Hadramaut

Hadramaut, the name commonly given to the coast-region of South Arabia from Aden to Cape Ras-al-Hadd, but by modern Arab geographers restricted to the region lying approximately between $48^\{\backslash circ\}$ and $51^\{\backslash circ\}$ E. long. It consists of a plateau, parted from a mountain-chain, the barrier of the interior desert, by a complex of valleys. Commerce, agriculture, cattle-breeding, and the chase are the chief occupations. The climate is dry but healthy. Pop. about 150,000. Nominally the people are subject to Turkey, but the social and political conditions of the district are very similar to those of the former feudalism of Enrope. Chief towns, Saiun and Terim, the former the seat of a celebrated Arab seminary. See Van den Berg, Le Hadramout (1886).