Qu'aiti

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Map of the Protectorate of South Arabia

Qu'aiti (Arabic: القعيطي‎ [al-Quʿayṭī]), officially the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut (Arabic: السلطنة القعيطية في حضرموت) or the Qu'aiti State of Shihr and Mukalla (Arabic: السلطنة القعيطية في الشحر و المكلا [al-Salṭanah al-Quʿayṭīyah fī-l Shihr wa al-Mukallā]), was a sultanate in the Hadhramaut region of the southern Arabian Peninsula, in what is now Yemen. Its capital was Al Mukalla and it was divided into six provinces including Al Mukalla, Ash Shihr, Shibam, Du'an, Hawra, and Al Hajr.

[edit] History

The Qu'aitis, sons of Umar bin Awadh al Qu'aiti, who became a jemadar in the forces of the Nizam of Hyderabad State (now in India), first took the town of Shibam from the rival Kathiris in 1858. They later conquered Ash Shihr in 1866 and Al Mukalla in 1881, largely replacing the Kathiris to control most of the Hadhramaut coast on the Gulf of Aden. They entered into treaty relations with the British in 1888 and created a unified sultanate in 1902 that would become a part of the Aden Protectorate.

As Great Britain planned for the eventual independence of South Arabia in the 1960s, Qu’aiti declined to join the British-sponsored Federation of South Arabia but remained under British protection as part of the Protectorate of South Arabia. On 17 September 1967, the sultanate was abolished and, in November of that year, Qu’aiti became part of newly independent South Yemen which united with North Yemen in 1990 to become the Republic of Yemen.