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CHRONOLOGY

10th to 2nd Centuries BCE

The kingdoms of Saba’, Ma˓īn and Qahtān flourished through the development of the spice and incense trade through southern Arabia.

2nd Century BCE to 6th Century CE

The Ḥimyarite dynasty asserts its ascendency over ancient Yemen until it was usurped by a period of Ethiopian rule that was ended by a Persian invasion by the sixth century CE.

7th Century

Islam is established in Yemen. Sunni Muslims of the Shāfi˓ī school settle the coastal regions while the Zaydī branch of Shia Islam dominates the highlands.

9th Century

The Rassid dynasty is founded by a Zaydī Imām who establishes rule over most of ancient Yemen.

12th Century

Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Ayyūbī’s elder brother conquers Yemen and founds a dynasty with Ta˓izz as its capital.

13th to 15th Centuries

The Rasūlid dynasty establishes its power in Yemen with its influence stretching as far as Makkah and Ḥaḍramawt.

1515

The Egyptian army is employed in Yemen to protect the port of Aden from successive Portuguese offensives.

1517

An Ottoman offensive using Egyptian forces conquers Yemen and remains in occupation on behalf of the Turks.

1529

A Turkish Pasha is installed as Governor of the Yemen by the Ottomans.

1609

John Jourdain, a representative of the British East India Company, becomes the first recorded Englishman to enter Yemen.

1728

The ˓Abdalī sultanate of Laḥīj becomes independent of the Zaydī Imām and captures Aden. Soon afterwards the Imām loses control of the ˓Awlaqī and Yāfi˓ regions of southern Yemen.

1818

Ibrahim Pasha, Ottoman Governor of Egypt expels the Wahhābīs from Yemen and occupies the main ports.

1835

Captain Haines docks at Aden and surveys the port for the British East India Company.

1836–1872

Rebellion and insurgency shifts power between Ottoman Turk and Zaydī Imām ascendency in north Yemen with the Turks finally capturing Sana’a and establishing full occupation of north Yemen.

1839

The British Protectorate is established at Aden after its capture by the British East India Company. A ‘Treaty of Friendship’ between the British and Sultan of Laḥīj, followed by similar treaties with other local rulers of territories adjacent to Aden.

1853

Aden is declared a ‘free port’ by the British East India Company, increasing its commercial revenues.

1856

The Reverend Joseph Salter establishes his Asiatic Strangers Home at London’s East India Docks, aimed at proselytizing amongst the large numbers of non-Christian lascars.

1857

Captain Luke Thomas becomes the first independent British trader to establish business at Aden. A lascar sailors’ home is established in Glasgow.

1869

The opening of the Suez Canal increases Aden’s importance as a regional trading port.

1881

A lascar sailors’ rest is established in Cardiff to cater for the large numbers of Yemeni sailors present at the port.

c.1900

Shaykh Abdullah Ali al-Hakimi, the charismatic spiritual reformer of British Yemenis, is born in a Dhubḥānī village in north Yemen.

1914–18

A convention with Turkey defines the frontier of the Aden Protectorate with the Ottoman Empire. Thousands of Yemeni lascars volunteer to serve on seconded merchant vessels in defence of Britain at the outbreak of the First World War.

1919

A riot erupts at Mill Dam, South Shield docks, when Yemeni lascars are refused work on British ships and are abused and beaten by indigenous white sailors. In the aftermath, 13 Yemenis are arrested and imprisoned and further riots involving Yemeni and English sailors occur in Liverpool, Cardiff and London docks.

1925

The Special Restriction (Coloured Alien Seamen) Order establishes limiting quotas by the British government for ‘Arab and Coloured’ sailors on British vessels along with the compulsory registration within seven days of docking, at local police stations.

1932

Aden is taken from the control of the Government of Bombay and formed into a Chief Commissionership under the central Government of India.

1934

Shaykh Abdullah Ali al-Hakimi receives permission (ijāzah) from his Algerian Sufi shaykh, Aḥmad ibn Muṡṭafā al-˓Alawī, to establish zawāyā (Sufi lodges) among the Yemeni communities settled in British ports.

1936

Under the spiritual leadership of Shaykh Abdullah Ali al-Hakimi, the South Shields Yemeni community purchases The Hilda Arms, a former public house, and establishes the ‘Zaoia Allaoia Islamia Mosque’.

1937

Aden becomes a Crown Colony and is finally ruled independently of India.

1941

Nur al-Islam Mosque, Cardiff, is bombed by a German aeroplane during the war. Miraculously, the praying congregation are all unharmed, but the mosque is destroyed.

1943

The official reopening of the Nur al-Islam Mosque after it was reconstructed with a government grant of £7000 courtesy of the India Office.

1945

‘Second wave’ migration of Yemenis to Britain occurs into the industrial cities of Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield, as a result of post-World War Two single-male, Commonwealth and colonial economic migration to the UK.

1948

The Zaydī Imām, Hamid al-Din, is assassinated by revolutionary antiImāmate forces in north Yemen. Shaykh al-Hakimi launches the publication of Al-Salam, his anti-Zaydī Imām newsletter, which is Britain’s first Arabic language periodical.

1953

Shaykh al-Hakimi leaves Britain permanently for Aden after he is ousted by his former deputy, Shaykh Hassan Ismail and the pro-Zaydī Imām Shamīrī tribesmen from amongst the British Yemeni community.

1956

After almost 30 years of faithful service to the Yemeni community, Shaykh Hassan Ismail returns home to Yemen after his ḥajj to Makkah. His adopted British Yemeni son, Shaykh Said Ismail, becomes replacement imām, aged just 25.

1962

The Zaydī Imām, Ahmad, dies and is succeeded by his son, Muhammad al-Badr, who flees Yemen after just one week of ruling when an assassination attempt fails during a successful coup d’état by revolutionary forces. In Britain, the Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962 becomes law, which requires migrant Commonwealth and colonial workers to acquire either a visa or work permit before entering the UK. As a result, large numbers of family dependants join them in Britain.

1970–80

Yemeni wives and children begin to join their ‘second wave’ migrant husbands in the industrial cities of Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield.

1980

Large numbers of Yemenis migrate from Britain as a result of economic depression and mass unemployment to work in the prosperous Arabian Gulf.

1991

North and South Yemen are reunified under the initiative of the North Yemen President, Ali Abdullah Salih.

1991–92

The First Gulf War. President Saddam Hussein of Iraq orders the invasion of Kuwait and the newly-reunified Yemen abstains in a UN Security Council vote to condemn Iraq’s aggression. As a result, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states evict around one million Yemeni workers with immediate effect.

1995–2002

‘Prince’ Naseem Hamid, Sheffield-born British Yemeni boxer, becomes the featherweight boxing champion and defends a series of world champion titles until he retires, undefeated, in 2002. In the process, he puts Yemen ‘on the map’ and imbues young British Yemenis with a sense of pride and belonging.

2001

The 9/11 terror attacks using hijacked planes to fly into the Twin Towers, New York, and the Pentagon, Washington, kill thousands and precipitate the War on Terror. Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda Muslim terror group claim responsibility with a number of Yemeni-origin Arabs connected with both to the attacks and the organization.

2005

The 7/7 terror attacks on the London transport system kills over 50 people. The British government increases its security and surveillance of the British Muslim community with a particular focus on British Arab (including Yemeni) communities.

2010

The pro-democracy movement inspires the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ across the Arab-Islamic region.

2011

The revolutionary pro-democracy movement in Yemen eventually forces President Ali Abdullah Salih from office after hundreds of civilians are killed by his forces and he survives an assassination attempt. In Britain, Shaykh Said Ismail Hassan passes away after a long illness, ending his 55 years of service as imām to the Cardiff Yemeni community at the South Wales Islamic Centre.

2012

The Yemeni community in Cardiff revives street parades originally organized by Shaykh al-Hakimi and continued by Shaykh Hassan Ismail and Shaykh Said Hassan. Their reinstitution by the ˓Alawī ṭarīqah is done in honour of the recent passing of Shaykh Said Hassan Ismail.