Dammaj ( ar, دماج, Dammāj) is a small town in the Sa'dahI Governorate of north-western

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

, southeast by road from

Sa'dah Saada ( ar, صَعْدَة, translit=Ṣaʿda), a city and ancient capital in the northwest of Yemen, is the capital and largest city of the province of the same name, and the county seat of the county of the same name. The city is located in the ...

in a valley of the same name.

Muqbil bin Hadi al-Wadi'i Muqbil bin Hadi bin Muqbil bin Qa’idah al-Hamdani al-Wadi’i al-Khallali (1933 – 21 July 2001) ( ar, مقبل بن هادي الوادعي) was an Islamic scholar and a major proponent of Quietist Salafism in Yemen. He was the founder of a ...

established the Madrasah Dar al-Hadith in Dammaj in 1979, an important center of learning for followers of the Salafi creed (the methodology of Prophet Muhammad and his Companions and the two generations after them, (Tabi'in, Tabi al-Tabi'in)), who make up the majority of the town. In 2014, the non-local Salafis, including all of the students there, were evicted. The town was at the target of the

Siege of Dammaj The siege of Dammaj started in October 2011 when the Houthis, a Zaydi-led rebel group which controls the Sa'dah Governorate, accused Salafis loyal to the Yemeni government of smuggling weapons into their religious center in the town of Dammaj an ...

, and in November 2013, further sectarian violence between militants of the Houthi-led Shia movement and Sunnis erupted in the town, creating many casualties; some 50 had been killed by the start of the second week. In one incident in late November, a mine exploded as a military vehicle was passing by, killing two Yemeni soldiers.

References

Populated places in Saada Governorate Salafi movement {{Yemen-geo-stub