In late March a coalition of wealthy states, led by Saudi Arabia, began constantly bombing Yemen. The stated rationale for this air war and naval blockade has been to reinstate former interim president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in power after he was forced out by a rebellion in the north. The primary target of the campaign has been the combined forces of the Huthis, a political group of the Zaydi Shi’a religious sect, and the military forces loyal to former long-time president Ali Abdullah Salih. Most political analysts have designated the campaign as a proxy war, pitting a conservative Wahhabi/Salafi Sunni political camp vs. Shi’a Iran. Billions of dollars in weaponry and missiles later, the so-called “Operation Decisive Storm” has proved to be far more divisive than decisive and has failed to halt the Huthi/Salah advance. Yemen’s population of about 26 million now faces an unprecedented humanitarian disaster with several thousand dead, thousands wounded, several million displaced and severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen, alongside the continuing destruction of life in Syria and Iraq, drags on despite feeble attempts by the United Nations to broker a resolution. There is little chance that Hadi, seen in Yemen as a puppet of the Saudi regime, will ever return to Yemen. Politically, the Huthis and Salih’s forces have gained sympathy in the north due to the indiscriminate bombing and civilian deaths, while Ansar Shariah (an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Yemen) now controls much of the south. Whatever minimal role Iran played in Yemen’s transition after the Arab Spring, the struggle on the ground in Yemen is over local and not global concerns. There can be no winner in this ill-conceived war, despite the efforts of the Saudis to buy allegiance with their oil wealth. This campaign has created an enemy out of a local power play that posed no direct threat and greatly diminished security on the Arabian Peninsula.
In addition to the devastating destruction of life and infrastructure, Yemen’s rich Islamic and pre-Islamic heritage has also been damaged and perhaps even targeted. The Saudi regime has systematically destroyed old Islamic shrines in Mecca and Medina, so this should come as no surprise. Among Yemen’s priceless archaeological sites bombed, where there was no military presence whatsoever, are standing ruins of the ancient Marib dam. Part of the northern sluice, which contains inscriptions, was damaged. Known for its legendary association with the Queen of Sheba, the site of Marib was excavated by Wendell Phillips in the 1950s and later by the German Archaeological Institute in Sanaa. In addition, there are reports that the Sabaean site of Sirwah may also have been damaged. Earlier the Dhamar regional museum, which contained 150 ancient inscriptions along with records of local excavations, was completely destroyed.
Monuments of the Islamic era have also been damaged. One of these is the fortress of al-Qahira overlooking the southern highland city of Taiz. This was an important citadel of both the Ayyubid and Rasulid rulers in Yemen during the 12th through the 15th centuries. Several traditional houses in the Old City of Sanaa, a UN World Heritage Site, have also been destroyed by a Saudi bomb attack. Another casualty of the intense bombing was one of the oldest and most important Zaydi mosques, attributed to the first Zaydi imam in Yemen al-Hadi, in the city of Sa’da. As noted by UNESCO General Director Irina Bokova,
“In addition to causing terrible human suffering, these attacks are destroying Yemen’s unique cultural heritage, which is the repository of people’s identity, history and memory and an exceptional testimony to the achievements of the Islamic Civilization”.
Bigotry and intolerance, two of the factors fueling the current turmoil in the Middle East, extend to the past as well as the present. The appalling loss of lives in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen is bad enough, but here we see an attempt to erase the past in order for an ideology, whether that of the oil-rich Saudi regime or the media-made Islamic State, to be perpetuated. Bashing statues and bombing citadels, whether intentional or not, will never erase the past. Indeed, it only makes preserving and understanding the history of humanity all the more important. Fortunately, there is a rich heritage beneath as well as above the ground in the Middle East that is a testimony to the human spirit to survive the vanity of political change.
Daniel Martin Varisco is President of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies. He is Research Professor of Social Science at Qatar U. Since 1978 he has conducted ethnographic and historical research in Yemen, Egypt and Qatar. His latest book is Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid (U of Washington Press, 2007). He currently serves as editor of Contemporary Islam and Editor-in-Chief of CyberOrient (www.cyberorient.net).