Abd al Kuri ( ar, عبد الكوري) is a rocky

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the

Guardafui Channel The Guardafui Channel ( so, Marinka Gardafuul) is an oceanic strait off the tip of the Horn of Africa that lies between the Puntland region of Somalia and Socotra to the west of the Arabian Sea. It connects the Gulf of Aden to the north with the ...

. As a part of the Socotra Archipelago of the

Socotra Governorate The Socotra Archipelago ( ar, أرخبيل سقطرى ') or Suqutra is officially one of the governorates of Yemen. It is composed of the Guardafui Channel's archipelago of Socotra. History Since before British rule, Socotra had been part ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

, it lies about 65 miles (105 km) southwest of the island of

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’s ...

."ʿAbd al-Kūrī." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011.
Web. 6 October 2011. It consists of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

and

diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-silic ...

covered by

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. Schürmann (1974) pp. 24.

Geography

Much of Abd al Kuri is semi-desert with little vegetation. Two ranges of hills separated near the centre occupy the entire length of the island. Nautical magazine (1878) pp. 809. The northern coast consists mostly of a sandy beach with a few rocky points, while the southern coast consists of steep cliffs. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (2007) pp. 180. Its highest point, Mount Ṣāliḥ, reaches an altitude of over . Most of its inhabitants subsist on fishing. Kilmia is the main village.

Flora and fauna

Abd al Kuri has a number of

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

species and an endemic

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

, the

Abd al-Kuri sparrow The Abd al-Kuri sparrow (''Passer hemileucus'') is a passerine bird endemic to the small island of Abd al Kuri (also spelled several other ways) in the Socotra archipelago of the Indian Ocean, off the Horn of Africa. Though this species was ori ...

with estimated population of fewer than 1,000.2010. "''Passer hemileucus'' " In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1.
Downloaded on 6 October 2011. Redman; Fanshawe; Stevenson (2009) pp. 412. The island has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

for the presence of the endemic sparrow as well as for

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

red-billed tropicbird The red-billed tropicbird (''Phaethon aethereus'') is a tropicbird, one of three closely related species of seabird of tropical oceans. Superficially resembling a tern in appearance, it has mostly white plumage with some black markings on the wi ...

s and Persian shearwaters. Two species of lizards which are native to Abd al Kuri, '' Mesalina kuri'' and '' Pristurus abdelkuri'', are named for the island.

History

Thomas Fellowes was sent on HMS ''Briton'' in 1872 to Abd al Kuri, alongside Socotra, by British authorities to see if it would be a suitable place to settle liberated slaves. Fellowes decided against it, citing the poor living conditions on both islands. In 2020, during the

Yemeni Civil War Yemeni Civil War may refer to several historical events which have taken place in Yemen: *Alwaziri coup, February – March 1948 *Yemeni–Adenese clan violence, 1956–60 *North Yemen Civil War, 1962–70 *Aden Emergency, 1963–67 *South Yemen#Di ...

, the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

sent what it characterized as "developmental aid" to Abd al Kuri, providing the population with teachers and textbooks. As part of a broader effort to assert sovereignty over the entire Socotra archipelago, the

has attempted to rename the island to "Kilmia."

Gallery

File:Native Dwellings, Abd-el-Kuri.jpg, Native dwellings (1903) File:View of the 'Strath' and Native Dwellings, Abd-el-Kuri.jpg, View of the 'Strath' and Native Dwellings, Abd-el-Kuri, 1898

Map

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* {{Authority control Islands of Yemen Socotra archipelago Islands of Somalia Disputed islands Territorial disputes of Yemen Territorial disputes of Somalia Important Bird Areas of Socotra Seabird colonies