Yemeni history is at times bewilderingly complex. Although in Chapter 2 I have tried to sketch in the general lines of pre-Islamic history, I have avoided doing so for later periods so as not to overload the reader with dates and dynasties. To compensate, the Glossary includes brief notes on some of the more important rulers of Yemen; also, the Bibliography is fuller than is usual in a book of this nature. It is a book which, I admit, treads the thin line between seriousness and frivolity. If at times it veers towards the latter – as it does, for example, when I relate the more questionable anecdotes of the medieval traveller Ibn al-Mujawir – I can only repeat his near contemporary Yaqut’s apologia concerning the edible monopod poets of Hadramawt: ‘I have merely quoted from the books of learned men.’
In transliterating Arabic words, I have followed the most commonly accepted system but minus the macrons and subscript dots; I have omitted initial ayns and hamzahs but have retained final ayns; the two letters are not distinguished when they occur within a word. A few readers may find this annoying, but it makes for clearer typography. Thus, the capital city of Yemen, Ṣan‘ā’ (otherwise Sana, Sanaa and Sana’a), appears in this book as San’a. As for my rendering of Suqutri words, I apologize in advance to the half dozen or so scholars of that language for any deficiencies they may find.