troops to back the new republicans while Saudi Arabia backed the royalist supporters of the old imam. The republic survived.

South Yemen. The south, centered on Aden, was taken by Britain in 1839 and run as a strategic colony guarding the route to India. After a guerrilla struggle the British left in 1967, and the south became the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, the Arab world's only avowedly Marxist state, aligned with the Soviet Union, with a secular, socialist program unusual in the region.

Unification and its breakdown. The two Yemens united in 1990 under the northern leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who would dominate the country for over three decades. Southern resentment at northern dominance led to a short civil war in 1994, which the north won, leaving a lasting southern grievance that still fuels separatism.

The current war. Saleh was forced out in the 2011 Arab Spring, but the transition failed. The Houthis (formally Ansar Allah), a movement from the far north rooted in a revival of Zaydi identity and anger at the central government, swept into the capital Sana'a in 2014. In 2015 a Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States and others and alarmed by the Iran-aligned Houthis, launched a major air campaign to restore the recognised government. The result was years of stalemate. The human cost was enormous: hundreds of thousands dead from fighting and, far more, from hunger and disease, with millions pushed toward famine, in what the United Nations repeatedly called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. A fragile truce from 2022 calmed the fighting without ending the war. Since late 2023 the Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea, saying they act for the Palestinians during the Gaza war, drawing US and UK strikes in return.

Who allied with whom in Yemen's wars:

• 1962 to 1970 civil war. Republicans (the new regime) were backed by Egypt under Nasser, with Soviet support. Royalists (the old imam) were backed by Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with covert British help. So this pitted Egypt against Saudi Arabia on Yemeni soil.
• The current war (2014 onward). The Houthis are aligned with Iran. Against them stands a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, backed by the United States and Britain (arms and intelligence), nominally to restore the recognised government. Tellingly, former president Saleh first allied with the Houthis in 2014 (his old enemies) to return to power, then turned against them in 2017, and was killed by them days later. The UAE has also backed southern separatists who are technically on the coalition side but want to break away.

Don't be confused: the Yemen war is not simply "Sunni vs Shia" or "Saudi vs Iran." Those labels capture part of it. But it is also a local power struggle among Yemenis (north vs south, Houthis vs rivals, Saleh's shifting alliances), layered with a regional contest in which Saudi Arabia and Iran back opposite sides. Reducing it to one religious binary misses most of the story.

How people lived: daily life and lifestyle

Yemeni life has long been shaped by mountains, tribe, and trade. Outside the cities, most people farmed terraced fields or herded, organised by extended family and tribe, with honour, hospitality, and mediation by elders at the center of social life. Most adult men traditionally wear the jambiya, a curved dagger tucked into the belt, as a mark of status and identity, not usually as a weapon.

The rhythm of the day in much of Yemen is famously built around qat, a mild stimulant leaf chewed through long afternoons in a special sitting room called a mafraj, often on the top floor with the best view. Qat sessions are where Yemenis relax, talk politics, do business, and socialise. They are also a heavy drain on water (qat is thirsty to grow) and on household income, a problem widely acknowledged inside Yemen.

City life centers on spectacular old towns. Sana'a's old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is famous for its tall tower houses, some standing for centuries, built of stone and mudbrick and decorated with white gypsum tracery around the windows. Shibam, in the Hadhramaut, is nicknamed "the Manhattan of the desert" for its cluster of mudbrick high-rises, an ancient skyline.

Music, poetry, and the arts

Yemen has a rich and distinctive artistic tradition that is wholly its own. The Sana'a song (al-ghina al-sanaani) is a centuries-old form combining sung classical poetry with the lute, recognised by UNESCO as part of the world's intangible heritage. The oud (and a smaller local lute, the qanbus) accompanies poetry that Yemenis prize highly; poetry is a living social art, used at weddings, in disputes, and in politics. Each region has its own dances, often performed with the jambiya, and the Hadhramaut has its own musical styles carried across the Indian Ocean by its merchant diaspora.

Notable people

• The Queen of Sheba, legendary ruler tied to ancient Saba.
• Queen Arwa al-Sulayhi (ruled in the 11th to 12th centuries), a long-reigning and beloved queen remembered for building works and stable rule, unusual as a woman wielding such power in her era.
• Tawakkol Karman, journalist and activist, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her role in Yemen's Arab Spring protests; she was the first Arab woman and, at the time, the youngest person to win it.
• Ali Abdullah Saleh, the strongman who ruled for over 30 years and was killed in 2017 amid the current war.

Religion, coexistence, and minorities

Yemenis are overwhelmingly Muslim, split between Sunnis (mostly Shafi'i, concentrated in the south and along the coast) and Zaydi Shia (concentrated in the northern highlands). For centuries the two lived closely intertwined; in many towns they prayed in the same mosques, and intermarriage and shared scholarship were normal. The sharp politicisation of the Sunni-Zaydi line is a modern development, driven by the rise of the Houthi movement and by Saudi-funded Salafi influence pushing in the other direction.

Minorities and their treatment:

• Jews. Yemen had one of the oldest Jewish communities on earth, present for over two thousand years and famous as silversmiths and craftsmen. They lived as a protected but legally lower-status minority. Almost all emigrated to Israel around 1949 to 1950 in an airlift known as Operation Magic Carpet, ending a community of great antiquity; only a tiny handful remain.
• Ismailis. A small Shia community with its own long history in Yemen.
• The Muhamasheen (sometimes called by the older, now offensive term Akhdam). A marginalised group, often of African descent, who have historically faced severe discrimination, doing the lowest-paid work and living on the edge of society. Their mistreatment is an honest blemish on Yemen's social record and has worsened in the war.

Food: Yemen's own table

Yemeni cuisine is bold, smoky, and distinct, increasingly famous abroad through the Yemeni diaspora. It is not interchangeable with its Gulf neighbours; it has its own signature flavours, above all the spice blend hawaij and a love of fenugreek and chili.

• Saltah, widely considered the national dish: a bubbling stew served in a stone pot, crowned with hulba, a frothy whipped fenugreek topping, and a green chili relish, eaten by scooping with flatbread.
• Fahsa, a related shredded-meat stew, also topped with fenugreek froth.
• Mandi and zurbian, fragrant rice and meat slow-cooked in a pit oven, a Yemeni speciality (mandi in particular spread from Yemen across the peninsula).
• Bint al-sahn (also called sabaya), a sweet, many-layered honey bread brushed with ghee and black seeds.
• Aseed, a thick dough ball eaten with broth, and shafut, a flatbread soaked in herbed buttermilk.
• To drink, Yemenis often favour qishr, a hot drink brewed from coffee husks with ginger and spices, alongside the coffee beans Yemen made famous through the port of Mocha.

Everyday life: relationships, family, and home

In Yemen the family, and beyond it the wider clan or tribe, is usually the center of a person's world, and most big decisions are made with the family rather than alone. Marriage has traditionally been arranged or strongly guided by families, often between people who already know each other through kin or neighbourhood. Among younger, more urban, and more educated Yemenis there is more room for couples to have a say in the choice, and engagements increasingly involve the two people getting to know one another, though family approval still matters a great deal. Dating in the Western sense is uncommon, and courtship is generally discreet and family-aware.

Weddings are large, joyful, and often segregated, with men and women celebrating separately, sometimes over several days, with music, poetry, dancing, and feasting. A long-standing custom is the mahr, a marriage gift or dowry given by the groom (or his family) to the bride. It is meant for the bride herself, and the amounts and expectations vary widely by region and family. High mahr and wedding costs are a common worry, and the war has made them harder to meet.

Children are deeply valued, and families are often large, though family size has been shrinking in cities. Childrearing is commonly a shared effort across the extended family, with grandparents, aunts, and uncles all involved. Respect for parents and especially for elders is strongly emphasised, and older relatives are often consulted on important matters. Many households are multigenerational, with several generations living together or close by, and caring for ageing parents at home is widely seen as a duty rather than a burden.

Attitudes to animals are mostly practical. Livestock such as goats, sheep, cattle, and chickens are kept for food and work, and cats are common around homes and markets. Keeping dogs as affectionate house pets is much less usual than in the West, partly for cultural and religious reasons, and working or guard dogs are more typical. Cleanliness is taken seriously, tied closely to the washing required before prayer, and many people take pride in a tidy home and in offering guests a clean, welcoming sitting space even when resources are very limited.

School, work, and the economy

Yemen's school system officially runs through primary and secondary stages, usually starting in the morning and finishing in the early afternoon, with Arabic, the Quran, maths, science, and other subjects. In practice the war has been devastating for education: many schools have been damaged, destroyed, or turned over to other uses, teachers have gone long stretches without pay, and large numbers of children, especially girls, are out of school. Literacy was already uneven before the war, particularly for women and in rural areas, and the conflict has set progress back.

The working day traditionally starts early, partly to beat the midday heat. A famous feature of Yemeni working life is the qat session: many men (and some women, in separate gatherings) wind down work in the early afternoon to chew qat, a mild stimulant leaf, for several hours. These long sessions are social and also where a great deal of business, networking, and informal politics gets done, but they also shorten the productive working day and cost households time and money. The weekend in much of Yemen falls on Friday and Saturday.

The economy is one of the poorest in the region and has been shattered by war. Even before 2014, Yemen leaned heavily on farming (including coffee, fruit, grain, and the water-hungry qat crop) and on remittances sent home by Yemenis working abroad, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Oil and gas once provided much of government revenue but output has fallen sharply, and the ports, above all Aden and Hodeidah, are vital lifelines for trade and aid. Years of conflict have brought a collapsing currency, broken public services, mass unemployment, and deep poverty, leaving much of the population dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Language, idioms, and words to know

The language of Yemen is Arabic. Yemenis speak a range of regional dialects often grouped as Yemeni Arabic, considered by many linguists to preserve some older features of the language, while formal or "Modern Standard" Arabic is used in writing, news, and schooling. A few small communities in the far south and on Socotra also speak ancient related languages such as Mehri and Soqotri.

A few real, widely known Arabic proverbs you may hear:

"Al-jar qabl al-dar." ("The neighbour before the house.") Choose good neighbours before you choose the house itself; community matters.

"Yad wahda ma tusaffiq." ("One hand does not clap.") Things get done through cooperation, not alone.

"As-sabr miftah al-faraj." ("Patience is the key to relief.") Endurance eventually brings a way out, a saying that resonates deeply in a country that has endured so much.

A handful of everyday phrases (pronunciation is approximate):

These greetings are used warmly and often; returning a greeting is expected, and the fuller the greeting, the more respect it shows.

Famous places to know

• Old City of Sana'a. The historic heart of the capital, a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its centuries-old decorated tower houses; one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth.
• Shibam. A walled town in the Hadhramaut nicknamed the "Manhattan of the desert" for its cluster of tall mudbrick tower houses, an astonishing ancient skyline.
• Socotra. A remote island in the Indian Ocean with plants and animals found nowhere else, including the umbrella-shaped dragon's blood tree, a natural wonder and World Heritage site.
• The Hadhramaut. A vast valley region of distinctive mudbrick towns and old merchant families whose traders spread across the Indian Ocean.
• Aden. The great southern port, set around a volcanic crater, long a strategic harbour and gateway to the country.
• Marib. Site of the ancient Sabaean civilization and the legendary Marib Dam, linked in tradition to the Queen of Sheba.
• Zabid. A historic coastal town that was once a major center of Islamic learning, also a World Heritage site.

Fitting in: visiting, impressing people, and being a good citizen

Important safety note. Yemen is currently an active conflict zone with serious security and travel restrictions, and many governments advise against all travel there. Anything below is cultural background, not travel or legal advice. Any practical rules, permits, or restrictions should be checked through official sources such as your own government's travel advisories before relying on them.

If you do meet Yemenis, at home or abroad, a few things go a long way:

• Greet warmly and take your time. Start with "as-salamu alaykum," ask after someone's health and family, and do not rush straight to business. Greetings between men often include a handshake; with a person of the opposite sex, follow their lead and do not offer a handshake unless they do.
• Honour hospitality. Hospitality is a point of deep pride. Guests are often pressed to eat and drink generously, and accepting at least some coffee or tea is a sign of respect. Declining everything outright can seem cold.
• Dress modestly. Modest, loose clothing that covers shoulders and knees is expected, and the standard is stricter for women, who in many areas cover their hair and dress conservatively. When in doubt, dress more conservatively rather than less.
• Mind the home's customs. It is common to remove your shoes when entering a home or a sitting room. Eat and pass food or gifts with the right hand, since the left is considered unclean for these purposes.
• Be sensitive about qat and photos. Qat chewing is normal and social; it is fine to decline politely if offered. Always ask before photographing people, especially women, and avoid photographing anything military, official, or security-related.
• Show respect and listen. Showing genuine interest in Yemen's ancient history, poetry, architecture, and food, and listening rather than judging, earns real goodwill. The war is painful and politically charged, so it is wise to listen more than opine.

Suggested reading, news, and links

Books

• Yemen: The Unknown Arabia by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, a vivid, affectionate travel and history account by a long-time British resident of Sana'a.
• General histories and current-affairs books on modern Yemen and the ongoing war are widely available; look for recent titles from reputable academic and journalistic publishers, since the situation keeps changing.

News

• International outlets such as the BBC, Reuters, and Al Jazeera provide some of the most consistent coverage of Yemen.
• Note that independent local journalism inside Yemen is heavily constrained by the war, with media split along the lines of the rival authorities, so cross-checking sources is wise.

Useful links (stable, well-known sites)

• BBC News country profile: https://www.bbc.com/news (search "Yemen country profile")
• Encyclopaedia Britannica overview: https://www.britannica.com/place/Yemen

Today, and how to talk about it

Yemen in the mid-2020s is divided between Houthi-controlled territory in the north and west (including Sana'a) and a patchwork of other authorities in the south and east, with the humanitarian situation still dire.

If you talk with Yemenis: many are intensely proud of Yemen's ancient heritage as a cradle of Arab civilization and of cities like Sana'a. The war is painful and political; people may hold strong and differing views about the Houthis, the Saudi coalition, and the former government. Leading with curiosity about the culture, the poetry, the architecture, and the food, and listening rather than assigning blame, goes a long way.

Next, the giant to Yemen's north, whose oil and holy cities give it outsized weight: Saudi Arabia. 👉