Seif bin Ziyazan had wanted to kick Abyssinians out of Yemen. So, he went to the Caesar of Rome Jostinanous and asked him to help him defeat the Abyssinians. The Caesar declined, however to help, saying: “Abyssinia is near to you and adheres to my religion and religion of my kingdom and I can’t help you against them”.
Bin Ziyazan then hurried to Kesra to ask for help. Kesra also refused. Despite this, Bin Ziyazan continued to linger on Kesra’s door repeating the demand. Kesra then consulted his entourage and said: “What do you think I should do with this Arab? I think he is a courageous and wise man.”
His supporters then said: “There are in the prisons people who were put in jail by the King,” one of these aides said to Kesra. “He [the King] can send them with him [Bin Ziyazan], if they are killed there, this will offer him [the King] relief from them, and if they make victory together with this Arab, this will be a new addition to the kingdom of the king,” he added.
Kesra then selected 800 inmates and asked a man called Wahraz to be their commander. He gave them a large number of weapons and transported them in eight ships to Yemen through the Red Sea. Two of the ships, however, capsized. Only 600 men remained on board the remaining ships. These men made it to Aden on the Red Sea.
The two armies faced each other. The first army was made of Bin Ziyazan and his Yemeni and Persian supporters, while the second and larger army was made of Abyssinians led by Masrouq bin Abraha. The Arabs and the Persians managed to defeat the Abyssinian army and the Abyssinians were massacred. Masrouq bin Abraha was killed in battle and the massacre was registered in history. The victorious army had then headed to Sana’a.
In front of Sana’a’s small gate, Wahraz (the commander of the army of inmates offered to Bin Ziyazan by Kesra) said: “My flag will not be lowered and remain high as it goes through this gate.”
For this reason, the small gate of Sana’a was demolished so that the Persian commander could enter with his flag high. He entered through the gate, carrying his flag in his hands.
Seeing this, Bin Ziyazan said: “King of Humair Kingdom has gone forever and will not come back.” Kesra then ordered Wahraz to return to Persia and appointed Saif bin Ziyazan the King of Yemen. One day, however, Bin Ziyazan was killed by his Abyssinian guards when he stood in their midst and this paved the way for Persian rule and control of Yemen which continued until the emergence of Islam.
When I was the editor-in-chief of Al-Sharq newspaper by the end of the 1990s, I asked the then Yemeni ambassador to Doha to schedule an interview for me with then Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh
(pictured). The ambassador told me that he would do his best.
One day, the ambassador called me and asked me to meet him at the Doha Airport so as to leave for Yemen to conduct the interview.
My plane landed in the Yemeni capital Sana’a. I took a car to a hotel where I spent several days waiting for the interview. I tried my best to reach the ambassador to arrange the interview with the president, but to no avail. The ambassador had switched off his phone soon after he went back to his province.
I stayed alone in Sana’a, waiting for the interview to happen, but I had started to despair. I then started calling all the people I know in Yemen to ask them to help me. I was then referred to a man whom I still deeply respect. He listened to me and promised to do his best to help me.
I spent my leisure visiting Yemen’s charities and walking along the streets and the alleyways of the Yemeni capital. I was, however, stunned by the widespread poverty in the country. There were so many applications for help at the charities. Charity officials were incapable of coping up with the demand for help.
“We are no longer able to meet the demands of the needy,” an official in one charity told me.
Outside, a large number of women and men jostled to enter the charity to demand financial help. Poverty could be easily be seen on the faces of the needy.
In Yemen, you always need to close your eyes and make your mind accustomed to overlooking the crises of other people. Poverty can be seen everywhere in the country. Everything around you can break your heart.
Armed militants roam everywhere on the streets and in cars that do not carry licence plates.
I was in the creaky car of a Yemeni professor of engineering when I asked him about this phenomenon. He only shook his head, smiling in a meaningful manner.
This professor speaks three languages. He received his PhD in engineering from a leading American University. Even with this, in Yemen, he earned money hardly enough for him to put food on the table for his children. He said he returned from the US to Yemen because he loved it.
Having already waited for days, I finally got the opportunity to meet the “brother president Ali Abdullah Saleh”, as people around him like to call him. I took my camera and recorder and off to the place of the then president with the man who had promised to help me earlier.
After a long wait and before I entered the presidential palace, guards insisted that I leave everything in my possession outside.
“How then can I conduct the interview with the president?” I asked the guards.
The guards could not give me an answer. I entered a room where the president was sitting beside his media adviser. I shook hands with him and then sat down.
“Mr president, your guards have taken the camera and the recorder from me,” I said to the Yemeni president. “I do not know how to conduct this interview,” I added.
The president’s reply was blunt. “We will take photos and then send them to you,” the president said. “You only need to send your questions to my media adviser who will answer them and send them to you,” he added.
I felt deeply humiliated. I did not go to Yemen only to take photos with this man who was noticeably sardonic. I did not feel comfortable as he kept staring at me with his restless eyes that looked like those of a predator looking for prey.
Sana’a fell in the hands of Houthis a few days ago. The ex-president suddenly changed his old profile photo on his Facebook page and put one where he smiles, giving the impression that he is happy to see the capital of his country fall into the hands of Houthis.
This man conspired against his country and its people for a long time in the past. He used every tool to continue to stay in power and rule a people exhausted by poverty and need.
Almost everybody now knows the collaboration that took place between the ex-Yemeni president and Houthis. Military groups allied to Saleh collaborated with Houthis in bringing the Yemeni capital down. All of Saleh’s beneficiaries also participated in this and only waited for the appropriate moment to declare their evil designs.
The whole of Yemen had already been sold to Iran. Iranian leaders will soon threaten to close down the Bab Al Mandeb Strait, having talked a lot about closing down the Strait of Hormuz. The voice of the Persians will now be louder having controlled everything.
Bin Ziyazan was killed by the Abyssinians and Yemen continued to remain for a long time under Persian control. Will history repeat itself with the ex-Yemeni president?
Perhaps, history is repeating itself.
