Yemen’s Red Sea Coast and the Ottoman Legacy

Al-Luhhaya to al-Jah, Yemen

“I embarked on a ship....and reached the township of al-Sarja, a small town inhabited by a body of the Awlad al-Hiba.”

The remains of the once-thriving port of al-Luhayya

In the English translation of the Travels of Ibn Battuta, the footnotes simply say Sharja is a “township of grass huts with an anchorage in the vicinity of al-Luyyaha.” So, arriving in al-Luhayya we looked for it, asking all the old men we could find - nobody had heard of it. The English translation completed over 50 years ago, could refer to half the coastline. Al-Luyyaha itself is almost in the sea - this stretch of the Red Sea which was so important under the Ottomans is disappearing, victim of the natural effects of tide and climate, as well as the man-made contribution of lack of attention and money. (I believe Sharja is a memory a little further north than we ventured.)

The remains of an Ottoman building in al-Luhayya