Aden and Yemen: 1905- 1919 (An Old & Rare Book)

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About the Book ADEN & YEMEN is a fascinating account of the triangular conflict between Britain.

Turkey and the potentates of South-western Arabia from the time of the emergence of the British Aden Protectorate to the conclusion of World War 1. Based primarily on archival sources, the narrative shows how the involvement of Britain and Turkey as adversaries dragged their proteges in South-western Arabia into the War. Turkey and its heir presumptive in the region, Imam Yahya of (northern) Yemen, challenged Britain's focus standi in the region and they resolved to drive the British out of Aden Protectorate 'into the sea'. On their part, the British organised an anti-Turkey Arab Jehad' with the support of the peoples and potentates of the region. Undaunted, the Imam, carrying outwardly Turkey's war by proxy, launched a massive invasion of the Aden Protectorate. The various allies and collaborators in this 'holy Jehad'-Idrisi of Asir, Sharif Husain of Mecca, as also some of the Protectorate Sultans and Sheikhs could not be bound for a long time in a common cause and the effort ended in a fiasco. On the other hand, the Imam succeeded in gobbling-up thousands of square miles of the 'protectorate' territory and eventually arrived at the dorrstep of Aden. Britain's sole concern at that moment was to save the Colony. They succeeded too, but in the process they were obliged to turn a blind eye to the prolonged, and sometime even barbaric, thrusts of the Imamic forces into the 'protected' territories of the Aden Protectorate. Thus, while on the one hand the 'Zeidi Bully' (as the Imam has been described in British chronicles) truimphed over 'John Bull', the latter also alienated themselves from the Sultanates and Sheikhdoms of the Protectorate because of their 'volte-face".

About the Author R.N. Mehra is a known authority on Aden Gulf Affairs. He has authored a number of research papers on the theme of imperialist conflicts in Gulf region which have appeared in some of the leading Journals and periodicals. His pioneering work, "The Emergence of the Aden Protectorate' has been published under a U.G.C. scheme, as 'South Yemen A second revised edition is now in press.

Born in 1941, Dr. Mehra joined University's department of History in 1961 as an Asstt. Professor and is now a senior Reader in the department of Western History. Primarily concerned with Imperial studies. Dr. Mehra and his team of research students are currently engaged in bringing forth a firsthand account of the freedom struggle in South Yemen leading to the birth of the marxist 'Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen' in November 1967.

Foreword Dr. R.N. Mehra's work fills an important gap in the historiograpy of British imperialism and also provides illumi nation on an area close to the South-Asian subcontinent. In the last twentyseven years, especially since Robinson and Gallagher's Africa and the Victorians was published, the scholarly world has been exploring the multifarious causes that created the empire on which the sun never set. The specific dynamics of imperial expansion in a particular area varied considerably from region to region, and the problems associa ted with the retention of imperial control were also various, depending on the original impulse towards expansion, the nature of the terrain, and the final weighing of various options in the official mind, whether in London, Calcutta or New Delhi.

While in the ultimate analysis most part of the British empire was acquired for the needs of commerce and investment, quite a sizeable part had to be acquired for strategic purposes even though those portions did not have any com mercial value. This was because in an age when sea power was the dominating factor in international politics Britain needed to have important bases en route to India and China. Even critics of Robinson and Gallagher admit that the British expansion in the east coast of Africa (if not the whole of Africa) was just a footnote to the Indian empire. Further expansion into the interior occurred when the troubled frontier (troubled because of contact with free trade imperialism) led to raids into the coastal strip from people living in the interior.

Aden and Yemen illustrates a similar phenomenon occur ring just north of the horn of Africa, on the Arabian side of the Red Sea. Even though the acquisition of Aden had occurred in the mid nineteenth century, it could not be trea ted as a peaceful coastal enclave, whose purpose was mainly to provide refuelling facilities to ships. The repeated clashes British authorities and the chiefs in the hinterland led to serious discussions about when and how to establish a protectorate. Had the story simply been one of expansion of British authority over Yemen it would have been unidimen sional. What Dr. Mehra has brought out are the other dimensios of the story-the effects of the Young Turk movement on proto-nationalist groups in that area and the escalation of British fears about this hinterland. As students of late nineteenth century expansion would know, there are many such manifestations elsewhere, almost all inviting British incursion. The gap in our knowledge about the Arabian littoral is now filled.

Both students of the foreign policy of the Government of India as well as students of imperialism in general will find plenty of food for thought in this scholarly work.

The present work is the result of Dr. Mehra's investigations which earned him the degree of Doctor of Literature from the University of Lucknow.

Preface Yemen, 'al-Ymn' to Arabs, and corresponding historically and geographically to the region south-west Arabia, now comprises two independent States-the Yemen Arab Republic (al-jumhuriyah al-Arabiyah al-Yaminiyah), since 1919, (geographically, North Yemen), and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (Jumhuriyat al-Yemen ad Dimuqratiyah ash-Shabiyah), since 1967, (geographically, Southern Yemen)-with their respective capitals at Sa'ana and Aden. The two Yemens were earlier known by the names given to them by their respective masters. North Yemen, being under the Turks, was known as the Turkish Yemen', and the South Yemen being under the control of the British, was called the (British) Aden Protectorate, until their emergence as nation-states.

The emergence of Aden Protectorate during the years 1885-1905 attracted the attention, and the jealousy, of the Turkish rulers of the neighbouring North-Yemen, who immediately renewed their undeclared war on the British protected 'Aden Sultanates'. Accusations & counter-accusations that followed resulted finally in the disputed frontier being demarcated by a joint Anglo-Turkish Commission in 1905. At that time, the British being dis-interested in enlarging their liabilities beyond a certain geographical limit, agreed to a line that not only gave large chunks of territories of several of the border Shafai (Sunni) Sultanates to the Zaidis (Shia) of Yemen, but also put the British at Aden in the position of a great military disadvantage by giving out D'thali and other plateaus with commanding heights to the Turks. Subsequently, they also withdrew their troops from D'thala. The British made these sweeping allowances to the Turks quite consciously, and also in an endeavour to put an end to the irksome wranglings on the Aden-Yemen border. Little did they realise at that time that that was not to be the end, but the beginning of a vexatious chapter in their relationship with the potentates of south-western Arabia-Imam of Yemen, Idrisi of Asir and others-and with their masters, the Turks. The presents volume is primarily concerned with the evolution and historical treatment of this particular problem, namely the growing vortex of complex relationship in which the British were inescapably drawn in south-western Arabia, from the time of the emergence of the Aden Protectorate (1905) to the end of the First World War. The work is intended to be an extended investigation of the author's Ph. D dissertation-The Emergence of the Aden Protectorate (1885-1905). As such, the first two chapters outlining the historical background and covering the period upto 1905, have been based on the earlier work, though not entirely. The subsequent chapters are the product of the author's study of a variety of further original source material, available mainly at the National Archives of India, New Delhi. The sources comprise primarily of the vast official correspondence between the Home authorities and their counterparts in India and at Aden, and between them and the concerned Powers, various Sultanates and Sheikhdoms, and secondarily of the 'private' papers of some of the concerned personages, obtained from sources other than the National Archives.

**Contents and Sample Pages**