Lahij

Lahij or Lahej is a city and an area located between Ta’izz and Aden in Yemen. From the 18th to the 20th century, its rulers were of the Abdali branch of the Al-Sallami tribe who trace their lineage to one of the 10 tribes of Yaffa called Kalad. Lahij was the capital city of Sultanate of Lahej, a protectorate of the British Empire until 1967, when the sultan was expelled and the city became a part of People’s Republic of South Yemen.

Under the former Aden Protectorate, a British-ruled area, it was capital of the ʿAbdali Sultanate, abolished when Yemen (Aden) became independent in 1967. The sultan’s palace is now a school of agriculture. For a brief period in the 1960s, the town was renamed Al-Hawtah or Al-Houta. Laḥij is on the main road from Aden city to the northern parts of western Yemen and is a regional trade centre.