Chronology of Yemen

BC  
5th-4th mill Earliest settlements Palaeolithic remains
3rd-2nd mill Bronze Age: sings of religious cults
2nd mill Domestication of camel
1st mill Emergence of city states, Saba, Ma’in, Qataban, Hadhramawt, Awsan
c.800 Earliest inscriptions
6th-5th Marib temples and dam
c.2nd c Rise of Himyarites
24 Aelius Gallus’ Arabian expedition
   
AD  
1st-3rd c Political and economic shift to central highlands
1st c Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
2nd c Roman development of sea route to India
3rd-4th c Judaism and Christianity established
c. 520 Marib dam burst, scattering Qahtan tribes over southern Arabia
523 Massacre of Najran Christians by Jewish ruler Nawas
525 Ethiopians occupy Yemen; Himyarite state collapses
575 Ethiopians replaced with Persian occupation
c.570 Birth of Prophet Muhammad
622 Prophet’s flight to Madina; start of Muslim hijrah calendar
630s Yemen’s conversion to Islam begins; establishment of Islamic caliphate. Centralised rule by ‘Umayyads (Damascus) & ‘Abbasides (Baghdad)
9th c Yu’firid dynasty in central highlands
819-1018 Ziyadid dynasty in Tihamah
844 Ahmad ibn Isa al-Muhajir arrives in Hadhramawt
890s Al-Hadi ila l-Haqq establishes Zaydi Imamate
1047-1138 Isma’ili Sulayhid dynasty
1173-1228 Ayyubid dynasty
1228-1454 Rasulid dynasty
late 14th c Coffee-drinking al-Shadhili arrives in Mokha from Ethiopia
1454-1517 Tahirid dynasty
1504 First Portuguese vessel in Red Sea
1517 Mamluk invasion; Mamluk defeat in Egypt by Ottoman Turks
1539-mid-17th c First Ottoman occupation of Yemen
16th c Kathiris in Hadhramawt invite Yafa’i mercenaries to help them
1763 Danish expedition, including Carsten Niebuhr
1798 Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition
1839 British capture Aden
1869 Inauguration of Suez Canal
1872-1918 Second Ottoman occupation of northern Yemen
1904-1948 Imam Yahya expels Ottomans, rules northern Yemen
1934 Anglo-Yemeni treaty establishes de facto frontier between north and south
1937 Aden becomes British colony
1948 Imam Yahya assassinated, succeeded by son Ahmad
1962 Federal constitution established in south
1962-1970 Republic declared, Imamate abolished; civil war in northern Yemen; establishment of Yemen Arab Republic (YAR)
1967 Independence in southern Yemen; establishment of People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY)
1990 Unification of north and south; Establishment of Republic of Yemen
1994 Suppression of southern uprising

 

 

 

← Sana`a - Capital City of YemenRepublic of Yemen - General Information →
Comments ()
    The origin of Socotra's name is still wrapped in mystery. The Socotrans call their island Sacatri.