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Haddah
Village in Sanaa, Yemen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Haddah (Arabic: حدة Ḥaddah) is an affluent suburb of Sanaa, Yemen,[2] located about 8 km southwest of central Sanaa in Sanhan District of Sanaa Governorate.[3][1] It has been described as "the Beverly Hills of Sanaa" — a first-world enclave in a third-world city, with its avenues lined by palatial mansions belonging to the country's rich and powerful.[4] Its buildings mostly tend to emulate the architecture of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.[4]
History
Since the time of al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya, the first Imam of Yemen, Haddah was often used as a base of operations against Sanaa.[3] It was also frequently attacked from Sanaa.[3] An early mention in the Ghayat al-amani of Yahya ibn al-Husayn records that Haddah was the site of a minor battle in November or December of 901 CE (Dhu'l-Hijjah, 288 AH).[5] The battle was won by forces loyal to Imam al-Hadi.[5] The following year, al-Hadi sent a force, led by his son Abu'l-Qasim Muhammad and his own brother Abdullah, to Haddah and nearby Sana' (not the same as Sanaa).[5] They were attacked, but they were victorious and their attackers were routed.[5] Historical texts mention that Haddah's trees were cut down as punishment on multiple occasions.[3] One was in 1273 or 1274 CE (672 AH), when the Rasulid sultan al-Muzaffar Yusuf I razed Haddah and Sana' and cut down their trees.[5] Haddah still had many trees through the mid-20th century,[2] and was described in 1962 by Husayn ibn Ali al-Waysi as a favored picnic spot for Sana'nis,[5] but most of the trees were cut down in the 1980s as Haddah was built up into a suburb of Sanaa.[2]