Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' ,
Yemeni Arabic
Yemeni Arabic is a cluster of varieties of Arabic spoken in Yemen, southwestern Saudi Arabia and the Horn of Africa. It is generally considered a very conservative dialect cluster, having many classical features not found across most of the Ara ...
: ;
Old South Arabian
Old South Arabian (or Ṣayhadic or Yemenite) is a group of four closely related extinct languages spoken in the far southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script.
There were a number of othe ...
: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and
largest city
The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropo ...
in
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 ...
and the centre of
Sanaa Governorate
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء '), also spelled San'a or Sana, is a governorate of Yemen. Its capital is Sanaa, which is also the national capital. However, the city of Sanaa is not part of the governorate but instead forms the separate governorat ...
. The city is not part of the Governorate, but forms the separate administrative district of "ʾAmānat al-ʿĀṣima" (). Under the
Yemeni constitution, Sanaa is the capital of the country, although the seat of the Yemeni government moved to
Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
, the former capital of
South Yemen in the aftermath of the
Houthi occupation. Aden was declared as the temporary capital by President
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi ( ar, عبدربه منصور هادي, translit=ʿAbd Rabbih Manṣūr Hādī Yemeni pronunciation: ; born 1 September 1945) is a Yemeni politician and former field marshal of the Yemeni Armed Forces who served as the pres ...
in March 2015.
At an elevation of ,
Sanaa is one of the highest capital cities in the world and is next to the
Sarawat Mountains of
Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb
''Jabal An-Nabī Shuʿayb'' ( ar, جَبَل ٱلنَّبِي شُعَيْب, lit=Mountain of the Prophet Shuaib), also called ''Jabal Hadhur'' ( ar, جَبَل حَضُوْر, link=no, Jabal Ḥaḍūr), is a mountain of the Harazi subregion of ...
and
Jabal Tiyal
Jabal Tiyal ( ar, جَبَل ٱلطِّيَال, Jabal aṭ-Ṭiyāl), also known as "Jabal Adiyah", is a Sarawat mountain located near Sana'a, the capital city of Yemen. At , it is Yemen's second highest peak, after Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb, as wel ...
, considered to be the highest mountains in the country and amongst the highest in the
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
. Sanaa has a population of approximately 3,937,500 (2012), making it Yemen's largest city. As of 2020, the greater Sanaa urban area makes up about 10% of Yemen's total population.
The Old City of Sanaa, a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
, has a distinctive architectural character, most notably expressed in its multi-storey buildings decorated with geometric patterns. In the conflict that raged in 2015, bombs hit UNESCO sites in the old city.
The
Al Saleh Mosque
The People's Mosque ( ar, جامع الشعب, Jāmiʿ aš-Šaʿib) is a modern mosque in Sana’a that is the largest in Yemen. It lies in the southern outskirts of the city, south of the Al Sabeen Maternal Hospital. Originally named Al Saleh M ...
, the largest in Sanaa, is located in the Old City.
Sanaa faces a severe
water crisis
Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is wher ...
, with water being drawn from its aquifer three times faster than it is replenished. The city is predicted to run completely out of water by around 2030, making it the first national capital in the world to do so. Access to drinking water is very limited in Sanaa, and there are problems with water quality.
History
Ancient period
According to popular
Abrahamic religions
The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran.
Jewish tradition ...
, Sanaa was founded at the base of the mountains of
Jabal Nuqum
The Sarawat Mountains ( ar, جِبَالُ ٱلسَّرَوَاتِ, Jibāl as-Sarawāt), also known as the Sarat, is a part of the Hijaz mountains in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula. In a broad sense, it runs parallel to the eastern c ...
by
Shem
Shem (; he, שֵׁם ''Šēm''; ar, سَام, Sām) ''Sḗm''; Ge'ez: ሴም, ''Sēm'' was one of the sons of Noah in the book of Genesis and in the book of Chronicles, and the Quran.
The children of Shem were Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, L ...
, the son of
Noah
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...
,
[Aithe, p.30.] after the latter's death.
The name ''Sanaa'' is probably derived from the
Sabaic
Sabaean, also known as Sabaic, was an Old South Arabian language spoken between c. 1000 BC and the 6th century AD, by the Sabaeans. It was used as a written language by some other peoples of the ancient civilization of South Arabia, including the ...
root ''ṣnʿ'', meaning "well-fortified".
The name is attested in old Sabaean inscriptions, mostly from the 3rd century CE, as ''ṣnʿw''.
In the present day, a popular
folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
says that the name ''Sanaa'' refers to "the excellence of its trades and crafts (perhaps the feminine form of the Arabic adjective ''aṣnaʿ'')".
The 10th-century
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
historian
al-Hamdani wrote that Sanaa's ancient name was ''Azāl'', which is not recorded in any contemporary Sabaean inscriptions.
The name "Azal" has been connected to
Uzal Uzal, in the Hebrew Bible, is a descendant of Joktan (Book of Genesis 10:27 ; 1 Chronicles 1:21), whose settlements are traced in the ancient name of Sanaʽa, the capital city of the Yemen. He was believed to be the founder of an Arabian tribe. Uza ...
, a son of
Qahtan
The terms Qahtanite and Qahtani ( ar, قَحْطَانِي; transliterated: Qaḥṭānī) refer to Arabs who originate from South Arabia. The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple ancient Arabian inscriptions found in Yemen. Arab traditions b ...
, a great-grandson of Shem, in the
biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
accounts of the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...
.
Al-Hamdani wrote that Sanaa was walled by the
Sabaeans
The Sabaeans or Sabeans ( Sabaean:, ; ar, ٱلسَّبَئِيُّوْن, ''as-Sabaʾiyyūn''; he, סְבָאִים, Səḇāʾīm) were an ancient group of South Arabians. They spoke the Sabaean language, one of the Old South Arabian langu ...
under their ruler
Sha'r Awtar Sha'r Awtar ( xsa, 𐩦𐩲𐩧𐩣 𐩱𐩥𐩩𐩧𐩣) was a king from the Hashid tribe related to Banu Hamdan which took control over the Kingdom of Saba'.Albert Jamme, Inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis, p.135 His rule was contemporary with a riv ...
, who also arguably built the
Ghumdan Palace
Ghumdan Palace, also Qasir Ghumdan or Ghamdan Palace, is an ancient palace and fortress in Sana'a, Yemen. It is the earliest known castle in the world. All that remains of the ancient site (Ar. ''khadd'') of Ghumdan is a field of tangled ruins opp ...
in the city. Because of its location, Sanaa has served as an urban hub for the surrounding tribes of the region and as a nucleus of regional trade in
southern Arabia
South Arabia () is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, Al-Bahah, and 'A ...
. It was positioned at the crossroad of two major ancient trade routes linking
Ma'rib
Marib ( ar, مَأْرِب, Maʾrib; Old South Arabian: 𐩣𐩧𐩨/𐩣𐩧𐩺𐩨 ''Mryb/Mrb'') is the capital city of Marib Governorate, Yemen. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of ''Sabaʾ'' ( ar, سَبَأ), which some scholars ...
in the east to the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
in the west.
Appropriately enough for a town whose name means "well-fortified", Sanaa appears to have been an important military center under the Sabaeans.
They used it as a base for their expeditions against the kingdom of
Himyar
The Himyarite Kingdom ( ar, مملكة حِمْيَر, Mamlakat Ḥimyar, he, ממלכת חִמְיָר), or Himyar ( ar, حِمْيَر, ''Ḥimyar'', / 𐩹𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬) (fl. 110 BCE–520s CE), historically referred to as the Homerite ...
further south, and several inscriptions "announce a triumphant return to Sanaa from the wars".
Sanaa is referred to in these inscriptions both as a town (''hgr'') and as a ''maḥram'' (''mḥrm''), which according to A. F. L. Beeston indicated "a place to which access is prohibited or restricted, no matter whether for religious or for other reasons".
The Sabaean inscriptions also mention the Ghumdan Palace by name.
When King Yousef Athar (or
Dhu Nuwas
Dhū Nuwās, ( ar, ذُو نُوَاس), real name "Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar" ( Musnad: 𐩺𐩥𐩪𐩰 𐩱𐩪𐩱𐩧 𐩺𐩻𐩱𐩧, ''Yws¹f ʾs¹ʾr Yṯʾr''), "Yosef Nu'as" ( he, יוסף נואס), or "Yūsuf ibn Sharhabīl" ( ar, يُ ...
), the last of the Himyarite kings, was in power, Sanaʽa was also the capital of the
Axumite
The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wha ...
viceroys. Later tradition also holds that the
Abyssinia
The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...
n conqueror
Abrahah
Abraha ( Ge’ez: አብርሃ) (also spelled Abreha, died after CE 570;Stuart Munro-Hay (2003) "Abraha" in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. r. 525–at least 553S. C. Munro-Hay (1991) ''Aksum ...
built a Christian church in Sanaa.
Islamic era
![SanaaQuoranDoubleVersions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/SanaaQuoranDoubleVersions.jpg)
From the era of Muhammad (ca. 622 CE) until the founding of independent sub-states in many parts of the Yemen Islamic
Caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
ate, Sanaa persisted as the governing seat. The
Caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
's deputy ran the affairs of one of Yemen's three
Makhalifs: Mikhlaf Sanaʽa, Mikhlaf al-Janad, and Mikhlaf
Hadhramaut
Hadhramaut ( ar, حَضْرَمَوْتُ \ حَضْرَمُوتُ, Ḥaḍramawt / Ḥaḍramūt; Hadramautic: 𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩, ''Ḥḍrmt'') is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Sau ...
. The city of Sanaa regularly regained an important status, and all Yemenite States competed to control it.
Imam
Al-Shafi'i
Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī ( ar, أَبُو عَبْدِ ٱللهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ ٱلشَّافِعِيُّ, 767–19 January 820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and schola ...
, the 8th-century Islamic jurist and founder of the
Shafi'i
The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
school of jurisprudence, visited Sanaa several times. He praised the city, writing ''La budda min Ṣanʻāʼ'', or "Sanaa must be seen." In the 9th–10th centuries, the Yemeni geographer
al-Hamdani took note of the city's cleanliness, saying "The least dwelling there has a well or two, a garden and long cesspits separate from each other, empty of ordure, without smell or evil smells, because of the hard concrete (
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
and
cob, probably) and fine pastureland and clean places to walk." Later in the 10th-century, the Persian geographer
Ibn Rustah
Ahmad ibn Rustah Isfahani ( fa, احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی ''Aḥmad ibn Rusta Iṣfahānī''), more commonly known as Ibn Rustah (, also spelled ''Ibn Rusta'' and ''Ibn Ruste''), was a tenth-century Persian explorer and geographer ...
wrote of Sanaa "It is the city of Yemen — there cannot be found ... a city greater, more populous or more prosperous, of nobler origin or with more delicious food than it."
In 1062 Sanaa was taken over by the
Sulayhid dynasty
The Sulayhid dynasty ( ar, بَنُو صُلَيْح, Banū Ṣulayḥ, lit=Children of Sulayh) was an Ismaili Shi'ite Arab dynasty established in 1047 by Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sulayhi that ruled most of historical Yemen at its peak. The Sulayh ...
led by
Ali al-Sulayhi
Ali bin Muhammad bin Ali al-Sulayhi () was the founder and sultan of the Sulayhid dynasty in Yemen. He established his kingdom in 1047 and by 1063, the Sulayhids controlled had unified the entire country of Yemen as well as the Muslim holy city of ...
and his wife, the popular
Queen Asma. He made the city capital of his relatively small kingdom, which also included the
Haraz Mountains. The Sulayhids were aligned with the
Ismaili Muslim
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-S ...
-leaning
Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...
of Egypt, rather than the
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
-based
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
that most of
Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
followed. Al-Sulayhi ruled for about 20 years but he was assassinated by his principal local rivals, the
Zabid
Zabid ( ar, زَبِيد) (also spelled Zabīd, Zabeed and Zebid) is a town with an urban population of around 52,590 people on Yemen's western coastal plain. It is one of the oldest towns in Yemen, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since ...
-based Najahids. Following his death, al-Sulayhi's daughter,
Arwa al-Sulayhi
)
, name = Arwā bint Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Mūsā Aṣ-Ṣulayḥī
, other_names = ''As-Sayyidah Al-Ḥurrah'' () ''Al-Malikah Al-Ḥurrah'' ( ar, ٱلْمَلِكَة ٱلْحُرَّة or ...
, inherited the throne. She withdrew from Sanaa, transferring the Sulayhid capital to
Jibla, where she ruled much of Yemen from 1067 to 1138. As a result of the Sulayhid departure, the
Hamdanid
The Hamdanid dynasty ( ar, الحمدانيون, al-Ḥamdāniyyūn) was a Twelver Shia Arab dynasty of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia and Eastern ...
dynasty took control of Sanaʽa.
[McLaughlin, p.16.] Like the Sulayhids, the Hamdanids were Isma'ilis.
In 1173
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
, the
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
sultan of Egypt, sent his brother
Turan-Shah
Shams ad-Din Turanshah ibn Ayyub al-Malik al-Mu'azzam Shams ad-Dawla Fakhr ad-Din known simply as Turanshah ( ar, توران شاه بن أيوب) (died 27 June 1180) was the Ayyubid emir (prince) of Yemen (1174–1176), Damascus (1176–1179), ...
on an expedition to conquer Yemen. The Ayyubids gained control of Sanaʽa in 1175 and united the various Yemeni tribal states, except for the northern mountains controlled by the
Zaydi
Zaydism (''h'') is a unique branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. In contrast to other Shia Muslims of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism, Zaydis, ...
imams, into one entity.
The Ayyubids switched the country's official religious allegiance to the
Sunni Muslim
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...
Abbasids. During the reign of the Ayyubid ''
emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
'' Tughtekin ibn Ayyub, the city underwent significant improvements. These included the incorporation of the garden lands on the western bank of the Sa'ilah, known as Bustan al-Sultan, where the Ayyubids built one of their palaces. However, Ayyubid control of Sanaa was never very consistent, and they only occasionally exercised direct authority over the city.
Instead, they chose
Ta'izz
Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a populat ...
as their capital while
Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
was their principal income-producing city.
While the
Rasulid
The Rasulids ( ar, بنو رسول, Banū Rasūl) were a Sunni Muslim dynasty who ruled Yemen from 1229 to 1454.
History
Origin of the Rasulids
The Rasulids took their name from al-Amin's nickname "Rasul". The Zaidi Shi'i Imams of Yemen we ...
s controlled most of Yemen, followed by their successors the
Tahirid
The Tahirid dynasty ( fa, طاهریان, Tâheriyân, ) was a culturally Arabized Sunni Muslim dynasty of Persian dehqan origin, that ruled as governors of Khorasan from 821 to 873 as well as serving as military and security commanders in ...
s, Sanaa largely remained in the political orbit of the
Zaydi
Zaydism (''h'') is a unique branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. In contrast to other Shia Muslims of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism, Zaydis, ...
imams from 1323 to 1454 and outside the former two dynasties' rule.
[Bosworth, p.463.] The
Mamelukes arrived in Yemen in 1517.
Ottoman era
![San'a şehir haritası (1874)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/San%27a_%C5%9Fehir_haritas%C4%B1_%281874%29.png)
The
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
entered Yemen in 1538 when
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
was
Sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
.
Under the military leadership of
Özdemir Pasha
Özdemir Pasha (died 1561, Sana, Yemen Eyalet) was a Mamluk general for the Ottoman Empire, of Kumyk descent.''Mustafa Müftüoğlu.'' Yalan söyleyen tarih utansın!--. — Çile Yayınevi, 1981. — 384 с. He joined Hadım Süleyman Pasha's c ...
, the Ottomans conquered Sanaa in 1547.
With Ottoman approval, European captains based in the Yemeni port towns of
Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
and
Mocha frequented Sanaa to maintain special privileges and capitulations for their trade. In 1602 the local Zaydi imams led by
Imam al-Mu'ayyad reasserted their control over the area,
and forced out Ottoman troops in 1629. Although the Ottomans fled during al-Mu'ayyad's reign, his predecessor
al-Mansur al-Qasim
Al-Mansur al-Qasim (November 13, 1559 – February 19, 1620), with the cognomen ''al-Kabir'' (the Great), was an Imam of Yemen, who commenced the struggle to liberate Yemen from the Ottoman occupiers. He was the founder of a Zaidi kingdom that e ...
had already vastly weakened the Ottoman army in Sanaʽa and Yemen.
Consequently, European traders were stripped of their previous privileges.
[Dumper, p.330.]
The Zaydi imams maintained their rule over Sanaa until the mid-19th-century when the Ottomans relaunched their campaign to control the region. In 1835, Ottoman troops arrived on the Yemeni coast under the guise of
Muhammad Ali of Egypt
Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha, also known as Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the Sudan ( sq, Mehmet Ali Pasha, ar, محمد علي باشا, ; ota, محمد علی پاشا المسعود بن آغا; ; 4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849), was ...
's troops.
They did not capture Sanaa until 1872 when their troops led by
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha ( ota, احمد مختار پاشا; 1 November 1839 – 21 January 1919) was a prominent Ottoman field marshal and Grand Vizier, who served in the Crimean and Russo-Turkish wars. Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed as ...
entered the city.
The Ottoman Empire instituted the
Tanzimat
The Tanzimat (; ota, تنظيمات, translit=Tanzimāt, lit=Reorganization, ''see'' nizām) was a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. ...
reforms throughout the lands they governed.
In Sanaa, city planning was initiated for the first time, new roads were built, and schools and hospitals were established. The reforms were rushed by the Ottomans to solidify their control of Sanaʽa to compete with an expanding
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, British influence in
Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
and imperial Italian and French influence along the coast of
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
, particularly in the towns of
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
and
Berbera
Berbera (; so, Barbara, ar, بربرة) is the capital of the Sahil region of Somaliland and is the main sea port of the country. Berbera is a coastal city and was the former capital of the British Somaliland protectorate before Hargeisa. It ...
. The modernization reforms in Sanaa were still very limited, however.
North Yemen period
![Dar al hajar edit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Dar_al_hajar_edit.jpg)
In 1904, as Ottoman influence was waning in Yemen,
Imam Yahya
, succession1 = King of Yemen
, succession2 = Imam of Yemen
, image = Imam yahya cropped.png
, image_size =
, caption = Portrait of Yahya by Ameen Rihani, 1922. Imam Yahya steadfastly refused to be photographed thro ...
of the
Zaydi imams took power in Sanaa. In a bid to secure
North Yemen
North Yemen may refer to:
* Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1962)
* Yemen Arab Republic
The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية اليمنية '), also known simply as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a ...
's independence, Yahya embarked on a policy of isolationism, avoiding international and Arab world politics, cracking down on embryonic liberal movements, not contributing to the development of infrastructure in Sanaa and elsewhere and closing down the Ottoman girls' school. As a consequence of Yahya's measures, Sanaa increasingly became a hub of the anti-government organization and intellectual revolt.
[Dumper, p.331.]
In the 1930s, several organizations opposing or demanding reform of the Zaydi imamate sprung up in the city, particularly Fatat al-Fulayhi, a group of various Yemeni
Muslim scholars
This article is an incomplete list of noted modern-era (20th to 21st century) Islamic scholars. This refers to religious authorities whose publications or statements are accepted as pronouncements on religion by their respective communities and ...
based in Sanaʽa's Fulayhi Madrasa, and Hait al-Nidal ("Committee of the Struggle.") By 1936 most of the leaders of these movements were imprisoned. In 1941 another group based in the city, the Shabab al-Amr bil-Maruf wal-Nahian al-Munkar, called for a ''
nahda
The Nahda ( ar, النهضة, translit=an-nahḍa, meaning "the Awakening"), also referred to as the Arab Awakening or Enlightenment, was a cultural movement that flourished in Arabic-speaking regions of the Ottoman Empire, notably in Egypt, Leb ...
'' ("renaissance") in the country as well as the establishment of a parliament with Islam being the instrument of Yemeni revival. Yahya largely repressed the Shabab and most of its leaders were executed following his son,
Imam Ahmad's inheritance of power in 1948.
That year, Sanaa was replaced with
Ta'izz
Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a populat ...
as capital following Ahmad's new residence there. Most government offices followed suit. A few years later, most of the city's Jewish population emigrated to Israel.
Ahmad began a process of gradual economic and political liberalization, but by 1961 Sanaa was witnessing major demonstrations and riots demanding quicker reform and change. Pro-republican officers in the North Yemeni military sympathetic of
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...
of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
's government and
pan-Arabist
Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...
policies staged a coup overthrowing the Imamate government in September 1962, a week after Ahmad's death.
Sanaa's role as a capital was restored afterward.
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia opposed this development and actively supported North Yemen's rural tribes, pitting large parts of the country against the urban and largely pro-republican inhabitants of Sanaa.
The
North Yemen Civil War
The North Yemen Civil War ( ar, ثورة 26 سبتمبر, Thawra 26 Sabtambar, 26 September Revolution) was fought in North Yemen from 1962 to 1970 between partisans of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom and supporters of the Yemen Arab Republic. The ...
resulted in the destruction of some parts of the city's ancient heritage and continued until 1968 when a deal between the republicans and the royalists was reached,
establishing a presidential system. Instability in Sanaa continued due to continuing coups and political assassinations until the situation in the country stabilized in the late 1970s.
![Taizz Road 1958](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Taizz_Road_1958.JPG)
The new government's modernization projects changed the face of Sanaa: the new
Tahrir Square
Tahrir Square ( ar, ميدان التحرير ', , English language, English: Liberation Square), also known as "Martyr Square", is a major public town square in downtown Cairo, Egypt. The square has been the location and focus for political dem ...
was built on what had formerly been the former imam's palace grounds, and new buildings were constructed on the north and northwest of the city. This was accompanied by the destruction of several of the old city's gates, as well as sections of the wall around it.
After the end of the civil war in 1970, Sanaa began to expand outward.
This was a period of prosperity in Yemen, partly due to the massive migration of Yemeni workers to the
Gulf states and their subsequent sending of money back home. At first, most of the new development was concentrated around central areas like al-Tahrir, the modern centre;
Bi'r al-Azab, the Ottoman quarter; and
Bab al-Yaman, the old southern gate. However, this soon shifted to the city's outskirts, where an influx of immigrants from the countryside established new neighbourhoods. Two areas in particular experienced major growth during this period: first, the area along
Taizz Road in the south, and second, a broader area on the west side of the city, between Bi'r al-Azab and the new avenue called
Sittin.
A new ring road, built in the 1970s on the recommendation of the
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
, encouraged land speculation and further contributed to the rapid expansion of Sanaa.
![Jemen1988-142 hg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Jemen1988-142_hg.jpg)
Sanaa's new areas were physically different than the quarters of the old city. Many of the Yemenis who had migrated to the Gulf states had worked in construction, where they had become well-acquainted with Western and Egyptian techniques. When they returned to Yemen, they brought those techniques with them. New construction consisted of concrete and concrete block houses, with multi-lite windows and plaster decorations, laid out in a grid pattern. Their amenities, including independence from extended families and the possibility of owning a car, attracted many families from the old city, and they moved to the new districts in growing numbers. Meanwhile, the old city, with its unpaved streets, poor drainage, lack of water and sewer systems, and litter (from use of manufactured products, which was becoming increasingly common), was becoming increasingly unattractive to residents. Disaster struck in the late 1970s — water pipes were laid to bring water into the old city, but there was no way to pipe it out, resulting in huge amounts of groundwater building up in the old city. This destabilized building foundations and led to many houses collapsing.
Contemporary era
Following the
unification of Yemen
Yemeni unification () took place on May 22, 1990, when the area of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (also known as South Yemen) was united with the Yemen Arab Republic (also known as North Yemen), forming the Republic of Yemen (known as ...
, Sanaa was designated capital of the new Republic of Yemen. It houses the presidential palace, the
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, the supreme court, and the country's government ministries. The largest source of employment is provided by governmental civil service. Due to massive rural immigration, Sanaa has grown far outside its Old City, but this has placed a huge strain on the city's underdeveloped infrastructure and municipal services, particularly water.
Sanaa was chosen as the 2004
Arab Cultural Capital by the
Arab League
The Arab League ( ar, الجامعة العربية, ' ), formally the League of Arab States ( ar, جامعة الدول العربية, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world, which is located in Northern Africa, Western Africa, E ...
. In 2008, the
Al Saleh Mosque
The People's Mosque ( ar, جامع الشعب, Jāmiʿ aš-Šaʿib) is a modern mosque in Sana’a that is the largest in Yemen. It lies in the southern outskirts of the city, south of the Al Sabeen Maternal Hospital. Originally named Al Saleh M ...
was completed. It holds over 40,000 worshippers.
In 2011, Sanaa, as the Yemeni capital, was the centre of the
Yemeni Revolution
The Yemeni Revolution ( intifada), also known as the Yemeni Revolution of Dignity followed the initial stages of the Tunisian Revolution and occurred simultaneously with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and other Arab Spring protests in the ...
in which
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Ali Abdullah Saleh
Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar (, ''ʿAlī ʿAbdullāh Ṣāliḥ al-Aḥmar;'' 21 March 1947There is a dispute as to Saleh's date of birth, some saying that it was on 21 March 1942. See: However, by Saleh's own confession, he was born in 1947 al ...
was ousted. Between May and November, the city was a battleground, in what became known as the
2011 Battle of Sanaa.
On 21 May 2012, Sanaa was
attacked by a suicide bomber, resulting in the deaths of 120 soldiers.
On 23 January 2013, a drone strike near Al-Masna'ah village killed two civilians, according to a report issued by
Radhya Al-Mutawakel
Radhya Al-Mutawakel (born 12 April 1967) is a human rights defender and the Yemeni co-founder and chairperson of Mwatana Organisation For Human Rights, an independent organisation working to defend and protect human rights in Yemen. Al-Mutawakel a ...
and Abdulrasheed Al-Faqih and
Open Societies Foundations.
Houthi control (2014-present)
![Houthis-control 2014-2015](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Houthis-control_2014-2015.gif)
On 21 September 2014, during the
Houthi insurgency
The Houthi insurgency, also known as the Houthi rebellion, the Sa'dah War, or the Sa'dah conflict, was a military rebellion pitting Zaidi Shia Houthis (though the movement also includes Sunnis) against the Yemeni military that began in Northern ...
, the
Houthis
The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...
seized control of Sanaa.
On 12 June 2015,
Saudi-led airstrikes targeting Shiite rebels and their allies in Yemen destroyed historic houses in the middle of the capital. A
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
was severely damaged.
On 8 October 2016,
Saudi-led airstrikes targeted a hall in Sanaa where a funeral was taking place. At least 140 people were killed and about 600 were wounded. After initially denying it was behind the attack, the Coalition's Joint Incidents Assessment Team admitted that it had bombed the hall but claimed that this attack had been a mistake caused by bad information.
In May 2017, according to the
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
, an outbreak of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
killed 115 people and left 8,500 ill. In late 2017, another
Battle of Sanaa broke out between the Houthis and forces loyal to former President Saleh, who was killed.
On 17 May 2022, the first commercial flight in six years took off from
Sanaa International Airport as part of a UN-brokered 60-day truce agreement struck between the Houthis and the internationally-recognized government the prior month.
Geography and climate
Natural setting
Sanaa is located on a plain of the same name, the Haql Sanaa, which is over 2,200m above sea level. The plain is roughly 50–60 km long north–south and about 25 km wide, east–west, in the area north of Sanaa, and somewhat narrower further south. To the east and west, the Sanaa plain is bordered by cliffs and mountains, with
wadi
Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water onl ...
s coming down from them. The northern part of the area slopes gently upward toward the district of
Arhab, which was historically known as ''al-Khashab''. Much of the Sanaa plain is drained by the
Wadi al-Kharid, which flows northward, through the northeastern corner of the plain, towards
al-Jawf, which is a broad wadi that drains the eastern part of the Yemeni highlands. The southern part of the plain straddles the
watershed between the al-Kharid and the
Wadi Siham
Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), Maghrebi Arabic, North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) S ...
, which flows southwest towards the Yemeni
Tihama
Tihamah or Tihama ( ar, تِهَامَةُ ') refers to the Red Sea coastal plain of the Arabian Peninsula from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Bab el Mandeb.
Etymology
Tihāmat is the Proto-Semitic language's term for 'sea'. Tiamat (or Tehom, in m ...
.
Sanaa itself is located at the narrowest part of the plain, nestled between
Jabal Nuqum
The Sarawat Mountains ( ar, جِبَالُ ٱلسَّرَوَاتِ, Jibāl as-Sarawāt), also known as the Sarat, is a part of the Hijaz mountains in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula. In a broad sense, it runs parallel to the eastern c ...
to the east and the foothills of
Jabal an-Nabi Shu'ayb
''Jabal An-Nabī Shuʿayb'' ( ar, جَبَل ٱلنَّبِي شُعَيْب, lit=Mountain of the Prophet Shuaib), also called ''Jabal Hadhur'' ( ar, جَبَل حَضُوْر, link=no, Jabal Ḥaḍūr), is a mountain of the Harazi subregion of ...
, Yemen's tallest mountain, to the west. The peak of Jabal an-Nabi Shu'ayb is 25 km west of Sanaa.
Because of this position, with the city sandwiched between mountains to the east and west, most of Sanaa's expansion in recent decades has been along a north–south axis.
Jabal Nuqum rises about 500 metres above Sanaa.
According to the 10th-century writer
al-Hamdani, the mountain was the site of an iron mine, although no trace of it exists today; he also mentions a particular type of
onyx
Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The c ...
which came from Nuqum.
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi described a dam located at Nuqum; its location is not known.
This dam probably served to divert the waters coming down from the western face of the mountain and prevent them from flooding the city of Sanaa.
Such a flood is known to have happened in 692 (73 AH), before the dam was built, and it is described as having destroyed some of Sanaa's houses.
Despite its proximity to the city, Jabal Nuqum does not appear to have been fortified until 1607 (1016 AH), when a fort was built to serve as a lookout point to warn of potential attackers.
The main mountain stronghold during the Middle Ages was
Jabal Barash, further to the east.
Parts of the Sanaa plain have signs of relatively recent volcanic activity (geologically speaking), with volcanic cones and lava fields. One such area is located to the north, on the road to the
Qa al-Bawn
The al-Bawn plain, or Qā‘ al-Bawn, is a plain located in north-central Yemen, in 'Amran Governorate. It is located just to the north of the Sanaa plain, with the two being separated by a rocky area formed by volcanic activity, and the high point ...
, the next plain to the north, located around
'Amran and
Raydah
Raydah (sometimes transliterated Raidah or al-Raidah) is a large market town located north of Sana'a, and north of Amran, in northwestern Yemen.Sharp, Jeremy MYemen: Background and U.S. Relations(RL34170, PDF). Congressional Research Service ...
. The modern route between the two plains passes to the west of
Jabal Din
Jabal Ḍin, or Jabal Ẓin, is a distinct cone-shaped mountain in Yemen. It is located at the northern end of the Sanaa plain, just east of the road from Sanaa to 'Amran. Of volcanic origin, it marks the high point between the Sanaa plain and the ...
, a volcanic peak that marks the highest point between the two plains, although in medieval times the main route went to the east of the mountain.
Architecture
Sanaa's Old City is renowned for its
tower house
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...
s, which are typically built from stone and fired brick and can reach up to 8 stories in height. The doors and windows feature are decorated with
plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...
openings. They traditionally housed a single extended patrilineal family, with new floors being built as sons married and had children of their own. (New buildings would also sometimes be built on adjacent land.) The ground floor was typically used as grain storage and for housing animals. Most families no longer keep either animals or grain, so many homeowners set up shops on the ground floor instead. (This often leads to conflict with building inspectors, since doing so is prohibited by law.)
Meanwhile, the uppermost story, called the ''mafraj'', is used as a second reception room and hosts afternoon qat chewing sessions.
Tower houses continue to be built in Sanaa, often using modern materials; often they are built from concrete block with decorative "veneers" of brick and stone.
These "neo-traditional" tower houses are found in newer districts as well as the old city.
Most new residences built in Sanaa, though, use newer styles of architecture. The most common are "new villas", which are low-rise houses with fenced yards; they are especially common in the southern and western parts of the city. The other main archetype are smaller, "Egyptian-style" houses, which are usually built with reinforced concrete. These are most commonly found in the northern and eastern parts of Sanaa.
Tower-Houses_in_Old_Sana'a_(صنعاء_القديمة)_(2286023513).jpg, Several tower houses in Sanaa
Tower-Houses in Old Sana'a (2286137971).jpg, Tower houses
Tower-House in the Old City of Sana'a (2286782876).jpg, Closer view of a single tower house, showing the plaster decoration
Sana'a_in_the_1960s.jpg, Street scene in the 1960s, showing newer concrete-based architecture
مكتبة صنعاء الأثرية - panoramio.jpg, Sanaa Archaeological Library, showing a mix of styles: the windows evoke those of old tower houses, while the materials and structure are essentially modern.
Yem6.jpg, Contemporary monument in Sanaa, as-Sab'in street
Cityscape
Generally, Sanaʽa is divided into two parts: the
Old City District ("al-Qadeemah") and the new city ("al-Jadid.") The former is much smaller and retains the city's ancient heritage and mercantile way-of-living while the latter is an urban sprawl with many suburbs and modern buildings. The newer parts of the city were largely developed in the 1960s and onward when Sanaʽa was chosen as the republican capital.
In recent decades, Sanaa has grown into a multipolar city, with various districts and suburbs serving as hubs of commercial, industrial, and social activity. Their development has generally been unplanned by central authorities. Many of them were initially set up by new arrivals from rural areas. Increasing land prices and commercial rents in the central city has also pushed many residents and commercial establishment outwards, towards these new hubs.
Souks have been especially important in the development of these areas.
Neighbourhoods
Old City
![Vegetable Garden in Old Sana'a (2286045031)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Vegetable_Garden_in_Old_Sana%27a_%282286045031%29.jpg)
The
Old City of Sanaʽa
( ar, مَدِيْنَة صَنْعَاء ٱلْقَدِيْمَة, Madīnat Ṣanʿāʾ Al-Qadīmah) is recognised as a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site. The old fortified city has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years and contains many intact architectural gems. The oldest, partially standing architectural structure in the Old City of Sanaʽa is
Ghumdan Palace
Ghumdan Palace, also Qasir Ghumdan or Ghamdan Palace, is an ancient palace and fortress in Sana'a, Yemen. It is the earliest known castle in the world. All that remains of the ancient site (Ar. ''khadd'') of Ghumdan is a field of tangled ruins opp ...
. The city was declared a
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
by the United Nations in 1986. Efforts are underway to preserve some of the oldest buildings some of which, such as the Samsarh and the
Great Mosque of Sanaʽa
The Great Mosque of Sana'a (, ) is an ancient mosque in Sana'a, Yemen, and one of the oldest mosques in the world. The mosque is said to have been founded in the early Islamic period, suggested to be in 633. While the precise date of construction ...
, is more than 1,400 years old. Surrounded by ancient clay walls that stand high, the Old City contains more than 100 mosques, 12 ''hammams'' (baths), and 6,500 houses. Many of the houses resemble ancient skyscrapers, reaching several stories high and topped with flat roofs. They are decorated with elaborate friezes and intricately carved frames and stained-glass windows.
British writer
Jonathan Raban
Jonathan Raban (born 14 June 1942, Hempton, Norfolk, England) is a British travel writer, critic, and novelist. He has received several awards, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, t ...
visited in the 1970s and described the city as fortress-like, its architecture and layout resembling a
labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
", further noting "It was like stepping out into the middle of a vast pop-up picture book. Away from the street, the whole city turned into a maze of another kind, a dense, jumbled alphabet of signs and symbols."
One of the most popular attractions is ''Suq al-Milh'' (Salt Market), where it is possible to buy salt along with bread, spices, raisins, cotton, copper, pottery, silverware, and antiques. The 7th-century
''Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr'' (the Great Mosque) is one of the oldest mosques in the world. The ''
Bāb al-Yaman''
("Gate of the Yemen") is an iconized entry point through the city walls and is more than 1,000 years old.
A commercial area of the Old City is known as ''Al Madina'' where development is proceeding rapidly. In addition to three large hotels, there are numerous stores and restaurants. The area also contains three parks and
the President's palace. The
National Museum of Yemen
The National Museum of Yemen in Sana'a, Yemen, was founded in 1971 in ''Dar al-Shukr'' (Palace of Gratefulness) which is one of the Yemeni Imam Palaces. It is located near Qubbat al-Mutawakkil Mosque dome in Al- Tahreer Square in the city cente ...
is located here.
Traditionally, the Old City was composed of a number of quarters (''hara''), generally centred on an endowed complex containing a mosque, a
bathhouse
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
, and an agricultural garden (''maqshama''). Human waste from households was disposed of via chutes. In the mountain air, it dried fairly quickly and was then used as fuel for the bathhouse. Meanwhile, the gardens were watered using
gray water from the mosque's ablution pool.
=Al-Tahrir
=
Al-Tahrir was designed as the new urban and economic hub of Sanaa during the 1960s. It is still the symbolic centre of the city, but economic activity here is relatively low. In the 21st century, development here pivoted more towards making it a civic and recreational centre.
=Bi'r al-Azab
=
An old Ottoman and Jewish quarter of Sanaa
located to the west of the old city, Bi'r al-Azab was first mentioned in historical sources in 1627 (1036 AH), in the ''
Ghayat al-amanni'' of
Yahya ibn al-Husayn Yahya may refer to:
* Yahya (name), a common Arabic male given name
* Yahya (Zaragoza), 11th-century ruler of Zaragoza
* John the Baptist in Islam, also known as Yaḥyā ibn Zakarīyā
See also
* Tepe Yahya
Tapeh Yahya () is an archaeological ...
.
As part of central Sanaa, Bi'r al-Azab was one of the areas where new development was first concentrated during the 1970s. Today, it is mostly a residential and administrative district, with embassies, the office of the Prime Minister, and the chamber of deputies being located here.
Others
The area roughly between the two main circular roads around the city (Ring Road and Sittin) is extremely active, with a high population density and very busy souks. These areas are crossed by major commercial thoroughfares such as al-Zubayri and
Abd al-Mughni Street, and are extensively served by public transport. Particularly significant districts in this area include
al-Hasabah in the north,
Shumayla in the south, and
Hayil in the west.
Al-Hasabah was formerly a separate village as described by medieval writers
al-Hamdani and
al-Razi Razi ( fa, رازی) or al-Razi ( ar, الرازی) is a name that was historically used to indicate a person coming from Ray, Iran.
People
It most commonly refers to:
* Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–925), influential physician, alchemist ...
, but by the 1980s it had become a suburb of Sanaa.
The southwestern area on both sides of
Haddah Road is a generally affluent area with relatively more reliable access to utilities like water and sanitation. Many residents originally moved here from Aden after Yemeni reunification in 1990. Since the 1990s, there has been development of high-rise buildings in this area.
Administration
In 1983, as Sanaa experienced an explosion in population, the city was made into a governorate of its own, called Amanat al-Asimah (''"the Capital's Secretariat"''), by Presidential Decree No. 13.
This governorate was then subdivided into nine districts in 2001, by Presidential Decree No. 2; a tenth district,
Bani Al Harith District
Bani Al Harith District ( ar, مديرية بني الحارث ''Mudayrīyah Bani Al Ḥarith'') is a district of the Amanat Al Asimah Governorate, Yemen founded by a sub-clan of Banu Harith
The Banu al-Harith ( ar, بَنُو الْحَارِث ...
, was added within the same year.
However, the exact legal status of the new Amanat al-Asimah Governorate, and the hierarchy of administrative authority, was never made clear.
Since then, the city of Sanaa encompasses the following districts:
*
Old City District
*
Al Wahdah District
*
As Sabain District
*
Assafi'yah District
*
At Tahrir District
At Tahrir District is a district of the Amanat Al Asimah Governorate, 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 Pen ...
*
Ath'thaorah District
*
Az'zal District
*
Bani Al Harith District
Bani Al Harith District ( ar, مديرية بني الحارث ''Mudayrīyah Bani Al Ḥarith'') is a district of the Amanat Al Asimah Governorate, Yemen founded by a sub-clan of Banu Harith
The Banu al-Harith ( ar, بَنُو الْحَارِث ...
*
Ma'ain District
*
Shu'aub District
Climate
Sanaʽa features a cold
desert climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
: BWk).
Sanaʽa sees on average of
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
per year. Due to its high elevation, however, temperatures are much more moderate than many other cities on the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
; average temperatures remain relatively constant throughout the year in Sanaʽa, with its coldest month being January and its warmest month July. Even considering this, as a result of its lower latitude and higher elevation,
UV radiation
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...
from the sun is much stronger than in the hotter climates farther north on the
Arab peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
.
The city seldom experiences extreme heat or cold. Some areas around the city, however, can see temperatures fall to around or during winter.
Frost
Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...
usually occurs in the early winter mornings, and there is a slight
wind chill in the city at elevated areas that causes the cold mornings to be bitter, including low
humidity
Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present.
Humidity depe ...
. The sun warms the city to the high and low during the noontime but it drops drastically as night falls in.
The city experiences many
microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...
s from district to district because of its location in the Sanaʽa basin and uneven elevations throughout the city. Summers are warm and can cool rapidly at night, especially after rainfall. Sanaʽa receives half of its annual rainfall from April to August. Rainfall amounts vary from year to year; some years could see of rainfall, while others can barely get . High temperatures have increased slightly during the summer over the past few years, but low temperatures and winter temperatures have dramatically fallen over the same period.
Culture
Music
Sanaa has a rich musical tradition and is particularly renowned for the musical style called ''al-Ghina al-San’ani'' ( ar, الغناء الصنعاني ), or "the song of Sanaa", which dates back to the 14th century and was designated as a
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
in 2003.
This style of music is not exclusive to Sanaa, and is found in other areas of Yemen as well, but it is most closely associated with the city.
It is one of about five regional genres or "colors" (''lawn'') of Yemeni music, along with
Yafi'i,
Lahej
Lahij or Lahej ( ar, لحج, Laḥj, links=no), also called al-Hawtah, is a city and an area located between Ta'izz and Aden in Yemen. From the 18th to the 20th century, its rulers were of the Abdali branch of the Al-Sallami tribe who trace th ...
i,
Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
i, and
Hadhrami.
It is often part of social events, including the
samra, or evening wedding party, and the
magyal, or daily afternoon gathering of friends.
The basic format consists of a singer accompanied by two instrumentalists, one playing the
qanbus (Yemeni lute) and the other playing the
sahn nuhasi, which is a copper tray balanced on the musician's thumbs and played by being lightly struck by the other eight fingers.
Lyrics are in both
classical Arabic
Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
and
Yemeni Arabic
Yemeni Arabic is a cluster of varieties of Arabic spoken in Yemen, southwestern Saudi Arabia and the Horn of Africa. It is generally considered a very conservative dialect cluster, having many classical features not found across most of the Ara ...
and are known for their wordplay and emotional content.
Singers often use
melisma
Melisma ( grc-gre, μέλισμα, , ; from grc, , melos, song, melody, label=none, plural: ''melismata'') is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referr ...
tic vocals, and the arrangements feature pauses between verses and instrumental sections.
Skilled performers often "embellish" a song's melody in order to highlight its emotional tone.
In the earliest days of the recording industry in Yemen, from 1938 into the 1940s, Sanaani music was the dominant genre among Yemenis who could afford to buy
records and
phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
s (primarily in Aden).
As prices fell, Sanaani-style records became increasingly popular among the middle class, but at the same time it began to encounter competition from other genres, including Western and Indian music as well as music from other Arab countries.
The earliest Sanaani recording stars generally came from wealthy religious families.
The most popular was 'Ali Abu Bakr Ba Sharahil, who recorded for
Odeon Records
Odeon Records is a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. The label's name and logo come from the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris.
History
Straus a ...
; other popular artists included Muhammad and Ibrahim al-Mas, Ahmad 'Awad al-Jarrash, and Muhammad 'Abd al-Rahman al-Makkawi.
Theatre
Yemen has a rich, lively tradition of theatre going back at least a century. In Sanaa, most performances take place at the
Cultural Center
A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run.
Asia
* Ce ...
(''Markaz al-Thaqafi''),
which was originally designed as an auditorium instead of a theatre. It "possesses only the most basic of lighting and sound equipment, and the smallest of wings"
and lacks space to store props or backdrops. Yet despite the scarce resources, "dramatic talent and creativity abound"
and productions draw large, enthusiastic crowds who react on the action onstage with vigor: "uproarious laughter at clever lines, and deafening cheers for the victorious hero, but also occasional shouts of disagreement, cries of shock when an actor or actress breaks a taboo or expresses a controversial opinion."
Katherine Hennessey draws attention to the fact that Yemeni women act alongside men onstage, write and direct plays (
Nargis Abbad being one of the most popular), and make up a significant part of audiences, often bringing their children with them. She contrasts all these factors to the other countries on the Arabian peninsula: places like
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
or
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
have extensive resources and fancier facilities, but not much of a theatrical tradition, and casts and audiences are often segregated by gender.
Since Yemeni reunification in the early 1990s, the government has sponsored annual national theatre festivals, typically scheduled to coincide with
World Theatre Day
World Theatre Day (WTD) is an international observance celebrated on 27 March. It was initiated in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute.
Initiation
World Theatre Day was initiated in 1962 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It ...
on March 27. In the 21st century, the actors and directors have increasingly come from Sanaa.
In 2012, in addition to the festival, there was a national theatre competition, sponsored by
Equal Access Yemen and
Future Partners for Development
The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
, featuring theatre troupes from around the country. It had two rounds; the first was held in six different governorates, and the second was held in Sanaa.
Sanaa's theatre scene was disrupted by war and famine in the 2010s; additionally, since the Houthis gained control of the city in 2014, they "have imposed strict rules on dress, gender segregation, and entertainment in the capital." In December 2020, however, a performance was held in Sanaa by one troupe, in an effort to offer respite and entertainment to people in a city suffering from the civil war and the ongoing
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
. Directed by
Mohammad Khaled
Mohammad Khaled (6 July 1922 - 21 December 2003) was a Bangladeshi politician, academician and journalist who was a Member of Parliament for Chittagong-6 constituency. He was awarded the " Swadhinata Puraskar" by the Government of Bangladesh in 2 ...
, the performance drew a crowd of "dozens of men, women and children."
Sports
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
(soccer) is the most popular sport in Sanaʽa. The city is home to the
Ali Muhesen Stadium
Altawra Sports City Stadium ( ar, مدينة الثورة الرياضية), also known as the Ali Mohsen al-Muraisi Stadium ( ar, ملعب علي محسن المريسي), is a multi-purpose stadium in San‘a’, Yemen. It is currently used most ...
, home of the
Yemen national football team
The Yemen national football team ( ar, منتخب اليمن الوطني لكرة القدم), is the national team of Yemen and is controlled by the Yemen Football Association.
When the nation was split into North Yemen and South Yemen befo ...
, and is mostly used for football matches. The stadium holds 25,000 people.
Zoo
Like
Ta'izz Zoo
Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a populat ...
, this zoo held fauna caught in the wild, such as the
Arabian leopard
The Arabian leopard (''Panthera pardus nimr'') is a leopard subspecies native to the Arabian Peninsula. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996 as fewer than 200 wild individuals were estimated to be alive i ...
, as well as imported animals such as
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n
lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
s and
gazelle
A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third ...
s.
The lions were thought to be of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
n origin, but a
phylogeographic
Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the past to present geographic distributions of genealogical lineages. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of ge ...
test demonstrated them to be different from
captive Ethiopian lions kept at
Addis Ababa Zoo, and more similar to
lions
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...
from
Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
.
Demographics
![Souq@Sana'a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Souq%40Sana%27a.JPG)
The city's population growth soared from the 1960s onward as a result of mass rural migration to the city in search of employment and improved standard of living.
[Ring and Salkin, p.631.] Sanaʽa is the fastest-growing capital city in the world with a growth rate of 7%, while the growth rate of the nation as a whole is 3.2%. About 10% of the population resides in the Old City, while the remainder lives in the outside districts.
The population in Sanaa is very young, with almost 60% of people in the Amanat al-Asimah Governorate being under 18 years old.
A majority of Sanaa's inhabitants practice
Zaydi Islam, while
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
s and
Isma'ilis
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor ( imām) to Ja'far al- ...
are minority groups.
Sunnis tend to be most concentrated in the newer parts of the city, reflecting an influx of new residents from the countryside since the late 20th century.
Social class
Before the revolution of 1962, Sanaani society was divided into a fairly well-defined hierarchy of social classes.
There were five major groups: ranked from highest to lowest, they were the
sayyid
''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...
s, the
qadi
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
s, the ''mansib''s (plural: ''manasib''), the ''Bani Khumis'' (also called the ''muzayyin''), and the ''akhdam''.
Since then, the system of social class has changed significantly in the context of market capitalism.
At the top of the traditional social order were the sayyids, who claimed descent from Muhammad and were therefore seen as the legitimate ruling class.
Right below them were the qadis, who similarly claimed descent from "an original class of judges".
Because of their elite status, the sayyids were the main targets of the 1962 revolution, but they and the qadis continue to wield a strong cultural influence today.
Below these elite groups were the ''manasib'', whose name literally means "dignity", "rank", or "position".
These included artisans employed in "honourable" trades, such as metalsmiths (for gold, silver, copper, and iron), carpenters, dyers, builders and masons, plumbers, turners (i.e.
lathe
A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to c ...
operators), porters, painters of inscriptions, and makers of weapons, hookahs, or mattresses.
Although these trades were seen as somewhat demeaning for members of the upper classes to take part in, they were still fairly respectable and in some cases sayyids or qadis would engage in them as a main source of income.
The ''manasib'' were generally considered to have tribal ancestry and martial connotations, and they were the ones who were mustered to defend the city when it was attacked.
The Bani Khumis, literally the "sons of the fifth", were the ones who took part in trades that the three higher-ranked classes refused to work in.
These included cobblers, tanners, makers of leather sheaths, saddlers, brickmakers, butchers, barbers, bath attendants, coffee house proprietors, brass founders, and vegetable gardeners.
Below the Bani Khumis were the ''akhdam'', the lowest social class, who were mostly street sweepers.
This traditional class hierarchy began to change rapidly in the decades after the 1962 revolution.
Particularly during the 1970s, there was a shift towards a new social hierarchy that was based not on birthright but on wealth.
For example, working in commerce (such as qat merchants or café proprietors) was traditionally looked down upon by upper classes like sayyids and ''qabili''s (i.e. tribesmen), but as it became increasingly lucrative during the 1970s, it was increasingly seen as respectable and now some members of the traditional upper classes are willing to engage in these trades.
(This does not extend to all profitable trades, though — butchering, for example, still has a stigma despite bringing in a fair amount of money.)
This shift has been far more pronounced in Sanaa, as a big city where resources are most concentrated, than in rural areas (where old social divisions are much more strongly maintained today).
Some of the contributing factors to the shift included the new education system, modeled on
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
's; widespread migration of Yemeni men to other, oil-rich Arab states; and greater integration of Yemen into the global economy.
Jewish community
![Abraham b](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Abraham_b._Abraham_Yitzhak_Halevi_and_family.jpg)
Jews have been present in Yemen since the 5th century BCE and form part of the historic
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora ( he, תְּפוּצָה, təfūṣā) or exile (Hebrew: ; Yiddish: ) is the dispersion of Israelites or Jews out of their ancient ancestral homeland (the Land of Israel) and their subsequent settlement in other parts of t ...
s. In Sanaʽa, Jews had initially settled within the enclosed citadel, known as ''al-Qaṣr'', near the ruins of the old tower known as
Ghumdan Palace
Ghumdan Palace, also Qasir Ghumdan or Ghamdan Palace, is an ancient palace and fortress in Sana'a, Yemen. It is the earliest known castle in the world. All that remains of the ancient site (Ar. ''khadd'') of Ghumdan is a field of tangled ruins opp ...
, but were evicted from there in the late 6th century by the ruling monarch, and moved to a different section of the city, known as ''al-Marbaki'' (also called the Falayhi Quarter). From there, they again uprooted and were made to settle in the section of the city known as ''al-Quzali'', and eventually moved and settled in the neighborhood of ''al-Sa'ilah''. In 1679, during the
Mawza Exile
The Exile of Mawzaʻ (the expulsion of Yemenite Jews to Mawza') he, גלות מוזע, ; 1679–1680, is considered the single most traumatic event experienced collectively by the Jews of Yemen, in which Jews living in nearly all cities a ...
, they were once again evicted from their place of residence. Upon returning to the city in 1680, they were given a plot of land outside of the city walls, where they built the new Jewish Quarter, ''al-Qāʻ'' (now ''Qāʻ al-ʻUlufi''), and where they remained until the community's demise in the mid-20th century. In 1839 the Reverend
Joseph Wolff
Joseph Wolff (1795 – 2 May 1862) was a Jewish Christian missionary born in Weilersbach, near Bamberg, Germany, named Wolff after his paternal grandfather. He travelled widely, and was known as "the missionary to the world". He published sev ...
, who later went to
Bukhara
Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
to attempt to save Lieutenant Colonel
Charles Stoddart and Captain
Arthur Conolly
Arthur Conolly (2 July 1807, London – 17 June 1842, Bukhara) was a British intelligence officer, explorer and writer. He was a captain of the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry in the service of the British East India Company. He participated in many re ...
, found in
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 ...
, near
Sana'a
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...
, a tribe claiming to be descendants of Jehonadab. After the creation of the political State of Israel in 1948, about 49,000 (of an estimated 51,000) of
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews or Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ''Yehudei Teman''; ar, اليهود اليمنيون) are those Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. Between June 1949 and September 1950, the ...
were airlifted to Israel, almost 10,000 of whom were from Sanaʽa (see the English-language book ''Jews and Muslims in lower Yemen: a study in protection and restraint, 1918–1949''). There was then essentially no Jewish population in Sanaʽa until the
Shia insurgency broke out in northern Yemen in 2004. The
Houthis
The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...
directly threatened the Jewish community in 2007, prompting the government of
President Saleh to offer them refuge in Sanaʽa. , around 700 Jews were living in the capital under government protection. In April 2017, it was reported that 40 of the last 50 Jews were in an enclave next to the American Embassy in
Sana'a
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...
, and they were subject to threats of
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
by the
Houthis
The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...
.
[Jewish Blog spot April 17, 2017.](_blank)
/ref>
On 28 April 2020 Yemenite Minister Moammer al-Iryani remarked the ''fate of the last 50 Jews'' in Yemen is ''unknown''. On 16 July 2020 5 Jews were allowed to leave Yemen by the Houthi leaving 33 Jews in the Country In July 2020 the Mona Relief reported on their Website that as of July 19, 2020 of the Jewish Population in Yemen there were only a "handful" of Jews in Sana'a.
Economy
Historically, Sanaʽa had a mining industry
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
. The hills around Sanaʽa were mined for onyx
Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The c ...
, chalcedony
Chalcedony ( , or ) is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monocli ...
, and cornelian
Carnelian (also spelled cornelian) is a brownish-red mineral commonly used as a semi-precious gemstone. Similar to carnelian is sard, which is generally harder and darker (the difference is not rigidly defined, and the two names are often use ...
. The city was also known for its metalwork
Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...
, which the British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
described as "famous" in the early 20th century, but declining in popularity. As of 1920, Sanaʽa was described by the British as being "well supplied with fruit and grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...
s, and has good water."
As the capital city of Yemen, nearly 40% of jobs in Sanaʽa are in the public sector
The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infra ...
. The city is also an important centre for commerce and industry in Yemen. Additionally, like many other cities in the developing world, Sanaʽa has a large informal sector
An informal economy (informal sector or grey economy) is the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government.
Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countrie ...
that is estimated to constitute 32% of nongovernmental employment as of 2002.
By far the largest area of the economy, both in terms of number of businesses and in jobs, is in commerce and small services. As of 2004, 58.9% of all establishments and 31.3% of all jobs in Sanaa belong to this category. Another major category is general administration, which only makes up 0.8% of employers but has 18.0% of workers, making it the second largest in that regard. Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...
is the third-largest category by both measures, with about 12% for both. Sanaa also has a higher concentration of hotels and restaurants than elsewhere in the country.
About 62% of jobs in Sanaa are working for private, locally owned enterprises, followed by state-owned enterprises which employ 31%. Waqf
A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitabl ...
s, private foreign-owned companies, and private joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
s make up the rest in that order, with none employing more than 2%.
Sanaa's economy is large compared to its population: as of 2004, it was home to only 9% of Yemen's population but 16% of the country's businesses and 22% of its formal-sector jobs. The average size of a business establishment in Sanaa is small, at 3.88 employees on average; however, this is higher than the national average of 2.87 and only Aden has a higher average at 6.88 employees. Between 1992 and 2006, 39% of all new formal-sector jobs in Yemen were created in Sanaa, along with 33% of new business establishments. In terms of jobs created, Sanaa is ahead of all other governorates in Yemen by a factor of three.
Poverty and income inequality
While Sanaa has a vibrant, diverse economy with more jobs being created than anywhere else in Yemen, it also has the highest concentration of poverty in the country. It is home to 6.5% of the country's total poor population and 23% of the poor urban population. About 15% of the city's population lives below the national poverty line as of 2007. There are also many people living just above the poverty line that are still in a relatively precarious financial position. High unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
is another problem; by some estimates, as much as 25% of Sanaa's potential workforce is unemployed.
Income inequality
There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...
is also increasing: from 1998 to 2005, the Gini coefficient for Sanaa increased from 37% to 44%: a 21% increase, the highest in the country. High inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
, low per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
growth, and disproportionate gains by the rich have contributed to a middle class squeeze
The middle-class squeeze refers to negative trends in the standard of living and other conditions of the middle class of the population. Increases in wages fail to keep up with inflation for middle-income earners, leading to a relative decli ...
in Sanaa's middle class since the 1980s.
Challenges facing local businesses
A 2005 survey of 488 Yemeni firms by the Mitsubishi Research Institute included a subset of 175 firms in Sanaa. They reported similar challenges in doing business to firms throughout the country. In particular, corruption is a problem in their dealings with the government, and hefty bribes are often a necessity. Certain businesses are able to use their connections to dodge taxes and regulations, which puts other businesses at a disadvantage because they have to abide by the rules. Long delays for customs clearances, especially for imports, are ubiquitous, and over 70% of the surveyed firms reported that they had made extra-legal payments to customs officials. Financial constraints also confront many entrepreneurs in Sanaa: the cost of bank credit is also prohibitively high, and loan guarantee
A loan guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party (the guarantor) to assume the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. A guarantee can be limited or unlimited, making the guarantor liable for only a portion or all of the d ...
s often come with heavy demands that are difficult to meet. Shortcomings in municipal infrastructure are another problem: for example, because access to electricity is unreliable, many firms have to install their own backup generator
An emergency power system is an independent source of electrical power that supports important electrical systems on loss of normal power supply. A standby power system may include a standby generator, batteries and other apparatus. Emergency p ...
s.
Energy
Before the civil war, Yemen's electricity was primarily supplied by the Ma'rib
Marib ( ar, مَأْرِب, Maʾrib; Old South Arabian: 𐩣𐩧𐩨/𐩣𐩧𐩺𐩨 ''Mryb/Mrb'') is the capital city of Marib Governorate, Yemen. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of ''Sabaʾ'' ( ar, سَبَأ), which some scholars ...
gas-fired power plant, which came online in 2009 and supplied 27 to 40 percent of the country's electricity while active. (Before that, power came from six diesel power plants in Sanaa itself.) The Ma'rib plant is connected to the Bani Hushaysh substation by a power line with a capacity of 400 kV, and the Bani Hushaysh substation is then connected to substations in Dhahban and Hizyaz
Hizyaz ( ar, حزيز ), also spelled Hezyaz, is a town in Yemen, on the far southern outskirts of the capital Sanaa. It is located in Sanhan District of Sanaa Governorate, at the southern end of the Sanaa plain. Hizyaz is the site of one of Sana ...
by two 132-kV lines. However, the Ma'rib-Sanaa power line was frequently targeted by attacks; there were 54 attacks on the power line between 2010 and 2013. The Ma'rib plant ceased operations in 2015.
The Dhahban and Hizyaz substations also have generating capacity in addition to being supplied by the Ma'rib plant. The Dhahban station is the main one in Sanaa; located 10 km northwest of the city, it had an original generating capacity of 20 MW, with another 30 MW installed during the 2000s, bringing the total to 50 MW. The Hizyaz station consists of three power plants: the first, with a capacity of 30 MW, was completed in 2002. Another 60 MW plant was added in 2004, and then in 2007 the third plant, with a capacity of 30 MW, was also completed.
While most of prewar Sanaa was connected to the electrical grid, including at least partial coverage in most of the city's 35 informal settlements, access to electricity was unreliable. Power outage
A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.
There are many causes of power failures in an electricit ...
s were common, and one 2011 report suggested that electricity was only available for one hour per day.
The civil war has severely impacted the energy sector in Yemen, due to several factors including damage from attacks, lack of funding for maintenance, and fuel shortages. As of 2018, 43% of Sanaa's energy assets were completely destroyed, while another 38% had suffered partial damage; in addition, 81% of the facilities were not functioning. As a result, the public power supply in Sanaa has become almost nonexistent: of the daily 500 MW electricity demand in the city, the city receives 40 MW. The public electricity supply is now mostly or entirely supplied by the Hizyaz station, whose capacity has been reduced to 7 MW. Public grid access covers around 2% of the population, mostly in nearby neighborhoods, and it is expensive for consumers. Private services using their own generators also sell electricity to customers; they cover another 2.8% and cost about as much as the public supply. The largest share of electrical supply in Sanaa came from privately owned solar panels
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...
and diesel generators, which together covered 30% of the population. Solar power
Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...
rapidly gained popularity in Yemen in 2015, and in 2016 it became the leading source of electricity in the country.
Prices of fuel and diesel in Yemen have risen dramatically since the start of the war; current prices are 150% of what they were in 2017. The most recent crisis in Sanaa came in September 2019, leading to days-long lines at gas stations. Black market prices can be three times higher than the official ones, leaving many unable to afford fuel.
Education
Sanaa is relatively well educated among Yemeni cities, and much more than the country as a whole. Private education
An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
is highly desired by more affluent residents, but access to it is nowhere near as good as in other capital cities in the region.
Each of Sanaa's districts has its own educational district, with several government schools in each one.
The war in Yemen has severely affected education in Sanaa. After the internationally recognized government relocated the national bank from Sanaa to Aden in 2016, it stopped paying salaries to public-sector employees in Houthi-controlled areas. Many teachers quit teaching because of this, and they were replaced by inexperienced volunteers.
Sanaa University
Sana'a University ( ) was established in 1970 as the first and the primary university in the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen), now the Republic of Yemen (see also Aden University). It is located in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and is currently o ...
was established in 1970 with the goal of preparing Yemenis to work as teachers. As of 1984 it remained the only higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
institute in Yemen. In that time its enrolment had grown from 68 students in 1970–71 to around 9,700 in 1983–84. During its early years, Sanaa University was largely financed by Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
, and most professors, administrators, and teaching materials came from Kuwait as well. As of the 1980s, most professors came from Ain Shams University in Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
. At that time, 10% of students at the university were female. The university's academic year consists of two 18-week semesters as well as an 8-week summer session. As of 1984, instruction was in Arabic in all faculties except for the Faculty of Science, where it was done in English. The then-planned Faculties of Engineering and Medical Sciences were also planned to have instruction done in English. As of 1984, one in five freshmen at Sanaa University went on to graduate in four years (the statistic for students who graduated after more than four years was not given).
Health
As of October 2016, there are 88 health facilities in the Sanaa metro area. These include 5 primary-level health units (covering 1,000-5,000 people each), 56 health centres (covering over 50,000 people each — higher than the national average of 36,340, as well as the recommended standard of 5,000-20,000 per health centre), and 19 hospitals (covering on average some 390,000 people, over twice the recommended amount of 150,000 each). The hospitals have on average 6.9 beds per 10,000 people, which is slightly above the national average of 6.2 but well below the recommended minimum of 10. As of 2016 there are also 25 ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
s in the city. As of 2019, 77 healthcare facilities in Sanaa are supported by Health Cluster partners, including provision of outpatient consultations, medical interventions, fuel and water support, and staff training.
Sanaa's healthcare providers also serve people from surrounding governorates. It is one of two Yemeni cities offering tertiary healthcare
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health pro ...
services. The largest of the country's 6 blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...
centres is located at Sanaa's As-Sabeen Maternal Hospital. Additionally, most of Yemen's 40 providers of psychiatric care are located in Sanaa as of 2016.
The ongoing conflict has severely affected the health sector in Sanaa. In 2018, the total cost of damage to the health sector in Sanaa was estimated to be between 191 million and US$233 million. As of 2016, there was a ratio of 20 health care workers for every 10,000 people; this ratio had decreased to 14 by 2018, well below the World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
's recommended minimum of 22 health staff per 10,000 people. There are severe shortages of medicines in Sanaa, with 57 types of cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
medicines and 8 kidney dialysis medicines being commercially unavailable. Those medicines that are available are subjected to large price increases. On 27 April 2018, As-Sabeen Maternal Hospital was hit by an airstrike and made inoperational. As of 2020, no information is available about its status.
Additionally, the closure of Sanaa International Airport to commercial flights in August 2016 prevented Yemenis from traveling abroad to receive specialized medical treatment unavailable in the country. Before it shut down, an estimated 7,000 Yemenis traveled through the airport to do so, including treatment for heart, kidney, and liver conditions, blood conditions, and cancer.
Sanaa has been hit hard by the ongoing cholera outbreak in Yemen since 2016, with Bani al-Harith District
Bani Al Harith District ( ar, مديرية بني الحارث ''Mudayrīyah Bani Al Ḥarith'') is a district of the Amanat Al Asimah Governorate, Yemen founded by a sub-clan of Banu Harith
The Banu al-Harith ( ar, بَنُو الْحَارِث ...
reporting the highest number of cases in January–August 2019. The Amanat al-Asimah governorate also had the second-highest number of measles
Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...
cases in Yemen in 2019, behind only Saada Governorate
Saada ( ar, صَعْدَة, Ṣaʿdah) is one of the governorates of Yemen. The governorate's seat and the largest city is Saada. It is the epicentre of Zaydism .
Coronavirus
In May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
, the local Houthi authorities responded by closing down several markets and locking down streets in 10 districts after suspected cases rose. At the same time, however, they have been suppressing all information about the scale of the outbreak, refusing to release positive test results and intimidating medical staff, journalists, and families to prevent them from speaking out about cases. Speaking about the coronavirus testing results, one official quipped, "When it's negative, they give the results to us." As of May 2020, the only hospital in Sanaa that has the full capacity to treat coronavirus is the Kuwait University Hospital. An influx of patients entered this hospital in the first week of May, and health workers believe many of them had coronavirus; Houthi authorities never revealed the test results, but an internal document from 4 May 2020, showing three positive test results, was circulated widely on social media.
Transport and communications
Transport in Sanaa is divided by gender, with a slight majority (51%) of male commuters using public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
and a similar majority (56%) of women travelling on foot. In both cases, using personally-owned cars was less prevalent than public transport (51% vs. 29% for men, and 25% vs. 20% for women). Use of bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
Bic ...
s and motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
s is less; only 5% of male commuters and a negligible percentage of female commuters reported using them as primary modes of transport.
Public transport in Sanaa is primarily informal, with most vehicles being privately owned. Common passenger vehicles include microbuses (''dabab''s), which in 2005 were estimated to number 4-7,000 in Sanaa; minibus
A minibus, microbus, minicoach, or commuter (in Zimbabwe) is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, ...
es ("nuss-bus"), estimated at 5,500-7,300; and taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
s, which are more common at around 33,000. Public transport in the city center is well-developed, with frequently available bus and minibus services and several bus terminals (most terminals are informal), but the Sanaa outskirts are poorly served by comparison and often people "must walk long distances to reach one of the major roads." Most routes are short, meaning that longer north–south trips require switching buses multiple times. Additionally, the number of buses on the roads can vary from day to day, since bus driver licenses do not require drivers to operate on a regular schedule. This can lead to long waiting times. There are also coaches to major cities such as Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
and Taiz
Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a popula ...
.
Sanaa has an extensive road network, which is where most formal investment has taken place. The city's roads are mostly north–south, with two major ring roads traversing the city. The highest volumes of traffic are within the inner ring road. Roads are often congested, which is compounded by the fact that many of the city's 33,000 taxi cabs often operate empty, and there is a high level of air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
as a result. This air pollution is exacerbated by the fact that, like Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
or Kathmandu
, pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name =
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...
, Sanaa is located in an upland "bowl" surrounded by mountains, which creates thermal inversion
In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the air temperature lapse rate, in which case it is called a temperature inversion. Nor ...
s that trap pollutants.
Sanaa has the most traffic accidents in Yemen, with 2,898 in 2013, more than twice as many as Ta'izz
Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a populat ...
(which had the second-highest total). Contributing factors include lax enforcement of traffic laws, lack of traffic signal
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic.
Traffic light ...
s, lack of pedestrian crossings, and bad parking practices (for example, double parking
Double parking refers to parking parallel to a car already parked at the curb or double parking in attended car parks and garages.
Parking parallel to a car already parked at the curb
"Double parking" means standing or parking a vehicle on the ...
is common, even when there are available parking spaces nearby). The number of traffic accidents plummeted in 2015 by more than 50%, as the escalation of the conflict in Yemen led to reduced mobility, as well as fuel shortages which led to decreased use of personal vehicles.
In 2017, the Saudi blockade of Yemen caused fuel costs to rise by over 100% in Sanaa, crippling transport systems and making it even harder for people to access clean water, food, and healthcare. By August 2019, the price of diesel had reached 430 riyals per liter, which was a 186.7% increase from the pre-war price; at the same time, the price of gasoline
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
had risen to 365 riyals per liter, which was a 143.3% increase over the same period.
Air transport
Sanaʽa International Airport
Sanaa International Airport is the primary international airport of Yemen located in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. It services Sanaa City as well as the entire population of the Northern Provinces of Yemen. Initially, a small passenger terminal ...
is Yemen's main domestic and international airport, handling 80% of all air passengers in the country in 2007. The airport sustained has heavy damage during the ongoing conflict in Yemen, and has been closed for commercial flights since August 2016. This has prevented many Yemenis from being able to travel abroad to receive medical treatment. In addition, at the start of the Saudi blockade, the Sanaa airport was completely shut down for 16 days until being reopened to humanitarian flights on the 22nd of November. A new Sanaa Airport started construction in 2008 but stopped in 2011 and has never resumed since.
Yemenia
Yemenia ( ar, اليمنية) is the flag carrier airline of Yemen, based in Sanaa. It operates scheduled domestic and international passenger flights to destinations in Africa and the Middle East out of its hubs at Aden International Airport, ...
, the national airline of Yemen, has its head office in Sanaʽa.
Communications
Most of Yemen's telecommunications infrastructure is located in Sanaa, as are most of the country's telecommunications companies.
The Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
was first launched in Yemen in 1996, but it was used by under 5% of the population until 2007. The percentage of Yemenis using the internet nationwide has increased from 1.25% in 2006 to 26.72% in 2017. In Sanaa, the main internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
is YemenNet, which was launched in 2002 and is the only network offering 3G services.
Internet cafe
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
s are popular among Sanaa residents, many of whom cannot afford the high cost of subscription fees and purchasing necessary equipment. They are especially popular with university students, who use publicly-available information on the internet to supplement their studies. The first all-female internet cafe in Sanaa opened in 2013. As of 2017, the city of Sanaa had 407 internet cafes, which was almost a third of the total in Yemen. A survey of 45 internet cafes in 2018 reported that 38 were fully or partially operating, while 7 were permanently closed. One of them was operating on solar power, which provided 18 hours of electricity per day.
Water and sanitation
Yemen is one of the world's most water-scarce countries, and Sanaa could be the first national capital in the world to completely exhaust its water supply. The city is located on the Tawilah aquifer, which was first identified in 1972. The aquifer has a natural recharge rate of 42 Mm3/a, much of which comes from the periodic outflow of water from the surrounding wadis onto the Sanaa plain. There is not much refill from rainfall. In 1995, water extraction from the aquifer exceeded the natural recharge rate by around 300%. More recent estimates are higher, suggesting 400-500%. This has caused groundwater levels to drop by 6 to 8 metres annually, to the point that many wells have to be drilled as far down as 2,600 to 3,900 feet. It is estimated that, with a slightly lower rate of depletion, the aquifer will be completely exhausted by around 2030.
As much as 90% of Yemen's water use is in agriculture, with irrigated farmland increasing from 37,000 hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
s in 1970 to 407,000 in 2004. Before the 1970s, traditional agricultural practices had a sustainable balance of use and recharge:. Household water in Sanaa was supplied by shallow wells, and the relative scarcity of water led to people using gray water for watering gardens. Meanwhile, agriculture in the surrounding rural areas was watered by rainfall, with terracing and flood diversion systems making as much as possible out of the limited rainwater. However, after the introduction of deep tube wells and the identification of the Tawilah aquifer, there was an explosion of agriculture in the Sanaa area. By 1995, there were over 5,000 wells in the Sanaa area; as of 2010, the number was about 13,500. At the same time, traditionally grown, drought-resistant crops have been largely replaced by more water-intensive cash crop
A cash crop or profit crop is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") ...
s such as citrus, bananas, grapes, vegetables, and especially qat, which as of 2010 accounted for 6% of Yemen's entire GDP. In the Sanaa area, 27% of all farmland was dedicated to growing qat; by 2010, the number had increased to around 50%.
In the city of Sanaa itself, there was a continuous expansion of tap water
Tap water (also known as faucet water, running water, or municipal water) is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, ...
supply under the National Water and Sanitation Authority
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
(NSWA) through the end of the 1990s, but it was outpaced by the city's growth. The public water supply only served 40-50% of Sanaa residents by 2000. The percentage has decreased in recent years: in 2009, it was estimated that 55% of residents were connected to the public water supply; in 2018, only 43% did. For residents without access to the municipal water network, the only option for drinking water is from tanker trucks, which is expensive. Access to tap water is also inconsistent between neighborhoods, and even in places where there is public water, water pressure can be too low, resulting in unreliable access for some households. Most households have access to water for less than one full day per week. There are also problems with pipe leakage, with estimates ranging from 40% to 60% of water being lost due to leaks.
Additionally, there are problems with water quality in Sanaa due to wastewater getting into water pipes and also leaching down into the aquifer. A 2018 study found the water exceeded the limits for dissolved solids and coliform bacteria, including '' E. coli''. Sana'nis tend to view the city's tap water as contaminated, choosing instead to buy filtered water in containers for drinking and cooking, which costs significantly more. Private kiosks using reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pre ...
to filter poor-quality groundwater are also popular.
As of 2009, the average domestic water consumption in Sanaa was just 30 to 50 liters per day, which is far below the usual amount for city-dwellers in the Middle East.
Wastewater management
The sewer systems in Sanaa is over 500 kilometres long. There are two activated sludge water treatment plant
Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, includ ...
s in the city: the main one, in Bani al-Harith District, was commissioned in 2000 and has a daily capacity of 50,500m3; the second, in al-Hashishiyah, is much smaller with a capacity of 500m3 and is dedicated to collecting wastewater from tankers. No damage was reported to the Bani al-Harith water treatment plant as of 2018, and it remains in operation, although overloaded and with some equipment in poor condition. The al-Hashishiyah facility has been out of operation since the start of the conflict.
Only 40% of Sanaa's population is connected to wastewater services as of 2018 (down from 45% in 2014), and over half of the population relies on private cesspit
A cesspit (or cesspool or soak pit in some contexts) is a term with various meanings: it is used to describe either an underground holding tank (sealed at the bottom) or a soak pit (not sealed at the bottom). It can be used for the temporary co ...
s for wastewater disposal. The wastewater is then either absorbed into the ground or pumped out by either the city's Wastewater and Sanitation Local Corporation or by private services. Of Sanaa's 35 informal settlements, only two (Madhbah
Madhbah ( ar, مذبح ), also called Madinat al-Layl or "the city of the night", is a suburb of Sanaa, Yemen, located in the Bani al-Harith District of Amanat al-Asimah Governorate.
History
The first known mention of Madhbah in historical s ...
and Bayt Maiyad) are connected to the city's sewer system, while most of the others rely on cesspits. In one, Suq Shamlan, sewage is dumped in an open hole.
Solid waste management
It is estimated that 1500 tonnes of solid waste are generated each day in the Sanaa metro area. The city is mainly serviced by the al-Azraqayn landfill, which also serves the surrounding Sanaa Governorate
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء '), also spelled San'a or Sana, is a governorate of Yemen. Its capital is Sanaa, which is also the national capital. However, the city of Sanaa is not part of the governorate but instead forms the separate governorat ...
as well as 'Amran Governorate. The landfill has been in operation since the 1970s and has almost reached full capacity. There is no base or surface sealing at the site, so the leachate
A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed.
Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences wher ...
is not captured. A facility for the treatment of healthcare waste exists at the al-Azraqayn landfill; the first of its type in Yemen, it was expected to open in March 2015, but due to the ongoing conflict and lack of electricity, the opening was delayed indefinitely.
Since the escalation of the Yemeni civil war in 2015, the Azraqayn landfill has no longer been operating at full capacity. Waste collection was reduced to 30 trips per month, and only some of the collected waste made it from the transfer station to the landfill. The waste processing building at the al-Azraqayn site was destroyed in 2015, and the landfill's weighbridge
A truck scale (US), weighbridge (non-US) or railroad scale is a large set of scales, usually mounted permanently on a concrete foundation, that is used to weigh entire rail or road vehicles and their contents. By weighing the vehicle both emp ...
is damaged and not operational. As of 2018, almost a third of the city's garbage truck
A garbage truck is a truck specially designed to collect municipal solid waste and transport it to a solid waste treatment facility, such as a landfill, recycling center or transfer station. In Australia they are commonly called rubbish truck ...
s had been damaged during the fighting and another 18% were not operational. Most Sanaa neighborhoods in 2018 reported insufficient coverage by waste management
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...
services. As of 2018, the city's waste collection services cover 70% of the city's population, which is higher than al-Hudaydah
Al-Hudaydah ( ar, الْحُدَيْدَة, al-ḥudayda), also transliterated as Hodeda, Hodeida, Hudaida or Hodeidah, is the fourth-largest city in Yemen and its principal port on the Red Sea.
As of 2004, its population was 402,560 and it is ...
(50%) but lower than Aden (80%).
As of August 2015, the city of Sanaa employed 19 people as waste picker
A waste picker is a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell or for personal consumption. There are millions of waste pickers worldwide, predominantly in developing countries, but increasingly in post-i ...
s for use in recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
: 4 at al-Azraqayn and 15 (12 men and 3 boys) at Sanaa Transit Station.
Gallery
File:Sanaa, Yemen (39).jpg, Houses in old Sana'a. Ibex and Bull were sacred animals in ancient Yemen. Yemenis put Ibex or Bull horns at top of houses to protect from evil eyes.
File:Sanaa, Yemen (32).jpg, A house in Sana'a
File:Sanaa, Yemen (13).jpg, House with traditional ''Qamariah''
File:Sanaa, Yemen (29).jpg, A dome in old Sana'a
File:Sana, Yemen (4325153574).jpg, Night streetscene in Sanaʽa, Yemen
File:Sana'a, Yemen (11009474166).jpg, Narrow street in Sanaa
Sana'a.jpg, Tower houses in Sanaa
Sana'a_House.JPG, Tower houses in Sanaa
Sanaa,_Yemen_(10716776275).jpg, Ground-level view of a tower house
See also
* Mahwa Aser
* Sanaʽa manuscript – fragments from over 1,000 early Quranic codices, discovered at the Great Mosque in Sanaʽa in 1972.
* Yemeni Revolution
The Yemeni Revolution ( intifada), also known as the Yemeni Revolution of Dignity followed the initial stages of the Tunisian Revolution and occurred simultaneously with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and other Arab Spring protests in the ...
* Jabal an Nabi Shu'ayb, the highest measured mountain in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, nearby.
* Jabal Tiyal
Jabal Tiyal ( ar, جَبَل ٱلطِّيَال, Jabal aṭ-Ṭiyāl), also known as "Jabal Adiyah", is a Sarawat mountain located near Sana'a, the capital city of Yemen. At , it is Yemen's second highest peak, after Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb, as wel ...
, another high mountain near Sanaʽa.
Further reading
External links
* Eric Hansen
Sanaʽa rising
''Saudi Aramco World'', 2006. Vol. 57 No. 1
* Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Tim Mackintosh-Smith (born 17 July 1961) is a British, Yemen-based, Oxford-educated Arabist, writer, traveller and lecturer. He has written numerous books on the Middle East, won several awards and has presented a major BBC television series.
Ed ...
The Secret Gardens of Sanaʽa
''Saudi Aramco World'', 2006 Vol. 57 No. 1
Traditional housing in the old quarter of Sanaa in 1972
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*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanaa
Populated places in Sanaa Governorate
Capitals in Asia
World Heritage Sites in Yemen
Archaeological sites in Yemen
Historic Jewish communities
Architecture of ancient Yemen