HADHRAMAUT, a province on the south coast of Arabia, bounded west by Yaman, east by Oman and north by the Great South desert. Its actual limits are vague, but are generally under stood to include the Mahra and Qara country between 51 ° and 56° E., where the desert and the coastal range come close down to the sea.
The main body of the province lies west of 51 ° E., where its main feature, a long and exceedingly fertile Wadi, known by dif ferent names in its various sections, but conveniently styled Wadi Hadhramaut as a whole, runs into the sea. This Wadi rises in the highlands of south-west Arabia about 45° E., and extends eastward for 40o m. in a gentle curve, receiving numerous ef fluents from the northern slopes of a mountain range which ex tends eastward from the Yaman and attains in parts, a height of 8,000 feet. Between this range and the sea is a coastal plain of varying width, scored by the channels of Wadis rising on its southern slopes. The principal ports are Makalla and Shihr, which are the centres of a considerable trade carried on between the interior and India, Java, etc. There are also a number of fishing villages along this coast, while the valleys of the coastal plain support some fertile oases irrigated by springs and seasonal torrents.
The southern escarpment of the main range is steeper than the northern slope, which forms a plateau descending to the main Wadi beyond it. The most westerly settlement in the latter is Shabwa, a former capital, now almost buried by the advancing sand. Further east lies a group of important oasis-settlements, of which the chief are Shibam, Saiyun and Tarim in the main Wadi; and Hauta near its junction with Wadi Duwan. Besides these there are numerous settlements, both in the main Wadi and its affluents, with prosperous palm-groves and other cultivation, which practically ceases below Qasm, the most easterly settlement of any importance. At some distance east of Qasm stands the shrine of Nabi Hud, a pre-Islamic saint, whose grave is an im portant centre of pilgrimage. A similar shrine is that of Nabi Salih in Wadi Sirr, near Shibam. Except after rain, there is no running water in the Hadhramaut valleys, but springs and wells are numerous, and the principal crops are dates, wheat, millet, indigo and tobacco of excellent quality known as Hummi, which is widely exported.
The Mahra country, mainly desert, is ruled by a sultan residing at the coastal village of Kishin and, until 1886, owning the island of Socotra, now under British protection. The mountains of this tract, and of the adjacent Qara district, come close down to the coast, and rise in parts to 4,00o feet. They are, in places, covered with gum-bearing forests producing myrrh and frankincense. This tract was visited and surveyed by the Bents in 1894, who found Sabaean ruins near Dhafar, and a remarkable harbour at Khor Raury, possibly the Moscha of antiquity.
The name of Hadhramaut is of great antiquity, and occurs in Genesis as Hazarmaveth and Hadoram, sons of Joktan. Greek accounts of the incense country contain mention of Adramytta and Chadramotites. The province certainly enjoyed great pros perity and a highly advanced civilization in ancient times, as evidenced by numerous ruins found in Wadi Duwan and `Adim. Its people are, in the main, of Qahtan or south Arabian stock, though the population contains a large element of Saiyids (de scendants of the Prophet through his grandson, Husain) and other immigrants of northern stock, as well as a considerable mixture of African (originally and to some extent still, slave) blood.
The total population of the tract may be about 15o,000, or rather more if all the Badawin are included. The Saiyids, or ganized in families, each under a Munsib, are regarded as the re ligious leaders, and constitute a sort of aristocracy, owning much land but cultivating it through slaves or hired labourers. The tribesmen, partly nomad and partly settled, are divided into two main sections—the Qaaiti being by far the larger, and the Kathiri. The latter, formerly the more powerful, occupy Saiyun, Tarim and their dependent settlements. The Qaaiti, a branch of the Yafa tribe in south-west Arabia, originally came in at the invitation of the Saiyids to protect them from marauding tribes, but have be come the virtual rulers of the whole country, with their capital at Makalla. The chiefs of this tribe have long enjoyed a special hereditary status as jamadar or commander-in-chief of an Arab levy maintained by the Indian State of Hyderabad. Many of these tribesmen seek service in this levy, while the Kathiris, since the beginning of the 19th century, have emigrated on a large scale to Java and Sumatra. A large share of the trade of Makalla and Shihr is in the hands of Parsees and other Indians.
Until the World War our knowledge of the province was mainly derived from the Bents and Leo Hirsch (who reached Tarim in 1893), but in 1919 much fresh information was collected by Captain W. H. Lee-Warner, who entered the country on a mission to the Kathiri sultans on behalf of the British Government. At Ghail Ba Wazir he found the chief centre of the Hummi tobacco cultivation and, following up Wadi Himam, he broke new ground. From Quwaira he followed the whole length of the Wadi Duwan and, visiting Shibam, had an interview with the Kathiri leaders at Hazm, beyond it. Unable to proceed further, he retraced his steps by the same route.
At this time the Dutch Government was considering the pro hibition of further Arab immigration into Java, owing to seditious activities on the part of the Kathiri elements already there, and there is little doubt that the inland settlements of the province had been profitably engaged during the war in smuggling supplies to the Turks in Yaman. The Qaaiti sultan, Yhalib Ibn Awadh Ibn Umar, who died in 1924, was a staunch supporter of Great Britain, and a man of progressive tendencies. An endemic feud between him and the Kathiri sultan had been patched up by a treaty in 1918, but Lee-Warner was impressed by the conviction that prog ress in the Hadhramaut could only be assured by the elimination of the Kathiri sultans, whose tyranny and rapacity were the sub ject of much local complaint, while their intrigues made for unrest in the Qaaiti territory. In both sections of the province the exec utive administration is in the hands of hereditary Wazirs, who are thus the virtual, though not the nominal rulers.
The revenue of the Qaaiti sultan amounted, in 1919, to 340,000 dollars (Maria Theresa), of which Io5,000 dollars accrued from the farming of the tobacco-purchase monopoly. In 1919-20 further light was thrown on the Hadhramaut by O. H. Little (The Geogra phy and Geology of Makalla, Cairo, 1925), who made a geological reconnaissance of great value of the coastal plain and southern slopes of the mountain range between Ghail Ba Wazir and Wadi Hajr, south of 14° 45' N. He does not appear to have penetrated into or beyond the mountain range, but within the limits of his survey we have as complete a picture of an important district as any that has ever been made in any part of Arabia.
The xenophobia of the Hadhramaut people has always jeal ously guarded the country from the intrusion of European ex plorers, but the few who have penetrated into its recesses have enabled us to form a fairly complete idea of the whole, though the Hadhramaut still provides an immense field for future enterprise.
(H. ST. J. B. P.)