Bayhan District
| Bayhan District | |
|---|---|
| District | |
 Bayhan emirate in the Federation of South Arabia |
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 Bayhan District
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| Coordinates: 14°47′57″N 45°43′05″E / 14.799239°N 45.717974°ECoordinates: 14°47′57″N 45°43′05″E / 14.799239°N 45.717974°E | |
| Country |
 Yemen
|
| Governorate | Shabwah |
| Population (2003) | |
| • Total | 48,347 |
| Time zone | Yemen Standard Time (UTC+3) |
Bayhan District is a district of the Shabwah Governorate in Yemen. As of 2003, the district had a population of 48,347 inhabitants.
Bayhan District covers 616 square kilometres (238 sq mi). The district is just east of Harib and north of al-Baydha. It is bordered by North Yemen to the north west, the Hadhramaut to the southeast, and the Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter) to the northeast. It roughly corresponds to the Wadi Bayhan, which runs down from the Yemeni highlands in a northeast direction into the Ramlat al-Sab`atayn desert. The Wadi persists for about 45 miles (72 km) from the mountain front. It crosses the Ramlat as Sab'atayn and emerges on the Jaww Kudayf Al 'Ubaylet. As of 1966 the only route into Bayhan accessible to motor vehicles was along the wadi. The district takes its name from the former Emirate of Beihan. The principal town is Beihan.
The Wadi Bayhan and neighboring Wadi Harib made up the Qataban trading state in ancient times. The Qataban state, which fell around 400 AD, lay on the Frankincense Trail. It had a highly developed system of spate irrigation. There are records of the rise of a Jewish messiah near Bayhan during the reign of Sultan 'Amir ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1488-1517) of the Tahiride dynasty. The messianic pretender rode horses with saddles decorated in silver, and organized the people who gathered around him into a military force. The Sultan crushed the movement and killed many Jews around 1495 or 1500.
More recently, Wadi Bayhan was the scene of clashes between the British and the Ottoman Turks, and then between the British and the Hamid al-Din imams. The Hashimite rulers of the Bayhan emirate were connected to the royal family of Jordan. They made a treaty of protection with Britain early in the 20th century, and an advisory agreement with the British in the 1940s. Sharif Husayn bin Ali Bayhan, the ruler of the emirate, sided with the royalists against the republicans in the North Yemen Civil War. In 1967 the emirate was abolished by the National Liberation Front. Sharif Husayn made an unsuccessful attempt to regain control of Bayhan by force in early 1968. From the late 1960s until the 1980s the Wadi Bayhan saw fighting between forces of the two Yemens.
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Wikipedia