Instability and Famine in Late Ottoman Yemen

Abstract

The administration of Yemen went through attempts to suppress revolts that began against the new administration within the same century, after being directly attached to the centre through the hands of the Egyptian Governor Hadim Solomon Pasha in 1538. The disturbances in the province continued until 1635, and as a result of the uprisings from 1598 to 1635, the Ottoman Empire left the administration of Yemen to the Zeydi imams, leaders with local power and religious character. The Ottoman Empire's reassignment of administration in Yemen would take place in a late period like 1848. The main reason for the Ottoman Empire's renewed interest in Yemen can be explained by the increasing interest in the Red Sea, which became an important route after the opening of the Suez Canal. Imperial efforts, along with local tribal leaders on the Red Sea and the coast of the Oman Sea, threatened the security of the sacred Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina alongside Ottoman rule. When the Ottoman Empire sought to regain sovereignty over the region, it had to fight against the powerful Zeydi Imam Yahya, alongside the small tribal sheikhs who had acted independently in their territories before 1848, and Seyyid Idrisi, who tried to revive the Idrisite State in the region of Asir, established by their ancestors in the Maghreb. The culmination of these uprisings was the uprising initiated in 1908 by Seyyid Idrisi and Imam Yahya in cooperation. The Dean Treaty of 1911, signed between Imam Yahya and Izzet Pasha, put an end to the uprising. Although Imam Yahya remained committed to the agreement until the end of World War I, Seyyid Idrisi's revolts against the regime continued until the Ottomans left in 1918, and during this process, just as he did with Italy in the Turkish-Italian War, he formed alliances with the British in the First World War, first in 1915 and then in 1917.

This study will address the sectarian and political balance of power within Yemen, while examining the measures taken by the Turkish administration against the activities of imperial powers and will also include the food problem in Yemen between 1902-1907. The main sources of the work will be the Turkish-English copyrighted texts.