Zinjibar ( ar, زِنْجِبَار ''Zinjibār'') is a port and coastal town in south-central

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 north and Oman to the northeast and ...

, the capital of Zinjibar District and the

Abyan Governorate Abyan ( ar, أَبْيَن ) is a governorate of Yemen. The Abyan region was historically part of the Fadhli Sultanate. It was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army militant group. Its capital is the city of Zinjibar. This governorate is no ...

. It is located next to the Wadi Bana in the Abyan Delta. From 1962 to 1967, it was the administrative capital of the Fadhli Sultanate, although the royal residence remained at the former capital of Shuqrah. At the time of the 2004 census, Zinjibar's population numbered 19,879 inhabitants. The town supports a small seaside resort and fishing industry. Cotton (''

Gossypium barbadense ''Gossypium barbadense'' (''gos-SIP-pee-um bar-ba-DEN-see'') is one of several species of cotton. It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was ...

'') grown in the area is brokered in the market.

History

Zinjibar was a long-established trading center for commerce with the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The t ...

. However, in 1163 (559 AH) the town was burned and destroyed by Abdel Nabi Ali Mahdi Yoosuf. It was rebuilt as is evidenced by 15th century Yemeni pottery at the Mazda (القريات) archaeological site, but was destroyed again in tribal warfare. In the 19th century,

Fadhli Fadhli ( ar, فضلي '), or the Fadhli Sultanate ( ar, السلطنة الفضلية '), was an independent sultanate on the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula from the 17th century until 1967.

Sultan Hussein bin Ahmed bin Abdullah re-established the town, also was exiled to Pune India and in the early 1920s was ordered to be returned, Sultan Saleh Abdullah bin Hussein bin Ahmed was exiled by the British to Zinzibar thous upon his return he renamed the town Zinjibar in honor of his exile. The name ''Zinjibar'' is from Persian compound ''Zang-bâr'' (زنگبار), meaning "coast of the dark-skinned". The name ''

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

'' is also of the same root.

2011 revolt

In May 2011, the town was reported as overtaken by Islamist militants as part of the 2011 Yemeni uprising.Arrabyee, Nasser; Kasinoff, Laura (May 29, 2011)
"Islamists seize a Yemeni city, stoking fears"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''; archive
here
by

WebCite WebCite was an on-demand archive site, designed to digitally preserve scientific and educationally important material on the web by taking snapshots of Internet contents as they existed at the time when a blogger or a scholar cited or quoted ...

On June 12, 2012, the militants were driven out by the

Yemeni army The Armed Forces of Yemen ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْمُسَلَّحَةُ الْيَّمَّنِيَّة, Al-Quwwat Al-Musallahah Al-Yamaniyah) are the military forces of the Republic of Yemen. They include the Yemeni Army (including ...

. On the same date, the neighboring town of Jaʿār, 15 kilometers or 9 miles to the north, was also retaken by the government forces.

2015 conflict

Soldiers allied with the

Houthis The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...

took over Zinjibar in late March 2015, driving out troops and fighters loyal to President

Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi ( ar, عبدربه منصور هادي, translit=ʿAbd Rabbih Manṣūr Hādī Yemeni pronunciation: ; born 1 September 1945) is a Yemeni politician and former field marshal of the Yemeni Armed Forces who served as the pres ...

. The city became a target for the airstrikes of a multinational coalition intervening in Yemen on Hadi's behalf. On 2 December 2015,

Ansar al-Sharia Ansar al-Sharia or Ansar al-Shariah is a name used by a collection of radical or militant Islamist groups or militias, in at least eight countries. While they share names and ideology, they lack a unified command structure. *Ansar al-Sharia (Yemen ...

captured Zinjibar, along with Jaʿār.

2016 conflict

In early May 2016, AQAP fighters withdrew from the city of Zinjibar and Jaar after negotiation with Hadi loyalists. Since then, it has repeatedly withdrawn and returned. On 14 August, the cities were fully captured by pro-government forces which dislodged the militants from them.

Notes

{{Yemeni cities Populated places in Abyan Governorate Populated coastal places in Yemen