Beihan or Bayhan (Arabic: بيحان Bayḥān), officially the Emirate of Beihan (Arabic: إمارة بيحان Imārat Bayḥān), was a state in the British Aden Protectorate and the Federation of South Arabia. Its capital was Suq Abdulla, now called Beihan.
Beihan (Arabic: بيحان), also known as Bayhan al Qisab (Arabic: بيحان القصاب), is a city in western Yemen, which has about 100.000 inhabitants according to the census of 2005 conducted by the Yemeni government. It was the capital city of Emirate of Beihan in past. Beihan today represents an administrative province belongs to Shabwah Governorate.
Geographically, Beihan is a valley connected between al-Baidha in the north-west, Ma'rib in the east and Ataq in the south. It is a fertile valley irrigated by water streams fall from the northern mountains as well as from the digged wells. The main cultivated crops are dates, cereals and citrus and people depend on livestocks to a large extent to survive. Nonetheless, people increasingly adopt trade and exchange commerce; in addition to incorporate to the government business.
Bayhan valley historically had several main groups. The Musabein Tribe living in the south which was dominated by Alsaleh (Ahmed saif tribe) and the Alfatima (Naji Alawi tribe). These two factions were in consistent feuds. Historically the middle of the valley was populated by the Al-Habieli family,descendants of the Prophet, who arrived in the valley in the late 1600's. They had been sent by the Imam of Yemen to protect the trade routes.
The Al-Habieli family are direct descendants of the first,al Hadi Yahya bin Hussein, and seventh, Qassim al Mansur bin Abdullah,Imams of Sanaa.
The north of the valley was dominated by the Balharith Tribe who were also continuously fighting one another as to who was their paramount sheik and like the Masabin also split into 2 main branches.
The ruling Al-Habieli family, recognized by the Hashimite Grand Sharifs of Mecca as related, established themselves as religious leaders in Bayhan in 1680 and became independent. The Hashemite Emirate of Bayhan was included in the Western Aden Protectorate before joining the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South on 11/2/1959 and the Federation of South Arabia on 4/4/1962. The Emirate was abolished by revolutionary Yemen in 7/1967 (the People's Republic of South Yemen on 30/11/1967). Capital was Naqub. Al Amir Talal Saleh Hussein Al-Habieli is current dynastic head of the family. The family tree is as follows: