Further Resources
For further information on Yemen, its culture, social life and your place here as a foreigner please refer to this list of helpful and informative titles. It is recommended that all students take the time to inform themselves on Yemeni culture and history.
General Arab & Islamic Culture
Understanding Arabs by Dr. Margaret Nydell
Offers a short but very useful introduction to the cultural expectations Arabs and foreigners have of each other, and some helpful advice for how to best negotiate these differing expectations.
An Introduction to Islam by Frederick Mathewson Denny
A brief primer on Islam placing the religion in cultural and historical context.
A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani & Malise Ruthven
Offers a concise, one-volume history of the Arab peoples in the Islamic world.
Yemeni Culture, History & Politics
Sana'a: An Arabian Islamic City
Published by the World of Islam Festival Trust only 2,000 copies of this work exist so it will most likely only be found in large university libraries.
A History of Modern Yemen by Paul Dresch
A detailed analysis of the political history of Yemen in the 20th century
Tribes, Government, and History in Yemen by Paul Dresch
Describes the social and political workings of tribes in North Yemen.
A Tribal Order: Politics and Law in the Mountains of Yemen by Shelagh Weir
An extensive investigation into the social and political workings in the tribal region of Jabal Razih.
The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society by Brinkley Messick
An examination of textual authority in the Ibb province, particularly worthwhile for the emphasis on the changes in Yemen in the past century.
Yemen into the Twenty-First Century: Continuity and Change by Kamil Mahdi, Anna Wuerth & Helen Lackner
A look at the social, legal and political changes which shaped Yemen duing the 1990s. One of the only works to deal extensively with this crucial period in Yemeni political history.
Peaks of Yemen I Summon: Poetry as Cultural Practice in a North Yemeni Tribe by Steven C. Caton
An ethnographic account of verbal poetry in North Yemen
Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation by Steven C. Caton
A continuation of Dr. Caton's work on oral poetry in tribal areas
he Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean by Enseng Ho
Chronicles the Islamic diaspora which originated in the Hadramout region of Yemen.
Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
An account of Tim Mackintosh-Smiths's 20 year residence in Yemen.
Yemen: The Unknown Arabia by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
A continuation of Tim-Mackintosh-Smith's 20 year Yemeni adventure.
Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam's Greatest Traveler by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
A historical account of Ibn Battutah, an extraordinary, but relatively unknown, medieval explorer.
The Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
An account of Ibn Battutah's expedition to India.
Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea by Eric Hansen
An extraordinary account of a man smuggled into Yemen. A good way to prepare yourself for the quirks of Yemeni culture.
Travel Guides
Yemen (Bradt Travel Guide) by Daniel McLaughlin
Oman UAE & Arabian Peninsula by Jenny Walker
Jemen. Reisehandbuch (german language) by von Gerd Simper & Petra Brixel