Various Tidbits About Yemen

I will try to consume as much information about the history of Yemen as I can in the next two weeks. I want to know why it has been embroiled in wars for so much of its modern history. It's tough to get a handle on it. There's been so many coups, assassinations, foreign conspiracies, domestic plots, a hundred different political factions and tribes, hereditary religious figures wanting to turn the clock back, empires breathing down its neck. It's too much to take in and form solid opinions.

The little I have read about the country so far has really turned me off. Human slavery was only recently abolished there, and it might be making a comeback under the Houthis. Yemen really hasn't contributed much to civilization save coffee beans. Its chief virtue appears to be its favourable geographic location. 

The idea that the current bunch ruling Yemen will liberate Palestine and the Middle East is just foolishness. Let's not be naive. You can't practice slavery and declare yourselves liberators of anything. The Houthis are only good for one thing and that's disciplining the Wahhabi apes in Saudi Arabia whose oil wealth has gone to their heads and given them wild dreams that they they're important and significant players in world history. 

Neither side is the good guy in Yemen. As soon as you embrace foreigners and outside interests you've abandoned national sovereignty in the quest for power. That's been Yemen's modern history, from the Ottoman invasions in the mid 16th century to today.

A similar thing happened in Afghanistan with the Taliban embracing the Pakistan government to oust the American-created government. When the link between local proxy and foreign state is so openly dissolved it invites endless war, local unhappiness, and external agitation, unless the foreign state is a feared empire with armies, money, and a reputation to burn.

II.

"It has been famous from all antiquity for the richness and fertility of its soil, the salubrity of its climate, the number and wealth of its inhabitants, the magnificence of its public buildings, and the splendour of its court. Alexander the Great resolved on conquering it, and fixing his royal residence there, after his return from India; but his untimely death prevented the execution of this project." - Sir (Robert) Lambert Playfair, from, "A History of Arabia Felix Or Yemen From the Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Time: Including An Account of The British Settlement of Aden" (1859).

"Egyptian military historians refer to the war in Yemen as their "Vietnam [War]". Historian Michael Oren (former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.) later wrote that Egypt's military adventure in Yemen was so disastrous that the United States' actions in the continuing Vietnam War could easily have been dubbed "America's Yemen". - Wikipedia.

"Ahmad's controversial rule led to an attempted coup, assassination attempts, and the downfall of the kingdom shortly after his death. His opponents included ambitious family members, pan-Arabists, and Republicans, who derided him as "Ahmad the Devil." However, he remained popular among his northern subjects from whom he was known as "Big Turban.'' After escaping several assassination attempts, he was known as al-Djinn.

Like his father, Ahmad was conservative, but nevertheless forged alliances with the Soviet Union, China and Nasserist Egypt. These alliances were motivated by his desire to expel the British from southern Yemen and recover the territory of the Aden Protectorate as part of "Greater Yemen.'' In the end, he turned against Egypt and the Soviet Union, both of which supported a republican coup against his son and successor." - Wikipedia.

"In the late 19th century, the Zaidis rebelled against the Turks, and Imam Mohammed ibn Yahya laid the foundation of a hereditary dynasty. When he died in 1904, his successor Imam Yahya ibn Mohammed led the revolt against the Turks in 1904–1905, and forced them to grant important concessions to the Zaidis. The Ottoman agreed to withdraw the civil code and restore sharia in Yemen." - Wikipedia.

"While Imam Yahya enjoyed legitimacy among the Zaydi tribes in the northern areas, the Sunni population in the coastal and southern regions were less inclined to accept his rule. To maintain power, he maintained authoritarian rule and appointed his sons to rule various provinces. Therefore, as a result of the growing discontent, Imam Yahya was assassinated in 1948 by revolutionaries who wanted to establish a constitutional government, but his son Ahmad bin Yahya, who was the crown prince at the time, seized power with the help of loyal Zaydi tribes. In 1958, Ahmed bin Yahya joined the United Arab States under pressure from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, when Syria left the union in 1961, Yemen also left the union. After the death of Ahmed bin Yahya, one week after his son Muhammad al-Badr came to power, the soldiers under the leadership of Abdullah al-Sallal, supported by Egypt, staged a coup and established the Yemen Arab Republic. Al-Badr fled to the mountains and started a civil war with the help of Zaydi tribes. Saudi Arabia supported al-Badr, while Egypt sent troops to support al-Sallal. After Egypt's defeat by Israel in 1967, negotiations began between royalists and republicans for a ceasefire, and in 1970, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was officially dissolved in exchange for royalists having influence in the government.

The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was under an absolute monarchy. The country did not have an official language, although the majority of the population spoke Arabic, with a minority speaking Yemenite Hebrew. Of the country, 90% were Arabs, ~10% were Afro-Arabs, and a small portion were Yemeni Jews before Operation Magic Carpet (1949–1950) evacuated most of the Yemeni Jews to the new state of Israel. The population was ~55% Zaydi Muslim, ~45% Sunni Muslim, and a small portion was historically Jewish." - Wikipedia.

Kirk's Prophetic Warning

Handing religious nuts like Jews the power of public executions will not end well for anybody. You can't put that genie back in the bottle. You don't normalize public executions unless you desire mass bloodletting and political purges.

The Jewish Lobby in Washington need to watch themselves and temper their bloodlust. Yes, they should feel confident. They've had many political victories as of late. Trump freed one of their top spies and probably apologized to him on behalf of America on his way back to Jerusalem. They took out Kirk and danced on his grave a year ago.

But there are limits.

Every tyranny throughout history found out too late when it finally crossed them.

There is literally a Charlie Kirk clip for everything.

Here he is saying he would be against public executions because of the fear that Jewish Bolsheviks would use it against him…

Which is ironic considering Jewish Bolsheviks publicly executed him on a menorah shaped stage,… pic.twitter.com/51lPwjMKTZ

— Uncommon Sense (@Uncommonsince76) October 16, 2026

Enough is Enough. It's Time For MBS

Russia needs to do the world a big favour and Kennedy Zelensky. Send a magic bullet his way and take off his head.

Not one more tax dollar should be sent to Ukraine.

Zelensky has LOST HIS MIND!

"We need at least 70 billion euros more from you: for defense, for weapons, and for our resilience."

"This is a realistic amount" pic.twitter.com/BxA8NlBuSW

— Ethan Levins ✝️ (@EthanLevins2) October 16, 2026

Three Goethe Poems

 

Excerpts from, "The Wanderer's Song: Essential Poems" By Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Translated by John Kent, Pushkin Press Classics, 2025:

THE TREASURE-SEEKER

Poor in purse and heavy-hearted,

Long the days I once was dragging.

Poverty is ever nagging,

Riches are the highest good!

And, from sorrow to be parted,

Out I went to dig for treasure.

"Thou shalt have my soul at pleasure!"

This I witnessed with my blood.

Circle after circle drafted,

Wondrous flames I caused to flower,

Herbs and bones conferred their power:

And the spell was cast aright.

For the ancient hoard I grafted,

In due fashion excavated

At the place they designated;

Black and stormy was the night.

And I saw a radiation

Like a star in its persistence

Coming from the farthest distance

As the stroke of twelve was made.

Brief the time for preparation:

Of a sudden all was lightened,

From the brimming goblet brightened

Which a handsome youth conveyed.

Gracious eyes were twinkling clearly

'Neath a crown of blossoms tender;

With the potion's heavenly splendour

He into the circle came.

And he bade me drink so cheerly,

To this thought I was inclining:

This young man, his fair gift shining,

Comes not in the Devil's name.

"Valour drink of perfect living!

Grasp then this elucidation,

And with fearful incantation,

Seek no longer such a hoard.

Here no more be vainly striving!

Days of toil, at even, feasting!

Bitter weeks, then joyful resting!

Be thy future magic word."

THE KING IN THULÉ

A king in Thulé was lying,

Right faithful to the grave,

To whom his sweetheart, dying,

A golden goblet gave.

And naught more precious keeping,

He at each feast would sup;

His eyes grew dim with weeping,

Whene'er he drained the cup.

At death's call, nowise daunted,

His kingdom's courts he told,

All to his heir he granted,

All but the goblet's gold.

His knights he round him gathers;

A-feasting there sat he,

In the high hall of his fathers,

In the castle by the sea.

Then rose the old toper slowly,

Drank down his life's last glow,

And hurled the goblet holy

Into the flood below.

He saw it plunging, drinking,

Deep sinking in the sea,

His eyes too, they were sinking,

Nor ever drop more drank he.

 

ST NEPOMUK'S EVE

Carlsbad, 15th May 1820 

Lights are floating on the river,

Children on the bridge are singing,

Church bells, great and small, deliver

For the prayers, the joy, their ringing.

Lights are fading, stars are fading;

Thus away the soul once glided

Of our saint, who could be trading

No fault to himself confided.

Lights, float on! And children, play there!

Children's choir, come, singing, singing!

And no less do you convey there

Why to stars the star is winging.

Changing of The Seasons: Disciplining The Wahhabis Again

 

Ibrahim Pasha, the "annihilator of the wahhabis."

Related: Mocha.

An excerpt from, "Promised Lands: The British and the Ottoman Middle East" by Jonathan Parry, Princeton University Press, 2022, Pg. 98 - 101:

The Bombay authorities had been concerned about "pirate" attacks on Gulf shipping for over fifteen years. 'These attacks were generally blamed on the Qawasim (usually called Joasmees by the British), the trading Arabs based at Ras al-Khaimah and Sharjah on the south-eastern Gulf coast, who in the 1760s had also taken territory on the opposite, Persian shore. There was a history of rivalry between the major tribes engaged in trade within and outside the Gulf, and the Qawasim's main aim was to take trade away from the independent port city of Muscat, which had become the major commercial force on the western Indian Ocean seaboard on account of Omani trading connections with India and the East African coast. How far this trade warfare deserved the name "piracy" is a moot point, but Bombay used the term in justifying action to protect its merchants who traded with the Gulf. Since 1686, the EIC had operated a naval force, the Bombay Marine, primarily to safeguard merchant shipping. This was not easy, since the Marine had only a dozen ships, and Bombay was very reluctant to get drawn into disputes between Arab tribes.

After 1798, two problems complicated the politics of the Gulf from Bombay's perspective. One was fear that France might seek to build up local infuence, particularly in Muscat, which Napoleon had openly courted in 1799. The other was that the Qawasim began to pay tribute to the Wahhabi and accept their protection, making the latter a force in Gulf politics. The imam of Muscat was determined to keep his independence from all parties, and could see the benefits of playing Britain and France off against each other. Moreover, the climate there was appalling for Britons: four residents died between 1800 and 1809. From 1810, the idea of a permanent agent in Muscat was abandoned in favour of hoping that, now that France had been deprived of its Mauritius naval base, the lucrative trade between Muscat and Bombay would keep the imam sufficiently loyal to Britain. From 1803 onwards, the growth of Wahhabi and Qasimi power on Muscat's borders had offered Britain--or potentially France---the chance to protect it against its rivals. British agents toyed with offering Muscat this protection from time to time, but Bombay decided it did not want to take sides against the Wahhabi. It gravitated instead towards the idea of trying to secure a regional balance between the previously dominant Muscat and its new challengers, which would give the Bombay Marine a recognised role in the Gulf. This became its default policy in the years to come. In 1799, Duncan in Bombay, Jones, and Manesty had already cooperated to apply British pressure to settle a dispute between Baghdad and Muscat. The resolution of the dispute allowed the imam to turn his attention to another of his objectives---an attack on the wealthy island of Bahrain. This was a reminder that local enmities were almost impossible to suppress entirely.

The imam of Muscat was killed in battle against the Wahhabi in 1804. This increased Qasimi power in the Gulf: they now took Hormuz and Bandar Abbas as well as Qishm, and so controlled its entrance. In December 1804, they captured two ships belonging to Manesty. In Bombay, Duncan ordered his resident in Muscat, David Seton, to cooperate with the new ruler of Muscat against the Qawasim only if he was sure that it would not offend the Wahhabi. Seton coordinated his tactics with Manesty, who was keen to reach an understanding with the Wahhabi, not least to protect his own trading fleet. In February 1806, Seton secured a treaty with the Qawasim in which they pledged to respect EIC property and restore one of Manesty's ships. The presence of a British Gulf squadron during the crisis of 1807 also helped to keep the peace locally. However in late 1808, the Qawasim---now hunting in flotillas of up to twenty vessels-- increased their activities, and attacked over a dozen merchant vessels from Bombay, as well as the Sylph, a Bombay Marine ship. It was ceremonially purified with rose water and a number of crew members were killed before the rest were rescued. In May 1809, Manesty's country ship Minerva was intercepted after a fierce battle. Since some of the attackers were killed, forty-five of the (mostly Lascar Indian) crew had their throats cut in revenge, to the cry of "Allah Akbar." The women on board--the young Armenian wife of Robert Taylor, then stationed at Bushehr, her female servant, and her baby- were taken to Ras al-Khaimah, but then bought by a contact friendly to the British, and finally rescued. 

Now Bombay could no longer ignore demands for reprisals, owing to merchant anger and to a concern that the regional balance had swung so far towards the Wahhabi that Muscat's survival was endangered. This was also the period of maximum concern about French influence in Persia, and potential French regional dominance. All this explains the attempt to show British might by bombarding Ras al-Khaimah in November 1809. Even so, Bombay did not want to antagonise the Wahhabi, especially as they seemed likely to become the major regional player if the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The expedition was a purely naval one to teach the Qawasim a lesson: Ras al-Khaimah was badly damaged, but the soldiers then withdrew, in order to avoid clashes with land forces supposedlv coming to reinforce it. Though several dozen Qasimi dhows were destroyed, this was only a small percentage of the fleet; the rest had been hidden.

The Wahhabi leader Saud urged a truce and promised not to molest British ships. The truce continued uneasily for six years. Saud died in 1814. By 1815. Qasimi attacks on other traders en route to India, in the Gulf and Indian Ocean, were so frequent that Bombay's naval authority seemed in peril. Moreover, in 1816, the Qasimi chief announced that only English Christians would henceforth be exempt from his attacks, not Indian merchants; this was plainly unacceptable to the traders of Surat and Bombay. In 1818, planning began in India for a major attack on Qasimi strongholds.

This bold step was possible because several things had changed. The Napoleonic Wars had ended without the Ottoman Empire collapsing. Instead, the local balance of forces between the Ottomans and the Wahhabi had shifted in the former's favour, because since 1810 Mechmet Ali of Egypt had been reducing Wahhabi power in the Hijaz and central Arabia. Mehmet Ali had been ordered to attack the Wahhabi by Sultan Mahmud, who probably hoped that a tough struggle in inhospitable climes would preoccupy both sides for many years and limit the danger to the Porte from either of them. By 1816, the Wahhabi were penned into their Arabian heartland, and had no capacity for aggression for the foreseeable future. In view of their new weakness, the greater danger was that continuing disorder in the Gulf would damage Britain's prestige and her local commercial relationships. A continuation of disruption would damage "our interests in Egypt and in the Pachalic of Bagdad but also at the Ottoman Court." In 1818, finally, Mehmet Ali's son Ibrahim reached Diriyya and captured the Wahhabi leaders, including their new chief Abdullah. He was sent to Constantinople with two followers, where they were forced to listen to the lute, against all their principles, and then beheaded. Rich's idea of an alliance with Abdullah was, to the benefit of his reputation, lost to history. Harford Jones later suggested that the "atheist Turk" Mehmet Ali had been able to suppress the Wahhabi threat, temporarily, only by betraying his word on several occasions, and by repeatedly bribing Bedouin tribes.

The destruction of the Wahhabi threat gave the Indian government the chance to strike at the Qawasim, while the end of the Mahratta wars freed up enough soldiers for a powerful expedition. In October 1819, 2,800 European and Indian troops set sail in three warships and seventeen transports under Sir William Grant Keir. They completely destroyed Ras al-Khaimah in December, and the fortifications and larger ships in most of the nearby ports, with the loss of five British soldiers and four hundred killed or wounded Qawasim. A garrison of 800 troops was left at Ras al-Khaimah. A treaty was negotiated with the Qawasim, which in the course of 1820 was broadened into a "General Treaty" on Gulf piracy signed by most of the Arab chiefs. This outlawed piracy and bound the chiefs to register their trading ships under the same flag. If they kept the terms of the treaty, they would be free to trade with British ports. Britain would, if necessary, coordinate the punishment of any pirate attacks. This was the beginning of the Trucial system of British protection of the Gulf chiefs, which was to make Britain dominant there. However, the initial intention was for only a limited intervention. The treaty gave the Bombay Marine no right of search; it was implied that tribes would resolve their petty disputes themselves, because of the "state of equilibrium" between them secured by the British.

 

Wikipedia:

Ibrahim Pasha (1789 – 10 November 1848) was an Egyptian general and politician; he was the commander of both the Egyptian and Ottoman armies and the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman Wāli and unrecognized Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He was the second ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and ruled from 20 July 1848 to 10 November 1848.

. . .Muhammad Ali had already begun to introduce European discipline into his army, and Ibrahim had probably received some training, but his first campaign was conducted more in the old Asiatic style than his later operations. The campaign lasted two years, and ended in the destruction of the House of Saud as a political power. Muhammad Ali landed at Yanbu, the port of Medina, in 1813. The holy cities had been recovered from the Saudis, and Ibrahim's task was to follow them into the desert of Nejd and destroy their fortresses. Such training as the Egyptian troops had received, and their artillery, gave them a marked superiority in the open field. But the difficulty of crossing the desert to the Saudis stronghold of Diriyah, some 400 miles east of Medina, made the conquest a very arduous one. By the end of September 1818 he had forced the Saudi leader Abdullah bin Saud to surrender, and had taken Diriyah, which he sacked. Ibrahim pasha was called in Egyptian “Qahir Al Wahhabiyyin” (annihilator of the wahhabis) for his brutality against Wahhabis.