140 CIVIL HISTORY AND 



reach the sea except after heavy rains, on one of 

 which occasions it swept away a considerable part 

 of the Jewish village that had been built in its dusty 

 channel. 



In the territory of Yemen, besides the govern- 

 ments already mentioned, there are an immense 

 number of small hereditary princes, sheiks, and 

 dowlahs, w^ho live in a state of vassalage or in- 

 dependence, according to the ability of the imam 

 to retain them in subjection. In nobility of descent 

 and dignity of rank, many of them acknowledge 

 no superior, and assume the symbols and preroga- 

 tives of royalty. To enumerate these petty sove- 

 reigns would be impossible. The mountain of 

 Scheehava, north-east from Loheia, contained 300 

 villages, which were divided among a great many 

 sheiks, most of whom claimed kindred with the 

 reigning family at Sanaa. The famous hill of Sab- 

 ber, near Taas, was said to be parcelled out to more 

 than a hundred free and hereditary sheiks. 



Of independent states in Yemen, besides those 

 within the imam's dominions, Niebuhr has specified 

 no fewer than thirteen ; and others doubtless might 

 exist, of which he had obtained no information. 

 These were Aden, Kaukeban, Kobail or Heschid-u.- 

 Bekel, Abu-Arish, Khaulan, Sahan, Saade, Nejeran, 

 Kahtan, Nehm, East Khaulan, Jof, and Jafa, 



Aden belonged to the imam until 1730, when the 

 J inhabitants expelled the governor, elected a sheik, 

 ' and declared themselves independent. Abulfeda 

 and Ibn-Haukul describe it as a flourishing town ; 

 but it suffered repeated devastations in the wars 

 between the Turks and Portuguese, and its com- 

 merce was transferred to Mocha, When Sharpey 

 visited it (1609), " it belonged to the Great Turk, 

 and was the key that let him into all the treasures 

 and sweetnesses of the Happy Arabia." A hundred 

 years afterward the French, who put into the har- 

 bour, describe the town as of considerable extent, 



