Thehistory of the Jews in Hadramaut stretches back to ancient times. TheHadhrami Jews were a subset of theYemeni Jews.
The community was very old,[1][2] and, after the rise ofIslam and the expulsion of theHejazi Jews, the main centers of Jewish population in Arabia were in Hadhramaut and inAden. However, the Jews of Hadhramaut were much more isolated than their counterparts inAden, and the community only became known to the outside world in the 1940s. The community had distinctive religious traditions. Many of the Hadhrami Jews converted to Islam, but after the founding of theState of Israel, some of the community madeAliyah, but those who remained assimilated and converted to Islam. Today, there are no longer any Hadhramaut Jews known to exist in Yemen.
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The Jews of Hadhramaut lived inSeiyun,Tarim,Mukalla andal-Shihr. Among the well-known Jewish families of the region in al-Shihr and Mukalla are Ben Haneen, Ben Haiem, Ben Yaze'a, Ben Yisra'ail and Ben Qatian Ben Zeghieo. Most of these familiesconverted to Islam between 1509 and the 1960s, and a few migrated to Israel after 1948.
After the union betweenSouth Yemen and theYemen Arab Republic in the North, and because of the strict tribal system, most of these families melted into thetribes of Arabia by renaming theirlaqab ("family name") after a well-known Muslim tribe to avoid discrimination based on their former Jewish roots. The Ben Qattian family in Hadhramaut are dagger-makers and gold-smiths. Their handmade daggers are well known.
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