Mokha المخا | |
|---|---|
 ADhow near the coast of Mokha | |
  Mokha Location in Yemen | |
| Coordinates:13°19′13″N43°15′00″E / 13.32028°N 43.25000°E /13.32028; 43.25000 | |
| Country |  Yemen |
| Governorate | Taiz Governorate |
| District | Al-Makha |
| Elevation | 13 m (43 ft) |
| Population (2005) | |
• Total | 16,794 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (Yemen Standard Time) |
Mokha (Arabic:المُخا,romanized: al-Mukhā), also spelledMocha, orMukha,[1] is a port city on theRed Sea coast ofYemen. UntilAden andal Hudaydah eclipsed it in the 19th century, Mokha was the principal port for Yemen's capital,Sanaa. Long known for its coffee trade, the city gave its name toMocha coffee.[2]
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Mocha was the major marketplace for many commodities, including, but not limited to coffee (Coffea arabica) from the 16th century through the 19th century. The coffee itself did not grow in Mocha, but was transported from Ethiopia and inland Yemen to the port in Mocha, where it was then shipped abroad. Even after other sources of coffee were found,Mocha beans (also calledSanani orMocha Sanani beans, meaningfromSana'a) continued to be prized for their distinctive flavor—and remain so even today.[3] Mocha's coffee legacy is reflected in the name of themocha latte and theMoka pot coffee maker.[4] In Germany, traditionalTurkish coffee is known asMokka.
According to the PortugueseJesuit missionaryJerónimo Lobo, who sailed the Red Sea in 1625, Mocha was "formerly of limited reputation and trade" but since "the Turkish assumption of power throughoutArabia, it has become the major city of the territory under Turkish domination, even though it is not thePasha's place of residence, which is two days' journey inland in the city of Sana'a."[5] Lobo adds that its importance as a port was also due to theOttoman law that required all ships entering the Red Sea to put in at Mocha and pay duty on their cargoes.
Mocha'spatron saint is Ali bin Omar al-Shadhili.[6][7]
Based on the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, many believe that the important ancientemporium ofMuza is located near Mocha. The exact location has been debated, either being present-day Mocha itself, the coastal village of Maushij[8] or the inland settlement Mauza'.[9][10]
Prior to thearrival of the Ottomans in Yemen, in 1538, Mocha was a small fishing village. The Ottomans developed Mocha as a port city, being the first port north of the strait ofBab-el-Mandeb.[6]
Mocha reached its zenith in the first quarter of the 18th century, owing to its trade in coffee.[11] English, Dutch, and French companies maintained factories at Mocha, which remained a major emporium and coffee exporting port until the early 19th century.
The city boasted a stone wall enclosing a citadel, as well as a labyrinth of thatched huts that surrounded the wall from without. Of these, some four hundred accommodated Jewish households that engaged in trade.[12] In the mid-1730s, the vast majority of those occupied in trade in Mocha were theBanyan merchants, who numbered as many as 3,000 to 4,000 men.[13] They chiefly traded in the commodity of coffee, brought by camels to the port of Mocha from places further north and inland, primarily fromBayt al-Faqih.[14] Other trading goods brought to Mocha for export included such spices and commodities as frankincense, myrrh, Dragon's blood, Socotrine aloe, cumin, and the Balm of Gilead.[14] English and Scottish merchants employed with theEast India Company established a trading factory at Mocha, receiving at times as many as 50 to 60 camel loads of merchandise in a single delivery.[14]
Passing through Mocha in 1752 and 1756, Remedius Prutky found that it boasted a "lodging-house of theProphet Muhammad, which was like a huge tenement block laid out in many hundred separate cells where accommodation was rented to all strangers without discrimination of race or religion." He also found a number of European ships in the harbor: three French, four English, two Dutch, and one Portuguese.[15] In the 18th century, a plague killed half of the city's population, from which time the city never really recovered.[12]
In August 1800Phoenix visited. William Moffat, her captain, took the opportunity to prepare a chart of the mouth of the Red Sea.
Mocha was very dependent on imported coffee beans from present-day Ethiopia, which was exported by Somali merchants fromBerbera across the Gulf of Aden. The Berbera merchants procured most of the coffee from the environs ofHarar and shipped them off in their own vessels during the Berbera trading season. According to Captain Haines, who was the colonial administrator ofAden (1839–1854), Mocha historically imported up to two-thirds of their coffee from Berbera-based merchants before the coffee trade of Mocha was captured by British-controlled Aden in the 19th century.[16][17]
The Somalis of Berbera also had a navigation act where they excluded Arab vessels and brought the goods and produce of the interior in their own ships to Mocha and other Arabian ports:
Berbera held an annual fair during the cool rain-free months between October and April. This months-long market handled immense quantities of coffee, gum Arabic, myrrh and other commodities. In the early 19th century these goods were almost exclusively handled by Somalis who, Salt says, had "a kind of navigation act by which they exclude the Arab vessels from their ports and bring the produce of their country either to Aden or Mocha in their owndows."[18]
Foreign observers at the time were quick to notice theSomalis who frequented Mocha. The majority of the Somalis arrived seasonally and stayed temporarily to trade in the goods they brought from the interior of theHorn of Africa. They were noted to be industrious in trade as well as keeping to the general peace:
The Samaulies, who inhabit the whole coast from Gardafui to the Straits [Bab-el-Mandeb], and through whose territories the whole produce of the interior of Africa must consequently reach Arabia, have been represented by Mr. Bruce, and many others, as a savage race, with whom it would be dangerous to have connection. I think that this is an unjust accusation, and is sufficiently disproved by the extent of their inland trade, their great fairs, and their large exports in their own vessels. A great number of them live close to Mocha, and are a peaceable inoffensive race.[19]
Amidst the varied classes which are found in this town, the Soumalies, or natives of the opposite coast of Africa, are the most calculated to excite the attention of a stranger. Few reside here permanently, the greater number only remaining until their stock of sheep, gums, or coffee is disposed of.[20]
In 1817, a British lieutenant was allegedly mistreated in Mocha, and the British Indian authorities requested that action be taken. However, the imam's governor turned down the British demand. In response, in December 1820,HMSTopaze and ships and troops belonging to the BritishEast India Company attacked Mocha's North and South Forts, destroying them.[21]
A decade and a half later,Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt would also attack the city and destroy its fortified wall closest to the sea, as well as its citadel.[12] By that time, however, Mocha's trade in its country's precious commodity of coffee grains (Coffea arabica) had already been supplanted by Ethiopia, which was the principal trader of this commodity to North Africa and which sold for a third of the price of the same coffee imported from Arabia.[22]
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DiplomatEdmund Roberts visited Mocha in the 1830s. He noted that Turkish "rebels" possessed Mocha. The Turks took it over after they left Egypt while being disgruntled with the rule ofMuhammad Ali of Egypt. These "rebels", consisting of confederates throughoutArabia, had banded together under one leader named Turkie ben al Mas.[23]Jacob Saphir who visited the city in 1859 wrote about seeing many houses that were vacant of dwellers, although the Turkish governor still dwelt there with a band of soldiers, collecting taxes from local traders and ships visiting the harbor.[12] When the British took control over Aden, the port in Mocha fell into disuse, being replaced by Aden. The general destruction of the city was still prominent as late as 1909, when German explorer and photographer,Hermann Burchardt, wrote of the city Mocha as he saw it: "This card will reach you from one of the most godforsaken little places in Asia. It exceeds all my expectations, with regard to the destruction. It looks like a city entirely destroyed by earthquakes, etc."[24]
The BialettiMoka pot stovetop pressurized espresso maker was named after the Yemini city by the Italian engineer inventorAlfonso Bialetti in 1933.[25][26] At the time Mocha was a famous leading producer and trader ofcoffee worldwide with a history going back 500 years, and also became known for its unique Yemini wildMocha coffee beans.[27][28][29]
In 1955, the modernPort of Mokha was established.[30]
Mocha was among the population centers in southern Yemen taken over by theHouthis during theirmilitary offensive in March 2015,[31] and wasbombed by an Arab coalition in July 2015.[32] The city was attacked by pro-Hadi forces in January 2017[33][34] and captured by them the following month.[35][36]
In 2021, an alleged attack byHouthi rebels, using ballistic missiles and drones, caused major damage to Mocha's port. TheAssociated Press reported that the attack on the port destroyed warehouses that aid organizations had been using.[37]
Today, Mocha is no longer used as a major trade route, as local coffee farms could not compete with those in former colonies such asJava.[38] The local economy is nowadays largely based on fishing.[39]
TheKöppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies Mokha's climate ashot desert (BWh).
| Climate data for Mocha | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 31.2 (88.2) | 31.5 (88.7) | 33.4 (92.1) | 35.4 (95.7) | 37.6 (99.7) | 38.8 (101.8) | 39.5 (103.1) | 38.9 (102.0) | 37.6 (99.7) | 35.7 (96.3) | 33.2 (91.8) | 31.4 (88.5) | 35.3 (95.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 26.7 (80.1) | 27.1 (80.8) | 28.8 (83.8) | 30.6 (87.1) | 32.7 (90.9) | 34.0 (93.2) | 34.6 (94.3) | 34.0 (93.2) | 33.0 (91.4) | 31.0 (87.8) | 28.9 (84.0) | 27.2 (81.0) | 30.7 (87.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 22.3 (72.1) | 22.7 (72.9) | 24.2 (75.6) | 25.9 (78.6) | 27.8 (82.0) | 29.2 (84.6) | 29.7 (85.5) | 29.1 (84.4) | 28.4 (83.1) | 26.3 (79.3) | 24.0 (75.2) | 23.0 (73.4) | 26.1 (78.9) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 5 (0.2) | 2 (0.1) | 4 (0.2) | 4 (0.2) | 2 (0.1) | 1 (0.0) | 8 (0.3) | 14 (0.6) | 22 (0.9) | 6 (0.2) | 2 (0.1) | 5 (0.2) | 75 (3.1) |
| Source:Climate-Data.org, altitude: 3m[40] | |||||||||||||
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Yemen's Ansar Allah group claimed on 10 February that it had destroyed the Patriot PAC-3 air defence system deployed to the Red Sea town of Al-Mukha (Mocha).
| Yemeni cities and towns by population | |
|---|---|
| 1,000,000 and more | |
| 100,000-999,999 | |
| 10,000-99,999 | |
| <9,999 | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
