The Kingdom of Yemen (Arabic: المملكة اليمنية, romanized: al-Mamlakah al-Yamanīyah), officially the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (Arabic: المملكة المتوكلية اليمنية, romanized: al-Mamlakah al-Mutawakkilīyah al-Yamanīyah) and also known simply as Yemen or, retrospectively, as North Yemen, was a state that existed between 1918 and 1970 in the northwestern part of the modern country of Yemen. Located in the Middle East, it was bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Aden Protectorate to the south, and the Red Sea to the west. Its capital was Sanaa from 1918 to 1948, then Taiz from 1948 to 1962. Yemen was admitted to the United Nations on 30 September 1947. A republican coup was launched against the government in 1962, leading to the North Yemen Civil War. The royalist government only controlled the northern portions of the country from 1962 to 1970, until a peace deal in 1970 saw it largely dissolved.
Three days after the Ottoman Empire's decision to withdraw from Yemen following the 1918 Armistice of Mudros, Imam Yahya, the religious leader of the region, entered Sana'a and declared himself the ruler of Yemen. After declaring his rule, he launched attacks on Aden, which was under the auspices of the British Empire, but the British repelled the attacks. He then suppressed the rebellions of the tribes in Southern Tihama, advanced towards the Emirate of Asir, and increased his legitimacy by making agreements with the Kingdom of Italy and the Soviet Union. In 1927, he again attacked the countries under the auspices of the British Empire, and these attacks also failed. In 1934, he signed a friendship treaty with the United Kingdom, promising not to attack Aden in exchange for border negotiations. The Saudi-Yemeni war broke out because he did not accept to surrender the Emir of Asir, who was loyal to Saudi Arabia at that time and rebelled. Four months later, Yemen made peace by giving Jizan, Najran, and Asir to Saudi Arabia. After this war, the Kingdom of Yemen began to pursue an isolationist policy.
While Imam Yahya enjoyed legitimacy among the Zaydi tribes in the northern areas, the Sunni population in the coastal and southern regions were less inclined to accept his rule. To maintain power, he maintained authoritarian rule and appointed his sons to rule various provinces. Therefore, as a result of the growing discontent, Imam Yahya was assassinated in 1948 by revolutionaries who wanted to establish a constitutional government, but his son Ahmad bin Yahya, who was the crown prince at the time, seized power with the help of loyal Zaydi tribes. In 1958, Ahmed bin Yahya joined the United Arab States under pressure from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. However, when Syria left the union in 1961, Yemen also left the union. After the death of Ahmed bin Yahya, one week after his son Muhammad al-Badr came to power, the soldiers under the leadership of Abdullah al-Sallal, supported by Egypt, staged a coup and established the Yemen Arab Republic. Al-Badr fled to the mountains and started a civil war with the help of Zaydi tribes. Saudi Arabia supported al-Badr, while Egypt sent troops to support al-Sallal. After Egypt's defeat by Israel in 1967, negotiations began between royalists and republicans for a ceasefire, and in 1970, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was officially dissolved in exchange for royalists having influence in the government.
The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was under an absolute monarchy. The country did not have an official language, although the majority of the population spoke Arabic, with a minority speaking Yemenite Hebrew. Of the country, 90% were Arabs, ~10% were Afro-Arabs, and a small portion were Yemeni Jews before Operation Magic Carpet (1949–1950) evacuated most of the Yemeni Jews to the new state of Israel. The population was ~55% Zaydi Muslim, ~45% Sunni Muslim, and a small portion was historically Jewish.
There are various sources about the etymology of Yemen. The term Yamnat is used in ancient South Arabian inscriptions to refer to the second Himyarite king. It is mentioned in the title of Shammar Yahrish. This term probably refers to the coastline between Aden and Hadhramaut. Historically, Yemen encompassed a larger region stretching from northern Asir in Saudi Arabia to Dhufar in southern Oman. This region is called Greater Yemen.
It is claimed that Yemen is derived from the Arabic name al-yamin (Arabic: اليمين, lit. 'Right') because Yemen is located to the south of the Mecca's Kaaba, that is, to its right according to maps, when turning towards the east of Mecca, which is considered the center of the world according to Islamic geographers. Other sources claim that Yemen comes from the root yamn or yumn, meaning happiness or blessed.
While the rest of Arabia was called Arabia Deserta by the Hellenistic Greeks, Arabia Eudaimon (Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, romanized: Evdaímon Áravía) by Roman geographers, and Arabia Felix (English: Fertile/Fortunate Arabia) by the Arabs. Yemen was called as-Sa'id (Arabic: اليمن السعيد, lit. 'Happy Yemen').
In 1849, the Ottoman Empire conquered the Tihama region in order for the Zaydi imam to recognize Ottoman sovereignty and allow Ottoman forces to deploy to Sana'a. Ahmed Muhtar Pasha with the Fırka-i İhtiyâtiyye Army to which he was assigned After eliminating Muhammed Âiz in Asir, he re-established the Ottoman authority in Yemen by taking Sana'a, the most important city of Yemen, during the governorship of Yemen to which he was appointed in 1872. Ahmed Pasha not only established authority but also initiated construction works in Yemen. In addition to a castle, a mosque, and an imaret, he had a printing house established in San'a and a telegraph line was laid between San'a and Hudaydah. However, the Zaydis, who wanted their imams to rule Yemen, rebelled in 1889 because the Ottoman officials serving in the region were involved in corruption in administrative affairs. Hejaz Governor Ahmed Feyzi Pasha, who was assigned to suppress the rebellion, from Hudaydah He advanced to Sana'a and Taiz and suppressed the rebellion in a short time. Not only was it difficult to suppress the rebellions in Yemen, but the poverty of the Yemeni people increased because reforms could not be made because they were costly to the Ottoman Empire. Since the discontent of the people could not be resolved, they rebelled even more. Abdul Hamid II made some reforms to eliminate the authority of Imam Yahya and eased the tax burden of the poor in Yemen and built schools. He tried to put an end to the rebellions by appointing officers who spoke Arabic to Yemen. After the rebellions of 1882, 1896, 1902, 1904 and 1910. Shortly before World War I; In 1913, the Ottoman Empire was forced to cede some authority to Imam Yahya, who was officially the Zaydi imam. In return, Imam Yahya promised that he would not cooperate with Seyyid Idrisi against the Ottoman Empire. Then, Along with World War I, many wars took place in Yemen.
As the fronts turned into a stalemate in the First World War, Imam Yahya, the Zaydi imam of the time, became worried about what would happen to himself and Yemen. In order to avoid any harm to himself, Imam Yahya began to think of leaving Lahij to the British and asking for the opening of sea lanes and the stopping of British and Seyyid Idrisi attacks in return. On 30 October 1918, he signed the Mudros Armistice of the Ottoman Empire. After this situation, Imam Yahya entered Sana'a and declared the independence of Yemen, and 3 days after independence, Imam Yahya declared himself the ruler of the Zaydi Emirate of Yemen. According to the armistice, the Ottoman Empire was to withdraw from all of Yemen, but the governor of the city, Mahmut Nedim Bey, and the commander of the 40th Division, Galib Bey, did not comply with this order for 45 days. Corps Commander Ahmet Tevfik Pasha paid a small amount of the soldiers' overdue salaries from the Provincial coffers. Imam Yahya stated that he would not object if the corps decided to surrender the Corps units, and he requested that some of the weapons and ammunition in the troops be given to him as a precaution against possible attacks in the future, but some commanders objected to this. Taiz Operations Regional Commander Ali Sait Pasha took the initiative and went to Aden and met with the British. Since Ahmet Tevfik Pasha took the time to evacuate Yemen, the British ordered VII. The corps and Yahya's delegation sat at the table with the British, but no result came out of this negotiation. The resistance continued for 1 more month, then VII. The Corps and the 40th Division handed over most of their ammunition to Imam Yahya and sold the rest to the tribes to provide subsistence to the soldiers. On January 23, 1919, the last Ottoman force surrendered to the British. Although most of the officers had left, Mahmud Nedim Bey and 200 Ottoman officers were still detained by Imam Yahya in Sana'a. The civil servants who stayed in Yemen repeatedly wrote letters to the governments of Istanbul and Ankara for the payment of their salaries until the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. In a letter dated 13 October 1923, he stated that it was appropriate and necessary for the Yemenis to establish their own administration, that it was not possible to meet the financial demands, but that the necessary experts or civil servants were needed for organization. It was written that Turkey could help, provided that their salaries were paid by the Yemeni administration. They held important positions such as Mahmut Nedim the governor of Sana'a and Ragıp Pasha the minister of foreign affairs. Imam Yahya wanted Mahmud Nedim Bey, whose official duty ended after the Treaty of Lausanne, to stay in Yemen. However, Mahmud Nedim Bey returned to Turkey in 1924. Then he tried to bring the remaining Turks to Turkey. In 1926, some civil servants returned to Turkey. The Turks who remained in Yemen intermarried with the locals, and most of them were later presumed dead by those in Turkey.