The Jews of the Yemen, 1800-1914 (Routledge Library Editions: The Gulf)

In the nineteenth century, the political independence and stability of the Yemen were undermined by outside forces. The Wahabite movement, British naval imperialism and the expansion of the Ottoman Empire all contributed to the decline of the country. The upheavals of the period are the framework of this study of the Jewish community, its leaders and institutions. Messianic fervour and emigration to Palestine were characteristic responses to the difficulties faced by the Jewish community, and while the messiahs and their followers were immediately rejected by the rationalists and authorities, the close links between the Jews of the Yemen and Palestine were only broken as a result of the First World War. This book, first published in 1991, is not only an important contribution to scholarly work on the history of Muslim/Jewish relations, but also a vivid description of a Sephardi community which is now gone.