Upstart Aggressors Destroying Yemen’s Heritage of Humanity

By: Kayhan Int’l

The ancient land of Yemen with its rich history and millennia long civilizations, has been trapped in a never-ending tragedy by its upstart aggressors, whether the Saudis and the Emiratis who have no culture of their own, or the uncouth Americans and the Israelis, who fatten on the gains of others.

It seems, jealousy is driving these nova rich powers, who clearly do not have a future, to destroy the heritage of humanity by killing the innocent people and pillaging their legacy.

Like vultures tearing apart carcasses of those killed by rapacious wolves, the American and Zionist plunderers of artifacts are looting the ruins of the Saudi devastated towns and cities of what was once Arabia Felix or Prosperous part of Arabia, but which today is the Arab World’s poorest country entangled in a four-and-a-half year long war that has killed over a hundred thousand men, women, and children.

The start of attacks on culturally rich Sana’a in 2015 was the first of many violent assaults on Yemen’s architectural history, but the worst hit historic area has been Yemen’s northern province of Saada, the hub of the ancient Minaean Kingdom of Ma’in, founded before the fourth century B.C. 

The old quarters of Saada, which has the world’s oldest human-carved landscapes, once consisted entirely of historic, centuries-old multi-story homes, is now almost wiped out, after Saudi Arabia declared it a military zone — even the city’s hand-carved wooden doors have been reduced to ashes.

Yemen was once described as a living museum, but US made bombs dropped by the Saudi jets have not only killed thousands of civilians and led to famine and spread of disease but also pulverized the country’s rich architectural history and left its inimitable heritage at the mercy of the highest bidder.

The buildings’ many-storied tower-houses, some of them rising to 110 feet, were more than 2,500 years old. The newest of them was more than 1,000 years old, built long before the United States even existed as a nation.

The effects of airstrikes on the UNESCO-listed old quarters of Saada are visible on labyrinthine lanes, hidden gardens, steam baths, busy markets and streets of the city that was said to have been founded by Shem, the son of Prophet Noah.

Saudi airstrikes are not limited to Saada but include Sana’a, Hodeida, Shibam in Hadhramout, Shabwa, Aden, Taiz, and other areas of the country’s history that have also fallen victim to bombing and looting.

The US claims it does not direct the Saudi airstrikes, but it cannot deny the sale of weapons, the refueling of Saudi combat aircraft, and the sharing of intelligence. 

If peace is brought to Yemen — and with it, compensation is provided — infrastructure, roads, schools, and hospitals could all be rebuilt; but nothing can bring back the historic architecture that has been destroyed. 

To understand Saudi Arabia’s motivation to wipe out Yemen’s heritage, one must study Yemen’s history and compare it to the British created rootless fiefdoms of the UAE and Saudi Arabia – the latter ruled by the heretical Wahhabi cult.

Yemen was home to several flourishing civilizations — including Ma’in, Qataban, Hadhramaut, Ausan, Himyar and Saba (Sheba); the last of which lasted for 11 centuries and has been mentioned in the holy Qur’an by God Almighty. 

In contrast to Yemen’s rich and ancient history, statehood did not appear on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf until the 1930s, when London gifted its agent Abdul-Aziz with a spurious kingdom called Saudi Arabia. As for the United Arab Emirates – Riyadh’s accomplice in state terrorism against Yemen – statehood had to wait until 1971.

Yemenis point out that the upstart Wahhabi regime of Saudi Arabia harbours severe jealousy towards Yemen’s history and heritage that spans 6,000 years.

Moreover, Wahhabism abhors the preservation of historic and religious sites, in line with its heretical policy of desecrating the tombs of saints in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina where it destroyed the shrines of the Prophet’s family, and shows special disdain for Yemen’s historic sites, especially those located in northern Yemen, the seat of the Shi’a Muslim Zaydis for over a thousand years.

Destruction from the air is not the only threat to Yemen’s ancient legacy. During their war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have established smuggling networks in the country to loot historic sites.

The smuggling of Yemeni antiquities is often carried out by diplomats operating out of Arab embassies in return for lucrative sums of money provided by patrons from the US and Israel. The artifacts nabbed from the scholars include a gilded Torah scroll, and dozens of bejeweled daggers from the early Islamic era. 

Aden, over whose control the Saudis and the Emiratis are going at each other’s throats despite their alliance, is favored by smugglers for shuttling stolen artifacts abroad. Here — according to the testimonies of a number of smugglers arrested by Ansarallah forces and now serving sentences Sana’a’s Central Prison — smugglers are able to work in broad daylight in facilities provided to them by high-ranking officials of the puppet regime of the fugitive from justice, Mansur Hadi.

Yemen’s heritage would be lost forever, unless the Saudis and the Emiratis are defeated by the ever-improving drone and missile power of the Yemeni people.