Sultanate of Shihr and Mukalla

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Flag of the Sultanate from 1939

The Sultanate of Shihr and Mukalla ( Arabic سلطنة الشحر والمكلاا, DMG Salṭanat aš-Šiḥr wa-l-Mukallā ) existed from the second half of the 19th century until it was incorporated into the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1967 in the South Arabian region of Hadramaut . After the ruling clan, the Al-Quʿaiti family , it was also called the Quʿaiti Sultanate (السلطنة القعيطية, DMG as-Salṭana al-quʿayṭiyya ). Another name was Sultanate Hadramaut .

From 1888 to 1967 it was under British protectorate .

A precise demarcation of the borders of the almost 90% desert country with its 77,000 km² never took place. Away from the coast there are more important permanent settlements only in Wadi Hadramaut and its side valleys. The population in the arid inland was extremely poor, raids by nomadic tribes and small-scale wars in individual villages were frequent until 1937. Difficult geographical conditions in the mountains (Jōl, ø 1000–1500 m) with steep rock faces allowed the tribes to have a certain degree of independence before air traffic began in the interior.

An exploration of the region by the Europeans did not take place until the 1930s. Colonial officials such as the British couple Doreen and Harold Ingrams or the Dutchman Daniël van der Meulen were in the lead. The population was 1,949 about 190,000, the 2¾ million Rs. Paid taxes.

society

The Sāda, descendants of the Prophet Mohammed from the line of Husain , who came from Basra under Ahmad bin Isa al-Muhagir in 951, consisted of important classes . The native (weapon-carrying) tribes are summarized as Qabāʾil , they are stratified in Masākīn (merchants and craftsmen) and ʿAbīd (slaves and their descendants), the latter mostly originally from East Africa. The tribes and their subgroups clan (bait), section (far) and family (ahl) are organized patrilinearly . Members of recognized leading families (daula) were elected leaders. The points of contact between tribal society (badw) and that of the (port) cities (ḥaḍar) were limited to the exchange of goods, which the Bedouins mediated by means of caravans. The territory (dira) of an Arab tribe depends on the influence and ability to create or buy alliances.

history

Qasr al-Ghuwaizi Castle above Mukalla

The history of the region is marked by frequently changing loyalties. The dominance of some tribes or clans could often only be sustained for a few years. From the 13th to the 18th century, the various lines of the Kathiri , which experienced their highest heyday from 1495 to 1668, were dominant. The end of their first dominance (1717/19) was followed by a period of struggling micro-rulers until the al-Quʿaiti and the Kathiri (again from 1843) were able to establish permanent sultanates, whose existence was guaranteed by the Pax Britannica from around 1900 .

1843-1937

The descendants of Umar bin Awad al-Quʿaiti al Yafaʿi, who had achieved power and wealth as a mercenary leader in the service of the Indian princely state of Hyderabad , Salah bin Umar, Awadh (=  Nawaz Jung ) and Abdullah began to land in their homeland around al -Qatn to purchase. During the next 20 years there were numerous campaigns by changing allies. The cities of Saʿun and Tarim were occupied by the Kathiri in 1847/48, and al-Qatn became the assembly point of the displaced Yafaʿi. The position of Arab mercenaries in India became increasingly precarious as a result of British pressure.

After numerous battles, the period from 1850 to 1882 brought the al-Quʿaiti to dominate the region. In addition to the wars, epidemics of the plague, smallpox and floods led to further impoverishment of the population. After a sea blockade in 1866, Awadh took Al-Buraikam from Shihr (=  aš-Šiḥr ) on April 30, 1867 , and his brother Abdullah bin Umar († November 25, 1888) became co-ruler there. The British gave up their strict neutrality for the first time. The Ottoman Empire also sent ships several times between 1850 and 1875 in order to achieve submission to the sheikhs. A British-Turkish war in southern Arabia was prevented in 1873.

In May 1873, Nawaz Jung traveled to the funeral of the ruler of Mukalla with 500 men, who in July took control of the city in a coup. To settle old debts, the captured Nakib Umar bin Salah al-Kasadi was forced to cede half of Mukalla and Burum . Further fighting followed, especially at sea, which the British interpreted as piracy and which was therefore intervened. Schihr was besieged until an armistice in November 1874. The al-Quʿaiti managed to get reinforcements from East Africa and India. In the years 1876/77 the Kathiri were expelled from more and more of their positions in Germany. Through British mediation, a ten-year peace treaty was concluded with the Kathiri in January 1877, which several tribes from the hinterland also joined. After Salar Jung I. supported the al-Quʿaiti from 1877 and the British from 1880, the al-Kasadi were first expelled from Burum in December 1880, and then from Mukalla in November with British artillery support. In 1888 the Nakibs who had been deposed and who exiled to Zanzibar in 1881 were paid 100,000 thalers in severance pay.

The areas were finally placed under British protection on May 1, 1888 and part of the Aden Protectorate ; the treaty was ratified on February 26, 1890.

View of Shibam

Administration in Arabia was taken over by an appointed governor, usually from the family, while the Sultan mostly lived in Hyderabad. The official title was Jamader (or Hakim ) by Shihr (1866) and Mukalla (1881). The Bedouins were kept silent by payments. In 1897 the High Court of Bombay granted the ruler diplomatic immunity, as applied to Indian princes .

His nephews, Hussain bin Abdullah bin Omar († 1906) and Munassar, who acted as governors, challenged the sultan for rule in Arabia in 1901/02, they refused - after a sea blockade - a settlement and went to India. Awadh's official recognition as "Sultan of Mukalla and Shirh" took place in 1902 by Edward VII. As such he also took part in the Durbar in Delhi in 1903. He was given the right to eleven gun salutes . Awadh remained in Hyderabad until his death in 1909 as the commander of the princely army, commonly referred to by the British as "irregulars". The approximately 60,000 Arab subjects paid Rs. 223,000 in taxes annually around 1910  .

The boundaries between the British and Ottoman spheres of influence in southern Arabia were established in 1902/1905, when the British supplied arms to the Sultan until 1905. In an agreement in 1918, the Kathiri Sultan agreed to come under British protection as the East Aden Protectorate together with the al-Quʿaiti , but without any direct intervention in the administration. The region remained a remote corner of the Empire, which only came into the center of interest for the London Colonial Office from 1937 onwards through Italian expansion, which was perceived as threatening after the failure of the Stresa Front .

1937-1967

Sultan Salih bin Ghalib on a Aden postage stamp (1942)

Sultan Salih bin Ghalib (= Saif Nawaz Jung), who ruled from 1936 to 1956, was an open-minded, energetic monarch. Under the provisions of the Government of India Act 1935 , the area was no longer part of British India from 1937 . In the treaty of August 13, 1937, the British were granted the right, following the example of the Unfederated Malay States , to provide a permanent resident adviser to the government . One undertook to regard the instructions given by him as binding in all cases except for questions of Islamic civil law. In 1939 a cabinet (council) was set up, which, in addition to the sultan, included the resident, the vizier and two appointed Arab members. The first resident was William Harold Ingrams , whose ruthless bombing raids on the civilian population of the hinterland had "pacified" the region in previous years ( Ingrams peace ) .

Important posts in the civil service were occupied by the British. The enforced peace in the country, initially extended to three and later to ten years, created the basis for an economic upswing and administrative reforms that soon followed. In 1938 the army and the customs system, whose income had previously been collected by tenants, were reformed. The number of British civil servants in the residency reached around 15 in 1950.

The last ruling ruler of Hyderabad, Asaf Jah VII. , With the last sultan as a child with his mother

At the beginning of the Second World War , Rs. 20,000 were "donated" for war purposes, which made up about a quarter of the state treasury. Furthermore, a company of workers was provided for Aden and had accommodations built for the stationed RAF members. The Japanese occupation of island India cut off remittances from emigrants (1940: £ 600,000). In 1943/44 there was widespread famine in the wadi because food imports failed to materialize (1939: 70%). There was a food shortage until 1950.

The influence of Arab nationalists became increasingly stronger after the rise of Nasser . A political party, al-Hizb al-watani (National Party), was formed in 1950. The British sought, as they had done in other parts of the crumbling empire , to secure the support of the conservative forces, in this case the sheikhs of the hinterland . When, after the Suez Crisis (November 1956), the proclamation of the Republic of Iraq and the accession of Yemen to the United Arab Republic (March 1958), the US client state Saudi Arabia , governed according to the conservative Wahhabi ideology, brought the anti-communist ideology into play and, on the other hand, from When the UN was repeatedly called for decolonization, the British, bowing to this pressure, began to establish the South Arab Federation in 1966 in preparation for the independence planned for 1968 . Meanwhile, fighting in the hinterland with the various liberation movements that received arms aid from the Yemeni Arab Republic increased sharply.

The last Sultan, Ghalib II. Bin Awadh, ruled from October 10, 1966 until his deposition on September 17, 1967. The sultanate, now part of the renamed Protectorate of South Arabia , was established after the victory of the progressive forces of the NLF (founded June 1963) integrated into the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen from November 30th and is now part of Hadramaut Governorate . As in India in 1947, independence was only made possible by the overthrow of the conservative government in London.

economy

The ports, exposed to the winds of the monsoon , were involved in coastal and long-distance trade. Agriculture is completely limited to the wadis , where irrigation is possible, as the annual rainfall of 50-100 mm is insufficient. Plagues of locusts endanger the harvests. Small amounts of incense could be harvested along the coastal strip.

Tobacco grew at Ġail Bār Wazīr . The Bedouins (Hamumi nomads) organized the camel caravans that brought imports, mainly rice, dates, tea, fabrics and wood, from the coast into the hinterland. Exports from the hinterland were almost exclusively limited to hides. For a long time, raids were also an important source of income for the tribes, which is why residential buildings were usually built like fortresses, sometimes surrounded by ditches, in hard-to-reach places. About a quarter of the population lived on the coast. The population of Mukalla was estimated at 16,000 in 1940 and rose to 35,000 over the next decade as a result of the inland famine. Fishing and the construction of dhows were important industries there. The Pan-American International Oil Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of Indiana (later: AMOCO ), received a concession in 1961.

Due to the hostile conditions, emigration was frequent , initially to the Mughal Empire , where the Arabs were valued as mercenaries. Emigration increased from 1890 onwards, but no armed men were allowed to enter British India since 1870 . A diaspora formed, mostly merchants, mainly in island India and to a lesser extent in East Africa, which in the 1930s comprised around 100,000 people (70,000 of them in Java ).

Infrastructure

From 1937, the practically only toll road suitable for car traffic was built from Shir over 250 km Taballa to Tarim in the inland of the Hadramaut; it leads among other things through the territory of the Kathiri. The road was financed solely by the Singapore- based emigrant family al-Kaf. The extension to the west took place as far as Shabwa at the western end of Wadi Hadramaut. A second road was led from Mukalla to al-Qatn through Wadi Duʿan. During the Second World War, more roads were laid out so that one could drive along the coast from Aden to Reidat al-Abdul Wadud . The RAF created around 35 landing sites; they were primarily used to control and intimidate the tribes.

There was no railway, but electricity in Mukalla since 1938. A state primary school system, based on Western principles, was built up from 1937, initially on the coast. After the war, 12 to 15 new schools were opened every year, with teachers often from Sudan and Jordan .

currency

Insofar as people participated in monetary transactions, the Maria Theresa thaler was preferred. The Indian rupee , which was also the unit of account for the national budget , was increasingly in circulation , especially on the coast . It was replaced by the East African shilling in 1951, followed by the South Yemeni dinar in 1965 .

military

Before a peace was achieved in 1937, every man was armed, even if mostly only with muskets . Small wars between villages and blood revenge were fought among the clans of the hinterland. There was an unreliable gendarmerie, called Yafa'i Irregulars by the colonial rulers , who were deployed in the inland areas.

From 1939 the Sultan built a Mukalla Regular Army with 400 men and Indian instructors, which was recruited from Bedouins and members of the Abīd class. Initially they lived in the capital's bazaar , and barracks were built in 1940. From the 1950s there were attempts to unite the troops with the Aden Protectorate Levies , which initially did not take place for political reasons. In 1965 the team was about 3,000, from 1963 to 1967 they supported the colonial rulers' troops in the bloody suppression of the nationalist freedom fighters.

The Hadhrami Bedouin Legion was founded in 1938 based on the model of the Transjordan Arab Legion . Glubb Pasha posted the first officers, who led the initially 50 men with a dozen camels. Muslim Indian officers from the Punjab later acted as instructors . By the end of the war, the manpower of this armed police force rose to 170, which were spread over smaller forts .

See also

literature

  • Ali Ansari Ashgar: The Relations between South Arabia and the Deccan from the 17th till the 20th Century. Hyderabad 1971. (Diss. Osmania Uni.)
  • Ulrike Freitag : Indian Ocean Migrants and state formation in Hadhramaut. Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-12850-6 .
  • Gustav Fuhrmann: The spread of the Hadrami in areas of the Indian Ocean and its repercussions on Hadramaut. Dissertation Heidelberg 1945.
  • The Hadrami Sultanates 1800-1900. In: RJ Gavin: Aden under British Rule, 1839-1967. 1975, volume 2.
  • Friedhelm Hartwig: Hadramaut and the Indian Principality of Hyderabad: Hadramitic Sultanate Foundations and Migration in the 19th Century. Bamberg 1997 (Bamberg, Univ., Diss.), Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-933563-52-6 .
  • Nicholas Jones: Arabia: the British Sphere. Socialist Register , 1965; Pp. 101-125.
  • Christian Lekon: The Impact of Remittances on the Economy of Hadhramaut, 1914-1967. In: Ulrike Freitag, William Clarence-Smith (eds.): Hadhrami Traders, Scholars and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean, 1750s – 1960s. Leiden 1997. ( Google Books )
  • Christian Lekon: Economic Crisis and State-Building in Hadhramaut, 1941–1949: The Impact of the Decline of Southeast Asian Remittances. In: Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk, Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim (eds.): The Hadhrami Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintenance or Assimilation? Leiden, Boston 2009.
  • Cliff Lord, David Birtles: The Armed Forces of Aden and the Protectorate, 1839-1967. Solihull 2000; ISBN 1-87462-240-X .
  • Simon C. Smith: Rulers and Residents: British Relations with the Aden Protectorate, 1937-1959. Middle Eastern Studies 31 (1995), No. 3, pp. 509-523.

Archival material

Cambridge Archive Editions :

conference

  • Proceedings of "Yemeni-Hadhramis in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintenance or Assimilation" ; International Islamic University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; 26.-28. August 2005.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Schmitz: Politicians and Prophets on the Red Sea. Goldmann, Leipzig 1939, p. 169; and Gerhard Heck, Manfred Wöbcke: Arabian Peninsula. DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7701-7643-4 , p. 195.
  2. ↑ Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk, Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim (ed.): The Hadhrami diaspora in Southeast Asia. Identity maintenance or assimilation? (= Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and Asia, Volume 107) Brill, Leiden 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-17231-9 , pp. 70 and 107.
  3. ^ Notes on the Kathiri State of Hadhramaut. In: Middle East Journal 7 (1953), No. 4, p. 502.
  4. ↑ For an attempt to present the confused history of the region see Hartwig (2000), chap. 2 and 3.
  5. ↑ The al-Abdullah line of the Kathiri was also in the service of Hyderabad until Galib's expulsion in 1854. Hartwig (2000), pp. 257, 268.
  6. ↑ payment of the joint campaign 1865/5. MT $ 160,000 excluding interest. Hartwig (2000), p. 275, footnote 58; 286f.
  7. ↑ contracts see Shehr and Mokalla in: Charles Aitchison : A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanad Relating to India and Neighboring Countries, Volume 13; Kalcutta 1909; Pp. 66-117.
  8. ↑ Chandu Lal Kushalji v. Awad bin Umar, Sultan of Shihr and Mukalla, in: Indian Law Reports. Bombay Series, 1897, p. 351.
  9. ↑ Erwin Herbert: Risings and Rebellions 1919-1939. Nottingham 2007; ISBN 978-1-901543-12-4 . H.St. John Philby: Sheba's Daughters. London 1939.
  10. ↑ Herbert J. Liebesny: International Relations of Arabia: The Dependent Areas. In: Middle East Journal 1 (1947), No. 2, pp. 148-168.
  11. ↑ a b Doreen Ingrams, Harold Ingrams: The Hadhramaut in Time of War, in: Geographical Journal 105 (1945), No. 1/2, pp. 1-27.
  12. ↑ After returning from a conference in Jeddah, he was never released from the ship.
  13. ↑ Significantly less than on the Dhofar coast ; mainly from Boswellia carterii and B. bhaw-dajiana Freya Stark : The Southern Gates of Arabia. New York 1936, p. 10f.
  14. ↑ on development see Hartwig (2000), chap. 4th
  15. ↑ Passport compulsory for Mekka pilgrims and returnees controlled by the Bombay City Police .
  16. ↑ Harold Ingrams: The Hadhramaut: Present and Future. In: Geographical Journal 92 (1938), No. 4, p. 291.
  17. ↑ The currency valid in Yemen until 1965, then equaled seven British shillings , often “dollars” in colonial literature. Often referred to as “black taler” (qirš) , also along the East African coast , because it was only after the silver ran out , was accepted as a means of payment. Conversion: until 1850: 1 thaler was equivalent to Rs 2.10–2.23 . £ 1 = 4¾ MT $.