ANGLO - OTTOMAN CONFRONTATION IN YEMEN: 1840-49

In previous studies we traced the beginnings of Ottoman renewed concern over Yemen to the Mocha incident of 1817. British assault on Mocha that year excited the suspicions of the sultan's government. The assault on what they interpreted the back door to the holiest shrines of Islam was seen as part of British design on Yemen as a whole, particularly after their political agent extracted a treaty from the Imam of Sanaa that was seen as an attempt to legitimize their presence at Mocha without reference to Ottoman sovereign rights over the region. During the next decade the British sought to firm up their hold on this corner of Arabia by stabilizing both the Tihama and immediate hinterland. Unable to do so with their limited forces, they urged Muhammad Ali, viceroy of Egypt, to undertake a campaign of pacification in the 1830's which, while not altogether successful, did gain a period of respite for the inhabitants and quieted tribal feuds and Wahhabi - Asiri assaults on the port towns of the Tihama. No sooner did the viceroy complete his costly campaign than Palmerston put pressure on fim to withdraw from both Yemen and Syria, which was done in 1840 in exchange for his being granted hereditary rule over Egypt.The purpose of this paper is to show how the absence of political stability and persisting insecurity induced the Ottoman government to takc firm measures leading towards the reestablishment of direct rule over Yemen in order to prevent the British from expanding their influence and control out of the Aden enclave. We have reiied on a dossier in the Ottoman archives entitled <Yemen Meselesio (problem of Yemen) for the Ottoman position and a detailed confidentia] report based on correspondences and memoranda by means of which the British sought to justify their denial of Ottoman sovereign claims over the portions of Yemen they coveted for the purpose of establishing a permanent foothold there, first at Mocha; and when that failed, next at Aden.