Geiseln in der jemenitischen Geschichte

Abstract

More than any other country in the Near and Middle East, Yemen has become known for the taking of foreigners – tourists or others – as hostages during the last two decades. While such incidents evoke much international sensation, the fact that hostages were taken in Yemeni society itself for centuries has been generally ignored by the public, except for some experts on Yemen and the Yemenis themselves. The article explores the practice of local hostage taking, starting from the twentieth century, then going back to the historical dimension. Yemeni historiography from the Middle Ages and later as well as modern ethnographical and historical studies testify to the existence of a many-layered phenomenon rooted deeply in the political strategies of dynasties or powers aiming at central rule and in the tribal society. The article collects situations of hostage taking documented in the sources and examines them as to the parties engaged, the policies pursued and the fate of the individuals taken as hostages. Finally the article proposes an answer to the question why Yemen stands so unique amongst other regions in the Middle East in a political practice which is testified for from pre-Islamic times until the twentieth century.