ABSTRACT
As late as the l960 it was the custom of every commentator on North Yemen to state, with the air of one making a profound and original observation, that the country was living in the Middle Ages. The agriculture of Egypt and of Mesopotamia was based upon the exploitation of mighty rivers which were lacking in the Yemen, so a system had to be created to take advantage of brief floods after heavy rains. Yemen became a distant province of the vast Arab Empire to which it contributed large numbers of men that parts of the Hadhramawt were almost depopulated: families claiming Yemeni origins be found on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq consolidated his state upon the lines. In an age when the Fatimids and the Abbasids aimed at universal rule, he never looked outside the Yemen.
