Ḥabbān

Habban is an old town of eastern Yemen, built of earth and enclosed by a wall. Its narrow quarters contain mosques, shrines and the palace of the Wahidi sultans. The town stood on ancient caravan routes between the coast and the interior, and its inhabitants included a Jewish community known for skilled work in gold and silver.

Habban came under the Tahirid dynasty in the fifteenth century and later became a centre of the Wahidi sultanate. Its distinctive buildings and the neighbourhoods around the ruler's palace reflect its long life as a regional seat. Jewish and Muslim residents practised crafts and traded in the same town, although Habban's Jewish community remained geographically distant from many other Yemeni Jewish settlements. The houses and public buildings of the old city were made with the earthen materials characteristic of this part of Arabia.