Abu Arish

Abu 'Arish is a town in 'Asir, about two miles from Jizan. Philby describes it as kite-shaped and nearly a mile across, made up mostly of brushwood huts and adjoining ruins. Its population was about 12,000 in his time, who grew millet and sesame, and its merchants were mostly of Hadrami origin. The encyclopaedia's entry is signed by C. F. Beckingham. ¹

A shaykh first settled the town in the seventh/thirteenth century, and it prospered under the Zaydi imams, who captured it in 1036/1627. In the next century the local ashraf became independent. They submitted briefly to the Wahhabis (1217/1802-3) and later to the Egyptians. When the Egyptians left Hudayda in 1256/1840, Sharif Husayn occupied the Tihama and threatened Aden, until Britain protested and the Turks drove him back to 'Asir. The ashraf declined in civil war and the attacks of Muhammad b. 'A'id. Abu 'Arish has since belonged to the Turks, the Idrisi and Ibn Saud. ¹