ABSTRACT
The rising prosperity of Aden, coupled with the troubles in the Yemen, Drought in more Banyans, so that parts of the Settlement resembled an Indian rather than an Arab town. In March 1900 a Yemeni tribal chief, probably assisted by the Turks, occupied a fort called al-Darayjah which the British regarded as being within Hawshabi territory and thus within the Protectorate. The Imam Muhammad was succeeded by his son Yahya, who was to be the dominant figure in the Yemen for over forty years. The Turks were known to have about 14,000 men in the Yemen but only a third of these could be spared from garrison duties; the number of men in the Aden fortress was slightly less. The Imam replied in May with a list of twelve demands which mostly repeated those of the previous July, except that he apparently envisaged that the Sultan of Lahej should be permitted to deal directly with the Aden government.
