History and Social Structure of North Yemen

Abstract

Ancient civilizations flourished on the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula, but they remain almost unknown. We have learned something about them from surface inscriptions, coins, a few partial excavations, and some fragmentary reports in Greek and Roman historical literature, but no full-scale archeological work has yet been completed in the heartland of these complex cultures.¹ The area now covered by the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen), and the People’s Democratic Republic Yemen (South Yemen) was known in the pre-Islamic times as Arabia Felix, or Happy Arabia. This name referred to its reputation as the source of some of the materials most highly-prized in the flourishing civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, but just as justifiably the name could have arisen from the happy circumstances of its beautiful green wadis and the salubrious climate of its magnificent mountains.