Al-Hudaydah ( ar, الْحُدَيْدَة, al-ḥudayda), also transliterated as Hodeda, Hodeida, Hudaida or Hodeidah, is the fourth-largest city in

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 ...

and its principal port on the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

. As of 2004, its population was 402,560 and it is the centre of the

Al Hudaydah Governorate Al Hudaydah ( ar, الْحُدَيْدَة, Al Ḥudaida) is a governorate of Yemen. Its capital is Al Hudaydah. The governorate is also sometimes referred to as the Western Coast. This governorate borders the Red Sea and is part of the narrow Ti ...

History

In the Islamic chronicles, the name Al-Hudaydah was first mentioned in the year 1454/55 and the city became a popular and important one in the 1520s when the Ottomans took over Yemeni Tihāmah. In 1830s, Al Hudaydah was controlled by Ibrahim Pasha's troops, which turned over its administration to

sherif Sherif, also spelled Sharif (and, in countries where Francophone Romanisation is the norm, Cherif or Charif), is a proper name derived from the Arabic word (, 'noble', 'highborn', 'honorable'), originally a title designating a person descended f ...

Husayn ibn Ali Haydar. In 1849, it became part of the

Yemen Eyalet ota, ایالت یمن , common_name = Yemen Eyalet , subdivision = Eyalet , nation = the Ottoman Empire , year_start = 1517 , year_end = 1872 , life_span = 1517– ...

. The Malay writer Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir visited Al Hudaydah on his pilgrimage to

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow val ...

in 1854, and describes the city in his account of the journey, mentioning that the custom of chewing

khat Khat or qat ( ''ch’at''; Oromo: ''Jimaa'', so, qaad, khaad, khat or cha