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75-620: Sanaa , officially the Sanaa Municipality , is the capital and largest city of Yemen . The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate , but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. According to the Yemeni constitution , Sanaa is the capital of the country, although the seat of the Yemeni government moved to Aden , the former capital of Democratic Yemen , in

150-499: 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. The new government's modernization projects changed the face of Sanaa: the new Tahrir Square was built on what had formerly been the former imam's palace grounds, and new buildings were constructed on

225-685: 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 , an outbreak of cholera killed 115 people and left 8,500 ill. In late 2017, another Battle of Sanaa broke out between

300-577: A hub of anti-government organization and intellectual revolt. 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 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

375-664: A knife hidden in his shoe. The historicity of Dhū Nuwās is affirmed by Philostorgius and by Procopius (in the latter's Persian War ). Procopius writes that in 525, the armies of the Christian Kingdom of Aksum of Ethiopia invaded ancient Yemen at the request of the Byzantine emperor Justin I to take control of the Himyarite Kingdom , then under the leadership of Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās, who rose to power in 522, probably after he assassinated Dhu Shanatir. Ibn Hisham explains

450-457: 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

525-599: A report issued by Radhya Al-Mutawakel and Abdulrasheed Al-Faqih and Open Societies Foundations. On September 21, 2014, during the Houthi insurgency , the Houthis seized control of Sanaa. On June 12, 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 was severely damaged. On October 8, 2016, Saudi-led airstrikes targeted

600-558: A son of Qahtan , a great-grandson of Shem, in the biblical accounts of the Book of Genesis . Al-Hamdani wrote that Sanaa was walled by the Sabaeans under their ruler Sha'r Awtar , who also arguably built the Ghumdan Palace 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 . It

675-412: A week after Ahmad's death. Sanaa's role as a capital was restored afterward. Neighboring 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 resulted in the destruction of some parts of the city's ancient heritage and continued until 1968, when

750-495: 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

825-556: 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 , which flows southwest towards the Yemeni Tihama . Sanaa itself is located at the narrowest part of

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900-469: 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 , but by

975-689: Is not officially recognized by the United Nations , recognized only by Turkey ; see Cyprus dispute . Dhu Nuwas Ibn Hisham 's Sīrah (better known in English as the Life of Muhammad ), describes the exploits of Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās. Ibn Hisham explains that Yūsuf was a convert Jew who grew out his sidelocks ( nuwās ) and became known as "he of sidelocks." According to the Arab traditions, he took power after having killed his supposed predecessor, Dhu Shanatir , with

1050-528: 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 . In 2008, the Al Saleh Mosque was completed. It holds over 40,000 worshippers. In 2011, Sanaa, as

1125-410: 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 wadis 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

1200-515: Is said to have reached about 2000. However, the Sabaean inscriptions describing the events report that by the month of Dhu-Madra'an (between July and September), there had been "1000 killed, 1500 prisoners [taken] and 10,000 head of cattle." Jacques Ryckmans, who deciphered the Sabaean inscriptions, writes in his La persécution des chrétiens himyarites that Sarah'il Yaqbul-Yaz'an of the Dhu Yazan family

1275-534: The Ghayat al-amanni of Yahya ibn al-Husayn . 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. The area roughly between the two main circular roads around the city (Ring Road and Sittin)

1350-648: The Haraz Mountains . The Sulayhids were aligned with the Ismaili Muslim -leaning Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt, rather than the Baghdad -based Abbasid Caliphate that most of Arabia followed. Al-Sulayhi ruled for about 20 years but he was assassinated by his principal local rivals, the Zabid -based Najahids. Following his death, al-Sulayhi's daughter, Arwa al-Sulayhi , inherited the throne. She withdrew from Sanaa, transferring

1425-658: The Red Sea . According to a number of medieval historians, who depend on the account of John of Ephesus , Dhu Nuwas announced that he would persecute the Christians living in his kingdom because Christian states were persecuting his fellow co-religionists in their realms. A letter survives written by Simon, the bishop of Beth Arsham in 524 CE, and recounts the persecution of Dimnon, who is probably Dhu Nuwas, in Najran , Arabia . Based on other contemporary sources, Dhu Nuwas, after seizing

1500-530: The Sassanid imperial sphere and would illuminate possible political reasons for his later actions against the Christians of Arabia, who were natural allies of the Byzantine Empire . Many modern historians, except for Christopher Haas, have argued that her son's conversion was a matter of tactical opportunism since Judaism would have provided him with an ideological counterweight to the religion of his adversary,

1575-639: The Zaydi imams from 1323 to 1454 and outside the former two dynasties' rule. The Mamelukes arrived in Yemen in 1517. The Ottoman Empire entered Yemen in 1538, when Suleiman the Magnificent was Sultan . Under the military leadership of Özdemir Pasha , the Ottomans conquered Sanaa in 1547. With Ottoman approval, European captains based in the Yemeni port towns of Aden and Mocha frequented Sanaa to maintain special privileges and capitulations for their trade. In 1602,

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1650-406: 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 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

1725-526: The 10th-century, the Persian geographer Ibn Rustah 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 led by Ali al-Sulayhi and his wife, the popular Queen Asma . He made the city capital of his relatively small kingdom, which also included

1800-557: The 1980s it had become a suburb of Sanaa. List of cities in Yemen The city is the administrative division which falls under the division of the directorate in the urban, which is the centre of the provinces and the centre of districts as well as every urban population with a population of (5,000) or more people and a basic service or more available. Here is a list of cities in Yemen :  The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

1875-473: The 3rd century CE, as ṣnʿw . In the present day, a popular folk etymology 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 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 ,

1950-540: The 8th-century Islamic jurist and founder of the Shafi'i 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, it was written of the city that "the Yem separate from each other, empty of ordure, without smell or evil smells, because of the hard concrete [ adobe and cob , probably] and fine pastureland and clean places to walk." Later in

2025-521: The Abyssinians in Ẓafār, the fighters in ’Ašʻarān, Rakbān, Farasān, Muḥwān ( Mocha ), and the fighters and military units in Najran, amounted to 12,500 war trophies, 11,000 captives and 290,000 camels and bovines and sheep. According to ‘Irfan Shahid's Martyrs of Najran – New Documents , Dhu Nuwas sent an army of some 120,000 soldiers to lay siege to the city of Najran , which siege lasted for six months, and

2100-568: 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 as their capital, while Aden was their principal income-producing city. While the Rasulids controlled most of Yemen, followed by their successors, the Tahirids , Sanaa largely remained in the political orbit of

2175-530: The Himyarite kings: Art thou not saddened how fate has become an ugly beast, the betrayer of its generation, he that swalloweth up people? It has removed Dhū Nuwās from the fortresses who once ruled in the strongholds and over men One Syriac source appears to suggest that the mother of Dhū Nuwās may have been a Jew hailing from the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis . If so, that would place her origins within

2250-563: The Himyarite monarch had attacked and killed the Abyssinian Christians who had settled in Zafar . According to the Arab historians, Dhu Nuwas then proceeded to write a letter to the Lakhmid king Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man of al-Ḥīrah and King Kavadh I of Persia to inform them of his deed and to encourage them to do likewise to the Christians under their dominion. Al-Mundhir received

2325-529: The Houthis and forces loyal to former President Saleh, who was killed. On May 17, 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. Sanaa is located on a plain of the same name, the Haql Sanaa , which is over 2,200m above sea level. The plain

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2400-503: The Jewish Encyclopedia believed that Dhu Nuwas was the son of the earlier Himyarite king Abu Karib . However, Ibn al-Kalbi disagreed and stated that he was the son of Sharhabil Yakkuf , hence making him the great-grandson of Abu Karib. Ibn Abbas also reported that Dhu Nuwas' real name was Yusuf, son of Sharhabil, which was reported by Ibn al-Kalbi and Al-Baydawi and later on the historian Ibn al-Athir . His mother, however,

2475-558: The Kingdom of Aksum and it also allowed him to curry favour with the Sasanian emperor. According to Ibn Ishaq , Dhu Nuwas chose to commit suicide by drowning in the sea, after the Aksumites had invaded Yemen as a retaliation for his persecutions of Christians. Unwilling to accept defeat after the capture of his queen and bounty along with the town of Zafar , he deliberately rode his horse into

2550-470: The Old City was composed of several quarters ( hara ), generally centred on an endowed complex containing a mosque, a bathhouse , 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

2625-691: The Sulayhid capital to Jibla , where she ruled much of Yemen from 1067 to 1138. As a result of the Sulayhid departure, the Hamdanid dynasty took control of Sanaʽa. Like the Sulayhids, the Hamdanids were Isma'ilis. In 1173, Saladin , the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, sent his brother Turan-Shah on an expedition to conquer Yemen. The Ayyubids gained control of Sanaʽa in 1175 and united the various Yemeni tribal states, except for

2700-481: The Yemeni capital, was the centre of the Yemeni Revolution , in which President Ali Abdullah Saleh was ousted. Between May and November, the city was a battleground in what became known as the 2011 Battle of Sanaa . On May 21, 2012, Sanaa was attacked by a suicide bomber, resulting in the deaths of 120 soldiers. On January 23, 2013, a drone strike near Al-Masna'ah village killed two civilians, according to

2775-527: 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

2850-573: The aftermath of the Houthi occupation . Aden was declared the temporary capital by then-president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in March 2015. At an elevation of 2,300 metres (7,500 ft), Sanaa is one of the highest capital cities in the world and is next to the Sarawat Mountains of Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb and Jabal Tiyal , considered to be the highest mountains in the Arabian Peninsula and one of

2925-459: 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

3000-432: The city taken and burnt on the 15th day of the seventh month (the lunar month of Tishri ). The city had revolted against the king and refused to deliver itself to the king. About 300 of the city’s inhabitants surrendered to the king’s forces under the assurances of an oath that no harm would come to them, and they were later bound. Those remaining in the city were burnt alive within their church. The death toll in that account

3075-591: 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 of Egypt 's government and pan-Arabist policies staged a coup overthrowing the Imamate government in September 1962,

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3150-551: The city, the Shabab al-Amr bil-Maruf wal-Nahian al-Munkar, called for a nahda ("renaissance") in the country as well as the establishment of a parliament with Islam as 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 as capital following Ahmad's new residence there. Most government offices followed suit. A few years later, most of

3225-463: The court of Roman Emperor Justin I himself and begged him to avenge the martyred Christians. The name Yūsuf 'As'ar Yath'ar, which is believed to mean the same as Yūsūf Dhū Nuwās, appears in an old South Arabian inscription from the 520s. Related inscriptions from the same period were also deciphered by Jamme and Ryckmans and show that in the ensuing wars with his non-Jewish subjects, the combined war booty (excluding deaths) from campaigns waged against

3300-498: The development of these areas. The Old City of Sanaʽa is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The old fortified city has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years and contains many intact architectural sites. The oldest, partially standing architectural structure in the Old City of Sanaʽa is Ghumdan Palace . The city was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1986. Efforts are underway to preserve some of

3375-419: The highest in the region . Sanaa has a population of approximately 3,292,497 (2023), 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 World Heritage Site , has a distinctive architectural character, most notably expressed in its multi-story buildings decorated with geometric patterns. The Al Saleh Mosque ,

3450-555: The highest point between the two plains, although in medieval times the main route went to the east of the mountain. Sanaa's Old City is renowned for its tower houses , 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 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

3525-471: The king's army advanced to Najran in the far north and took it. King Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar, described in an inscription as the "king of all nations," led the major tribes of Yemen ( Hamedan , Madh'hij , Kinda , Murad ) and successfully defeated the Abyssinian forces in Ẓafâr , Mokhā and Najran . Dhu Nuwas' family is not very well known. There is debate on who his father is; the earlier Arab scholars and

3600-406: The largest in the country, is located in the southern outskirts of the city. During the conflict that raged in 2015, explosives hit UNESCO sites in the old city. Sanaa has been facing a severe water crisis , with water being drawn from its aquifer three times faster than it is replenished. The city is predicted to completely run out of water by around 2030, making it the first national capital in

3675-592: The letter in January 519 [ sic ], as he was receiving an embassy from Constantinople seeking to forge a peace between the Roman Empire and al-Ḥīrha. He revealed the contents of the letter to the Byzantine ambassadors, who were horrified by its contents. Word of the slaughter quickly spread throughout the Byzantine and Persian realms, and refugees from Najran, including a man named Daws Dhu Tha'laban, even reached

3750-466: 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 had already vastly weakened the Ottoman army in Sanaʽa and Yemen. Consequently, European traders were stripped of their previous privileges. The Zaydi imams maintained their rule over Sanaa until

3825-460: 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 's troops. They did not capture Sanaa until 1872, when their troops led by Ahmed Muhtar Pasha entered the city. The Ottoman Empire instituted the Tanzimat reforms throughout the lands they governed. In Sanaa, city planning

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3900-473: 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. Traditionally,

3975-411: 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 neighborhoods. Two areas in particular experienced major growth during this period: first, the area along Taizz Road in

4050-458: 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

4125-557: The northern mountains controlled by the Zaydi imams, into one entity. The Ayyubids switched the country's official religious allegiance to the Sunni Muslim Abbasids. During the reign of the Ayyubid emir 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

4200-439: 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. Following the unification of Yemen , Sanaa was designated capital of the new Republic of Yemen. It houses the presidential palace, the parliament , the supreme court, and the country's government ministries. The largest source of employment

4275-452: 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 is smaller, "Egyptian-style" houses, which are usually built with reinforced concrete. These are most commonly found in the northern and eastern parts of Sanaa. Generally, Sanaʽa

4350-601: The oldest buildings some of which, such as the Samsarh and the Great Mosque of Sanaʽa , is more than 1,400 years old. Surrounded by ancient clay walls that stand 9–14 metres (30–46 ft) 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. One of

4425-441: The plain, nestled between Jabal Nuqum to the east and the foothills of Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb, Yemen's tallest mountain, to the west. The mountain's peak is 25 km (16 miles) 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 (1,600 feet) above Sanaa. According to

4500-453: 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 the 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

4575-467: The proselytizing mission of Theophilos the Indian and another church built by him in Aden (see: Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius , Epitome of Book III, chapter 4), had been seen by Constantius II during the embassage to the land of the Ḥimyarites (Yemen) around 340 CE. This church was set on fire and razed to the ground, and its Abyssinian inhabitants killed. Later, foreigners (presumably Christians) living in Hadhramaut were also put to death before

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4650-410: The same sequence of events under the name of "Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās." Following this invasion, the supremacy of Judaism in the Kingdom of Ḥimyar, as well as in all of Yemen, came to an abrupt end. Imrū' al-Qays , the famous Yemeni poet from the same period, in his poem Taqūl Lī bint al-Kinda Lammā ‘Azafat , laments the death of two great men of Yemen, one of them being Dhū Nuwās, and regards him as the last of

4725-401: 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 , encouraged land speculation and further contributed to the rapid expansion of Sanaa. Sanaa's new areas were physically different from the quarters of the old city. Many of

4800-413: The throne of the Ḥimyarites around 518 or 522, attacked Najran and its inhabitants, captured them and, burned their churches. The destruction fell out on Tuesday, during the 15th day of the lunar month Tishri , in the year 835 of the Seleucid era counting (corresponding with year 524 CE ). After accepting the city's capitulation, he massacred its inhabitants who would not renounce Christianity. Earlier,

4875-401: The wars." Sanaa is referred to in these inscriptions both as a town ( hgr ) and as a maram ( mrm ), which, according to A. F. L. Beeston, indicates "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 ), the last of the Himyarite kings,

4950-424: The world to do so. Access to drinking water is very limited in Sanaa, and there are problems with water quality. According to Islamic sources, Sanaa was founded at the base of the mountains of Jabal Nuqum by Shem , the son of Noah , after the latter's death. The name Sanaa is probably derived from the Sabaic root ṣnʿ , meaning "well-fortified". The name is attested in old Sabaean inscriptions, mostly from

5025-424: 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 , and the next plain to the north, located around 'Amran and Raydah . The modern route between the two plains passes to the west of Jabal Din , a volcanic peak that marks

5100-424: Was both the tribal chief and the lieutenant of King Yusuf during the military campaigns; he was sent out by the king to take the city of Najran , and the king watched for a possible Aksumite incursion along the coastal plains of Yemen near Mokhā (al-Moḫâ) and the strait known as Bāb al-Mandab. It is to be noted that the Ethiopian church in Ẓafar , which had been built by the Himyarite King some years earlier after

5175-425: 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. 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

5250-609: Was in power, Sanaʽa was also the capital of the Axumite viceroys. Later tradition also holds that the Abyssinian conqueror Abrahah built a Christian church in Sanaa. From the era of Muhammad (ca. 622 CE) until the founding of independent sub-states in many parts of the Yemen Islamic Caliphate , Sanaa persisted as the governing seat. The Caliph 's deputy ran the affairs of one of Yemen's three Makhalif : Mikhlaf Sanaʽa, Mikhlaf al-Janad , and Mikhlaf Hadhramaut . The city of Sanaa regularly regained an important status, and all Yemenite States competed to control it. Imam Al-Shafi'i ,

5325-470: 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 , British influence in Aden , and imperial Italian and French influence along the coast of Somalia , particularly in the towns of Djibouti and Berbera . The modernization reforms in Sanaa were still very limited, however. In 1904, as Ottoman influence

5400-481: Was positioned at the crossroad of two major ancient trade routes linking Ma'rib in the east to the Red Sea 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 further south, and several inscriptions "announce a triumphant return to Sanaa from

5475-420: Was said to have been a Jewish slave from Nisibis whom was purchased by and then married to an unnamed Himyarite king; this indicates Dhu Nuwas was in fact a Himyarite prince. If so, that would place her origins within the Sassanid imperial sphere and would illuminate possible political reasons for his later actions against the Christians of Arabia, who were natural allies of the Byzantine Empire . As for

5550-640: 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 blocks with decorative "veneers" of brick and stone. These "neo-traditional" tower houses are found in newer districts as well as

5625-502: Was waning in Yemen, Imam Yahya of the Zaydi Imams took power in Sanaa. In a bid to secure North Yemen '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

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