ABSTRACT

Muslim East Africa, it is necessary first to understand the tradition in which they were formed. This tradition first came to evolve in H

˙ ad ˙ ramawt.

There exists a considerable literature on H ˙ ad ˙ ramı¯ history and social

organisation.1 Although more recent research2 has questioned the rigidity of the social system described by earlier authors, the distinct H

˙ ad ˙ ramı¯ stratification

system remains a natural starting point for a survey of the \Alawı¯ homeland. It must be noted that the above-mentioned literature all stems from the twentieth century, i.e. the 1950s and onwards. This means that caution must be exercised when trying to project backwards in time surveys undertaken a hundred years later. What can be said is that we have no indication that H

˙ ad ˙ ramı¯ society was

organised along entirely different lines in the nineteenth century; the stratas described in twentieth-century literature are well represented also in the historical material.