# Yemenis

Yemenis or Yemenites (Arabic: يمنيون) are the nationals of Yemen.

## Social hierarchy

There is a system of social stratification in Yemen that was officially abolished at the creation of the Republic of Yemen in 1962 but, in practice, this system has not disappeared and Yemeni society is still organized around hierarchical ranks. The difference between ranks is manifested by descent and occupation and is consolidated by marriages between people of the same ranks.
There are five status groups. At the top of hierarchy, there are the religious elites, also called sada. These are then followed by the strata of judges (quad). The third hierarchical status is the qaba’il, who are the peasants who belong to tribes and who live mainly from agriculture and trading. The fourth group is called the mazayanah. This group is composed of people who had no land and provide different kinds of services such as butchers and craftsmen. Finally, at the bottom of the hierarchy are the slaves (a’bid) and even further below them Al-Akhdam, which means servants.

## Diaspora

The Yemeni diaspora is largely concentrated in the United Kingdom, where between 70,000 and 80,000 Yemenis live. Over 20,000 Yemenis reside in the United States, and an additional 2,812 live in Italy. Other Yemenis also reside in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, as well as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Madagascar and the former USSR. A smaller number of modern-day Pakistanis are of Yemeni descent, their original ancestors having left Yemen for the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia over four centuries ago. 350,000 Yemenite Jews live in Israel. In 2015, due to the conflict in Yemen, many have migrated to the northern coasts of Djibouti, Madagascar and Somalia.

## Genetic studies

Yemen, located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, serves as a crossroads between Africa and Eurasia. The genomes of present-day Yemenis provide insights into the region's complex history, as DNA can reveal patterns of human migration and interaction over millennia. Despite its historical significance, Yemeni populations have been underrepresented in genetic studies until recent years. Researchers have posed several questions about Yemen's genetic history, including whether its populations retain genetic traces of the first Out-of-Africa migrations, how subsequent population movements have influenced its gene pool, and the relative contributions of ancient (Pleistocene) versus recent (Holocene) population events. Additionally, Yemen's unique geographic position raises questions about its influence on the genetic structure of its inhabitants.
When talking about levant dna in Yemen.It is about Natufian dna,who make about 50-60% of Yemeni autosomal dna.While current levantines are a mixture of Anatolian, Zagrosian, Caucasian and natufian dna.Current levantines didn't shape nor affect Yemeni dna.As Natufian dna migrated to Arabian peninsula thousands of years ago.Also,Closest population to Natufians are yemenis and other arabian peninsula population.
Studies have begun to shed light on these questions. A 2008 investigation examined regional differences in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) across Yemen. This study revealed varying distributions of minimal sub-Saharan, and majority West Eurasian mtDNA lineages, with majorty of Yemeni populations showing closer genetic ties to Middle Eastern and North African groups. Notably, Yemenis display the highest frequency of the West Eurasian R0a haplogroup detected to date, suggesting that southern Arabia might have been a site of its initial expansion. Sub-Saharan haplogroup M1 was primarily found in southwestern Yemen near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, whereas non-African M haplotypes occurred at low frequencies in western Yemen and were more common in Hadramawt. These findings highlight the stratification and diverse origins of the Yemeni gene pool, shaped by gene flow from West Eurasia.
In their 2017 paper, Ranajit Das, Paul Wexler, Mehdi Pirooznia and Eran Elhaik analyzed the Lazaridis et al. (2016) study concluding that the Natufians, together with one Neolithic Levantine sample, clustered in the proximity to modern Palestinians and Bedouins, and also "marginally overlapped" with Yemenite Jews. Ferreira et al. (2021) and Almarri et al. (2021) found that ancient Natufians cluster with modern Arabian groups, such as Saudi Arabians and Yemenis, which derive most of their ancestry from local Natufian-like hunter-gatherer peoples and have less Neolithic Anatolian ancestry than levantines. sirak et al. (2024) found that medieval Socotra (the Soqotri people), similar to modern Saudis, Yemenis and Bedouins, have a majority component that is "maximized in Late Pleistocene (Epipaleolithic) Natufian hunter–gatherers from the Levant".
More recent research published in 2024 used genome-wide data from Yemeni and neighbouring populations to investigate the genetic history of Arabia. Principal Component Analysis showed that Yemenis form a genetic continuum with other Arabian and Levantine populations, distinct from East African and Indian groups.
The findings, in that recent research, provide a detailed yet complementary understanding of the genetic landscape across Yemen and its likely ancestral sources. As per the study, this aligns with prior research by Vyas et al., which documented gene flow between Yemen, Arabia, and the Levant. Moreover, the study identifies patterns of Neanderthal introgression in Yemenis, resembling those found in Bedouin and other populations in Southwest Asia.

## Notable Yemenis

* Abu Bakr Salem, Yemeni singer
* Amna Al-Nasiri, Yemeni plastic artist, art critic, writer
* Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni Nobel Laureate, journalist, politician, and human rights activist
* Anwar al-Awlaki, Yemeni-American imam
* Hind Al-Eryani, Yemeni activist and journalist
* Ali al-Jifri, Yemeni Islamic scholar
* Naseem Hamed, Yemeni-British Boxer
* Shoshana Damari, Yemeni-Israeli singer
* Ofra Haza, Yemeni-Israeli singer
* Shatha Altowai, visual artist
* Saber Bamatraf, Yemeni pianist, composer and cultural activist.
* Zohar Argov, Yemeni-Israeli singer
* Haim Moshe, Yemeni-Israeli singer
* Arwa Othman, Yemeni writer, journalist, human rights activist and former Minister of Culture
* Balqees, Yemeni singer
* Saadaldeen Talib, politician

## References and notes

* ↑ "Yemen Population (2022) - Worldometer". www.worldometers.info. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
* ↑ "Yemenis in Saudi Arabia: Less Money to Send Home, More Pressure to Leave". 3 September 2020.
* ↑ "The Struggle Far from Home: Yemeni Refugees in Cairo". 18 December 2020.
* ↑ "Hadhramis present a slice of Yemen in India's Hyderabad". 13 December 2018.
* ↑ "A Precarious Refuge: Yemeni Asylum-Seekers in Jordan". 14 February 2022.
* ↑ "Yemenis will be able to work legally in Malaysia soon - Ambassador". 14 September 2019.
* ↑ "CBS Statline".
* ↑ Hall, Bogumila. “Subaltern Rightful Struggles, Comparative ethnographies of the Bedouin villagers in the Naqab, and the akhdam slum dwellers in Sana’a.” Ph.D. diss., European University Institute, 2016.
* ↑ Yemenis in the UK
* ↑ Rídl, J.; Edens, C.M.; Černý, V. (2010). "5". In Petraglia, M.; Rose, J. (eds.). Mitochondrial DNA Structure of Yemeni Population: Regional Differences and the Implications for Different Migratory Contributions. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2719-1_5. Retrieved 16 January 2025. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
* ↑ Almarri, Mohamed A.; Haber, Marc; Lootah, Reem A.; Hallast, Pille; Al Turki, Saeed; Martin, Hilary C.; Xue, Yali; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2021). "The genomic history of the Middle East". Cell. 184 (18): 4612–4625.e14. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.013. PMC 8445022. PMID 34352227. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
* ↑ Ferreira, Joana C; Alshamali, Farida; Montinaro, Francesco; et al. (2021-09-01). "Projecting Ancient Ancestry in Modern-Day Arabians and Iranians: A Key Role of the Past Exposed Arabo-Persian Gulf on Human Migrations" (PDF). Genome Biology and Evolution. 13 (9). doi:10.1093/gbe/evab194. ISSN 1759-6653. PMC 8435661. PMID 34480555. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
* ↑ Sirak, Kendra; Jansen Van Rensburg, Julian; Brielle, Esther; et al. (2024-02-08). "Medieval DNA from Soqotra points to Eurasian origins of an isolated population at the crossroads of Africa and Arabia". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 8 (4): 817–829. doi:10.1038/s41559-024-02322-x. ISSN 2397-334X. PMC 11009077. PMID 38332026.
* ↑ Almarri, Mohamed A.; Haber, Marc; Lootah, Reem A.; Hallast, Pille; Al Turki, Saeed; Martin, Hilary C.; Xue, Yali; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2021). "The genomic history of the Middle East". Cell. 184 (18): 4612–4625.e14. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.013. PMC 8445022. PMID 34352227. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
* 1 2 Henschel, A.; Saif-Ali, R.; Al-Habori, M. (2024). "Human migration from the Levant and Arabia into Yemen since Last Glacial Maximum". Scientific Reports. 14: 31704. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-81615-4. PMC 11685628. Retrieved 16 January 2025.