Wadi Zahr ( ar, وادي ظهر ), also spelled Wadi Dahr ( ar, وادي ضهر ), is a

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 ...

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 ...

, located just north of Sanaa on the western edge of the Sanaa plain. It is watered by a perennial stream whose source is the large

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

on the eastern slopes 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 ...

. The wadi proper begins near the village of

Suq Bayt Naʽam Suq Bayt Naʽam ( ar, سوق بيت نعم ), also called simply Bayt Naʽam and known historically as Bayt Anʽam, is a village in Hamdan District of Sanaa Governorate, Yemen. It is located at the uppermost part of the Wadi Dahr, where the water f ...

and then flows eastward for about 7km through a steep-sided gorge before ending on the Sanaa plain. Wadi Zahr has fertile soil and was historically a strategic area with several forts. The main settlement in the area today is Qaryat al-Qabil.

Name

The 10th-century writer al-Hamdani consistently spells the wadi's name as ''Wādī Ḍahr'', and specifically states that "it is said Wādī Ḍahr, spelt with ḍād." He says that the wadi is named after one Ḍahr ibn Saʽd ibn ʽArīb, of the tribe 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 Homerit ...

. The spelling ''Ẓahr'', however, is more common.

History

Wadi Zahr is mentioned very frequently in historical sources from the medieval and early modern periods. Its significance came from both its strategic value and its agricultural production. It was a bastion of the

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- ...

of the Banu Hamdan tribe, who ruled the area.

Forts

Wadi Zahr is the site of several historic forts, including Fiddah, Ṭaybah, and Munif:

Fiddah

Jabal Fiddah is a steep-sided mountain on the south side of the wadi. Al-Hamdani described it as "a high rocky peak which is very precipitous and (therefore) beyong the reach of climbers." The main fort, built by the Hatimi sultan of Sanaa in 1184 (584 AH), was located below the summit, on the southern side of the mountain. At the top of the mountain was another fortification called al-ʽAnqā'. The fort of Fiddah remained in use until the downfall of the Sharaf al-Din dynasty in the 16th century.

Ṭaybah

West of Fiddah, and also on the southern side of Wadi Zahr, is the fort of Ṭaybah, which is now in ruins. It was originally called ''Dawram'' (or ''Dūram'', the vocalization preferred by

Muhammad al-Akwa Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monothe ...

), and under this name it appears in the ''

Iklil Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Hamdānī (279/280-333/334 A.H. / c. 893-945 A.D; ar, أبو محمد الحسن بن أحمد بن يعقوب الهمداني) was an Arab Muslim geographer, chemist, poet, grammarian, h ...

'' of al-Hamdani and the ''

Tarikh Sanʽa' ''Taʾrīkh'' is an Arabic word meaning "date, chronology, era", whence by extension "annals, history, historiography". It is also used in Persian, Urdu, Bengali and the Turkic languages. It is found in the title of many historical works. Prior to t ...

'' of

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 ...

. The first reference to the modern name ''Ṭaybah'' is in the year 1324 (724 AH), in the '' Ghayat al-amani'' of Yahya ibn al-Husayn. It is then mentioned several more times in that text as a frequently contested stronghold.

Munif

The fortress of Munif (''Ḥiṣn Munīf''), now in ruins, is located on the north side of Wadi Zahr. Its first mention is in the year 1386 (788 AH), also in the ''Ghayat al-amani''.

References

{{Reflist Zahr Geography of Sanaa Governorate