Upper Yafi

Upper Yafi
سلطنة يافع العليا

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Location Upper Yafas in South Arabia
Form of government	Sultanate 1800–1967
Official language	Arabic
main place	al-Mahjaba
British protectorate	October 1903
Incorporation into the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen	November 30, 1967
surface	approx. 1040 km²
population	approx.15,000 (1964)
currency	South Arabian dinar (from 1965)

Upper Yafi ( Arabic يافع العليا, DMG Yāfiʿ al-ʿUlyā , own name in English Upper Yafa or State of Upper Yafa ) is a historic state on the Arabian Peninsula , which from 1903 belonged to the British Protectorate of South Arabia and was incorporated into the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in November 1967 .

history

The mountainous hinterland of Aden is inhabited by the Yafa'i tribe, who formed two sultanates , the Upper and Lower Yafi Sultanates , in the 19th century . Upper Yafa consisted of five sheikdoms that were united in 1800 under the supremacy of the Harhara Dynasty.

In 1902 a British-Turkish border commission established the border between Ottoman Yemen and the British protectorates of Aden, with Upper Yafi being added to British territory. A protectorate treaty between Sultan Qahtan and the British was not concluded until the following year .

The first European to travel to the area was Lieutenant Colonel MC Lake (1886–1943), who in 1925 formed a small border force from the tribal warriors to fend off territorial disputes with the Imam of Yemen.

In the years 1955 to 1957 there were revolts against British rule, which were crushed by the protectorate power. When the British tried to create a common state out of the small sultanates by founding the pro-British South Arab Federation in 1962 , Ober-Yafi did not join but remained as an exclave to the Protectorate of South Arabia . On November 30, 1967, Ober-Yafi became independent as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen together with the other sultanates and the former crown colony of Aden . The Marxist- oriented government of the state, also known as South Yemen , smashed the old feudal structures and drove out the last Sultan, Ober-Yafis.

List of sultans

• Qahtan ibn ʿUmar ibn Salih Al Harhara (approx. 1800–1810)
• ʿUmar ibn Qahtan ibn ʿUmar Al Harhara (approx. 1810–1815)
• Qahtan ibn ʿUmar ibn Qahtan Al Harhara (approx. 1815-1840)
• ʿAbd Allah ibn Nasir ibn Salih Al Harhara (approx. 1840–1866)
• al-Husayn ibn Abi Bakr ibn Qahtan Al Harhara (1866–1875)
• Muhammad ibn ʿAli ibn Salih ibn Ahmad Al Harhara (1875-28 April 1895)
• Qahtan ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Husayn Al Harhara (1895–1903)
• Salih ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Husayn Al Harhara (first term of office December 4, 1903–1913, second term of office 1919–1927)
• ʿUmar ibn Qahtan ibn ʿUmar Al Harhara (1913-1919)
• ʿUmar ibn Salih ibn ʿUmar Al Harhara (1927–1948)
• Muhammad ibn Salih ibn ʿUmar Al Harhara (1948-29 November 1967)

Postal area

The Sultanate set up its own postal service in 1967 and issued between September 30 and November 29, 1967 a total of 94 postage stamps labeled State of Upper Yafa / South Arabia . The brands are mostly dedicated to European works of art or sporting events. They were produced in New York by the M. Sellinger agency and sold directly to collectors. What is striking, however, is that despite the short period of use of almost two months for such a small postal area, there are relatively many letters that have actually been sent. It is said again and again that there was no post office in al-Mahjaba. It is true, however, that a post agency existed. In the meantime, more than 70 letters are known that show both the perforated and the cut stamps as franking.

In the 2000s, an alleged government-in-exile from Upper Yafa, based in Auckland, New Zealand, issued hoax editions.

Web links

• Basic data on www.worldstatesmen.org , accessed January 10, 2011
• British officers travel to Yafa , accessed January 10, 2011
• Images of the capital Al-Mahjaba , accessed July 19, 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Treaties and Engagement relating to Aden and the South-Western Coast of Arabia ( Memento of December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 7.8 MB) p. 18
2. ^ Norris McWhirter, Ross McWhirter: Dunlop illustrated encyclopedia of facts. Dunlop Rubber Company, 1969, p. 178.
3. ↑ Treaties and Engagement relating to Aden and the South-Western Coast of Arabia ( Memento of December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 7.8 MB) pp. 18-20.
4. ↑ Waldemar Gruschke: Brand Country Lexicon . tape 3 : N – Sh , 2006, ISBN 3-8334-4936-5 , pp. 83 .
5. ↑ Middle East . In: Michel Übersee-Katalog . tape 10 , 1999, ISBN 3-87858-752-X , pp. 51-55 .
6. ↑ Waldemar Gruschke: Brand Country Lexicon . tape 4 : Si – Z , 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-5033-4 , pp. 85 .
7. ↑ David Gray Field: Special Stamp Catalog South Arabia . Ed .: David Greyfield. tape 1 . Berlin 2018.

Remarks

1. ↑ The information fluctuates greatly, in the texts of the protectorate treaties (→ individual records) there is talk of around 88,000 residents (as of 1930), whereas the Dunlop illustrated encyclopedia of facts only names 15,000 inhabitants in 1964
2. ↑ previously East African Schilling , in remote parts of Yemen the Maria Theresa Thaler was still in circulation until the 1950s
3. ↑ the German designations Ober-Jafa or Ober-Yafa are rarely found in German-language literature (exceptions in Manfred Scheuch : Atlas zur Zeitgeschichte: Asia, Africa and America in the 20th Century. Brandstätter, Vienna, 1993, p. 78 or Waldemar Gruschke → individual evidence)