PROJECTS TO PRESERVE ANCIENT ZABID DISCUSSED

SANA'A, Feb.11 (Saba) – A meeting was held on Thursday in the historic town of Zabid to discuss the implementation of treatments for preservation of Zabid, located in Hodeidah province west Yemen.

Dating back to 820, Zabid is one of the oldest urban settlements in the country. It was the capital of Yemen from the 13th to the 15th century and a center of the Arab and Muslim world due in large part to its famed University of Zabid and being a center of Islamic education.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister for Local Authority Affairs Sadiq Amin Abu Ras.

A well-informed source at Ministry of Culture told the state-run 26sep.net that the meeting, charged with preserving Zabid, had reviewed the progress of implementation of a number of projects to conserve the civilizational character of the ancient city and restore historical monuments which have been endangered.

‘’A project of paving alleyways and roads of the ancient city of Zabid would be inaugurated next week’’, the source pointed out.

The Ziyadi city flourished as the economic, administrative and religious center of Yemen, benefiting from its strategic location on the trade and pilgrimage routes from Aden to Mecca.

Approximately 240 ancient mosques and madrasas were built throughout the city. Zabid was the capital of the Ziyadi dynasty from 819–1018 and the Najahi dynasty from 1022–1158. Today, however, Zabid is at the intellectual and economic margins of modern Yemen.

In 1993 Zabid has been declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. Its Great Mosque occupies a prominent place in the town. The vestiges of its university can also be visited. It has an estimated population of 8000 inhabitants.

In 2000, Zabid was listed on the List of World Heritage in Danger; the listing was made on the behest of the Yemeni government due to a state of poor upkeep and conservation.

Today, the city is a fraction of its former size. However, it is still a popular center of Sunni scholarship, centered on the religious community of the Great Mosque. Other historic monuments of importance are the Mosque of al-Iskandariyya and the Complex of Mustafa Pasha, which is located just outside the modern settlement. Small bricks, continuously reused, are the main material of construction in the city.

BA