SIM cards and history in Sana'a

Sana'a, Yemen

Buying a SIM card for your phone in Yemen entails giving a copy of the picture page and visa stamp of your passport to the store-owner which he presumably passes along to the appropriate authorities, and filling out an application form which must be stamped with your left thumbprint.  A phone call is then made to some mysterious entity and only then do you get your cellphone number. One assumes in these disturbing times, that the Yemeni government wants to keep tabs on who’s who. (It is interesting to note which countries keep close tabs on such things. In Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria you pay cash and trundle off with the new SIM and phone number, nary a piece of paperwork in sight. In Tunisia, Libya and Yemen your passport is required and recorded. I cannot quite find the common thread there.....)  The good news is that the SIM card and a charge card costs the grand total of $12.  Email is also very cheap here at 50 cents an hour (100 Yemeni Riyals) for relatively fast connection, with internet cafes everywhere in the major cities.

A view of Old Sana'a from the rooftop of one of the city's many samsarahs.

Enchanted Lanterns and Controversy in the Great Mosque

Sana’a, Yemen

“I took leave to continue my journey to the city of Sana’a. It is the former capital of the country of al-Yaman, a large and well-constructed city, built with bricks and plaster, with many trees and fruits, and with a temperate climate and good water. It is a curious thing that the rain in the lands of India, al-Yaman and Abyssinia falls during the period of summer heat, and mostly during the afternoon of every day in that season, so that travelers make haste when the sun begins to decline to avoid being caught by the rain and the womenfolk retire to their dwellings because those rains are heavy downpours. The whole city of Sana’a is paved and when the rain falls it washes and cleans all the streets. The cathedral mosque of Sana’a is one of the finest of Mosques and contains the grave of one of the prophets.”

The old City of Sana'a. I did not get into the Great Mosque. I tried, but there is currently a minor drama going on in Yemen; the first is an ongoing dispute between the government and the al-Houthi tribe in Sa’ada in the north, which has incurred several fatalities on both sides but mainly on the tribal side, the other is a trial in the capital involving ‘the bearded ones’ as the extremists are euphemistically called, and the government’s determination that they are not going to get a further hold in the country than whatever it is they already have. So, for now the mosque was off-limits.

Girl Solo In Arabia on the Shortlist for Top International Honor for the Web

The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for the Web, today nominated Girl Solo In Arabia for the Best Blog - Culture/Personal Website of 2007.

Winners will be announced on May 1, 2007 and honored at The 11th Annual Webby Awards Gala in New York City on June 5th. The ceremony will be hosted by comedian and actor Rob Corddry, a former correspondent for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile Websites.

"The Webby Awards honors the outstanding work that is setting the standards for the Internet," said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards. Girl Solo In Arabia Nominee selection is a testament to the vision of its Carolyn McIntyre."

As a nominee for a Webby Award, Girl Solo In Arabia is also eligible to win a People's Voice Award. Voting is open to the public from April 10th to April 27th Please Vote for Girl Solo In Arabia at peoplesvoice.webbyawards.com

The fine art of qat chewing

Ta’izz, Yemen

Taizz, Yemen’s third largest city, sits on an elevated plateau surrounded by fertile, green terraced hills and is best viewed from the 3200 meter Jabel Saber which dominates it. Atop this mountain is one of the country’s oldest mosques, the Ahl al Kahf, meaning ‘cave of the people’. This refers to a story in the Koran when several young men who tried to devote themselves to God were made to worship the pagan gods of the time. This forced them to flee to the top of the mountain where they slept for 309 years.  Two buildings make up the mosque and obviously the site dates to pre-Islamic times. After my visit I was informed that it has 2 qiblas as it was built when Muslims still prayed towards Jerusalem. If this is true, the mosque would have to date back to 624 or before which is when the Prophet Mohammed changed the direction of prayers to face Mecca. This would be remarkable, as although some parts of Yemen indeed accepted Islam during the lifetime of the Prophet who died in 632, Muad ibn Jabal, the first missionary sent by Mohmammed to Yemen, did not arrive until 631.

The charming little mosque al-Kahf set atop terraced hills.

Indigo and Sesame in the Tihama; Magnificent Past, Uncertain Future

Zabid and Jibla, Yemen

“...and then rode to the city of Zabid, a great city in al-Yaman......after San’a, there is no place in al-Yaman that is larger than it nor whose population is wealthier. It lies amid luxuriant gardens with many streams and fruits such as bananas and others......it is a great and populous city and contains groves of palms, orchards and running streams, in fact the pleasantest and most beautiful town in al-Yaman.”

So wrote Ibn Battuta in 1329 arriving from the northern Tihama coast.  I arrived from the southern Tihama coastal backwater port of Mokha, which ironically in the 17th century was the reason for the decline of Zabid. In its turn however Mokha has sunk to an eternally humid, windswept ghost town. (The coffee term ‘mocha’ derives from this improbable place.)