Traditional way of life

Until recently all the social classes of Hadramawt wore costumes peculiar to their social groups. Even today, many of the traditional costumes are still recognizable.

Shibam. Types of internal columns and capitals. (Drawing by Ronald Lewcock.)

Tribesmen generally wore two basic garments: the first, a length of thick blue cotton, about 2 X 1.5 m, with fringes 50 cm long, was worn around the waist as a kind of kilt or futah, and a second, of roughly the same character and size, was worn gathered, as a sash or belt above it; in cold weather the latter became a shawl. The better-off sometimes wore a short sleeveless waistcoat or jacket, which was locally woven of wool or cotton; it was sometimes striped. Recently, it has become fashionable to wear a short Western-style coat. Tribesmen also wore turbans tightly wound around their heads or loosely thrown over their shoulders, often made of fine cotton or woollen stuff from India or Kashmir.

There is ample evidence that cloth was traditionally woven in the wadi, although it has now largely fallen into abeyance. The blue cotton cloth was said to come from Shibam. Historians of more than 500 years ago describe how more clothes were woven Hadramawt than were needed there, and the surplus was exported to Yemen (in exchange for 'needles for sewing, razors for shaving', and coffee husks for the popular beverage, bunn).

The hair of the Bedouin curls naturally, and the desert and remote valley tribes traditionally wore it very long and oiled with butter (ghee) or sesame oil. By contrast, the upper classes, the Saiyids, did not consider curly hair a mark of beauty and their men, like many of the other townspeople, often kept their heads shaved. Saiyid men dressed entirely in white, with a long cotton robe covered by a coat of heavy cotton or wool.

Women wore the same thick blue cotton cloth with a long fringe as the men, but they draped it from the bust downwards.

Over it, when they went out, they wore a long bleached off-white cotton cloak, with a thin veil of a piece of blue (or black) locally woven cloth over their faces. On festive occasions the inner dress might be rust-coloured, and a blue or black dress was brightened by the insertion in the front of red, yellow or green silk patches from India or the Far East. At such times the most beautiful dresses of all were those dyed with indigo, polished so that it shone like silver. At the west end of the wadi, the men's shawls and the women's overdresses were also dyed with indigo in this way, which gave them an extra richness in the sun. The disadvantage, however, was that the indigo ran in wet weather or when it touched anything moist. The indigo dyeing was carried out until recently in Shibam. An alternative to indigo-dyed material for 'best' occasions was black cotton or velvet embroidered with silver, with a silver and gold bodice, sometimes studded with sequins.

The women wore bright silk headscarves of orange or red. Their hands and feet were generally painted with elaborate lace- work patterns in hudha, which turned the skin almost black wherever it was applied. The fingertips were hennaed saffron, and the women wore many layers of jingling necklaces, earrings, bracelets and belts, mainly in fine local silverwork. Nose-rings were sometimes seen in the olden days as well. Eyebrows were often dyed green, and the eyes outlined with kohl so that they seemed very bright-the kohl sometimes carried the eyes to the temples.

Women's hair was often cut short and plaited into a mass of small oiled plaits, with a parting down the middle of the head, two subsidiary partings at right angles, one at the front and one at the back, and a carefully arranged curl on the forehead.

Townswomen sometimes wore their blue dresses short in front and trailing behind, with narrow white or blue trousers underneath, which hung in wrinkles round their ankles. Older women hennaed their faces and the whole of their hands saffron, or painted them with yellow ochre. Such customs varied considerably throughout the wadi.

Women working in the fields wore black outer garments and veils, and crowned their heads with large woven straw hats, looking like witches' bonnets with wide brims.

When one Hadrami met another, the greetings were often elaborate. A handshake was the normal greeting, signifying friendship and a safe relationship. But a Saiyid or one of the Mashayikh was greeted by a respectful kiss on the hand, a tribute which even a sultan could not avoid bestowing. (The Saiyid would usually show his appreciation of the awkward situation in which the ruler was placed by drawing back his hand and pretending to kiss that of the sultan.) A profound greeting of respect was sometimes seen, when a young man kissed the knees of an older and venerated member of his own family. A more affectionate greeting in this case might be kissing the wrists, elbows or shoulders. Intimate greetings were exchanged in the Asian manner by placing the noses close together and making loud sniffing sounds.

Saiyids and Mashayikh were always offered the place of honour in a reception-room Tribesmen would often carry their weapons into such a reception and sit cross-legged with them on their knees. Coffee or bunn would be served, or the mada'ah, the water pipe, smoked. Sometimes the room boasted a samovar, from which tea could be produced.

When greeting the company already seated, a newcomer to the reception room usually bent to make the first greeting and did not straighten up between one greeting and the next, but Walked gracefully in a stooping position to grasp each hand as it was extended up to him all around the room, until having completed the circle, he would sit down.

Shibam. The interior of a reception-room in a house more than 100 years old. Note the decoration on the wooden columns and the capital.

Food included flat bread, baked inside one of the fire-clay ovens, porridge made of ground dhura, bill (a plant like tall cress, used as a herb in cookery), raw meat, squash, roasted beans (either purple or green), aubergine, cucumbers and watermelons. Much of the food was spiced and cooked in ghee, and sometimes it was eaten with green chilli. As an influence from Indonesia, Singapore and India, rice was eaten whenever it was available. Hadramawt was famous for its honey, which had a rich, strong flavour derived from the desert bushes and the elb trees on whose blossom the bees fed. From it cakes were made with ghee and various grains.

Servants were practically unknown, even in the houses of the wealthy. The housework and cooking were done by the housewife, her daughters and other female relatives or, in times of stress, by neighbours. Some slaves had existed in the wadi, but only in the homes of the very rich, where they were treated as members of the family.

At celebrations there would be music and dancing, with drums, a type of guitar, a flute and sometimes a singer. The most favoured drum was a small round one which was either balanced on one knee or held in one hand. There was also a large oblong drum, beaten at both ends. There were two types of pipe: a single flute, the madruf a small short reed pipe with four holes for stops on one side and one on the other; and a double pipe, the mizmar, generally made of two quills of large bird feathers bound together with wire, joined by leather thongs to a short pair of reeds. The high-pitched, throaty sound of the mizmar was characteristic of Hadrami music, the piper leading the drummer or singer with a nod of his head whenever necessary. The melodies were simple and tuneful, the verses of the songs frequently impromptu and skillfully pertinent to the occasion.

Shibam. Men of the city dancing in celebration of a wedding in the town square inside the city gate.

Dancing tended to be limited to the Bedouin or tribesmen, the orthodox townsmen generally regarding dancing as some- what impious.

Men if the city dancing in celebration of a wedding in the town square of Shibam inside the city gate.

But dancing in honour of a wedding justified the involvement of most of the male guests. The method of dancing was almost always the same: two lines of men faced each other, keeping time with the drum and flute by clapping their hands, while two or three men, each dancing by himself, performed elaborate steps between them, alternately approaching and withdrawing from the musicians, changing as they danced, and always keeping the same distance from each other. The dancers frequently carried sticks or even flashing, triangular daggers. One impressive dance called the Shabwani, which involved whole opposed lines of men acting out battles with sticks amid rhythmic stamping, was popularly believed to be derived from ancient Shabwah, although this is disputed by scholars. The Shabwani was normally danced at weddings. When Bedouin were dancing, they considered it quite normal for women to join in.

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