Yemen · Revised Edition

Yemen is both the least-known state in the Arabian Peninsula, and the one with the longest continuous history. Several vibrant civilizations flourished in South Arabia in the millennium before the arrival of Islam in 632 AD, and under the Rasulid dynasty (1229-1454), there developed an intellectual, commercial and artistic culture of considerable splendour. The country was occupied at various times by the Portuguese, the Ottomans and the British. When independence came in the 1960s, two separate states emerged; the Yemen Arab Republic in the North, and the (Marxist) People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in the South. Union was achieved in 1990, and despite the civil war of 1994, the wealth generated by the recent discovery of oil and the democratic elections of 1997 promise the new Republic of Yemen a positive future. This edition has been thoroughly revised to take account of recent scholarship.