Yemen Update was the official Bulletin of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies. It started out as AIYS Newsletter in January, 1979 with a first issue of 8 pages. This remained a small newsletter with information about research in Yemen and a few short articles until Jon Mandaville took over as editor in July 1985 (issue #18), expanding it to include more bibliographic information, longer articles and an Arabic section. By the end of 1989 this newsletter had reached 30 plus pages per issue.

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In 1991 Dan Varisco became editor (issue #28/29) and changed the name to Yemen Update. In 1992 the newsletter became a bulletin with most issues averaging 48 pages. In 1993 the section "Index Yemenicus" began as a guide to new publications on Yemen. It ceased publication after 2009, but is available here on the AIYS Website.