Contemporary tribal versions of local history in Ḥaḍramawt

Abstract

Based on new printed sources, this paper tackles a recent phenomenon in present-day Ḥaḍramawt (Yemen), i.e. historical accounts relating to a certain local tribe written by a native author from the inside. Some of these publications do not go much further than traditional genealogical revisions, which tend to heighten the social status of a group. However, other works aim to carry out a more ambitious task. Their authors lay emphasis not only on the noble origin of their tribe but also stress its extreme importance in social, economic, political, and cultural areas. To prove their point, they bring into play ancient chronicles, classical and folk poetry, handwritten documents, various samples of the oral tradition, and ethnographic data. It is worth mentioning that the apologist of the al-Jawhiyīn, which is an important part of the Saybān tribal federation, ascribes all Saybānī merits to his tribal group. These local publications can be regarded as the fruit of the social restratification which has been gaining momentum since the unification of Yemen in 1991 and the 1994 civil war. Today the most active elements of the previously underprivileged non-tribal strata in Ḥaḍramawt seek their origin within a tribal context.