Hadhramaut

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Region close to Sayun in the Hadhramaut Valley

An ancient sculpture of a griffon from the royal palace at shabwa, the capital city of Hadhramaut

Hadhramaut, Hadhramout or Hadramawt (Arabic: حضرموت‎ [Ḥaḍramawt]) is a historical region of the south Arabian Peninsula along the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea, extending eastwards from Yemen (proper) to the Dhofar region of Oman. The name of the region is currently retained in the smaller Hadhramaut Governorate of the Republic of Yemen. The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadhramis.

Narrowly, Hadhramaut refers to the historical Qu'aiti and Kathiri sultanates, which were British protectorates in the Aden Protectorate overseen by the British Resident at Aden until their abolition upon the independence of South Yemen in 1967. The current governorate of Hadhramaut roughly incorporates the former territory of the two sultanates. It consists of a narrow, arid coastal plain bounded by the steep escarpment of a broad plateau (averaging 1,370 m [4,500 feet]), with a very sparse network of deeply sunk wadis (seasonal watercourses). The undefined northern edge of Hadhramaut slopes down to the desert Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia.

In a wider sense, Hadhramaut includes the territory of Mahra to the east all the way to the contemporary border with Oman. This encompasses the current governorates of Hadramaut and Mahra in their entirety as well as parts of the Shabwah Governorate.

The Hadhramis live in densely-built towns centered on traditional watering stations along the wadis. Hadhramis harvest crops of wheat, millet, tend date palm and coconut groves, and grow some coffee. On the plateau Bedouins tend sheep and goats. Society is still highly tribal, with the old Seyyid aristocracy, only respected among themsleves, descended from Muhammad, traditionally educated and strict in their Islamic observance, highly respected in religious and secular affairs. Hadhramaut emigration on a large scale since the early 19th century has established large Hadhrami minorities in South and South East Asia, namely Hyderabad, Java, Sumatra, Malacca and Singapore, for example, former Timor Leste primer minister Marí Alkatiri is of Hadhrami descendant.

The original inhabitants of Hadhramaut are Hadhramis with the surnames that starts with "Ba" or "Bin." These are the among the Qahtan Original Arabs. The Sayyids are migrants from the Iraq about 400 years ago.

Though Bible dictionaries derive the name Hadhramaut from Hazarmaveth, a son of Joktan in the Book of Genesis 10:26-28, the name actually derives from Greek hydreumata or enclosed (and often fortified) 'watering stations' at wadis. A hydreuma is a manned and fortified watering hole or way station along a caravan route. Juris Zarins, rediscoverer of the city of Ubar, described that site in a Nova interview:

'The site that we uncovered at Shisur was a kind of fortress/administration center set up to protect the water supply from raiding Bedouin tribes. Surrounding the site, as far as six miles away, were smaller villages, which served as small-scale encampments for the caravans. An interesting parallel to this are the fortified water holes in the Eastern Desert of Egypt from Roman times. There, they were called hydreumata.'

The frankincense trees that supplied the Incense Road grew to the east of Hadhramaut, in Dhofar.

[edit] Modern history of the Wadi Hadhramaut

The Qu'aiti sultans ruled most of Hadramaut, under a loose British protectorate, the Aden Protectorate, from 1882 to 1967, when the Hadhramaut was annexed by South Yemen.

The Qu'aiti dynasty was founded by 'Umar bin Awadh al-Qu’aiti, a Yafa’i tribesman from Southern Arabia, whose wealth and influence as hereditary Jemadar of the Nizam of Hyderabad’s armed forces enabled him to establish the Qu’aiti dynasty in the latter half of the 19th century, winning British recognition of his paramount status in the region, in 1882. The British Government and the traditional and scholarly sultan Ali bin Salah signed a treaty in 1937 appointing the British government as "advisors" in Hadhramaut. The British exiled him to Aden in 1945, but the Protectorate lasted until 1967.

In 1967, the former British Colony of Aden and the former Aden Protectorate including Hadramaut became an independent Communist state, the People's Republic of South Yemen, later the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. South Yemen along with Hadramaut was united with North Yemen in 1990 as the Republic of Yemen. See Yemen for recent history.

The capital and largest city of Hadhramaut is the port Al Mukalla. The population of Yemen is crowding into its Hadramaut cities: Al Mukalla had a 1994 population of 122,400 and a 2003 population of 174,700, while the port city of ash-Shahir has grown from 48,600 to 69,400 in the same time.