"Jiblah" Jiblah by grets

Jiblah is a small town with a big history. From 1064 to 1138 the region was ruled by the Sulayhids, a dynasty founded by ‘Ali as-Sulayhi., controlling a large area of Yemen, ruling some of the time from Sana’a, some of the time from Jiblah. These Ishmailis were the Tayyibiya branch of the Fatimid Ishmailism (or ‘Sevener Shia’). There are still around 80,000 Ishmailis in Yemen.

Jiblah has preserved traditional features of its skilful architecture. Tall, five-storeyed houses of stone blocks are arranged in harmonious rows on the hill and seem to interconnect with each other. The windows are large and numerous and are surrounded by friezes with motifs in white gypsum.

This area was transformed into a rich and fertile land by the Sulayhid queen Arwa. This was done by spending much of the annual revenue on the improvement of communications, roads and agricultural land on the terraces around Jiblah. This exceptionally intelligent woman also put into practice important building construction of a series of religious buildings.

Jiblah lies on a large outcrop of basalt, and is the perfect example of a homogenous town. It is built on a supporting wall and bordered by the ravines of two small wadis which join together just outside the town. The lush vegetation along the edges of the wadis and the valley bottoms consist of acacias, eucalyptus, carob trees and cacti. This area has plenty of rain in the months beginning from June through September.