Taʿizz

Taʿizz, city, southwestern Yemen, in the Yemen Highlands. It is one of the country’s chief urban centres and a former national capital.

The Ayyūbid dynasty under Tūrān Shāh, brother of Saladin, which conquered Yemen in 1173–74, made its capital first at Zabīd and then moved it to Taʿizz. The Ayyūbids were succeeded by the Rasūlids (1229–1454) and the Ṭāhirids (1454–1516), who moved the capital to Sanaa. In the latter year Taʿizz passed to Ottoman Turkish suzerainty, which lasted, with intervals, until 1918. The Zaydī imams (leaders; see Zaydiyyah) of Yemen frequently rebelled against Ottoman rule, however, and sporadically held the city. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I (1918), Taʿizz and the surrounding area came into uncontested possession of the imam.

Picturesquely situated at an elevation of about 4,500 feet (1,400 metres) above sea level, the walled city is at the northern foot of Mount Ṣubr, 9,862 feet (3,006 metres) high. It has many fine, elaborately decorated multistory houses. Al-Muẓaffariyyah and Ashrafiyyah are two of the city’s notable mosques. Towering about 1,500 feet (450 metres) above the city on a mountain spur is the old citadel and governor’s residence. Taʿizz is the centre of the important coffee-growing district of southwestern Yemen; khat (Arabic: qat, a mild narcotic) and vegetables are also grown in the area. The first city in the country to have a citywide purified water system (built by the United States in the 1960s), Taʿizz also has aluminum, biscuit, and soft-drink plants.

A madrasah (theological school) in Taʿizz is frequently referred to as an Islamic university. A government experimental farm and agricultural school are located nearby. Taʿizz is the junction of two important all-weather highways, the east-west road from Mocha (Al-Mukhā) on the Red Sea coast, and the north-south route to the national capital of Sanaa, via Ibb and Dhamār. Another road links Taʿizz with Aden.

Long an important administrative centre, the city was for a time under the monarchy the seat of Taʿizz (sometimes called South) liwāʾ (province), which was ruled as an emirate by a member of the princely Āl Wazīr house; the province came under the personal rule of the crown prince in 1944. From 1948 to 1962 (when the republic was established) Taʿizz was the residence of the imam and the administrative capital of the country. Places of interest in the vicinity include the former royal residence of ʿUṣayfirah and the ruins of ancient Thamad, a 12th-century mountain resort of the Ṣulayḥid princes. Pop. (2001 est.) city, 450,000; (2004) 466,968.