Sana‘a

Sana‘a or Sanaa, city and political capital of Yemen, located in Sana‘a Province, on a plateau northeast of the port of Al Ḩudaydah. Sana‘a is the commercial center of a fruit-growing region. It is divided into two sections with the junction formed by the palace of the former imams, or rulers, of Yemen. The eastern section, known as the old city, has several mosques and a market where jewelry, silver and leather goods, silks, and carpets are made and sold. The western section is largely residential. Sana‘a University (1970) is in the city. Sana‘a first became an important center in the 4th century ad, in the kingdom of an ancient Arabian people, the Himyarites. The city was included in the Muslim caliphate in 632, and it came under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s. Formerly the capital of the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), Sana‘a became the political capital of the Republic of Yemen when the YAR merged with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1990; Aden was made the economic capital. Population (2003 estimate) 1,469,072.