"كُتيّب اليمن" [ظ‎‎١‎٦] (١٩٠/٣٧)

year. It is the Imam's chief garrison town and training
centre, and is said to have a civil population of about 6,000.
The valley of the Wadi Dhubawa, the uppermost of the
two great left bank tributaries of Wadi Mur, leads into the
fertile intramontane district of Hajjah, occupied by the
Turks, who have a Kaimakam at the town of that name.
It lies due west of 'Amran and therefore does not vitiate
the statement made on page 40 that the Turks do not
hold effectively any of the highland country north of the
latter town.
(6) 'Amran itself, which we take as the dividing point
of North and South Yemen, is a considerable town lying at
a height of some 7,800 feet on the uppermost eastern slope
of the Main Ridge, which parts the plateau from the head
waters of the Wadis Dhubawa and La/a (the latter valley
lies properly in South Yemen). Though it was visited by
Glaser, we have no account of the place. It is just outside
the Hashid country on the south.
South Yemen.
Below north latitude 15°, the Yemen improves in fertility.
The Tihamah, which is at its broadest in the northern part
of South Yemen, is able to support the largest urban centre
in the province, Hodeidah, and lesser, but considerable,
towns, the two of the name Beit el-Faqih, Zebid, Hais, and
Mokhah. The 'Absiyah and the powerful Zaraniq tribe,
which hold all this Tihamah, own also several large village
settlements.
Immediately inland from Hodeidah, the country, rising
very gradually some 500 feet, is very lean and sandy; but
although a belt along the coast, about ten miles wide on an
average, continues to be little better than coralline waste,
the steeper inland slope, which begins south of the mouth
of Wadi Siham, encloses for some distance a succession of
comparatively fertile valleys running westward. The
richest valley is that which passes Zebid. South of this,
sterility resumes till the projection of the Wasab el-Asfal