The Ottoman Conquest of Yemen

Daily Prompt: Conquer

Oh, the great Ottoman Empire! Yemen was not only conquered by the Ottomans once, but twice. The first time was in the 16th century.

But before the Ottoman conquest of Yemen, they conquered Constantinople in 1453. The sultan then took the name The Conquerer.

“Worried about Portuguese expansion in the Indian Ocean, the Ottomans knew that occupying or at the very least controlling Yemen was crucial in thwarting Portuguese ambitions, and so the Ottoman conquest of Yemen began that changed the fortunes of the country for the next 200 years.” (Yemen, by Steven C. Caton)

The Portuguese Christians were already occupying Socotra and, though for a brief time, the Mamluk’s of Egypt had annexed a portion of Yemen.

The Ottomans conquered the Mamluk territory of Yemen in 1517 and it became Yemen Eyalet, which included the province of Mokha.

A Landscape of Pilgrimage and Trade in Wadi Masila, Yemen

Yemen was conquered by the Ottomans a second time and much of what was the Yemen Eyalet formed into Yemen Vilayet. The Ottomans had pushed more into northern Yemen and Sana’a became its capital in 1872.

Traditional Society in Transition: The Yemeni Jewish Experience

But the Ottomans faced resistance from local tribes and so the Kingdom of Yemen, also known as North Yemen, was established in 1918.

The Sultan’s Yemen: 19th Century Challenges to Ottoman Rule

The Statesman’s Year-book

And there ends the story of how Yemen was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.