The Hadharem (Arabic: حضارم, romanized:ḥaḍārim; singular: Hadhrami, Arabic: حضرمي, romanized:ḥaḍramī) are an Arab ethnographic group indigenous to the Hadhramaut region in the Arabian Peninsula, which is part of modern-day Yemen, southern Oman, and southern Saudi Arabia. The spoken language of the Hadharem is Hadhrami Arabic. Among the two million inhabitants of Hadhramaut, there are about 1,300 distinct tribes.

Society

Flag of Hadhramaut used by Qasimists

Hadhramaut was under Muslim rule and converted to the faith during the time of Prophet Muhammad. A religious leader from Iraq introduced the Hadharem to Ibadi Islam in the mid-eighth century until in 951 AD when Sunnis took Hadhramaut and put it under their domain. To this day the Hadharem follow Sunni Islam, specifically the Shafi'i school.

Social hierarchy

Hadharem in Hadhrami attire performing a traditional dance

The people of the region are known as the Hadharem, generally belong to the Semitic south Arabians who claim descent from Yarub bin Qahtan. There is, however, a large number of Sada (Hadrami Arabic: سادة, romanized:Sadah; Singular: Sayyid), or descendant of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and of townsmen of northern origin, besides a considerable class of African or mixed descent. The Sada, descendants of Husain ibn Ali, grandson of the Islamic Prophet, form a numerous and highly respected aristocracy. They are divided into families, the chiefs of which are known as Munsibs, who are looked on as the religious leaders of the people and are even, in some cases are regarded with great respect as saints. Among the leading families are that of Sheikh Abu Bakar bin Salem (Hadrami Arabic: الشيخ ابو بكر بن سالم) of ʽAynat, al-Aidarus (Hadrami Arabic: العيدروس) of Shihr and Wadi Dawan, Bin Sumayt (Hadrami Arabic: بن سميط) of Shibam and the Sakkaf (Hadrami Arabic: سقاف) of Seiyun. They do not bear arms, nor occupy themselves in trade, nor manual labour, nor even agriculture; though owning a large proportion of the land, they employ labourers to cultivate it. As compared with the other classes, they are well educated and are strict in their observance of religious duties, and owing to the respect due to their descent, they exercise a strong influence both in temporal and spiritual affairs.

The Mashayikh (Hadrami Arabic: المشايخ) is another highly regarded group that is second in prestige to the Sada. Like the Sada, they don't bear arms. Men from this group are given the honorific surname Sheikh (Hadrami Arabic: شيخ) and women are given the surname Sheikha (Hadrami Arabic: شيخة) which is different from the term Sheikh (Arabic: شيخ) that is used to refer to a tribal chief or a Muslim scholar. Prominent Mashayikh families include the ‘Amudi (Hadrami Arabic: العمودي), Ba Wazir (Hadrami Arabic: با وزير), and Ba ‘Abbad (Hadrami Arabic: با عبّاد) families.

The Qaba'il (Hadrami Arabic: القبائل) or tribesmen, as in the rest of Arabia, are the predominant class in the population. All the adults carry arms. Some of the tribes have settled towns and villages, others live a bedouin life, keeping however within the territory which is recognised as belonging to the tribe. They are divided into sections or families, each headed by a chief while the head of the tribe is called the muqaddam or sultan. He is the leader in peace and in war, but the tribesmen are not his subjects; he can only rule with their support. Historically, the most powerful tribes in Hadhramaut was the Qu’aiti, a branch of the Yafa'a tribe. Originally invited by the Sada to protect the settled districts against the marauding tribes, they established themselves as rulers of the country, and possessed the coastal districts with the towns of Mukalla and Shihr as well as Shibam in the interior. The family had accumulated great wealth and was in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad in India as commander of the Arab levy composed of his tribesmen.

The townsmen are the free inhabitants of the towns and villages as distinguished from the Sada and the tribesmen; they do not carry arms, but are the working members of the community, merchants, artificers, cultivators, and servants and are entirely dependent on the tribes and chiefs under whose protection they live. The servile class contains a large African element, brought over formerly when the slave trade nourished on this coast.

Language

The Hadharem speak Hadhrami Arabic, a dialect of Arabic, although Hadharem living in the diaspora that have acculturated mainly speak the local language of the region they live in.

Diaspora

Hadhrami immigrants in Surabaya (Indonesia), 1920
Hadhrami Arab neighborhood in Surabaya, 1880
Hadharem of Palembang, 22 February 1937

The Hadharem have a long seafaring and trading tradition that predates Semitic cultures. Hadramite influence was later overshadowed by the rise of the Sabaeans, who became the ruling class. This prompted Hadhrami families to emigrate in large numbers around the Indian Ocean basin, including the Horn of Africa, the Swahili Coast, the Malabar Coast, Hyderabad in South India, Sri Lanka, and Maritime Southeast Asia. In the mid 1930s the Hadhrami Diaspora numbered at 110,000, amounting to a third of the total Hadhrami population.

Hadharem in the Arabian Peninsula

Hadharami communities exist in western Yemen, the trading ports of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and on the coast of the Red Sea. The money changers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia have historically been of Hadhrami origin.

Hadhrami East Africans

The Hadharem have long had a presence in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia), and also comprise a notable part of the Harari population. Hadhrami settlers were instrumental in helping to consolidate the Muslim community in the coastal Benadir province of Somalia, in particular. During the colonial period, disgruntled Hadharem from the tribal wars settled in various Somali towns. They were also frequently recruited into the armies of the Somali Sultanates.

Some Hadhrami communities also reportedly exist in Mozambique, Comoros, and Madagascar.

Hadhrami Jews

Hadhrami Jewish men in Coastal Hadhrami attire

The vast majority of the Hadhrami Jews now live in Israel.

List of Hadhrami Diaspora

Notable people

Yemen

Swahili Coast

Horn of Africa

Indonesia

East Timor

Malaysia

Singapore

The Hadharem presence in Singapore came from encouragement of Stamford Raffles to trade in his newly established colony of Singapore.

South Asia

Saudi Arabia

United Kingdom

See also

Further reading

  • Abaza, Mona (2009). . In Tagliacozzo, Eric (ed.). Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, Movement, and the Longue Durée. NUS Press. pp. 250–274. ISBN 9789971694241. OCLC .
  • Abushouk, Ahmed Ibrahim; Ibrahim, Hassan Ahmed, eds. (2009). The Hadhrami diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity maintenance or assimilation?. Brill. ISBN 9789004172319. ISSN . OCLC .
  • AHMED BIN SALAM BAHIYAL who came from hadramaut to MAHABUBNAGAR (HYDERABAD) INDIA, 1821
  • Ali, Shanti Sadiq (1996). . The African Dispersal in the Deccan: From Medieval to Modern Times. Orient Blackswan. pp. 193–202. ISBN 9788125004851.
  • Aljunied, Syed Muhd Khairudin (2007). "The Role of Hadramis in Post-Second World War Singapore – A Reinterpretation". Immigrants & Minorities. 25 (2): 163–183. doi:. ISSN . S2CID .
  • Al-Saqqaf, Abdullah Hassan (2008). "The Linguistics of Loanwords in Hadrami Arabic". International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 9 (1): 75–93. doi:. ISSN . S2CID .
  • Al-Saqqaf, Abdullah Hassan (2012). . In Raj, Rizio Yohannan (ed.). Quest of a Discipline: New Academic Directions for Comparative Literature. India: Foundation Books. pp. 191–212. doi:. ISBN 9788175969339.
  • Bang, Anne K. (2003). Sufis and scholars of the sea: Family networks in East Africa, 1860-1925. Routledge. ISBN 9780415317634. OCLC .
  • Boxberger, Linda (2002). On the edge of empire: Hadhramawt, emigration, and the Indian Ocean, 1880s-1930s. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780791452172. ISSN . OCLC .
  • Freitag, Ulrike (1999). "Hadhramaut: A Religious Centre for the Indian Ocean in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries?". Studia Islamica (89): 165–183. doi:. JSTOR .
  • Freitag, Ulrike (2009). . In Tagliacozzo, Eric (ed.). Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, movement, and the Longue Durée. NUS Press. pp. 235–249. ISBN 9789971694241. OCLC .
  • Jacobsen, Frode F. (2008). Hadrami Arabs in present-day Indonesia: An Indonesia-oriented group with an Arab signature. Routledge. ISBN 9780203884614. OCLC .
  • Khalidi, Omar (1996). . In Kulakarṇī, A. Rā; Nayeem, M. A.; Souza, Teotonio R. De (eds.). Mediaeval Deccan History: Commemoration Volume in Honour of Purshottam Mahadeo Joshi. Bombay, India: Popular Prakashan. ISBN 9788171545797.
  • Manger, Leif; Assal, Munzoul A. M., eds. (2006). "A Hadrami Diaspora in the Sudan". . Stylus Pub Llc, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. p. 61. ISBN 9789171065636. OCLC .
  • Manger, Leif (2007). "Hadramis in Hyderabad: From Winners to Losers". Asian Journal of Social Science. 35 (4): 405–433. doi:. ISSN .
  • Manger, Leif (2010). The Hadrami diaspora: Community-building on the Indian Ocean rim. Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781845459789. OCLC .
  • Miran, Jonathan (2012). "Red Sea Translocals: Hadrami Migration, Entrepreneurship, and Strategies of Integration in Eritrea, 1840s–1970s". Northeast African Studies. 12 (1): 129–167. doi:. ISSN . S2CID .
  • Mobini-Kesheh, Natalie (1999). The Hadrami awakening: Community and identity in the Netherlands East Indies, 1900-1942. SEAP Publications. ISBN 9780877277279. OCLC .
  • Romero, Patricia W. (1997). Lamu: History, society, and family in an East African port city. Markus Wiener. pp. 93–108, 167–184. ISBN 9781558761070. OCLC .
  • Talib, Ameen Ali (1997). "Hadramis in Singapore". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 17 (1): 89–96. doi:. ISSN .
  • Walker, Iain (2008). "Hadramis, Shimalis and Muwalladin: Negotiating Cosmopolitan Identities between the Swahili Coast and Southern Yemen". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 2 (1): 44–59. doi:. ISSN . S2CID .
  • Yimene, Ababu Minda (2004). . Cuvillier Verlag. p. 204. ISBN 9783865372062.