Throughout its long history, spanning nearly seven centuries, Al-Hodeidah has been one of Yemen's most vulnerable cities, exposed to destruction and bombardment on both the sea and the land.
While the city suffered catastrophic devastation in the recent wars and most of its inhabitants were displaced to the surrounding rural areas and neighbouring cities, the phenomenon of displacement caused by the recurring wars seems to have become an inevitable fate for “the bride of the Red Sea,” as the Yemenis fondly call it.
In recent months, the Ras Khatib port was bombed by Israeli airstrikes. When the Italians invaded Libya in 1912, the city of Al-Hodeidah showed its solidarity with the Arab cause in Tripoli, rather than with the Turks, whom they were engaged in conflict with. As a result, Italian warships bombarded Al-Hodeidah's port and struck Turkish military positions deep within the city.
It was rumored at the time that the Italians had bribed some of the Zaraniq tribes to attack the Turks in Al-Hodeidah. When the Zaraniq fighters launched their attack on the city from the south, two Italian warships shelled the city from the sea, causing significant damage to two forts situated outside the city.
The Italian navy also bombarded the village of Munder with artillery and later destroyed a famous fort in Al-Hali.
In August of that year, about 10,000 people fled Al-Hodeidah, seeking refuge in the vast expanses of Tihama, according to John Boldry. Even the Turkish military hospital (later known as Al-Olofi Hospital after the revolution) did not escape the relentless bombardment by Italian warships stationed off the coast.
Turkish Barricades and Allied Warships
In the final months of 1914, the Turks began fortifying Al-Hodeidah, setting up defensive barriers, constructing earthen trenches, and digging long defensive ditches. They did so in preparation for their entry into World War I alongside the Germans, not realizing that the war was essentially a naval conflict!
While the Turkish soldiers were busy erecting trenches and fortifications to the east of Al-Hodeidah, the British Royal Navy had already closed the Red Sea, preventing Turkish supply ships from reaching their forces. This blockade cut off all supplies to the Turkish division, which consisted of several regular brigades stretching from Ras Al-Ara in the south to Samta, the northern boundary of the Idrisi region.
British warships patrolled the waters off Al- Hodeidah, Al-Lahiya, Al-Salif, Al-Mocha, and Sheikh Said. From 1914 to 1917, they engaged in intermittent battles with the German navy, which sustained heavy losses. During this period, British warships launched five attacks on the city of Al-Hodeidah and two on the Ras Khatib port, according to Boldry.
As World War I neared its conclusion, British forces easily surrounded Al-Hodeidah, capturing tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers as prisoners under the Moudros Armistice Agreement. They also freed their British nationals who had been imprisoned there. At the same time, Al-Hodeidah became a powerful tool for Britain, used as a means of political pressure to secure recognition of its colonial presence in Aden and to counter Imam Yahya, whose forces had already entered Sana’a at the same time, in coordination with Mahmoud Pasha, who was a primary target for the victorious Allied forces in southern Arabia.
When King George V’s delegation, led by Captain Jacob, was unable to reach Sana’a via Bajil due to the intervention of the Qahra Tribe, Imam Yahya ordered the invasion of Dhalie towards Aden in retaliation for the Jacob Mission’s decision to return to Al-Hodeidah after seven months of being held captive in Bajil. The mission was originally supposed to continue on to Sana’a. In response, Imam Yahya decided to invade Dhalie, and in turn, Britain decided to hand Al-Hodeidah over to the Idrisi. This sparked a fierce conflict between the two imams—Imam Idrisi and Imam Yahya—which lasted for seven years in Tihama, resulting in the loss of thousands of fighters on both sides.
The Birth Certificate of a City
The first appearance of Al-Hodeidah dates back to 1395 AD, corresponding to 797 AH, as part of the coastal region, according to the British historian John Boldry. Half a century later, in 1455, the people of Al-Hodeidah sent a delegation to the Sultanate of Bani Tahir in Aden, seeking recognition. By the end of the 15th century, Ahmad ibn Majid wrote a book titled "Al-Fawaid Fi Usool Al-Bahr Wa Al-Qawaid", in which he confirmed that Al-Hodeidah was
one of Yemen's most important and main ports.
Fourteen years after Ibn Majid, the famous Omani captain and historian, Ibn Mukharramah wrote a book in which he described Al-Hodeidah as a village. The following year, in 1515, the first military ship carrying Mamluk Egyptian forces arrived. The ship made a stop in Jizan, from where they requested the Sultan of Zabid—as John Boldry mentions—to supply food so they could continue their journey to fight the Portuguese near Aden. Initially, he agreed to their request, but one of his advisors cautioned him against complying, fearing the Egyptians might have ulterior motives to seize control of Yemen. As a result, he rejected their request.
When the Mamluks learned of this, they advanced toward the coasts of Al-Hodeidah, fired their stone cannonballs, landed, and took control of the city. After devastating it, they seized all the wheat, dismantled the wooden houses, and headed towards Kamaran. Al-Hodeidah was left in ruins, and the port of Al-Baq'ah, west of Zabid, replaced it as the main port. By the end of the year, Tihama was entirely occupied by the Egyptians.
This heavy Egyptian presence along the vast Tihama plain had disastrous consequences for the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo, leading to the Ottoman Turks occupying Egypt after a series of defeats suffered by the Mamluks, who made the grave mistake of sending one-third of their army, the best-trained units, to Tihama in Yemen.
The City Under Bombardment
In the 16th century, Al-Hodeidah faced destruction three times, and in the 17th century, the situation settled somewhat, with the city's shipbuilding industry flourishing. This was noted by an English traveller named John Offnigston, who observed that "he also noted that the export of coffee was one of the most significant activities of Hodeidah's port at the time, with exports going to Jeddah, Egypt, and Europe."
In the late 17th century, "European pirates based in Madagascar attacked ships bound for Al-Mocha, intending to purchase coffee. Consequently, ships began avoiding Al-Mocha and diverted to the ports of Al-Hodeidah and Al-Lahiya to load coffee, fearing pirate raids."
In reality, the western coast of Yemen, due to its importance as part of the international trade route and the significance of its ports in exporting coffee, remained in a state of
constant turmoil throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. When Sharif Hamoud Abu Mismar, the ruler of Abyarish, declared his independence from the Kingdom of Yemen under the rule of the descendants of Imam Qasim bin Muhammad in 1790, his authority expanded both north and south, from the borders of Qunfudhah in the north to Bayt Al-Faqih south of Al-Hodeidah.
Abu Mismar took control of Al-Hodeidah, where he constructed the "Bab Sharif" gate. The city prospered, with customs revenues flowing steadily into the sharif's treasury. His income from the ports, stretching from Qunfudhah south of Jeddah to Jizan, Medi, Al-Lahiya, and Al-Hodeidah, was immense. The city witnessed a thriving trade movement during this period.
Trade, Rivalry, and the Rise of Ambitious Powers
The stability of Al-Hodeidah did not last long. The dramatic shifts in the dominant international and regional powers scattered the accumulated urban and commercial progress, in an era where trade flourished, politics shifted, and the race for influence intensified. Additionally, the local competing powers vying for control over Yemen played a pivotal role in the destruction not only of Al-Hodeidah and its vital port but also of many other cities along the western coast, which suffered under the chaos of the 19th century and its successive events.
The Wahhabi raids, led by Prince Saud II from Najd, swept southward along the Red Sea coast like a devastating storm, reaching Al-Hodeidah and Bayt al-Faqih, where they set fire to and destroyed these cities, along with others in the Tihama region. When a Yemeni resistance was formed to expel Saud II from Al-Hodeidah, the city suffered even more destruction. The prince eventually left, but soon after, the forces of Muhammad Ali Pasha arrived, flooding the Tihama plain from north to south and securing control of Al-Mocha, while declaring his independence from the Ottoman Empire.
After the defeat of Saud II's forces, Imam Al-Mansur Ali took control of the city, restored its port operations, and began its recovery, especially during the reign of Mutawakkil Ahmad and the early years of Imam Al-Mahdi Abdullah. However, this stability did not last long. In 1837, Muhammad Ali Pasha once again expanded his influence along the eastern Red Sea coast, from the Aqabah in the north to Bab al-Mandab in the south, following a brutal campaign against the rebellious Turkaji Bilmaz in Jeddah, who had aligned himself with the
Ottoman Empire's adversary, Pasha of Egypt.
Bilmaz fled toward Abyarish, where he allied with Sharif Hussein bin Hamoud, and together they took control of Al-Hodeidah, Al-Lahiya, Zabid, and Al-Mocha. Meanwhile, Muhammad Ali Pasha sent a military force of 5,600 soldiers to Al-Hodeidah and Kamaran after securing full control over the Hejaz region.
During this period, as Al-Hodeidah fell under Muhammad Ali's control, several French travellers and scholars visited the city. Some of them were journalists and explorers, while others were officers in Muhammad Ali Pasha's army, many of whom wrote extensively about the region.
By 1839, the British had occupied Aden and attempted to stifle the commercial prosperity of Yemen’s western ports. The arrival of English ships to the shores of Aden became part of a fierce competition between them and the Egyptian forces for control over the key ports that influenced the trade routes to India.
Cairo decided to withdraw its forces from Al-Hodeidah as part of a large evacuation, with the last forces leaving Al-Hodeidah on April 2, 1840. The Pasha handed over Tihama to Sharif Hussein of Abyarish and the port of Al-Mocha to Imam of Sana’a Al-Mahdi in exchange for an agreed amount of coffee to be sent annually from Sana’a to Cairo.
Sharif Abu Aresh seized Al-Hodeidah, but after a fierce battle, Imam of Sana’a regained control. Three weeks later, Sharif Abu Aresh recaptured the city, and in 1849, the Ottomans sent an army to occupy Al-Hodeidah and Kamaran.
The Most Devastating Decision for the City and Its Port
Al-Hodeidah was at its lowest point, but the most significant and destructive blow to all the ports along Yemen's Red Sea coast came when the British declared Aden a free port. This decision had catastrophic consequences for all of Yemen, as it shifted the active commercial movement to Aden as a free zone.
Despite the despair and stagnation that befell Al-Hodeidah and other western coastal cities, Prince Ayedh (the Prince of Asir) sent a full brigade to occupy Al-Hodeidah in 1856. However, his forces failed after a prolonged siege, with around 3,000 of his soldiers perishing from a cholera epidemic while waiting outside the city walls near the sea.
Thus, Al-Hodeidah remained at the mercy of raids and destruction, a victim of the imperial rivalry between the great powers and their local and regional agents. The city suffered under the bombardment of Italian warships after Italy’s occupation of Libya and the subsequent expulsion of the Ottomans. Then came World War I, during which the city was bombarded by British Royal Navy ships stationed off the coast. After the war ended with an Allied victory, the British once again occupied Al-Hodeidah, only to leave after three years. However, the city and the entire Tihama region would soon face a new and even more devastating reality due to the war that broke out between Imam Yahya and Al-Idrisi.
Imam Yahya won the war in Tihama and regained control of Al-Hodeidah, only to find himself entangled in yet another conflict with the Zaraniq. After seven years of war, Prince Faisal's forces finally reached Al-Hodeidah after the conflict with the Zaraniq had ended.
In the current circumstances, Al-Hodeidah has suffered immense destruction, its trade has come to a halt, and the city has witnessed waves of displacement. Today, it remains at the mercy of the war between local, regional, and global powers, caught in a grim reality of life and death.
