| |
[N.B. It can only be with extremetrepidation that a layman approaches the subject of architecture in acountry with strongly pronounced traditions of architecture andarchitectural scholarship. In a land with such diverse architecturaltraditions as Yemen, it is however possible for the unsuspectingvisitor to imagine that another angle is worth mentioning, and thusthis small contribution, which is primarily intended to inspiredeeper investigation by the more qualified, or those seeking tobecome such.]
Throughout the Yemeni highlands, onefrequently finds villages of square stone tower houses surrounded bya mighty wall, complete with watch towers and pierced by a singlerelatively inaccessible gate, all placed precariously atop a peak orat a suitably unapproachable site on a mountain slope. The defensivecharacter of such settlements is quite obvious, and the same idealies behind the wall surrounding the compact city of Shibam in theHadramaut. Both can be traced back to pre-Islamic times, with thewalled city of Baraqish the best surviving example of the genre. Thewalls of Sanaa served the same purpose. Each represents a communityinvestment, insofar as the time consuming and labour intensiveconstruction of the wall implies that any assault be carefullyconsidered in advance, and thus deters gratuitous aggression. Theapparent strength of the defenses alone serves to defend thetown.
In recent times in the Hadramaut a morerepresentative tradition has prevailed. In place of massive masonry,we have mud-brick magnificence. The palace of the Kathiri Sultans inSay'un is a monumental version of the traditional Hadrami shaykh'srepresentative square fort with high walls and corner towers. Theseforts are rarely located at strategic positions, and most of them areset in tactically unsound surroundings, in a village in the middle ofthe valley, exposed to attack of all kinds from all sides. Suchforts can be seen in varying stages of dilapidation in various townsand villages of the Hadramaut, and despite al-Kindi's narrative, onecan imagine that the fighting in the battles of the XIX century wasnever very intense, for a few well placed cannon balls would quicklyhave eliminated not only an architectural tradition, but the power ofthe shaykhs residing in the forts, and such self-destructivetendencies are not a characteristic of the orderly methods of disputesettlement among civilized people. And, in fact, the elimination ofthe power of the shaykhs also brought about the demise of theirfortifications: being political structures, they were destroyedpolitically rather than militarily.
Tactically well placed are the lone towerson the slopes edging the Hadramaut, usually made of mud-brick andwood, with windows only near the top. They bear a strikingsimilarity to European castles, with their carefully chosenpositions. Tall round towers can also be seen in upper Yemen,although the latter are occasionally built of stone and windowless. The towers in the North are more commonly placed in long lines downthe middle of the wadis, as in the Bawn, which Glaser termed thebalad aman, "Land of Security". Serving as watch towers andsignal stations, as well as potential places of refuges, it is onlyin their tower-like form and solitary positions that they resembletheir southern cousins, for their European relation would be thewatch towers of the Roman limes.
Three stone forts on three tall moundscompletely block the Wadi Hammam just south of Nisab, in Shabwa. Thefive hundred year old tall square towers testify to another age,before the Sultans and the British, when traffic was moving north andsouth and the country flourished under a semi feudal politicalsystem. A similar tower guards the pass at Nadj Marad. A symbol ofthe same feudal environment is the stone and mud brick Husn al-Hor,set on a hilltop in the Wadi Masila, large enough to house soldiersand their mounts.
Dating to the same period, but far moreserious is the small fort on Sira Island at Aden, built purely with aview to European conceptions of defense: the high walls of solidstone support gun emplacements for large cannon, and the position -atop an island without easy access - was selected for itsunassailability. The 360 degree panoramic view from the top of themain fort is obscured only by a slight prominence to the northeast,where there is a secondary gun emplacement. The walls are alsorounded, so as to deflect the impact of any cannon balls which mightactually strike the thing, and the form itself somewhat remarkable,being semi-circular with two round towers set before the line of thediameter. This most unconventional fort was well placed to defendshipping interests from the very serious threat represented by thePortuguese, Dutch and British. The Portuguese were defeated beforeSira in 1513, and the Emir had no difficulty persuading a Dutchmerchant warship to depart in 1614. The artillery on a single Dutchgunship was probably greater than the total number of field piecesever transported to the Hadramaut until very recent times, and thusthe motivation to assure protection far greater than in theHadramaut. Walls protected not only Sira, but also all of Crater,and walls run all across the peninsula.
Another example of foreign militaryarchitecture used in defense of shipping interests in Yemen is thecitadel at Luhayya, constructed during the second Turkish occupation. Overlooking the town and the Red Sea Coast is a small fort withenough space to comfortably house a company of soldiers. Thedefenses were of course equipped to meet the moderate threats of thetime, and thus the walls and the cannon do not bear comparison withthe fort at Sira. In the last few centuries, most of the competitionhas been between Aden and Mocha, with the latter sufferingconsiderably more, as it can only be protected by commercial andpolitical guarantees, the topography of the place being unsuitablefor military installations.
Built or rebuilt as representativeadministrative and military compounds are the Ottoman citadels inZabd and Sanaa. The structure in Zabid can trace its origins back tothe XVI century at least, and the citadel in Sanaa probably goes backto prehistoric times, although the oldest architectural evidenceunearthed thus far can be ascribed to the Yufirid period at theearliest. The citadel in Sanaa is more consciously military thanrepresentative as the eastern edge of the city was constantlythreatened.
Obviously, the defensive architecture ofYemen reveals not only the different architectural techniques andmaterials which characterize the various regions of the country, butit also throws into bold relief differing attitudes towards warfareand different types of threats, while also reflecting the slowprocess by which Yemen was technologically drawn into the modernworld although the strategic points remain the same, a point which isdriven home when skirting the modern tank pits not far from the passat Najd Marad, with its mediaeval and ancientfortifications.
| |