ʽAttan ( ar, عطان ), also transliterated as ʽIttan and known historically as ʽAḍudān, is a village in

Bani Matar District Bani Matar District ( ar, مُدِيْرِيَّة بَنِي مَطَر, Mudīriyyat Banī Maṭar) is a district of the Sanaa Governorate, Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country ...

Sanaa Governorate Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء '), also spelled San'a or Sana, is a governorate of Yemen. Its capital is Sanaa, which is also the national capital. However, the city of Sanaa is not part of the governorate but instead forms the separate governorate ...

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 an ...

. It is a short distance southwest of

Sanaa Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Go ...

, with the two being separated by a long, low hill.

Name and history

According to

Robert T.O. Wilson The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

, the older form of the name ''ʽAttan'' was ''ʽAḍudān'', as it appears in most historical sources. Both forms are found in the works of the 10th-century writer al-Hamdani, although never in the same one. Wilson also pointed to the name of the ''Fajj ʽAttan'', a prominent landform in the hill between ʽAttan and Sanaa, as most likely being the same as the ''Fajj ʽAḍudān'' mentioned by al-Razi. In addition to al-Hamdani and al-Razi, ʽAttan was mentioned by the geographers

al-Bakri Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī ( ar, أبو عبيد عبد الله بن عبد العزيز بن محمد بن أيوب بن عمرو البكري), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1 ...

and

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

, as well as in the historical accounts by

Yahya ibn al-Husayn Yahya may refer to: * Yahya (name), a common Arabic male given name * Yahya (Zaragoza), 11th-century ruler of Zaragoza * John the Baptist in Islam, also known as Yaḥyā ibn Zakarīyā See also * Tepe Yahya Tapeh Yahya () is an archaeological ...

, Muhammad ibn Hatim al-Yami al-Hamdani, and

Ali ibn Muhammad al-Abbasi ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...

. It was the site of a fortress.

References

{{Reflist Villages in Sanaa Governorate