Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/811

 YEMEN YEW 783 and at Dhamar is another for the Zeidis, the prevailing sect. The inhabitants of the moun- tains are slight but well built, and of lighter color than the .people of the Tehama. Their dialects are numerous and differ materially from those of the latter. The merchants in the towns are generally rich, and the peasantry of the rural districts are in comfortable circum- stances. Banian merchants are numerous in the interior, and many of the artisans are- Jews. For the early history of Yemen, see ARA- BIA. It formed a province of the Arabian caliphate till 930, when the yoke of the Ab- bassides was thrown off and an independent imamate was founded, with Sana for its capi- tal. In 1173 Turan Shah, brother of the cele- brated Saladin, the Egyptian sultan, invaded the country, captured Sana and the ports, and erected strong fortifications at Aden. In 1503, after a period of anarchy, the imamate was again established at Sana, and it remained independent till 1538, when the Turkish sul- tan Solyman sent a fleet down the Red sea, conquered the entire coast, and made Sana the seat of an Ottoman pashalic. In 1630 the people drove out the Turks, and a new dynasty of imams was established with Sana as the capital. In 1728 a chief in the south threw off the yoke of the imam of Sana and established the sultanate of Lahej. The Turks obtained no further foothold in Yemen till 1832, when a mutinous officer of Mehemet Ali, encouraged by the Porte, marched from Jiddah, and captured Hodeida, Zebid, and Mocha ; but in the following year the Egyp- tians took Mocha by assault, drove out the Turks, and held the Tehama till 1840, when they evacuated the country. In 1849 the Turks again seized upon all the chief towns of the Tehama, and in July of the same year the imam of Sana, who had lost the power to con- trol his subordinate chiefs, signed a treaty at Hodeida, acknowledging himself a vassal of the Porte. A garrison of 1,000 men was sent to Sana, but the exasperated inhabitants massa- cred them. For more than 20 years the Turks were confined to the Tehama, where they ruined all the towns by their exactions and drove the greater part of the trade to Aden ; but in March, 1872, an expedition invaded the interior from Hodeida. The Arabs made a gallant resistance, but the fortresses of El- Atarah and Kokaban were captured, and Sana was once more occupied by a Turkish garri- son. The dynasty of the imams had previ- ously come to an end, and independent chiefs were then ruling in their several districts. The Turks have since, with more or less suc- cess, overrun the interior, with the exception of Lahej and the country held by the Arab tribes in the vicinity of Aden, with whom the British have treaty relations. A Turkish his- tory and geographical account of Yemen, by Colonel Hadji Eeshid Bey, entitled Tarikh-i- Temen ve-Sana, was published in 1875 (2 vols., Constantinople). 846 VOL. xvi. 50 YENISEI, a river of Siberia, traversing the central government of Yeniseisk from S. to N., and draining a basin of nearly 1,000,000 sq. m. It rises in Mongolia, and at first flows W. and then, after passing the Siberian frontier, near- ly due N. to a wide estuary called the Yenisei gulf, an arm of the sea of Kara, in lat. 72 20' N., Ion. 82 E. It is about 2,500 m. long, and receives from the right, besides many smaller tributaries, the Upper Tunguska or Angara, the Podkamennaya (Stony) or Middle Tunguska, the Lower Tunguska, and the Kureika, and from the left the Yelogui and some smaller streams. The towns of Minusinsk, Krasno- yarsk, Yeniseisk, and Tnrukhansk are on its banks. It is navigable for large ships to Tu- rukhansk, but is generally obstructed by ice. YENISEISK. I. A central government of Si- beria, in the political division of East Siberia, bounded N. by the Arctic ocean, E. by Ya- kutsk and Irkutsk, S. by the Chinese empire, and W. by Tomsk, Tobolsk, and the gulf of Obi ; area, 992,838 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 372,- 862. Capital, Krasnoyarsk. The sea coast pro- jects far into the Arctic ocean, terminating in Tcheliuskin or Northeast cape, the northern- most point of Asia, in lat. 77 50' N., Ion. 105 E. From the Altai mountains in the south the surface slopes gradually toward the north. Besides the Yenisei and its tributaries, the only rivers of importance are the Anabara and Khatanga in the northeast, which flow directly into the Arctic ocean, and the Taz, which en- ters the gulf of Obi through the estuary or bay of Tazovsk. There are several lakes, the largest of which are Taimyr in the Taimyr peninsula and Yesei near the head waters of the Khatanga river. Some parts of the south are well wooded. Iron ore and salt are found in large quantities, and between the Yenisei and Angara is one of the richest gold-washing tracts in Siberia. Grain can be produced only in the valleys of the south. In the north many reindeer feed upon lichens; and about the centre of the government there is good pasture land, upon which large herds of cattle are kept. Game is abundant, particularly the fur-bearing animals. The population is composed of dif- ferent aboriginal tribes, and some Cossacks and Russians, the latter being chiefly convicts. II. A town of the above government, on the left bank of the Yenisei, about 290 m. E. N. E. of Tomsk; pop. about 7,000. It has several churches, a monastery, and a nunnery, and is surrounded by an old rampart. It has an an- nual fair, and a considerable trade in furs. The town was founded in 1618. YENISHEHR. See LARISSA. YEW (A. S. iw ; variously written by the 'old authors ewgh, ugh, and U, and in French 'if), the common name for species of taxus (the ancient name, supposed to be from Gr. r6f;ov, a bow), especially T. laccata. The yew is so unlike in its fruit to other genera of the pine family (conifera) that some have placed it and its allies in a separate order, but botanists at