Yemen, or "Al Yaman," which means, "The South," is a rather large, sparsely populated country at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. One of the oldest centers of civilization in the world, much of Yemen's land is actually fertile enough to keep a stable population, unlike that of its neighbor to the north, Saudi Arabia, whose climate historically required its citizens to have nomadic know-how to get by. Invading kingdoms coveted this fertile land and ruled parts of Yemen throughout its ancient history. Islam arrived early in Yemen, around the year 630, and Yemen became one of the first provinces in the Arabic/Islamic empire. (Today 99% of Yemenis are Muslim.)

Yemen remained very much under Arab control until the 19th century when the Ottomans took much of the northern part of the country. In 1904 the British and Ottomans formally split Yemen in two, with the Ottomans presiding over northern Yemen and the British over the south. In 1990 the North and South officially reunified and became the Republic of Yemen...though the merger was rocky, and there was war.   

Yemen has continued to experience terrible turmoil, with fighting between proxy armies supported by international powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia (and, more broadly, Russia and the U.S.). In class we may acknowledge these struggles in class, but we mainly focus on the daily lives of Yemenis, and specifically on what they do to celebrate, enjoy life, and make peace.